1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Encouragement when Death Calls

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.

er name was Sally Martin, but to our family she was and is "Grandma Martin."  An elderly widow, we had adopted her as our grandparent in absentia.  We were then living in San Francisco, away from family, and her family was likewise distant, so we strengthened and encouraged each other.

On one particular day she asked that I drive her to Colma, the municipality in which all the cemeteries for the San Francisco peninsula were located.  Arriving at one particular cemetery she directed me along the appropriate lanes until she requested that I stop.  She opened the car door and walked a short distance to a plot situated near a great, spreading oak tree.  There she stood silently, her head bowed.

I waited a respectful time before getting out of the car.  I opened my door and walked quietly to her side.  Not a word was spoken for a long time, and then she softly spoke.  “I sometimes think that I could be here when Jesus returns.  I would be the first to see my Johnny.  My Johnny was not a Christian throughout the years of our marriage.  It was during his final illness that he trusted Christ; he was saved just before he died.  Now, I come to his grave and stand and I think of that day when Christ shall come.  He will call and my Johnny will come forth.  No more hurt, no more pain, no more sorrow; he will be like Jesus.  I want to be here when Jesus comes and Johnny raises from the grave.”

I stood there that spring day with that elderly woman at the graveside and heard her words of confidence and hope.  Her words embodied the hope of every Christian throughout the long generations since the Master Himself conquered death and secured hope and brought life to all who believe.  I've heard a few sermons since that day and none speak more powerfully of the hope which resides in every Christian than did the brief sermon spoken by Grandma Martin.  Death shall come, should Christ delay, and when we are called to cross over, when we are called to bid good-night to our loved ones, you and I will need encouragement.  Here is precisely the encouragement we require.

A Reminder Of Our Belief About The Future — The Christian Faith is not a “hope so” religion; rather it is a “know so” life.  Among the truths Christians hold dear is that foundational hope concerning Christ, the Founder of the Faith and the One worshipped.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again  [verse 14a].  Every other truth which Christians hold dear flows from this singular truth.  Consider these points which are emphasised in the Book of Romans.

We are confident that Christ is Lord.  Our confidence centres in the resurrection from the dead.  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord [Romans 1:1-4].  That is a glorious phrase which Paul penned: declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.  Who would not thrill at the thought and immediately see the significance of the resurrection to His lordship?

The power to live a life pleasing to God is granted because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God [Romans 6:4-10].

Power to be holy is dependent upon the resurrection of our Lord from the dead.  Try as we might, none of us can be holy until we have appropriated resurrection power.  He conquered death and if we will truly reveal His life we must demonstrate that power to live as though death is fully conquered in Him.

Our standing and our confidence before God the Father is by Christ’s resurrection.  Who is he that condemns?  Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword [Romans 8:34,35]?

Our salvation is dependent upon the resurrection of Christ; for if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved [Romans 10:9,10].

With all this, the confidence that we shall live with Him likewise is dependent upon His resurrection from the dead.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you [Romans 8:11].

Do you believe salvation is the gift of God given through faith in Christ Jesus?  The Word is quite clear in presenting the truth that there would be no salvation had Christ not risen from the dead.  There would be no hope of life eternal had Christ not conquered death.  Do you avow the infallibility and the inerrancy of the Word?  There is no authoritative word if it errs in this most essential of all truth.  If the Bible cannot be trusted to speak the truth concerning Christ’s victory over death, it cannot be trusted at any point it speaks.  Do you affirm confidence in the virgin birth of the Son of God?  Such a doctrine as this is rendered meaningless if He did not defeat death through rising from the dead.  Do you hold to the autonomy of the local church?  There would be no church were there no resurrection from the dead.  Every doctrine held dear by the child of God flows from this one essential, foundational, fundamental truth.

I am humbled at the contrast between apostolic preaching and that which attempts to pass for preaching in this day.  The resurrection of Christ was central to the apostolic message.  That truth had seized the heart and soul of those bold spokesmen.  On the day of Pentecost Peter affirmed to the very crowd which had crucified Jesus, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact [Acts 2:32].  Arraigned before the Sanhedrin Peter boldly declared that Jesus, crucified by the religious mob, was raised from the dead by the power of the Living God [Acts 4:10].  Beaten and bloodied, Peter and John appeared before the Sanhedrin and affirmed what was previously stated: The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead — whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree [Acts 5:30].  In every message the Apostles continued to speak of the resurrection.

