Note: This transcript is generated by AI and vetted. The transcript may contain mistakes.
So, with all this, let me share you how our approach should be towards death, so that our confidence in life is grounded, and not one where we are unduly burdened either by problems that we face, or even burdened by fighting with temptations and attractions of the world that we see.
Contrast
Paul, in the first verse that we read, in verse 13, he speaks of a contrast. Message is going to be simple: the four points I share with you is all in one word. He talks about a contrast. I don't want you to be ignorant. Wow, that's powerful, you know. That means I can declare confidently this is not speculation anymore, this is not my desire, this is not what I hope it is, no! This is what the word of God says, and heavens and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. Everything else will, and Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant because you know the word concerning those who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. And that's why I thought the last song that we sang, Christ our living hope, was so appropriate. While people live with a hopeless end in mind, we have endless hope in Christ, because Christ in us, the hope of all glory.
So there is a contrast between those who have not known God, and when death strikes, they are ignorant, so they grieve as those without hope. But we don't have to be ignorant. I'm not saying that we don't have to be sorrowful. If you are not sorrowful, I'm very sorry for you, you're just a robot. Of course there'll be grief, there'll be pain, there'll be the emptiness, the loss of a loved one or good friend, or the fellowship that we have, and someone is no longer with us, and we reminisce, try to remember the good times. This church got a lot of good times, you know. Makan memories are plentiful, I know. Look at the ones smiling, you know who are the ones I'm talking about.
But there's nothing wrong with that, but we do not have no hope, we have every hope. But the point here is that Paul is telling us we have a message, we have a message. That's like Christian funerals: people want celebration of life, not mourning or death. They have worship, testimonies, eulogies. There's sorrow, don't get me wrong. I say you must have sorrow. You are not having sorrow, then I don't know what's at the back of your mind, actually very happy for this person to go, but I outwardly must say I'm sorry, you know. No, we're not talking about that hypocrisy. You have a different message. There is a contrast that you can present, and contrast always presents choices, because you have a contrast between A and B, between being sorrowful without hope and those who are not without hope, still sorrowful, still grieving, but not without hope. You have choices. That's the gospel.
Jesus comes to present his life, but he also says, I did not come to the righteous. They think they are righteous, they don't need me. I come to those who are sick. A physician doesn't go and visit the healthy, he goes and tend to the sick. But what we are saying here is we recognize we have made the correct choice, the choice in Jesus, the resurrection and the life. No, I'm the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to God the Father except through me. I'm the light of the world. He who walks in me will not walk in darkness. The seven great I am. You can go back and look at the gospel John, I'm just mentioning a few. I'm the bread of life. He who feeds on me will never be hungry. I'm the good shepherd. So we have a contrasting message to give, and especially on occasions when someone has passed on, or even when we ourselves grapple with a loved one that has passed on, we don't have to be ignorant, and we don't have to grieve and be sorrow, be sorrowful like those without any hope.
Certainty
Secondly, we see that not only will we present the contrast, we are given the certainty that this is so. For, and the word for is again another important conjunction, this is so, for or because if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. There is a certainty. It's not just about the death of Christ. It's not just about Christ living a good life, preaching wonderful sermons, and then doing signs and wonders and meeting the needs of people. He died at the end, and he rose again. And the death and the resurrection of Jesus, like we'll speak in a few weeks time when you're celebrating the Passion Week again, it's the crux of Christianity.
And I often say the Christian faith seems to be the only one that exposes its Achilles heel. You know the term Achilles heel. Athlete says this is my Achilles heel, means I'm very good in everything, but this particular aspect or this particular area, that's where my weakness is. Or when martial fighters fight, they say, oh, this guy is very strong, but you know where's his weak point, where's his Achilles heel, exposes itself where Achilles heel is, so that if you can take that down, you can discredit that, you take down Christian faith, and it's the resurrection.
And you read all of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul makes it so clear. If Christ had not been risen, he says, what we are of all people, the most to be pity, pitiful people. Very sincere, very kind, your Christian is very good, I like your behavior, I like your decency, I like your sense of decorum, but not good enough. It will not take you to heaven. And if we have just believed in Christ and not in his resurrection, we would have all been of all people the most to be pitied, because we have been sincerely mistaken.
