WEBVTT 00:00.890 --> 00:05.838 The word of the Lord for you today can be summarized in these ten 00:05.924 --> 00:13.520 words. What God did for Jesus, God will do for you. 00:14.850 --> 00:18.206 In the name of Jesus, who died and rose again. 00:18.388 --> 00:19.390 Amen. 00:21.330 --> 00:25.606 As most of you know, we're making our way through First Thessalonians on 00:25.628 --> 00:27.750 these Mondays this semester. 00:28.730 --> 00:32.902 Last week, we heard how the Thessalonians were taught how to face 00:33.036 --> 00:43.690 life. Lead pure lies, avoid sexual impurity, immorality uncleanness, 00:45.150 --> 00:52.956 continue to show brotherly love just as you have done, and mind your 00:52.978 --> 00:53.710 own business. 00:54.960 --> 00:58.590 Lead quiet lives, lead productive lives. 01:01.920 --> 01:09.410 Today, the lesson pertained not to how to face life, but how to face 01:09.860 --> 01:10.720 death. 01:11.700 --> 01:18.648 Paul, Silas, Timothy, they had these words we do not want you brothers 01:18.764 --> 01:23.540 to be ignorant, to be uninformed about those who are asleep. 01:24.120 --> 01:27.076 So you do not grieve, so you are not distressed or you are not 01:27.098 --> 01:29.530 concerned, like those who have no hope. 01:30.540 --> 01:39.850 For since we believe that Christ died and rose again, so through him, 01:40.220 --> 01:43.900 God will bring all who have fallen asleep. 01:49.600 --> 01:51.768 The Thessalonians 01:51.864 --> 01:57.164 if you read First and Second Thessalonians were confused about the day 01:57.202 --> 01:58.140 of the Lord. 01:58.500 --> 02:03.664 About that day when God would finally be done with sin and evil, with 02:03.702 --> 02:07.580 death and destruction, with violence and oppression, with poverty, 02:07.740 --> 02:14.292 hunger, sickness, illness, infirmity, when he would turn all that over 02:14.426 --> 02:20.468 and judge it and bring about something new, eternal, full of life, 02:20.634 --> 02:22.512 brightness, joy. 02:22.656 --> 02:24.740 That would be the day of the Lord. 02:25.400 --> 02:30.676 If you read Second Thessalonians, they had heard reports that the day 02:30.698 --> 02:31.908 of the Lord had come. 02:32.074 --> 02:33.590 They had missed it. 02:34.760 --> 02:35.996 They have to be told 02:36.098 --> 02:37.564 it hasn't come yet. 02:37.762 --> 02:39.260 Don't get all excited. 02:39.680 --> 02:44.764 First, there has to be a rebellion and a man of lawlessness has to be 02:44.802 --> 02:45.320 revealed. 02:45.400 --> 02:46.412 That hasn't happened. 02:46.466 --> 02:47.950 You haven't missed it. 02:51.280 --> 02:54.670 But it seems that they also thought about this. 02:55.680 --> 02:58.440 What if I died before the day of the Lord? 03:00.410 --> 03:03.390 Perhaps they had to experienced a death in their congregation. 03:04.130 --> 03:05.550 What about Joe? 03:06.370 --> 03:07.466 What about Sid? 03:07.578 --> 03:08.830 What about Mary? 03:10.050 --> 03:12.560 What about the day of the Lord for them? 03:14.850 --> 03:21.310 And so the word for them is don't be so alarmed. 03:23.250 --> 03:29.590 What God did for Jesus, he will do for you. 03:29.740 --> 03:31.910 For all who are asleep. 03:33.210 --> 03:36.018 Jesus died, but God raised him from the dead. 03:36.114 --> 03:41.674 And in the same way, those who are in Christ, if they die, they will 03:41.712 --> 03:42.570 be raised. 03:43.710 --> 03:48.490 In fact, when Christ comes again, when the day of the Lord happens, 03:48.560 --> 03:54.414 when the Lord returns, those who are dead in Christ, they will be 03:54.452 --> 04:01.326 raised and be with Christ first. Only after they are raised and 04:01.348 --> 04:05.745 gathered with Christ, will, also those who have been left behind, 04:05.928 --> 04:07.502 those who are still alive 04:07.566 --> 04:11.650 when Christ returns, when the Lord finally makes his glorious 04:11.990 --> 04:17.829 reappearing, they too will join and everyone will be with the Lord. 04:19.370 --> 04:21.959 Encourage each other with these words. 04:25.520 --> 04:31.344 Now that happened a long time ago in situation very different from 04:31.542 --> 04:32.560 ours. 04:35.220 --> 04:41.488 But the day of the Lord has not yet come and there is still death and 04:41.654 --> 04:42.560 dying. 04:45.640 --> 04:56.500 And so what was said to the Thessalonians I say to you. What God did 04:56.570 --> 05:00.870 for Jesus, God will do for you. 05:01.960 --> 05:05.104 Jesus died, but God raised him from the dead. 05:05.232 --> 05:09.784 And if you die before Jesus comes back, God will raise you from the 05:09.822 --> 05:10.520 dead. 05:13.610 --> 05:21.734 But the message that Paul has here fits more than, of course, this 05:21.772 --> 05:22.760 kind of situation. 05:24.250 --> 05:27.830 Now there is death and there is dying. 