Many people would answer the question, ‘Is death the end?’ with a ‘Yes!’
But is death a new beginning?
Many do think that they will somehow be reunited with a loved one who has died, but that is not based on anything of authority.
Table of Contents:
1. The finality of death
Jairus had been waiting for Jesus to finish talking with a woman, then some men came from his house and said:
Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more.”
Mark 5:35 NIV
Jairus had decided to speak to Jesus because he was the only one who could help him, but now it was too late, his daughter had died.
Have you ever felt in an impossible predicament and you have been waiting for God to provide the solution?
You’ve been asking for Him to help you.
Then suddenly there is an extra twist to the affliction screws, and the whole situation moves into being utterly impossible!
Jairus’ situation had been desperate with his daughter being so unwell, NOW it was impossible.
Jesus ignores what the men said and he encourages Jairus, the afflicted, grieving father. And says:
Don’t be afraid; just believe.“
Mark 5:36 NIV
FAITH in the all-powerful, merciful God, is the only true remedy against grief and fear.
Is there anybody struggling?
If so, have confidence in the all-powerful, merciful God, and cling to the only One who can deliver you.
He knows what is best for you, AND what is best for His Kingdom.
Does our conscience need retraining, or is it okay as it is, or should we push it aside because it is irrelevant?
Jesus wanted to commend and encourage a lady’s faith when she reached out to him.
2. Laughing at God because they did not understand
At Jairus’ house, the crowd laughed at Jesus, even though they lived in Capernaum where they would have seen so much of Jesus’ other miracles, they would have seen his pure and spotless character, and they would have heard his wise teaching.
But they were scornful of Jesus and they ridiculed him.
Surely, when they didn’t understand, they ought to have kept quiet and waited for an explanation.
But they despised his words and so Jesus drove them out of the house.
They were unworthy to be witnesses of this miracle.
Here perhaps is a warning for us.
If we don’t understand some parts of the Bible do we reject it, or do we despise it?
Or do we still hold it as God’s Word and treasure it as being precious, even when we don’t understand it, or it seems extreme, or contrary to what we think?
3. Death is sleep
So what was it that caused the crowd to laugh at him?
Jesus had said that the dead child was asleep.
Hasn’t he, as Son of God, the One who sustains everything by the Word of his power, got the right to give life to the dead?
Hasn’t he got the right to call death ‘sleep’?
Anyway, hadn’t they read the many Old Testament Scriptures that speak of death as being ‘sleep’?
For example, Daniel talks about the end of the world:
Multitudes who SLEEP in the dust of the earth will AWAKE, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Daniel 12:2 NIV
By Jesus emphasising that death was really like sleep, this should send a clear warning to all those who say:
‘I’m living my life to the full now, because when you’re dead, you’re dead, you can’t take money with you, so spend it while you can, you’ve only one life, get what you can from it now!’
4. Death is not the end
Death is a new beginning, a new life without sorrow, suffering and old age:
and God himself will be with them as their God.
Revelation 21:3-4 ESV
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Believers will have responsibilities of ruling:
if we endure, we will also reign with him.”
2 Timothy 2:12 ESV
Jesus is warning us that death is NOT the end, it is either everlasting life or shame and everlasting contempt.
From the parable of the rich fool, we can see that there are thousands of people who when they are about to leave this life, God has to say to them:
You fool!
Luke 12:20 NIV
This very night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
No one can escape from God, because death is not the end, the body sleeps, but it will be raised up on the last day.
The Apostle Paul describes the Christians who had died as being ASLEEP:
We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NIV
We believe Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus, those who have fallen asleep in Him.”
This will happen at the second coming of Jesus Christ and he will round up all the believers from all centuries, and those alive at the time, to gather with him in the skies.
See ‘The Day of the Lord is to be a separating day‘
The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, and as the old joke goes why they were called Sadducees – they were sad-you-see!
These Sadducees tried to trick Jesus, but he answered them:
But that the dead are raised even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Luke 20:37-38 ESV
Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”
So, to continue the story of Jairus’ daughter, she was dead according to our viewpoint.
But Jesus saw her as being asleep and raised her back to life.
See how easily this was carried out by Jesus who:
took her by the hand and said to her,
Mark 5:41 NIV
‘Little girl, I say to you, get up.’
Immediately the girl stood up and walked around!”
It was against all the laws of nature, it was a miracle!
Jesus is about to hand over the work of his kingdom to his disciples, but they arguing about which one of them is the greatest!
Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” How can that be?
5. Given new resurrection bodies after death
Believers will be given glorious resurrection bodies, and we will be with the Lord forever.
Remember what Jesus said to the thief on the cross next to him?
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43 ESV
Jesus gives life, he sustains us and he has power over death.
Jesus said to Martha:
I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live, even though He dies;
John 11:25-26 NIV
and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”
So, to explain that, “he who believes in Me will live, even though He dies” means a believer’s body dies, their soul will go to be with Jesus in Paradise and will receive a new resurrection body.
And “whoever lives and believes in Me will never die” means their soul never dies but lives on in Paradise with that new resurrection body.
The two meanings are just reiterating the same point in a slightly different way. (This is often seen within the Bible as a form of teaching reinforcing the same point).
If you are wondering what this resurrection body will be like, then Paul gives us a glimpse:
So is it with the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 & 50-57 ESV
What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body…
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold! I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The best clue as to what our resurrection bodies will be like is to see what Jesus was like after his resurrection:
Walls and closed doors did not stop him, he was able to pass through them
He could travel vast distances.
He had a body that could eat conventional food.
The disciples could hold him, he had a solid body.
Jesus had a body that showed wound holes from his crucifixion, but he had no limitations with sickness, disease, pain, suffering and death.
He was recognisable – he still looked like Jesus.
Don Stewart 1 makes an interesting observation that our resurrection bodies will be luminous:
- He says that the Book of Daniel says ‘the wise will shine’. (Daniel 12:3)
- Jesus said ‘they will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matthew 13:43)
- Moses’ face shined when he was in God’s presence (Exodus 34:35)
- At the transfiguration, Jesus shone with a bright light (Matthew 17:2)
- And possibly Adam and Eve were clothed with some type of light garment before the Fall. After they fell, Adam and Eve realized that they had lost something. (Genesis 3:7).
All believers in Jesus will have this type of resurrection body.
Read an article on God’s trumpets at the end of the world.
Does God disregard those who live their lives without him?
Does God write off those who are divorced and have remarried?
Jesus says that he will set us free, but surely we aren’t slaves…?
How to keep our conscience clear when we are under a bad authority.
References – open in new tabs:
Jairus’ daughter & Corpse image: thanks to ‘The Pictorial Dictionary’ published by The Educational Book Company, London
‘What Will the Resurrected Bodies of the Righteous Be Like?’ By Don Stewart, Blue Letter Bible. ↩
