WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:06.200 Brothers and Sisters in Christ grace to you and peace from God our 2 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:08.100 father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:08.100 --> 00:00:13.300 Amen. The word of God that engages us this morning is a reading we 4 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:16.000 just heard and I want to begin with a question. 5 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.900 And the question is what do you think about the resurrection and what 6 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:25.200 do you think about end times? We're coming up. Well actually technically 7 00:00:25.200 --> 00:00:27.700 I guess we passed the last Sunday of the Year. 8 00:00:27.700 --> 00:00:32.600 Which this was a reading and for the last several weeks all the 9 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:37.700 readings of have kind of been End Timey right? Reminding us that Jesus is 10 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:41.100 coming and when he comes something is going to happen, something 11 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:48.400 remarkable, something outstanding. But for a period of my life and a 12 00:00:48.400 --> 00:00:54.000 little bit still this event was absolutely terrifying. Terrifying to 13 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.200 think about and something that I tried to push out of my brain. 14 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:00.300 Now it might have been because my idea of the end times were slightly 15 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:02.900 shaped by Hollywood. Anybody 16 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:09.700 else, just me. And if you haven't seen this movie called "End of 17 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:10.700 Days" with Arnold Schwarzenegger. 18 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:14.500 This is kind of how I thought the end of the world would be. Now 19 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:16.600 this is set in December 1999. 20 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:20.900 If you haven't seen the film by the way some spoilers, but set in 21 00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:24.900 December 99 and in essence there is a cop who has lost faith 22 00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:28.600 because of tragedy of losing his wife and daughter. And he has to save 23 00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:31.800 this young woman who's been tortured by satanists because Satan 24 00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:34.600 himself is looking for her to become his right and if he gets her 25 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:39.800 pregnant by in between 11 and 12 before the year 2000, he can bring 26 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:45.300 about the end of the world. Absolutely terrifying and other movies like 27 00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:50.400 this where there's an epic battle where Satan actually has a chance of 28 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.300 winning where if things go a certain way. 29 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:56.900 Those of us who have faith might lose. 30 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:02.700 I didn't really want to come Jesus to come I would say come quickly 31 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:04.500 Lord Jesus but deep down in my heart, 32 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:05.600 I didn't really mean it. 33 00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:11.700 Let me live my life so that I don't have to experience demons 34 00:02:11.700 --> 00:02:15.600 crawling around in the street and Arnold Schwarzenegger running around 35 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:16.500 trying to save my life. 36 00:02:16.500 --> 00:02:19.200 That is not very comforting to me. 37 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:24.200 And then the year 2.000 came and nothing happened. 38 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:27.600 So obviously "End of Days" wasn't right. And then there was a 39 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:33.900 of time where I had this picture of eternity kind of where you die and 40 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:38.600 you're like an angel resting in the clouds your this disembodied being 41 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:40.800 existing for all time. 42 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.400 And I had to be honest with you the idea of the existing forever 43 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:47.900 without a body. 44 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.100 Slightly is disturbing to me. 45 00:02:51.100 --> 00:02:55.300 I appreciate my body as a broken 46 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:59.400 as it is. You probably wouldn't guess I have rheumatoid arthritis. 47 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.400 So I look for a day where I don't suffer from this chronic 48 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:08.200 illness that causes me pain every day, but none the less the idea of 49 00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:11.300 not having a body forever is disturbing. 50 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:17.400 The problem with it is though is that existing without a body 51 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:22.800 isn't completely untrue. For those of us who died in faith fall asleep 52 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.000 in Jesus in for a time 53 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:32.400 we exist peacefully without pain without sin without our but without 54 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:38.300 our body and while there is comfort in that it's not quite complete. 55 00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:41.400 Are there still more to the story. 56 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:43.500 There's still something else that has to take place. 57 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:49.200 And so I don't want to stop there especially because I know too often 58 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:53.300 people in the church our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, maybe even 59 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:56.600 you at one time have ended the story there. 