DEATH DETHRONED – INTRODUCTION by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC
Introduction: According to a recent survey (Ethos – term life insurance provider), “Half (50%) of Americans say that during the last two years they’ve thought about death more often. Nearly half (45%) think about death at least monthly and 23% think about death on a daily basis…While they’re thinking about death more, Americans still don’t want to talk about it, and in fact they’d rather talk about anything else. When asked to rank their willingness to talk about traditionally taboo topics, 81% of Americans chose money, followed by mental health (58%), sex (46%), politics (42%) and religion (41%) — death came in dead last (32%).” In fact, if you want to kill a conversation, bring up death, pun intended! Whether we talk about death or not, one out of one still dies. Each year 56 million people die. If you break it down, that is 6000 every hour, 100 every minute, and almost two every second. In this series leading into Easter titled DEATH DETHRONED, we will be looking at Death and the Afterlife (Resurrection, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven). We will see how Jesus not only defeated Death, but he opened the door to Everlasting Life.
Romans 5:17 “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”
Context: When it comes to Death, people have all sorts of ideas as to what it is all about. Ancient cultures had lots of speculations regarding death. Last week, we were in Egypt. This is one place that was obsessed with the subject of Death and the Afterlife. Although other ancient civilizations like the Mesopotamians, Persians, Indians, and Chinese, all had their ideas on Death and the Afterlife, none could compare with the ancient Egyptians. To begin with (Taken from Death and the Afterlife by Paul R. Williamson), they had this complex anthropology where a person was made up of two main elements: the ba and the ka. The bawas the personality, and the ka was the vital life force or energy. They both went into the underworld called Duat when a person died. The ka (life force) was able to do everything after death that it did in the present life – eat, drink, smell, etc. The ba needed the corpse and would time to time return to it. This is why it was imperative that a body be mummified. Not only that but the remains also had to be identifiable so the ba could locate it. This is why the tombs had tons of inscriptions regarding the person and even their face was painted over the mummy’s head covering so the ba could recognize it! Items from the present life or at least their paintings were also placed inside the tombs. This journey to the underworld was a perilous journey fraught with all kinds of dangers, so they needed lots of magical spells to get through. Initially, these spells were on the pyramid walls, but later they became the coffin texts, written on the coffin and the tomb walls. Eventually, they were written on papyrus and became what we know today as the Book of the Dead. I can go on and on (and we will in the weeks ahead talk about how these ancient cultures thought about the underworld) but let me pause here.
Question: What do you believe about death? People may not believe in a ba or a ka like the Egyptians; they may not make a mummy of their corpse; they don’t have the Egyptian Book of the Dead; but if truth be told, we have our own ideas about death, albeit humanistic (following table taken from Death and the Afterlife by Robert A. Morey, here reversed):
| Humanistic Attitude | Christian Attitude |
| Death is natural. | Death is unnatural. |
| Death is part of life. | Death flows from sin. |
| Death should mean little or nothing to us. | Death is a time of sorrow. |
| Death will always be here. | Death will be done away with when Jesus returns. |
So, what do you believe? All these things do matter because they change the way you live now, and they will change the way you will die one day.
The place to get the true understanding of Death, Afterlife, and what Jesus has done for us is the Bible. Unfortunately, some people have turned to the Bible, but they have ended up with misinterpretations and heresies. So, how should we study the Bible?
- We must study very carefully what the Bible has to say. This requires understand the original language, word meanings, proper grammar, and proper context.
- We must study the progressive revelation of the Bible. The message in the Old Testament does not contradict the message in the New Testament, but there is a progression. The Old Testament is like your elementary school and the New Testament is like your high school. If you try to skip elementary school and try to get into high school, you may not know have the basic components of knowledge. If you stay only in the elementary school, you will only go so far.
- We must look at everything through the grid of Creation, Fall, and Redemption.God made everything wonderful, but something tragic happened when sin came into this world. Jesus came to redeem us and the whole creation.
We will go deeper in the weeks ahead and talk about the Afterlife (Resurrection, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven). In the brief time we have remaining, let me just introduce the subject of Death:
1. Man and Woman were not created unable to die but were created able not to die (from “Death” by Murray Harris in NDT). In other words, Adam was not created immortal, but he could have lived a long, peaceful, and happy life.
Genesis 2 8 “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Maybe eating from the tree of life was God’s grace and provision to keep living.
Genesis 3 22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Question: Do you know that we are not immortals?
2. Sin made death a universal biological necessity.
Genesis 2 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 3 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”
Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Question: Do you still think that death is normal and natural?
3. Death is pervasive and devastating; it is even under the rule of the Devil.
Romans 5:17 “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one…”
Hebrews 2 14 “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Question: Do you realize how awful death is? That separation at death is not what God wants. This is what the Devil wants – pain, sorrow, bitterness, doubt, and fear.
4. Jesus Christ died not because of sin, but he entered into death for us.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
Romans 14:9 “For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
1 Corinthians 15 20 “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
2 Timothy 1:10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
Revelation 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 21:4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
5. Death is no longer a punishment for us. We don’t welcome it, neither do we fear it. Now it is part of our sanctification.
Romans 6 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
2 Corinthians 5 1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
1 Corinthians 15 55 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Invitation: Are you ready to die? Are you ready to live? Do you know Jesus Christ? Are you saved? He will walk with you in life, death, and afterlife.
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