Faith That Hopes

Genesis 23

POP

God's promises will always prevail over sin, suffering, and death.

Kids

God will always keep his promises even when it seems unlikely.

Introduction

2018, article publish by two researchers part of the Transhumanist Movement called the “Immortatlity Roadmap”.

One article reporting on the paper begins: Is there an afterlife? Despite centuries of inquiry, nobody’s made progress on this fundamental question, and perhaps nobody ever will. So, maybe a better question is: Can humans create an afterlife?

A study which would develop a virtual afterlife for individuals to live a continous cicle of life without end. The notion is to copy DNA into an AI version of you that would have life based on your lived history and experience.

Problems:

The earth does not have enough energy to power one life to be sustained for eternity - The Dyson Sphere.

Lacking techonolgy to create the Dyson Sphere.

Unlikely that lived experience can be translated into digital AI avatar.

Unknown if you would actually be aware and present of yourself or each other.

Most surveys show people would rather not live forever.

Most invovled conclude this is only hypothetical and not sure if it would actually work.

https://www.academia.edu/36998733/Classification_of_the_approaches_to_the_technological_resurrection

https://bigthink.com/hard-science/dyson-spheres/

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a35788050/dyson-sphere-digital-resurrection-immortality/

I. The life of faith is not void of hurt.

Genesis 23:1–2 “Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.”

The life of faith is not void of pain or suffering...

Abraham and Sarah struggled with the constant effects of their sin.

They struggled with the constant threats of war.

They struggled with the constant effects of other people’s sin.

Abraham struggled with the notion of sacrificing his son.

Now, Abaraham and Isaac struggle with the loss of their wife and mother.

Abaraham rightly morns the loss of his wife, of more than likely 100 years or more.

Christians may grieve because though the effects of sin have become normal by Genesis 23, death was not God’s intention.

Christians may grieve while still holding on to hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”

II. The life of faith trusts God's plan.

Abraham calls himself a sojourner and foreigner...

While Abraham and his family had moved to Canaan, they did not legally own any land.

The land had been promised to Abraham numerous times by God (Gen. 12, 13, 15, 17).

While they lived in the land they did not own the land.

Abraham must make a legal purchase.

Bury my dead (7 times)

Abraham does not want to borrow land in case they change their mind.

Abraham recognizes God’s promises of the land.

Abraham will pay whatever price to possess the land.

“My lord; you are a prince of God”

While the offer of land is disinginous, they recognize Abraham as blessed by God.

When considering that Sarah died in the promised land without ever possessing any of it...

The world would say “How cruel God must be...”

The properity gospel would say “How lacking in faith you must have been...”

The nominal Christian would say “How doubtful of God’s goodness I now am...”

The biblical response of God’s children would say “Though I do not have all the answers, I know God is faithful to his promises”

“Much of what the Bible demands can be comprised in one word: Remember...‘To remember’ means literally to re-member the body, to bring the separated parts of the community of truth back together, to reunite the whole. The opposite of re-member is not forget, but dis-member.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel

No matter if the world seems to be void of those looking to God, or our culture is moving into a post-Christian direction...

We fight for our marriages in the promise that they are images of the Gospel.

We raise our children in Gospel truth that they may proclaim the Gospel.

We hold fast to truth in our churches that they may be generational beacons of Gospel truth.

We share the Gospel that Jesus saves that they may turn from their sin and trust the Gospel.

We do not function as hopeless sojourners wondering if God’s promises are true, rather we stand firm in the promises of God knowing He is faithful…in every situation, in all seasons, for all time.

III. The life of faith hopes in God's promises.

Hebrews 11:8–16

[8] By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. [9] By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. [10] For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. [11] By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. [12] Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. [13] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (ESV)

Death is not the threat against our joy and contentment, life without Christ is. Death for those apart from Christ is judgment void of any joy. Death for those who are in Christ is the entry way into faith now seen. The Christian may morn death, for in death we are reminded of sin, however the Christian may also hope past death, for in Christ we are redeemed from sin.

1 Corinthians 15:50–58

[50] I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. [51] Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [52] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. [53] For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. [54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

[55] “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [58] Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (ESV)

We are a people who do not merely hope for what is in this life, but we are sojourners hoping for what God is preparing and that which Christ has already accomplished for us.

Philippians 3:12–4:1

[12] Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. [13] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [15] Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. [16] Only let us hold true to what we have attained. [17] Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. [18] For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. [19] Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. [20] But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [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. [1] Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. (ESV)