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. For since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will
bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare
to you by a word from the Lord. that we who are alive, who are
left into the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have
fallen asleep. 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. 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. Therefore, encourage one another
with these words. For those of you who don't know,
that text alone is where the idea of the doctrine of the rapture
comes from. No other place. That's it. That's where people in our lifetimes
have come to teach that there is a rapture, which means snatching
up, snatching out, removing, of the church, And depending
on what school of theology you're from, where you went to seminary,
who your daddy was and what pastor taught you or mentored you, you
may or may believe in a post meal, pre meal, whatever, rapture. You may believe it's figurative.
You may believe whatever. But there is a wide gamut of
ideas around what this text is teaching and what it holds to. Now, when you talk about the
purest reality of the text of Scripture, you need to understand
that while there is some prior learning and there's some assumption
when it comes to reading the Bible, we need to recognize that
not everything that was known by the Thessalonians is going
to be known to us. You hear that? We're not going to perfectly
be able to put ourselves in the shoes of these first century
Christians. We're not going to be able to,
even looking through archaeological lens and anthropological lenses
and social lenses, we're not going to be able to just immerse
ourselves as Americans into first century life. We just can't imagine
it. It's just like oftentimes when
I teach some of the New Testament classes and some of the books
of the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul, especially
when I get into the book of Corinthians or the letter to the Corinthians.
And I ask the class, describe to me what you think the first
century church service looked like. And everybody has an idea,
this and that and this and that. And we're all wrong. There was
no church service. There was no liturgy. There was
no formality. There was no lecture. There was
no lectern. There was no seats. There were
no seats. You say I'm Southern now. It
was just people gathered around the hearing, the teaching of
God's word. There were offices of elder and deacon. And those
people did the work of the ministry for the sake of the flock, and
the flock met where they could, when they could, as often as
they could, not just on the Lord's day. As a matter of fact, in
the first century, the first church infiltrated the synagogues
of Judaism. They would go and show up and
sit through the service, and then when the time came, they
would mingle around and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's
a felony in California, by the way. You can't disrupt the service
of any sort with handbills or signs or anything. It's considered
terrorism, an act of terroristic threat. Imagine the terroristic
threats that the first century Christians posed against the
nation, or not the nation, it wasn't necessarily a nation,
against the state of Judaism. That's why Saul so passionately
condemned them. He hated the idea that somebody
would dare come in and blaspheme against the holy script, the
holy writ. And so here we are trying to
put ourselves back in the feet and the shoes and the eyes and
the ears and the hands and the senses of first century people. And though we can in some sense
think about it, we are never going to be able to put ourselves
fully in their shoes. So then, if we hold to a hermeneutic
that means that we must understand the original intent by understanding
the original hearer, by understanding the original author, and all
of these things, then we might find ourselves a little frustrated.
We might find ourselves in a place where we go, well, now how do
we ever know what the Bible's teaching? Well, because for the
most part, it's pretty simple until you get to a place like
this that's not defined. And many of you probably thought,
well, I've never thought about it not being defined. What do you mean? It's
not defined. Paul is talking about brotherly
love, continuing in that. Paul is talking about standing
in purity and holiness. Paul is talking about not walking
in sexual immorality. Paul is talking about being strong,
standing in enduring persecution. continuing to be a light in the
darkness, continuing to purvey the gospel. Paul is discussing
all these things. He's praising God. He's praying
for God to continue the work that He began in them. And all
of a sudden he goes, but we don't want you to be ignorant. And
so it's very easy for us who like to study and say, oh, well,
that he said this, there must have been a problem. It must
have been the Judaizers, I mean, the Gnostics. Judaizers in Galatia. It must have been the Gnostics.
The Gnostics hate materialism. They hate the flesh. They hate
the natural world. They think that everything that
is pure and holy is spiritual, metaphysical, beyond the physical.
