Untitled Sermon (3)

The Return of Christ - 05/15/2022

Imagine with me for a minute that you are a young Jew living in Greece a long time ago. You have held fast to your family’s traditions all of your life and believe what your ancestors have believed for many generations. You’ve faithfully taken part in all the family rituals and hope to one day pass these traditions on to your own family.

Rome rules your turf, and pretty much all the turf as far as you can travel in any direction, and they do so with an iron fist. You live with strict rules and regulations, and you have learned how to thrive in this tough environment.

You look forward to a coming Savior that you believe is going to save you from this tough life and will ultimately restore you and your people to their rightful place of power like it was in the day of King David.

There has recently been a lot of hub-bub in your synagogue about a guy who lived in the southwest, over by Jerusalem, but was apparently killed by the vile Romans with their treacherous method of nailing people to a wooden cross. From what you’ve heard, he didn’t deserve to die, but the most amazing part of the stories you have heard is that this man actually came back to life on the third day.

The guy who has been telling you about this man, named Jesus, goes by the name of Paul, and he has been sharing with you some incredible things that seem to fill a hole in your heart and your life that all your rituals and traditions have never been able to fill. The way that Paul describes Jesus, you can’t help but believe that Jesus is the Savior that you and your people have looked for and longed for. Paul has opened your eyes to the scripture prophecies of a Savior in a way that you never saw before.

Many in your synagogue and your city of Thessalonica, both Jews and Greeks alike, have come to believe in this Jesus, known as the Christ. For the first time in your life you truly recognize your sinfulness, despite the countless sacrificial animals you had killed to pay the penalty for your sin for so many years already. You see how the sacrifice of this God-man Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for your sin, and you now see for the first time that your relationship with God hadn’t been a relationship until now, you had simply been following traditions and hoping for freedom and power in your own life.

Unfortunately, all the people believing in Jesus was making some of the Jewish leaders jealous. You’ve heard that they stirred up some local ruffians who went whole-hog and got all riot-y, causing all kinds of problems throughout your city.

Turns out, Romans aren’t big fans of rioting in the towns they rule. They threatened to get all kill-y and wouldn’t calm down until some money was paid to get them to chill out. As a result, Paul and his helper Silas were whisked away in the night soon after you had come to faith in Jesus and you and so many others were left to figure out your way in this new way of life all on your own.

Paul told you to work out your salvation by holding fast to your hope in Jesus and to show love to other believers and non-believers alike. He told you to expect to suffer for your faith, and he told you several stories about all the suffering he had already done for his. He instructed you to follow his example and to share this Gospel message with everyone you can, to turn from idols and to abstain from sexual immorality. He encouraged you to be holy, as God is holy, and to love others as God had so richly loved you.

A while later a young man by the name of Timothy came to see you all and told you that Paul had sent him. He helped to explain a few things about your new faith and assured you that Paul had been worried about you and praying for you. He was happy to hear that you had been praying for Paul as well and you asked him all kinds of questions, but a lot of his answers were along the lines that he would have to ask Paul about it and get back to you.

You shared with Timothy your concerns over when Paul would return to teach you more, but you also wanted to know when Jesus was coming back for you to take you to heaven, as Paul had told you he would? Some of your fellow believers had died, and you were very worried that they wouldn’t be able to join you and Jesus in his return to take you home to heaven. Oh, and how much more suffering would you have to endure? And why were people so against you and your new-found faith?

_______[DN1]

As you put yourself into the shoes of a former Jew now Christ-follower in ancient Greece, perhaps some of the questions you are asking are the same questions we are asking even today. When will Jesus return? What is it going to be like when he does, and what am I supposed to be doing in the meantime? Where can I find the answers to these questions[DN2] ?

Let’s open our Bibles and turn to the fourth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, which is found on page 987 in the bibles in the chairs in front of you. As you open your Bibles, let’s pray for God’s help with all of this, okay?

