The Rest Of The Story
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 But
we do not want you
to be uninformed, brethren,
about those who are asleep,
that you may not grieve,
as
do the rest who have no hope.
14 For if
we believe
that Jesus died
and
rose again,
even so
God will bring with Him
those who have fallen asleep 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,
shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For
the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel,
and
with the trumpet of God;
and
the dead in Christ shall 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.
THE REST OF THE STORY
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Exegetical Idea: Paul writes to the believers at Thessalonica to inform them that those who have died in Christ will not miss out on the glorious return of the Lord
Theological Idea: All believers will experience the glorious return of the Lord
Homiletical Idea: The best is yet to come for those who believe.
I. Your responses in life are related to your expectations for the future (v 13)
II. Your expectations for the future are tied to what you believed in the past (v 14)
III. What you must believe is that the best is yet to come (vv 15-18)
Introduction:
In searching through my file of old news paper and magazine articles for possible sermon illustrations or introductions, I came across a USA Today news paper dated June 2006. I had saved it because of the cover story of two young ladies who had been involved in an automobile accident where one was pronounced dead and the other survived. And as I was reading this article and finding out that after five weeks they had come to realize that the one that was pronounce dead was really the one who had survived and the one who they thought had survived was really the one who had died. And just as I was getting into this article, wanting to find out what happen and what was the response of the family members, at the bottom of this cover page story read, “For the rest of the story” see page 3. But I soon realized that didn’t have page 3, so my hopes of getting an understanding of what happen was gone. My expectations of learning how the families would respond where gone. My desire to want to read any more was gone. All because I didn’t have the The Rest of the Story.
Friendship, many of you under the sound of my voice have lost hope for a better tomorrow. Many of you under the sound of my voice have come to expect nothing from yourself, nothing from others, nothing from the church, and nothing from God. Many of you under to sound of my voice have lost all desire to serve in, stand up for, live sanctified in anything affiliated with Jesus. All because you don’t know or can’t find, or haven’t read The Rest of the Story.
Transition: Paul pens this text that you may know the rest of the story concerning those who die in Christ.
I.
The church of the Thessalonians was established on Paul’s second missionary journey. It was composed of both believing Jews and Gentiles who had received the word through “much tribulation” (1:6). They were under intense persecution from the Jews of the synagogue for placing their faith in Jesus. Paul and Silas were sent out by night to Berea and on to Athens. But while in Athens, Paul was concerned about how they were doing so chapter 3 tells us that he decided to send Timothy “to strengthen and encourage” their faith. The report back from Timothy was good concerning their faith but in the first part of chapter 4 Paul exhorts them in their practical walk of sanctification and love that they should continue pressing on and progressing in being set apart from the power of sin and seeking always to increase in their love for one another. But in our text, Paul moves from our practical walking before God to our living in the promises of God. They had a concern and Paul knows that it is the promises of God that keep you and me walking right before God. We need both to be instructed in the practical and to be encouraged by the promises.
· The reason that you can make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching is that Jesus promises you that when you do, “lo, I am with you always.” (Mat. 28:18-20)
· The reason that you can endure the ridicule and the laughter and the mocking from the world about your belief in Jesus Christ is because 1 John 4 says that you have the Spirit of God and promises that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
· The reason that you don’t have to lose your mind when a pink slip hits you desk is that Jesus promises you that if you would “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mat. 6:33)
· The reason you don’t have to worry about trying to get somebody back when they do you wrong, stab you in the back, mistreat you and try to do you harm is because the Bible says over and over that the Lord says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”
· Hebrews 13:5 says that the reason that you can let your character be free from the love of money and be content with what you have is that the Lord promises that He will never desert you, nor forsake you.
· The one I have come to bank on the most, when life’s journey gets too hard, the marriage ain’t quite right, the kids know more than you do, the career becomes just a job, the money is funny and change is strange and the tears well-up on the inside, and the pain seems to be more than I can bear, then the Spirit of God reminds me of Romans 8:38-39 where Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, shall be able to separate “me” (us) from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul knows that: Your responses in life are related to your expectations for the future
Explanation: They were concerned about the believers who had died. But more than anything, there level of expectation had dropped to that of an unbeliever. What do I mean?
