Five Thoughts to Consider When Close to Death

Brethren, for many years, the top program of the Beyond Today news program, the TV program we have, for just about up to this present year, the most popular of all the programs was titled, What Happens the Moment After Death? What happens? The moment after death. And why is it that it's so popular? It's because people are curious. The moment after a person's death. That is something that science can't explain. It's a mystery. And you have all kinds of interpretations. So how can we be sure what happens right after death? The only place that is faithful and true, we can find it in the Bible.

We find God's answer to that very important question. Have you ever wondered what happens at that moment right after death? So the main theme of the sermon has to do with five thoughts to consider when we are close to death. Five thoughts to consider when we are close to death. And we never know what can happen from one day to the next. You can be perfectly healthy one day and deathly sick the next day. There are all kinds of dangers in life, as we well know. And so it's important that we remember the following points. I know they have helped me in life.

So there are five thoughts. If we can remember where we are at that moment, where we are facing death, we are very close to it. And it shouldn't just go into this in a vacuum where we don't have any idea what we should do or think, because we can be greatly comforted.

And I came up with an acronym for this. The five things that we can think about if we are near death, if this is a time when we have to consider for our lives that question. The acronym is THINK. Years ago, IBM came up with a slogan. IBM is a famous computer organization, international business machines. It used to be bigger than any of these other Apple or Microsoft, but they gave away the rights to their software to a little company called Microsoft. And after that, IBM went down, Microsoft went up. But they used to have this slogan on some of the walls in IBM. It said THINK, but the K was facing left instead of right.

So it meant don't take things for granted. Think and make sure all the letters are right. And so I'd like to use this as the five points. An acronym is where you use the first letter of the different words to make a word, which is THINK. And the first word is THOT.

The next moment after death, if we are faithful, you will be going to Christ, ascending in the clouds. And so what should be our thought? The next moment, if we have been faithful in life, the next moment where we are conscious, we are going to be ascending to meet Christ in the air. Notice in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, this is the chapter that gives the most detail about the moment after death.

And God used the Apostle Paul to reveal this wonderful truth. Notice in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18. He says to the brethren, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. In other words, brethren who have died. The Bible describes it as becoming unconscious. You go to sleep every night when you finally hit the sack and you close your eyes and you actually are virtually unconscious. And here it says those who have fallen asleep, the brethren, he says, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

Because there are a lot of people that are wonderful in life and they think it's great and they have amassed wealth and maybe fame and all of that. But boy, when they're on their deathbed and they know it's ending, many of them don't believe in a resurrection, in that there's something else afterwards.

And most people are very confused about it. So here, from the Word of God, it is telling us because God is the one that created life and He also created death. It's all part of a natural process that He made physical beings.

He says, verse 14, here's one of the key verses, He says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, if we believe that He died and was resurrected, even so, if we believe that, then here's the consequence of it. God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

So it doesn't say everybody's going to wake up at the same time. Only those who sleep in Jesus, those who have had God's Spirit, who have been faithful throughout a long and many times difficult life, but they have been faithful, obeying God, serving Him, and doing the right things. And so here's the key in this verse. It says, God, talking about God the Father, will bring with Him, talking about Christ, those who sleep in Jesus. So God the Father is the one that's involved here, and this only happens when Christ descends upon the earth. And along with bringing Christ to the earth, He's going to bring all of these resurrected saints with Christ, to be with Him. He says here, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. So they are unconscious right now. They're not in heaven or hell or in purgatory or some. These are all pagan myths. This all goes from the time of Babylon the Great, who was the one after the flood that began a false religion, and they started with multiple gods. And it actually started with the Sumerians, which later the Babylonians in that same area became their descendants. But you can read history, how it started with the false teachings. That, oh yeah, people are going to be tormented in hell, or they were going to go to this kind of a heavenly paradise, or you can go into this middle area where you're just tortured enough that you finally get out. That's called purgatory. But the Bible doesn't say that at all. It says here that God will bring with Jesus those who sleep in Him that are converted and have died. Notice verse 15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, this is being inspired by Christ Himself, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. And so He says here, another point, who are the ones that get resurrected first? Those saints that are alive in Jesus, and Christ comes back and transforms them. Are they going to be the first? And then those who were dead, as Howard here is nodding. No, that's not the case. It is first the dead in Jesus. They are the ones that are awoken and put in a resurrected spiritual body that is eternal.

