as you're making your way back
to 1 Thessalonians 4. I hope that you were able to
pick up in the reading that at the end of both sections,
the end of chapter four and the middle of chapter five, that
there was this phrase to encourage each other. Do you get discouraged? I would have to say that there's
probably none of us who are free from that problem of discouragement. And sometimes the things that
cause us to be discouraged are quite silly. right, when you
look at them in retrospect. I think sometimes we're easier
to pick up on, I would say, the silliness or triviality or ignorance
of others more than maybe in ourselves. It's like, well, why
are they worried about that? That shouldn't be an issue. And
I don't know if you were able to catch or if you read it before
what was causing the Thessalonian believers to ignorantly, and
Paul doesn't mean that with malice, but to ignorantly have a grief. One of the things that is said
in the passage And we're getting this a little
bit on, we're hearing half the conversation, so we don't know
exactly what was said to either Paul directly or to Timothy when
he went and visited the believers, but what Paul and Timothy and
Silas are talking about and writing down for us to read by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit is to address this discouragement that the
believers in Thessalonica had. And they had a two-fold discouragement. We'll probably, well, I would
say if you want to bet, there's very little chance that I will
go all the way down to five verse 11. But there's a two-fold concern
that seems to be here. And there's some disagreement
on exactly what it is, but we can see from looking at the text
part of what it is. And if you look at the text here,
you see, we who are still alive, who are left, verse 13, or verse
15 rather, who are left till the coming of the Lord will certainly
not precede those who have fallen asleep. So somehow, in their
mind, There was a concern that if you died before Christ returned,
and Paul lived with, I would say, an anticipation of the possibility
of the return of Christ at any time, but there was this concern
in the Thessalonian church, and ignorance, Paul says here in
Timothy and Silas, because I believe all of them had a hand in what
was written down here, If you're ignorant of how things will work,
don't worry. Don't be discouraged. People who die won't be left
behind, left to be in the grave when Christ returns. And the
second part of it is, in chapter five, When Christ returns, there's
definitely a understanding that the wrath of God will be visited
upon this earth, that the judgment, the justice that needs to happen
will happen. And somehow, there was a little
bit of a concern as well. Again, we're reading a little
bit into it, but if you were to turn back to chapter one and
verse 10, you also read that we're to wait for his son from
heaven, 1 Thessalonians 1.10, whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. So these were items
of discouragement for the Thessalonian Church. One, that people who
died before the coming of Christ, that they would somehow be second-class
citizens. Again, we don't have the other
side of the conversations to know exactly what they asked,
but we know a little bit from what's in the text. And then
secondly, If they were lucky enough, and I use that word under
advisement, if they were alive when Christ returned, what's
going to keep me from God's wrath? Well, when I taught teen Sunday
school, Back in the day at the church, I would say, you know,
it's always a safe answer to say the answer is Jesus, right? The gospel is the answer to those
questions, and it is here as well. What I challenge them,
I challenge you, and I challenge myself, is exactly how, and Paul
talks about it here, and he is laying out some things that I
think, even if their concerns aren't exactly our concerns,
There is some encouragement here. There's some comfort. There's
some exhortation here that we all need. I know I need it. When I read, I was very encouraged
at what Paul has to say here. So I want to, at least the first
Part through the end of chapter four, I want to break out into,
I believe I have five, well, four sections, but the main heading
is that of hope and the comfort that hope brings. So first of
all, we wanna talk about the need for hope. So as I just outlined,
Certainly, as understanding was given to the Thessalonians, of
the Thessalonian church was given to Paul and Silas by Timothy,
they had a need to clear things up. They had a need to understand
exactly what the coming of Christ would mean for those who are
in Christ and why they didn't need to be concerned if they
were truly believing the gospel of Christ. So he says in verse
13, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those
who fall asleep. or to grieve like the rest of
men who have no hope. So what's interesting here, and
it's pointed out that with maybe one exception, it's generally
the case, anyway I will say this, that when Paul talks about dying
and the believer, he talks about falling asleep. He talks about
falling asleep, and I don't know about you, when I'm really tired,
and yesterday had a little bit of a bout of that, it is a comfort
to lay down and take a nap, right? To fall asleep, and usually end
up waking up not as refreshed as I want to be, but At the point
where I'm finally able to fall asleep, the dog isn't jumping
up on the bed to see what's wrong with me falling asleep during
the middle of the day. But it's a comfort. And Paul
uses that language, sorry about the, if there was such a thing
as jinxing it, we were talking about being stuffed up and I'm
getting a little bit more of that right now. Sorry about that. But there's a comfort in this
idea of being able to sleep and thinking about it in light of
the gospel to be able to sleep in Christ. So we shouldn't be
ignorant. of what happens to those who
die before the return of Christ. We should be informed. We should
be instructed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God.
