First let me say that death is no laughing matter. For each of the families of the celebrities who have passed this Christmas season, I pray that God's grace and comfort may find them in their time of grief.
Yet it still amazes me the way the press responds each time a major celebrity dies. The shock with which each announcement is made would make it appear that the media believed these people by virtue of their fame would live forever - that celebrity was the one thing that could conquer death.
The reality is that nothing can prevent the inevitability of death. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that it is the destiny of man to die and then face God's judgment. So rather than pretending like our culture that death will not come, our time would be better spent preparing for the death that eventually must come.
It is at this point that we have good news. Celebrity has not defeated death, but Jesus has. When he rose from the dead, he defeated the power of death once and for all. Those who trust him as their only hope, find in him the power of resurrection.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Co 15:51-57 ESV)
Yet it still amazes me the way the press responds each time a major celebrity dies. The shock with which each announcement is made would make it appear that the media believed these people by virtue of their fame would live forever - that celebrity was the one thing that could conquer death.
The reality is that nothing can prevent the inevitability of death. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that it is the destiny of man to die and then face God's judgment. So rather than pretending like our culture that death will not come, our time would be better spent preparing for the death that eventually must come.
It is at this point that we have good news. Celebrity has not defeated death, but Jesus has. When he rose from the dead, he defeated the power of death once and for all. Those who trust him as their only hope, find in him the power of resurrection.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Co 15:51-57 ESV)
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