God, thank you first and foremost for your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for sending him to us on earth to save us from our sin. Thank you for his perfection and for the grace that he extends to all of us who are not perfect, so that through believing in him we can come to you in faith and receive the gift of eternal life. Jesus, thank you for not only coming here to earth in human form, but also for giving up your life to pay the penalty for every sin I have committed. I am so grateful that you did that, Lord, even though I have never deserved that. I thank you that, as we were so blessed to celebrate a few weeks ago with Easter, you rose from the dead and overcame death and that you live once more. Thank you for showing yourself to the apostles and so many others and for giving us your Holy Spirit as well as your Word to show us how to live, how to love and how to follow you more closely. Please guide my tongue to not say anything that does not honor you, guide the ears of all who hear this message, Lord, to receive what you have for them to hear, and may you bless this time of worship Lord that your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. We ask all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

With the back story that we now have in mind, we’ll jump right into our first point of the message today, which is The return of Christ is meant to comfort and compel believers. Let’s take a look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13, which reads, “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.”

In the three weeks that Paul preached in Thessalonica, he firmly impressed upon the new believers to believe that Jesus was coming back for them very soon. It is clear from verse 13 that they were greatly concerned. It is fair to guess that they asked Timothy, when he came to check in on them, about what happens to their brothers and sisters in Christ that are dying before Jesus returned for them all.

Just to be clear, being asleep was a common euphemism used for death. There are many references to death as someone being sleep throughout the bible. Speaking of the day of Christ’s return, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 starting at verse 51, “51Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” Here sleep is referring to dying, not actually sleeping. We are told that not everyone will die before Jesus returns.

When Mary and Martha called Jesus to come help their brother Lazarus, who was sick and ultimately dies after Jesus delays his visit for two days, we see this term sleep used to refer to death. Picking up in verse 11 of John 11 we read Jesus’s words, “‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.’ 12The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ 13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.”

In Mark 5 Jesus is called to the house of the ruler of the synagogue to heal his daughter, who was sick to the point of death. Picking up at verse 38, we see, “38They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

In both of these cases Jesus raises them back to life, by calling Lazarus out of the tomb and telling the girl “Talitha cumi”, which means “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”

The very same is true for every believer that has “fallen asleep” in this life. We will be raised by Jesus to eternal life with Him at the call of his voice. We don’t need to grieve or despair when a fellow brother or sister in Christ dies, as we will be joining them again soon in Heaven and will get to share the joy of being with God forever more. We are going to separated only for a short time, but on the back side of that time of separation we will be joined together with all believers by Jesus when he returns to bring all believers to heaven with him to enjoy all of eternity in the presence of God. I can’t overstate that. We get to be with God and Jesus in heaven for all of eternity.

We shouldn’t want anyone to miss out on this. This is why the mission that Jesus has given us through The Great Commission is so important and imperative! He has charged us to “Go therefore 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.” (in Matthew 28:19) We don’t want anyone to “grieve as others do who have no hope”as stated in verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 4.

The hopelessness of eternal separation from God in hell is more than anyone can bear, but so many are headed right to it without truly realizing it. They falsely believe that they have plenty of time to come to Christ, or they believe that God is too kind and too sweet to send anyone to hell. What other lies has the devil convinced them of, that they can make up for their sin on their own, or that their good outweighs their bad, so Saint Peter will let them in the pearly gates and they can sneak into heaven on a wing and a prayer? None of this is true and these lies all lead the unbeliever to hell.

One[DN3] of the great things about being a follower of Christ is that every one of us also knows what it was like not being a follower of Christ. No one was born a Christian, and no-one inherited faith at birth. Some may have come to faith at an early age, but every believer was at one point an unbeliever. As such, Ephesians 2:12[1 Cor 6:9-11 or John 3:16-18] rings in our ears to “12remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

We know what it is like to have no hope, because at one time in our lives we were there. We have to recognize that this doesn’t give us the kind of cocky arrogance that makes us want to give non-believers a nanna-nana-boo-boo and thumb our noses at them, but rather it should give us the drive, the passion, the desire to share Christ with them to hopefully help them to faith before the clock runs out on being able to do so. The final buzzer is either going to go off as their lives come to an end, or when Jesus returns, whichever comes first. Here’s the thing, none of us know when either of those two events are going to occur. That’s why we are compelled to share with a sense of urgency the Gospel with everyone that we can.

