“Is there an afterlife?”……The book of Job asks the question about an afterlife very simply…Job 14:14…"If a man dies, will he live again?"… Asking the question is easy, but the difficult part is finding someone to answer the question with authority and experience.

"Death and taxes" have said to be the two universals that everyone living can expect to deal with. Everyone are handled somewhat differently by government regarding taxation, death treats everyone the same , it is the great equalizer Because of this, it's not uncommon for people to be afraid of death. …The ancient philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) recognized that the fear of death was present in everybody and therefore he sought a way to remove that fear. Epicurus taught that humanity need not fear death because human beings are nothing more than a composition of atoms which at death simply disperse and that is the end of things. …Epicurus didn't believe there were any gods to fear or anything to face once a person breathed their last. …His teaching of maximum pleasure in this life with minimum pain and suffering dictated that everything ends when death occurred. ……One of the groups the Apostle Paul encountered in his trip to Athens were the Epicureans,…Acts 17:18-21…18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, "What's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he's picked up?" Others said, "He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods."…19 Then they took him to the high council of the city.(Or the most learned society of philosophers in the city. Greek reads the Areopagus.)"Come and tell us about this new teaching," they said.20 "You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it's all about."21 (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)…It was there in Thessalonica, where the Epicureans,listened to Paul's Mars Hill address (Greek reads standing in the middle of the Areopagus).(This whole event can be read in Acts17:1-34) up until he mentioned the resurrection of Jesus and then they abruptly ended the discussion…Acts 17:32…30 "God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead."…32 When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, "We want to hear more about this later.".…They had been bathed in their teacher's philosophy and likely knew well the statement made by Apollos the Epicurean who said during the founding of the Areopagus where Paul was speaking, …"When the dust has soaked up a person's blood, once he is dead, there is no resurrection.”…But after thousands of years since that time, the fear of death remains fixed in many people. The book of Job describes death as the "king of terrors"…Job 18:12-14… 12 Hunger depletes their strength, and calamity waits for them to stumble.…13 Disease eats their skin; death devours their limbs.14 They are torn from the security of their homes and are brought down to the king of terrors.…This fact is visible in the movie "The Bucket List" where the character played by Jack Nicholson, trying to come to grips with dying, says: "We all want to go on forever, don't we? We fear the unknown. Everybody goes to that wall, yet nobody knows what's on the other side. That's why we fear death." …But one person has gone to that wall, gone through to the other side, and come back to tell us what to expect. He alone possesses the authority and knowledge to tell everyone the truth about the afterlife.……The Expert on the Afterlife…From a historical perspective, no historical scholar disputes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. There is no debate about His teachings or the fact that He reportedly did miraculous things, and there is universal agreement that He was put to death by crucifixion under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. Jesus went to the wall of death and through to the other side. ……The resurrection puts Jesus in a place of being the sole authority and witness able to answer the question, "Is there an afterlife?" And what does He have to say? Christ makes three basic statements about the subject of life after death: ……1. There is an afterlife.…2. When a person dies, there are two different eternities to which he/she will go.…3. There is a way to ensure a positive experience after death. ……First, Christ most certainly affirms there is an afterlife in a number of biblical passages. For example, in an encounter with the Sadducees who denied the teaching of resurrection, Christ rebuked them by saying,…Mark 12:26-27…26 "But now, as to whether the dead will be raised-haven't you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, (Greek in the story of the bush? God said to him.) ÔÇÿI am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' (Exod 3:6.)27 So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error."

Jesus clearly told them that those who have died centuries before are very much alive with God at that moment.……In another passage, Jesus comforts His disciples (and us) by telling them specifically that they can look forward to being with Him in Heaven:

John 14:1-4 (I mentioned this verse in a previous sermon in the series on heaven)

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going"……The Afterlife – Two Eternal Destinies…Jesus also speaks authoritatively about what types of destinies await every person that dies: one with God and one without God. In Luke's account of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus says,

Luke 16:22-23

"Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom” One aspect of the story worth noting is that there is no intermediate state for those who die; they go directly to their eternal destiny. As the writer of Hebrews says,

Hebrews 9:27

"It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” …Jesus speaks about the two final destinies again when He is confronted by the religious leaders in John 5:25-29: …25 "And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it's here now, when the dead will hear my voice-the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live.26 The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.27 And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man.("Son of Man" is a title Jesus used for himself.)28 Don't be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God's Son,29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.

Christ restates the matter very plainly in Matthew 25:46 when He says, …46 "And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

The Afterlife – What Determines Our Eternal Destination?…Jesus also is clear on what determines each person's eternal destination-whether they have faith in God and what they do with respect to Christ. The book of John contains many statements made by Jesus on this subject, with perhaps the most famous being these:

John 3:14-18…14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.…16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.18 "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.

For those who repent and receive Christ as their Savior and Lord, the afterlife will consist of an eternity spent with God. But for those who reject Christ, their destiny will be spent away from God's presence. Jesus contrasts these two destinies in the end of the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 7:13-14

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (). ……The Afterlife – Conclusions…Speaking about life after death, G. B. Hardy, a Canadian Scientist, once said,“I have only two questions to ask. One, has anyone ever defeated death? Two, did he make a way for me to do it also?”

The answer to both of Hardy's questions is "yes." One Person has both defeated death and provided a way for everyone who puts their trust in Him to overcome it as well.

Epicurus may have believed that everyone fears death, but the truth is no one who trusts in Christ needs to be afraid. Rejoicing in this fact, the Apostle Paul wrote,

1 Corinthians 15:54-55

"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.' ÔÇÿWhere, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'”