The Call to Glory

-All Saints Day-

November 3, 1996

I John 3:1-3

You probably have had enough of Halloween this past week, and so have I. Not the innocent dress-up fun like your family and mine enjoy, I mean the strange preoccupation with the macabre, with witches and goblins and graveyards , which is not a Christian scene at all, and according to the best sources had its roots in Celtic paganism. (It seems like every TV station had some story of vampires or witches or the occult.) I am not sure why death and the dark unknown are so fascinating. But it is probably one way the pagan mind deals with an unspoken horror of unbecoming. Death is the worst thing that can happen.

One recurring theme on tombstones in old graveyards is the couplet that supposedly gives a voice to the dead lying in their graves, goes something like this:

As you are, so once was I;
As I am soon you will be.

Now that is encouraging, isn't it!

Christians know that the grave is not our final destination. Centuries ago the Church made November 1 a day to remember that all who know God in Jesus Christ are alive eternally. The Church of Jesus Christ is made up of all people of faith of all ages, alive eternally in Christ. This is All Saints Sunday. A powerful text for All Saints is the opening thought in I John 3:

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved NOW we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we KNOW that when He is revealed, we SHALL BE like Him, for we shall see Him as HE IS. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

There is tremendous truth packed into these very few words:

  1. These words assure us of the great love of God. GOD'S AMAZING LOVE God loves the world (John 3:16) and gave His Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have everlasting life.
  2. These words say that those who receive God's love by faith are His children! WE MAY BE CHILDREN OF GOD, HERE AND NOW

    "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God!"

    Everlasting LIFE, "family-life" shared with God, this ETERNAL LIFE, does not begin when we die. The moment we come to Christ for salvation we are:

    1. Justified
    2. Regenerated
    3. Adopted into God's FAMILY.

    As God's children we still face the hard realities of a sin-cursed world. We face hardships and disappointments. We get sick, and, yes, we die. But there is a difference. God Himself came and dwelt among us. He shared our sorrows. He identified with our weakness. He suffered and died. But He conquered sin and death and hell, and has blazed a trail for us to follow. He rose again from the dead! He sends us His very Presence in the Holy Spirit! He will always be with us. He will never abandon us.

  3. These words also tell us we are different from 'the world.'

    THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND OUR HOPE

    "Therefore the world does not know us ... "

    Christians look at death and even sorrow differently from those who do not know Jesus. [A litany of people I have watched die— Bob Howard?? ] [Millard Porter died in a ward, frustrated by a stroke. But with his last breath he managed to whisper "34!" That has been a shining testimony to me across many years!]

    Christians sing by the open grave. [We SING at the open grave. The tears run down because we will miss our loved ones for a while. But we know that the grave cannot hold them. "How many of you knew Donna Bowers? Astonished grave-diggers!]

  4. This word admits there is mystery, a great deal we don't know:

    THERE IS MYSTERY IN FACING THE FUTURE

    "It has not yet been revealed what we shall be..." We do not glorify death. We do not pretend to have all the answers. We don't know what lies beyond— the after-death is mysterious. (Oscar Stockwell ready to go— apprehensive about going someplace he had never been before..I understand that.) But Jesus comes to receive us. He sends His angels to prepare the way. And THAT is the final word:

  5. But the final word: We DO know Jesus! We DO know Jesus knows us! BUT THERE IS ALSO CERTAINTY: WE KNOW HE KNOWS US!

    "We know that when he shall appear we shall be like Him!" (Possible use of George O Cole's ILLUSTRATION of the industrial magnet and the Friday evening scrap heap— )

THERE IS CERTAINTY: WE SHALL BE LIKE JESUS HIMSELF!

THIS HOPE KEEPS US PURE -

Remember the message of the tombstone in the cemetery— that supposedly gives a voice to the dead in the grave: "As you are so once was I—- as I am soon you will be!"??

Pretty depressing if the grave is our final resting place.

But take these same words and hear Jesus speak them to us, and suddenly they are very true:

"As you are, so once was I!" He took our sins and our sorrows and made them His very own! He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without defeat! Jesus came all the way down to be one with us... but that is not the end—

"As I am you soon shall be!" Or, as John writes, "We know that when we see Him we shall be like Him!"

Knowing the JOYS of a holy heaven!

United forever with a pure love to all the saints in glory!

Thank God for His transforming love! Amen!

Prayer

685 For All the Saints!