October 8, 2000- LESSON: 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18

SERMON TITLE: Divine Transformation

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. Have you seen Eschatology?
    1. Where can we find Eschatology?
      1. Under the pews
      2. Behind the organ
      3. Anywhere in the building.
    2. What difference does it make, anyway?
    3. Eschatology is very important.

MAIN BODY:

  1. If you misplace it you will have to live with great anxiety.
    1. Misplacing my hand bag at a rest stop on the autobahn.
      1. The initial anxiety and near-panic.
      2. The relief at knowing that it was safe.
      3. All one had to do was go and get it.
    2. You will constantly have questions about the present and the future that cannot be answered without it.
    3. Misplacing Eschatology means a long way back to find it.

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  1. If you ignore it.
    1. It will constantly seek to reveal itself.
    2. We find ourselves dealing with the significant existential questions.
      1. Who am I?
      2. What is life all about?
      3. What does the future hold?
    3. Without Eschatology we cannot sufficiently answer these and other important questions that plague us.
  2. If you are ignorant of Eschatology you may find yourself creating what is missing at the expense of what already exists.
    1. Ignorance will not allow itself to be tolerated.
    2. Ignorance is likened to an abyss (gorge, chasm).
      1. The Bible calls it gross darkness
      2. Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, IV, 146 wrote:
        1. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
        2. There is nothing in the abyss, but concentrated looking creates something.
        3. This something is not real but becomes for those who look reality.
    3. The Bible does not teach reincarnation, but people believe in reincarnation.
  3. In order to avoid the abyss we need Eschatology.
    1. This is literally a discourse (The Doctrine) of last things.
      1. The Second coming of Christ
      2. The Immortality of the Soul
      3. The Final Judgement of humanity
      4. The Resurrection of the Dead.

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    1. The Bible speaks loudly and plainly to help us understand the Doctrine of Last Things, Eschatology.
  1. This leads to the question that has been posed as written in the October Chronicles.
    1. QUESTION OF THE MINISTER: "What is meant by the Second Coming of Jesus? When it occurs will it involve any change for deceased humans whose souls have gone to heaven?"
  2. Three passages of Scripture may be used to begin to answer this question.
    1. (Matthew 24:29-31 NRSV)
      1. Jesus in answering the question of his disciples about his coming and the end of the age provided some insight into the signs that they ought to look for.
      2. And then he said:
        1. (29) "Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.
        2. [30] Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory.
        3. [31] And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
    2. Writing in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NRSV, Paul writes:
      1. (13) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
        1. Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy.
          1. They are in agreement on this.
        2. They do not want Christians to grieve as others do who have no hope.

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      1. [14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.
      2. [15] For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.
      3. [16] For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
      4. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.
      5. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.
    1. Again in 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 NRSV, Paul exclaims:
      1. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, [52] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
      2. [53] For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
      3. [54] When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
      4. [55] "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
      5. [56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
      6. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
      7. [58] Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. QUESTION OF THE MINISTER:
    1. "What is meant by the Second Coming of Jesus?
    2. "When it occurs will it involve any change for deceased humans whose souls have gone to heaven?"
  2. Some bright morning when this life is o'er I'll fly away.
    1. There will be a grand reunion.
    2. The heavens and the earth will be restored.
    3. Conflict and death will be no more.
  3. We then may take seriously and rest in the joy created by the counsel we are given.
    1. Wherefore encourage, comfort, one another with these words.
    2. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

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