06-15-2025 - GREAT HOPE FOR A GREAT FUTURE - 1 THESS -4:13-18

MESSAGE BY PASTOR ROB INRIG

FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

I invite you to pray together: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servants for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon them with the eyes of thy mercy (Gaby P+, Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Margarita G, Fega G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L. Lina J. Manuel D. C, Yuya N. Mercedes L, Magda-)   Comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; preserve them from the temptations of the enemy; and give them patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore them to health, and enable them to lead the residue of their life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally they may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You can add names from family and friends who need prayer

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10 years ago saw the passing of one of baseball’s giants, New York Yankees’, Yogi Berra.  In a time before today’s baseball hugely overpaid superstars Ohtani and Judge, Yogi’s exploits on the baseball diamond were impressive – 10 World Series titles, 3 MVP awards, and the Yankees leader in RBIs for 7 consecutive years despite the presence of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.  Yogi selected by some as the best catcher to have ever played the game. 

But beyond his baseball prowess, Yogi was probably more famous for his Yogi isms – perceptions on life that in a strange way made sense but did so in an incredibly confusing sort of way.

When Yankee superstars, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, hit back-to-back home runs, Yogi’s response was, It's déjà vu all over again. When giving instructions to broadcaster, Joe Garagiola to get to his home, Berra’s advice was, When you come to a fork in the road, take it which actually was accurate.

When Johhny Bench passed Yogi’s home run record for catchers, Yogi sent Bench a congratulatory, I always thought the record would stand until it was broken. And then there’s my favorite, Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.

As Christians it seems that we sometimes live in a world of Yogi-ism’s, places of great clarity mingled with perceptions that are often hard to understand. Take for example perceptions many non-Christians have of believers who are called by Christ to be people who are known by love, peace and hope.  Yet Barna research determined that young, unchurched Americans believe that: Christians are judgmental, hypocritical, too political and insensitive. Sadly, too often both things true and not true. 

One survey found the dominant belief was that, They are against more things than they are for.  One response typified the rest, It seems to me that Christians are mad at the world and mad at each other. They are so negative that they seem unhappy. I have no desire to be like them and stay upset all the time.

We often don’t help ourselves with rallies marked by angry protests that are anything but Christ like where protesters stood holding banners that said, You deserve to go to hell.

Really?  And you and I don’t?  So what is it that we, as Christians have to say to our world? How do we speak in a way that is true to what Scripture says but is also lovingly true to how Christ calls us to live?

We could dismiss characterizations like unhappy, angry and judgmental - perceptions that are misinformed; but sadly those beliefs, too often seem to fit a little too close. 

We could ‘spiritualize’ these views - didn’t Jesus say we would suffer for His sake, rejection just part of the discipleship package?  He was despised and rejected by man.  So too, we are to suffer for holding true to what Scripture says.

But I wonder.  Could it be that the issue is far more problematic?  Could it be that the message we present and the life we portray isn’t so much a life that suffers as it is a life whose tone is often unattractively insufferable?

So, how do we live as lights that shine well in a dark world - illuminating not blinding?

TO BE a people of hope while not cocooning in some Pollyanna like denial of hardship and difficulty that surrounds; TO BE a people of joy while not distancing ourselves from deep pain and real sorrow – our own and those whose lives intersect with ours; and TO BE a people of truth while not harbouring a spirit of judgment and attack.

READ 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

Here, where we are called to be a people who LIVE HOPE ATTRACTIVELY BUT REAL 

Not when life is celebratory but when life is hard – in these verses talking about death.  In situations like these emotionally real, Grieving – yes but not as those who have no hope :13.  

Woody Allen said, It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens. 

Great quip but he does capture some perspectives we can identify with.  We don’t want to come too close to the idea of death. We botox to cover wrinkles and lines; we exercise to re-capture the body of  youth; we surgically adjust - lift up, push down, add on – to undo the damages of time.  All to stay young – all to keep the idea of death far from us.  For as long as there is life, there can be hope. 

But for non-Christians IF this life is the totality of our existence then when the end of life comes, the conclusion IS hopeless – nothing to hope for.  Nothing to make sense of.  Haruki Murakami captured the thought this way, I've been clinging to this world like a discarded shell of an insect stuck to a branch, about to be blown off forever by a gust of wind.     

