In The House Of Misery God HelpsSample

Death Is Not Permanent 

The account of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead is not just symbolic of Jesus being God and having within Himself the power to resurrect the dead…it is a story that we will all be raised someday. Some will be raised to eternal life, while others will be raised to eternal judgment (Rev 20:11-15).  

The example of Lazarus being raised from the dead has important truths about death that we all can learn from. 

Death is unavoidable. Jesus loved Lazarus. But Jesus knew Lazarus was going to die 

We have birth control, but not death control. It was George Barnard Shaw who said “The statistics on death are very staggering. One out of one person dies.” In fact, it is the only certain thing in life.

In 1973, Ernest Becker wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning book called The Denial of Death. “The main thesis of this book,” Becker says, “is that the fear of death haunts the human animal like nothing else. It is a mainspring of human activity, activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.”

But death is not permanent at all. There is something after death. This is why Christians speak of death as a "sleep" because it is a temporary state (John 11:11 1Thessalonians 4:13-18).

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 9:27 "It is appointed for men once to die, and after this the judgment".

If you have responded to what Jesus has done on the cross, then after death, you pass from death to life and live on forever in heaven. But if you have not responded, then the Bible calls this the “second death” and you live on forever in hell.

For the believer, death is not to be something to be afraid of, because when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he has taken away the fear of death as Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Quote: Christ never preached any funeral sermons. - Dwight L. Moody

 Application question: Are you afraid of death and dying?

Prayer: Lord, I thank You that death is not permanent. That it is only a door to meet You and live with You forever. Whatever it takes, Lord, increase my faith and joy in the truth that death is gain for me. Do not let the fear of death cause me to resist Your will for me, and let me die in a way that declares that Christ is gain. Amen