AN ENCOURAGING PROMISE

Introduction

-Over the past several decades a sort of end times craze has come over evangelical Christianity. In the 70’s & 80’s Hal Lindsey and his books like The Late, Great Planet Earth pointed people to the newspapers and then to the Bible with the not-so-subtle message that Jesus may return soon from a premillennial perspective.

-Then in the 90’s and 2000’s Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins came out with the Left Behind series that dramatized the same premillennial perspective of what Christ’s second coming might look like.

-As interesting and thrilling as those books may have been, what we find is that the Bible doesn’t give as much detail about Christ’s second coming as we think or as we would like.

-What the Bible does instead is that it talks about Christ’s second coming as a fact, and what are the implications that it has in our lives in the here and now. The fact of the Christ’s return, and the few details we do know about it, bring an encouraging promise that gives hope to all who place their faith in Christ.

-With that in mind, we look at the church in Thessalonica, and see that it was a spiritually strong church, but they had questions about what happens to believers when they die and the implications for them at the end times, specifically regarding the resurrection.

-So, in the passage that we are looking at today Paul wrote words of encouragement to them that all believers have a promise of resurrection in Christ, whether they are alive or dead at Jesus’ return.

-My hope, today, is to encourage you with the promise of eternal resurrected life with Christ and that you live in light of the hope that it brings.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV

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. 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. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

-First, Paul talks about:

I) Hope for the departed

-in v. 13 Paul tells the church that he does not want them to be uninformed about those who are asleep----being asleep is merely a picturesque way of talking about the dead. The body looks like it is asleep. (And from a Christian perspective, just like a sleeping person will wake up eventually, we know so will a dead believer).

-But some false religions have taken this picture too far and teach that the soul of a dead believer is in a sort of soul-sleep until Christ’s return, but we know that is not the case because the Bible elsewhere talks about the fact that after a believer dies they are with the Lord

~Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:8 that to be absent or away from the body is to be present with the Lord

~And Jesus Himself told the believing thief who was crucified with Him that on that very day the thief would be with Jesus in Paradise

-But for the 21st century church, we have the blessing of having the completed canon of Scripture, so we have access to this teaching. The Thessalonian church did not have that.

-Paul was only with the Thessalonian church a short time before he was sort of chased off, so their discipleship may not have been complete and they may not have had a full understanding of what happens to the dead or what the future held.

-It is possible that the Thessalonians were expecting Jesus to return very soon in their day, and they thought that with a believer dying that they would miss out on the resurrection.

-Paul reassures them, though, that we don’t mourn like the rest of the world mourns. We don’t grieve like the rest of the world grieves. Why? Because we know that for the dead in Christ there is hope right now that they are in heaven; and there is also the hope of being a part of the future resurrection----So Paul’s point for the Thessalonians is that they need not worry about those who have died—they will be alright.

-And Paul connects this promise with Jesus’ own resurrection, because His resurrection is proof of His power over death.

-So Paul ensures the Thessalonians that the dead will return with Christ from heaven. Those who have departed this world in Christ will come back with Him and have a part in the Christ’s return.

-This is the whole basis of our hope as Christians. Jesus died for our sins but rose again, demonstrating His power over life and death, and we know that He promised that even when somebody dies, if they have believed in Jesus they will still live.

-Our hope is of a life that exists in spite of death; and not just that, but a whole new life with a whole new spiritual body that will be raised to live in a whole new heaven and earth at Christ’s return. That’s the promise.

-And so this leads us to what Paul talks about next:

II) Hope for the return

-Now, as we look at this passage, we have to be careful to allow it to speak for itself. Everyone has some sort of preconceived notion of what is going to happen at the end times, and so they come to this passage and try to fit it somewhere into their jigsaw puzzle of end time ideas.

-To be honest, this passage doesn’t give us a lot of the when’s and how’s of what is going to happen. Again, it states the fact, and gives the bear minimum of details.

- But let’s just consider the passage itself. The main thrust of what Paul is discussing is the relation of believers who have died with the promised return of Christ. In v. 15 again Paul tells them not to think that the dead will somehow miss out. Those alive at the time of Christ’s return will not get special treatment.

-But then what does Paul tell us about Christ’s return? Well, he says that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven. That means Christ will return visibly, physically, and personally.

-If you remember, when Jesus ascended into heaven, the angels told the disciples that Jesus would return in the same manner. They saw Him ascend, so people will see Jesus descend.

-But Paul goes on to say that there will be a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and the sound of the trumpet of God. This tells us that His return will be with great fanfare—meaning, nobody’s going to miss what’s happening.

