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The Great Gathering | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there is an
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expectation of precision. You break your arm, the X-ray
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shows the jagged white line and the doctor just points at the
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screen and says there it is broken or not broken.
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Right, it's very binary. Yeah, the fracture is clean.
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You have a clear answer. But then you step into the world
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of human emotion, of psychology, or, you know, our social fabric,
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and suddenly that X-ray machine just shatters.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is entirely
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murky. Oh, without a doubt, it's
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incredibly messy. It is, and today we are
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examining a very specific human condition.
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It's this innate, overwhelming desire to be together contrasted
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with the painful reality that our gatherings always seem to
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fall. Short Yeah, they do.
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Why do our absolute best social gatherings always feel, I don't
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know, slightly incomplete or tinged with a subtle sadness?
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And what is the absolute resolution?
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That human isolation. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today, we're taking a deep dive into a text by the 19th century
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English writer JC Rile. A fantastic writer, by the way.
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Oh incredible. The text is called the great
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gathering and it centers on a specific phrase from Second
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Thessalonians chapter 2 verse one which says are gathering
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together unto him. Now whether you are listening to
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this while preparing for a board meeting or sitting in traffic or
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you were just insanely curious about theology.
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This innate human desire for connection is universal.
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So let's set the stage. Who is JC Rile and what is the
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historical context behind his perspective on human nature
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being fundamentally social? Well, the timing of when Rile
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wrote this text provides A crucial lens for understanding
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his perspective. Yeah, he was the first Anglican
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Bishop of Liverpool in the late 19th century.
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OK, so this is the height of the Victorian era.
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It's the absolute peak of the British Empire, but also, you
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know, the zenith of the Industrial Revolution.
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Society was undergoing a massive, violent shift.
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Right, everything was changing so fast.
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Exactly. I mean, for centuries people
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lived in agrarian, tight knit village communities.
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You knew your neighbors, your family had lived in the same
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county for generations, and the rhythms of life were tied to the
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seasons. Very predictable.
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Yes, but suddenly millions of people were moving from those
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rural settings into sprawling, anonymous cities.
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The family unit was experiencing immense strain from factory
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work, long shifts in the textile mills and frankly, crushing
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urban poverty. Wow, so the isolation must have
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been intense. It was so when Riles sits down
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to write about this concept of the Great Gathering, he is
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addressing a population that feels unprecedented isolation
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despite living shoulder to shoulder in crowded slums and
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busy streets. That's such a modern feeling,
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isn't it? Being lonely in a crowd.
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Oh, absolutely. And he recognizes that humans
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are inherently social creatures. Isolation is the exception for
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us, not the rule. He points out that if you go
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anywhere on earth, people generally like meeting together
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and see one another's faces. He actually uses Christmas in
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England as his prime example of this universal urge.
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He paints this vivid geographical picture, talking
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about the spirit of gathering sweeping from the Isle of Wight
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in the South to Berwick on Tweed in the north, from Land's End to
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the North Forland. Wait, let's look closer at that
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map he is drawing. He is literally drawing a box
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around the entire country of England to show that no one is
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immune to this desire. That's spot on.
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And in the 1800s, traveling from London to Land's End was not a
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quick afternoon drive. It was an arduous, cold,
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uncomfortable trip. Yet people did it anyway.
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They prioritize it above their comfort.
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Right. He talks about sons leaving
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London businesses, brothers leaving their desks, boys
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rushing home from school. I love the specific phrase he
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uses, the weary wheels of incessant labor coming to a
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halt. Quite poetic it is.
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You can almost hear the iron Gears of the Industrial
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Revolution grinding to a stop for just a few days so people
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can look each other in the eye again.
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And he fiercely defends these earthly gatherings.
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He does, which is interesting for a strict Victorian
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clergyman. Yeah, he calls out what he
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describes as shallow philosophy or cold religion that might
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denounce family gatherings or view them as frivolous or
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unspiritual. He says family affection is the
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secret oil on the wheels of our social system, preventing humans
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from being, well, mere devils. That phrase?
