02/07/3020
How do we envision our final days? Do we see ourselves resting peacefully in our home being tended to by our families, or are we tormented by what lies ahead, and everything those final hours will bring us? Are we afraid we will die destitute, and with nowhere to call home? Whatever we anticipate, either spiritually or physically, Jesus will be at our side, and He asks us, just as He asked Peter, “Do you love me?”, and then tells us to follow Him in those days... to face death on our own cross just as He did upon His... lovingly, brave, and certain in God’s will.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."”
John 21:18-19 ESV
In the days leading up to His death Jesus thought a great deal about His death, and this is evidenced by how He taught of what was about to happen to Him, and taught it without fear, but with confidence in God’s will for Him in it...
“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Mark 8:31 ESV
It is interesting that it was Peter who rebuked Him for thinking and speaking of this, but even then Jesus corrected Him with these strong words...
“But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Mark 8:33-34 ESV
It is natural for us to think of our death, and to even dread it, but what isn’t acceptable is to think that we travel that road alone. When we follow Jesus then our focus is on Him, and not so much on what lies ahead for us in our dying. Our thoughts are best placed on the rising, and in the life everlasting that awaits us. Jesus doesn’t just tell us of death, He leads us into it, and out the other side. Jesus told His disciples as much...
“"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
John 14:1-3 ESV
And He also told the thief who hung crucified on the cross beside Him the same thing...
“And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."”
Luke 23:43 ESV
So if those who followed and knew Him best were told this, and a thief who had only just now come to know Him, each received this promise, then don’t you think that we who have loved and followed Him in our own lives, and circumstances, will receive the same promise, and assurance of life, and reward?
“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"”
John 11:25-26 ESV
So where is our focus in regards to our death? Do we hold tight to this world, and all in it? Rest assured that all those we leave behind as we travel on into eternity will remain in the loving hands of God, and one day will be reunited with us, just as we will be reunited with those who have gone before us. This is spoken of in both the Old and New Testaments...
“Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.”
Genesis 25:8 ESV
“I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,”
Matthew 8:11 ESV
As for the means of our death, whether peaceful in the night, or horrific in nature, it comes that way for a reason and in this we must trust God, and have faith in Jesus. Our death is a door that we approach slowly, wrapped in our faith, but which we pass through quickly, in the twinkling of an eye, a final heartbeat, and the release of a single breath. So, where is our focus, and how do we approach the door of our death... with fear and anxiousness, or following Jesus with a peaceful spirit, and anticipation of what lies ahead?
“Behold! I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who has taught me how to approach my earthly death, but I praise you even more Lord for the glimpse your Word has given me into what lies beyond my final breath. Help me in the hours leading up to my death, and narrow my focus until all I see is Jesus before me, and all I can think of are the lessons He has taught me regarding you. Give me courage Holy Father! Remove my fear and replace it with the assurance of your love, peace, and my faith in it. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who created me in your image, and has set me on a path with Jesus that leads to eternity with you. Great is your love, goodness, and mercy, that leads me through Jesus to your door. Praised be your name Holy Father because in you I find my strength of faith, and through your Son I receive purification, redemption, and forgiveness... all by the outpouring of your grace. Receive my worship Father, in this world, and forevermore in heaven where I will dine at your table with all those who will meet me there in joy and great celebration.
“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”
2 Corinthians 5:6-9 ESV
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 ESV
Rich Forbes