Sermon – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead

Easter 3

April 14, 2013

We all would like to see into the future. We want to know what will happen to ourselves and our children in the years ahead. We worry about our futures. This is why so many people go to astrologers and psychics with questions about our futures. But the Bible is very clear about this. It is not a good idea for you to know what will happen. You are to remember the past and focus on the present and your relationship with God. Do this and the future will take care of itself. But there is one exception to this rule. Scripture wants your to know that Jesus will return. With Jesus returning we are filled with hope in our futures. And it is this hope that we will be looking at today. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. ¹⁴ 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 own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till 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. 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage each other with these words.

There is and old story you may have heard before about the second coming of Christ. It goes this way. A breathless cardinal runs into the Pope's office and says that he has good news and bad news. The Pope asks him for the good news. And the cardinal tells him that Jesus Christ has returned and is calling him on the phone right now. “This is really good news!” the Pope said, “but what could be the bad news on a glorious day like today?” The cardinal looked at the Pope and said, “Jesus is calling from Salt Lake City”

We are all a little ambivalent about Jesus' return. We are told it will be a glorious day, but it might not be what we really expect. We just might be surprised by what happens. And we will certainly be surprised when it happens. But there are some things we can do to prepare ourselves for Jesus' second coming. And so we return to the Apostles Creed.

The Apostles Creed is a statement of our trinitarian faith. It starts with our belief in God the Father and proceeds to Jesus Christ the son. Today we will finish up with what the creed says about the Jesus Christ, and when I return from vacation in two weeks we will start our examination of what it says about the Holy Spirit. We have seen that Jesus Christ has a past, his life, death and resurrection. He also has a present, sitting at the right hand of God. And today we see that he has a future, coming again as judge.

The creed states, “He Will Come Again to Judge the Quick and the Dead.” Let's start at the end of the phrase. “The quick and the dead” simply means “everything”. “Quick” is Old English word and means “living”. We still have the word “quicksand” or “living sand” that will pull you down if you are not careful. It would be better if we simply said, “the living and the dead.” And if all who are alive and all who have died are included when Jesus returns then everyone is included, you and me too. So what will happen to everyone both living and dead? The creed says that they will be judged. The implication of this is important. Everyone will be judged even those who have died. Death is not an escape from God's judgment as modern atheists hope. Death is only temporary until the day you are resurrected by God to be judged.

Judgment is closely tied to justice. By justice we mean that good will be blessed and evil will be punished. Judgment is how we correctly apply the principles of justice. We judge that someone has committed a crime and must pay the penalty. We judge that someone has won a beauty pageant and will receive a scholarship. Judgment can either lead to something good or something bad. So when everyone, everyone living and everyone who has died appears for judgment will the result be good or bad? We don't really know. Justice requires that evil be punished. Sinners, those who disobey God, certainly will be punished. Won't they? Some will be blessed and some will be cursed on judgment day. But we can't say with certainty who will be in one group and who will be in the other. We have no way of knowing how someone else will be judged. We don't even know how our own judgment will turn out. We don't know these things because we are not the judge and we are not to judge others.

Judgment will occur when Jesus returns. We know that Jesus, right now, is in heaven at the right hand of God. And we know that heaven and earth come close together through the church and it's sacraments. One day heaven and earth will come together. We have an biblical image of a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Jesus Christ will be in control of both heaven and earth and all the kings of the earth will bow down before him. We pray for this to happen every Sunday when we say, “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

The big question we have is, “when will all this happen?”. The disciples asked Jesus this very question and he refused to tell them. There have been many Christians who have tried to figure out when Christ will return. Some see prophecy being fulfilled in today's headlines. So far, every prediction of when Christ will return has been proven wrong. For some reason Jesus does not want us to know when he will return. What we are to do is to watch and to wait. And so that is what we do. We watch for the signs and wait for Jesus to return.

The most important part of this phrase from the Apostles Creed is the beginning. There we find out who will judge us. And this is really good news. The one who will judge us is the one who died for us. The one who will judge us is the one who gave up his life to pay for our sins. The one who will judge us is the same one who sits and the right hand of God interceding our behalf. The one who will judge us also the one who comes to save us, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so we have nothing to fear from judgment. Although one day we will be judged the one doing the judging is the very one who loves us.

