I Thess 4:16-17 Coming to judge the living and the dead: apostles Creed 5

Transcription

1 1 I Thess 4:16-17 Coming to judge the living and the dead: apostles Creed 5 This morning we gather to be encouraged. We gather to hear about the cross, to hear about the resurrection, to hear about the authority and especially today, to hear about the second coming of our King. I Thess 4:18 says Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1Th 4:18 NIV) What words? Go ahead and turn there with me: I Thessalonians 4: 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. 17 After that, 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. (1Th 4:16-17 NIV) This is a truly glorious passage. I think perhaps, today, I might open it up in new ways that you have not before considered, but even if I succeed in making you think of this verse differently, it will remain a glorious passage, filled with hope about the coming of our King. Let s pray Pray. Unity Wrestling with God Openness to differences Humility It s the end of the world as we know it 19 days. In 19 days, the world as we know it will end. Or at least that is the opinion of at least 6 people on the internet who are qualified because they read the Bible and they know about the Mayan calendar ending on that day. And 6 people with actual blog sites and professionally made videos cannot, they just can t, be wrong (dripping sarcasm). Still, people are talking about it. Even Christians are talking about it. We know the Creed, Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. Could this be the day? Could this be the day when Jesus decides to return?

2 2 You might want to think about this. I m just sayin that stressing out about Christmas presents may not be a good move. If you waited in line for 19 hours for Black Friday, you will look kind of stupid on Dec 22 nd won t you? Why risk your life hanging lights on the roof, if he is coming back 4 days before the big day. In fact, there is a lot of things that could change: Why go to work? Why clean your house? Why work out the tax deductions? It seems to me we should just be partying like it s I know Pat Benetar better hurry up and publish her book on the second coming of Jesus, because people probably won t be reading it if the world has already ended. I wonder if Jesus will be a heartbreaker, Dream maker, love taker. I know she darn well better say that whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better, we belong, we belong, we belong together (have to use that for the sermon on the one holy catholic apostolic church). Even if it s not this exact day, listen to any one of thousands of preachers right now who are all insisting that we are living in the last days. The very last days. It s been pretty prevalent this past week with the viral video of Angus T. Jones, (Jake from 2 and a half men) telling the world to stop watching his show. Apparently it s filth and God wouldn t be pleased

3 3 with us watching it. And we need to get ourselves straight because Jesus is coming and he wants to be walking with the Lord. The fact that Jesus is coming seems intricately connected to him judging and the creed makes this clear as well He will come to judge the quick and the dead. In fact, Jake s pastor, Chris Hudson, is even more adamant that Jesus is coming very soon and he will bring a judgment. Just look at the last four years, four weeks, four days, he says. Gay marriage is being legalized, Marijuana is being legalized, President Obama has been reelected, nannys are murdering people, Sandy Crippling NY. You have got to realize that God is not going to allow the world to continue on in this fashion for much longer. God is getting ready to stand up in Judgment very soon. If he doesn t stand up soon, he will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. This isn t new. In 1983, Jerry Falwell almost seemed to welcome Nuclear War in his book (Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Christ) as the punishment of God on unbelievers. In 2008, Pat Robertson bought Middle East Television so he could broadcast the second coming of Jesus into Israel. They were ready. They even had plans for how to deal with Jesus extra luminosity in case the cameras couldn t pick him easily. Last Christmas many fans were hailing Tim Tebow as Jesus incarnate returned to kick butt. Seriously. Regarding who looked more like Jesus, the pope won t 55 to 45 %. That s pretty close. The stupidity surrounding the end of the world is everywhere. But the idea of an end (as we know it) is not. I have to say, if it is the end of the world as we know it, well, I feel fine. In fact, we have much to look forward to and with I Thess 4:16, I want to encourage you with these wonderful words. He will indeed return. But I fear that perhaps in our evangelical box, we may not have understood what the second coming is all about. Or at least, we may have misunderstood those verses that we seem to always apply to the second coming.

