“HE’S COMING AGAIN!”
1 Thessalonians 4: 13 – 5: 11 (NRSV)
September 6, 2009/Eighth in a series, “Your Questions Please”
Focus: Your hope-filled future is based on God’s faithfully-kept past.
SOMETHING BIG MAY BE HAPPENING SOON
Do you have any plans for December 21, 2012? If you don’t, you may want to start planning now. Apparently the ancient Mayan calendar abruptly ended on this date. And the sun will be a unique position on the 21st of December in that year. Then there is the appearance of Planet X in our solar system. A lot of people think that the world will end on December 21, 2012.
Coming to a theater near you on November 9 is a new film called 2012. The film’s makers say, “Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.”
I watched a new trailer for the film and if “2012” is right, December 21 is going to be a really bad day. A huge flood sinks the Himalayans, the highest mountains in the world. John Cusack, the film’s star, is driving his family in a camper when huge meteors come smashing into the earth and then the ground just disappears. The final image in this particular trailer is of an aircraft carrier being tossed over like a child’s toy by a huge wave. The wave pushes the aircraft carrier on the White House.
A friend wrote to me, wondering about all the excitement and with this question on his mind, “Are the signs that we see all around us that something “BIG” may be happening sooner than we think?” He continued, “I’m curious and excited that I may live in the time that Christ returns [to earth] as he promised.”
Most likely you will be getting ready for Christmas on December 22, 2012. Setting a date for the return of Jesus has been a popular pastime for Christians since the first century. According to one count, in the 2,000 years since Jesus lived; more than 200 dates have assigned as the day when Jesus would return. So far, those who set a date are batting worse than a National League pitcher—0 for 200.
Our Scripture Lesson today is found in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 –5:11.
“THEY ARE INCONSOLABLE”
Paul got the note from an elder in the Thessalonian church who asked the Apostle if he would pray for a family in the church. A young father died suddenly one day and since the funeral, his wife and his parents, all believers in Jesus Christ, have been wiped out by their grief. The elder wrote to Paul, “They are inconsolable. The family is convinced that they will never see him again. There is nothing I can say to them. They keep asking me what happens when someone goes to sleep in death. I get this question constantly from the congregation.”
Paul reached for his pen and wrote, “And regarding the question, friends that has come up about what happens to those who are already dead and buried we don’t want you in the dark any longer.
First of all, you must not carry on over them like people having nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word.”
As Paul wrote, he imagined the faces of families and individuals in this congregation he helped to begin. He loved this church very much; it was close to his heart. Most of the members came to the Christian faith out of a dark, pagan background. They knew little about God when they became Christians. Before they encountered Jesus Christ, they were filled with superstition and fear. Death frightened them more than anything. Those new Christians in that young church were terrified when a Christian loved one or friend died. They feared that the finality of death would keep those deceased Christians forever from Jesus.
Christians living in the years just after Jesus’ death and resurrection lived with the hope that He would return to earth soon. They couldn’t wait to see Jesus come back to earth from heaven but what about those who died? What would happen to them when the Lord returned? Many today fear death too, of course. For death forcibly makes us turn towards the future. In an article that appeared in last Sunday’s New Times Week in Review, author Sam Tanenhaus writing about the death of Ted Kennedy wrote this about the fear of death: The literary critic Lionel Trilling once wondered why so many liberal intellectuals he knew seemed unnerved by any mention of death. Might it be, he speculated, because death was, “in practical outcome, a negation of the future and of the hope it holds out for a society of reason and virtue?”
THE PAST IS HOPE’S FUTURE
What happened to that young father who dropped dead one day? Paul declared that he was with the Lord forever. The reason for such confidence? Simple. Future hope is found in God’s faithful past. “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died. I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet Him ahead of those who are in their graves.”
Paul is describing a great meeting above the earth that was very similar to what took place when an important official or dignitary came to visit a city. All of the city’s leaders would walk out from the gates of the city to welcome their guest and escort him into their city. This is how dead and living Christians will greet Jesus when He returns. But Jesus won’t miss one Christian, not one.
Human history changed forever the moment Jesus walked alive from His grave. Jesus, entering fully and completely into human life, died; but was raised by God’s loving power. What happened to Him will happen to us; and not just on a personal level, but on a level that encompasses all of human history.
It was this fact that filled Paul with an incomparable hope: God’s children will be with Him forever. Your hope-filled future is based on God’s faithfully-kept past. You can’t look into the future in the same way now, even when your future packed with pain and grief. We have a certain hope that God isn’t done yet.
Dr. Martin Luther King traveled to Montgomery Alabama to preach at the funeral of the four little girls who were killed by a racist bomber in the late summer of 1963. Dr. King worked all his adult life to right the injustices of racism in this country; but even he understood that the future belonged to God, especially in death. At that funeral, he preached,
“I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity’s affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into eternal life. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.”
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
My friend asked if we might be living the days before Christ’s return. Yes, we are because we wait to welcome that Day because it can come at any time.
If the future belongs so securely to God, then we have every reason to be encouraged and not be afraid. That was Paul’s reason to speak about the return of Christ. He didn’t care so much about what exact day it would happen, he only cared that it would happen. His words are not meant to be a crystal ball to find a date but a certain rock to stand on.
How do you live with such a hope? Happily, for starters. This world awaits the final word of its Maker. “The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope. For if the future is dominated by the coming again of Jesus, there is little room left on the screen for projecting our anxieties and fantasies. It takes the clutter out of our lives. We’re far more free to respond spontaneously to the freedom of God.”
The early Christians who lived in Paul’s time had a favorite prayer they offered daily. It’s a simple prayer, just one single word. The word is Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. The prayer is maranatha. Maranatha means, “Our Lord come!” Come, Lord, Jesus because you came once and we want you to restore this broken world and be with you forever. Maranatha!
“Your Questions Please”/Study Guide: September 6, 2009
Question: Are the signs we see all around us that something “BIG” may be happening?
Key Biblical Passages:
- Jesus is coming again.
“Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with great power and glory. And He will send forth His angels to gather together his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.” (Mark 13: 26, 27)
- No one knows the day or the time when Jesus will return:
“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don’t know when they will happen, stay alert and keep watch.” (Mark 13: 32, 33)
- God’s people are to watch and pray for His return.
“The coming of the Son of Man can be compared with that of a man who left home to go on a trip. He gave each of his employees instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. So keep a sharp lookout! For you do not know when the homeowner will return—at evening, midnight, early dawn, or late daybreak. Don’t let him find you sleeping when He arrives without warning. What I say to you I say to everyone: Watch for His return! (Mark 13: 34 – 36)
Further Insights
“As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all [humans] from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity; so will he have that day unknown to [humans], that they may shake off carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and be ever prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen.” (From The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1649)
“Biblical visions and images of the rule of Christ, such as a heavenly city, a father’s house, a new heaven and earth, a marriage feast, and an unending day culminate in the image of the kingdom. The kingdom represents the triumph of God over all that resists his will and disrupts his creation. Already God’s reign is present as ferment in the world, stirring hope in men [and women] and preparing the world to receive its ultimate judgment and redemption. With an urgency born of this hope, the church applies itself to present tasks and strives for a better world. It does not identify limited progress with the kingdom of God on earth, nor does it despair in the face of disappointment or defeat. In steadfast hope, the church looks beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.” (Confession of 1967)
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