Our Hope

Paul begins this morning’s reading by saying, “we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep.” 1 Thess 4:13

1 Thessalonians 4:13 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.

By “those who are asleep,” he means “those who have died in Christ,” and this is an immediately relevant topic for all of us. We all want to know what it is that happens when we die, and this type of musing is given increased energy when we are faced with the death of loved one or friend, as all of us have been with the passing of Deacon Bill.

What I find amusing is that, while Paul says that he does not want us to be uninformed about God’s plan for those who have died in Christ, many Christians today speak about what happens when we die in vague and incomplete terms that often sound much more like Plato than Jesus or Paul.

So let’s set the record straight this morning. Let’s talk about what happens to those who are asleep both now and when Christ comes again.

Those Who Sleep

Surprisingly, given what Paul says in the opening verse, he tells us almost nothing about the current state of those who have died in Christ. There is a reason for this, and it gets to the problem of most Christian thinking about life after death. The reason Paul says almost nothing about our state of existence when we die is that his focus, as should be the focus of all Christians, is not on the in-between but on the end of the story.

Paul is not so much concerned about life-after-death as he concerned about life after life-after death.

Life after Life-After-Death

He writes

1 Thessalonians 4:14 ESV

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

But this “even so” is a questionable translation. The word is οὕτως. It means “in this way” or “in this manner”. And the preposition through probably goes with the verb slept, so we end up with something like

1 Thessalonians 4:14

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way also, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through the Messiah.

Paul’s very first point about those who have died in Christ is not to discuss their heavenly existence but to state clearly and unambiguously that God will do for them what he did for Jesus Christ, namely, they will rise again.

This is the first thing we have to get right. When Christians die or when we think about the afterlife, the first thing we should be talking about is resurrection. The first thing that we should say is that God intends to do for us what he did for Jesus of Nazareth. But we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.

One thing to note here about about our existence between death and the resurrection is that while Paul doesn’t say much, he does imply clearly that we are safe with God. The metaphor he uses is one of sleep. Maybe he means that we have no conscience thought between death and the resurrection, like we were just napping. Maybe it’s just a metaphor and all metaphors fall short. Either way, what Paul believes about our loved one who have died in Christ is that they are safe with God, and just as importantly, when Jesus Christ comes again, he will bring them with him.

That’s the now for those who have died in Christ. They are safe with Christ in God. In Philippians, as Paul considers that his death might be imminent, he writes:

Philippians 1:23 (ESV)

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Your loved ones, Deacon Bill, and you when your times comes, will be safe with Christ in God. He will hold you securely in his embrace until that day comes when Christ returns and he brings the dead in Christ with him.

So that’s the now. But what about the end? What about the last great day? What about the next event on the eschatological timetable?

When I was growing up, the next event on the eschatological timetable was the Rapture, and the idea came from the very verses in our reading this morning.

The Rapture

So let’s say a word about the rapture. If you don’t know what this is, the basic idea is that when Christ returns he will take all the Christians from this earth and initiate his judgment upon the world. First, it is not a historic Christian doctrine. The idea doesn’t exist until about the 1830’s, and it originates among American fundamentalism. It is not in the Creed, nor do you find it in any of the writings of the early church. Of course, that doesn’t matter if you can find the Rapture in the Bible And that leads me to my second point.

Second, the rapture is not found in the Bible. Let’s look at this. If you were to turn to Revelation and ask, “Where is the rapture?”, the best answer anyone could give you is that you can find the rapture in the white space between chapter three and chapter four. That means, it’s not there. But that’s really okay for those who believe in the rapture because Revelation isn’t the key text. That responsibility falls on our reading this morning, particularly verse 17.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 ESV

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.

He’s going to show up, take us with him into the clouds, and then he take us to heaven, and we’ll be with him forever. That’s what it says, right?

No. Wrong.

The whole movement in this text is not from earth to heaven but rather from heaven to earth. And Paul is trying to describe the impossible, something that human cannot conceive of, in the only wya he knows how. N. T. Wright describes Paul’s language here as like trying to describe different colors to a blind person. Paul is grasping at language to describe that moment when Christ finally returns and all those who are dead in Christ return with him and are reimbodied, that is, resurrected, and those who are alive in Christ are likewise transformed with resurrected bodies, and so he chooses at least two Old Testament images to try and describe this moment.

Sinai

The first is Sinai. On the third day of Moses going up and down the mountain, the Lord himself is said to come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of the people.

Exodus 19:11 (ESV)

For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

And when he does, there is thunder, lightning, and thick cloud, and there is also the blast of a very loud trumpet.

Exodus 19:16 ESV

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Now read 1 Thess 4:16 again.

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.

Notice again, the emphasis on resurrection. This is not the rapture. This the resurrection, and the first imagery Paul uses to try and describe this event is taken from Sinai, from the moment God descended from heaven and came to rest on the mountain with loud thunder and the blast of a trumpet.

Daniel 7

The second imagery is more subtle, but just as important. Jesus said several times that when he returned he would come riding on the clouds. This language comes from Daniel 7 where the Son of Man, in his vindication, comes on the clouds not from heaven to earth, but rather, from earth to heaven. He is lifted up to the very throne of God so that the eternal judge can render verdict. He is coming on the clouds, and so, on that day when he returns again, we too will ride the clouds with him.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 ESV

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.

Those who are alive will be caught up together in the clouds with Christ and with those who have been raised from the dead and we will join him in triumphal procession as the Lord himself descends to earth to make make all things new and to restore and renew creation.

That is our hope - not life after death, but life after life after death. Our hope is that God will do the very same thing for that he did for Jesus, that he will not leave us for dead, that he will not let death write the last words of the story of our lives. Our God is a God of life, and our hope is that he will raise us back from the death.

So if you’re grieving.... maybe over the loss of a loved one recently… maybe over the loss of Deacon BIll… maybe over the loss of a loved one not so recently… it’s okay to grieve, but don’t grieve as those who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 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.

And our hope is not disembodied life in the heavenly realm. Our hope is more than that and greater than that. Our hope is that God will do for us what he has already done for Jesus Christ our Lord. Our hope is that just as God raised him from the dead on the first Easter morning, in the same way he will also raise us on the last great day, when the Lord descends, the trumpet blows, the living are transformed, and the dead in Christ live again, and we all, as one resurrected body of Christ join him in triumphal procession into his new creation.