The Open Door Church

     In keeping with our 2018 preaching theme, we spent the last two sermons answering two questions:  “What happens when a believer dies?” and “What happens when an unbeliever dies?”  In this lesson we will attempt to answer a third question:  “What happens when a baby dies?”  In order to do so, we will begin by examining a serious warning of judgment God issued to the inhabitants of the ancient city of Jerusalem.

     Jeremiah recorded God’s warning when he wrote, “Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle’” (Jeremiah 19:3, NIV).  I don’t know about how that sounds to you, but it sounds like a serious threat of judgment to me! 

     God then explained why He planned to bring judgment on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  He said, “They have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent” (Jeremiah 19:4, NIV).  It was bad enough that the inhabitants of Jerusalem had made their city “a place of foreign gods,” but they had also offered their children as human sacrifices to those gods!  God said, “They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent” (Jeremiah 19:4b, NIV).

     Jesus told a story that clearly illustrates what happens when an unbeliever dies.  When the unbelieving rich man died, his body “was buried.”  Jesus said, “The rich man also died and was buried” (Luke 16:22b, NIV).

     Physical death occurred in the life of this rich man, because his spirit left his body.  James defined physical death as the absence of the spirit from the body when he wrote, “The body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26a, NIV).  James defined physical death as “the body without the spirit.”

     Because he was an unbeliever, when the spirit of the rich man left his body it was immediately banished to a place called “Hades.”  We commonly call this place “Hell.”  Jesus said, “In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus [a righteous beggar who had died] by his side” (Luke 16:23, NIV).

     In keeping with or 2018 preaching theme of “Relevant Issues,” today we will begin looking a short series of sermons on the subject of “death.”  I realize this isn’t the most pleasant subject, but it is a relevant subject—because everyone will die.  The author of Hebrews wrote, “It is appointed for men to die once” (Hebrews 9:27a, NKJV).

     When Paul wrote to the believers at Philippi, he discussed with them the subject of his own death.  The most profound point that he made was that he, because he was a believer, viewed death as “better” than life!  In fact, he referred to death as “gain.”  The Greek word translated “gain” literally means “a promotion.”  He wrote, “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain…I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:21…23-24, NIV).  As far Paul was concerned, for the believer death is “better” than life.  He viewed it as a promotion.

     When Paul wrote the letter we call First Corinthians to the church at Corinth in about 54 A.D., the Easter Story had begun to be viewed by Christians as “good news.”  In fact it was very important “good news.”  Notice what he wrote to them: “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3-4, NIV).  The fact that Jesus had died, been buried, and raised on the third day was, as Paul put it, “of first importance.”

     Since these three things are “of first importance,” I want to spend a few minutes on this Easter Sunday looking at what the Bible says about them.  And I want to encourage you to tell this story to everyone who will listen because that’s what Jesus said we should do.  He said, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8b, NIV).  A witness simply states the facts.  He just tells the story!

     It was Thursday of the final week of the life of Jesus.  According to the Jewish calendar, it was the 14^th day of the first month of the year—the month of Nisan.  Multiplied thousands of lambs were killed at twilight, and in the hours that followed every household in Jerusalem ate the ancient Passover Meal—which consisted of roast lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and grape juice that had been preserved at harvest time in goatskin bags.  It was at the conclusion of this Passover Meal that Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and then led His followers in the first ever Communion Service.  This was the setting John was describing when he wrote, “It was just before the Passover Feast” (John 13:1a, NIV).

     The events surrounding the first Communion Service clearly indicate that at least part of the purpose of Communion was to reveal to His disciples the key to blessing.  That’s why Jesus said to them, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17, NIV).

     The prayer that King David recorded when he wrote, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is” (Psalm 39:4, NLT), is a kind of prayer that most of us don’t pray very often.  It brings up a subject that we don’t like to consider—the brevity of life.

     We don’t like to face the fact that we are mortal and each day we live brings us one day closer to the inevitable—our own death!  However, the fact that death is an inescapable reality of life is made very clear in Scripture.  The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote, “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, NIV).

     Moses set man’s average life span at 70—80 years.  He wrote, “Seventy years are given to us!
Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10, NLT).

     A 17-year-old boy was killed in Austin, Texas on Monday of this week when he unknowingly opened a package bomb that was left on the doorstep of his family’s home.  Billy Graham died of natural causes at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, February 21—almost a month ago—at the age of 99.  However, in the grand scheme of things, whether you die at 17 or 99, life is short!  Moses wrote, “Even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10b, NLT).

     According to the US Department of Vital Statistics 6,775 people die every day in the US.  That’s 282 people per hour or almost 5 people per minute.  We are constantly reminded of the reality of death and the brevity of life.  Even in our little, small-town church, since its beginning almost 11 years ago, we have witnessed the untimely death of people we loved—Joyce Houart, Shirley Eaker, Mendy Davis, Brandon Meredith, John Mims, Terry White, Caleb Wilcox, and Kevin True.  Every time we attend a funeral, we are reminded that life is indeed brief—and at times we struggle with that reality!