Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Death and the Christian Hope

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that no matter who you are, there’s a lot of death in your future. If you look around, you look at your loved ones, you look at your family, you look at your friends. Either you will face death yourself because you will be dying younger than is our want, or you will live a long time and face the death of the other people around you. Christian hope gives you something to deal with that, gives you something remarkable. Let’s look at 1) what Christianity gives us so we can handle death, and 2) how we get it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 4, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When we suffer, it's natural to ask the question, why? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller shows us what the Bible has to say about how to face pain and suffering. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com.

This morning scripture is taken from 1 Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 13, through chapter five, verse 11. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will certainly not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and with a loud command, with the voice

of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words. Now brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of a light and sons of a day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness, so then let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith in love as a breastplate, controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus

Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing. This is the Word of the Lord. We're doing a series on hope because we said that we underestimate how profoundly our character and our daily lives are shaped by what we believe our ultimate future to actually be. What you think your ultimate future is has tremendous shaping power determines how you live now. Today we want to look at in particular how Christian hope, how what the Bible tells us about our future, gives us the

ability to face and to handle death. Now this is a very young church. This is actually Manhattan's very young place, but I think I can say without fear of contradiction that no matter who you are, there's a lot of death in your future. I'm sorry on this lovely spring day for me to forgive me, but I need to get your attention. There's a lot of death in your future. I mean, even, let's assume that the United States, which has been the safest soil in the world for the last 150 years. Even assuming it stays that way and it might not.

You're getting older. And if you look around, you look at your loved ones, you'll look at your family, you'll look at your friends. Either you will face death yourself because you'll be a dying younger than is our want. Or you will live a long time and you'll be facing the death of all the other people around you. I can say without fear of contradiction, there is a lot of death

in your future. The Bible says, Paul here says, the gospel says, the Christianity gives you something to deal with that, gives you something remarkable. And let's just take a look and see what it is that Christianity gives us so we can handle and deal with death and how we get it. What it is, how we get it. Now what it is is in this very first verse. I'm going to call it an extreme balance. And I know that's a little bit of a paradox because to be balanced, to be extreme to different things, but I'll show you what I mean. There's an extreme balance we're given. When Paul says, I don't want you to grieve

like those who have no hope. I don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope. Now, that's a double negative. I don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope and what he's actually saying is I want you to grieve. Hopefully, I want you to grieve. Not hopelessly, I want you to grieve hopefully. I want you to have hopeful grief.

Now that is an extreme balance. That's not something in the middle between hope and grief. It's not saying, well, since you have hope you don't grieve, that's not what he's saying. First, let me show you this balance. First, he says, Christians grieve. When he says, I don't want you to grieve hopelessly, it doesn't mean he doesn't want you to grieve.

The Bible does not give us a stoic approach to death. Paul says grieve here, but the most remarkable example of this is Jesus. At the tomb of Lazarus' friend in John chapter 11, and there we absolutely see that Jesus did not take the Victorian approach. He didn't come up to Mary and Martha the brief sisters and say, there, there, keep a stiff upper lip chin up, be strong.

He didn't do any of that. When he gets to Mary, all he does is weep. He doesn't say anything. All he does is weep. And when he gets to the actual tomb of Lazarus, even though almost all the English translations mute this, what it says in the Greek text is, when Jesus gets to the tomb of Lazarus,

he was quaking with rage. Jesus was quaking with rage. He knew he was gonna raise Lazarus from the dead in a minute, but he's weeping and he's angry. He's grieving and he's mad. How could the Lord of the world be angry at something in his world? And the answer is, Jesus would only have been angry at death if death is an intruder. Death is not the original design.

We were not meant to die. We were meant to die. We were meant to last. We were meant to get more and more beautiful this time goes on, not more and more shriveled. We were meant to get more and more stronger and stronger, not weaker and weaker, brighter and brighter, not fading. We were meant to last, not to die. It wasn't part of the original design. Jesus anger and crying, Jesus cries, and He cries out. Death is not the stoic approach. Here's a approach that death shows that death is a monstrosity.

