11/4/07

Collins & West Hartland United Methodist Churches

Sermon Notes—11/4/07

Message: Collins/WH November 4, 2007

Eleven Questions in 2007 Q. 7 What Happens to People When They Die?

1Cor.15:50-57

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed 1Cor.15:51-52.

Intro: In preparing to preach AM, I stumbled on to a website that’s called The Death Clock.com.

· It invites you to submit a small amount of information about yourself… etc. & it will calculate the day of your death on the Death Clock.

· Mine is January 31, 2054! On that date I will be 99yrs. old, & just 23 days short of being 100yrs.

o I believe I will reach 100yrs. - & the Death Clock is just slightly off because it couldn’t accurately figure my Body Mass Index which determines the amount of body fat; …It had no # low enough.

I Now, as important as that date will be in my experience, what I really want to know is what will be my experience on February 1, 2054? i.e. the day after my death?

Illus. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that …

Life Expectancy for Americans has been extended 30yrs. in the past century.

· That’s all well & good, but it’s still only 30yrs. There comes a day when we all will die … & then What Happens to People When They Die”?

The Bible doesn’t give an organized overview of what happens to people when/die …but if you summarized what it does say, it could fall into 3 categories:

1^st Separation! There is a separation that occurs at death.

a) It occurs person to person; … At death we are separated from our families & other persons yet living; … There is no contact between/living and the dead.

b) There is a separation that occurs between the Body & the Spirit/Soul.

o Christians believe that people composed of the Body – which is physical & mortal – meaning that it has a limitation to its existence

o And the Spirit of a person that is created by God to be eternal, & that the soul (using language to illustrate it from the tech world of computers) – is the interface of the two.

o Your soul is where your body & spirit meet to interact & influence the person you are in your personality, emotions, temperament & will

o In human psychology, its not that you have a soul … it’s that you are a soul i.e. the interface & interaction between body & spirit, with both affecting the other.

c) The third Separation/occurs at death is between faith & unfaith (unbelief).

o Those illiterate of the Bible, think that people are unequal in life, but equal in the experience of death;

o The Bible helps us understand that people are really equal before God in life, but unequal in death (The difference being between those who have faithed Jesus as Savior & those who have not).

“All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left”. Matt.25:31-33

2^nd The second word that categorizes what the Bible does say happens when people die is … Suspense! i.e. There’s a lot that we don’t know.

o “Mystery” – doesn’t mean spooky/mysterious, - but something we would not know w/o God revealing it to us.

o The Biblical hope offered to people thru faithing Jesus as Savior is the Resurrection of the Body …

o A body that will be changed in resurrection into one/ is similar but dissimilar to this one i.e. “mortal/immortal; perishable/imperishable” – Apostle’s words.

Ø The faith which is Christian doesn’t believe in Reincarnation (recycling the spirit into a different body of man or beast), or in spirits floating around w/o a body.

Ø The human body is important in the economy of God & so ours is the hope in the Resurrection of the Body.

Ø And Jesus in his Resurrection is our model – i.e. similar/dissimilar; recognizable, yet not entirely of this world.

Illus. Comic: Mother Goose & Grimm – “If I died, I think I’d like to be … cf. comic.

· And yet it doesn’t make any difference … for the body that is buried or whatever… is raised a spiritual body, exchanging mortal for immortal, perishable for imperishable.

And yet … in between physical death & resurrection, there is apparently an intermediate state that the Bible says almost nothing about, but where there is the separation between faith & unfaith in Jesus as Savior.

The Bible reserves the words,” Heaven & Hell” … for the end of all things occurring … when Jesus returns & consummates all of creation in Judgment.

· People do not die now, … & go to heaven/hell (words reserved for the end)

· The intermediate state for people faithing Jesus is perhaps referenced in Scripture as Paradise – “Today you will be with me in paradise”… which at least locates people of faith in the presence of Jesus.

· There is no similar word in the Bible to identify those dieing in unfaith awaiting the end in judgment. The frightful absence of God’s presence is logically assumed.

What will this Intermediate state between physical death & resurrection be like for people of faith in Jesus?

1. Some have presupposed a purgatorial punishment for sins to prepare a person … for entrance into God’s presence in heaven?

o But that is Biblically unfaithful to the Gospel message that Jesus in his death absorbed & absolved the sins of those who will faith Him for forgiveness & presents us righteous before God.

2. Others have rewritten Purgatory not to be a place of punishment, but a place of necessary spiritual formation i.e. a perfection in love.

o If I don’t die perfect, where will my imperfections be dealt with, & when will God heal my woundedness with holy love?

o Methodists have believed that God could substantially begin to heal our hearts with a sanctifying holy love in this life w/my consent in faith.

Ø And if the consent of my will is needed here, will it not be needed there?

Ø What if death confirms me in the moment to be the person I really am – not who I imagine myself to be; not the person who others imagine me to be; not the person at times I pretend to be …

Ø But the person I am – as God invites my consent between death & resurrection for his healing in holy love necessary for the joys of heaven.

Ø Methodist have believed that God could substantially begin to heal our hearts with a sanctifying holy love in this life w/my consent in faith, … & that consent here is easier than consent there.

3^rd Finally, the third word that categorizes what the Bible does say about what happens to people when they die is …Savior.

· There is a Savior in Jesus of Nazareth - the Son of the Living God, who on our behalf lived & died for our forgiveness before God, … & who rose from the dead … as the first of the many who will follow, …by faithing Him in repentance as Savior.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1Cor.15:20

Jesus said…, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jn.11:25-26.

Say Pastor: Is there a second chance for people after they die?

· I don’t know? I certainly hope so! But/Bible says little to nothing on /subject.

· There are some who find Biblical support in post-mortem evangelism i.e. a second chance for the dead or a 1^st chance for those who never heard.

· But what if the moment of death confirms me as the person I really am, & what if that fixes my consent – even if 2^nd chance was possible.

Illus. I say a bumper stick on a car at FTMC this week that read:

If heaven ain’t like Dixie, I don’t want to go there!

What if the moment of death confirms me as the person I really am, & what if that fixes … my consent – even if 2^nd chance was possible.

Illus. Comic: F-Minus “Welcome to Hell; No Trespassing”

· There will be no trespassing in Hell, for it is reserved for those whose consent is so fixed that they willingly choose vs. God’s grace, love, & salvation in Christ

I do not know if there is a 2^nd chance, but I do know there is a 1^st chance & that it occurs here, even in this moment.

2Corinthians 6:2

"In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you."

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Closing: I have visited Death Clock.com several other times & resubmitted my information … & each time get a different date! Cf. examples

· But the really important date … is always the one that follows!

· What happens to people when they die?

The Bible references a Separation … a Suspense that awaits in the intermediate state the Christian hope of Resurrection; … & a Savior who alone makes that hope possible to people of discipled faith in Him.

When its all been said & done, (whenever done occurs) there’s just one thing that matters. Did I do my bet to live for Truth (& the one who is Way, Truth, & Life) … did I live my life for you.

This AM. If you don’t know what will happen to you when you die, you can thru a vital, vibrant faith in Jesus as your Savior, & it’s to Him that I invite you AM.

Maybe you need help in working thru that! I or others would be glad to discuss it further with you today …or some day soon (just don’t wait until it’s your day on The Death Clock.com)

· AA Friendly Fellowship Where Jesus Christ is Our Focus!