NIV Revelation 20:4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Intoduction: Grace, mercy and peace are ours through our lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This past week has changed our lives. The routine of school, work, play and church each week, makes us numb to the suffering and death across the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Now we are changed. Now, like the rest of the world, our homeland, our way of life is interrupted. Imagine that after you left your home this morning a group of robbers watched you leave for church. After you were preoccupied with your family and church, they broke into your home, ransacked your home overturned the furniture, bookshelves smashing everything into pieces; pictures, pots, vases, windows. They rummaged through all your drawers and took your valuables. When you go home this afternoon, you would find only a mess of broken glass and torn clothes. Where would you go? What would you do? What would you wear? Where would you start? The religious fanatics broke into our lives this past week, and interrupted our way of life. They broke our peace of mind. They shattered our safety at home. They killed our friends and neighbors. They violated our way of life. They have caused us to fear and worry about tomorrow. They have brought terror into the vocabulary and hearts of our children. They are terrorists.
As much as I want, wish and pray for their efforts to have failed; they have succeeded in killing thousands of people. They destroyed a 4 block radius around the World Trade Center. My head still today is filled with a mixture of chemicals, swirling inside my body, setting off feelings of sadness for the suffering people in the ruble and the families of the dead, revenge on the terrorists and the country that harbors them, fear for the next terrorist attack, uncertainty of the future world my children will inherit, hopelessness and helplessness to do anything, and even guilt when I have fun and relax because I am forgetting the 1000’s of people searching for loved ones in the disaster. What in God’s name are we, God’s people to do? How do we deal with a disaster of this proportion so close to home? Where do we start to recover?
Remember our Sure Foundation:
Certain Victory for God’s family even in total outward defeat.
I was talking to a woman on the phone Wednesday when she asked me a very interesting revealing question: “What have we done wrong? Why did God do this?” Her thinking was that God shields his people from all disasters in this world because they deserve it. Did you know that terrible disasters in our world have been affecting God’s people ever since sin was a part of life? It’s true. Do you remember the account of the 12 plagues in Egypt? Did you know that all the water in Egypt was turned to blood even the water God’s people had in their homes as well? The same held true for the plague of frogs and gnats. God’s people suffered right along with the unbelieving Egyptians. A man by the name of Hitler exterminated some 12 million people in what is called the great Holocaust. Did you know that experts estimate 6 million Israelites were killed. And did you know that of the 6 million Israelites estimates say 1 million were baptized Christians. Those 1 million Jewish Christians were killed with another 6 million Christians from other nationalities, like Czech and polish. Ok so what’s my point, right? All of these terrible atrocities done against God’s Family, His Church, have been going on since the first believers started to spread God’s saving gospel. The great atrocities against God’s people all stem from God’s enemies, not himself. God our heavenly father has punished someone for all the evil in this world. God already has received justice for the sins against him. God has already sentenced a man for the sins of the world. That man we know and love is God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. God does not treat us as our sins deserve. God does not punish two people for the same sin; Jesus and you. Jesus Christ died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to give us peace with God. No, friends the disasters that happen in this world are not punishments from God. We are Christians and we have a sure foundation of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ. God is not angry with you. God promised to save you from sin, death and hell and he kept his promise in Jesus Christ his son: NIV Joshua 23:14 "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.
(The evil in this world comes from the enemies of God, who are trying to destroy God’s Church. In Bible Class today we will talk more about Divine Concurrence. What that means is God is not the reason for evil, but he does control it in order for evil itself to be a blessing to His Church.)
In the first century not even 10 years after Christ rose from the dead, the devil with his evil angels, manipulated the Roman empire to persecute Christians for their faith in God’s Word. Christians were robbed of their possessions, imprisoned and isolated from their families, exiled to far away lands and even killed. The apostle John himself was exiled to a deserted island. John tells us that Antipas his friend was killed in Pergamum because of His testimony in Jesus Christ. Jesus in Revelation tells the entire congregation of Smyrna that they are going to all be arrested for their faith.
The situation looked like a disaster to the Christians. It appeared to those first century believers that evil was winning, and that they were only buying time until the Roman empire would wipe them off the face of the earth. Christians began to wonder/question and doubt that their faith was all that great in the first place. Many Christians turned back! It appeared evil was shaking the very foundation of Christianity: God’s love and protection was in doubt. Yes, they dropped their faith, denounced God and His promises as just words, denying that Jesus Christ was God’s Son and their Savior from sin. It seemed that evil forces had defeated God’s church; even overturning the very foundation of Christianity: God’s promises in the Gospel.
A doctor, serving God in a hospital in a remote part of Haiti, was puzzled by the name of a little girl who had been brought in for treatment. Her name read, “Asses-dent, which roughly translated means “Enough teeth.” What an odd name he thought.
The doctor asked the girl’s father, a raggedly dressed man from one of the peasant villages, “Why did you choose that name?”
The man smiled and said, “it was a name that was there.” There had to be more to the story so the doctor prodded the man for more info. The tired man responded, “I have had 8 children, all the rest are dead. She is the last one.” After a few more questions, the doctor concluded the name came directly from the man’s religion, which happened to be voodoo.
“Enough teeth” meant “Enough with this death already” or in a purely voodoo sense, “Enough of these spirits eating my children already!” The name is very revealing, not only of a father’s pain in the death of his children, but also of a simple yet profound truth: What you believe about God affects how you handle tragedy especially death. Voodoo for instance is the belief that everything happens because God did it. In the Haitian mind, planted deeply is the thought that God is responsible for both good and evil. He is capable of helping and capable of destroying. Underneath God there is a pyramid of lesser beings that carry out his word. Then there is a tire of people who have acquired the skill to control some of these lesser beings. They are called witch doctors. They prescribe spells, potions and charms to control god and fix the outcome in your favor. But in the end the Haitian lifestyle is filled with an endless of cycle of doing favors for God; offering incenses, tobacco, alcohol etc in order to bribe the gods. This cycle leads them to a sense of helplessness, hopelessness fatalism and a hunger for revenge.
If the foundation your build your life on is a behavior based relationship with God - if I scratch your back then you scratch mine- are you that much different than the voodoo in Haiti? Why did the 1000’s of people die in the terrorist attacks? Was God angry at them? Was God angry at our nation? Did someone not do what God wanted and so God unleashed his fury on them? Brothers and sisters, that thinking leads to hopelessness, anger and revenge toward God. That foundation is uneven and cracked it can’t support your life, your emotions, your hope, your faith.
On the surface it certainly seems that when a man’s enemies have succeeded in taking his life, they have won, and he has lost. You have all heard the expression, “Where there is life, there is hope.” That also clearly implies where there is no life there is no hope. To me the most difficult job to do right now would be of the rescue workers who are working at the WTC. These rescue workers and firefighters, have many of their friends and fellow firefighters lying dead beneath the rubble. As they first started to work to find their friends and loved ones, hope energized them to work frantically even through the night. But as the days dragged on, from the mangled steel and concrete boulders, no sign of life was found except for a few firefighters. How can they keep their hope up without a sign of life or a single survivor? Without hope for life, the flood of emotions; sadness, anger, guilt have nothing to hold them back.
This same idea that where there is no life there is no hope is exactly what Jesus is trying to demolish! Look at what John sees, “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God… and they lived and reigned with Christ for a 1000 years!”
What john sees and relates to us from Jesus our Savior is so exciting and comforting! Many Christians had been beheaded, crucified, burned at the stake, eaten by lions because they trusted in God’s promises. Even though their heads had been cut off and their bodies were destroyed/dead, John saw in his vision that their souls were still alive! These souls were actually with Christ sitting on their own throne next to Christ ruling and reigning over all creation. It appeared that they had been defeated, but they were actually victorious over death, better off now than they were on earth. This John says is the first resurrection.
