Brothers and sisters, every time a celebrity dies or
somebody famous dies, we always see the same reaction. And today I want to talk
about that. I remember when Whitney Houston died and there's the other celebrity,
he did the movies Fast and Furious, his name is Paul Walker, we always see the
same reaction and it's always twofold. I want to talk about these two general
reactions. The first one is of the world and the other one is from the Christians.
And if we talk about the world, the world is always the first reaction is one
of shock. They're shocked. People are shocked when they see somebody is famous,
they're doing well, they have a lot of money, and suddenly they die
unexpectedly. It's as if people expect that the normal course of life, we live
a long life, we get old, and then it's a normal thing to die because we got
old. But in reality, death can come at any moment, and it happens again and
again. And whether it is young or old, at the end of the day it's the same
thing. We're going to die, all of us. So, the reaction is one of shock, but
also of grief. And we see many people start to comment or say to each other,
may he rest in peace. We see these words come back again and again, “rest in
peace, Kobe Bryant”, “he is in heaven”, “he is now with the angels”. And people
want to comfort themselves by thinking that he is now in a better place. But in
reality, they don't know that, and nobody does. Jesus says when the apostles
asked Him if very few will be saved, He said, to strive hard and that many will
try, and few will be able. It is a hard thing to accept. And I agree that it
makes me sad to know that, but we have to accept what Jesus said.
So basically, the world is creating their own version of god,
something that comforts them. And we don't believe that. When it comes to Christians,
now, some of the Christians, they say the same thing as the world, they say “he's
in heaven”. My answer to them is the same one that I just said for the world,
it is dangerous to claim that we know somebody is in heaven, because we give
the impression that it's easy to be saved while it is not. Let me know what Jesus
said. But for the other Christians, some Christians start to say, “well, he's
not born again and he's now in hell”, “he's burning in hell”, “he wasn't saved”,
and I want to say to you that when we do that, we're acting even worse than the
world because at least then, they have this grief and they care, they want to
comfort themselves, maybe, but at the same time they want to think that this
man maybe got saved. When we do that, we're doing a worse mistake. And I’ll
tell you why. I will give you the example of the thief on the cross. The thief
on the cross was next to Jesus Christ. He was a thief, a criminal. Now imagine
yourself, you are part of the people who were at the crucifixion of Jesus. You
were watching this criminal get crucified. What would you say? You would maybe
say that this man is a criminal, this man is a thief, he has stolen from people,
he was not saved, he was going to end up in hell. This is maybe what I would
say. But in reality, we know what happened. This person, this thief had a
moment with Jesus. And we know what Jesus told him. This man repented at the
last second maybe. And Jesus told him that he will be with Him in paradise. I'm
saying this because Kobe Bryant when he was going in the helicopter, we don't
know what happened. Maybe he had a private conversation with God, maybe he
pleaded God, with God. He pleaded with Jesus for forgiveness. We don't know
that, so, instead of going ahead and saying that we know he's in hell, why
don't we just mind our own business? Why don't we just say, may God have mercy
on him? Why don't we feel with his family?
If there is a lesson that we should have about the death of somebody like that, it's one lesson. The lesson is that death can come at any moment. For any one of us, that is the biggest lesson that we should learn from Kobe Bryant's death. It's not whether he's in heaven or he's in hell. People should stop being arrogant and thinking that we can give our opinion on these matters, it stops at the moment of death. We can speak on this side, but once somebody crosses over, it's none of our business. And I will give the story of Peter and John when they were walking with Jesus. This is in the gospel of John and after Jesus resurrected, they were both walking with Him. And Jesus looked at Peter and told him, "When you were young, you decided where you wanted to go. But now somebody will come and take you where you don't want to go.” And He was signifying the way Peter will die. We know, according to church history, that Peter was crucified. Now, when Peter heard this, he started to look at John. He looked at another person. He said to Jesus, what about him and what did Jesus say to him? He said if I want him to stay alive until I come back, what's it to you?
Basically, He was saying to Peter, that is none of your business, you come and follow me. And this is what we should do. It's none of our business to know where Kobe Bryant is. But that should lead us to focus on our relationship with Jesus, to make sure that we are right with Him because death can come at any moment. There is only one person who knows where Kobe Bryant is and that is God Himself. Jesus Christ, He knows. We should make ourselves ready for that moment. When this moment comes of death, and it will come for each of us. What will we say to God? What will He see in our lives? If He looks back at the last month of our life, what will He see? Were we busy making money? Were we busy enjoying our lives? Were we engaging in sin? Were we judging other people? This is what we should be busy with. Not looking left and right and discussing whether Kobe Bryant is in hell or in heaven. We should stop doing that and focus on our relationship with Jesus, making sure that if we ourselves die, we will be ready when we stand before Him for judgment. That is all today, brothers. May God bless you.
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