Stephen
Newton funeral
1
Th 4:13-18
1/11/25
When
Steve and Lori Newton arrived at Good Shepherd and became members, I began to
learn about their background. Before very much time had passed, I learned
something about Steve that I thought was really cool: he had flown the Cobra
helicopter gunship while he was in the U.S. Army. At the height of the Cold War in the 1980’s
he was stationed in Germany along with NATO forces facing off against the
Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
As
someone who has always been interested in military aviation, I found this to be
fascinating. But Steve’s arrival coincided with events in my own life that made
this relevant for another reason. My son
Timothy is in the Army ROTC program at Illinois State. Although his original
intention was to be an infantry officer, he was now hoping to be branched to
Army Aviation so that he could fly helicopters. When Steve learned of this he
engaged in conversation with Timothy on a number of occasions about this
topic. He was a helpful encourager for
my son as he pursued this goal.
Of
course, flying the Cobra was not the only thing that Steve did while he was in
Germany. It was there that Steve and
Lori met and were married. They were
married for thirty seven years, as they had children and grandchildren in the
life they shared together. And of course, during his years at Good Shepherd we
have known Steve to be an active member, attending the Divine Service and Bible
class; singing in the choir; serving on the Safety Committee; and serving as
congregational president.
Steve’s
death was completely unexpected. We have suddenly been deprived of a husband,
father, and grandfather; of a son and family member; of a friend and brother in
Christ. There is grief as we experience this.
Yet in our text this morning, the apostle Paul addresses our situation. He gives us encouragement and hope in the
face of death.
Paul
begins by saying, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about
those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have
no hope.” The apostle had preached the
Gospel in Thessalonica, but we learn from the Book of Acts that his time there
had been cut short by Jewish opposition.
He had not been able to do as much teaching as he would have liked. And
the concept of the resurrection was foreign to Greco-Roman thought. They viewed the body as a kind of prison that
the soul needed to escape.
Paul
had preached that the risen Lord Jesus will return in glory. But in the time since Paul had been there,
some of the Thessalonian Christians had died.
This had raised questions about what would happen to the Christians who
had died before Christ’s return.
Steve
too has died before Christ’s return. The medical report will say that he died
of a heart attack. But that’s not why
he died. Steve died because of sin. Sin entered into our world when Adam and Eve
disobeyed God. It brought death to them
as God said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to
the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to
dust you shall return.” It has continued to bring death to all people. Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, just
as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
Steve
was conceived and born as a sinner. And
then he lived as a sinner. He did not
love and trust in God above all things.
He did not love his neighbor as himself at all times. We know that Steve was a sinner with absolute
certainty because we are here at his funeral.
Paul told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.”
Yet
sin does not merely bring death. Every sin of thought, word, and deed is
committed against the holy God. Sin
evokes God’s wrath and judgment. Paul says, “But because of your hard and
impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of
wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” God’s condemnation of
sin brings the eternal judgment of damnation and hell.
However,
we have just celebrated during Christmas that God did not leave Steve and all
of us with no hope in the face of our sin and God’s judgement. Instead, in the
fullness of time he sent his Son into the world as Jesus Christ was conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
God
sent his Son into the world in order to die on the cross for us. The sinless One took our sin, and received
God’s judgment. Paul told the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.”
God
judged Steve’s sin in Christ as he died on the cross. But death was not the end, for Christ was the
means by which God defeated death. On
the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.
The resurrection of the Last Day began when God raised Jesus with a body
transformed so that it can never die again.
Through
his Spirit, God called Steve to faith in Jesus Christ. By this faith in Christ, Steve received
justification before God. He lived
knowing that had been declared innocent by God on account of Christ.
Steve
had the assurance of this forgiveness because of his baptism into Christ. Paul told the Romans, “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.” Steve knew that through baptism he had shared
in Christ’s saving death.
Baptized
into Christ, Steve lived his life in Christ.
He was united with his Lord as he received Christ’s saving benefits.
That was true during his life, and it is still true now. Death has not
separated Steve from Christ. When Paul
contemplated the possibility of his own death he told the Philippians, “My
desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Steve is with Christ, and for that we give
thanks. No longer does he face the
struggle against sin, or experience the hardships of this fallen world.
This
is better. But in our text, Paul shows
us that God has something more complete and final in store. He says, “But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve
as others do who have no hope.”
Death is a source of grief because God created us for bodily life. Death does not reflect God’s created
intention for us.
But
we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
Instead, we have the living hope of Christ’s resurrection. Paul says, “For since we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with
him those who have fallen asleep.”
The resurrection of Jesus was the
beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.
Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a
man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
In our text Paul describes Christ’s
coming. He emphasizes the fact that
those who are alive at the Lord’s return will not precede those have already
died. He says, “For this we declare to
you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left
until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen
asleep.”
We learn that the return of Christ
will be a dramatic event that all will witness. The apostle says, “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.”
Next he adds, “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.” Paul emphasizes that all Christians will always be with the Lord.
The word “meet” used here describes
the procedure by which the residents of a city went out to greet a visiting
governor and then escorted him back into the city. It points us in the direction of what Paul
says later in Romans chapter 8 when he describes how “creation itself
will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the
glory of the children of God.” Christ
will raise Steve and all who have died in the faith. He will transform those who are still living.
And together we will live in God’s creation that will be very good once again.
Paul concludes our text by saying, “Therefore
encourage one another with these words.”
We encourage one another with the knowledge that Steve was a baptized
saint who is now with Christ. We rejoice
in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord
who will return in glory on the Last Day.
We find encouragement in the
knowledge that when he does he will raise up Steve and all the saints who have
died. Scripture uses the metaphor of “sleep” for death, because it is
temporary. People who are asleep wake up.
Christ will raise the dead and give them resurrection bodies like his
own. He will transform the bodies of
those who are alive so that they can never die again. And so Steve, and all who believe in Jesus,
will always be with the Lord.
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