22nd February || The Eternal Optimist || Libby Woodward

Minutes before he died, a guy called Seamus Heaney.

You might have heard of him. He was an Irish prophet, a

prophet, poet even and playwright.

He sent a text to his wife and it was 2 words, 2 words in

Latin, gnarly T merry, which translates into English as Do

not be afraid. I don't know if you've heard of

a guy called Brian Johnson. I've heard of him.

I've heard him talked about quite a lot on podcasts.

Maybe that'll tell you the sort of podcasts I listen to.

And I've also read about him in the paper.

But he wakes up at 4:30 every morning and he has had all of

his meals mostly made of broccoli, made-up of broccoli,

mushrooms and wild garlic by 11:00 AM.

And over the course of his day, this 46 year old venture

capitalist and entrepreneur takes over 100 pills.

He follows the strict exercise regime, sticking to an

exhaustive list of do's and don'ts.

He has high intensity electric machines attached to his body to

strengthen his muscles, and he often bathes his body in high

volume old LED light, whatever that is.

Everything he does is measured and tracked.

He's also been known to have blood transfusions from his 17

year old son. He goes to bed at 8:30 every

evening. Johnson's life is designed not

this Johnson, but Brian Johnson's life is designed like

an algorithm. A $2,000,000 algorithm.

Why you might ask? Because at the very least, he is

trying to reverse his age. This 46 year old man has the

heart of a 37 year old, but he aims for more.

His deepest desire is to defy death.

He wants to escape mortality. He wants to live forever.

Although when I read the description of his life, I

thought that's not really living in my opinion.

Although sometimes I do wish I would go to bed at 8:30 every

night. But apart from that, I don't

know that that his life is a life that sounds much like

living. Last week I started our new

teaching series put together with the help of a guy called

Andy Masters who leads Lagan Valley Vineyard in Northern

Ireland. And it's called Living in the

Shadows. And throughout the six Sundays

that we're here, remember we're not here next week.

Otherwise you have to run a marathon during the six Sundays

of Lent that we are meeting. We are looking at Jesus's

teaching. We're looking at the hope that

we have as Jesus followers in the face of physical death.

We believe that it is wise and necessary for us to open up this

conversation because the reality is, is that to live is human,

but to be human is also to die. Physical death is inevitable.

Life is precious but precarious. And at some point all of us in

all of in our lives will be overcome by loss and experience

great grief. I talked a lot, a lot last week

about the Psalms and the imagination of the Psalms.

Is the psalmist rather me? It says that we will all

experience times when we walk through the valley of the shadow

of death. Yet even then, especially then,

we can find ourselves living under another shadow, the shadow

of the Almighty, where we are protected, comforted, unafraid,

where we can Nestle in the shadow of the Father's

everlasting arms. Today I want to talk about hope.

I want to invite us to consider our futures.

As physical death is inevitable. The next question is, well, what

happens next? And as I said last week, death

in our society is quite a taboo until it comes crashing into our

lives in an unstoppable way. We keep our heads down and we

avoid it at all costs. And in many respects, modern

medicine has made that easier. And hear me say this, I love

modern medicine. It's amazing.

But the more cures we find for things, the more we can push

death further down the road. And as a culture, we don't talk

about it until a member of Parliament enters a private bill

to for assist on assisted dying. And then some people talk about

it, but other of us, others don't.

And even in the church we don't really talk about it other than

Jesus's death and resurrection. But how do I relate all of that?

Jesus's death and resurrection, the fact that he rose again, he

defeated death, and that God is God.

How do I relate that to the fact that my sister died, a close

friend at university died, my dad died fairly suddenly, a

friend's daughter was killed in a car crash?

How do I relate what I know and to what I've experienced?

And so our desire over the next few weeks, as we run up to

Easter is to lift our heads. It's to look to the future to

see what the Bible truly has to say about the hope that is set

before us, the hope that has captivated us and not just

settle for what our culture says.

My prayer is that we will come to see hope, the hope of eternal

life, to be both our compass and our destination.

You know for Brian Johnson, this guy that wants to push the

boundaries of life extension, you know he thinks he said in an

article a few years ago that we are a few baby steps away from

the most extraordinary event in the entire Galaxy.

