It was the night of October 31, 1936. Halloween night. The men and women sat at the round table with joined hands. They awaited the message—the message they had been waiting to hear every Halloween night for the past 10 years. But the message didn’t come.
Finally, one woman rose from the table and announced to the others—and to a listening radio audience—“Houdini did not come through,” she said. “My last hope is gone. I do not believe that Houdini can come back to me, or to anyone…. The Houdini Shrine has burned for 10 years. I now, reverently…turn out the light. It is finished. Good night, Harry!”
The woman was Bess Houdini, wife of the famed magician and escape artist. And this was the last séance she would participate in to try to contact her dead husband. Houdini was known as “The Man No Jail Could Hold.” But he couldn’t escape from death (found at paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa103000a.htm).
Have you noticed that it’s hard for some people to say the word “dead”? They prefer to say, “He has passed away”; or, “She is no longer with us.” Death is an unwelcome subject. We don’t like to talk about it. But listen to what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:2: "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart." In other words, it’s better to go to a funeral than a wedding. The first three letters of funeral spell “fun.” But funerals are not fun. However, they do make us think. Funerals force us to think about life’s most important questions. Fortunately, we’re not gathered here today for a funeral, but I do want to talk about death. Someone has said, “You’re not ready to live until you’re ready to die.”
The Bible describes death in many different ways:
• The psalmist wrote that when people die, they return to the dust (Ps. 104:29). God said to Adam, "Dust you are and to dust you will return" (Gen. 3:19; cf. 2:7).
• The KJV calls death "giving up the ghost" (Gen. 25:8; 35:29; Lam. 1:19; Acts 5:10).
• The Bible says that when Abraham died, he was "gathered to his people" (Gen. 25:8). In other words, he joined his deceased relatives in death.
• The Bible often describes the death of God’s people as "sleep" (Deut. 31:16; John 11:11; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 51; 1 Thess. 4:14-15). The bodies of believers sleep in the grave waiting for the resurrection.
• The apostle Paul called death a departure (2 Tim. 4:6). It’s like going on a trip…from this world to another.
• The apostle Peter said that death is like putting aside a tent (1 Peter 1:13-14). Our bodies are like tents—a temporary dwelling place for our spirits.
• Job described death as the king of terrors (Job 14:14). Death is many people’s greatest fear. Shakespeare wrote, “He that cuts off twenty years of life cuts off so many years of fearing death.”
Today’s message is called Facing Your Fear of Death. Before you can face your fear of death, you must face the facts about death. Today I would like to share with you 5 Facts About Death.
1. Death will come to you someday.
"It is appointed unto men once to die…." (Heb. 9:27).
[Obituary Page]
Already this year, thousands of people have had their appointments with death. Some of them were celebrities.
• Curt Gowdy, sports broadcaster and the “voice” of the Boston Red Sox, died on Feb. 20 of leukemia at age 86.
• Don Knotts, actor on The Andy Griffith Show, died on Feb. 24 of lung cancer at age 81.
• Kirby Puckett, Hall of Fame baseball player, died on March 6 from a stroke at age 45.
• Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, died on March 6 of lung cancer at age 44.
There once was an undertaker who signed all his letters, “Eventually yours.” He was right; death eventually comes to all of us.
Why do we die? Have you ever thought about that question? The answer is found at the very beginning of the Bible. God gave the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, just one rule: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). You probably know that they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit…and people have been dying ever since. Actually, death is a gracious gift from God. He didn’t intend for us to live as we do now—in these bodies and this world that have been marred by sin. Death allows us to leave this fallen world and return to paradise.
2. Death may come to you sooner than you think.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Bill and George, the two avid baseball players. One day they wondered if baseball is played in heaven. They agreed that whoever died first would find out the answer and try to come back to communicate with the survivor. Eventually Bill died. Several weeks later, George was awakened with a vision of his friend Bill. He was glad to see him and asked, “Do they play baseball in heaven?” Bill answered, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, they play baseball all the time in heaven. The bad news is, you’re scheduled to pitch next week.”
[Luke 12:16-21]
The rich farmer had his future all planned out. What he didn’t know was that his future would last only a few more minutes. He had given lots of thought to farming, making money, and having a good time; but he hadn’t made any preparations for death. He wasn’t ready to die. He assumed that he had many years left to live. But he was wrong. And, like that farmer, you and I have no guarantee that we will live a certain number of years.
[Birth Certificate]
3. Death will take you to one of two locations—heaven or hell.
Many people act as if somehow modern skepticism has evaporated hell. But it has not changed at all. It was originally made for the devil and his demons. But it is now the destiny of all those who die without trusting in Jesus.
You may think that talking about hell is in poor taste. Actually, I think that warning people about hell is the most loving thing I can do. The truth is, I don’t like to talk about hell. I find no joy in telling people that their destiny is hell. But it’s something I must do.