· An unbeliever is not sure whether God really exist or Jesus is the reason for the season.
· An unbeliever is not sure whether there is a heaven or a hell.
· Therefore, an unbeliever believes, thinks, and lives like life on earth is all there is. Go to a funeral and you will find the unbeliever trying to get into the casket, jump in the grave, and fighting over the stuff that is left behind because they think that life on earth is all there is.
· Therefore, the unbeliever is always distressed, sadden, and sorrowful because they don’t have any expectation of seeing their love one again.
The Thessalonians were grieving for their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ like the unbelievers not just because they had died but because they thought because they were dead they would not experience the glorious return of Jesus. Chapter 5 verse 2 tells us that they had knowledge that the day of the Lord is coming and that it will come as a thief in the night but they were uninformed or as the King James puts it, ignorant about those Christians who had fallen asleep before it comes. Maybe that’s why Paul had to address their walking before God before he dealt with their waiting on God. Maybe because their level of expectation had sunken to that of an unbelieving world they begin to behave like unbelievers. Verse 3, getting involve in sexual immorality in lieu of pursuing sanctification and verse 5, letting their lustful passions run wild, verse 6, sinning against and swindling another brother, verse 9-11, not loving like they should be but being loud, noisy, and lazy.
So Paul says that I am writing that we can change the level of your expectation so that you will respond to the difficulties of life correctly. Your expectations are too low therefore you are living lowly and lowdown like an unbelieving world. Let me ask, how’s your expectation? What are you expecting God to do in your marriage or your singleness? What are you expecting God to do with your family, finances, and friends? What are you expecting God to do with your company, career, or co-worker? What are you expecting God to do with your health, wealth, and worship? Maybe you are living like you are living, going to the places you have no business going, hanging out with the wrong crowd, fussing and cussing with those who love you, behaving like a child of the world, all because your level of expectation is that of the world.
The Bible says,
· Noah kept on building the Ark in the midst of being ridiculed and mocked with the expectation that one day, when it had never rained before, that it was going to rain.
· Abraham in Gen. 22 rose up earlier one morning with his son Isaac, whom he loved, to go on a three day journey, climb a mountain to offer his son as a sacrifice to God with the expectation that the God who had given him while he and Sarah were reproductively dead would somehow raise him back from the dead.
· Moses’ mother refuse to follow the decree of Pharaoh and cast her baby boy into the Nile for death but was willing to place him in a wicker basket with expectation that God was going to make a way out of no way.
· Peter, James, and John, gave up their fishing business of catching live fish to make dead with the expectation of Jesus making them fishers of dead men to make alive.
· If that ain’t enough, Jesus left heaven, was made in the likeness of man, found to be without sin and knew no sin, but yet was willing to be sin on our behalf with the expectation that we who believe might become the righteousness of God in Him.
I tell you if you will keep a godly level of expectation then your responses in life will be godly; God focused, God centered, and will give God the glory.
Illustration:
Transition:
II.
Explanation: Paul next uses back to back conjunctions, “For if.” “For” which serves as a marker of reason and “if” which serves as a marker of condition. Paul is saying, the reason that I can tell you that your expectations are too low is based upon the condition of what it is that we believed. He says, we believe that Jesus died and rose again. A past event that they did not witness with their own eyes but have received it as the truth and placed their faith in it. Now watch this, He says, “even so” meaning believe also what I am about to say about the future of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Just like you believed that Jesus died and rose again, you can also believe that God will bring them with Him. Paul implies that they will rise again by simply saying that God will bring them with Him. Just like you believed in a past event you can believe in a future happening. How? By faith. The writer of Hebrews says, that faith is the assurance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen.
Paul knows: Your expectations for the future are tied to what you believed in the past (v 14)
Minister McGhee taught us at the men’s retreat that “we do what we do because we believe what we believe.” He said that beliefs influence thoughts and thoughts generates feelings and feelings lead to actions. Believing a lie influences problematic thinking which generates darken emotions which lead to sinful behavior. But believing the truth influences balanced thoughts which generates encouraged emotions which leads to proper behavior.
