O Death Where Is Your Sting | Pastor Greg Ford Sermon | One Church Columbus

Amen.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

We are in a series of messages right now that we're calling savior.

And we've been talking about the Greek words that show up in the New Testament that would show up in English as saved or salvation or savior.

It comes from two Greek words, one soteria, which is a noun.

So it'd be salvation as something you can possess.

And then saved would be a verb, so-so is the verb.

It means to save, the action of saving.

And uh we looked in the first few weeks at the range of meaning.

So if you see the word saved in the New Testament, it shows up as one of four different things.

The first would be a physical rescue.

So often people who's were afraid they're gonna die or they're sick would ask God to save them, so-so them, to uh heal them.

In fact, some places it would show up as healing, but uh that's one way.

The second is forgiveness of sins, or what we would call the theological term justification.

In other words, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

How do we get back into right relationship with God and not allow that to create a distance?

And then the third is ongoing deliverance or sanctification, which is uh the process of staying free from things I've been forgiven for.

So that would show up in language in the New Testament, like work out your salvation or to those who are being saved.

That's not saying you've got to work to be forgiven.

That's justification.

It's saying you've already been forgiven from it, but unfortunately, if you don't have particular disciplines or you don't change some habits or you don't do some work, you could still be in bondage to something you've been forgiven from, so there's some work to be done.

And then the fourth is a future rescue, a final redemption, uh, which is again futuristic and it's uh connected to what we would believe about the life after death.

Uh Hebrews 2, I'm gonna start reading in verse 14, says, Because God's children are human beings made of flesh and blood, the Son also became flesh and blood.

For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

Say that again, verse 15.

Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

Um we're in the book of Hebrews, which is part of the New Testament.

Um, it's worth remembering that in the New Testament, the entire New Testament was written from the middle to the end of the first century in the Greco-Roman world.

And what we understand was going on at that time is that particularly the followers of Christ that were under the Roman Empire were often on the verge of death.

They were witnessing death, they were experiencing persecution, and they were uh on the verge themselves.

So when we you see things that are talking about fear of death, um certainly there's the fear of death of relationships and dreams and careers and opportunities, but often the people that are being written to are dealing with a literal fear of death.

In fact, the Roman Empire, their main key to coercion, their ability to coerce was fear of death and threat of death.

And so what you have in the book of Hebrews is the writer of Hebrews is encouraging people who are weary and even their uh following Christ is a threat to their lives.

And they are literally afraid.

They are afraid that they that they may not live through this.

Depending on how you date the book, okay, we what we know is that in 70 AD that the violence between the Roman Empire and the Jewish people spilled over to where uh the Roman the Roman Empire destroyed the temple and destroyed the priesthood and made it illegal for them to practice their faith and and um begin to persecute and kill.

So what you have, whether the Hebrews is either, depending on the who you look at, the dating is either right before or right after that event.

So we know that it was about to happen or it had just happened.

And so when the the writer of Hebrews is writing to these people, he's making this claim and he's talking about the power of death that the enemy has, and then he says that the work of Jesus, who took on flesh and ultimately through his work, his resurrection, set us all free.

Think of this claim that's being made here in Hebrews 2.15 to set all who have ever lived their lives as slaves, slaves to the fear of dying.

He's making the claim that Jesus Christ as our Savior saves us.

One of the benefits of believing in Jesus and accepting what he did is to become free from the fear of death.

Let's talk about that, because for a lot of us, we're like, man, that would be nice.

Uh how in the world is how how is God gonna deliver on that promise?

Um, if you look at the first century mind and you compare it, try to close the historical distance between the original recipients of we're we're gonna be in Hebrews, but we're gonna jump a few places today, but all of these recipients that we're gonna look at today, um, their fear of death had little nuance, maybe differences than ours, but really they're not that different.

Um, the fear of death, if I was to ask you, are you afraid of death?

You may say yes, you may say no, you may not be sure how to answer.

You probably want me to be more specific.