And why is that? Well, we shouldn't grieve like
the rest who have no hope. And here he's talking about outsiders,
heathen, pagan, whatever word you want to use, people who don't
have any warrant to have a hope. Now if you've ever been to a
funeral for somebody, I'll put it as politely as possible, who
was a rascal at best, and everybody knows it. I've had occasion to
attend that. People who died living in debauchery
and lived a life of debauchery, and they're, depending on the
religious intuition of the people there is, well, I'll pray for
him or her, and I'll put in a good word to the big guy for him. That isn't the hope that we have,
right? That isn't a hope that you can
bank on. That isn't a hope that we need. That's an ignorant hope. Because
all of us deserve, by nature, the same wrath, whether we're
a rascal or... There are many people in this
world who are able to live a more or less morally upright life,
at least outwardly. But if they're not in Christ,
we have no warrant to give them hope. And Paul doesn't give hope
apart from Christ here either. What he says is, I don't want
you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, and he'll talk
about later, In verse 14, he says, those who have fallen asleep
in him, and the context is clear, is in Jesus. So there's a limit
to who he's talking about. It's not everyone who dies. There's
no warrant in the New Testament for universal salvation, even
if it's something that we could desire. It's not warranted by
scripture. But we shouldn't be ignorant
about those who fall asleep in Christ. And we've had a year where not
only have we lost our beloved pastor and friend, but others
have lost parents and grandparents. And perhaps there's some that
I don't know of as well. Usually no year goes by without
some sort of loss. But our hope, if they are ones
who are in Christ, is that we don't grieve as if we are those
without hope. It's not saying we shouldn't
grieve because we miss them. I miss Joe dearly, as I know
you do. Sometimes the thought is so overwhelming
for me that I need a minute or 15 or more to compose myself. But part of what brings me back
is the hope that he has, and that I have, and that I will
see him again. But those who are outside of
Christ, they don't have that hope. Ephesians 2.12, talking
about believers before they came to Christ. Remember Ephesians
2.12, that at that time, you were separate from Christ, excluded
from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of
the promise without hope and without God in the world. So the contrast here is not between
one degree of sorrow and another, but between a true, solid Christian
hope based on being in Christ and the despair that pagans should
feel, that unbelievers should feel, and often they do. So the need is for knowledge. Knowledge in itself doesn't do
us any good. Knowledge alone puffs up. But knowledge is needed. We shouldn't
grieve. for those we've lost who are
in Christ, like those who have no hope. Because if we're in
Christ and they were in Christ, we'll see them again. They aren't
second-class citizens who just had the misfortune of dying before
Christ's return. So that's the deed. Well, where
is the source of our hope? Well, we can go to the text.
