Sermon: "Embracing Death"
Life is very precious. It is precious because we only receive one life here on this earth and because God himself gives us our lives. The Bible says …
ACTS 17:24-25 – 24The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Because life is precious we often go to great lengths in order to stay alive. Let me share one such story with you. It comes from a newspaper published in Grand Junction, Colorado on May 2, 2003.
With no water and little hope of survival, Aspen mountaineer Aron Ralston, 27, used a pocketknife to amputate his own arm and free himself from a boulder weighing 800-1,000 pounds that fell and trapped him for five days in a remote desert canyon in eastern Utah.
Pinned in a 3-foot wide slot canyon near the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park south of Moab, Utah, Ralston cut through his own arm below the elbow Thursday morning, apply a tourniquet and administering first aid before rigging anchors and fixing a rope to rappel to the bottom of Blue John Canyon and hiking out to meet rescuers. Ralston had been hiking alone when the bolder fell and pinned his right arm as he was moving through thenarrow slot last Saturday afternoon, according to information from the sheriff’s offices in Emery and Wayne counties.
Asked if the procedure hurt, Ralston replied, “Well, I didn’t have any sensation in my right hand from the time of the accident onward. However, I did feel pain coming from the area where the boulder rested on my wrist.
When I amputated, I felt every bit of it. It hurt to break the bone, and it certainly hurt to cut the nerve. But cutting the muscle was not as bad as I anticipated. The entire procedure required approximately one hour.
Terry Mercer, a helicopter pilot with the Utah Highway Patrol and two other deputies went back in the canyon hoping they could retrieve Ralston’s arm and that it could be reattached but the trip was futile. The deputies could not move the boulder. It would take thirteen men with equipment to later remove the severed arm.
Aron Ralston had an amazing will to live, he never gave up and he saved his life.
I love to read stories or articles that display courage and a spirit that does not give up. People who must deal with life threatening situations or diseases and who don’t just “throw in the towel” are a great inspiration to me.
But there is another kind of person who I also admire and respect and that is the person who loves life, but also embraces death.
EMBRACE means – to accept readily; for instance … to embrace an opportunity.
As Christians I believe we should view our lives as precious and enjoy the moments God gives us, but though death can be fearful to face and painful to go through, we should also embrace it … see it as an opportunity.
That is part of God’s work for us. Aging bodies and death are the enemies of mankind. We do not like to face up to the reality of either of those things. Like Aron Ralston, we go to great lengths in order to stay alive. Most people, including most Christians, have not been taught how to embrace death, and as a result, often do not completely enjoy the life God has given to them. By not being aware of, or by refusing to accept the work that God has done for them, they live in fear of the future.
You can live the abundant life and at the same time embrace death by accepting God’s work for you.
Let’s begin by looking at ….
I. THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH
Like Aron Ralston, most of us try to do everything we can to escape from public enemy number one … death.
We go on diet and exercise kicks. We take all kinds of vitamins. We pop pills to lower our blood pressure and cholesterol. We stop smoking and buckle our seat belts. We try to eat more vegetables and fruit. We buy goods marked low fat. We keep track of our blood pressure and get annual physical check-ups … but none of those things are going to keep us from coming face to face with death. The Bible is very blunt when it comes to dealing with the certainty of death. Our scripture lesson says …
HEBREWS 9:27 – Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
Job was a man who knew the reality of death having buried seven sons and three daughters. Here is what he wrote about the certainty of death.
JOB 21:23-26 – 23One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease, 24his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow. 25Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good. 26Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.
The writer of Ecclesiastes also knew that death is something that comes calling on each of us and that we have no power to stop its coming.
ECCLESIASTES 8:8 – No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death.
Ethan, the Ezrahite who wrote the eighty-ninth psalm, expressed this same truth when he wrote …
PSALM 89:48 – What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave?
Death cares nothing about the position, status or the amount of wealth we have. It comes to kings and it comes to the homeless.
Here is an updated version of what Thomas Gray wrote about this back in the seventeen hundreds.
The boast of position, the advantage of power
And all the possessions that wealth ever gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Can fancy urns, or beautiful tombstones
Back to its home call the fleeting breath?
Can honor’s voice stir up the silent bones
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death?
- Thomas Gray 1716-1771
God’s word, the history of mankind and our own observations let no doubt in our minds that death is a certainty. It is something that is never far from each of us. With that thought in mind, let’s then look at …
II. LIVING WITH DEATH
There are at least three different approaches you can take when it comes to living with the certainty of death.
A. YOU CAN TRY TO DELAY IT
As we have already seen, as human beings we do all kinds of things in order to try and delay dying.
In February of this year, in one of our lessons, we asked the question – Can you do anything to help you live a longer life? Here is how we answered that question.
Some would say exercise, good eating habits, regular medical check-ups, eight hours of sleep each day and an overall healthy life-style will increase your life span. However, the Bible appears to teach that they will not increase the length of your life. It says …
PSALM 139:16b – All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
JOB 14:5 – Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
If you believe that you can do things to increase your life span and want to do them, that’s fine with me, but never forget that unless Jesus returns you will one day die.
While some people spend a lot of time, effort, money and energy trying to delay death, others take a different approach to death. If you are like them ….