It's an abnormality. And Paul says in Romans 8, it's because when we decided to be our own bosses, as it were, when we decided to be our own spiritual saviors and lords, everything in the world broke, everything broke, our bodies broke, life broke, the world broke, and death is one of those things, it's part of that. Now when we say, the Bible says grieve, when we see that the Bible says our attitude toward death is not to be a stoic, keep a sif upper lip thing. We have a number of challenges here because there's a lot of alternatives to this that are going to be a stoic, keep a siphoper lip thing. We have a number of challenges here because there's a lot of alternatives to this

that are going to be put in front of you. So for example, just the average conservative Christian piotistic church. The attitude toward death is, now, now, he's with the Lord. He's with the Lord. The work's all things together for good. Now, you don't want to, you know, now the idea is that I think in the Lord, she's with the Lord, the works all things together for good. You know, now you don't want to, you know. Now the idea is that I think in the average,

the average conservative Christian church, you're not expected to scream. You're not expected to just cry out. Show us a lack of faith, maybe bad theology. In the book of Job, there's a place where all of his children die. It says, he tears his robe, he throws ashes on himself, he shaves his head, he falls to the ground, he screams, he cries out and it says, in all these things, Job sinned not. But I'm afraid in the average Christian church we would look

and say, you know, there's a person without faith. But Jesus wept, Jesus was quaking with anger at the funeral. Not only that, we also have not just the conservative Christian pietyism. We've got, I guess you just have to call secular pagan stilicism. I mean, you know, the secular world, not just now, but even back in those in the early days, our understanding of death was, look, death is the end, and that's it. And grieving about it makes no difference. It doesn't help a thing. In the Iliad, Homer wrote these words, I can't remember where, who was saying this to who,

but in the Iliad, these are the words of Homer. He says, bear up, don't give into grief. Nothing will come of sowing for your son, nor will it raise him up before you die. See, there it is. What's the use of crying? It's not gonna change a thing. It's not gonna bring him back. This. See, there it is. What's the use of crying? It's not going to change a thing. It's not going to bring him back.

This is just the way life is. So you have the pagan sort of secular stoicism. You've got the Christian pietyism. But maybe, and I'm not saying there's nothing good in this movement, but another alternative that you're going to run into in the last 20 or 30 years has been a movement. It's especially, there's a lot of books written for counselors and grief counselors over the last 20 or 30 years.

And basically it goes like this, death is natural. Death is just a part of life. Death is nothing to be afraid of. When we die, it's like going to sleep. There's nothing to be afraid of. I mean, you see it in the lion king, right? You know, the circle of life. You die, but then you become fertilizer. And the grass grows out of you. And then other people eat it, other things eat it. And then you see, you're all part of the circle of life.

It's all very, very natural. Now Jesus will have none of that. Jesus doesn't say, well Lazarus, you're just gonna be part of the circle of life. He quakes with rage, he cries, he weeps, why? Because this is an abnormality. When you say, by the way, closer to Jesus is Dylan Thomas, who said, do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day.

Rage rage against the dying of the light. Don't go gentle into that night. Rage against the dying of the light. That's closer to what Jesus, and I'll tell you why. What the Bible is saying is when you say, oh, death is just natural. You are actually killing a part of your heart, something quintessentially human,

because you know deep in your heart that you're not like a tree, you're not like grass. You want to last. The deepest desires of your heart is for love that lasts. You don't want to be a femoral. You don't want to be inconsequential. You don't want to just be a wave upon the sand.

And to say that you are means that you're demoting the human race. And you're killing hope. You're killing something within you. I used to do a lot of funerals in my little church in Hopewell, probably, Virginia, probably twice a week, not a week, twice a month, certainly. Sometimes. A lot of older folks in my church, a lot of older folks in the town. And what you used to always do is I used to be that the minister always was the one who

would go back with the family and close friends to see the deceased in the coffin for the first time. And I know they met well, but almost always the friends would say to the bereaved, she looked so good. She looks so natural. Jesus does not say that. And I certainly didn't feel that, but I never said anything, because I know the bereaved didn't feel that way.

But I know what they thought. They said she doesn't look nice. She looks gone. She looks dead. Death is not the way it ought to be. Death is abnormal. Death is not a friend. This isn't right. This isn't part

of the circle of life. This is the end of it. Grieve, be angry, cry. Did you know the Bible says that? But on the other hand, here's what I mean by the extreme. It says, grieve with hope. To suppress grief and anger and crying out in the face of death is not only psychologically bad, you know, you've heard that, but it's actually bad for your humanity. Yet just to rage, just to rage is also bad for your humanity. It makes you bitter, it makes you hard, it just poisons you. If you simply rage against the dying of the light, what we're told here, and this is amazingly balanced, this is what I mean, but it's not something in the middle. Take your anger, take your grief, and rub hope into it.