And it'll be just like an instant from when they died and went into unconsciousness to this first moment of consciousness. This is when they didn't realize how long it took. When you're unconscious, you don't know how many hours you've slept.

And so it says that those that are alive will by no means precede, which means go before those who are asleep. He says, for the Lord Himself, talking about Jesus Christ, will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. See, they were dead. They were unconscious. And they were the first ones to wake up. It's nice to see Christa, and we're just thinking about Tom. He's going to wake up before those who are living in Jesus. He's awaiting that future resurrection. And then it says in verse 17, after the dead in Christ are awoken and resurrected, then we who are alive and remain, talking about living, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. Okay, so here are all of these points that the Bible emphasizes one after another time. I can just go through five, six scriptures that show you exactly the same sequence of events that it's talking about here. They will be caught up together with them. Who is that? The them? The dead in Christ. So the ones who are alive, they don't form a separate group. They are united with the dead in Christ. Wouldn't that be great? Look at some of these people. And wow, there's Abraham. Wow, there's the Apostle Paul. Boy, there's Elijah. There's righteous Abel. We're all rising together, all that are part of that first resurrection. It won't be anything that in this physical life that can compare to that great moment. He says, we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Christ is coming down. And so now the bridegroom and the bride, they come together to live here in their terrestrial home for a thousand years. So it's the bridegroom that comes to meet the bride. And this is the home here for a thousand years.

And thus we shall always be with the Lord. So that is a permanent relationship. We won't want to sin ever again. We won't have carnal human nature to fight. It'd be a perfected nature that we have. Perfect spiritual character. But we're still personalities. We'll still be able to identify each other. But with perfect, you know, we won't ever be a nuisance to someone else. We won't ever do something bad to someone else. Won't that be refreshing?

And then he says, therefore comfort one another with these words. This is what we have to talk about. This is what we have to live. This is what we're living for. Let's go to Acts chapter one.

Here's one of the many other places in scripture. I don't have time to cover each one of them. But in Acts chapter one, verse nine, the apostles and disciples are with the resurrected Christ.

It says in verse nine, talking about Jesus, now when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. So you're again always in the clouds.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. These were two angels who also said, man of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. So he says the same way as Jesus Christ rose up and was caught up in the clouds until he disappeared. You think anybody was distracted at that moment? No, sir. I bet that was etched indelibly in their minds, seeing Jesus just becoming smaller and smaller in this cloud. And where were they? The next scripture tells us, verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount Calle Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And so they had been on the Mount of Olives. And it tells us, like in Zechariah 14, it says that his feet shall land in or on the Mount of Olives. So you see the same sequence of events. This idea that somehow the saints, when they're resurrected, are going to be raptured up to the third heaven. That's not shown in scripture. It shows that when they're resurrected, they are brought up in the clouds to meet Jesus, not to go all the way to heaven yet. Why? Because heaven one day is coming down here with God the Father. That's in Revelation 21, when the New Jerusalem will land. That's when the grand wedding ceremony is going to take place. When God the Father will be with mankind. But in the meantime, it's Jesus Christ, the one that's carrying everything out.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51.

1 Corinthians 15.

I'll just read it real quickly because I got a lot of material to cover. Verse 51.

It says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. This is Paul mentioning the same thing he did in Thessalonians. 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 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So this twinkling of an eye, we would use the term blinking of an eye. It just takes that much. It's just instantaneous transformation.

When Christ comes back, it's going to be instantaneous that the dead are going to be raised up. It's going to be instantaneous after that, that then those alive will be transformed.

