Life: Is This All There Is? | 12 Lines | Pastor Derick Amsler

Excited about this word that God's given me today. You know, we are ending our series on 12 lines in which we have been making our way through the Apostles Creed. We're looking at this declaration and proclamation that saints around the world and through history have been declaring for over 2000 years in caverns and catacombs, in gardens and graveyards, churches and cathedrals, what martyrs gave their life to what the apostles said they believe. What do we believe as Christians and why do we believe it? We've been making our way through it the last few months.

Today we wind up at the 12th line. We're going to say it together, then we're going to start unpacking it. Are you ready? We'll put it on the screen on the count of three. One, two, three.

I believe the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. And everybody said amen. Amen. Just before you're seated. Let me preface where we're about to go.

Have you ever moved something heavy? You're helping a friend pack up. Move some furniture, a couch, a mattress, a box? Anybody, Anybody. And while you're in mid move.

Did you ever, like, crack a joke, say something funny? And then there was smile. Because there's a reality of life, right? You can carry something that's heavy and still have a joyful spirit. And a joyful spirit does not neg the weight that you're carrying.

So today we're going to talk about something that's weighty, but because of he who's on the other side managing the weight with us, we can still walk in a. In a spirit that is full of joy and peace, in a spirit that is light. Are you ready? Come on now. Grab your seat, grab your Bibles, go with me to the Book of First Corinthians.

You'll find that in the New Testament. What a time we're going to have today as we unpack this final line of the Creed as a means of introduction. Have you noticed these strange and unique phenomenon and the progression of what we call birthdays, like the things that we used to celebrate kind of shift and change as we get older. For example, when we were kids, birthdays meant one thing. Presents.

You know, I'm talking about you'd invite everybody over for your birthday, even if you didn't like them. You were inviting them because you knew the more people you invited, the more presents and gifts you would have. And we all knew whose parents were extra wealthy in elementary because you had your birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Man, you're like, wow, what does your dad do? And birthdays meant presents, they meant gifts.

Something happens between our childhood years and our twenties. Because in twenties, it's no longer really about the present as much as it is about having dinner with family and friends. Something happens in our 30s, we start lying about it. It's no longer an exact number. No, I'm in my 30s.

Why? Why? Why? Why do you ask? Something happens in our 40s where we immediately become experts on vitamins, stretching and red light therapy.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? You turn 42 and you got one of those shock things you stand on for like 10 minutes. Anybody else? Anybody? Yep.

Something happens when we turn 50, though. When we turn 50, we get uniquely excited about facial injections. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You're not gonna admit it, but you're trying to smile right now, but you can't. And we all know, we all feel it.

All this. But underneath said that the last one. I can't tell if those were mad faces or just your normal face. I don't know, I don't know. But we're all here.

We're all here. Underneath though, all the anti aging creams and the fish oil that somebody on Facebook told us to buy. Underneath all the midlife crisis purchases and, you know, events that take place inside. There is a quiet protest against something that is not fair.

Life is interesting, isn't it? We can talk about anything. We can talk about retirement. We can talk about family vacations. We can talk about dream homes, we can talk about dream purchases.

We can talk about ethics. We can talk about morality. We can talk about desires. We can talk about almost anything under the planet. But as soon as somebody brings up this specific subject, somebody sucks the oxygen right out of the room.

The environment change, the atmosphere changes. Somebody doesn't know what to do with the subject matter, so they make a joke in order to distract from the dilemma. Somebody else begins to cry. Somebody else begins to get so uncomfortable they stand up, excuse themselves, and they're fiddling around in the kitchen just to distract themselves from the conversation around the table. The subject matter is weighty.

It's difficult. And I've stood in too many hospital rooms and beside too many hospice beds. I've watched too many people cry around gravesides and caskets. And I've heard too many final words before they departed.

To not believe that death doesn't have questions.

Death, the subject of death, the reality of death brings in a host of questions that demand answers. Death is interesting, however, because it doesn't just ask questions. It begins to interrogate your theology. Theology is the study of God and what you believe about God. There's something about the conversation of death that whenever death is entered into a particular scenario, event, or circumstance, it doesn't just ask you questions about your death or about your afterlife.

It asks you questions about your theology concerning its reality and the existence thereafter. Sooner or later, every human being is going to be confronted with the same three questions. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. The same three questions, is this all there is?

Like, really, there were moments of celebration and valleys of depression. Everything in between. But at the end of the day, is this it? The second question we're all going to ask, was it worth it? My praying, my believing, my serving, my giving, my faith, my belief.

