1. Thessalonians 4,13-18. 3. Last Sunday

1. Thessalonians 4,13-18          6020 

Drittlezter Sonntag des Kirchenjahres  070 (25. Trinitatis)

The Four Crowned Martyrs, at Rome 304

Johannes von Staupitz, Luther’s Father Confessor ✠ 1524 

8. November 2020

1. O Lord, Creator of space and time; make us to know our end and the measure of our days, so that in knowing how frail we are we trust in Your providence that gives us everlasting life.  Amen. (Starck 228-29) 

2. »But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the advent of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.« 

3. Last week we celebrated the Feast of All Saints, and today we celebrate the 3. Last Sunday in the Church Year. Our sermon text flows nicely from All Saints to the last day with its resurrection.

4. Paul, along with the prophets and the apostles, tells us that death is merely a sleep; when you sleep you wake up again. And in Christ, all who fall asleep in death will be woken up by Christ. He will call out to us: »Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, for I, the Christ, give you light« (Isaiah 60,1-3). Thus God the Father will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep. 

5. Paul connects the rising from sleep and death to Christ’s own resurrection. The risen Christ is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1. Corinthians 15,20). Now that Christ is risen He will raise up all the dead (15,21-22). For God the Father has put all things in subjection under Christ’s feet (15,27), and the last enemy to be destroyed is death (15,26).  

6. Paul connects the resurrection to Holy Baptism. »Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, then we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His« (Romans 6,3-5). Your baptism connects you to Christ, His crucifixion and His resurrection. On the last day, the dead in Christ will rise first: all the saints to precede the last day will descend with Christ from Paradise and receive their resurrected bodies, then all those who are living on the earth at that time will join the saints by receiving their resurrected bodies. Together we will always be with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

7. A few verses after today’s Gospel lection, Jesus describes His return on the last day: »Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other« (Matthew 24:30-31). Paul says of this event: »Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has arrived. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation« (2. Corinthians 5,17-18). 

8. The Serpent caused Adam to be lead out of the earthly paradise of the Garden of Eden, but Christ our Savior redeems us from the Serpent’s temptation and leads us into the heavenly Paradise to dwell with God, the angels and all believers for all eternity. Let us leave this place, and with our eyes on Jesus follow Him from the grave, to His empty tomb and to the bright light of His resurrection. Next week we will hear Jesus describe how He will welcome His Christians into eternal life.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Christ, whose Name is near; we give thanks to You for being our Resurrection and Life, so that we may be certain of our righteousness and eternal salvation.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

 

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.