THE COMFORT OF HIS COMING 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

The pagan world has no hope of life after death.

(The difference between Carolyn’s service and Donna’s no service)

I. Revelation: We Have God’s Truth (1 Thes. 4:13, 15a)

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

We look to Christ and the New Testament for the complete revelation concerning death. “6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:6-8).

God gave Paul a special revelation concerning the resurrection and the return of Christ. And God’s revelation is based on the historic fact of Christ’s resurrection. Since our Saviour has conquered death, we need not fear death or the future.

II. Return: Christ Is Coming Again (1 Thes. 4:14–15)

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

Paul applied the word sleep to those believers who died. Jesus used the same expression (John 11:11–13). Paul was careful to state that Jesus died; the word sleep is not applied to His experience. It is because He died that we need not fear death. Paul did not say that the soul went to sleep at death. He made it clear that the soul of the believer went to be with the Lord: “God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”

The fact of our Lord’s return is comfort to us in bereavement, because we know that He will bring with Him His people who have “died in the Lord.” On the authority of the Word of God, we also know what will happen: Jesus Christ will one day return and bring His people with Him. When will this event occur? Nobody knows, and it is wrong to set dates.

III. Resurrection: The Christian Dead Will Rise (1 Thes. 4:16–18)

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

When Jesus Christ returns in the air, He will issue the “shout of command” and the “dead in Christ shall rise first”. This does not mean that He will put the elements of the body together again, for resurrection is not “reconstruction.” He pointed out 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, yet there is continuity from seed to plant. Christians shall receive glorified bodies, like the glorified body of Christ. The dead body is the “seed” that is planted in the ground; the resurrection body is the “flower” that comes from that seed.

The Christian doctrine of resurrection 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 When the Lord returns, He will bring the soul with Him, will raise the body in glory, and will unite body and soul into one being to share His glory forever.