Really. For those of us that follow

Jesus, I totally disagree. Because for us, the most

extraordinary event in the entire Galaxy happened on the

first day of the week, in the early hours of the morning, as

several women carrying spices travelled to the tomb of their

friend, only to find that this tomb was rolled away.

And they found two men beaming with light, asking the question,

why do you seek the living amongst the dead?

He's not here, he's risen. The resurrection of Jesus

changed everything. Our hope is not found in age

reversal or life extension, but it is found in eternal life with

Christ. It says in Romans 6.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will

certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His.

Notice the word certainly in there, because of the

resurrection, we become a new kind of people, a new kind of

people who've been facing our own physical death, can own for

ourselves and can offer to those around us Words of love and hope

can answer the heart. Cry with Nollie T Mary, do not

be afraid. So, as with last week, I gave a

couple of caveats. My caveats stick.

Firstly, I'm only going to scratch the surface this

morning. There's so much that I could

say, and at some point we want to leave here and go home for

lunch, I would imagine. But if you have questions, if

you want to read some more, I've got a long list of books I could

recommend. So do come and speak to me.

And as I said last week, these six teachings that we're going

to be looking at, they're like jigsaw pieces that fit together.

So I might not say, or you want me to say this morning I might

leave you and you feel a bit raw or you're hanging.

But hopefully by the time we get to Easter, it will fit together

and it will make more sense. And while today I'm talking

about hope and the joy that lives before us as followers of

Jesus, I don't for one second want to downplay the pain and

the the present grief that many of us are in.

And in a few weeks time we're going to be looking at how we

handle our sorrow and what Jesus says and how he invites us to

lament and be honest with our grief.

So please don't feel like you're being dismissed or you need to

push it down or put a smile on your face.

It's a tension we live in between hope and honesty.

And if we want to become mature followers of Jesus, we need to

grasp that tension and live in it.

The Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave said this.

And I think it sums up this tension perfectly.

Hope is optimism with a broken heart.

So I'm going to talk about hope today, and I am an eternal

optimist. But even as I do, like I say, we

don't need to suppress our sorrow.

This isn't just theology. This is as real as it gets.

So even if you're sitting here today and you're feeling like

your heart is breaking, be open to the possibility, even the

slightest possibility that you might be surprised by hope.

And I'm going to talk about some passages in the New Testament

this morning. And they very much talk in

metaphor and imagery. So you'll you'll just stick with

me. Hopefully we'll land in a good

place in a few moments time. Now, I don't know about you, but

when I go somewhere new, maybe I'm going to a new city, going

on holiday, going to an Airbnb, I love looking at the photos of

where I'm going to go. I want to know what the rooms

are going to be like, what the kitchens like, maybe what the

gardens like, what it's going to be like outside, maybe the

surrounding area. And in our family, there's a few

of us that feel a little bit anxious about new places.

So they're really, really important to be able to

visualize where you're going to be.

And I don't think I'm alone in saying that because I've seen a

few smiles on your faces as I've said it.

But as we look to the future, however, that's not what we get.

You can't download like an app on Future Paradise photos of

what it's going to look like. It doesn't work like that.

The future, however, we don't know.

Although the Bible does give us a bit of a preview, it doesn't

offer the photos that we might like, but it does offer us

signposts, signposts that point us to the direction of the

future, even if those future times are mysterious.

The Bible writers, they're not overly interested in prediction.

They're more interested in our perception.

They want to give us a clear sense of where we're headed.

And as Paul would say in One Corinthians 13, we see things

imperfectly. But that's OK.

You know, when we were standing from where we're standing, our

present vantage point, we do see things imperfectly, like

puzzling reflections in a mirror, Paul says.

But we will see everything with perfect clarity one day.

All that we see now is partial and incomplete.

Then we will see things completely, just as God sees

things completely from his current vantage point, from his

current place. And yet, while the future is

full of mystery, not everything is unknown, not everything is

grey. And I think that Scripture gives

us handholds to cling to. And there is enough here, there

is enough in our Bibles for us to be fully assured that our

future is marked by two things, Firstly, the promise of God, and

secondly, the presence of God. So I'm just going to pray.

