View from Death's Door - Part 1 - Part B

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's not all he said. He was writing a letter to the Philippians.

He was in prison. And he said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And then he said, you know, I'm in a quandary here. I'm sort of in this, in this straight between two feelings and opinions.

On one hand, I want to stay here because it's more profitable for you. I can minister to you. Or I can be with Christ, which is far better, he said.

Far better. He wouldn't have used those terms if he thought I'm going to die and death ends it all and my, my, I go into soul sleep for X amount of years to the resurrection. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

It's gain. It's far better because for me to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Sometimes at night, if you're out for a walk, some curtains will be open and you may notice that you can see the living rooms and kitchens of the houses in your neighborhood, but you can't see everything. It's more like a glimpse of color and movement. Well, today here in Connect with Skip weekend division, Skip Heitzig elaborates on something that we can only glimpse of in this life, eternity. And the glimpse is pretty breathtaking and we'll see more as he continues our newest teaching series from the edge of eternity.

But first this update from the Connect with Skip Resource Center. The best biographies make you feel like you personally intimately know the person you've read about from Mozart to Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth to Steve Jobs. It's exciting to learn the details of influential people, but one biography stands out above the rest. The biography of God.

Here's the author Skip Heitzig. There's nothing more elevating to mankind than the study of God himself. Discover the omnipotence paradoxes and mystery central to God's being and remove the limits you may have placed on who God is. I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. Skip's new book is Our Thanks when you give $35 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Our focus today is First Thessalonians chapter four. And if you have a Bible or a Bible app, I hope you'll turn there as we begin. Now here's Skip Heitzig.

There's a book put out by a cardiologist named Dr. Morris Rollings, associate professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee. He was not a believer at all in anything supernatural. Didn't believe in heaven, didn't believe in hell until he watched hundreds of his own patients die and come back. And he wrote a book called Beyond Death's Door in which he wrote, among other things, these words. I'm thoroughly convinced that there is life after death and that there are at least as many going to hell as going to heaven. The turning point in my own concepts occurred when a patient experienced cardiac arrest and dropped dead right in my office. Of course, that alone didn't change my thinking, but the fact that this 48-year-old was screaming these words, I'm in hell.

Keep me out of hell. Each time he responded to resuscitation efforts did cause me some concern. And then he wrote, about 50% of the revived persons told of having gone to a place of great darkness, not light, filled with grotesque moaning and writhing bodies, crying out to be rescued from this place with overwhelming feeling of eerie and nightmarish terror. And so then he writes, well, why is it then that those books aren't written about and those stories aren't published, but all the other stories of bright light, friends, relatives, being of light, why are those published? He says, because people are too embarrassed to admit them and doctors are too embarrassed to make inquiries into such matters.

But nobody can afford, he says, to ignore the reports of these patients. I'm convinced that there is a hell and that we must conduct ourselves in such a way as to avoid being sent there at all costs. Good words to heed.

Good words to eat. Avoid going to hell at all costs. So Paul writes to dispel ignorance and the ignorance for the Thessalonian believers was much of what the world around them told them about life and death and the afterlife.

And so much of what people today buy is what books are written and what popular philosophers tell them, not what the Bible says. Second thing I want you to notice, also in verse 13, is that this ignorance is concerning their loved ones who had died. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. He's referring to Christians who have died and yet he uses the term fallen asleep.

He uses it three times. I want you to notice that's the first one. Verse 14, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Verse 15, for we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. Now the margin of my Bible, every time it says sleep or us sleep, says dead or have died. That's in the margin of the Bible. But the word sleep refers to somebody who died.

Now we know that despite you keep reading and you understand it. Verse 16, for the Lord himself, he continues, will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the voice, with the trumpet of God, and the dead, there it is, the dead in Christ will rise first. So those who are asleep is simply a way of saying Christians who have died.

So that begs this question, why does he use that term then? Why does he say sleep? Does that not infer that you're unconscious? Does that mean you're sort of in a suspended state of stasis where you don't know what's going on until the resurrection? Is your soul dormant until then?

Answer, no. Sleep is a biblical description and the reason it's used is because of the appearance of the body at death. It looks like the person's sleeping. They're laid out, their eyes have been closed, and it has the physical appearance of being still, of somebody who's being asleep. The word sleep, by the way, in all three of these verses is the word coimao, coimao, sleep.

We use it in a modern term, cemetery, coimaterion, cemetery, a sleeping place. But it refers to those who have died. Now that's what Jesus had in mind when he spoke about death and a coming resurrection. Listen to what he said in John chapter 11 about his friend Lazarus. Jesus said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up. How is he going to wake him up? A resurrection, right? He had physically died and Jesus was going to physically resurrect him. I'm going to go wake him up.

