Considerations

  • The world beyond, the world unseen, the world in which we enter after death is a world that is not revealed in human philosophy and human reason.
  • There have never been any human philosophers that have been able to pull back the veil that lies between life and death.
  • There is no amount of knowledge from science, math, or otherwise that can help us understand what happens after death.
  • That is why so many highly educated men view immortality as a myth.
  • Isn’t it amazing that the Bible spends an enormous amount of time in this very subject of what happens after this life.
  • The prophets saw it for 1500 years before the birth of Jesus.
  • 4000 years ago, Job spoke in detail about it (Job 14:14; 19:25-26).
  • The apostles revealed it in great detail, and the revelation unveils a glorious life that is yet to come almost 2000 years ago (I Thessalonains 4:13-17; I Corinthians 15:50-58).
  • So not by human or philosophy, only by revelation from God, we have an enormous body of information on the matter.
  • Believe it or not!

The first five minutes of eternity

  • Without exception, entrance into the next life is absolute and immediate.
  • Soul sleeping, purgatory, limbo, and period of probation are all of human creation because there is no mention of any of this in revelation from God.
  • With absolutely no exception, we are ushered into the next life immediately, and we will spend eternity there.
  • This was even true with Enoch and Elijah (Genesis 5:22; Hebrews 11:5; II Kings 2:11, 17).

Life in two parts: this life and the next life

  • There is a blessedness in life and a cursedness in damnation, and the two are always presented in detail in the Bible.
  • There are no gray areas with God, only black and white.
  • We are either saved in Christ, our sins forgiven in Jesus, and we are forever in the presence of God, or we are shut out and eternally separated from God (Luke 13:22-30).
  • In Luke 16, the angels come to get the soul of Lazarus and carry him to Abraham’s bosom immediately after his death (Luke 16:22).
  • Luke 23:43 – “Today you shall be with me in paradise.”
  • II Corinthians 5:8 – “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
    • II Corinthians 5:1-8
  • Hebrews 2:15 – The fear of death causes us to be held in slavery.

First five minutes

  • I Thessalonians 4:13-17 – There is one great redemptive triumph in the final judgment of the body from the dead.
  • II Corinthians 5:1-8 – Immediately upon death, a child of God enters into that eternal life with God.
  • The same thing occurs in the other world.
  • Luke 16:22-23 – The rich man died, and in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment, and saw Abraham and Lazarus (immediately).
  • In my first five minutes in eternity, I am in, and will life for eternity in heaven or hell.

The two states

  • Given this is the way God reveals the matter, what do you think preachers ought to do about presenting this material?
  • Should we discuss issues of the day? Political climate?
  • These kinds of events have changed a thousand times since mankind came to this earth, and might change a thousand times more if the Lord does not return.
  • What does it mean to be lost?
    • To die without the atoning blood of Jesus covering our sins
    • No man can see God without it
    • To experience complete separation from God for all eternity
    • Separation – sheep from goats – Matthew 24:31-46
    • Wheat from the chaff – Luke 3:17
    • Fish caught in a net – good kept, bad thrown away – Matthew 13:47-50
    • Wise and foolish virgins – Matthew 25:1-13
    • Luke 17:34-36 – Separation
    • Luke 16:26 – A great gulf fixed – no one can cross forever
  • Greater suffering than any human ever experienced for eternity
    • Luke 16:23-24 – Agony, torment, flame
    • Weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth – Matthew 13:42, 50; 24:51; 25:30
    • The worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched – Mark 9:44
    • Always a sense that damnation and hell and separation is a place of suffering that humans have never seen on earth for eternity.
  • The meaning of being lost is death
    • The second death – Revelation 20:11-15
      • A second death means to die forever in torment.
      • It was this that caused Jesus to die on the cross for the future sins of every human – Hebrews 10:4-18; I Timothy 1:15
    • Have you ever seen a devout Christian die? Heard them discuss death?
    • There is no fear in their hearts of breathing their last breath.
    • They had been preparing for this trip for a long time.

Final thoughts

  • Eternity is a place – John 14 – “I go to prepare a place…”
  • We will have bodies in that place – Luke 24:36-40; I Corinthians 15
  • A bodily resurrection – I Corinthians 15 – Beautiful description of the resurrection of the body
  • Someday God will raise up a resurrected body and a redeemed soul to live in a place called heaven – Revelation 21:1-3; II Corinthians 3:18