Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. There's already set in the plan of God a time and place for you and me to die.
That appointment is in His hands. Death can be a fearful prospect. So today we'll learn how to leave the timing of this awesome moment in the hands of God and then rely on Him to see us safely through the gate.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you've called today's message when God opens the curtain for you. Will this help us understand the purposes of God in the death of His children? Not only will it help us understand God's purposes, but I believe that that moment is going to be so wonderful, so amazing, because like Stephen, who when he was being stoned, you remember, he looked into heaven and Jesus was already standing there on the right hand of God, the Father waiting for him. When I die, I expect to see Jesus and I want to see Jesus first of all. Well, there's so much else that can be said, but I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die, and this is the second to last opportunity that we are giving you so that you can receive this resource, read it, be encouraged by it, share it with your friends. It deals with, yes, when the curtain opens for you, it talks about Hades and hell. It also speaks about those experiences that some people have that are completely false. We only know what lies on the other side of the curtain because it's revealed to us in the scriptures. Well, here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.
That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I believe that this is one of the most important books you will ever read, One Minute After You Die. There is a fable sometimes told in the Middle East of a servant who is sent to the marketplace by a merchant. The servant was to run an errand, which he did, but when he was there in the marketplace as he was coming home, he happened to greet Lady Death. When he saw the startled look on his face, the servant was so overcome by fear that he hurried home and he said to his master, I saw Lady Death at the marketplace and she startled me. He said, please give me your fastest horse so that I can ride all the way to Samara tonight. And so the master said, go ahead, take my horse and do that. But a little while later, the master actually went to the marketplace himself in the afternoon and he met Lady Death and he said, why did you startle my servant this morning? And Lady Death said, well, I didn't intend to startle your servant. In fact, it is I who was startled.
I couldn't figure out what in the world he was doing in Baghdad this morning when I have an appointment with him in Samara tonight. One way or another, death will get to us. Death awaits us as the cement floor awaits the falling light bulb. A man by the name of Tom Howard wrote these words about death. He said, when we are going to die, when we are face to face, we are like a hen before a cobra, incapable of doing anything in the very presence of the thing that seems to call for the most drastic decisive action.
There is in fact nothing we can do. Say what we will, dance how we will. And soon enough, we will be a ruined heap of feathers and bones indistinguishable from the rest of the ruins that lie about. It will not appear to matter in the slightest whether we met the enemy with calmness, shrieks, or trumped up gaiety. There we will be.
There we will be. We all have an appointment with death, whether it's in Chicago or Taipei or some city in Canada or in Europe, we all must die. The fact that we are going to die is as certain as the rising sun. Today's message has to do with the topic of death. But before I get into it, I want to talk a little bit about suicide. We have a great deal of emphasis today on assisted suicide, doctors helping other people die. Here at the Moody Church, we receive phone calls from time to time from people in the city who want to give us the assurance that if they committed suicide, they'd actually go to heaven. We always say to them, first of all, suicide is never a good option.
There's always something else that you can do. You should never think that suicide is actually the answer to your predicament. And number two, don't be so overconfident that on the other side, things are going to be better than they are here. Remember Shakespeare, in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil. For many people who are going through times of agony on earth and they think that the only answer is suicide, they will actually find themselves in a realm that is far worse than this life could ever be. Of course, we've all known Christians who have committed suicide.
I've known at least three or four and I fully expect to see them in heaven. But it is presumptuous to think that somehow we can go to heaven before Jesus Christ calls our name and that that's really the right answer to our predicament and to our problem. And so I say to you today that let us all make sure that it is Jesus Christ who calls our name rather than showing up in heaven before he calls our name. Today I want to speak on the providence of God in the death of a Christian, the providence of God in the death of a Christian.
It is actually the seventh in a series of messages on the topic one minute after you die. And I'd like to emphasize the fact that we as believers must realize that our lives are actually in the hand of God, not the hands of men. All of you remember the story of Scott and Janet Willis whose van hit that metal back in 1994 and as a result, six of their nine children were killed in the burning vehicle. Remember how when the van erupted in flames, Scott said to his wife, this is a moment for which we are prepared? Frequently, I have thought about that as you have and you've probably heard me say that this is surely an example in which the doctrine of God's providence is tested but after it is tested, it comes out giving us the assurance that those children died within the will of God.
Let us say it boldly. Of course, as we think about all of the if onlys connected with the event, we could make a list of them very, very easily, couldn't we? If only that piece of metal had slithered into the ditch rather than onto the face of the coming van or let us suppose also that something else might have happened such as the van starting out a minute later or a minute earlier or the Willis family could have started out a minute earlier or a minute later and they'd have been in a different place on the highway.
