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02.15.09

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SERMON SERIES: QUESTIONS FOR GOD

SERIES 2: WORSHIP, PRAYER & ETERNAL LIFE

PART 3: IS THERE REALLY LIFE AFTER DEATH?

GENESIS5:18-24; JOHN 5:19-29

A Matter of Life and Death

Officer Lazarus

On December 27, 2008, police officer Ken Kirby died of a massive heart attack

One month later, on January 26, Officer Kirby returned to work at the Seneca, SC police department
Officer Kirby has been nicknamed “Officer Lazarus” because of the similarities of his real-life experience to that of the story told us in John 11

The story aired on the Today Show on Tuesday, January 27, one day after Officer Kirby returned to work

Kirby, who was healthy as an ox all his life, began feeling ill just after Christmas
While taking down the Christmas decorations with his wife, Kirby began to feel nauseous
He had a tightness in his chest and excruciating pain in his left arm

The paramedics were called and began to work on Ken

Enroute to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and actually flat-lined before doctors were able to revive him
After the doctors worked on him for forty-five minutes, Kirby flat-lined again
The doctors were convinced this was the end
They pronounced him dead and broke the news to his family

Kirby’s wife, Tina, asked to see her husband after the doctors told her the news

When she walked in to say her goodbyes, her husband was purple and black from head to toe, and his body was swollen
But the nurse continued to monitor Kirby, and some five minutes after Tina has said her goodbyes, the nurse, Jennifer Cape, noticed that a faint pulse had returned—It was barely noticeable
Astounded doctors took an ultrasound and found a slight heartbeat

His chance of surviving was slim at best, and he needed surgery immediately

They rushed him to a larger hospital in Greenville for surgery where the doctors cleared the blockage from his heart’s main artery—which was 93% closed
One hour after surgery, this man who had been pronounced dead was sitting up in his hospital bed greeting his family.

The Gift of New Life

In a very real sense, Officer Ken Kirby experienced life after death

And as miraculous at it was for him to have his life back, to enjoy his family and friends again, and to return to work, this is not the kind of life-after-death experience that Jesus experienced and that Jesus promises to give to all who believe
The disadvantage of this is that Officer Kirby will face death again
At some point in his life, he will re-experience everything he experienced on December 27
It may not be a massive heart attack, but it will be some other form of death
His loved ones and family will experience the grief and sadness and pain of losing him all over again

The eternal life that God offers through Jesus Christ is one that destroys the power of death and sin

It’s one that sets us free to live the best quality life possible in this world and to live forever in the presence of God when our life in this world comes to an end
We will still have to face the reality of death, but death will not be the ending of anything
It will be the beginning of what it really means to live

“Is there really life after death?”

That’s a question we all want to know the answer to, but we won’t know for sure until we actually die
While we’re anxious to know what’s on the other side of death, none of us are in a hurry to find out
We’d like to stay in this life for a long as possible

Yet, we seem to be “haunted” by what, if anything, is on the other side

If we know what to expect, what’s waiting for us on the other side of death, it would certainly influence the way we live life on this side
If there’s nothing on the other side, if when you die you’re completely dead and your body returns to the earth from which it was made, then we might as well live it up now—seek as much pleasure and cause as much trouble as we can—because this is all there is
But if there is life after death—someplace where the good and faithful get rewarded, and someplace where all those bad people get punished—then we’d better live our life in such a way as to try to make it into the good place rather than the bad
Many of us are afraid of death because we don’t know if there’s an afterlife, we’re unsure of what to expect, and we fear that we might end up in the bad place rather than the good

The Afterlife…and How to Get There

Old Testament Viewpoint

The Old Testament doesn’t have much to say on the subject of eternal life

The ancient Hebrew concept was that all who died went to the same place
That place was the abode of the dead, known as Sheol in the Hebrew and Hades in the Greek
That word occurs 65 times in the Old Testament—31 times translated as “hell,” 31 times translated as “grave”, and three time translated as “the pit”

These words seem to indicate that even in Sheol—that place where all the dead go—there are some kinds of divisions

