Comforting Words

1 Thess. 4:13-18

For those who are outside of Christ, death is final, cold, cruel, callous, and utterly uncaring. It is ugly, menacing, and inescapable. Paul calls it “the last enemy.” When he arrives, it’s all over.

The only consolation we have is in the Word of God. We have God’s Word for it, that for the believer all is well. “Ye sorrow not,” Paul says, “even as others which have no hope.” Indeed, he deliberately describes death as sleep. We actually court sleep.

We sorrow! But we have God’s Word for it, that our loved ones are only asleep—a reference to the state of the body. The soul does not sleep; the body does. The soul is made of the same stuff as eternity. It never gets tired, never gets old, never gets ill, and never sleeps. The body of the departed believer is asleep. Jesus said the same thing of Lazarus and declared His intention of going to Bethany to awaken him (John 11:1–15).

Outside of divine revelation, we have no word to comfort us when death strikes.

John Phillips, Exploring 1 & 2 Thessalonians: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), 1 Th 4:13–15.

John says, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater” (1 John 5:9). The Spirit says, “It [is] impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). Paul says, “God, that cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). We accept human guarantees, although they often turn out to be worthless. Here we have a guarantee backed by God’s own Word—“the dead in Christ shall rise.” The resurrection of the Christ unconditionally guarantees the resurrection of the Christian. The truth of the Rapture is confirmed to us by the resurrection of Christ. His resurrection demonstrates that our resurrection is not only entirely possible, an absolute certainty, but also is confirmed to us by the reliability of God. There is not the slightest shadow of doubt about it. God’s integrity is beyond all question. His Word is His bond. As David Livingstone used to say about his own favorite promise of the Lord Jesus, “It is the word of a Gentleman of the strictest and most sacred honor, and that’s an end of it!”[1]

It is remarkable how much faith we put in words. We begin when we are very young. The physicist tells us that E = MC2. We take that as true. Most of us have no way of proving it, and most of us have but the haziest conception of what it means—energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared! We do know that Einstein’s equation gave birth to the nuclear age, so we simply accept the equation as true.

We are told that a large dose of arsenic is fatal. We believe it—we’d better believe it—although not many people want to put it to the test. Most of the things that we say we “know” we have accepted by faith. We have taken someone’s word for it. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). As a born-again believer in Christ, our salvation is secured in Him. One day we will die and our bodies will go to the grave but our souls live on forever in heaven. The imminent return of Jesus Christ will take place soon. The fact of our Lord’s return is comfort to us in bereavement, because we know based on the authority of God’s Word that He’ll bring with Him His people who have “died in the Lord.” He isn’t coming to set up His kingdom as of yet when He meets us in the air, because there is no evidence in this passage that after we meet Him in the air that we immediately come back to earth. We will go to heaven with a new body. But when will this event occur? Nobody knows exactly when and it is wrong to set dates for it, because only the Father knows. “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). This return will be imminent because it could happen at any minute, hour, day, week, month, or year. There are no previous events that indicate to us when it will happen except the only sign is when Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. [David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day.] This event will take place “as a thief in the night… in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1Thess. 5:2; 1 Cor. 15:52).

We looked at last week that we have God’s Truth which gives us words of comfort on this topic because He explains to us about this event. Paul points out that when Jesus comes, He would bring those with Him who were asleep in Christ, meaning that those who have died and their souls have gone on to heaven. When He returned from heaven to the air above the earth, He would bring the souls with Him. This would make possible the reentry of souls into the resurrected bodies of the saints who had died; and together with those translated, they would meet the Lord in the air. To the Christiandeath is sleep. It doesn’t mean that the believer becomes unconscious in spirit; because the body returns to dust, but the spirit goes back to God who gave it. Remember to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus used the term “sleep” as referring to the death of the body: “And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth” (Luke 8:52). He made the same statement concerning Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (John 11:11). Sleep indicates a restful condition of the body; in sleep the body relaxes and is rebuilt… but sleep is a temporary state.