Beyond Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas made the message of the resurrection of Jesus central to their missionary message.  In Pisidian Antioch the message spoken was We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus [Acts 13:32,33].  In sophisticated, cultured Athens this message of the promise of the resurrection from the dead was so closely identified with the Good News that the interlocutors identified the resurrection intimately with Jesus [see Acts 17:18].  The resurrection of Jesus was the consistent message which identified these missionaries as those bearing Good News.  Paul claimed that he stood trial before the Sanhedrin because of his faith that God will raise the dead [see Acts 23:6-8; 24:15,21].

I must state that any missionary who fails to carry this message of hope and courage today has no message whatsoever.  I care not how much good they may appear to do, how much suffering they may appear to relieve, how widely their efforts may be hailed, if they have no message of life in the Risen Son of God they have no message and they offer their listeners no hope whatsoever.  Just so, you and I may do many fine deeds in our world today, we may contribute to ever so many fine causes and we may participate in ever so many excellent relief efforts; but if we fail to carry the message of the resurrection with us we leave dust in the mouths of those to whom we have gone.

A Reminder of Our Confidence Concerning Our Loved Ones — Little words are highly significant in the Word of God.  And so [ou{tw" kaiV] is a copulative conjunction tied intimately to the adverb to function together as a conjunctive phrase … small words of great significance.  Do you understand the impact of these two small words?  Readers first receive a declaration, an affirmation of the most basic of Christian beliefs: We believe that Jesus died and rose again.  Then, predicated upon that glorious declaration of essential Christian truth follows the comforting corollary every true Christian joyfully affirms: And so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.  Our hope of resurrection, our hope of seeing our loved ones again, our hope of life eternal, our hope of conquering death, all alike are founded upon the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

What gloomy prospects did those pagans of ancient day hold for those who had departed!  It is not correct to say that the philosophers did not think of the unseen world or that they had no concept of what might be.  They anticipated that the soul was not simply extinguished at death.  They speculated there must exist an unseen realm wherein the spirits of the departed wandered.  Intimate to the ancient Greek and Roman myths are tales of the shades of departed men and women held in thraldom by Hades or by Pluto, and likewise for the Norse pagans the dead were enslaved by Hel.  The existence of the shades could hardly be referred to as joyful.

Tragically, some within the Thessalonian congregation had failed to discard the baggage of pagan views concerning the state of the dead and were thus grieving as those without hope.  They had failed to grasp the significance of Christ’s victory over death.  Is it so different today?  Even among those taught the truths of God’s Word are some who mourn uncontrollably at the thought of departed loved ones.  Dear people seize upon this confident, joyous shout of the early saints: maravna qav… Come, O Lord.  Shall He come if He is not risen from the dead?  Shall He fail to bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him?  I declare to you that Christ shall come and that He shall bring with Him those we love and who have fallen asleep in Him.  This is the faith of the Christian!

We are so attuned to the material side of life that we sometimes permit our minds to be overwhelmed by the physical.  Should I be injured and lose a limb, whether an arm or a leg, I am still me.  Should I be confined by reason of injury to a bed of pain and thus restricted in all social intercourse, I am still me.  When the injuries of life force me to reflect upon what defines life I discover that something beyond the physical defines life.  Were there no knowledge from Scripture mere logic would yet compel me to conclude that quality of life is a specious argument for active intervention to take the life of one suffering.  The advocates of euthanasia or of doctor-assisted suicide do not even speak logically when they make their protestations of concern for the welfare of the injured one.  But that is a subject to be considered on another day.  It is sufficient to say that all thinking individuals recognise that the definition of life transcends the merely physical.

Just so, when I exit this life and make the transition to the life to come I dare not envision my continued existence in eternity in terms descriptive of this life.  I am confident by the authority of the Word of God that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable [1 Corinthians 15:50].  Christians exult: our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body [Philippians 3:20,21].

Because I am convinced of God’s plan for me and because I can see that plan worked out in the resurrection of Christ I know where the dead in Christ now reside.  They are not, as some have suggested, occupying pews in numerous church buildings throughout the land between the hours of 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. … those only look dead.  No!  A thousand times no!  The dead in Christ are with Jesus immediately upon taking leave of this body of death.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord [2 Corinthians 5:8] is the exclamation of the informed Christian.

You will no doubt recall the dilemma which faced the Apostle as he languished in gaol.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.  Yet what shall I choose?  I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far [Philippians 1:21-23].  There was no suggestion of transition, short or elongated, following departure from this life.  The Apostle spoke only of being with Christ.  Just so, our loved ones at the time of transition are immediately with the Lord who loved them and gave Himself for them.

