Congregation of the Lord, this morning we are resuming our tour through scripture using the Heidelberg Catechism. If you don't know what that means, that's okay. We just read from it just now. This catechism, a catechism is just a form of instruction in basic Christian teaching, asking a question and then giving you an answer and very often just quoting scripture, the Bible. And this catechism focuses on our only comfort in life and in death, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is belonging to Him as our Savior, and how to live. So it focuses on that comfort, and also how to live and die in the joy of that comfort. That's what we're returning to this morning, the only comfort in life and death, belonging to Jesus, and how to live and die in the joy of that comfort. And you can see then, as our questions already allude to, our theme this morning is comfort. But it's not the sorta super plush pillow top kind of comfort. That has its place, and that's nice, and that belongs to the things we've not yet heard or seen. But it's the chicken noodle soup kind of comfort. the kind that comforts you in your misery when you're sick and makes it possible to endure until better days. That's the kind of comfort that the gospel gives us. That's the comfort that you and I, congregation, we need every day as we live here and serve together our great God. If I could put it this way, this chicken noodle soup for the soul, the gospel of Jesus Christ, Now our focus this morning will be on the comfort that we as believers have in the bodily resurrection promised to us in the gospel and everlasting life promised to us in the gospel. Now, we all should believe these things, congregation, and I know many of you do, but we should all believe in the resurrection of the dead. We should all believe in life everlasting, because that is what Jesus tells us in the Gospel this morning. He said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. And then he tells us what he meant by that. He who believes in me, believes who I am, and puts their trust entirely in me as God's son. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live because he is the resurrection. He raises the dead to life. And whoever lives eternally, receiving life from me now, not just earthly life here, but the gift of life, whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. You're both, as a believer in Christ, going to die bodily, and Jesus will take care of that in the resurrection, but also, as a believer in Christ, you've already passed from death to life, and you live already enjoying eternal life. Now, it was Jesus' job, congregation, and it's His church's job today to make known to the world that everybody who believes in Jesus Christ as creator and Lord will be raised bodily from the dead to everlasting life. And even now receiving the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus made that known and he has entrusted and commanded his church to keep making that proclamation known today. Well, how does this gospel then comfort us of the bodily resurrection and of life everlasting? Well, when you and I die bodily, congregation, our soul will be taken immediately to Christ, its head. Rather than descending to Hades, the watery, murky depths where unbelievers go, until they await the future punishment in hell, rather than descending to Hades at death, we now who are in Christ, united to him by faith, by the Spirit, we ascend to heaven to be with Jesus. You know the song, Jesus Loves Me? Have you sung the fourth verse? Jesus loves me, he who died, heaven's gates to open wide. but good theology to give to your children and yourself in that hymn. Our souls do not pass first through purgatory. God forbid that horrible heresy. but they are taken immediately to Christ. Now, of course, this is a 16th century catechism, and that was a doctrine taught in the church, and that's why they're emphasizing immediately. Not immediately, after you make a journey through purgatory and become more refined, but immediately, when you die, your soul goes straight to be with Jesus. Your body lays in the ground. It will be raised alive from the dead by your soul. Spirit goes to be with Jesus. And I can hardly think of any greater comfort in the face of death. I certainly do not want to put off this body, as I know you don't. I certainly do not want to leave behind my dear wife and children, and I know you don't. The very thought of these are grievous to us, and they should be grievous to us. But if I can't stay, which God assures us none of us can, he has a new heaven, he has a new earth planned for us, then at least, right, we have this. At least I have the comfort of my soul going immediately to the one who is the source of all my eternal joy here, to the one whom I love more than anything else here, and to the one who loves me. more than anyone else here. So that is the comfort given to us at the time of death. I don't know about you, but I hate driving on I-95, or any of the 95s. But at least, right, we have this comfort as we're on it. We're heading home. It's the way home. And you can endure the traffic. and the delays, and the horns, and the crazy drivers, and the threat to your own life, because it's the way home. That's what makes it bearable. You and I will not like dying, beloved. Your loved ones will not like you dying. Neither you nor they should like it. Death is not our friend. Death is not natural. It's not something we're