It's a description. His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better. It was right over their head. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought that he meant natural sleep. So then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. That's the same description given in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen dies and the New Testament author Luke said he fell asleep. It's a New Testament and even an Old Testament description of a person who dies.

In the Old Testament, sometimes kings, it says they slept with their fathers. Or the psalmist, Psalm 13 says, you know, revive my life lest I sleep the sleep of death. So Christians use the term sleep, not only because of the appearance of the body, but because a sleep is temporary. You take a nap, you wake up. And the waking up part is the resurrection. So in Daniel chapter 12 verse 2, those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

That's funny. When you're a child, you fight sleep. It's time to go to bed. No!

It's like the worst thing in the world. You know, it's like the best thing for you. No, please, let me stay up. Let me just stay up till like four in the morning and ruin my life. No, time to go to bed. Or how about in the afternoon? I want you to take a nap.

Oh, do I have to? It's like punishment when you're a kid. The older you get, though, that changes.

It's a reward, not a punishment. I get to take a nap? Now the reason we're never worried about taking a nap or going to sleep at night is because we know we're going to what?

Wake up. So a Christian has no more to fear about death than anyone taking a nap. They're going to get up, and that getting up will be resurrection of the body. I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 16 for a moment. Luke chapter 16.

Let's get a very interesting story that will help us tonight and in the weeks ahead to get a handle on. And I say it's a story, it's not a parable, because whenever you read a parable, Jesus will say, hear a parable, or he'll compare something. It's very obvious, but this is a story, not a parable. Luke chapter 16, beginning in verse 19, Jesus asserts there was a certain rich man.

Now it's a story, not a parable. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the master's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died. Everybody goes, ooh, and they hear that.

I always hear that one, ooh, that's such a great, licked his sores, gross. So it was that the beggar died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and he said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

Beside all of this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. And then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets or the word of God, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.

Now we could spend a couple weeks on just that parable, but this is what I want you to notice. It's pretty obvious that after a person dies, they're fully conscious, they're fully aware. They're not in some kind of soul sleep, they can feel, they can emote. They're very, very conscious.

There's pain as well as comfort. Now notice, this guy is so alarmed by his situation being in Hades, he wants to get word back to his brothers. Notice what he says in verse 28, you just can't pass this by. I've got five brothers, I want them to testify to them, lest they come to this place of torment. You know, it's not what some people say, yeah man, I want to go to hell, and I just can't wait until people come and join me because we're going to party.

Uh-uh. This guy woke up in hell, and he's very conscious, and he's alarmed, and he doesn't want people to follow him there. So, what do we know that happens when a person dies?

So let's narrow that. What happens when a Christian dies? You're going to be very conscious. You'll be comforted. You're going to feel really good if you're in pain now and suffering that bad back or that chronic disease or that horrible situation that will cause your eventual death. You'll be conscious, but you'll be comforted. That's number one. Number two, you'll be immediately in God's presence.

Immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just right there in God's presence. We know that because Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's not all he said. He was writing a letter to the Philippians.

He was in prison. And he said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And then he said, you know, I'm in a quandary here. I'm sort of in this straight between two feelings and opinions.

On one hand, I want to stay here because it's more profitable for you. I can minister to you. Or I can be with Christ, which is far better, he said.

Far better. He wouldn't have used those terms if he thought I'm going to die and death ends it all and I go into soul sleep for X amount of years to the resurrection. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. It's gain, it's far better because for me to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's why Jesus said, and this is what Jesus meant, when he said, whoever believes in me will never die. Not physical death. You'll go on and experience consciousness and bliss and comfort and the presence of the Lord.

So you'll be conscious. You'll immediately be in God's presence. Here's a third thing we know that happens to a Christian when they die. Immediately upon death, your soul is perfected in holiness. Your old sin nature is eradicated.

Boy, I hope you think that's good news. What that means to us is the fight is over, completely over. There's no struggle anymore with flesh and blood, with temptation. It says in Hebrews 12, verse 23, speaks of the spirits of the redeemed in heaven now made perfect. You're in a glorified state at that point.

The fight is over. So what will we be doing specifically then in this heaven, in this other side, in what some theologians, and I'll discuss it more next week, called the intermediate state, because I don't know if you know this or not, but you talk about dying and going to heaven. There's a lot more to it than just that heaven. There's phases of heaven that you'll be experiencing in the future.

But I want to save something for next time. The third thing I want you to notice back in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, is that the ignorance, whether it's by the Thessalonians or by the Americans, this ignorance will produce hopelessness. Again, look at verse 13. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. See, he didn't say lest you sorrow, period. He believes they're going to sorrow.