B. YOU DREAD (FEAR) DEATH
Do you dread your death? Is the dread of death robbing your joy of living? It did for the woman who is credited with being history’s most famous nurse – Florence Nightingale.
At the age of 37 she told her friends that her life hung by a thread. So she went to bed. Doctors could find nothing wrong. They left her bedside shaking their heads. Many diagnosed her as a hopeless hypochondriac – dreading death, ever thinking she would die very soon. She lived like that, mostly in bed for the next 53 years. She finally died at the age of 90.
Florence Nightingale accomplished a lot in her lifetime, but an obsession with her own death stole most of her joy. What a shame.
Let’s now look at a third approach that we can take concerning death.
C. YOU CAN EMBRACE DEATH
The Apostle Paul set the example for us when it comes to embracing death. He said …
PHILIPPIANS 1:21-24 – 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
Before we look at some things we can do to help us be like Paul and embrace death, let’s review what we have studied the past two weeks concerning accepting God’s work because they are the foundation for being able to embrace death.
Two weeks ago we looked at “GOD’S CURE FOR SIN.” There we saw ….
- THE RESULTS OF SIN
Forgetting God – living as if God doesn’t exist
Self-centeredness
Impurity
Locked out of heaven
An eternity of misery.
Thankfully God didn’t abandon us and so we looked at …
- GOD’S CURE FOR SIN
Jesus– the sinless one was made sin for us. The question was and is – will you accept God’s work? Have you or will you receive Jesus as your Lord and allow God to pardon you for your sins?
If you have never accepted God’s cure for sin you can do that by praying from your heart a prayer similar to this … “Lord I receive your work. I believe in Jesus. I want my sins forgiven.”
Last week we looked at – “LIVING BY GRACE.”
Here we saw that it is GOD’S GRACE that …
Gives us our spiritual lives
Gives us a place in heaven
and
Enables us to love and serve him.
Living a life penetrated by grace is living a life depending completely on God and not on our own good works.
So if you have accepted God’s cure for sin and are living being penetrated with God’s grace, you are ready to learn how to embrace death. First you must …
1. KNOW JESUS AS YOUR FRIEND, LORD AND SAVIOR
The Apostle Paul wrote …
PHILIPPIANS 3:10 – I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
When it comes to your death you too should want to know Jesus because you are going to need a Friend and Savior when the appointed judgment comes. Anyone without Jesus is going to be in big trouble. The Bible says …
PROVERBS 11:7 – When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.
You do not want to be in that position after you die. To have Jesus be your Friend, Lord and Savior you need to believe he rose from the dead, receive him into your life and then cultivate your relationship with him. You do that by obeying him, serving him, worshipping him and talking to him.
If you do that here is how the Lord views your death.
PSALM 116:15 – Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Max Lucado is great at painting word pictures. Listen and visualize this one.
“Heaven is like a maternity ward waiting room at the funerals of believers. Angels watch body burials the way grandparents watch the delivery room door. We wear black and ride in a hearse while angels hang pink or blue streamers. We don’t grieve when babies enter the world and the hosts of heaven don’t weep when we leave it.”
You can embrace death when Jesus is your Friend, Lord and Savior. You should continually be developing such a relationship.
It is also possible to embrace your death if you will …
2. FOCUS ON YOUR TRUE HOME
God adopts believers into his family. The Bible says we are his sons and daughters.
II CORINTHIANS 6:18 – I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
Listen to what that means …
ROMANS 8:17 – Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
It just keeps getting better.
EPHESIANS 2:19 – Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.
What awaits a believer after death is more wonderful than we can understand. What little we know of heaven should cause us to embrace – that is – “to accept readily” our death. We know enough about heaven that we should be able to see death as an opportunity to move into a better life. Paul knew that and that is why he wrote …
I CORINTHIANS 15:55-57 – 55Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
When you think of your death don’t focus on the humiliation, pain and loss that often precedes or accompanies death. Instead, focus on your true home – heaven – and all the glorious things that await you there. God has done everything for you. All you need to do is accept his work.
Another thing that you can do that will help you embrace your death is to …
3. GIVE YOUR DEATH TO GOD
We often talk about giving our lives to God and the Bible instructs us to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices, but have you ever given your death to God. How do you do that? On a regular basis pray a prayer something like this …
Lord, I receive what you did for me on the cross. I believe in your resurrection and that you also will give me victory over death. Therefore, I entrust to you all the events concerning my departure from earth. In Jesus name, Amen
CONCLUSION
You can embrace death if you will …
- ACKNOWLEDGE THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH
All of us are going to die.
And if you will …
- LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH
By receiving Jesus as your Friend, Lord and Savior
By focusing on your true home – heaven
and
By giving your death to God.
With Jesus as your Lord and heaven as your home, the day of your death becomes sweeter than the day of your birth.
CLOSING
We are going to close this morning with a music video that shows how we can embrace death. You may not like the style of the music or the manner in which it is presented, but pay attention to the words of the song. It is a song that embraces death, and hopefully, will help you learn to do the same. It’s called “Get Away Jordan.” When Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land the Jordan River “got away”, that is, it separated so the people could enter the Promised Land. In the song they call for the Jordan River (which is a symbol of what separates us from heaven) to get away so they can go to their Lord. In other words, they are embracing death.
VIDEO – “Get Away Jordan” - #11 on the DVD (approx. 6 minutes)