The way you used to have to rub salt into meat to keep it from going bad. Rub hope deep into your grief and it'll make you wise. Not to grieve kills your humanity. Just to rage kills your humanity. But the press hope into your grief makes you wise, makes you compassionate, makes you humble, makes you tender, or let's put it another way. There's nothing wrong with anger and there's nothing wrong with sorrow in the face of death, but Christians should not be fearful of wit. That's what's going on here. Take the anger, take the sorrow, but no fear. The Bible talks about death in remarkable

terms. When Paul says, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? And I know there's a lot of ways to do translation. Some people like to translate the Bible word for word, other people like to more paraphrase it a little bit more. And I'm waiting for one paraphrase to come out there and say, death, where is I staying? Grave, where is I victory? Nan, nan, nan, nan, which would pretty much get across the meaning of the text. Paul is making fun of death. The best place that captures that, that sentiment is the George Herbert hymn, the dialogue anthem.

It's a dialogue between a Christian and death. And the Christian starts off in the poem by mocking death. The Christian says, Alas, poor death, where is thy glory? Where is thy famous force, thy ancient sting? And death says, Alas, poor mortal void of story, go and read how I killed your king. Poor death," says the Christian, and who was hurt thereby? Thy curse being laid on him makes the accursed. Let losers talk, says death, yet thou shalt die.

Mine arms shall crush thee. And the Christian ends, spare not. Do thy worst. You shall only make me better than before. Yourself so much worse that you shall be no more. Now, what is that? See, spare not, do thy worst. What is the Christian doing?

He's saying, come on, death. The more you try to lay me low, the more you'll raise me high. The more you try to break me, the more you'll make me. The more you try to diminish me, the more you'll make me something greater than I've ever been for. Don't you realize? George Herbert says in another place. He says, death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener. Dwight Moody, famous preacher,

when he was dying, said to his friends, pretty soon you're going to hear that Dwight Moody is dead. Don't you believe it? I'll be better than I've ever been before. And C.S. Lewis says, if we let him, he will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into dazzling, radiant immortal creatures pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love

as we cannot now imagine. A bright, stainless mirror, which reflects back to God perfectly, though, of course, on a smaller scale, his own boundless power and delight and goodness. That is what we're in for. Nothing less. Now, do you see how extreme and you have balance

and how unique this is? This is not stoicism. It's not like, well, if I keep a stiff upper lip at all, but in no way is it fear, in no way is it despair. Do you know of anybody who does this? I'm not sure I have got it yet. I'm not sure I have got it yet. I'm not sure I've got it yet. I'm still working on it.

It's probably not good to remind you of this, but because I'm fine now, I'm fine, I'm fine. Just I'm fine. However, two or three years ago, when I was in the clinic and they just on a biopsy on my thyroid, a little you know The what the poor tech person comes in and says to me Well, you have a carcinoma, and of course I know what the word carcinoma means

But you know one of those circumstances it doesn't sink in You know, I was just so amazed and she said you have cancer now. I must have had a look on my face Because the first thing she said was she says it's 90% cur thyroid cancer, and then she looked at me a little longer and she said, 99% and then, seriously, and she looked at me a little longer, a hundred percent. Obviously, I had a look on my face that was bullying her. I'm surprised that she didn't find,

I said, oh, you're fine, you're just fine. Go home, you're making me feel so bad. You know, where do you get? Where do you get this fearless anger? Where do you get this screaming and this crying out? And yet at the same time, a sense that this is a absolutely defeated enemy. The Bible doesn't say don't fear death

because it's natural. The Bible says, don't fear death because it's natural. The Bible says don't fear death because it's been defeated. Hi, I'm Tim Keller. You know there is no greater joy in hope possible than that which comes from the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4, although Christ was crucified in weakness, He now lives by the power of God. If you grasp this life altering fact of history,

then even if you find things going dark in your life, this hope becomes a light for you when all other lights go out. With Easter approaching, I want you to know the hope that stays with you no matter the circumstance. The hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my book, which is entitled Hope in Times of Fear, the resurrection and the meeting of Easter, you'll find why the true meeting of Easter is transformative and how it gives us unclenchable hope and joy, even when we face the trials and difficulties of this life which can be considerable. Hope and times of fear is our thank you for your gift this month, to help gospel in life

reach more people with the hope and joy of Christ's love. You can request your copy today by going to gospelandlife.com-slashgive. That is gospelandlife.com-slashgive. Thank you so much for your generosity. And as we prepare to reflect on the amazing love of Christ, demonstrated when he went to the cross to save us, I pray you will find renewed hope and comfort in the historical fact of his resurrection. Now, how do you get that? How do you get that balance? And the answer is, Paul says here, you need to look at the uniqueness of your hope.