60 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:00.500 With you dying an existing eternally 61 00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:02.300 maybe it's like a little cherub. 62 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:07.000 I don't know who our view picture it but nonetheless incomplete. 63 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:09.900 It's not quite good enough. 64 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:14.900 And it doesn't really complete the story of Jesus. 65 00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:22.500 Now, Paul writing in his letter is remaining the Corinthians of the 66 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:27.800 Resurrection and not just some mythical Resurrection not some 67 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.800 partial resurrection and not just the resurrection of Jesus, but 68 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.500 they're resurrection. That one day 69 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:37.800 Jesus will return and they too will be resurrected because 70 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:40.100 surprised surprise, 71 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:41.600 they didn't fully believe it. 72 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:44.400 And I for one, 73 00:04:45.900 --> 00:04:50.000 at times I can kind of understand where they're coming from. You 74 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:51.500 see Jesus came into the world. 75 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.700 He did die on the cross and he was risen from the grave. 76 00:04:54.700 --> 00:04:58.700 He ascended to heaven and people's saw it but of course not 77 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:02.200 everybody saw it and it's hard to believe in things that you yourself 78 00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:07.500 don't see. But also he said he was going to return so imagine we got to 79 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:09.800 this point in my sermon and I said, I'll be back soon. 80 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:11.300 And then I walked out of the pulpit. 81 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:15.700 How long would you stay and still think that I would come back? 82 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:22.100 1 minute 2 minutes what it what if I was gone for 10 minutes would you 83 00:05:22.100 --> 00:05:26.500 just continue on with the service and just a pastor Glenn stopped in 84 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:27.300 the middle of his sermon and 85 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:28.400 he's not coming back. 86 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:34.900 I think so and if we read the New Testament and we hear the words of 87 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:37.900 Paul and we see the actions of the other disciples in the early 88 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:38.200 church. 89 00:05:38.200 --> 00:05:42.700 I feel confident in saying that I think that they thought Jesus was 90 00:05:42.700 --> 00:05:46.200 coming back soon and by soon maybe tomorrow. 91 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:51.200 And then years pass and years pass and maybe when he was talking about 92 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:54.300 the resurrection he was talking about something metaphorical. 93 00:05:55.100 --> 00:05:58.000 Because he hasn't yet returned back so this resurrection of the body 94 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.600 thing that he has promised means something else. And we should just go 95 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:07.600 about living a morally decent life good enough that we can embrace and 96 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.500 have whatever he was talking about. 97 00:06:12.200 --> 00:06:12.900 But 98 00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:17.500 Paul reminds the Corinthians and he reminds us 99 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.700 that there is in fact a resurrection of the body. 100 00:06:23.400 --> 00:06:27.400 Of which Christ is the first fruit. 101 00:06:28.700 --> 00:06:31.300 You see for me that is key. 102 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:36.200 You know first fruit is something that has a Biblical grounding from a 103 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:37.000 long time ago. 104 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:42.800 You see when the Harvest was collected the first fruit belonged to to 105 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:43.200 God. 106 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.300 And again in a childish way 107 00:06:47.300 --> 00:06:50.100 I used to think that God just one of the best stuff. 108 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:53.100 I mean he deserves it, right? 109 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:54.400 It does all belong to him 110 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:57.600 Anyway. So giving him the first fruit doesn't really hurt us. 111 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:03.600 But in reality the first fruit validates the rest. 112 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:09.900 It qualifies the realness of the rest of the thing before God and it 113 00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:11.900 makes it presentable to him. 114 00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:17.500 And so Christ as the first fruit 115 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:21.200 validates us. 116 00:07:23.500 --> 00:07:26.800 If you want to call us the leftovers, I'm okay with that. 117 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.400 I'm okay with being the leftovers if in fact being the leftovers means 118 00:07:31.400 --> 00:07:35.900 that I'm validated before God because of what Christ has done for me. 119 00:07:38.700 --> 00:07:46.300 And so living in this world framed in this reality that my idea of 120 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:47.000 soon 121 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 might not be Gods idea of soon. 122 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:55.100 And what I used to think about the resurrection isn't really what 123 00:07:55.100 --> 00:07:59.600 Christ meant but meant something deeper meant something better. 