Sermon Tone Analysis

Facing the Certainty of Our Own Death

2 Peter 1:13‑15

 

/I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

/

 

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othing is certain but death and taxes.

Such folk wisdom has been with us throughout the history of the race.

However, in reality, not even taxes are certain; it seems that some (politicians in particular) are privileged to evade taxes.

However, no one has managed to avoid death.

The poet has written:

 

And come he slow, or come he fast,

Yet still ‘tis death that comes at last.

One of the darkest chapters of the entire Bible occurs early in the *Book of Genesis*.

The *fifth chapter* of *Genesis* is a genealogy of Adam’s descendants to the time of Noah.

What is depressing is that each individual is listed in succession, the time of his birth is listed, the name of the child through which Noah’s lineage is determined is listed, and the verses always conclude with the words, and then he died.

It is as though we were visiting a cemetery and carefully noting what is written on the tombstones.

Though there may be touching verses chiselled in the stone, and though there might be the sweetest of thoughts expressed, the real data is all in a hyphen.

The tombstone gives a date of the birth of that individual and a date for their death, but the life is summed by with a hyphen.

In an earlier time, a time in which we lived closer to our own mortality, death was an integral part of life.

Family members died at home in the presence of those they loved and with whom they had spent their days.

There was an acknowledgement, however grudging it may have been conceded, that we are but frail creatures living under sentence of death.

Today, at the time of death we are segregated from those who love us, filled with tubes and surrendered to the sterile environment of hospital rooms and the artificial compassion of professionals.

Consequently, though we acknowledge death, we have raised a generation loath to admit their mortality or the inevitability of death.

As a pastor, I have too often witnessed the devastation visited on families following the death of a loved one.

Widows, in particular, are often left in most uncomfortable situations.

Surviving family members struggle to remember the wishes of a loved one concerning burial or arrangements for their affairs, wishes which probably were expressed in the vaguest of terms.

Because I have witnessed this on so many occasions, I determined in a former congregation to provide some wise counsel before it was needed.

I proposed to the board of that congregation that we invite a lawyer to visit to explain the value of a will, that we invite a funeral director to explain the procedure for preplanning for death, and that we invite a financial expert to speak about financial planning.

I was astonished that the most vociferous rejection of this idea was from the elderly members of that board, those nearest to the time when such information would be needed.

Upon exploring with them their opposition I discovered that they simply did not want to think about dying.

I said to one man in particular who was adamantly opposed to thinking about death, “Well, it is the last thing we ever talk about.”

The Bible, in contradistinction to contemporary attitudes, does not take the approach of burying the thought of man’s mortality under a cover of euphemisms or denial.

We are mortal, the consequence of the Fall of our first parents.

We are under sentence of death.

That death is readily seen in the progressive deterioration of our physical bodies, but what is unseen, but patently evident, is that our spirits are dead.

Our condition in actuality is that we are dead in trespasses and sin.

We need to be born a second time that our spirits may be alive to God and our souls delivered from death.

Thus born again, we receive the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come, the redemption of our bodies.

Therefore, the Bible boldly faces our present condition because the writers knew we were destined for something far greater.

Peter admitted his mortality; he knew that he was rapidly approaching the day of his own /exodus/, the time he would be called to transit the unseen boundary between this transient moment in which we currently exist and the eternal now.

He was eager, therefore, to provide sound instruction for readers of this letter that after his death they might remember what was truly important.

It is not Peter’s motive for providing this instruction which occupies our attention today, but it is rather the knowledge of his death and the freedom with which he spoke of that impending moment which is the focus of our study.

For whether we have acknowledged it or not, we are mortal.

We also are under sentence of death, and we must make preparation for that transition.

Each of Us Shall Soon Put this Present Life Aside – As at night we put off our clothes and lay them by, so at death we must put off our bodies.

In fact, Peter spoke of his body as a tent – it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.

He used the same expression that Paul used in his second letter to the Corinthian Christians.

/Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come/ [*2 Corinthians 5:1-5*].

There, Paul contrasted the transient nature of our present existence to the permanence of our condition in heaven.

Peter refers by this expression to the impermanence of human existence.

