Two things are inevitable when we are born into this fallen world. We will all get sick in some way, and we will all die. So it makes sense that we understand how to deal with these certainties according to Scripture.
When the Bible talks about suffering, it is almost never speaking about physical illness or disease, but usually emotional suffering and physical persecution because of our faith. It’s almost like illness and death are of very little concern to Jesus. This makes sense because he could easily heal illness and bring people back to life from death if he wanted to. His concern was much more with the soul.
Do you have any idea how much money and effort is spent trying to cure illness and treat those who are ill? How much we try to prevent and postpone death? The cost of healthcare in Canada was over 10% of our GNP at about 180 billion dollars last year. 30 billion of that is spent on pharmaceuticals, to treat symptoms, not cure illness.
Death rates have dropped in the past 60 years, but much of that has to do with the fact that the general population was younger with the Baby Boomers. Death rates are predicted to start rising again between 2020 and 2050.
I have a feeling Jesus is sitting up there shaking his head. Do you realize how little of that 180 billion could end starvation around the entire world? Most illness goes away by itself, that’s how God made us, and the ones that don’t, that lead to death are in many ways a gift from God if we know we are going to be with Him.
Most of the world hates death because it means less time here on earth. But do you see how this reflects a lack of true spirituality? I know there are lots of great things about being here on earth. But we are not here to just to enjoy the things of the world. In fact we are aliens here
We’re allowed to enjoy life and the things of the world, but our main purpose in being here is to live for God, who gave us this life in the first place. We are not to live for the world, so when God allows a fatal illness to take us, we should really be rejoicing for ourselves and for others who perish in Christ, because we get to go to our real home.
But God doesn’t just want to take us home, he wants us to seek him and demonstrate his power and glory on earth. He made us and the world perfect with no sickness or death, and he promises to return it to that state one day.
Titus 1:2 says “we can have hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began”. We had eternal life on earth before the fall, and we have eternal life now if we want it, but now we must go through an imperfect journey here on earth as part of this eternal life.
So I want to ask 4 Questions this morning, beginning with:
Why does a loving God allow sickness and death?
The ten most common causes of death in first world countries are all lifestyle dependent or effects of our actions on the environment, and to a large extent if we had followed God’s revealed ways from the start, these illnesses would not exist:
Heart disease, Stroke, Lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Diarrhoeal diseases, Tuberculosis, Trachea/bronchus/lung cancers, Malaria, Road traffic accidents. Those are the top ten killers. Notice only one of them is cancer, and that kind of cancer is very environmentally caused.
In third world countries over 60% of people die from starvation and malnutrition related diseases. Completely preventable. How can we blame God for these things that we ourselves are responsible for? Yes he allowed death to come into the world, but he also gave life and promises that if we believe in Him death has no power, and we will live forever without the limits of this temporal body.
Sickness and death are entirely our own fault through disobedience, beginning in the Garden of Eden, and the desire for pleasure and having our own way, rather than following God’s way. Genesis 3:16-24 show how we humans chose to bring pain, hard work, and death into the world, and how we will only return to perfection when God says so.
Then there’s that difficult passage 1 Corinthians 11:29-30 about the Lord’s supper: “Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” What does that mean to discern the body?
The best way to describe the Greek saying here is that we must have full knowledge and acceptance of the difference between us and Christ. We are to see ourselves as we really are in relation to Christ, the Son of God who died for our sin. This refers both to us as individuals, and to the church body. Without this discernment we continue to act in self-centered ways. This is basically what the original sin in the Garden was about. We wanted to be like God rather than discerning and accepting the differences between us.
Therefore Paul is saying that if we don’t know who we really are in relation to Christ and his Church, we will be weak, ill, and even dead. He’s speaking both spiritually and physically. The desire to have our own way makes us sick, and brings death, and it always has since the fall. And it’s not God’s fault.
He also told the Corinthians in chapter 6 that their body was the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body. Use it as he intended and instructed.
We will never get this perfectly, but it seems that if we drastically changed our ways, cleaned up our environment, and began again living the way God intended in the beginning allowing Him to provide, not creating our big cities, we could be a lot healthier and have longer lives, but even God knows those kind of extreme changes would be nearly impossible for humans to accomplish now, so he is taking the task on himself when he’s ready to usher in a new heaven and earth, and believers will have new eternal bodies.
Remember humans were banned from the tree of life after the first sin, but we will have access to it again according to Revelation. How does Jesus say we get access to the tree once again? The letter to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2 says, remember your first love and from where you have fallen, repent, and return to doing the works you did at first when you fell in love with me. It’s really just bringing back the old that we once had but messed up through our pride and disobedience. But God already and always has had the solution.
The second question is: Why doesn’t God heal people when we pray?
