The Coming of the Lord

Hope/No Hope

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. The State of the Dead (4:13–18)

A. The state of the dead (4:13–18). From Paul’s instructions concerning the dead in Christ it appears as if the Thessalonians had been insufficiently informed or had misunderstood what Paul had told them in person. In any case, he does not want them “to be ignorant about those who fall asleep” (4:13).

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (NRSV)

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. The State of the Dead (4:13–18)

The subject on which they need to be informed more fully is the state of the dead, “those who fall asleep.” “Sleep” is a euphemism for death, found in both the Greek and the Jewish world. Christians took the idea over but with the understanding that death is a sleep from which the believer will some day awake to resurrection life.

The issue arises in the church concerning those who have died (gone to sleep) after Paul had left. One would assume that while Paul was there with them they believed but what about those who have not heard since Paul left us? The text from Paul leans on Hope and No Hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 (NRSV)

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. The message from Paul is for all who believe, right? We are not so different today are we? Yet our faith tells us that we have hope. Yet we grieve much like the Thessalonians when we lose someone. We have to remind ourselves that we have the hope of the Resurrection don’t we? For those who grieve as though they have no hope are the unbelievers, Ephesians 2:3 (NRSV)

3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. All people have hopes and dreams, but those outside Christ have no hope in the sense that they do not have the hope of eternal life.

Ewert, D. (1995). 1-2 Thessalonians. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 1080). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. The State of the Dead (4:13–18)

To be without God is to be without hope

Ephesians 2:12 (NRSV)

12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16 (NRSV)

15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Because the grave could not hold Christ and he rose, breaking the bonds of death, Paul assures his readers that “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him”

Ewert, D. (1995). 1-2 Thessalonians. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3, p. 1080). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. The State of the Dead (4:13–18)

Christ’s resurrection guarantees the resurrection of those who die in him.

1 Corinthians 15:1–6 (NRSV)

The Resurrection of Christ

(Cp Mk 16:9–20)

15 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

The final message is concerning discipleship. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NRSV)

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. Share these words with each other and not just those who have heard but also those who have not. The Kingdom is filled with believers, but what do they believe? The assurance of hope is everything we are and the Resurrection is the basis of our belief. It is yours and mine and the neighbor whom God calls us to love.