Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (Call to worship - Psalm 70)
Title: Where is Nanna?
Theme: Everlasting Life - Everlasting Hope
In this passage Paul speaks about Everlasting Life and Hope in Christ Jesus. Paul reminds us that we will have a resurrected body, King Jesus will return and All of Creation will be restored!
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!
"Where is Nanna" asked the little boy as he looked up at the casket in which his grandmother (Nanna) now occupied? Is Nanna asleep? Will Nanna be coming home with us later? Is Nanna with Jesus? Is Nanna in Heaven? Will I ever see Nanna again? Why did Nanna have to die?
Over the years I have heard conversations similar to those around caskets, around funeral parlors and at graveside services. They have come out of the mouths of the very young and out of the grief stricken faces of the elderly. People doing their best to deal with their grief and doing their best to get a handle on the situation.
The truth is when it comes to loss and grief none of us know the full answer. None of us know how to handle loss. We may attempt to suppress our emotions, attempt to look at everything clinically or logically but it doesn't really make sense. There is something deep inside of us that says that this is wrong. This is not how it is suppose to be in this life.
Just when a person is getting comfortable with who they are and are making some headway in becoming an authentic human being they find themselves having to lay down this mortal life. Just when a person is beginning to come into their own they are snatched out. Just when their candle of light has been ignited some have tragically had that light snuffed out.
None of us fully understand death. We don't know why the young die or why people have to die from violence or disease or even old age. There is something inside of us that says that we were not made for this and neither was our world.
And we are right. If the Story of Creation that we find in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis tell us anything and that story does tell a great deal it tells us that it was not God's idea to introduce death into our world at all. Alongside the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the Tree of Life. I strongly believe it was God's intention for His creation to enjoy everlasting life. It was only after we rebelled that death entered into the picture. Death is a result of our rebellion and self-idolatry.
Paul's friends in Thessalonica were asking questions about death and everlasting life. No doubt soon after this Church got started it had to endure the loss of some of its members. Now, they wanted to know what was going to happen to their loved ones. Perhaps they were wondering why their loved ones had not come back to life after three days like Jesus did. Would they ever see them again or had they been forever swallowed up by death? And if they were coming back where were they in the mean time?
Paul takes up their questions and to the best of his ability tries to explain the unexplainable. He gives this whole area of everlasting life a second try in his letter to the Church in Corinth ( I Corinthians 15:23-27, 51-54) and a third try in his letter to the Church in Philippi (Philippians 3:20-21). The Apostle is attempting to explain the unexplainable. What does happens to us when we die? What will the Second Coming be like? Is there a time table? Is there a pattern or signs and wonders that we should be focused on?
What truths can we glean from this part of Paul's letter to his friends at Thessalonica?
Well, let's look at some of them this morning.
I. Paul first points to death as falling asleep - verse 13
Now, some have taken Paul's words and built a whole theology around "the sleep of death". That is not what Paul is saying in these verses. At times we are so determined to find an answer we create an answer whether it is there or not.
Paul merely uses the words "fallen asleep" to describe those who died. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul describes those who have died to be like seeds sown into the ground while in Philippians 3:20-21, Paul talks about them enjoying citizenship in heaven. Paul uses a great many different metaphors in attempting to describe the indescribable.
The truth is this morning, we can only see through the glass of everlasting life darkly. Only, Jesus has come back from the dead and while we have a great deal of theories of what happened between day one and day three of his death the truth is we are left largely in the dark. But that doesn't mean that we don't know anything. In fact, Paul wants us to know by using this metaphor and others like it the following truths:
+Christians do not believe in complete annihilation. While some have leaned towards annihilation (called conditionalism) for those who do not accept the saving grace of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ ( Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Wesley, C.S. Lewis and others), there is no overall view that we just live, die and then experience nothingness. Christians strongly believe in an positive afterlife for those who have been rescued and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
+Christians do not believe that we go back to being absorbed back into the cosmos like some form of cosmic dust. We do not believe that once a person dies their total being - heart, mind and soul is somehow reabsorbed by the universe. This is the view of many who hold to the various forms of pantheism.
+Christians do not believe that after death the soul simply disappears and at some point reappears in a "ghost like" state for all eternity. There are some who believe that after death we merely become spirits who have the ability to interact with people here on earth as well as other beings throughout the universe. While we as Christ followers do believe in the Holy Spirit we do not believe that we will merely exist as spirits after our physical bodies die.