Holy Spirit, would you increase your presence here?

Now? We thank you that you are with

us. Lord, would you speak?

Would you stir deep hope in our hearts?

Lord, would you tip away at our fear of death?

Would you instill hope and peace this morning?

Would you speak Father Amen. One day we will give up our

final breath, and then what happens?

I want to take you to Luke 23. If you've got a Bible, you might

want to turn to it. I'm going to dip in and out of

some passages this morning. And as Pip said, we've got some

Bibles on the table. We'd love to give them to you.

Give you 1 if you haven't got one.

Luke 23. It's towards the back of the

Bible. Jesus is hanging on the cross to

his left and to his right he has got 2 criminals who are also

being crucified. One of those criminals joined in

with the crowd mocking Jesus. The other 1 turned to him and

said, Jesus Remember Me whenever you come into your Kingdom.

And Jesus responded, Truly I tell you, today you will be be

with me in paradise. Not tomorrow, not in some

indeterminate future time, but today you will be with me in

paradise. At that moment of physical

death. Those who are in Christ can be

assured that they will be with Jesus immediately.

In the blink of an eye, those of us who are in Him find ourselves

in His perfect rest and His loving presence.

Now I appreciate for those of us who are in a season of grief,

you know that's a comforting thought.

But we'd much rather that the people we've lost were here with

us. But there is still comfort to be

found that when we die, we are instantaneously we find

ourselves in the everlasting, secure arms of Jesus.

Today you will be with me in paradise, Jesus says.

Now, if you've grown up in church, kind of that's where the

story ends, at least in my experience.

When we die, we go to be with Jesus.

End of conversation. That was a quick talk.

Libby, you're all very grateful. I'm sorry, I've got more to say.

Do you notice what Jesus says? Today you will be with me in

paradise. So often when we hear that

phrase, we hear heaven. But Jesus doesn't use that word.

He uses the word paradise. Paradise is the space where God

is enthroned in glory. It's the sole space where the

Saints that are at rest are in his loving presence, where we

hear cries of holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was

and is and is to come, as John tells us about and from his

revelation in from his vision in revelation, as soon as we hear

or mishear the word heaven, we imagine that this place of

paradise is the end point. That's the destination.

And I don't think that that lines up with what the New

Testament says, because the writers of the New Testament so

rarely talk about going to heaven when we die.

They talk a lot about resurrection.

In the words of Tom Wright, he says heaven is important, but

it's not the end of the world. It's not the end of our story.

Now, I might be throwing some of you off here a bit, particularly

if you've grown up in the church, because I for so long

was like, you die. You go to be with Jesus in

heaven, end of full stop. Now, don't get me wrong, I think

heaven's going to be, I think paradise is going to be amazing

for however long we're going to be there.

But that's not the end of the story.

If you're in your Bibles, you might want to turn a bit further

towards the back to John 14. Jesus is comforting his

disciples. He's been talking about his

death, and he says, do not let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, also believe in me.

My father's house has many rooms.

If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to

prepare a place for you? You may well have read this

passage before. Jesus promises that he's going

to prepare a place for us, a room for us.

You know, when my dad was given his diagnosis and was dying, we

had a conversation about this passage.

He said, Libby, tell me what you think it's going to be like.

And we had this. I said to her, are you going to

get a double room dad so that when mum dies, she can come and

join you. He was like, I'm going to enjoy

the non snoring while she's not around.

And he said, what do you think it's going to be like?

I was like, I think it's going to be like glamping because it's

temporary and I love camping. And it turns out that my dad

enjoys camping less, even though we did a lot growing up.

So he didn't want he didn't want glamping.

But when we hear Jesus talk about him going ahead to prepare

a room for us, it's much more like an Airbnb or a hotel room.

It's a temporary place or a glamping tent.

I'll add that in. He's preparing a place for us,

not a place for us to stay in for all eternity.

The the word room or dwelling place depending on your

translation. The original language is the is

the word Monet or however you say it, which means temporary

dwelling place. You know you don't live in an

Airbnb, do you? You go there for a few nights,

for rest, for for fun. You might be on holiday,

visiting friends or visiting places.

