Grieving with Hope

Will you pray with me?

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Introduction

All thoughout the pages of Scripture there are exhortations and encouragements for God’s people to remember.

2 Peter 1:13 “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,”

When you read the rest of 2 Peter what becomes clear in context is that in this verse Peter is essentailly summarizing his life’s mission. To remind Christians of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished fo rus.

And the reason Peter views this role as so vital is because life just has a way of pressing us down doesn’t it?

Like weighing so heavy, we can’t help but to sink to the bottom of the proverbial glass.

Whether it be the minor discomfots in life, things that just:

Irritate you or frustrate you, or just the pain of life when things don’t go they way you want them too.

All the way up to the biggest and most clear evidences that this world is not the way God intended it to be.

Like Leukemia taking our dear grandmother in 2015, and the pain of watching Pawpaw grief that loss for the last several years.

Or the cruelties of dementia that Pawpaw battled in the last few years.

Life in this world weighs on us. Pushes us down.

But Peter says he sees his role in that tension to stir us up, and he does that by way of reminder.

To consistently remind us of the truth about who our God is and as a result who we are!

When the pain and brokenness of life pushes those truths to the bottom and makes them feel small, and insignificant, and marginal… Peter says, I want to stir you up.

“ I want the truth about God that has settled to the bottom of your life to make its way back up… I want to stir you up.

We are a forgetful people.

So today, I want to stir you up by way of reminder.

A day to be reminded of who God is, and the Hope we have because of Him.

We need this.

But you know who doesn’t? Pawpaw.

Because Pawpaw doesn’t need this sermon. He doesn’t need any more sermons.

He knows in full. He sees clearly.

He doesn’t need faith. His faith is now sight.

But we do, so let me stir us up from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Context

A little bit of context. Thessalonians is written by Paul. A man who was dramatically converted to Jesus Christ, and dedicated his life to traveling and telling people about the Good News of Jesus, and ultimately forming churches in cities scattered throughout the Roman Empire.

Thessalonians is one of those cities, and Paul’s first letter to them is intended to encourage them as well as answer some questions they had this new found faith in Christ.

And evidently some of the biggest questions they had pertained to death, and what happens after death.

This is why Paul starts this section of the letter in verse 13, “I do not want you to be uninformed, about those who are asleep.

But he doesn’t mean literal sleep right. He’s not talking about power naps, but about death.

But he uses the term “sleep” intentionally because its a metaphor for the believer.

Dying for the believer is like taking a nap. Its like sleeping. because we have a God sho is so powerful that even overcoming something as seemingly final as death is like waking someone from a cat nap to him.

So Paul says, “I don’t want you to be uninformed about those who are asleep… BC I DON’T WANT YOU TO GRIEVE AS OTHERS DO WHO HAVE NO HOPE.”

Now before we really dissect this HOPE, I want to quickly note:

HE DIDN’T SAY, “DON’T GRIEVE!”

Again… there are things in life that cause grief. Things that hurt, that press us down.

Grieving those things isn’t wrong. It isn’t sinful. Jesus grieved the passing of his friend Lazarus, even when He knew he would eventually wake him from his 4 day nap.

Grief isn’t wrong. And I want to encourage you.. grieve.

But… grieve with hope.

Hope is largely misunderstood! We tend to use Hope synonmously with “wishful thinking”

“I hope it doesn’t rain today...”

“I hope the dawgs win...”

Maybe you’re thinking, “I hope this guy wraps it up soon!”

But ya’ll… Hope isn’t wishful thinking. Biblically, Hope means JOYFUL AND CONFIDENT EXPECTATION.

Paul is saying here, “Grieve over those who have died… but grieve being confident that with God death is not the end.

Paul then proceeds to give us 3 reasons why we can have hope.

Let me share them with you really quickly.

The Resurrection

Look at verse 14. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

We have hope because of The Resurrection!

