By Pastor Stephen Hess –
One of the deepest questions that human beings have wrestled with since the beginning of time is the question: Is there life after death? The reason we ask this question is because we know that death is inevitable. Randy Alcorn writes, “As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we’re all going to die. We don’t like to think about death; yet, worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour. If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, it means that more than 250,000 people every day go either to Heaven or Hell.”
When faced with our own morality, we have three options. The first option is to live in denial. Since the thought of death makes us uncomfortable, many people try to put it as far away from their minds as possible. We go to great lengths to distract and entertain ourselves so that we don’ t have to think about it. We chase after medical technologies that prolong our lives and make us think we can cheat death. But no matter how much we deny death, it is still an inescapable reality, and denying it leaves us woefully unprepared to face it when it comes.
The second option is to live in a dreamland. When faced with the thought of death, many people simply tell themselves that everything will be okay in the end. They assume that there is life after death, though they don’t seem to have any basis for this belief. Furthermore, they are convinced that they (and their loved ones) will be in heaven because of the good record of their lives. In other words, they assume that a “good God” will welcome most people to heaven regardless of how they have responded to him. Unfortunately, none of these assumptions are rooted in Scripture, but that doesn’t stop people from believing them. Even many Christians have had their thinking about the afterlife shaped more by wishful thinking and popular misconceptions than by God’s word.
The third option is to live in light of Divine revelation. God has revealed to us everything we need to know about eternity in his word. Therefore, we don’t have to sit around guessing or imagining what eternity might look like; we can know what it looks like by opening our Bibles. When we open the Scriptures, we discover that eternity is real and that there are only two destinations. We also learn that our eternal destiny is not determined by how we have lived our lives on this earth but by how we have responded to God’s son and the free offer of salvation in the gospel.
Life on this earth is short, but eternity is forever. The stakes couldn’t be any higher. That is why on April 27th we are starting a new 5-week sermon series called “Heaven” where we will be exploring what the Bible says about eternity. This will be a great opportunity to invite someone to church who might have questions about the afterlife, but it will also be an opportunity for us all to examine our beliefs about eternity and make sure that they reflect the teachings of Scripture.
The British preacher J.C. Ryle once wrote, “Now surely, if we hope to dwell forever in that ‘better country, even a heavenly one,’ we ought to seek all the knowledge we can get about it. Before we go to our eternal home we should try to become acquainted with it.” No matter who you are I hope that this series will help you become better acquainted with eternity.