So let's go to the second point, the second thought. What should our minds be on?

We are going to be with Christ. We are going to share in that glory.

And you know what? Before I give you the second point, there's one more scripture that I didn't put here, but I need to talk about. Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, starting in verse 22, it says, but if I live in the flesh, now he was under house arrest in Rome, chained to a guard 24-7 in Rome when he wrote this, but if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor. He's going to be able to continue to be productive. Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ. Yes, when he dies, he knows the next conscious moment he will be resurrected and be with Christ, as Thessalonians already told us, which is far better. He doesn't want to continue suffering. He was, how many times, whipped? Fifty-five. Let's see. It was five times, 40 minus one stripes. He was shipwrecked three times. He was stoned. So this life wasn't very agreeable to him. He would have been happy to just go to sleep, but he says, nevertheless, to remain in the flesh, to be alive, is more needful for you, and being confident of this.

I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. Now, he doesn't mention any more about the resurrection, but he does later on in chapter 3 of Philippians, where he covers what he's talking about. Departing doesn't mean, oh, he's going up to heaven at that moment at all. Notice in verse 10 of Philippians 3, he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. So he knew about the resurrection. He knew he would go to sleep, but he knew at that moment, the last moment of consciousness, he knows after he dies, the next moment he is going to be in that resurrection. So there's no period of being alive before Christ coming. Notice a little later, he says, in, let's see, I wrote, I mentioned verses 10 and 11, and then he says here in verse 20, for our citizenship is in heaven. We know once a person is baptized, he is inscribed in the book of life in heaven. He says, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able to subdue all things to himself. So he's looking forward to it, but the first point is that our thought is, well, yes, death is not agreeable, but we just know it's just a transition over to eternal life, to being with Christ. So that's the first important point. The second one has to do with the letter H from think, and that is heed, H-E-E-D, heed Christ's and Stephen's example. The second thing, the second thought is, remember Christ and Stephen's example. Heed it. Take it into account. Notice in Luke chapter 23, Luke chapter 23 and verse 46.

As Christ was dying, 23 46, and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last.

So Jesus knew he was about to die, and he released his spirit and committed it to God the Father.

In the Worsby commentary, it says about this verse, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. It's also Psalm 31.5. That's where Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecy. This was actually a bedtime prayer used by Jewish children, and it tells us how our Lord died.

In other words, for Jewish children, they're taught. After finishing a prayer, they said, Father, into your hands we commit our spirit, because you're going to go to sleep. It's up to God to protect, to keep us healthy and safe.

It tells us how our Lord died confidently, willingly, and victoriously. Those who know Jesus as their Savior may die with the same confidence and assurance. When our Lord released His Spirit, the veil of the temple was torn in two, quote, from the top to the bottom, Mark 1538.

This miracle announced to the priests and people that the way into God's presence was open for all who would come to Him by faith through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9, verses 1 through 10, and then 25.

Hebrews 9, 1 through 10, 25. And then how about Stephen? He copied what Jesus Christ did when He was dying. Notice in Acts 7, verse 59, And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit.

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He went into unconsciousness.

So we see here that it's up to us to yield that Spirit, to release it. And there's a time when we know it has come, and calmly just say, Father, I send you my Spirit. That's what we have to do. Then, thirdly, we come with the letter I for invoking. It's a term that means committing into someone's hands.

And it's important to remember whom we have been handling our case, our loving Jesus Christ.

Before God the Father, we know you are committing yourself, and know we have a loving God who is merciful, patient, and we're in good hands with them. Notice in 1 Peter 1, verse 17, I'm going to read it from the New American Bible. It's a bit clearer in this version.

Peter says, Now if you invoke as Father Him who judges impartially according to each one's conduct, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning. So we have a loving God. He paid our sins through His Son Jesus Christ, and we have to have that confidence, that assurance of how God is. And of course, it mentions in 1 John chapter 4 about perfect love casts out fear.

