Here is my latest video message: Hope For The Dying. What will happen after we die? What hope does Jesus give? How can we approach our looming demise with confidence? This brief (20-minute) video provides clear biblical answers to these important questions.
If you prefer to read the transcript rather than look at my ugly mug, see below:
TRANSCRIPT
HOPE FOR THE DYING
PSALM 103:14-17 and LUKE 16:19-31
In her classic book, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott depicts a gut-wrenching scene involving two sisters, where the younger sister is gravely ill. In fact she’s dying.
The scene is set on a beach and the older sister, Jo, says to her dying younger sister, Beth, “You must get well, Beth! You MUST get well!” And Beth responds: “I want to; oh I want to so much. And I try, but every day I lose a little more and I feel sure that I shall never gain it back. It’s like the tide, Jo, it comes in ever so slowly, but it can’t be stopped.”
Eventually Beth does die. The tide comes in and takes her away, and there’s nothing that her sister or anyone else can do to stop it. And the author writes this out of her own painful personal experience, because her own younger sister died tragically at a very young age. The tide took her own sister in real life.
Death is like that. It’s a creeping tide, and it’s coming for all of us. And despite the fact that we have amazing medical treatments today, death still has a 100% success rate. It comes for us all in the end.
Psalm 103 says, “We are but dust and our mortal lives are like the grass; they flourish briefly like a flower of the field, then the wind blows over it and it is gone forever.”
This is the fate that awaits all of us. And although you might be sitting here today feeling relatively strong and healthy, death is coming for you too, and you can’t do anything about it. It’s a creeping tide that you just can’t stop.
But unlike the physical tide of the ocean, which has a predictable timetable, this tide is completely unpredictable and it will catch many people by surprise in the end. The internet lists at least 80 supremely fit professional and semi-professional sports people who have suddenly dropped dead on the sports field since the year 2000. They ran onto the field, apparently fit and healthy, in the prime of their life, not realising that they had only minutes left to live. The tide arrived much sooner and more suddenly than they expected.
But that’s the reality for all of us. The tide might seem to be advancing very slowly, and it might seem that you have a lot of time left, but it can – and sometimes does – arrive very suddenly, with little or no warning. The truth is that all of us live our lives in the looming shadow of this ultimate reality, and we are all only a single heartbeat away from eternity: just a single breath away.
The title of this message is “Hope For The Dying” and I have just three points to make.
- You are dying – and you will surely die in the end.
- Death will not be the end of you.
- Jesus is your only hope.
I don’t think I need to say too much more about the first point. You ARE dying and you WILL surely die. And every time you go to a funeral, it ought to remind you of that grim fact. John Donne wrote, “Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” That funeral bell will one day ring for you, too.
But let me move on to the second point:
Death will not be the end of you.
The Bible says this very clearly, “It is appointed for all people to die once, and then to face the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)
I think many people take solace in the thought that death leads to a kind of peaceful nothingness: that death, as tragic as it is, at least results in the deceased person being finally and completely at rest – asleep forever in eternal oblivion.
But the Bible is very clear that we will all live on beyond our physical death. Jesus spoke a great deal about this, including the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that was just read to us; two men who die and instantly find themselves on the other side of death, still very much conscious. And, just like them, death will not be the end of you, either. All of us will live on beyond death.
But before you get too excited about this, let me tell you that, for the majority of people, this is very bad news indeed! In fact, this is the worst possible news – even worse than physical death itself!
Did you notice that the rich man in Jesus’ parable, was anything but peaceful – he was the very opposite of peaceful. In fact he was in terrible torment. In verse 24, we find the rich man crying out for help and saying, “I am in agony in this fire.”
Furthermore, to make this scenario even worse, elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus tells us that this will be the fate of the majority of people after they die. In Matthew 7:13 he says:
“Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to eternal destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to eternal life, and only a few find it.”
So this is very bad news for us as we approach our looming deaths: the worst possible news! According to Jesus, the vast majority of human beings will be banished from God’s presence forever in a place of terrible suffering.
Now you might be thinking, This doesn’t seem right! How can the vast majority of people be judged to be unworthy of entry into heaven? How is this fair? How is it just? What kind of loving God would do this?
The answer is tied up with a very small but important word in the Bible: the word sin. Most people define sin as individual bad things that we do, like lying, cheating, stealing, violence, greed, selfishness, slander, adultery, etc. But these are just the outward symptoms, the outward spots of a deeper inner disease. The Bible says that the essence of sin – the heart of the disease itself – is an attitude of rebellion against God; rebellion against his right to rule our lives.
The best definition of sin I’ve ever heard is a song by Eric Burdon and the Animals, recorded in 1965 which simply says, “It’s my life and I’ll do what I want”. That is the very essence of sin. It is an attitude of self-determination and rebellion against the God who created us. It’s an attitude that says to God, “I don’t want to know you. I don’t need or want you in my life. Leave me alone, I’ll live my life, my way.”
But here’s the thing. If you live your whole life ignoring or rejecting God, effectively saying to God, “I don’t want anything to do with you, leave me alone”, guess what? When you die, God will grant your request, FOREVER! He will leave you alone, just like you have asked him to all your life. People often ask me, How can a loving God send people to hell? And my response is, in one sense God doesn’t send people to hell, people choose hell by asking that God leave them alone! God isn’t going to drag people into heaven against their wills, kicking and screaming, when all their lives they’ve told God to leave them alone!
