Have you noticed there is very little talk nowadays about heaven or about leaving this old world behind? Instead, we are bombarded with messages on how to use our faith to acquire more things. “The next revival,” said one well-known teacher, “will be a financial revival. God is going to pour out financial blessing on all believers.”
Any message about death bothers us. We try to ignore even thinking about it and think that those who discuss it are morbid. Occasionally, we will talk about what heaven must be like, but most of the time the subject of death is taboo.
Nowadays, death is considered an intruder that cuts us off from the good life to which we have become accustomed. We have so cluttered our lives with material things that we are bogged down. We can no longer bear the thought of leaving our beautiful homes, our lovely things, our charming sweethearts. We seem to be thinking, “Dying now would be too great a loss. I love the Lord, but I need time to enjoy my real estate. I married a wife. I want to see what our children do with their lives. I need more time."
What a stunted concept of God's eternal purposes! No wonder so many Christians are frightened by the thought of death. The truth is that we are far from understanding Christ's call to forsake the world and all its entanglements. He calls us to die without building memorials to ourselves, to die without worrying how we should be remembered. Jesus left no autobiography, no headquarters, no university or Bible college. He left nothing to perpetuate his memory but the bread and the wine.
How different the first Christians were. Paul spoke much about death. In fact, our resurrection from the dead is referred to in the New Testament as our blessed hope.
What is the greatest revelation of faith, and how is it to be exercised? You will find it in Hebrews. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. …But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:13,16, NKJV).