What am I talking about?

The fear of death in the first century mind really was in four categories.

So the first was uh fear of the finality of death.

In other words, when somebody's body dies, it's over, there's no coming back.

Um and in their culture, they lived in an honor-shame culture, the idea of death was the ultimate defeat.

And this is why you're gonna see a lot of the gospel writers and and the writers of the epistles, the letters Paul, James, John, Peter, will talk a lot about reframing the death of Jesus from shame to victory or from defeat to victory.

That that his through his death he brought victory.

People did not see death as victory, they saw death as defeat and and it's final.

And of course, I think we all deal with that, maybe some more than others, but all of us, you know, the reality of when you think about your mortality and the fact that you're at some point, we all know rationally we're going to, you know, at some point our bodies will succumb to death.

That we think about the fact that it's over.

And you know, we we had uh two funerals in the last week.

We had one on Saturday, one on Monday here, and watching people who were grieving.

Um, someone that they love, of course, they always have memories.

Of course, that person's life will continue to impact them, but to come to a uh closure and to begin the process of grieving, it starts with denial.

This can't be over.

It feels like it can't be, and then there's bargaining and there's anger and there's depression.

At some point, there's an acceptance and a peace, and and and then move moving forward.

But the idea of it being final, and this is why I was talking to a friend the other day who he came to me, he's like, Man, I feel embarrassed to say this, but he's like, you know, I'm I feel like I might be having a midlife crisis in some way, and he came to me because I'm midlife too, and he's like, Let's figure it out together, I guess.

And um, we were talking about, you know, when you're young, you have things you want to do and you still have time, and you think maybe I won't get there, but at some point, especially physically, you start going down the back end of the bell curve and you're like, if it ain't happened by now, right, it ain't gonna ever happen.

And you know that it's like the ship has sailed and the opportunity's passed.

And and so what happens, especially middle age and on, you start to grieve your youth.

You start a process of grieving your youth because you know you're at some point, even even though now I still have some opportunity in front of me, at some point it'll be final.

So there's the finality of death that causes often people to uh to be afraid of it.

The second is shame.

I mentioned the honor-shame culture, by the way.

If you if you ever want a good research project to help you understand the New Testament better, study the first century Greco-Roman honor-shame culture.

Very important.

The more you study it and learn it, you'll start to see it showing up in in the New Testament because a lot of the application of the New Testament comes to people who have been socially impacted by this culture they can't get out of of honor and shame.

So a lot of even their language within that culture is repurposed uh in the presentation of the gospel.

But a lot of uh people, especially again first century, would have been afraid that when I die, death is the ultimate defeat, and then I will be I'll be shamed at my death.

Um I think we still hold that in some way.

I think we have a deep desire when we think about death.

When I die, what will my legacy be?

We would use the term legacy.

A lot of times people pose it as a question um, hey, when you die, what do you want everybody to say about you?

Or what do you want people to remember about you?

Those type of things.

And so I think for some people more than others, their fear, part of their fear of death is, you know, I won't have done enough significant work.

I won't have been important enough to be remembered, I'll just be completely forgotten and I won't really matter.

And I think some people, it's a real big thing.

In fact, I've noticed a correlation between people who probably most people would say were significant or would say were successful, you would think they would be the ones to resolve that.

Often those are the people that never feel like they can do enough.

And so they seem to be working to make themselves immortal in some way.

I want my I want my name in lights, I want my name to be remembered in history, I want, you know, what whatever it might be, they're they're worried that you know at some point they're gonna be forgotten about.

So I think there are some that would lean more grandiose in terms of uh it's never enough, and they need it to be bigger, and they need in some way that fear uh to be to be subside to subside that you know I was important enough.

But I think if you go way over here, the pendulum on the other side, there's I think more people and a lot of people, maybe some you some of us today, who would say, you know, I don't need my name on buildings, I don't need everybody to remember.

My fear is that I'll die in shame, and that did my life amount to anything?

