Grieve Differently

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Sterling)

Good morning family!

Ask guests to fill out connect card

____ announcements:

1) Announcement 1

What to do and how to respond

2) Announcement 2

What to do and how to respond

3) Announcement 3

What to do and how to respond

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 145:1-3)

Prayer of Praise (Daphne Brewton)

Great Are You Lord

It Is Well

Prayer of Confession (Hopelessness), Colin Smith

Assurance of Pardon (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Hymn of Heaven

It Is Not Death to Die

Scripture Reading (1 Thess 4:13-18)

Pastoral Prayer (Sterling)

Prayer for PBC—Those who have lost loved ones recently

Prayer for kingdom partner—Temple Baptist Church (Wes Taylor)

Prayer for US—President

Prayer for the world—Tuvalu

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

It’s common at the beginning of a new year to see some sort of reflection on the prominent men and women who died the year before.

Two prominent men who would have certainly been included in such a list at the beginning of the year 1900 were Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and Dwight L. Moody.

Although Robert G. Ingersoll may be unknown to most of us, he was at the time known as “the Great Agnostic.” and he devoted his brilliant mind to refuting Christianity. Ingersoll died suddenly in the summer of 1899, leaving his unprepared family utterly devastated. So grief-stricken was his wife that she would not allow his body to be taken from their home until the health of the family required its removal. His remains were cremated, and his funeral service was such a scene of dismay and despair that even the newspapers of the day commented on it.

A few months later the great Christian evangelist Dwight L. Moody also died. He had been declining for some time, and his family had gathered around his bed. As he began to slip away, Moody asked, “Is this death? This is not bad; there is no valley. This is bliss. This is glorious.” His daughter began to pray for him to recover. “No, no, Emma,” he said. “Don’t pray for that. God is calling. This is my coronation day. I have been looking forward to it.” After Moody died, his funeral was a scene of triumph and joy. Those in attendance sang hymns of praise to God. “Where, O death, is your victory,” they exclaimed through faith in Jesus Christ. “Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Cor. 15:55). [1]

How is it that some funerals can be so devastatingly painful, while others can be sad yet hopeful?

The answer is all boils down to what we believe.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

About twenty years after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Apostle Paul started a church in the town of Thessalonica.

SHOW THESSALONICA MAP

And even though Paul was not able to stay very long in Thessalonica, this very young church was still thriving.

Much of this letter so far has been filled with gratitude and encouragement for all the things they were doing well.

But last week we noticed a subtle shift in the letter as Paul began to address questions and concerns from this little church.

And one area where these believers were struggling was how to think about death and grief.

So Paul writes to encourage them, that What we believe affects how we grieve.

That’s the Big idea I hope to communicate this morning.

With God’s help, we’re going to consider Two Simple Truths from our text this morning:

First, we’ll consider What We Believe About a Christian’s Death,

Then we’ll consider How We Grieve a Christian’s Death.

For some of you this will be immensely relevant, because you’re currently mourning a recent loss of someone you love. I hope God’s Word will help comfort you today as you grieve.

Others have lost someone, but it’s been awhile. Perhaps this passage can help you to analyze your grief now that you have some distance.

And for others, this sort of grief lies ahead in your future. You don’t know when you’re going to need what you hear this morning, but I pray you will pay close attention and store these truths in your heart so you have them when you will need them.

Let’s dive right in by studying...

1) What We BELIEVE About a Christian’s Death

From our text, I want you to notice three beliefs about death:

A) Death is TEMPORARY

We sometimes will say our loved ones have “passed away,” or “gone to a better place.” Those are euphemisms for the cold, hard reality of death.

The euphemism Paul uses for death actually teaches us something about death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13—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.

Paul goes on to refer to death as being “asleep” two more times.

You can understand why it was common in Paul’s day to use sleeping as a euphemism. The dead often look like they’re asleep.

But I think when Paul uses this euphemism, he’s also teaching us something: Just like sleep, death is temporary!

The late preacher Adrien Rogers put it like this: “Death is just a comma to a Christian, not a period.”

But why? Why is death temporary for the Christian? Because in Christ...

B) Death is DEFEATED

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.

Here Paul gets to the crucial truth that Christians believe: Jesus really died and Jesus really rose again, thereby defeating death.

This is the heart of the Christian faith!

Paul explains it this way in...

1 Corinthians 15:1–4—Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

Unbeliever: you need to understand that all the hope-filled things this passage teaches about death and grieving are NOT true for you. At least not yet. But they can be, if you will repent and believe!

Believer, notice that our resurrection is GUARANTEED because Jesus died and rose again!

Even though believers still die in this fallen world, the day is coming when...