But now Paul, the word of God, tells us if indeed Christ had not only just died, but rose again, we in him who sleep, who died, will rise again also. Proof, or disprove rather, disprove the resurrection, you take down our Christian faith. That's why when Jesus resurrected, for ten days he appeared amongst the disciples until the day of ascension, where he was taken up. He was first seen by the disciples, first by Mary, then the disciples without Thomas. One week later he appeared before Thomas. Thomas says, because I was not there, unless I see the physical Christ, I see the wounds on his hand and his side, I will not believe. And, and one week later, when Jesus appeared again and Thomas will say, Jesus talk to him, and you read it in John chapter 20, and he says, come touch. Did Thomas even bother to go near and scrutinize Jesus? He just fell down and said, my Lord and my God.
And what was Jesus? Was Thomas, you see and you believe, but blessed are those though they did not see, but have faith and they believe. So the resurrection of Jesus is the powerful cornerstone, the crux of our very Christian faith, and Paul uses that to give us the certainty, so that when we share, when I preach at funeral weeks or funeral services, we do so with an assured voice of authority and authenticity. We dare to stand upon the word of God.
Comfort
What's the third point? And that's why I've jumped to the last verse now, because these are all one point. Summary concludes by saying, therefore comfort one another with these words. We can comfort one another because we see the contrast between those who grieve as without hope and we grieve as with hope. Not only was there the contrast, there was a certainty that what we are believing in, the contrast that we are pointing out, is certain because Christ has risen, so conclusion, we can comfort one another.
That's why you can have a celebration service at funerals, because you are celebrating that life that was well lived. Now I want to say, very often at the end of one's life, whether it's the Orbituary page they put in the announcement, or it's the plaque, or it's the verse that they have on their photograph, they always like 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7, right? I fought a good fight, I finished the race, I've kept the faith. I pray that it's really true. I know that's a wonderful verse, but if it's just a loved one who wants to pin it on you, I trust that it is a real testimony to that life that's lived, or if I myself want that to be a verse that people, that want people to remember, be my, I hope I'm not just speaking empty words.
You have the comfort of God, you have the assurance of God, because you also have a testimony for God, and I trust that's what encourages us. Actually, very incidentally, about two weeks back my third aunts are the younger sister of my father's side passed on, and I was not supposed to do the service, but my brother Ban Hwee, you know, on the day before tell me, hey, you take the wake service. I said, no, you take this with your church and all that, you know. Then I felt uneasy, because I always remember Dr. Poulson's policy: if you can do it, you don't decline any invitation, always have your guns loaded, ready to shoot. That's how we trained in SBC, right? Don't just have your guns, better be loaded, you know.
I was working on this passage, I just do it, but I didn't tell Ban Hwee. Then that night, when we came, he was distributing, as he is a very good media guy, all the pamphlets, and he put this text on the text, 1st Thessalonians 4 verses 13 to 18. How come you know I'm speaking on this? How I know you are speaking on this? I put this because this is a good passage. I said that's very good, and it's like a confirmation.
But why do we more real in times of sadness, in times of mourning, than in times of happiness and in times of merry making? Because Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verses 2 and 3 tells us the reason. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, or you can put it as merry making, right? Contrast, for that is the end of all men, everybody dies, and the living will take this to heart. You don't remember that your life is finite, one day you will die until, oh, this one passed away, oh, I'm at the funeral service, I'm at that wake, I'm just reminded of my finiteness and my frailty and my adventure there. The living will take that to heart, the living will be awakened, maybe having so much of good times, thinking there's no end to his life, heaven is on, or somebody that you know, and especially when there's somebody that you don't expect to be taken away so soon.
