1 WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? AT THE GRAVESIDE 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-5:9 JANUARY 31, 2016 They gathered at the graveside on a cold, damp wintery day. No funeral service, just a graveside service Everyone dressed in dark clothing, a few muted colors dotted the group. A nice casket sat on a stand, flowers all around and on top. There were nice things said about the deceased, that he d been a good friend, a valued coworker, a good husband and father. Someone read a poem about all living things flourishing, fading, then dying, and going back to the earth, the material making up the body being taken up years later to form a great tree. There was an awkward pause, and then one of the guys from the office said, Goodbye, my friend. We ll miss you. Everyone stood around for a few minutes. There was some hushed conversation, almost whispers, a few hugs, and then in little groups of two or three they made their way back to their cars and drove away. What more do you do, what more do you say, at the funeral of an atheist? The most upbeat word would be to sing a line from the Sound of Music, So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night. Once you ve said goodbye, there s nothing more. No hope for anything else. No vision of anything beyond the grave, except that the body becomes fertilizer. How does the atheist face the reality of death? Their own death or someone else s, what do they do with it? A true atheist epitaph would have to say, Here lies an atheist Sad by know He s all dressed up And no place to go. For the truly secular materialist, the reality of death can be overwhelming and depressing. And there s no satisfying way to deal with it. Some may stay too busy to think about it, use drugs, alcohol, or sex to anesthetize against it, or just slog through life without an answer. But that s a pretty grim existence. Death is tough for everyone, nonbelievers and believers alike. Everyone dies, Christian or not. No one wants it No one seeks it Everyone dreads it Everyone tries to avoid it.
Even lower animals. Almost as if death is not natural. In this message series we re answering the question: What difference does it make that you re a Christian? And today the specific question What difference does the Christian faith make at the edge of the grave? As you certainly are aware, we do NOT believe the material world is all that is. We believe there is a spiritual dimension to reality that is as real, if not more real, than the pews you are sitting on. We believe when the body dies, there s more to come. But questions arose in the early church, just as they do today. The first century church in Thessalonica sought an answer to the question. They d heard the gospel, come to Christ, and expected his return any day, so he could take them to heaven and the kingdom of God. But as they waited for his return, waited months, then years, loved ones were dying. Would they be left out of the kingdom? 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-14 Do not grieve as those who have no hope. Notice it does not simply say Do not grieve. Even Christians still grieve the death of a loved one, and we still shrink from our own death. But we have hope even at the graveside. There is something more, something even greater than this life. We, and that includes those who had already died, will go with Jesus to be with the Father. 1 THESSALONIANS 4:15-18 All believers, those who have died, those who are still alive at Jesus return, will be taken up with him to be with God. Paul goes on to warn against trying to set up timetables and proposed dates for the second coming. Apparently it was as much a temptation then as now. Maybe they had people making money from televangelism and end times books then, too. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-8 Don t try to set dates and things. In fact, if you want to hear God giggle, tell him what you have planned for him! Jesus will come when he comes. And if you re a follower, you won t be caught off guard. You won t have to be told by a preacher who claims to have the secrets of the end times. You ll know when it happens. In the meantime, just live a faithful life. Keep your hope grounded not in thinking you ve got the calendar marked appropriately, but keep your hope in him. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Just Jesus. The ancient Greeks believed in the eternal life of the spirit, and that when you die your spirit leaves the body. The Old Testament, the only scriptures the Jews had, the scriptures Jesus himself knew by heart, 2
gives some hints and suggestions about life after death, but no unified and clear teaching. In the years between the close of the Old Testament and when Jesus came on the scene, there had developed the idea of the resurrection of the body. They believed that at the end of time God would raise the dead. Not just disembodied spirits in heaven, though there was a belief in the spirit being in heaven as an interim state. But the ultimate hope was for the whole person, God raising the body to new life. The faith of Israel very much understood that God cared about his entire creation, including our bodies, and did not intend to just toss it away. Our physical bodies would somehow be included in God s future kingdom. Then came Jesus. He spoke some about resurrection, and even about his own resurrection. But it s likely no one really got what he was saying. After all, what they believed was that all the dead would be resurrected at once. No one thought of messiah being raised first. In fact, no one thought of messiah