Death and the return of Jesus - 1 Thes 4:13-5:11
1 Thessalonians: Return of the King • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 24:36
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· 49 viewsIn this section of Thessalonians, Paul writes to the church and tells them to be encouraged even in the face of death by the good news that Jesus died and rose and will return to be with everyone who has put their faith and trust in Jesus, whether they happen to be alive or dead at the time of his return. Paul wants us to be ready for that day by encouraging one another to keep on living out the basics of our faith so that we are not surprised by Jesus' return.
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Golf Courses and other better places
Golf Courses and other better places
Have you ever noticed that when human beings are faced with the reality and prospect of death there is almost always an afterlife invoked in order to remove the sting of death.
He’s now in the great golf course in the sky with a perfect handicap.
She’s sleeping with the angels.
It’s rare, that in the face of death, especially a sudden death, that the self-professed athiest will hang on to their cold hearted belief that for them death means its all over and everything has ultimately amounted to nothing.
Christians who have died
Christians who have died
Death is real. Death is hard to deal with. You and I know that. And the question of death was one that troubled the Thessalonian Christians too.
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
It is natural, when faced with death and our own grief and bereavement to ask questions.
What has happened to our loved ones?
Are they all right?
Shall we see them again?
The Thessalonians are asking all these sorts of questions about death.
But it also seems that for the Thessalonians they have got the return of Jesus a little bit wrong.
You’ll remember in the first half of Ch 4 that we looked at last week that Paul says,
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
and in the second half of ch 5 that we’ll read next week he says:
“warn the idle” 1 Thes 5:14.
It would seem that for some of the Christian’s they’ve taken so seriously the second coming of Jesus that they’ve stopped work and so certain Jesus would come any day now, they are so shocked that their loved ones would die before Jesus returned. And so they don’t understand what this means for their loved ones.
John Stott:
The Message of Thessalonians 1. The Problem of Bereavement (4:13–18)
Relatives or friends of theirs had now died before Christ’s advent. They had not anticipated this; it took them by surprise and greatly disturbed them. How would the Christian dead fare when Jesus came for his own? Would they stand at a disadvantage? Would they miss the blessing of the Parousia? Were they even lost? It seems clear that the Thessalonians had addressed such questions as these to Paul, either directly or through Timothy.
Paul writes to answer these concerns and in doing so he reminds all of us that, for the Christian, there is something different about death.
14 For 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.
Anyone who ‘has fallen asleep’, that is died, will rise again and be with Jesus.
And for those of us who don’t die before Jesus returns?
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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. 17 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.
We will be caught up in the second coming of Christ and will also be with Jesus, and we will join those who have died .
This is an encouraging truth!
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
And we should be encouraged by these words.
What we should not do is load these words up with crazy speculations of what it all means trying to sort out the precise details of exactly what Paul is describing here.
Likewise we should not seek to strip his statements of any real meaning as though they don’t describe real events.
What we see here is that:
The Message of Thessalonians (iv) The Reunion: And so We Will Be with the Lord for Ever (4:17b)
we are eagerly expecting a cosmic event which will include the personal, visible appearing of Jesus Christ and the gathering to him of all his people, whether dead or alive at the time) with agnosticism about the full reality behind the imagery.
Jesus’ Return
Jesus’ Return
So if Jesus will return one day, and if this is the source of our Christian hope in the face of death, then the natural question is when will all this happen and how should I live in the meantime?
As we mentioned earlier it seems some of the Thessalonians might have gotten a little bit sort of like over excited doomsday preppers. Giving up working and expecting to be caught up in Jesus’ second coming any day now.
The Thessalonians it seems have thought seeing that Jesus is going to come back one day they should try and figure out when that is.
But Paul gives them, and us some helpful words of instruction for living while we wait for Jesus to come back.
We don’t know, but it will happen suddenly, so be prepared.
1. We don’t know when it will happen.
1. We don’t know when it will happen.
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,
Echoing the teacing of Jesus
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
2. It will happen suddenly.
2. It will happen suddenly.
2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Like when you watch one of those end of the world movies and people are just casully going about their business and then boom a meteor blows them up. If they’d known a meteor might come perhaps they’d have taken more precautions.
3. So be prepared/stay awake.
3. So be prepared/stay awake.
But as Christians we know it will come so we can be ready.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.
Paul contrasts light and darkness, wakefulness and sleep, for those who are ready for the second coming and those who are not through verse 4-10.
Paul wants the Thessalonians to not be sleepy, drunk night dwellers who live in their sin.
Rather he wants them to be, awake, alert, sober light livers who seek to live out their faith, hope and love.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
To live in light of Jesus’ second coming is to be active in living out our faith.
I think this picture of putting on faith, love and hope as armour is a similar encouragement to the one we got back at the opening of Chapter 4.
1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
Live in order to please God more and more.
Why do we do this? Not to earn our salvation but because of what God has done for us:
9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Jesus died for you and me in order that when he returns, whether we’re still alive, or we’ve “gone to sleep”, that is died, we might join him in eternity.
When we put our faith in Jesus we move from the darkness of sin to the light of Christ. Paul’s encouragement is to continue in the light and to be ready to recieve the full rewards of the light.
The Message of Thessalonians b. The Right Solution: Staying Alert (5:4–8)
In other words, if we belong to the day (the new day which dawned with Christ), our behaviour must be daytime behaviour. Let’s not sleep or even yawn our way through life, or live in our pyjamas. Let’s stay awake and alert. For then we shall be ready when Christ comes and we will not be taken by surprise.
Encourage each other
Encourage each other
Paul rounds out this section with the encouragement to encourage each other.
11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Just as he did in 1 Thes 4:18
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
In the face of death.
In the struggle to keep living lives ready for the return of Christ we need each other.
We need to keep loving each other. Encouraging each other. Helping each other live lives ready for Jesus’ return.
We do that by meeting together.
By sharing our lives.
By being students of God’s word together.
By praying for each other.
Let’s do those things as we await Jesus’ return.