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Secret oil points directly to the theological concept of
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common grace. Unpack that a bit, Sure.
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In Reformed thought, common grace is the unmerited favor
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that God bestows on all people, regardless of their spiritual
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state. It is the invisible force that
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keeps the world from descending into absolute chaos.
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Right. The rain falls on the just and
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the unjust. Yes, Ryle is saying that family
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affection, this innate desire to gather and love one's kin, is
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one of the few good things that survived the fall of mankind.
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It acts as a stabilizing force. So without it, things would just
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fall apart. Completely without this secret
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oil of family affection, society would completely seize up,
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neighbors would turn on neighbors without hesitation,
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and we would destroy ourselves. This affection is a gift given
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to humanity as a whole. Wow.
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However, Rile's also a strict realist.
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He points out the sorrow that is inevitably mixed into our
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earthly joy. Yeah, it's never perfect, is it?
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No, he mentions uncongenial members of the family, the fact
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that these meetings are for a very limited time and most
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painfully, the gaps in the family circle left by death.
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This hits so close to home for anyone listening.
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I mean, think about organizing a holiday dinner right now.
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You plan everything to the letter.
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The food is flawless, the house looks great.
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You spent days getting ready. Oh, I.
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Know the feeling, right? But then an uncle brings up
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politics and creates tension. Or worse, the gathering happens.
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Everyone is laughing, but you find yourself staring at an
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empty chair where a parent or sibling used to sit.
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The joy is real, but it is fractured.
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It's very heavy. It is So I have to ask, if we
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are wired for community, if we have the secret oil keeping us
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going, why does the fulfillment of that desire always carry a
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subtle spin of disappointment or grief?
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Why can we never just have a flawless, unbroken gathering?
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The disappointment you were describing actually functions as
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a diagnostic tool. How so?
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It acts as a signpost. It is pointing the human heart
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to desire something permanent and unblemished.
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CS Lewis famously argued that if we find in ourselves a desire
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that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable
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explanation is that we were made for another world.
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Right, the whole idea of an echo of something greater.
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Yes, and Ryle is making the exact same argument a century
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earlier. The mixed pleasure of earthly
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gatherings, the tension, the ticking clock of the weekend
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ending, the empty chairs, all of it screams that this is not our
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final destination. It's just a shadow.
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Exactly. The earthly gathering is an
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appetizer, and it is a slightly burnt appetizer at that.
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It is meant to make you hungry for the main course.
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That is a great way to put it. Because our current gatherings
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are fundamentally flawed and temporary, Raoul shifts the
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reader's focus to the only gathering that promises
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permanence and perfection. Which brings us to the mechanics
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and the purpose of this ultimate gathering, Raoul says.
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This gathering takes place at the end of the world,
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specifically at the second coming of Christ.
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Yes, the final culmination of history.
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And he is incredibly specific about the nature of this event.
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He insists it will be a visible bodily return, mirroring the
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ascension. He references the angels
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gathering the elect with a great trumpet sound.
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It's a massive physical reality. Yeah, the dead in Christ rise
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1st and the living or change the sea, Death and hell give up
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their dead. It is an overwhelming cosmic
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physical event. It is not some ethereal ghost
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like state. No, not at all.
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But he drills down into two primary purposes for this
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gathering reward and safety. Let's look at the reward aspect
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first. Ryle describes this reward as
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the public justification of believers, where they received
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the crown of glory and public admission into joy.
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Public justification. Let's dig into that term.
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In theological terms, justification is the legal
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declaration that a person is righteous before God based
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entirely on the work of Christ. Usually we think of this as an
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individual invisible reality that happens the moment someone
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believes. Right, like a private
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transaction in the heart. Yes, a private transaction, but
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Ryle is highlighting a massive future.