And we can read verse 14. 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. So what's our hope for
those who are dead in Christ? Well, it's the gospel. And our translation covers over
the word if or since here. So if we believe, if we are those
who believe, or since we are those who believe, since he's
addressing it and the translation merits it, so this is not a bad
translation, but leaving that little bit out here. Since we
believe the one thing about Jesus' death and resurrection, We also
should believe this other thing that God will bring with Jesus
those who have fallen asleep in Him. The whole purpose, and
Paul attacks this the other way in 1 Corinthians 15, and I was
very close, Eric, to asking you to read from 1 Corinthians 15
instead, and I thought, well, that gets read a lot, so hopefully
people have it in mind. But what Paul says in 1 Corinthians
15 is that If Christ wasn't raised from the dead, we are of all
men most miserable. And here he's saying it the other
way. Since Christ was raised from
the dead, we are of all men, all people, most fortunate, most
blessed, most comforted, most having hope. Because since Christ
died, And interestingly enough, we have that contrast here. Paul doesn't use a euphemism
or a nice sort of thing. It's Jesus died. He suffered. Our death may or may not involve
suffering. But the death of the believer
is the gateway to eternal life continuing beyond this way. So it's spoken of as sleep, whereas
Jesus suffered and died. And this is not spoken of in
a passive way, and it can be in some cases because Jesus was
raised from the dead, but here we're talking about it in the
sense of a active role. And in John chapter 10, verse
17, Jesus said, I lay down my life only to take it up again. He wasn't saying that as some
sort of bravado. Our source of hope is that the
Godhead was actively involved in not only the decision for
the death of Jesus, but the putting upon of the sins of his people,
the punishment for those sins, the imputation of righteousness,
and the resurrection which shows that he rose victorious from
the grave. So if we founder in our hope,
We need to look afresh to what God has done for us in Christ. He laid down his life to take
it up again. And we should, as a consequence,
logically, necessarily believe that if we are in Christ, and
if our dead fellow believers died or slept in Christ, to use
the term here, God will bring with Jesus those who died in
him. That's the source of our hope.
I know this church has always tried to make the gospel central. In some passages, I was listening
to a message from Joe, and I knew he liked the book of Hebrews.
I didn't know he considered it his favorite book. Did you know
that, Eric? So he said, Hebrews and Isaiah,
and the reason he gave, it's really easy to see the gospel
in both of those books. It's like, those are my favorite
books. It's like, well, good to know. I'm glad I know that,
and I like his reason. And sometimes in the study of
scriptures, in the studies of theological things, we can get
so caught away. In fact, one of the reasons why
I've never taught from either 1st or 2nd Thessalonians is it's
like, I don't want to get into this end times junk. Right, it's
like, that's usually what, who's the Antichrist and when is Jesus
gonna return and how, you know, what happens to the Jewish nation
and so on. But I love the fact that the
gospel is central in both aspects of what Paul talks about here
at the end of chapter four and at the beginning of chapter five. Both of their concerns, both
of the things that bring them discomfort or discouragement
are answered in the hope that we have in Christ. Well, he's
gonna talk about the details here. And it's interesting when
you read commentators, some get way into the weeds. One guy brings
up some Egyptian writer, it's like, I always thought that Gil
was the one who would talk something into the ground and then I read
some other commentaries on here and it's like, well, Gil's commentary
is actually pretty down to earth compared to some of the things
that they're bringing up. But let's talk about these details
about our hope with the idea that we're gonna bolster our
understanding of the hope. Why is it that we can hope for
those who are asleep already in Christ. So verse 15, he says,
according to the Lord's own word, and that could be translated
by a word of the Lord or by the word of the Lord. If you went to try to find citations
or even paraphrases for every phrase in here, you would be
not finding them. Now, for some of them you will,
and I'll bring up some of the parallels here as well. But what
Paul is saying here is this is not something I'm coming up with
to comfort you. When I'm talking about these
details of the return of Christ, this comes from the Lord. This
is, and only an apostle speaking under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit could say that. Now we can say, if I read a passage
of scripture, thus saith the Lord, to use King James English,
we can say that, but we can only say it because we have it recorded
for us. If I say it's gonna be 70 degrees
tomorrow, thus saith the Lord, maybe it will be, but I have
no warrant for doing that. But Paul, as an apostle, as one
given this gift by God, he would be able to say this. So just
wanted to get that out of the way in case you start going,
why didn't he find a quote for this? The thing is, is for some
of these, we don't have direct parallels. So according to the