· The Return and Resurrection(vv. 14-16)

o Paul says that “For if we believe”. The word “for” is a primary particle that helps explain verse 13. The word “if” is a primary particle of conditionality meaning if you believe that the Lord Jesus died according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures then you are saved and you’ll see your loved ones in Christ once again. If we believe that God raised up Jesus from the dead, we believe Christ is divine (Rom. 1:14); we also believe that through His death we have justification (Rom. 4:25), and that if Jesus was raised from the dead, His blood was divine and through His shed blood we have redemption and remission of sins (Co. 1:14, 20; 1 John 1:7). The resurrection is the heart and soul of the Christian faith. But if you don’t believe that the Lord Jesus died according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures then you will not see your loved ones who have believed. If we refuse to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, our preaching is vain, our faith is vain our hope is in vain, we are of all men most miserable, and we are traveling day by day, step by step, toward the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). Imagine one day when the rapture of the church takes place and millions of people vanish before your very eyes. Imagine believers who are Air Traffic Controllers, Airplane pilots, driving a vehicle, operator of a train or a ship, and they are raptured out of here. Imagine the initial shock and devastation that would take place. Just think about the effect this will have on the lost world! But as a Christian, whether we live or die, we have nothing to fear, because Jesus will come either with us or for us!

o Because of Christ’s death and resurrection the sting and fear of death has been removed for believers, because now our salvation is secured in Him. (Read 1 Cor. 15:55-57). According to this passage, for the believer, death has not sting, no power, or fear of death because it has been removed by Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. All who die in Christ are not dead, but are resting from their labors. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13). The works they leave behind will continue to bear fruit until the Church is complete and caught up to meet the Lord in the air then going to our eternal home where we will receive our rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Verse 14 closes with, “Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” Believers who have fallen asleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him – for the God who raised His Son from the dead will also raise up all believers who have died in Jesus. “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you” (2 Cor. 4:14). Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that because of the resurrection of Christ God will raise the bodies of believers who have fallen asleep (died) in Christ and will bring them with Him when He comes to meet us in the clouds. Because of His death, burial, and resurrection; He has made a pathway through the grave. The wages of sin is death; but the believer who dies in Jesus Christ will rest until the first resurrection… the body returns to dust, the spirit returns to God. When the Rapture takes place the bodies of believers who have fallen asleep will be raised incorruptible, Jesus will bring their spirits with Him in the air, and the spirit will unite with the resurrected, glorified body; the living saints will be changed (translated), and together we will be caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds in the air.

o When Paul preached the doctrine of the resurrection to the Athenian philosophers many of them mocked him. “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter” (Acts 17:32). To the Greeks getting rid of the body was one of their great hopes. Therefore, with that thinking, why would anybody want to have this body resurrected? Besides how could this body be resurrected, when the elements of the body have been decayed and returned to dust? Therefore to them, this doctrine was foolish and impossible. (V. 15) let’s understand that this direct revelation that Paul received from the Lord has to do with “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” Paul believed in the imminent return of Jesus, even though he never stated that Christ would come during his earthly journey or during the lifetime of those believers at Thessalonica, because he was aware that no man knows the time nor the hour except for God. In Paul’s day he knew in part and prophesied in part (1 Cor. 13:12); but now, that which is perfect is come (the perfect law of Liberty, the Word of God in its entirety), and many things are set forth in the Word that definitely point – not to the day or the hour, but to the times and the seasons. With these things beginning to come to pass, with the fig tree (the nation of Israel) budding, we know that Jesus is near. “even at the door” and when one is at the door he is just as close as he can be until he enters!

o When Jesus returns in the air, He will issue the “shout of command” by the “voice of the archangel and the trump of God” and the “dead in Christ shall rise first” (v. 16). This doesn’t mean that He is going to put back the elements of the body together again. The resurrection doesn’t equal reconstruction. Paul argued for the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:35-50. He pointed out to the Church at Corinth that the resurrection of the human body is like the growing of a plant from a seed. The flower is not the identical seed that was planted and yet there is continuity from seed to plant. Christians will receive a glorified body, like the glorified body of Christ. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21). “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The dead body is the “seed” that is planted in the ground; the resurrection body is the “flower” that comes from the seed.Passages like John 5:28-29 and Revelation 20:1-6 indicate that there are two resurrections in the future. When Jesus Christ returns in the air, He will call to Himself only those who are saved through faith in Him. This is called “the first resurrection” or the “resurrection of life.” At the end time, just before God ushers in the new heaven and earth, there will be another resurrection. This is called “the second resurrection.” It is between these two events that the 7 year Tribulation and the 1,000 year reign of Christ will occur. In Paul’s day just like in Jesus’, Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but not the Sadducees didn’t (Acts 23:8). And if you would remember Jesus taught this doctrine to the Sadducees and silenced them on the matter (Matt. 22:23-33). The Old Testament Scriptures taught this doctrine (Job 14:13-15; 19:23-27; Ps. 16:9-11; Dan. 12:2). The fact that Jesus arose from the dead proves that there is a resurrection.