Even[DN4] though we can’t know anyone’s heart, have you ever been to a funeral of someone who likely was a non-believer? It’s not a whole lot of fun, is it? There is definitely a different vibe than that of a celebration of life for a believer. We believers have what every non-believer needs to be able to avoid an eternity in hell and instead enjoy an eternity in heaven with our Creator God. That which we have—that they so desperately need—is the Gospel message.

We can’t fall asleep on our responsibility (see[DN5] what I did there?) to share the Gospel every chance we get. That might mean telling them about it, or it might mean living in such a way that the Gospel is evident in our lives so that we get an opportunity to tell them the gospel. Either way, we believers carry with us the responsibility and unique opportunity to show Christ to others.

Now let’s take a look at the second point from today’s passage, The return of Christ is rooted in the resurrection of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:14-15). Verse 14 reads, “14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

We see here that believing Jesus died and rose again is a fundamental basis for our faith. We can’t truly believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior without believing in his death and resurrection. Think about it, without his death, the penalty for sin would not be paid for us. Romans 6:23 says, “23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin costs something. The wage, or cost, of sin is death. Jesus was unique in many ways, one of the most important ways for us was that he didn’t sin. What that means is that he shouldn’t have died. No sin equals no death. [Graphic?] However, he went to the cross willingly and gave his life up for us so that the penalty of our sin would be paid. His death was the wage for our sin. [Graphic?]

His resurrection was what makes Him sovereign over everything in this world, including death. Coming back to the passage in 1st Corinthians, I love what Paul has to say about Jesus’ victory over death:

54b“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58Therefore, 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.

The resurrection of Jesus is what gives us hope of our own resurrection. We are to be like him, and one day we will be very much so. Even to the point of coming back to life, just like he did. If we believe that Jesus came back to life and lives still today, we can have hope that we too will overcome death and come back to life to be with him for all eternity. And when we come back to life, we will also ascend, just like Jesus did, to be with the Father in Heaven for all eternity, just like Jesus!

In the second part of verse 14 we see “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep”. We can compare this to verses 51-53 from 1 Corinthians 15, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in 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. 53For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”These two passages point to what is commonly referred to as the rapture of the church. If you’ve ever read or watched the Left Behind series, or if you have studied the book of Revelation, you may be familiar with this.

Jesus is going to come back for his own and it will happen suddenly, “in the twinkling of an eye” as Paul puts it to the Corinthians. This has left some to speculate what this will look like - will suddenly planes piloted by believers crash due to the sudden absence of their pilot, or cars crash into one other as their drivers are quickly skirted away to heaven? I don’t know. I don’t know that wondering about that is what God really wants us to focus on. Here I’m going to point to Colossians 3:1-4 for a dual purpose:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” [Colossians 3:1-4]

We are to set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. While we can hope for the rapture to occur in our own lifetime, just as believers have been doing since the time of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we shouldn’t consume ourselves with guessing when it will be and how it will happen and what it should look like. Also, did you catch the last part of that passage? “When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” This again points to Jesus coming back for us and taking us with him to heaven. Isn’t that great?

If you think about it, it is far better that we don’t know when Jesus is coming back. I’ll use the garbage pickup as my evidence for this. Wait, did I say garbage pickup? Yup, I did.

Let’s say that the garbage pickup day is on Tuesdays for you. When do you put the garbage out? Friday night? Nope. Saturday morning? No. If you are really good, you do it Monday night, but I’m going to guess most of us would leave it until Tuesday morning. Or we would remember as we are backing out the driveway. Or we are half way to work when we finally think of it, right?

What does that have to do with the return of Christ? Well, maybe nothing. But if we knew when Christ as going to return, we would go on with life as usual until just before his return. Chances are, knowing our human nature, we wouldn’t feel compelled to share the Gospel message of Jesus Christ with our neighbor or a stranger or our loved ones until the day of his return, which might be way too late for many. We are prone to procrastination, and the Gospel message is way too important–eternal destinations are way too important–for us to put any of this off for even a moment. Not knowing when Christ will return, or when we may die, or when the person who needs Christ may die puts emphasis on the importance of dealing with our sin and our decision on the claims of Christ right now. We are way better off not knowing these things.

John 14:1-3 spells it out for us very well as Jesus speaks to his disciples and also to us, “14Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and he is most assuredly going to come back for us to take us to himself, so we can be with him in Heaven for all eternity. We are absolutely assured of this! Does it get any better than this?