Was it worth anything at all?

Like I lived, I took up some oxygen, I ate some food, I did a few things, I worked a job, somebody else probably could have worked.

Like, if I died today, would I die in the shame?

That not my my life was worth, you know, being a pillar of history, but I don't know that I mattered at all.

I it would have been the same if I had never lived.

And so the idea in an honor shame culture was when they when we talk about being enslaved to the fear of death, there's a fear of the finality, there's a fear of the shame of not being significant enough, and then the third is uncertainty.

So, what in the world's gonna happen when I die?

Anytime there is uncertainty, there's anxiety.

And one of the ways that we try to beat back that anxiety is with more data and information.

So, for example, if you were going to a place you've never been before, you're going to Thailand, and you're like, I'm going to Thailand, you've never been to Thailand, and so there's a little anxiety because I've never been here before.

What you would do immediately is you would start to research.

So you would go in and you'd look up Thailand and you'd look up pictures of Thailand, and then you would find out what your accommodations are going to be, and then you go to hotels.com, and then you go in and find out the get a picture of the room and a video virtual walkthrough, and then you'd look read the reviews, and if there was a five stars or four stars or three stars, and who what why were the one stars?

What what what was so one about these stars and what happened in this place, and then you learn about the food, and then you'd find out of all you get as much data as you possibly could before you went to Thailand, and you still feel some anxiety, even though there are people who have been there who can tell you about it, can can give you pictures and videos.

When it comes to the afterlife, there is no hotels.com, there is no five-star review, there is nobody that's like, you know, listen, trust me on this one.

You're gonna want heaven and not hell, okay?

Just trust me, like you don't want to go, don't go left.

All right, you want to wanna go right.

That's not the way.

There's okay, bad stuff over there.

Uh, there's no review, there's no pictures, there's no videos.

In the Bible, there's some imagery, there's uh some about the afterlife, but there's not like a real schematic, there's not like a full itinerary.

There's some there's some things we'll get into a little bit later in this message.

But the idea is there's still a lot of uncertainty.

And if I would feel uncertainty about Thailand, how much more of what happens when I stop breathing?

What's going to happen uh in in the life to come?

And so, and the the challenge about it too is it's not fully provable.

You know, it's not as it's not provable like other things in this world, and so again, that creates fear of death.

And then the fourth is uh maybe the most scary part is judgment.

And judgment is a combination of two things it's exposure and accountability.

By exposure, I mean full exposure, like everything you did is now on the table.

In the first century mind, their belief about judgment was I'm gonna, we're gonna stand in judgment, and all of my deeds will be weighed on a scale, and hopefully uh I did more good than bad.

Okay, think about like a modern like judicial court type situation.

If you were accused of something and you were going to be judged, okay, you would hire an attorney and there'd be an attorney that would be against you.

And the attorney that's against you, the prosecuting attorney, is they're gonna get all the fingerprints they can get, all the eyewitness accounts they can get, all the testimonies they can get.

They're even gonna coach the people giving testimony to try to get it, get get you uh put away, and they're gonna do all of that, and then you're hoping that because these are humans, I've got a better human than their human.

And so my attorney is better than theirs.

We're gonna have a better strategy, we're gonna suppress whatever evidence we need to, we're gonna retell the story, we're gonna do whatever we need to do, and to hope that, especially maybe if I know I did do some stuff, that the they'll kind of eventually it'll come back in my favor.

And I hang on to a little bit of hope that if the judge hammers that gavel down and says guilty, then I go, well, maybe we can appeal.

You know, there may I go out to my attorney and they're like, you know what, don't don't get upset yet.

We still have some appeals, okay?

And and so when when it comes when it comes to when it comes to my life, and when it comes to the judgment before the ultimate judge, there is no, I object, your honor.

You know, there is no, hey, we're gonna appeal that judgment.

There is no hiding anything, and this is freaky stuff because like I'm thinking about this.

