Living Letters – Chapter 9 – Prepared for Eternity

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Living Letters: A Christian Legacy

Chapter 9 — Prepared for Eternity

Review

We have spent this series thinking about the Christian legacy we are building while we live. This final lesson takes us to the point when our earthly lives are finished and that legacy remains with the people who knew us.

Our family and friends will remember all kinds of things about us. They may remember what we enjoyed, things we regularly said, what made us laugh, where we went to church, how we served, and probably a few stories we wish they would forget. Among those memories, we especially want them to know why we believe we are prepared for eternity, how we came to Christ, why we look forward to heaven, and how they can know Christ too.

 

LESSON FOCUS We especially want our family and friends to know why we believe we are prepared for eternity, how we came to Christ, why we look forward to heaven, and how they can know Christ too.

 

We Can Know We Are Prepared for Eternity

Near the end of his first epistle, the apostle John explained one reason he had written to believers.

1 John 5:11–13 — And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

 

John wanted believers to “know that ye have eternal life,” and he tells them where that confidence rests: “this life is in his Son.” Eternal life is God’s gift through Jesus Christ. Our feelings may change from one day to another, but God’s promise concerning His Son remains the same. “He that hath the Son hath life.”

That takes us back to Chapter 1, Salvation and Baptism. A Christian legacy begins with knowing Christ, and everything we have studied since then grows out of that relationship. As we reach the final chapter, we return to that foundation. We know Christ, and because of Him we can know that we have eternal life.

They Know Our Salvation Story

Our family may remember that we attended church, read the Bible, or prayed. But our salvation story tells them something those memories cannot: how we came to Christ and why we know we are prepared for eternity.

Paul made his story known. Second Timothy was written late in Paul’s life while he was imprisoned in Rome and knew that death was approaching. Yet he could say:

Paul’s Confidence in Christ

2 Timothy 1:12 — For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

 

Paul said, “I know whom I have believed.” His confidence for eternity rested in Jesus Christ, the One in whom he had placed his faith. Paul also made sure other people knew how he had come to believe in Christ.

Acts 9 records Paul, then known as Saul, as a determined persecutor of Christians. He was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” and had received authority to travel to Damascus, arrest followers of Christ, bind them, and bring them back to Jerusalem. Saul believed he was serving God, but on the road to Damascus the risen Christ confronted him and revealed that the Jesus he was persecuting really was the Lord.

Years later, when Paul stood before King Agrippa in Acts 26, he did not hide that part of his past. He told Agrippa that he had imprisoned Christians, supported their punishment, and pursued them even into foreign cities. Then he told him about meeting Christ on the Damascus road and how his life changed afterward. Agrippa heard the whole salvation story: who Paul had been, how he encountered Christ, and what Christ had done with his life.

That connects directly with Chapter 3, Sharing My Salvation Story. We worked through our own salvation story so we could explain how we came to know Christ. The people closest to us can know why we believe we are prepared for eternity because they have heard from us how Christ saved us.

A Life Jesus Told to Speak

Mark 5 gives us an example of Jesus sending a changed man back to people who already knew him. The man’s life had been devastated by demonic possession. People in the area knew his condition, and after Jesus delivered him they found him “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.” When the man asked to leave with Jesus, Jesus told him:

Mark 5:19 — Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

 

His friends could see that his life had changed, and Jesus told him to explain what had happened: “tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.” Our family and friends can see evidence of Christ in our lives and hear from us how we came to know Him. Years from now, someone can say, “I know how that person came to Christ. I heard the story.”

They Know We Look Forward to Heaven

Jesus spoke about eternity with His disciples during the final night before His crucifixion. He had told them that He was going away, and they were troubled by what they were hearing. Jesus gave them something definite to anticipate.

John 14:1–3 — Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

The KJV word “mansions” speaks of dwelling places in the Father’s house. Jesus assured His disciples that there was a place for them there and described their future with the words, “that where I am, there ye may be also.” Their future was with Christ.

Paul’s Expectation

Paul expressed the same expectation while imprisoned.

Philippians 1:21–23 — For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.

 

“To live is Christ” meant continued life gave Paul further opportunity to serve Christ. Death was “gain” because he would “be with Christ.” To be “in a strait betwixt two” meant he felt pulled between those possibilities. There was work worth doing here, and he looked forward to being with Christ when that work was complete.

Our family and friends can know that we share that expectation. Heaven can be part of the way we naturally talk about our future because we believe Jesus’ promise and expect to be with Him.

D. L. Moody’s Family Knew What He Expected

1. L. Moody became one of the best-known evangelists of the nineteenth century, but his salvation story began through the concern of one Sunday School teacher. Moody was seventeen when he moved to Boston and worked in his uncle’s shoe store. He began attending Edward Kimball’s Sunday School class, and Kimball became concerned about his salvation.

Kimball went to the shoe store and personally spoke with Moody about Christ. That conversation became a turning point in Moody’s life. The young man reached through one personal conversation would eventually spend decades preaching the gospel to enormous crowds on both sides of the Atlantic.

In December 1899, Moody was seriously ill at his home in Northfield, Massachusetts. His family was with him as death approached. Among the words attributed to him during those final hours were, “I see earth receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling me.”

His family already knew the salvation story behind those words. They knew the gospel he had spent years preaching and what he believed about heaven. His final words agreed with what they had heard and observed throughout his life.

Moody’s story also takes us naturally into the responsibility we have toward others. Edward Kimball could not have known what God would eventually do through that young man. He cared about Moody’s eternity and used the opportunity he had to tell him about Christ.

