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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Friday, 06 March 2009 10:00 |
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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
November 9, 2008 - Lindsborg Cov.
“Of Roots and Wings”
(Resurrection & Rapture)
Sermon
I would like you to imagine for a moment that you believe, with all your heart, that this life is all there is. In other words, when you die, that is it. When that last breath leaves your lungs your body dies you will simply cease to exist because there is nothing else - no afterlife, no conscious existence, no ongoing relationships, no activity, meaningful or otherwise. Just one long, endless sleep from which there is no waking. This life is it. This is all there is. Period.
Now, if you really believed that, how might that influence the way you think about death? How would it make you feel about your own death or the death of friends and loved ones? I have been reflecting on this, and it seems to me that this kind of philosophy about death naturally leads to one of two likely responses.
One typical, and, I might add logical, response would be deep depression and despair. You might think like this: “Well, if this life is all there is, and there is no God and no afterlife and no ongoing relationships or activity or meaning beyond this short life, then what is the point of living at all? Why not just kill myself now and just get it over with? What is the point of going if life is not only temporary, but ultimately meaningless?” So, on the one hand, the belief that death is the end of all things could lead to depression and despair.
On the other hand, it could lend itself to selfishness and hedonism. Perhaps you would reason, “Well, if there is no God and no afterlife then that means that there is no absolute moral standard for my behavior and no eternal consequences for my behavior. Which means I can do whatever I want to! I might as well live for myself, maximizing my pleasure and minimizing my pain. Do whatever feels good! If this life is all there is, if these few short years are all I get, then I better make it count. I better enjoy it while I can. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”
These are extremes, of course, but they are logical conclusions based on the premise that nothing lies beyond the grave. Most people who believe this, to one degree or another, fall into one of these two categories, both of which ultimately end in hopelessness. Ultimately, if this life is all there is, there is no hope.
No wonder people in the world are afraid of dying. And no wonder when someone loses a friend or loved one they are so distraught. Because in both of these cases, there is no hope. If nothing lies beyond the grave, then hope dies with us.
This brings us to today’s passage in the Bible. If you would like to turn there, we are in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Let me tell you a little bit about the culture into which Paul is speaking here. Paul is writing to a pagan culture. What that means, among other things, is that their philosophy about death was essentially what I just described. They believed that before you were born you did not exist. Then, you live for a few short years, and when you die you cease to exist. It was as simple as that. This life is all there is.
Now, there was a small church in the pagan city of Thessalonica. This was a very young church, made up of brand new baby Christians. They became followers of Jesus as a result of the preaching of Paul and Silas and were only discipled for three or four weeks before Paul and his companions were run out of town.
The believers in Thessalonica still knew relatively little about their own faith. Here is what they did know: They knew that Jesus had risen from the dead, and they knew that Jesus was coming back one day to get His followers. It was also a nearly universal belief in the early Church that the return of Jesus would be very, very soon. Like before-the-weekend-soon. They were confident that Jesus would return in a few weeks, perhaps a few months, but certainly within their lifetime.
But then, as we know now, He didn’t. The believers in Thessalonica were faithfully gathering for prayer and worship, caring for the poor and the widows, and passionately testifying of their faith in the risen Christ. A week passed, then a month, a year, and two years. Meanwhile, brother John died, and sister Martha did too. They started to wonder what was going on. These young believers were still steeped in their old pagan paradigm that death is the final word, that there is nothing else after that. So, they began to worry about their brothers and sisters who had already died. What was going to happen to them? They still had hope for themselves, because they were still living and waiting for Jesus to come back. “But He better hurry up because we are dying here! What is going to happen to John and Martha? They believed in Jesus just as we do. Are they going to miss out? When Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom, are they going to be left out?”
The church in Thessalonica was deeply concerned and confused about these things, so Paul writes a letter to them addressing, among other things, these very concerns. Paul says that he does not want them to be ignorant about this subject. There are some things that God does not tell us about and we must trust that we simply don’t need to know about that. But this is not one of those. Paul says that it is critical that we know what is going to happen to us in the future. So, Paul addresses two groups of people, the saints who have already died and the saints who still live, and he outlines exactly what is going to happen in the future and even the order in which these events will take place.
Paul describes four events (and I have added a fifth) that will happen at the end of time. They all start with an “R”, because I am a preacher and I just cannot help myself. Here they are in order: The Return of Christ, the Resurrection of Dead, the Rapture of Living, Reunion of Saints, and the Reign of Saints with Christ. Let’s go back through that list one at a time.
The next big event on the calendar is the return of Christ. If you would like, look with me, at verse 16. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” The first thing Paul emphasizes in this verse is that the return will be by the Lord Himself. Jesus is not sending just a delegation of angels or other messenger to get us. He is personally coming back Himself.
The second thing I would like to note in this verse is that when Jesus does come back He is going to be rather noisy about it. There are three sounds recorded in this verse: a loud command, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God. Now, we could talk about what each of those are and what they might sound like, but they all sound loud to me.