Because he says a little, there's a little phrase here that I've always looked a little bit, a lot of people find embarrassing, but I realized it's the key to the whole passage. He says, brothers, we don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep. You have a lot of friends who have died, and I know you're struggling with this, so let me tell you how. And he says, I don't want you to grieve

like the rest of men who have no hope. Now, a lot of people over the years have thought that's kind of arrogant. He says, I don't want you to, you know, we don't want you to be like everyone else who has no hope about after death. Now a lot of commentators have pointed out, no, wait a minute here. There are a lot of other religions, there's a lot of other cultures, and almost all of them

have some kind of hope for after death. So how can Paul said, we don't want you to be like the rest of men who have no hope? Now, first of all, it's certainly a metaphor. Remember how Jesus says, I want you to hate your father and mother if you want to follow me? And of course, he doesn't mean I want you to literally hate your father and mother, but what he wants you, he says, I want your love for me to be so overwhelmingly greater than any other love that you have. I want your love to be in overwhelmingly greater than any other love that you have.

I want your love to be in overwhelmingly greater, so it's a figure of speech in manner speaking. In the same way I'm positive that what Paul is saying is not that no one else has any other hope for after life, but he says, I want you to think about how the Christian hope is so overwhelmingly greater than any other hope offered. In fact, Paul is actually saying,

and I'm gonna do this because Paul's saying we should do it. He says, I want you to think about the uniqueness of the Christian hope. It doesn't mean I want you to think about it so you feel superior to everybody else. He says, I want you to contrast the Christian hope with the other alternatives out there so that you will really get hold of

and personally appropriate what's offered. We're not doing it just to laugh, you know, or to feel superior, but to get hold of what we have. And so he's saying, contrast what the Christian hope is to what the other hopes are. So let's do it. It's all in the text. There's three ways in which the Christian hope is so unique and you're supposed to grab

hold of those things. And this will give you that balance. The first is, the first unique is, is the Christian hope is for a world of infinite love. There are plenty of religions and cultures that say, yes, there's life after death, but you lose your personal consciousness, you lose your sense of individuality,

which was a illusion anyway, and you just go, it's like you're a drop going back into the ocean, you don't stay a drop, you just become part of the all soul. So there isn't, there's not a you or a me, there's not any of that sort of thing. Now, that's great, but Paul is trying to say here, I want you to see that the future is a future of love.

First of all, notice all the references to the fact that you will be with one another. The people you've lost will be with, you will be with them. We will ever be together, see the word together, we will be with the Lord forever. We will be caught up together with them in the clouds in verse 17.

But even more important is the emphasis on being with Him. So for example, in verse 15, it says, we who are still alive are left to the coming of the Lord. Now the word coming of the Lord there, it's a very interesting Greek word, it's a famous Greek word. It's the word paracia. And yet it's a hard word to translate. Sometimes it's translated the appearing of the Lord,

rather than the coming of the Lord, because it's the word that means personal presence. And particularly it was used in Greek of some great personage, some king or some emperor. So what's really, it's really saying is the thing we're looking forward to is not just the coming of the Lord, the appearing of the Lord, but the getting of the Lord. The getting of the Lord personally. Paul talks about it, we talked about it somewhat last week. But Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says,

then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part that I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Just give me a second with this, as I am fully known, nobody, nobody, who knows you completely can love you completely. I mean, even, you know, my wife and I talk, Kathy and I often point out the fact that as much as we wanted to be totally candid with each other, totally candid, the fact is, every day we have enough angry thoughts about each other, which go away in about five minutes. But we have enough angry thoughts, selfish thoughts, despairing thoughts, that we agreed some time ago to say, look, let's talk about them in general, but not one at a time. Oh, we're never going to make it. There is

nobody on the faith, listen, there's people who think you're great because they don't know you. And there's nobody on the face of the earth who would know you to the bottom who could love you to the skies. But on that day, we want that, we want that. When someone likes you but doesn't know you, that's not that satisfying. When someone knows you, doesn't like you, that's certainly not very satisfying. What we want is to be utterly known and utterly loved and on that day we'll get it. We'll get it from him and therefore we'll get it

from one another. Yes, the future is a world of love. The future is a universe of love. I kind of love you one, personal love. The Christian hope is you do not go away. Your self-consciousness does not go away. Second, the Christian hope is not just hope for a world of love, but secondly, Christian hope is a hope for the, that you're going to get the life you always wanted.