The short answer is he does. Not just in the Bible, but I’m sure every one of us has had the experience of witnessing God healing someone. Many times it might not be obvious or we just don’t attribute it to God. But I know many doctors who don’t openly admit it, but believe there is no other way that person could have gotten better. Our bodies, which God made are always healing themselves.
You can find thousands of seemingly legitimate healing stories from around the world if you do a little research. We don’t see much miraculous healing here because we tend to leave it up to our modern medicine which is very effective, and no doubt at least somewhat from God. We just don’t need God to do it as much where there is an abundance of good health care. It’s one of those things we took over for God.
I thought about showing you some videos of healings, sharing stories, but there’s no way to prove that any of this is God, even the most convincing of them. And the truth is, much of what we see that is called spiritual healing is a setup, and a sham.
But here’s the point, Jesus and his disciples did miraculous healings in the Bible and we are to take those as truth, they really happened. So we need to ask ourselves, do we really believe what happened in the Bible, and if we do, do we believe it can happen today? Are the conditions any different today? Same Holy Spirit, same resurrected Christ, same promises.
When healing happened in the New Testament it was always because the people getting healed, or someone close to them, had complete faith in nothing else but Jesus. There’s the story in Matthew 8:10 when the Roman centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant, but wanted him to do it from a distance because he didn’t feel worthy to have Jesus at his home. Jesus does the healing and responds that he hasn’t seen that kind of faith in all Israel. His own people. The centurion believed Jesus could just say the word and it would be done.
How about the lady who just touched his robe in Matthew 9? Jesus didn’t even know she was there, and she was instantly healed because her faith actually brought the power out of Him.
And in Matthew chapter 17:20 when the disciples were not able to cast out a demon, which is pretty much the same as healing, Jesus says you couldn’t do it because you didn’t have enough faith, his very disciples who were with him everyday. He follows that up with the famous, “if you had faith like a tiny mustard seed you could move mountains and nothing would be impossible for you.”
Do we really believe, do we really trust the promises of Jesus, do we really believe that the Spirit of God lives in us? Or do we pray, or try to copy what they did in the Bible without really believing? Jesus is clearly saying, and the apostles showed, that if you have enough faith you can do all the things I did and more.
Part of our problem is that we’re out of practice. We tend to call out to God when we think we need him and the rest of the time we’re preoccupied with our worldly life. Should he be obligated to act at our command when we neglect him and don’t live for him the rest of the time? We need to get in the habit of every day desperately seeking him, because we need him for everything we do. I can do anything through Him who strengthens me, I can do nothing without him.
I believe God still heals miraculously and God’s people can still heal others, but we need to be much better instruments, and we need to have stronger faith. And even then it will be God who decides whether a person will be healed or not.
A third question I want to consider is:
How do we grieve the loss of a loved one? What about people who die without knowing Jesus?
Again I say it all starts with faith. Do we truly believe in eternal life? Not just heaven and hell, but the basic doctrine that all souls are eternal even if that eternal life is in Hell. In the Bible, eternal life is assumed and what it actually means is Jesus Christ.
Eternal death is where the soul is still alive, but without Christ. We are told that Hell is a place of suffering, but if the soul is dead, it can’t suffer. In John 17:3 Jesus is praying and says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Everyone’s soul is eternal, but biblical eternal life is life in Christ, having Christ in us, living His life.
Many times it says that God gave us the gift of eternal life, he gave us Jesus, but here in 1 John 5:20 it’s never more clear, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” Jesus is eternal life, he doesn’t just give eternal life, he is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.
Throughout John chapters 3-6 talking about Jesus and God’s love for us, we hear the phrase eternal life six times. I am the bread of life that never perishes, everyone who believes in the Son shall have eternal life. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Word became flesh, and Peter finally says, “Where shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.”
Paul says in Romans 6, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You don’t die instantly when you sin even though sin brings death ultimately, and you don’t live forever in this body if you believe in Christ. They are talking about the life that surrounds this physical life on earth, the life of our eternal souls. Death is separation from God, Life is being in God. “Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1Ti 6:12). That is when you acquired eternal life, and Paul is exhorting us to take hold of that life, which is Christ.
Do we have faith in eternal life, which is the same as faith in Christ? If so, then we can have great peace and even rejoice in the believer’s physical death. They are where they were made to be. And if we are grieving, we need to honor their life with our continuing life, just as we honor the life of Jesus who died for us, by living for Him to make that . Yes we will miss the person, but we should strive to honor them by really living.
What about when their eternal destiny is uncertain? Of course only God knows their true status, but He also makes it very clear that we are to come to Him in this life and that there is a time when it’s too late. We don’t pray for them after they die. We need to get urgent about their salvation while they still live. Sometimes all we can do is pray, but we better be praying hard and faithfully for their eternal life while they live.
