Grieving with Hope: Resurrection and the Lord's Return

Our culture swings between two extremes. Materialism says dead is dead. Spiritualism says the body doesn't matter, and Christianity rejects both of those. The Christian hope is not you just disappear or you become a ghost. The Christian hope is you get a resurrected body. The body matters. Creation matters. God isn't giving up on his creation. History matters, And that means death is not natural in the biblical story. It's an enemy. Death is always portrayed as our enemy. It's a defeated enemy, but it's still an enemy. And that's why Christians cry and weep at funerals, because the enemy brings pain. But it's also why Christians can sing at a funeral, because we know that death is ultimately defeated. [00:41:38] (62 seconds)  #ResurrectionHope

And so Paul ends with this deepest comfort, and he says this, how come you can be how come you can be so confident about a future that's so unpredictable? He said, this is what you know. This is what you can know. God did not appoint you to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through Jesus Christ. And that's the key to everything. The reason Christians can face the future without fear is that the worst possible scenario, God's wrath, God's judgment has already happened at the cross. The cross has already given you a glimpse of what the future would have been. Jesus experienced the day of the Lord so that when the day of the Lord comes, it will be for us salvation. [00:46:25] (50 seconds)  #SavedThroughTheCross

Coming out to meet and coming back in celebrating and victorious. We will be with him forever, not as a disembodied spirit floating around in the ether somewhere, but here on earth. This is not an escape from creation. This is the renewal of creation. It's the renewal of your body. It's the renewal of the earth. And so the bible's vision of what happens to us when we die is not life after death. It's not life after death. It's life after life after death. Life after life after death is the resurrection into a renewed world, and this is enormously important. [00:40:48] (50 seconds)  #RenewedCreation

If the Thessalonians are expecting the imminent return of Christ, like he'll be here any moment, most of us don't expect the return of Christ at all. Most of us aren't wondering, should I keep my job? Should I finish school? Or will Christ return and just render it all moot? How many of us woke up this morning thinking like our first conscious thought was, you know what? I bet he's coming back today. I bet today will be the day we see the return of Jesus on the clouds. We don't normally wake up every morning thinking today is the day. This is it. Here we go. We have almost the opposite issue. [00:28:07] (42 seconds)  #ExpectationGap

This is not about that. This is about comfort and encouragement. And this is where it challenges our culture again. See, we assume that history will just continue indefinitely. Progress, technology, and cycles. But Paul says that history is moving towards a personal return. The lord himself will come down from heaven. History has a destination. History has a climax. History has a returning king. This is the comfort. Paul says the future is uncertain. The timing is unknown. We can't predict it. In fact, it will be when you least expect it. When things seem comfortable and peaceful. The day of the Lord, he says, will come like a thief in the night. [00:44:14] (45 seconds)  #HistoryHasADestination

That's a physical resurrection of the body. We meet the Lord and then we are with him forever. So I want you to look very carefully at the language here. In verse 14, it says that God will bring with him those who have died. Now if we use the language of bringing somebody with him, Where is God bringing them? Here to Earth. If I said, we got together with Dave and Carrie, and Dave brought Carrie along, you wouldn't be confused about we didn't go to their house, they came to our house. If somebody brings you along, you're going to where they're going, bringing them to earth. [00:37:59] (50 seconds)  #BroughtToEarth

We don't talk about it. We hide it. We sanitize it. We don't talk honestly with each other about it. But when death actually comes, we default to sort of vague language about it. We say something like, they're gonna live on in our hearts, they're in a better place, they're part of the universe. You've heard all of these phrases before. And these sentiments might be emotionally comforting, but they're intellectually thin. What do any of those things actually mean? And all of them are an attempt to sort of soften the reality of death without confronting it. [00:34:58] (43 seconds)  #StopDeathEuphemisms

And so he says in verse 10, he died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, whether we're dead or alive, we may live together with him. Whether we live until Christ returns or die before he comes, the result is the same. We are with him forever. The Thessalonians needed reassurance about the timing reassurance about the reality of Christ's return. And Paul gives both by pointing to the same truth, the resurrection of Jesus. Because Jesus rose, he says, death is not the end. History is not endless. The future is not empty. Christians grieve differently. We grieve with hope. [00:47:15] (54 seconds)  #ResurrectionReassurance