Death is not really defeated. If when you die, you go to be in heaven. Look at what death does to the body. Look at what death does to the body. Just to say, oh, we'll never get you know, we'll be free, we'll go into an immaterial world, is not the defeat of death. Now this passage has been misunderstood very easily. And I can see why.

Notice it says, it says, the Lord will come from heaven and he will have with him all those who have died in Christ. And then it says, we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will ever be with the Lord together now, but it doesn't say what we do then. And so it kind of leaves you hanging, doesn't it? Literally. Here's what happens.

The Lord's coming down with those, you know, who've died in him, and we come up and we meet. But then the doesn't say what? Then what? And you know what? Most people assume. Most people read this text, assume it means, and then we go to be in heaven forever. It's often called the rapture. You know, we meet, and then we go in heaven forever, but that's not what it means. Absolutely not what it means because there's

no way to get this across in English. The word meet. It says, and we will meet. We'll be caught up together with them. We who are still alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord. The word meet is a Greek term that was a technical term for coming out of the city and getting into the entourage of a conquering king who was coming in. You know, imagine the king of your city had gone out and he'd been victorious and he'd won liberty for you and he was coming back with all of the spoils of war.

And instead of you waiting for him to come back into the city and hail him and all that, you would go outside the city and meet him and then walk in come back into the city and hail him and all that, you would go outside the city and meet him and then walk in, come into the city with him and therefore participate in the conquest, participate in the victory. You know what this is saying? This is not talking about how we are being caught up,

especially with all the emphasis on the resurrection and the new bodies anyway. We're not being caught up and taken out of the world into heaven, we are being caught up in taking out of the world into heaven. We are being caught up with him on his way to earth to make it everything in ought to be. All the emphasis here is on the body. All the emphasis here on the resurrection and having a body the way Jesus had a body. Now remember what Jesus' body was like? He ate. He was touched by the people he loved. Put your hand in here. He taught them, he loved them.

Our future is not an ethereal, immaterial future. You are not going to float in the kingdom of God. You're going to walk, you're going to eat, you're going to hug, you're going to love, you're going to sing because you're going to love, you're going to sing because you're going to vocal cords. In realms and degrees of joy and of satisfaction and of power that you cannot now imagine, you're going to eat and drink with the Son of Man. And this is the only real, real, real defeat of death. It doesn't defeat death to never get the, says you're going to get the family you always wanted You're going to get the body you always wanted Those of you who are artists you're going to finally be able to produce the art that you've got in you that it'll never come out

you'll And for example in every person you can see this there's a real you and then there's all this stupid stuff There's all the besetting sins there's all the stupid stuff, there's all the besetting sins, there's all the weaknesses of the real you, and there's all this other goop. And on that day, we're going to see each other, and we're going to look at each other, we're going to say, I always know you could be like this. I saw glimpses of it, I saw flashes of it, and now look at you. You're going to get everything. You're going to get the life you always want. You're going to get everything. You're going to get the life you always want.

You're going to get the life. So the Christian hope is the Christian hope in distinction from the religions that offer you an impersonal future, give you a world of love, from indistinction to the religions and cultures that give you an ethereal, immaterial future, give you the life. You've always wanted. Boy, you know why get angry? Why do vengeance?

Huh? When you know you're gonna get everything you've ever wanted, why get, why could, nobody can take anything from you. What a different way to look at life. But last of all, other religions and cultures do talk about afterlife, but none of them give you the assurance. The assurance of it. We said, in the Bible, the word hope doesn't really mean what our English word hope means.

It means life-shaping joy is certainty of something that's coming. Notice here near the bottom, it says, for God did not appoint us to suffer wrath. A point, God did not appoint, did not appoint, past tense. He doesn't say, God might appoint you, to no condemnation, if you live a good enough life. He says, you're already appointed to no condemnation. How could that be? Well, in a religion, basically,

secular people are happier than religious people. Religious people who don't understand the gospel are the least happy people. There's people who understand the gospel, there's secular people, and there's people who are religious who don't understand the gospel. They're the least happy people. Because they've got a hope, you know, these secular people say, I don't even know if there is anything afterwards, but the religious people have a hope and they don't know if they'll ever make it because they don't know if they'll be good enough.