Everybody does. But lest you sorrow like those who have no hope. Ignorance about death and the afterlife, like the Thessalonians had about their loved ones, would end up in a hopeless kind of a grief. You've heard of good grief? This would be bad grief.

Bad grief. Back in the 1960s, LSD guru by the name of Dr. Timothy Leary, everybody who lived back then heard of him. He was very, he thought he was very cool and all the kids thought he was cool and it's all, you know, get high and tune out, drop out, you know, tune in, get all that stuff, take LSD. And he laughed about death. He laughed about the afterlife. And he said that when I die, I plan to have my body and brain cryonically frozen. And so he would always laugh about death.

But one of his closest friends who knew him best said these words. Even though he joked about death, he is as afraid of dying as anyone, said his friend. Maybe more so because he really doesn't believe there's anything that comes after this.

That's the situation we're talking about here. That's grieving like people who have no hope. For Timothy Leary, for materialists, for a host of others, death is a hopeless end. For a Christian, death is an endless hope. It's not the end, it's the beginning of a whole new phase of existence. The beginning of something much more wonderful in eternity.

Now again, I just want to cover this point. Paul is not saying Christians don't grieve. Just simply, our grief is different from hopeless people. Hopeless people grieve and people with hope grieve, but we grieve differently than people who are hopeless. You see, when a believer dies, it's great for the believer.

But it's not great for us. You know, I don't walk up to a funeral and say, quit crying. They're in heaven.

What are you worried about? That would be so cruel and heartless. Yeah, it's gain for the person who's in heaven, but it's loss for the people who are still slugging it out on earth without the friendship, without the love of that person.

So we can't be cavalier about it. The Bible's filled with people who grieved. Jacob, when he thought that his son Joseph was torn by wild beasts, mourned for many days. David, when he heard that his son Absalom was killed.

Did he go, oh, too bad? He said, oh, my son Absalom, if only I would have died instead of you. And what about Jesus at the funeral of Lazarus? He knew what was coming, and yet he said, it says in there, Jesus wept. Jesus wept.

Our grief, however, is different. It's filled with hope. And you could, if you wanted to write in the margin of your Bible, this is what hope means here, confident expectation.

Confident. It's not a guy crossing his fingers going, I hope this really works. I hope this faith stuff pays off. Now, the idea of hope here, al pida, al pidas, means a confident assurance or expectation. In other words, it ain't over yet.

It's just the beginning. We are assured of resurrection. We're assured of a restoration. We're assured of a reunion, all of the things that Paul will talk about in the next several verses. And that's why he closes out in verse 18, Therefore comfort one another with these words. And those comforting words are the words we want to look at next time when we look at the assurance part of that text. Martin Luther was not only a great theologian, he was one who mourned and grieved over the death of his 14-year-old daughter.

It's an interesting story when she lay sick and about to die and he didn't know if she was going to live or die. Martin Luther prayed like any dad would. Oh God, oh God, please, I love her so much. Not my will, but your will be done. He would always end his prayers that way. And then he would go over to his daughter's deathbed and say, Dear sweet Magdalena, would you rather stay here on earth with Daddy or would you rather go to be with your Father in heaven? And she would always answer, As the Lord wills, Papa, as the Lord wills. Well, she did die. They laid her to rest. And at that service, Martin Luther said, Oh my dear Magdalena, you will rise and shine like the stars in the sun. How strange to be so sorrowful and yet to know that all is at peace and that all is well. Very similar to the hymn writer who wrote that hymn, At sea, where his children died, It is well, it is well with my soul.

That's sorrowing differently from people who are hopeless. So, if I were to answer that question that those three guys had to answer, you know, when you're in your casket and people gathered around you, what's the one thing you want to hear people saying? It's not, he's moving. I don't want to hear that. I'd be, I don't want to come back. I don't want to hear he's moving.

I want to hear something like, he's not moving, but he's really living right now. Because that will be the truth, baby Ruth. So what will be said of you after this life is over? Will people be able to say that you're really living when this life is ended? Ultimately, your destination after life is in your hands and you can choose what happens after you die. Let me encourage you not to make that decision lightly. After all, eternity is a long, long time.

With that in mind, we're going to have to wrap things up for today. This teaching was just one part of our series, From the Edge of Eternity, as we dig into Scripture to help us know and understand what to expect after we die. And you might want to share this entire series with friends and family who are worried about the afterlife. You can get all 17 teachings on CD for only $39 plus shipping. Find out more and order today at connectwithskip.com or when you call us at 1-800-922-1888. We know a lot about how Christians should live, but what about how they die? We'll talk about that more next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.