I need not give in to uncontrollable grief nor surrender to intemperate sorrow nor engage in excessive mourning.  Those I love and who have died in the Lord are now with Him, and I am thus confident that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  Even the outline of these events is known to us through the revelation of the Word.  What is the outline?  What will happen when Jesus comes for His church?

Dear people, the Apostle encouraged those early saints to be confident, and we need just such confidence in the midst of a world ruled by the secular mindset.  We need to be reminded of the words of the author of Hebrews: do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while,

He who is coming will come and will not delay

[Hebrews 10:35-37a].

A Reminder of the Events Surrounding Christ's Coming — Four great events will take place when Christ comes for His church.  We are fortunate that the Apostle instructed the Thessalonians concerning these events.  Although he had done so previously Paul once again provides the Thessalonians with that outline of coming events.  The first great event is that The Lord Himself will come down from heaven.  Jesus shall come again.

Do you recall the comforting words Jesus spoke on the eve of His exodus?  Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am [John 14:1-3].  Of those comforting words which Jesus spoke as He prepared His disciples for His departure, the sweetest and dearest to the beleaguered saint are those which promise a return: if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  Jesus is pledged on His sacred honour to come again for His saints.  Child of God, this is a soft pillow for the weary head.  Rest on this promise.

Before His transfiguration Jesus spoke both of His return to heaven and of His coming again for His people.  Recall one promise: the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done [Matthew 16:27].  Again, remind yourself of the promise of His return which is given in Luke 17:30: It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  Jesus made it quite clear that He intends to return to receive His people.

That promise was trumpeted by the angels who witnessed His ascension into the glory.  You will remember that these heavenly beings rebuked the disciples, saying “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven”  [Acts 1:11].  With such an honoured reminder the joyful note could not help but be included in each message.  The last book of the Bible begins with this affirmation:

Look, he is coming with the clouds,

and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him;

and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.

So shall it be!  Amen

[Revelation 1:7],

The joyous expectancy with which the Apocalypse begins concludes on that same glorious note: Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done [Revelation 22:12].

The great tragedy of this glorious announcement lies in the perverseness of man.  Through the ages since the ascension, men have repeatedly speculated about the time of Jesus’ return.  Adventists had Him arriving in 1844.  Jehovah’s Witnesses have set and reset the date of His return since 1914.  They are simply following in the deluded train of a long and disgraced lineage stretching back to the days of the Apostles.

In late 1987 an engineer affiliated with NASA wrote a book with the catchy title 88 Reasons Jesus Will Come in 1988.  He boldly dated Jesus’ return as being sometime in 1988.  When Jesus failed to meet this man’s timetable he wrote another book late the following year which sold even more copies than the first.  The title of the second book was ingeniously: 89 Reasons Jesus Will Come in 1989.  There are a plethora of books, some well-written and others less polished, published each year purporting to identify the signs pointing to Jesus’ imminent return.  Millennial fever ensures the continued appearance of such books.  Each of these authors and publishers prey on evangelical Christians who foolishly think they can discover that which God said was kept secret.

We will do well if we discover the wisdom of Jesus’ words which were spoken to His disciples as He prepared to depart this world.  Speaking to the disciples, Jesus warned It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority [Acts 1:7].  If we will please Him we must determine to live in anticipation of His coming, paying no heed to the presence or absence of signs supposed to herald His coming.  Our responsibility is to live in full expectation of the momentary fulfilment of His promise.  We are to live in anticipation of His coming.  Jesus is coming, signs or no signs.

The second great event we anticipate is that the dead in Christ will rise first.  There is a dark side to this statement which honesty compels me to note.  Notice that adjective first.  It draws attention to the fact that there is another resurrection, for if one be first there must be a second.  That resurrection which is first is the resurrection of the righteous.  This is that resurrection described throughout the Word of God and which is given particular attention in Revelation 20:4-6.

There is another resurrection described in the Word of God.  The first resurrection is Blessed and holy, but this second resurrection is a resurrection to eternal punishment, the prelude to the second death.  Death does not end it all.  We are destined to meet our Creator and to receive from Him justice – true justice and not that which is swayed by public opinion or which is perverted as is too often true of the justice dispensed by the judges of this world.  The Christian will be honoured by the Lord He loves, and the outsider will be cast into outer darkness by the very  Lord He would not confess during his lifetime.  Two resurrections!  I pray you participate in the former and not in the latter.

Recall the words of the Apostle penned to the Christians in Rome: God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”  To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For God does not show favouritism [Romans 2:6-11].  Those who have lived to do the will of God will be raised to glory and honour and those who have permitted their own will to reign in life will be raised to eternal shame and dishonour.  The one may anticipate a resurrection to the praise and glory of God; the other must anticipate a resurrection to judgement and they shall be an object of eternal horror.

