Pastor Tim Patoka
Our Greatest Needs: Life for the Dead
March 26, 2023
Is Death Final? 2 Kings 4:17-37 1) It Seems So 2) Life Continues After Modern medicine has been able to solve problems that once brought about widespread fear. When penicillin and antibiotics were introduced around World War II, it drastically reduced the risk of bacterial infections. Serious infections from scratches and minor wounds became a thing of the past. We’ve developed new therapies and improved treatments for chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, and mental illnesses. Beforehand, your options were limited and your future didn’t look too good. But now? You would never know some people have them. Cures and vaccinations are surefire ways to replace widespread fears with measured confidence. Diseases like smallpox and polio are now read about in history books. Maybe you were part of the many who, in spring of 2021, had your fears wiped out by the Covid vaccine. At least, until the Delta and Omicron variants popped up. Modern medicine has been able to undo so many, once deadly problems. But there remains one that medicine cannot prevent or reverse. That’s the finality of death. Many of us have grieved the death of a loved one and seen how final death is. As such, we’ve gone to great lengths to conquer it. We think of creative solutions like in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. In desperation, we take drastic measures or dabble in the occult. People will subject themselves to subzero, cryonic preservation so they can wait until science finds an answer. Yet we know in our heart of hearts that we cannot prevent or reverse death. It remains final. But is that so? Is death final? Does a person’s life stop when they breathe no more? Godless wisdom would say so. God’s children say otherwise because of who Jesus is. We’ve seen how Jesus meets our greatest needs as he gives life for the dead. Though death may seem final, it is not for life continues afterwards. To see how this true, we look to Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, and see his power on display through Elisha who raised a young boy to life. It Seems So We find ourselves in the mid-800s B.C. when Elisha is God’s primary prophetic voice in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And he travels around a lot. One of the towns Elisha regularly passed through was Shunem where there lived a 1