to be reconciled to and like and just put up with. It's something we endure patiently by the God who's given us comfort to endure it with the hope of the resurrection and what He has done to abolish it with the gospel of His Son. Death is penal. It is a punishment for sin. But in God's grace, It has been made to us an entrance to eternal life, an entrance to our eternal home, to be with Jesus. And he will bring us back with him to the new heavens, the new earth. Certainly home, as you know, is the place where you stay, right? But since you and I can't stay here, it's not our home. Our home is with Christ. And that is what Jesus told the dying convert, his dying convert, the thief on the cross, Assuredly I say to you, today you'll be with me in paradise. Now let us not forget how lovely our Lord Jesus is. He is the one who brings us back to paradise. He is the one who transforms by his presence there every place into paradise. I told you when he went through that descent into Hades, paradise was used three times in the New Testament. Every time refers to where Jesus is at. And I also know that you know, congregation, when Jesus died, he went to Hades. His soul went to Hades. His body went to the grave. You know, and you can search all of Scripture. Scripture talks a lot about Hades. It mentions it. You can also read pagan literature. They talked about Hades and where their dead went. You can read all of that, and you will not find one writer before Jesus who called Hades paradise. It was the exact opposite of it, a murky, dim, dank, wet place at the depths of the earth, the farthest place from God, imagine. Now, not all of Hades was paradise. As I said, the unbelieving dead still go there as they wait for the resurrection and punishment. But it's the part that Jesus went to, where the saints before, the believing church, the fathers were at. But heaven is now paradise because that's where Jesus has risen there and ascended at God's right hand. And that's where we go when we die bodily, to heaven, to paradise. When you face, congregation, that moment, that hour of death, and unless Jesus comes back, you will face that moment, you will face that hour, you have this comfort. You're going to paradise. You're going to be with Jesus. You're going to the place where it is said of our first parents, when they were originally created, that they were naked, unashamed. And I don't know about you, but I find it impossible to imagine what that's like today. You're going to a place that is an unimaginably wonderful place. You're going to live in unimaginable, though not yet perfect, because we're going to be raised bodily, that's the perfection, but an unimaginably wonderful state and condition, beyond anything you know here, when you do go to heaven. That is a comfort for you, and that is a comfort for your loved ones, as you will be grievously torn apart for now, separated at least bodily from each other. But we know as believers we still inherit the same Mount Zion that our departed, believing forefathers' children are at. We're there right now. We don't speak to them. It's the same heavenly city that we've come to, but we will be separated bodily for the time being. You'll be missed here, you'll be wanted here, but you'll be at home in heaven until Jesus brings you to the final one, new heavens or earth, and you'll be worshiping there in heaven. That's comfort at death, but there's also comfort to us now in life, as we live every day, serving Jesus. I didn't read this, but I think this is a fairly enough familiar passage to most of us, but consider the wonderful dilemma that the gospel puts us in. When Paul wrote to the Philippians and said, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, continuing here in the body, this will mean fruit from my labor Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." You know, Apollo will say in the next verses that remaining here with them is more needful, so he's confident that will happen, and that is, in fact, what did happen. But think about this. I mean, how many of you enjoy seeing fruit? from your labor. But that's a wonderful thing as you have labored hard and you've seen it and you've seen it in your family's lives, you've seen your community, seen your workplace, whatever you've been working on. You see fruit from that. I did a word study this week on the word joy. It's used 150 times in the Bible. And one of the joys of life is work. Labor. I know maybe not always, but generally speaking, work brings us a source of joy and pleasure, particularly when we see the fruit of it, what we're laboring after, and we experience it, taste it, enjoy it. So Paul is saying here, look, I'm going to stay here, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to see gospel fruit. How joyful, right? Who would want to leave that? That is something we enjoy here as believers. But then he says, to die is gain. That is a very great comfort because what this is saying to us is that whatever good here that is lost to us by death is compensated by the gain at death of going to be Jesus. So if you've not yet moved death to the gain column congregation, I encourage you to do so. It'll help you to enjoy your labors here more. What I'm trying to encourage you to say is, how wonderful that we get to live on here in the enjoyments of these earthly things. And it's not as if when it's over, because isn't that how we naturally think? This is the only life, let's live and eat and