Jesus: Our Only Hope in Life and Death

Introduction

(Grab Bibles)

Fake flowers

Intern preaching on hell

We’re We’ve Been (What’s At Stake):

We have said the the purpose of these letters to the Christians in Thessalonica is not to get us hyper-fixated on the future, but to comfort us in the present and prepare us in hope for eternity.

Week One: By knowing the truth we do not fear death and we encourage our brothers and sisters around us as we strive for unity.

Week Two: We discussed how we need to live ready for the return of the Lord. Making the best use of our time because one day it will be to late.

Week Three: As we prepare for what’s ahead we lead holy and productive lives for the sake of the gospel.

Today we will examine further the end times and what the results of a life lived for Christ are and on the contrary what the results of a life lived in rebellion to God are.

While we have a hard passage today I believe that for the Christians in the room it ought to serve to encourage us and spur us towards love and good deeds. For those who do not know Christ this ought to serve as both a push and pull to submission to the gospel.

(Pray and Read passage)

Before we dig into the text I think it will be helpful to outline some objectives:

I do not Intend to over the course of this sermon:

Apologize for this text.

Sugar coat the eternal reality of non-believers.

Nor do I:

Want to scare anyone into submission.

Over emphasis certain points and realities as seen in this text and the rest of scripture over others.

My goal for this sermon is in line with the purpose laid out for the series and to show, by examining three occasions for Christian hope, that your present walk is evidence of your future rest.

(The negative is also true)

Hope in Affliction (V. 3-4)

Our first our first occasion for Christian hope we should examine is our Hope in Affliction.

Striking to speak of hope in a passage as harrowing as this one. But I fully believe that this passage is centered on Christian hope.

Remember Paul is writing to a church.

Commendation (v.3)

Immediately Paul is commending the Christians, the fruit of their lives give him not only an occasion to thank God, but an obligation. Paul not only praises God when he is good to him, but when He is good to his brothers and sisters.

This stems from their increasing faith and love for one another:

Much has been said on Christian unity throughout the course of this series but I think it is relevant again here.

Our ability to witness to those outside of this place is directly tied to how well we love each other and how strong our faith’s remain in a culture contrary to Christian value and belief.

Burning question: Are we a church worthy of commendation and boasting of in other churches. Are we abounding in love for one another.

Baptisms (22)

Support

Am I growing in faith and love myself and as a church are we being careful to continue to grow and not settle into complacency.

This is the true mark of Christian growth and commendation, that we grow daily in faith and love- John Calvin

Steadfastness (v.4)

Further, Paul says the Thessalonian church has done this in the midst of persecutions.

Not entirely evident what these persecutions are.

We know from 1 Thess. that they seemed to be political in nature and that their persecutors were their contemporaries and from Acts we know that the Jews, after mobbing Paul there, charged them before the Romans for proclaiming allegiance to a king other than Cesar, namely Jesus.

This is a limited picture of what is going on in the city, but still helpful.

What are the political, business, and social practices in Dexter that make it hard to be a Christian?

Do not think primarily of those social practices that are explicitly “anti-Christian” I am not speaking primarily of rampant secularism, not that that isn’t applicable but I think the subversive practices of our immediate context are much more damaging to our faiths.

For me it is simplicity.

Even through this these young Christians not only maintain their faith, they grow daily in faith in love.

The reason these Christians and Christians today can maintain amid trying seasons and circumstances is because our affliction serves to increase the eternal glory we are to receive and holds up as a mirror the wrath that will be poured out on the Godless.

Hope of Vindication (v. 5-9)

The second occasion for Christian hope we should focus on is hope of vindication.

More striking than the first, how can there be hope in the thought of hell? Hell is a certain reality for the godless and the way Paul expresses it here is in a manner of offering oppressed Christians hope that their oppressors will suffer for their actions.

It is fair to ask: how does this provide hope, how could it?

Consider the context of Thessalonians: Has the day of the Lord come? If so why are we still suffering?

Consider the challenge: Maintaining faith in the midst of such severe opposition and not seeing your persecutors held accountable.

The Result of Suffering (v.5-7)

The Christian should see suffering in two lights:

As preparing an eternal weight of glory far beyond our sufferings and the greatest pleasures we experience now.

2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

The Eternal Reality of the Godless:

As a mirror as to what the godless will endure in the age to come.

All the evil committed against Christians in this life will be paid for in the next.

Non-Christian consider the danger.

The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit has opened her mouth under them.— Johnathan Edwards

For those outside of Christ this life is the best it will ever get.

For them all the blessing they received in this life and all of the wicked they commited will become high court evidence against them that will result in their eternal banishment on that day when it is to late.

