{"id":44865,"date":"2009-11-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dying-man-finds-hope-in-jesus\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:31:37","slug":"dying-man-finds-hope-in-jesus","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dying-man-finds-hope-in-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Dying Man Finds Hope in Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his book <em class=\"citation\">Deserted by God?<\/em>, author and pastor Sinclair Ferguson shares the following story:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The first physician to die of the AIDS virus in the United Kingdom was a young Christian. He had contracted it while doing medical research in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In the last days of his life, his power of communication failed. He struggled with increasing difficulty to express his thoughts to his wife. On one occasion she simply could not understand his message. He wrote on a note pad the letter <em>J<\/em>. She ran through her medical dictionary, saying various words beginning with <em>J<\/em>. None was right. Then she said, &quot;Jesus?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>That was the right word. He was with them. That was all either of them needed to know. [And] that is always enough.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3359,3573,3576,3621,3636,3701,3799,3886,3933,3935,3942,3943,4085,4134,4167,4293,4463,4493,4615,4645,4699,4830,4887,4903,5085,5103,5191,5195],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-44865","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-abiding-in-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christ-as-shepherd","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-comfort","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-disease","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-faith-feelings","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-messiah","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-peace","tax_ctp_tags-physical-death","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-savior-christ-only","tax_ctp_tags-security-in-god","tax_ctp_tags-strength","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-trial","tax_ctp_tags-trust"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dying Man Finds Hope in Jesus - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dying-man-finds-hope-in-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dying Man Finds Hope in Jesus - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book Deserted by God?, author and pastor Sinclair Ferguson shares the following story: The first physician to die of the AIDS virus in the United Kingdom was a young Christian. 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