1. The Coming of the Lord

We will participate today in the commemoration service for our foundation day. This church was originally established as a preaching place belonging to Koiwa New Baptist church, which observed the first worship service on the 6th November 1969. Since then, the land was obtained, construction was achieved, and the independent church structure was organized on the 3rd November. So, we celebrate every year our foundation day on the first Lord’s day of November. According to the Baptist church calendar the first Lord’s day of November is All Saints Day* or all Souls day.**

Our church has 39 years of history by counting from the opening of the preaching place, and 35 years as a real church. During those 35 years the majority of founders have passed away. However, still, by listening to the wisdom of our predecessors, we continue to serve God and maintain the church activities. On this occasion, today, we will contemplate just “what is the death of believers” by reading from Paul’s epistle addressed to the Thessalonians.

What is specific to the Thessalonians’ faith is that they were an expectant people. They are waiting for the appearance of God’s son from heaven, Jesus, whom God raised from the dead: “For they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

The phrase, “to wait for his Son from heaven” indicates the second coming of Christ, or the second Advent. Though modern churches generally focus their preaching on the cross and the Resurrection, the core faith of the early church was the second coming of Christ. The verse of the Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come” expresses the aspiration for God’s kingdom being realised after the second coming of Jesus.

“Advent” means “arrival,” derived from the Latin word “adventus,” a translation of: “Parusia” in Greek. The word signifies the arrival of Jesus Christ on earth. The first arrival as a human baby, celebrated at Christmas, and the second coming of Jesus was expected by the early church after the resurrection and ascension. Believers in the early Church were waiting for the latter as zealously as they celebrated the former. In the modern church we speak of the second coming, but the early generation of Christians aspired to and fully expected the second coming of Christ as a real event in the near future.

The Christians in Thessalonica, at that time, were suffering oppression from the Jewish people, but despite these difficult circumstances, they lived in the hope that once God’s kingdom was established through Jesus’ second coming, they would be saved and honored. However, as time passed by, many believers died without witnessing the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. These events upset the Christians because they wondered whether those who died before the second coming of Christ, would be saved or not.

To those believers Paul wrote: “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” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). For non-christians, death is a sorrowful event which is accepted. We can do nothing against death. We leave behind relatives and friends. All we can do is to console each other. Without faith, death is complete despair with no sense of hope.

The majority of humans think death is the absolute end of life. But Paul says: “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” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). He affirms that what God has done for Jesus, God will also do for those who die in Christ.

Paul forecasts the scene of our own resurrection like this: “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. 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” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

“The Lord himself will come down from heaven” or, “with the trumpet call of God.” These descriptions are difficult for us to accept literally, but people of that era described miraculous events in this very manner. Anyway, the point which Paul is making here, is that death for humans is only a state of deep sleep, and we will be woken and raised up again on the Last day.

2. Hope in the Resurrection

The epistle of Paul reveals that the believers at Thessalonica were afraid of dying before the second coming of Jesus Christ. Because, even though they believed in the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, death was not yet included within the notion of salvation. They sought life through faith, but they ignored death as an element of faith. So much so, once death occurred prior to the coming of Jesus, they became severely upset and terrified.

We, who live in today’s world, also live with the prospect of dying one day. Over the centuries the human life-span had been around 50 years. In contrast we are now expecting a life-span up to almost 80 years. So, even in our sixties or seventies, the feeling is that we still have many more years to live. Our concerns, including matters of faith, are not about death, but about living.

We have the hope that a life based on faith in our Lord provides us with joyful days, even with secular sufferings and pains. Because, we think God will empower us. Nevertheless, very often such faith does not embrace the notion of death. Thus, even the most faithful Christians despair or become depressed by facing death and losing relatives and friends. Paul noticed, “they grieved like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).

The majority of humans think they create their own existence, dominate their own body and mind, including their whole life. They ignore death, and focus exclusively on the present conditions and situations, seeking only happiness based on earthly satisfaction. As a result, the world became a place where the strong exploits the weak. But even if we are successful, death will catch-up with us sometime in the future. After all, we are destined to be losers by human nature, regarding physical death.

Christians however, consider every historical event and evolution to be under God’s control. All human history will result in our salvation which will be through the Cross, the Resurrection, and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, even death must be a blessing of God, in the form of peaceful rest and divine release following a difficult time of suffering. The hope of restoration of our life, promised by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, should calm our anxieties. Indeed, despite that hope, we feel naturally profound sadness when our relatives and friends pass away. We are normally scared by imagining our own death. But, to soften the fear of death we must keep within our mind the hope of which Paul writes. Christ is the victor over death and there is hope of the resurrection through him.

3. Belief in the Resurrection

Today’s invocation verses are 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11, following on from today’s lecturing theme: “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Paul promotes death as state of sleeping: “whether we are awake or asleep” means “whether we are alive or dead.” If we are asleep there will be a moment when we wake-up again. So sleeping time can be understood as a period during which we are waiting for the moment of waking up. That is the very notion of the resurrection. One’s life is not cut off and finished by death, but through belief in Jesus’ Resurrection, one sleeps until God’s kingdom is realised in this world. Those who have faith in the second Advent after the Cross, also have a hope of another life after death. Life beyond death is a hope exclusively based on that faith.

Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Jesus Christ was resurrected and appeared before Peter, the twelve disciples, and then Paul. It is a fact that we Christians cannot deny. Paul called Jesus’ Resurrection - the first fruits, which suggest, a similar phenomena, a hope which can occur successively to His followers.

The world where we live now seems dominated by scientific reasoning, and we accept facts as truth which can be scientifically proved. Consequently, it has became difficult to accept events which artificial and modern experimentation cannot explain.

As a result, the people of today scarcely believe in the Resurrection, and easily reject it. But to deny the Resurrection is to deny eternal life. Consequently, one is to be locked up in the fear of death with no future hope. Such fear, encourages our minds to ignore the reality or conceal the very thought of death. Nonetheless, death is always very real in our life. We must recognize that science is not the master key which can open the door to all knowledge. We must talk about death sincerely. Try to understand faith and belief in the Resurrection, while being alert to 21st century research, discovery and thinking.

We Christians believe in the Resurrection. Having such a faith we need to be less worldly. Then social success or respect from others would no longer become our final goals. Once we receive that faith we can consider apparent pathetical events to be positive, even meaningful, for example birth of handicapped children, or early death of gifted leaders of industry. Those who have that belief can console others who are suffering and depressed through the loss of loved ones. Because we have overcome earthly fears and anxieties, we are now empowered by faith, and therefore called to encourage others.

Augustine, *** in his work, “God’s Kingdom,” wrote about two types of kingdoms made up by two kinds of love. One was established with selfish love by those who scorned God. Another was built with love toward God by those who were humble. To believe in the Resurrection is to chose a life in God’s kingdom.

That means to renounce satisfaction of selfish love, seek to serve others through a life which is free from egocentricity. The early church was established at the center of the secular world by God. This church was founded and blessed by God, 39 years ago. So, by standing in this church, we join together in the mission of spreading the good news about Jesus Christ to all those who are suffering in this world. That is the conclusion we should keep in our mind today, as we commemorate our Church anniversary and remember the souls who have passed through these doors.
————-
notes
* All Saints Day - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day
** All Souls day - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls_Day
*** St. Augustine of Hippo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine_of_Hippo