We have hope because after being dead for 3 days, Jesus was resurrected.

We have hope because the eternal son of God came and lived the life we could never live

And died the death that we deserved to die and in that substitution he absorbed the full wrath of God toward our sin.

But on the 3rd day he rose from the dead---forever defeating sin and death.

I have had the privilege of preaching the Book of Acts with our church in Savannah, and one of the things I have found most striking in Acts is the indeniable reality of the Resurrection.

Luke’s first account concludes with Jesus’ disciples fearful, doubtful, and ultimately in hiding. Despairing. Hopeless. And experiencing great grief at the lost of their savior and friend.

But the Acts account depicts a radically transformed band of discples! What happened?

The Resurrection of Jesus!

For a period of 40 days, between his crucifixion and ascension, Jesus appeared to his disciples ALIVE.

He ate with them. Spoke with them. Walked with them.

Paul records, 1 Corinthians 15:5-8

1 Corinthians 15:5–8 ESV

and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

It was his ressurection that enfused His people with Hope.

And it is the reality of his resurrection that allows us to grieve with Hope.

Because, of the FACT of His resurrection, we can have faith that we too will be resurrected with Him.

It is the resurrection of Jesus that is the guarantee of the resurrection of believers.

So for those who are in Christ, our resurrection is guaranteed.

Jimmy Hamil knew this.

He put his faith in the saving work of Christ in July of 1948, and from that day til the day of his passing his faith was living and active, and wholly dependent upon the Resurrection of Christ.

Consequently, we can have hope that God has brought him To Himself as verse 14 reads.

So grieve, but do it with the hope founded upon the resurrection of Jesus.

The Return

Secondly, we can grieve with Hope because of the Return.

Look at 1 Thess 4:15-16

1 Thessalonians 4:15–16 ESV

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

The Return

A day is coming that only the Father knows when, but on that day the sky will crack open and Jesus will come back.

He came 1st as a messiah. A lamb. a suffering servant. But on that day he will come back as a warrior king.

He will restore all that Genesis 3 broken, and Revelation says on that day there will be no more death, pain, mourning, or suffering.

Just as He fulfilled the promise of his first coming, so he shall His second.

And as aresult we have hope. Hope that even at the proverbial bottom of life, because the weight of life is pressing us down, we can look up with confident expectation, with hope that he will return and right the wrongs.

The Reunion

But finally, we can grieve with hope because there will be a reunion!

1 Thess 4:17 “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

We grieve, but we do so with hope, knowing we can see him again.

A day where we will again be together, and with the Lord… always.

But… there is one huge distinction that has to be made. A condition for our hope of this reunion.

And it is found in 2 little, but MOST IMPORTANT words in verse 16.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (ESV)

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

In Christ!

The condition of our hope despite our grief is “In christ”

This is the primary way the Bible refers to people who are Christians. They are in Christ.

Being “In Christ” means that by faith we are joined to Jesus.

it means that when God the Father looks at us he doesn’t see our sin he sees the perfection of Jesus.

Pawpaw was a good man. Perhaps the best I’ve ever had the privelege of knowing. We were joking earlier this week that if someone could earn their salvation on their own merit… Pawpaw would probably be in the running.

But ya’ll… that’s impossible. No one can earn their salvation

The claim of Christianity is not--- do your best, be a really good person, and hope that someday its enough and will work out.

The claim of christianity is that at your very worst God gave you His very best in jesus.

He came and lived the life that you and I could never live, and died the death that we deserve, so that through faith in Jesus we can be called children of God.

This is what it means to be in Christ.

That who you to God is not determined by what you do but rather by what Jesus has done.

Conclusion

In Christ.

Those two words seperate the entire world into those who grieve with hope and those who do not.

So… as we grieve the loss of Pawpaw, may we grieve with Hope.

Hope bc of The Ressurection

Hope BC of The Return

Hope BC of The Reunion

All made possible because of our being in Christ.

Pray