1.
Grace,
mercy & peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. In the face of senseless tragedy like the 12 lives ended at a midnight
premiere of Dark Knight Rising
at the movie theater in Colorado there’s a tendency to wonder, “Where
was God?” as well as to think once or twice about venturing out – feeling a
need to withdraw, regroup, find some strength to face this fearful world we
live in. Where’s God in the face of death, suffering and evil? These are questions that people have asked
since the beginning of time. Today we’re
going to focus on the Bible’s answer to death in our Savior Jesus who gives to
us the “Goal We Seek,” dear brothers
and sisters in Christ.
2.
Centuries
ago the Spanish fleet had an inscription on their flags: NON PLUS ULTRA--“Nothing more beyond.” Then Columbus discovered America. After Columbus, Spanish flags read PLUS ULTRA--“More beyond.” There is “more beyond.” As our Lord Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who
believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and
believes in Me shall never die.” But,
what will we encounter in that “more beyond?”
What can we expect and what if we’re afraid?
3.
Well,
fear is our “natural” reaction to death. Death came into God’s creation as a consequence of
Adam and Eve’s sin. Death comes upon us
because we, too, are sinful. The Apostle
Paul wrote in Romans 5:12, “sin entered
the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to
all men, because all sinned.” The
Apostle John links the fear of death with the fear of judgment that we deserve
when he writes in 1 John 4:18, “Fear has
to do with punishment.” Does this
mean that death is “God’s will?” Certainly God permits death, and he knows
when we’ll die (Job 14:5). But He never
desires human death. Through the prophet
Ezekiel God says, “I don’t enjoy seeing a
sinner die.” (Ez. 33:11). In heaven, where God’s people experience His
complete and perfect will, there is no death.
God promises in Rev. 21:4, “I
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former
things are passed away.” It’s not
accurate to speak of God “willing” death.
4.
The
hymn, “All Creatures of our God and
King,” refers to death as “kind and gentle.” And in terms of leaving pain, suffering, and
sorrow behind, we can understand why JS Bach would pen, “Come Sweet Death.” Those
deaths that come months or years after suffering are a relief. Mourners don’t need to regret the relief that
they feel. Still, we need to take
seriously those parts of Scripture that define God’s attitude toward death, for
in His view of death we can find great comfort.
Maybe no clearer statement can be found than that of the Apostle Paul in
1 Cor. 15:26, “The last enemy to be
destroyed is death.” Our God sees
death as an enemy, an intruder, a blot on His good creation. But, when our Lord Jesus comes again on the
Last day God’s people will live on after death’s destruction. Jesus also recognizes the pain death bring
His people. He sees its sting and, in
Christ, He has seized its claim to victory.
5.
Physical
death is the passage through which God’s people must pass to enter the glorious
home our Lord has prepared for us. Unless
the Lord Jesus returns in judgment during our earthly lives, each one of us
here will die physically. And most of us
probably have mixed feelings about that, just as the Apostle Paul did in Phil
1:21-24, where he says, “For to me, to
live is Christ and to die is gain. If I
am to go on living in the boy, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which
is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the
body.” We know that when we die, we
will, “be with Christ.” So then, as
Christ’s people, our confidence lies in this from Romans 14:8, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we
die, we die to the Lord. So whether we
live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
6.
In
life and death, we belong to the Lord.
Death isn’t the end of existence.
This truth brings questions about what our existence will be like when
we arrive on the other side of death, when we find ourselves with Jesus in the
heavenly home. Many people believe that
we will live there as angels. An old
Christian poem says, “I want to be an
angel, and with the angels sing.” But
the Scriptures teach us that angels are a separate creation of God. Both angels and human beings are eternal
creatures, but in heaven, human beings won’t become angels. Instead, God will give us “glorified
bodies.” Jesus has promised to “transform our lowly bodies so that they will
be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
Our bodies will be like the body of our Lord Jesus after His
resurrection. He wasn’t an angel; nor
will we be angels. The bodies we have
now will be changed, made fit for life in heaven. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:50, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable.” Our bodies will be
free from the ravages sin has brought to them.
Sickness and pain will be things of the past. God will sustain our transformed bodies
forever. And the key thing is this: all I
need to know about heaven is three words:
WITH THE LORD! I need nothing
more. We won’t understand everything
about the glory that awaits us until Jesus welcomes us home. We can rely on the love Jesus has for us and
trust that what awaits us will be better than we could ever imagine!
7.
But,
when does eternal life begin? When will
our bodies be released from the curse brought on them by sin? These are two separate questions. Jesus will come for us, either at the moment
of our death or in that great day we often call His Second Coming. On the Day of Judgment our bodies will be
transformed, and from that moment on we will live in the glories of
heaven. We all await that day and so
does our Heavenly Father. The psalmist
wrote in Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the
sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”
Yet in another sense, eternal life is already ours. The Apostle John wrote in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life.” It’s ours already--by faith
in Jesus our Savior.
8.
As
the early Christian martyrs marched off to their deaths, they sang the words
that have come down to us as the “Gloria
in Excelsis,” which we sing in the Divine Service. Here in this life they joined the song of the
Christmas angels, the song that resounds throughout heaven. Here on earth, the martyrs sang the hymns of
praise that echo throughout heaven even now.
The eternal life that God the Holy Spirit began and nurtured in them
here in time continues into eternity, just as it will for us. Joseph Humphreys, the writer of the hymn, “Blest the Children of Our God,” saw
this truth. We will have eternal life,
but eternal life is already ours. Listen
to his words, “Blest the children of our
God, they are bought with Christ’s own blood; they are ransomed from the grave,
life eternal they will have: with them numbered may we be, here and in
eternity. They are lights upon the earth,
Children of a heav’nly birth; One with God, with Jesus one; Glory is in them
begun: with them numbered may we be here and in eternity.
9.
In
light of everything that God has done for us and in light of all He’s promised
to do, we as Christians don’t need to fear as we anticipate the Day of
Judgment. We are the children of God. We are bought with Christ’s own blood,
ransomed from the grave, one with God, with Jesus one. And even now, glory is in us begun. God our Heavenly Father wants us to “have confidence on the day of Judgment,”
as the Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:17.
And He works that confidence in us by His Spirit as we come to know and
rely on His love for us in Jesus Christ.
We need not fear Judgment Day because we know what our Judge’s verdict will
be. He’s already handed down that
verdict: Not guilty! He’s already clothed us with the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. He has
accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for you on Calvary’s cross. You need not fear!
10.
But,
if you do fear the Day of Judgment, bring those fears to Him. Use the means He has in grace given us to
lessen our fears. We remember our
Baptism and God’s declaration that there we died with Christ and have now been
raised with Him. You confess your sins
and hear from me your pastor those life giving words, “Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit.” We read the
Holy Scriptures and relax in the love of God as we see evidence of that love on
every page. As the Apostle John wrote, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because
fear has to do with punishment” (4:18). God
wants to drive from our hearts the darkness of our fear--our fear of Him, our
fear of His anger, our fear that He will punish us for our sins. God wants to melt each of those fears away in
the light of His perfect love for us in Jesus.
By faith in Jesus, we await His return in eager anticipation. He’s given us His Word--we will be declared
righteous in the judgment because of Jesus.
And so as we wait, we “watch and
remain on guard,” just as our Savior has urged us to do. We make faithful use of the means of grace,
because by those means the Holy Spirit keeps us in the faith, the faith that by
God’s grace makes us ready for Christ’s coming, the faith that by God’s grace
makes us righteous in the Day of Judgment.
Amen.
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