The fear of death - Part 1

 Fear is probably one of the most basic emotions of human nature. In fact, science has even categorized it into different types based on what you truly are afraid of. For example, there's the fear of spiders which is called arachnophobia. There's the fear of open spaces which is called agoraphobia. There's the fear of small spaces which is called claustrophobia and there's many more that we could mention but you get the point, we all have fears in our lives. Having fears is all part of our human fallen nature, our unredeemed flesh.

I've been told that as you grow older, you tend to fear less. Is that true? Is it because, as you grow closer to your departure, the hope of heaven takes a different perspective for those of us who are in Christ and the feeling of seeing Jesus face to face gets overwhelmingly more exciting as the days go by? Or is it because you may have lived a life that is somewhat satisfying to you and there's no regrets, and you're ready to go? I've met people, Christian and non Christians, who have been ready for their departure into eternity. There's good news for one, there's bad news for the other. For the Christian, there's the promise of an eternal life with Jesus. For the non Christian, there's eternal damnation.

I'm pretty sure to the vast majority of us, there has been a fear that has been felt at some point in our lives and maybe more frequently that we would like to admit, and that's the fear of death. I remember, as a kid, a cousin of mine told my mom that he was afraid of dying and, if I'm not mistaken, my mom lovingly told him that he was too young to be thinking about those kind of things. But, to be honest, I believe most of us would like to accomplish something that could potentially cause a great positive impact in this world before we depart into eternity.

In I Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18, Paul paints us a picture of why we shouldn't be afraid of death. The last verse gives us a hint of what he's been talking about. He says: "Therefore comfort one another with these words". Which words? The words he's been talking about since verse 13. Now, it is important to notice that the word "will" appears six times in this passage which gives us the eschatological context of it. It refers to an event that has not yet happen, but it will happen in the future. That event is none other than the rapture of the church. These are those "will" statements:

1. "God will bring with Him those who has fallen asleep". 14

2. "We....who are left will not precede those who has fallen asleep". 15a

3. "The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven". 15b

4.  " The dead in Christ will rise first". 16

5. "We....who are left will be caught up together with them". 17a

6. "We will always be with the Lord". 17b

So, how can Paul encourage us to not be afraid of dying in the context of the rapture? We shouldn't be afraid of dying because:

I. We have the certainty that those who have already departed (fallen asleep) are secured in the Lord and so are we.

Paul goes out of his way to inform the believers in Thessalonica that they shouldn't grieve as those "who have no hope" (13) and through verse 16 he goes on to talk about those who have died in Christ. He's not saying Christians don't grieve, he's saying that we should grieve differently because we have a hope and that hope is Christ. He is telling us to be encouraged by the fact that "God will bring with Him those who has fallen asleep" and through whom is that all possible? It's possible because of Jesus, through his death and resurrection (14). It is possible because of the sacrifice that He, the Son of God, suffered on the cross of Calvary  for all of us to pay for our sins. On that amazing truth rests our hope that one day He will bring back those who have died in Him. How can then we be encouraged? How can that take away my fear of dying? Simply put, if we know that the dead in Christ will come back with Him, if we are in Christ, we will also come back with Him if we have already passed away. And what does that mean? It means that we're coming back from somewhere and that somewhere is heaven. If we die in Christ, we'll be in heaven and what could be better than heaven? Absolutely nothing! Instead of thinking we're losing our lives, we should be thinking we're gaining a better life with Jesus in His eternal abode. That's the first encouragement Paul gives us. It is the fact that, when we die, if we are in Christ, we'll be transferred to a better place, not a worse one. Our perspective about death must change in order for that fear of death to be vanished. But, Paul is not done quite yet. There are more encouragements coming. Stay tuned and may God bless you!