LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 87

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CONVENTION ESSAYS AND BIBLE STUDIES
“heaven” or “eternal life,” we are often referring to what
happens for our souls after our bodies die.
But let me just read one sentence from Dr. Francis
Pieper, whose three volumes of systematic theology still are
the standard, basic work for the training of pastors in our
church. He writes that the Scripture “reveals but little of
the state of the soul between death and the resurrection.
In speaking of the last things, [Scripture] directs our gaze
primarily to Judgment Day and the events clustering
around it.” Now, Pieper does go on to discuss what we can
know about the soul after the body dies. But he is absolutely right. The Bible directs our hope most strongly,
most urgently, most directly to that great day when Christ
will come again, the day of the restoration of the kingdom to
true Israel, the day of our resurrection and the renewing of
the whole creation. This is why they went to the ends of the
earth, with energy and urgency. They knew that day was
coming. And they longed for it to come.
c. A third reason we do not, I believe, really know when
we are living: We have become too comfortable with sin,
and with the “abnormal normal.” Broken promises, broken
lives, broken bodies, broken world—it all leaves us unmoved. Sin around us, sin within us—bombarded and confronted by it, we start to accommodate it, we make peace
with it.
But God doesn’t want us to get used to sin; rather, we
are to long for sin’s complete destruction and to cry from
the heart, with Paul, “Who will deliver me from the body of
this death?” When will we be delivered from this struggle
between Old Man and New Man. God will deliver us—on
the Last Day. Thanks be to God (Rom 7:24–25). When are
we living? In the last days, still times of temptation and
spiritual danger, looking for and longing for the restoration
of all the holy prophets spoke of from days of old.
C. We can, and we must let the Scripture teach us when
we are living. Just read the New Testament, and look for
all the ways that the Last Day comes into view. Let God’s
Word teach you and reshape your hope. Yes, there will be
rest with Christ in Paradise when our bodies die. But with
Paul on the doorstep of his death, we can still long for God’s
great and final day of victory in Christ. Turn with me to
2 Tim. 1: As the time of his own death approaches, Paul’s
longing remains focused on the second coming of Christ.
2 Tim. 1:12—“For which cause I also am suffering, but I am
not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am
persuaded that He is able to guard what I have entrusted
to Him until that Day.” To the end of his life, Paul knew
when he was living. 2 Tim. 4:7–8: “I have kept the faith; finally the crown of righteousness is being stored for me,
which the Lord will award to me on that Day–and not only
to me; but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Paul
knew when he was living.
This biblical hope, this life in the latter days puts Christ
at the center—what Christ has already done, what Christ
will fully and completely do. And what a once-in-a-millenium opportunity we have! It’s 1998! We all know how much
frenzy and foolishness will spring up as the new millennium
approaches! Fantastic and wrong-headed interpretations of
biblical prophecy, foolish predictions by those who claim to

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calculate when the end will come—such error will be everywhere.
But what an opportunity for us to regain the biblical
hope, the faith of the early church in the book of Acts ... the
sense of when we are living. Christ is risen—indeed! Christ
is coming again—come quickly, Lord Jesus. And this sense,
this faith, this understanding of when we are living leads
naturally and inevitably to the question: “What shall we do
until Jesus comes again?”
And here we come to the second thing that the Christians in Acts believed.
II. They Knew That They Were Sent
A. Recall the very beginning of the book with me. Acts
1:6, “Lord, is it at this time that You will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
1. Jesus’ answer: “It is not yours to know the time or
seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.”
2. But the question comes up, “Okay, if the restoration of
all things will come only at a time that we do not know,
what shall we do until then?” And Jesus answers that question. “Here is what I want you to do: You will be My witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends
of the earth.” When are they living? In the last days, the
time between victory and final victory. When will the final
victory be? You don’t get to know. Okay, what do we do
until then? Give testimony about the Victor.
B. They believed Jesus. So, through the power of God’s
Holy Spirit, they were witnesses. And through their witness, God’s ancient promise to restore a people to Himself
was at work.
1. Turn with me to Acts 2. Remember Peter’s words,
verses 16, 17, and 21: “Rather, this is what has been spoken
through the prophet Joel, ‘And it will be in the last days,
God says, I will pour out from My Spirit upon all flesh and
your sons and daughters will prophesy and your young men
will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. ...
And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of
the Lord will be saved.” They bore witness. On that day,
about 3,000 were born again in Holy Baptism, through the
apostles’ testimony to Jesus. Peter knew that he was living
in the last days. And he knew that he was sent to bear witness to Christ.
2. The testimony continued. The apostles. Stephen and
Philip. Unnamed believers scattered through persecution
and unmentioned believers who stayed right where they
were. Not everyone who heard believed the testimony. God
did not shield the disciples from all harm; Stephen died;
James, son of Zebedee, died. Others were beaten. Others
were not. But as we read the story and follow it through,
this conviction is clear: They knew that they were sent for
the purpose of bearing testimony to human need and divine
solution—in Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead. It
began in Jerusalem, and then spread to Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth–It began! But the
story has no end. Turn to Acts 28:31, last verse in the book.
Paul is in Rome, under house arrest, yet “preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching, with all boldness and without hindrance, the things concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Paul’s mouth is open. He’s not done. The end of