Observe, however, that the dead in Christ will rise first.  Our loved ones who have preceded us are not forgotten, for they shall be raised first.  There is a resurrection we anticipate and the confidence that we shall be raised is founded upon the knowledge that Christ raised from the dead.  The righteous are not forgotten.  Though they may have been ignored on earth and though they may have been considered strange by the inhabitants of the earth, the righteous possess a promise of infinite worth that they shall be raised; and the threefold guarantee of that promise if firm and sure.  God the Father is pledged by His sacred honour having promised us in His Word.  Christ Himself has been raised, conquering death, Hades and the grave.  The Holy Spirit resides within each believer, serving as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come [2 Corinthians 5:5].  We may be certain that the dead in Christ will rise first.

The third event is likewise glorious.  Following closely on the resurrection of the righteous dead we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds.  I cannot help but thrill at the repeated insights provided us among the promises of God.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is [1 John 3:2].

[W]e eagerly await a Saviour from [heaven], the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body [Philippians 3:20b,21].

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

     “Where, O death, is your victory?

        Where, O death, is your sting?”

[1 Corinthians 15:51-55].

Are these not glorious promises?  “Ah,” say some, even some among us in this hour, “if only I were able to believe that.”  Don’t you wish you could believe this?  What hope has the world provided you that can even begin to match this promise of God who cannot lie?  Don’t you wish you were able to seize this promise as your very own?  How this promise would free you from the tyranny of the transient!  How this promise would free you from enslavement to the evanescent!  It is not that we shall float around endlessly on clouds flexing wings which sprout from our backs while we strum mindlessly on lutes or harps.  That would be an unconscionable torment to active minds.

We are not promised any such monstrous and aberrant sentence as that.  Instead, we are promised that we shall be as Christ, fitted and equipped to serve God productively throughout all eternity.  If such prospect sounds abhorrent it is likely because you do not worship now.  If the thought of worship of God and service to God throughout endless ages distresses it is likely because you do not know Him.  Heaven would not be heaven to the outsider – it would be a living imprisonment; but to the child of God the transformation which fits us for divine service is our highest aspiration.  We who know God rejoice at the thought of perfect worship forever.

And so we shall be with the Lord forever.  All these events precede eternity.  For the church, this passage provides God’s outline leading to the future.  I cannot at this time speak at length concerning Heaven and concerning our employment there; that message must be reserved for another time.  For the child of God it is sufficient to note that with the Rapture we are ushered into the presence of Christ and after that we shall be with the Lord forever.  It is fulfilment of Jesus’ promise which was spoken to sorrowing disciples.  I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am [John 14:3b].  Throughout the years of our pilgrimage while living in the earth He has walked with us, but our eyes never beheld Him.  At last is fulfilled the ancient, long awaited promise and we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is [1 John 3:2b].  Whatever else may be true, this is Glory and this is glorious.

Has this Word comforted you concerning loved ones who have preceded you in the Faith?  Has this Word provided comfort concerning the promise of Christ about the dead in Christ?  If we accept that the righteous who have preceded us are with Christ, and if we accept that they shall be raised, then shall we not accept that we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds?  Together with them in the clouds… is the promise of God to the saints alive at Christ’s return.  Whatever it is that the resurrected saints shall do, that is what we who remain shall also be doing.

Are we Christian?  Do we live in light of His coming?  The knowledge of His promise and the hope of His coming serves to purify life as we increasingly focus on the things which are permanent.  A fair test of our focus is to consider how often our minds turn to pleasing Christ and especially how easily our thoughts turn to the imminence of His coming.  If we discover that we do not often think of His return, then this is a day in which to renew our love for Him.

Perhaps I have spoken to one today who is not a believer.  For you, the coming of Christ is as a myth or a fairy tale, and however much you wish there were a way to right the wrongs of this fallen world, you think yourself unable to believe.  May I speak the words of Jesus to you?  If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own [John 7:17].  Willingness leads to confidence.  If you are but willing to consider Jesus as Lord, if you are but willing to test His promises, you will discover whether He speaks as a mere man or whether He speaks as the very God of Heaven and earth.

This is what He promised: I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.  I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.  And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man [John 5:24-27].

Our invitation is for each who hears the message today to believe the Son of God.  Receive His reign over your life that you may be born into His Kingdom and that you may thus be marked as belonging to Him.  He is coming again and those who have looked for His coming shall be forever with Him.  I pray that you shall be included among those constituting that body.  Amen.