1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

What's Missing in Our Grieving?

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on October 22, 2017 at Beacon Church

I’ve mistreated this passage of Scripture before—reading it only to see what it has to do with the events of the end-times—the rapture, the Tribulation, the Millennium, and so on. But that’s not what this is about. I remember standing at a graveside after having conducted a funeral for a dear friend, and everyone was in tears, myself included, because his death was unexpected and the great sense of loss was so sudden. And as I read this passage, his wife looked at me with hope in her eyes, and through her tears she smiled because she knew her husband belonged to Jesus Christ. “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,” (1 Thess. 4:13 ESV).

Are Our Loved Ones Gone Forever?

There is a way of grieving that is misguided for Christians, only because it shows that there is something missing in our faith. And remember that’s what the last two chapters of 1 Thessalonians are about: “to supply what is lacking in your faith” (1 Thes 3:10). The first part of the chapter touches on the relationships every Christian has with God, with other Christians, and with people who aren’t yet Christians (verse 12 calls them “outsiders”). And those verses show that when those relationships are inappropriate, it is because something important is missing in our faith—in our knowledge of and trust in God. Likewise in verse 13 when our grieving for dead loved ones is inappropriate. If there is no real difference between how Christian’s mourn the deaths of their loved one and how unbelievers do—“those who have no hope” (v13)—then it’s because there is something “lacking”, something important missing from our faith.

In particular, what Paul pin-points, is that these believers in Thessalonica were “uninformed about those who are asleep”. Probably because the three missionaries who had taught them about Jesus—Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy—and probably no more than about six months earlier—there just had not been time for them to learn much about the Christian hope of resurrection, and life after death. After all, these were Greeks, and they had all kinds of beliefs about death. Very different beliefs than what God’s Word reveals. And not only had these untaught Christians been believers for a short time, it seems some of the members of their congregation had already died—maybe by natural causes, but maybe in the persecutions they had suffered. The word for “those who are asleep” literally means, “those falling asleep”. It’s a nice way of describing death as sleep, and common in many cultures. Even our word “cemetery” means a sleeping chamber. But the tense of this verb, “falling asleep” in verse 13 describes Christians whenever they die, even in the present. So even now, if we aren’t properly informed about the status and future of Christians who die, then even in the 21st century we might grieve in an inappropriate way: like people do who have no hope. Inappropriate just because the Bible gives us a great hope.

Christian Grief Takes Us Back to The Gospel

“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep,” (1 Thess. 4:14 ESV). It’s easy to see the force of these words in verse 13 and 14: if we are “informed” about fellow Christians who die, the way “we grieve” will be seasoned by the “hope” that we have in Jesus, because of our “belief that Jesus died and rose again”. The most wonderful, most powerful words in this whole passage are the 2 words in verse 14, “through Jesus”. Jesus is the key to our hope. Christians die, and we have all lost loved ones. But through Jesus we have hope. Jesus also really died. And then what happened? God raised Him from the dead! Therefore, Paul reasons, “through Jesus” God will also raise those who belong to Christ. This was difficult for recently converted Greeks to wrap their heads around—the idea of a resurrection. But do we believe Jesus really died? Yes, because the Bible over and over again says so: Mat 16:21; Mat 27:46; Mark 15:45; John 19:33; 1 Cor 15:4, etc. And do we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? As early as Acts 1:22, less than 50 days after Jesus rose, the apostles prayed for someone to replace Judas as “a witness to [Jesus’] resurrection”. The resurrection of Christ is one of the most clearly taught doctrines in the books of the New Testament. It is the reason Christians began gathering to worship on Sundays—the day of Christ’s resurrection. And so if we believe in Jesus’ real death and real resurrection, then for us to grieve and give up hope of ever again seeing those Christians who have died, we are forgetting that being a Christian is not just about what you know, or the things you do, it is about being supernaturally bound and connected to Jesus Christ; it is about God the Father wrapping up your life and future in the person of Jesus; it is about being united with Jesus in everything that He does. He died, therefore “through Christ” we also die to our old lives and to sin; He rose, therefore “through Christ” we also have new life, even now, but more to the point, “through Christ”, God one day will raise us also from death to everlasting life. So to grieve like and fear we won’t see our loved ones again is to miss the whole point of the Christian hope: it is to lack something important in our faith. The point of the Christian’s hope is not that we will see our loved ones again—although we will—it is that we will see Christ again when He comes back! Because soon after He rose from the dead, He ascended to Heaven with the promise that He is coming back.

Our Christian confidence, informed by the promise of Jesus, the testimony of the Apostles, the assurance of the angels, and the authority of God’s very Word, that Jesus is alive and coming back one day, means that when that day comes we will also be reunited with every believer in Christ who has ever died. “…Through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep,” (1 Thess. 4:14 ESVb) Again, if we believe the Gospel news that Jesus died, was buried, that He was raised, and is coming again, then we can grieve with hope. Because death cannot stop God from keeping His promises. What’s missing in our grieving? Hope. Not hope like a wish on a lucky penny. But hope as in a well-informed confidence founded upon the Word of God, in what God has accomplished “through Jesus”.