So we don’t get things out of order, let’s now look at verse 15 from the 4th chapter of 1st Thessalonians. It reads, “15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Here is the answer to the question that the new believers in Thessalonica were worried about. Believers who have already died will most assuredly get to experience the return of Christ. In fact, it sounds to me like those who have already physically died when Christ returns will get to go to the front of the line. Those who haven’t yet experienced a physical death will have to go to the back of the line, but because of what the line leads to, I’m guessing no one will complain about their position in it.

So now, we have seen that the return of Christ is meant to comfort and compel believers and the return of Christ is rooted in the resurrection of Christ. Our final point for today’s passage is The return of Christ will be clearly distinguished by several uniqueevents (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18). “16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

We can be assured that we aren’t going to miss the greatest homecoming in the history of homecomings. We are told here in verse 16 that the Lord himself will come with a cry of command.

What that will sound like, I’m not sure, but it comes from the same one who simply spoke and calmed the sea in the midst of a terrible storm. He also spoke the world into existence, so there’s that too. His voice will be unmistakeable, and it will be impossible to miss. But, just in case you are a heavy sleeper, or your noise-cancelling headphones are really, really good, there will also be the voice of an archangel to accompany the cry of command.

Oh, and let’s not forget the trumpet of God. I’m going to guess that it sounds much more beautiful, but I can easily recall hearing the sound of the trumpet of my sister growing up. No matter where you were. In the house, outside the house, in the yard. Down at the neighbor’s house a quarter mile away. You could hear that blessed trumpet no matter what. So I’m willing to guess that you aren’t going to miss God’s trumpet when it gets blown at the return of Christ.

“17Then we who are 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. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.” At this time we will all be scooped up and get our first lesson in cloud surfing. Or something like that. Let me point back to Acts 1:9, which says of Jesus, “9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Once again, just like Jesus, we will get to ascend into heaven on a cloud.

How can you not smile when you think about this? What a glorious day it will be! We will get the greatest of all eternities you could ever imagine. And it is likely coming soon. Here we need to be careful, as we can make several mistakes with the second coming of Jesus. One is that we can think that it is so far into the future that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with it right now. That is no different than being nonchalant about unbelievers. If we lose the perspective that this could happen at any time, we will lose our desire and drive to share Christ. We can also swing the other way and get so excited for heaven that we end up being of no earthly good.

We are here for a purpose: to glorify God. One of the many ways we can glorify Him is by showing the world what it is to have a Biblical Worldview. Dan has been sharing this with us for several weeks now, and I think it is worthwhile to remind us of this even here today. We need to see God as the ultimate good, so that we see sin as our ultimate problem. Then we will view God’s Word as the ultimate guide to help us make God’s glory our ultimate goal. This view helps us to keep from focusing on our own happiness and personal feelings instead, leading us to a secular view that distorts our right view of God and keeps us from His purpose for our lives.

A Biblical Worldview doesn’t happen by accident. It comes through intentionally living in line with how God has instructed us to live. Investing time and effort daily into your relationship with God through Jesus Christ is essential. We can do this by spending time regularly reading and studying His Word. Spending time in prayer and spending time with fellow believers helps us sharpen our understanding of God’s Word and enables us to grow in our faith in Him. Giving of yourself, your time and your efforts allows God to use you for His purposes. How will you allow God to be glorified in your life?

Do you correctly see the return of Jesus as something that is coming very soon? How is this going to encourage you to share the Gospel message of Jesus with everyone who will listen? Does his imminent return make you so excited to be like him that you are striving to live a holy life? Are you turning your back to sin and choosing instead to suffer for a short time until Jesus returns to take you to the place he has prepared for your in heaven? If not, will you?

If I could ask the praise team to please come up, while they do so I will pray in closing.

[DN1]Maybe because you wrote it you will know you are at this point, but I am always helped to indicate my change in emphasis in some way. Either a new title heading, a straight line or extra space to make sure I remember to not dive into the next paragraph without remembering we are leaving the “imagine you in the past” stage and beginning the “consider you in the now” stage. [DN2]This is a great way of transitioning! Well done. [DN3]This is such a great point. [DN4]Wonderful clarification here! [DN5]Your family will love this part 😊