What happens when a Christian dies? Paul refers to Christians who have died as being asleep in the Lord. Some have taken Paul’s words as an indication that when Christians die they remain in some kind of sleep until the return of Christ. The implication in this is that we won’t get to Heaven until Christ returns. I don’t really see that – maybe I have forgotten some bit of Scripture here so remind me brothers if I’m off on this. Here is a sample of the kind of verse I am talking about.
1 Corinthians 15:6 ESV
“Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”
I think when Paul says this kind of thing he is trying to help us understand that when a Christian dies they are not dead but that we will see them again. I think he is simply trying to avoid saying “died” because Christians don’t die in an eternal sense. The reason I think this, is because of what Christ said in the last verse of today’s reading.
Luke 23:43 ESV
“And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”
Jesus said this to the condemned man on the cross next to Him. There were two criminals being crucified with Jesus. One railed at Jesus, taunting Him to save Himself. The other rebuked the first and said that Jesus did not deserve to die but that the two of them did. He asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. Jesus didn’t say, “You will be with me in Paradise someday” or when He returns again. Jesus said that man would be with Him in Paradise today! This is why I say we all will have our own personal Armageddon. The end of the World occurs for each of us. Each of us will die physically and stand before God. Those that rejected Jesus in life will be rejected by Him in eternity. Those that submit their lives to Christ will be with Him in Heaven, not at some later date, but on the very day they die.
There is no celestial waiting room. The day of reckoning is simultaneous with your physical death. There is only one question a man really needs to answer in his life. “Where are you going?” When might be sooner than you think.
We finish the book of Matthew today. We’ve read how Christ was born, grew up, called His disciples, performed miracles, and finally died on the cross. It would have been a pretty miraculous story even without the resurrection but it wouldn’t have stood the test of time. No, the resurrection is actually what it is all about, and the reason Christians throughout history have had hope for eternity. Without the resurrection the disciples would never have had the courage of their convictions. Remember that before the resurrection all of the disciples ran away when the mob came to get him; after the resurrection all but one of the disciples were martyred for their steady proclamation of the Gospel and their stubborn refusal to deny Jesus.
Before I go further with this thought I want to make one side note. The Roman guards saw the stone roll away from the front of the tomb and the angel sit upon that stone and converse with the women who had come to visit Jesus’ body. To this day there are many who claim that the guards fell asleep; that Jesus’ followers came and carried off His body. That false claim was established long ago when the chief priests told the Roman guards the following:
Matthew 28:13-15 ESV
“…Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.”
Why would the chief priests tell these guards that if the governor heard of the story about them falling asleep they would keep the guards out of trouble? The penalty for a Roman guard who fell asleep on duty was death. Did you hear me? A guard who fell asleep on duty wasn’t thrown in the brig, he was killed. Roman guards did not fall asleep on duty. The best explanation opponents of the truth can offer for the disappearance of Jesus’ body is that a group of the best trained, most professional soldiers the world had ever seen up until that time had fallen asleep on duty – something for which they would have executed.
It is amazing to me the fantastic stories people will come up with to deny the resurrection of Jesus. Some say that the disciples overwhelmed the guards and took Jesus’ body. This is laughable. Eleven cowering fishermen and tax collectors overwhelmed trained Roman guards? Please. Or how about this one; Jesus wasn’t dead; He only fainted and then revived while lying in the darkened tomb for several days. I guess that means that He revived enough to roll a massive stone away from the mouth of the cave and then sneak away undetected by the guards. Really, a guy who just went through crucifixion and went for several days without food wakes up with the strength of several men? Boy the crazy stories non-believers are willing to swallow are beyond belief.
Now, back to my main point, the disciples were cowering, disillusioned rabble while Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified. We know later they became incredibly brave even unto death for the sake of the Gospel. What happened? First off, the word “Gospel” means good news. What is the good news? The good news is resurrection; it is life after death. Yes the good news is that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior but He is all of that because He conquered death. We could not be resurrected if He hadn’t died for us and been resurrected first.
