The Beauty of Death
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· 97 viewsBig Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
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Introduction
Introduction
Read, The Beauty of Death, My Meditation as I sat by my mom’s deathbed.
Trusting in our pain and loss can be hard.
Reconciling death and loss is hard.
Understanding can be hard to come by when death and grief descend.
Psalm 116:15 has long been a precious truth for the saints of God. As I reflected upon it over the years, as I reflected upon it that afternoon, God opened up the glorious beauty of His glory through death.
Let’s Read Psalm 116 in it’s entirety to see this verse in its context.
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
My mother’s death…as my father’s and all the saints who have died before and all who will die after, are beautiful in God’s sight.
The death of His saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory.
Outline
Outline
Big Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
The glory of God is displayed in four ways through the precious and costly death of His saints.
The glory of God is displayed….
Through death’s cost
Through death’s resulting life
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
Sermon Body
Sermon Body
Big Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
The Glory of God is display….
Through Death’s Cost
Through Death’s Cost
David wrote Psalm 116 as a personal song of worship for DELIVERANCE from death.
One might ask, why then, if this is about deliverance, does he speak of death’s preciousness?
If David is singing and worshipping about the avoidance of death, why does he praise its value? Seems like a contradiction.
On the contrary…it is PRECISELY because of the preciousness of it, that David sings about the avoidance of it.
The word we translate “precious” here can also mean “costly.”
It speaks of something of HIGH and PRECIOUS value. We could translate it as follows....
“Costly in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
The Bible Knowledge commentary puts it this way...
The Bible Knowledge Commentary 116:15–19
The death of a saint is not something the LORD considers as cheap; He does not let His people die for no reason.
So precious are his saints, that God does not subject them to senseless, pointless, meaningless deaths. When they are subjected to death, it is for a purpose, it produces glory, and it pleases the divine ruler of all things!
Not idly does God permit the death of his saints
I am going to display my nerd here, but for those who love The Lord of Rings…there is a line from the The Two Towers that sticks out to me...
From the chapter, Riders of Rohen....as Aragorn, Gimili, and Legolas were in hot pursuit of the Orcs who had captured their friends, Merry and Pippen...
‘And look at this!’ He held up a thing that glittered in the sunlight. It looked like a new-opened leaf of a beech-tree, fair and strange in that treeless plain.
‘The brooch of an elven cloak!’ cried Legolas and Gimli together.
‘Not idly do the leaves of Lórien fall,’ said Aragorn. ‘This did not drop by chance: it was cast away as a token to any that might follow. I think Pippin ran away from the trail for that purpose.’
‘Then at least he was alive,’ said Gimli. ‘And he had the use of his wits, and of his legs, too. That is heartening. We do not pursue in vain.’
Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall....
Not idly does God permit the death of his saints....
So when he does…we must know and trust in His divine will and purpose and magnify his glory behind it.
Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
Because of the great cost, because of the value placed on life…when God’s saints do experience death, the glory of God is at stake and is to be made much of.
God does not suffer for his saints to die senselessly or wastefully. Their lives and thus their deaths are precious and costly to Him.
Even if we cannot reconcile or understand the purpose of our loves ones deaths, we can trust that God has not slipped up and lost control. We must trust even when we cannot see.
Big Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
The glory of God is displayed in four ways through the precious and costly death of His saints.
The glory of God is displayed….
Through death’s cost
Through death’s resulting life
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
The glory of God is displayed….
Through Death’s Resulting Life
Through Death’s Resulting Life
Col 1:15-23.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Verses 15-20 speak of the preeminence, the superiority of Christ. Reading these verses, the superiority, the transcendence, the exaltedness of Christ is evident, clear, and beautiful!
Listen, the beauty and glory of Christ is enough to keep, sustain, and protect us through the harshest of trials and storms in this life! We have but to see it, lay hold of it, cherish it, and cling to it with the fiercest intensity possible.
My mother clung to it.
My Father clung to it.
I have clung to it…and it is enough.
Verse 21-22 is where I want to direct our attention though…
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
HE (Jesus - This superior and transcendent one) has reconciled (restored, made right) our relationship to him IN HIS BODY OF FLESH BY HIS DEATH, in order that he might present us blameless and above reproach before him.
Jesus body of death, his vicious and cruel death at the hands of sinful man brought life, life eternal, to those of us who repent and believe.
Hebrews paints the picture in a different way…
Heb 10:19-25.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We have confidence, to enter the holy places…
…by the blood of Jesus…
…by the new and living way…
…That he opened for us…
…through the curtain…
…THAT HIS THROUGH HIS FLESH.