You don't settle there. It's a time of rest and

relaxation before you go home For Jesus and his apostles, as

it is for us, we die and as we do, we go to be with Him in

paradise. We are welcomed in a place that

we will not stay forever, but we are welcomed into paradise, a

place of temporary tranquility, where we rest, where we worship,

where we join in with all of the Saints.

It's a peaceful place where we are with Him, a place where we

find ourselves waiting, waiting for a new day, the day of

ultimate resurrection. I don't know how we've gotten

into this place, but somehow in the church we've been sold this

flattened, narrow story of God. And we're told that by working

out our salvation, it comes down to one thing.

Just set yourselves up so you can go to heaven when you die.

When in fact to the God story, when we look at it from

beginning to end, when we look at it from the Garden of Eden

right through to Revelation, we find in in Genesis one in the

Garden of Eden, the Father walking in the call of the day

with Adam and Eve. And from that moment on, the

whole of the God story talks about God's coming to earth.

The glory of God comes from the heavenlies to dwell in the

Tabernacle. The presence of God comes from

the heavenlies to fill the temple.

Jesus leaves the glory of the heavenlies to take on our frame

a physical human body to be filled with the power and the

presence of the Spirit here on earth to Pentecost that's

recorded in Acts. The Spirit falls, fills his

church, and the people go out into the into the world.

Throughout the story of God from beginning to end, we see that

the central movement of God is not us going to heaven, but it

is God coming here to dwell with us.

Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. Jesus taught us to pray and to

live so much of that in the final chapters of our story we

read about in Revelation 21, Revelation 21, one to three says

this when I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the 1st heaven

and the first earth had passed away and there isn't I and there

was no longer a sea. I saw a holy city, the New

Jerusalem, coming down from out from out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I hear a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's

dwelling place is now with the people, and he will dwell with

them. They will be his people, and God

himself will be with them and be their God.

The joy of paradise is that we will be with Him instantly, held

firmly in the conscience and loving presence of God.

And yet that isn't the end of the story.

There is life after death. Jesus offers a such a broader,

fuller story. It's the story of a life,

afterlife after death, the whole of creation, even our own

bodies. We are groaning for a day, that

day of ultimate resurrection. There is a day coming when

heaven, God's presence, will root itself here.

A day when we shall be returned back here.

A day where for all time God will dwell here.

A day when creation is going to be remade.

A day when all that is evil will be destroyed.

All that is evil will be dealt with.

This is the day. This is a day when this world

will be set right. A day when Eden will be

restored. A day when broken and dislocated

parts of the universe, of people, of things, of animals,

of atoms, will get properly fixed and fitted together in

vibrant harmony. A day when all the sad things

are going to come untrue. A day when all will be well.

We will see creation as it was meant to be.

Our story, the God story, begins in a garden and it ends in a

Garden City, a day of new creation.

The ultimate hope for us, for Christians, is that for all time

we will live and move and have our being here on earth in a

place where all things have been made new.

New creation isn't a copy or a substitute or a replacement of

this place, but it is returned back to the way things were

always meant to be. Tim Keller said this.

Christianity promises not only a spirit only future, like the

future in paradise, the soul space, but a renewed heavens and

earth, a perfected material world from which all suffering

and tears, disease, evil and death has been eliminated.

Our future is not an immaterial one.

We're not going to float around in the Kingdom of God like

ghosts. We're going to walk, we're going

to eat, we're going to hug and be hugged.

We're going to love. We're going to sing.

We will do all of this in degrees of glory and excellence

and satisfaction, beauty and power that I think will blow our

minds. We are going to get to eat and

drink with Jesus, the Son of Man, and that is when finally

death will be defeated. It's not a mere consolation in

heaven for the material life that we've lost.

It is a restoration of the whole of life.

And this is our hope. We sang it this morning.

There is resurrection power flowing through our veins.

It's getting the love and the body and the mind and the being

that we have always longed for. And while we can't even begin to

fathom what it will look like, feel like to live in a world

that has been made new, where we get to dwell and eat and drink

with the resurrection in the life of this, I am absolutely

convinced that we will look over the new creation and our hearts

cry, will be. This is very, very good.

