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00:00 have uh one of the climax of the book of Thessalonians gospel in end times and the topic today
00:08 is death and the return of the king. I don't think there were many how many of
00:13 you have attended sermons were talking about death? Put your hands up. Yeah. When was the last time you have
00:20 you guys in the last like six months? How many of you actually thought about death? Put your hands up. One, two. Hey,
00:26 younger people also got Oh, that's pretty good. So this congregation does a lot better than the uh other
00:32 congregation which were basically evasive. They never think about it. And if you don't think about it, it won't happen to you. Right? That's what the
00:39 the thinking is. So let's look into death. I think death and and the second coming is extremely important. Either
00:45 one will come. Whatever it is, it is the event. Uh and basically we're going to learn four things basically. One uh we
00:52 need to face the reality of death. Uh we need death is not the end. The return of Christ must define the way we live and
00:59 we need to encourage each other with these words. Now, first of all, facing
01:04 the reality of death. Look at the passage here. It says, "We do not want you to be uninformed about those who are
01:11 asleep. You may not that you may not grieve as those who have no hope." And here we have a situation where the
01:18 Thessalonians have come to know Christ. But before Christ comes again, some of them have died. We don't know whether
01:23 they've died of natural causes or because of persecution which was rampant at that time in that particular uh
01:29 locality but they have died and they basically grieve because they've lost this brethren. We don't know what's
01:35 happened to them and the grief come to the fact that they don't really know uh what's happening. Now how the reason why
01:44 I ask whether you've ever thought about death is that not many people do. How does
01:49 death feel? I remember from my own experience as an I was eight years old.
01:55 I was at home. I remember this day that is so clear in my mind and I heard a scream. Uh it was upstairs and I rushed
02:02 upstairs and there was my mother uh and and my father was lying on his easy chair. Froth was coming out from his
02:09 mouth. It was pink froth, I remember. And he turned blue. He had had a heart
02:15 attack. And uh we managed to get the doctor from down the road in section 17 to come up, put him into the car and he
02:22 started doing CPR. And my mother actually thought that he had uh regained
02:27 some warmth. Maybe he was coming back again. But when the uh there was a bit of delayed he stopped pumping and then
02:33 he died. Now at tender age of eight, you face death. I mean I didn't even know
02:39 how to cry. I mean at the funeral you know um and you just look at the face of
02:44 my father there was like a light is missing and all there is is a dusky blue color uh and then he was gone and I
02:53 think for the rest of my life after that the reason why I became a doctor was because the fact I thought the doctor
02:58 stopped doing CPR and I could have perhaps done better in my life and and you find that this
03:05 death actually uh uh uh for the rest of my life it played very very heavily. I
03:11 used to have nightmares. Uh you have to lie in bed and sort of Have you ever laid in bed and sort of stop breathing
03:17 for 10 minutes? 10 minutes you'd be dead, right? But for a period of time that imagine what it'd be like if you
03:23 actually did. Some of us when you're young we did that. Um and used to have I went to church camp remember a camp in
03:30 in Sydney uh with the overseas Christian fellowship one day and uh you heard me tell this story before and I had my
03:35 usual nightmare. You wake up at night and you thought you're in a coffin. They
03:41 locked you there accidentally and I got to get out. I bang bang bang and I used my legs and kick kick and the guy above
03:48 me on the double bunk was raptured.
03:53 Um, death pervades. Um, and it's it's it's it's close to our hearts, but the
03:59 rest of us don't think about it because you don't have an experience where you lost somebody at 8 or maybe you've lost
04:05 a father or brother or mother, sister, and that's when death comes becomes a reality in your life. You don't feel it.
04:12 We we we talk to older people and they tell us they're afraid of death. Why? Because we don't know what's going to
04:17 happen when you die. Nobody's been there. Come back. Um, we lose ourselves.
04:23 We lose someone we love. There's pain and suffering. Some people as they get older, the fear of death
04:29 basically peters off, but then they still fear the pain and death associated with dying. And then there's loss of
04:36 control. What happened? I mean, I don't have control of my life anymore.
04:41 Jesus gives us an attitude to death. And and this is John. Some of you who have not been to Gamma, you need to come. Uh
04:48 we're getting to know Jesus through the pages of John. And John chapter 11 tells
04:53 us about Jesus and death. They tell him that his good friend Lazarus is dying.
04:59 And you know what Jesus does? He waits one more day. All right? It's like code blue in the
05:05 hospital. Everybody, okay, we'll have lunch first and then we'll come and jump on your heart. So he waits one more day
05:12 to make sure you're properly dead. All right? Then he comes and then when he comes he you see what happens when Jesus
05:19 saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his
05:26 spirit and greatly troubled so why didn't he come earlier
05:32 is Jesus a hypocrite come and then there and then oh cry cry cry he could have
05:38 come earlier right and greatly troubled and he said where have you laid him and
05:43 they said to to him, Lord, come and see. And then Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the entire Bible. It's anomaly. You
05:50 know why? Because you got to raise the guy from dead in 5 seconds, right? And you're crying. Why does he do that?
