John 11:25-27 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

I think I use this at every believer’s funeral I preach, because it is an extremely important passage. Martha’s confession of faith is what God wants to hear from everyone and especially from every Jew, because they are the ones with an expectation of Messiah coming into the world. However, Jesus’ statement that provokes that confession is equally important, particularly because it seems to defy logic and even personal experience. We are all too familiar with physical death, and to the materialist this seems like a complete fantasy. Faith, however, is not to be denied, and there is a mounting volume of evidence that physical death isn’t the end for human beings. Several books have come out about the phenomenon called Near Death Experiences, with many testimonies containing details that cannot be explained outside of the soul outliving the body. That by itself would just indicate that we are more than simply material, but Jesus is here talking about far more than that. The life that He is talking about is life in Him, which means eternal fellowship with the God who created us. Nothing could be more glorious! However, He makes it clear that such a destiny is dependent on faith in Him. We should desire such a destiny for everyone we love, so we should be active in encouraging them to have such faith, telling them about our own experience of Him so that His Spirit can use our words to generate faith in them.

I grew up in a household of faith, but I have to admit my own wife’s NDE really put a point on it. We were in our 20s at the time and our children were quite small. She was hanging laundry outside in February and her chest started hurting, so she asked me to finish the job and went inside to lie down. After the laundry I went into our bedroom and found her lying there. I took her hand and called her name, and when she opened her eyes I learned that she had been to heaven and had been sent back, because “Jack and the girls need you.” I won’t go into all she reported she experienced, because it was her experience and not mine, but I have no reason, Biblical or otherwise, to doubt that it was all very real. As a result of that experience she now has no fear of death, and neither do I. Rather, I have a deep anticipation of eternity with my Lord, without all the distractions of the world and my flesh. That will be life indeed!

Father, thank You for the assurance of eternal life in Christ Jesus my Lord. May I be useful to You in drawing others into that assurance through repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!