Now that makes sense, but does Paul say that he's coming against
any false doctrine? No. He says, but I don't want
you to be uninformed. Some people say, well, maybe Paul just didn't
teach it. Maybe Paul didn't teach the resurrection of the dead.
How do you teach the gospel without the resurrection of the dead?
That's the point. Why is it good news you can be a spirit baby
and float around in some mystic place for the rest of your eternity? That's not hope. That's not joy. Paul didn't ignore the resurrection.
That doesn't make any sense to me. That doesn't make any sense
to anybody who actually read the letter. These people were
beloved. These people had received the
power of the Word of God. I mean, the Word of God with
power, with joy and much affliction. These people who understood that
it was not the Word of men, but the Word of God. These people
were willing to die and suffer for the sake of the Gospel of
Jesus as they lived it and as they spoke it. They knew that
if they died, there was a hope in death. But something's going
on here. And here's what I want you to
understand about that. We're never going to know the circumstances
surrounding the reason Paul says, but. We do not want you to be
uninformed. We're never going to know. There's
no letter. We don't have any first century
Thessalonian historians who wrote down what was going on. But we
do know this, that Paul does not write frivolously. If Paul
wrote a word, it is the Word of God. God spoke that Word into
this text. It is not Paul's inference. It
is not Paul's commentary. When Paul gives his commentary,
he states that he is thinking on his own. But here's what Paul
failed to realize, even in his humility, that when Paul gave
wisdom through the Word, that God actually made that command. Even when Paul was sort of like,
I say this, not the Lord. The wisdom that Paul gave is
divinely orchestrated. So we obey it. We listen. We
don't push it off. Even if we did, it doesn't contradict
that which God has clearly stated. So we don't know the circumstances
around here. And you might say, well, I've
got a commentary and I've got, listen, I've got 15,000 commentaries. Not exaggerating. 15,000 commentaries. Probably 600 in print. The rest
of them are digital. And I guarantee you, out of those
15,000 commentaries, there, you know, how many of them? Maybe
60 are in Thessalonians. If I went and looked at all of
them, I probably would find out of these 60 Thessalonian commentaries,
I'd probably find 10 different positions on what the circumstances
or the occasion of this particular text was in verse 13, chapter
4. And lo and behold, all the dead
men that I like to read, pre-dispensational. If you don't know what that means,
it's okay. All the people who are hundreds
of years old in their writing, they don't sound anything like
contemporary theologians. As a matter of fact, they sound
more like Paul than they do anything else. So what's the point? The point is, look at the Bible.
Let's see what it is that God wants us to know about this.
What we don't know is not for us to know. Do you see that?
But isn't that what we do? We get hung up on, well, what's
going on here? We want to know the backstory.
We want to know the gossip. We want the tabloid of the times. What's going on? Not the truth
of the text, but we as our humanity, we want to know. We're curious
people. And there's nothing sinful about
wanting to know the reality and the circumstances of what's going
on. But friends, we miss out on the truth of the text when
we infuse other ideas when we infuse other people's theology. Because see, here's what happens,
and it's easy to do in preaching. I could easily in this text,
and I've thought about it probably since 3 o'clock this morning,
I've been thinking about this on the edge of my shoulder here,
right? Trying to get right into my mind.
I could give maybe five or six real good pragmatic responses
to this text as it relates to the resurrection of the dead.
Paul does not teach them in this text. They're implied sometimes. And I thought, do I do that?
I'm praying about that. Whether or not I'm going to do that or
not is the Lord's decision toward the end of this sermon. But if
I sit and I think too hard, and if I start to look and consider
all the things that I know that have come from this particular
passage, if I spend this next 30 minutes or so refuting all
of this weird stuff or solidifying some of these things, We'll miss
the point. You want me to give you the sermon
in a nutshell? Here it is, 30 seconds. For some
reason, Paul wanted to reiterate and establish in the hearts of
these Christians in Thessalonica that there were those who had
died in the faith and that there was hope for them and they should
have comfort. There you go. Let's pray and
we'll go home. I mean, it's just that simple.