dying. Until Jesus was crucified and raised. MATTHEW 28:1-9 Even now some people think Easter is about Jesus spirit living on. But all four Gospels are unified and abundantly clear about this: It was a physical, bodily resurrection. The tomb was empty, the body gone, raised and transformed. The women saw him, heard him, touched him. Jesus showed his friends the wounds still present on him, and even invited them to touch and see they were real wounds. He met them by a lakeside and shared a meal with them. Those are not things done by a disembodied spirit, but by a whole human being, embodied and alive. And, the Bible says, those who follow Jesus in life will also follow him through death and into resurrection life. ROMANS 6:3-5 There is an element of resurrection that invades this life, empowering us to live a new quality of life here and now. And there is the promise of life after death. What difference does it make that I m a Christian? It means that I do not grieve as those who have no hope. I grieve. But I do so with supreme hope. And we have a solid foundation for our hope. We have a REASON. Jesus rose from the dead. He left behind abundant evidence that cannot be explained any other way. Jesus rose from the dead. So we know there s something more than this life. We know death is not the end of the individual. We know that, with Jesus, LIFE has the final word. We do not know all of what that looks like. 3
Even the Apostle Paul struggled for words to express the reality of bodily resurrection. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-41 He goes to an agricultural analogy of sowing seed. What you sow doesn t come to life unless it first dies. The seed goes under the ground, is buried. Otherwise it won t grow up and produce a crop. And what you sow is not the body that is to be. A kernel of corn is not the same thing as a whole corn plant full of broad leaves and ears. It s just a tiny part, a hint of what will be. That, Paul says, is what this earthly body is compared to what our resurrection bodies will be. The earthly body must be sown in the ground, dead and buried, so it can grow up into something much greater. The resurrection of the body is not just a resuscitation, but also a radical transformation from what we are now to what we will be. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:42-44 A spiritual body. Those two words shouldn t go together like that. But Paul is stretching, stretching beyond the usual bounds of language to express something that is beyond our usual ways of thinking. There s so much of this that is a mystery, beyond our imaginations, beyond anything we know. But we know there s something beyond the grave, and we know for those who follow Jesus it s good, because HE is good, and we know his resurrection, and we have his promise. It will be an embodied existence, but not with bodies like this, marked by weakness, ailments and injuries. These bodies will be taken up and radically transformed into something glorious. What difference does it make that you re a Christian when you re standing at the graveside? The great evangelist Billy Graham said, I have talked to doctors and nurses who have held the hands of dying people, and they say there is as much difference between the death of a Christian and of a non-christian as there is between Heaven and Hell. In 18 th century England, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement proudly stated, Our people die well. A physician of that time who treated several Methodists made the claim to John s brother Charles, Most people die for fear of dying; but, I never met with such people as yours. They are none of them afraid of death, but [are] calm, and patient, and resigned to the last. What did those early Methodists know? First, they faced the reality of death. They didn t pretend; they didn t hide themselves from it. So they lived life with each moment valued and treasured as if it was the last moment. Because it could be. 4
5 Second, they knew how to live well. Every day is received as a gift, and lived to its fullest. The most important things are not put off for another day. If you live well, you come to death with no regrets. Third, and most important, they knew Jesus. They didn t just know about Jesus. They knew Jesus. They knew the one who died and rose again. They knew the one who paved the way for them. They knew him personally, and they trusted his promises. And that was enough. They sent word to Jesus that his friend was sick, and he should come quickly and heal him. Jesus stalled around, and Lazarus died. When Jesus finally arrived he spoke to Lazarus sister, Your brother will rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. And then he asked her, Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Then the graveside is changed. Yesterday I stood in an intensive care bay with a grieving family. A young man was a victim of a hit and run. Just a few days before he seemed to be gaining strength, and everyone was encouraged. Then came the infection, and they could never get ahold of it. His body lay in the bed, with loved ones all around His mother said to me, A parent should never have to bury their child. But he was a Christian. He knew Jesus as his savior. I know he s in heaven now, no more pain or suffering. And I know one day we ll see him again. There in that room in ICU, with the body lying there, there was hope. Jesus said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. And then he asked her, Do you believe this? Do YOU believe this? Then you know what difference it makes that you re a Christian. (Jn.11:23-26) (Jn.11:23-26)