When the End Isn't

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Sermon

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As I mentioned last Sunday, this past week, I took my work and tagged along with Monica on her work trip to Nashville.

It was a great trip. It’s a beautiful place, we met great people, enjoyed great music, ate really good food, and I picked up at least a dozen sermon illustrations you will hear eventually, I’m sure.

But also as I said last Sunday, plane rides are not a end in themselves for me. They are a way to get from here to there, and for that I’m grateful. But I’m even more grateful to get out.

Not a fear of flying. Nope. Just the raw discomfort of being squeezed in all four sides, with very little movement room.

For whatever reason, our flight from Seattle to Nashville was extra uncomfortable. A headache added to the fun. I couldn’t move my arms, my legs, and no matter what I tried with my sweatshirt as a pillow, I never could get comfortable enough to even rest, let alone sleep.

Then the lady in front of me leaned back. Now it’s psychological warfare mixed in. No wonder people pay the extra for first class.

I was just desperate for us to land, so I could get out. And then we landed…and had to stay on the plane, because apparently lightning is ok to fly and land in, but way too dangerous to taxi to the gate in.

But we did get out, and had a great trip.

That’s how it is when we hurt. When we grieve. We just want it over. We want the shortcut. We want the plane doors to open and the confining discomfort of our pain and frustration to be over.

When Becca was small, she developed a pain in her abdomen that led us to take her to the ER. They said it was gas.

They said it was gas the next day when we took her again.

We took her to a different ER and they actually looked to see her appendix was getting ready to rupture.

I’ll never forget the time between her pain starting and when she got out of the OR and they told us the surgery was effective and she was going to be ok.

Everything felt so small, so confining, I couldn’t get out of my discomfort, there was no freedom from the reality that my little girl was in the hands of God and doctors and I couldn’t do a thing.

Or when I was 18 and found out my family as I knew it was over. Lies had been uncovered and my parents were going their different directions.

And the entire future I had in my head where I would get married, have kids, and go to grandma and grandpa’s house…disintegrated like a vapor and us kids saw a smaller world for awhile.

Ugh

But when we lose a person permanently, when someone dies…it’s all that…but

I had hope to get off the plane

I had hope Becca would be fine

I had the hope of a new normal, new friendship with my sister, and a chance to do better when I became a husband

But when Nana passed…That was the end not only of the friendship I had with her, but of my connection to the house that was the last safe space for me, memories of hot dog roasts, picking up cans on road trips, her love of dancing when I played my music too loud.

When I’ve lost friends along the way my thoughts have matched those of the many I’ve comforted through their losses.

why them? why me? why now? what was God thinking?

Leave a pause...

Aha!

Paul had established a church community in the Greek city of Thessaloniki.

Literally labeled in my bible, A short ministry…He made some converts, then a riot broke out and he had to leave town. Check out Acts 17 for more.

But this church thrived. But they were also missing details.

They heard about Jesus’ Imminent return…but what about…those we’ve lost?

If someone dies, and Jesus hasn’t come back…are they doomed?

Paul gets word about their concerns and their questions and writes what we call 1 Thessalonians. Lots of good stuff covered, but the section we’ll be in today ends with our One Another: “Encourage one another with these words.”

“These words” are all about how we grieve as followers of Jesus. How we grieve … different.

Paul will give them a big picture of what theologians call “escatology” how we understand the end times.

The problem we often have, and the church has had from the beginning at times and to different degrees (2 thessalonians reveals some misunderstandings…) is our focus on how and when… We want to solve the mystery.

1 Thess 5, which we won’t get to today, but follows right after this focus from paul on our hope says, About the times and seasons, you don’t need anything written. You know it will be like a thief in the night.

The point isn’t when, it’s what does the knowledge of the end lead us to do NOW. In this case specifically, How does it change the way we grieve death and every other pain we struggle with? How do we prioritize?

Paul asks this church and I believe he would say the same to us, to encourage each other with the important reality of the hope we will discuss today.

Can you have hope when facing loss? Let’s see.

Whee!

Encouraging One Another with Hope

Let’s start with verse 13

1 Thessalonians 4:13 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.”

Not Like the Rest

Paul says, I don’t want you to be missing some key information about those who have died.

Knowledge can do a lot of favors for us. In Nashville we needed knowledge from Google maps to find anything. My internal compass was lost.

When you’re baking, knowledge of how different ingredients behave when heated, whisked, or cooled gives you all the edge on making something special

When it comes to grief, the right information can do something powerful

SO THAT you WILL NOT GRIEVE like the rest, who have no HOPE.

In Romans 12, Paul tells them not to be conformed to the thinking of this world, but transformed by the renewal of their mind.

This is the same call, zoomed in on this most tender place in our hearts. Our grief, our pain, our trauma, especially over the loss of those we love.

For the one who does not know Jesus, death is the final word.

I don’t say this as a judgement on their final destination, that is in God’s hands.