Christian Hope Begins with the Word of the Lord

“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,” (1 Thess. 4:15 ESV). Either through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, or through some specific teaching of Jesus during His earthly ministry, Paul can assure these Christians in Thessalonica that dead or alive, all Christians have the same hope to look forward to. Whether a Christian has already died, or will still be alive on that future day when Jesus returns makes no difference to God keeping His promises. The hope we all share is to look forward to “the coming of the Lord” (v15). From this verse we can only read a little bit into what the Thessalonians’ misunderstanding might have been about. It seems Timothy must have told Paul about their misunderstanding. So Paul answers them here. The word translated “precede” is an old Greek word that once meant “get there first”, but by the time the New Testament was written usually just meant “get there”.[i] The sense in verse 15 therefore probably wasn’t that the Thessalonians were worried about who would get to Heaven first, but about whether Christians who died before Jesus returns would get there at all. Paul answers, however, that even if we are still alive on that day, it doesn’t mean we have any advantage over Christians who already died. Even if Jesus comes back before I finish this sermon, you and I still won’t see Him ahead of those who have died. We will see Him together.

We Will See Jesus Together

“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,” (1 Thess. 4:16 ESV). To feel the force of these hopeful words deep down in your soul, notice the main action in this verse, and don’t get distracted yet by the secondary things happenings: “The Lord Himself will descend… the dead will rise.” Jesus will come down through the clouds, the dead will rise up from the dirt. Now add in the main action from the next verse: “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,” (1 Thess. 4:17 ESV).

1. Jesus will come down from Heaven,

2. dead Christians will rise up from the dirt,

3. living Christians will also be lifted up with them.

And what’s the point Paul makes that comforts us when hopeless grief threatens to overcome us? “And so we will always be with the Lord” (v17). That’s why in verse 18, Paul comes back around to the main point he started in verse 13—that He didn’t want these Thessalonians to be uninformed about their fellow-believers who had already died (who had fallen asleep), an ignorance that resulted in them grieving like people who didn’t have hope. “Therefore encourage one another with these words,” (1 Thess. 4:18 ESV).

It makes me wonder, what then, if the Thessalonians were uninformed about life after death, did they hope to gain by following Jesus? It seems their whole hope depended on surviving until the second coming. But that’s not the real Gospel—they were missing the one thing at the core of the entire Christian faith. Because our faith is not about surviving long enough, or obeying God perfectly enough, or filling our minds with thoughts positive enough, but that Jesus Himself is enough. And this Good News, that the Lord Jesus Himself is enough, separates biblical Christianity from every other religion in the world. Look at the Jesus-centred hope Paul gives these troubled, poorly informed believers…

"himself" – Jesus Himself is coming. The promise is not about the coming of a representative; or of His prophets (like in the Old Testament), or of angels, or by His apostles (like in the New Testament), or of preachers (like today), or even of His Holy Spirit (whom Christ already gives to all His people spiritually)! The promise is of Christ’s own coming—in His humanity, real flesh and blood, God incarnate.[ii] He and not someone else, will bodily descend from Heaven to Earth. And then He will be reunited with all His people, with you and with me. But if Christ's return will be a reunion, it will be a victorious reunion. When he comes again it will be with triumph, making it very clear to the whole world what He has overcome and defeated to make that reunion possible.

The words, "descend from heaven", suggest coming down from a position of absolute divine rule and authority, the scene follows the one in Daniel 7:13-14 where the Son of Man is brought in to stand before the blazing, holy glory of God in person, and not only does He survive, but He is given dominion, glory, and divine authority God alone deserves, and a Kingdom that lasts forever. So when we see Jesus descending from Heaven one day, it will be the day He comes to claim His Kingdom as its divine King.

"with a cry of command" - the ESV translates this really well. Some translations just say, "with a shout" but that misses the sense of this word. It's a word never used anywhere else in the New Testament, and it is not the ordinary word for shout. Maybe you know that scene in The Lord of the Rings when Aragorn rallies the armies of Rohan and Gondor at the gates of Mordor, when he says to them, "The day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day; an hour of woe and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand…!"[iii]  This cry of command is like the battle cry, "charge!" It marks the Return of the King, the invasion of His own fallen Kingdom, to take back what belongs to Him once and for all.

"…With the voice of an archangel" - The command which Jesus shouts as He descends is explained here by this implied reference to an army of angels who obey Him. "…And with the sound of the trumpet of God" - Paul doesn't tell us more about this trumpet, or about the trumpeter, except to make all of this very clear that this in this scene, the trumpet is God's, the angels are God's, the command is God's, and the Lord Himself is God. And that's the point: remember the question, the doubt stated in the verse before: "will we who are alive enter God's Kingdom ahead of those who have died?"--"will we precede those who have fallen asleep?" And the answer is no: we won't get to Heaven first; Heaven is coming to us. We won't see Christ first, Christ is coming to us. We won't enter the Kingdom of God first, the King is coming to Earth. From the point of view of any of us who are still alive to see it, the great reunion we are looking forward to will all happen at once: we will be reunited with our loved ones at the same time as we are reunited with our Lord. The ones who have died, says Paul, won't miss out on that reunion; and we won't even get there ahead of them, because it is Jesus who is coming to us. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, an army of angels, and a supernatural trumpet call. Our King is coming.

When I stood at that graveside that day, about to throw some dirt on my friend’s coffin and say those words, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, it was one of those moments of clarity. This is real. The dirt is real. My friend’s body was real, and so was his death. But you know what else seemed just as real? The Gospel. The birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. But if those long-ago events are real, then so is His future return. He’s coming. There will be a reunion. The dead will rise, and we will too. Will you? Only if you are “in Christ” and only if your salvation is “through Jesus” and only Jesus.

The Gospel, my friends, is as real as the grave. And the Word of God is even more solid than the ground in which we bury our dead. So let us not grieve like those who have no hope. And let us go and live like those who do.