We’re continuing with the E100 series, and we have two weeks left. We’re actually extending the series one week due to Ash Wednesday and the 25th anniversary. But I’ll be preaching three sermons from the last two weeks of the E100 series. You can still grab a book mark it you’d like and read along with us.
Prayer for the people – for those who put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of others. Military, armed forces, law enforcement, firemen. Let’s pray. (Remember Mike, Chip, and Kameron)
Do you know what prompts a lot of people to consider following Jesus Christ? It is times of examination – those times vary in scale and scope. At the end of our life, we often face major examinations.
For Pete, it was a time for a major examination. I met him at North Austin Medical Center. He was about 32. He was a young “Dellionaire”. That’s what they used to call them. Lot’s of people who went to work for Dell Computers in the early 1990s were millionaires by the late 1990s. Those folks had the world by the tail – and Pete did. The career, the house, a beautiful wife, no kids – yet… And uh, he had been diagnosed with terminal disease.
I don’t remember much about that conversation. But I remember the lines, the sharp lines of worry around his wife’s eyes. They didn’t seem to belong there. And I remember him saying very angrily, “there must be options. There are always options.” And I also remember that they were Presbyterians – both of them – who hadn’t been to church since they were in High School. And oh man, they needed a source of hope that day.
Paul the apostle writes.
1Th 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as those who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul. I love this passage, It brings so many images to mind. The images inspire the creation of images. But it’s easy to be captured by them. What I love about this passage, most of all, is that it says we have hope in the face of death.
Hope. Hope is such a powerful thing. It shapes us. I thought I knew a lot about hope – but there was a season in my life when God taught me more about hope than I could imagine. It was when I learned that Heather was expecting a baby – and we began to look forward with hope to the day that our first child would be born. It was miraculous. It was frightening. It was wonderful. There was so much anticipation. There was a baby coming. And – and – this hope was heightened because at one point we thought we’d never have children. That made the whole things seem even more miraculous.
Paul was writing to Christians who needed hope. They were living in a pagan culture full of people who did not believe in Jesus. I want to draw your attention to verse 13. Paul talks about “those who have fallen asleep.” I suspect you fully appreciate that he was referring to people who’ve died. He wanted them to know what happens when people die so that they would not “grieve as those who have no hope.” He is saying to the Christians that the way they will grieve will be qualitatively different from the way the rest of the world grieves. For we, who belong to Jesus Christ, do not grieve like those who have no hope.
Quick aside – a very important aside. I’ve conducted many funerals. Lots of funerals. I haven’t encountered many, but every now and then I’ll encounter someone who says really stupid things at the time of death. Like, “I guess God just needed them more that we did.” Huh? A god who kills someone we love to meet his own needs. That’s not my God. How about this: “God just wanted a flower in his garden.” What a selfish god that would be! Or “Praise Jesus. She’s in Heaven! We should be happy.” Really? We’ll be reunited in Heaven – at the end of my life – I’ve now lost a loved one whom I will not get a hug from for the rest of my life and you want me to be happy? This passages says,
We will not GRIEVE like those who have no hope. Brothers and sisters, we do, we will, and we should grieve at the time of death. And the Bible tells us to laugh with those who laugh and to mourn with those who mourn.
We will grieve – but the way we grieve will be different. Christian grief carries with it the element of hope.
We have hope – miraculous hope – in Jesus. Why? What makes us so special that we get a different kind of grief. Well, it’s faith in Jesus Christ. Look at this statement of faith – look at verse 14: For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Hope for what. Hope for uninterrupted fellowship with God. Hope for reunion with those whom we love. When your loved one dies in the Lord, you have good reason to hope to see them again for one reason and one reason only – because those who belong to the Lord belong to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is stronger than death.
But what about those who don’t believe? Or who believe something different? Or who just don’t believe very well? Who are we to judge? We get so uncomfortable about this. And we are in a denomination in which many are drifting toward universalism – they believe in universal salvation – that everyone gets to enjoy heaven.
The trouble is that universalism produces not hope, but wishful thinking – and there’s a reason for that. It’s because universalism places its trust in God’s mercy rather than in Jesus. And the message of God’s Word is that if we want to understand mercy, we need to know Jesus.
By the way, the simple “believe in Jesus and pray this prayer” approach also produces wishful thinking rather than hope. I’ve heard people at funerals say things like, “he prayed the prayer and gave his life to Jesus…” but you see the doubt in their eyes. That’s because there is a big difference between placing trust in Jesus Christ and placing trust in a little prayer or a creed. And most of the time, close family and friends know whether or not their deceased loved one knew and followed Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ Jesus gives hope.
Two more stories about Presbyterians at a time of examination.