I do say this as a recognition of what those who live through loss experience. The loved one is gone. Their grief, is a grief without hope.

Do you have hope? If you are in Christ, whatever the grief, the answer is yes whether you see it or not.

Paul is speaking specifically to grief over loss of life, but the principles of hope apply to all our pain, loss, and fear.

So in your pain right now, do you have hope?

If it is a hope that a person will fix something for you…you put your hope in something that will eventually at some point let you down.

If it is a hope that comes from natural optimism that everything will eventually work out just fine, eventually you’ll be blindsided when it just doesn’t. (this is my default setting)

If it is a hope that if the right laws get passed, the people in the wrong get punished, or the right people get elected…history is filled with reasons this has never and until Christ returns and reigns, WILL NEVER fulfill.

But if you have the hope Paul has, even death, even death has hope that won’t fail.

That’s the hope I need, the hope I hunger for, what is that hope? Let’s keep reading:

1 Thessalonians 4:14 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

If We Believe, then We Will See

If we believe, if we trust, if we have placed our full faith in the reality of the death and resurrection of JESUS…something changes!

I spent a little time in Nashville talking to a man named Maurice.

Maurice was selling a newspaper that had been created specifically to give the homeless a business opportunity. Ads provided the revenue to publish the paper, so nearly every dollar made by those who sell the paper goes to them.

And it goes right into paying for their apartment, utilities, and groceries.

Several downtown buildings have become not shelters, but long lasting homes for those who do the work.

He and I talked about how much this has meant to him, the way it changed everything. The level of self respect, and the sense of pride he takes in not begging, but investing his time connecting with people.

The paper is filled with stories of the experiences of the homeless, their hopes and fears, how they are impacted by local events. Interviews with different agencies on how people can help and get help.

Seeing his success, I asked if he had found that he was able to help others now.

His face fell a bit. Only if they believe they can be helped…and not enough believe. They’ll try it, and then when they hit a bump, they quit.

I noticed throughout downtown, that there were some like Maurice, who had a thought through spot, were cleaned up and engaging people with a smile and persistence. Many others were using the newspapers like we see folks use cardboard signs. Just holding them up and hoping someone will give them something.

Or, they had just stuck with or gone back to begging.

Only if they believe.

It’s not just a mental agreement with facts, it’s a trust that this really can change your life.

If it’s true about a newspaper, how much more the death and resurrection of Jesus!?

Paul has this conversation in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

He goes on for a bit about appearances and impact before landing this plane:

1 Corinthians 15:13-19 “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ—whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.”

The resurrection is everything to us. Specifically on our topic today, Paul points out that those who have died in Christ…are just gone if there is no resurrection. And in that case…what a stupid religion.

Deny yourself. Choose to lose, to give up your life to find it. Sacrifice your blessing for the blessing of others.

WHY? Why did the apostles all give up freedom and ultimately their lives to talk about Jesus?

Why would countless followers of Jesus have given up families, careers, comforts, and even their lives in the cause of the gospel?

No the resurrection is everything.

In Romans Paul opens his letter saying

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.”

So Paul tells the Thessalonians, Through JESUS, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Those who have died in Christ, someday, and we’ll go a little deeper in a moment, God will bring those who have died in Christ with HIM. Check out verse 15

1 Thessalonians 4:15 “For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

Paul says, in other words, They have a headstart.

If you live all the way to the day Jesus comes back to this place, if you were thinking you got to the head of the line because you’ve been right here…Paul says nope.

When the heavens open and Jesus returns, you will hold the door open as those who have gone before come on through.

THATS HOPE!

That means even death…loses.

No wonder Paul back in 1 Corinthians after his discussion on the resurrection breaks into poetry nearly shouting as he quotes Isaiah and Hosea:

1 Corinthians 15:54b-55 Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?”

If death loses…If death can’t beat Jesus. Tell me what hurt, what fear, what loss, what struggle ever could.

Paul gives a little more info

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17a “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air...

All Together

I want to leave the end of that sentence for a moment to address a key idea.

I used the word, eschatology, end times thinking, at the beginning.

I mentioned the problem of focusing on the when and the how…and how Paul wasn’t going to be bothered there.

The reason it’s so important we think right about the end times is that it will change us.

But it’s such an enticing thing…we can get distracted by an idea that isn’t essential…at all. At worst it turns us away from actually being like Jesus as we try to create a world he would like.

I do not hold tightly to ANY end times theology.

If Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and the OT writers who spoke of it didn’t feel the need to get specific…I won’t either.

I know some would argue that they did…but the only way scripture fully supports any of these “this is how or when” ideas is when people use scissors and glue to put phrases from different books and authors, with different intents and points together.

This is one of the key verses used that way right here.

It focuses around the the words, “caught up” or rapture.

Only place that word is used is right here. Then it’s merged with other passages to imply something that isn’t expressly taught by scripture.

Until the 1800s, the idea of Christians all disappearing before a great tribulation didn’t exist in Christian thinking. Then it was everywhere.

