Job asked the question, "If a man die shall he live again?" One question more than all others, from thoughtful minds implores reply. It is as breathed from star and pall, what fate awaits us when we die? Men have always sought an answer to this question.
1. Science says, man may live again, for we see the caterpillar die, but the butterfly bursts forth into life. The grain dies, but the stalk of new life grows. It could be that man will live again.
2. Philosophy answers, man wants to live again. He has dreams and desires that can never be fulfilled in this brief life. Like an eagle in the egg has a built in desire and capacity to soar to the heights, so man wants to soar far beyond what this life allows. Possibly death frees us from this mere egg stage of life to soar to greater heights. Man wants to live again.
3. Conscience says, man ought to live again. There are so many wrongs and injustices in this life. Life is not fair, and there ought to be another life where the record can be set straight. Man ought to live again.
Science, philosophy, and conscience all agree that it could be, and should be, that man lives again, but all they can say for sure is, maybe. Only Jesus Christ answers the question with a clear and definite yes.
When missionaries came to England in the 6th century, the king was not sure they should be allowed to preach, so he called a council of the Lords and Nobles. As they met around a table in the Castle, a swallow flew threw a window and out another. One of the Nobles stood and referring to that bird said, "Such is the spirit of man. It comes out of darkness and disappears again into the night. If these men can tell us from whence it comes and to where it goes, let them be heard." All agreed, and they were permitted to preach, and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ penetrated their darkness, and no longer did they need to live in the fear of death, for through Christ they found assurance of eternal life.
They found the kind of assurance that made D. L. Moody, the great preacher, say, "One day you will read in the paper that D. L. Moody is dead. Do not believe it, for at that moment I will be more alive than ever. I was born of the flesh in 1837, and born of the spirit in 1856. That which was born of the flesh will die, but that which was born of the spirit will live forever." This is the kind of atmosphere that should characterize a Christian funeral, for as far as the departed one is concerned, death is but the docking of the ship of life on the shore of eternity after a long voyage across the sea of time. Those left behind may feel the sorrow of parting, but the one on the ship knows only the excitement of a great new adventure, for as Paul says, "To depart and be with Christ is far better."
The one who has departed is in the hands of the Captain of our salvation. Death is no longer a problem for the departed believer, for they have ceased to die. It is the living who are dying. It is the living who must still face this final foe, and, therefore, it is the living who need the comfort that only Christ can give. We need, for example,
I. THE COMFORT OF HIS PRESENCE.
Jesus said to His own, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He said so often to His disciples, "Fear not for I am with you." And He continues to say this to us, and so in Christ we can say, Yea, thought I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." The Christian need not fear death like Shakespeare's Claudia who said, "Death is such a fearful thing, do die and go we know not where." The Christian does know where, for as Paul says, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." The promise of being in His perpetual presence is the greatest comfort of the Christian.
The dying thief on the cross, who turned to Jesus and said remember me heard Jesus say to him, "This day you shall be with me in paradise." That dying thief did not know anything about the nature of life after death. He had no theological education. All he knew was that he would be with Jesus. He could say with the poet,
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim.
But tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.
All one needs to know is to know one's need of Him. If we know we cannot be victorious over death in our own power, we need only to do as the dying thief did, turn to Christ and receive Him as Savior, and hear the priceless precious promise of His never failing presence.
But some may wonder if this good news is only wishful thinking, and a whistling in the dark. It sounds so good, and we want it to be true so bad that we are possibly in danger of believing anything for the sake of comfort. God has not left our minds without a witness to the truth He has given to comfort our hearts. Our hope of eternal life in Christ is not opposed to logic and good reason, but is supported by reason. Consider for example, none of us were alive one hundred years ago. Yet, we have all gone from eternal non-existence to existence. That is amazing and awesome. How much easier is it to believe that now that we exist, we can go from this existence to a higher form of existence? We have already made the transition from non-existence to existence, and so the transition from existence to another form is not that difficult to believe.
The problem for many is that the realm of the spirit is unseen, but science has made the reality of this realm quit clear. For example, this room is filled with beautiful sounds of music of every kind, and light waves of beautiful scenery. The unseen and the unheard are real all about us. All we have to do is bring a television or radio into the room, and it will pick up the waves going through the room and reduce them to our level of vision and hearing. The body is the instrument by which the spirit communicates its reality. When the body ceases to function, the spirit is not gone any more the sound waves are gone when the radio or TV goes on the blink. When the spirit no longer has a body as a means of communication on earth, it returns to God.
To illustrate the relationship of body and spirit, consider a violin player who can thrill an audience with this musical ability. If you cut one of his strings he becomes more limited, and if you cut all of his strings he is reduced to silence. Does this mean the spirit of music in him is dead? Not at all, he has only been deprived of a means by which to express it.
So it is with the body and spirit. Sometimes the faculties of the body are taken away one by one. Sometimes they are all shattered suddenly, and the spirit is deprived of the only instrument by which it can express its presence and nature. It no more ceases to exist, however, than the violin player ceases to exist when his violin is destroyed. Give the violin player another instrument, and he will again thrill you with his spirit of music. Give the spirit another body, and it will again express its presence, love, and joy. This is the great comfort of the Christian. When Jesus comes again, and the dead in Christ will rise with new bodies, and the living in Christ will be transformed, all believers will again have bodies that will communicate forever, and never have defects, and never suffer death again.
Death for the believer is but a temporary breakdown in communication. Just imagine watching a live TV program, and suddenly the tube goes out. The program does not stop just because you can no longer see it. The program goes on, and your life goes on, but now there is no way to bring the two together, because the instrument that does that no longer works. So it is when we lose a working body. Communication is cut off, but life goes on, and the comfort of the believer is that the one we no longer can have in our presence is now enjoying the presence of Christ. The second thing we need is,
II. THE COMFORT OF HIS POWER.
John says that to as many who receive Him to them He gave the power to become the sons of God. Paul said that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. By the power that comes with the presence of Christ, we can face the challenge of William Cullen Bryant who wrote,
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like a quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.
In the power that comes with the presence of Christ, the Christian can do just that, for he knows that death is but a sleep from which he will awake to a bright and eternal day.
Diocletian, the Roman Emperor, tried to get the early Christians to reject Christ, but they would not. He threatened, "Do you not know I have the power to kill?" And they responded, "Do you not know that in Christ we have the power to die?" And that is what they did in the power which gave them peace. Jesus said we are not to fear those who can kill the body, and that is all they can do. If you lose your body, you lose only time, but if you lose your spirit, you lose eternity.
If _____________could speak to us now, they would say, "Do not live for the body, but live for the spirit, and the values of the spirit, for they alone go with you into eternity. Those who live and die with faith in Christ enter the kingdom of heaven as citizens, and sons of the King. Those who live for the flesh enter that realm as outlaws fit only to be sentenced to eternal banishment. May God help us all to examine our lives in the light of the presence and power of Christ. Every death should be a reminder that we too must enter this valley of mystery. Those who are wise will do so with the assurance that Christ is their Savior, claiming the promise of His presence and power. May God grant us all the comfort of knowing a Savior who really saves.