-The picture really is of the arrival of a king that is being heralded. Jesus will give the command to go, the archangel will herald the return of the king, the trumpet will get the attention of all around.----what it all boils down to is that the whole world will know that its King has come to claim His rightful place of authority.

-But more to Paul’s point, he says that when this return of Christ happens, the dead in Christ will rise first. So what appears will happen is that all the souls of heaven will come with Christ and be united with a raised, spiritual body.

-But Paul goes on to say that we who are alive (meaning Christian believers) will then also receive resurrected, spiritual bodies. And then it seems that, as a group, all Christian believers will be caught up together and go meet the Lord in the air.

-What is being pictured is that in ancient days, when a king or another very important dignitary would come to a city for some sort of official visit, it would be heralded throughout the area that this person was coming and is now here. The people would then go outside the city gates and greet this king or dignitary, and then escort them into the city.

-We actually see an example of this in the New Testament with what we normally call the Triumphal Entry of Christ.====The people of Jerusalem thought that Jesus was coming to lead a revolt against the Romans and claim an earthly kingship for Himself at that time. So the people went out of the city to greet Him and escort Him in.

-So, what we learn from our current passage, is that when Jesus returns to destroy His enemies and set up the new heaven and new earth, all believers of all times, living or dead at the time of His return, will be given resurrected bodies, will meet Jesus in the air, and will then escort Him to earth to establish His eternal Kingdom.

-And we are given a great promise in v. 17==AND SO WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH THE LORD----meaning, we have a hope at Christ’s return that we will be in these resurrected bodies and be in Christ’s presence in these bodies for all the rest of eternity.

-I don’t know about you, but I think that this is an amazing promise----this promise gives us hope for the departed, and gives us hope for Christ’s return, and what this leads to is:

III) Hope for today

-Paul doesn’t tell the Thessalonians to take all this information and continuously look for signs that it’s about to happen—he has given them no signs to look for.

-What he tells them to do with this information in v. 18 is to ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS

-Use the promises given here, and allow that to give you hope with everything that you are dealing with today. Take these promises, personalize them, and allow them to keep you strong through the trials and troubles that you face daily.

-I have read so many articles from pastors and scholars that lament that Christians either give no thought to heaven and end times events like early Christians did; or else they lament that Christians become so obsessed with them as a doctrine and intellectual exercise that they sap out of it all the joy and hope that the promises give.

-Early Christians took these promises and held onto them like a pitbull because they had nothing else to hold on to. They were most likely poor and persecuted, so they had nothing of earthly value, so all they had was the promise of heaven, Christ’s return, and resurrection.

-Our problem is that we are so enamored with the world, the things of the world, and all our earthly possessions and treasures that we really don’t care about the spiritual.----We think we have all we need right now, and give no thought to what waits for us in the future.

-But when we think of Christ’s return, when we think of the resurrection, it should give us joy knowing that these are guaranteed based on Jesus’ promises—meaning, they are a done deal. And from an eternal perspective, that’s all we got.

-There ought to rise in us a sense of excitement, joy, and anticipation that gets us through our difficult days as we look toward an amazing future.

-Until Christ returns, we will have to deal with sickness and death, and nothing on earth will comfort us. But we can take the promises that God gives here and comfort the dying and their families—pointing them to the ultimate outcome of it all==DEATH WILL NOT WIN.

-I wonder, though, if we don’t rightly ponder these things because we think that it’s all just a bunch of Christian clichés that pastors put together to use like a cheerleader, trying to get us riled up to keep coming to church.

-But if you read 1 Corinthians 15, our entire belief system is based on the resurrection of Christ which leads to our eventual resurrection. Everything stands or falls on this. If Christ is not resurrected, then Christ is not returning. If Christ is not returning then we will not be resurrected, and that means that death wins and we have no hope.

-But Paul is so confident in the fact of Christ’s return and the believer’s resurrection that he says THESE ARE THE WORDS THAT YOU ARE TO COMFORT YOURSELVES WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE ON EARTH, BECAUSE ALL OF YOUR HOPE RESTS THERE.

-Is that where your hope lies? Or are you putting your hope elsewhere? I can tell you this much—nothing else has eternal promises behind it like these here.

Conclusion

-But you only can cling to these promises and hold onto this hope if you have believed on Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead to demonstrate that He defeated death. By faith and repentance trust in Him and be saved today.

-Others here might need some hope. Come to the altar and pray that God would cause these truths to so overwhelm you that you are comforted.

~Or maybe you know of someone who needs this comfort. Come pray that God would make it a reality in their lives.

-Still, others here might be looking for a church home that still looks to the promises of hope given in Scripture. I invite you to join yourself with Harvest.