That's the point. Paul is not talking about eschatology. He does. Not here. Not in depth. He's not talking about the details
of the end times. He's not giving prophetic utterance
about when and how and what's going to happen. Just like John
in the apocalypse does not give a It's recapitulation. It's just
three different views. But He doesn't give, this is
going to happen, and then after that's going to happen, this
is going to happen, and this is when it's going to happen. It's not a calendar of events.
You don't see that in the New Testament. You don't see that. And so to take this that's written
to the Thessalonians, I believe we don't have to, by the grace
of God, because the Word does not perish. We're not missing
part of the Bible. We got it. But we should be able to take
the letter to the Thessalonians, and we should be able to take
to them, tear this out, and take it to ourselves, and take it
to someone else, and out of it, teach it. We should be able to
do that. If I have to have cross-references
to teach a letter in the New Testament, then why? Did all
of the New Testament church have the letters? All the letters?
No, because they weren't all written. John's writing wasn't
written at this time. Some of Paul's writing wasn't
written at this time. So if I need this letter to understand this
letter, now, do they help us understand each other? Yes. Do
they disagree? Never. Are they synergistic? Absolutely.
And so that's how we test what we think this letter might say.
Oh, we think this is what Paul is saying. Uh-oh, but he said
over here this. So we're wrong, because that
contradicts what Paul said over here. So this is the thing that
I want you to keep in mind. Because ultimately, if you call
someone's baby ugly, they're going to be mad at you. And I don't want to call your
baby ugly, but if the Word of God calls it wrong, then it's
wrong. And these are the things that continually keep polarization
up in my face. Why? Because I want you to hear
the Word of God, and I want you to learn the Word of God, so
that you might know God, so that you might be informed, so that
you might be wise, so that you might live for His glory, so
that you might have joy that's always complete, so that you
would just give everything you have for the sake of Christ,
and you can reconcile relationships, you can heal hurts, you can forgive
and be forgiven, and everything, no matter how hard it may be,
gives praise to God and His grace and His glory, because you've
learned Him through His Word. And that's what's happening here.
There's one thing you need to understand about Paul. Paul has
the heart of a shepherd. He's the heart of a pastor. He
was an apostle, but his heart, an apostle's heart is a part
of a pastor. It's just very, very wide. And Paul had intimate
passion and concern for every church that ever was planted
in his lifetime. You saw it. He wept over these
people. He forsaked his own life for the sake of continuing to
deal with the issues that were laid before him. Friends, we're
never supposed to be able just to lay our lives down or lay
our hearts down towards somebody and go, I'm done. No more. I
don't have to worry about them anymore. I moved on. I left. Now, by the nature of things,
as God calls us to different places and locations in life,
different vocations, some of us, we do get disconnected with
people, but it doesn't mean that our concern for them lessens.
But our ministry to them will decrease because we just can't
minister effectively when we're 5,000 miles away. But we can
minister just the same through prayer, through instruction,
the teaching of the Word. There's amazing what can happen
in a five-minute phone call or a ten-minute chat on the internet
for the glory of God. It's amazing what can be done
today. After all, did not Paul write letters that took months
to disseminate? Months to get to the location
where they were going. These people sat on pens and
needles wondering, what do we do? What do we do? What do we
do? Well, I heard Paul was sending a letter. Well, he better hurry
up. Korapaproditus nearly died trying to get the letter to the
Philippians. You know, there's just a lot of things that we
need to keep in mind as we read the text. Most importantly, that
this text is written from a pastoral, shepherding heart. A man who
loved this church with all, he said it, all the affection of
Christ. I have all the affection of Christ
for you. That means for everything that
Christ is and all that He loves and with every fiber of His affection,
I have for you. The greatest love that Christ
has is the love I have for you. He's saying that my love is equal
to that of God's. Why can He say that? Because
Christ is love in Him. That's why it makes no sense
for us as believers to say we don't have that kind of affection
for each other because it's either the affection of Christ in us
or it's our flesh. And if it's our flesh, it fails,
it wanes. It wanes. And so here's Paul. 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. Grieve as
others grieve who have no hope. So what are we looking at here?