This body is suited only for this present, fallen world; thus it is temporary.

You will no doubt recall that John cautions Christians that /the world and its desires pass away/ [*1 John 2:17*]; surely this body which is suited only for this present, passing world is included in John’s statement.

The body is but a tent for the soul; and it is an especially shabby and transient structure which can be easily moved.

The strength of the young man is soon gone and the beauty of the young woman quickly fades, reminding us that we live in a tent.

Should the reality of our fallen condition be denied?

We are born; we must die.

On occasion I have had people complain to me that preachers are always talking about death.

My usual response is that when people stop dying I will stop speaking about death.

It is not insensitive to admonish people to prepare for what is a certainty.

It is not callused to insist that people must face up to the results of the fall, results which include the knowledge that we occupy this body temporarily.

Then, having occupied this tent, we will be called to give an account to God who created us.

It is common today to focus undue attention on the body; perhaps it was always a facet of the human condition.

Why do we “hate” the crow’s feet, the liver spots, the laugh lines, and mousy hair?

Isn’t it because each of these reminds us of our mortality?

We adulate youth, and we try to maintain our youthful appearance.

I never cease to marvel at the spectacle of older women trying to look like teenagers.

The only thing more comical is the appearance of older men wearing leisure suits and trying to look as though they just stepped out of the sixties.

The camera may not lie, but it does sometimes hide the truth.

Thus Hollywood notables appear to never age.

Closer examination shows that their eyebrows are pulled up so high above their eyes that they have been reduced to mere slits because the skin of their face is pulled so tight to rid them of any wrinkles.

According to the advertising of this age it is a sin to have grey or white hair, though the Word remind us that /the hoary head is a crown of glory/ [*Proverbs 16:31* *KJV*], and that grey hair is the splendour of the old [*Proverbs 20:29*].

Why do we resist admitting that we are now under sentence of death?

Though readily acknowledging that others are mortal, few are willing to actually deal with their own mortality.

Why should the acknowledgement of personal mortality be so offensive to this generation?

Is it not because we have, consciously or unconsciously, elevated science to the level of a god only to be disappointed in the ability of scientists to save us.

We imagined that scientific advances would free us from ageing and the concomitant curse of death.

Instead, we discovered that scientific advances are neutral, and it is the moral quality of those administering these advances which determines whether scientific achievement shall bless or curse.

We thought that we could be as God and we attempted to make gods after our own imaginations only to learn that they were not gods after all.

I was called on one occasion to perform a funeral for a woman who had died unexpectedly.

An area funeral director had phoned me since the family had specified that they wished a Baptist minister to perform the funeral service.

As is my custom, I phoned the family to arrange a visit.

I was hoping to provide words of comfort and to learn something about the family so that the funeral service would not be something merely read out of a book.

At first the family was uninterested in a visit from the officiating minister, but eventually I was asked to drop by the following day after the son was finished with work.

At the expected hour I arrived at the house, introduced myself and was let into the house.

I expressed my condolences and asked if there was anything in particular concerning their mother which they thought important to remember.

The brother abruptly stated: “We don’t want no hell-fire and brimstone message.”

I confess that I was somewhat taken aback by the abruptness of this interjection, but I responded by saying that I don’t seize the occasion of a funeral to excoriate the mourners.

I did make plain that I would speak of Christ, His sacrifice and our responsibility to receive His grace.

The brother, clearly agitated, responded yet again that he would not tolerate a “hell-fire and brimstone message.”

Again, I tried to discover what he was speaking about while yet insisting that I was responsible before God to speak of the great issues of life.

Attempting to find why this man felt the way he did, I asked why they wished a Baptist minister to officiate at the service.

Most of us are distinguished as being somewhat fundamental in doctrinal issues.

The man again responded while his sister sat quietly listening that their mother had sent them to church as children.

The church they had attended was a Baptist church.

Though their mother never attended with them, and though she had never attended a church during the course of her life to their knowledge, they wanted a Baptist minister to officiate at her funeral.

She was in heaven, the man assured me, because she was a good woman and had invested time in volunteer work.

Because she was a good woman, he and his sister were united in wanting no “hell-fire and brimstone message.”