C) Death will be ERADICATED

Our family sometimes plays a board game called Pandemic.

It’s a cooperative board game where you work together to stop a number of deadly diseases from spreading across the globe and destroying the human race.

Your goal is to discover a cure for each disease before it’s too late. But if you’re really an over-achiever you can eradicate a disease, which means the disease is forever gone and it never infects anyone for the duration of the game.

At the cross, Jesus purchased the cure for this disease called death. And yet, that disease continues to wreak havoc in our world. But when Jesus returns, death will forever be eradicated and it will never harm God’s people ever again.

And Paul explains the nitty gritty details of how this works in...

1 Thessalonians 4:15–17—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.

Before I say anything else here, you need to know this just might be the favorite passage used to discuss a doctrine some call “the rapture.”

We’re not going to address that this week, but don’t worry! We’re going to look at this passage again and spend an entire morning studying what the Bible does and doesn’t teach about the rapture.

Ya’ll pray for me!

But Paul’s point in sharing these details is not to fuel speculation about planes falling out of the sky or people disappearing, his goal is to encourage us to change how we grieve because of what we believe!

Notice in verse 15 Paul says he is DECLARING this to be true based on the authority of King Jesus.

There is coming a day when Jesus will return, not as a baby in a manger but as a conquering King on a white horse.

On that day the graves will be opened, and every believer who has died will come back to life and meet Jesus in the air.

Now that might sound like a really creepy episode of The Walking Dead, but these won’t be zombies or skeletons.

Like we talked about a few weeks ago, our bodies will be transformed, but not until Jesus returns.

Philippians 3:20–21—But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.

By the way, this DOESN’T mean that your believing loved ones who have died aren’t with Jesus. But it DOES mean they’re with Jesus without their bodies. They’re in paradise, a place without suffering or sin, and yet it’s an incomplete place. They’re still crying out, “How long, oh Lord?” because they know that the final resting place is still awaiting them.

After the dead Christians are resurrected and given their new bodies, the Christians living on the earth when Jesus returns will also receive new bodies and meet Jesus in the air.

But notice the promise for all Christians in verse 17b—… we will always be with the Lord.

Unbeliever: repent and believe!

Christian: rejoice because death has an expiration date!!!

What we believe affects how we grieve.

And what do we believe about death? We believe it’s temporary, it was defeated at the cross, and it will be eradicated when Jesus returns.

Now how should these truths affect how we grieve?

2) How We GRIEVE a Christian’s Death

If we go back through the verses we’ve already read, we can pick up on four principles that will help us to grieve differently.

A) Christians Grieve ACTUALLY

If you blink, you’ll miss this principle in the text.

Look at…

1 Thessalonians 4:13—… 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.

Paul doesn’t say that the Thessalonians shouldn’t grieve.

He just says they shouldn’t grieve in the same way as others.

The best example of actually grieving in the face of death is Jesus Himself.

After His friend Lazarus died, the Bible’s shortest verse tells us...

John 11:35—Jesus wept.

Why would Jesus weep?

If the Bible is true, Jesus is God in human flesh. That means He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants.

He can bring Lazarus back to life if He wants! And, if you know the story, you know that’s what He does!

Why weep then?

In their book Untangling Emotions, Alasdair Groves & Winston Smith put it like this: “Jesus is the only perfect human being who has ever lived, and that is why he does not refuse to share the pain of those he loves. Not even for ten minutes. Not even when he knows their sorrow is about to turn to astonished exultation.” [2]

Jesus grieved at Lazarus’ death because grief is the right response to death, and Jesus always does what is right.

And if Jesus actually grieved when Lazarus died—even though He was going to resurrect Him in a few minutes—it is right for you to grieve when a loved one dies. It’s okay to cry, Christian. It’s okay to weep. It’s okay for the tears to overwhelm you at random times. It’s okay for them to linger, even months or years after your beloved has died.

But if you’re grieving a Christian, your grief must be different.

But how? Consider our second principle…

B) Christians Grieve HOPEFULLY

Again, that’s clear in verse 13. We don’t grieve “as others do who have no hope.”

Which means we DO grieve WITH hope!

Stephen King wrote a short story called “The Life of Chuck,” which is intended to give us hope in the face of death.

The story opens in a near-apocalyptic world where the internet collapses, infrastructure is failing, and strange signs start appearing everywhere, such as billboards and advertisements saying, "Thanks, Chuck! 39 Great Years! You Will Be Missed!"

We then learn that Chuck has died from cancer at a mere 39 years old.

The story then proceeds in reverse chronological order to explain the life of Chuck.

In the end, he’s just a normal guy who had a few special moments.

But the only hope that Stephen King can offer is a bunch of billboards saying “thank you” right before the world explodes.