Jesus own death made the way for life.
In John 14:2, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them…
This preparation, this going requires his death.
And his death makes way for life.
Death is not beautiful. It is not right. It is the result of sin and rebellion. It was not as God intended.
And yet, God has redeemed death and brought beauty from it.
Jesus death results in life for all who embrace it.
Spurgeon preached…
Death in itself cannot be precious; it is terrible. It cannot be a precious thing to God to see the noblest works of his hand torn in pieces, his skilful embroidery in the human body rent, defiled, and given over to decay. Death in itself cannot be a theme for rejoicing with God. But death in the case of believers is another matter. To them, it is not death to die; it is a departure out of this world unto the Father, a being unclothed that we may be clothed upon, a falling asleep, an entrance into the Kingdom. To the saint death is by no means such a thing as happeneth unto the unregenerate.
This departure to the Father is made possible because of the gospel, the greatest display of God’s glory…and one that comes through death.
Big Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
The glory of God is displayed in four ways through the precious and costly death of His saints.
The glory of God is displayed….
Through death’s cost
Through death’s resulting life
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
The glory of God is displayed…
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
Charles Spurgeon...
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XVIII Precious Deaths (No. 1,036)
One great cardinal truth of the gospel is that the sins of believers were laid upon Christ, and were punished upon Christ, and that, consequently, no sin is imputed to the believer, neither can any be penally visited upon him. His sin was punished in his substitute. The righteous wrath of God has altogether ceased towards those for whom Christ died. It could not be consistent with justice that the death penalty should be executed upon Christ, and then should be again visited upon those for whom Christ was a substitute. Death, then, does not come to me as a believer because I deserve it and must be punished by it: it comes so to the ungodly, it is upon them a fit visitation for their iniquities, the beginning of an unending death, which shall be their perpetual portion. To the saints the sting of death is gone, and the victory of the grave is removed; it is no more a penalty but a privilege to die
The glory of God is displayed in the gospel.
God created man for intimacy and relationship to Him. He created us know and enjoy Him. He created us to delight in Him; to live under his rule in perfect peace.
We rejected him. We rebelled. We cast him off, choosing instead to rule our own lives (or attempt to), to do things our own way, to value ourselves over HIM.
God, in his perfect justice, perfect righteousness, in his perfect RIGHTNESS, could not stand by idly and allow our rebellion to go unanswered. His holiness and justice demands that the wrongdoing we committed be justly dealt with.
This brings judgments and eternal death because we were hopeless and helpless to do anything to correct or amend for our grievous sin.
BUT GOD
Being rich in mercy…found a way to be BOTH JUST and MERCIFUL.
He found a way to pay the debt without making us pay it.
He sent HIS OWN SON….the second person of the Trinity, the second person of the Godhead, indeed, God HIMSELF, to be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, fulfill the demands of the law, and die a sinners death, though he had never committed any wrong, so that He, Jesus, could serve as as SUBSTITUTE in my place, bearing the guilty of my sin and God’s wrath so that when I repent (agree with God my sin is wrong and turn from it) Jesus death and punishment could be applied to my debt and I could be set free from God’s wrath.
HIS DEATH delivers me from death.
His death, as terrible as it was, results in life.
His death, is beautiful and satisfying to God for in opens the way for us to come to Him.
It is because of Jesus’s death that both my parents are enjoying the eternal glories of His presence right now.
It is because of Jesus death that our sorrow and grieving is only temporary.
Death, in all its terribleness, in all it’s tragedy, has been defeated for those whose faith and trust is in God and whose hearts have repented and believed.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58.
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin.
The power of sin is the law.
Both of which have been dealt with.
Law was fulfilled.
Sin was defeated.
Death has no sting for those who faith is in God; for those who have repented and believed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Big Idea: Death of the saints is a precious and costly display of God’s glory!
The glory of God is displayed in four ways through the precious and costly death of His saints.
The glory of God is displayed….
Through death’s cost
Through death’s resulting life
Through the expression of the gospel’s essence
Death is terrible.
It is unnatural and contrary to God’s very nature.
It originates in sin and mars the very image and glory of God’s externality.
And yet….
Precious (Costly) in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Death is beautiful….for those in Christ.
God redeemed death.
He removed it’s sting.
He exposed His glory
And he invites us, each of us, to come and delight in him, be satisfied in him, and take refuge in Him.
I pray that as we grieve and mourn our own loss today, that we are encouraged to come to Him and delight in the beauty of death.