Lord, 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. And Paul gets this up front because
that's the source of the concern. We don't, again, as I said, we
don't know exactly how it came back to them or how it was expressed
by them, but they were concerned at some level those who had died
before Christ returned, what was their state? Are they gonna
be in purgatory? Are they gonna be in limbo? I don't know exactly how they
understood it, but certainly there was a concern there, and
Paul says, I can say to you by God's word, by the word given
to me, by the spirit of God revealing it to me, We won't proceed if
we're alive, and Paul was still alive, so he included himself
in that. He wasn't predicting that the
end was gonna come during his lifetime. He's just saying, just
like today, Christ could return. We who are still alive, so if
Christ returned today, will not proceed, Joe, and here's why. For the Lord himself, verse 16,
will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. So a lot of times
they'll talk about To be orthodox, you need to believe in the personal,
visible return of Christ. And it's passages like this that
speak of that. It's not gonna happen, there
are some cults who teach that Christ returned in, I think,
was it 1914, 1918, secretly, right? Nobody saw him. Well,
you're not gonna get that from scripture. So, For this, you
could look to a passage, and I didn't write down all the passages
that talk about it, but Mark chapter 13 verse 26 says that
at that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with
great power and glory. So it's gonna be personal. And
it's interesting because I've always talked about the visible
return, and certainly that idea is there, but what's also here
are audible signs. Notice loud command, voice of
the archangel, and the trumpet of God. And in the fundamentalism I was
in, I would have to decide if it was Michael the archangel.
I'm not going to get into that because Paul doesn't get into
that. It doesn't matter if this is a literal archangel or if
it's just a voice like an archangel. I do know, and I think Joe brought
this up in one of the messages I listened to, the trumpet was
not the kind, I don't know if Bonnie still has it, the kind
that Joe played in high school, right? It was probably a shofar,
right? That idea was there, but a loud
command. John 5, 25, the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. And even in that context, John
is talking about a command. Lazarus, come forth, right? The same idea is gonna happen
when Christ returns. The dead will be called from
their tombs, will be called from the ground in whatever state,
and they will meet Christ in the air. And Matthew
24 talks about sending his angels with a loud trumpet call. And
1 Corinthians 15, 52 talks about the last trump and the trumpet
will sound and the dead will be raised. So these ideas are
found in John 5, Matthew 24, and 1 Corinthians 15. But of course, they didn't have
their New Testaments with them. In fact, if we understand the
timing right, Perhaps no books of the New Testament were written
or at least available to Paul at this time. If 1 Thessalonians
happened before those were written and in circulation, there's a
possibility that the letter that he sent to them was the only
New Testament scripture that they had. But certainly they
were taught some of the events that were there and Paul While
he's not citing that, if they had heard those events, what Jesus said in Matthew
24 and what Jesus said in John 5, certainly 1 Corinthians would
come later, they would have this background. So the Lord himself
will come, it won't be hidden. And the dead, and he says this
again, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So we have in
verse 14, God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep
in him. And verse 15, those who are left
will not proceed, those who have fallen asleep. And then at the
end of verse 16, the dead in Christ will rise first. So three
different ways Paul is emphasizing to them, don't worry about those
who've died in Christ. Their situation is not going
to be less than your situation. God will call them from the grave. He will catch them up to meet
him in the air. And 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. So it's interesting Paul uses
a term here Well, first of all, there's a fellowship. It's mutual. We are still alive, and right
now I'm still alive. I could pinch myself. I'm pretty
sure I'm not sleeping or dead right now. So I'm still alive. If Christ is gonna return today,
we won't proceed, but we will meet the Lord in the air with
Joe and others who've gone before and will be caught up in the
clouds to meet the lord in the air and so we will be with the
lord forever it's not a temporary pep rally do they have pep rallies
still asking people in school yeah we still do pep rallies
all right it's not a temporary pep rally you go to a pep rally
you go it's over They do those at work, but they call them something
else. But they sound like pep rallies.
But here, our state will change. We'll go from those who are dead,
we'll go from being in the grave to being caught up bodily along
with those who are alive when the Lord returns. And I know
I know Joe loved to talk about the peculiarities of time and
space and the fact that we're in time and God is outside of
time. There's one sermon he talks about
the vanishing point, right? And he really gets into that.
