OPEN: I recently listened to a man named Chris tell of visiting his relatives in Kokomo, Indiana. One night his family took him out to and treated him to a special meal at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Sometime during the evening, Chris got up and went into the bathroom, and while he was there another man came into the restroom and was obviously distraught. The man was upset crying openly and Chris was moved to ask him what was wrong. And the man told him this story:
He said he was there with relatives who were celebrating his retirement. But what they didn’t know was that he’d been to see his doctor earlier that week and the doctor had discovered a cancerous mass that was in an advanced stage. The doctor had given him 3 months to live. Now the man was struggling with how to tell his family – out in the restaurant who had come to celebrate a happy occasion in his life – that he was about to die.
What do you tell someone like that?
How do you respond to a man who knows he’s going to die?
Do you say: “I’m sorry?”
“That’s too bad?”
“I’ll pray for you?”
It’s difficult enough knowing what to say at a funeral. But being confronted by a man who knows his destiny, a man who knows he’s mortal, who knows he’s going to die… and he knows WHEN he’s going to die - that’s hard.
• The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre asserted that death "removes all meaning from life."
• Aristotle called death the thing to be feared most because "it appears to be the end of everything."
Inside of each one of us there is the deep seating feeling that…
Death isn’t right!
Death isn’t natural
We weren’t made to die.
And the Bible agrees.
Scripture teaches us that we were NOT created to die.
We weren’t made to live out a short life… and then inhabit a grave for eternity.
Death is not natural.
It’s not the way things should have been.
Somehow we intuitively know that.
And that’s exactly what the Bible teaches.
Paul wrote these words to the church: “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
We’re NOT like people who have no hope.
We are a people of the resurrection.
And it is because of that resurrection that we can encourage one another.
So then, how would you respond to a man in a bathroom weeping about his impending death?
Well this was Kokomo Indiana. Surely everybody went to church in Kokomo. And so Chris tried to remind that man of that HOPE. He softly told him:
“Well at least you have your faith”
The man looked him as if he didn’t understand.
Chris tried again: “You know, the hope we have in Jesus”
The man responded: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
As they talked a little more it became obvious that this man had never been to church. He didn’t know Jesus, and he didn’t know anything about the Bible or its promises.
Now, what would you say to such a man?
• “Come to church with me Sunday?”
That would be nice. But why would he come? He doesn’t understand why he should bother. He’s never seen the need up to now, why should that change?
• “Would you like me to talk to your preacher?”
That might work. But he doesn’t know me and he may not be sure he can trust me. He knows you. You’ve shown interest in him. You may be the only person he’ll listen to.
What if this man’s hope for heaven depended ENTIRELY on you? What if his eternal future lay ONLY in your hands? Would you be able to tell him about the hope you have for heaven and for life after death? Or would you walk away and leave him facing the next 3 months of his life in total despair and darkness?
Peter told the Christians of his day:
“Always (always, always, always) be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I Peter 3:15
We should ALWAYS be prepared to tell people about the hope that’s found in Jesus.
So, what is the answer for the hope that we have?
The answer is this:
The GRAVE cannot hold us.
Yes, we will die. Yes, we will be buried in the ground. But NO, the grave cannot hold us.
That’s what Jesus proved when He came to earth, lived amongst men, went on trial and was crucified for something He hadn’t even done, was buried in borrowed tomb… and then raised from the dead.
Jesus did that to prove it could be done.
But even more than that Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that Jesus shared in our humanity “so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Jesus died on the cross to free us from the fear of death and to defeat Satan.
That’s exactly what God promised in Genesis 3:15.
God told Satan: “I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he (Jesus) will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:15
God taught us from the very beginning of creation that Satan has been our enemy.
Satan has been the one who held us in the grip of death.
Satan was the one who had the power of grave and used that power to imprison us in fear.
And death has always created in mankind.
The grave is a place of the unknown. It’s a prison from which there seems to be no escape.
ILLUS: My mom told me that when I was 5 years old when my grandfather died. He was my world and I was his special grandchild and his death shook my little world.
In those days the casket was put on display in the living room or parlor of the home (not in funeral homes like they are today) and folks would stop in to pay their respects to the family of the departed.
Every day I was there at the home it was obvious Grandpa was dead and he was not going to be coming back. Then came the day of the funeral and eventually the casket was closed and grandpa was transported to his grave. Apparently I stood at the edge of the open pit and looked down into the hole that would hold his casket and my mom said I looked up at her and asked:
“Mom, how is grandpa ever going to get out of there?”
My childlike mind understood that the grave was a hole in the ground where my grandfather was going to be lowered in a casket and buried under 6 feet of dirt.
How was grandpa ever going to get out of there!!!
It was a mystery I couldn’t understand.
Paul wrote: “Listen, I tell you a mystery:
We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death is your sting? Where, O grave is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(I Corinthians 15:51-57)
It’s a mystery. It doesn’t make any sense. How could the dead possibly come out of the grave?
And there are many people who refuse to believe that promise from Scripture because they don’t believe they’ve never seen the dead raised.
