What Will Death Be Like?

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O'Neill

Probably all of us in this room have had someone near to us who has died. Some of us have had dads and mums that have died, and some of us have had sons and daughters and brothers and sisters -- and I certainly can stand with any of you who have experienced that and say with you, it is a great gulf, isn't it. After you've said everything, it is a great gulf. You just feel, whether it's a dad or a mum, or a son or daughter, or a brother or sister, if you're just sitting there and I'm standing here -- we know it is a great gulf. You just do feel your dear one is just a world away. And in a way some of you who sit here this morning know that it's kind of still that, in a sense, isn't it? When you know they're there but there is a great gulf between us and them -- and it's there. Whether you cry about it or not, it's there. You know it. And it's just honest and real and I think really loving towards each other to admit that to each other -- to put our arms around each other today and say, yes, it is there. The gulf is there. And if you're like me you kind of think what death is like. Because as your own life goes on, you think well, you're going to come to it someday and as little things happen to us as we go along, little things happen in the whole physical health side, you can see it as maybe more perhaps tomorrow or the next day, and if you're like me you begin to wonder, what is it going to be like? What is death going to be like? I don't think it's a bad thing to mention that to each other here because usually the rest of the world is preoccupied with distracting us from it and in fact, we're preoccupied with distracting ourselves from it. And what is death like? Well, you know, loved ones, I've been maybe at as many death beds as maybe you have been here, with perhaps the exception of any nurses or doctors. And it is interesting --even the worst death, the most painful death, even in the most painful death loved ones aren't very conscious of what is happening; they aren't. Even Susan, many of us know Susan Bagdasarianaz who was a medical graduate from the university here and then eventually married you remember a Swiss doctor, went out to the mission field, and then got cancer some years ago and you remember died I think one of the most painful deaths that I have ever been closely associated with. Because you remember I told you about two months ago when it happened, that Serge, who is also her husband, a doctor, said that the skin had got so sensitive with the pain killing drugs that at the end she couldn't bear anybody even to touch her to put anything in. And yet it's amazing that God is so good to us and this is, if I can encourage your hearts in any way on this subject -- God gives grace at that time, so that you're almost oblivious to it. So even in a painful death, if it could encourage your dear hearts because someday you're all going to die and I'm going to die -- at that moment you're so occupied with all kinds of other things that God gives grace so that you're not even very conscious of pain -- of terrible pain. And so, as you think of death, no, I don't think you should be scared of the pain. I don't think you should. I think God gives you grace for that and He'll enable you to bear it. You'll not even to be as conscious of it as the rest of us who are looking on. So loved ones, I would encourage your hearts -- the Lord God will not ask you to bear pain beyond what you are able to bear with His grace. And at that time, you're kind of encased in something; you're just encased in something. And I have a dear sister here and we know a dear son that died and it seems to me at that moment even when you're struggling for the old breath, you're not as aware of the thing as everybody is who have their senses all about them.  So, God gives amazing grace to you through the experience. So, if you think, well, I'm afraid of death -- well no, I don't know that any of us are afraid of death itself. You know the dying business has its own grace and compensations with it so that you're not terribly aware of pain or of that side of things. You're really encased in a little cocoon that God has where your senses are dulled. So, God is gracious that way, so if I could save you from that -- you're right I haven't died -- but from where I've been with other loved ones, no, don't be afraid of the pain of death. The pain of death does not seem to be the big problem with us when we're dying. That's not it at all. And God will give you grace. And of course, many of us will just die painlessly. Many of us will die like old Macmillan the old British Prime Minister, just in their sleep we'll die and we won't even know we've died. So, the dying is not the terrible thing. If you say it to me, "Well then, what is it?" Because I do have some fear of it. I think if you're an ordinary person, I think you're almost bound to have some wonderings about it. It's all right saying, Oh well, I know what's going to happen; I have no fear.   