There is something more.
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25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
We are in week 7 of our trek through our church family’s statements of faith. Our beliefs about what is true about the life and the world we live in.
I think that we’ve probably been reminded…I know that I have…of what we sometimes think are simple truths. But I hope that you, like I have ...again… have been forced to think deeper about things.
Not to just take “church membership” for granted…but to really think about what we’re here for. Who we’re here for. And how much He loves us.
As we have before, we’re going to review the ones we’ve gone over…summary form…and then see what we’ll be looking at this week.
Again…these are beliefs. Things that we hold as true.
Gravity....you all came in today and sat down…fully understanding and reacting to gravity as you sat down…not worried about floating away. You believe gravity to be true and we sit and walk and run according to the truth of gravity in the world. So much so that we don’t even think about it.
Do we live our lives as though God is real? Do we work through good times and times of struggle fully knowing that God is still there. Do we follow Him and love our neighbor as ourselves even if our neighbor is a felt enemy?
There’s something, I think that God gives us assurance of …that helps us live the best possible way we can…obviously through the help and work of the Holy Spirit…as we’ve been talking about the last couple of weeks.
There’s something that can help us in this day to day life. Yes the Spirit helps…massively. And we’ve been given something else. A promise. Assurance. ....Assurance that there is more to come.
Here’s where we’ve been so far the last couple of months.
The Bible is God’s Word
We believe in the Father, Son and HS…all part of God …the three in one.
We believe in Jesus and that He was and is (virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, death for us, resurrection, ascension…returning).
Holy Spirit given to begin recreation.
Holy Spirit given for living here.
…that after here…there is a here-after....with or without God.
So lets jump into today’s thought.
There are loads and loads of people who ask questions like this one …I think…a lot today. Is there more to life than this? (Whatever “this” might be) Or maybe the question, “Is there something after this?” Where are we going after? There’s a lot of ways to think about existence after this life we’re in now.
But these are big questions. Where’d we come from and where are we going?
Now of course I think that you could just walk day through each day and never think about such things. But its my personal belief that if God is real…there must be something more.
Is there an afterlife? Why would there be such a thing as an afterlife? Is there a heaven…some place where joy and peace are all there is? And with that…is there another place that we would all never want to consider even visiting?
There are books and movies and public speakers that all contemplate this question…the question of an afterlife.
Recently…there’s been a show that I’ve occasionally watched…called The Good Place. In this show…which is mostly comedy…wrestles with the what the “Good Place” might look like. Really though, in this show, the people there really feel like there’s a result or a consequence of goodness or non-goodness (sin). And many times, the discussions help you feel the weight of those possible consequences.
So when do people think about death…the next life…Heaven or Hell? I think we all have moments in life when we think about these things.
Our statement of faith or belief says this: We believe that all those who die in God’s grace, through faith, are assured eternal salvation; those who die in a state of sin and unbelief suffer the punishment of hell.
This is, along with our other statements of faith, this is a part of our worldview.
There is something beyond.
Wow…when I began searching through scripture…beginning to study this…There is passage after passage that pertains this this idea of an afterlife. Sooooo many.
I had to come up with some ideas to help us see this idea and then, maybe help all of us begin to think about this …or at least…if this is true, to allow this truth to affect all of us in how we live day to day.
If it is true that Heaven is real, that Jesus is recreating all of this for our eternal reward…a new place to live in where there is no death…then....how do we live today?
So lets start with some safe assumptions.
And we’ve covered some of these before…these will lead to a better understanding of how this statement of faith should fit into our daily life. Truth/belief helps us create values in life…out of our values we will act, speak, think, behave.
All through scripture we have this idea that something is wrong.
And this something that is wrong…is big enough…that we need saved from it.
The Bible really seems to be a humongous story about how God is saving the world. An epic story…the biggest epic story ever. That includes generations and catastrophies and miracles and supernatural beings and enemies and heros. Right?
And all for what…the salvation of humanity.
What really is this salvation?
Let’s just think about some things that we know in scripture. Things that we’ve read or heard. When the Israelites were being chased by the Eqyptians…God provided a way for them to be saved. When Noah was instructed to build a boat…it was later said that he and his family were saved. When Peter tried to walk out on the water to Jesus…who was walking on the water....and then began to sink into the water…Peter reached out his hand and said…save me. People were saved from health issues such as blindness or lameness or whatnot.
But that doesn’t seem to be the big narrative through out all of scripture.
In the beginning we have something happen…something goes wrong.
And God, in scripture we see this in Genesis 3:15 when God sits Adam and Eve and Satan down and explains things. Speaking to Satan, God explains that what he has started will end with someone who will come from Eve…one of Eve’s children will destroy evil.
Humanity, at some point in the future will be saved from what has gone wrong.
And we knew, immediately the results of sin. Separation from God, separation from each other (problems between people), and separation from all of creation.
We have all thought through scripture that something is happening…God is building a storyline…or maybe revealing a storyline about how He is accomplishing this. Saving his prized creation…humanity.
So all through the Bible we here about this word salvation…and then we begin in scripture to hear about this person who will be the savior.
