Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / 7 Wonders
Is There Life After Death? 03/13/05
Title:
Is there life after death?
Main Texts: John 11:25-26; 14:1-3
PP Main Slide
Introduction: A little girl was standing outside her Sunday School
classroom when the pastor noticed she was holding a big storybook titled
‘Jonah and the Whale’. The pastor asked ‘Do you really believe that Jonah
was swallowed by a whale?’ The little girl frowned and declared ‘Of course I
do!’. The pastor pushed her a little bit and said ‘You really believe that a
man can be swallowed by a big whale, stay inside for three days and then
come out and still be alive?’ The little girl said ‘Absolutely. The story is
in the Bible and we studied it in Sunday School today.’ Then the pastor
asked, ‘Can you prove to me that the story is true?’ She thought for a
moment and then said ‘Well, when I get to heaven, I’ll ask Jonah.’ The
pastor was on a roll and asked ‘Well, what if Jonah’s not in heaven?’ She
then put her hands on her little hips and sternly declared ‘Then you can ask
him!’
Ouch! I suppose the pastor had that coming.
This morning I want to examine the last of the 7 questions in our series…‘Is
there life after death?’ Death is something we really don’t like to talk
about unless it’s in jest. We are so uncomfortable with death that we even
use other words to soften the blow…
PP
Question: What words do we use instead of ‘death’?
PP -Passed Away, Departed, No
longer with us, Passed on.
They say there are only two things certain in life…PP death and taxes. Well,
that’s not true, there are people who avoid paying taxes…but no one can
avoid death.
I looked up the statistics on death and what I found was frightening.
Statisticians tell us that 100 out of 100 people will eventually die. You
are going to die, I am going to die..unless Jesus comes back first. We are
all absolutely, PP 100% of us, going to die.
Transition: So, don’t you think we
should know as much as we can about what happens after we die? I do So, for
the next 30 mins or so, I want to briefly examine
• the proofs for life after death.
• what happens when we die?
• where do we go when we die?
PP Proofs of Life After Death
I have found 4 prominent arguments that serve as proofs for life after
death.
• Two are secular and are to be taken as insights from those who are
struggling with the question but don’t know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• The other two arguments are Christian insights taken from God’s Word,
the Bible.
1. PP Argument from near death
experiences.
Millions of people have claimed to have near death experiences…20
million in the US alone. Regardless of their religious beliefs before their
near death experience, they all claim similar experiences. Everyone talks
about a bright light at the end of a tunnel, intense feelings of joy, peace
and love. But have you noticed that no one ever talks about darkness, pain,
or fear. Perhaps it’s because everyone feels that when they die they will go
to a ‘better place’.
2. PP Argument from the “meaning of
life.”
This argument states that humanity universally experiences through
instinct, the overpowering idea that life must have meaning and purpose. If
life ends and there is nothing, then life has no meaning. Since life does
have meaning, life must take on some other form when we die.
3. PP Argument from Christ’s
resurrection.
Christians have the most convincing evidence of life after death…Jesus
Christ rose from the dead. We believe it with all our hearts. The Bible
tells us that there were numerous eye witnesses who saw Jesus… alive after
he was placed in the grave…dead.
PP Read: 1 Cor. 15:6-8; 1 Peter 1:3-4
ILL: There was an African man who had
converted from Islam to Christianity. He was a highly educated college
professor. He said he studied Islam and Christianity side by side until he
came to a fork in the road. Down one fork was a dead man and down the other
was a man who rose from the dead. He asks. ‘Which path would you follow?’ He
has a point.
Because Jesus rose from the dead, because Jesus lives, we have the
promise that we too will live, even after we die. It has been promised to
all who believe in Jesus Christ.
4. PP Argument from the words of Jesus
Christ
If we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then there is convincing
evidence about life after death from Jesus’ own words. Let’s read some of
his words about the certainty of life after death.
PP Read: John 6:47, 11:25; Lk.
20:27-38; John 14:1-3
• If the Bible is true, and I believe it is.
• If Jesus is God, and I believe he is.
• If Jesus rose from the dead, and I believe he did.
Then what he said is the absolute truth. There is life after death. But, you
have to make up your own mind just as I had to.
PP Main Slide
Transition: Can we agree, at least in
principal, that there is life after death? Then what happens when we die?
Here are a few of the more popular beliefs.
PP What Happens When We Die?
PP Reincarnation
This is the belief that after we die we return in another life form. How
we come back depends on whether we were, to quote Santa Clause, ‘naughty or
nice’
• PP Nice people come back in a higher life form to a better
life..wealthy, successful,
• Naughty people come back in a lower life form to a not so better
life…like a PP bug.
Eastern and New Age religions teach this. In fact they have a bumper
sticker which reads ‘Born again…and again’ Isn’t Satan the great imitator of
Christian truth?
PP Annihilation
This is the belief that we live, we die…that’s it..nothing, we cease to
exist. This belief is held by atheists and often leads to an ‘anything goes’
lifestyle.
PP Soul Sleep
This is the belief that when we die, our soul enters a sleep state that
lasts until the end of the world and we are judged by God. This is the
belief of many Christians.
PP Disembodied Existence
This is the belief held by many evangelical Christians. At death the
soul leaves the body and goes to an intermediate place (Paradise, not
purgatory) until the final resurrection when we will either go to heaven or
to hell.