05:56 Actually, the word is greatly moved is actually uh I'll call embro, which actually means troubled, a very
06:04 outraged. It's the word that describes the snorting of fiery horses.
06:10 Horses, you know, get very upset. So Jesus is outraged
06:16 at people crying and moved in the spirit and then he cries. So So why does he do
06:23 that? What is happening here is that Jesus is troubled and outraged by the tragedy and evil of death.
06:31 He knows all about death. And when he sees people crying, tearing their hair,
06:36 tearing their eyes out, he feels that that pain. and he feels the power of sin
06:42 over their lives and he's outraged because he is the Lord of life. He gives life and now he sees death. It's an
06:49 absolute tragedy in front of him. He feels outraged. He feels moved and he
06:54 cries because he feels the grief and the pain of all the people suffering. And
06:60 the outrage is also because the people are crying as if they got no hope. Here are a bunch of people. The way they cry
07:06 is like there's no tomorrow. And he's outraged at that. And so therefore the
07:11 Bible tells us when you come to a wedding a funeral you're outraged
07:17 because of the pain of sin the evil of sin and yet you grieve with the people.
07:22 So but you do not grieve as others who have no hope. The problem is not grief.
07:28 Grief is a natural reaction. Bible tells us we should grieve. Jesus grieved with them. Jesus wept. Jesus felt their pain.
07:36 But there's outrage. But he doesn't grieve as if you've got no hope. Look at the people at in those days. This is a
07:42 first century uh papist letter is to taste his most treasured friend. Many
07:50 greetings. First of all, I hope that you are in good health and I pray for you every day before the Lord Sarapis. I was
07:56 very grieved for your husband as I was with my brother Germanus. Have courage
08:01 and take it bravely for this is common to all. May your children enjoy good health. My mother and brothers greet
08:08 you. So he's telling him about grief, but it's okay. Everybody dies. It's common to all. My brother died. Uncle
08:14 died. Everybody is common to all. So it's okay. That's how he encourages them. Here's another letter written to
08:22 Lucilius in the death of a friend flashes in 1 AD. You have buried one whom you have loved. Look about for
08:29 someone to love. It's better to replace your friend than to weep. Hello. Oh, you don't ever go to a funeral and tell
08:35 people it's better to replace. It's not a dog. You buy a new dog. Replace your
08:41 friend than to weep. I know what I'm about to say is very common remark, but I shall not omit it simply because it is
08:46 said by all. I would prefer that you abandon grief than have grief abandon you. Wow, that's profound. Go to the
08:53 next funeral and tell them I prefer that you abandon grief than grief abandon you. Now, what does that mean? Got to go
09:00 back and think about it. And then only that you should stop grieving as soon as possible because even if you wish uh to
09:06 it is impossible to keep it very long cry cry cry after that no more tears yeah keep quiet don't need to cry
09:11 because you can't keep it for too long I give you two months and see uh totally heartless
09:18 is Irene an Egyptian to a family has lost a son nevertheless against such things one can do nothing therefore
09:25 comfort one another can do nothing so you just comfort one another because you can do nothing this is the way the
09:31 people at that time receive death. The trouble is, no matter how much we
09:36 dress up the animals, do you know when was the last time your dog came to you and tell you, you know, I'm thinking
09:42 about dying next week? You know, I'm getting old. My teeth are falling out.
09:47 You know, you got a dog at home, right? And he comes to you say, "Oh gosh, time going on. I'm going to miss you,
09:52 Susanna." You know, animals don't do that. Animals don't
09:58 think about death. you know, they don't plan for the f future. They don't write a will. It's only specific to human
10:04 beings. Um this is Aravvin Yalom from Stanford University. He writes forever
10:10 death forever we are forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow. We will blossom and then inevitably diminish and
10:19 die. That is the human dilemma. That's why this painting sells for 110 US
10:24 million dollars. It's called the scream. It describes the human existence which
10:30 is basically a big word cognitive dissonance, existential angst. This is having two feelings. On one hand, you
10:38 love butter. On the other hand, butter will kill you. You love smoking, but
10:43 smoking will cause us cancer and kill you. So, we actually have this dissonance in our lives. And and and so
10:49 here we are at the pinnacle of our lives. Emerge from nothing, have a name, consciousness, deep feelings, and
10:55 everything else. on the end we're going to die. We want to get involved in life but might as well give up because there's no point because in the end you
11:02 die. So you've got this dissonance. Steve Jobes best illustrates this in his
11:07 life. You look at all his uh writings. This is a man who really affected the world and this is what he writes. Uh he
11:13 he actually gave a speech to the center university uh graduating class and this
11:18 is what he writes. Remembering this 2005 remembering I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever
11:24 encountered to help me make the big choices in life because almost everything all external expectations all
11:30 pride all fear of embarrassment or failure these things just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is
11:36 truly important remembering that you're going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose you are already naked
11:43 there's no reason not to follow your heart so Steve Job is an epicuran he
11:48 doesn't think about death because there's nothing there. He doesn't think about it's the same way he doesn't think
11:53 about life before birth. It's all empty. So he lives like this. But towards the
11:60 end of his life, he got pancreatic cancer. In fact, he was silly enough not to have surgery for it for a while. And
12:06 this is another interview later on about belief in God and the afterlife.
