Waking the Dead

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 ESV

13 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. 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.

It seems as though ever since man first fell into sin and God offered man redemption from his sin, we have been interested and curious as to when God is going to come to this world physically and literally, do away with what is, and create a new, perfect creation.

What we have always been extremely interested in, sometimes even anxious about is what the Scriptures call, the Day of the Lord.

Now, there are several different interpretations of what the Day of the Lord is, but in my personal studies, I have found that the Day of the Lord does not refer to just one day, but instead it is the time period in which Jesus will come back to earth, raise the dead, defeat evil once and for all, judge the wicked, and establish the new heavens and earth.

Now, like I said, there has always been a lot of interest in the Day of the Lord, with questions like, “When is the Day of the Lord?” “How will Jesus return?” “What will happen to believers on that Day?” “What will happen to non-believers on that day?” “What should we be watching for?” and most importantly, we ask, “How shall we live in this world, knowing that the Lord is coming again?”

Now, if it is the Lord’s will, we will answer all of these questions, as this month, we will be working through a series, looking at what Paul wrote in first Thessalonians, chapters 4 and 5, concerning the Day of the Lord.

And you know, this is a very good subject for us to study, for of course we know that with every day that passes, we are another day closer to the Lord’s return, but the signs of the times also tell us that the return of Jesus may be incredibly near. So, this means that there is a chance that some of us may even still be living when Jesus returns.

Everything that the Bible has said would occur in history has occurred, except the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is still yet to come. It is prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled but will be fulfilled.

Therefore, just like the faithful followers of God, who are found in the Bible, looked to God for the completion of His Word, so must we today who are among the faithful followers of God, look to Him for the completion of His Word as He ushers in His Day, the Day of the Lord.

And what we see here in our reading for today concerning the Day of the Lord is the answer to the question of whether or not those who are still living when the Lord returns will be reunited with their Christian brothers and sisters who had already passed away before the Lord’s return.

We see Paul beginning to address this question and also bring an issue that was at the forefront of the Thessalonian church in the very beginning of our reading, the first part of verse 13, where we see Paul saying:

1 Thessalonians 4:13a ESV

13a But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,

So, Paul starts off here by saying that he does not want the Thessalonian believers to be uninformed. So, in saying that he does not want these believers to be uninformed, it shows that there were at least some of them who were indeed uninformed about what he is going to be talking about here.

And what it is that he says that he does not want them to be uninformed about is those who are asleep. Now, when Paul talks about those who are asleep, he’s not talking about people who are literally sleeping, but about believers who have passed away.

You see, the question in the Thessalonian church was; if a Christian died before the Lord returned, would they be able to dwell in the new heavens and earth since they were not living when Jesus returned?

Because this was the question that was on the minds of those in the Thessalonian church, Paul adds to this statement:

1 Thessalonians 4:13b

13b that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Now a lot of people see this and will stop at “that you may not grieve” as though it is wrong to grieve when a loved one dies. But there is certainly nothing wrong with grieving the loss of a loved one or friend. Even Jesus wept when His friend Lazarus died, even with knowing that He was about to raise him from the dead.

But what Paul says he doesn’t want these Thessalonians to do is to grieve as others do who have no hope. So, obviously Paul is saying that this kind of grieving is not necessary when it comes to the Christian who has lost a fellow Christian to death.

Now, this kind of grieving that Paul is speaking of that he doesn’t want the Thessalonian Christians to endure, as our reading says, is applicable for those who have no hope.

Now, our hope, or the certainty that we as Christians have is that this life, this world as we know it today will not always be the way that we know it today.

The hope, the certainty that we have is that there will be a Day, the Day of the Lord. This Day will be when the Lord Jesus descends from Heaven, riding in the clouds, resurrecting those who have passed, casting judgment on the world and those who have not believed on Him, giving new, glorified bodies to believers, and establishing the new heavens and earth for we as the people of God to dwell in with God for eternity.

That is the hope that we as Christians have. A glorious hope where everything is new. But as Paul says here, there are some who have no hope.

Those who have no hope are those who are not saved. This proved especially true during the time in which Paul was writing to these Thessalonian Christians.

The city of Thessalonica was in the Roman Empire and thus saturated with Roman culture. And the Roman concept of death was that death was the absolute end of the road.

To the Roman, death meant that you have ceased to exist forever. To the Roman, there was no concept of afterlife whatsoever. To them, when you died, you died, and that was it.

In fact, an old epitaph that many Romans would put on their tombstones was: “I was not, I was, I am not, I care not.” This means, “There was a time when I was not, or, before I was born. Then there was a time when I was, or, when I was alive in the world. Now I am not, or, I have now passed away from the world. And I care not, in other words, because I am dead and have no consciousness or existence anymore, I am incapable of caring that I have died.”

And so, for the Roman mind, death meant the end of everything. So, when a Roman passed away, there was much occasion for intense grief from their loved ones, for according to their understanding, there was no more seeing their deceased loved one ever again, they have ceased to exist forever.

Now, like I said, these Thessalonians were entrenched in this Roman culture, so surely there were many who felt that their Christian loved ones who passed away before the second coming of the Lord were now left without hope. And thus, believing that they would never see their loved one ever again brought them a tremendous amount of grief.

But Paul tells them not to grieve like this, for unlike their unbelieving Roman counterparts, they, as Christians, certainly do have hope.

He says that even those who have died before the second coming of the Lord have hope, and he describes this hope for those who have died in the Lord in verse 14, when he says:

1 Thessalonians 4:14 ESV

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.

Now this is one of those kinds of verses that I just absolutely love, because this is the kind of verse that you can pick apart, dissect, and examine piece by piece and get a really good understanding of it.

Paul says that we have no reason to grieve as those who have no hope, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again; so, because we believe that Jesus did not remain in the grave, but rose, conquering death, and ascended to Heaven.

So, because we believe and know that Jesus done this, then through Jesus, or, with Jesus doing this for us on our behalf, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.

So, as Jesus did not remain in the grave, but rose from it, powerfully defeating it, so will Jesus, when He returns to the world at the end of the age, bring with Him the spirits of believers who have died before His second coming. And when He brings them, He will cause their bodies to rise from the grave, in new, glorified bodies like His own glorified body and their spirits will be joined with them forever.

So, Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians that because death is certainly not the end of the road for these Thessalonian believers, they shouldn’t act like it is. Because for the Christian, death is the entrance into eternal bliss.

And so, we as Christians should not grieve when a Christian loved one or friend leaves this world as though we will never see them again.

You see, the fear that Satan binds unbelievers all over the world to is death itself. There are literally billions of people in this world who have believed the lie that this life that we are living today is all that there is, and therefore, they should get the most out of life and invest all of their time and energy and resources into this life.

But Jesus did not die and then powerfully raise Himself from the dead so that death could have the last word. Yes, it is true indeed that for many, the life that they are living today is the best that it will ever be for them. For many, this is their heaven…

But for the chosen child of God, the best is indeed yet to come!

And because the best is yet to come, may we spend our time, our energy, our resources on what is to come as we look to the heavens and declare, “even so, come Lord Jesus!”

Amen?