4 4 The purpose of this sermon series on the Apostles Creed was not as much to exegete the creed or tell you the foundational truths of the faith, but rather to call evangelicalism to account for what it seems to think must be the only way to think about things. Views about the future I want to do at least two things today. I want to help you rethink what you probably have ingrained into you about the coming and the judgment. And I want to remind you that the particular way in which you understand these ideas will not necessarily make you a better Christian. Obviously we are looking for truth about what Scripture says but our particular theories about how Jesus will return should not be cause for disunity. I say this because today I will make clear to you in one sermon how some of you may disagree with my understanding of the Bible. It s not actually that different from what Christians have believed for centuries and what Christians all over the world still believe, but it does differ from popular American Evangelicalism quite a lot. And I want you to know that while we may have differences, we can stand unified around this belief: that Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. So let s get started: There seem to be two different extremes regarding the second coming of Jesus. On the one hand, eschatology has been so much the rage here in the States since the millenarian movements of the nineteenth century, especially those associated with J. N. Darby and the Plymouth brethren. Basically they taught that Jesus would return in person, snatch believers away from the wicked world, and then, after a period of ungodliness, he would return and reign forever. Then came the 1960s and 70 s with Hal Lindsey s version of it in the Late Great Planet Earth and then more recently the Left Behind series by Lahaye and Jenkins. In these books, the so called rapture has happened, all the true Christians are gone from earth and those left behind are now struggling to survive in a godless world. Many people more or less equate this with what the end times will look like, and emphasize the end times as something that is future. Some may go so far as to question why we should care about this old earth anyway, since it is destined to burn.

5 5 Why recycle, why garden, why work at all, since Jesus will come back any day; truly, any day. So many people have done the math and the end is pretty much here. This is one extreme. Some of you may agree with pieces of this, but my guess is that none of you hold to this fully. On the other side is what Evangelicals call the liberals. They read the creed with confusion. The very lectionaries they preach from ignore the verses that deal with the actual coming. After all, they think, isn t Jesus present with us already in the Eucharist? There is, for them, no second coming to anticipate. For some the second coming has become so central as to ignore everything else, while for others, it has become so marginalized and weakened that it ceases to mean anything at all. 1. What is eschatology? Let me say from the get go, what eschatology is not. It is not a future thing that deals solely with raptures, burned up earths, tribulations and antichrists. It does not primarily concern itself with the return of Jesus. The Jewish expectation that the Christians inherited was not about the end of the world, but about a dramatic change within the present world order. They believed that history was going somewhere under the guidance of God and that where it was going was toward God s new world of justice healing and hope. The transition from the present world to the new one would be a matter not of the destruction of the present space-time universe but of its radical healing. Eschatology is not about the second coming, and even less about a specific theory of that coming, it is about rather, the entire sense of God s future for the world and the belief that the future has already begun to come forward to meet us in the present. 2. What does Jesus say about the second coming? Pretty much nothing. What? Pretty much nothing? What about You will see the son of man coming in the clouds in power What about the king leaving a certain amount of talents with each person and then coming back to see what they did with them? Ok, so let s talk about them briefly. Not exhaustively, just enough to show you that there may be other ways to think of these texts. Coming on the clouds in power?

6 6 And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." (Mar 14:62 ESV) Probably not about his second coming at all, but, in line with the Daniel 7 text he is quoting is about his vindication after suffering. The coming is an upward, not a downward movement. Basically, although Jesus is going to his death he will be vindicated by events that will take place afterward (probably his resurrection and the destruction of the temple and the ascension [or coming] to heaven and the Father). The parables that Jesus tells about a king or master who goes away for a while and leaves his subjects to work with his money are not primarily about all of us waiting and using our talents in specific ways until he comes back. Rather, they are about God leaving the temple (in exile) and his promise to come back and fill it again, which he did in Jesus. They aren't merely about the second coming, they are about the first. He is trying to say that the first coming will actually not be the full kingdom as they thought. If they would have used what God gave them well, then perhaps it would be but for now it is present and future. Of course it applies well to a future story too. Use your talents well, but that wasn t the full understanding at the time. What did Jesus mean when he said he would come back before the generation was out? Was Jesus wrong when he said he would return before the generation was over? That some would not even die before they saw Jesus coming in the clouds? No, he wasn t wrong. He was talking about his vindication and the end of the world as they knew it the resurrection, the ascension and I think the destruction of Jerusalem. So Mark 13, the signs of the end of the age, are not primarily speaking of the second coming. Mark 14, where he speaks to Pilate and says you will see the son of man coming is not primarily about a future coming for us. Luke 19 about the talents isn t primarily about how we should act because of a later coming. So, I am not persuaded that Jesus talked much about the second coming as we understand it. He was pretty much always talking about an elongated kingdom. The first coming being stretched. But that doesn t mean there isn t one or that it should be downplayed. There is much more Bible than just the red letters. And I want to spend most of our time in Paul today because he has that book about the twinkling vanishing of all believers from the earth in a secret rapture. 3. What is the parousia? As always, I am left with a difficult task. I want to inform some people about important theology that they may never have considered and at the same time, I want to call others, who have thought a great deal about such things, to reconsider their thinking. And in all of that I want to encourage you and not disunify you.