But among our brothers, we are in the generation now, we are above more than the retirement age and all that, right? Getting 70 and so on and so forth. Now our group is dwindling, you know. A lot of you got chat groups, right, old friends and all that, and this one passed away. Birthday, we better celebrate. We always like to celebrate, real or not, but better just wish you, right, you still have one more life of celebration. But when there's a death, you realize the whole mood changes, because the living will take it to heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. That's interesting verse, isn't it, interesting verse? A sad countenance makes the heart feel better, yeah. I thought it's happiness that makes my heart better. I thought it's joy, it's fun, it's merry-making, it's feasting. No, when you're merry-making and having a good time and everything else, you don't think of God, you don't think of your mortality, you think let not this end. I go celebration, I sometimes we yell fellowships and we talk like that. A sad countenance, heart is made better.
You know what that strikes me? I challenge you as you challenge me: do you feel your heart better with a sad countenance, with grief and sorrow, and especially in a house of mourning where someone has just passed on, someone that you treasure, someone that you truly love, and say wow, that's the end of life, the living takes it to heart. That's the whole idea.
Ecclesiastes is wonderful, you know. To be, to be sure, go back, read Ecclesiastes chapter 7. I think it's one of the most profound, or if not the most profound, passage, stand alone passage in scripture that helps us bring our feet to the ground, our perspective on God. It actually starts in first one, if I'm mistaken: better a good name, a good name is better than ointment, perfume. Better, at the end of the day, it's the legacy of your name and your life that you have lived.
So when we comfort one another, it is a comfort where that sad countenance made the heart feel better. It's not just word of condolences, not just a hug that you give a person, loved ones, not to console them, but a shared word, an objective truth, the word of God.
Coming
So what do we have? We have a contrast, we have the certainty, we have the comfort, and I've just jumped to verse 18. What was left unsaid yet? The coming of Christ. These three thoughts ultimately are galvanized, if I may use the word, put together because of the next big event. Like I said, your next big event is not your promotion, your next big event is not acquiring some assets in life, your next big event is not necessarily the healing to a physical sickness that you have. The next big event is the coming of Christ.
And this is what Paul says: for this we say to you by the word of the Lord. You know, when he uses the phrase for this I say to you, as I read earlier, and this I say to you by, he's telling me don't take my word for it, I'm not an emotional guy, I'm not talking about emotions. Of course I have feelings, emotions. I'm telling you this because this is what God's word says, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede or go ahead of those who are asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an angel, trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we hear our life will remain and remain and be caught up, and then we'll be with the clouds in the Lord, and we'll be with him forever.
The first understanding of this passage I once heard is the speaker saying, you know why the dead in Christ rise first? They have six more feet to cover. Now you've cremation, now you're throwing into the sea after that and all that. But interestingly, and this is something I think is important and which I'll be touching on in future topics, Paul just gives you the facts. He says there's a coming of the Lord, briefly saying the way it comes is suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, by the voice of an archangel, the trumpet call, this is happening. But speculators, you know, eschatology, talking about end times, we like speculation, we like the spectacular. Is this the war now, Iran war, right? Is it really going to be? I don't know.
But personally, I've been saying to you very much, very many, I honestly felt very spiritually unsettled. I've never felt, and I'm just saying this not for anything else, this would be our 47th year of ministry, and I can tell you for the last maybe 2-3 years, I've never felt what I have never felt before, start to feel it, just seems so fragile, the world.
People look at my life and they, oh, pastor, very blessed. The other day I was visiting my sister-in-law and a dear friend of hers, and asked me about my family, talked about my grandchildren. I taken back, how come you know everything? Oh yeah, we heard and we saw and saw the picture, oh very blessed, you know, pastor. You know what I tell my family, I tell people who I'm with? Don't say I'm very blessed, it makes me a hypocrite. I'm not very good, and I feel very angry because I know of fellow people, servants of the Lord, I'll call them more faithful than me, work harder than me, and they have many things that they don't have, or they don't have many things that I have, they lost many things. So you tell me it's because of serving God? No. I said, my response is I'm thankful, I'm thankful, but at the same time I say, if God takes everything away the next instant, and this is my morning prayer every morning when I wake up, God, why is everything away? Can you take it.