I like the idea, but we still live in time. So to us, it's
gonna be, Joe passed nine months ago, so if Christ were to return
today, he, as far as from our perspective, has been dead and
in the grave for nine months. We haven't had communion or fellowship
or discussion with him or anything like that. But from the perspective
of eternity, I believe that it's safe to say that there hasn't
been a moment that as far as Joe is concerned, that he wasn't
with the Lord. And that eternal nature is brought
up here, so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Corinthians 15,
23, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn, Christ
the firstfruits, And then when he comes, those who belong to
him. So in 1 Corinthians, Paul isn't
distinguishing between those who had died, it probably wasn't
a question in the Corinthian church, and those who are alive.
He just says, we'll all be made alive, really alive. I mean,
I'm alive right now, but I can feel the effects of sin on my
body more and more every day. I look forward to the time when
I'll be with the Lord forever. Not only the benefits of it,
but also the fact that I will be with Christ and with those
who I love and know who are also in Christ. So then lastly, what's
the response? How should we look at this? Or
to put it another way, why am I still here? I would be lying if I said I don't
understand why I'm still here and Joe isn't. I've had that thought. Not gonna
put Eric on the spot, but if I had to guess, Eric's had that
thought too. You wonder sometimes why is it
that God took Joe and left me here? Well, God knows, we're still
here, and everyone, not just somebody standing behind the
pulpit from time to time, has this laid upon them. Therefore, encourage
one another with these words. The reason we meet and God is
pleased to use the foolishness of preaching, but it's not just
meeting to be passive and listen to the word of God, that is part
of it. It's so we can encourage one
another. I've had circumstances where
I've given up on the idea that I had anything to offer anybody,
and even recently had an opportunity to meet with somebody I hadn't
thought about. I sent them a text message and
thought I was just going to get together and talk with them,
you know, pleasantries, you know, how have things been since you
left the company and went somewhere else? You know what we talked
about? The gospel. We talked about the
gospel, and I wasn't looking for that. I should
have been looking for that, because when you meet somebody and they
start to talk to you about the things of God, or talk to you
about their concerns, their discouragement, their lack of comfort, We're
called to encourage them, and not through empty promises. It's
gonna be fine, right? I don't know, it could be fine,
it could be horrible. I know before, and I understand
that talking politics is dangerous, and I'm not gonna talk too much,
but I think it's safe to say from a Christian standpoint,
there was a candidate who certainly was opposed to pretty much everything
we stand for. And there was another candidate,
maybe, not maybe, very flawed, but at least spoke like, that
candidate spoke like they would make changes that were more in
keeping with freedom of religion. I had forgotten that The one candidate had said this,
but Joe made an allusion to it in a message that I listened
to. You can have an opinion about
your moral beliefs if you're a Christian, but keep it in your
church. That person, if I'm not mistaken, is the one who was
the other candidate, the one who didn't win. and made that
comment. Well, even if that person had
won and the other one hadn't, we still would have the responsibility
to encourage one another with these words. And in fact, I have
no doubt that our government, as it is, will do stupid anti-Christian
things. It just seems like it's a prerequisite
of those who are in control. Even somebody like Nebuchadnezzar,
who knew the truth, said, you know, look at this great kingdom
that I made, and God cut him down to size. But why are we
still here? Why is it that you in the pew
and I up here and others who listen to this, why are you still
alive? I challenge you that one of the
reasons you're still alive is to encourage other believers
with the gospel of Christ. That you're to encourage other
people with, don't worry, when Christ returns, People who
are dead in Christ will be caught up with those of us
who are still alive. Ephesians, I read from Ephesians
2.12, and just by way of reminder, Ephesians 2.12, remember at that
time you were separate from Christ, without hope, and I'm skipping
ahead to the end there, and without God in the world. But Ephesians
2.13 says, the but now, and that's what we're to encourage each
other with. But now, if you're in Christ,
and I added the if, but now, those of us who are in Christ,
in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought
near through the blood of Christ. You know, when you are around
fellow believers and they're discouraged, and they're discomforted
