I SEE DEAD PEOPLE

Introduction

Death is perhaps the greatest struggle of life. It is a struggle of the living. When contrasting the living with the dead, king Solomon stated in Ecclesiastes 9:5 that “The living know that they shall die...” We who are alive often struggle with the fact that one day we will no longer be here, and we struggle with why someone whom we loved and in many instances still love even in death, was taken from us.

In the movie, "The Sixth Sense," Bruce Willis plays Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist. He is struggling with his own marital issues after being shot by a former patient. He takes on the case of a young boy named Cole, who claims he can see and communicate with dead people. As Crowe helps Cole confront his fears, they both uncover unsettling truths. The film’s twist reveals that Crowe himself is one of the spirits that Cole sees, having died from the gunshot wound, and he was unaware of his own death until the end of the movie.

Death (Wikipedia):

Death is the end of life and the irreversible cessation of all biological functions.

In this definition, death is said to be the end of life as we know it - your heart stops pumping blood, your lungs no longer breathe air in or out, your brain shuts down along with all other functions of the body. Death here is described as something entirely physical. The problem with this definition/description of death is that it is one-sided; it does not present the whole truth about death.

God’s Definition of Death

While it is true that death may include the death of the body, there is more to death than the dictionary has described. In Leviticus 17:11, the word of God tells us that if one bleeds out he will experience death, that is, he will die because one’s blood keeps the body alive. If you have an accident or an incident in which your injury results in excessive blood loss that cannot be stopped, then death will be the result. However, the word of God states in James 2:26 that

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so also is faith without works.”

James tells us that death takes place whenever the spirit/soul leaves the body. In other words, death can take place even without having a horrible accident or incident where one bleeds to death. So then, death is a separation that has both a physical and spiritual aspect.

The Limitations of Physical Death

Before I proceed further, I would like for you to think of both physical and spiritual death as a separation. For example, when people loved ones die, we and they are separated from each other; when a marriage dies, a husband and wife are officially separated from each other and documents are issued/provided to verify that the marriage is now over or dead. When a car battery’s cells are completely finished and can no longer hold charge, the battery is said to be dead; it can no longer serve the purpose for which it was intended because the life of the battery is finished. In Genesis 35:18, were told that Jacob’s wife died because her soul was leaving her body as she gave birth to Benjamin. So, think of death as a separation from life.

Physical death though painful beyond description for those left to mourn and remember a loved one is limited to the grave. When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden of Eden, he said to them in Genesis 3:19:

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Physical death - the death of the body - leads to the grave or for others, to cremation, but it ends there.

A Clearer Understanding of Spiritual Death

When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden of Eden although they eventually died physically, but that vey moment opened the door for mankind to experience spiritual death or spiritual separation from God. When speaking to the nation of Israel the prophet Isaiah said to them in Isaiah 59:1-4:

“Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.”

This passage helps us to understand that people can be spiritually dead in their sins eventhough they are physically alive! The apostle Paul in speaking to the church about assisting godly widows had this to say in 1 Timothy 5:5-6:

1 Timothy 5:5–6 ESV

She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

Paul further states in Ephesians 2:1

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

In the book of Jude 5–13 “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

From these passages we understand that you can be dead eventhough you are getting daily and fixing breakfast, going to work, enjoying and living your best life now, and even while you are tuned in listening to this message! If you are not in Christ Jesus, then as much as I love you, I see dead people! I see someone who needs the life that Jesus has come to give. How do you see yourself?

The Impact of Spiritual Death

Spiritual death, unlike physical death, reaches beyond the grave. Spiritual death - separation from God even while you are physically alive - affects your eternity. John, the revelator wrote in Revelation 21:8

Revelation 21:8 ESV

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Spiritual death leads to an eternal second death which is eternity in hell itself. There is a death that the wicked shall experience after physical death, but you can escape this second death if you repent!

Spiritual death leads you to live an ungodly life that also influences others around you, leading them to also live ungodly and to remain in their spiritually dead condition. By remaining spiritually dead, you are not only risking your own eternity in hell, but you are also putting others at risk who look up to you! If you are spiritually blind and dead, both you and those who follow you will end up in the ditch - the blind cannot successfully lead the blind to eternal life! (Matthew 15:14)

Matthew 15:14 ESV

Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

As I look out from day to day in our country, I see dead people! I see people who need the life that Jesus sacrificed so that we all may live spiritually and eternally. Let God make you alive today. He can speak life into your relationships, into your physical health, but most importantly, he can speak life into your spirit and into your loved ones so that they can live eternally also. Won’t you come to him now? Believe that Jesus is the Christ, repent from the ungodly lifestyle that you may be living, confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and be baptized to day in water so that the blood of Christ through faith will wash your sins away as God breathes life into your soul.