Rest In Peace - Death Certificate

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​Last week as we started our “Rest In Peace” series and we looked at “Dying POOR”…
 
POOR stood for Passing Over Opportunities Repeatedly and we saw how God has given us clear direction on how to find “Rest” but we are often disobedient or faithless and fail to find that “Rest”…
 
Many of us have “Passed Over Opportunities Repeatedly” but hopefully we learned last week that we can change that and go from being “POOR” to being “Rich” at any time we choose to…
 
In Exodus 33:14 God says to Moses…
"My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
 
In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says…
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
 
Our “Rest” and our “Peace” can only be found in the Lord and if we look elsewhere all we’ll have is tattoos and tombstones that talk about “Resting In Peace” but we’ll never really find it…

Hebrews 4:10-11
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest
 
Have you been able to “Rest In Peace” from the work of seeking salvation and right standing with God and an answer for the sin that is in you?…
 
There is no Rest and no Peace like that Rest & Peace…
 
Today we are going to move on from “Dying POOR” and focus on “The Death Certificate”…

If someone dies it doesn’t matter if you are their parent or spouse or next of kin you can’t do anything without a death certificate…
 
Records won’t be released and arrangements won’t be allowed to be made and property won’t be released because if the person is not truly dead all those things still belong to them…
 
On the flip side once a person’s death is confirmed all of their accounts have been settled on their end and they have lost all rights to the things they owned when they were alive…
 
There’s often a fight over the things the dead have left behind unless the only thing they left behind is debt…
 
Siblings want the money their parents have left behind and banks want the property those with no next of kin still owe on and creditors want their debt to be applied completely to any co-signers…
 
But as far as the dead are concerned they owe nothing and they own nothing…
 
Job 1:21 says…
Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. 

There is a freedom and a “Rest” and a “Peace” in death…
 
We are finally free from chasing and owning and maintaining and owing…
 
Galatians 2:19
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
 
Wow… So what is happening here?…
 
Paul is saying that following the law lead to his death but it also gave him the chance to live to God…
 
Galatians 2:19-20
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
 
The debt of sin killed him but he was born again in Jesus…
 
The law of God that we all break requires the debt of death to be paid… Or maybe a better way to understand it is that our death is our final payment for sin…
 
So if we live a life of sin at the end our debt for sin is paid by our physical death and eternal imprisonment in hell but all of our other debts and assets vanish…
 
However, if we choose to die in Christ spiritually before we experience physical death again our debt for sin is paid… but instead of eternal imprisonment in hell we can be born again and live in Christ…
 
Solomon 8:6-7
Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love All the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.
 
We can have the consuming fire love that cannot be quenched or drowned BUT we have to give all the wealth we have…
 
This is where the song we sing “You Won’t Relent” comes from because Jesus won’t relent until He has it all…. I'll set... you as a seal...

Song: You Won't Relent
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbnJlX_1Sc
 
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Once we’ve given all we have and find the love of Christ we will despise all we had because it almost prevented us from knowing the love of God…
 
And we can never be separated from this new love we have found… not by death or life!…
 
The key is to understand that in order to find this love we must be “born again” and in order to be “born again” we have to die first…
 
And if you’ve died there must be a “Death Certificate”…
 
The song also says “there’s nothing we want more”…
 
Revelation 12:11 says…
they did not love their lives to the death.
 
We cannot love our lives to death… There can be nothing we want more than Jesus… not even our lives which have to be laid down if we want to be born again…
 
In the world people refuse to lay down their lives in order to take up Christ…
 
In the church many refuse to give God everything and “He won’t relent until He has it all”…
 
When you have signed your own “Death Certificate” you are saved and can begin living the new life that never ends…

John 11:11-25
11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up." 12Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him." 16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." 17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. 20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
 
He is not sleeping which looks a lot like death… He is dead!…
 
In Verse 15 Jesus says… 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe…
 
Jesus is saying that if He was there they would have seen it as Jesus preventing death rather than Jesus resurrecting those who have died…
 
Death has to come and resurrection is the only true hope…
 
Verse 21 Martha said the same thing Mary would later say… Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died…
 
I can hear Jesus saying “Oh he was going to die regardless… It was just a matter of when… before or after he had allowed Me to come into his life”… 
 
Jesus was there for Lazarus in the way He knew was best instead of in the way the sisters thought was best and because of that their brother would truly live because he would be born again!…
 
Lazarus’s death certificate was signed by 4 days in the tomb as the decaying process began to set in…
 
But Lazarus was raised because he died “in Christ”…
 
His faith was in Christ and his life was hidden in Christ and at some point he had given all that he had including his right to his own life over to Jesus…
 
Lazarus didn’t follow Jesus as the 12 did but this is such an amazing reminder that not everybody will follow Jesus in such a visible way but all followers of Jesus will have to die…
 
Some follow Jesus visibly but they haven’t died and others seem to be less committed physically but they have died to self and to sin…
 
In Mark 10:21 Jesus says…
come, take up the cross, and follow Me.
 
Lazarus began to live the new never ending life when Jesus raised him from the dead signifying that He had made good on His promise of eternal life to all those who would believe and Jesus said to those who stood by Lazarus’s tomb the same thing He had said to satan… “loose him and let him go”…
 
Luke 7:1-15
1 Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. 3 So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, 5 "for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue." 6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." 9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, "I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!" 10 And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick. 11 Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. 12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep." 14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.
 
In the 2nd story a boy has physically died but Jesus raises him from the dead and its pretty easy to see what’s happening…
 
Jesus shows that He has power and authority over death and this boy who was probably below the age of accountability as it says he was delivered back to his mother so he is resurrected because he is not accountable for the sins he has committed…
 
In the 1st story it’s a little harder to see what’s happening and how special it is…
 
Verse 6 says…
when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.7 Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
 
This man recognized Jesus as the one with authority over sickness and disease…
 
He had led his friends to believe in Jesus who approached Him and called Him Lord… Not the originals messengers who were elders from among the Jews..
 
This man’s servant was saved from a sickness that appears to have had a death sentence but the centurion himself seems to have already died and been resurrected and born again…
 
Verse 9 says…  9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, "I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”…
 
It’s harder to see but this centurion had signed his death certificate at some point and he had put his faith in Jesus as the One with authority not only over sickness and disease but over life and death itself…
 
Mark 5:22-42
22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live." 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" 31 But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, Who touched Me?' " 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." 35 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?"36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not be afraid; only believe."37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, "Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping." 40 And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, "Talitha, cumi," which is translated, "Little girl, I say to you, arise."42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement.
 
Wow...
 
Again the little girls story is pretty obvious but the story of the woman with the issue of blood is more hidden and so special...
 
Bleeding out is a slow death...
 
33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."
 
John 21:14
14 This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.
 
Colossians 1:18
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead
 
Mark 12:27
27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.
 
Hebrews 9:15-17
15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.
 
The new covenant is the covenant of dead men and women…
 
It is written and given to those who have died and been raised in newness of life…
 
The old covenant is for the dead who are currently living physically but will all eventually pay the final payment for sin which is death…
 
2 Corinthians 3:6
the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
 
You must be certifiably dead to experience the new life that can only be found in Christ…
 
In 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul says…
I die daily.