That’s the best our world can offer, friend. If there is no God, there is nothing after death. No life, no lasting legacies, no meaning, no hope.

But if Jesus really lived, and He really died, and He really rose from the dead we can have hope!

If you’re a follower of Jesus, you can face death with hope because you know, like D.L. Moody said, your death day is your coronation day!

If you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re grieving the loss of another Christian, you can face their death with hope because you know you will see them again!

But what about those who don’t believe?

We can pray that they will turn to Christ in their final hours, but unless they make that public we cannot have the same confident hope.

This should compel us to faithfully and consistently tell our loved ones the gospel, and pray they will truly receive it!

If you’re a professing Christian, please live in such a way that your loved ones aren’t wondering about your eternal state when you pass.

As Jimmy Acree said when he preached here 6 years ago, live in a way that you leave no doubt.

Perhaps even thinking about that makes you sad, opening up another type of grief.

Consider our third principle…

C) Christians Grieve TEMPORARILY

If Jesus is returning to eradicate death forever—and He is!!!—than our grief will not last forever!

The Bible is clear that heaven will be a place without grief...

Revelation 21:4—He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

This is a glorious promise, but it’s only true for followers of Jesus. If you’re an unbeliever, I want to address you one more time. Hell is the opposite of heaven. Which means, your grief will extend for all eternity! We plead with you, don’t stubbornly cling to your unbelief. Cry out to Jesus and be saved today! He wants to rescue you, if you’ll just turn from your sins and trust in Him!

If you are a follower of Jesus, this promise is true for you, even on your worse days. I know some of you are wrecked by grief right now. And that’s okay. You don’t need to pretend you’re not hurting. But be encouraged, Christian. That grief will not last forever!

But if your grief is lingering, please hear this final principle…

D) Christians Grieve TOGETHER

After everything he wrote about what Christians believe and how we should grieve, Paul says this in…

1 Thessalonians 4:18—Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Christian: when others around you are grieving, look for opportunities to encourage them. And that encouragement begins, not by reciting 1 Thessalonians 4, but by weeping with them. By hugging them. By being with them as they’re hurting.

I was so encouraged to see so many of you do this so well with Mike and Beth after they lost their daughter.

Go to funerals of church members!

If you’re grieving, don’t discount the way God might use your grief to help others.

The 19th century Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert L. Dabney suffered grievously when his two young sons died, one after the other. Despite his faith, Dabney struggled emotionally over such great sorrow. Some years later, he visited a couple whose only child was sick and dying. “An eyewitness reported that Dabney gently walked through the house to the back parlor where the child was lying. The mother was on her knees near the child. Dabney … walked to the bed, knelt beside the mother, and gave way to a flood of tears. Then he offered a prayer for the parents and the boy—a prayer that could only have come from one capable of empathizing with the family’s affliction.” After the child had died and was buried, “the mother reported that Dr. Dabney’s visit did her more good than all the visits and prayers of all other friends.” [3]

Perhaps God is allowing you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, so you can help someone else through their own valley.

After all, isn’t that what Jesus has done for us?

Jesus didn’t merely weep at the death of Lazarus.

He sweat drops of blood as He embraced death Himself.

And He was willing to endure the cross so that we could be rescued from grief eternally, and grieve differently now.

EXPLAIN COMMUNION

Prayer of Thanksgiving

In just a moment we’re going to sing a song, and after that we’re going to take the Lord’s Supper together.

Let me remind, you the Lord’s Supper is a special meal for Christians to remember the body and blood of Jesus.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, we invite you to repent and believe in Him today!

If you have not made your faith public by following Jesus in believer’s baptism, we invite you to talk with us about that today.

Pastor Jason is in the lobby ready and waiting to talk with anyone about any of these things. You can make your way to him in a moment when we stand to sing.

If you’ve not repented of your sin and followed Jesus in baptism as a believer we would ask you not to take communion with us in a few moments.

That’s not because we think we’re better than you or anything like that.

But because we want you to receive Jesus Himself, not merely the symbol that reminds us of Jesus.

Because we believe the Bible teaches baptism is the first step of obedience as a follower of Jesus, we shouldn’t take later steps until after we’ve taken that first step.

So if that’s you this morning, you’re welcome to remain in your seat when your row is dismissed to take communion in a few minutes.

Or, if you prefer, you’re free to leave the service when we stand in just a moment.

If you choose to leave, nobody is going to be staring at you or judging you because there will also be a bunch of parents getting up to collect their kids from the nursery while we’re singing so that all our volunteers can join us for communion.

Now let’s stand and sing together...

Keep the Feast

LORD’S SUPPER

Doxology

Benediction (1 Cor. 15:56-58)