So what I'm saying is that if immediately after physical death

we enter this paradise, this soul space, one day we won't

stay there forever. One day, on the day of

redemption, the day of Jesus's return, the day of God's Kingdom

coming in full and completeness, we will join God in making his

home here in a perfected physical world where heaven and

earth are forever. 1 The writers of the New Testament want us to

see what is true, that what is true of the entire cosmos, what

is true of everything in creation is also true of us as

individuals, because we will live in a perfected physical

body, a body that has been transformed by resurrection.

OK, so let's illustrate that. If you've got your Bible, turn

to 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul was writing this this one

chapter. If you do anything this week,

I'd encourage you to read this chapter 1 Corinthians 15.

I'm going to pick out a few verses from it.

It was written by Paul a in a letter to the church in Corinth.

Paul was, if you don't know who he was, he was an all round

general legend wrote a lot of the New Testament and in one

Corinthians 1520, Paul says this God has been raised, sorry, but

Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits

of those who have fallen asleep. Paul is saying here that Jesus

is not only raised from the dead, but he's also the first

human to be fully resurrected. And to describe that he uses

this term firstfruits. So it's a farming term, a

harvest term, the arrival of crops, your firstfruits you

would offer to God as an offering.

But the first fruits implies that it's not over.

Once you've got your first fruits, they are the first

fruits. The first fruits are a signal, a

sign that there is more to come. And so on the day of his

resurrection, we find Jesus inhabiting this new, renewed

body. It's not a brand new body.

It's also not the same body as before, but it is the material

of Jesus original body that has been transformed.

I know this is all going a bit. Whoo are you tracking?

I'll try and explain that a little bit.

Hours after Jesus had been raised from the dead, he was

walking alongside 2 of his disciples, 2 people that he had

spent three years journeying with, and they didn't recognize

him. As they walked to Emmaus, these

two disciples, they invited this apparent stranger into the place

that they were, say, staying. And so Jesus enters in, still

unrecognised. He sits down.

He goes to break some bread, and as he breaks it, that's when the

disciples suddenly recognise him.

Jesus was the first to inhabit a resurrected body.

There is something different about it.

There's something new, something unrecognizable about him.

And yet at exactly the same time, they knew for sure that it

was him. Later on, there's a a beautiful

interaction between Jesus and one of his disciples who's been

deconstructing his faith, a guy called Thomas.

And we find that Jesus, even though he was in this new kind

of physical body, he still bears the the wounds, the scars of his

crucifixion. There is something of what had

passed that lasts. There was something that was

that had lasted through into the resurrection.

The truth is that Jesus, the human Jesus, even though he

entered paradise, he dwelt and he came back in his resurrected

physical body, He still bare bears the scars, bore the scars

of the resurrection. And you know we see this when

Jesus went up to heaven in the ascension, and this is recorded

in Acts 1 when he rises to the heavenlies, the angels say to

the disciples, this same Jesus who has been taken from you in

heaven will come back in the same way as you saw him go into

heaven. What does this mean for us?

To quote 1 John 3/2, he says, Dear friends, now we are

children of God and what will hasn't, sorry, what will be has

not yet been made known, but we know that when Christ's Christ

appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,

will be like him. I will one day bear the image of

Jesus completely in the new creation.

You and I will look at each other and yes, we'll see each

other, but we will also fully see Jesus.

Mind twist. Get your head round that.

I think it's awesome. This is what our lives are set

upon. This is why conversations that

we have about discipleship and spiritual formation are really,

really important because that is where we're headed.

You know, we're headed to a place where all the things that

we've learnt about ourselves and about Jesus and how to do life

will be really significant. We're learning now what it will

be like to live in the reality of eternity.

We get to become more like Jesus as we open ourselves up to what

the Holy Spirit wants to do in and through us.

Being transformed to be like Him is what it's about.

And that doesn't stop at our death.

It carries on into the new creation.

Jesus is the firstfruits. He's like the prototype.