Okay, if I'm just using me, I'll put me out there.

Okay, I have done some good things, some right things for the wrong reasons.

The action was good, my motive wasn't so good.

And then I've done the opposite.

I've done some wrong things for the right reasons.

I've done some good things, I don't even remember.

I have people come up to me every so often.

Hey, Greg, man, when you said that thing to me, man, that was so encouraging, that was so kind.

You remember that?

I'm like, I don't even remember saying it.

I'm not even kidding you.

I have people all the time, hey, when you did that thing for me, I'll never forget it.

Thank you so much.

I'm like, okay, cool.

Did you remember it?

And I almost want to lie and be like, of course I do.

I'm like, I don't remember it.

I I don't remember so many like good things people say, but guess what?

The inverse is also true.

I have people bring up stuff I said that is not good, and I don't remember it.

I genuinely don't.

I'm like, I don't even remember saying that.

They swear that I did.

They say I did something, I don't remember doing it.

They're like, Yeah, oh yeah, I'll never forget that.

And so when you start to think about this afterlife judgment, and I'm gonna go stand before the ultimate judge who there is no suppressing evidence, there is no pulling a lawyer trick, there is not, it is all full exposure.

The thing I I did the right thing for the wrong reason, the wrong thing for the right reason, the good thing I don't remember, and the bad thing I don't remember.

And you're gonna put all of that on the thing, and hopefully, between the stuff I can't remember and the motives I'm not too sure about, that I'm gonna end up having my eternity, like thank you.

I have a supportive person here today.

Thank you so much.

So, in the first century mind, and again, in our mind, you've got the fear of death that's really around these four things the finality, the shame, the uncertainty, and the judgment.

To add to that, you have in Hebrews 2.14, um, he says that Jesus came to break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

Okay, the idea of the devil, and we could do a whole series on the devil, but the idea of the devil, again, and in uh their the theology, in their theology was the understanding that you have an evil being that is really up to three things one, temptation, two, deception, and three, accusation.

Temptation, and of course, as humans in this flesh, we are all prone to temptation.

We have we have uh appetites that are always vulnerable.

Uh we have we have again human flesh, human attitudes that we know about, they are vulnerable to temptation.

Two, we are prone to deception.

We've all had the wool pulled over our eyes.

We all believe something that wasn't true.

We all have experienced that, which then led to bad decisions.

And then the third is accusation, in other words, the one who's accusing you.

Um the best way for me to describe this is um there's a story in my our family lore uh on my dad's side of the family.

My dad is one of nine kids.

Okay, so he's he's nine, nine kids in his family.

They grew up on a farm in Missouri.

And one of my uncles, I'm gonna I'm gonna not say any names to protect everyone in the story, but one of my uncles, okay, was uh uh a little bit of a troublemaker in his youth, okay, and he he's now saved allegedly.

And um he come on, y'all have everybody's got well at least a few of those in the family.

There are more claims of salvation than fruit, if you know what I'm saying.

Um, but anyways, no, he's a great guy at this point.

But when he was younger, he was ornery, whatever.

So he uh and my grandparents, my my grandparents were all were against cigarettes.

Okay, I mean, in their minds, if you've smoked a cigarette, there's a trapdoor to hell, you're gone.

You go be with the devil forever.

One cigarette, right?

It was just no, I mean, they were so so against cigarettes.

And so my uncle uh gets one of his younger brothers and he takes him out to the barn and he says, Man, we got to get you smoking.

And he's like, What are you talking about?

I didn't know, man.

Mom and dad are gonna be upset.

He's like, it doesn't matter about mom and dad.

Trust me, I'm your older brother.

Am I cooler than you or what?

He's like, Yeah, you're the coolest ever.

And he's like, Well, okay, and I smoke, and cool people smoke.

Me, James Dean, Arthur Fonsarelli, you know I mean, the cool people, we smoke.

And so you need to smoke.

And by the way, mom and dad don't even need to know.