And according to Jesus, that will be the eternal destiny of the vast majority of human beings; they will be banished to eternal separation from their Creator. And they will end up there, not because they are super bad, but simply because that is what they were effectively asking for all their lives.
So the simple message that you need to grab hold of today is that something far, far worse than physical death looms for the vast majority of humanity. The creeping tide will not merely snuff out your physical life, it threatens to carry you away to an unthinkably horrible eternity.
Which brings me to my third point:
Jesus is your only hope.
He is THE hope for the dying. He is YOUR only hope. And I stress the word ONLY. And it’s all tied up with what happened to Jesus as he died on the cross.
The prophet Isaiah describes the death of Jesus on the cross and he describes a mind-boggling spiritual transaction that took place as Jesus was dying. Isaiah says that as Jesus died on the cross, divine justice was carried out so that Jesus was punished in our place, he was punished for our sin, for our rebellion, so that we can now be forgiven. Listen to the words of Isaiah 53:4-6
ISAIAH 53 … 4“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, and he was punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted …” There is the description Jesus’ physical suffering on the cross. But now, in the next verse, listen to what was happening spiritually.
VERSE 5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our sins;”
This is describing an amazing spiritual transaction that took place as Jesus was dying. He was punished for our sins, so that we don’t have to be. And as a result of this substitutionary punishment, the next verse describes TWO truly astonishing things can now take place for us:
5”the punishment that brought us peace was on him (So that’s the first thing: we can now be forgiven and have peace with God) and by his wounds we are healed.” – That’s the second thing: we can also be healed, have this disease removed our hearts and given new hearts that are tuned back into God.
There’s a single verse in the Bible that sums up this incredible deal even more succinctly: Romans 6:23:
“The wages of sin is death” – there’s the pronouncement of our death sentence – “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – There’s our rescue. There’s our free pardon and our ticket into heaven itself – because on the cross, Jesus took our punishment upon himself.
It’s unimaginable, it’s unexpected, it’s inexplicable – it’s an act of the most extraordinary love, the love of God that sends Jesus to die in your place. And because of that extreme act of love, you can be forgiven, because justice has now been served. The penalty has been paid in full, so that you and I, the guilty ones, can be set free.
Brilliant! We can all waltz straight into heaven now! Right?
No. Not quite. Like all free gift offers, it has to be accepted. This is an offer only. And, in this case, the way we accept the offer is by accepting the Saviour who offers it. In particular we accept this gift by turning to Jesus in faith and repentance and making him our LORD – did you notice that word there in that verse?
“the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD.”
It means boss, and it means living my life now under his direction. It means no longer aligning myself with that song by Erik Burdon and the Animals, “It’s my life and I’ll do what I want”, It means now saying to God, “It’s your life, you created me, and I’ll do what you want now.”
Let me tell you a true story. In 1833, the most bizarre court case in American history took place. George Wilson was a death row prisoner, awaiting execution for his crimes when, out of the blue, President Andrew Jackson issued him a full pardon. But when the pardon was offered to Wilson he refused to accept it. As a result no-one knew what to do. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was argued back and forth, and finally a decision was handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall. Let me read it to you:
“A pardon is a legal act that must be accepted by the recipient to be valid. Since the defendant has refused the pardon, the original sentence must be carried out.”
And so they executed him!
As strange as that story is, this is exactly what is happening in our world today in regard to God’s offer of forgiveness. Millions of people are turning their backs on the free pardon that is being offered to them and, because of that, they will one day face the full and horrifying sentence for their rebellion against their Creator.
And so I urge you today: Don’t be one of those people. I urge you to turn to Jesus in faith and repentance, and receive the pardon that he is offering.
Let me return to the words of Psalm 103, verses 14-16 that I quoted earlier, but now let me read verse 17 as well:
“We are but dust and our mortal lives are like the grass; they flourish briefly like a flower of the field, then the wind blows over it and it is gone forever…” There is our looming physical death, a fate none of us can escape. But now look at the promise in the very next verse, given to those who respond appropriately to God’s offer of forgivness:
“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who worship him.”
It’s a wonderful promise. If we choose God now, in this life, he will choose and welcome us in eternity. But you must do something about it now, while there is still time. Because the tide is coming for you. It’s coming for all of us. Death will take you in the end, and Jesus is your only hope. He is the only one who can forgive your sins and bring you safely into God’s eternal Kingdom. Your only hope is Jesus the Saviour, who died on a cross to forgive your sin and who rose again to open the way into heaven itself. Listen to his words now, as I finish:
John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live again, even though they die.”
Hope for the dying. We are the dying; Jesus is our only hope.
…………………..
I am going to pray a prayer now and I invite you to pray it with me. If you would like to accept God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life today, then I invite you to silently pray this prayer with me. I’ll pray the prayer one phrase at a time, and you just repeat it silently in your own heart. If you would like accept God’s amazing offer and change your eternal destiny, you can do that right here, right now, by praying this prayer sincerely, from the depths of your heart. Please pray with me. Please close your eyes and bow your head:
“Dear God / I admit that I have often broken your commands / and lived my life ignoring you / Please forgive me. / Thank you, Jesus / for dying on the cross in my place / to pay for my sins / and purchase my forgiveness / Please come into my life now / I hand my life over to you now / Please forgive me and rescue me / And help me to follow you / all the days of my life / AMEN.”
If you prayed that prayer, please tell someone who is a Christian, because we would love to help you as you begin this new life of faith.
God bless you!