Luke 16:19–31 ESV

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

Oppression here is willful ignorance of the poor man.

Those who have much, much will be required (everything from resources to a knowledge of the gospel).

The rich man’s sin ultimately is that he did not head the Word of God which is sufficient for salvation and now he receives no pleasure ( a drop of water is a pleasure totally absent in hell) and he cannot persuade his family to repent. It is to late for him.

“our eternal destinies are set at death. After death, no one can change from righteousness to wickedness, nor can any wicked person repent of sin and be accepted by God.”- John Frame

The Risk of Hell (v.8-9)

Those who do not know God and further those who do not obey the gospel.

Obedience to the gospel means total submission.

The Bible knows nothing of you believing in Jesus and having no intention of ever following or submitting to him.— Matt Chandler

What will they suffer?

Eternal, meaning never ending, (undying death- Calvin). Death in its fullest theological meaning.

Not annihilationism, this punishment will never end. There will be no escape from the wrath of God.

Away from the presence of God.

Literally face. (Think priestly blessing in Numbers 6) all good things stem from the face of God.

We turn away from things that displease us.

Meaning that hell is the fullness of the wrath of God.

Bowl: wrath is poured out to burn up sin.

When all that exist of a person is their sinful flesh without Jesus the wrath of God burns for eternity, never ceasing or being quenched.

God does not condemn from his heart.

Lamentations 3:33 ESV

for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Damnation is God’s “strange work”

However, on that day God will hold nothing back, he will come in his fury and inflict vengeance on those who disregarded him and oppressed his children.

Isaiah 66:15 ESV

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

To be cast away from the face of God and to be consumed in his wrath and fury will be hotter than the hottest fire and more scorching than the biggest flame.

Is Hell fair?

Sin = Cosmic treason.

God is just (v.6)

Heaven in reality is unfair, hell is what we deserve.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That heaven is real necessitates hell.

The harshness is the point. To be separated from God and his people is an awful reality.

There is hope in vindication still. It means the wicked will not get away with their wickedness, but more than that is the hope of eternal life for the Godly.

Hope of Glory (V. 10-12)

The third occasion for Christian hope is the hope of glory. That one day God will vindicate his people and that the wrath felt by unbelievers will not be experienced by those in Christ because of the cross.

Despite the graphic detail Paul goes into regarding hell, he does not spend much time speaking of the eternal reality of believers. He affirms we will be glorified with Christ but more than that he charges us to walk in a manner worthy. To live out our faith.

Noticeable switch in language (v.3-4- Present, 5-9- Eschatological, 10-12- Present)

God, Our Greatest Joy

The appeal of heaven is not simply that it isn’t hell. The appeal of heaven is that we receive God as our portion for eternity. That we might glory him forever in the fullness of his presence.

I want heaven because I want God.

Psalm 63:3 ESV

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

Starting today we marvel at the goodness of God and one day we will do it the collection of all the saints.

Importance of Testimony

“Because our testimony was believed”

On that day when the Lord comes those who believe in him will marvel and worship, and this will include us.

Whose testimony did God use to draw you to himself?

Hymn of Heaven (And on that day, we join the resurrection And stand beside the heroes of the faith)

The gospel witness of Paul is the manner in which God saved the Thessalonians.

Our Gospel witness has the same effect if we would live boldly.

Romans 10:14 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

From Faith for Faith

God begins the work of salvation in us, sustains it, and brings it to its conclusion in heaven.

We must lastly recognize that everything from belief in the gospel to, to good works, to gospel proclamation are the result of the grace of God and the outworking of his power in you.

We are saved by grace to walk in grace.

That God might look at us through the lens of the cross and count us worthy, to call us home.

Conclusion

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’” — C.S. Lewis

So many people, likely some in this room, believe that God is real and probably to some extent that heaven is real, yet refuse to believe in hell but either A. try to earn their way into heaven as if it isn’t by his righteousness that we are saved or B. we just don’t care. Both are baffling and both lead only to hell.

Hell is a certain reality but it doesn’t have to be yours.

Jesus stands ready to receive you into his loving, merciful arms if only you would submit (Belief, Repentance, and Trust).

The longer you wait the more danger you will be in as all your good deeds are but thin air if God should choose to let go of you right now.

Christian you have a job to do.

Consider the warning for yourself and grow in faith and love daily.

Pray for and reach out to the lost.

Take as many people with you as you can because Satan certainty is.

Coaster (100 yrs.)

Apart from God, and by our own merits we deserve nothing but eternal separation from God. In God, however, he makes us worthy of his call as he glorifies himself in us and brings us home.

This is what’s at stake.