Hope Fools: The Slavery of Death (with Dr. Richard Beck)

Hope Fools: The Death of Death (with Dr. Richard Beck)

Hebrews 2:14-15
Teaching available on our website and iTunes

Otter Creek Family:

For the next several weeks, our church family will explore the reality of death and the promise embedded in Scripture's story for those who trust in Jesus' endurance of death and ultimate victory. This a Lent series: for 40 days we will lean into the life of Jesus asking God to expose our fears, anxieties, and avoidance of death. "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment," writes one death-and-culture observer.

Death is the central enemy of God in the Bible. All of the sinister forces and powers and evil and Satan and the Devil . . . all of these are death's friends. They work for death. Death is the mob boss, these sinister forces are merely pawns. The New Testament is about the death of death and the death of all his friends.

Two key passages in this exploration: Hebrews 2:14-15 which states, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." AND 1 Cor. 15:24-26 which reads, "Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

If anyone should be talking about death, it should be the church. We have the space, language, and history--in a Nation that pretends that death is not real--to speak truth and announce foolish hope. We believe that death is a comma, not a period. It is the beginning of what's next, not a dead end street that leads to nothingness.

This is a great series to invite friends and spiritual seekers to join in on. At the end of death, after all, is resurrection; a banquet that will never end.

Peace,

Josh 

www.joshuagraves.com