Ready to Go and Go in Peace
LK 2 : 25-32
It was during the wintry season just like we are in now but about five years ago I remember sitting in my study in the basement of our home.
My daughter Elise would have about 6 years old at the time. She came over to the corner of our basement where I was studying the Scripture and she smiled sweetly at me and asked
"Daddy, what are you doing?"
I peered over the top of my Bible and said
" Honey, someone has died and gone to be with Jesus." "So Daddy is preparing a sermon for the funeral."
My young daughter paused, she was silent for perhaps as much as 60 seconds and then she looked up at me again and with innocent and curious eyes she asked me…
"Daddy are you afraid of dying?"
This question coming from a six-year-old really caught me a bit off guard. This time before I spoke,
I lay my Bible on the corner of my desk… I pulled young Elise, (then just six years old )onto my lap.
I said to her…"honey bunch" ( I always called her that when she was young she wont allow it now at age 11.)
But I said to her "Honey Bunch – Daddy is more afraid of not dying one day..... then daddy is afraid of dying..... even today."
I explained to her that when we know Jesus in our heart and believe in what He did when He died on the cross for our sins, ....then we don’t have to be afraid of death.
I explained to her that ....death when you know Jesus as your Savior only means that ...when you die ,...you will be in the most wonder place of Heaven and you will be face to face with the most wonderful person of all Jesus.
Boots, I know loved his grandchildren.... and from heaven today …Boots still loves his grandchildren…and his children …and his wonderful wife and all of his family and friends.
Just because God calls someone on ahead of us to heaven does not mean that love ceases.
It continues…it goes on ….
It was the Apostle Paul who said to us the powerful words of Scripture found in 1 Cor 13:8 these 3 important words: Love.... never.... fails.
Boots’ life was that of a man of many successes.
But... Boots’ body was failing in the way of his physical strength…
It was his time to go home to be with Jesus.
And yet his love has not ceased,.... nor left us.
To the family and friends of Boots Martin I say…Let the love of Boots still surround you today and let Christ’s’ love surround you. Because love ....never.... fails.
I believe if Boots were among us in body and earthly strength today he would tell us…If you know Jesus …then you need not fear death…
For Christ’s’ love will not cease.... neither in life on this earth or even in death...
Death can be welcomed because it is that which leads us.... out of this world.... and into eternity....
with Christ
But Christ’s love and His promise that comforts us even in death is always there.....when we know Christ as our personal Savior.
There are times when a persons body grows weak…and just as a tired person needs to rest.
There are times when those who have walked a long road in this life need to rest as they walk the pathway of death home to arms of God.
Death need not be a dreaded enemy.
It can be in fact a welcomed friend.
But whether death comes in youth or old age or whether it comes suddenly or after a prolonged illness, the important thing is that a person be readyto meet death.
If we are ready to die, regardless of the circumstances, ....IF WE ARE READY….
then we can do what Boots has done....we can die in peace.
When is a person ready to die?
When can a person.... die in peace?
The Bible gives us answers of those questions in the life of a man named Simeon.
Here is what the Bible says about Simeon in Luke’s Gospel and chapter 2
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."
Simeon was a priest there at the temple and He was a man who loved God. The Holy Spirit had somehow revealed to Simeon that he would see the savior of the world before Simeon would experience death.
The day came where Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple to be dedicated to God.
Simeon held the baby Jesus who had come into the world and even though Christ had not yet gone to the cross....Simeon acknowledged that he had seen the Savior of the world.
Simeon also acknowledged that :
his life was ready for the dismissal bell.
His life was ready for the closing of the book on earth
His life was complete in what God had ordained it to be...this side of heaven
And Now Simeon says dismiss your servant in peace.
Simeon says Lord if it is your will take me home.
I am ready to leave this old earth.
Boots was a man who loved God.
He had experienced Jesus Christ in his life and understood him as the savior of the world and understood Jesus as his own savior.
I believe that Boots’ had the peace he needed to walk that journey down the hallway of death.
A hallway that was not cold and dark...but a hallway of warm, bright... and filled with welcome into glory.
The testimony of Simeon is one that we can apply to all our own lives in understanding that we need not fear death.
I. We need not fear death when our life is good.
Let me explain what I mean about our life being good.
It is kind of like when Santa asks children if they have been good all year.