All right, what mom and dad don't know won't hurt them, but you're gonna smoke, and when you do, you're gonna be a bad boy.

And when you're a bad boy, the ladies love it.

All right, so the question is, do you love the ladies?

Yes, you do.

Okay, then you're gonna need to smoke.

Okay, so he takes them through temptation, deception, the whole nine, gives them the cigarette, teaches them how to light it, teach them how to smoke it.

And so my my younger uncle's out in the barn and he's working on his his smoking game.

And while he's doing that, my other uncle says, Hey, I'll be right back.

And he goes in the house and goes up to my grandparents, and he's like, Hey, I'm smelling something funny out in the in the barn.

I'm smelling smoke.

I think there, you guys might want to go check that.

So my grandma and grandpa bust up into the barn, only to see my you know, my uncle out there smoking, he gets in all this trouble, and my other uncle thought it was hilarious.

So basically, my uncle is kind of like the devil, all right?

It's kind of how that works.

Like if you're wanting to wrap your head around the devil, temptation, deception, accusation.

I want to find where you're vulnerable.

I want to deceive you.

Once I get your flesh out of whack, you did something, said something you didn't shouldn't have said, you did something you.

Should have done, and now I'm gonna hit you with an accusation.

So when we think about, okay, what he says is the devil holds the power of death, and he claiming here in uh Hebrews 2 that the work of Jesus breaks us from the fear, the tyranny of the fear of death, okay, what he's saying is that the work that Jesus does breaks that bond.

Now, how how would that happen?

He claims it in uh Hebrews 2.

If you go to Hebrews 9, he starts to theologically explain how this takes place.

Okay, keep top of mind our our when we say fear of death, what is that, right?

It's unit's uncertainty, it's judgment, it's shame.

All right, we've got that list.

Look, look what he so that Hebrews 2 he makes the claim.

Hebrews 9, verse 24, he says this for Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven.

Hebrews 9:24

Okay, so what he's doing is he's bringing to them a combination of a judicial picture, but also the temple.

So he's taking the temple, the tabernacle, where people would come to bring their shame, and they would ultimately come to evade judgment.

I've got to make this right.

I've had temptation is taken over, deception is taken over, and and now I've I have an accusation on something I've said or done.

Where do I deal with this?

You go to the temple.

And so he says, when Jesus, Christ, entered not the physical temple made of human hands, but uh that physical picture was only a picture of the true of what's true in heaven.

So he says, He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.

Quick pause.

So now let's go back to context.

These people, this is either right before or right after the destruction of the temple.

And so their fear, their fear of death is this the temple is the place I go, and the priest is the one I go to when I have sinned.

And they're the one that goes on my behalf into the holy of holies to make things right with God.

So, what's gonna happen when the temple is destroyed, the priesthood is destroyed, I now, but I still sin and fall short of the glory of God.

I am cooked.

I'm dead, I'm in huge trouble because when I sin, now that I don't have a priest to go to, and I don't have a temple to go to, if I then the Romans kill me, I die with stint sin still that I'm gonna be judged for, and now I've got nowhere to deal with it.

This is what they're afraid of.

And so the writer of Hebrews is saying, listen, it he says, Jesus went not in a temple made by human hands, into heaven itself, and it says he did not uh enter heaven to offer uh himself again and again, like a high priest here on earth who enters the most holy place year after year with the blood of an animal.

If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again ever since the world began, right?

So he's saying the work of Jesus, he'd have had to die eight billion times if if we needed this work every time someone sins, right?

And over and over again.

So he's giving them again a theological answer.

He says, but now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

And just as each person is destined to die once, and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.

So in Hebrews 2, he's saying that the work of Jesus saves us from the fear of death, bondage, slavery to the fear of death.

And he's saying, how does he do it?

Well, because the fear of death comes from these things, and Jesus deals with those things.

That the justification that we have with God, when I stand before God, it's not going to be putting the things I did right for the wrong reason, wrong for the right reason, the stuff I can't remember, both good and bad, and hopefully it all evens out.

