Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : November 13, 2005

Theme: There is Hope in Death

Church year occasion: End Times 3 - Saints Triumphant

Daniel was a normal kid. At three years old, he had his whole life ahead of him. Daniel would get into all kinds of things -- some good, some bad. The last thing he got into was a book of matches. He could make them light up, and then they would go out. Until there was one that he lit, and it didn't go out. It caught part of his bedroom on fire; no one except Daniel knows which part caught fire first. And eventually, it caught the whole room on fire, but by that time Daniel was asleep. When his parents tried to break down the door to his room, it was already too late. How do you think his parents took it? What do you say to someone who just lost a loved one like that -- in such a tragic way? You tell them exactly what the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians and is telling us this morning. There is Hope in Death for the Christian.

Paul starts this section with words of comfort. "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." There is a saying that what you don't know can't hurt you. Another way to say it is, "ignorance is bliss." If I never told you about Daniel, you never would have felt the anxiety and helplessness and sorrow over that child. What you don't know can't hurt you. Ignorance is bliss. Unless you are ignorant about how to put out a burning match. Paul says that there is one kind of ignorance that is not bliss at all -- in fact, it is the opposite, it's hopelessness and despair. It's a death without knowing Christ.

Why is death scary to many, and even to an extent to Christians? Because death is something we have never experienced. It is fear of the unknown. When you start a new job, there is a fear of the unknown. What do I do? Where do I go? How do I do this or that? When you move there is a fear of the unknown. How will my new job work out? Will my family be okay in this new place? Going to a new school always brings a bit of fear of the unknown along with it. Will I make any friends? Will everyone exclude me because I'm different to them? Or how about a fear of the unknown when you go and check out a church that you've never been to before? But when it comes to fear of the unknown, death is the worst. You have never experienced death personally, so you have no experience to deal with it.

But it is much more than just fear of the unknown. Death is actually fear of what we will finally know when we die. That's where doubts come. Will I find out that I was I wrong my whole life? Was everything I was taught true? Is Jesus really the way to heaven? Will I find out that I really had to do something during my life to earn my salvation? Where do you go for answers to those questions? You can't just ask someone because those who know are dead already. They can't come back through death's door -- it's a one-way door -- like those kind that have a knob on one side as you're going through it, but once you go through you find out there's no knob on the other side, and it locks automatically. Maybe Mohammad was right who claimed that he received the words of an angel. He claimed that if you die fighting infidels, you get a free ticket to paradise. Otherwise, you get there by being a good person. Was Muhammad right about death? We can't ask him about it because he's dead. Maybe Buddha was right, and you get to heaven by doing good things while striking a balance between suffering and pleasure as you follow the eight-fold path of virtue. But Buddha died, too. Maybe the Pope is right and after a lifetime of trying to live as best you can you will go to purgatory and after centuries of suffering there you can get to heaven. But every Pope who taught that died, too, didn't they? You can go to their graves. They're still there. Maybe Jesus was right who said you get to heaven simply by believing in him as your only Savior, not by what you do. His message was different. Salvation doesn't depend on the works you do, but on the works Jesus did for you. But he died, too, didn't he? You can go to his grave, or at least where they think it was.

But there is something significantly different about Jesus. He didn't stay dead. Of all the people who ever lived and died, only Jesus was able to walk back through that one-way door and tell us what is beyond that door of the unknown. And that's the key. Every religion except Christianity is based on the teachings of someone who died and could do nothing about it. But Christianity is founded by the one who didn't have to die but did, and who also came back from death and conquered death so that we know what waits on the other side. Only Christ can give us hope even in the face of death.

That is the hope that Paul points us to first. Instead of not knowing what death will bring and so grieving like an unbeliever who has no hope in the face of death, he says, "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." Jesus died and rose. Paul used those two simple words to sum up what Jesus did to be our Savior. Jesus died. We know why he died -- not because he was leading a rebellion or because he claimed to be God, which was how Jesus' enemies could hang him on a cross -- he died because he wanted to die. He died because he didn't want you to die forever in hell. The gods of other religions say, "If you're good enough, you can be live forever." The true and only God says, "Look at yourself compared to what I expect of you. You can't be good enough. Just look at the sins you committed this past week. Just look at how often you've doubted my Word or have looked elsewhere for comfort and direction. Each of those sins keeps you out of heaven. But don't despair," God says. "I know you can't come up to me, so I'll come down to you." And he did. That's what separates Jesus and Christianity from every man-made god and man-made religion of this world. God doesn't just want us to be as good as we can be -- he demands that we are perfect all the time. We can't do it. But God came down to us and did it for us. Then he just says, "Believe in me. Trust that I am the only way to get to heaven. Trust that when I died on a shameful cross, I did it for you so that your sins would be completely washed away. Believe in me, and heaven is yours." Why should we believe in Jesus? Because he rose from the dead. When Christ conquered death, he conquered the power and fear that it has over us. We know everything he said was true because it showed that Jesus is God himself. There is now hope in the face of death. And that hope is Christ through his resurrection.

Because of that foundation, we know that those who have died in Christ are not dead. Jesus himself said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." (John 11:25-26)

The Thessalonians had all kinds of misunderstandings of the last times and about death itself. They thought that they would all still be alive when Jesus came -- Jesus would come during their lifetimes. But then some of these believers died. And then they wondered if what Paul had taught them was true. So Paul reassured them with the death and resurrection of Christ. And then he talked about those who had died in the faith: "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." What a beautiful description of those who have died in faith -- they fell asleep! This is not just a euphemism or nice-sounding words to cover up a terrible thing, like passing away or going on to a better place. But for the Christian death is like a sleep. Just as we go to sleep thinking that we will wake up from it, so your Christian loved ones who have died have already woken up from death and are in eternal life. Revelation says, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." That's because death held no fear for them. Jesus took the fear out of death. He made the unknown known. He turned death into life.

But doubts can still linger about what happened to our loved one as we're wiping the dirt from our shoes as we walk from their grave. So Paul tells us exactly what has happened to them and what will happen to them: "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."

When Christ comes on the clouds of heaven for every eye to see with his mighty angels to judge the world, the dead in Christ will rise first. The bodies that we put in the ground will be the first to rise from this sinful earth. They will rise to meet their Lord in the air where their bodies will reunite with their souls that have come with Jesus. So what will happen to those believers who are still living on earth when Jesus comes again? Paul says, "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." We will be with the Lord forever. Instead of facing Jesus and his wrath because we refused to believe in him, we will be with the Lord forever because God moved our hearts to believe his gospel.

In ancient Rome gladiators fought to the death. When one gladiator could end the other gladiator's life, the victor would turn to Caesar. And Caesar would either give him the thumbs up sign, which meant the man should live, or he could give the thumbs down sign, which meant the man should die. Three-year-old Daniel died in a tragic fire. Three years old! God decided that was when Daniel should die. But it also meant that now Daniel would live in a way he and we could only dream about -- with Jesus forever in heaven. Your loved ones who have died in faith are with the Lord forever. One day we will join them at Jesus' side. There is hope in death. That hope is Jesus Christ. Amen.