October 30, 2016 A.D., by Pastor Ben Willis

According to Matthew 22:23-33 [NLTse]
23 That same day Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.’ 25 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children, so his brother married the widow. 26 But the second brother also died, and the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them. 27 Last of all, the woman also died. 28 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”
29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 30 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in Heaven.
31 “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So He is the God of the living, not the dead.”
33 When the crowds heard Him, they were astounded at His teaching.

Sermon
In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “We would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” (5:8) In his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, “For me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better… I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.” (1:21, 23) In the Revelation to John a voice from Heaven cries, “‘Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!’” (14:13) In these and many other passages of Scripture, the New Testament encourages us to view our own death and the deaths of fellow-believers not with fear or dread but with joy at the prospect of going to be with Christ.
On account of this, sometimes Christians think it shows a lack of faith if they mourn deeply in the face of their own deaths, or if they mourn deeply and experience deep sorrow for fellow-Christians who have died. But the Bible does not support that view. St. Paul did not tell the Thessalonians that they should not grieve concerning their loved ones who had died, but he wrote, “so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” (4:13) The sorrow we feel in the face of our own deaths and in the face of the deaths of fellow-believers is clearly mingled with hope and joy because of the knowledge that we and they are going to be with the Lord. So, although we may have genuine sorrow when we are going to die or when Christian friends and relatives do die, we also can say with Scripture, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? … But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57)
When unbelievers die, the sorrow we feel is not mingled with the joy of assurance that they have gone to be with the Lord forever. Yet, “people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7) so no person can have absolute certainty as to whether or not another has persisted in refusing to trust in Christ all the way to the point of death. The knowledge of one’s impending death, even when it is sudden and a person’s life goes “flashing before their eyes”, will often bring about genuine heart-searching on the part of the dying person, and sometimes words of Scripture or words of Christian testimony that had been heard long ago, are recalled and the person comes to genuine repentance and faith. We do not know. We can-not know. But God knows.
Once a believer has died, though his or her physical body remains on the earth and is buried, at the moment of death the soul (or spirit) of that believer goes immediately into the presence of God with rejoicing. After all, the Lord Jesus said to the thief who was dying on the cross next to Him, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) And the author of Hebrews says that when Christians come together to worship they come not only into the presence of God in Heaven, but also into the presence of “the spirits of the righteous ones in Heaven who have now been made perfect.” (12:23)
Yes, we are surrounded this morning by a great cloud of the spirits of the Christ-loving dead! But ours is not a grim spectacle of ghostly horrors like that of unbelievers with their spirits and powers. No. This great cloud of Christ-loving spirits surrounding us this morning are rejoicing in the Lord with us; praising Jesus with us and cheering us on to victory over every temptation and doubt! Ours is a joyful scene! A festival scene, if we could see the heavenly places with perfect clarity!

So, here it is, the day before Halloween. And, if you’ve read the article inside this morning’s Bulletin, you know that Halloween began as a Christian celebration of those who’ve died in Christ; a celebration of our hope in God’s promise of their on-going life and eternal rejoicing in the Lord’s presence in Heaven; and, a celebration of our expectation of glad reunion with them in the resurrection to come. Because our God is a god of the living not of the dead!
So, on this day before Halloween, I’d like us to consider what it’s like to live day-by-day believing that our deceased, Christian loved-ones are separated from us, but alive with Jesus?

It strikes me that a parallel experience might be when our friends or beloved-family members have gone on long trips away from us, but don’t have good cell or Internet service. (I know of one of our families who experience such things because their son-in-law serves on a submarine, and another because their granddaughter is a missionary on a very remote and undeveloped island.)
One thing I know we don’t do during such times of separation is we don’t walk around our homes or schools or workplaces talking to our absent loved-ones, asking their advice or direction. We don’t do that when friends or loved-ones have gone away on trips because we know they can’t hear us; they are far away; that would be silly to do. Likewise, I want to encourage us not to talk to our loved-ones who have died, either. Although they likely can hear us, the Lord Who has saved them and is saving us has told us not to talk to or even try to talk to the dead. Some false teachers would have us believe that we need to talk to the dead so that they can get God’s attention on our behalf. But that assumes that our friends and loved-ones love us and that God may not, which is absurd. No one loves us like the Lord! None of our friends or loved ones have laid down their lives for us as He has. No. If we’re going to pray, let’s pray only to the Lord.
One thing we likely do for friends and loved-ones who are far away is to pray for them: Asking for God’s blessings on them while we are apart and for a quick and happy reunion. But, of course, we wouldn’t pray for those who’ve died because if they trusted in Christ in this life then they are with the Lord and if they did not trust in Christ in this life then they are not with the Lord. And there is nothing we can pray that will ever change that.
So, while we may keep ourselves from praying for them, we can know that they are praying for us and cheering us on. (Which is appropriate for them to do since their prayers can still reach and influence the Lord.) We can rejoice and be comforted and encouraged by their intercessions and their applause.
I think we all tend to wonder what our loved ones are doing when they are away from us on a journey. And the same can be true of our loved ones in death: We can (and perhaps should) think about all the joys the Lord has promised believers when we get to Heaven, and we probably should think about our loved ones enjoying those blessings each day, and that when it’s our time, that we will enjoy those blessings, with our loved ones, too.
If we’ll let ourselves, thinking in these ways about our loved ones who’ve been parted from us by death can bring us to big smiles and great joy as we think about what the Lord has told us and shown us and promised us about life in Heaven during this time when death has been defeated, but not yet destroyed; during this time in-between this current Heaven and Earth and the new Heaven and Earth that Jesus will bring with Him when He returns for us, to make all things new, and when we will alive and with Jesus, and He will be alive and with us, and we will be alive together with all our loved ones who’ve loved and trusted Him, too. And we will be at home in Paradise, and God will be all and in all!