We will be saved…from something…and for something. That’s the building narrative through out all of scripture.
We know who this all points to. It all points to Jesus.
Jesus dying for our sins…sins that keep us away from God…so that…eventually we will be with God eternally. Jesus saves us. So we can be with God forever. If we don’t believe, we perish…die…eternal separation from God.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Right ? Simple? Sure…ok…we could now be done with the message.
Is there more to this though? There’s a reason we have books of scripture in the NT that explain Jesus, argue for Jesus, help us live our faith out, explain our faith to us...
The reason (s) because sometimes we doubt and sometimes we don’t know what it all really means and sometimes we lose faith. Sometimes we don’t know how to live …if this is really true.
Our statement of faith uses a word that I want to rest on for the rest of the message today…and we won’t be long…assurance. We have an assurance that this is true. We are sure this is true.
So how does assurance translate. We have assurance but how do you live out assurance?
Hope -
ilpis - hope, patient waiting
hypomone - hope, endurance
On one hand we have the idea of hope being this…patiently waiting for …meaning we carry on knowing that something someday will happen.
24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?
25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
Hope = eagerly waiting with patience.
…as though it will happen. As though God is saving us…as though God is doing a great thing in us…and will bring us to be with Him forever…one day.
There’s another aspect…and we’ve touched on it…and that is with this other greek word that some writers use…same contexts..but different word that helps us get to this assurance…how to live with assurance.
That other greek word is hypomone. And it means to persevere or endure.
athletics = we train and train and run and run as though we will race…and that inside of that race…at some point we will cross the finish line. So we run…through pain…knowing we will get there. We have hope to finish well.
jobs = in a job you work, toil, sometimes under pressure because you have a good idea of the end result…whether that be a paycheck or a finished product or a happy customer.
chick fil a - My daughter now works at chick fil a…in the kitchen. And there’s a way that they do everything…a process. There’s a process to how they make the batter and batter the chicken nuggets…those glorious wonderful tasty chicken nuggets…so Naarah works through a process knowing what will come out on the other end. Tasty chicken and happy customers. And she does that tire…and maybe frustrated…other workers might be having not so good days…but they all try to work together towards an outcome. Eagerly patiently waiting for that smile on a customer’s face.
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us;
Hope…meaning live like you know it will happen. Meaning you will endure things. Patiently wait through things. Another really cool think this greek word means is abide in or remain under.
Assurance…we live like we know where we’re headed. So we live in faith. Doing the right things even when its hard. For our sake and for the sake of others. We do and say things. We stop doing and saying other things.
We forgive rather than act with revenge. We’re kind even when we disagree. We love even when it isn’t expected. We help someone to see truth even when they might not want to hear it.
Paul - patient endurance - philippians…Paul basically says this, while in jail. Ok…I could die here. Yay!!! I’m going to my eternal reward!!! Hope! Promised Salvation! Or....I could live here some more…and teach more people and train more people and help more people know truth…and effectively…take more people with me.
Either way…I’m good. But if I’m really serious about this…I guess it’s good if I’m here for some time because I know this to be true…I’ll get there someday…and either way it will be just as awesome as it will ever be.
So I’ll continue to walk through hard things, make difficult decisions, walk through mistakes and sins…so that I might help more people.
Why? Because I’m assured of what I will be walking into after this death.
I’ll have life.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Satan and this world has defined terms for us and we need to get rid of those worldy definitions!
When we have to wait…when there is silence…when there seems to be chaos or push back from the culture around you…does that mean God left and took His promises with Him?
In the week that Thomas doubted…the week between when Thomas said I will not believe unless I see Him…and then when He appeared to Thomas…in that week did Jesus cease to exist because of Thomas’s doubt or impatience?
In the 400 years between the last OT prophets words and the announcement of a coming birth by the angel Gabriel…in those 400 years of what seemed to be silence for the Israelites…did that silence mean that God ceased to exist and His promises became null and void?
It might seem that we’re waiting a long time for Jesus’ return. But does the waiting mean that He has ceased to exist and that His promise of a forever life with Him can be crossed out?
Our culture has a slightly different definition of hope than what is used in the New Testament.
The lottery was wayyy up this past week. Did you see that? Like near or over 600 million dollars. That’s half a billion dollars.
Now…many people were hoping they’d win.
The lottery is more of a wish ....
The Bible’s words for hope give us a much different idea. We know what’s going to happen. We know because of Jesus dying…and then coming back to life…and then saying…this is the truth. Stick with me…and this will be you too!
…jesus said…those who believe WILL live....
operative word....WILL…not maybe...
Are you willing to live…in hope, with patient endurance…expectantly…abiding in…resting under…that kind of truth?
Jesus having an eternal reward for us is …well…if he really died and rose then our reward, our eternal home, is intact. It’s promised by someone who can’t take away a promise. We’re asked to wait patiently. …to hope. And to live like we believe these things to be true.
Can we? Yes…difficult sometimes? Yes…but when we do this well…with the help of God’s Holy Spirit living inside of us…we will get there.
Amen?!