What happens to me when I die

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ Jesus is born, alleluia! ♪ ♪ Christ is risen, sun, moon, stars, and heaven. ♪ ♪ My Jesus is born! ♪ ♪ Jesus is born! Jesus is born! ♪ ♪ Praise Him, alleluia, for He was born! ♪ ♪ In flesh He came to die, Son, thus can Jesus breathe. ♪ ♪ Jesus is born! Jesus is born! ♪ ♪ His name, Jesus is born! ♪ ♪ Your saviour is always near you, to show others how high.

♪ ♪ That Jesus is born! Jesus is born! ♪ Philippians chapter 1 and verse 19. The heading of this paragraph reads Paul's chains advance the gospel. I rejoice, yes, and I will continue to rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me.

Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I'm 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.

Convinced of this I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from God an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling because when we are clothed we will not be found naked.

For while we're in this tent we groan and are burdened because we don't wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. May God bless to us the readings from his word.

What happens to me at the moment of death? One thing you can say about the economic condition and the unemployment that that has brought in the United Kingdom is this. There's always work for undertakers. You remember my sharing with you much to my utter astonishment when traveling in Yorkshire the name of some funeral directors, Brigham Brothers, seemed to me to be rather fitting.

Brigham, well yes, while ever there are people in our country, while ever there are people around our world, there will always be a need to dispatch their remains in an honourable fashion. Broadwater Church of England have got a problem and because I very much am with them in the emphases of the ministry in that church some couple of years ago I tried to do them a favour with the local council and I was chatting to the mayoress. See the nature of their problem is they don't have the facilities that we are privileged to have here at the town in terms of our rooms at the back and cloak rooms and so on and so forth.

They desperately need further accommodation and if they ever got to the point where they could convince the council that it was right I'd like us to take an offering to help them actually because it's going to be a mammoth job if they can ever perform it. Now one of the problems is that the church is plonked in the middle of a graveyard. I don't mean that the graveyard was there at the inception, nobody can remember the inception because it's one of the oldest churches here on the south coast.

But the problem is if they extend they have to go over the graves and I was trying to convince the mayoress at that time that the the inhabitants of the graves wouldn't be at all bothered about something being built on top of them. In fact I did speak with a certain amount of authority on behalf of the dead. There's no one to contradict me anyway.

You see what's there is just powder because when a body has been a molding in the grave for that number of years then there's not really much left to indicate any semblance of the human frame so I'm sure they're not bothered. Was Bertrand Russell right when he said when I die I rot. Well it seems as I've conceded the point after all Broadwater Church of England, not their congregation but outside they've got powder, human remains.

And the Bible says this in Genesis 3 when God was remonstrating with our first parents for their sinfulness. Dust you are and unto dust you will return. When I die I rot.

Is that what Genesis then is doing underlining the words of the great atheist opponent of the Christian faith Bertrand Russell. Well yes and no. Yes in as much as the Bible speaks that of the body but Russell got it wrong.

It doesn't say that of the soul. The body rots at death but the soul does not rot. It goes on and on and on.

Now if you're like me and you want advice on something that's difficult you go to a person who has coped with the difficulty or seems to be well poised to cope with the difficulty himself. I'm not very happy with pure academics. People who tell me how to get out of a problem that they've never been into themselves.

They've never had to face it. Now I think that this is good advice for you to take from me if that doesn't sound too pie in respect to facing death. Now who can we go to to help us? Well let's consider one of the early Christians a very brave man by the name of Paul.

We've already had two samples of letters that he wrote read to us by my friend Jim a little while back. Now here is Paul and and he's writing to some Christian friends in Corinth. The second letter that he dashes off to them actually probably more than the second letter but the only other letter that we've got here in our Bible.

And in the fifth chapter he answers a couple of questions that we can put up. So let's try the questions then we'll discover what the response of Paul is. Paul what's the best way to look on our human body? If you've got an illustration that will help us Paul could you sort of pluck one out of your file and give it us? And so he says yes I have.

Consider your body in terms of a tent. Now those of us who are in the know that's probably about 70% of us here in this congregation will smile at that because you see Paul's got a vested interest in tents. You see in those days preachers weren't as well off as they are today.

