2 Timothy 4:6 “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

Paul referred to his impending death as “departure”.

Because death is departure… not cessation, not annihilation.

Departure means “The act of going away; a moving from or leaving a place”.

Death is a moving out from one place to another. It’s leaving this present life for eternal state.

If you’ve ever seen a loved one dead, you may have saw their physical body there still, cold and lifeless, but they are gone from that body.

There are many people that believe that death is cessation of existence. And quite confidently state so.

…. But they do not and cannot know that!

They haven’t died themselves nor ever spoken to someone that has… so how can they know? It’s because they don’t know… they are hoping.

Only one person can speak with authority about what is beyond death. Jesus Christ. The fact he died and came back means he can speak about what’s beyond. And not just that, but he created heaven and hell, and as the author, he can speak with authority on the issue.

But even if you just logically think about it… your life is far more than just your physical make up and chemical composition… because every human is a three part being… spirit, soul and body. How can you think that physical death can terminate non-physical life?

Who you are and what makes you “you” is not physical. Your mind, emotion and will is not physical. You really think physical death ends what is not physical?

People that die have departed from this physical world and present life … but they haven’t stopped existing.

You look at a dead body in a coffin, and the physical part of them that was left behind is there beginning to go back to the dust, but they are gone. Because their spirit and soul has gone somewhere else.

And death is so horrible because departure brings separation, and we hate to be separated from those we love.

But death cannot, and you cannot cause your spirit and soul to cease to exist, because you were not the causation to exist. You didn’t create yourself, God gave you your life… and that’s why you will return to him for judgment and sentencing.

In Luke 16, Jesus once spoke about a certain rich man who “fared sumptuously every day” and had a lot of “good” things in life… who died one day, was buried “and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments”.

He didn’t cease to exist. And suddenly this man faced the reality of having rejected God’s word his whole life in living selfishly and investing his life in this world and things that had no eternal value.

The rich man’s death was not cessation, it was departure from this present world. We live like this world is all there is and all our life entails, but far from it. This world is not forever, but living or not living for Christ in this world lasts forever.

We all are going to depart, it’s just a matter of what that looks like. You can be prepared for departure like Paul was, or you can choose to not think about it and hope the Bible is wrong. But this life is what determines the direction of that departure. You won’t be able to change direction and destination after you are departed.

If you’re saved, that future existence is so far better to this current existence that comparison cannot even be made. And that’s why Paul could be so confident, assured and hopeful in facing death.

He knew he would be united with Christ and with all others saved by Christ, and with the promise of a new body in a new heaven and new earth, and that’s why a saved person’s death is not bitter but triumphant.

But for an unsaved person, the future existence is exceedingly bleak. Hence why it is vital to live in sight of your departure today. Not thinking about death doesn’t solve death. It’s good to think about if you die…where you will be? That’s not morbid, that’s reality.

Your time of departure or mine may be a lot closer than we think. It likely is. People busily plan for their financial future and retirement which really is nothing, why not plan for eternity?

Ecclesiastes 8:8 “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.”

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