Today is a good day to die.
Warning (Spoiler?). Today’s message is going to be morbid-focused on death.
I’ll confess, I’m a Star Trek fan,
And there is a species in the series that is very focused on warrior virtues.
Any episode where there is a battle, and there seems to be a likelihood of death, inevitably, one of the Klingons will say
“Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam”
Today is a good day to die.
The heavy metal band Metallica has a song “Now That We’re Dead”
Now that we're dead, my dear
We can be together
Now that we're dead, my dear
We can live, we can live forever
I don’t know if they had a biblical perspective while writing that song, but the sentiment seems to echo some biblical themes. . . . the Bible has a lot to say about death.
The Outline of my message this morning is simple
It’s
C
O
R
P
S
E
Yes. Corpse=dead body.
Jesus said
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Luke 9:22-24
The Cross-
If you were to see a man in Jesus day carrying a cross, you would immediately know he was on his way to die. But
Jesus says
Daily.
We are to live a life that is constantly on the way to the Cross-dying to ourselves, living in Him. As Paul said:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8 12-13
Paul personalizes this commitment:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 5:20
But Paul doesn’t limit this commitment to himself. He invites all believers to follow in the footsteps of Christ, on the way to the Cross.
(the focus of this message)
Colossians 3:1-17
3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. is a Corps
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
The alcoholic-if a man is an alcoholic he is drawn to drink. A bar is like a magnet to iron. But if that same man dies, he is no longer tempted by drinks-he’s dead. You can walk up to his corpse & offer him the best lager, or brandy, or wine, or sake or vodka. He will not even respond. A dead man is free from temptation.
We are in Christ-covered not just by His blood, but covered by Him.
People these days say “gotcha covered”. Characters in hero movies where firearms are used will say “cover me”. We are covered by Christ-better than bullets, safer than the in any protection.
the C of Corpse
Cross, Covered, a Corpse is Free
Back to Colossians 3
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
The C of Corpse, Covered, a Corpse, Free. The O
Obedient in sex
1 Corinthians 7:9
The place of sex in the Bible
In all the list of sins in the New Testament, sexual sin is almost always first. Why?
1. The 1st Commandment
Many people think the first commandment is “Thou shalt worship no other gods before Me” or “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. But the first time God gives instructions to humanity is in Genesis chapter 1 (!) the very beginning-before the Fall- “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”.
God is, basically saying “have sex & make lots of babies”. The Bible is not backward concerning sex. Just the opposite. In fact, the Bible talks about sex, sexual desire, sexual perversion, and sexual fulfilment openly and directly, and, from the beginning to the end. God commands us to have sex, and this is the first commandment-meaning this commandment has priority in God’s design for humanity. Why? Part of the reason is that we are made in His image, and when we bear children we are made in His image.
2. Images of God
When Adam “Knew his wife Eve”, they had children. Before the Fall, humanity perfectly reflected God’s character and nature. After the fall the image is broken, imperfect, cracked, but images of the Creator nonetheless. According to the Bible, when a woman and man come together sexually, the fruit of their union is eternal beings-creatures that have the capacity to reflect and proclaim God’s glory.
This is a profound privilege, and should be done right, and well, according to His design, within a covenant.
3. Covenant & Knowing the value of sex vs porne
Marriage is a covenant. It is for life. This is the price to be paid for sex. In other words, my sexual contribution is so valuable that you don’t get the right to that part of me unless you take all of me for life. The Hebrew word for sex is yada-to know (the same word God uses when He commands us to know Him-Jeremiah 9). You don’t have the right to know me intimately unless you are willing to give yourself to me for life, and I don’t have the right to know you intimately unless I’m willing to give myself to you for life. Opposite of shying away from, or shunning or belittling sex, the Bible exalts sex as something of great value-the value of life itself. But we sell it so cheaply.
The word in Greek for “fornication” or sex outside of marriage is porne. The history of the word is that it was used for exchange, for sale. When we have sex outside of marriage we are placing a low value on sex-making it something which we are willing to exchange for a little money, or for a little pleasure. Jesus said “if you look on a woman lustfully, you’ve already committed adultery in your heart”. Therefore, according to the Bible, sex is not just the act of two people hooking up physically. Sex includes viewing pornography. It includes ‘sexting’. It includes fantasizing for the sake of stirring your sexual passions. Any time we do any of these things we are belittling something great. We are cheapening something of infinite value.
4. Licit vs Illicit
I don’t know who said it first-but I heard one Bible commentator say that a licit pleasure is one you pay for then enjoy. An illicit pleasure is one you enjoy, then pay for. There is always a price to be paid, whether it is the emotional and spiritual confusion of having our souls bond with so many partners, we don’t know whom our heart and life belong to, or the price of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. The biblical price for sex is a lifelong commitment to one person.
Paul continues his list of things to put to death.
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
· Today is a Good Day 2 Die
Covered, a Corpse, Free
Obedient in Sex
Right in Relationships- Ridding Rage, Relinquishing Rudeness, Rejecting Revenge, Reconcile.
Recommendation
· Matthew 5:23-24
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: . . . slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
· Today is a Good Day 2 Die
Covered, a Corpse, Free
Obedient in Sex
Right in Relationships- Ridding Rage, Relinquishing Rudeness, Rejecting Revenge, Reconcile.
