Are You Afraid to Die?

In this part of the sermon: The first main point is that the fear of death is a natural and legitimate fear, as assumed by the writer of Hebrews. Martin distinguishes this from irrational fears like…

Examples of irrational fears like walking under a ladder or a black cat crossing one's path are used to contrast with the legitimate fear of death, which has a basis in reality.

When the writer to the Hebrews is describing the condition of those to whom he is writing, and sinners in general, who can be delivered by the gracious saving work of Jesus, he describes such people in this way, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Who through fear of death. And the way in which he uses that phrase, it is assumed, that this was both a common and a legitimate fear. And so my first heading is that the fear of death is a natural and a legitimate fear. Now some fears are irrational and without any foundation in substance. You've heard of people afr...

4:30 - 5:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first main point is that the fear of death is a natural and legitimate fear, as assumed by the writer of Hebrews. Martin distinguishes this from irrational fears like…

The superstition of baseball players avoiding the foul line is given as another example of an irrational fear, further distinguishing it from the fear of death.

That's the sign of spring. And there are grown men who know how to negotiate for millions of dollars to play a kid's game, who would never think of stepping on the foul line between the pitcher's mound and the dugout. You watch them when they come off the field. Grown men.

6:12 - 6:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Death is an enemy, a vicious, relentless, cruel, grotesque enemy. And that's why we fear it.

The experience of going to the dentist for wisdom teeth extraction is used to illustrate that while some experiences are unpleasant and dreadful, they are known and do not paralyze with the same terror as the unknown of death.

But if we've been there before, that fear does not paralyze us and terrorize us. For example, you've been to the dentist, and if you had your wisdom teeth pulled on one side, and you know you've got to have them pulled on the other, you know what's going to happen. He's going to sit you in the chair, he's going to stick that needle in there, and you're going to feel a little twinge, and then you're going to go all numb and funny, and then he's going to yank that thing out, and then you're going to have a sore jaw for a few days. It's unpleasant.

11:11 - 11:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides three reasons why the fear of death is natural and legitimate: it is a tragically unnatural experience, it launches us irreversibly into an unknown reality, and it…

The personality of a dog is contrasted with the human soul to explain that while animals have some characteristics, they do not possess an immaterial part that exists beyond death, unlike humans.

Your dog has personality, children. You can read in your dog's eyes excitement. Fear. And I think they even have something, whether it's the fear that looks like guilt.

14:14 - 14:26 Read in full sermon

The point: If you've not been delivered from the fear of death God's way, and yet you don't fear death, you are in a frightening position.

Standing on railroad tracks whistling, knowing a train is coming, is used as an analogy for the insanity of not fearing death when one is unconverted and facing judgment.

Is it sanity and rationality for someone to stand, arms crossed, looking up at the blue sky, whistling one's favorite tune in the middle of railroad tracks, at 4-0-3, when the commuter train comes roaring around the corner at 4-0-5, and you know it? Is that rationality? Is that nobility? I ask you to answer in the depths of your own heart, what is it for someone, arms crossed, whistling, humming his favorite tune, knowing that a locomotive will come crashing him in two minutes?

23:11 - 23:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second main point is that the fear of death is a terribly enslaving fear, holding people in bondage throughout their lives, as illustrated by Martin's personal childhood…

Martin shares his personal childhood experience of being enslaved by the fear of death, lying in bed afraid to sleep, haunted by the thought of 'forever and ever' in hell, to illustrate the reality of this bondage.

A miserable slavery in which we are taken captive. While I'm not prepared to even begin to suggest all the ramifications of this imagery, I know something of it in my own experience from the dawning of my consciousness as far back as I can remember anything. That's why I say the dawning of consciousness, how old I was, I do not know. But I had the awareness that I was more than my dog who had honorable discharge papers from the Second World War. It was a female German Shepherd. And we gave Lady to the military to become a trained K-9 dog to serve the country. We were at war gathering our littl...

28:31 - 29:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Go to bed tonight knowing that Jesus keeps your soul.

The story of an old Methodist saint on her deathbed telling a young minister that her 'Father owns the land on both sides' of the river (death) is used to illustrate the believer's confidence and peace in facing death.

The deer legged up to toes. I don't know if some of you knew to us. This was a man who was recognized to be one of the most unusual servants of God.

56:15 - 56:23 Read in full sermon