12:11 Sometimes I don't. It's 50/50. But ever since I had cancer, I've been thinking
12:17 about it more and I find myself believing a bit more. Maybe that's because I want to believe in an
12:23 afterlife that when you die, it just doesn't all disappear. The wisdom you
12:28 have accumulated somehow it just lives on. Here you have Stephen Job's arrogant
12:36 brash person that believes there's no God but towards the end of his life he
12:41 just doesn't know because there's something inside all the wisdom you've accumulated somehow it lives on so we
12:48 actually have a bunch of our thinking about death arises from this seinal book written by Ernest Becker in 1973 he won
12:56 a puliter prize and there's another one called escape from evil where he actually postulates that death The fear
13:03 of death is the one that actually undergurs all our it and gives rise to all our behavior. Uh he writes in this
13:11 uh book at the preface, the idea of death, the fear of it haunts the human animal like nothing else. It's a
13:18 mainspring of human activity, activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying it
13:25 in some way that it is a final destination for mankind. So he's saying
13:30 whatever we do, what jobs we take, how we form relationships are in some way related to somehow denying death. For
13:38 example, what's the death is such a horrible word. We never use it. We have a euphemism for the dword. We tell each
13:46 other he's departed, went away. Where? Don't know. We say he's lost the battle.
13:53 I didn't know you were fighting a battle. this famous fellow and they lost the battle to cancer or didn't make it.
13:59 Didn't make it. What does it mean? Or kick the bucket. And now medical people
14:05 have a new term negative patient outcome because we don't want to say death. It's
14:10 very bad. Reflects badly. For me, I'm a surgeon. I just had negative patient outcome because we don't want to mention
14:16 death. We are repressing it. in the Las Vegas shooting where about 59 people were shot dead and 500 were injured. Uh
14:23 this is one of the respondents, one of the person who was there. He was shocked. You know what he said? I said to myself, these girls aren't going to
14:30 die. I am not going to die. I need to go home to see my daughter. That is not happening. Not happening. And then he
14:37 survived. You think standing there and saying it's not going to happen will stop the bullet. The bullet will not
14:42 negotiate. He was very very fortunate he wasn't shot. But we try to deny what's happening. What he's doing is that the
14:48 the bullets are falling all over the place. There's no shooting here. There's no death. I ain't going to die. You see,
14:55 that's the picture of how stupid we are when we face death. Ernest Becker denies
15:00 death. Steve Jo ignores death. I'm going to die
15:07 and become nothing. So, just follow my heart. Later on working on the work of Ernest
15:14 Becker is a group of social psychologists 1986 and they wrote this idea of terror management. This fear has
15:20 the power to motivate a life well-lived. It stimulates us to cherish those we love create enduring memories and pursue
15:27 our hopes and dreams and achieve our potential. So somehow when we deny death we we manage the terror by using it to
15:36 live a life well lived to cherish those we love create memories and why do we do
15:42 that there are two mechanisms one self-esteem scientists have found that the higher the lower your self-esteem
15:50 the higher the fear of death the higher your self-esteem the lower a fear of death so therefore what we do is we
15:57 actually use self-esteem as psychological protection ction against death. So what raises your self-esteem?
