It's very easy to shorten a verse we know well. I notice we tend to say, 'To live is Christ and to die is gain,' quoting from Philippians 1:21, though in fact Paul really wrote, 'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.' In other words it's a personal statement, not a general one. However, you don't often find people saying they'd prefer to die, though of course in some extreme circumstances that does happen. In fact most people are more than anxious to avoid death and fight against it in every way possible. They fight against it by the use of medical help and they fight against it through prayer. So we live in a society that is constantly killing babies in the womb and at the same time spending fortunes to keep alive very old people who are very seriously ill. Probably, if at all possible, most people don't even want to think about their death, but if we are Christians we often sing about it. A famous hymn puts it:
'When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death, and hell's destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan's side.'
And many of us regularly sing Matt Redman's much more modern song:
'And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come'
I do think about death quite a lot; have I always done so or is it because I'm getting older and indeed have had my 70 years already? Presently, I am told that actuaries suggest my expected life span is 90 years but for me to be totally confident of that would be even more foolish than believing that Brexit will happen on a certain date! Certainly I'm aware that people who are younger than me and whom I have known well are dying. Some of my readers will remember respected church leaders; Arnold Bell who died 7 years ago and also Simon Pettit who died 15 years ago at the age of 50. I think of my sister, 4 years younger than me who died 3 years ago and several friends who've died more recently, all younger than me. So I think about it and I prepare for it in certain ways. I've written a Will (sorry but you're probably not in it). This week I updated a small notebook that my wife keeps and which records various pieces of information that she should find helpful in the event of my death.
Of course death is unpredictable and that cuts both ways. My grandmother lived until she was 95 and her daughter, my mother, always seemed incredibly fit and healthy, so we often talked of how we would be visiting her in her Cornish home until she was well into her 90s. Then suddenly she was gone at the age of 84. Then sometimes I ask about someone whom I knew years ago and was always in frail health and I expect to hear they are long gone but discover they are still living into very advanced old age.
With the proviso that Christ will one day return for living saints, one certainty remains: we will all die. Even the Queen will die. I've occasionally said that while preaching and heard individuals gasp as though it shouldn't be said. But even given the longest of lives our remarkable Queen will not be around for very much longer - it's a fact of life!
My wife once asked me why I preached so often on the subject of death? I replied that it's because it's the only thing that I'm absolutely certain that everyone in the congregation will do. But do we hold Paul's personal conviction, 'For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain?' And often I ponder the words found in Revelation 12:11 'they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.'
So, I've made it something of a mission to try and excite people with the truth of heaven. I complain bitterly about the misquoted and mis-sung verse of 1 Corinthians 2:9 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.' End of story we can't take it any further. Well read the very next line: 'but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.' There is a lot the Bible tells us about heaven and which therefore has been revealed by the Spirit.
In a future blog I'll go into a lot more detail on this but for now...
We'll see God face to face
We'll reign with Christ
We'll have new resurrected bodies
We'll live on a totally renewed earth
We'll be explorers of a Universe restored to perfection
There'll be no more pain
There'll be no more death
There 'll be no more cancer
There'll be no more tears
Every hunger will be satisfied
Every thirst will be quenched
Every passion will be fulfilled
We'll continually grow in our knowledge of God
We'll continually grow in our understanding of Christ
We'll continually realise more of the wonder of the Cross but never exhaust its riches
We'll continually grow in our appreciation of the Spirit
We'll fulfill our everlasting destiny as worshippers of God
And when we've been there forever they'll be no less days to sing God's praise than when we first began.
One way or another Brexit will be settled and we'll get through the coming election. But this is passing stuff and important as it is for now it doesn't compare with the glory that is to be revealed.
I think death and preach heaven.