MPC
3rd May 2009.May 3 - 1 Thessalonians 4:12-5:11 - "Jesus Returns"
MPC
3rd May 2009.
Mitch Smart
Do you ever wonder what possesses people to get up at 4am to go to a sale?
I don't get it. But I know that people are determined not to miss out a bargain. After all, if you don't get it, it could be another whole year. Or you may never see it again.
I sort of understand a little, not in shopping. But buying tickets to the football. Nobody wants to be last and end up with the sky-high nose-bleed seats behind the pole. So I buy my tickets early to make sure I don't miss out.
Surely I'm not the only one who does something like that? Maybe you set the recorder 5 min before your TV show starts to make sure you don't miss it. Or you book your holiday 12 months in advance. Or you arrive 10 min early to get a seat.
Kids hate missing out too. The worst disaster known to man is a game of pass the parcel with ten 4 year olds and only 9 gifts. The kid who misses out... he will explode.
Missing out though, can get a whole lot worse than that. What if you miss out on having a car that works properly? What if you miss out on living past 60? What if you miss out on ever having someone who you can call you best friend? What if you miss out on having a great life?
In this part of the bible, we're meeting a bunch of people who were a little worried they'd miss out. It's people who follow Jesus. And they're convinced he's gonna bring the good life before they die.
But as the weeks pass for the Thessalonians, and the years, no return of Jesus.
Their friends are dying... and no good life.
Perhaps they're worrying it's not working out, and maybe they're missing out on something.
If they're anything like you and me, I'm sure they don't want to waste their life.
And if Jesus isn't delivering... maybe it's possible someone or something else can deliver the good life.
The bloke who wrote this, the apostle Paul, is re-assuring them that they won't miss out and they aren't missing out.
Jesus death and resurrection means they won't miss out at death and they aren't missing out in life.
For the church in Thessalonica it's not making sense that people are dying and Jesus isn't coming back to earth. It's a central promise of Christianity, that Jesus is coming back. Confronted with death, it looks like death is the end. But Paul wants them to know that death isn't the end because death wasn't the end for Jesus.
See how he starts this section in verse 13:
Brothers, 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.
Death shouldn't make them feel defeated. They can be hopeful for something after death because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Have a look at verse 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.
It's simple logic here:
The reason we believe death isn't the end of people is because death wasn't the end of the person Jesus Christ. Dying doesn't mean missing out.
Here's something a friend of mine Tim once wrote:
There's nothing after death... How can you work this out? Because when you die, you die. Neural Functioning=Experiencing. Death=No more neural functioning... Therefore No Neural Functioning= No Experience. No Experience= Nothing.
You get the gist of that, Tim says if your brain's not working, you will experience nothing. That's how Tim knows death is the end. But Tim has never been dead. So he can't guarantee us anything.
But we believe Christ died, and Christ rose... His past resurrection guarantees our future resurrection.
So for a whole lot of us, that means death doesn't have to be confronting.
But we can look through the sadness to the return of Christ. We can have hope of a secure future.
When in v16:
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. 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.
We need to look through death, knowing this life isn't all there is. Look through to when Christ will return.
And it'll be an amazing event.
The Lord himself, God, will come down, the loud command, the voice, the trumpet... an unmistakable, un-missable and unmatchable event.
After years, decades, and centuries of pain, struggle, sickness, and longing... The voice, the trumpet, the loud command.
And dead Christian men and women from all time will be raised up, and we who are alive will be raised up for the great re-union, when Christians from throughout the ages will be joined with Christians of the day... and so we'll be with the Lord forever. That is the secure future of Christians.
I just wanted to tell you about Florence. Florence was a lady at the church where I became a Christian.
I think I was about 13 or 14 when I first met her, she was... 80 something. And she loved the Lord Jesus.
She was the driving force behind the ministry in her nursing home. I knew her for about 7 years. Each year her excitement for the Lord Jesus grew as her body faded.