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Public dimension is not a secret acquittal handled in the back
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chambers of heaven. Wow, OK.
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Is a declaration before all of create angels, demons, and all
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of humanity. It is the moment where the
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hidden reality of faith is openly vindicated.
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Vindication. That's a powerful concept.
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It is all the misunderstanding, the persecution, the quiet
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faithfulness that nobody saw on earth, the moments of choosing
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integrity over profit. All of it is brought into the
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blinding light and rewarded openly.
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That concept of public vindication is incredibly
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encouraging, especially for someone listening who feels like
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their efforts to do the right thing are entirely unseen.
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You can feel very isolating. Yeah, you go to work, you do the
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right thing, you get passed over for a promotion by someone who
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cut corners and it feels like it does not matter.
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Ryle is saying it absolutely matters and it will be read into
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the public record. Precisely, the Ledger will be
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balanced in front of everyone. But let's look at the second
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purpose, safety. Ryle uses 4 distinct biblical
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analogies for this safety. He talks about Noah in the ark
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lot in Zohar, Rahab's family during the fall of Jericho, and
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the three children untouched in the fiery furnace.
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Those are powerful images. They really are.
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In all those examples, the safety happens while the
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destruction is occurring all around them.
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Right simultaneously. Yeah, the floodwaters are raging
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outside the timber of the Ark. The fire is falling on Sodom
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while Lot runs to the tiny city of Zoar.
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Jericho's massive walls are collapsing into rubble, while
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Rahab is inside her specific house on the wall.
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The contrast is striking. And the furnace is blazing.
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The guards outside die from the heat while three men walk around
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inside it. How should that specific timing
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comfort the listener regarding their own future anxieties?
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This cuts right to the core of how we misunderstand divine
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protection. We usually think of safety as
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the total absence of danger. We want the storm to be
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canceled. We pray for the fire to be put
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out. Always we just want the easy Rd.
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But Ryall's biblical examples show that divine safety is
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preservation through the judgement, not the removal of
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the event itself. That makes a lot of sense.
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For the listener worrying about the state of the world today,
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you know the economy, global conflicts, the moral decay of
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society, or the end of the age, the comfort is not that things
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will magically get easier. Because they probably won't.
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No, they won't. The comfort is that the
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gathering of the elect acts as a spiritual arc before the final
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crash of all things begins. Believers are hidden, Ryle
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quotes the prophet Isaiah. Hide thyself, as it were, for a
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little moment, until the indignation be overpassed.
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So the gathering is an act of supreme rescue in the very teeth
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of the storm. Yes, God does not need to stop
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the flood to keep Noah dry. He just needs to seal the door
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of the Ark. Wow I never thought about it
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like that. We always assume safety means a
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quiet sunny day, but you are saying safety is being in the
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right container while the hurricane hits?
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That's a great summary. Knowing how and why this
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gathering happens is thrilling, but it leads to the obvious
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question of who will be there? What will this crowd actually
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look like? Ryle paints a very vivid picture
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of this. He does.
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He outlines 3 defining hallmarks of the Heavenly Assembly,
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categorizing it as great, wonderful, and humbling.
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Let's start with the scale of it.
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He calls it great. Meaning the sheer size of the
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crowd. Yeah, he is talking about the
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massive scale. It includes all children of God,
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from Abel, the very first St. who was murdered by his brother,
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down to the last person born before the trumpet sounds.
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No one is overlooked. Not a single one.
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He explicitly notes that the weakest and feeblest are
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present. The little flock that often
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feels so small and insignificant on Earth suddenly becomes an
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uncountable multitude. The mathematics of this are
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staggering. Staggering, yeah.
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When you feel like you are the only person in your workplace or
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your extended family who holds to your convictions, it is very
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easy to adopt A minority mindset.
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You feel small. You feel like you are losing.
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You feel. Like you are crazy sometimes.
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Right, But Ryle is flipping the perspective.
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The historical accumulation of believers over millennia means
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that the ultimate gathering will be the largest assembly in human
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history. The minority becomes the
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overwhelming majority. That is quite the paradigm
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shift. It is, and then Ryle moves to
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the second hallmark. Yeah, it'll be wonderful.
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And by wonderful, he means full of wonder.
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Shocking. Surprising.
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That's not just pleasant. Right.
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He talks about the reversal of the confusion of tongues at
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Babel. People who lived 5000 years
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apart or on opposite sides of the globe, like someone from
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colonial Australia and someone from Victorian England, are
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suddenly united with perfect understanding.
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The language barrier years just completely gone.
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And he had something else under the wonderful category that made
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me stop in my tracks, He says it includes miracles of grace,
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seeing people in heaven we never expected to be saved.
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Oh, that is such a comforting thought.
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Isn't it? We all have people in our lives
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who we think are too far gone, People who are too stubborn or
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outright hostile to faith, Ryle is saying.
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Prepare to be shocked. Yeah, God's grace is way bigger
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than our predictions. You were going to bump into
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people and think how in the world did you get here?
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And the best part is they will probably look at you and say the
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exact same thing. Oh, that's very likely.
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But then he gets to the third hallmark, which is humbling.
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He says there will be an absolute eradication of bigotry,
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narrow mindedness and sectarianism.
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This is a huge point for Ryle to make in his day.
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Yeah, he notes that Calvinists and Armenians, churchmen and
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dissenters, will find themselves side by side.
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People who refuse to share a communion table on earth will
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praise together for eternity. We should probably define who
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those groups are for anyone who missed church history class.
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Yes, that context is vital to understand just how shocking his
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statement is. Go ahead and break that down for
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us. Well, the Calvinist in Armenian
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debate is one of the most fierce theological battles in history,
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centering on God's sovereignty versus human free will and
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salvation. It caused massive refs.
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Still does, honestly. Right.
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And the divide between churchmen and dissenters in England was
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even more intense. Churchmen were part of the state
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sponsored Anglican Church. Dissenters were the Baptists,
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Congregationalists and Puritans who refused to conform to state
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mandates. And it wasn't just a polite
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disagreement, was it? Oh, no.
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In the centuries before Ryle, they literally jailed each
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other. John Bunyan, who wrote The
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Pilgrim's Progress, spent 12 years in a freezing prison
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because he was a dissenter. 12 years just for disagreeing on
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church structure. Yes.
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So when Ryall says these groups will be side by side, it is a
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radical statement. The reversal of Babel is not
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just a universal translation device where everyone suddenly
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understands Hebrew or whatever. It is about unifying hearts and
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erasing the bitter divisions that currently fracture
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humanity. That makes perfect sense.
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On Earth, we cluster into our theological tribes.
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We build massive walls to protect what we believe is the
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truth. But Ryle forces the reader to
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confront the reality that the heavenly gathering will be a
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massive collision of these earthly factions.
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A collision of factions. I like that phrasing.
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The pride that fuels our divisions will be completely
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dismantled. OK, I have to play devil's
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advocate for the listener here. Go for it.
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If Calvinists and Armenians are side by side and all our earthly
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controversies are buried, does that mean our theological
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debates right now are a waste of time?
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I mean, if we are all going to hold hands and sing in the end,
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regardless of whether we were Anglicans or Baptists, how do we
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balance seeking the truth today with the knowledge that our
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current factions will be entirely obsolete?
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Should we just stop caring about theology altogether and just be
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nice to people? That is the natural reaction,
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but it misses Ryle's nuance. OK, what is overthrown in the
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great Gathering is the pride and the unbrotherliness, not the
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truth itself, Ryle says. Everyone will be clothed with
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humility. So the attitude is what changes.