PP Universalism
This is the believe that all people, everyone who has ever lived will
get a second chance after death to accept Jesus as their Savior… and
everyone will. Then everyone will go to heaven. Unitarian, Universalists and
the Unity Churches hold to this teaching.
PP Immediate Resurrection
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, then I believe when
you die you go straight to heaven with no stops or detours along the way.
PP Read: 2 Cor. 5:8
This is called ‘Immediate Resurrection’. I don’t have time to lay out
the whole argument so let me summarize.
ILL: PP If you were to stand on the
street during the Rose Bowl Parade you would see each individual float and
band as they passed by. PP If, however, you could get high enough, say in an
airplane, you could see all the floats and bands at once, you could see the
parade from beginning to end, all at one time.
From life’s perspective, we live in time and we see things sequentially.
From heavens perspective, we are removed from time, and we see things all at
once in what is called the ‘eternal now’. What this implies is that at our
death, those who have faith in Jesus Christ will move from life on earth to
eternal life in heaven. Everything that Scripture talks about (the rapture,
Armageddon, the judgment, getting our new bodies) will have already
happened. From heavens, timeless perspective, those loved ones who have died
before we do are not in heaven waiting for us to die so we can be reunited
with them…that would be sad and there is no sadness in heaven. I believe we
all get to heaven together, at the same time.
That’s very comforting to me. But I know it can be quite difficult to
grasp. So, if you want all the biblical proof texts go to the church’s web
site, PP www.lifeatcalvary.com, then
to PP ‘The Pastors Page’, to
PP ‘Theological Papers’, then to
PP ‘Death and the intermediate State.’
PP Main Slide
Transition: If we agree in principal
that there is life after death, we then have to make up our minds as to what
happens to us when we die. But there is an ever bigger more important
question…
PP What is our final destination after we
die? Where will we spend eternity?
PP Hell
Not only is there life after death, there is death after death.
PP Read: Ezek 18:4
Not just physical death, but eternal death…the absence of eternal life.
What do we know about Hell?
PP Read: Rev. 20:14-15; Matt.
13:49-50; Mk. 9:43; Lk 16:23; 2 Peter 2:4
Hell is the place of personal suffering, torment, pain, tears, agony,
and yes, I believe fire. There will be no end to any of it. I believe it
will be unbearable…forever!
ILL: A recent poll says that PP 73%
of American’s believe in hell but when asked where they think they will
spend eternity, only PP 2% said hell.
Either there are a lot of born again Christians in the U.S. or there are
a lot of misguided people. The Bible teaches that many ‘good’ people will be
surprised when they reach the other side of death. They may have gone to
church, given money to the poor and helped little old ladies across the
street, but listen to what Jesus says to those who never personally asked
him into their lives, who never truly accepted Jesus death on the cross as
payment for their sins, who just went through the motions of Christianity.
PP Read: Matt. 7:21-23
You don’t have to fear Jesus saying that to you if you place your trust
in him while you’re still alive. If you do, you can be certain that you will
have eternal life in heaven, not eternal death in hell.
PP Read: 1 Jn. 5:13
PP Heaven
What do we know about heaven? What is heaven like? In a few minutes we
will read about heaven from the Book of Revelation.
But, the most important thing about heaven is God, in all that he is, will
be there.
• PP The Bible says God is love
and I can only imagine the deep, deep love that we will feel when we are
eternally in the presence of the God of love.
• PP The Bible says that in God’s
presence there is unspeakable joy…Think of a time you were happy, really
happy…perhaps your wedding day or the day your child was born…multiply that
by a million and you won’t be close to describing the feeling you will know
in God’s presence in heaven and it will last forever.
• PP The Bible says in heaven
there will be no sickness, no injury, no pain, no fear, no guilt, no
suffering, no death...ever!
That’s the place I want to spend eternity how about you?
PP Main Slide
Conclusion
ILL: Woodly Allen once said ‘It’s not
that I am afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’
Unfortunately we all will be there when we die, it’s inevitable.
Can I ask you a very personal question? PP Where will you spend eternity? Do
you know?
There are only two options.
• If you have a second birth, you are born again by faith in Jesus
Christ, you will spend eternity in heaven.
• If you are not born again, if you have not accepted Jesus’ death on the
cross as payment for you own sin, you will spend eternity in hell.
There is no half-way house, no second chances once you die.
There is a tract that reads PP ‘What
do you have to do to go to hell?’ When you open it up
PP it’s blank. You see, you don’t
have to do anything to spend eternity in hell, just do what you are already
doing…
• Not dealing with Jesus or outright rejecting him or
• straddling the fence. I want the benefits of being a Christian without
having to make a commitment to Jesus Christ.
ILL: Someone once said ‘The road to
hell is paved with good intentions, the road to heaven is paved with the
blood of Jesus Christ.’
Let me make this as clear and simple as possible. You don’t have to spend
eternity in hell after you die. God has provided the way to escape the
penalty for your sin. It’s faith in Jesus Christ, it’s simply believing that
he died for your sin. That’s it!
The offer has been made but you need to reach out and take it. It is God’s
free gift to you.
PP Read: Rom. 6:23
The free gift of God is eternal life, not eternal death, through faith in
Jesus Christ. If you ignore Jesus or say no, you have no hope of eternal
life in heaven, only eternal death in hell. There is no plan B, no second
chances once you are dead.
Choose well, your life depends upon it.