The last time I saw her in about 2001 she was barely able to stand alone, her fingers crippled over with arthritis, looking very uncomfortable, very frail.
I'll never forget watching her trying her hardest to belt out and songs about Jesus at church. She died in later that year, a follower of the Lord Jesus.
I look forward to the voice, the trumpet, the loud command, for there will I see Florence again, and so we will be with Lord forever.
I know, because Christ has died and Christ has risen.
Jesus hasn't failed. God raised him, God will raise his followers. Death is not all there is, there is someTHING after death, because there is someONE after death.
Which is all pretty good, and it gives you something to look forward too. Christians won't miss out when they die.
But what about life right now. Are these people the apostle Paul's writing to missing out now?
Paul addresses this question by contrasting the life of ignoring Jesus and the life of following Jesus.
Now to get a grip on what Thessalonican life was like, we've got see that first century Rome was actually pretty good. Let's make no mistake about how they thought about their world. Rome was the most advanced civilization that'd ever been, and was to maintain that status until the 1500's. The military might of Rome held the barbarians at bay on the edges of the empire. They had roads that were unparalleled. A mail system that could get a letter from Italy to Egypt in days. A well ordered system of government, running water, flushing toilets, massive supermarkets and their own feminist movement to boot. It was the time of the great pax Romana, the peace of Rome. They'd reached the pinnacle of existence! Better to be poor in Rome than rich anywhere else. Life couldn't get any better than this, there's no place like Rome, the smart state, where else would you rather be?
But Paul's showing them that who you are and where you come from isn't what matters. What matters is if you ignore Jesus or follow Jesus. Prosperous Roman or not, prosperous Queenslander or not, if you aren't a Christian, the fact there's something after death has serious consequences right now.
The return of Jesus will be unexpected and inescapable.
Now if you don't call yourself a Christian, this part of the bible is bad news. I don't know how I could ever read or teach this part of the bible without it sounding bad. But you need to know.
The return of Jesus's pretty confronting. Pick it up from chapter 5, at verse 2:
for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Notice how that last day, or, the day of the Lord, will come: unexpected and inescapable.
Like a thief it will surprise you, like when a baby starts coming, nothing's gonna stop it, it's inescapable.
When Jesus returns, it'll be a shock to billions.
Sometimes we think we need to make a go of having the good life before we're 6 foot under. Enjoying the peace and safety of Queensland, the pax Queenslanda! Making sure we get up at 4am to get the Boxing Day bargain. Getting our degrees, raise our families, plan our trips, fix our houses, read what we want to read, says what we want to say...
And bang... The loud command, the voice, the trumpet call of God.
And destruction will come.
The life of ignoring the death and resurrection of Jesus is not some liberating freedom where you don't have to go to church or read the bible or whatever. Life apart from Christ ends in destruction. Paul says Life apart from Christ is... v4 darkness, v5 night, v6 asleep, v7 drunk.
Paul says it's a life without hope, a life of ignorance, a life where you can never be sure. A life where the best you can say about death is 'oh well, perhaps they've gone to a better place'.
God can't be any more clear. If you don't belong to Jesus, if you haven't sorted out, this is the day to do it. The surprise of the return of Jesus, is not something you want to be surprised by.
Death is not all there is, there is something after death, and if you don't know the someone who is after death, you're in a lot of trouble.
So if Paul reckons the life of ignoring Jesus is pretty dud, what about the life of following Jesus. Life now that is, life in heaven sounds ace, but what about now?
Because I tell you what, Christians have got themselves in a lot of trouble with all this 'there's something better coming after death' talk. In 1911, a songwriter named Joe Hill put the boot into the Christian promise of heaven with these words:
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer in voices so sweet
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die
And so the famous phrase, 'pie in the sky when you die' began.
I reckon Christianity can seem like a pyramid selling scheme, you know, just hang in there, keep buying in, and one day it'll all pay off.
But if we read this part of the bible, thinking it only promises pie in the sky when we die, then we've missed something.