drink for tomorrow we die. People live that way. But no, not for a believer. You can never live that way. Because to die is gain. You can never say, I have to get it all now. I have to have a bucket list a mile long, I have to wear myself figuring out, and I got to keep up with the Joneses and have everything else this world has. If you try to do that, you're just signing up for more misery than already comes to you in this life. To die is gain. It's not my word, that's God's word. It's going to happen. Nothing you can do about it. And I can do that. This is the reality. We want to hear the comfort God gives us in the gospel. It's there. One of the things, and this is something I've had to face up lately to congregation, because I've gained here some things I really don't want to lose, be separated from. My wife, my children. I'm going to die. It's a reality. Unless Jesus comes back first, I'm going to die. It's guaranteed. And I can just put it off and never think about it. There's some comfort to that, right? We can often comfort ourselves by just not thinking about the problem. It's not very lasting. Or I can stare it in its face, as hard and grievous as it is, and take comfort from the gospel that God gives me. I think we should take that comfort. I think if you take that comfort, congregation, you will live more fully here. and you enjoy more fully the things that God does give you here. If you take that comfort given to you in the gospel, that to die is truly a gain. You may remember, and I can say years ago now, because it's been years ago since I've been here, Jeff Dronenberg delivered a sermon for me on lamenting because I was sick that morning. And I had studied that book of lamentations one summer when I was an intern and preached through it. And I saw kind of four things there of lamenting, crying out to God our misery. First is you don't blame shift. You sinned. This horrible disaster has happened to you and you need to own up to it. Your sins brought it upon your head. It's clear in Lamentations. 900 years God sent his prophets and said, repent. They didn't do it. But second, you tell God how bad it hurts because even though he brought all this pain on you for your sin, he's full of pity. You should cry out to him in your misery. There's still cause for us to lament. Death is still here. But third, you're to draw near and wait on the Lord, because his mercies are new to us every morning. The very heart of lamentations, you have to study it, but the middle verse is chapter 3, verse 33. He does not inflict willingly or from his heart or grieve the children of men, I should raise the question, well, where does this come from, then, this affliction? Whose heart, then, if it's not from God's? We forced Him to it. Your hand brought it upon you. He told you this would happen if you didn't repent, and you didn't repent. And He brought it on your head. But we can wait upon our God, whose mercies are new, and trust that He will heal us as we draw near to Him. If you've ever read Guston's Confessions, it opens up that wonderful line near the beginning, talking about how we as mortals bear in our bodies the mark that God resists the proud. We were not made with mortal bodies. We've had death inflicted upon us because of our sin. But God will, the same God who's punished us with that, because we did it, will heal us and raise us from the dead. But fourth, and this is one I was driving at, but I think all of them are helpful as we own up to death and why we die, our own sin, but we can still tell God how bad it hurts. We still wait upon Him to fulfill His promises to bring us to eternal life. But fourth, and this is the one that kind of makes you scratch your head, you console yourself with the future destruction of your enemies. For now, beloved, death gets the victory over these bodies. But God has promised a day coming in Isaiah 25, when this shall be brought to pass. Death is swallowed up in victory. And that's why Paul says even now we sing, oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? Because it's not going to last. We can comfort ourselves in that. It's an ugly thing to see these bodies ravaged by death. It's a miserable thing to go through. an extremely painful thing for many. I really want you to know, congregation, that cancer is not your battle to fight. Old age isn't your battle to fight. Liver disease, heart disease, none of these are your battles to fight, right? What does Scripture say? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are not David facing the Goliath of death. We are in the camp hoping that some champion will arrive and challenge this person who defies God and his people. That champion is the Lord Jesus Christ. He won his victory over death for us on the cross when he died in our place for our sins, suffered the punishment we deserve, satisfied God's eternal unchanging law, and so removed from us the sting of death. Your battle will be to trust in the Lord in the face of cancer and heart disease and old age and whatever may be brought to you. But you're not alone in that fight either, because as we heard, you have an advocate in heaven who loves you more than anything and died for you. You have an advocate and comforter with you now, indwelling you, the Holy Spirit, who can help you in your grounds and misery when you can't put words to your pain, and will pray according you can assure to God's will for you. It is okay, and you should, plead with