Title: TOGETHER WITH THEM
Focus: A living hope and great encouragement are ours as we affirm and celebrate the inseparable link between Christians who have died and us today.
Function: To encourage the people by celebrating Christ’s resurrection power and hope for the living and the dead.
Text: I Thessalonians 4:13-18
As Halloween was approaching last weekend, I flipped through a number of t.v. channels looking for a decent movie to watch. I gave up after a while, because the menu of horror flicks and terror movies was endless. The movies ranged from the bizarre to the macabre. Their themes were dark, and many celebrated a culture of death.
As our society is becoming more pagan in its approach to life, we see a rebirth of natural cults and religions. Go to any general bookstore and check out the religion section. You will notice a very large collection of books on cults, Satanism and witchcraft. In fact, witchcraft is now an officially recognized religion in America.
Our society’s debate and approach toward abortion, euthanasia, and the push toward the right to take one’s life if one so pleases, underscore this culture of death. And as Halloween is fast becoming one of North America’s most celebrated holidays, it is no surprise to see more and more of our neighbors’ front yards turned into fake cemeteries and fake tombstones with ghosts or spooks floating around.
I believe that the Christian church
has a wonderful message to our generation that dabbles with powers of darkness
and celebrates a culture of death. That message goes against our culture and
yet, it’s wonderful good news: On this Sunday the Scriptures remind us of a
living hope and great encouragement in the midst of a culture of death. In
fact, today we celebrate and affirm the inseparable link between Christians who
have died and us today.
There is an old saying with a bit of truth and falsehood mixed together: “Ignorance is bliss.” That saying was true for that Dutch couple that built a house right after WW.II and lived in it for more than 30 years. Then the city decided to build a railroad right through the property of this couple. So the city bought the house and property of this couple, leveled the house, and dug up the soil. It was then that they discovered to their dismay a huge, unexploded stray bomb (a left-over relic of WW.II), right where the couple’s house had stood for 30 years. Ignorance of that bomb was a “bliss” for that couple. But it could have been a disaster for them and their neighbors as well. Ignorance, then, is not always “bliss.”
The apostle Paul, for example, does not like any ignorance on our part when it comes to matters of sorrow and death. Listen: (vs.13) “We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” Please, note that the Scriptures do not tell us that it is inappropriate or wrong for Christians to grieve. On the contrary, tears are God’s gift to us to express our feelings and emotions, especially when we are confronted with the reality of death and sorrow. Jesus himself expressed such tears in the context of the death of his friend Lazarus. Rather, Paul wants us to mix our tears with the ointment of a living hope, so that our grief is not filled with despair but laced with a powerful comfort. Hope-filled sorrow sets a grieving Christian apart from others who do not have a living hope.
The apostle Paul points us to the pillars of encouragement and hope in the context of death: The first pillar of our living hope is
And the final coming of Jesus as risen and ascended Lord of all takes the sting out of our sorrow in the context of death. In fact, Jesus’ final coming inspires within us a living hope. God in Christ is coming again. And all the powers, including death, are shaking in their boots. Jesus will make all things new. And all Christians,--whether turned to dust in their graves, or still walking around when Christ returns—will welcome him as the Holy One who will live with all of us forever more. These two pillars—Christ’s death and resurrection, and Christ’s final coming—make up our living hope and great encouragement today.
Let me encourage you by exploring some insights from the text. Take note, for example, of the apostle Paul’s metaphor of death. Paul refers to the Christian dead as “Those who fall asleep,” (vs.13) and as “those who have fallen asleep in (Jesus)“ (vs.14 and 15). Paul’s use of a sleep metaphor for death fits the stillness of a life-less body.
Some people
conclude from this metaphor that the soul of a dead person is in a state of
sleep, kind of a comatose state. The scriptures’ witness, however, (Hebrews 12 “the great cloud
of witnesses) does not allow for such a view. In the O.T. scriptures,
for example, death is sometimes portrayed as a “resting after labor,” where
some of the patriarchs and kings of Israel died and are said to “rest with
their fathers.” That notion comes to us also in John’s vision as shown in
Revelation 14 where John says, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say,
‘Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on,’ ‘Yes,’ says the
Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”
No, Paul’s use of the metaphor of death is a hope-filled way for the living to speak about death. We who are left behind should think about our beloved dead in Christ as we think about sleeping and rising. Think of death as a transitional state. As sleep is followed by a waking up, so death will be followed by resurrection. This truth comes to us also from the O.T. where we read in Daniel 12:2 of the end-time: “But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. The sleep metaphor is not a description of the state of the soul after death; rather it is Paul’s way of stirring up hope and encouragement in the context of death.
The Christians in Thessalonica needed this encouragement. Along with Paul, they initially expected that Jesus would return in their own lifetime. And they were looking forward to welcome Jesus on that day. But as time went on and as some of their friends and family members died, these early Christians began to wrestle with unanswered questions such as: “where are our loved ones now since they have died? More than that, what will be their lot when Jesus comes again? If Jesus comes in our lifetime, we’ll be able to welcome him and share in his gift of eternal life and salvation. But what about our dead in Christ? Will they now be at a disadvantage?”
Paul gives us tremendous encouragement by applying the two pillars of hope and comfort, and by his way of speaking about death.
That encouragement comes to us in vs. 16 and 17, where the apostle Paul gives us a quick, sketchy overview of what we may expect as yet to happen. Here is the order in which Paul gives us his overview:
·
The return of Christ: Listen (vs. 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….” In vs. 14 we
learn that Christ is not returning alone. He will bring with him “all
those who have fallen asleep in him.” In other words, the Christian
dead—though their bodies may have turned to dust—are with Jesus today. They are
the saints in heaven, the great cloud of witnesses who cheer us on today. (Roll Call of the Saints
continued)
They are alive, with Christ. And they will return with Christ at the time of Christ’s final coming. But that’s not all. There will be