Sermon Tone Analysis

First Baptist Church

September 24, 2000

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Final Frontier: Part 1

It was the last day of school at Lake Worth Community School in West Palm Beach, Florida.

There were 15 minutes left in the school year and Barry Grunow was teaching his 7th grade English class.

In his wildest dreams, he never would have imagined that when he left home that morning, he would never return.

A 13 year old student been sent home earlier that day for throwing water balloons in class; who was a member of the National Honor Society with no previous record of trouble; came back to class, and shot and killed him.

Barry Grunow was 35 years old, he was married and had a 5-year-old son, and an infant daughter.

He was a popular teacher who often joined students in pickup basketball games after school.

The mother of one of his students said, "He was a great man.

I always enjoyed it when my kids were going to be in his class.

Every way you look at it, it's a tragedy.

It's scary."

Life can be scary, life is also short and uncertain.

But, death is even scarier.

It is sometimes said that nothing in life is certain, except death and taxes.

But I would disagree with that.

Find a good accountant and lawyer, play with your numbers and you may never pay taxes, but no one escapes death.

George Bernard Shaw once said, "The statistics on death have not changed.

One out one person dies."

Worldwide, there were approximately 53,835,300 deaths in 1999.

That works out to 4,486,275 per month, 147,494 per day, 6,146 per hour, 102 per minute, and 1.7 per second.

Those are scary numbers.

And each of us will one day die.

And so will our loved ones.

This is not a fact we like to face.

We live in a death denying society.

We don't like to talk about it, think about it, or hear about it.

We don't even like to say that someone has died.

We prefer to say he "passed on" or she "departed" or he "isn't with us anymore."

It seems so harsh to come right out and say that someone died.

A number of years ago, I went to visit my aunt who was in the hospital, and while I was there, she died.

When the doctor came out to tell those who were there, another aunt had to ask him if my aunt had died.

He simply could not say the words, that she had died.

Instead, he said 'they had done everything they could for her, but her body was weak.'

We also try to deny death by working so hard and so long that we have no time to think about it.

We also diet, exercise, work out, jog, bike, Move, Groove and Lose with Richard Simmons, take vitamins, stop smoking, lay off the fatty foods, take herbal remedies, track our cholesterol, keep a weight chart, and cut back to only one Big Mac instead of two.

Or we stop drinking coffee, pop or milk shakes.

And if we're really serious, we start taking fish oil and add fiber to our diet.

All of these things have value in themselves because we ought to take care of the body God gave us.

But the fascination with health and a youthful appearance goes beyond merely trying to stay in shape.

It touches a deep uncertainty within our soul.

We desperately want to stay alive, in part, because we aren't sure what will happen next.

It's more than simply loving this life, it's a deep-seated fear of death.

The fear of death forces us to confront our own mortality.

Sooner or later we will all die.

We have an appointment with death.

And that's one appointment we won't miss and won't be late for.

And when death comes knocking at your front door, you can't slip out the back door.

So this sermon is the first in a new series called The Final Frontier: A Biblical View of Life After Death.

This series is built around questions and issues regarding life after death.

Today, I'm going to address one of the most troubling questions we have, "What Happens When I Die?"

The next two sermons will deal with more controversial issues, reincarnation and purgatory.

Those will be followed by messages dealing with major Christian doctrines: hell, heaven and the resurrection.

The hope in this series is that we will be able to face our death and the death of loved ones with more confidence and assurance, because we have the answers to our questions.

Many of us have thoughts about eternity.

We wonder, 'Where are they?

What are they doing?

What is heaven like?

Will we have bodies?

Will it be fun?

Is hell for real?

That and more questions will be answered in this series.

After all, you're going to be dead for a long, long time.

So it only makes sense to understand what God intends for our bodies and souls, when death arrives.

Our faith offers the only solid answers to the Final Questions.

The Bible tells us everything we need to know about life after death and it tells us with certainty.

Outside of the Word of God, we are left with speculation and personal opinion.

And if you don't know Christ, I pray these messages will stir up your heart to seek the Lord.

You need to know, friends, what will happen to you if you should die tonight.

On May 25th, Hillary Clinton was speaking in Rochester, New York when someone asked if she thought she would spend eternity in heaven or hell.

Mrs. Clinton responded, "I cannot tell you where I will be, I can only hope and pray that I will find favor in God's eyes."

(The New York Post, Friday, May 26, 2000).

I would say that we are all in the same boat with Mrs. Clinton.

She needs to know, and we need to know, what happens when we die.

I must add one caveat to this point.

I used to think the way Hilary Clinton did.

I thought, 'even though I am a Christian, I still wasn't fully convinced that heaven was mine.'

I realize how wrong that thinking was.

Friends, when you proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, heaven is your eternal reward, there are no questions about it.

A 1998 Harris Poll revealed that 84% of those surveyed said they believed in the survival of the soul after death.

If I answer yes to the question, "Is there life after death?"

I'm only affirming what most people instinctively believe.

But it's the second question that grips the mind: Can we be sure?

When you stand by the casket of a beloved husband or wife, when you lay your parents to rest, or when the sad moment comes to say goodbye to a lifelong friend, in those moments theories, hopes, and wishes won't do.

We need to know that we will see our loved ones again.

We need to know that death is not the end.

Our hearts yearn to believe that there is life after death, but on our own, can we be sure?

It depends on what sort of certainty you seek.

If you will not be satisfied by anything other than scientific proof, then I can't help you.

By definition the soul is the immaterial part of us.

Since it is immaterial, it cannot be weighed or measured, has no mass or shape, and is not susceptible to any sort of scientific analysis.

It's not that the soul is unscientific, it's simply that science deals with the observable and the soul cannot be observed by normal means.

Some years ago, scientists attempted to measure what happens at the moment of death, hoping to prove that when the soul leaves the body, its exit can somehow be traced with sophisticated devices.

But it was all in vain.

At the moment of death your physical body dies.

That can be measured.

The soul lies beyond the reach of the laboratory.

So, what happens when we die?