What Shepherding the Sheep Toward Death Looks Like
It behooves every minister of the Gospel to not only warn his congregants that the pale horse and his rider, Death, will one day arrive and carry away every soul but also to help his congregants prepare well for that day. Indeed, being prepared for one’s day of death is by far the better than simply being honest that death will one day come. Puritan pastor Samuel Ward wisely counsels that “it is but our folly to be so shy of this sight [of death], for though it be sad, yet is it of all the sights under the sun the most necessary, the most profitable… To die well and cheerfully, is too busy a work to be well done ex tempore. The foundation of death must be laid in life. He that means and desires to die well, must die daily; he that would end his days well, must spend them well, the one will help the other.”[1] This is the great work of a faithful minister of God.
The kind of work a pastor must engage in to prepare each and every soul under his watch, getting them ready for the day of death and preparing them to stand firmly in Christ on the day of Judgment, this is work that demands the whole of a man’s life and energy. This is not for those who play at religion. And certainly there’s too much to be said concerning this work to fit into a few articles, so I will limit myself to three avenues by which to point pastors in the right direction.
The first avenue is to make sure that your church receives more of the word than of the world. Faith in Christ is the only means to wade through the waters of death and not sink into its eternal abyss, and so the question becomes: how do men and women approach those waters with a strong faith? The answer is clear – the Word of God. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The Scriptures strengthen faith and thus prepare the saints to die well. But the world does just the opposite. “The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22)
Now this is simple enough and almost so obvious that it needn’t be stated, but sadly this is a truth that is not nearly valued enough. A pastor may give lip-service to the priority of the word as more necessary and more sufficient than the ways of the world, but ask the question – what do my congregants digest more of in any given week – and perhaps the uncomfortable truth comes to light. In any given week it’s more than likely that many members in your church are being catechized more by Instagram, X, ESPN, the News, or Netflix than they are by the word of God. Sure, they bear this responsibility themselves, but so does the pastor! “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account” (Hebrews 13:17).
So what can a pastor do? He and his fellow elders can visit the members and actually read God’s word with them. And in so doing, ask them about their life and walk with Christ. Ask them if they’re ready to meet Christ. Ask them what fills their time and what they’ve been reading. At the very least, this will set an expectation that the word-filled life is not just for Sunday mornings but necessary throughout the week!
Pastors can also make sure the weekly Worship services (Lord’s Day mornings and evenings) are filled to the brim with Scripture. Scripture in the Call to Worship, Scripture infused in every prayer, Scripture read before the sermon and during the sermon, and Scripture given in the benediction. Of course, there’s no better way to write God’s word on men and women’s hearts then having them sing the word of God. Consider the death-defying hope provided for believers in Psalm 16 from the Scottish Psalter:
Before me constantly,
I set the Lord alone.
Because he is at my right hand
I’ll not be overthrown
Therefore my heart is glad;
my tongue with joy will sing.
My body too will rest secure
in hope unwavering.
For you will not allow
my soul in death to stay,
Nor will you leave your Holy One
to see the tomb’s decay
You have made known to me
the path of life divine.
Bliss shall I know at your right hand;
joy from your face will shine.
The second avenue, which naturally flows from the first, is to make sure your church is more heavenly-minded than they are earthly-minded. Away with the rubbish cliché that Christians who are so heavenly minded are of no earthly good! The new heavens and the new earth will be our final home and this earth – with all its vain delights – is passing away; the Lord will burn it up and only that which is of Christ and his kingdom will remain. Listen to Pastor John Owen: “Would you labour for honour, if you knew that God was at this time labouring to lay all the ‘honour of the earth in the dust?’ (Is. 23:9) Could you set your heart on the increase of riches, if you understood that God intends instantly to make ‘silver as common as stones’ (1 Kings 10:27)?”[2]
When the world and the things of this earth become more precious than the things of heaven, then there will naturally arise a lack of assurance as the day of death approaches. Familiarity with heaven, as described by the word of God and believed upon in the heart, necessarily produces hope and longing. Heaven is home for the Christian who increasingly sees himself as an exile on earth. But a familiarity with earth and only the things of earth will produce only a sadness and sorrow at the thought of death. Earthly-minded individuals will not be ready to die.
What can the faithful pastor do? Teach and preach often of heaven, the glories of heaven, the Christ of heaven, and our home in heaven. Pray prayers that are infused with the aroma of heaven; hopeful prayers that long for the coming of Christ and the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven. Give out books that point your members away from earth and being earthly-minded and more towards heaven. Give them John Owen’s The Glory of Christ or his Spiritual-Mindedness. Give them Jeremiah Burrough’s A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness. I have personally found the late Douglas Taylors’ book I Shall Not Die, But Live to be one of the most hope-inducing books that both casts my eyes toward heaven and prepares my soul for death. Buy many copies and give them to your congregation.
The third (but certainly not the last) avenue, which flows still more from the first and the second, is to make sure your sheep trusts more in Christ than in self. The more Scripture they’re given, the more heavenly minded they become. And the more heavenly minded they become, the more they look to and long for and rest in Christ, who is the center and focal point of all heaven. Faith in Christ is what is needed in the face of death. Our Lord promises that if we are “faithful unto death… I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). But this isn’t mere faith for faith’s sake, it is a Christ-focused faith. Only the resurrected Christ can offer hope and assurance in the face of death. Do your congregants believe this? “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
Your congregation must grow in their trust that Christ will meet them in that final hour. Robert Trail gives an eerily beautiful description that helps in this regard. “What have we to do with death, or death with us? It is a black boat, that we must sail out of time to heaven in: and Christ steers the boat, and lands all believers safely on heaven’s shore. This is all we have to with death. And when all passengers are brought over, Christ will burn this ugly boat… Believers may be assured, that they shall arrive at their port. Never did a believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his voyage to heaven.”[3] The more your sheep can confidently and joyfully look for Jesus to greet them in that last moment of life, the more ready they will be to follow him as they enter in and then quickly out of death. For with Christ, death is nothing but a quick boat ride into life eternal.
[1] Samuel Ward, “The Life of Faith in Death” in Sermons and Treatises by Samuel Ward (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1996), p. 52-53
[2] Found in John Owen: Daily Readings, ed. Lee Gatiss (Christian Heritage, 2022)
[3] Robert Trail, Works, 1:220. I found this quote in Douglas Taylor, I Shall Not Die, But Live (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2020), p. 4-5