They didn't have generous congregations to support them. Not very well at any rate. Occasionally they did.

And so when you were moving around with no means of support at all you had occasionally to take work yourself just to earn your bread and butter. Now Paul was like that he needed food and he was a skilled craftsman. What was his craft? Well tent making.

And so when he ran into difficulty financially as he did in Ephesus he got a job as a tent maker. He worked late hours. He got the material all laid out in front of him and he got the scissors and he cut it around and there along he produced a tent.

Now you can say something about a tent and particularly tents in those days where material wasn't that strong. It doesn't last forever. It doesn't last forever.

The time will come when the material will rot and the tent will collapse. Now says Paul with perhaps a smile on his face that's what the human body is like you see. It's a tent.

Now Paul of course he's a Hebrew. He's not just a tent maker. He's a Hebrew.

And he knows that tents have a particular significance for Hebrews in their history. Now we worship in this rather beautiful sanctuary. I think that this is one of the best examples of nonconformist architecture at the turn of the century.

It's got one or two problems to it that I'd like to see adjusted but nonetheless I think they made a pretty good job of it. But you see when the old Hebrews in the days of Moses when they wanted to go to church or go to a temple they were in trouble because there was no church. There was no temple.

There was no building that was of this type of construction because they were moving through wilderness you see. And so what did they do? Well they made a tent, a big tent, and they called it a tabernacle. And that tabernacle served them well for some period.

They used to take it to bits and then build it a little further on as they moved further and further towards the promised land. But of course it wasn't going to last forever. That wasn't the intention.

When they got to the promised land in the days of and the great days they were of King David and King Solomon well something more permanent was going to be put up. The tent or the tabernacle was going to be replaced by the temple. One of the greatest buildings in the ancient world in that time.

Now basic to the reasoning of the Apostle Paul and to the understanding of Jewish Christians is this. That as we make our way through our lives down here it's like an exodus going through a bit of a wilderness. Rather difficult and we're lumbered with these tents that are not designed to last forever because they have a seed of corruption in them.

But says the Apostle when that tent has collapsed we've no need to get worried. Well here's our second question to Paul. Why not? And he answers us in the second part of the first verse.

We have a building from God an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. That's an interesting expression isn't it? Built by human hands. You see he's not suggesting that our lives on earth are sort of built by human hands and yet man does have a hand in it so to speak doesn't he? The faculty of procreation.

Life as we know it now and the bodies that we have they are gifts from God. But in a very wonderful sense there is for us in the purposes of God a body that will be given to us not made with human hands which has no contribution at all any vestige of help in its construction at the human level. And this body that will be ours says the Apostle Paul will be a permanent building so to speak.

It will not decay. You'll never have false teeth. You'll never lose your hair.

In fact I would argue you will be a specific age forever and ever. And if you think I've taken leave of my senses then let me come in on that point. The body that we're going to have will be like our Lord Jesus's.

When we shall see him we'll be like him. That's what John says. We'll be like him.

And Jesus died at the age of 32 or 33. So I reckon that we're going to be 32 or 33 forever and ever. Wouldn't that be nice? For some of us it's a wonderful thought.

I mean it's just a few years younger than I am now and just to go back to that prime of your life 32, 33. Now I only say that with tongue-in-cheek but I do say that there is something glorious in the future that God has for the believer. You see the Apostle Paul got a little bit fed up of the body that he had that he was saddled with during his earthly life.

Now don't take my conclusion for granted. Read through what he has to say in the opening chapters of Corinthians, this first, the second letter, and you'll discover that he talks about his body, his outward body, his external body, wasting away. He knows the sort of thing that some of my older friends here have to cope with.

And sometimes we joke about old age but it does bring its problems doesn't it? Our outward body, he says, verse 16 is it of the, I can't even see it so that is indicating just how my eyes are gradually getting worse and worse. Our outward body, verse chapter 4, towards the end, we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. And if you go to the last chapter of the third, if you go to the third chapter of Philippians you will see particularly in the authorized version with stark reality the Apostle Paul talks about our vile body, our body of corruption.

