Pastor Tim Patoka 3 Sunday Of End Time: Saints Triumphant November 18, 2018 God’s Saints Are Triumphant 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 rd
1) Over The End Of Death 2) Together For All Time We are currently in the season of the church year called End Time where each Sunday as a specific name and focus. It’s a short season, only 4 weeks long, and if you’re not careful it can pass you by as quickly as an Tucsonan winter. We began this End Time season two weeks ago with the Reformation as we looked at the comfort that God’s Word alone has. Last week we had Last Judgment as we considered the significance of Christ’s real 2nd coming. This Sunday we have Saints Triumphant as we talk about God’s saints and their promised triumph. But if I were to ask you, “What makes a person God’s saint?” how would you answer? Would you say that saints are people who are larger than life whose lives are impossible to replicate? Do you think of statues or icons of departed Christians who have an in with God? That’s how most people would define what makes a person a saint, that they are larger than life. But would it surprise you that the Bible has a different definition for saint? That a saint is simply any person who has been made holy? Because that’s what makes a person a saint in the biblical sense. A saint is a Christian who has been made holy before God by the Holy Spirit. Christians like you and me. This morning as we talk about God’s saints, we are talking about Christians, God’s children, who today have been made holy. But as we’ll also see as we dig into our verses from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, God’s saints are also triumphant. For they will triumph over the end that is death as surely as Christ triumphed over death itself. And they will celebrate their triumph with every other saint for all time. 1) Over The End Of Death The Apostle Paul visited the city of Thessalonica during one of his missionary journeys and did what he did at almost every place he went. He shared God’s good news of our Savior with as many people as possible until he had to leave town (Acts 17:1-9). But there were some teachings that Paul wasn’t able to address before he had to leave the Thessalonians – specifically what would happen to believers who passed away before the Last Day. It seems from our verses that the Thessalonian Christians were hopelessly grieving at the death of their loved ones thinking that death was the end. That was the prevailing thought of their 1
Pastor Tim Patoka 3 Sunday Of End Time: Saints Triumphant November 18, 2018 society. That once a person dies, they either cease to exist or they go on to some gloomy version of afterlife at best. Yet that is not the case for God’s saints, for Christians, who pass away. Rather than death being the end, it is a sleep from which they will one day wake up from. As Paul wrote, “For 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. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1416) rd
This is a striking statement for Paul to make – to say that a Christian who has died is only sleeping. When we experience the death of a loved one, it’s hard. Their absence is felt in many different ways for a long time to come. There are many good reasons why all people grieve when death happens. Because death can seem like the end. And those who do not know about Paul’s comforting words about a Christian’s death being compared to a sleep can wind up grieving without hope. Sometimes we can forget about what God says in his Word about death. We needlessly grieve without the sure hope of a blessed reunion. In a fitful state of emotions, we can even accuse the Bible of downplaying the painful aches of our heart by equating the finality of death with the trivial nature of sleep. Nevertheless, the Bible’s description of a Christian’s death as sleeping is not a euphemism. It’s a good description when we remember the promised triumph that God’s saints have over death. The Apostle Paul points our attention back to Jesus’ resurrection. As he wrote, “For 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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) The basis of our triumphant hope – and the reason why death is nothing more than a sleep – is drawn from the miraculous truth of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. His resurrection proves that God is more powerful than even death itself. When Jesus died on that cross, it was a true death. The Roman soldiers confirmed that when they stabbed his side. Jesus’ followers knew it which is why the three women came at Sunday’s dawning light to finish the burial preparations from Good Friday. But when they got to Jesus’ tomb, they saw a sight that gave them hope – Christ is risen. He who once was dead now is alive because he has power over death itself.
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Pastor Tim Patoka 3 Sunday Of End Time: Saints Triumphant November 18, 2018 But more than showing God’s power, Jesus’ bodily resurrection proves that his sacrifice for our sins was accepted. Jesus died on the cross because he chose to, so that he could be our Savior from sin. But to do that, he had to die because the punishment for sin is death. He died. He rose. And because of that, we know that God can back up what he says – that as “Jesus died and rose again, and so [also] God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) Death is not the end nor is it without hope. It is as temporary as a period of sleep from which we wake up. Now granted death’s duration is much longer than a typical night. But when the Lord comes back on the Last Day, those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, died as one of his faithful saints, will rise up back to life to continue living in triumph for all time. rd
2) Together For All Time And it’s not just the saints who have passed away before the Last Day who will get to enjoy such triumph. It is rather all of God’s saints, those who have passed away before and those who are still living when the Last Day happens, who get to enjoy this triumph. Paul again tells us that after the resurrection of the dead, “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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) On the Last Day, the living and the dead will be judged according to their belief in Christ. Those who are found with saving faith, with trust in Jesus as their Savior from sin, will be immediately gathered from this world, joined together with their Savior in the clouds, and taken to the triumphant joys of heaven for all time. There won’t be any half steps like a Rapture or a millennial kingdom. Nor will anyone be forgotten or skipped over. All of God’s saints will be ushered into perfect triumph in heaven itself. There are two points that I find interesting here. First in that all of God’s saints, those once dead and those still living, will be together. For those who have had Christian loved ones pass away, that means we’ll be reunited with them. That is a great source of comfort and hope. Yes, there is grieving when a dear one falls asleep in Christ. But there is hope in that same grieving because we know that death is not the end. We will be reunited with them again and can catch up like old times. Secondly that this triumphant joy will last for all time. Our rising back to life will not be like some version of reincarnation where we repeat the painful cycle of life time and time again. As Paul says so clearly and so simply, we all saints of the Lord “will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17b) We 3
Pastor Tim Patoka 3 Sunday Of End Time: Saints Triumphant November 18, 2018 will rise to life and never die again. And because we will be in heaven, there will be no sadness or pain of any kind. Simply put, our triumph will never end. rd
This is a powerful message from Paul’s few verses in 1st Thessalonians. Powerful because it tells us about the promised triumph we have over the end of death and we will have together with the other saints for all time. And it’s a message the encourages to look forward to the Last Day with joyful anticipation. It’s easy to become afraid of that great day after reading the 1st Lesson from the prophet Daniel or Jesus’ words in Mark chapter 13. If we get scared when we see a police officer camping out on the side of the highway or the possibility of an audit by the IRS (knowing that both can find us guilty of some law we didn’t even know existed), how much afraid do we get when we consider the all-knowing judge of the Last Day? Yet we have nothing to be afraid of, for we are God’s saints. We have been washed clean of all our sins by the blood of the Lamb. We have the assurance that Christ’s righteousness covers over us. We are made holy by the working of the Holy Spirit. So that when the Last Day happens with the Lord himself coming down from heaven, when his presence is announced with a loud command of the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, when the dead rise up from their graves, you know what you can look forward to? That you and every other triumphant saint of God will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord and taken to heaven’s joys for the rest of eternity. Let that promise of your coming triumph lift your spirits of what the future may bring. For what is to come is far better than anything this world can offer. Let that promise of your coming triumph give you hope when you grieve a loved one’s death. While you must say goodbye for a while, death is not the end. Let that promise of your coming triumph be seen in how you live out the days you have left on this earth. For that triumph depends on what your Savior has already done for you with his sacrificial death and bodily resurrection. And as Paul closes his verses for this morning, encourage one another and yourselves with these words of your status as God’s saint. For whether it be when you close your eyes in the sleep of death, or see the Lord coming on the Last Day, you are a triumphant saint of God. Amen.
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