Title: AWAY WITH IGNORANCE!
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
This past week I was called upon to lead the funeral service of Bob Zevenbergen in Worthington, Minnesota. This coming Tuesday I am expected to lead a memorial service for the extended family and friends of Ellie de Vries Manion--a former member of First CRC, whom some of you may still remember. Some of us also learned about the tragic death of a young mountain climber—a family member related to Darcy Terpstra. The shroud of death has a way of covering us all throughout life. We just cannot escape it, so it seems.
Funerals and memorial services confront us with the issue of death and our own mortality. We all know that we are frail, mortal, dust—and that we shall turn to dust someday (unless the Lord Jesus should come while we are still alive). How we deal with death and death-related questions makes all the difference for Christians.
Take, for example, the unbelieving world and its approach to 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. We are surrounded by a culture of darkness and death.
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.
Christians, however, should not and do have to live in complete ignorance about death. Though we too confront mystery in death, there are a number of things we may know. And that Christian knowledge provides us with a living hope in the context of death.
I believe that the Christian church
has a wonderful message to our generation that struggles with ignorance and
dabbles with powers of darkness and even celebrates a culture of death. That
message goes against our culture and yet, it’s wonderful good news: Today
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
· The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen (vs. 14) “We believe that Jesus died and rose again….” The death and resurrection of Jesus is a pillar of hope. The power of death and the terror of the grave have lost their final word. When the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead, a new world opened up for anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus is the first-born from the dead; he is the first fruit of the harvest of the resurrection that is to come. Anyone who embraces Jesus Christ by faith today shares in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The second pillar of hope and great encouragement is
· Jesus’ final coming in glory. Listen again (vs.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.” You see? Death does not have the last word. There is an inseparable link between Christ’s death and resurrection and ours. And we learn that those who die in Christ Jesus are with him. They are in his presence. And as we are connected with Christ here on earth, so the Christian dead are connected with Christ in heaven. Christ is the key. He is the connecting link between the saints or church on earth and the saints or church in heaven.
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 loved ones who have died in Christ as being fully alive with Christ, waiting and resting, and anticipating the coming of a new day—the day of resurrection and the renewal of all things.
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.
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
· The resurrection of the Christian dead. (vs. 16b) “…and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Here we echo the core of the Christian faith that says (Belgic Confession, Art. 37) “…all those who died before Christ’s final coming will be raised from the earth, their spirits being joined and united with their own bodies in which they lived.” What about those who live on earth when Christ returns? Well, they “will not die like the others but will be changed ‘in the twinkling of an eye’ from “corruptible to incorruptible.”
There is an inseparable link between those who have died in Christ and those who are still alive when Christ returns. And no one will be at a disadvantage. This is our living hope and great encouragement. We shall be raised and together with them—the living and the dead—we shall be transformed and clothed with glorious, immortal bodies. Then, together we shall form
·
The welcome wagon. Or as Paul says in vs.
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.”