NEW Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost - November 12, 2023

Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Amos 5:18–24

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Matthew 25:1–13

Sermon originally delivered November 11, 2023

 

We Will Always Be with the Lord

We are now in the last three weeks of this church year, and the Scriptures turn our thoughts to times of the end of the world and the return of Christ on the Last Day.

Paul was inspired by God to write the words of our text because there was confusion and uncertainty among some about what would happen. Some seemed to think that Jesus was coming back very quickly, within their own lifetime. But now, some of their loved ones, who were believers, were beginning to die. What would happen to them? Would they be OK, even though Jesus hadn’t yet returned?

Paul writes, “We do not want you to be uninformed (to not know), brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Paul uses the term “sleep” here, referring to “death.” That does not mean sleep as we know it, though. We can’t explain how all this works, but other Scriptures describe death as the separation of the body and the soul, or spirit, of a person. An Old Testament passage says, “The body goes to the ground, but the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Paul described death as “departing and being with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:23).

Jesus Himself said, “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” (John 14:3). We also heard last week of John’s vision of countless believers, saints, already in heaven, enjoying its blessings, with Christ, the Lamb of God. The spirits of our loved ones who have died are clearly already in heaven, with its blessings.

We grieve at the death of loved ones because of our being separated from them and the pain that brings to us, but we do not sorrow as others do who have no hope. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “the ones who have no hope” are those who lived and died, “separated from Christ” and are “without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

As Paul goes on to say in our text, we have absolute confidence about our loved ones and ourselves, “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again” for us (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all our sins and to forgive us for all our sins and failures that would otherwise separate us from God.

And, Paul says, Jesus also “rose again” from the dead, in a bodily way. The grave was empty on Easter morning. Not only the spirit of Jesus was alive, but His body, too - and His body was raised and changed and glorified, and He ascended bodily into heaven to prepare a place for us.

And since Jesus is God the Son, along with being a true man, to do His saving work, He is also able to be with us in this life and give us what we need to sustain us as His people. Paul put it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10, not long after the words of our text: We have “the breastplate of faith and love” as a gift from the Lord, “and for a helmet, the hope of salvation” - the certainty of our eternal future. “For,” Paul writes,” God has not destined us for wrath (though we do deserve it because of our sins) but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.”

The souls of our loved ones are already enjoying the blessings of heaven, and we, still alive on earth, have Christ with us, too, through His Word and Baptism and the amazing gift of His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. We are all united in our Savior’s love.

What happens then on the last day, with the return of Christ? Look again at our text. Paul writes, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). The souls of all those who have died in Christ and have been in heaven will now come along with Jesus. As Paul said earlier in this same letter - this will be “the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Why do they need to come along, too?

Paul writes, in our text, “For 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.” This will be the day of the resurrection of the bodies of all believers! Their bodies and souls will then be reunited.

But what happens to believers who are still alive at the return of Christ? Paul answers that question, too, in our text. He says, “For 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 (go ahead of) those who have fallen asleep… The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). If we are still alive when Jesus returns, we won’t have to die. We will simply be raised and changed to our heavenly body and soul.

This is what was described by Paul also in 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold! I tell you a mystery... we shall be changed, in 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. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” God will do all this for us, in the twinkling of an eye. And Paul then ends our text with the statement, “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

We need that encouragement always, don’t we? We live in such a troubled world, and we face lots of challenges and difficulties and even death itself, with the loss of family or friends and our own illnesses. Sometimes we have doubts and questions that we struggle with, and we hear people's voices and ideas that are very different from what you just heard from Paul.

As I was beginning to work on this sermon, a few weeks ago, I saw a list of best-selling books in our local newspaper. #7 on that list was a book called The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to be Rapture Ready, by a fairly famous preacher, in some circles. I listened to a sermon of his on the internet to see what he really said, based on the same Scripture text we just looked at. He says that this is not about the second coming of Christ at the end, but about a “secret rapture” when all Christians on earth will suddenly disappear, to escape seven years of great trouble on earth (even though Jesus said that we would have tribulation in this world in John 16:33 and Revelation 9:14). This preacher also says that our loved ones who died have never yet been in heaven, but are sleeping in a sort of hotel of the resurrection and won’t be awakened until this “rapture” happens. He even predicts that he will still be alive when this “secret rapture” happens, very soon.

I don’t have time to go on and on with this, but watch out for misleading ideas about a rapture and talk about several comings of Christ in the future and a millennial kingdom when Christ comes back to reign on earth in Jerusalem, etc. Ignore such talk and just trust simple, straightforward Scriptures like the one we just looked at, with a focus on Christ as our Hope and Savior and His one return on the last day.

We say with Paul, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Let us rise for prayer.  “Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds safe (only where they can be safe) in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Philippians 4:7). Amen.