Was it worth it? Because there's somebody that you know that gave their life to this thing we call faith in Jesus. And at the end of their life, it looks like they've had some prayers unanswered. They had incredible service and generosity, but where was their blessing and where was their favor? There's something in us that questions the fairness of the existence of life.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? We ask ourselves, is this all there is? Was it worth it? And number three, we ask, what comes next?

What comes next? And if you've been around death long enough or thought about it long enough, it starts to do strange things in your mind. Have you noticed that even our happiest moments tend to come with sadness attached to it? Almost as if death enters a second cousin called distraction, depression, disappointment. And it tries to hitchhike or ride with every happy moment.

For example, this is several years ago. I took my daughter to a daddy daughter dance, and she's looking like a little princess. I'm wearing a suit. And we're at this gymnasium, and we're just doing a little dance. Daddy daughter dance.

She's 8 years old, and we're just kind of like, having fun, doing our thing. And this guy who I've never met before in my life, he comes up and don't, you know, whenever you get a room full of people, somebody's got to be Debbie Downer. Somebody's got to just throw water on the fire of a good memory. This dude just walks up, don't know him from Adam, comes up to me and says, it's kind of surreal to think about, right? The next dance you have like this will be at her wedding when you give her away.

So I punched him in the face. No, I did. I did. I did it. But I wanted to.

I was like, who invited you to this world? What happened? We're having a good time. And it has me thinking, like, I should be enjoying the moment. But now I'm sad about losing something.

That I'll never have this moment again. Just this past Friday, my family's at a concert, and I took my son to the concession stand. And while we're walking up there, he just reaches up and he grabs my hand and he squirts, squeezes it kind of tight like he needed something. So I look down, and he's looking up with these big eyes. He's got this smile on his face.

He says, thanks, dad, for bringing us here. Now watch this. In the moment, my only thought should have been, I love you, buddy. But my first thought was actually, enjoy this moment. He may not want to hold your hand in public next year.

Have you ever sat around a Thanksgiving table or couches at Christmas and your parents are there, and you begin to ask yourself, I wonder how many more celebrations we're gonna have like this? See how sadness tries to hitchhike a ride with happiness? Where do thoughts like that come from? I used to think there was something wrong with me. Like, man, am I having acute depression.

Like, I even talked to a counselor about it one time. Like, I'm trying to enjoy these moments. And yet. And yet, hitchhiker to the galaxy, sadness comes along. Like, who invited this unwanted guest?

Questions like this concerning the speed of life and the reality of death and what happens next. It doesn't mean you're flawed. It means you're homesick. There's something inside of us that longs to return to our original design. The Bible says that when God created us, he had eternity on his mind in the image and the likeness of God.

He created us and in our creation reflects his eternal nature. So even the Bible says, those that are in Christ, though he die, yet shall he live. In other words, living, we will always live. The question is not, will we live forever? The question really becomes more sobering.

Where will we spend eternity? What's fascinating in the Bible is that this inner protest against death, our anger towards death, our frustration with the finality of death, is actually a puzzle that God Himself put in our human soul when he created us. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has set eternity in the human heart. There is a longing to wonder about such things. There is an ache of frustration in all of our spirit that knows Death cannot be the final chapter.

We know that death and the speed of time and life, it has violated something deep down we know to be sacred, and that is life. The reason why this series is so important is because eventually you don't just stake your life on something, you stake your death and your eternity on something as well. And so we started this series several months ago with this question. Is your creed what you believe? Whatever you believe about God, whatever you believe about Jesus, whatever you believe about sin, are you willing to stake your life on it?

Because whatever you put your life on, consequences follow. That's just a reality of life. And it's true in the spiritual world as well. And we said it this way. Is Jesus is your belief in God the Father, Jesus the Son?

Is. Is Jesus worth staking your life on? Now we come to the last line of the creed and we ask, is your belief about death and eternity worth staking your life on? You know, when it comes to death, I love that the Bible doesn't pretend that death isn't painful. Have you noticed how a lot of Christians try to distract themselves from the pain of death?

Because we think grief robs our faith of its substance. This somehow we weaken God and our belief in God. If we grieve, we say things like, well, you know, they're in a better place, or God needed another angel or something. But I just enjoy the fact that the Bible doesn't pretend that death isn't painful. It just describes the agony that death causes.

In the Bible, death gets tears.

It gets tears because it deserves tears. Death gets funerals. Death gets mourning and lament. It describes hurt that death caused. The Bible says Jesus wept, Mary mourned, the disciples grieved.

Paul the apostle didn't call death a transition into a better place. He called it the last image, enemy of our life. So death gets a chapter in all of our lives. The good news is it doesn't get the last chapter of this book we call Life. It gets a chapter.