They Know We Want Them to Know Christ Too

Paul also had a deep concern for the salvation of his fellow Jews. Many of them believed in God, knew the Old Testament Scriptures, and were serious about their religion, but they had rejected Jesus as the Christ. Paul wanted the people he loved and identified with to come to be saved. He said:

Romans 10:1 — Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

 

Paul prayed for their salvation, and Romans 10 also explains how people come to hear the message of Christ.

Romans 10:13–14 — For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

 

A person calls upon the Lord because that person believes, and belief follows hearing the message about Christ. Someone has to tell them.

Andrew Found His Brother

John 1 gives us an example of someone who wanted a member of his own family to know what he had discovered about Jesus. Andrew had been following John the Baptist when John pointed to Jesus and identified Him as “the Lamb of God.” Andrew then followed Jesus and spent part of the day with Him. After hearing John’s testimony about Jesus and spending time with Jesus himself, Andrew became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior God had promised to send. One of the first people Andrew wanted to tell was his own brother, Simon Peter.

John 1:40–42 — One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.

 

Andrew “first findeth his own brother Simon.” Simon would eventually become Peter, preach at Pentecost, and become a leader in the early church. Andrew could not have known any of that when he went looking for his brother. He knew something about Jesus that Simon needed to know, so he went and found him.

Most of our opportunities will look more like Andrew’s conversation than Paul preaching before a crowd. We already know the people. We share meals, rides, holidays, telephone calls, workdays, visits, and ordinary afternoons with them. We can tell our salvation story, explain the gospel, and make sure they know how they can trust Christ.

Edward Kimball went to a shoe store. Andrew found his brother. Jesus sent the man in Mark 5 home to his friends. Each used an opportunity with someone God had placed within reach. Our family and friends can know that their eternity was important to us because we made an effort to speak with them about Christ.

Paul Could Look Back on a Finished Course

Near the end of Second Timothy, Paul knew his earthly life was almost finished.

2 Timothy 4:6–7 — For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

 

When Paul said he was “ready to be offered,” he pictured his life being poured out as an offering to God. He knew his death was near. His “departure” was the end of his earthly life and the beginning of being with Christ, the future he had described in Philippians.

Paul could also say, “I have finished my course.” He was looking back over the work God had given him and recognizing that he had reached its end. During that course he had preached Christ, helped establish churches, prayed for people, trained believers, and invested deeply in people such as Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:2 — And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

 

Paul taught Timothy. Timothy was to teach faithful people, and those people would become able to teach others. Paul’s earthly course would end, while the truth he had placed into other people could keep moving from one life into another.

Acts records different responses to Paul’s witness. Some believed and others rejected his message. Paul faithfully used the opportunities God gave him, and each hearer was responsible for responding to Christ.

The same is true in the relationships God has given us. We can pray, tell our salvation story, explain the gospel, answer questions, live consistently before people, and return to the subject when another opportunity opens. We can reach the end of our course knowing that we made an effort to point the people we loved toward Christ.

What Will They Know?

Think about what we want our family and friends to be able to say about our faith after we are gone. We want them to know more than where we went to church or the ways we served. We want them to know how we were saved, why we were certain that we would be with Christ in heaven, and that we personally talked with them about how they could know Christ too.

There are still people we love who need Christ. While we have the opportunity, we can speak with them about the gospel and make sure they know how they can be saved. We want them to know that their eternity mattered to us and that we made an effort to point them to Christ.

Living Letters: The Legacy Continues

We began this series in 2 Corinthians 3, where Paul described believers as letters “known and read of all men.” People could observe what Christ had written into their lives. Each chapter has helped us think intentionally about what people are reading in ours.

As we finish Living Letters: A Christian Legacy, look back at the path we have followed through these nine chapters. In Chapter 1, Salvation and Baptism, we began with our own salvation and the first step of publicly identifying with Christ through baptism. Chapter 2, Transformation, helped us recognize the changes Christ has made in our lives. In Chapter 3, Sharing My Salvation Story, we learned how to put into words how we came to Christ. Chapter 4, Church Life, focused on the place the local church has in our lives and the relationships we build there. Chapter 5, Giving Back, helped us recognize what God has given us and how we can use it to benefit others.

Chapter 6, Discipleship, moved us toward deliberately helping other people grow as Christians. Chapter 7, The Bible, focused on knowing God’s Word and passing its truth to others. Chapter 8, Prayer, showed us how our prayers for other people can become part of the spiritual legacy we leave. Now Chapter 9, Prepared for Eternity, brings the series to its conclusion. We want to know that we are prepared to meet Christ, and we want the people closest to us to know where our confidence rests and that we have made an effort to point them toward Him.

Paul eventually reached the point when he could say, “I have finished my course.” D. L. Moody reached the end of his life with his family knowing that he trusted Christ and expected to be with Him in heaven. Until our own course is finished, there are people to love and serve, Scripture to pass along, prayers to pray, believers to encourage and disciple, and family and friends who need to hear about Christ.

When our earthly part of the story is complete, the people closest to us can know that we knew Christ and how we came to Him. They can remember the changes He made in us, the truth we shared with them, and the ways we invested in their lives. Some may be stronger Christians because we helped them grow, and someone we discipled may be teaching someone else. Our family and friends can know that we cared about their eternity enough to tell them about Jesus.

That is a Christian legacy worth leaving. One day our earthly part of the story will be complete, but what God wrote through our lives can continue to be read.