The reason I am emphasizing this so much is that periodically we sometimes hear reports on the news or in articles, or we hear rumors from various places that some group of people are claiming that Jesus has returned to Earth and that He is living among them in their community and He goes by Frank or something. Let me say to you in no uncertain terms, if someone has to tell you that Jesus has come back, then you know He has not. If someone has to go to the trouble to inform you that Jesus has returned, then you know it is not true. If you want to read more about that you can in Matthew 24:23-27. The fact is that the return of Jesus will be so dramatic, so loud, and so obvious, that even the dead will not miss it! So, don’t worry, when Jesus comes back, you will know.
So, the first event to take place is the return of Christ. The second event will be the resurrection of the dead. I would like to read parts of verse 14 through 16. “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him . . . we who are still alive . . . will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven . . . and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Now, keep in mind that the believers in Thessalonica are deeply concerned that their brothers and sisters who had died in the Lord were going to be left behind when Jesus returns and so miss out on the coming Kingdom. Paul makes it very clear that this is not the case and, in fact, points out that it is almost the other way around. It is almost the other way around. Paul tells them, “Don’t worry about your brothers and sisters in Jesus who have already died because they are already at the party. They are already with Jesus. You are actually the ones who are at a disadvantage here. The dead have already entered into the eternal Kingdom, but you all have to wait until Jesus comes back before you can join them.”
Now, I would like you to note carefully in verse 14, where does it say that the dead are right now? Notice what it does not say. It does not say that the dead have been in the ground. It does not say that they have been in the grave. It says that they have been “with Jesus”, which implies that they have been with Him all along.
Let me clarify something that could be very confusing. If the dead in Christ are already with Jesus and then they come back with Him when He returns, then how is it that they are not raised back to life again until after Jesus returns? That seems backwards, doesn’t it?
That can be confusing. What we have to do here is piece the puzzle together using pieces we find elsewhere in the New Testament. Let me summarize the scenario as I understand it from the overall teaching of the New Testament.
As followers of Jesus, when we die, our spirit leaves our body and goes immediately to be with Jesus, who is also with the Father. Our loved ones bury our physical body, which no longer houses our soul and spirit. At that point, we are apparently disembodied spirits as we rejoice in the presence of Jesus awaiting His return and our resurrection. When Jesus does come back, we will accompany Him to Earth. That is when our bodies will be resurrected as new, glorified bodies which cannot die again, and our spirit and body are reunited forever. Because we as humans are complex, multilayered beings consisting of body, soul, and spirit, it is possible for us to be separated from our bodies and go right on living a conscious existence with Jesus. I hope that helps alleviate what could be a confusing chronology.
I also want to say a word about Paul’s choice of language in this passage. Three times Paul uses the phrase “fall asleep” or “fallen asleep” to describe the dead. Some Christian groups and some cults as well (Including Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists) have used this passage and others like it to teach a doctrine called “soul sleep”. This is the notion that when we die we slip into an unconscious existence much like sleep while we await our resurrection. I believe this is a misinterpretation of this passage.
When Paul refers to the dead as having “fallen asleep” he does not mean that literally. He is using a euphemism. We are all familiar with euphemisms. A euphemism is a phrase we use as a substitute for another in order to soften the blow from what might otherwise seem harsh. We use euphemisms all the time, particularly when it comes to death. We don’t usually say, “Well, Jack died.” That often sounds too harsh. So instead, we say something like, “Jack passed away” or “passed on” or “departed” or any number of a couple dozen other euphemisms we have developed to refer to death.
Euphemisms are not new. They had euphemisms in Paul’s day as well. In that culture, instead of saying that someone died, they might say that she “fell asleep”. This was a common expression in that culture. Even Jesus used that phrase on occasion. Most of the time people were able to understand the meaning of the phrase based on the context in which it was used. Although there is a rather comical story told in John 11:11-16 when Jesus used that phrase with His disciples and they misunderstood Him because they took it too literally.
I think that is what proponents of the doctrine of soul sleep have done with this passage. They have taken this expression too literally. Elsewhere the New Testament makes it very clear that we are not asleep during that time, but fully awake and conscious of our presence with Jesus. (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:21-24)
Immediately following the resurrection of the dead will be the rapture of the living. Let’s begin again at the very end of verse 16. It says, “ . . . the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
This verse says that we will be “caught up” into the clouds. Many of you know the song, “I’ll Fly Away”. The lyrics of that song are not just a religious metaphor. Those of us who know and serve Jesus will literally fly away someday! The word “rapture” literally means to be “snatched up”. It is sometimes used in the context of snatching something from a fire. We will be snatched up and whisked away, up into the sky and meet Jesus there.
Now, you are probably already aware that there is much debate in the Church over the exact chronology of events, especially the question of how the rapture relates to the tribulation. It is a which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg kind of question. I wish I had time to address that issue, but I don’t. Suffice it to say for now, that those of us who are still alive when Jesus returns will literally fly up into the air and the first time we see Jesus face to face will be in the clouds.