He says, No, the confidence that you can have now is that Jesus came as the sacrifice, went into the ultimate holy of holies.

And his death and resurrection ultimately are what justifies us, what saves us.

So I don't have to be afraid that if I die, I'm uncertain.

What kind of judge am I going to stand before?

And did I get it all right?

Did I do enough good to offset the bad?

And so now this tyranny, this bondage that I've had, this fear of death, he said, you can settle it right here through the blood of Jesus.

Uh if you look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 54, he says, When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true.

1 Corinthians 15:54

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Where, O death is your victory, where O death is your sting.

I want to pause there for a second.

Uh some of you have heard this before.

Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting?

Great verse.

Well, if you have your Bible open, if you read verse 55 right there, where it says, Death, where is your victory?

Where's your sting?

You see a little footnote.

And we at OneCurch, we don't ever just read past a footnote.

Oh no.

We see those footnotes, we get excited, and we follow the footnote and we go, what is the footnote?

And when you see this footnote and you go down, you see the footnote is Hosea 13, 14.

And then your heart starts going pitter pat.

You get so excited, you're like, oh, thank you, Jesus.

I get a remes today.

What is a remes?

A remes is like a movie quote.

It's like what the writer uh of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 is quoting from a movie.

And just like if I quoted a movie, you would seen, you'd go, oh, I know that quote from that movie.

It's not just about the quote, it's about the whole point of the whole storyline.

So in 1 Corinthians 15, when he quotes Hosea 13, 14, to his audience, they would have remembered the whole movie of Hosea.

And Hosea 13 is a horror movie.

Hosea 13 is one of the freakiest chapters in the whole Bible.

Hosea 13 is terrifying because it is an unfaithful nation who has violated God's covenant and has offended God.

And you have writing in Hosea about the judgment of God, the idea that an omnipotent, all-powerful God would render a powerful judgment.

And so to them, these were haunting texts and passages that they were trying to reconcile.

So Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 puts some of the scariest passages, this quote from a horror movie right in the middle of what he's talking about, what Jesus did, and what he's doing is quoting Hosea's language, but he's changing the tone and he flips the verdict.

He takes the same words with an opposite outcome, a new meaning because of Christ's redemptive act.

So the way the original hearers would have heard it is they would have heard essentially Paul saying, Hey, you remember that terrifying Hosea text?

You remember when death wins?

Well, that chapter has been rewritten.

Alright?

That's what he's doing here.

So when he's saying, Oh death, where is your sting?

Oh death, where is your victory?

He's taking their idea of why they're afraid of the judgment and what they're afraid of a life after death court scene, and he's saying, Because of what Jesus did, death has lost its sting.

The sting of death, he says in verse 56, is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God.

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Always be, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I I love what he does here, because look look what Paul's doing in 1 Corinthians.

He's taking their theology and psychology of their fear of death.

And he's saying, through Jesus, these there's a reason I'm afraid of the uncertainty and the judgment and the shame and the finality.

And he's saying, through Jesus, not only does it affect my future, but it affects how I think right now, how I feel right now.

That I don't have to live my life chained to this constant fear of death.

And then it will affect.

He said, So now, be with that knowledge, stand firm.

Continue to be faithful, right?

Continue to give yourself fully to the work of the Lord.

Um I did a funeral this past Monday for a guy I've known for a while.

Died of pancreatic cancer.

I had a chance to spend some time with him a couple weeks before he died.

He was in hospice.

And um we I had about an hour, just he and I, and uh I asked him, How are you doing?

And without batting an eye, he said, I'm at peace.

Now his body was withering, he was very, very thin.

His mind was sharp.

He said, I'm at peace.

And you can tell when somebody's just saying what they think they're supposed to say, so they can fake it till they make it, and and then you can tell when somebody means it, when they embody it, and he embodied it.

He said, I'm at peace.