The first resurrection is not a resurrection of a body. Look John sees souls; not bodies. It is a resurrection that makes the victory of God’s people certain even in outward defeat. This first resurrection is our sure foundation from God! What the first resurrection is becomes clear when we compare what John says here with something that he records in his gospel chapter 5 of John. Jesus says there are two different resurrections. One that was taking place already when he was on earth and that would continue to take place throughout history and a second resurrection that would take place at the end of the world – the last day.: Listen to Jesus’ words about this first resurrection: NIV John 5:25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
Jesus is talking about a resurrection that takes place while he is speaking and that will take place when people hear the voice of the Son of God! Hmmm do we hear the voice of the Son of God? Hmmm have we already taken part in the first resurrection? Yes we have! When we were born into this world, we were still-born. No not physically still-born but spiritually still-born. We were born sinful, unable to please God or do things for him.. We were born dead in our sins. We were cut off from God’s blessings and His presence because of our sins. When people who are dead in their sins and therefore have no spiritual life or hope for the future, hear the Word of God and trust His promises of forgiveness through Jesus life and death on the cross, they are resurrected and find hope and joy, forever in God’s family.
When a person hears and believes the gospel, he becomes spiritually alive. This life cannot be destroyed even if the believer’s head is cut off. Jesus said the same thing to Martha at the grave of Lazarus, ‘NIV John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
When God’s people are killed, they are not defeated. Their life goes on and on and on like the energizer bunny. It keeps going and going and going. Their bodies rest in the ground but only for a short time when Christ will raise all the dead at the 2nd resurrection. The second death as John tells us can’t touch God’s family it has no power over us. The second death is eternal separation from God in hell. We as God’s family need not fear our physical death because our spiritual life keeps going and going and going to rule and reign with Christ in heaven. And we need not fear the second death either when God will judge all sin, because we have been joine4d to Christ our perfect Savior from sin.
. I know we don’t talk about this much but look at what the departed believers are doing in heaven. They are priests who are ruling with Christ. Priest have as their main job to be intercessors. The believers who died before us may well be talking to Jesus about our situations in life, our difficulties and concerns. They just may be designing our future with Christ to make sure we enter heaven as soon as possible! What a comfort for us Christians. Now apply this to the 100’s of Christians who died on Tuesday in new york and D.C. Do you know where they are now? Do you know what they are doing? That’s right they are talking and planning with Jesus in heaven. They are playing an integral part in bringing the terrorists to justice as well as planning for the rebuilding of lower Manhattan physically and spiritually. They are not lost! They have not left us. They are with Jesus working for the kingdom of God, which we belong to.
What a comfort it is to us when we must mourn the death of those we love! For what was true of those early believers who were beheaded is true for all those who die in the lord believing that Jesus has washed their sins away with his own divine blood. We know that, even in what seems to be total defeat, God’s people will still win the victory. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
There is only one sure foundation that can withstand the disasters of national tragedy, massive death and personal heartache. Only one foundation can support your life and emotion into eternity: the promise of God’s love in Jesus Christ
NIV Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call."
NIV Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
NIV John 14:1 (Jesus Christ) "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I mentioned in the National Prayer our WELS Mission Church in upper Manhattan named Sure Foundation. Pastor Gabb and Pastor Robinson started that mission as a team. Carlo do you know why they chose the name Sure Foundation for their Mission Church in New York City? New York City is built on one of the most solid & strongest granite foundations in the world. Did you know that even after this great catastrophe of 2 one hundred story buildings falling down, that reports have come back stating the foundations of each building in lower Manahttan are still intact and unchanged!
What a picture of the strength of our country. We can be attacked, injured and even killed, but the foundation of our country – freedom- will always stand for us to rebuild our lives as American Citizens. Americans may come and go in death, but we stand united in order to preserve freedom for future generations. What a great picture of the foundation we have as God’s people as well. God’s promises can never be moved or changed. Enemies of God may tear down our buildings, or even take our life, but we will always be the last one standing on the promises of God. With or with out bodies we will reign with the lord into eternity. No matter what it looks like on the outside, Christians can never loose, in life or death, we live! I’m proud to be an American, in the land of the free and I’m proud to be a Christian, in the land of the living! Amen!