If you truly love and have the love of God in you, it says here, verse 17, 1 John 4, 17, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But He who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. So God's doors are always open for forgiveness, for repentance.

As long as we're walking this way, we do it imperfectly, but we should never give up, nor give in. Notice in 1 Peter 2 verse 23.

It says about Jesus Christ when He was being crucified. He says, Who when He was reviled did not revile in return? When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously, who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed? I'd like to read one more scripture in this third point. Psalm 116 verse 15.

Psalm 116 verse 15. This is from the Passion Translation, and it says, When one of God's holy lovers, the one who loves God, when one of God's holy lovers dies, it is costly to the Lord, touching His heart. God is moved. Don't think He's impassive. He knows. It hurts Him when He sees this, and He has a remedy in the long term, but still it hurts Him. Let's go to the fourth. Here is the end for thinking, or think, and the word is natural.

Death is something natural. We should face it without fear and with peace in our hearts. Notice how Simeon gave us the example in Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 verse 29. He said, Lord, when He saw Jesus Christ, He said, Now You are letting Your servant depart in peace according to Your word. So He had fulfilled His life. He was ready to depart in peace. In Isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2, let's go back to the Old Testament. Isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2.

This is something that happens. The righteous perish, and no man takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one waiting in His uprightness. See, they're all waiting. God knows the moment. We don't. We don't know what's in a person's life. And God looks at the whole tapestry. All the threads that you can see the image. We see one thread. We can only see one thing. He can see the entire panorama. What is best?

I know it's hard to understand, but it's like one little thread that we know in our personal life, and we think we can make this whole tapestry filled. And it isn't.

Only God has it full. Revelation 14 verse 12.

This is something, again, natural that comes. Revelation 14 verse 12. It says, Here is the patience, or endurance is a better translation. Here is the endurance of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They're doing both things. The commandments of God are not sufficient are not sufficient by themselves, but the faith of Jesus by itself. If you're not obeying God, if you're not obeying the commandments, having faith in Jesus is not going to be sufficient. You need both. That's why those are the two conditions, general conditions, to see who is a true Christian.

It says in verse 13, Then I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them. So God remembers everything that a person has done. The sacrifices, the persecutions that have come upon you, the attacks by Satan, by false brethren, all the lies and all the different things that people have trumped up. It comes with the territory.

Now we go to the final point.

Begins with K, so we can complete the word think.

K for kingdom.

Your thought should be of that coming kingdom, that we're going to be part of it.

We're looking forward to that coming kingdom.

And so when this life ends, we know a better life is coming. So much better.

You don't have to be in this flesh that just deteriorating with all kinds of issues just continually. Even gravity pushes down on a person and everything, the second law of physics and thermodynamics says that everything is wearing down. Entropy. Everything. You start out young and vital, but everything deteriorates. Notice in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, and verse 13. This is the faith chapter, and it says, these all died in the faith. Talking about Abraham and Abel and Noah, all these righteous men and women, Sarah as well. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off the promises of that coming kingdom.

They were assured of them. They knew it was coming. Embrace them.

And confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And so here you're looking forward to that kingdom. Doesn't it encourage you when you think about God's kingdom? You know all the difficulties there are, and you can go through the ups and downs in life, but God's kingdom is still coming. It is going to solve all the problems. Christ is going to put everything in its place, and nothing can prevent that. Neither Satan, nor human beings, nor any of our human nature. It cannot prevent that. Notice in verse 35 of this chapter, it says, women received their dead, raised to life again because of their faith. It says, others were tortured. Some just died being tortured, but they did not give up their faith.

Why? Not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection. They want to be in in that first resurrection when Jesus Christ comes. They don't want to be part of the second resurrection. Be resurrected with ignorant Africans, and Chinese, and all of the billions of people that never had a chance to know the truth. To have God's Spirit. That would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it? Some Africans come and say, and you knew the truth, and you didn't do anything about it? Oh, I wish I would have had that chance to be in that first resurrection.