Illustration: Zig Ziglar tells this story about flea training: If you put fleas in a jar with a lid on it, they will desperately pop up against that lid in an attempt to escape for about 20 minutes. Then, while fully convinced they cannot get out of the top of that jar, you can remove the lid. With a perfectly clear path to freedom those little fleas will starve to death in that jar. They tried escaping in the past and they believe they have no hope of escaping in the future.
Application: I wonder do we have some flea faith followers in the house this morning.
· Some of you have been bumping against the lid in your marriage, not for 20 minutes, but for 20 years and you are convinced that there is no hope of anything changing.
· Some of you have been pounding against the lid of financial freedom, but now you are broke, busted, and disgusted, so you believe that an expectation of being debt free is for the birds.
· Some of you have been pushing against the lid of opportunity in your career, but each time someone else gets the promotion, the pay increase, and the penthouse apartment, so you believe that hope is the last name of the person who keeps beating you out.
· Some of you have been trying to get out of the lid of a bad ungodly relationship for a long time and now you believe that you can’t make it on your own, or that your too old and want be able to find anyone else, so you keep going through the heartaches and headaches waiting on them to leave.
As I read through the Old Testament, God always reminded the children of Israel of what He had done for them in Egypt. How He delivered out of bondage and brought them to a land that was not their own flowing with milk and honey. Maybe you need to review your past and remember the day of your salvation; remember the bondage that He brought you out of and where He has you right now.
Therefore, if you believe in the impossible – God is the God of impossibilities. If you believe in the miraculous – God is a miracle working God. If you believe in forgiveness – God is the God of grace and mercy. If you believe in power – God is all powerful. If you believe loving the unlovely – God is love.
Transition:
III.
Explanation: Now Paul receives a prophetic utterance concerning this coming event. He gets a today word for a sometime in the future event. If you were in the Spiritual Gift class then you know how to examine this prophetic utterance. What Paul says is for the exaltation of Jesus Christ; it is said in the context and through the framework of his love for them; and he says it having in mind the edification of church. Paul says three things to them concerning this future event. First, he says, where you thought that those Christians that have died would miss experiencing the day of the Lord. I got news for you, they will experience it before you will. Second, he says but they want beat you by much, the word used for “caught up” means to snatch away. Corinthians says that it will be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Lastly, he says: What you must believe is that the best is yet to come (vv 15-18). How does he say that? Because in verse 16 he says that “The Lord Himself.” Not the archangel Gabriel His messenger or the archangel Michael His guardian but the One who died for me. One who is in charge by virtue of possession and the One who is in the position of authority. Job spoke of Him when he said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I will see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another.” Then Paul says at the end of verse 17, that we shall always be with the Lord. That means not only has Christ returned in the air and the rapture occurred but the tribulation and the antichrist is finished, Satan has been bound, King Jesus has reigned for thousand years and the great white throne judgment is complete. And now we, I said we, are in the presence of our Lord in a new heaven and new earth, where there will be no more tears, no more death, and no more pain. We will spend eternity with Jesus.
Illustration: For Christmas my youngest son Daniel wanted another drum set. So my wife and I decided that maybe this time was ready for one and would take better care of it this time. The only problem is that we going to be in Dallas for Christmas and I did not want to set up drums in Dallas and then tear them down to come back to Houston. So on Christmas day when Daniel opened up his present and discovered that he had gotten a drum set, I promised him that I would set them up the minute we returned back to Houston. So for the next two days, he played with his cousins and enjoyed his grandparents. He pulled out his drum sticks and played with other toys but not once did question whether I was going to set up his drums when we got back to Houston. On the way back from Dallas he ate and even fell asleep but when we hit our drive way he stood in the doorway with much anticipation awaiting the entry of and setting up of his drum set and he has been beating them ever since. He was willing to wait because he believe what his father had promise – that the best is yet to come.
Application: Now Friendship, the God our Father has promised us that one day, Jesus is going to crack the sky. We might have to wait longer than two days, two weeks, or over two thousand years but while we are waiting:
· Keep working on love and respect in your marriage
· Have fellowship with other brothers and sisters
· Do your work whole heartily as unto the Lord.
· Keep on investing in the things of God.
· Seek to be holy as the Lord is holy.
And one day, whether from the grave or still alive, the wait will be over and what the Father promised will happen and we will praise Him forevermore. All because we believed that the best was yet to come.
Conclusion: