The various ways death is presented in the Bible and how humanity has historically grappled with its inevitability. It contrasts the unexpected, violent, or illness-related deaths found in scripture with the common experience of dying of old age, using examples like Saul, Abner, and King Asa. The message then pivots to the Christian understanding of death, emphasizing that Jesus Christ, through his incarnation and death, destroyed the power of the devil and the fear of death. The sermon concludes by highlighting the freedom, confidence, and ultimate victory over death that believers find in Christ's resurrection, leading to eternal glory.
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Two very close friends died at the end of last year in the city of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. Both of the men had served God for many years in the Dominican Republic. They were on in years. For some time they had not been well. Their passing was not a surprise. I remember on both occasions there were very large funerals and very large memorial service. They were highly respected and loved in the Lord, and they got home to be with the Lord. There wasn't really anything shocking about it. It was anticipated, and they were absent from the body and present with the Lord.
But then about a month ago in the Dominican Republic, just less than a mile from where we live, there was a beautiful little boy, five years of age. One of those very special, beautiful children filled with life, all kinds of ideas, and a spiritual little boy prayed every night. He was one of so many who prayed for peace in the Gulf War, even though he was only five going on six years of age. His mother and father were separated. He was living with the grandparents. And the mother came down from Miami to be with her parents and her son, and they had a very happy week together.
And then one night they sat down to supper. The menu was hot dogs. And the little boy choked on the piece of the hot dog, and in two or three minutes he was gone. That shocked me. That made me think about death. in a way that I had not thought about death before. So often we take it sort of as the natural ending of our life here in the world. But here was a boy, not yet six, and he was gone so unexpectedly, and in a moment, that made me think about death in a way that I had not thought about it before.
We don't usually talk about death, except we may mention that so-and-so passed away, but in our social gatherings, we don't really talk about death. Perhaps the only place that now and then we can discuss the subject is in church. I would like to do that with you tonight for a moment. I made a list, a very brief list of some of the incidents in the Bible where references made to death, particularly the way people die. For instance, violence. is one of the common elements of death in the Bible. Saul sent Doig, the Edomite, to kill eighty-five priests in the city of Nob, which was a city of priests.
This strong man marched in, and when he left, there were eighty-five priests dead in a moment. It comes sometimes unexpected, even in its violent form, because You remember the story of Abner. He knew Joab. They'd often been together. And when Abner arrived, Joab said to him, I'd like to talk to you. And he took him aside into the gate of the city. And when they were alone, he took out his dagger and put it right under the fifth rib, or as modern translations read in the stomach. And Abner died unexpectedly, deceitfully, through a friend.
You sometimes get death as the expression of hopelessness. Saul would be the great example, King Saul. He was in the battle. He saw his sons die before his eyes, and he was badly wounded by the arrows of the enemy. His servant would not kill him, so finally he braced his sword, and he threw himself upon it, and he committed suicide. All hope was gone. Sometimes illness is the result or produces death. And you may remember the story of King. He was just a young man. He wasn't a man who had lived very long, and he was only King for two years.
His name was Asaya. And one day he was up on the second level of his house, and he fell through a lattice. The modern translations read a window. And he fell down, and he was critically hurt. Now, we don't know the details what it produced in his life, but he did send to the wrong place for help. He sent to Belsibub, the God down the way that belonged to another people. And the Bible says because of his sin, he died as the result of his illness and his accident. Probably the most common thing you find in the Old Testament is simply old age.
Many of us here tonight with gray hair, we identify with this Job when he was very old and full of days he died. Then you have the story of the good priest Johaida in the times of King Joash of Judah. The King James Version reads, he waxed old and full of years he died. Now, most of us have experience in our lives, and we can identify with this. Perhaps my wife and I, more than most of you, for we have lived in a small country of the third world which has been filled with violence. We both went down this list, and we could think of similar things we have seen within the circle of our friends, people we have known in the Dominican Republic.
In one way or another, death presented itself, and they were gone. I know most of you are not familiar with the Spanish writers, but there is a poet. His name is Antonio Machado. He wrote a beautiful poem in Spanish on the death of a friend. And in the poem he writes, and I give you now a free translation in English, the thud of a coffin being lowered into a grave is something absolutely serious. Now in our sophisticated society today, we do not usually hear the dropping of the casket into the grave.
In more primitive countries like mine and even in Spain, you stand there until the coffin is lowered and Antonio Machado was there when the body of his friend was lowered and he wrote the thud of a coffin being lowered into a grave. is something absolutely serious. Let me take you tonight to Hebrews chapter two, and I'd like to read just a few verses in this very important part of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter two. We'll just read two or three verses from this chapter.
Hebrews chapter two. Let's read from verse fourteen. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, referring to the Lord Jesus, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. It's a very interesting study to find out how people have tried to deal with death down through the years.
Those of us who belong to the Western world, we have our roots in the ancient Greek world, followed by the Romans. Many of the things that we do today unconsciously in our society, you can trace them right back to the ancient Greeks. They face death in different ways. The ancient Greeks believed that the individuality of a person went on in his children and his grandchildren. They don't really disappear when death comes. I live on in my children and in my grandchildren. Now we all know there is definitely family resemblance.
We've looked at a grandchild. And we've said, my, she just looks like her great-grandmother. We knew the great-grandmother, and we know the granddaughter, and we can make that link, and we can see a family resemblance. But it is not true from the Bible that your individuality, what makes you special and a person, goes on in your children and in your grandchildren. For the Bible reads, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So we live now, and when this life comes to an end, we, each one of us, move on into that world beyond this world and will one day stand before God.
We are not biological accidents. Each one of us here tonight represent a special creation of God. We are a person created by God. This is our life, and when it is over, we move into the presence of God. Later on in the Greek civilization, they were great artists, as you know. When someone died, they would get some artists to make a number of statues to put on the tomb. Most of the cemeteries were on the main highways leading into the cities. And this collection of statues would have one statue that would be a little larger, the most outstanding one.
It represented the deceased. And it would face the highway. And as you walked into the city, you would look over at the cemetery and you would see these different groups of statues, and you would even recognize the resemblance of one of your friends who died some time ago. And what the Greeks were trying to say is, remember the dead. Don't forget them. And there was the resemblance of the person who had died. Later on, a little more sophisticated, the Romans came on the scene and you begin to find that there is a reasoning that is developing which suggests that death is to be considered as the principal attainment of life, the crown of glory.
It's not to be thought of as the end of life. The story of the great noble general of the army of Rome, Brutus, is a good illustration with his friend Cassius. He went out round about Philippi and met Anthony and his army. There were great battles. Cassius lost. His men were destroyed. Brutus was badly destroyed. hindered and badly destroyed his army, but they recouped again, and then his young men said to him, let's go one more time. So they went out against Anthony, but it was total defeat the second time.
Brutus was considered a great man, and he would not fall a prisoner of the enemy. And so, as an act of defiance, he took his own life. in what he considered a dignified way, and his death was considered the crowning glory of his life. So men have tried many times to face death, to reason about this experience. More, a little later in Rome, you found in most of the public eating places on the wall, there would be a drawing of the human skeletons. And underneath would be the words, know yourself.
And men have tried to interpret what that meant. Some think it means life is very brief and will soon be over. But more likely it means, before long, that is all you will be. So enjoy yourself. Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow you're going to die. As a matter of fact, that's possibly where Paul got the thought when he writes to the Corinthians and he says to them in connection with the resurrection, if the dead rise not, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Now most of these ideas are with us today in our society.
The president of the Dominican Republic, Joaquin Balaguer, he writes books and his latest book was a bestseller. Within six months they went through five editions of the book. It dealt with the era of Trujillo. And as an author in his book, he states, immortality. Well, a man writes a book. It's a best-selling book. The author dies, but the book remains. And that's his immortality, not unlike the Greeks of the ancient world. Martyrdom, that your death become the climax, the glory of your life, Some of you with gray hairs remember the Second World War, and we remember those heroic Japanese pilots who flew their planes as living bombs right onto ships, believing that that was the glory of their life.
And now we tremble sometimes today when we hear about martyrs in a holy war who are promised eternal glory if they give their life. in this good cause. So things have not really changed that much. Hedonism, where pleasure is the principal factor of life, you find that in our world today, a French tourist came to the Dominican Republic just a little while ago, a beautiful young woman. She went into a place called Las Terenas, the chauffeur who drove the vehicle in which she and other Tourists from France were traveling, put on a cassette in his vehicle, and it was Christian evangelical music in Spanish.
This young lady said to the young driver, what type of music is that? And he answered her, this is the music we sing in our church. She laughed at him, and she said, you don't still believe in religion. In Europe, we have forgotten all about religion. We now live for ourselves day by day. This is all we have. That's hedonism. Now, when you come to the portion that we've read tonight, we have some very important statements made. First of all, I'd like you to notice the fear of death. It's a very real fear.
We hear reference made to bondage, the fear of death which leads to bondage. In the book of Job, You have the phrase, the king of cares. If you know Spanish, il re de los espantos. It's terror in the sense of something that produces a profound startle in your life. It shocks you. Well, a friend of Job spoke to him about death, and he called it the king of cares. Who through death, the author of Hebrews writes, who through death, who through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.
Now part of that bondage, I'm sure, was allegiance to false gods or idolatry in that world of two thousand years ago. You may remember that in the second book of Kings, when the sacred historian gives the long list of reasons why the northern tribe was taken into exiled and finally disappeared. One of the last reasons given in chapter seventeen of second kings is that they sacrificed their little boys and girls as living sacrifice to the idols. Why would men and women take their young children and offer them a sacrifice through fear of death, to appease the gods, to be assured of life?
Today, we would never do that. We don't bow down to idols made of stone or silver or gold. But it's interesting in the case of Israel, the southern tribe, the southern kingdom Judah, also went into exile. The reason for the exile, idolatry. Then they come back. A remnant is brought back. Beautiful to notice that Judah never again fell into idolatry. Not even to the present time. Can you accuse the Jewish people of bowing down to idols made of wood or stone? So they left idolatry, but they did not really come to know God.
For you read in the New Testament that he came to his own, his own people, and his own received him not. They did not know him. Now you may not bow down today. to idols made of stone and wood, but you still may have a deep sense of fear when it comes to death. When it comes to the conquering of death, I'd like to refer to the incarnation because this is part of verse fourteen that we have read tonight. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. Now, I know that's theological language.
We are the children and we partook of flesh and blood. That is, we were born into the human race. We are real, authentic human beings. Of course, we had nothing to do with that. God intervened in the marriage of our parents and there was a creative act and we were conceived and then born into the world. We didn't know a thing about it, but we did partake. of flesh and blood. We became part of the human race. The Lord Jesus also became part of the human race, but not in the same way. There's a tension between those two verbs.
We are partakers of flesh and blood, but He also Himself took part of the same. You have initiative. You have decision based on pre-existence. He makes the decision... I will come down and join that human race, and He was born into our world. Incarnation, for those of you familiar with the Latin languages or even with Greek, incarnate. Carnity is the word for flesh. N means in. Incarnation is the process by which the eternal Son of God came down and was made a real human being.
and lived in our world two thousand years ago. Now, the reason for the incarnation is stated in this chapter, and it's a very important reason. It has to do with abolishing death. Let's read that verse again. Verse fourteen. For as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now the devil, the evil one, does not have absolute power over death.
Job is the great illustration. He comes into the presence of God. He asks for permission to touch Job. And God says you may. You may do this, and you may do that. And you can even do this, but don't you touch his life. So he does not have absolute control over death. The power of death is probably a phrase almost synonymous with the fear of death. The fear of death to us becomes to the evil one the power of death. He manipulates our fear of death as a power and he brings us into bondage. Now this must be broken and the portion reads that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death.
I know that you've all seen on television many times, and you've heard the name Juan Valdez, that fictitious character who picks the coffee beans down Columbia. Let me introduce you to an authentic historical Juan de Valdez, one of the great Spanish Bible teachers of the sixteenth century. His commentary on the Gospel of Matthew is a beautiful book. And in that book he refers to the angel that appeared to the two Marys. And he says concerning the conversation that the angel said to the two ladies referring to Jesus, Jesus which was crucified, or Jesus the crucified one.
And he goes on to state, that it is one of the most honorable and most glorious titles given to Jesus. For, he comments, Jesus triumphed not merely by rising from the dead, but by dying. That is consistent with Hebrews chapter two, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus. He never talked lightly about death. He never talked lightly about his own death. He never went around boasting, I will conquer death.
But on the one or two or three occasions when he dealt with his subject, his words are concise, authoritative, dogmatic. The Lord Jesus said the following words, Therefore, doth my Father love me? because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received of my Father. Now notice three times, and each thought built on the previous thought I lay down my life.
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. The Lord Jesus also said, destroy this temple, referring to his body, and in three days I will raise it up. There is a tension there because you is employed with the verb destroy. You destroy this body. and I will raise it up again. And then the other words, I have power to lay down my life. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, referred to evil men who by wicked hands they took and slew the Lord Jesus.
You destroy this temple, and I will raise it again. On the other hand, he also said, I have power to lay down my life. There is a tension there. Human beings are responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus. On the other hand, no one took his life from him. I have power to lay down my life. And so he placed himself in the realm of death. He really and truly died. And he was buried. And through death, he destroyed him who had the power of death. for after three days he rose again from the dead.
And thus I close this evening. Listen now to the signs in connection with the victory, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If you have traveled to England, you may have seen in Windsor Castle, all tourists go to Windsor Castle. They have thirty thousand drawings of high quality of the great artists of the world. Among that collection, there is one by Michelangelo. It's a drawing, a study in black chalk. It's a beautiful drawing of the risen Christ. It's small. It's different than the other paintings you see of the great masters, where often Christ is impassive, stationary.
If his hands are out, it's in that formal act of blessing, but not Michelangelo. You have a Christ who is in the position of a jump or a spring. You can see the muscles in his body, and his arms are stretched out, not in blessing, but in the act of breaking and triumphing over death. He's captured the thought of the risen Christ. Because when you think of death, the first message the Bible brings to you is the message of freedom. And you read, For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Now if you know him and you love him, you are free tonight from the power of sin and death. How does that express itself in our attitudes? Well, there's confidence. Let me quote to you from the new international version. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Our confidence rests on a historical fact. We believe that Jesus died and rose again.
And so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. And in closing, the resurrection reminds us of glory. And I read to you tonight from First Corinthians chapter fifteen. Listen to the reading in verse four, right in the middle of the verse. And he rose again the third day. From that point, you move down into the chapter. It's a chapter that takes you right up into the eternal glory of God. And so you read in verse fifty-one. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. for the dead shall be raised in corruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on in corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the lob.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. My little friend died just a month ago, and he shocked me his death. He brought me back to face up like I hadn't faced for a long time the reality of death and in my life it was a good experience for I have remembered that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we are free from the power of sin and death we are confident because what happened to him will also happen to us and we know that it will lead to eternal glory now please take your hymn book and we'll sing as we conclude our service hymn number sixty six Him number sixty-six, O lead me to the man that died, who all God's nature glorified, descending to the depths of woe, and for us vanquished every foe.
Hymn number sixty-six, we will remain seated, and we will sing Hymn number sixty-six. And now may the God of peace that brought again from the dead Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.