+Christians do not believe in reincarnation. We do not believe that once our bodies are removed that we return to some type of holding station awaiting a new body. We also do not believe that we are then assigned a new body once we have finished either a prescribed time of punishment or have been given some type of amnesia drug enabling us to forget our past and are then able to reunite with a new body. Those beliefs are held by those who have been influenced by some of the Eastern Religions.
So, what do Christians believe about the afterlife?
+We believe that like our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be resurrected and given a new body. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:21 -
"who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."
In other words when we experience our resurrection it will be similar to the resurrection that we see in the Gospel stories about Jesus. We will have a mind, a soul and yes we will have a body. Just as Jesus had a resurrected body so too will we have a resurrected body.
Now, as to what it will look like or any of those other finite details the Gospel writers did not give us a great deal of information. They were doing their best to understand how Jesus was raised from the dead and what all that meant. They had no idea that when Jesus said he would come back from the dead that he really would come back from the dead. It was only as they saw him, touched him, ate with him and fellowshipped with him that they began to fully grasp what it meant to see a Resurrected New Creation Body. The best we can know is that we will no longer be subject to pain, sorrow or death (Rev. 21:4). In many ways I believe that we will be restored back into the image of God that we see in Genesis 1 - 2. In other words our resurrected bodies will be very similar to those of Adam and Eve pre-fall. But that is only an opinion and not a verified fact.
II. Paul tells us that in all of this we are to put our Hope in Jesus
Paul wants his readers to understand that while we all experience the pain and loss of a loved one who has been rescued and redeemed by the LORD we are not to lose hope. They will live again. We are not to experience the kind of grief that others experience that do not know the LORD JESUS CHRIST as Savior, Lord and King. We are to embrace in faith the knowledge that just as the Heavenly Father raised His Son - Jesus Christ from the dead all that believe in Jesus will be also be raised from the dead to experience everlasting life on the New Heaven and Earth.
Jesus told us while He was here on His earth that He was the Resurrection and the LIFE:
"Jesus said to her (Martha), 'I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he lives and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11:25-26b - ESV).
Later on, we see in Acts 3:15 the Apostle Peter refers to Jesus as the Author of Life as he speaks to those gathered around the Temple. Peter had just healed the lame man invoking the name of Jesus as Messiah and LORD. He had taken the man by his right hand and raised him up. The man's ankles and legs had been restored and now he was walking and leaping around the Temple giving praise and honor to Jesus proclaiming him to be Israel's Messiah and LORD. You can imagine what kind of reaction all of that caused.
Going back to our passage we see how Paul is revealing to his readers that in Christ we can have the hope of experiencing everlasting life. We can have the hope that this life is not all that there is to experience. That just behind the veil of this life is a life of righteousness, justice and new beginnings. That very soon in the future the dead will be raised and given a new body so that all who believe in Jesus can live forever in the New Heaven and Earth.
We can have hope because right now Jesus - Resurrected Jesus - still very much human and divine has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of His Heavenly Father. The Bible wants us to understand that in our Lord and Savior Jesus, humanity is already in heaven.
Think about that for a moment. Where we are to go and what we are to experience is already being experienced by our Savior and LORD JESUS CHRIST. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus is the First fruit of salvation and everlasting life. Jesus is already in the presence of the Father and Holy Spirit. That is where we will be once we have put down this body and have been resurrected by our LORD and Savior Jesus.
We can place our hope in Jesus because in Jesus the veil between heaven and earth has been pulled apart? In the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, I believe this morning we can experience a little bit of what everlasting life is like.
For example, when we pray - what are we doing? We are asking the LORD to do in our earth (our bodies) and on His Earth the same things that He is doing in Heaven. We are in effect asking the LORD to align our earth (our bodies, our minds and our souls) to be in line and in accord with Heaven. In prayer, heaven and earth interact. In prayer, heaven and earth connect. In Christ, therefore we see heaven and earth coming together. And in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit we see heaven and earth not only connecting but connecting within us and within our times of worship, prayer and praise.
That is the power of the Holy Spirit. That is why it is so vital for us to be infilled with the Holy Spirit and for us to be led by the Holy Spirit. When we are "in the spirit" we are in a very small way experiencing heaven here on earth. When we are "in the spirit" we are in that space that is share by both heaven and earth.
Now, if that sounds like a mystery - well it is. If that sounds like the supernatural - well it is. It's what New Creation is all about. It is what being infilled with the Holy Spirit is all about. It is what experiencing worship is all about here on this earth.
