What can the believer say about death?

The burden for this message comes from the continual inability of believers to reconcile death with God’s benevolence. Some believers will tell their hurting friends and loved ones:

(1) God knows...

(2) Death is part of life...

Does this really align with the gospel? When an individual is asking: Why me or Why would God allow something so bad to happen to me? Why would God take away such a good person? Do the answers that believers are giving square with what is true about God and about our Lord Jesus Christ?

Context:

In - Zimri kills Elah, King of Israel

Israel votes in Omri - Zimri burns the kings house over himself

Omri moved the capital to Samaria

Ahab, son of Omri, becomes king

Ahab marries Jezebel (16:30 - 31)

The prophecy of Joshua about Jericho being rebuilt is fulfilled -

- A draught is pronounced

17:3 - 4 God provides for his prophet by a brook and ravens

In all of this God is providing for His servant.

In all of this God is proving himself to be superior to the pagan false god: Baal.

Zidon is enemy territory.

A widow is the poorest of the poor - to get provision from

She is an unlikely individual by ethnicity and status - Remember how Christ understood this passage -

This widow, having helped, now finds herself suffering the death of her only son. It would seem that this woman was a faithful woman. She seems to be one who trusted in God, and now it seems that she is rewarded evil for good. Note even the question of Elijah to God in

The burden for this message comes from the continual inability of believers to reconcile death with God’s benevolence. Some believers will tell their hurting friends and loved ones:

(1) God knows...

(2) Death is part of life...

Does this really align with the gospel? When an individual is asking: Why me or Why would God allow something so bad to happen to me? Why would God take away such a good person? Do the answers that believers are giving square with what is true about God and about our Lord Jesus Christ?

We must understand how the word of God teaches us to speak about death and the ultimate purpose of God.

Death has presented a problem that cannot be overcome by mere food provision. What was needed here was something that could not be attributed in any way to man. It would have to be divine intervention.

In all of this God brings Elijah to the house of this widow for provision.

Zidon is enemy territory.

A widow is the poorest of the poor - to get provision from

She is an unlikely individual by ethnicity and status - Remember how Christ understood this passage -

She is already the lowest of the lowest in terms of ethnicity and economy; but death removes all pretenses. Death removes all other possibilities. Death does not allow for any mere human to take credit. It brings us to the end of ourselves. Notice here question: . She refers to this possibly being a recollection of sin. In other words, she is confronted with the possibility of something here: sin.

Death suffered has a natural way of making man immediately look to moral conditions. For example: He lived a partying life is tantamount to saying - He got what he wanted. Some will say He was such a good person, why did he have to die? or Some will say, They were so innocent. Death has a way of calling us to openness and humility as nothing else.

Recap: Death encourages humility - Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Recap: Death encourages humility

In the problem of physical provision was overcome. God had miraculously provided. In her initial response she had hesitated with the hopes of providing a final meal for her and her son.

Death has presented a problem that cannot be overcome by mere food provision. What was needed here was something that could not be attributed in any way to man. It would have to be divine intervention. Death exposes a weakness that is insurmountable.

Recap: Death encourages true humility

Recap: Death exposes vain pursuits

Death calls for God to display his power. Why does this matter, because when God displays his power over death, it calls men to repentance and belief in Him. The widow was brought to faith in the man of God, specifically to the word of the Lord by his mouth.

Concluding thoughts:

(1) Death as the consequence for sin is the enemy that man cannot defeat.

(2) Jesus is the true prophet who entered enemy territory.

(3) Jesus is the true prophet who was re

(3) Jesus is the One who was rejected of His own.

(4) Jesus is the One who went to the poorest of the poor.

(5) Jesus is the One who displayed the tremendous power of the Resurrection in dominance over death

(6) Jesus is the Word from God that we come to believe by faith.

So, we encourage others by showing them that God has a good purpose in death:

(1) Death encourages true humility - to bring us to the complete end of our own resources

(2) Death truly exposes all of our vain pursuits that we had faith in to prevent the unthinkable

(3) Death causes to realize ultimate purpose through faith in Jesus Christ.

What can the believer say about death?

Introduction:

Proposition:

(1) Death encourages true humility

(2) Death exposes vain pursuits

(3) Death exalts ultimate purpose -

Conclusion: