What Is Life After Death?
Nathan Adams · Tidal Church Moncton · October 20, 2024 · What Happens When You Die? series
Nathan Adams walks through Psalm 16 and the Bible's three stages of the afterlife, showing that David's confidence in God points to Christ's resurrection. Because Jesus is risen, we can say yes to Him now and live fully alive, today and forever.
More from Nathan Adams · The What Happens When You Die? series
Transcript
[0:00] So great to be here with you this morning. This morning, as I share a message with you, I just want us to think about two songs today. The first song is a very weird song that would only appeal to a middle-aged man that was raised on Guns N' Roses during his rebellious years. It's something that I would listen to if I'm trying to get my blood pumping for some activity. And it's by a band called Shinedown. It's called "The Sound of Madness." So they belt it out. I created the sound of madness. I wrote the book on pain, but somehow I'm still here to explain. They give life advice, apparently. Maybe you shouldn't take their life advice. But look, there's this line in this thing that catches me. It sticks in my brain. They say, "I'm so sick of this tombstone mentality.
[0:50] If there's an afterlife, it'll set you free." And so what they're trying to say is, we don't like your message series. What happens when we die? Who cares? Who knows? Live life now, because if you're focused on the afterlife all the time, you'll have a tombstone mentality and it'll suck the life out of your life. And besides, if there's an afterlife, it'll set you free. It takes care of itself. Not many of you listen to that band, but I think the line of thinking is pretty common to people today. So let me ask you a question about this life, your life. First question: is your life automatic, or do you have to get outta bed in the morning and do things and make it happen?
[1:40] And the second thing is, is your life simple? Do you have a child, for instance? The answer is no. Your life is not simple. Do you have one of those jobs that every time they ask you what you do, you just go, "Ah, can anyone explain it?" 'Cause it's so specialized. Look at your body. It is specialized: atoms and veins, and it's all just waiting to fly apart with one little thing. It's so complex. So if life here is not automatic and it's not simple, then why would the afterlife be automatic and simple? What if the afterlife is complex like this life and it takes action on our part to be ready for it? And what if building our lives with an afterlife in mind, far from being a tombstone mentality that takes away from our lives, rather it would fill our lives with goodness here and now?
[2:38] The Bible shows us three not-so-simple stages of the afterlife. I've got an old school Bible here. Even black, this book is where you got every idea, almost, on the afterlife that you have, because everybody's gotta stitch together a pastiche of ideas that they've picked up here and there. And most of them don't realize that these ideas originate from the Bible and are often warpings of things that are in the Bible. So let's talk about the Bible for a second. Because if the afterlife, if this is our manual for it, do you understand this manual? Okay, everyone say with me, A, B, C, A, C.
[3:23] Do you realize that this book's so old that it was one of the first things ever written with an alphabet? Before that it was hieroglyphs. Guys, like, this is 4,000 years old. The first books are 3,500, 4,000 years old. And it's not mythology. It speaks about a nation called Israel. Anyone hear about them? Yeah, they're still around. And you know what? They didn't do so well. They struggled to follow God and do the right thing, but God would send them prophets and say, "There's gonna come a time when there's gonna be a Savior to save you from yourselves and from the life of oppression that they were living in that ancient world." And then this book documents when Jesus Christ appears and says, "I'm the Savior.
[4:14] I am God in the flesh, and I have come to show you who God is, to give My life for yours in love." And then He rose again. And this book is a document, a witness to His resurrection written by His disciples who said, "I saw Him alive. I touched Him. We ate food together." And they were willing to testify to that with all the rest of their lives. They gave their lives for it. And they literally gave their lives for it because eventually they were put to the test: did you see Jesus alive or didn't you, because we're gonna kill you if you're gonna keep on saying that. And they said, "We know who we believed in. He beat death. If that's what it takes, I'm willing to die."
[5:00] So this book, this holy ancient wisdom, tells us about a not-so-simple three-stage afterlife. So follow me with this, and as I take you through it for a second, just say with me for a second, say, "Body and soul." Body and soul. Because that's what we are. There's two parts to us, body and soul. There's three stages. Keep your eye on what's happening to the body and soul in three stages. So at the end of your life on earth, your soul is separated from your body and immediately goes to be with God or to not be with God. Now, only a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior will prepare you to be with God after death.
[5:48] And I want you to think about this. What does it mean to be with God? By definition, that means it's heaven. And what does it mean to not be with God? By definition, it is hell. That's stage one, that happens to you or I at our death. Stage two happens at the end of this world, where everyone's soul and body will be reunited to stand before God and all of humanity, to give an account for our earthly lives as written in the book of life and in the book of your life. Now, the book of life is simple. Those that have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior with genuine hearts and followed Him, their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
[6:36] And if your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, you will move on to stage three in a new heaven, a new earth. And if it's not, you won't. But there's also a record book of life that will be opened, and it will contain everything that was ever done in your life. And the Bible's funny. It says, you're saved by grace. You go to heaven or you don't. But your experience of heaven will actually be impacted by your life. Jesus once said to the servant who had been faithful with some gold that he'd been given, He tells a parable about it. He said, "This servant was faithful with a little bit, so he's gonna get a lot in the next life. Enter into the joy of your master," He said. And there's all kinds of things that say there's actually degrees of reward and punishment, because what we do in this life prepares us for our experience of the next life.
[7:28] Now, stage three, when God finally creates a glorious new world where the joys of heaven and earth are one, your body and soul will be transformed. Can you say transformed? Transformed, thank you. And transformed will be either a hollowing out and a shutting out from God, suffering the loss of all goodness for eternity. Or it'll be a glorifying and enlarging of who you are to share forever in the incredible joy of God's own life. And it is on that note, that last bit, that I want us to imagine together a little bit this morning. And we're gonna do that with the help of a second song.
[8:13] You already heard it in the service. Psalm 16. It's written 3,000 years ago by a great king of Israel named David. It is a song of worship that comes from his own intimate relationship with God and is also something that came from an inspiration from God, where God spoke truth through him, and in it we will actually discover an amazing prophecy about Christ that is hidden in it when we get to that point. But what strikes me right away from that psalm, as you heard it, is the intimate relationship with God that David had in verse 2. He said, "You are my Lord. Apart from You, I have no good thing."
[9:02] And in French, and I'm not French, so please forgive my pronunciation. But two a and the reason I read the French is not just because there's people here that are French that we want to value today, but because the translation gets at the original Hebrew a little bit. You could either say it, "Apart from You, God, I have no good thing," or "You're my every good thing," my bi supreme. In this life, David could see the goodness of God everywhere. In verse 1 he says, God kept him safe, much as He had when David was a teenager and he fought Goliath. God did that kind of deliverance and keeping David safe all through his life.
[9:52] Is there anyone here that can testify that God has helped you in difficult circumstances in this life? I certainly can. And in verse 3, David says that God gives him relationships with other people who love God, and it's delightful. And that's what we come together as a church for, to form relationships with other people who are seeking God and find God more clearly as we do it together. David was experiencing that in verse 4. He says, "Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more." And again, I'm wondering if anyone can verify this truth here this morning, that when we run after other gods or plain just run away from God, life is bringing more and more suffering.
[10:44] Is there anyone that can testify to that this morning? Well, the song that we read testified to it. "I created the sound of madness. I wrote the book of pain." But David's experience in relationship with God was just the opposite. Listen to how full his life is. He says, "Lord, You alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance." You see, David is so happy he's being looked after both his needs and also God is just blessing him with joy in different areas of his life. And so in verse 7, he says, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me.
[11:32] Even at night, my heart instructs me." What a contrast to those who can't even sleep 'cause their heart torments them. But he says, "I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken." This is a person who knows God in this life, who submits to God as Lord. And so he is ready for the next life. And you know what, guys? David knows he's ready. He has an assurance, a confidence, and a joy for what is going to come even after death. In verse 9, we can hear it. "Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because You, God, will not abandon me to the realm of the dead.
[12:22] Nor will You let Your faithful ones see decay." Now let's catch what David is inspired by God to say about body and soul. He says, "My body will rest secure and You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead." Or as another translation, the ESV, puts it, "You will not abandon my soul to the realm of the dead." You see, he had hope that when his body went into the ground, that someday God would raise it up. And he knew that when he died, his soul would immediately go to be with God. This is stage one of the afterlife where our bodies rest, but our souls go to be with God or are apart from God in hell where there is no good thing.
[13:08] You see, where God's presence is, is every good thing. And where God's presence is not, there is no good thing. It's amazing how this security in God for the afterlife made David's life better here and now. David knew what awaited him in the afterlife because he already knew who awaited him in the afterlife. And today, I just wanna tell you, you probably know it yourself. You see, either you have an assurance in your soul that is also evidenced in your life that gives you every reason to think you're going to heaven or you have instead gnawing uncertainty and a set of wishes that you have set up for what is not, that, untested wishes that are not a foundation for the next life.
[14:11] But you know what? One of the things David said here was not true. He said, "You will not let Your faithful ones see decay." You see, David did die and his body did decay. Like the lady on the opening video said, he became compost. But this is the prophetic part of the psalm. You see, a thousand years after David died, right around AD 30, in the very same city that he had ruled, in the city of Jerusalem, a follower of Jesus named Peter stood up and gave his first big sermon to a crowd of thousands who had just gathered because a miracle had happened. And as he preaches this first Christian sermon, he quotes the verse we just read from David.
[15:00] And then he says, "Hey, fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. So seeing what was to come, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that the Messiah was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did His body see decay." And Peter then witnesses, "God has raised Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it." You see, God has raised Jesus to life.
[15:46] In all of human history, all have died. And so we say that to be human is to be mortal. But in Jesus, the entire pattern of human existence has been changed. Mortal can become immortal. There is life after death. And it is not just a disembodied soul that kind of lives on. No, it is a resurrected, physical, fleshly life that can touch and hug and squeeze and smell. When Jesus was raised from the dead, His first question was much like a teenage boy. "Do you have anything to eat?" Maybe the resurrection metabolism is like a teenager. I don't know. But it is a life that runs, that tastes, that eats, that lasts and smells.
[16:36] and explores its truly life. And so when Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," He's saying to you and me that our lives become true life when we are joined with His in friendship and worship. And so David, in the last verse of this psalm, as he's swept up by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sees this life. And he says to God, "You make known to me the path of life, and You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand." And so friends, if you know Jesus, when you die, your spirit goes to be with heaven.
[17:23] That's stage one. But this peace and joy is merely a wonderful waystation on the path to immortal life. For the end of this world, God's voice will ring out through all of creation, calling everyone who has ever lived back to physical existence, reuniting disembodied souls from heaven and hell to stand before Him as whole human beings and to give an account of their lives. And this is stage two. You see, my friends, the only question that He's going to ask you is, do you know Jesus as Lord of your life and Savior of your life? You see, if God is the source of life and life is all about love, and life is all about, and love is all about freely choosing someone, then God has freely chosen you.
[18:22] He has come to you in Jesus Christ to show by His ministry who He was, to offer His life as the sacrifice for sin, and to be raised again. And really, He's just saying simply, what's your response? I chose you. Do you choose me? You see, there's nothing automatic about love. Love is not a passing feeling that comes over you, but it is ultimately your choice for someone. And it is this choice for God that He's awaiting for you. And so when you stand before the Lord Almighty and His majesty, He will simply ask you, what did you do with My Son, who I gave for you?
[19:14] And if you have chosen Him back, you will enter into an eternity of life. And if you have rejected Him, you will simply have your wish, entering into an eternity apart from God, where it will suddenly become crystal clear that you've been cut off from the source of life, from everything good, diminishing forever, from what you could have been, suffering eternal loss. But for those who enter into the new heaven, join to the new earth that God will create, life will be an eternal expansion. And this is stage three. Your body and soul will be transformed to be like Jesus' resurrected body and soul. You see, Jesus didn't just come back to life.
[20:00] I mean, I don't wanna just come back with all my present flaws. He came back to life glorified, the way God intended human life to be, immortal, perfect. And He is the prototype of resurrected and glorified human existence and will be the template for your own transformation. Now, the apostle Paul compares our body that dies to a little seed in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, when you sow, he's talking to a bunch of farmers. I guess he says, when you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, you don't plant the big, the fruit, the wheat that's gonna come from it.
[20:47] You plant just a seed, something small, perhaps of wheat or something else. So let's imagine today, he said we could use anything, Paul, as an example. Let's imagine today that our life is like a juicy kernel of corn. It's golden, it's plump, it's full of life. And we ripen as much like this in our lives. We hit our prime. But eventually, someday we kind of start to shrivel up and then we die.
[21:35] And so Paul says, what happens to a seed is it falls to the ground and it's covered. But is that the end? No. Paul says, a seed comes back as so much more than it was. This comes back as this. Do you see the difference? So Paul says, so it'll be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, but it's raised imperishable. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. This little life that we have is buried so small, but when it is resurrected in the end, it will be raised full of life.
[22:32] It will be raised in glory. Honor and power expanded and multiplied so much more than you or I could ever imagine it would be. And if you think about it for a second, how could it not be raised as more? For Peter said in 2 Peter 1:4, he said, "We will participate in the divine nature." I want you to read that once more. I think it's on the screen. Participate in the divine nature. You and I will be connected to God by the Holy Spirit with a connection that has no obstructions. God, the source of life, will flow into us. God, the supreme good, will flow into us. We'll be participating in God.
[23:20] That is an expansion, an experience of life beyond anything we can think about. But what will be left of us if we fail to participate in the supreme good? Who is God? Our little kernel of life will have failed to become what it was meant to be apart from God. There is no good. So the good inside us will be squished out and all that will be left will be a remnant, a husk. I wouldn't call what's gonna happen to someone who's lost for eternity as living, but it is existing forever, knowing what could have been and amplified by every person that we negatively influenced to cause them to come to that same place.
[24:16] Jesus told a parable about a rich man who ignored the needs of a poor man around him and said, the poor man went to be with God and got his he got the pleasures he had missed in life. He got them in spades in the afterlife. But the rich man, not just 'cause he was rich, but because he didn't follow God, he goes to hell. And that rich man, his only desire in life was, he said, can you warn those I love about this? So they don't make the same mistake? And perhaps that'll be the only lasting purpose of a lost life, is that it will testify for all eternity. There is no good thing apart from God and no one will ever be tempted again to think that there would be. But the last book of this wonderful Bible, it closes with a picture of abundant eternal life.
[25:11] I'm gonna read it to you, and as I do, I want you to just picture it this time. It's not gonna be up on the screen. I want you to picture God's life flowing from the Father to the Son in the Spirit and flowing like a river, connecting to His own people. Just close your eyes as I read. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Down the middle of the great street of the city of God, on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
[25:59] No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They won't need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. Satan tries to deceive us into thinking that God's power is designed to keep us down, but in the end, God's power will be used to lift us up, and we will reign forever and ever with Him. Imagine that. What will the Creator create in the end with His children in a new heaven and new earth that just goes on and on getting better day by day?
[26:54] And what will it be like to have everything in all of creation at our disposal, reigning with God to enjoy it all with Him? And how much will our joy be amplified by every life in heaven that our lives influence to bring them to that place? This is amazing. There was a man named Irenaeus. He was a pastor of the early church, first theologian actually. And he described God's great plan for creation, a plan that ultimately culminates in believers participating in God's life. Irenaeus is famously described, participating in God's life this way. He said, "The glory of God is a human person fully alive."
[27:45] Fully alive. That's what the afterlife holds for us, bursting with promises and experiences beyond all that we can ask or imagine. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human mind has conceived of the things that God has prepared for those who love Him." It's going to be fantastic, my friends. And so David, he closes off his psalm saying, "You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand." We will have eternal pleasures in the presence of God at His right hand with Jesus, drenched in the Holy Spirit.
[28:35] All the pleasures of this world in the most pure and beautiful form will be found in fellowship with God. And all the heavenly joys of worship and spiritual rapture will wash over us like waves in an ocean of reality. This is embodied, red-blooded, fully alive life amped up to a brightness and glory that we cannot even imagine. Revelation 22, as I asked you to close your eyes and read, it started with saying, an angel showed me these things. And when we think of an amazing spiritual life, we think of an angel. What could be more incredible and powerful and beautiful and wonderful than an angel? But the Bible says the angels are borderline jealous at what God is going to do with human beings as they come to participate in the life of God.
[29:23] As God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existing as one in fellowship, says, "I wanna open my life to you. Come into this fellowship." He'll always be God. We'll always just be human beings, but we will not be separate. We will be experiencing life's God, life's goodness as God pours into us. And so this morning I want you to ask yourself one question, only one. But honestly, why in the world do we resist God? All these years, has your freedom been misused to resist God?
[30:08] Has your life been singing a song of madness and writing a book of pain? But today, my friends, today, our freedom must find its true purpose. It's not in resisting God. It's in freely choosing to respond to His great love for us so that we can begin to live a life that is truly life in fellowship with God. So in the name of Jesus Christ, who died for you and for me, I call us all now from the bottom of our hearts to say yes to God, to fling open the doors of our hearts, and to throw away the madness and meaninglessness of a life that is headed to eternal loss. And instead in praise the life that is truly life, both now and forevermore.
[30:56] And I wanna ask you, is it time? Now, I wanna do something right now. If you know in your heart that when you die, you're going to be with God. If He has given you assurance in your heart, if someone could possibly analyze your life piece by piece, would you be predictable as a Christian? If you have that peace in your heart right now and you know where you would go to be when you die, would you raise your hand and testify? And this isn't saying I am a good person. It says, I know a good God. I know Him. I know Him, and He knows me. And keep that hand up. And now I just want to ask, is there anyone else that would like to honestly be able to raise their hand today and they're willing to say yes to God?
[31:46] Would you raise your hand now? Yes. Raise your hand. I see two people. So raise, give me two hands. I mean, this is not a, I'm not sure, give, like, respond to God. He loves you. He has a future beyond what our minds can even comprehend. Streets of gold is just a way to say you can't believe it. So would you pray with me right now? I'll just lead you in a simple prayer of saying yes to God. Now if accepting Jesus and saying, I wanna follow You for my life, I wanna experience foretaste now of the goodness to come. I wanna live for what matters. And I wanna know where I'm going when I would you pray with me right now?
[32:31] Father, are you praying with me? Father, all my life You have been holding out Your hands to me, saying that You choose me. You chose me when You sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. And right now I choose You back. I say yes, and I accept the gift of life, and I dedicate my life to You from here on in. Lead me in the life that is truly life. I can't wait to see You someday. In Jesus' name, amen.