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Yes, the debates on earth are not a waste of time because they
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are genuine attempts to understand the character and
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will of God. The problem is not the pursuit
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of truth. The problem is the arrogance we
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attach to our partial understanding.
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The arrogance, That's the kicker.
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In heaven, our partial knowledge gives way to perfect clarity.
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The controversies are buried because the full truth is
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finally visible to everyone. The Armenian will see where he
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was wrong, the Calvinist will see where he was wrong, and both
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will be too overwhelmed by the glory of Christ to care about
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scoring debate points. I love that.
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Too overwhelmed by glory to care about winning an argument.
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The lesson for today is not to abandon theology, but to hold
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our convictions with profound humility.
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Well, the deep humility recognizing that the person we
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are fiercely arguing with today will be our eternal neighbor
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tomorrow. Holding convictions with
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humility is the hardest needle to thread, but it is what we are
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called to do. Having laid out the incredible
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nature of this crowd, the discussion shifts to why
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believers should actively look forward to it.
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Yes, Ryle wants to stir up a real longing for this.
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Ryle does not just want us to know the facts about the
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gathering, he wants us to crave it.
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He gives 4 distinct reasons to yearn for this gathering,
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contrasting the future hope with our present struggles.
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Reason number one is the total contrast to our present
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condition, he says. Currently, believers are
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scattered like salt or separated like lighted candles in a dark.
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Let's look closely at that salt and candles analogy.
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Salt in the ancient world was not just for flavoring fries.
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It was a preservative. It kept meat from rotting.
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Candles provide light in the darkness.
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But for salt to work, it has to be rubbed into the meat.
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It has to be dispersed. You can't just leave it on the
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table. No.
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If you leave all the salt in the shaker, the meat rots.
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If you put all the candles in one single room, the rest of the
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house remains completely dark. This dispersion is entirely
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intentional on God's part. So being scattered is part of
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the design. Yes, it is good for the world to
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have light spread out, but Ryle is incredibly sympathetic to the
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psychological toll this takes on the individual.
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Because being out there alone is hard.
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Very hard being the scattered salt causes severe isolation and
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loneliness. You're out there holding the
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line in a dark town. Maybe you are the only Christian
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in your entire corporate office and it is exhausting.
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It really is. The Great Gathering is the
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moment when all the salt is finally brought back together
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and all the candles are placed in one massive blazing room.
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That isolation of being scattered salt makes sense, but
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there's another layer of friction we experience right
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now. The fact that even when we are
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together with other believers, it's still incredibly messy.
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Oh, without a doubt. That leads to his second reason
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to urine complete unity of mind. Ryle is brutally realistic about
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the current state of the church. He pulls no punches.
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He really doesn't. He says it is imperfect,
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containing wheat and tares, good fish and bad fish, wise and
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foolish virgins. He writes that there is a Judas
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at every communion table and a Demas in every Apostolic
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company. For those who might not know,
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Demas was the companion of the Apostle Paul, who heard Paul
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preach, saw the miracles, and still abandoned him because he
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loved the present world. Wow.
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Yeah, Ryle is warning us not to expect perfection from the
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visible church on Earth. This realism is a vital shield
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against modern cynicism. Explain that connection.
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So often today people walk away from the faith because they
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experience hypocrisy, betrayal or scandal within the Which?
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Happens far too often. It does, and they assume that
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because the institution is flawed, the underlying truth
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must be false. Ryle, writing in the 19th
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century, is looking at his readers and saying, of course
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there are hypocrites. There was a traitor sitting at
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the table with Jesus himself. That's a sobering thought.
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By acknowledging the wheat and the tares, which refers to Jesus
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parable about weeds that look exactly like weed growing in the
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same field until the final harvest, he manages
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expectations. The visible church on earth is a
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mixed body. We just can't sort them out
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perfectly right? Now, no, we cannot perfectly
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sort the true believers from the false ones right now.