05:29.050 --> 05:34.320 Some of you recently have experienced that the death of a loved one, 05:35.570 --> 05:41.054 the death of a friend, the death of someone you knew a long time in 05:41.092 --> 05:46.000 your church, a death of a sister or a brother in Christ. 05:47.970 --> 05:54.174 Or maybe you've heard news about someone who might be facing death or 05:54.212 --> 05:56.080 maybe might even be you. 05:59.460 --> 05:59.950 So the 06:00.090 --> 06:04.880 promise is this what God did for Jesus, he will do for you. 06:08.260 --> 06:14.050 But sometimes it isn't death that is hard to face its life. 06:17.060 --> 06:21.904 In the mid 20th century, Albert Camus, the French writer, wrote about 06:21.942 --> 06:24.496 suicide as a philosophical problem. 06:24.678 --> 06:27.896 There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, he 06:27.918 --> 06:29.800 wrote, and that is suicide. 06:31.900 --> 06:35.496 Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to the 06:35.518 --> 06:37.560 fundamental question of suicide. 06:38.620 --> 06:41.848 All the rest, whether there are three dimensions. 06:41.944 --> 06:43.384 This is Albert Einstein. 06:43.512 --> 06:47.032 Whether the mind has nine or twelve categories. 06:47.176 --> 06:48.380 Immanuel Kant. 06:49.120 --> 06:50.376 These come afterwards. 06:50.488 --> 06:52.140 These are games. 06:55.250 --> 06:59.154 Now, suicide as to the psychological problem is the mental problem is 06:59.192 --> 07:00.062 really serious. 07:00.126 --> 07:04.900 But he was considering the bare fact of life. 07:05.930 --> 07:07.880 Is life worth living? 07:11.230 --> 07:15.850 Increasing numbers of people in the United States have their doubts. 07:18.350 --> 07:28.666 Report recently came out, what, 25% 30% of girls youth have thoughts 07:28.698 --> 07:34.740 of suicide, deaths of despair, up. 07:35.590 --> 07:38.594 And that's actually just actually contemplating or taking your own 07:38.632 --> 07:38.882 life. 07:38.936 --> 07:40.500 And how about the rest of life? 07:43.640 --> 07:44.964 How's that going? 07:45.162 --> 07:47.350 For some, it's not going well. 07:47.800 --> 07:53.063 There are those, for instance, who realize not only that they have 07:53.102 --> 07:57.176 not, but that they will not find someone to marry, someone who will 07:57.198 --> 07:59.610 love them, cherish them, support them. 08:01.440 --> 08:05.628 And then there are some who have realized the person I'm married to is 08:05.794 --> 08:10.430 will not love me, cherish me, support me. 08:11.780 --> 08:13.330 And is life worth living? 08:14.020 --> 08:16.240 Maybe it's been the end of a dream. 08:16.900 --> 08:23.776 Maybe it's been some sudden disaster or tragedy, or maybe just life in 08:23.798 --> 08:26.690 the world has beat you down. 08:30.039 --> 08:36.819 Now, one of the answers about youth who are who are depressed or 08:36.970 --> 08:40.776 struggle or maybe come contemplate suicide, one of the general answers 08:40.808 --> 08:42.744 is, well, one is take away their smartphones. 08:42.792 --> 08:46.220 And another is they should be tougher, they should be more resilient, 08:47.760 --> 08:50.860 we should just throw them out there or we should let them fail. 08:52.240 --> 08:58.010 Now, granted, that may be, well, something to do. 09:00.170 --> 09:07.520 Maybe sometimes the word is suck it up, but that's something to do. 09:08.290 --> 09:10.160 That's not a matter of hope. 09:11.810 --> 09:15.600 No, you have 09:16.130 --> 09:19.774 and Christ has for the world something more. 09:19.972 --> 09:24.080 Not to lower expectations, but to raise hope. 09:26.090 --> 09:28.840 Because they don't come from this life. 09:29.610 --> 09:32.120 They lie with the life to come. 09:35.490 --> 09:39.966 And so, like Jesus, I urge you, trust in God. 09:40.148 --> 09:43.954 When Jesus was dying on the cross, they taunted him. 09:44.072 --> 09:46.066 He trusted in God. 09:46.168 --> 09:48.066 Let God deliver him now if he wants them. 09:48.088 --> 09:50.180 For he said, I am the Son of God. 09:51.930 --> 09:56.070 Well, Jesus did die, but God raised him from the dead. 09:56.890 --> 10:02.440 And what God did for Jesus, God will do for you. 10:04.250 --> 10:05.778 That's his promise. 10:05.954 --> 10:08.840 That's the promise made sure in Jesus Christ. 10:09.450 --> 10:12.280 That promise is for you. 10:13.370 --> 10:16.120 Just as Jesus died and was raised again. 10:17.090 --> 10:21.646 Unless Jesus comes back first, you're going to die, but you will be 10:21.668 --> 10:23.360 raised again. 10:27.250 --> 10:29.120 I encourage you with those words. 10:29.730 --> 10:32.960 I urge you to encourage each other with them as well. 10:33.730 --> 10:36.766 In the name of Jesus, who died and rose again. 10:36.948 --> 10:37.950 Amen. 10:39.330 --> 10:40.250 We rise to pray.