No matter what you hear at some funerals, we cannot pray a dead person into heaven - not everyone goes to heaven - and the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Grief is really a selfish process. It’s about what the people left behind lost, not really about the person who died. Of course you’ll have feelings of sadness, maybe anger, but I think Jesus statement in Matthew 8 is very telling.
Remember I said Jesus really didn’t have much consideration for sickness and death? A disciple comes up to him and says, “Before I follow you, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead”.
Excuse me! In that culture nothing was more important to a son than burying his father, nothing of course besides following Jesus. What does he mean by let the dead bury their own dead? He’s saying let the spiritually dead who don’t follow me anyway, bury the physically dead. The corpse of a person is of much less importance to me than the Spirit.
When they are gone, they’re gone, and at some point we need to get back into life and focus on the souls that still inhabit bodies down here. I believe there is a purpose for grief, and we can’t and shouldn’t deny the feelings. Having said that, we need to come to a point where we say good-bye, end the official grieving process, and get back to honoring the dead with our life.
Many native American cultures had a very good way of grieving. They would leave the camp to be on their own for a certain number of days to do nothing but grieve a death. Then when they returned they were expected to be done. I think that may be a healthy way to grieve. You don’t ever forget the person, and you have times when you reminisce about them and may feel some fleeting emotions, but the deep grieving is over because you have allowed it to fully move through you. You fully process it all in one long sitting. Then you get on with living.
The final question for today is:
How should we prepare for our own death?
Well I think the first thing we need to do is be aware of our options and don’t wait to prepare for death, because it could happen any minute. I didn’t say live in fear that you could die any minute, but be prepared that if you did, you know where you’re going, and also what you’re leaving behind.
Most non-Christians will do everything to avoid thinking about death and eternity, it’s all about the pleasure mania of our day, but us Christians are to dwell upon and be controlled by the end of this life and the one to come. The end should direct everything we do today.
There’s the practical aspects of having a will and those kind of things, but even more important than the destination of your stuff, is the destination of your soul, and the souls of those around you. Are you sure of where you’re going when you die? Have you left a legacy of faith for your loved ones? Don’t wait until next week or even tomorrow to work this stuff out.
So the best way to prepare for your death is to become a true disciple of Christ and be assured of your salvation. Now Paul is the main spokesperson for salvation by faith alone, but what does he mean in Philippians 2:12 when he says: “Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.
He follows this by saying it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So he’s saying, yes if you are saved you will continue in obedience because God is working in you. Again, obedience is the best proof of your salvation and a true saving relationship with the Lord. Because God even works on your will to make you want to do what He wants.
Then there’s John 13:35, “By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. How do you assure your salvation? By being in Christ and him being in you. You develop such a close relationship with him, as he did with the Father, that you become virtually indistinguishable from him. You will have no doubt that you will be with Him in eternity.
Then your love for others, your forgiveness of others, and your obedience to God’s will is the outward proof of your salvation. I think it’s definitely true that other people, especially other disciples, are probably better judges than ourselves of whether or not we are true disciples.
The other thing is that when we start the process of dying, if it’s not instant, we become great witnesses on our journey to the end. If we are true disciples we will probably be peaceful about dying, we won’t fear it. As we get older we will focus more on others and their spiritual state, we will want to show those who don’t have Christ what it can be like when you do. We visibly demonstrate the peace and hope that Jesus gives us.
Have you ever noticed how people will listen to a dying person more than at any other time? Nobody may have ever paid attention to you before you started dying, now on your deathbed if you’re still lucid, they do. Deathbed words can have an amazing impact on those around you.
Christ’s greatest witness to a dying world was in His last hours, how he died, how he treated others as he was being tortured and crucified, and ours can be too. He was still completely focused on others. Dying gracefully, and not being afraid to die may be our best witness to others in this life because they for the most part are dreading death. Why wouldn’t you if you don’t know Christ?
How often do you think of heaven? Does it make you rejoice, or does it give you a sense of strangeness, fear, a desire to avoid it? Thoughts of heaven and death ought to make us rejoice. As Paul said, “to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Why? Because it means “to be with Christ, which is far better”, to actually see Him and be like Him. Paul said he desired to depart and be with Christ, but he was never suicidal or looking to be martyred, he says he stays alive for the sake of others, for their joy and progress in the faith.
Is that our attitude about our lives? Do we see ourselves as strangers in this world, longing to be in our true home, but loving being here because God has given us the opportunity to be there for others and help them find that faith that we have? That was Christ’s attitude and it should be ours as well if we are like Him.
These wonderful things of heaven await us, but to live is Christ, which isn’t half bad either. It is possible to love life, and love death even more. Why wouldn’t we when we really think about it? Life is short and there are many negatives with the positives, death for a Christian means forever with all the negatives removed. In death we lose nothing but the things that bring sorrow and pain, and we gain everything.