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But the future church, the gathered church, will be without
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spot or wrinkle. Yearning for the gathering means
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yearning for an assembly where no one has a hidden agenda, no
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one is posturing, and complete authenticity reigns.
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That level of authenticity sounds incredible.
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I mean, imagine a room with 0 posturing.
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Hard to fathom honestly. Reason #3 to yearn for the
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gathering is that no one is absent.
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It is the ultimate reunion. We are talking about meeting
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historical Saints Abraham, Moses, Paul, Mary, Martha, plus
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being reunited with the recently lost loved ones we were just
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mourning at the holiday table. It's a staggering family
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reunion. And then reason #4 no partings.
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Ryle says. It is the end of saying goodbye.
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And how do you do it is the end of earthly exhaustion.
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This is a beautiful point. He lists no more work of body or
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brain, no more anxiety for families, sickness, old age or
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change. Think about the endless
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treadmill we live on. Today, it never stops.
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The barrage of emails, the commuting, the constant low
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level anxiety about our kids futures paying the bills,
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keeping up with the speed of modern life, the glowing screens
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demanding our attention 24/7. Exhausting just to list it out.
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Right. Ryle is talking about an endless
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state of being calm, restful and unhurried.
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It is the ultimate antidote to modern fatigue.
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It truly is. And thinking about the
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historical Saints, how might anticipating an actual
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conversation with people like King David or the Apostle Peter
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change the way we read the writings today?
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Oh, it changes everything about how we interact with the text.
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Tell me more about that. When you read the Psalms of
22:03
David or the letters of Peter, you are not just reading
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historical documents from dead men, you are reading letters
22:08
from future friends. Future Friends, if you actually
22:12
believe you were going to sit down across the table from the
22:15
Apostle Paul and ask him to explain what he meant in the 8th
22:18
chapter of Romans, his writings become a living dialogue.
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It removes the academic distance.
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That makes the Bible feel so much more immediate.
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Exactly, you are getting to know the minds of the people you will
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spend eternity with. And regarding the end of
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exhaustion, Ryles phrase. No more work of body or brain is
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brilliant. Sounds so appealing.
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The human mind is not built to sustain the level of input and
22:42
anxiety we subject it to. The gathering is not just a
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social event, it is the entry into cosmic Sabbath.
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It is the total cessation of striving.
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The mental engine finally gets to turn off this beautiful
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picture of rest, reunion and safety forces.
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A very uncomfortable but necessary question.
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It always says with Ryle. And Ryle does not shy away from
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it. The text transitions from these
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warm, comforting promises to a direct, unavoidable challenge
23:08
for the reader, He states. There will only be two groups,
23:12
right hand or left safe in the ark or outside, gathered like
23:16
wheat or left like tares to be burned.
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There's no middle ground. None.
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And then he asks a blunt question.
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Will you be gathered or left behind?
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He offers what we can call the taste test to check your soul's
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condition. The taste test.
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This is very convicting. Extremely.
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He asks what kind of gatherings you prefer.
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Now if a person takes no pleasure in the assembling of
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Christians on earth and instead prefers worldly assemblies,
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feasts and amusements while finding worship and absolute
23:43
weariness, they cannot possibly enjoy heaven.
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The. Theological logic here is
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ironclad. Yeah, Heaven is a prepared place
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for a prepared people. Our earthly tastes are a
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diagnostic tool for the state of our hearts.
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Ryle is stripping away the cultural Christianity of his
23:58
day. Which was huge in his time.
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Yes, in Victorian England, going to church was the socially
24:03
respectable thing to do. It was how you networked.
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It's how you maintained a good reputation.
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Just going through the motions, right?
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But Ryle is asking, do you actually like it?
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Do you love the company of the Saints?
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If sitting in a room with believers singing praises to God
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and hearing his His Word is incredibly boring or frustrating
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to you now, why do you think you would want to do it forever?