And he's looking forward to the day when he will have a body like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. But to come right back into my subject matter, what happens when the tent collapses? You see that could be a process couldn't it? I mean I would argue pastorally with the experience that I've got here in Worthing that you're fortunate if the collapse is pretty quick. You know I think that there's nothing more wonderful than if you've reached three score years and ten or four score years as God allows and you keep things like Moses did and then you're taken away.

I mean that's my choice, that's number one for me. But of course it doesn't always work that way does it? This collapsing of the body can be a process, it can be a very painful process and sometimes wrapped into that painful process can be most extraordinary conditions that we can't understand. I don't think there was a man that I respected in the ministry more than Ian Land's uncle Leslie.

And when I came here some years back he even then had the vestiges of Parkinson's disease and I wondered why did such a man of his caliber with his intellect have that problem to cope with getting worse and worse and for the last last three or four years of his life well he even had to be turned as he was lying on his bed. So problematic, I have got no answer for that apart from my belief that somehow in God's tomorrow there is a solution that will bring sanity into what to me is an irresolvable problem right now. But again to come back to my subject matter it was the process you see of the collapsing of the tent.

For some it's like that, for others it's a gradual thing. But whether it's gradual or whether it's something that happens almost instantaneously the Apostle says at that point my brother my sister don't be worried. Why not Paul? Well because of all that I've indicated is in the future for you.

Your soul continues to live and what's more in God's tomorrow there will be another body that corresponds in some senses to the body that you now have but it will be incorruptible it will be like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ. So what then does happen immediately your heart starts to beat and you're pronounced it stops to beat and you're pronounced clinically dead. Well there are Christians who have suggested that you go to sleep, that you lose all consciousness until the moment when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.

And in one sense I can understand that conclusion it's not one that I follow but I'm not really prepared to argue it in the very strong fashion if folk believe that that's the way the Word of God points. I mean after all if you go to death if you like like that and then you wake when the Lord Jesus comes then the next moment for you is the return of the Lord Jesus. But it seems to me that there is great scriptural evidence for us to come to a slightly differing conclusion and that is for Christian people on death there is not a cessation of being for a while there is not a sleep for a prolonged period until the second advent but rather that our spirits our consciousness goes directly into the presence of God.

Now I will argue this for three or four reasons and I haven't time to take them all this evening but one of the factors that brings me to this conclusion is a conversation that our Lord Jesus had with the thief on the cross. You remember there were two thieves and if you want the full story then you've got to read all of the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke but if you just zoom in on Luke you will recall that our Lord promises the thief who eventually repents during the hours of the passion of the Savior our Lord promises him today you will be with me in paradise. And the immediate conclusion at any rate from someone who's never come across any other theory taking that as a frank statement from the Lord is that the thief who died with him expected that when his physical being when his his life had come to an end within the next few hours he would be consciously in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

I would also argue on another ground but it's quite germane to the picture that you have in front of you and that is when our Lord died on the cross or to be more precise when he gave up his life because nobody took Jesus's life from him. I hope you're clear on that the Romans didn't butcher him of their own initiative the Jews didn't hound him and eventually were successful in eliminating his life he offered his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. I hope that's clear but when the Lord died he was in the state of death three days you remember and on the third day he's brought back again in the power of an endless life by the mighty operation of the Holy Spirit.

All the texts I could give you if I time one after another to support my contentions at this moment. But we are told in the Psalms and we're also told in the book of Peter that when our Lord was dead far from his being ceasing he's engaged in some remarkable business. Now I don't pretend to understand this but you do get in the Old Testament in the Psalms the concept of Jesus descending into hell.

That's the most unfortunate translation actually of the Old Testament the word hell. It really means Hades and when the Old Testament Saints died they didn't go immediately into what we would perhaps presume as of being heaven. They went into Hades of which there were two compartments.

There was a compartment for the righteous dead and a compartment for the unrighteous dead. Now the best way I think for us to understand this is to turn to a parable in Luke's Gospel in chapter 15. As you're reaching for your Bible let me set up the scenery for a moment.

There was a rich man and a beggar. The rich man by very definition of the adjective had a good way of life. He wasn't kindly disposed however to those who weren't as fortunate as himself.

Time and time again he could have helped Lazarus, this beggar. He could have ministered to him but he didn't. And you discover that the day comes when the rich man dies and also the beggar has died.