16:02 Your CV, get another degree, get another bungalow. Why do they keep on getting more bungalows? Why? So it is basically
16:09 building self-esteem. The other one is basically illusions of immortality. What we do is we form world views to latch on
16:16 to symbolic immortality. For example, if I'm a rich millionaire, I'm going to have a leave a legacy for my children so
16:24 Najib can tax them inheritance tax next month. Right? leave a legacy or my
16:30 memory will live on. These are symbols of immortality that we do in order to
16:35 manage the terror. Let me look back in Genesis. If you look at terror management theory and you go back to Genesis is remarkably coherent. Look in
16:43 Genesis and after the fall come let us build ourselves you see ourselves a city
16:50 a tower with it top in the heavens very tall one. Make a name for ourselves lest
16:55 we be dispersed on the face of the earth earth. Here you actually have people building their own self-esteem, building
17:00 a a symbol of what? Immortality, isn't it? That will last longer than they can last. Why? Because they are afraid of
17:08 death. For the rest of us, we got no money to build the twin towers. So we go everywhere, we take picture of
17:14 ourselves, we place in Facebook. And with Facebook, we can live forever, right? How many people die died already
17:20 and still on Facebook, you know, and maybe people put entries for them. That's our attempt at immortality. Uh
17:26 this is uh one of the rare politicians the world major Bloomberg who used to be mayor of New York City. He most
17:34 politicians go in to get money out of the system. He goes in to spend money. He actually spent $1 billion
17:40 uh in a smoking anti-smoking campaign that actually have saved thousands of people's from death. He paid 250 million
17:47 to campaign against coal fired power plants of his own money. And so they
17:52 interviewed him at CBS uh 60 Minutes and he said uh what do you think will happen when you die? Well, when I go to heaven,
17:59 I won't even need an interview. I'll go straight in. Because this is a way he manages his terror. Why do we diet? The
18:06 culture of dieting is also a way in which we deal with the terror of death. They actually did a study on basketball
18:13 players. All right, these are NBA basketball players. Uh, and what they did was they gave them a questionnaire
18:20 and the questionnaire included questions about death and mortality. And then another scenario, the coach wore a dark
18:28 shirt with a skull just to remind them death is around the corner. And the guys who had the exposure to the thoughts of
18:36 mortality actually did 30% better than the guys who didn't. So somehow terror,
18:42 the feeling of death causes you to react and try harder as it were. Uh in the
18:48 last 2016 election in America, they have actually found that the more people were
18:54 scared because just after the San Bernardino shooting, the more they voted for Donald Trump. If you're not scared,
18:60 you then you vote for Hillary Clinton. All right? It is the the the politician who basically espouses more uh uh safety
19:07 for you as it were. So we we come to psychiatrists. What do psychiatrists do to help people? They can't avoid death,
19:13 but they help you accept death. Acceptance, commitment therapy, positive
19:19 thinking, cognitive behavior therapy is like for example, there's a man who was
19:24 always fearful of flying. He never wanted to he never flow in his life, right? So he comes to his counselor. I
19:31 got to take a flight next week. I cannot fly. If I fly, the plane will crash and I will die. And the guy tells him, you
19:38 know what? You believe there's a God, right? God controls the world, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Then would do you believe
19:45 that God will choose num num the time you go into the aeroplane and then that aeroplane to fall down and die. Say if
19:52 God hasn't knocked me off all these years, why should he knock me off in an airplane? Right? So therefore, he changes his thinking. So cognitive
19:58 behavioral therapy is to change your thinking with regard to death. But CS Lewis when his wife died
20:06 actually wrote these words. If she is not now, she never was. I mistook a
20:13 person for a cloud of atoms. And if life ends in death, then it doesn't really amount to very much because all the
20:19 memories of a wide life is actually useless because it's just a cloud of atoms. You just die and there's nothing
20:24 after that because life is totally meaningless or meaningful depending on what death is. That's why we need to
20:31 face the reality of death. But for Christians, death is not the end. Look here, we do not want you to be
20:38 uninformed, brothers, about these who are asleep that you may not grieve as those who have no hope. So Paul uses the
20:44 word asleep to tell you that death is temporary. It is going to be over soon.
20:52 Why? For since we believe that Jesus died and
20:58 rose again, even through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen
21:04 asleep. You see, the the the problem of the scourge and the evil and tragedy and
21:09 atrocity of death is so bad. It's almost 100% mortality, but actually is not.
21:16 It's 99.9999%. You know why? Jesus rose. And once you
21:24 have somebody rose, you have a ray of hope. During the Ebola virus uh uh uh
21:30 tragedy in Africa is almost 100% mortality. But then some
21:37 people did not die. The moment you have somebody who did not die, then there's
21:42 something in them. So they went look for their blood and look for a vaccine based on antibodies.
21:48 Everybody died. Only one person doesn't die. Jesus Christ. He breaks the mold. He breaks out and so it is our union
21:56 with Jesus through Jesus Christ. God will bring with him a close union even
22:01 closer than you and your wife. Your wife becomes a teacher. You don't become a teacher. Your wife become pregnant. You don't become pregnant. Right? But
22:08 whatever happens to Jesus happens to you. It is a close union. So therefore
22:14 we will be resurrected. So therefore death is not the end. Thirdly, the
22:20 return of Christ must define the way we live. How do we live in the face of
22:25 death? We can either live like Ernest Becker said, denying death, managing
22:31 death, ignoring death or we could live with hope where the return of Christ
22:37 must define the way we live. This is our hope. For this we declare to you by word
22:43 from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will
22:49 descend from heaven with a cry of command, with a voice of an angel, with a sound of the trumpet and the dead in
22:55 Christ will rise first and then we who are left alive, we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together
23:00 with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. This is the promise. This
23:07 is the scripture. Uh but people come from both ends of the spectrum. There
23:13 are those who don't believe on the second coming. This is the bishop of Durham. Uh David Jenkins in the United
23:20 Kingdom recently. He wrote that there is absolutely no certainty in the New Testament about anything of importance.
