WHAT IS DEATH

SERMON BY JACOBSON JOSEPH AMAEFULA (APOSTLE) DURING THE SERVICE OF SONGS IN HONOUR OF LATE APOSTLE H. I .ALILE SPIRITUAL LEADER, ST. JOSEPH’S CHOSEN CHURCH OF GOD AT LAGOS ON WEDNESDAY, 7TH NOVEMBER, 2018.

TOPIC: WHAT IS DEATH? According to Dictionary, Death is cessation of physical life”

BIBLICALLY:

(1) Death is separation of soul from the body because (i) All have sinned and come short the glory of God. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) this is as a result of what we inherited from Adam and Eve.

2) Death is separation of soul from God. This is the worst death if after all religious activities on earth and one stands condemned before God on the last day” what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and loses his soul? Jesus shall say, depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I knew you not. (Matt.7:23).

3) Death is “sleeping” on the resurrection day all the dead shall rise again to face either judgment of consummation or reward for good works done.

4) Death is a point to which everybody (all inclusive) must come, and for which everybody should prepare for irrespective of your position in the society. Death is the only strongest weapon God permits to tell the proud “shut up” when death comes, man stops talking and boasting. When death speaks there is a silence, heart breaking, mourning and weeping. Death is a gun, when gun is talking, no man speaks:

There are good many people who want to flee from the wrath of God on the judgment day but while still alive, they are not willing to give up that which draws down the wrath of God upon them.
No man is saved who carries his sins with him in his flight (Death). No man is saved who carried his sin to the grave.
God will pay each of us according to our deeds here on earth: He will not pay in gold and silver, but in life — life eternal. Those who work in righteousness may not grow rich in man’s eyes, but they grow into richer, riper and holier spiritual boldness.
MAY I ASK THIS QUESTION:- what preparation have we made for this’ point of death? Are we ready for it, so that our sudden coming to it at any moment shall not terrify us? If we are in Christ, death is abolished and the point which earth calls the point of death becomes really the point of life.
According to the book of Job 14:1-2, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.”
This verse reminds us today that every moment of person’s life, brings him or her closer to his grave no matter the number of years one has to live on this planet earth.

No matter how one either man or woman tries to change his/her natural look to artificial look, a day comes when this tabernacle (this physical body) will be put off. The glory of a man when alive is different from his glory when he dies. As the glory of man changes, do what you have to do now, correct what you can correct now; reconcile with all men, have peace with God and man, do good to men now that you are living because you will have no time for such corrections in the grave. Are you a leader, a manager, a director, even a chairman of an organization, and or a General Overseer of a church or any other Religious organization, who leads in anger and wickedness on your day of death what would people say about you because people must say something about you.

Paul said: “for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven”. 2 Cor. 5:1. Also Peter said: “knowing that shortly I (we) must put off this my (our) tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shown…” 2 Peter 1:2-15. The earth is full of corruption, failure, disappointment, killings of all sorts, cheating, all types of immoralities, Nations of the world have no peace, people kill innocent ones like King Ahab and his wife Jezebel just to possess. The senior is not protecting the junior, the strong is not considering the weak, the rich ones are deriving pleasure in enslaving the poor even as Cain killed his younger brother Abel, whom he ought to have protected and defended out of jealousy. There are family squabbles everywhere in the world, the senior and the junior struggling for first position as did Joseph and Esau in their mother’s womb. Presently we are living in a very corrupt environment called the world, where peace, harmony, safety and happiness are far from the children of men, James 4:14 said, “whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Men and brethren here gathered this moment, the death of our father seems a sad end for this glorious man’s life. We may be asking ourselves, why was his life allowed to go out in such darkness? We know, his ways while alive was as God chose! He has finished his work. If there has been anything further for him to do he would not have been left to die this time we his spiritual and neulear children, the nation, the corporate world needed him most. However men who died a failure are easily forgotten, but our Father died a successful and a fulfilled man. Though dead, but his works are speaking for him.

It is not long years that make a complete life. A life is complete, whether long or short, that fulfils the purpose of its creation; and the longest life is incomplete and a failure if it does not do the work for which it was made. It is better to die in youth with a life unspotted than to live on to old age in sin and crime.

Dearly beloved, to accomplish our work on earth we have just a “Day” of time. Each One’s day is his lifetime. A day is a brief time: it is not long from the rising to the setting of the sun. everyone here has a fixed time: when the sun comes to his going down, no power in the universe can prolong his stay for a moment. When death comes no man will wait one instant, any unfinished work, will remain unfinished forever. The day is long enough for God’s plan for your life. The sun never sets too soon for his purpose. Each little life is long enough for the little part of the world’s work allotted to it. Before God, on the judgment day, no one can ever offer as an excuse for an unfulfilled life-work that the time given to him was too short. To have our work completed at the end, we must do it while the day lasts. You should therefore remember the shortness of life; and the time, there is necessity for earnestness in your duty.

(Mark 5:39) we should not sorrow as heathens do. Though we may lament and mourn, yes, even with bitter lamentation. Our father has passed away out of our sight; he has ceased to be in the physical and yet, He lives in our mind. His body is only sleeping. Sleep is not a terrible experience; sleep renews and strengthens the weary body. So, the sleep of death is a time of rest from all labours, struggles, stress and a time of renewal.

When a man is alive, he lives to resume on daily basis same old life of toil, struggle, temptation and sorrow and to die at last! But in the final resurrection, our Father shall rise to a new glorious and immortal life, without sorrow or sin in the fullness of life, and blessedness.

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED:

The death of our father has brought us to a time of the deepest grief and the sorest sorrow. We have lost a father, a husband, a grandfather, an in-law, a friend, an associate, a close companion, a spiritual father. However we may grieve, there is never any reason why we should lose our peace with God who brought us comfort through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, in me ye shall have peace.

Jesus went down into the grave, but not to stay there. He came again, like a glorious conqueror, and because He lives. Our father who is sleeping shall wake up to live also. His demise is a mere change from a terrestrial body and environment to a celestial body and environment, from shame to glory, from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to honour, from weakness to power and from natural body to spiritual body: on that resurrection morning, he shall be among the resurrected saints that will boast and say Death is swallowed up in victory and with boldness ask Death, “where is thy sting and o grave, where is thy victory” (1 Cor. 15.)

Our father lived a simple, gentle, loving, cheering, caring and faithful life, he lived and died for and in what he believed. May God grant him eternal rest and send comfort to the bereaved family.

Finally Brethren, remember that what gives Death power is SIN and what gives sin power is law.

God bless you.