The first time I met Walter, he stopped by the church and dropped off a check. He told me he was coming by to pay his dues. Then he asked me if I used the bear when I did children’s sermons. I didn’t know what he was talking about. The former pastor used a bear as a prop in the children’s messages and that annoyed Walter so he wasn’t coming to church. I didn’t use the bear – and you know, Walter came to church when he didn’t have anything better to do. And then he got cancer. He was 96 years old – Clear eyed. Clear minded. And he was dying and he was scared. We talked about life. Based on his lifestyle, he had good reason to be scared – like all of us do. And we talked about the grace of God. But he just couldn’t believe it. He figured he’d beat the cancer. We talked about the fact that he even if he recovered from this bout with cancer, he was gonna die. And the cancer got the upper hand. He died. Walter died. And his wife and his step kids hoped that he had trusted Jesus – but you could see it in their eyes. It was wishful thinking. I shared the more hopeful parts of my conversations with him. It brought a little comfort. But their eyes still had questions.
Now Fran was quite different. She was a lifelong Presbyterian from New Jersey. and frankly, she was often a thorn in the side of preachers. One Sunday, my friend who was interning for me, Dan Muttart, he preached for me. Fran hated the sermon. She really hated the sermon. In that church nearly everyone filed past the preacher on the way out, and as Fran was coming down the aisle she was telling a friend in a loud voice, “Awful. That sermon was awful. It was the worst sermon I’ve heard him preach.” And then she got Dan, smiled, shook his hand, and said, “That’s a lovely tie.” Loved that lady, oh but she wasn’t easy. She was devoted to our church’s prayer ministry. She never missed a Sunday. And she knew Jesus. She discovered Bible study late in life. And then her health turned. She declined, she lingered, and she died. Her family, her friends, and her church were heartbroken. But when we buried her, we worshiped God and we were filled with hope.
Knowing Jesus makes all the difference at the time of examination.
Now, back to that question. Do you want the people in your life to have that kind of hope? I do! I want that very much.
Do you know anyone who’s not a Christian? Now let me point out something – here in North West St. Johns county we have a heck of a lot of people who have a church and call themselves Christians but don’t know Jesus Christ. Many of our neighbors are culturally Christian. Do you think that could be true in our church? Not long ago, I was able to view some demographic information about our community provided by Missioninsite. No surprise, I think, if I tell you that we live in a community in which everyone seems to have a church. But let me share what demographic studies of this area show:
Let me tell you what it says. Compared to the rest of the country, we have significant growth” in population. We have “very high” education. We have “significantly more” family income. Our community “moderately diverse”. Our poverty level is “significantly below” the national rate. And our religiosity is… measured based on questions like these:
• Is it important to you to attend religious services?
• Is your faith really important to you?
• Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?
• Do you enjoy watching religious TV programs?
• Is it important to believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead?
• Do you believe it is important for others to know about Jesus Christ?
Well, on those questions, guess what. In our neck of the woods, religiousity in our community is…
“very high”? Nope. “Somewhat high”? Nope. “Mixed”? Nope. “Somewhat low”? Nope. Compared to the national average, it is “very low”.
Our community is very much churched, but not very much Christian. The people around us have churches, but have no faith. In other words, people around here are a lot like a guy I buried named Walter.
What does it mean when someone has a church but doesn’t know Jesus? What does it mean if someone thinks that church membership is important but faith in Jesus Christ isn’t? I have seen it over and over again that engagement in worship, fellowship, mission, study, prayer, and sharing the faith – all the things that go into discipleship – those things make all the difference because they help us know Jesus better. And that is important because the day of examination comes.
Do you love Jesus? Because you know, if you love Jesus you have a great source of hope. Now, Do you love the people Jesus loves? How do we reach people who need the gospel.
When Heather and I got married, our vows included this statement: “I want my family and my friends to know that in you, God has answered my prayers…” We had something powerful and profound we wanted to say and we said it. But you know, there’s an unromantic side to every marriage – to get to that point, Heather and I had to have more than a few awkward conversations. But you know what – after twenty years of marriage some of those awkward conversations have been transformed into sources of wonderful stories. And getting through those was so worth it – because we were in love.
Do you want all your family and friends to know that in Jesus Christ God has answered your prayers to give you hope? And do you want them to know that hope, too? Just saying, that may involve a lot of awkward conversations. And those may serve as the basis of wonderful stories later.
In your bulletin today, you have four cards that can help you have some awkward conversations. They are invite cards for events coming up. Use them as ways to invite friends and neighbors to come to church with you. But I tell you what, I don’t want people to come to church here and not meet Christ here. This isn’t so much about bringing friends to church –It’s all about bringing friends to Christ. Bringing them to church is a good idea. Discipleship – learning what it means to follow Jesus doesn’t happen without a church. Hope grows deep when a church does its job. And I promise as the pastor of this church to do my job in terms of preaching. I promise I’ll preach from the Bible. I’ll promise to preach sermons that are theologically Reformed. Most of all though, I promise I will preach the Gospel – that we are more wicked than we ever dared to believe, but through Jesus Christ, we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared to hope.
And if you do your part then maybe – just maybe – you’ll have the joy and privilege of seeing faith come alive in your friends and neighbors. Their lives will different. Your faith will be strengthened. Do you think that might be worth a few potentially awkward conversations? Take a card to your neighbor this week. Invite them to church. And right now let’s pause. Let’s pray together for your conversations…
[Prayer]