23:26 That means second coming not important. And they actually actually revolted
23:31 against him so that he wouldn't be consecrated as archbishop of Durham. But they did. and three and interestingly
23:37 enough he was made archbishop of Durham of of Yorkshire uh the the there was a
23:42 lightning strike at the at the cathedral three days later on maybe God was upset
23:48 uh some people cast the second coming as mythological it's a story others say
23:54 it's due to a spiritual descent well Christ comes again came already he's in your heart so no need to come again u on
24:01 the other hand there are people who go not denying the second death they the second coming of Christ They say he's
24:06 already come. David me recently, right? 33 days after the eclipse of the sun,
24:14 Christ will come again. That was actually on my birthday, 23rd of September. All you are classified as left behind.
24:22 It means he came. You're still here. Very sinful, right? U so he works out
24:28 because it's 33 days after the total collapse eclipse of sun because Jesus lived 33 years. numerical value of
24:34 Elohim is 33. So therefore based on that he's supposed to come but he didn't
24:40 come. Um the p the return of the Lord is personal. The Lord himself will come and
24:48 with a loud cry of command with a voice of an archangel with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ
24:54 will rise first. So the dead are not disadvantaged. When Christ comes the
24:59 dead will rise first. So they'll push you aside. All right? They'll come and reach uh God first and then only us. But
25:06 the Lord himself will come. It won't be an angel. It won't be an apparition. It won't be a spirit. It will be the Lord himself.
25:13 This is 2 Thessalonians 1:68. Since indeed God considers it just to repay
25:18 with affliction those who afflict you and grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When the
25:24 Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire is
25:29 revealed means it will be a visible showing. When Jesus comes again he will come personally. We will all see it. We
25:36 who are left alive who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds and meet the Lord in
25:43 the air. And so we'll always be with the word with the Lord. The word in the air
25:48 indicates if you look at Ephesians 2:2, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit is now at work in the sons of
25:53 disobedience. This is Satan. So basically when Jesus comes again in the air, it illustrates that he will come
25:59 and the realm which Satan is powerful in will be overcome by the prince uh by by
26:05 the Lord Jesus Christ. Come in the clouds. Clouds in the Old Testament indicate what? God. God is always shown
26:12 in Old Testament as in a cloud. Theophanes are always preceded by clouds. It'll be glorious. It'll be
26:18 spectacular. Matthew 4:24 says, "If anyone says to you, look, here is Christ. There he is.
26:25 Don't believe it. False Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so to lead astray. If
26:32 possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand." If they say to you, "Look, he's in the wilderness," do
26:38 not go there. They say, "Look, he's in the inner room," do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and the west and shines as far as the west,
26:45 so will the coming of the son of man. So son of man will be glorious. It will be personal. It be spectacular. And the
26:50 whole world will see it. If he says he is in the inner room, don't believe it. It's not true. This is inrito.
27:00 He believes in 1979 during his prayer he got reincarnated as Christ. He actually
27:07 got followers. Can you see our followers? four girls know and he interprets the verse coming in the
27:13 clouds. So he says we should do air travel and uh every eye will see he says
27:18 I go to Twitter and YouTube uh and so therefore he has 330,000
27:23 followers on YouTube so why don't you go and Google today and see whether you can listen to Christ but that's not what
27:30 Christ is about. This is another one from uh Africa. Moses Holong Jesus.
27:37 That's him getting married. Actually, he's holding the knife because the knife is a two-edged sword. It's a Bible.
27:42 That's his Bible. The knife say, "Oh, crackpots come and they call themselves Jesus Christ, don't they?" But they're
27:48 not. It's not spectacular. And the whole world will know. You never knew Moses Hollen, right? Until I told you, right?
