Ever Loving Saints

INTRODUCTION — THE QUESTIONS LOVE ASKS

It’s not the loudest questions that stay with us.

It’s the quiet ones — the ones whispered by an empty chair, a photograph, or a fading voice.

Questions like:

Where are they now?

Do they see us?

Are they watching?

Is death the end — or a pause between heartbeats of eternity?

These are questions that theology alone cannot answer; they demand a voice of love.

The voice of Christ who stood at a tomb and wept.

The voice that said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

The Bible is unflinching about death — but it’s even more unrelenting about love.

And so, this morning, we’ll talk about Ever-Loving Saints —

not because saints live forever by nature,

but because the love that made them saints never dies.

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I. WHAT MAKES A SAINT?

We usually think of saints as people cast in stained glass — far removed from our own struggles.

But biblically, a saint is not someone who has achieved perfection;

a saint is someone who has received grace.

Paul writes to the believers in Corinth —

and if you know anything about Corinth, you know they weren’t exactly choirboy material —

and yet he begins:

> “To the saints of God in Corinth, called to be holy.” (1 Cor. 1:2)

To be a saint is to be set apart by love.

The moment grace finds you, heaven begins to write your story in permanent ink.

You don’t become a saint by climbing; you become one by surrendering.

And the mark of every true saint is not self-righteousness but love —

love that bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.

Love that outlasts the grave.

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II. THE FIRST LIE AND THE LAST ENEMY

Let’s rewind to Eden.

There stood the first man and woman, surrounded by life, yet hearing a lie:

> “You shall not surely die.”

It was the devil’s first deception,

and it has echoed through every religion that promises immortality without righteousness,

existence without grace,

and heaven without the cross.

But Scripture is clear:

> “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)

Death is not a portal we glide through; it’s an enemy that Christ has conquered.

It’s not a friend to be embraced but a foe to be destroyed.

Paul calls death “the last enemy.” (1 Cor. 15:26)

Yet even that last enemy will bow before the Lord of Life.

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III. THE SLEEP THAT AWAITS THE SAINTS

Have you noticed how tenderly the Bible speaks of death for the believer?

Not as annihilation, not as conscious torment, but as sleep.

Jesus said of Lazarus,

> “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to wake him.” (John 11:11)

Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned and “fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60)

David “slept with his fathers.” (1 Kings 2:10)

And Paul comforted the Thessalonians:

> “I do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who are asleep,

that you sorrow not as others who have no hope.” (1 Thess. 4:13)

Sleep.

That gentle word changes everything.

Because sleep implies rest, not ruin.

It implies awakening, not extinction.

When you sleep, you are unaware of time.

For the believer, the next conscious moment after closing the eyes in death

is the face of Jesus coming in the clouds of glory.

Between the heartbeat that stops and the trumpet that sounds,

there is no passage of time —

just the miracle of resurrection morning.

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IV. THE FIRSTFRUITS AND THE HARVEST

The resurrection of Christ was not a private miracle; it was a public promise.

Paul calls Him “the firstfruits of those who sleep.” (1 Cor. 15:20)

In Jewish harvest law, the first sheaf was brought to the temple and waved before God

as a sign that the rest of the harvest belonged to Him.

Christ’s resurrection is God’s pledge that the grave will not keep us either.

He is not “first” because no one ever rose before Him —

Moses, Enoch, and Elijah all live by grace before the cross —

but He is the Firstfruits because His resurrection is the cause of theirs.

He is the guarantee, the forerunner, the foretaste of eternal life.

What happened to Him in that garden tomb

will happen to every believer who dies in faith.

That’s why we can stand beside a casket and whisper, “Good night,” instead of “Goodbye.”

Because morning is coming.

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V. LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH

The saints are not immortal by nature; they are immortal by love.

1 John 3:14 says,

> “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.”

Love is the pulse of eternity.

When sin entered, death followed.

But when love took on flesh, death lost its grip.