Just as He was raised, so too we will follow Him and we will be

raised like Him. We will take on the same kind of

body that we see Jesus inhabiting following His

resurrection. Paul goes on in One Corinthians

15 to give to give us a few more clues of what this is going to

be like. Verse 37 he speaks of a seed

being planted in the ground, and in verse 42 he says this.

So it will be with the resurrection.

So it will be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body is sown like a seed into the ground.

It is perishable, but it is raised imperishable.

It is sown in dishonour, but it is raised in glory.

It's sown in weakness, but it is raised in power.

It is sown. It is sown a natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body. Paul is really trying to get us

to understand that our resurrected bodies, they find

their source material within our actual bodies, our physicality

here and now. Just as a seed is planted in the

ground and a flower springs up, there is something that happens

underground that we don't see. It's the transformation into a

flower. Resurrection is something

similar. There is something of the old

that lives on, but there is something new that emerges.

The best word to describe that is transformation.

Within our perfected physical and spiritual bodies, we will at

the same time resemble ourselves and yet be completely new.

This new body will be more solid, more whole, more real,

more substantial than our present ones.

So much so that we can say that right now we are a mere shadow,

not of our former selves, but of our future self.

These bodies, these new bodies, will bear no sickness and no

illness. There'll be no depression in

these bodies, no crippling anxiety, no chronic pain.

There will be no Alzheimer's. There will be no more cancer,

only wholeness and perfection. It will be the coming together

of the image of Jesus and our truest selves.

And I know that this is mysterious, but it's worth

trying to get our heads around a bit further on.

In One Corinthians 15, verses 453 to 55 says this For our

dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die.

Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal

bodies. Then when our dying bodies have

been transformed into bodies that will never die, this

scripture will be fulfilled. Death is swallowed up in

victory. O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting? When our perishable dying bodies

have been clothed with imperishable transformed bodies

that will never die? The perishable isn't thrown

away, it's just clothed in something new.

The the the mortal with immortality, and then death will

be swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory?

Oh death, where is your sting? It all begins with Jesus own

resurrection. We are going to be raised like

him and with him. Paul says later on to the church

in Colossae. He says in Colossians 3/4 For

you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is in your life appears, then you will also

appear in glory. That is what we're in this for,

nothing less. This is the New Testaments

version of resurrection. There's layers upon layers.

There's richness, there's death, there's comprehension.

And way more compelling. This vision is way more

compelling compared to the flattened, narrow perspective of

life after death that is so often portrayed by Christians.

I've come to see resurrection that I've come to see that

resurrection is so robust that it is possible to carry the

weight of your whole life and death upon it.

It's hope that will carry us through.

Yes, hope of rest and temporary dwelling in paradise, but then

making our home with God on earth and seeing a new heaven

and a new earth created. So I've talked about, I've

talked about paradise, I've talked about new creation, I've

talked about resurrection body. When I talked about paradise, I

talked about the interaction that Jesus had on the cross with

the criminal. And he said today you will be

with me in paradise. When I talked about new

creation, I talked about Revelation 21, God's dwelling

place, being among the people, He will dwell with them.

They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be

their God. And then just briefly, the

resurrection body in Colossians 3.

When Christ appears, who is our life?

Then you will appear with him in glory.

The word that links these three things together is the word with

We will be with Jesus said, You will be with me.

God will dwell with them. We will be with Him in glory at

every stage of the God story, every stage of our life, from

this present moment to the day of ultimate resurrection.

At every stage, the One who promises that He will never

leave us nor forsake us says that He is with us, present with

us every step of the way. Which leads me back to Romans

838. Like it did last week, I am

convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our

fears for today or our worries about tomorrow.

Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky above or in the earth below.

Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us

from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Every step of our story is

marked with the witness of Jesus.

Our fear of death is gone because of the witness of Jesus.

Everything that lies ahead, he has gone there first.

Jesus will never lead us into something that he has not faced

himself. Death, resurrection, paradise,

new body. Jesus has faced it all.

He's not sat on the sidelines waiting for it to happen.

He has been in the thick of the action.