God for healing, that you might remain here and serve him. But I just want to ask this question to you. Do you pray that believing dying is gain? And do you pray that knowing to live is Christ? Do you want to stay here and be more Christ-like? Or do you want to be more you-like? And that's why you want to stay here. Are you praying, despairing because you've not settled in your heart and you can't stay here, but you know where you're going because you trust in Jesus and the gospel? Ask for healing, but make sure you know why you're asking. One day, congregation, our souls are going to be reunited to these very bodies which our Lord Jesus Christ, by His power, is going to raise from the grave And he's going to make them to be like his glorious body that he is presently in and enjoying. And so you and I can comfort ourselves with that future destruction of death as we see death eat away at these bodies here. because you will be in possession of an incorruptible and immortal body longer than you were in one that was corruptible and mortal, and that is God's grace to you. David will pray sometimes, right? Lord, comfort us as long as you've afflicted us. He's going to comfort you far longer than he's afflicted you. Eternal life. Now, the reason I did a study on the word joy is because of what the catechism says in its answer to how the eternal life comforts us. Its answer begins with that statement, even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy. How many of you have ever gotten giddy with joy and excitement in anticipation of something? Maybe your family's going to be in town, and the thought of family movie night, because it's been a while, and it starts bubbling up, and you're smiling, thinking about it. But it's hours away, maybe days. Or the weekend's coming up, and a break from your school books to other books that you enjoy reading, and you're thinking about it, and you start to get excited, right? That before that event takes place, you're already experiencing the joy of it in your heart. How many of you have ever had that happen to you? But that's how it is with eternal life. Before the event of it, that bodily resurrection and brought into the new heavens, new earth, before the event of it, which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has ever imagined, which kind of raises the question how we can experience the joy of it already if we don't even really understand fully what it is. And that's probably why Peter says to the church, your joy is inexpressible, meaning it's really hard to explain this kind of joy to people because Oftentimes, Christians are kind of miserable in their situation and circumstances, yet they're so full of joy. And why are Christians so full of joy? Because before the event of eternal life, you are already experiencing that joy in your heart now. Christians already have eternal life now. You don't bodily have it yet, but Christians have passed from death to life by regeneration, a new birth. And this explains why we have that experience of the beginning, the experience of the beginning of eternal joy now. You know, joy is really one of those words where its denotation, it means its dictionary definition, really falls short, right, of its connotations. All the things that we associate it, and the warmth, and the experience, and just what happens to your body when you're in joy, right? You can read a definition of joy and you're like, Or you can experience joy, right? And so let me give you some examples, right? Because I find joy to be better really defined just by examples. Who are my sports fans, but not on the Sabbath? Where are they at? How did you feel the last time your team won an amazing victory, right? Especially if they were in underdogs, right? That's the joy of the victory. The Bible talks about that. When your team or you or your team won a victory. That could be a board game, that could be a sports game, but you know what that feeling is. Especially when you won that unexpected victory. This is really meant to be a joyful message. I know we have to deal with hard things, but you've just got to deal with the hard things, you take the comfort serious, and then live in the joy, right? That's what the Galatians says. How about you, recipients of God's prosperous providence to you? How did you feel the last time something turned out better than you expected, like a doctor's visit for an ultrasound? I think we were all rejoicing with you, Mary Jo and Matthew, when we read that email. Or you could read in the gospel, right? When Jesus appeared alive from the dead and was with the group, what the joy, it says that they couldn't even believe because they were so filled with joy. They're just blanking, overwhelmed with the joy of it all. It was a joy to me just to read about, actually that's the next one, but it was a joy to think about this one. And Ezra, how many of you the last time the strong arm of government suddenly and unexpectedly turned to your favor as it did when God worked in the heart of the Assyrian king and prospered in Ezra's day, the rebuilding of it? Joy from God's prosperous providence. Something looked bad and just turned out unexpectedly wonderful. How many of you have recently come out of darkness to light earth? Whenever you did that, whenever that happened, how did you feel after that dark night of sin passed away? God, in his mercy, dispelled your sinful darkness. David in Psalm 51 prayed that God would restore