A disillusioned Jack Vance said, You are young; you have hopes. One by one they will go, and nothing will be left but the bare fact of life.  

Their approach? – fatalistic or resigned - do your best, live out the string, hopefully ending with few regrets.  Scaling down hopes and dreams to more attainable levels like this one: 

I live for 3 reasons; to build a home for my mom, to buy a chair for grandfather and to turn to dust.  Perhaps laudable regarding his mother, but greatly lacking for a life ambition.

But as Scripture says, death is NOT the final curtain. For the Christian that is good news.  After death, life has only begun. A place of hope even when death shouts no hope. Instead a coming reunion with our loved ones who know Christ.  The even better news is that when we die, our spirits immediately enter the presence of the Lord, Absent from the body, present with the Lord  2 Cor 5:8.  An inglorious stepping out into an overwhelming glory stepped into. 

In 4:13 Paul says that death is being asleep, a description he repeats, We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep :15, sleep how a Christian’s death is to be understood.  A wake up call soon to come.  Jesus himself used the term ‘sleep’ for death on several occasions.  In raising a young girl to life, his description of her being asleep was met with scorn.  

Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her but He said, ‘Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.’ And they began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died. Lk 8:52-53   

They in their self-assured, We know life and this isn’t it. She’s dead – end of story, scorning the One in actuality was the Creator of life, the One who continues to give life now and for what’s to come.  

When informed about Lazarus, Jesus both assured and confused his disciples – He’s dead but as you will see, He’s only asleep – awaiting resurrection.  Spoken by the One who Paul describes as, The first fruits of those who are asleep 1 Cor 15:20   

Now to be clear, when Scripture references death as sleep it always refers to the body not the soul - our earthly ‘tent’ departed 2 Cor 5:1, our spirits very much alive - not dormant in soul sleep until our resurrection as 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses would have us believe. 

D L Moody (American Evangelist and publisher) understood what it meant to hold on to a living hope:  Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.

LIVE HOPE AUTHENTICALLY

Paul does NOT say, don’t grieve.  He knows our pain doesn’t evaporate with the first hymn we sing and the first verse we recite.  

At Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus is described as being deeply troubled as He confronts death.  He knows He will be resurrecting Lazarus to life but that doesn’t stop His tears; it doesn’t turn off His anger.  He weeps not because Lazarus is dead but because death even exists.  He weeps for the devastation and pain sin has brought.  He is angry because this is not the world He created.  He is angry because this is the world in our sin, we have chosen.   One day all that will be changed but for now, disease still invades, death still destroys.   

Make no mistake, Scripture makes it very clear, pain and death were never in God’s original design.  Separation from God and physical death are the direct result of our sin, sin comes, death enters. 

Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death resulted from sin, therefore everyone dies, because everyone has sinned.  For the wages of sin is death BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord Rom 5:12, Rom 6:23.

As Christians, we DO grieve the loss of those we love. Tears are shed. Pain is felt.  Loneliness does sweep in.  But in that place, there comes a promise – for the Christian there is better ahead - where there will be no pain, no death, no sorrow.  A place where unemployment is massive. The medical industry will be no more. There will be no hearing aids, no wheelchairs, no walkers, no root canals, no spinal realignments.  All gone!  The renovation industry - kaput – in these dwelling places – no dry rot to be fixed; no asbestos to be removed.  And for safety personnel? - no danger means no locksmiths, no security systems and no 911 operators. 

But here’s the thing – hope is the lifeline we are called to hold out to others.  We are to be beacons of hope – people who live in hope now so that when life hits hard, others can understand that rescue is possible.  That’s what Peter is saying, speak hope and live hope, Honor Christ as Lord in our hearts. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is within you. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Pet 3:15

LIVE WITH JOY – BECAUSE OF OUR GREATEST HOPE - RESURRECTION

AND WHAT A RESURRECTION!!!!

:16 talks about, Christ descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and trumpet call of God and the dead IN Christ shall rise to meet the Lord in the air - resurrected to a life with Christ forever.