Jesus never wants any of his children, any of us, to face

anything alone. He goes 1st and He has faced it

all. He will lead us through death

into resurrection, gently whispering to us, I've been here

before, I know the way ahead. Do not be afraid, despite the

mystery, despite our desire for certainty, waiting to know

exactly how, wanting to know exactly how it will feel,

exactly what it will be like. Because we can't.

We can trust Jesus. We can trust Him.

He is the resurrection and the life.

We can place our hope in the truth that He is leading us.

We need not dread death or be filled with trepidation.

God is good and can be trusted forever and ever and ever.

He will be our guide to the very end.

We want to. We crave certainty, don't we?

We want to know what's going to happen, how it's going to play

out. We want to know what the future

will be like. And yet, Jesus doesn't invite us

into a life marked with certainty.

He invites us into a life that is marked by trust.

And they are two very different, different things.

If only we could have an instruction manual that gave us

one step at a time how to live and what it's going to look like

and what we're going to encounter and how it's going to

be step by step. We don't have that, but we have

a person to walk with, to take each step with that has been

there before, that has been ahead of us.

And he invites us into something deeper, something that will

transform our lives. And for that we need to trust

him, because we can trust him, because we can lay the weight of

our life and our death upon him. We can find hope and we can

become eternal optimists. The hope is the promise of

Jesus's presence throughout the future.

That's the gospel. That's the good news of Jesus.

That's why we need to have these conversations.

Death is not all that there is. Death is the gateway into

resurrection life. And for those of us who follow

Jesus, he invites us to see that death isn't something to run

away from. In fact, it is more like a

homecoming. When he was facing his own

physical death, the famous pastor in from Chicago, DL

Moody, said this. Pretty soon you're going to read

in the Chicago papers that Dwight Moody is dead.

Don't you believe it. I will be more alive than I am

right now. To enter God's future means that

we need to become more human, more ourselves, more real, more

alive, more at home than we than we ever could be here and now.

Death is not the end of things. It's only the mere beginning.

Death isn't setting off into uncharted, choppy waters.

It's entering into a peaceful harbour where the Father is

running towards us, wanting to embrace us and welcome us into

the homecoming feast. Or in the words of Jewel, then

the Unicorn from Narnia. When he arrives into the real

Narnia, he says this is my real country.

I belong here. This is the land that I have

been looking for. Resurrection is our real country

home at last, and Jesus is leading us all the way there.

Upper head is home and because of the renewed earth, the

resurrected bodies that resemble Jesus.

The words from Paul in Thessalonians 1/4 are so true.

We will be with the Lord forever, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer

said, he said, our men closing a short worship service in the

cells of Flossenburg concentration camp.

Two men in civilian clothes. They clothes, they barged

through the door and shouted, prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready

to come with us. The small crowd in the room knew

what those words meant. His death.

So Bonhoeffer in front of these worshippers, in front of his

executioners, defiantly and full of hope, full of resurrection

hope, preached his last sermon, a sermon of 10 words.

This is the end for me, the beginning of life.

Why don't you stand? I've talked for a long time.

Apologies, but let's just see what the Lord says.

If you've got children in Vineyard Kids, the team would

love to see you sooner rather than later.

So do feel free to go and then come back and we can pray.

Holy Spirit, would you come, Lord, where I've talked many

words? Would your words stick,

Lord? Where many of us, our hearts are

broken, we're walking with grief and the weight that that

carries. And we ask that you would come

and you would surround us, and you would give us eternal

optimism. But thank you for the vision of

resurrection. Lord, I ask that you would come

and break the power of fear that any of us hold, the fear of

death. But now, maybe after this

morning, the fear of resurrection and what that looks

like and the uncertainty, Lord, would you come?

The peace and the presence of God is resting on a number of

you, and I want to encourage you to stay in that space.

If you would appreciate somebody praying for you this morning, we

would love to stand with you. We would love to pray for you.

So if that's you, why don't you either grab someone that you

came with or come to the front? People in small groups are

available to pray. If you're just feeling a bit raw

or a bit confused, then the Spirit of God wants to just meet

with you. Heavenly Father, thank you for

your presence. Thank you for your peace and

your promise. Thank you, Jesus, that you say

you'll never leave us nor forsake us, and that you went

first. Jesus, thank you that you are

with us.