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That is such a logical question. You cannot hate the company of
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Saints now and expect to love an eternity consisting entirely of
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their company. He is exposing the absurdity of
24:37
wanting the safety of heaven without wanting the substance of
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heaven. That is a piercing diagnostic
24:43
tool. But I have to stop and ask a
24:44
question for the listener who might be feeling a bit of panic
24:46
right now. Sure, Ryle says that if a person
24:49
only loves the gathering of sinners on earth, they are
24:52
deceiving themselves about heaven.
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How does a person honestly assess their taste without
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falling into legalism or faking an enjoyment they do not
24:59
possess? That's a very fair concern.
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Because let's be honest, sometimes the visible church is
25:04
annoying. Very annoying.
25:05
The music is too loud, the sermons are dry, the people in
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your small group talk too much. If someone listens to this and
25:11
thinks I don't always love gathering with Christians, how
25:16
do they handle that reality without just pretending?
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That is a vital distinction and we have to be careful not to
25:22
crush people with false expectations.
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Ryle is not demanding constant ecstatic emotional highs at
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every Sunday morning service. OK, good.
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That's a relief. He is talking about the
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fundamental orientation of the soul.
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Recognizing a lack of desire is actually the first vital step.
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You cannot fake an affection you do not have.
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You just can't. If you realize your tastes lean
25:44
entirely toward the world, the answer is not to put on a mask
25:48
and pretend to be super spiritual at coffee hour.
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The answer is to go to God and confess that your affections are
25:53
misaligned. It's about honesty.
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Yes, desires are cultivated in Reformed theology.
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This is the ongoing process of sanctification.
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We ask the Holy Spirit to change our appetites.
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So it's not instant. Rarely, you start by obeying
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even when the feeling isn't there, trusting that God will
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shape your heart over time. It is about the trajectory of
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your loves. Are you increasingly finding
26:17
value in the things of God and the people of God, even amidst
26:20
the glaring imperfections of the visible church?
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That takes a ton of the pressure off.
26:25
It is about the trajectory, not a demand for perfection right
26:28
this second. Exactly now, after this serious
26:31
self examination, Ryle concludes the text by offering massive
26:34
comfort to those who are prepared but are currently
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suffering. He specifically addresses the
26:39
sorrows of December, those holiday gatherings we talked
26:42
about earlier. Bringing it right back to the
26:43
start. Yeah, he commands the believer
26:45
to look forward, quoting Paul. The night is far spent, the day
26:49
is at hand, and he uses 2 analogies to illustrate why this
26:53
future gathering should bring immediate comfort.
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The first one is phenomenal. The shipwreck analogy.
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He says that the morning after an earthly shipwreck is
27:01
terrible. Even if you survive and reach
27:04
the shore, your joy is ruined by the drowned shipmates who did
27:07
not make it. It's.
27:08
A survivor's guilt. Yes, the grief overtakes the
27:11
relief, but the heavenly gathering is different.
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He quotes Acts chapter 27, verse 44.
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This is where Paul is in a literal shipwreck off the coast
27:20
of Malta. The ship is torn to pieces and
27:22
the text says some on boards and some on broken pieces.
27:26
All will get safe to shore. That's a wonderful text.
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Ryle says the great waters swallow none of God's elect.
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The way Ryle lands this conclusion is psychologically
27:36
brilliant. He does not dismiss the pain of
27:38
empty chairs at Christmas. He acknowledges the tears and
27:42
the grave thoughts sweeping over the mind.
27:44
He doesn't just offer cheap band aids.
27:46
Right, he is not offering empty religious platitudes like just
27:49
cheer up. Instead, he uses the absolute
27:53
certainty of the future to anchor the sorrow of the
27:55
present. The shipwreck analogy carries so
27:57
much weight because life often feels exactly like surviving a
28:00
shipwreck. Clinging to debris.