They don't know if they'll be able to prove themselves. Boys that create self-righteousness. What does that create insecurity? Boys that create all sorts of the need to prove yourself. But here is Paul saying, you've already been appointed to that. You've been appointed to love. You've been appointed to be known to the bottom

but loved to the sky. Well, how could that be? What says Jesus took the wrath? He died for us. And there's no better way to put it than that great illustration by Donald Grant Barnhouse. I used it last Easter. I gotta get it out once a year, it's too good.

Donald Grant Barnhouse was a Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, and he was either on his way, driving his kids to either on his way driving his kids to or on their way from the funeral of their mother, his wife. And the youngest of the children who was in the car, you know, he was trying to help. And at one point he looked up and he said,

do you see that truck? Do you see the shadow of that truck? Would you rather be hit by the truck or by the shadow? And the youngest kid said, by the shadow, and Donald Gray Barnhouse said, because Jesus was hit by the truck of death, your mother only had to go through the shadow of it. The sting of death is sin and the poison went into Jesus. And that's the reason why George Herbert can say, death used to be an executioner, but because of the gospel, it's only a gardener.

The assurance of that future. Now, look, what does this mean to you and me practically? Two things quick. If you're here and you're not sure, if you believe in Christianity, in fact, if you're here and you're not sure you believe in God, I've got a clue for you that there is one. CS Lewis wrote this, if you really are a product of a materialistic universe,

why don't you feel at home in a world where we die and disintegrate? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that not strongly suggest that they were once not purely aquatic creatures? Why are we continually shocked and repulsed by death unless, indeed, something in us is not temporal? You see what he's saying? That's great. He says, why would we be angry at death and disintegration, unless we knew we were meant to live forever? Why wouldn't it feel completely natural? Why does it not feel natural?

Why do you get mad at it? Why do you know this isn't the way you ought to be? Do fish feel wet? No. If you are not at home in a universe of death, and that means you actually were built for something else. And Christians, what are you supposed to do about this? Look at the very, very end of the passage

where Paul uses this metaphor about living as in the day. The metaphor is, it's still nighttime. The day has not come. And the day is when Jesus makes this whole material universe new. New bodies, no more suffering, all tears wiped away, and so forth. But he says, we're supposed to live as in the day.

We're not supposed to act as if it's night. We're supposed to act as if it's daytime. We're supposed to be daylight people living in light of the future light. And what that means, two or three things quick. It means a joyous people. Are you a joyous people? It means a partying people.

Do you ever see the movie Babette's Feast go get it? Go rent it. It's in Danish with English subtitles, but it's important. It shows a bunch of Christians who live, pinched lives. They don't like to eat nice things. They live in cold places because they believe that their future is an immaterial future. They believe in a completely spiritual future. And they think this material world is all very bad. When they drink a great cup of wine, when they eat a great, great, great bowl of soup,

they say, well, that's in the past. You know, we're gonna be saved away from all that, but Babette's feast is about all these people who get pulled into this incredible banquet, and they sense they're feeling closer to God and closer to one another, why? Because God's future is a material world. God's going to give us great soup. There's going to be great wine. It says so in Isaiah 25, great wine in the new heavens and new earth. In other words, Christians ought to be partying people. They ought to be festive

people because they know that's the future. A joyous people, a parting people, and a fighting people. Because the resurrection means God's against poverty and He's against disease and He's against death. He's against the brokenness, so we're gonna be against it too. Be a fighting people. Be a joyous people. Be a partying people. Be people of the daylight.

Oh, death, where's thy sting? Where's thy famous force? Where's thy victory? Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for showing us what's available to us through Christ. We pray that you give us the joy, you give us the freedom, you would give us the festivity, the festiveness of heart, and pray, Father, that you would teach us how to get this attitude toward death that we are all going to need. And we pray that you make us a community of a life-giving community, a life-affirming community

in your son, Jesus, and his name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on facing pain and suffering with the hope of Christ. We pray you were encouraged. To find more Gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, you can sign up for email updates at GospelInlife.com. That's GospelInlife.com. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004 and 2008. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to

2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.