Pursue Purity of Lips (Proclamation)
S
E
· Words
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
& don’t mess around, brother, in between.
· Pursue Pure Lips/Proclamation
Matthew 12:34; Proverbs 10:11 & 14:1; Luke 6:45
“Out of the abundance”
Matthew 12:36
“every idle word”
· Pursue Pure Lips/Proclamation
A dead man doesn’t have to be right.
A dead man doesn’t try to fight.
A dead man doesn’t notice race
Within the context of our words:
11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Where do many of our divisions and arguments and anger come from? Many of them come for racism and bigotry that have NO PLACE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Covered, a Corpse, Free
Obedient in Sex
Right in Relationships- Ridding Rage, Relinquishing Rudeness, Rejecting Revenge, Reconcile.
Pursue Purity of Lips (Proclamation)
Substitute the good for the bad-
E
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
In Christ (substituting)-
God invites us to a level of intimacy with Him that is unparalleled-the closest analogy, given in Scripture, is that of marriage. When God said, in Jeremiah 9, let a man not boast in his wealth, nor in his wisdom, but let him boast in this, that He knows me . . .
The word there for “know” is the same as described above, where Adam KNEW Eve. The Bible isn’t teaching something weird about our relationship with God-it’s something wondrous & beautiful. God longs for that kind of intimacy and oneness with us that is known on this earth only by the most intimate of lovers. He wants us to KNOW Him. He already knows us :)
Clothing
So we’re invited to put on compassion, and clothe ourselves with love. The Bible doesn’t tell us to feel compassionate or loving, but to do the actions of love and compassion. We do the right thing, and, often the feelings will follow, not the other way around (we may not feel compassion or love that motivates us to do the compassionate loving thing. We just have to do it).
The Veil
The veil in the temple was torn as the veil of Jesus’ flesh was torn. As He died, He broke the barrier that has kept us apart. Now there is nothing between us and God. We can be with Him, and be completely ourselves. Like Adam & Eve in the Garden were naked & unashamed, we can be completely open before Him.
Breakfast (in Christ)
illustration-I drank coffee this morning. But when you look at me you don’t see coffee (unless I spilled some on my clothes) we are covered by-actually in-Christ. So when God looks at us, He sees the goodness and grace and compassion of Jesus. God doesn’t see my faults and stupid mistakes – the wrongs I did this morning, or last week, the thing I did years ago I can’t forgive myself for. He sees Jesus. I am in Him.
So
Substitute the good for the bad- &
Emit hymns, songs, spiritual songs, wisdom, grace & gratefulness.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:1-17
The final exhortation is that we should
Emit music-
Death & Easter
You may be wondering why I chose to speak of death on Easter Sunday.
This is the day we celebrate the Resurrection-the ultimate celebration of Life!
That’s actually the point. Without death there is no resurrection. Jesus calls us to live a resurrected life. That means, He calls us to die.
(that’s where my message ended. I sang the song below without including the following quotes by BG or CSL)
In God’s economy, you must go down into the valley of grief before you can scale the heights of spiritual glory. You must become tired and weary of living alone before you seek and find the fellowship of Christ. You must come to the end of self before you begin to live. The mourning of inadequacy is a weeping that catches the attention of God. The Bible says, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” The happiest day of my life was when I realized that my own ability, my own goodness, and my own morality was insufficient in the sight of God; and I publicly and openly acknowledged my need of Christ. I am not exaggerating when I say that my mourning was turned to joy, and my sighing into singing. --Billy Graham
CS Lewis wrote quite a lot about death, even in his children’s stories (yes. I’m a Star Trek fan & a CS Lewis fan).
In the Narnia stories, CS Lewis portrayed Jesus as the Lion, Aslan (this makes sense. In a land where animals talk, the king of the forest is a Lion). The White Witch had bound Narnia in perpetual frozen cold-always winter, but never Christmas. Aslan had to die to set Narnia free from her grasp.
In a later book, number 4 in a series of 7, one of the great kings of Narnia, Caspian, dies. The Children in the book go with Aslan to His Country (not Narnia) and see Caspian’s death from a heavenly perspective:
Then Aslan stopped, and the children looked into the stream. And there, on the golden gravel of the bed on the stream, lay King Caspian, dead, with the water flowing over him like liquid glass. His long white beard swayed in it like water-weed. And all three stood and wept. Even the Lion wept: great Lion-tears, each tear more precious than the Earth would be if it was a single solid diamond.
At that same moment the doleful music stopped. And the dead King began to be changed. His white beard turned to gray, and from gray to yellow, and got shorter and vanished altogether; and his sunken cheeks grew round and fresh, and the wrinkles were smoothed, and his eyes opened, and his eyes and lips both laughed, and suddenly he leaped and stood before them – a very young man. -CS Lewis, the Silver Chair
Even Aslan cries at the death of Caspian-yet death is not the end of the story.
CS Lewis concludes the whole collection of stories in book 7, the Last Battle. The final words of that story are as follows:
And as he spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.
CS Lewis, The Last Battle
I’d like to conclude with a modern hymn that, I think, says it all. Words by Stuart Townsend, music by Keith Getty
In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song.
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease.
My comforter, my all in all,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones he came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied.
For every sin on him was laid,
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground his body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave he rose again.
And as he stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me.
For I am his and he is mine,
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me.
From life’s first cry till final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from his hand.
Till he returns, or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I stand.