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Yes, we are clinging to broken pieces of wood just trying to
28:05
keep our heads above water. We lose jobs, we lose our
28:08
health, we lose loved ones. But the theological promise of
28:11
the preservation of the Saints is that not a single soul
28:14
entrusted to Christ will be lost in the deep.
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Not one. Every single one of the 276
28:19
people on Paul's ship survived. Everyone gets safe to shore.
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And the second analogy hits even harder, especially when you
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think about the historical context.
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It is the battle analogy. He notes that the day after an
28:32
earthly victory is still deeply sorrowful due to the list of the
28:36
killed, wounded and missing. He quotes the Duke of
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Wellington, the British commander who defeated Napoleon
28:42
at Waterloo. A very famous quote for his
28:44
audience. After that massive battle,
28:46
Wellington reportedly said there was but one thing worse than a
28:49
victory, and that was a defeat. Earthly victories always require
28:53
collateral damage. They require sacrifice.
28:56
There's always a cost. When the casualty lists were
28:58
posted in London, families wept even though the nation won.
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But in this final gathering, Ryle says the muster roll is
29:05
perfectly complete. What a contrast.
29:07
No believer is missing in action.
29:09
If you are feeling lonely this December, Ryle wants you to know
29:12
that the lonely time has an expiration date.
29:15
Precisely. When you look at an earthly
29:17
commander like Wellington, his victory came at the horrific
29:20
cost of thousands of his own men.
29:22
The field was covered in casualties.
29:24
But the victory of Christ, the great captain of our salvation,
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operates on a completely different economy.
29:30
He took the casualties upon himself.
29:32
He bore the cost. He suffered the loss so that his
29:35
soldiers would not have to. Therefore, the muster roll after
29:39
the final battle is identical to the muster roll before the
29:42
battle. No one is left on the field.
29:44
That is just staggering. This completely reorients how we
29:47
experience holiday grief. When tears rise unbidden at the
29:51
dinner table, believers are instructed to look up.
29:54
Ryle says heaven becomes more full every year, while earth
29:57
becomes more empty. That's a beautiful way to phrase
29:59
it. The people you are grieving are
30:01
in good keeping, and you will see them again.
30:04
The sorrow is intensely real, but it is temporary.
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So if we synthesize the core arc of everything we have talked
30:10
about today, we crave gathering because we are quite literally
30:13
made for it. It is in our bones.
30:15
Yes, that common grace wiring. Earthly gatherings give us a
30:19
taste of that connection, but they inevitably break our hearts
30:22
because they are flawed, temporary, and interrupted by
30:25
death. But the final gathering at the
30:27
return of Christ will heal those breaks permanently.
30:31
It will offer perfect unity, rest from our exhaustion and
30:35
absolute safety from the storms of judgement.
30:37
It achieves all of this not by abandoning our humanity, but by
30:41
fulfilling it. The gathering is bodily, it is
30:43
social, and it is incredibly diverse.
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Reversing Babel. Right.
30:47
It reverses the curse of Babel and the divisions of our pride,
30:50
gathering every single believer from able to the end of time
30:54
into one harmonious family where the phrase goodbye is
30:57
permanently retired. As we wrap up, I want to leave
31:00
you, the listener, with a final thought to Mull over.
31:02
We talked about Rile's analogy that believers are currently
31:05
scattered like salt to preserve the world.
31:07
Sometimes that scattering feels intensely isolating.
31:11
It really does. If your current isolation or
31:13
your lack of a like minded community feels like a
31:15
punishment right now, consider this.
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What if your specific lonely placement is not an accident?
31:21
What if it is a deliberate assignment?
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That's a challenging thought. You are the scattered salt.
31:25
You are holding the line in your workplace, in your family, in
31:29
your neighborhood until the day the trumpet sounds and the salt
31:32
is finally gathered back together.
31:35
How does viewing your isolation as a temporary assignment change
31:38
the way you face tomorrow? Think about that.
31:41
Thank you so much for joining us on Reform Thinking.
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We will see you next time.