The resurrection is what caused the disciples to transform in to brave men. These men had been too stuck on the natural world and man’s way of doing things. If Jesus was to be King then He had to conquer right? That meant He had to take sword and shield and beat all comers on the field of battle right? If Jesus died He couldn’t have been the Messiah could He? How could He win His victory if He were dead?
These men didn’t understand that Jesus didn’t come to fight man; He came to fight sin. He came so He could defeat death. His was as spiritual battle, and He won by going to the cross and then rising from the grave. Seeing Jesus resurrected is what opened their eyes to the truth of who Jesus is and gave them the courage necessary to look death in the eye with no fear. Don’t you see? The disciples ran when Jesus was arrested because they were afraid to die, once they saw He conquered death they were no longer afraid. They lived the rest of their lives unafraid of death or trouble for they knew without doubt that they were inheritors of eternity.
Are you a Christian? Are you afraid of death? Are you afraid of difficulty? How can you have those fears and belong to Christ? Don’t you know your eternity is settled? You have nothing to fear! You can face anything this dead and dying world can throw at you because you have eternity through Christ. Death has no power over you. Fear is banished from you heart. Do you know without a doubt that you are an inheritor of eternity? Act like it!
The last thing Jesus said to His followers before ascending to Heaven was this:
Matthew 28:18-20 ESV
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
Share the Gospel brothers. Invite people to church. Do the job Jesus told you to do with the courage of your convictions.
Jesus speaks about children today. In one sense He uses children as a metaphor but much of what He says concerns literal children. The disciples were evidently arguing amongst themselves as to who would be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. I suspect a few of them might have thought it would be they. Strangely Jesus’ response was to say that unless they became as children they wouldn’t even enter the Kingdom.
Matthew 18:3-4 ESV
“…Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”
So, whoever humbles himself, like the child he called over to them, is the greatest in the Kingdom. First to enter the Kingdom of Heaven one must be born again. Being born again means you start off as a spiritual infant. Spiritual maturity comes with time and effort. Now, does a child lead or follow? A child is not given authority over others; a child has someone in authority over them and they obey that authority. The greatest in Heaven is not a leader. The greatest in Heaven is a follower. A spiritually mature Christian will not be the greatest leader in Heaven; he will be the greatest follower. He will be the one who completely submits his will to that of Jesus Christ.
You see, in Heaven Jesus will have all authority just as He will on Earth. Jesus said that if anyone wished to come after Him he must first deny himself. Humility is the mark of the greatest in Heaven. The one who does not esteem himself will be the greatest. Jesus, being God incarnate, did not come to Earth commanding worship as was His right. He submitted Himself to the will of the Father. He sacrificed His wants and desires for the well-being of others. There was no greater selfless person in the history of the world than Jesus Christ. Now we know that the greatest in Heaven will be Jesus Himself. The most esteemed, after Christ, will be those who do not esteem themselves.
This is what you are maturing toward brothers. As you grow spiritually your life will be less and less about yourself and more and more about Jesus Christ. Being about Him means that you will be about His children and the lost.
Finally, as Jesus speaks about the lost sheep we see an analogy for lost people. While I think that analogy is proper, I actually think He really is talking about children. Jesus has a child with Him as He is speaking with the disciples so when He says “See that you do not despise on of these little ones” He is speaking about children.
Matthew 18:14 ESV
“So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
God looks out for the little children. He has given man free will but if man abuses that freedom there will be consequences; especially if he abuses a child. If Mr. Sandusky actually did abuse children he is in for a bumpy eternal ride. That said, the verse above gives us assurance that when a child dies they are not condemned to Hell because they hadn’t yet submitted their life to Christ. Children have not reached an age of accountability and God will protect them. In fact I find the following verse rather interesting.
Matthew 18:10 ESV
“… For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
“Their angels” – what do you suppose He meant by that? I think God provides protection for the little ones. That doesn’t mean they won’t suffer. We live in a perverted world and all of creation suffers. What I mean is that God watches over children and He will bring them to Him if their suffering comes to death. If you lost a child my heart breaks for you. I cannot imagine the pain you must have felt and continue to feel, but take heart in the knowledge that your child is with God and the angels.