And they're carried into what is referred to as Abraham's bosom or Abraham's side, the 22nd verse of Luke and chapter 16. And then there proceeds and it's a most remarkable passage of Scripture. I don't know anything quite like it in the whole of the Bible.

There proceeds to be recorded a conversation between the rich man who is in torment and another. Verse 24, So he called to him, he calls to Lazarus, Father Abraham have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I'm in an agony in this fire. But Abraham replied, Son remember that in your lifetime you received your good things while Lazarus received bad things but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.

And besides all this between us and you were great, chasm has been fixed. So those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross over from there to us. Now as I understand it that is the New Testament commentary on what hell or Hades is in the Old Testament.

Two compartments. Now when our Lord Jesus died, the older version of Creed says he descended into hell. He descended into Hades.

Peter will tell you that he ministered to those who were in captivity. Paul will tell you in Ephesians 4 that the Lord Jesus led captivity captive and gave gifts to men and there has grown up this strong premonition in the history of theology therefore in the Christian church that our Lord Jesus lifts out of Hades the righteous dead and he transfers the whole concept of the Old Testament idea of paradise and brings paradise into the immediate presence of his father where the righteous dead of the Old Testament are transferred. Now it's very interesting isn't it that when our Lord Jesus died according to Matthew's gospel some remarkable things happened.

Not only the blackness descended on the scene but there was an earthquake. The rocks shook and we're told that the graves responded to the tremors of the earth and seen in Jerusalem were the appearances of some personalities from Old Testament days and the inferences that Hades was giving up the righteous dead and the Lord Jesus who had defeated sin on the cross and therefore bore the penalty for their sin as well as for the sin of all those who were yet to be born brings into the father's immediate presence the righteous dead of the Old Testament. Now if you go to the Apostle Paul in the twelfth chapter of 2nd Corinthians you will discover him repeating a most extraordinary experience that he one day had whether it was in the body he said or out of the body I can't tell.

He said I was I was lifted up into the third heaven and he uses the word paradise also as a synonym as an as an alternative explanation as to where he was and he speaks but frustratingly with little information about this remarkable time when he was in paradise in the third heaven in the presence of the Lord. And it seems that if you put all this together you can make this conclusion that when the believer dies the person who has trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior far from being in suspended animation in sleep for X number of years decades or centuries they are taken into the presence of the Lord and there they live to worship and to honor him. Very little information is given apart from the fact that in his presence there is the fullness of joy in the father's house where there are many mansions there is no reason for anyone to be alarmed or fearful.

They wait they cry how long go Lord. They wait for the final redemption the redemption not just of their souls for that's guaranteed and in some X to some extent they're enjoying the fruit of it being in the immediate presence of God but they are waiting for the redemption of their bodies. For though our Lord Jesus has done a great thing for us on the cross of Calvary he has saved our soul and the benefit of that we appreciate right now our bodies have yet to be redeemed they have yet to be restored.

But the day is coming this is what scripture tells us time and time again the day is coming when the Christ who spoke the creative word and the worlds came into existence eons ago shall speak once more and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and those who are alive at the return of Jesus Christ will be caught up and they will await the recreation of the heavens and the earth. Now you see how wonderful all this is you see here is shall we say the Apostle Paul let's stay with him because we started off from his perspective. Here is the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 we've got a little insight into his into his beliefs once more.

Here he is by a graveside. I was standing by a graveside just two or three days ago with some of my dear friends from the tabernacle. We were down there in Dorset and the man whose remains were being put to rest so to speak was a brother who was in our tabernacle family for many a long year.

Now as we watch that coffin being lowered into Mother Earth what could we say? Well we could say as the Apostle Paul says in the 42nd verse of the 15th chapter of his first letter the body that is sown is perishable. Now that's pretty obvious isn't it? The man the woman who has died the corpse is perishable. It's not a nice thing to say but nonetheless of course it is correct.

But the body that is sown now he's referring to the body as being a seed. Do you understand him there? The body that is sown is perishable but it will be raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor.

Now people whose loved ones have died they ensure or at least the funeral directors and thank God for these men many of them who are very dedicated people that they ensure that the corpse looks as reasonable as it can do. But you can put on the best clothing you can keep the ring and the jewelry on the person and when you've done all your trappings and all your trimmings it's still a dishonorable thing isn't it? It's a dead person. It's sown in dishonor but it's going to be reaped in glory.

It's sown in weakness there is nothing more weak. It's weakness personified. It's weakness made absolute.

When you see someone who is dead it's sown in weakness but says the Apostle Paul it's going to be raised in power. It's sown a natural body with the seeds of decay now having gone full course but it's going to be raised a spiritual body with a correspondence to what there was but with also something that's completely different and extra from what there used to be. Now can you believe this? You see it seems to me that far from being beyond human logic it's the essence of logic to believe this.

Here's a seed. Here's a grain of wheat. It's shriveled.

It's miserable. It's weak. It's dishonorable.

There is nothing in that grain that speaks of life. But if you put it in the ground my friend what happens? Sown in dishonor it's raised in honor. Sown in weakness it's raised in strength.

Don't you see the whole of the natural world underlines the spiritual point of the Bible. That there is a sense in which you have to die to be born again both physically and spiritually. And far from the Christian around an open grave feeling miserable and at the end of his tether so to speak as far as his creedal statement is concerned he can spin around and mock death and say oh grave where is your sting? Oh death where is your sting? Oh grave where is your victory? This is how we cope with death you see as Christian people.

Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to make it more easy than it is or more difficult than it is. I'm trying to be perfectly honest with you.

I don't look forward to the moment of death in terms of physical decay. I'd be a liar if I told you that. I look forward to being with him.

The process sometimes horrifies me. I don't want what other people have had to go through. I may have to.

Then God give me grace if that is the if that's the situation. But this I can do although to some extent I fear the very process. I know this that as I move through as my tent collapses it's all necessary to switch the metaphor to the seed one that Paul employs.

It's all necessary for this final ultimate redemption that will be mine when I await that body which will be like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus which will be given me. Let me extend on this just for a moment or two longer. You see it's most important.

Pastorally I know of people who though they are Christians are frustrated within themselves because they're afraid of dying. And I've conceded enough for you to understand some of my own thinking there in this area. But don't you see my friend that sometimes the reason why the Bible in fact always why the Bible uses the analogy of sleep on occasions to illustrate death is to comfort you.

You say I don't understand what you mean. All right this is my last illustration and then I'm satisfied. I'll not sit down but we'll sing a hymn and I'll be through.

Here is our Lord by the grave of Lazarus. Let's turn shall we. John 11.

He's by the grave of Lazarus. Dear Mary and Martha are there. If only Jesus had pitched up a little earlier.

They sent him a telegram and most uncharacteristically he stayed where he was for three or four days. And yet he changes his mind or so it would seem and his disciples are a little bit discomforted because they know that if they go back to Bethany they're gonna be in danger because Jesus is a wanted man. He's on the hit list of the of the Pharisees and the authorities and they feel that they'll be on the hit list too.

And so Jesus says in verse 7 let's go back to Judea. But Rabbi they try and dissuade him. You see the disciples a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you.

You're going back there. Jesus maintains that he is going to do what he's decided and then verse 11 he fills in some more information. After he had said this he went on to tell them our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.

I'm going there to wake him up. Now they're always good for grabbing a chance to preserve their own physical well-being and you can't really blame the disciples. You'd have been in with a bunch and with their attitudes if you'd have been there and you're honest.

You know Lord if he's asleep that's all right. I mean bless my soul there's nothing to be afraid about being asleep. He's gonna get up and that'll be fine.

Isn't that what I say? Verse 12 Lord if he sleeps he'll get better. Leave him alone and let's keep the skin on our back by not risking going down to South Palestine. But Jesus verse 13 had been speaking of his death but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So he tells them bluntly Lazarus is dead. He's dead fellas. You know this there's no more blood beating in his going through his body.

There are no more heartbeats whatsoever. He is dead. Now don't you see that very often Scripture uses the word sleep to describe death to help us to realize that death isn't something to be afraid of.

If you sleep your body sleeps in the Lord there's nothing to be afraid of. Sleep is perfectly harmless. Let's think it through at the natural level just for a moment shall we? Sleep is harmless isn't it? I mean you're not afraid to go to sleep.

