Sunday Worship Service February 23, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Zephaniah 3:9
Hymn JBC #260 Set my soul afire, Lord
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC #384 I love to tell the story
Offering
Scripture 1 Thessalonians 4:13~18
Prayer
Sermon　 “The Lord will come”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 216 King of my life
Doxology JBC #672
Benediction
Postlude

Today's Bible passage is part of the fourth chapter of “1 Thessalonians”.
In the first half of verse 14 of chapter 4 of today's passage, it says, “For we believe that Jesus died and rose again”
A Christian is one who believes that Jesus Christ was born as a man, died on the cross, and rose again.
And also a Christian is one who understands that he or she is made alive because of Christ's cross and resurrection.
Because Christ died and rose again, and because He is still alive today, we can live with hope every day.
Those who believe in Christ's resurrection and live daily by His power indeed testify to the Lord's resurrection.
As Christians and as a Christian church, we wish to testify daily that it is Christ, the Risen Lord, who truly makes us alive and gives us strength and joy.

　The resurrected Christ revealed Himself to many people and then ascended into heaven. We read about this in the first chapter of the “Book of Acts”.
Jesus ascended to heaven with the promise that He would come back to earth again.
　Those who witnessed the event and those who came to believe in Jesus Christ after hearing about it believed that He would return while they were still alive.
　However, before Jesus returned from heaven to earth, there were people who ended their lives on earth while believing in Him.
　One of the very big questions that confronted the disciples of Christ at that time was what would happen to those who believed in the Lord but left the world (died) before Jesus' return (since they were no longer on earth) when Jesus returned.
　In fact, there were those who scoffed at the Christian faith and the idea of Jesus' coming again, saying

2 Peter 3:4
“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

　“You say that the Lord will come again, but He never comes”. “Nothing has changed in the world”. The first Christians were being thrown at by those questions, even “Is there really a God?”
　However, in the same epistle of 2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 8-9, it is written as follows.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

From the human point of view, “The Lord Jesus promised that He would come again, but He never came. The promise may have been a hoax (fake). The faith in Christ itself may also be untrue. Such a doubt would come up.
But with the Lord, “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Since the Lord God is eternal, we must understand His promises in terms of His eternity through faith.
Because we are finite human beings, we cannot fully understand the eternal One (God) and His plan.
However, we can believe through the Word of Bible that the Lord is faithful to fulfill His promises.
Even though we cannot fully understand God's eternity, we can live our lives believing in the eternal God and trusting in His faithfulness.
We want to live our lives always believing in the greatness of God who makes us live in eternity, and in the faithfulness of the Lord who always fulfills His promises.

We also want to remember and give thanks for the blessing of being able to walk together with other believers, believing in the eternal Lord and choosing to live our lives trusting in Him.
Paul, who wrote this letter to the Thessalonians, wrote the following in verse 15.

15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

　Paul says here, “According to the Lord's word.” That is to say, he is not saying something he arbitrarily came up with on his own.
　He says it based on the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as a result of his seeking prayer.
　Paul, a believer, based on what he himself has heard from his predecessors in the faith, and what has been made known to him as the Word of the Lord by revelation from the Lord God, says that “those who were called first will be resurrected, and those who are still alive will be caught up together with them to heaven. Paul is saying here.
　What is being said in today's passage may seem somewhat fantastical, and it may be difficult for us to accept it as reality.

　　However, we are all going to end our lives on earth someday.

Therefore, I believe that it is a great blessing to have faith in the hope that “even though our life on earth has ended, we have been given resurrection life through Jesus Christ.
　Even though we may not know for sure, we have been given hope through Jesus Christ that we too will be made alive to God's eternal life, which is far beyond our thoughts and ideas.
We only know of the earthly world in which we now live. On the contrary, there are so many things that we do not know even about this world that we can see.
　We live in a world of instability, a world in which many things happen that we do not know where there is a sure hope.
　However, when we see this world through the eyes of Jesus Christ as communicated through the Bible, when we see this world through the power of Christ's resurrection, we can find in it a certain hope and strength to live.
　At the end of today's verse 17, it is written, “And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
　“And so we will be with the Lord forever.” - this is a promise that will be given to us in the future and will be fully realized in the future.
　But also, the promise that “We will be with the Lord forever.” is a promise that has already been fulfilled now. (This may sound contradictory, but it is.)
　The Lord is invisible to our eyes, but He has given us faith in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

　Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord gives us faith that the words in the Bible are the words that God still speaks to us.
　By the Holy Spirit, the Lord continues to guide us to share and live the Word of the Bible as our spiritual nourishment.
　By His Word, and by His Word being shared, we are shaken and given great encouragement and joy.
　　In this sense, we can say that the promise that the Lord will be with us forever is a promise that has already been fulfilled.
　The following is written in verse 18. the last verse of today' chapter.
　 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
　These words that were mentioned are words spoken by Paul, a believer, based on the Word of the Lord.
　In other words, they are words that the Lord's words were spoken in another language and sayings through the life of one believer.
　Thus, we are assured that even through the words of another believer, the Word of the Lord God is indeed what keeps us alive and gives us strength.
At a recent our worship service, two sisters and a brother gave testimonies and a message. I was unable to hear them in person because I attended a service at another church that day.
However, I was able to read their testimonies and message in advance through manuscripts.

I read the manuscripts, imagining how they would sound when they were actually delivered by voice.
　　In those testimonies and message the Lord's words were indeed spoken through the life of faith of each person who delivered them.
　And with the guidance of the Holy Spirit beyond our thoughts, I believe that the words of each person who spoke them ultimately became one and became the grace of the entire service that day.
　Our Lord God desired that His Word be preached to the world through the way of living and words of the faithful.
We have been made Christians and we have been established as one church so that we may preach the gospel to the world and so that we may be kept alive by the word of the Lord spoken to us by one another.
Let us continue to live our life of faith together, encouraging one another by the word of the Lord.
We hope to serve Christ's gospel missionary work, being kept alive by the sure hope of the Lord's resurrection.