1800 years of Jesus followers didn’t have this idea. Let that sink in.

Let’s look at Paul’s actual words. (put text up again)

The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout!

The arch angel’s voice and trumpets and the dead in Christ will rise to join him and then those still here will get caught up in clouds...

All in the context of him coming here. Not swinging low to pick us up.

Revelation describes Jesus not coming to get us out, but coming to make us and this whole place right.

I don’t think anyone’s beliefs around the end times will save or damn them…but they will change your priorities. And through the years we’ve seen a lot of characters create for themselves a lot of wealth and power by persuading people what they “knew”.

In the meantime the real work of loving our neighbor, sharing our faith, and caring for one another…becomes foggier and foggier.

This is why it is so important to read, and learn to understand your bible, the Old and New testaments so you can understand who God is and what he actually desires from his people.

We are so blessed with resources now, some good and some not so good, that it can be overwhelming.

If you need help finding some, I will be happy to help. I can always easily recommend Bible Project’s videos and podcasts. All free.

I say all of that to drive us back to the real point here of this rapture, is that we will be with those who we have lost.

Imagine you had lived your whole life under an oppressive regime. Somewhere along the line, your best friend was taken away to a prison.

You had cried and cried that the evil had won and separated you.

Then one day you hear a trumpet…the ground shakes under your feet. You race to the walls of the city and see an army marching toward the city.

you fear for a moment, until you realize the wicked soldiers are going to fight against the coming army. This is a saving army.

Quickly, the evil regime melts away in realization that they brought a knife to a gun fight and the invading army parades in.

All of a sudden you see in the crowd your friend in the middle of the parade. He waves you over and in. You hesitate for a moment until you look to see the general on his steed give you a wink and a nod.

What joy as you not only meet them in the crowd, but continue in the victory of salvation for your city.

This is the hope we have. Only it’s gonna be a lot cooler than a parade down main street.

Do you have that hope? What fear, pain, trauma, loss, do you carry that is greater than that hope? If there is anything, then your hope is still smaller than it should be.

Let me finish that line we left off on.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we who are still 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.”

With Him

Better than any other hope is this.

And this is why distractions about when, where, etc are so damaging.

I don’t care where I am for eternity. I mean that with everything in me. I have become more and more convinced that “where” absolutely irrelevant.

What matters…is “who”

and so we will always be with the Lord

Can I tell you I cried when I typed that repetition into my notes?

I don’t long for eternity because of streets of gold or pearly gates

I don’t long for eternity because I’ll get my questions answered

i don’t long for eternity because I’ll get to ride a dinosaur…though that would be cool...

I long. for. eternity. because. I. get. to. be. with. Jesus. ALWAYS. with. JESUS.

And this is why every grief, trauma, pain, struggle, and loss here and now has hope.

Because though someday I will be perfectly united with Christ Always…I have him now.

I don’t have to protect my pride because Jesus is with me now.

I don’t have to achieve great things to prove my worth because Jesus is with me now.

I have freedom to forgive the impossible, humble myself when I’m stubborn, give sacrifically of all I have and am, and face every loss with joy beyond sorrow because I am WITH JESUS NOW.

…

This is why so many gave up so much for the kingdom of God. Because they already had it all.

What 1 Thessalonians 4 recognizes is that we live in place today…where we forget that.

We live in the midst of the grief and sorrow and death that remind us that this world is still waiting for Jesus to come with that conquering army.

We still have pain thrown in front of us daily.

And that pain can make us turn inward, can make us bitter and unforgiving. Even of ourselves.

We can become impatient, inhospitable, isolationist, fearful...

But if we are reminded of the hope we have for ALWAYS, we can remember the hope we have NOW.

We do not grieve like those who have no hope…because when we remember who we are and who died and rose for us…and when we remember that there will be a day when all distraction and pain will be done…we can remember that that hope is in us and to shared through us…right now.

What changes?

1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

No wonder.

Here’s my encouragement for you this week.

1. Prayerfully allow God to show you the places where you are grieving like one without hope. We all have them. And they are like shackles on an elephant. We think they they hold us…but one tug and they’re done for. Broken by hope.

Do the hard and maybe painful work of allowing God to show you your grief and pain, so that the healing work of hope can redeem and restore.

2. Then take Paul’s command to heart. Look for at least one opportunity this week to encourage someone else facing grief with the hope we share in Jesus.

Yesterday’s plane ride home was pretty unpleasant too. I used the cabin wifi to watch our progress. Monica took a picture out of the window of this little church as we flew over. It gave me hope. We landed and I felt hope. We saw Josh coming to get us on our location sharing and we had hope. Until yesterday afternoon when I found myself at home and I quit hoping, because there was no more need.

Hope is our reminder that we’re not there yet. But we have a promise and savior. That there is a day beyond our hope, where hope will lose all meaning as we walk in his presence always.

Pray