A resurrected, returning Christ – our GREAT HOPE

Before considering this which we will look at more closely next week, I want to draw our attention to an expression Paul uses on three occasions that are foundational to the hope we have that is seen in the words, I DON’T WANT YOU TO BE IGNORANT.  This to say that there is something about these three areas that we get wrong resulting in misunderstanding and usually underemphasizing important things these areas have to say.  Briefly they are these: the 1st told us in Romans 11 concerning Israel and the Jews and the hope for the Jews.  His opening words in :1 that speak strongly to the future of Israel, I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!  And in the words of :25-26, For I DO NOT DESIRE ... THAT YOU SHOULD BE IGNORANT of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

Even when we don’t understand – GOD IS IN CONTROL.  There’s a lot more that can be said here based on the events that swirl around Israel, Gaza, Lebanon etc and recent reports that Russia has partnered to build 8 nuclear plants in Iran – the alignment of these two nations and others told us 2500 years before Ez 38:4,19-23; 39:3-5.  Briefly this - don’t be misled by the events you see and the conclusions you are led to believe, God has NOT abandoned Israel, forgotten Israel or replaced Israel.  Are there numerous examples of her sin and will there be dark days ahead for her? – yes - but as the world turns its hatred toward her and as enemies do their best to eliminate her, this will never happen.  Scripture is clear – Israel was and continues to be treasured and protected by God, Thus saith the LORD of hosts ... he that touches you touches the apple of God’s eye  Zech 2:8 .

The 2nd thing God tells us that we are not to be ignorant about what is told us in 1 Cor 12, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I DO NOT WANT YOU TO BE IGNORANT :1.  In short this told to us so we can know and live in the assurance that GOD HAS GIFTED US WITH POWER.  Much more could be said here, but this is not my intention nor do we have the time this morning.   

The 3rd thing we’re not to be ignorant of is what most concerns us today and actually is connected to the first 2 areas we just looked at regarding not being ignorant: Jesus’ Second Coming, But I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU TO BE IGNORANT, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him 1 Thess 4:13,14  GOD’S PROMISES ARE CERTAIN.  It is this truth we live for, this truth that will make sense of everything we believe, everything for which we hope.  This truth that gives us real hope.  Reminding us - GOD IS IN CONTROL; GOD’S GIVEN US HIS POWER TO LIVE IN TIMES THAT ARE CONFUSING AND HARD and GOD’S PROMISES ARE CERTAIN. Paul says it as clearly as it can be said, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive 1 Cor 15:19,22.   The When? uncertain. The details How? often differing opinions.  But the certainty?  Absolutely assured.  

It is this Jesus told His disciples, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am ...  Jn 14:1-3.

These words describing when a man would leave his father's house and travel to his prospective bride’s home to negotiate a bride price with her father.  The young man would pour a cup of wine for his beloved.  If she drank it and the purchase price was made, a marriage covenant was established, and the man and woman were regarded as husband and wife. From that moment on, the bride would veil herself, a sign she was set apart exclusively for her groom.  This betrothal established a binding covenant that could only be undone by divorce.  

The man would then give gifts to his beloved, and before leaving, would announce, I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will return for you when it is ready.  He would then return to his father's house where, for 12+ months, he built a place for his bride, not stopping until his father's approval was earned.  If anyone asked about the wedding date, he could only reply, Only my father knows.

When ready, the bridegroom returned for his bride usually in a torch light procession at night when the groom, best man and wedding party would leave the father's house to go to the home of the bride.  She didn’t know the time of his coming so she kept a lamp, her veil etc in readiness. When the groom and friends got close, they would give a shout and blow a shofar to let her know, her groom had arrived.

After receiving his bride, the groom returned to his father's house where the newlyweds went into the wedding chamber and consummated the marriage. 

This a picture of the time we’ve been looking at this morning in Thessalonians when the Groom will return to claim His bride – the church.  Christ will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and trumpet call of God and the dead IN Christ shall rise to meet the Lord in the air - resurrected to everlasting life with Christ forever  4:16,17

So our great hope? – for now on hold but with expectation, awaiting what has been promised: 

I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready    Rev 19:6,7

In memory of our beloved sister Gaby who is now sleeping, waiting in the time of our Lord to see Him face to face in His glory, as she departed accepting Him as her Lord.. Praise the Lord for His mercy!! +

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