So we have we are the lucky ones. We are the fortunate and blessed. That doesn't mean we already have have it made. So in Matthew 6 in verse 33, Christ said, what should be the main goals in our life? As everything here in the Bible tells you exactly, what is life all about? What should be our goals, our objectives, our purpose in life? He says in Matthew 6, 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, not ours, which is like a bunch of dirty rags, right? But His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

I still remember when I read that, and it just all clicked. Oh, this is what life is about. It's not about seeking how much money you're going to have, or fame, or intelligence, or whatever. No, oh, I know. I'm seeking to be part of God's kingdom when Christ comes back. It's the greatest goal to have. And secondly, is Christ's righteousness, the way He lived. Try to follow, emulate, continue seeing His example and putting it into practice.

So we come to the conclusion. So we have five thoughts that we can remember using that acronym of THINK, which is T, thought, remember, should be we're going to meet Christ very soon. You have a first-row seat with Christ, getting to know Him. Better than knowing anybody on the earth, ever. No relationship can compare when we have Christ as our companion and eventually the bridegroom. He wants to have that same relationship with all of us. He does not make He's not a respecter of persons. H, heed the examples of Jesus Christ and Stephen. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Just don't fight it anymore when the time comes.

Fight it all the way you can, as long as you can regain your health. But there's a time when you know it's just gonna come and so we yield. We find rest and peace. I, we invoke, Father, you're the righteous judge. Your son paid for my sins. I want to be in your kingdom more than anything else and I know there won't be fear because perfect love casts out fear and we can be safe with Him knowing we're carrying out His will. N has to do with natural. Death is not something foreign or strange or alien. It's something that happens to us all until Christ comes back. And so we should have peace in our hearts.

Just like Simeon, you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. And finally, K is for kingdom. Be looking toward that kingdom. Don't let anybody steal your crown. Don't let anybody deviate you from that because that's what's all worthwhile. Having the vision of that kingdom, that's what carries us from the time we began this trek. Whether it was early in life, it was looking toward that kingdom. I want to be part of that. I want to be with Christ. I want to serve under Him. I want to serve the brethren. I want to be transformed. And you know, as life continues, that urge and desire gets bigger and bigger. You look forward to that more than when you're young and, oh, I've got such a life. First, I want to get married. I have kids. I want to do this and that. That's perfectly fine. But what happens after that? And what happens after you have grandchildren? And if you're lucky, great-grandchildren, well, there's a time when there's not going to be that much more enjoyable to life. And so, of course, the kingdom is going to be much more desirous, desirable.

So, in conclusion, remember these five thoughts. And let's go to the last scripture in Matthew, chapter 25, because these are the words we want to hear from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. When everything is said and done, Matthew, chapter 25, verse 21, I learned something new about this scripture. I hope you do too.

So, this has to do with the parable of the talents.

And then it says in verse 21, this is the one that developed his talents in his life, serving God, looking forward to that kingdom. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things. And certainly in this life, whatever responsibilities we have are just so tiny in comparison to what's coming in the future. He says, I will make you ruler over many things. And then he says this cryptic, it doesn't sound very obvious. He says, Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Now, that word, joy, is Kara in the Greek. And Robertson, the A.T. Robertson, who's the Greek expert, he says this type of joy is pointing to that coming feast with the Lord. Because it's not talking about, I'm going to give you joy. No, enter into my joy. You're going to be part of the invitees. You're going to be part of these that are going to rejoice at that time. Just like in that wedding feast, the five that were faithful, come in. We're going to have a joyous occasion. Enter into the joy of the Lord. And then in verse 34, at the end of all of this judgment, he says, Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, you are blessed of the Father now. Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. God had all this planned ahead. The kingdom and who he was going to call in the process and those who answer, those who follow, those are the ones that inherit that wonderful kingdom. So, brethren, I hope this will help. Help others comfort them in that moment of need when they're facing death at the door, say we can comfort each other.