Jesus and Death

John 13:1 NKJV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

The Hour of Death

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2 NKJV

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;

Hebrews 9:27 NKJV

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

Jesus knew that His hour had come.

This was the hour of His death on the Cross for the redemption of mankind.

Matthew 20:28 NKJV

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

This was the hour in which His work on earth would be complete.

The Hour of Departure

“…that He should depart from this world”

This life is transitory. It is a journey to a homeland to which we long for but have never been.

This earthly life is a pilgrimage.

For the Christian, this world is not our home. We are just passing through.

This life is a pilgrimage, a journey to our heavenly home.

Death is not the end. It is simply a departure from this present world.

For the Christian, death is not to be feared.

Romans 8:35–39 NKJV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We look beyond death with hope through the eyes of faith.

Hebrews 11:13 NKJV

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

With the eyes of faith we see this life through the lens of eternity.

The Hour of Destination

Physical death means an exit from our earthly tent, the body, to our heavenly home.

2 Corinthians 5:1 NKJV

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Death signals our arrival into our eternal destination.

Two destinations:

Heaven (eternal abode of those who have died in the Lord)

Hades (the conscious temporal abode of the unsaved dead awaiting Judgment Day)

Do you know where you are going?

Loving to the End

Jesus loved His own who were in the world.

Life is not about things. Life is about people.

Life is not about us. Life is about others.

Life is not about lusting. Life is about loving.

While we are here, we are to love those around us.

Some are hard to love.

We love not because people deserve love, but because they need love.

Love transforms. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NKJV

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

Jesus loved His own to the end (the end of His earthly life)

Jesus demonstrated His love by laying down His life to die on the Cross.

John 15:13 NKJV

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Jesus didn’t die on the Cross because we loved Him, but because He loved us.

1 John 4:10 NKJV

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 3:16 NKJV

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Will you receive God’s love manifested to you in Jesus Christ?

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.