Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.07UNLIKELY
Fear
0.07UNLIKELY
Joy
0.6LIKELY
Sadness
0.57LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.36UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.89LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.78LIKELY
Extraversion
0.11UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.87LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.68LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Why Do Christians Still Have to Die?
1 Corinthians 15:39-58; Genesis 2:15-17; Romans 5:1-17; Psalm 116:15;
Isaiah 57:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8-10; 2 Corinthians 4:5-11
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - June 24, 2018
BACKGROUND:
*Why do Christians still have to physically die?
If we are saved by Jesus Christ, and our sins are forgiven, then why do we still have to die?
Please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15, and we will begin to discover some God-given answers.
God's Word has the sure answers we need, and we will search the Scriptures to find these answers today.
But the most wonderful reason why we die is here in 1 Corinthians 15.
*In vs. 3-4, Paul summed up the heart of the good news about Jesus Christ:
3.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4. and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
*Then in vs. 11, Paul told those Christians: "Whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed."
Anybody who has ever been saved was saved by God's grace through faith in the Lord God Almighty.
In Old Testament days, they were saved by believing in the promise of the coming Savior.
Today people are saved by believing in the fulfillment of that promise by Jesus Christ.
*Christians: We are saved by believing in our crucified and risen Savior, and Paul was writing to saved people here.
But some people in that church didn't believe in the resurrection of our bodies, so in vs. 12, Paul began to make a strong case for the reality of our resurrection.
And Paul closed by rejoicing over the everlasting victory we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
*Let's read about it in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.
MESSAGE:
*Every particle of life in this world was ultimately created by the Lord God Almighty.
John 1:1-4 calls Jesus "The Word," and says:
1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God.
3.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
*You are I are in the world because God gave us life.
Down through the ages, God did billions of things big and small to make sure we got here.
God wanted us have life, and He wants everyone to have eternal life with Him in Heaven.
*The Bible makes this clear in places like Matthew 18:14, where Jesus said: "It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
God wants people to live forever in Heaven.
And this is one of the main reasons why the Bible says so much about death.
*Most people shy away from thinking about death, especially our own death.
But God's Word doesn't shy away from death at all.
A few simple searches for words like "death" and "dying" pulls up almost 1,400 uses, and well over a hundred pages of Scripture.
*God has a lot to say about death, and His Word gives us some very clear reasons why Christians still we have to physically die.
1. FIRST, THERE'S A TRAGIC REASON, -- AND THAT'S SIN.
*Why do we have to die?
Ultimately, it all goes back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve sinned by eating the one and only kind of fruit they were forbidden to eat.
In Genesis 2:15-17:
15. . .
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
16.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.''
*Then in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they immediately died spiritually.
And they began to die physically, because the curse of death fell on the world.
From that time on, almost everyone ever born was born under the curse of death.
We were also born with the deadly spiritual sickness called sin.
That's why we never have to teach our children how to be selfish or how to lie.
They all get that naturally, and so did we.
*The only exception to this truth is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Though the eternal Lord humbled Himself to be born into a mortal body, He was miraculously born without original sin, and He never did sin.
*Instead, Jesus came into the world to take the guilt for all of our sins.
Christ came to die on the cross for our sins, rise again from the dead, and give us everlasting victory over the curse of death!
*Paul explained this to us in Romans 5, and here's a little of what he said to Christians.
This is from the English Standard Version of the Bible:
1.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
6.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.
8. but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
12. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (i.e.
Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
15.
But the free gift is not like the trespass.
For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
17.
For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
2. WHY DO WE DIE? THE TRAGIC REASON IS SIN.
BUT THERE ARE ALSO TENDER REASONS.
*God has special tenderness in His heart when His people go home to Heaven.
One great place to see this truth is Psalm 116:15, where God's Word says: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
*Sometimes the very thing that makes us sad makes the Lord very glad.
When a believer dies and goes home to be with the Lord, it's a "precious" thing to God.
That means it's a valuable thing, a splendid thing, a glorious thing.
*In Acts 6-8, Stephen the Deacon was falsely convicted of blasphemy and stoned to death.
Acts 8:2 tells us that after Stephen died "devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him."
*But a few minutes before he died, Acts 7:55-56 says this about Stephen:
55.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56. and said, "Look!
I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!''
*Stephen was overjoyed when he saw the Lord.
And Jesus must have had a big smile on His face to welcome His servant home.
That's because "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
*We can also see God's tenderness in Isaiah 57:1.
There, God's Word says: "The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil."
*The Living Bible says: "The good men perish; the godly die before their time and no one seems to care or wonder why.
No one seems to realize that God is taking them away from evil days ahead."
*God knows the future.
Isaiah 46:10 makes it clear that the Lord sees the end from the beginning.
And sometimes He cuts a life short to spare people from trouble in this world.
*Also remember what God says to us in Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Christians: The good plans God has for our lives don't end when we die.
They stretch out into all eternity!
*Evangelist Leighton Ford lost his son Sandy when Sandy was only 21 years old.
Sandy had served as a summer missionary in France, and part of Leighton's comfort came from the man who supervised Sandy in France.
*That godly man wrote the Fords a letter describing his thoughts when he first found out that Sandy had died.
He said, "I was stunned, 21, so many gifts to use.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9