27:54 Did you know about Enry Cristo? Unless you were on YouTube, right? So, you wouldn't know. uh the rapture that the
28:01 dead in Christ will rise first. We will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and
28:06 so we'll always be with the Lord. And because this idea of being caught up, we've got all these books coming out uh
28:12 200 years ago. The idea is a very recent inclusion in theology is not old. It's
28:19 quite recent though. Church never believed in this rapture for many many years until the last 200 years. uh and
28:25 hell didn't say and the rest have written about late great earth the rapture like a thief in the night that Jesus will come and then take all the
28:34 believers and the ones who are left behind all the ungodly sinners here who will go through tribulation uh and there
28:40 are basically four views of what's happening going to happen in the last days and let me give you a slow a quick
28:47 brief rundown on the four views one is the dispensational premillennial view which says where Jesus will come and
28:55 then he will rapture us off and then there'll period of tribulation for seven years and then Christ will come back
29:00 down again and live with people for thousand years after which there'll be a final judgment. Then you've got the
29:07 historic pre-bill view where there'll be tribulation first and then Christ comes again and then we're with him until the
29:14 final judgment. Then you've got the a millennial view which means there's no thousand year rule. Christ will come.
29:21 There will be judgment and resurrection for all. Or the postmillennial view that this millennium or special age of the
29:27 church has already occurred. That means towards the end of this time there will be more people coming to know Christ.
29:32 Israel will come to know Christ and then there'll be a Christ coming, judgment, new heaven, new earth as it were. Now it
29:40 doesn't matter what view you take because the Bible says very clearly when
29:46 he comes the dead will rise. you'll be caught up with them and you'll be with Christ. So it doesn't matter what
29:53 happens after you're with Christ because you'll be with Christ forever. And the word here is
29:60 as it for for the for for this we declare to you by the word from the Lord that we who are alive who are left until
30:07 the coming of the Lord. The word coming is a very special word called the paria.
30:13 Okay. Okay, the paria is a very special word that denotes a time where a
30:19 visiting dignitary will come. All right, a governor will come to your let's say for example, you happen to send one of
30:26 our dignitaries to America. He will land in JFK. There will be the band. There
30:32 will be a soldiers. There'll be the president of United States standing up there shaking your hand then take you to
30:38 the front door of the White House, not the back door. Okay? Okay. And then they have a summit with you, right? That's
30:44 what it is. That's called the paria. So here we have the picture of pctoral
30:51 language. In Genesis in chapter 5, God will come like a thief in the night.
30:57 It'll be like a woman in labor. And the parosia is exactly how Christ will come.
31:02 He will come like a visiting dignitary. We will meet him outside the city gates. You will accompany him back into the
31:08 city in victory. and he will rule forever. The picture comes from a royal
31:14 Roman triumph when the soul when the Roman general comes back in and everybody in town goes out to meet the
31:19 general and he follows the general back into the city. All right. So, how can we
31:25 be sure that this will happen? Well, two things. One, since we believe that Jesus died and rose, if you believe Jesus rose
31:31 and died, rose again, then you have to believe he's going to come again. Because if his promises ring true, then
31:37 it will ring true now. And also for this we declare to you by the word from the
31:42 lord. This word of the lord is something that's not written. It's actually spoken word by Jesus to his disciples called a
31:49 graphia. Now if we believe that Christ is coming again this is a psychologist
31:55 Joyce McFaden. She says fear is about trying to survive something. Hope is
32:01 about knowing why you want to. You see, we can't spend our whole lives ordering
32:07 our lives around the fear of death. Joyce Beg has pattern says and I agree.
32:13 Hope is knowing why you want to survive. Hope gives our lives shape and meaning.
32:18 If you look at past, present and future and the line that links all three is
32:23 actually hope. For example, if I wanted to be a businessman and run a big conglomerate selling teapotss, right? I
32:32 will look back into my life and say I started at standard five when I was selling stamps. Senate six I I started a
32:38 business selling a newspaper but I went bankrupt at standard six right because I didn't know the power of taking loan I
32:45 should have taken a loan you know so so you describe everything in your life in terms of your hope isn't that all your
32:52 failures all your success all your strengths and shortcomings everything is defined by your hope the nature of your
32:59 hope defines it so hope gives our life shape and meaning hope drives human
33:04 achievement you see this fellow Steve Jobs. He's got nothing to lose. And he invents a phone that changes the way we
33:11 talk. You see this fellow here, Paul? Everything to gain transforms the world
33:16 and change the way we live by writing a few letters based on hope. That's what he does. Hope
33:24 fuels human achievement. Hope is the reason we live in tense by faith. He went to, this is Abraham, went to live
33:31 in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob as with him of the same promise.
33:38 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. Here you have Abraham
33:45 living in the comfort and the lap of luxury in his own town city with his
33:51 relatives, with his friends, with his kingdom. He gives that all up to go to
33:56 Canaan in a foreign land to fend off bandits, live in tents. I'd rather live
34:02 in a bungalow. He's living in a tent. Why would he give up living in a bungalow for the rest of your life and
34:07 he live in tents? Because he's looking forward to a city that's foundations whose designer and builder is God. He's
34:14 looking for not the city of Babel. If you stay back in in your hometown, you
34:19 build the tower of Babel, your own building. You live in tents. You're willing to sacrifice that because you're
34:24 looking for a city that's foundations and designer and builder is God.