Let’s pretend that I am driving by your house at 3:00 in the morning and notice that a fire has started in your kitchen. What should I do? Should I continue driving because I don’t want to tell you the bad news. Or should I stop and pound on your door to wake you up? The answer is obvious. You would rather hear the bad news and be saved than not hear it and die. And if I didn’t warn you, I would partly be responsible for your death. And if I don’t warn you about hell, I will be partly responsible if you end up there. That’s not something I want on my conscience.
The Lord said to the prophet Ezekiel, “When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself” (Eze. 3:18-19).
Do you know who in the Bible talked about hell the most? It may surprise you to learn that it was Jesus, the most loving person who ever lived. One of his stories about hell can be found in Luke 16.
[Luke 16:19-31]
The rich man and Lazarus lived completely different lives on earth. The rich man lived in luxury; Lazarus lived in poverty. But when they died, the rich man went to hell, and Lazarus went to heaven. [By the way, their wealth and poverty had nothing to do with their eternal destiny.] Jesus’ story makes it clear that hell is a place of terrible suffering, while heaven is a place of constant joy.
Those who still believe in heaven and hell have different plans to escape hell and get to heaven.
• The Good Works Plan
According to a survey conducted in 2001 by George Barna, half of all American adults (51 percent) believe that if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven. But what does the Bible say?
"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).
• The Alternate Route Plan
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven; there is no alternate route.
• The “Why Worry?” Plan
A recent poll revealed that 89% of Americans believe in heaven, while 73% believe in hell. When asked where they think they will go when they die, 3 out of 4 thought they would go to heaven, while only 2% believed they would end up in hell. What does that tell us? Most people think they’re going to heaven whey they die. Nobody thinks they’re going to hell.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).
I say, with a heavy heart, that there may be some here in this room today who will never see heaven. There may be some who have deceived themselves into supposing that all is well, yet deep down in their hearts they know that they are not ready to die.
According to Svetlana Stalin, when her father, Joseph Stalin, was dying, he was lying with his eyes closed. At the very last moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the people in the room. It was a look of unutterable horror and anguish. Then he lifted his left hand, as though pointing to something, and dropped it and died. I wonder how many budding Communists are told how Stalin died.
Professor T. H. Huxley is considered to be the father of agnosticism. (Agnosticism is the belief that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists.) When Huxley came to the end of life, the nurse attending him said that as he lay dying, the great skeptic suddenly looked up at some sight invisible to mortal eyes, and staring a while, whispered at last, “So it is true.” And he died. I wonder how many young people in college who are being taught about agnosticism are taught that? (Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook: 2003 Edition, p. 280).
4. Death has been defeated by Christ through His death and resurrection.
"Since the children have flesh and blood, [Christ] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might…free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb. 2:14-15). Jesus Christ became a man so that He could die on the cross and rise again and deliver us from the fear of death.
What happens when a believer dies?
• His/her body goes to the grave.
• His/her spirit goes to heaven. "We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).
• His/her body and spirit will be reunited on the day of Christ’s return. "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" (1 Thess. 4:16-18). Paul wrote in verse 13 that Christians don’t need to grieve like the rest of men. There is hope beyond the grave.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies….” (John 11:25-26).
[Slide: Choice Ahead]
You have a choice. You can choose to face death with Christ, or you can choose to face it alone. If you choose to face it with Christ, you can say, as David did, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (Ps. 23:4).
At the beginning of this message I told you about Houdini’s failed attempt to slip the shackles of death and communicate with his wife Bess. Shortly before his death, Houdini made a pact with Bess that if he could, he would return and make contact with her from the other side. They devised a coded message that only he and Bess knew; this would prove that it really was Houdini breaking through from the afterlife. But after 10 séances in 10 years, Bess had not received her beloved husband’s personal message.
The message was based on word combinations that corresponded to a secret spelling code. The Houdinis’ secret phrase spelled out one word—“believe.” Jesus did more than just communicate from the grave—He rose from the grave. And if you and I believe in Him (if we put our trust in Him), we will receive eternal life.
5. Death can be seen as better than life to those who put there faith in Christ.
The experience of death is not pleasant, but the outcome of death can be.
[personal example]
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Phil. 1:21-24).
The story is told of two Christians who lived very healthy lives. When they died, they went to heaven. As they walked along, marveling at the paradise around them, one of them men turned to the other and said, “Wow. I never imagine heaven would be this good!”
“Yeah,” agreed the other. “And just think, if we hadn’t eaten all that oat bran we could have been here ten years sooner” (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, p. 426).
Revelation 21 describes the heavenly city. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev. 21:4). In heaven, we will say, “Goodbye sorrow. Goodbye sickness. Goodbye pain. Goodbye poverty. Goodbye hatred. Goodbye injustice. Goodbye prejudice. Hello paradise.”
Believers should not fear death; unbelievers should fear death.
Invitation Prayer:
Lord, I know that if I were to die today, I wouldn’t go to heaven. I believe that I am destined for hell because of my sin. I also believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and rose again so that I could be saved. Today, I am turning from my sin and trusting in Jesus to save me. Amen.