Let's be upfront, the bible does promise 'pie in the sky when you die'. The perfect life. But it promises pie now. It shows us what the 'good life' really is.
The Thessalonians are anxious because Jesus hadn't returned yet. But they were forgetting how different it is to be Christian.
The difference between the life of ignoring Jesus and the life of following Jesus is not one of shades, a sort Christian non-Christian blurry line. Paul reckons it's night and day. Drunk and sober. Awake and asleep.
Ignore Jesus... at death: destruction.
Follow Jesus, look at verse 9:
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christians have a secure future: rising with Christ. So we don't need to clamber desperately to secure life in the present.
Which means you don't need to cram everything in before you're 6 foot under.
Now the way Paul show us this is with Jesus. Jesus didn't madly go about getting things together for himself. No, he knew what was after death, so he spent his life getting things together for us.
Look at verse 10:
He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Notice what it doesn't say: He died... to avoid all the people who heckled him. Jesus died so he could go back to heaven where everything's perfect. Jesus died because he'd had enough of people.
No, He died, for you and me, so whether we are dead or alive, we might live together with him.
Christ knows what's after death, so he gave all of his life for others. This verse is the heart of what Christian life is.
When you follow Jesus the good life is not something you need to pursue for yourself.
The truly good life is pursuing things for others.
Christ died for us. Christian life is about giving yourself up for others.
If you were to fly through this passage you'd notice a whole group of words about what the death and resurrection of Jesus means for Christian life.
Christians are brothers and sisters, who have hope, who encourage each other, children of God, alert and self-controlled, we trust, we love, and dead or alive we are in this together. And we encourage each other and build each other up. A community who's leader doesn't rule with an iron first, but gives himself up to give us life.
We need to be for each other. It sounds ideal... because it is.
When you become a Christian you are freed from the need to pursue your own good life.
Christ and his people pursue the truly good life for each other.
Did Christ die for us so that we could get up at 4am for a boxing day bargain?
Christ died for us so our career plan would work out.
Christ died for us to give us the right degree, the harmonious family, the smartest kids...
No, Christ died for us so that we might know our future is secure and we could live for each other now.
Pie in the sky, yes!
But our pie now, is a community of people focused on doing the best thing for each other.
Jesus death saves us from destruction and shows us what the truly good life is.
Christians are incredibly different.
I hear people say 'you've got do what's right for you'... 'you've gotta do what's best for yourself' ... I suggest it's even too narrow to say 'I've gotta do what's best for my family'.
No, Jesus brings a fundamental shift in mindset. We do what's best for each other.
This is a challenge and a comfort.
It's a challenge to spend our time and energy caring for others. Your first thoughts here might be 'well, no one loves me like that'. I'm sorry if you feel like that, and perhaps people could pay more attention to you. But this passage says Christ does love you like that. This passage says that whatever the difficulty amongst Christians, the life of ignoring Jesus Christ is hopeless darkness that can only end in destruction.
But you, you are not in darkness, get your mind clear about what the death and resurrection of Jesus means.
Christians are people that give themselves up for others. Jesus has got your back covered, and he wants you to throw your life into looking out for those around you.
Take a few seconds here and think about this.
What if you spent all your time making sure other people were ok?
You'd always give up your parking spot.
You'd always volunteer to clean the loo.
You'd go to growth group to make sure other people were ok.
You'd invite someone over so they wouldn't be lonely.
That is the good life. And if you worried that it means you might miss out on something for you, maybe it will.
Maybe you will miss out on getting the best bargain ever at the next clothing sale. Maybe you will miss out on having the nicest car, or the best renovated house, the most trophies on your families shelf, or the biggest family trips. Maybe you will miss out the so called peace and safety of Queensland.
Maybe you will miss out on all the things that on the last day will face destruction. You might miss out on those. But there's no need for a nicely renovated house in heaven.
Jesus is back from the dead, and he's coming back to earth, we need to spend our time making sure people around us are prepared for that day.
He died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, whether we are dead or alive, we may live together, with him.