BEGINNING WITH DEATH: DEATH IS?

BEGINNING WITH DEATH: DEATH IS?

Sunday, January 07, 2018

   John [GW] 3:1-18 Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish council. He came to Jesus one night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that God has sent you as a teacher. No one can perform the miracles you perform unless God is with him." Jesus replied to Nicodemus, "I can guarantee this truth: No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus asked him, "How can anyone be born when he's an old man? He can't go back inside his mother a second time to be born, can he?" Jesus answered Nicodemus, "I can guarantee this truth: No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Flesh and blood give birth to flesh and blood, but the Spirit gives birth to things that are spiritual. Don't be surprised when I tell you that all of you must be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you don't know where the wind comes from or where it's going. That's the way it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus replied, "How can that be?" Jesus told Nicodemus, "You're a well-known teacher of Israel. Can't you understand this? I can guarantee this truth: We know what we're talking about, and we confirm what we've seen. Yet, you don't accept our message. If you don't believe me when I tell you about things on earth, how will you believe me when I tell you about things in heaven? No one has gone to heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven. "As Moses lifted up the snake on a pole in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Then everyone who believes in him will have eternal life." God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Those who believe in him won't be condemned. But those who don't believe are already condemned because they don't believe in God's only Son.

   Ephesians 4:17-18 So I tell you and encourage you in the Lord's name not to live any longer like other people in the world. Their minds are set on worthless things. They can't understand because they are in the dark. They are excluded from the life that God approves of because of their ignorance and stubbornness.

  Physical death is separation from our soul.

  Comparatively speaking, physical death is minor, and except for possible translation (Gen.5:24; Heb.11:5; 2Kings 2:11) or the rapture (1Cor.15:50-54; 1Thes.4:13-18). Beginning with Adam (Rom.5:12) we all die physically (Heb.9:27a).

  Utmost serious is spiritual death; eternal partition of the soul from God, people not opting out of “condemned already” (Jn.3:18).

  At any rate there is finality to both: “… (1.) it is appointed unto men once to die, (2.) but after this the judgment:” (Heb.9:27)

  Death is separation from our body, physical death unavoidably inevitable, but eternal spiritual separation from God need not be, for “… Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb.9:28)

  Be prepared. 

EBB4