It doesn't get the last chapter because it doesn't hold the pen or the sharpie of our faith. It doesn't get editorial rights for this book that God is making. He is the author of, of time, space and eternity. He's the perfecter of our life. So death and grief and sorrow and pain and separation, it gets a footnote in the chapter.

It doesn't get the whole book. Listen to how the creed ends. I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

What's Fascinating is that the Creed has just spent several weeks or several lines looking at some of the most profound theological truths in all of our belief system, in all of our Christianity. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who is the Holy Spirit? What is the role they play in earth and in our lives?

What is so big? What is the big deal about the crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Judgment? What is so important about the Church? The Creed is launching into some major theological truths. And it says, but the grave still gets a mention.

We just don't stay at the grave like Easter morning. We acknowledge its reality and then we come out from it. Open your Bibles to First Corinthians, chapter 15. First Corinthians 15. Paul is writing a letter to a church in Corinth.

And when we get to chapter 15, we would call this the Resurrection chapter. He is writing to a group of people who are not asking questions about heaven and eternity. They're asking about the reality of the resurrection. Because if it's not true, it means something. If it is true, it means something else.

And so Paul is writing this letter to them, and we get to verse 14, and he says, if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. You are wasting your time. If Jesus did not come back from the grave, then he says, if our hope in Christ is only for this life and not beyond this life, if your hope, if your belief in Jesus is only good for the months and the years in which you live, then we are to be pitied more than anyone else in the world.

Then he says, if the dead talking about us, if the dead are not raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Now notice what Paul's not saying. Sometimes what is important is not just what was said, it's what was not said. Listen to what he's not saying. He's not saying.

Well, at least Christianity teaches good morals. So it's okay for you not to believe what I believe because we can agree upon this. There's good moral, ethical teaching in the Bible. No, that's not what he's saying. He's not saying.

Well, at least biblical truths build hopeful communities in church gatherings and around. Well, it's not true, but at least we're able to help the poor more. That's not what he. No, he says, if it's not true, we are to be pitied more than any other human being on the face of the planet because we gave our life to something that clowned us. If it's not true, if Jesus doesn't come back from the grave.

Neither do we. We call the reality of the resurrection the first fruits of all the saints. That simply means this. Remember, the Bible was written in an agricultural society where farming was the norm, so they would use agricultural terms. So when the Bible talks about first fruits, it's saying the first of something.

So when they say Jesus, the Resurrection one, or the Resurrected one is the first fruits of all the saints, here's what it's saying. What does a first fruit do? A first fruit is just the beginning of harvest season. The first fruit is a guarantee that something took place beneath the surface in the soil and it paid off and it worked. And now there's more to come.

The first fruit of the resurrection of Jesus is what happened to him is not an exemption from reality. It's a preview of our reality. Because he lives, we live too. Ha ha. Because he came back to life physically, bodily, so will we.

Though death has a chapter, it doesn't get editorial rights on the plans and the purpose of God and the sacredness of life itself. I believe the creed says in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. Paul is saying, if Christ had not been raised, then your faith is useless. Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.

But then in verse 20, he gives us one of the greatest shifts in all of Scripture. If this doesn't happen, we're all pitied, we're all doomed. And then he says in the very next verse, but Christ.

But Christ indeed been raised from the dead, and it changes everything. And so I love then how the Creed ends not with a command, do more. Make sure you practice what you believe. Walk your faith out if you don't borrow it. I love how the Creed doesn't end with commands.

The Creed ends with the promise of three gifts. So every time a death becomes personal to us, or the questions of death in life and the afterlife are raised in our mind, are raised in our mind. Paul would say, let death whisper, but talk back to death with the Creed.

Paul knows that death doesn't just take people from us. Death will lie to those of us who remain. Let's listen to a conversation between death and the creed. Death whispers to us. You don't qualify.

It's the spirit of shame and guilt, right? Condemnation. Death whispers. You didn't actually live up to what you professed you believed in. So you say you believe in God, but you didn't really live for him.

You say you believe that Jesus saved us from our sin, yet you sinned and you have trouble with some certain sin. Death whispers, you don't qualify. You failed. You faltered in your faith. The creed answers back, but I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

Not because I've held on to Christ perfectly, but because Christ held onto me perfectly. And God didn't die for perfect people. He died for imperfect people, covered in sin and the muck of shame on our life. And yet he came to pull us out of that depravity with the forgiveness of the cross. Death says, you don't qualify for the afterlife with Jesus.

The creed answers, but I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

Death then argues back. Death whispers, everything is wasted. All the prayers you prayed that didn't get a yes or a resolution or restitution. What a waste of your time, your generosity, your acts of service. What a waste of your time.

