Christ’s Death and Ours,   Heb. 2:9-15
 

1. In the dialogue of Plato, Phaedo, Socrates gives his view of death, and the view is expressed that philosophy is the study of death. In commenting on this, Nicolas Berdyaev, a Russian existentialist, wrote, "Plato was right in teaching that philosophy was the practice of death. The only trouble is that philosophy as such does not know how one ought to die and how to conquer death." (Destiny of Man, p. 250)

There is an insensitivity about death. We can see something of this in a typical funeral. Visit a funeral in a small town and you will see that many people come to a funeral, but very few come to mourn. A funeral becomes a family reunion, or a reunion of friends who haven't seen one another for years. The conversations are not about death, but about life—what the  living is now doing.

There is uneasiness in viewing the remains of the dead. We don't want to be reminded because we want to live and modern medicine has made it possible for many to post-pone thinking about dying for an average of 36 years.

We don’t want to either think or talk about death. Death as a subject is a hush-hush issue like sex used to be. We don't refer to a person's dying, and we have terms like "passed away" or "passed on" or "departed." We go to great expense to beautify the body.

There is a growing literature and interest on the subject of death. A recent book, The Meaning of Death, brings together a collection of essays by philosophers, psychiatrists and theologians.

2. A Christian view of death has to begin with two people: the first Adam and the Second One. The appearance of death was not by design as the Scripture tell us. In writing to the Romans (5:12) Paul says that sin came into the world thru Adam, and where there is sin, there is death, and death spreads to all men because all men sinned. The death that is of paramount interest is spiritual death, separation from God, the source of life. The other death is that of Jesus who died. His death is also important for me.

His death gives me present reunion with God and makes me alive spiritually, and then his future promise is a resurrected body that shall not die again.

3. Let us look together at a subject that appears morbid and gruesome, but which we cannot escape, unless Christ comes before we die. Christ came to deal with the sources of death.

I. Christ came to experience death for every men. 9.

l. The death of Jesus does not abolish death physical for us. The sense of the phrase, Jesus experiencing death for every men, is to be understood as “the leader of our salvation" rather than  pioneer. As the"understander" or leader of our salvation he has experienced the most crucial experience  that man faces. Death is the last great enemy of man. What can we say about Death? Who has died before and can give us a run-down on it? Who has lived to tell about it? Who has come back from the other side? Socrates noted that he had been searching all his life and now at death he did not repine for he believed that just as he had friends and masters in this world, he would also have good masters and friends in another world. But Socrates drank  the poison and died, and has not been heard from since. Did he find good friends? Did he find judgement? He has not been back. Socrates only gives us his view, his hope, his feelings. . A poet has written, "Strange-is it not? that of the myriads who before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road which to discover we must travel too."

2. Jesus, on the other hand, as Son of God, came to death and experienced what every man experiences, but returned from the grave alive. The resurrection gives us a word from beyond the grave. The leader of our salvation has been there and back. He promises us hope because he is conqueror of death. Because  he has come back his guidance is sure, and his word can be trusted for comfort. This is why there is great help and consolation in the words of John’s Gospel, words Jesus uttered before the crucifixion. "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father‘s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place e for you. And when I go and prepare e place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

A family is a remarkable unit when it works. A good family serves a unique function. Take school for instance, when my son got to school age I took him down and  enrolled him and told the teacher to spank him good if he didn’t behave. The first few days I took him to school walking with him, and then when he came home I met him, but in a few days I let him come himself. If I had been indifferent, I could have told him to go to school, and he may or may not have found it. After three years my little girl went to school. This time her brother went with her after enrollment and he smoothed the way for her because he  had experience. She had confidence because he was experienced in school. There is significance in the phrase that "he is not ashamed to call them brethern". He is our elder brother who has experienced death and as the leader of our salvation, he will bring us thru death to the full life of eternity.

ll. Christ came to annul the power of the devil.  14.

1. This thought is difficult because little is said about the activities of Satan. Why doesn't God just abolish Satan immediately? Why has he waited this long? These questions cannot he answered, and the only points we can make relate to his freedom given to men and his redemption of a bad situation.
The problem also exists in that we still die. Death itself is not destroyed. There are two points that I feel are involved in this difficult  passage.