the joy of his salvation to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba. Joy filled Jerusalem, you know, for two whole weeks in Hezekiah's day, because the law had been forgotten, and they found it, and they read it, and they said, God, we're not going to keep your Passover one week, we're going to keep it two weeks. Because this is like nothing we've seen since Solomon's day, as God had brought him out of that darkness. I can imagine what the joy of the Reformation is like. How joyful we ought to be as Protestants today, not living under that horrible yoke of papacy and the darkness of its lies, as we've been brought to the true light of the gospel of Christ. God coming back to God is always a joyful experience. Now truth be told to you congregation, there's probably as many joys in this life as there are people. Different people find pleasure in different things. None of us have the same kind of joys, and that's fine. But we all are going to say the same thing about these earthly joys. And here's why I've got to pop the bubble again. The joy of our heart has ceased. Lamentations 5.15. Our life here and experiencing the earthly joys does come to an end. But to console our hearts, God, to console our hearts, because God is so full of mercy and pittiness. Paul says he gives us all things richly to enjoy. He's a God who wants us to be joyful. And to console our hearts and the loss of these things, these earthly joys, our hobbies and vacation spots and family times, all this, God gives to us the joy of the Lord. The joy that can never be taken away. That's our refuge and our strength in this life. Because that is a joy, if I could borrow Jesus' words, that wells up inside of you and bubbles up to everlasting joy as you've come to know the Lord. The beginning of everlasting joy, beloved, it begins when you believe in Jesus and His coming salvation and trust in Him. That's what Peter says, whom having not seen, you love. Though you do not see Him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible, full of glory. You know, the saints' joy congregation is hard to explain because it's not tied to the present, but it's tied to a person. So it's not controlled then by present circumstances. Neither is it found in things that are seen, but in one who is as yet unseen to us. and therefore it is not conditioned by having anything in this life. If you just talk to anybody, they're very joyful and the Lord gives them a truck. It's fine, they give them a truck, but do they have the joy of the Lord? The joy of loving Jesus' congregation and believing in Him, that is the beginning. and the experience of eternal blessedness to come. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. That is the life and the joy you have now, believing in Jesus. And I do not think that we can live or even live long without joy. I do not think that we are meant to. David says, in your presence is fullness of joy. Absent that presence, the presence of God, we try to fill our lives with joys that do not last or with joys that should never bring us pleasure in the first place because our desires have become twisted and perverted by sin. The only thing that can make any of us whole again Anything that can restore to us lasting joy, the only thing is to return to God's presence. And that is what Jesus died for. For Christ also suffered once for sins, that the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. If you are seeking yourself and your career, your circle of friends, your spouse, you will never find yourself and you will never find joy that lasts. You will become more confused, in a more confused mass of fears and cares. You will become increasingly depressed, and you will wonder at the end of it all, what has happened to me, that person I used to be that you thought you were? Only one person can make you, you, beloved, Only one person can give you everlasting joy, and that is the Lord God Himself, that is Jesus Christ, His Son. And I am really quite thrilled for all of you, consoled even, right, about the misery that you will face and suffer here in this life by the knowledge that one day you will be fully, really you in the presence of the Lord, even now as you are already beginning to experience that joy and transformation. as you believe on Him here. It comforts me to know how utterly and inexpressibly joyful you all will be one day. And I want to encourage you, as Pastor Martin did a few weeks ago here, to let the joy of believing be our prayer. because I would really like to see more of that joy and inexpressible and full of glory here as we gather together and live with each other. That statement is not meant to be in competition to your real sorrow. Paul had sorrow continually in his heart for his unsaved friends and family members. but he was also joyful in every circumstance. And we can be that way too. We can be sorrowful together and we can be joyful together. Our congregation, we have this comfort of the resurrection and eternal life so that we will not be overcome with grief in this life. So let us serve the Lord with gladness and wait for his coming Let us throw off every sin and draw near to our God. Let us trust Him daily for our needs and rely on His promises. Let us love Him with our whole hearts who first loved us. Let us share Christ with our unbelieving neighbors. And let us live as good citizens and pray for the land that we live in. As God gives us this comfort of His Son. Amen.