34:29 Recently in Pakistan, for the first time, we actually read uh two Chinese
34:35 missionaries from Hunan Province, Ming Lingi and Lin Zinhang.
34:41 They are martyrs for the Christian faith. There are hundreds and thousands of people following the the march of
34:48 China along the Silk Road. They're building bridges, factories, businesses
34:53 all the way to 1040 window, you know, where nobody else does. It's in Africa. It's in in in Saudi Arabia. It's in in
35:01 in the deepest countries like Pakistan where nobody can reach. They are all going there. And along this silk road,
35:08 Chinese missionaries are going. It's estimated there will be up to a 100,000 missionaries. The time for God's
35:15 movement is now with the Chinese people. They have the gospel. They are living in tents. Why? Because they're looking
35:22 forward to a city whose foundation and designer is God. So if you have that
35:28 vision, you have that hope in your life, you will live intense, and you will be
35:34 willing to die for your faith. Hope is the reason we live for holiness. Therefore, prepare your minds, be
35:40 active, and be sober minded. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of
35:46 Jesus Christ. So you need to set your hope when you wake up every morning.
35:52 What's the first thing you think about? You know the Japanese have this saying it's called is is called ikai. Eekai is
35:58 when you wake up in the morning why do you have to live? Where do you have to go? What is the reason for living? I for
36:06 us our ikagai is basically our hope on Christ coming. If we have that hope in
36:12 Christ coming, then our lives be ordered so that we will work towards being holy
36:17 for him. Hope gives us the most realistic view of life. Here is 2 Corinthians 4:16 to18. So we do not lose
36:25 hope heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being
36:30 renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
36:37 comparison. as we look not to the things that are seen but the things that are unseen for the things that are transient.
36:43 The things are seen are transient but things that are unseen are eternal. So when we have this hope in our lives,
36:49 when we look at our own bodies as it is wasting away and we look at our own
36:55 political situation in our country as just wasting away, we need to see with a
37:01 special vision, a more realistic view of life, the hope, okay, that of the eternal weight of glory that whatever we
37:07 suffer is really nothing. It allows us to get above our troubles. It allows us
37:12 to transcend our troubles. is allows us to see life for what it really is. So
37:18 last lastly we need to encourage each others with these words.
37:25 Therefore encourage each other with these words. What word encourage is a command. It's an imperative. The word is
37:32 paracleo which is coming alongside. Parah is coming alongside. Calo is to call. I come alongside and I'm going to
37:39 call you, encourage you with these words. Do we actually encourage each other with these words? Uh this is uh
37:46 the story was told of the prince of Granada in Spain. He was locked up
37:52 because of some some some trumped up charges and he's locked up for 30 years of his life. All right. And uh at and he
37:60 was only given one thing to take inside his prison cell, a Bible.
38:05 At the end of 30 years, he died. They cleared up his cell and they saw scratched on the wall lots of writings.
38:12 You know, wow, this guy Bible study for 30 years in the cell. There must be
38:18 really profound things he writes, right? So, this is what he writes. Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse of the
38:26 Bible. Ezra 7:21 has all the letters of the alphabet except J. Esther 8:9 is the
38:33 longest verse in the Bible. There's no word or name more than six syllables that can be found in the Bible.
38:40 You know, you sit down there for 30 years with the Bible and you kind of miss the point, isn't it?
38:47 And it's the same for us. We can come to church for 30 years with electronic Bible and all you can do is oh, you
38:55 know, the longest verse is this, the middle verse is that, and you really take nothing to enrich and give you a
39:01 reason to live. When we come to the community, we come to encourage each
39:07 other with words, with comfort and challenge. That's why we have our disciplehip nights. I'm going to
39:12 advertise unashamedly for our Wednesday groups where we come together. We have a teaching from the Bible and then we
39:18 split off into groups. And the groups what we do is we take the Bible and we discuss it. We discuss issue about
39:25 death. We discuss about life. We discuss about all sorts of things. We make the Bible come alive. We need to comfort and
39:32 challenge each other with these words. There's no point just going off from the sermon unless you know how the sermon
39:37 applies and and this applies in since 2004 in Switzerland they've started
39:44 death cafe. Can you imagine non-Christians coming together in Switzerland start a cafe and they sell
39:49 latte with a tinge of death. Oh, that's a lot to pay right? So they
39:55 come together actually over cup of coffee to talk about death. There are various ideas but they're starting to
40:01 become real and we as Christians need to use words. We need to become real and not hide from death and not talk about
40:08 life. It's like my mother used to when you talk about death she first thing she'll say in Cantonia
40:14 you know don't say cho because the moment you say it means you're going to die right? So Chinese are the worst. We
40:20 don't want to talk about death because we feel if we talk about death it means that we will die. It doesn't mean that we need to face up to the reality of
40:26 that and encourage each other. This is Hugh Hefner, younger days. And he wrote
40:32 these words. For most people, life is a train trip and you don't see anything out of the window. It's rushing past and
40:39 destination is death. You ought to get off the train and walk around. Live your life dayto-day because we are here for a
40:46 moment. You've got to savor what you're doing. That's the heart of what it's all about. It's the most precious thing you
40:51 have in the world is time. use it the best way you can. So he used it the best
40:56 way he can. He he set up Playboy, you know, and and he he made sex into
41:03 the public space, many many girlfriends, three marriages
41:08 and then enjoyed his life. But then towards the end, a article came out. Hugh Hefner, he died recently. The sad
41:14 secret of his final days. He spent the last two days of his life terrified
41:19 about death. We got the train jenny end already. He's spending all the time looking outside. But then again, the train
41:25 journey has to end. As it's ending, he is
41:30 old. He's shriveled. In fact, his last wife, Crystal Harris, complained. I only ever had sex with him one time. It
41:37 lasted two seconds. It was out of body experience. You know, she complained.