Once we are judged we will then live forever in the presence of Jesus Christ. Creation will be restored by God. The effect of the sin of Adam and the sins of Adam's children will be washed away. Everything will be made new. I think that for all of us we are looking forward to this day, because this is our hope as Christians. Sadly, some people will reject this new life and new creation. They will not want to live in a world governed by Christ any more than they want to worship him today. These people will exclude themselves from Jesus' love and forgiveness. And they will get what they really want, eternal life separated from God in a place called hell. But for all who believe and follow Jesus the promise is eternal life in his presence.

So what should we do to prepare ourselves for judgment? First, we must know what God wants us to do. Ignorance of the law is no defense. We learn how God wants us to live our lives from the Bible. And that it why it is so important to meditate on scripture every day in your prayers. It is so important that you study the Bible in small groups. It is so important that you gather around the word of God with others in worship every Sunday. Do these things and you find out what God wants you to do. And do them so that when the day of judgment comes Christ will say of you, “Well done”.

So we know that one day Christ will return. At that moment sin will be defeated on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus will bring about a new Jerusalem, a restored creation, where all the kings of the earth and all the people who live or died will bow down to Jesus as Lord. We don't know when this will this occur so we watch and wait. And while we are waiting we prepare ourselves for that glorious day by developing a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and by be obedient to God's will.

Father in heaven, we thank you for sending Jesus into our world to save us from sin. We ask that you prepare us to receive him when he returns. We look forward to the day when earth is just like heaven and we can live in it forever in the presence of Jesus. This we pray in his name. Amen.

Sermon – Luke 24:50-53 - He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Luke 24:50-53 - He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

Easter 2

April 7, 2013

Today we are continuing with our look at the Apostles Creed. This statement of the church's belief is an important training tool for new initiates into the faith. And from time to time we need a refresher to remember what it means. This is especially true when false teachings begin to creep into the church. At these times we need the Apostles Creed to pull us back into orthodox faith. So far we have looked at what the creed says about God the Father and Jesus the Son. Last week we talked about Jesus' resurrection. Today we will focus on his ascension. But first, let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Luke 24:50-53 50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Jesus' ascension is not something we talk about often. We talk about his resurrection every year at Easter. But Jesus' ascension is something we rarely get to. One reason for this is that the Bible tells us that Jesus ascended to heaven about forty days after the resurrection. And since the resurrection was on a Sunday that would put ascension on the Thursday before Pentecost. Since it falls on a Thursday we usually skip over it as we follow the church calendar. But the Apostles Creed shows that it's importance is right next to the resurrection. So we have to take a look at it.

The New Testament is filled with references to the ascension. This comes from Jesus himself, who in the Gospel of John, tells his followers frequently that he is going away, will come back and will send the Holy Spirit to be with them while he is gone. In the Gospel of John the resurrection and ascension our treated as a single event of Jesus Christ being exalted, lifted up. The Gospel of Matthew does not speak of the ascension, but in the Great Commission, when Jesus told his disciples to “make disciple of all nations”, it was presumed that Jesus was just about to leave them. The only accounts of the ascension itself come to us from Luke, his Gospel and his Book of Acts. In the Gospel of Luke the ascension of Jesus is the end point of Jesus' ministry on earth. In Luke's sequel, the Book of Acts, the ascension marks the beginning of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So ascension marks a transition, a change from the ministry of Jesus on earth to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In the second century some false teachings began to enter the church. There was a belief, called Gnosticism, which said that spiritual was good, but physical was bad. A gifted biblical scholar named Origin brought some of this thinking into the church. Origin said that Jesus' spirit ascended to heaven while his body remained on earth to decay. The church said that this was wrong. Just as Jesus' body was resurrected from the dead so too did his resurrected body ascend to heaven. Jesus is sitting today at the right hand of God in the body that was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Origin's ideas about the ascension of Jesus were refuted by a second century theologian named Irenaus. Irenaus pointed out that men and women were originally created by God in God's image. But then this image of God in us was permanently defaced by the disobedience of Adam. Through Adam sin came into the world. So if sin came into the world through a man so too is a man necessary to remove it. The man who came to earth to remove the stain of sin and reveal the image of God was Jesus Christ. In his bodily resurrection and ascension he reversed the action of Adam and restored the image of God in us. So Jesus had to be a physical man in his ascension to achieve the result of removing the stain of sin put there by another physical man, Adam.

When Jesus ascended he went somewhere, a place called heaven. For some this is a place up there somewhere. For others it is a time in the future, after we die. Jesus had a lot to say about heaven, but we don't have the time right now to go through all of that. Let's just leave it by saying that in the ascension of Jesus heaven and earth came together. The ascension in the intersection of heaven and earth.