That's why I'm always reminded of my elder son's wedding. At his wedding he sings Christ died for you and all those kind of songs. I said, Jeremy, are you sure or not? Yeah, yeah. Then his testimony, Job 13 15: though he may slay me, yet will I put my trust in him. God, you can slay me, you know. God has every entitlement to take our life, belongs to him. I don't care about the apologetics, the philosophies, and the arguments. How can be a good God allow suffering? How can there be evil? There'll be no end to this. But I can tell you one thing, I think the last 250 years of western influence scholarship, I don't mean I'm praising scholarship research, I think this is really what God has blessed.
I'm not a Chinese speaking person. If it had been happening in China or in Chinese, I cannot read. I honestly believe that the last 250 years of western dominion and influence gives us a lot of commentaries, apologetical approaches, so and so forth, but of course there are black sheep, don't get me wrong, but I think this is God's grace. Now you see the western powers declining. I really, I really look at the western, I said they are really hypocrites now, you know. They don't practice what they say, they impose on others what they themselves don't do. But I think, I think that's the season we are entering into. These are going to fade away.
On Wednesday, and I think these are related, Joel, he leads in Watch One Hour, and now he likes to do breakout sessions, and that's good, okay, but I think we must come back together at the end also, so there's a sense of we are together, we miss somebody's voices and all that, you know, but we pray for Iran. I looked through a few articles about these Christians and all that, you know. You know what was a thought that came to me? We take pity on them because we think we are living, we are living a life of comfort, affluence, everything so good. I tell you, they are the real Christians on age. They are Christians who really believe in their Christ, and if Christ were to take their life through a bomb or through whatever, they are ready to go. And true Christians like them, you ask them to change place with us, I'll tell you what's the answer: no thank you.
And to make it a bit more palatable, the mission trip we had last year in November, right, to Thailand, what, I go very gung ho, we are coming from Singapore, you poor people in Thailand, we are here to help you, we are to see your needs. Suddenly what do you all say? I learn so much from them, receive so much from them, and, and it reminds me of another story, and these are all related, and I'll close shortly.
This missionary came and saw a very backward place and all there, you know, and then for some of those who were living in that poverty and in that difficult condition, oh, I wish our church, our country, be like your church, like your country. You know what wise missionary say? No, better don't pray this. You pray to be like us, one time finish, you are not Christians on age. So while we appreciate praying for war zone situations, Christians living in suffering, I tell you, and I shared that my group was, I shared that the most privileged church is the persecuted church. The most privileged believer is the believer in Christ under duress, amen. You see, amen. You don't like? How about one two three big amen, okay? One, two, three, amen.
Honestly, to me, this has to be the way, because when I read a passage like this, so contrary to the way life and death is viewed, you always, no, no, no. I tell you, don't worry about prosperity gospel and whatever, there is only one gospel. Galatians tells us, hopefully we might cover this also in the church camp, and there's only one gospel. Anyone who preaches another gospel is a Greek word for he's a cursed. I tell you, when you are, when one is a curse of God, is like who? Judas Iscariot. That's what it is also, hung on a tree like a cross, Jesus the blessed son of God. Judas threw away what, 30 pieces of silver, was it 30 or 25? Check out the detail, I can't remember.
Church, this is what makes all the difference. We have a contrast, so that we can present choices. We have a certainty because we are preaching the word of God. We bring real comfort, because comfort comes from sad countenance, real comfort. God is so real in my weakness, my strength is perfected, in my loss I feel the presence of God, but we always want to turn it the other way around: give me more, give me more, give me more, and the more I have the more I can boast, prosperity, what rubbish.
But all this ultimately because we are called to be ready for the coming of Christ, and what happens when Christ comes? And I conclude with this passage that you, I know, I know what it's all about. When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, the same passage I mentioned earlier, when the corruptible has put on incorruption, the mortal has put on immortality, then death is swallowed in victory, not in defeat, you know, not surrender. Everybody, death is swallowed in victory. And then he declares, like as if mocking death, where is your sting, oh hell, oh Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, the cause of death is sin, the source of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. It's the law that convicts, and we covered that when we did our Roman series. Law tells us we are sinful. If there are no laws, who is to say? The law says no speeding, don't go beyond 70. Oh, I go beyond 70, it becomes a sin, a violation of the law, because the law points out to our wrongdoing.