Well, first of all, I want you to see, just as I've alluded
to already, is that these people were precious to Paul. precious
to Paul. He loved them in such a way that
he would die for the sake of their joy in Christ. He would
put himself in harm's way. He did put himself in harm's
way for these people. And now that he had to leave,
he's going back through letter. And he's got a report from Timothy
about how amazing the gospel was still at work with them.
And he's rejoicing. He's writing now in response
to Timothy's visit so that he can respond to some of the things
that Timothy saw and heard and talked about. And now he's saying,
we don't want you to be uninformed. Now, this doesn't mean that he
didn't teach it. This doesn't mean that there's some false
doctrine. Though there was, we know there was. I mean, we know
that there was false doctrine. There's something going on that
they're uninformed about, or that they're in doubt about,
or something. Somebody. Friends, none of us in here are
heretics, to my knowledge. But we have been heretical many
times. We're not heretics, but we've all had heretical thoughts.
We've all had incredibly crazy theology. We sit around, we think
a little bit, we think a little bit, oh, then that, then this,
and we come back and we share it, and we just say, well, that's
an interesting point of view. That's the nice way of saying, that's
dumb. Well, that's dangerous. But don't
we do that? I believe the same thing probably
happened here in Thessalonica. The Christians, they were left
unattended. They were doing the best that they could. The Lord
was sustaining them and growing them and encouraging them and
developing them. And they were living out the gospel. But somebody
sat around and thought, hey, hey, hey, what about this? You
know, these people who died, what's going on? But don't you
remember Paul said there's a resurrection? Yeah, but I was talking to Joe
down there the other day and he said something about it. I
think people are in soul sleep or I think people are, you know,
they're not conscious or maybe they're gone. What's happening? We don't know. So to speculate
would be an error. Might be a good one-act monologue
or a skit or something, but it's not the Word of God. So when
we assume, we really make a mistake. So let's not assume, but let's
do see what the Bible teaches. These dear brothers and sisters
in Christ need to be informed more thoroughly about those who
die. And that's what Paul is trying
to do. And he's given them in a nutshell much of what he actually
gave to others about the resurrection, but not as intense. Not as thoroughly,
but specifically relating to the second coming of Jesus Christ,
which he'll get into and in more detail, if you will, in chapter
five and then also in second Thessalonians, as we'll go to
after we finish this. But Paul wants them to be informed. Now that should teach us something
about how we are to be as a church, as the body of Christ. Because
when we're ignorant of spiritual truths, we're lacking in those
areas. Remember, Paul's already said
that, I pray that I would, what? Fill up what is lacking? That's
what he says to the Colossians. But here, he even says that there,
that I would give and fill what is lacking in your faith. I can't
remember, what word is that? It's in there somewhere. My eyes
don't work. Oh, there it is. Chapter 3. No
wonder I couldn't find it. As we pray most earnestly, night
and day, that we may see you face to face and supply what
is lacking in your faith. So there's lacking in our faith
when we're ignorant of certain teachings. The word for teaching
in Christianese is doctrine. The word for the knowledge of
God and knowing God is theology. That's what it is. That's what
those words mean. So we know God, we study to see
God as theology. Theological things are the knowledge
of God. Teaching is doctrine. That's
what doctrine means. And so, if we're ignorant of
spiritual truths, we're lacking something in our faith. And if
we're ignorant of what it means to be in Christ, we're lacking
something in our faith. It doesn't mean we're lacking
faith, but we're lacking something in our faith. Friends, God can
save us and we can be dumb as a rock. But we grow to know. One of my mentors, it always
surprised me, and this was during a season of my life where I wanted
all the facts. I wanted all the knowledge. I
