"What Happens When We Die?"

July 6, 2008

They say there are two things that are certain in life:   death and taxes.   There may be some ways to avoid taxes, but there is no known way to avoid dying.   Sooner or later, it will happen to all of us – our bodies will stop functioning and the life we have known will come to an end.

The question we are trying to answer this morning is this:   what happens when we die?   Sure, the Bible talks about being resurrected at some point in the future when Jesus returns to earth and that all who have trusted in Him will be raised to life to live with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).    But what happens in between the time we breath our last breathe and the time of our resurrection?   Do we just lay there “dead” or do we have some sort of “heavenly” experience while we wait?

Here is what the Bible teaches:

1.   At death, we go to one of two destinations:  either to a place of torment or to a

      place of peace. 

      Luke 16:19-24

      How can we know which one we will get?

      John 3:16-20

      Romans 6:23

2.    "Believers" go immediately into the presence of Jesus

      Luke 16:22-23

      Luke 23:43

      2 Corinthians 5:8

      Philippians 1:21-23

3.   Believers will dwell with God forever

      Psalm 23:6

      John 3:16

      John 14:1-3

We apologize that the audio of the sermon is unavailable this week.   If you would like to read the "manuscript" Dan prepared for himself prior to delivering the sermon (although he doesn't take the manuscript with him when he preaches, so this is not exactly the same as what he said in the sermon), then left-click here to see it in PDF format..