In fact if you're like me at this very moment you'd be glad to go to sleep. I really do feel very tired. Sleep is perfectly harmless.

Nothing to fear. It's a friend it's not a foe. And David says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for you're with me.

I'm not afraid of going to sleep. Neither should I be afraid of the last moments that take my body into death. Sleep comes as a welcome relief.

I've almost anticipated that point. Ecclesiastes 5.12 the sleep of a sleep. Death says the Apostle Paul in an incredible statement 1 Corinthians 3.22 is ours.

Don't you see a sleep benefits you so physical death can benefit you because it brings you into the process of which I've already referred to from the teaching of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. And when you go to sleep when you lie down why do you do that? So that ultimately you'll get up again. How many of you wait for that alarm bell to ring at 6 o'clock on a Monday morning and you go straight there into your shower you get your cold water splashing on you so that the heart's working very well indeed and the blood's just pulsating through your body and you go and no you don't do you but nonetheless nonetheless you sleep so that you can wake.

Sleep sometimes cuts out the sorrows. Some of you are mums, some of you are teachers, some of you are businessmen and you're glad when you get a deep sleep and there are no dreams at all. The external world is cut off.

You've got relief from the strain for a while. Is that a problem to you? Of course it's not. Almost the second best thing the third best thing I'll put your wife as a second outside your salvation is your sleep.

That's it. Cuts out the sorrows of life. And don't you see that sleep is here used to illustrate the means with which our Lord will be able to waken our bodies.

Lazarus get up! Only it would have been a much softer, well it's not that softer, it was a loud voice but it would have been nicer than mine. Lazarus gets up. You know can you imagine dad getting the seven-year-old lad up who doesn't want to go to Broadwater Church of England school on Monday morning.

Get up! Now in the simple way that most of us get out of bed we wake from our sleep. Maybe it's the voice of a loved one calling us. Don't you see that's how Jesus will wake us in terms of our souls going on to be with him.

In terms of our bodies eventually these decaying bodies that remains that are somewhere on planet earth coming back together again so that one day if we've died before our Lord comes our resurrected bodies repatriated with our soul and we're ready for the eternity. That is yet, that is yet to be. I once argued from this pulpit and I can't be absolutely dogmatic that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene are the same.

Now allow that for a moment. Have you ever thought why Jesus said to Mary of Magdalene when he got up when he'd been raised from the dead and she's the first person who accosts him. You remember the story in the resurrection garden and this woman is she's so tearful and Jesus spins around and he says to Mary why do you weep.

Now that seems a very insensitive question bearing in mind the circumstances but if I'm writing my identification of Mary of Magdalene and Mary Bethany then you can understand the reason for the question. It only struck me a couple of days ago. You see by Lazarus's tomb Jesus had said to Mary and he didn't say it to anyone else.

He revealed this to Mary. I am the resurrection. I am the life.

He that believes in me shall never die. Mary do you believe this? Mary why are you weeping? You're in on the secret Mary. The other bunch, Peter and that lot, they're not in on it.

Not to the degree that you are. Why are you weeping? You see how Jesus speaks a word that would take Mary's fear of death if not away completely certainly reduce it to just some embers. I'm through.

The Bible declares my friend that when you and I die we do not lose consciousness. We go on into the presence of the Lord those of us who've trusted him as Savior. But I must say because scripture tells me I have to and I don't want to and often I find myself with a conflict.

What I don't want to say I have to say because it's not my reasoning that is important it's the logic of scripture. People who don't trust Jesus as Savior neither do they lose consciousness. They go to wait in the antechamber.

They wait for the final judgment to be pronounced. Like someone who knows that they're guilty waiting for their trial coming up. They await the pleasure of the judge in the prison cell knowing that one day what has been done shall be declared to all and the guilt verdict shall be underlined.

And on that day Satan and those who followed him shall be cast into hell. That's what the Bible says. They will be removed from God eternally.

Now my friend Jesus came to avert that possibility from you. He offers you his salvation. He offers you life in him.

Will you take it? So that when that tremendous hour comes you can face death without being in a hopeless condition and you can draw strength from the truths that I've tried feebly to share with you this evening.