Your grandmother who prayed for prodigal grandchildren to come back to faith, and she prayed and she prayed and she prayed and she died with those prayers still falling from her lips. It was wasted. That's what death.

Serving your church, serving the community, giving to organizations through missions, endeavors around the world. They don't even know you to say thank you. You could have used that money, that energy, that time somewhere else. You could have been better off. What a waste of your time.

Death says what you did, and you never saw the fullness of a blessing or favor or the promise in this life. It was a waste. The creed answers back, but I believe in the resurrection of the body, which is this, then because Christ has been raised. Nothing done in the name of Christ will ever be wasted. God remembers every prayer, hidden act of obedience, every sacrifice.

Resurrection means that death cannot become the ultimate eraser of what God promises to reward. First Corinthians says, therefore be steadfast, be immovable, always be excelling in the Lord's work because you know that your labor is not in vain, for he will reward you.

Creed answers, I believe in the resurrection of the body. The Holy Spirit then says, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave, he lives in you. And one day you will be rewarded for everything you did in this body. Then Death whispers its final attack on our peace, and Death whispers, you lose everyone and everything, which is what makes death feel so wrong, because it makes a goodbye feel final.

And then it begins to create a spirit in us where it's hard to open up our heart to love again because love will be ripped from us again. Or we become extra controlling concerning relationships and moments, and we try to grasp sand or moments like sand in our hand and Just cling on and hang on. And death whispers, you lose everyone and everything. The creed answers back, I believe in the life everlasting.

Jesus said, he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

Matter of fact, Christians have this unique perspective concerning death that the early Christians taught us in the New Testament, and it was modeled by Jesus as well. Even Jesus doesn't call death death. You know what he calls it? Sleeping. He goes so far as there's a little girl who died in the New Testament.

People run up to him, hey, it's too late. Save your steps. Go back to doing what you're doing. Jesus, I know you're a very busy man. She's already died.

Jesus says, take me to the girl. Jesus walks to the house of the girl, and there are people outside in the driveway. And the Bible calls them professional mourners. And they are screaming and they're yelling and they are very. They're.

They're very grief stricken. And Jesus tells them to go home. They're like, what are you talking about? The girl is. The girl is dead.

She's departed. And Jesus said, no, she's not dead. She's sleeping. And the Bible says that they begin to mock Jesus. How does the great physician not understand, like, what death is?

Jesus, we have felt her pulse. We have put our head on her chest. There is no heartbeat. There is no. She is dead.

And Jesus says, he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He walks into the room, hey, little girl, it's time to get up. And she's brought back to life. Watch this. It's not that he was ignorant to the finality of death.

It's just he knew something that death doesn't know. It doesn't hold the ultimate authority over our lives. There's coming a day where Jesus himself will come to your loved ones who are in Christ in this life. It's time to get up. I want to show you something.

It's time to get up. Welcome home. For he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he continue to live.

The creed says, I believe in the life everlasting. When we hear life everlasting, we tend to think of a timetable like a lot of calendars. That's a long time. Life everlasting. Not life for a decade or a century.

Everlasting, that's a long time. Jesus says, life everlasting is this. It's not about the duration of time. It's about the belonging within time. Jesus said, life everlasting is this.

That you remain in me, and I remain in you. And together we are. We are one. Watch this. In John 14:2, Jesus told his disciples before his crucifixion, in my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? We hear the term, in my Father's house, there's many rooms. And we almost picture like a heavenly hotel, right? Like a Ritz Carlton. And Jesus is there.

And we all got our different rooms. And an angel comes every night and puts a note under the door. Breakfast is from 6 to 9. And they're like, oh, man, I love this heavenly place. No, no.

It was actually a cultural phrase they use. Whenever a man would be engaged to a woman, his fiance, he would say, I go to my Father's house to prepare a place for you. Culturally speaking, they would live with the man's family for a while. And so they would. They would build in addition onto the Father's house.

Jesus is using that engagement phrasing to tell us, I've been thinking about you, so I built you a room.

Come on over. The idea then is that when we are in Christ, death becomes a second of a hallway in which we are in this life, this room we call life. We open the door and now we're in the next room in eternity with Jesus forever. I just want to remind somebody, you're worth a room.

Jesus says, in this life, you'll have all kinds of troubles. Just don't forget you're worth the room. For in my Father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I'd go and prepare a place for you?

As an aside, how does a message like this become practical? The room you're headed towards shapes how you live. In this room we call living. When you worship, when you give, when you serve, when you volunteer, the world looks at that life and calls it small, or it calls it wasted. But you know something the world doesn't know?