7 7 Parousia is a Greek word that is found in many texts and is usually translated as coming like in I Thess 4:15. And that fits fine; the literal translation is more like presence. We don t use this Greek word, but they did and they understood it. We assume they thought it referred to the second coming of Jesus and that quite literally Jesus would come down on a cloud and people would fly up to meet him. In my opinion this is a mistake. Parousia has two meanings that both help us understand what they were expecting: a. Mysterious presence of a god or divinity particularly when the power of this god was revealed in healing or rescuing. Like when God rescued Hezekiah from the Assyrians. God Came. Parousia b. High ranking person visits a subject state. Like a king visiting his colony. It s a royal presence. Parousia. So, I think Paul, by using this word is saying two things at the same time a. the Jesus they worshipped was near in spirit but absent in body and would one day be present in body and that then the whole world would know the sudden transforming power of his presence. b. And that Jesus who was now alive and exalted to God and was true Emperor above all kings and that he, like an earthly emperor would visit the place he conquered and rule it in the flesh Basically, Jesus was already the true Lord and his Spirit in the present time was only a hint of what was to come. It took the old Jewish story and said what every empire said: their king is king and yours isn t. Jesus is King and Caesar isn t. 4. How should we understand I The 4:16-17? This information helps us better understand the famous passage in I Thess 4: 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. 17 After that, 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. (1Th 4:16-17 NIV) This isn t saying anything more than Jewish apocalypticism. It s saying nothing more than what Paul says in I Cor and Philippians 3 You might know these passages and I can t do them justice here but let me say a quick word about both: 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes [parousia], those who belong to him.

8 8 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1Co 15:23-27 NIV) The parousia, coming of Jesus, is the time of the resurrection of the dead, when Jesus will make sure everyone knows who rules over all especially death, that last enemy he will know for sure since people will start getting up from the dead. Then he continues in verse to speak of those who are not yet dead when Jesus comes 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1Co 15:51-52 NIV) They will be changed, transformed. Notice the trumpet and the resurrection of the dead here and in Thessalonians in verse 16. But in Thessalonians it speaks of those presently alive being snatched up in the air. In I Cor he speaks of them being transformed. This is true in Philippians 3:21 as well, where the context is quite explicitly ranging Jesus over against Caesar 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phi 3:21 NIV) 1Th 4:16-17 NIV 1Co 15:23-37; NIV Phi 3:21 NIV According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming [parousia] 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. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes [parousia], those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

9 9 them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. Why does Paul speak of the Lord descending and believers being snatched up? Because he likes metaphors. Remember in the next chapter he will say that a thief comes in the night, a woman will go into labor, don t get drunk, put on your armor. All metaphors. Paul is taking three stories from the past and mixing them together. Moses on the mountain hears the trumpet and loud voice and then after a long wait appears and descends to see what is happening Daniel 7 mentions the persecuted people of God vindicated over their pagan enemy by being raised up on the clouds to sit in glory. The cloud sitting of the past is now by Paul referred to Christians who are presently suffering persecution. So, these two ideas are together and now he adds a third idea about when an Emperor comes to rule in the flesh. When he visits a country he has conquered the people in the city do not sit and wait for him. They show him the respect he deserves by not just meeting him at the gates, but going even further into the open country and then escorting the royal personage into the city. So, Thessalonians doesn t mean we will actually go up and meet him in the air (necessarily), it is just a highly charged metaphor to express our desire to have him come and be with us. He will transform us, as Philippians says, so that our bodies will be like his. So that all will be made right. I think Thessalonians is saying this: That Jesus will be personally present, that the dead will be raised, and that living Christians will be transformed. We look forward to the return of Jesus, not because we leave this world, but because it will be made right once and for all. We say with Paul, Marana tha, Our Lord Come We say with Paul that we look forward to his appearance and ours with him. NIV Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

