Death is not the end

Bikers Church Cape Town

Death Is Not the End Pastor George Lehman It’s important to be reminded regular that this life is preparation ground for the next life. 1 Timothy 4:8 (Amp) – For physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come. ” What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson Two of history's wisest men, Job, and Solomon, thought deeply about the possibilities of an afterlife for human beings, and both concluded that something better awaited men and women on the other side of death. Realizing that God "has put eternity in their hearts" Ecclesiastes 3:11, (We were created to live forever) Solomon writes at the end of the book that, although the physical body "will return to the earth as it was, . . . the spirit [of man] will return to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Job concludes that a time would come when, despite his being dead in the grave. Job 14:14-15(Amp) – 14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come. 15[Then] You would call and I would answer You; You would yearn for [me] the work of Your hands. Both men knew there would be life after death. The New Testament consistently teaches the doctrine of life after death through the resurrection from the dead (You can read this in I Corinthians 15 for the Bible's most concentrated teaching on it.) 1 Corinthians 15:14 (Amp) – And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded). While many understand that those who have given their lives to Jesus in this life will rise from their graves at the return of Christ to enjoy their eternal rewards: I Corinthians 15:51-52 - “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed 52 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. I Thessalonians 4:14-17 - “For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. The Bible reveals that all humanity will live again! Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV) - “11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. “The moment we start to live, we begin to die. Death is the end of dying, not the end of living.” -Charles Spurgeon Here’s a question: When you leave this world, how would you like to leave? A few days before his death, Dr. F.B. Meyer wrote a very dear friend these words: “I have just heard, to my great surprise, that I have but a few days to live. It may be that before this reaches you, I shall have entered the palace. Don’t trouble to write. We shall meet in the morning.” Hudson Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission, in the closing months of his life said to a friend “I am so weak. I can’t read my bible. I can’t even pray. I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child and trust.” There was an elderly man at home, upstairs, dying in bed. He smelled the aroma of his favourite chocolate chips cookies baking. He wanted one last cookie before He died. He stumbled down the stairs and crawled into the kitchen where his wife was busy baking cookies. With his last remaining strength, he crawled to the table and was just barely able to lift his withered arm to the cookie sheet. As he grasped a warm, moist chocolate chips cookie, his favourite kind, his wife suddenly whacked his hand with a spatula. Gasping for breath, he asked her, “Why did you do that?” She replied, “those are for the funeral”. In preaching a funeral sermon, a preacher made the following remarks… “We have here before us only the shell – the nut is gone.” A committed Christian man, being asked during his terminal illness, whether he thought about himself dying “Really, friend, I care not whether I am or not, for if I die, I shall be with God, if I live, He will be with me.” Thomas Hobbs, the well-known English philosopher, said at the end of his road, “If the whole world belonged to me, I would give it all to live one day longer. I am now departing on my last journey. It is my turn now to take the frightful leap into the dark.” Caesar Borgia, a statesman, said something at the end of his earthly road that many others have surely also said:, “I have made provision for everything during my lifetime. Only not for death; and now I must die totally unprepared.” The last words of Woodrow Wilson, American president who died in 1924, were short and sweet “I am ready”. Luke 16:19-31 Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:22-23 (Amp) – 22And it occurred that the man [reduced to] begging died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23And in Jades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. Like you set your alarm for a ‘wake-up call’, this is a wake-up call to each of us. Ephesians 5:14 (Amp) - Therefore, He says, awake o sleeper and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light. A Rabbi regularly in a sermon said: “Repent, the day before you die.” Every time someone would come to the Rabbi and say, “How can I repent the day before I die? We don’t know when we are going to die.” “Exactly!! Because you don’t know when you’re going to die, TODAY is the right time.” Hebrews 3:7-8 (Amp) - So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” Thomas Watson said, “A man’s greatest care should be for the place where he lives the longest; therefore, eternity should be his scope.” Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the unsaved, is a night that has no sunrise. Question: Do you want someone to tell you what you want to hear, or do you want to really hear the TRUTH?