o There are many preachers today who refuse to believe in and teach this doctrine. They try to spiritualize it. Many of them have preached that the second coming took place at Pentecost. Some have taught that has taken place at the conversion of the sinner. While some believe it is at death. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to empower the church but the Holy Spirit will not be coming to receive the church nor will death becoming to receive the church. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again in person to receive His own bride. Before His ascension to heaven the Lord instructed the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost “was fully come,” they were filled the Holy Ghost and commanded to preach the Gospel all over the place. While Jesus was speaking these things to them the Bible says while the disciples beheld him, “He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven!” (Acts 1:9-11). In other words, they had forgotten what Jesus had already instructed them about Him returning to the Father. Let me tell you, you may choose to believe what you want, but as for me (and might I say for you), “Let God be true and every man a liar!” You better believe this book. Regardless of who the preacher or the teacher may be, regardless of the educational degrees they may have, God is still true. Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth in a body, exactly as He went! The Lord Himself will descend from heaven (from the Father’s house in John 14) with a shout; but when Jesus comes in the air with a shout He will not touch this earth, nor will those on earth who are lost will see Him at that time. He will descend in the air in the clouds and call us up to meet Him. Later at the end of the tribulation and reign of the Antichrist, Jesus will stand on the Mount of Olives as recorded in Zechariah 14:4.

o Three unique sounds will be involved in this event: the Lord’s shout, the sound of the trumpet, and the voice of the archangel. The statement “with a shout” in the original language means “with the word of command.” The shout that a general gives to command his troops, ordering them into battle or to march forward, or the command a captain gives to the crew of his ship is in mind here. That shout will be the command of the One who is in Highest Authority. There will be not only a shout, but also “the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.” Some bible scholars have suggested that all three could be one – that is, the shout expressing the command of Christ could be the voice of the archangel, sounding as a trumpet. In Revelation we read that the divine voice is constantly uttered by an angel “a mighty angel” (Rev. 5:2, 7:2). Also in Revelation we read that the voice is as the voice of a trumpet. John uses this statement to describe the glorified Son of man: “I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet talking to me” (Rev. 1:10; 4:1). Jesus said in Matthew 24:31, “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet.” In I Cor. 15:52 we read, “…the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible…” The Greek language suggests a military trumpet that sounds out “the word of command.” “The voice of the archangel” signifies the majesty and power of the summons. The Jewish people were familiar with trumpets, because trumpets were used to declare war, to announce special times and seasons, and to gather the people for a journey (Num. 10). In the Roman Empire, the trumpets were used to announce the arrival of a great person. When God gave the Law to Israel, the event was preceded by a trumpet blast (Ex. 19:18-20). Why “the voice of the archangel”? In Jude 9 we read of Michael the archangel, who is the only archangel named) who had a special ministry to Israel (Dan. 10:21); in Daniel 12:1 he is called “Michael the great prince,” and in Revelation 12:7 we read that Michael and his angels fought against the dragon (Satan). Whether the shout is one voice or three distinct sounds; regardless, we do know the command will be, “Comeup hither!” (Rev. 4:1).

· Conclusion

o The Doctrine of the Rapture and Resurrection of the church assures us that death is not the end. The grave is not the end. The body goes to sleep, but the soul goes to be with the Lord (Phil. 1:20-24). When the Lord returns, He will bring the souls with Him, will raise the body in glory, and will unite the body and soul into one being to share His glory forever. No wonder he said, “Comfort one another with these words!”

· Application

o Christian, are you still living life apart from Him or for Him? Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Don’t you won’t to hear the words from Jesus, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant?” If so and you are living for Him like you should then come to the altar and get things right with Him today? What if He came back right now are you ready to meet Him as you are?

o Friend, if Jesus did come back right now and you don’t know Him then you would be left behind. Why not get your eternal security settled before you leave this place? Don’t you want to know where you would go if your life ceased today? We would love to show you from the Word of God in how you could know.

[1] John Phillips, Exploring 1 & 2 Thessalonians: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), 1 Th 4:13–15.