Table of Contents
Video – The Sleep of Death | Lest Ye Sorrow
Throughout this series, it has been evident that God cares for us and wants us to trust in his redemption plan. However, one thing that leads many to still question his love is the uncertainty of death. Are loved ones in purgatory, burning in hell, watching me from heaven? Maybe you yourself are scared that you might die one day.
Death Was Never Part Of God’s Plan
Death was never part of God’s plan. And when it entered the world through sin, he knew it would invoke fear. Yet God never wanted us to be afraid of death.
The Dead Know Nothing!
Therefore, he made it very clear as to what happens to a person when they die. Instead of our loved ones being tortured by burning in hell or observing our sufferings from heaven, the Bible declares that the dead know nothing. So then, what do dead people do? When Jesus was confronted with the death of his friend Lazarus, he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.
Jesus Said Lazarus Was Sleeping
When Jesus arrived at Lazarus’ home, he didn’t find him peacefully sleeping in his bed. He found him in the grave, sleeping the sleep of death. And when he awoke him, God’s life-giving power was called to raise him from the sleep of death.
Death Is A Sleep?
What are the implications that death is like a sleep? It means that those who have passed away are resting unconsciously in the grave. Like Lazarus, waiting for the day when Jesus will return and call them from their sleep.
Lest Ye Sorrow
I do not want you to be ignorant brethren
Concerning those who have fallen asleep
Lest ye sorrow as others who have no hope
If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so
God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,
That we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
Will by no means precede those who are asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven
With a shout and with the voice of the archangel
And with the trumpet of God
Hear it sounding loud and clear, He's coming soon
And the dead in Christ will rise first
And we who are alive and remain
Shall be caught up together with them
In the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall, we shall always be with the Lord,
We'll always be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
(Words based on 1 Thesselonians 4:13-18 KJV)
Jesus Conquered Death
Jesus conquered death at his resurrection and declared to John the Revelator, I am the living one. I died, but look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and the grave.
We Can Trust Jesus!
Time and time again, Jesus has proven that we can put our trust in him, even when confronted with death. The time is fast approaching when he will return a second time to gather his loved ones to return with him to heaven. We’ll look at this in our next episode.
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Closing Notes
In all ages the Saviour’s chosen have been educated and disciplined in the school of trial. They walked in narrow paths on earth; they were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus’ sake they
endured opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed him through conflicts sore; they endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments. By their own painful experience they learned the
evil of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its cure, humbles them in their own sight, and fills their hearts with gratitude and
praise which those who have never fallen cannot appreciate. They love much, because they have been forgiven much. Having been partakers of Christ’s sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with him of his glory.
The heirs of God have come from garrets, from hovels, from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains, from deserts, from the caves of the earth, from the caverns of the sea. On earth they were “destitute, afflicted, tormented.” Millions went down to the grave loaded with infamy, because they steadfastly refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan. By human tribunals they were adjudged the vilest of criminals. But now “God is judge himself.” [Psalm 50:6.] Now the decisions of earth are reversed. “The rebuke of his people shall he take away.” [Isaiah 25:8.] “They shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord.” He hath appointed “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” [Isaiah 62:12; 61:3.] They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth
they are to be ever with the Lord. They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth have ever worn.
They are crowned with diadems more glorious than were ever placedupon the brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm-branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of Heaven, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” And all the inhabitants of Heaven respond in the ascription, “Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever.” [Revelation 7:10, 12.]
In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental powers we fail to grasp its full significance.
The length and the breadth, the depth and the height of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages, new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind.
Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended, and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.
The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of God, the Majesty of Heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to adore,—humbled himself to
uplift fallen man; that he bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of his Father’s face, till the woes of a lost world broke his heart, and crushed out his life on Calvary’s cross. That the Maker of
all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside his glory, and humiliate himself from love to man, will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer, and behold the eternal glory of the Father shining in his countenance; as they behold his throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that his kingdom is to have no end, they breakforth in rapturous song, “Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his own most precious blood!”
The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries. In the light that streams from Calvary, the attributes of God which had filled us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power.
While we behold the majesty of his throne, high and lifted up, we see his character in its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance of that endearing title, our Father.
It will be seen that He who is infinite in wisdom could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of his Son. The compensation for this sacrifice is the joy of peopling the earth with ransomed beings, holy, happy, and immortal. The result of the Saviour’s conflict with the powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God, throughout eternity. And such is the value of the soul that the Father is satisfied with the price paid; and Christ himself, beholding the fruits of his great sacrifice, is satisfied.
The Great Controversy, pages 651, 652, by Ellen G. White
See also: The Gospel In The Messiah
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