I mean think about Isaiah's vision in the Temple, Moses' trips to the mountain and his encounter at the Burning Bush and Peter, James and John's visit to the Mount of Transfiguration. Think about Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus or Philip being taken up by the Holy Spirit after his encounter with the Ethiopian treasurer. Think about Paul' visit to the third heaven or John's revelation on the Isle of Patmos. Think about Mary's encounter with Gabriel or Mary Magdalene's encounter with the Risen Lord. Think about the 120 on the Day of Pentecost. All of these and many more are just mere glimpses and brief experiences of what it means to share sacred space with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
We have hope this morning because we have the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. We have the ability to communicate and experience the power and presence of God Himself.
While too many people that may sound crazy, it is not. In fact, it is why Jesus came to our earth in the first place. Jesus tells us that he came to rescue us and redeem us (John 3:16-17). He told us that one He went back to the Father that they would send their Holy Spirit to live inside us (John 16:5-15). The Holy Spirit would live inside us so that we could experience oneness with the God of our Creation.
Where once people had to go to the Tabernacle or the Temple to experience the presence of the LORD now that would be possible in their own heart and lives. This is the majesty of walking in the Holy Spirit. We are not walking alone. We are not to walk alone. We are walking hand in hand with the Holy Spirit. We are walking hand in hand with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Many people may have problems believing this or understanding this but that in and of itself does not make it untrue. The Bible is full of stories of people being filled with God's Spirit both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
So, even though we are in pain and in the throes of grief it does not mean that we are without hope. We hope because we know Jesus. We hope because we have the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. We hope because in our hearts we know that this life is not all that there is to human existence. We hope because we believe that the LORD JESUS CHRIST rose from the dead and has made a way for us to experience everlasting life.
III. Finally, Paul refers to the Return of Our Messiah and King Jesus - verses 15 - 18
While many have taken Paul's words here and made all kinds of various and different theologies concerning the Second Coming and what knot we can safely take these words and others that were spoken by our LORD JESUS and know these things:
+The Assurance of a Resurrected Body
We do not have to doubt whether or not we who have been redeem by the Blood of the Lamb will have a resurrected body. The Bible as we have seen is clear on this. You and I will be resurrected and we will have a new glorious body. That is a given.
+The Assurance of a Returning King
We also do not have to doubt whether Jesus is coming back. Acts 1:11 is clear on this. The heavenly beings that were with Jesus when He ascended into heaven were clear in their message that Jesus would be coming again. The Book of Revelation is clear on the Second Coming. Paul in his letters is clear on the Second Coming.
What is not so clear is the time, the date and how it will all happen. That's where the rub has been for some 2,000 years. We want to be clock watchers. We want to know the signs and the wonders of when it will happen. We want a chart to put on the wall. We want inside information.
In fact, over the years we have gotten so caught up with trying to figure out when Jesus is coming back that we forgot to tell people why He came in the first place. We forgot that our mission is the Great Commission. That we as followers of Jesus have been called to
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19 ESV)
We have been called to be witnesses of His Message of Salvation. We have been called to be witnesses of the power of His Resurrection. We have been called to be witnesses to the power and presence of His Holy Spirit. We have been called witnesses to be spiritual mentors, spiritual nurse maids and spiritual mothers and fathers that will help grow up a mighty band of Jesus followers.
We need to understand this morning that the Second Coming is a given. It is going to happen. What we need to focus on is to make sure like the wise virgins waiting for the Bridegroom that our lamps are filled with oil and that our lights are burning bright. We need to focus like those who were waiting for the landowner's return to make sure our works are bearing fruit. We need to make sure that we are being the Body of Christ to our world. We need to make sure that we are intercessors, prayer warriors and students of God's Word. We need to make sure that we are living the abundant life that Jesus made possible for all of us to live in the here and now and in the future life to come.
In other words we need to be busy doing all we can to bring about the restoration of our world. We need to be busy doing all we can to bring healing and wholeness to all of humanity as well as to all of creation as well.
Here in our country we have this misinformed theology going on that says that all we can hope for is for Jesus to come again, burn up this planet and start all over again. There is this spirit that is telling us that all is lost and that things cannot be redeemed or restored.
Well, I am here to tell you that it is all a lie.
In Genesis chapter one we read where God's Holy Spirit was hovering over the earth. The earth was without form and void - it was covered in darkness - but then God brought order to chaos. God created all of creation and called it good. He told humanity (in the form of Adam and Eve) to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and to create a world that reflects His Holy Image. God wanted Adam and Eve to create a world that looked like the Garden of Eden. He gave them the power to take the Garden and to expand it to fill the whole earth.