41:43 And he's not surrounded by bunnies anymore. You know what? Surrounded by nurses. It's like a hospital in the
41:49 Playboy mansion. and he has kept 2,485
41:54 volume collection of scrapbooks. You know why? He's looking back on his train
41:60 journey. He cannot look forward because there's nothing there. We can be like that too. Or we can be
42:07 like, this is a very interesting couple. They're both mayors at different time of Las Vegas. Mayor Carolyn Goodman and
42:14 Mayor Oscar Goodman, famous fellow you know he was acted his role was acted he's a mob lawyer before by his role was
42:21 acted by Robert Dairo and uh you know what they do when they get up in the morning the wife says to
42:27 him before they go to work they're both mayors all right and wife says to him carpedium you know is caped anybody know
42:35 sees the day and he says hashy yolo what
42:40 does that You only live once. Imagine they encourage each other. You know, wife
42:47 says to him, "Copy him and he says hashtag yolo." And then they go off to work.
42:53 Is that how we are to encourage each other? Hash just seizing the day. Uh let
42:59 me end with the last illustration. Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of the greatest explorers of life, very tough man. He
43:06 took the ship called Endeavor to Endurance in 1941
43:12 to Antarctica and got stuck there on the ice flow for 10 months and then the ship
43:17 capsized and they live on the ice for another four months and then they thought they're going to die. So they
43:23 got into the little life rafts and they sailed for a thousand kilometers to a island called Elephant Island and there
43:30 they know they will die unless they get help. So there were three more little ships uh but they take five men and he
43:36 took that and he left 22 men back in Elephant Island and he took a,600
43:43 kilometer journey through the rougher seas you could imagine and he landed in South Georgia
43:49 across the the the mountains to the whaling station there and got help. The
43:55 people left behind. Here's 22 of them, okay? For four months, starving and
44:02 trying to survive in the bitter cold. Frank Wild was the four men. And every morning he would say to them, "Men, roll
44:10 up your sleeping bags. The boss is coming back today."
44:16 Day after day after day. And one day the boss did come back. But 22 men survived.
44:23 Not a single person died because they had looked forward to the day when the boss would come back again. Look, we
44:30 don't have an Earnest Shackleton. We have Jesus Christ. Just as certain as Jesus Christ has
44:37 risen from the death, the boss will come back again.
44:42 It's so pathetic in us. Wake up in the morning and say capedium and yolo. And
44:48 as each year goes on, you shout softer and softer and softer. And one day there
44:54 will be no day. We should stand up each morning and says, "Maranatha,
44:59 Christ returns." Roll up your sleeping bags. The boss returns. And that should
45:05 power our life. That should drive our life. That should give us
45:10 the desire to have a meaningful life. Let's pray.
45:16 Father Lord, we we confess that often we are afraid of
45:21 death. We will not talk about it. We will not admit it.
45:27 We will not share with our friends about it. But Father Lord, it is a tragic,
45:33 horrible condition that affects every single one of us. And every single one of us one day will have to face death.
45:40 Some of us sooner, some of us later. Father, I pray let your words today sink
45:47 into our hearts that we realize that yes, we will die. It is awful. It is
45:53 never pleasant. But death is not the final event. That one day you will
45:59 return. And we ask that every day when we wake up that we will live in the light of
46:06 this hope. This hope will fuel our life. It will drive our purpose. It will give
46:12 us joy and it will make this life worth it that we will look at each other and we'll say seize the day. Not because you
46:19 only live once but you have this opportunity to glorify Jesus Christ. We ask for his sake. Amen.
46:29 [Music]
