Fear Is A LieSample

“FEAR OF DEATH” If you have been to a funeral, you have probably experienced the cold chill that comes from that time of grief and mourning. The black clothes, the flowers, the tears, the confusion. It is easy to understand why we have the fear of death – the fear of losing and leaving everyone - especially our family and friends. It is a heavy burden, and one that can easily become a fear if we don’t have the right foundations in our life. We hear the words ‘heaven’ and ‘eternal life’ spoken in the funeral service, but each of us needs to ask if they carry enough weight to enable us to overcome the fear of death. Heaven is perfection. That means in heaven there is no poverty, no racism, no sickness, no police, no army, no tears, and no pain. In today’s passage, it says that God so loved the world and his love was so strong for his creation that he gave his one and only son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in him receives eternal life. The word for ‘world’ means every single human being regardless of age, race, gender, education, status, nationality, or behavior. That means you and me; God loved each of us so much that he was willing to lay down his life, so that we could have eternal life in heaven. If we are living in a relationship with Christ, then we can overcome the fear of death with the security of knowing that we have received eternal life in the perfect paradise, at the party of all parties! If we know people who don’t yet know Jesus and they have a fear of death, we can take courage from the fact that when God sent Jesus, he sent him for every human being. His love is not exclusive but totally inclusive. Anyone who comes to Jesus can be saved! Fear of death is one of the most common fears among people, and there is something counter-cultural about being confident that there is hope after death. In fact, for Christians, we can look forward to heaven, knowing that it will be a perfect version of the world we live in today. The fear of death can be conquered when we know our life on Earth will continue into eternity through the work of Jesus on the cross.