In Genesis chapter nine the LORD leads Noah and his family out of the ark to a planet that had been renewed and remade. He once again tells Noah and His family to go out and multiply and fill the earth. He tells them to now create a world that reflects His image and His glory.
In Genesis chapter 12 the LORD calls Abram to be a person who will be the means of all the peoples on this earth being blessed. Through his children and ultimately the Messiah all the people of the earth will be rescued, redeemed and restored.
As we know Adam and Eve failed in their task. They had the power of the Holy Spirit and could have created a world that reflected God's glory and honor. They had the power to defeat sin, death and the grave. They had the power to follow the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY all the days of their existence which would have been everlasting.
As we know Noah and his children also failed in their task. They did not stay true to the leadings of the Lord. In just a few generations they had allowed sin to overwhelm our planet and Satan to be able to proclaim his lordship over the earth.
As we know Abraham and his children also failed in their task. They became a people who isolated themselves and when God's Son came they not only rejected Him but they did all they could to destroy him by putting him on the Cross of Calvary.
But what they did not know was that Jesus was taking all the sin of the world upon himself on that cross. What they did not know was that Jesus was delivering us from the domain of darkness. Jesus was reconciling all of humanity with God and making peace for all mankind through his shed blood. Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them into open shame by having victory over them.
When our Lord and Savior, King Jesus walked out of that tomb that morning it was the greatest sign that a New Age had been inaugurated. A New Age in which:
Mankind no longer had to be enslaved by sin.
Mankind no longer had to suffer either the penalty of sin or be under the power of sin.
Mankind no longer had to allow his carnal flesh to rule over him or be subject to the powers and pleasures of darkness.
Instead, mankind could repent, be forgiven and be filled with God's Holy Fire. Mankind through the fire of the Holy Spirit could be rescued and redeemed along with all of creation.
Yes, Jesus will return. But will we stand before him with no fruit? Will we stand before him presenting him a broken and sullied bride? Will we stand before Him, our Savior, Our King and Messiah and tell Him that the Devil was simply too strong, that the power of evil was simply too much to overcome?
Or will we be a part of his fire brands? Will we do all we can to spread the fire of His Holy Spirit which convicts, cleanses, purifies and empowers His Good Creation? Will we call down the fire of the Holy Spirit to rescue and redeem our world? Or will we merely succumb to the lies of the Devil who tells us that this is still his world and that his power triumphs all other powers?
Who is in charge of our world?
Matthew 28:18 tells us - "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
Acts 17:6 tells us that when Paul and his missionary band arrived in Thessalonica one of the charges their enemies brought against them was - "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also."
Is it not time that we begin to turn our world upside down again? That instead of money, greed, sex, anger and violence being the powers of the air that it is the power of the Holy Spirit busy at work?
Oh, you say that is impossible. The forces of evil are too strong. Look around you - everywhere you see there is greed, sex, money, anger and violence. What can we possibly do to counter act Hollywood, Wall Street or the Spirits of Anger and Violence?
In response, I say that Jesus is at the Right Hand of the Father. In response I tell you that here on this planet is the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit. In response I tell you that in Christ the Victory has been won.
This morning, what do we say about Nanna?
We tell our loved ones that we have hope in Christ Jesus.
We tell our loved ones that one day we will have a resurrected body like Jesus.
We tell our loved ones that our King Jesus is coming again.
And then we show them that we believe all of that by being a fire brand for Jesus - doing our best to spread the fires of the Holy Spirit all around us - at home, at work, in our neighborhoods and in our churches. We do what the Early Church did:
+We gather to learn more about the LORD - we study, we learn, we become the WORD
+We gather to pray - to connect Heaven and Earth. We intercede and become vessels so that God can pour out His Holy Spirit.
+We find ways to have fellowship - we pray and look for open doors and for open opportunities to rescue and redeem people around us
+We find way to share our lives, our resources and the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
This morning can the LORD fill you with so much of His Holy Spirit that you can be light for Him? Will you ask the LORD to let you be a fire brand of His Holy Spirit? Will you do all you can to bear fruit and lead people to salvation?
As we close in a song - our altars are open - more importantly are our hearts open - are they ready to receive God's forgiveness, mercy and love? Are they ready to be infilled with His Holy Spirit? Are we ready to go out in the power of the Holy Spirit and turn our world upside down?
