Sermon Tone Analysis

*What happens when I die?*

There is an old story that is told of a king (you have probably all heard it) and this king had a court jester, a fool, who kept him amused and entertained him.

No matter how serious the affairs of state, this fool would be able to make the king laugh.

So the king grew to love his fool.

The king reigned for many years; and one day, after his jester entertained him and left him with tears of laughter in his eyes, he said to his jester, “You are such a fool; I don’t suppose there is another like you.”

The king said, “I want you to travel the land, and the world, and see if you can find a greater fool than yourself and give him your jester’s rattle.”

So the jester set off and searched the length and breadth of the land, with no success.

He then travelled to other nations.

His travels took a long time and eventually he returned home – still he had found no one.

For once despondent, the jester slowly climbed the steps to the castle to appear before the king.

His search had taken so long that the king was now very old and infirm; he knew that he did not have much longer and must soon die.

So he greeted his beloved fool and sought to break to him that he was about to die.

But people don’t like talking about death so he said, “I am about to go on a long and final journey.”

The fool said to the king, “Have you prepared for this great journey?”

The king said, “Alas, I haven’t.”

The fool then handed the king his jester’s rattle saying, “At last I have found a greater fool than myself – to embark on such a journey without preparing for it is foolish indeed.”

I know, it’s a bit of a corny illustration – but it does bring home the fact that it is foolish not to prepare for what we all must face.

Death is something we try to ignore, we don’t like to talk about it – it’s all a bit depressing and morbid – and very few people prepare beforehand for it.

We don’t face the issue of death, we are unprepared for it – and we are fools!

Because death is something that is inevitable – it comes to us all.

The two things you can’t avoid, right?

– death and taxes!

This is what the wise Solomon said: [*Ecclesiastes 7:1-4*/ A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for death is the end of every person, and the living should take it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth./]

It is wise to consider the issue of death.

*[P]* Now I am no wiser than anybody else, probably less so – I don’t give death a lot of thought.

But there is wisdom in the oversight and they asked me to speak about: “What happens when you die?” Here’s the email: “Would it be possible to have some ministry on the Biblical description of Death and a look at the order and timing of what takes place at death, and subsequently follows.”

Well, my immediate reaction was: I am not the one to do this, I don’t have any experience!

I cannot speak from experience; tell you what it is like, what happens; because I haven’t done it!

How can we know?

The fact is that most people are in utter ignorance as to what happens because there is no way (humanly) of knowing!

People may have their theories and ideas, their beliefs – but they do not know.

Praise God that we have the Bible!

There is Someone who knows and who has told us about it.

So, in my ignorance and inexperience, I intend to stick closely to the text – the only reliable source of information that we have.

I said that I have no experience; that I haven’t died yet – but that is not really true.

There is a verse that is up there as one of my most favourite verses, it has tremendous significance for me: Paul (the apostle) is speaking: *[P]* [*Galatians 2:19-20*/ //For// through the law I died to the law, in order that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me./]

Now what was true of that Paul is also true of this Paul: “*/I died/*!”

I have already died!

Now John, I am not being difficult and obtuse – I know that this “dying” is not what you meant; you were referring to what the N.T. often calls: “falling asleep”.

And I intend next time to talk about: “What happens when I fall asleep?”

But before we can deal with that issue, we must first address that matter that we all want to avoid: DEATH!

So let us backtrack a bit before I look at that favourite verse of mine.

At the risk of “teaching grandma to suck eggs”, let’s go over some basic facts about death.

Why do we die?

What causes death?

Not cancer or heart disease or adventure tourism or anything like that – what does the Bible say?: [*Romans 5:12*/ Sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned./]

It is quite clear – death came because of sin.

The consequence of sin is death *[P].*

Now that is going to cause problems for those who think that things have been evolving over a long period of time, many generations dying – because there was no death before Adam sinned.

God gave the first man a commandment and he disobeyed it, broke it – that is sin – going against what God says – it is quite simple – and when you, do you die.

[*Genesis 2:16-17*/ //And יְהוָה God commanded the man, saying, “From every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”/

] It is a consistent principle in Scriptures: [*Ezekiel 18:4*/ //“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine.

The soul who sins will die./]

Death gets its power from sin *1 Corinthians 15:56*/ //Death gets its power to hurt from sin//, and sin gets its power from the Law./

So if there is no sin, there is no death; *[P]* death is powerless.

So if sin can be removed, death is rendered impotent!

[*Romans 6:23*/ //For the compensation due sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord./]

Now, we all know this basic doctrine – but have we got it?! People, we are in deep shtuck!

We have totally had it!

I can’t paint too bleak a picture.

What is it like to die?

We are already dead!

[*Ephesians 2:1-3*/ //And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest./

*Ephesians 2:12*/ //remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world./

] We sin, we are dead!

We inherit sin, it is passed down the family line – death is the consequence and it is inevitable and unavoidable!

The wrath of God is our destiny!

Mark vividly describes hell, quoting the words of Jesus Himself: [*Mark 9:48*/ //where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched/!]

Adam sinned, did the one thing that God told him not to; and that sin has been passed down from generation to generation: *[P]* [*GNB Romans 5:12-20*/ //Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it.

As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned …… Adam was a figure of the One who was to come.

But the two are not the same, because God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin.

It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man.

But God’s grace is much greater, and so is His free gift to so many people through the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ.

And there is a difference between God’s gift and the sin of one man.

After the one sin, came the judgement of “Guilty”; but after so many sins, comes the undeserved gift of “Not guilty!”

It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man.

But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one Man, Jesus Christ!

All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with Him will rule in life through Christ.

So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life.

And just as the mass of people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way the mass of people will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one Man.

Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God’s grace increased much more./]

So sin came through Adam; and consequently, death came to all his offspring.

It is quite simple: we die because of sin.

That is the only reason.

But there was another Man who was quite different – a Man who didn’t sin; through whom life comes, because He was righteous – He had no sin, so death had no claim on Him.

But still that death penalty still had to be exacted – this is why Jesus died; He bore our sins in His body and the death sentence was carried out.

[*1 Peter 2:24*/ //and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed./

] Now I am a sinner, the death penalty hangs over me – I have to die.

Now Jesus died, what is needed is for His death to become my death – I need to be crucified with Christ.

I become one with Him in His death – *through Jesus I die, His death becomes my death, He dies my death:* [*Romans 6:3-11*/ //Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

/(baptism symbolizes being buried) /Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

/(we are raised to new life – if any man be in Christ he is a new creature) /For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

/(so too, having His life, we never die again, we have eternal life) /For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus./]