And so they doubt.
How could it possibly happen if I’ve never seen it happen before?
Well Paul gives them an illustration:
“… someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?"
How foolish!
What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.”
(I Corinthians 15:35-43)
ILLUS: Essentially, Paul is asking: Haven’t you ever been out in a garden?
Haven’t you ever buried a seed in the ground and seen it grow?
Those seeds are dead.
They’ll never be anything but an ugly seed… unless you bury them.
And once you bury them, something changes inside of them. And that ugly seed begins to change, because of the power God has placed inside of them.
And that which has died - that seed - rises up through the earth and it becomes a living thing. And what it becomes doesn’t look anything like the insignificant seed you buried. When it comes out of the ground it transforms into much larger and even more beautiful.
And the same thing will happen to our mortal body.
When we die we’ll be buried. And when the day of judgment arrives our bodies rise from the grave and will be far different from the one we had.
It will be sown in dishonor but raised in glory.
It will be sown in weakness but raised in power.
It’s a mystery.
But it’s a mystery based upon the promise of God.
ILLUS: Years ago a friend of mine asked me to close my eyes and participate in an experiment for him. And I want you to do that for me today.
So close and visualize yourself inside of a totally white room. There’s a table and chair there, but it’s also pure white. The pictures on the wall are white. The ceiling fixture is totally white. Everything the room white.
Can you visualize that? Good.
What emotion does that room create in you?
How do you feel being there?
Open your eyes now.
When my friend asked me that question, I thought for a moment and then asked
“Is there a DOOR in the room?”
“Yes,” he responded, “but it’s totally white as well.”
“Well then, I want to see what’s on the other side of the door.”
“That interesting” he responded. “Psychiatrists use that white room imagery to help their patients to deal with their fear of death.” The white room symbolizes death… and may people speak of their fear and anxiety of that imaginary room.
But instinctively, I looked for a door.
Because the Bible tells me that the grave isn’t just four walls with no exit.
There’s a backdoor to that grave!
That’s the promise of God.
ILLUS: He even gives us a special imagery when we become Christians to teach us that.
When we baptize someone there are 2 things God intends that baptism to teach.
1st – we die. We die to our past and the sins and shames of our former life.
And what do you do with dead things?
You bury them!
Romans 6:2 tells us “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”
But when we baptize people, do we leave them under water?
Of course not. We rise them out of the water as if they were coming out of the grave.
Romans 6:3-5 goes on to say:
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.”
In baptism we are buried with Christ… our past is washed away by the blood of Jesus
But it’s more than that.
Yes, we’re united with him in His death….
BUT we have also been united with Him in His resurrection.
That’s God’s promises that our past is dead.
But more than that - the grave will not hold us!
We will rise from the grave at the last trumpet because we have the promise of the resurrection. There’s a backdoor to the grave, and Jesus gave us the key.
Death holds no fear for us
I know how grandpa is going to get out of that grave.
That’s what Paul wrote so powerfully about in I Thessalonians 4:16-18
“… the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
CLOSE: So, what did Chris say to the man who was dying?
I don’t know exactly, but I do know that when he was done the man was excited and wanted what Chris told him about.
I suspect Chris realized he needed to be careful about trivializing this man’s tragedy. This man’s death and his fear of that death was very real.
So I think Chris began by saying
“I’m so sorry. I can’t begin to imagine what you’ve been through since you left your doctor. But you need to realize – you WERE going to die someday. So will I. We can’t escape it.
The question isn’t IF you’re going to die.
Or even WHEN you’ll die.
The question is: what will happen to you after you die?
You see, God promises us that we don’t have to be afraid of the grave. The Bible tells us that Jesus died on a cross and was buried… but then He rose from the grave. The grave could not hold Him. And God promises us that if we belong to Him, the grave won’t hold us either. In fact, if we belong to Him we’ll not only rise from the grave - we will live forever in an exciting and wondrous place where we’ll never feel any more pain or sorrow or loss.”
I don’t know if that’s EXACTLY what he said to the man, but I do know that this dying man suddenly realized the offer of hope God had offered him. And he was so excited, he dragged Chris over to the table where his family was seated, and after he told them of his impending death he excitedly asked Chris to tell them what he’d told him just a few moments earlier.
So there was Chris, standing at a table in front of 12 shocked relatives, sharing the good news of the resurrection in a crowded restaurant in Kokomo.
Now, my point is this:
* If you’re a Christian here today, you need to realize that it is imperative that you know what you believe about the hope your resurrection. You’ve GOT to be able to find a way to describe that to people who don’t have that hope… because you MAY be the only person who can speak to those trapped in the fear and despair and darkness of death. Their future may lay in your hands.
• But if you’re here today and you are NOT a Christian, you need to ask yourself a very important question: What will happen when you die? Where will you go after the grave? And is that destination really where you want to go?
You see, this congregation exists as a church and I exist as a preacher because we are convicted that you should not have to be afraid of death nor frightened of the grave. And that’s why we offer an invitation at the end of every service…
