Introduction: What do we know about life after death? None of us has ever died and come back to explain it all. Psychics and Mediums are of the Devil, and condemned by God. But God has given us the Bible. In His Word, He tells us much about life after death. What does the Bible say?
I. Christians who die don't go to Purgatory.
There is no such place as Purgatory. It is another Roman Catholic myth (of which there are many). There is no true veil of St. Veronica. The shroud of Turin is a fake. Mary was not born the immaculate conception, she played no part in our redemption from sin, she did not ascend bodily into Heaven, and she is not the Queen of Heaven. The Pope is not Christ's Vicar on earth. There is no such place as Limbo, or Purgatory. What does the Bible say?
Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
Luke 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?
Luke 23:41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Luke 23:42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
2 Cor 5:4 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.
2 Cor 5:5 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 Cor 5:6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
2 Cor 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.
2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
II. When Christians die, they go to God's house.
King David already knew this 1,000 years before Jesus was born:
Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Jesus expanded on the teachings of the Psalms:
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
III. God has made the pathway to Heaven clear (John 14:4-6).
John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
John 14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Bible tells us many times that Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
Acts 4:11 He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
This teaching of the Bible is a bitter pill to our generation. People want desparately to be free to make up their own religions. People struggle to be free from the God of the Bible. But He is the only real God.
You cannot go to Heaven by observing Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Shinto, Taoism, Voodoo, Spiritism or Atheism. No religion has the power to wash away sins, or to satisfy the justice of God. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins. The peoples of the world, and in our own United States, may be ever so religious. But unless they seek the one true God, and put their faith in Jesus, they cannot be saved.
On the other hand, ANYONE of any country, and any nationality, who abandons man-made religions, and who seeks after the one true God will find Him, and will eventually find Jesus Christ (Deut. 4:27-29).
Deu 4:27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
Deu 4:28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
Deu 4:29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Bible gives us a great example of a man from a Pagan country who was seeking God, and who eventually found Christ -- the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-35).
Acts 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
Acts 8:27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
Acts 8:28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
Acts 8:29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
Acts 8:30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
Acts 8:31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Acts 8:32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Acts 8:33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."
Acts 8:34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?"
Acts 8:35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
The Holy Spirit did five things:
Conclusion: What do we know about life after death? We know much, because God has given us the Bible. We know that when a Christian dies, he or she goes immediately to be with the Lord. As we think of our fallen Vets, and others who have died, let's put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have hearts full of hope with regard to the world to come. Amen.