10 10 Appear instead of coming but it s the same idea. In fact, it helps clarify what his coming is. It s an appearance of God, not like an alien from another planet, but from heaven as heaven and earth become one and when this happens he will appear to us and we will appear to him and to one another, in our true identity. This whole idea could be summarized by quoting 1 John 2:28 Now, children, abide in him; so that, when he appears [ean phanero the], we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his presence [parousia].... Beloved, we are now God s children; and it has not yet appeared [oupo ephanerothe] what we shall be; but we know that when he appears [ean phanerothe], we shall be like him, because we shall see him just as he is. Appearing and coming side by side. When he appears he will be present. So it seems like he is coming, but in reality he will just be appearing. The two worlds intersect even today in the inner and active lives of Christians, but someday they will integrate completely and visibly as we are transformed, or as we appear. 5. So, what about Dec 21? What should we take from all of this? a. There is a second coming If the main thing you got from this sermon is that Jace has one messed up eschatology, I fear you are missing the main point. The main point is that there is indeed a second coming. Jesus will return again to judge the living and the dead. b. December 21 st is not it If the main thing you got out of this sermon is that the day of the Lord will be here in less than three weeks, then I fear you have missed the main point. The main point is that there is indeed a second coming. Jesus will return again to judge the living and the dead. But it almost definitely will not happen at the day the Mayan calendar ends. I am willing to bet my life savings, my house, my children, my life on this. This day will come and go and the Holy Spirit will continue to do his work in your life. Speaking of the Holy Spirits work c. We need to be holy If somehow the main thing you got from this sermon is that we need to be good or we are doomed, I am not sure what you were listening to. Your doom is not based on whether you are good or not. I didn t even talk about doom. Judgment stuff is next week, but I should say here, in case the Mayans added wrong and the

11 11 end actually comes before next Sunday, that if you are counting for you good works to save you, you are counting on the wrong thing. Your good works will not put you in right standing with God because you, like me, still fall short. He calls each of us not to do better, but to trust in Jesus who already took your sin. Put your faith and trust in him and count on him. Rest in his work. That said and since I mentioned the work of the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 3 does conclude with a charge. After relating that the world as we know it will end, it asks this question: What kind of people ought we to be? He answers: You ought to live holy and godly lives After a couple more verses about the end he says again: 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (2Pe 3:11-14 NIV) There is nothing here about neglecting your Christmas decorations or gifts. Nothing here about ditching job or telling off boss. Nothing here about ignoring responsibilities. The call is to be holy. That means, that even if Angus Jones (Jake Harper) is now caught up in a cult (as many people are saying), he does indeed have a point. And we need to get ourselves straight because Jesus is coming and he wants to be walking with the Lord. I don t know if that means you have to stop watching Two and a Half men, or all R Movies, or stop reading books that have cuss words or run very quickly past Spencers Gifts so demons don t pull you in or stop drinking alcohol. (It probably does mean you shouldn t watch the Twilight movies). But it surely means that you have to ask yourself these

12 12 questions with a willingness to give up anything that God lays on your heart or demands in Scripture. Then ask yourself the more positive questions: Not what must I give up to be like Jesus (do that too), but what must I add to be more like Jesus? What does holiness look like? Does it mean spending a month of hell preparing for two good hours on Dec 25 th (if we make it that far)? Or might it mean backing off a bit and spending a few weeks in DC handing out blankets and hot cocoa. Might it mean serving at the soup kitchen? Might it mean shoveling the neighbors walk? Might it mean inviting all of your neighbors to the candlelight service? Might it mean reconciling with a parent or kid or someone from the past? Might it mean encouraging someone at work or reading a book about the second coming of Jesus or planning a mission trip for next year or being intimate with your husband more often or giving to the Kenyan church school, or crying out against injustice in Darfur, or taking a foster kid in, or adopting a kid, or taking up a hobby with your kid or any of the 100 things you put on the back board to show that we are people who belong to alternative, intentional community of peace. All of these according to that passage in 2 Peter 3 are hastening the day of his coming 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. d. We need to live in hope and joy. And finally if you got from this sermon that Jesus has already returned and things will just travel along as they always have and that we should live dreary unhopeful lives, then you missed by biggest point. Jesus is coming again. That has not yet happened. Again, same passage in 2 Peter 3 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. I Thessalonians may or may not mean what you thought it meant, but the overwhelming resonating cry is that he is coming back 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.

13 13 17 After that, 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. Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1Th 4:18 NIV)