You're not living for this room. You're living for the throne room. And now we come to the final word of this series in the final word of the Apostles Creed, Amen. Amen. We tend to treat the word amen like it's either punctuation on a prayer or the symbol that now it's time to open your eyes after somebody got done talking to God, right?

In Jesus name, amen, and we open our eyes. Historically, the word amen is not punctuation, it's a declaration. The word literally means so be it. In other words, it's one final installment of an activated faith. So be it.

I believe it in my prayer, in my life. So be it. I'm putting my life in the hands of what I say. I believe God, Jesus, the Resurrection, the Ascension, his soon coming. In my grief, I put my grief, in my pain and my sorrow and my hardship, in what I believe.

There's coming a day where death itself will no longer hold the body of those I love. Amen. So be it. I'm putting my eternity on the foundation of what I said. I believe that Jesus is not worth just giving my life to.

He's worth staking my death on. So be it. So in my joys and in my difficulties, in my challenges, in my prayers and everything in between, Amen. So be it. God wins in the end, and we shall dwell with him forever.

And so then, with the same faith, with the same declaration and pronouncement against all the challenges that death affords us, with the same faith as Christians have worship in caves and catacombs and cathedrals and churches and hospitals and beside casket feet and gravesides for nearly 2,000 years, we say, so be it.

This world is not all there is. We're just passing through, for we were made for another planet. Was it worth it? Amen.

Was this all there is? Amen. What comes next? Amen. For I know who I believe.

I know where I belong and I know where I'm headed.

Stand up on your feet one more time, we're gonna say this together.

Are you ready? We're gonna think deeply about everything we've talked about over the last few weeks. We're gonna enlarge the capacity of our spirit to put a flag in the ground, a stake on this earth that says, I'm giving my life and my death towards this thing. This is not church theory. This is biblical theology worthy of our life.

Are you ready? 1, 2, 3. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into the dead.

On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven is seated.

Come on. So be it. So be it. Come what may. I got a so be spirit.

It's okay to weep. It's okay to grieve the loss of family and friends and loved ones. But we got an amen anointing that says, so be it. I Can trust my heavenly Father. Which then brings us to the ultimate question of all time.

How's your relationship with God? What room are you living for? And how has it impacted the room in which you live? Do you have a relationship with God? And if so, how is that marked more with you in the driver's seat trying to get God to do what you want to do?

Or has there been a place of humility and surrender? I am not God, but I can trust you. Him who is. Has there been an acknowledgement that our sin is what keeps us out of eternity with Jesus? But God so much loved you that he built a bridge from eternity to earth called the Cross.

And Jesus came and he died on that cross. So whosoever would believe that cross was meant for me. I needed to die for my sins against God. But God so much loved the world, he let Jesus take my place. And as a.

As a response of that truth and humility, I ask him to forgive me of all my sins as I commit my life to following Him. Have you had that moment? Have you had that encounter with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? I'd invite you to just maybe think about it.

Lord, we thank you not just for truth, but for truth that sets us free. And we thank you that truth is not a formula or merely a practice. It is a person. You said you are the way, the truth, and the life. So we commit our lives to you as the way we build our life around you.

For you are truth and you are life. So, Lord, in a way that only you can. I pray that you would help this series be more than just fundamental beliefs. Let it be deeply. Let it be a deeply rooted creed upon which we build our life.

If you don't have a relationship with God or you're still kind of tangled up in some sin, I want to give you an opportunity to ask Christ to forgive you of your sins and commit your life to Him. The Bible says that when we do that, his response is not guilt and shame. It's acceptance and an invitation to continue in the relationship with him. For God so loved the world.

And so as an outward sign of an inner commitment to following Christ and giving him your life. Would you just put your hand up and down? Just, just, just. Yeah, just. I accept this invitation.

I accept this invitation to follow Jesus. I'm asking him to forgive me of my sins. I want to commit my life to Him. How beautiful. How beautiful.

And now, with the encouragement of those who are giving their life to Jesus for the second time or for the 100th time, but they mean it. This morning, we're gonna. We're gonna join them with the angelic host of heaven, the angels who are more excited about this moment than any other thing in time. Everyone, repeat after me. Are you ready?

Dear Jesus, thank you for love, for grace, for mercy, for seeing me when I was at my worst. Thank you for being at your best. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the resurrection, which means new life and freedom and forgiveness. Lord, I give you me in exchange for you.

Help me now live for you. In the mighty name of Jesus, Everybody says amen, and so be it. Come on, one more time. Amen. And so be it.

God bless you.