Sermon Tone Analysis

Counter-Cultural Hope

It seems to me that we Christians have, over the last century or so, robbed ourselves of one of the greatest and most desirable joys that we can have in life and in our witnessing to non-believers.

Something that, rightly understood, sets us apart from the world around us and should be our delight to live and share.

Something that the early apostles and disciples in Acts couldn’t stop speaking about… Ac 4:2 “The... apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.”

Ac 4:33 “33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”

And even under arrest Paul would continue to say… Ac 24:15 “ I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

The resurrection is a joy to us… we don’t have to get everything or do everything in this life; by God’s grace we have forever to explore and enjoy…

And there is always a fascination among all people about these questions…

What happens after we die?

Is there a Day of Judgement?

If there is, how do we prepare for it?

Christians used to be fairly unified and quite certain about the answer to all these questions.

But, perhaps because it is such an important topic, (everyone has to face death… including their own… whether black or white, rich or poor, Middle Eastern, south American, male or female, fourth century or 21st C…) and so everyone and every culture has a belief.

I often hear at funeral interviews that their loved one hasn’t left them, they still feel their presence and sense them watching.

Reincarnation is very popular even in first world western societies now.

Many people believe in some sort of ongoing shadowy existence after death, perhaps not just on earth but in the stars somewhere.

But Christians too have splintered over the last 150 years or so.

The fascination with the millennium mentioned in Rev 20; elaborate theories about the last things…

that Jesus will rule on this earth for 1000 years before Judgement Day…

that there will be seven years of terrible tribulation just before the Lord returns

and arguments about whether Christians will be raptured pre, post or mid tribulation and whether people are pre; post or a-millennials.

Or the Left Behind book by Tim Lahaye.

Now 16 book series and four films.

Selling over 65 mil copies.

Left behind details the carnage left behind when the rapture occurs and God suddenly takes all the Christians out of the world and all the planes and cars being piloted and driven by Christians crash and there is just chaos across the planet.

Again… it seems to me that all these elaborate theories and speculation has resulted in confusion and… as I said… a reluctance to speak about something that should be for Christians something that is important, encouraging and something that might just change our life priorities more than many other doctrines that loom large in our minds.

It pays to listen carefully about people who always talk about these Revelation and rapture and Israel.

How often do they devote attention to Jesus?

Are they concerned about growing increasingly into his likeness?

Do they obviously enjoy spending time with Jesus?

So often they’re more interested in scouring the papers and discussing what’s happening in Israel and Jerusalem then how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.

As we turn to 1 Thess 4 and 5, we find just a treasure trove of information about these vital questions.

What happens after our death, what is the second coming of Jesus, should I fear Judgement Day?

The first thing we might notice is that Paul doesn’t want his readers to be ignorant or confused about the future.

(Those early Christians sure weren’t!)

Let’s just look at a couple of things we can know for certain about our own deaths and the end of the world so we can be a vibrant counter-cultural community that can once again offer a hopelessly lost and muddled world some clarity and hope beyond today.

What happens when we die, v13-14?

Heb 2:15 says that Jesus became fully man to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Paul says here that when a brother or sister in Christ dies, we will grieve (he doesn’t say we ought to sing and clap!) but we grieve with hope.

So for those who “die in Christ”… “who fall asleep in him” (sleep - temporary, does us no harm, indeed is beneficial), the person’s spirit/soul leaves the body (which is buried in the ground) and the spirit of the person goes into the presence of Jesus.

Death is very painful for those who no longer have their parent, child, friend, brother or sister in Christ on earth with them… but it is good for the person who left their “mortal coil”.

Don’t feel sorry for them.

We grieve… but we grieve with hope.

1 Thess 4:14 “14 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.”

1 Cor 6:14 “14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.”

2 Cor 4:14 “14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”

We have to realise that Jesus didn’t die as a private person unconnected from us.

He died as our head.

He was the first-fruits… implying that there is a whole crop following.

That’s us.

What is the Resurrection of the dead, v15-18?

But as Tom Wright says, “Heaven is OK… but is it the end of the world?”

Well, the answer is “No, it isn’t the end of the world”.

There is still a dead body lying there as mute testimony that the work of redemption is unfinished.

Look at v15-18.

Not everyone has to physically die.

There will be a generation of people still alive when Jesus returns.

Those who have died, who are spirits that have been in heaven with Jesus while their bodies lie in graves or scattered at sea will come back to earth with Jesus.

Now we mustn’t fear we will miss it!

Much of the confusion surrounding this stuff is the frequent rumour that the return of Jesus will be in secret.

Some people (many people) have prophesied his coming… put a date on it… and when it didn’t appear to have happened said well it has happened… but it’s in secret.

Look at the language, 1 Thess 4:16 “16 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.”

That’s not secret!

That’s loudly proclaimed.

Then what happens… the dead in Christ will rise!

How does this happen, well look at v14 again… firstfruits…

Jn 5:28-29 “28 “...a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

We learn so much more about this in 1 Cor 15.

Including what Paul is talking about in 1 Thess 4:17 “17 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.”

Now we must ask… although believers get caught up to meet Jesus… which way do they then go?

Most people think that they go back to heaven forever… and the world is incinerated by fire… but it doesn’t say that!

As far back as the 5th C AD, a preacher by the name of John Chrysostom understood Paul this way ““For when a king drives into a city, those who are honorable go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within.”

If the Emporer, the King is coming to visit, don’t just go on with your daily business.

Don’t you realise who is coming?

Close the shop doors.

Get dressed and go and make him welcome!

And if it’s the King coming to celebrate a great victory and all his followers are with him… don’t ignore him; go out to meet them… AND… WHAT…

Don’t go back to Rome with him, he hasn’t come to get you but to see you… so escort him back into the city.

So Jesus comes back in the clouds with the souls of all the saints who have died.

There is a general resurrection and believers are united with their resurrected bodies and then Judgement Day as described in Mt 25 with the sheep and the goats.

So in reality… it’s not that the pagans are left behind to be destroyed with the earth… but the Christians are made whole persons on a cleansed heaven joined to earth with God forever!

Don’t you find it interesting that in Revelation 21 describing this eternal state God describes it by what’s not there?

What’s not there are death, mourning, crying or pain.

Death is dead.

Love has won.

Christ has conquered!

So when a believer dies their spirit/soul goes to heaven to be with God and Jesus and the angels… their bodies remain buried… then when Jesus returns with the soul/spirits of the saints who have died their bodies will be resurrected and changed… 1 Cor 15 says to be an imperishable, glorious, powerful body empowered by God’s Spirit… and now they (we) become fully human body/soul with God forever.

And for that generation that are alive when Jesus returns 1 Cor 15:52 “52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Now of course everyone wants to know what about people whose ashes have been scattered into a river or the sea, or died in plane crashes and been incinerated.

And the answer is easy.

I don’t think we have any idea… except to say that God created the universe out of nothing, in the space of six days… and it could have been 6 milli-seconds if he’d so desired.

God knows the end from before the beginning… so I think it’s fair to say when the first body was buried at sea he didn’t scratch his head and say “Hmmm… what now?

I didn’t think of that!”

Just because we don’t have an answer doesn’t mean God is stuck!

In fact we read in

Revelation 20:12–13 (NIV84)

12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life.