I think if you're an ordinary human being like the rest of us there'll be something of fear there -- more like what old Shakespeare says, you remember:  'It's not the death that you're afraid of. It's not the dying or the pain. It's the fear, you remember, he says, in Hamlet,  "the fear of that unknown country from whose bourn no traveler returns." That's it. The fear of that unknown country from whose bourn no traveler returns. We know this life -- if you like to put it that way -- we'd say,  Well, we know this life. Now wait a minute -- I know where I am here, I know what's around me, I'm in some degree of peace here.   I don't know what lies beyond. And I think if you're an ordinary human being just that very fact causes you some fear and some uncertainty and some wonderings.   if you're like me, when you've thought of death you've thought of it  "Well, let's put it nicely: a little anticipation anyway, or a little apprehension. Because you wonder, what is there? What is there? What's beyond and in the darkness? And it is good to have those men like Gentry told me about -- that doctor, you remember, that came to the Twin Cities and it seems he had medically died and seemed to go to heaven and came back and told about it. And it's good to have those -- but then many of us think, Oh well, but he didn't die, did he? I mean he's still here. So, maybe he didn't really die. So, what is it like out there? Loved ones, there's only one who has been -- see? There is only one who has been. Mohammed didn't die and come back to life. The Hindu prophets didn't. Buddha didn't. Confucius didn't, Zoroaster didn't. All those other fellows who are looked upon as religious leaders -- none of them died and came back to tell us. Nobody. Only one man has done that. There is only one dear man of all the men and women who have ever lived in this world who has gone through death -- and hasn't been a guru, trying to control his breathing and be buried alive, and pretend that he's dead or even -- with due respect to the doctor who came back -- somebody who we can see is still alive. There's only one man who has gone through, died and really been dead -- and been beyond and come back to reassure us. And that's the dear man that we think of today. And that's why in a way it doesn't matter who you have to depend on, does it? Doesn't matter whether you've a good wife, good husband, good brothers and sisters, good friends. What do we all know? We can be of help to you here in this life but what do we know about what's beyond? For that you depend on this dear Man. Each one of us is in the same boat -- we depend on this dear Man; He's the only one who has gone through and come back. Now if you say, 'How do you know? I mean nobody has ever died and come alive again. How do you know? How do you know He really did it?'  Well, you have to pause for a minute and think of that B.C. A.D. thing. I mean, it is remarkable, isn't it, that our history is split into B.C. before Christ and A.D. anno domini in the year of our Lord? Now you may say, Oh well, it's only you miserable old westerners -- you've rearranged your dates like that. Well maybe so, but it's a great part of the world that now date their years Anno Domini in the year of our Lord. Doesn't matter if it's Gorbachev. He knows it's anno domini. “ it's in the Year of Our Lord 1987. It's amazing, isn't it, that all this human race have divided history into two in honor of this Man's life and death and resurrection. Now you can be very skeptical -- you can be very intellectually skeptical in an abstract way and say, 'Well, the whole crowd made a mistake.' But it's very hard to stomach that -- you know it yourself. I mean, you see it as an intellectual point to make, but it doesn't ring true in your own heart. Somehow you feel, all of us? Did all of us make a mistake? Have all of us done through the years -- every brilliant scholar that we've had? Have they all been deceived -- and dated history from this man's death and resurrection and birth by mistake? That's the first thing. You have to honestly look at the fact that our whole method of measuring history and time is based on this dear man Jesus Christ. So, there must be something remarkable about Him. There must be something unusual about Him for that to be. And then of course you know there is just the sheer history of it all. You remember that verse if you look at it that's Gentry read in First Corinthians. And if you just even think about that for a moment or two, it's very difficult to ignore it. It's First Corinthians 15:6. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  So, you know Paul is saying, this Jesus after he got up from being dead, appeared to more than 500 people at one time, most of whom are still alive. Now do you see the importance of that? The letter to the Corinthians was written in 57 A.D.; Jesus died in 29 A.D. So, you can see there's about 28 years difference there. Now what Paul is saying is, he's saying to everybody -- he wrote this letter and sent it all round all kinds of churches -- it went to the Corinthian church first, then was passed on to all the others -- so it was passed all round the then known world -- and he's saying, 'Look, this Jesus got up from being dead, appeared to more than 500 people at one time, of whom most are still alive.' There were all kinds of guys in those churches who could say, I'm not alive or who could say, My brother saw it and he's dead or they all could say, You're wrong, Paul, it's 57 A.D. --it's 28 years later; they've all died; there's nobody alive who knew Jesus when he rose from the dead. But there wasn't that kind of outcry. He wrote this and everybody agreed because the churches in those times were filled with people who had been in Jerusalem when Jesus rose from the dead. See, the difficulty with old Buddha's life is they never wrote his life until 500 years after he was dead. So of course, they could make up all kinds of stories and legends -- and they did -- and nobody could prove anything different. All the people who knew Buddha were dead by that time. But these accounts of Jesus' resurrection were being read by the very people who were at the cross when he was crucified, and were in Jerusalem when he began to appear in different places alive. Some of these 500 people were still alive when the New Testament gospels were being circulated. So, do you see it's very hard to reject the fact that Jesus actually did rise from the dead -- because the historical evidence is so good and it was circulating at a time when eyewitnesses were actually still alive who had seen Him. You know I've shared it with you before. It's like me saying to you all, John F. Kennedy rose from the dead and he appeared to about 500 people at one time of whom most of them are still alive today. You'd have no trouble disproving that. You'd just say, Show me ONE of them that's alive that saw him rise from the dead. Show me one. And I couldn't produce anybody. I might produce somebody who was in a psych ward but I couldn't produce any ordinary people. Everybody would say to you, including his mother, No. My son didn't rise from the dead. No, he's dead. That's why his brother Ted goes to the grave and puts flowers on it. He's dead. Do you see, loved ones, it's very hard from a commonsensical and an intellectual viewpoint to reject the truth that this man Jesus really did rise from the dead when you examine the historical evidence and examine the way that evidence was even being circulated and examined while there were still people alive who saw Jesus' crucifixion and who were among the 500 people that saw him when he rose from the dead. And of course, the other fact about that person -- this is only one of the little verses you know -- the other thing about this verse is He appeared to more than 500 people at one time. It just does away with all the old chestnuts that we used to roast at school, like: Well, it was hallucinations. They just had hallucinations. They just thought He was alive. Well, 500 people don't have a hallucination. The psychological laws governing hallucinations will tell you clearly, hallucinations are seen by one person, usually sitting alone wishing that the person was alive. These people had given up hope that He would rise from the dead. And it wasn't just one person who saw Him; there were more than 500 people who saw Him at one time -- plus the apostles and the disciples who saw Him appear when he appeared and disappeared in upper rooms. So, when you take all that evidence together, it's very difficult to reject the fact that this man Jesus actually came back to life. Now what does that mean for us, if that's the case? Well, it means that there's a dying that isn't death. There's a dying that isn't death. Why I thought of this was, I thought of Jesus' statement that anybody that believes in Me will never die. And I thought about your dad -- he died on Tuesday -- and my dad died -- and your loved ones died. Now what does that mean: Whosoever believeth in me will never die? Well, these loved ones -- we're without them - they're dead. And loved ones the answer, I think, is what we've said: there's a dying that is not death. Now I'd point you to Jesus' words about it in John 11:17 and it was after a certain friend of his had died. John 11:17. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus,  "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.  Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.  Jesus said to her, ˜I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you see those words: He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.  In other words, there's a dying that you and I think is dying and it isn't dying. He says, though he die yet he'll live -- though to your eyes he's dead, to my eyes death hasn't occurred. And it's strange He emphasizes that; if you just go up the page a bit there to what He said to the disciples before He went to Bethany in John 11:11. Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep." The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.  Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I'm glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.  And it's as if Jesus accommodates himself to our language:  All right, look, you'll understand it better if I say he's dead, but actually he's asleep and I am able to waken him.  