One day all believers will get to heaven. And when we do we will find that it is not a fearful place. Rather, when we get there we will find Jesus, in his resurrected body, in charge. He has taken possession of it. Jesus is in control of heaven. And he will be speaking into God's ear, interceding on our behalf.

In heaven Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. In ancient times, when kings went into battle they carried their shields in their left hand and swords in their right. They could easily defend themselves from any threat from the left. But they were vulnerable to attacks from the right. So the king would put his best warrior at his right hand. This warrior would protect the king from any threat from the right. This practice was continued in the king's court where he would put his most trusted advisor as his right hand. The person on the right would exert power at the will of the king. To say that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God indicates that Jesus uses God's power to achieve God's will. So we have seen that Jesus, in his physical body, has ascended into heaven where he now exercises all authority and power from the right hand of God.

So what does this mean for us? What difference could it make to us that the physical Jesus of Nazareth of 2000 years ago is still alive and sitting in heaven? Well, that has something to do with the table that has been prepared before you.

On the last night before Jesus' death he gave thanks, broke some bread and said, “this is my body.” Later he poured out some wine and said, “This is my blood.” So when we come to this table are we eating Jesus' body and drinking his blood? Is this cannibalism? For those outside of the faith it sure sounds that way. But for us in the church we know something else is going on. For centuries the church has tried to explain how Jesus is present in communion. There are some who say that the bread and wine on the table somehow change into Jesus' body and blood even if we don't perceive it that way. Others have said that Jesus is spiritually with us, or that Jesus is present with us in our memories. John Calvin gave what I think is the best explanation of what happens in communion, and he explained it using Jesus' ascension as his guide.

According to Calvin, when Jesus held the broken bread and the cup and said, “this is my body and this is my blood” he was referring not to the bread and wine but to himself, the one holding the elements. Jesus meant, literally, that when you eat this bread and drink from this cup you will see him, in his resurrected, flesh and blood, body. Now where is Jesus' flesh and blood body right now? It is in heaven sitting at the right hand of God. How can we see Jesus' body? The only way, according to Calvin, is if we too are in heaven. This table is the intersection of heaven and earth. This is not our table. It is the Lord's table. This is not our supper. This is the Lord's supper. And whenever we come around this table we ascend into heaven before Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of God and at the head of the table. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lift you hearts to heaven when you eat and drink around this table. Thats why we say, “Lift up you hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.” All this means that whenever we come to this table and encounter our risen Lord, we are eating at the great feast in heaven with all the redeemed sinners and our Lord Jesus Christ.

So what should our response be to all this? When we ascend to heaven for a dinner party with our Lord Jesus what should we then do? Jesus told us what to do just before he ascended to heaven. Here is what he said.

Acts 1:8-9 ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." ⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Jesus wants us to be witnesses. We have been empowered as witnesses. We are to tell the people we know and people we may meet that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and now lives in heaven at the right hand of God. And we can be with him because the church, through it's sacraments, is the intersection of heaven and earth.

So Jesus ascended to heaven in a human, resurrected body to rule heaven and earth as God's right hand man. We are invited to join him at a great feast which occurs right here in the middle of worship. We will gather around this table, the Lord's table. And the Holy Spirit will lift us up into the presence of our resurrected Lord Jesus. We have arrived at the intersection of heaven and earth. Give thanks and praise. Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ we thank you and praise you for lifting us up into your presence at this table. We praise you for the promise of our own resurrection and eternal life. We wait for your coming again into this world to restore it. This we pray in your glorious name. Amen. 

Sermon – Acts 10: 34-43 - On the Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Acts 10: 34-43 - “On the Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead”

Easter Sunday

March 31, 2013

On this glorious Sunday morning, like all Sundays, we remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles Creed has been helping us to remember and understand this important event for nearly two thousand years. It preserves the memory and teachings of the Apostles who witnessed the resurrection. This memory is preserved by the proclamation of the church in preaching and teaching. And so we proclaim it again today. Christ has risen from the dead! Let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Luella Tatem taught English to many of you at Pocomoke High School. When you learned to write English you were taught about paragraphs. A paragraph, you might remember, usually starts with a subject sentence and end with a conclusion. In between is the body of the paragraph which amplifies the subject and leads to the conclusion. If you need a refresher on all this Luella is up at Atria in Salisbury, and she would love for you to visit.

