Memorial Worship Service for those who have passed on

Call to Worship Psalm 4:8 (NIV)
Hymn JBC # 650 Serve the Lord with gladness
Introduction of those who have passed on
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture Revelation 21:1~4
Prayer
Sermon “A new heaven and a new earth”
https://youtu.be/LOkHuIrdNe4
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Doxology JBC # 672
Benediction

Today, we are having the [memorial worship service], a commemorative worship service to specially remember those that were called up to heaven ahead of us.
The fact that a person finishes his life on earth is a significant event. In my opinion, a person’s death is one of the most solemn matters to us.
Death is quite a solemn matter and is deeply related to anyone of us. It is because when someday all of us come to the end of our lives here on earth, a time to die certainly comes.

“To live” is inseparable from “to die”. If we earnestly consider the matter to live, we at the same time are also made to think seriously about death.
Those that have lost their beloved family, friends or close person, face the reality that they can no longer see that person on earth, that that person lives no longer.
I believe that there are also many cases where they must go through a long and sorrowful time to accept that reality.
There was a time when my company superior in the past whose father was soon to die of cancer mumbled before me the question [Where do people go when they die?]
　That man must have confronted the reality that his immediate family member will soon be gone. And I believe that even us have this question [Where do people go when they die?]
Why do people die? And when they die, where do people go? What would happen when people die, what kind of place do they go? An easy answer concerning that matter that seems to be precisely understood by or quickly persuade anybody is not written even in the bible.

However, Jesus Christ says as in,
John 14:1～3
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God
believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that 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.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God that was sent to this world from the heavenly Father God. Jesus is the Son of God and is equal with God as well.
This [My Father’s house] uttered by Jesus is the heavenly kingdom where He is to ascend and go after He dies on the cross.
Jesus tells us [Do not let your hearts be troubled (don’t worry), believe in God]. And since there are many rooms to live in the heavenly Father’s house, Jesus promises that He will prepare a place for us there.
There are various anxieties, troubles and hardships even while we live on this earth. Moreover, we also have the fear and anxiety towards death.
Jesus Christ tells us [Do not let your hearts be troubled] (have no anxiety). Jesus promises to those who believe God that “He will prepare a place to live in the heavenly Father’s house. And people can go there.”

Although we don’t clearly understand what kind of place the heavenly Father’s house is, there is a certain hope on those words and promise of Jesus.
Having the nature of God, He became man, certainly lived the life on earth as a human being like us, and through those words that Jesus Christ who died on the cross left, we are given a certain hope even to this day.
　I would like us to keep in mind today that there is a way to live through such a hope that is given us even to this day by the words that Jesus Christ left (meaning the Word of God).
Today’s bible passage that we have read earlier is a passage from the last epistle of the New Testament called [Revelation]. Here is written about a vision that the man named John saw when he was captivated (exiled to an island) in the Patmos Island.
About 2000 years ago, Christianity suffered great persecution from the Roman empire. John was persecuted on account to his Christ believing faith, was exiled to Patmos Island (chap. 1:9) and lived in an extremely harsh environment.

Back then, diversity of vision revealed to John from God is written in the book of Revelation. Let me read once again the first part of the passage that was read earlier.
　Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
The phrase [new heaven and new earth] appears of which today’s sermon I’ve also entitled.
The bible begins with the book of [Genesis]. The beginning of Genesis starts with one sentence “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. The bible conveys that the Lord God created this world, and He created us human beings as well.

And God has established our life on this earth to be limited and not to live here forever.
Our life is limited, and just like us and other living matters that will certainly die, “ a time will come when the heavens and the earth, even the world that is visible in our sight, everything created will surely end someday, it is not everlasting” ～ it is the message that the bible conveys.
However, today’s passage says that in the last days, it is not that the world will completely perish, and everything will be gone, but at that time “new heavens and new earth will rise”.
It is a promise that in “the last days”, the world will be renewed that is different from this present world.

Let’s look at the following verses 3～4.
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
“God’ dwelling place” refers to the tabernacle (or tent). In the past, the Israelites were under 400 years slavery in Egypt.
They were led by a leader named Moses and escape the land of Egypt. It is the event called “the Exodus”.
After they, the Israelites left Egypt on their way of journey back to the land of their own forefathers, the “tabernacle” (tent) is the place where God came down and spoke to Moses.
A place where God is received and where man and God could communicate (through Moses) was the [tabernacle (tent)]. It’s a tent of worship place that was built temporarily and, in my opinion, it is well to say tent church.

After the tabernacle finishes its role in that place, it is folded and kept, or moved to a different place.
This tabernacle symbolizes also our human life in this world. It is because we can say that we live a life of tent (temporary shelter, so to speak) in this world. And when we leave this tent, we will go back to our true native land which is God’s kingdom (everlasting home).
God tells us through the words of today’s scripture that there is such a hope that “we will live with God someday, He will wipe away our sorrow and tears, we will go to the kingdom where there is no death, toil and even grief, and we can live there forever”.
And we can believe by faith that even our brothers and sisters who believed God and were called up to heaven ahead of us receive such comfort and peace in His kingdom.
“God takes away our sorrow, wipes away our tears in the heavenly kingdom. There is no more death nor anxiety” ～ that is the promise of the bible.

　Now, does it mean that “although we suffer in the world where we live today, but since we can go to heaven where there is neither sorrow nor tears, we’ll just endure earnestly even under suffering while we live now?”
It is not. We can live a joyful life even in this world through God’s hope. That is made possible by an event that was already realized by God.
“God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them” ～ this is a promise that will happen in the future and at the same time, actually, it is also an event that has already been realized through the birth of Jesus Christ as a human being in the present Israel about 2000 years ago.
Jesus Christ was born as a human being～ that means that God was born to this world as human being. God became man, and He lived in flesh with limited life like us.

Why did God become human being and lived with man? That is, for Him to take in that flesh our sorrows, sufferings and human sins as His own.
In this world, we have hardship and sorrow, and distressed as well for not able to understand it. While proclaiming God’s Word as this, even I as a pastor don’t understand many things particularly about people’s lives, matters about to live and to die.
Even I often want to ask God “why would this such thing happen?” While we have various questions with no answer, yet we live.
And yet, however, we receive a certain hope and comfort from these words of the bible.
God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain
We can believe through the bible that this passage is a future promise directed to us and at the same time, an event that is already realized through Jesus Christ.
There is God who is with us when we are in sorrow, carries that sorrow with us and cries with us.
The God who wipes every tear from our eyes, the God Jesus Christ who has the power to destroy death is surely with us even to this day. Let us keep in mind and be thankful to God of this matter in this day of Memorial worship service.
And it is my prayer that we can live giving importance to the (limited) life that is given to us from God that we may live on this earth, sharing each other’s sorrow and suffering as much as possible, being close to one another as we support each other.