You know I’m reminded of David who, through his adulterous affair with Bathsheba had a child. That child became sick, and while sick David mourned terribly. He was inconsolable. He didn’t eat; he lay on the ground all night for seven days until his child died. His advisors were afraid to tell him that his child had died. They figured if he was this upset by his illness he would go nuts by his passing. Contrary to their fear, upon hearing of the child’s death David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, went and worshipped God in the temple and then went home to eat.
After eating his servants asked why he wept and mourned while the child was sick but got back to business when he died. This is how David answered:
2 Samuel 12:22-23
“He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
Being dead David’s child could not come to him but David said he would go to the child. How would he do that? My friend his young child was in Heaven and David knew that he would see that child when he too got to Heaven. Mourning wouldn’t bring the child back but he had the assurance that he would one day go to the child. That was his assurance and it is our assurance today.
I have really enjoyed our reduced reading schedule this year. The passages we have to read every day are so much shorter which gives us more time to digest what we are reading. Still, today’s reading contains several issues that we could discuss in length had we the time. In today’s reading Jesus encourages His disciples by reminding them that they don’t really have anything to fear. For a Christian death is meaningless. Death has lost its sting because death for a Christian is the moving on to a better place. When I was a kid there was a TV show named “The Jeffersons”. The show was about a family that had risen up from poverty to affluence. The theme song to that show came to mind as I considered the fate of the Christian. Here are the first few lines to that song.
“Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.”
Yep, we Christians are movin’ on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Once we pass through the veil we will finally get a piece of the heavenly pie. Why would any of us be afraid of that? Jesus tells us in today’s reading that God knows everything about us and that we are precious in His sight. Having acknowledged Him before men, He will acknowledge us before the Father. Hallelujah!
Jesus also says something that goes against the secular world’s understanding of Jesus. While we acknowledge that Jesus is all about love, and that He is the prince of peace, He says that He did not come to bring peace to the earth but a sword. Jesus says He has come to be controversial and confrontational. Now this doesn’t seem to go with Paul’s exhortations for us to show the world love, but I’m here to tell you that confrontation, and love are not mutually exclusive. The fact of the matter is that the way some define love we would never tell others about Jesus because we might upset them or offend them.
That is not love. Real love does the hard things for the sake of the beloved. Have you ever watched American Idol? There used to be a guy on that show named Simon Cowell and he could be absolutely brutal in critiquing the performance of contestants. People loved to hate Simon because he would just come out and say some audition or performance was just awful. He would tell people that they had no business trying to be singers because they had no talent.
Now I’m not suggesting that Simon loved those singers, but I do think he probably showed them more love than their families. I never once thought Simon was wrong in his assessment. When he told someone they couldn’t sing he was right. Unfortunately far too many people are encouraged to chase a dream they have no hope of acquiring because those that love them don’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them that they can’t sing. They may not want to hear the message but responding to the truth would have set them free from years of hopelessness and misery.
It is the same thing with the Gospel message. Many people today don’t want to hear it, but if someone will just love them enough to tell them, and they respond to that truth, they too will be freed from years of hopelessness and misery. Can you be a Simon Cowell in a Paula Abdul world? Below is a video with examples of Simon’s direct and brutal comments to contestants. Can you be this direct with people who need to hear the truth of the Gospel?
Okay, maybe you can’t, or don’t want to be a Simon Cowell, and maybe you don’t have to be quite so direct, but if you are hoping that you can win a popularity contest while telling a lost and dying world about Jesus you are sadly mistaken. No one is going to give you a trophy for showing people their need for a Savior. People will actually hate you for speaking the truth, but love requires no less of you and neither does your Savior.
Brothers, it is late and if I’m going to make my deadline for posting this to the blog for automatic e-mailing to subscribers I’m going to have to get this done quickly.
Today was an interesting day and it has me in a rather pensive mood. Earlier today I learned that a friend of mine, a man who reads this blog regularly and has been a great encouragement to me, is unemployed. I don’t know if this is a recent thing or has been a struggle for him for a while. I was unemployed myself several years ago for 9 months and I remember how worried I was and how frightening it got a few months into it. I also learned that another friend lost his father today. My dad is still with me so I can only imagine what he must be going through right now.
I ended the day, however, at a wedding for two young members of my church. They are not long out of college and they make a beautiful couple. I was truly happy to see them begin their life together as man and wife. My prayer is that their marriage will be what God intended all marriages to be from the beginning.
I look at the struggles we all face in this life and just when you think you might have to carry more than you can bear God shows you hope. It is hard for me to explain why I found hope in the wedding of these two young people. The wedding was proudly Christ centered and I suppose that is where I found that reassuring hope. Can one find hope in a job? Can one find hope in a marriage? Can one find hope in life itself? I believe the answer to all of these questions is no. The only place one can find hope is in Christ.
With Christ we find hope in every situation. With Christ we can find hope when we have a job and when we don’t. With Christ we can find hope in marriage and we can find hope when single. With Christ we can find hope in life, in illness, and in death. You see the struggles and troubles of life are meaningless when Christ is the center of our lives. Oh that isn’t to say that we shouldn’t feel our pain or bring it before God; He’s our heavenly Father and He wants us to come to him in sorrow and in joy.
As Christians, when we face trouble we know that it is only for a little while and that God will never give us a heavier burden than we can bear. Of course he knows our capacity better than we know ourselves so it may seem that He has given us too much, but He never does. When He is at the center of our lives He gives us peace even when we are in the center of a storm. We can trust Him because we have several thousand years of testimony that He keeps His promises. The record of that testimony is the Bible.
In today’s passages we read of Jesus being crucified. He didn’t have to come to earth to be crucified. He chose to do that. Can you imagine suffering as He did? Jesus came to fulfill many of God’s promises. He came to give us hope. As He went to the cross He knew that He would be raised from the dead three days later. He knew that His Father kept His promises and that after the pain there would be joy.
We also read today that Judas hung himself. He didn’t have hope. He didn’t have Jesus. Pain is part of life. Hope and joy are part of life in Christ. As Christians we get both. We live in a fallen world so we experience pain, but we have God’s Holy Spirit residing within us so we have hope as well.
I don’t know what struggle you may be facing today. Because you live in a fallen world I know you have struggles. It is my hope you also have Jesus Christ, for then you have hope as well. Turn to God in your pain and struggles brothers. Share your hurt and your fear with your Heavenly Father. Remember He walks with you through the fire and that on the other side is joy everlasting.
This year we are reading through the Bible chronologically. It has felt more like last year when we read from beginning to end. Well, don’t worry, in April we will start to jump around a bit. Today, in between the end of Deuteronomy and the beginning of Joshua we have the 91st Psalm. I’m not sure why this Psalm is placed here in this reading plan. Moses has just passed away and the people of Israel surely needed some hope as he had been with them and guiding them all their lives. It is when we see the face of death that our minds most strongly ponder the issue of eternity. What hope for the future can any of us have? In and of ourselves my friend there is no hope. That is the stark, harsh truth.
Psalm 91 is a Psalm of hope. The reason for this is the individual of whom this Psalm speaks is Jesus Christ. It may not have dawned on you but Satan quotes this Psalm when tempting Christ.
Psalm 91:11-12
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”
Luke 4:9-11
“And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
So if this hopeful Psalm is about Jesus Christ, how can this Psalm give hope to you and me today? The hope that this Psalm offers is ours when we are in Christ. If you aren’t a Christian you may wonder what I mean by that. When a person is broken hearted about the sin in their life and confess that sin to God and ask to be forgiven and submit their life to the Lordship of Christ, God’s Holy Spirit comes into that person’s heart and begins to change that person into the character of Christ. That person, that “new born” Christian, has Jesus Christ. It is His presence within that person that brings them under the wonderful hope of this Psalm.
Now some will read this Psalm and claim it isn’t true because they accepted Christ and still bad things happened to them. I like what John Calvin said, “When we look back on our life from the perspective of eternity, we are going to see that the power of Satan was so great, that the weakness of our flesh was so feeble, and that the hostility of the world was so strong, that every day of our lives—if God had not intervened—we would never have made it through a day.”
The hope any of us have is found in our relationship with God. To paraphrase an old bumper sticker I remember seeing: “No Jesus, No hope. Know Jesus, Know hope.”
Luke 23:18–43