He said, I'm at peace with God, I'm at peace with my life, and I'm at peace with my death.

And what's interesting about this gentleman is I had my own experiences with him, but I got a chance to listen to a lot of other people and their experiences with him, and what I knew of him was that that was true what he said, but it didn't just crystallize for him on his deathbed.

That he lived his life, most of his life, that way.

And because of that, he was able to do the work that he was supposed to do to not get caught up in was it going to ring through history?

Was were people gonna make a big enough deal about him?

How long was he gonna remember?

How many stories are gonna be told?

How epic was he gonna be?

He didn't even have to think about that because he had already settled the quality of his life, the value of his life, where his shame and honor comes from.

The idea that his belief about who Jesus is has shaped his understanding of who God is, to resolve the things beyond this life, and what it did was it played into him being able to sink his teeth into and give his life to the work he was supposed to do.

Romans 8 35, Paul says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And then he paints for them what would have been a terrifying scenario, it would have been connected to the fear of death.

He says, What could separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or soared?

In an honor-shame culture, the idea that you would have hardship or trouble and that would be shameful.

I've got to keep up appearances.

I don't want anybody thinking I'm less than or persecution, somebody overpowered you, and now you look weak and you are weak, or or or famine, going hungry and starving and dying naked at the sword.

These are all the worst fears that they had, that I would die in shame.

And so, what is Paul doing?

But he's connecting the dot.

He's saying, Look, even in those scenarios, that's not where your honor comes from.

That's not where your protection comes from.

He he says, What could separate you from Christ's love?

Verse 37, he says, We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

And I'm convinced, he says, verse 38, that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 4, 18 and 19.

Such love has no fear.

I want you to keep the four reasons that people stay connected to the fear of death, enslaved to the fear of death.

Look at this, 1 John 4 18.

Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.

If we are afraid, it's for fear of punishment.

And this shows that we have not yet fully experienced his perfect love.

And then he says, when we experience that, not only does it free us from future fears or uncertainties or punishment.

In other words, that not only will show up in how you feel about the future, but how you behave in the present, your ability to love the people in front of you.

I'll give you this last one.

Philippians 1.

You can see the apostle Paul working out in front, he's modeling in front of them what it would look like to not be enslaved to the fear of death.

He says to them, by the way, he's in prison and he's facing potential death.

And he writes this letter, he says, Uh, I am fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed.

I'll never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ as I have been in the past.

And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.

Are you catching this?

Verse 21 for me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.

But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ.

So I really don't know which is better.

I'm torn between two desires.

I long to go to be with Christ, which would be far better for me, but for your sakes, it's better that I continue to live.

This is a great leader who understands the nature of the fear of the people he's talking to.

They're afraid they're gonna die in finality, they're gonna die in shame, that there's uncertainty that's that's bound them, and that they're afraid of standing before God.

And he's he's modeling in front of them.

He's going, you know what?

I have such a peace about it.

I'm in no hurry to get there, but I could go either way.

And he's even, you can see in the word play, he's like, you know, if I think about it, you know, if they take my life, you know, if Rome does me dirty, if Rome takes me out, I'll be with Christ.

That'll be pretty sweet.

Uh if they don't, then I'll just get to do more of this purposeful, fruitful work that I get to do.

So I really could go either way.

You know what he was free, free from the bondage of the fear of death.

I end with this.

Um, I mentioned before there's not really a schematic for the afterlife in heaven.

And some of you go, what are you talking about, man?

About the streets of gold, right?

Okay, so there is that in uh Revelation 21.

It talks about the streets of gold.

Uh in Revelation 4 and Revelation 15, it talks about the crystal sea.

Uh, it talks about buildings that are built out of jewels and things like that.

And um, hear me, I don't claim to have full knowledge of what heaven will be like and all of that.

I think one of the things you have to bear in mind is the book of Revelation is written by John on the Isle of Patmos, and it's written in a genre of Jewish apocalyptic literature, so it is full of symbolism.

And so uh when you're looking at the symbolism, it's hard, like anything, to know what is literal, what is symbolic.

And often you're going, what is the point being made by the author instead of getting latching onto uh the literal nature of it?

I think what we have in the book of Revelation is less about um a floor plan or a layout of the afterlife.

I think what it is more is a revelation and a call to faith in the character of God.

And and what he's saying, I think when he's saying streets of gold, essentially what he's saying is, hey, think of what's the most valuable thing on this earth.

To them, the most precious resource, the most precious metal was gold.

It's like think of the most precious gold.

Yeah.

What God has waiting on you, the most precious thing on this earth is pavement.

It becomes pavement in God's world.

The idea of what's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Well, the water and sparkling.

He's like, yeah, it's like a crystal sea.

He's using the imagery of the most vivid, valuable, beautiful things that we've experienced on this earth.

And he presents it as the tip of the iceberg, the thing that you walk on.

Okay.

And so I think instead of us overly fixating on, you know, what are the houses in heaven gonna look like and what street am I gonna live in, how big is my mansion gonna be, and how many jewels am I gonna have in my crown and getting caught up in all that, accept the imagery of essentially saying, we have had a little taste on this earth of some things, some wonderful things, some beautiful things, but those things are only the tip of the iceberg for what lies ahead.

And how does Jesus ultimately help us to believe that?

Because Jesus comes to give us the most beautiful, perfect picture of God.

If you want to know what God is like, you look at Jesus who came, took on flesh, understood us at a deep level, loved us first, demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners, he died for us.

And so the same God that sent Jesus, right, to reveal who he is, to love on that sort of sacrificial level, to have grace and place of grace already given, that's the one who's waiting on you after you die.

So when you think about that, right, to settle that, to come to peace with that now enables me to have what the Bible calls eternal life, life unto the age, life in perpetuity beyond this life, but I'm not deferring my joy to then.

I'm living in a full life now.

I'm embracing my freedom now.

I'm walking in truth now, I'm walking in purpose now, connected to God now and trusting God for what's to come.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, I thank you that you are our Savior.

You save us from our sin.

You paid a debt you did not owe, and you reconcile us to God.

In a couple days we're gonna celebrate that, and we have top of mind what exactly we're celebrating, who we're celebrating.

I pray for those who are here today, Lord, who are resonating with what we just talked about.

The fear of death.

For some of them, this may be a a topic that's been sitting in the back of their mind, creating anxiety around uncertainty, fear.

And then maybe there are some who are being faced with it right now.

Maybe they had a really hard conversation with their doctor.

There's some more eminent threat.

Lord, either way, we come to you and we thank you that um that you give the peace that passes all understanding to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

And it's not uh just about some sort of vain inspiration.

It comes from a concrete belief in Jesus, and that the things that provoke fear in death, Lord, you fulfill.

We find it in you.

If you're here today and you say, maybe you fall into one of those two categories, you may be more aware of death than ever based on your life's situation right now, or maybe it's just something that as you've gotten older and you've thought more deeply, and this whole subject has created a fear for you.

It's probably impossible to measure how much that fear shows up in day in and day out lives, and how we approach our careers and our families and our health, our mental health, all of it.

If that's you and you say, you know, uh, this is an open loop for me, and I want to receive Jesus today, I want to accept Jesus.

I want to.

I believe Hebrews 2 that says he can deliver me, he does deliver me from the slavery of the fear of death.

I'm gonna accept him as my Savior today.

If that's you, would you lift your hand?

I want to pray with you today.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Thank you, Jesus.

Go ahead and put your hand down.

Lord, you see these hands and these hearts.

I pray, Lord, beyond any words I could say that through the power of your spirit you would touch them right now.

Give them a revelation of your love.

Lord, beyond a narrative or a story or a scripture, that you would wrap your arms around them now.

That they would see what they're supposed to see.

That they would know what they're supposed to know in a pure, simple way.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.