A. Thru death, death is destroyed. Before the resurrection men’s hopes were unsure about life after death. Death was the end, the destruction of life itself. Now, with the resurrection we pass thru death and die no more. We pass thru death end its power is destroyed. After death, there is no more dying.
 This is an important point with the influence of eastern religions that speak of reincarnation. In reincarnation there is death again and again. But thru the death of Christ, death is no more, death is defeated and this is affirmed by Paul to the Corinthians: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy sting. Thanks he to God who gives us the  victory thru our Lord Jesus Christ."

B. Thru death, Satan‘s dominion is limited. How so? Christ's death is the basis of the New Covenant which we will see in Hebrews. Along with the new covenant there is God’s Spirit given to us as the down payment of our salvation. God‘s Spirit is at work in us, and we have s new ruler. Our old ruler has been overthrown and we have life in Christ. So--thru Christ’s death, He annuls him who has been active in our lives bringing us to death.

III. Christ came to deliver from the fear of death. 15

l. The fear of death is based upon the unknown and clinging to life as long as life permits. Life is God given and is to be enjoyed as long as life permits.  But death does come to us.  How we greet it will depend upon our faith.  There are people who despair that God has given us life, but are afraid to die.  If we believe that God has given  us life  then our fullest life begins at death, then eternal life with him is something to look forward to.

2. There  is a proper  fear of death that must be mentioned. The  fear of death is:  what if I should die right now without receiving Christ as my Savior.  Death has a finality about it that once I am dead, I have no recourse, no second chances, no way to repent.  Hell…is the destiny of people who do not want to accept God’s grace. God does not send people to hell,  it is their choice of not wanting to have God in their life.  If you reject the light of God there is only darkness. There should be fear of death if I am still alienated from God.

3. Many of life's fears on based on the unknown. Death was like this, but now there is life, light, and knowledge about death because of Christ's conquest. The seriousness of death must not be played-down, as the grave has become a door into new life. Jesus's words: I am the resurrection and the life--he that believes in me though he were died, yet shall he live."

4. Peter Marshall, in one of his sermons, tells of a little boy--the only son--who was ill with an incurable disease. Month after month the mother had tenderly nursed him, read to him, and played with him hoping to keep him from realizing the dreadful finality of the doctor’s diagnosis. But as the weeks went on and he grew no better, the little fellow gradually began to understand that he would never be like the other boys he saw playing outside his  window, and small as he was, he began to understand the meaning of the word death, and he too, knew that he was to die.

One day his mother had been reading to him the stirring tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the  Round Table of Lancelot and that last glorious battle in which so many fair knights met their death. As she closed the book, the boy sat silent for an instant as though deeply stirred with the trumpet call of the old English tale, and then asked the question that had been weighing on his childish heart: Mother, what is it like to die? Mother, does it hurt?

Quick tears sprang to her eyes and she fled to the kitchen supposedly to tend to something on the stove. She knew it was a question with deep significance. She knew it must be answered  satisfactorily. So she leaned for an instant against the kitchen cabinet, her knuckles pressed white against the smooth surface and breathed a hurried prayer that the Lord would keep her from breaking down before the boy, and would tell her how to answer. And the Lord did help her. Immediately she knew how to explain it to him:

"Kenneth," she said as she returned to the next room, "you remember when you were a boy, how you used to play so hard all day that when night came you would be too tired even to undress  and you would tumble into Mother's bed and fall asleep? That was not your bed...it was not where you belonged.

"And you would only stay there a little while. In the morning, much to your surprise, you would wake up and find yourself  in your own bed and in your own room. You were there because someone had loved you and taken care of you. Your father had come--with big strong arms--and carried you away.

Kenneth, death is just like that." We just wake up some morning, to find ourselves in the other room--our own room where we belong--because the Lord Jesus loved us."

The lad's shining, trusting face looking up into hers told her that the point had  gone home and that there would be no fear...only love and trust in his little heart as he went to meet the Father in Heaven.
He never against asked questions. And several weeks later he fell asleep just as she had said.”

This is a warm, tender story of what the Scripture means. Jesus, the leader of our Salvation...takes away our fears because in Him there is no need for fear.

Conclusion:

l. Robert Bruce, a preacher of lone ago, was eating his breakfast and suddenly called his daughter to his side, and said, "I have breakfasted with you , and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ. He died. You have been in our presence today, but will you be in the presence of God when you die?