DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER
Text- Genesis 3:1-4
Genesis 3:1-4 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. (NIV)
Introduction
Today there are many different ideas being taught and preached concerning the subject of death. There are those who teach that once a person dies he simply goes to sleep and never wakes up. Then there are those who teach that when a person dies this is the end, and there is nothing after death. Yet probably the most popular thought concerning death is that it always happens to the other person.
A teacher of religion in West Germany asked this question of 625 young people in 12 vocational schools: "What would you do if you had only one day to live?" The answers were shocking, but not unexpected. Twenty percent of the young men responded that they would spend their last hours drinking, taking drugs, and living immorally. Some even described in detail the wild, wicked course they would take. Others declared that they would not wait for death to come but would hasten it by taking their own lives. But one 18-year-old girl wrote, "I would like to spend my last evening in church alone with my Maker to thank Him for a full and happy life."
It would seem that today people have the tendency to think that they are not going to die, but rather death is something that the person down the street or next door experiences.
A woman named Shirley was from Beverly Hills. One day, she had a heart attack and was taken to Cedars Sinai hospital. While on the operating table, she had a near-death experience.
She saw God and asked, "Is this it?"
God said, "No, you still have another 30-40 years to live."
When she recovered, she decided to stay in the hospital and have a complete makeover which included: collagen shots, cheek implants, a face lift, liposuction and even breast augmentation.
She went so far to also have her hair dyed. She figured since she had another 30-40 years, she might as well make the most of it. As she walked out of the hospital after her recovery, she was killed by an ambulance.
Again, she stood before God and said, "I thought you said I had another 30 to 40 years?" To which God replied, "Shirley, "I didn't even recognize you!"
Since the creation of man Satan has been deceiving people into thinking that "You surely shall not die!" And today this seems to be the popular thought concerning death.
What does the word "death" mean? If you were to look in Webster's dictionary you would find a definition like this: "the end of life". Also in Webster's dictionary you would find the Christian Science definition of the word death. The Christian Science definition of death is: "that which is unreal and untrue, an illusion."
Truly these definitions could not be farther from the truth. Death is not the end of life, but rather in a sense it could be considered the beginning of another life. Neither is death unreal or an illusion. If death is unreal or an illusion, why is it that more than 200,000 people die every day? Death is very real, in fact it is as real as life itself.
The Greek word that is used the majority of the time for the word "death" is the word "thanatos" which means," the separation of the spirit from the body." Basically death is separation.
This morning I would like for us to look at the subject of death and the hereafter and see four things that the Bible says about it.