The rapture of the living leads naturally to the reunion of the saints. Remember that I said that when a loved one dies, most people in the world grieve without hope. In other words, they have no good reason to believe that this is not the end of the relationship. They must assume that death is absolutely final, an ultimate and permanent separation. This offers no hope at all.
But Paul says that our grief is not like that. WE DO GRIEVE, but it is a different kind of grief. It is fundamentally different because we know that the goodbye is not forever. It is only a temporary separation. Hope says, “It is bad now. It is sad now. But it will get better.” Unbelievers do not have any hope like that.
I also want to point out that ours is not a blind hope. We don’t hope our loved ones will live again because we simply wish it were true. Our hope is rooted in history. I will say more about that in just a minute.
So, Jesus will return. The dead will be raised and receive eternal, glorified bodies. Those of us who are still alive will be immediately transformed, receive our glorified resurrected bodies, be snatched up into the air where we will have a glorious family reunion in the middle of the sky (I assume because there is not a convention center large enough to hold all of us). That is what is going to happen, and in that order.
The final event in the list is not on this list. The reign of the saints with Christ. We have to go to other places in the New Testament to see that when we are all united with Jesus we will reign with Him. The New Testament repeatedly testifies to this truth. For example, 2 Timothy 2:11-12a says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.” Revelation 5:10 says, “You have made them (people) to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” And Revelation 20:6 says, “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection . . . they . . . will reign with him”
So, Paul is saying to these young believers in Thessalonica, “Don’t worry, because Jesus is returning. The first thing He is going to do is raise from the dead those who have been with Him. Then He is going to give the rest of us our glorified bodies and pull us all up into the air for a huge family reunion and then we will all come back down to reign on earth with Jesus. That is what is going to take place, and you need to know this if you are going to have hope for yourselves and for your loved ones.”
Before I close today I want to emphasize a couple of points. The first thing I want to say very clearly is that Paul is not forbidding us as believers to grieve. Not at all. We do grieve and we should grieve. He is just saying that our grief is different. When we grieve we grieve with hope rather than without hope.
As much as possible I like to look to Jesus as our example. Jesus was a man who grieved on occasion. The most famous of which was when Lazarus died. Jesus was really late and so He missed the funeral. Several days later He stood at Lazarus’ tomb and what does it say Jesus did? He wept. Jesus wept. He was grieving.
One of the things that always strikes me about that scene is that here is Jesus, weeping over the grave of His good friend when He knows good and well that Lazarus is going to be breathing again in about five minutes. Jesus knows that in just a few minutes this man is going to be walking around, talking to people and asking for a cheeseburger. Jesus knows that, and yet He weeps. Whether Jesus was grieving with the other mourners or for them we don’t know, but He was grieving. And so we have permission, straight from our Lord Himself that it is OK to grieve as He did because His grief was filled with the knowledge that Lazarus would live again. And that is the kind of hope we have in the resurrection.
And speaking of the resurrection, I also want to emphasize that our hope is not blind. We have good reason to have hope. People in the world have no hope. All they have is wishful thinking. “Well, no one really knows what happens to us after we die, so just do the best you can and hope for the best.” That is not hope. That is wishful thinking.
But our hope is real and it is strong because it is not based on a wish, but on a firm reality. Our hope comes not from fairy tales and fantasies but from faith rooted in historical fact. Our hope stems not from the smoky predictions of a fortune teller, but from the clear, strong promise of God Himself. We don’t just think it might be possible that we will come back from the dead one day. We know it is possible because it has already happened. We don’t just think Jesus might come back for us one day, we know He will return because He came the first time. The first resurrection promises another, and the first coming of Jesus promises a second. We know what God will do in the future because of what He has done in the past.
And this gives us both roots and wings. Our hope is firmly rooted in the historical fact of the resurrection. Our hope is not just floating around in the air based on some wishful thinking. No, our hope is firmly rooted in the historical fact of the resurrection. And our hope will be fulfilled when we literally take flight with Jesus. Our roots in the past will give us wings in the future. And the rock solid foundation of that hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul wants us to draw comfort from these words and to use them to comfort one another. He says it is vital that we know and believe these things so we will be encouraged in our hearts with the hope of the resurrection. He wants us to know that death is temporary. When a loved one dies in Christ, it is a temporary separation. Yes, death took them away, but Jesus is going to personally bring them back to us one day.
And when we face our own death, we can know and remember that death, for us, is a temporary transition. Death is our pathway to Paradise. It is our hallway to Heaven, if you will. It is our journey to Jesus. Death is our ticket home.
Death is still our enemy, and it is still painful to lose a loved one, but it is a pain filled with hope. I am sure that almost all of us have lost someone who was close to us, and we will again. If they knew Jesus then know this: you will see them again. You will be with them again - forever. When Jesus returns He will raise them up, never to die again. And then it will be Death’s turn to die.
I leave you with Paul’s words:
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Amen.
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 March 2009 10:22 |
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