Sheol is translated “grave” when the reference is to the soul of a good person, and it’s rendered “hell” or “the pit” in reference to an evil person
It was to this place that the rich man and Lazarus went in Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:19-31, and although it was one place, there was a great divide that separated them one from the other
It is to this place—Sheol or Hades—that we believe Jesus descended into after his crucifixion and before his resurrection
His purpose for doing so was to set free all those righteous souls who lived their life faithfully prior to his coming, and unite them with a spiritual body so they could ascend into heaven to enjoy eternal life in the presence of God

In the fifth chapter of Genesis, in a passage known as “The Table of Nations,” we have a curious reference to a man named Enoch

If you read through this chapter carefully, you will notice that for each name listed, there is the name of his firstborn child, the number of his other children, and the number of years he lived
And each one of them ends with the sobering words, “and then he died.”
But we find an exception to this pattern when we read about the life of Enoch
While we do have here a listing of his age and the name of his firstborn son, we also have the phrase “Enoch walked with God” occurring twice in this passage
And this account of Enoch ends with “Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away.”

There were only two other people about whom this was said in the Old Testament

They were Noah and Elijah
Noah was spared the pain of death in the Great Flood because he was faithful to build the Ark
Elijah was swept up from the earth in a whirlwind and carried off into heaven in a chariot of fire because of his faithfulness as a prophet of God
The thing that each of these men have in common was that, because of their faithfulness to God, they were spared the pain of death
These stories confirm for us that, since the beginning of time, eternal life has always been a possibility, and the pathway that leads there is a life of faithfulness and service to God

New Testament Promise

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus addresses this question of life after death in a very straightforward fashion

He begins by making his own identity clear: He is the One and Only Son of the Father who does nothing of his own accord
What he does is what he sees the Father do
His will is completely intertwined with the will of God

In this passage, it’s important to notice the two things that are inextricably related—Life and Judgment—vs. 21-23

When John says that Jesus is the giver of life, he means that in a double sense
He means it in the context of time, for no one is fully alive until Jesus Christ enters his/her life and they enter the life of Jesus
But he also means it in the context of eternity
To the one who has accepted Jesus Christ, there opens a life still more full and more wonderful than we could ever imagine here
But for the one who rejects Christ, there comes the kind of death that is separation from God

In this, then, is the judgment of Jesus, and yet it is not really Jesus who judges us, it’s we who judge ourselves in the face of Jesus Christ

To place our faith in Jesus Christ is to guarantee a place for us in eternal life, and nothing we do will ever cause that life to be taken away
But choosing to reject Jesus Christ as the true Son of God and Savior is to condemn ourselves to eternal separation and darkness—vs. 24-27
Jesus not only is the Giver of Life, he is the Source of Life, equal with the Father
It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be assured of the gift of eternal life

And Jesus also assures us that there will be a resurrection at the last day

So we need not be worried about those we love who have passed from this life already
The faithful dead will rise to live forever, while those who have been unfaithful will also rise, but rise to be condemned
The apostle Paul reaffirms the truth of this in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

We don’t know what heaven is like or even what hell is like

The closest we get to a description of either of them is contained in the Book of Revelation, where heaven is described as a jeweled city, and hell as a fiery pit
But we must remember that Revelation uses figurative language; it uses earthly language to describe a heavenly vision, so we have no way of knowing how accurate those descriptions are
We also don’t know where heaven and hell are, and to try to speculate about such things is futile
Somewhere we’ve gotten the notion that heaven is up and hell is down, but there’s nothing in Scripture to confirm their locations for us
The only way to know where they are and what they are like is to wait until we get there

What we do know is that there is more to this life than what we experience with our senses, there’s more to life than what this world can contain

When death occurs in this life, life continues on in an eternal, spiritual form
Where we spend that eternity is entirely up to us
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

There’s really no reason to be afraid of death because there is no reason to doubt the reality of eternal life

God has been preparing a place for us since the beginning of time, and Jesus has come to show us the way
His death and resurrection weren’t for his benefit alone; they were for the benefit of each of us who comes in faith believing that Jesus is the One and Only Son of God
Our salvation is the gift of God’s grace, a grace that is ours through faith
Once we receive that grace through faith, we can rest assured that we will live forever with God