Ancient writers also used a specific structure in their writing that is different from what we use in writing paragraphs. For them writing was a little like digging a hole. You start digging. As the hole gets bigger you stand at the bottom until it is big enough. Then, you climb out and you have a hole. This is how ancient literature is constructed, and you will see it all over the Bible. You descend into a hole, see what is there and then get back out of the hole. We see this in the Apostles Creed. First you go down: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell;” You have reached the bottom of the hole. Now it is time to go back up. “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.”

So what is written at the bottom of the hole? What is the most important phrase in the Apostles Creed? What is the one thing the Apostles wanted you to know and remember. The most important thing that we learn from the Apostles Creed, it's central theme is: “the third day he rose again from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important part of our faith. The Apostle Paul tells us that if we profess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts that Jesus was raised from the dead then we will be saved. Our salvation depends on the historical event of Jesus resurrected from the dead.

This has been hard for people to believe in modern times. Historians have looked for evidence, independent from the Bible, that would allow them to conclude that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. They have found no such evidence, Scientists have looked into whether or not a dead person could be brought back to life. They have concluded that it is not possible given our current understanding. With the academic disciplines unable to support our belief many Christians find it hard to continue to believe in Jesus' resurrection. Many theologians, over the last 150 years, have tried to make sense of this. This morning, let's look at the evidence we do have that supports our faith.

Jesus died sometime in around 30 AD. There were numerous witnesses who saw an empty tomb which had been been sealed by a rock and guarded a sentry. These witnesses also met the risen Jesus, saw with him their eyes, heard him speak with their ears, and even touched his wounds with their hands. There was no question in their minds that Jesus' body really was resurrected from the the dead.

These witnesses began to have meetings to tell others about Jesus' life and teachings and most especially about his resurrection from the dead. They held these meeting on Sunday mornings, the day of the week the empty tomb was discovered. Sunday was a work day so they had to meet before dawn in someone's home to hear what the disciples had to say. These groups began to grow and people would learn the stories of Jesus. Eventually the witnesses of the resurrection would move on to other homes and other groups and within just a couple of decades groups were meeting on Sunday mornings all around the Mediterranean Sea. Witnesses of the resurrection began writing letters to other groups to deal with specific situations in those groups and combat any false teachings that were beginning to creep in. The witnesses of the resurrection wanted to make sure that people could learn and remember exactly what they had seen and heard.

In each of these groups people had to be taught the stories of the witnesses. At first the witnesses of the resurrection taught themselves. Eventually there were other teachers. And so a creed, a statement of the church's belief, was developed to help train initiates. This was called the Old Roman Symbol. And led to our Apostles Creed.

People in these groups began to write down the stories and teachings of Jesus that these witnesses remembered. These became the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The groups began to share these gospel accounts and letters they had received with others. All this was read out loud in the early Sunday morning meetings and eventually became what we know as the New Testament.

A doctor in the church of Rome named Luke listened to what the witnesses were saying. He collected all of this and wrote it down for everyone who loves God to read. This is what Luke wrote about what one of the witnesses of the resurrection said.

Acts 10:34-43 ³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ-- he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

The witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ made certain that what they saw and heard would never be forgotten. They became known at Apostles, those sent to proclaim the good news of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And they have left us a church, the Bible, a creed, teachers and preachers who authentically preserve their memories of Jesus and his resurrection. We know that the resurrection of Jesus is an historical event because the church was established and continues to remember it.

And so this is our obligation as followers of Jesus Christ. We are to preserve the memory of his resurrection from the dead. We do this by talking to our friends and family about our faith. We do what Christians have always done, invite people to our meetings on Sunday morning where were talk about what Jesus did and said and what it all means. We continue the process of the witnesses of the resurrection to instruct new initiates into the faith using the Apostles Creed as our guide. We obey Jesus' command to make disciples and baptize them into our faith. And we continue to proclaim our saving faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ every Sunday morning.

So rejoice because death could not contain Jesus. He defeated death and our slavery to Sin so that with him we may be resurrected to new life. This is not only our remembered history; it is also our hope that one day all of us, our loved ones and all who believe will one day be resurrected from the dead to live eternally in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And how do we answer our critics? What do we say to the scientists who say resurrection cannot happen? Our response has to be that with God all thing are possible. And God has demonstrated that resurrection is a scientific fact through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And what do we say to the historians who say that it never happened? Our response must be that they are just looking in the wrong places. Tell them to come to church where in the reading, teaching and preaching of the Bible they will hear the evidence they are looking for. There is no reason for the modern mind to not believe in the resurrection. It happened and will happen again. Let us pray.

“O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (Book of Common Worship, p.317)

Christ has risen from the Dead! He is risen in deed!