by the things of this world, whether it's health, finances,
loss of loved ones, persecution, whatever the case may be, the
encouragement that you have is, and that you can share with them
as a fellow believer, is that in Christ, you have a hope. When we're suffering, when we're
discomforted, that suffering can be all, and I'm paraphrasing
something that I read, can be all-encompassing. We can have
a hard time seeing beyond that very real thing that's happening
to us. I'm not saying, again, don't
worry, be happy. I'm saying that when you're in
that place, Someone who's a fellow believer coming alongside you
to encourage you to look beyond What is going on right now not
downplaying it saying? With them. I know you're suffering. I know you're hurting. I know
you're sick. I know you lost someone you love
but you and I have this fellowship in Christ and and we have this
comfort. And the word that's here, translated
in courage, is often used of the Holy Spirit in the noun form,
so the comforter. So it could be translated, therefore,
comfort one another, and by the Spirit of God, we can be one
who comforts, and we can exhort. The word has that idea as well,
exhort one another. Now again, it's not, It's just
a flesh wound or rub some dirt on it and get up. It's not some
sort of bravado there. It's saying take your eyes off
of the things that are here just long enough to understand God
has a plan for both of us because we're in Christ, that we have
this togetherness in the Lord. Well, I think I brought up before I'm
a recovering Catholic and a recovering, I wasn't brought up reformed,
but recovering from thinking I needed to use the word reformed,
had a lot of, Trying not to make this all about remembrances of
Joe, but with his birthday, just recently thought about this again.
He liked to argue, it's like, don't, he's like, I'm not afraid
of any of the doctrines of Calvinism and, you know, understood in
the right light. I would call myself reform, but,
you know, don't, it's not a hero worship thing. And I'm paraphrasing
him. He would kind of get on me in the right sort of way to
say, don't make them into your heroes. They were men. they had
their own problems, and we need to be about Christ, not about
men. To the extent they followed Christ,
that's great. Well, I bring up that disclaimer
because some of you probably know this better than I do, but
I had a hard time not thinking about the question, first question,
I believe, in the Heidelberg Catechism. What is your only
comfort in life and in death? That's a great question. I think
that's the question of the text, the thing that Paul could have
asked them, or Timothy or Silas could have asked them. And the
answer, in part, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, is that
I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in
death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Now whatever may
be wrong about those confessional statements or catechisms or whatever,
that's a very solid, very solid comment. And somebody who really
has been brought to believe that wholly, with no fingers crossed
or whatever, I would call a brother or sister in Christ. I'm afraid a lot of people who
would say that don't, and I say that without condemnation, or
I should say, I say that without knowing, because I don't know
people's hearts, but I would say there have to be, based on
some other things that are said, people who don't really believe
that first statement. I mean, you could wrap it up
with what was read right there. Our only comfort in life and
in death is that we are not our own. We're not gonna stand before
the judgment seat on our own, but we belong body and soul,
life and death to our faithful Savior. One last quote here. Spurgeon
said, it is a great truth that you will rise again It is a sweeter
truth that you will always be with the Lord. Whatever else
you draw comfort from, neglect not this deep, clear, and overflowing
well of delight. There are other sources of good
cheer in connection with the glory to be revealed, for heaven
is a many-sided joy. but still none can excel the
glory of communion with Jesus Christ. Wherefore, comfort one
another in the first place and most constantly with these words,
so we will always be with the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these
words, Lord, I pray that They would be a comfort to our
souls, those of us who are in Christ. If there are any who
hear this message who don't trust in you, body and soul, 100%,
Lord, I pray that you would use your word and your spirit to
bring them to your truth. Father, I pray that you would
help us as we go throughout the week, this week, to be comforted
by these words. for the Terrell family, especially
for Bonnie and Mary, but for the whole family, that they would
be comforted knowing that as they are in Christ, they will
see Joe again, and so they will be with him and with all of us
who believe in Christ forever. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for your gospel. We don't deserve it, but it's
such a blessing. Amen.