What if Scott when he saw that piece of metal rather than running over it and allowing it to go in the middle of the van between the wheels, what if he had decided to run over it with the tires? Perhaps an accident would not have happened but would have happened I should say but as a result, perhaps all of them would have lived. We can take all of those if onlys and we need to understand that behind those if onlys is God. You've heard me refer to Martha and Mary. Remember Jesus is coming to Jerusalem after Lazarus dies and Martha runs out and she meets Jesus and said, if you had been here, my brother had not died. And a few moments later, Mary runs out of the house and says the very same words, if only you had been here, my brother had not died. If, if, if, if. Let me ask you, have you ever attended a funeral where there are not at least a few if onlys? If only we had seen the lump earlier, if only we had gone to the doctor earlier, if only there had been surgery, if only there had not been surgery, if only we had been in a position where there was no ice on the highway, if, if, if, if, if.
Well, I want you to know today that you need to take those if onlys and draw that large circle around them and within the circle we simply write the words, the providence of God, the providence of God. I think of all of the guilt that some people have experienced that God did not want them to experience. I think of a woman whom we knew as a family who for 14 years every single morning went to her husband's grave bemoaning the fact that she had convinced him to go to a concert that he didn't want to go to and when they went out that evening they were in a car crash and he was killed, taking upon herself the guilt of that experience, blaming herself and thinking to herself, if only I had not asked him to go that evening. It's foolishness. All of us have asked our mates to go places where they didn't want to go.
We could have had an accident. That is false guilt. Let us simply recognize that a believer is in the will and the purposes and the plans of God and not subject to the vicissitudes of fate. Let's take our Bibles and let us look at the life of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ's life represents one of the best examples of someone who was able to endure all of the experiences of death and to do so with an understanding that it had come from his heavenly Father. Take your Bibles and turn, if you would please, to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, and we shall pick it up in a moment at verse 37. Luke 22, 36.
Jesus is thinking about Gethsemane and he's also thinking about the fact that soon he is going to die. Verse 36, but now let him who has a purse take it along likewise also a bag and let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one. For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me.
And he was classified among the criminals. For that which refers to me has its fulfillment. I like the words of the King James where it says the things concerning me have an end. Jesus didn't say the things that concern me are coming to an end, but rather they have a purpose. As this translation says, they have fulfillment.
There's a purpose in all that is going to happen and it is going to happen according to God's time and God's way. What I'd like to do in the next few moments is to give you five assurances with which Jesus was able to die. Five assurances. And if you belong to Jesus, I believe that we can have the very same assurances today. First of all, Jesus died with the right attitude. He died with the right attitude. By that I mean he knew that he was on his way to the Father. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he was come from God and that he was going to God. He knew that at the end of the day, after he had died on the cross, he would be home with the Father. So he approached death with the right attitude of a mixture of apprehension, of sorrow, but also of joy. Look at the text here in Luke chapter 22 as we've asked you to turn to it. Jesus is saying in Gethsemane verse 44, it says, and being in agony he was praying very fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down from the ground. Now you have to understand that Jesus went through that because remember he was bearing the sin of the world.
He would become legally of all the sins that you and I had committed and because he was totally pure, the identification with sin overcame him and he was in great agony knowing that he would even be separated from fellowship with the Father for a few moments and it is this that caused the great agony even unto death. But he reminds us that it's okay to grieve when you know you're going to die. It's okay to sorrow.
There's that part of us that does not want to leave our friends behind. There is mystery on the other side of the grave. It's okay to weep. As a matter of fact, the scripture says that we should sorrow but not as those who have no hope, but sorrow that is a part of the human predicament and death is an enemy even though it is the last enemy that is going to be destroyed, it is still an enemy and we must keep that in mind. But I want you to know that along with the agony and the grief, there was also something else and that was joy. Father, glorify thou me with thine own self and Jesus knew that the way in which he would be glorified was through death. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Today I'm speaking to some of you who have confronted death.
You have had to look at it. The doctor has come to you and told you some news that you thought to God would maybe be true of somebody else, but not you. You're reminded of your mortality.
You're reminded of the fact that not a one of us has a day guaranteed. And you say to yourself, how could I possibly approach that moment recognizing that I might die? Well, the answer of course is this, that God gives us dying grace when we need it.
He really does. As long as we don't need it, we don't have it. I don't have dying grace today, but I'd like to think that if I were to die today, God would give me dying grace when I needed it. You know, Corrie 10 Boom likes to tell the story of how she said to her father that she was afraid of death and he said to her, Corrie, when we go on the train to Amsterdam, when do I give you the ticket to get there? And she said, well, just before I board the train. And he said, that's right. And that's the way God is. He does not give us dying grace in advance, but when the time comes, the grace is there. A young woman who observed the death of her godly father said that in his last months, his dad was spending more time in heaven than he was on earth. And that makes sense.
That makes sense. There are some people lying on their deathbed who are prepared to go, who already begin to see the glories of heaven. They begin to contemplate the wonder of what it's going to be like to be with Christ.
And they are ready to go. They are dying with the right attitude because they know that death leads them to the father. Here's a second assurance that Christ had, and that is he died at the right time.
He died at the right time. You can keep your Bible open to Luke chapter 22, but if you turn to John for just a moment, John chapter 13, Jesus is in the upper room and he's beginning that discourse that all of us know something about. And it says in chapter 13 verse 1, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Did you catch the phrase? Jesus knowing that his hour had come. Three times before this in the book of John, it says that they could not take him because his hour was not yet gone. I want you to know that Jesus Christ's enemies were totally paralyzed, powerless until it was time for the crucifixion to take place. There was no chance that Jesus Christ could die early. As a matter of fact, from the book of John, we learned that he died between the evenings. He died when the Passover lamb was being slain and because he typified the lamb, he died exactly when the lambs were dying according to the will and the purposes and the plan of God. And I might say in passing that remember he died at the age of 33, very young, very young certainly by our standards and young also by the standards of the Middle East.
Why 33 and not 43 or 53 or 63? Think of all of the sermons he could have preached, think of all of the miracles he could have still performed, all the more people he could have healed and yet Jesus at the age of 33 was able to say, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. It is finished.
It is finished. I want you to know today that you don't have to live a long life in order to complete all of your assignments that God has given for you to do. Even a child who dies, dies within the will of God and has completed that which God has mapped out for that child. And we may wonder and we might ask questions because it might not make sense to us but those children are within the will and the plan of God and they too have finished the work that God has given them to do.
Primarily the work that they are to do in the lives of their parents who have seen them suffer and die because the work that God does when someone whom we love dies is deep and lasting and those little ones have also finished the work which God has given them to do. Now I know it's possible for us to hasten our death through carelessness, through bad eating habits. We can think of ways that people have compromised their health but at the end of the day I want you to know that if you walk in the Spirit there is no combination of demons or men who can possibly gang up on you. There's no one who can shoot you if God still believes that you have work that he wants you to accomplish and if your work is not yet done. It is really true to say that man is immortal until his work is done. Believers die within the context of God's providence and God's care. Look at Jesus he was crucified by evil men and yet it says he was delivered by the predetermined counsel of God and it says that the Lord was pleased to bruise him.
Are you comfortable living with the juxtaposition of those two theological facts? That on the one hand it is evil men who killed Jesus Christ and on the other hand it is the Father who bruised him and it is the Father who killed him and it is Jesus who said I lay down my life and I take it again. It is I who lay it down.
No man takes it from me. I want you to know that what is true of him is true of us. We can die with a right attitude and we will die if we walk with God we will die at the right time.
The right time. Let me give you a third assurance that Jesus had and that is that he died in the right way. He died in the right way. Could Jesus have been stoned to death? No, no because it says in the Old Testament, cursed is he who hangs upon a tree and Jesus had to die on a tree he had to die on a cross to bear our sin therefore even the means of death was actually ordained. He couldn't have died of a disease obviously because he was not sick as the Son of God but he could not have been stoned.
He could not have been shoved off the brow of a hill. He could not have died that way. God ordained the way he was going to die. You say is that true of believers too? Well remember John 21.
Jesus is speaking to Peter and he said you know Peter the day is going to come when you are going to be taken where you don't want to go and another is going to carry you and your arms are going to be outstretched and then the text says this he said signifying by which death he would glorify God and tradition tells us you know that Peter was crucified upside down because he did not believe that he was worthy to be crucified as Jesus Christ was crucified but here's Peter dying not only at the time that has been specified by Jesus Christ but even the very manner by which he was to die was foreordained and planned. So God knows what chariot he is going to send for us when it is our time to go. He knows it. He plans it. It is within his will and providence. You know those of us who believe in the sovereignty of God and we've emphasized that we believe that our lives are actually in God's hands. Well this is Pastor Lutzer and it's very sobering isn't it to realize that God has already seen our funeral. He knows exactly when we're going to die.
The question is where will we be? That's why I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who says serious health problems have come to me in the past months so life is difficult. I've been reading many books but none has encouraged me like the one one minute after you die. You've given me a fresh perspective so that I can feel like going on.
I believe very deeply that this book will not only encourage you as you think about eternity but it will serve as a warning to those who have never trusted Christ as Savior. This is the second to last day that we're making this resource available for you. The title of the book One Minute After You Die and When You Connect With Us let me thank you in advance for helping us get these messages to millions around the world. Here's what you do.
I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now because this is a matter of urgency I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but let me remind you that the most important issue that you will ever face in your life is this question where will you be one minute after you die.
Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I believe that this is one of the most important books you will ever read one minute after you die. You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time some final thoughts about our final breath and why we need to leave our lives in God's hands all the way to the end. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