In other words, there's a dying that is not death. It is simply a cessation of what we call the vital signs, and in a way you know even from our old skeptical scientific approach that we've already come to that -- because we now say, Well, you can be dead, but you're not dead. In the New York Times last Sunday there's a whole argument from a doctor over the fact that he has been forced to keep this person alive -- legally alive. You know that's the old brain operating even though the person is dead and has not had any connection with the people that come to him day by day. His wife comes day after day to see if there's even a flicker of an eyelid, and the doctor is saying, There's nothing we can do for this man. But I'm being forced to keep him legally and medically alive. So even we ourselves have crossed that barrier. But if we have with our clumsy intellectual methods, how much truer are Jesus' words that there's a dying that is not death. There's a dying that is merely the cessation of vital signs. You see the heartbeat, the breathing, the seeing, the digesting; there's a dying that just is the cessation of vital signs but it isn't dying. Now, can you prove it? Easily, easily. Just look, loved ones, at John 20:26.  Eight days later (this was after Jesus got up from being dead) his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless but believing. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God! The wounds were open; the hole was still in the side; the holes were still in the hands; the blood should have gushed out; the vital signs should have meant that he was dead. There is a life that exists without what we call, in our narrow little world, the vital signs. See that. There is a living that is possible even if the heart doesn't beat, even if the breath isn't breathed, even if the blood doesn't flow -- there is a life that is possible without those vital signs -- a life that is more alive than Jesus was even when He had the vital signs. He gave a greater appearance of life when He came back from the dead than He even gave before He was dead. There is a life that is possible without what we call the symptoms of life. It is a different life; it's obviously a different life. He was able to pass through walls, he was able to materialize and dematerialize -- but He wasn't a ghost, He wasn't a ghost. Just look across the page to John 21:9. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. And He ate the fish and digested it. It obviously is not a ghost life; it is a real life; but it is a life that can do without blood circulation, without breathing; can eat, if you need to eat, and yet doesn't need it. There is a life that exists beyond what we call the physical life. There is a living that is normal -- that does not need the vital signs. That's why Jesus said, Though he die, he lives. And that's why he said, He's just asleep. But all right -- you'll understand that I don't mean ordinary sleep if I say he's dead -- but really, he's just asleep. There's a dying that is not dying. That's what I mean, He said, when I say, 'Whosoever believes in me will never die. He'll give the appearance to all of you that the life signs have ceased, that the vital signs are no longer there -- but if he believes in me, he has not died. In other words, the moment you stop breathing -- that moment there is a dear Lord who will open out his arms to you and say, Come in. Do you know anything of the death bed and the casket the funeral? Not a thing. That's why Jesus said, Today you'll be with me in paradise -- not a moment longer after you become unconscious -- that moment you turn round to the brightness and the Savior's arms and it's like one of those movies: you open the door and there are all your friends -- the party's waiting. Surprise, surprise! That's it. There's a dying that is not dying. Now there's just one other thing I'd like to share with you that is important because Easter Sunday is not just about what happens after you die, though I do pray that even this morning will give you courage and confidence  every one of you -- for dying. I pray that you won't fear it; that you will look forward to it and you'll see that it's not what we pitiful human beings paint it as being. All our picture of death is so gloomy and unreal. With Jesus, it's your beginnings. It's the beginning of real life. And he's waiting there with a door and when he opens that door you will see the dearest faces waiting and looking forward to you. So, I pray that you'll grasp that. But it's not just for that that Easter Sunday is; there's more to it. Would you look, loved ones, at the last verse in Romans 8:11. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you. Do you see what that's saying? The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies -- these bodies that you have now. That Spirit will give life to your mortal body today. In other words, the powers of that life that can continue without food, can continue even without blood circulation, can continue without the old heartbeat -- that life can give life to your mortal bodies here in this present world according to your faith. What am I saying? Jesus can give such power of life to you that even though the old heart is not what the doctors say it should be, even though your tiredness or weariness would normally say, I need sleep, I need this, I need that -- even though the state of your age or your body would say, I can't do those things anymore -- if you have faith in Jesus, the Spirit of his life that works apart from the vital signs and apart from the normal physical symptoms of a physical body, it will give life to your body. Prove it? I can prove it easily. I have never read such a harrowing description as that dear Susan gave us. You remember the doctor said, You have nine months or a year. I think she lived to two and a half or three years. But the most important thing is, you remember she would sit there on the chair with little Rachel or the little brother on her lap and she was shot through with the cancer, and right through all the ribs and everything -- and he would poke into her rib cage and break a rib. Do you remember when she would tell us that? Or she'd lean back on a chair too hard and it would break something back here -- and the dear girl lived on like that for two to three years. By what power? I mean she was a doctor; Serge her husband was a doctor; they knew it wasn't by the power of the physical body; she shouldn't have been able to continue. You know what you'd feel like if you leaned back there and broke a rib. We'd all know about it because you'd yell so loudly. Because we'd feel, No, that kind of thing we can't live with. And yet she lived through those days with that as a normal happening. There is a power of Jesus' life which can keep you going on as long as He wants you to go, through your faith in him. That's why the Bible says you will not die before God is ready for you. God says, As your years are so will your strength be. So, if any of you are sitting here today and thinking, I haven't the physical strength for it. I can't bear it. And from what the docs say, my heart is in trouble. From what the doctors say I have this problem or I have that, Loved ones, those are physical doctors talking about physical signs -- what they call vital signs and what Jesus has given the lie to by his own resurrection from the dead -- the Spirit of Jesus that raised him from the dead is able during this present life to give life to your mortal body. You can live by His supernatural power in life even in this present life. And that life that flows through you, His Spirit, gives you not only supernatural powers but gives you a supernatural heart and spirit like his; sheds abroad in your heart the same attitude as He has towards people. There is a supernatural life that was released on the first Easter Sunday that is yours today. And it transforms the way you live. That's why the next verse says: So then brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, but to live according to the Spirit. In other words, stop saying, I'm this age; I can't expect to be able to do those things. Stop saying, I have this heart weakness; I cannot do that. Stop saying, I cannot get up. I have no more energy. I am worn out. Stop saying, I cannot bear what these people are doing to me. I cannot put up with what these people are doing. I cannot bear the way they're treating me. Stop saying that. The dear Savior who is on the other side and will welcome you in, and open the door, and show you all the loved ones waiting for you -- His Spirit is given to you today and by His Spirit of supernatural life you can live like Him in this present life, you can. And He's here and you can receive him now. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we bow not to thank you for Easter, not to thank you for all the brightness of resurrection, and all the hope of victory over death. Lord Jesus, we bow to You yourself today; and we thank you. And we thank you for your life that went on even though your wounds were still open. And even though your heart had stopped beating. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have shown us that there is a life that is beyond what we call life. There is a life that is able to support what we call physical life without the vital signs that physical life seems to need. Lord Jesus, we look to you; we know you alone can take us through the door of death and into life. We know Lord, that we depend finally on no one but you. You are the only one, Lord. So, we receive you now this day. We receive your Spirit this day into us to live that life in us for the rest of our life here on earth and then throughout eternity. And we commit ourselves to living no longer according to the flesh -- no longer according to what we think we can expect from our physical bodies -- but we commit ourselves to living by the Spirit -- according to what we can expect from your life and your power in us. And we commit ourselves to living that way until we see you face to face and the loved ones that, though they have appeared to die, yet have not died. And we do this in honor and in honesty to you on this Easter day. Now the grace of Our Lord Jesus and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and ever more. Amen.