124 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.400 It makes it a little less terrifying. 125 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:12.100 Because even now broken and sinful in this wounded and and half good 126 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:12.800 body. 127 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:17.400 I'm still validated before God today. 128 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.100 Even though the event that he's promised hasn't yet come into 129 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:24.400 fruition. 130 00:08:26.400 --> 00:08:29.700 And I don't need an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie to let me know that 131 00:08:29.700 --> 00:08:32.100 the world can at times be terrifying. 132 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:38.299 All you have to do is take a quick drive up 170 from South to North 133 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:43.299 and you will have a thrill ride of your life. At least three or four 134 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:43.500 times 135 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:45.000 your life will be in mortal peril, 136 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:46.000 I promise you. 137 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:51.000 Okay, a quick tangent. One time 138 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.700 I was going North, my parents still live north, and I was driving up there 139 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:54.900 middle lane of 170. 140 00:08:54.900 --> 00:08:59.300 I'm a middle lane kind of guy. And there's this awkward exchange at 70 141 00:08:59.300 --> 00:09:01.900 to get to the airport and somebody jumped on the airport and went from 142 00:09:01.900 --> 00:09:07.600 right lane to airport exit on the left in about point three four seconds and 143 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:08.900 missed my car by about 6 inches. 144 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:11.300 That's the kind of thrill ride I'm talking about. 145 00:09:13.300 --> 00:09:16.500 But there are other things in the world that make it terrifying and 146 00:09:16.500 --> 00:09:18.400 it's easy for us to lose 147 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:18.700 Hope. 148 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:24.100 And in this place where we're constantly in God's word trying to learn 149 00:09:24.100 --> 00:09:29.500 more and more for us and trying to perfect this thing of being able 150 00:09:29.500 --> 00:09:32.400 to teach God's promises to people imagine what the people were 151 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:34.000 teaching are feeling as well. 152 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.100 Because if you think that the people you're going to have a firm grasp 153 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:43.200 of the Resurrection surprise surprise, just ask them when you get 154 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:43.400 there. 155 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:49.300 I promise you not all of them will, some of them might. But you're going 156 00:09:49.300 --> 00:09:52.500 to get some Arnold Schwarzenegger "End of Days" answers. 157 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:57.800 You're going to get some Platonistic, pie-in-the-sky, cherub wing 158 00:09:57.800 --> 00:09:58.400 answers. 159 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:05.200 And if you ask them if they're terrified of what might come they're 160 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:08.700 probably they'll probably give you the answer you think you're going 161 00:10:08.700 --> 00:10:10.000 to get is is the answer is yes. 162 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:17.600 So brothers that's the task. Week in week out of preaching God's 163 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.600 word to his people in its entirety, Law and Gospel, but comforting them 164 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.800 in the midst of this terrifying world. 165 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:33.200 That even though our bodies will inevitably most likely die sooner 166 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:33.700 than later. 167 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.500 But that's not the end. 168 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.200 That in fact Jesus is raised from the dead. 169 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:50.700 And because of our baptism we have not only shared in his death where 170 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.800 our sin has been conquered and died for all time. 171 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:57.500 We also share in his resurrection. 172 00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:00.900 And not an abstract one. 173 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:05.400 But a resurrection just like his. 174 00:11:06.900 --> 00:11:10.100 Where there will be a new creation a New Earth. 175 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:14.800 And we will have new bodies like Jesus. 176 00:11:16.400 --> 00:11:17.400 And it's in that. 177 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:20.500 That we will live forever. 178 00:11:23.300 --> 00:11:27.300 And comforted with that knowledge that this isn't the end. 179 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:31.900 And the end isn't terrifying for me because I have life in Jesus. 180 00:11:33.500 --> 00:11:35.100 It's not so scary anymore. 181 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:38.000 It's not so terrifying. 182 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.800 It's only terrifying in the fact that I know and love people who don't 183 00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:44.800 yet believe in the resurrection but brothers, 184 00:11:46.900 --> 00:11:49.900 while soon as near it hasn't yet come. 185 00:11:51.500 --> 00:11:55.400 And there's still time to share with the people who don't yet believe 186 00:11:55.400 --> 00:12:01.200 in Jesus that they too can experience a resurrection like his. 187 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.200 Now may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep our 188 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:07.900 hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.