Some folk are religious, yet when asked why they are so, they cannot "give a reason"
There may be many reasons for being religious. But two reasons are outstanding, and both of them are
(1) You are going to die
Death is inescapable. As the sticky strands of the spider's web trap the mosquito, so we are snared by death, and conquered. Across the world, someone, somewhere, dies every second or so. Concentrate that destructive power in one large country town on a certain day, and the town's entire population would be wiped out by nightfall. One day, you don't know when, it will be your turn, and death will catch up with you. You know your birthday, but you don't know your death day. Yet there is a solution to the problem of death, because...
(2) Jesus died for you.
Victory over death is possible! The Lord Jesus made it so by his own death and by his resurrection
In the two statements "You are going to die" and "Jesus died for you" we have the very answer to the question, "Why be religious?" So our series of lessons will be built around
In the first three lessons we will talk about the fact that "You are going to die". Those lessons will make up Part One
In the last three lessons we will talk about the fact that "Jesus died for you". Those lessons will make up Part Two
In this first lesson, we look at a single Bible verse which tells us five facts about death... Knowing these facts helps us understand and
"It is appointed for men once to die, and after this the judgment"
(Heb 9:27);
We break this text up into five portions, each of which implies a certain
In the phrase "It is appointed..." we find our first fact, that
When Hebrews 9:27 says, that death "is appointed", it might be stating the obvious, yet most people live as if
We have birth control, but not death control. It is inevitable that "the silver cord is loosed and we fly away"
Such language as that, is usually reserved for funerals, yet it expresses a fact of everyday life: All of us, sooner or later, must keep a personal, unavoidable,
In the phrase "...for men..." we find our second fact, that
When Hebrews 9:27 uses the word "men", it does so generically, with no sense of gender. In other words "men" here stands for all humankind
You could replace the word "men" with your own name, because the scripture applies to you individually as well as to
Nevertheless, as we said before, most people live their lives as if they were exceptions to
Unless the second coming of Jesus Christ occurs in your lifetime, you personally cannot be
In all of human history, the Bible tells of only two exceptions. One was Enoch
Anyway, were you to escape death only to face judgment, the stale cliche might find fresh meaning: "out of the fryingpan
In the words "...once to die..." we have our third fact, that
When Hebrews 9:27 says, "once" it brings home the fact that you don't get a second chance at life and death.
When people say, "You only die once!" they usually mean that you might as well be reckless. But surely, since we live and die but once, we should make of our life what we were meant to make of it. Surely we should not waste our one life, but live it as pilgrims in this world
The words "once to die" contradict the theory of re-incarnation (that we live successive earthly lives). The statement, "You must be born again" is no support for re-incarnation. Jesus made it clear that the rebirth of which he spoke was spiritual not physical
In the words "...and after this..." we have our fourth fact, that
When Hebrews 9:27 says, "after this" it puts life and death into perspective, and supplies the wonderful hope in what otherwise would be a fatalistic and
An old wireless advertisement used to say, "Death is so permanent!" But in one sense death is not permanent at all. There is something after death. This is why Christians speak of death as a "sleep" because it is a temporary state
For those who seek and follow Jesus, there lies beyond death "an inheritance imperishable... reserved in heaven"
In the words "...the Judgment" we find our fifth fact, that
There is no second chance after death. Hebrews 9:27 is telling us precisely what there is after death -- "the judgment". But those "in Christ" need not fear. "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus"
Those who refuse or neglect that, are counted as ungodly, irreligious, and unprepared. They have everything to fear