Do you recognize these words, “I see dead people.” Do remember what movie it came from? If you do not, don’t worry this is not a quiz on your movie trivia knowledge.
Many of you reading this knew right away what movie I was referring to, The Sixth Sense, which débuted in the summer of 1999. If you did not know, the following is a brief summary about the film. “The Sixth Sense is a film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him.”
What would you think of a person who told you, “I see dead people”? After taking a few steps back, stunned and trying to process what I just heard, I would really question the stability of the person’s emotional state.
Seriously, there is a spiritual point I want to make here. How do you perceive or consider the spiritually of those around you who do not know Christ? These are people who do not have a personal love relationship with Christ Jesus. They have never asked Jesus to forgive them of their sin, or surrendered their lives to Him, nor want Jesus to be in control of their lives. Their life styles and life choices give evidence to this. These are the dead people I am talking about.
1 John 2:3-6, 3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. New Living Translation
We see many of these spiritually dead people daily, such as coworkers or neighbors. They can be our parents, siblings or friends. Some might even be in Church with you on Sunday. Without Christ in their life, the New Testament considers them spiritually dead.
Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
Ephesians 2:1-2, 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Colossians 2:13a, You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. New Living Translation
My point is not to label or to classify the spiritually dead with some spiritual “Caste” system, condemning them to a lesser value level than “born again” believers because they have not believed and trusted in Christ. However, I want to point out how many times we do not perceive or consider the spiritual reality of those around us who do not know Christ as spiritually dead, and it seems that we are not too concerned about it.
When we see spiritually dead people, people who are not born again, what do we see? An always nagging and complaining family member. A dishonest coworker. A lying and self-centered neighbor. An emotionally weak and unstable friend. It is easy to recognize and criticize these characteristics in a person’s life. But are we recognizing these negative personal characteristics as symptoms of a spiritually dead condition and not only as displeasing and negative characteristics of that person? Are we seeing these people through our eyes or God’s eyes? Do we see people who are in need a Savor? Do we see spiritually dead as people who need a personal relationship with Jesus?
At this point, we need to look at ourselves and ask this question. What might be the reason why I do not see spiritually dead people? Have I become so intensely focused and concerned about my own spiritual walk that I have become unaware of all the spiritually dead people that I come into contact with daily? Have I become spiritually desensitized or unconcerned to the reality of the spiritually dead around me because of pride in my life? Is my lifestyle and life choices so much like a spiritually dead person’s that there is really little difference?
Jesus’ disciples also had problems seeing the spiritually dead people around them, so much so Jesus had to tell them to open their eyes. In John 4:35 Jesus refers to the spiritually dead as “the harvest“, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Did you ever wonder why the disciples could not see “the harvest” or the spiritually dead people that Jesus saw?
Just reading the book of John, we will find many verses of Jesus making the point that He is the answer or solution to someone who is spiritually dead coming to life.
John 5:24, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
John 6:47, I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
John 10:10, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 11:25-26, 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
John 17:3, Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
The apostle John clearly saw spiritually dead people and knew that they could also read. He concludes his gospel by saying. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31
If we as born again believers were once a spiritually dead person and now have come to experience life in Christ Jesus, and we are experiencing this truth daily, why are we not telling the spiritually dead this good news?
Acts 5:42, Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
Pastor John