Does Santa mean to ask if they have been perfect everyday all year long?
Of course not...children aren’t perfect
Adults aren’t perfect....I’m not perfect...and with all do respect Boots himself would tell you he was not perfect.
We cannot be perfect but our lives can be GOOD TOWARD GOD.
When our life is what it should be...not perfect ...but longing after God and seeking to live each day for God. Then when we know that it is true ....we can die saying..... life is good.
I’ll never forget being a young pastor in my first church near Paducah Kentucky and making my first visit as a pastor to someone who knew death was just around the corner.
I was on my way to visit a man I knew the doctors had already told there was no medical hope.
He.... would..... die.
I thought ..."what will I say".. " What can I say"... "How can I help him"
I can’t remember all the details of our conversation but I recall God put words in my mouth to share.
And I will never forget just before walking out the room of that dying man at the hospital as he looked up at me through tired and weary eyes and said
"LIFE IS GOOD"
WOW...
We can be ready to die and we die with peace
when we have the security of knowing that we have sought to live a good life unto God.
Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I mean by living a good life toward God one finds salvation.
Salvation is only found in trusting in what Jesus has done when He did what no one else could o to free us from our sins and died on the cross.
Yet the good life we live toward God comes about in each of us...as it did in Boots’ when we desire to love Christ as He has loved us.
And we should live in such a way...that we shall not be ashamed to face Christ when the day comes for us.
We can be ready to die and die and have peace about our passing from life into death.
When we know Jesus we are but passing out of a world filled often with pain into a heaven that knows only peace.
We can be ready to die and be at peace about it when
II. we sense from God that out life’s mission is complete.
If you had never heard of this Simeon in the Bible until today...I am really not shocked. Simeon is spoken of here in just a few verses of the whole entire Bible and yet his testimony is great.
We read about in the Bible this glimpse of a mans life named Simeon and then ....no more do we hear of him.
No more is he spoken of his life than this of his experience with Jesus.
But what an experience. It was just the sort of experience that God intended Simeon to have.
Each life is filled with various mountaintop experiences. An event of this shape in one persons life and the event of another shape in someone else life.
We have no record of Simeon writing a great book,
or of him composing a masterful song,
or of his being a great leader of any sort and yet we know the events of his life were the ones directed and carried out under the hand of Almighty God.
We’re not told exactly how but the Bible says that Simeon was instructed by the Holy Spirit "that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ."
As I read about that day that Simeon saw Christ in the temple...it seems it happened almost in an instant and then suddenly Simeon is gone.
It is almost as though Simeon was born for this single important event. An event of purpose.
We are not on this earth by accident God has a purpose for each of our lives. When God’s purpose is fulfilled then He calls us home.
One can be ready to die and have peace about it when
we sense from God that out life’s mission is complete.
The Acts 20 of the Word of God the Apostle Paul said
"if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me"
At the end of his own life as Paul sensed his life’s completion and his own soon departure from earth...he said..."I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
(2 Tim 4:7 NIV)
When Dr. William Culbertson, former president of Moody Bible Institute, died several years ago they found a copy of a poem in his desk. It read:
"Lord, when thou seest that my work is done,
Let me not linger with/ailing powers,
Down the weary hours.
A workless worker in a world of work,
But with a word just bid me home.
And I will right gladly come.
Yes, right gladly will I come. "
I believe Boots’ work was done.
There was no more need for him to linger
God bid him com..... and Boots went home to God.
A person can be ready to die and at peace about death when
III. We have made right preparation by confession of salvation.... in Christ.
Ready to go...when we have made right preparation by confession of salvation...in Christ.
Simeon said unmistakably to God the Father....
For my eyes have seen your salvation.
He said I have seen the Christ...I have beheld salvation.
My life is complete.
If you passed away today. Left this earth...
You might not be able to say that you have done everything you want to do in life.
But if you have trusted Jesus Christ as the Salvation for you and for all.... sent from God ...then you have done the one thing above all else ....you need to do in this life.
If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your savior as Simeon did ...as Boots did.... then there is one thing left for you to do.....Find peace and make yourself ready no matter what tomorrow might bring.
If Boots were here today...I know what he would say.
He would say be ready to go if God calls.
He would say know that you can have peace even if death should come.
And how by knowing Christ as the salvation sent from God and the Savior for you and me.