wanted the list of all the references. I wanted the study Bible of all
study Bibles that I could just sort of like touch the verse
and just suck it all in my mind. And so I would always have the
answer. Everything I ever needed, always at my fingertips. And
I just badgered this guy every time he was around. Badgering,
badgering, badgering. And he'd just quote scripture
from memory. And I mean long passages. Like two or three chapters
at a time of Romans. Or the whole letter to the Colossians. Or the Bible says this. I'm like,
how do you do that? Man, I wish I was as smart as
you." And he would honestly, he would say, I'm just, I'm dumb. I'm brainless. This is not something
I've done. God has done it. And you know
what happened? When I stopped trying to find all the answers
and just became a lover of Christ and His Word, it started sticking. We want that pill-popping vitamin
box. You know the vitamin box? They
got Monday's vitamins and Tuesday's vitamins. We want that. We want
the quick reference Rolodex theological studies type stuff. Here I am. Oh yeah, I got it now. We want
that. We want that quick, easy, pull
up to the drive-thru, pick up the order at the next window.
Apple Pass, Google Checkout, Slash and Pay, Touch and Go,
whatever it might be these days. We want to just get through and
get gone. When Jesus says to Martha and
Mary that Mary chose the better, to sit at the feet of Christ. Martha had the knowledge of Christ
and knew and understood everything He was telling her. She knew
that already, but hey, we need to sit at the feet of Christ.
Friends, when we start looking through the Word and at the Word,
because we love Christ who is the Word, we actually will start
to see the Word alive in us. If we're just looking for Jesus
to give us the quick answers or the cheat sheet, it's never
going to happen. God doesn't allow us to be effective
in those types of things. But if we're missing spiritual
truth, we're lacking. There's a void in our lives.
There's a void in our lives because we don't know. Therefore, our
joy is not complete. Therefore, our knowledge is not
complete. Therefore, the fruits of this knowledge is not complete.
and shepherds of the flock of Christ, they want to see the
flock comforted. We want to see each other with
joy. We want to see each other have peace. Not be worried. Not be disturbed. Not be doubtful. Not be fearful. We want to see each other with
a peace that is beyond all understanding, all comprehension. And shepherds
care for the comfort of the sheep. Ergo, they teach the truth of
God. For that is where comfort lies. The knowledge of Christ
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ leads to growth in Him. How do
we know what a Savior we have if we're not in the pages of
Scripture? How do we understand the mysteries of His Majesty
if we're not peeling through the pages of the text? How are
we ever going to overcome temptation when our High Priest has been
tempted in every way, yet He did not sin, but was tempted
to the point of shedding blood? How are we to find peace and
solace in that friendship if we are not in the pages of Scripture?
We can't. Even if we know that and we remember
it, we go, yeah, I remember, I know that. But when we read
it again, God, as if He's standing before us, speaks to our souls. It's different, beloved, than
just knowing something. It's like a loved one who's passed
on years ago. and you find that letter they
wrote to you in their own hand, and you read it, and you hear
their voice, and you remember that instruction, and you've
never forgotten it, but for some reason, when you've got it in
their hand, when you've got that letter addressed to you, you
are encouraged. And the moment is sweet. Oh,
how much sweeter is the Word of God to us, that living God
who is never, ever, ever, ever going to die. who promises us
that we will never die. Over and over again. Spiritual
knowledge of Jesus Christ leads to growth in Jesus Christ. Jesus
uses these types of language in John 17, where He says that
this is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and
that they know the Son whom you have sent. Knowledge of God,
knowledge of Jesus. This is not just a mental capacity. This is not an academic endeavor. This is not just the cognate
storing in data. This is an intimate knowledge
and an intimate reality and an intimate relationship with the
Creator, with the Savior. And it only comes through the
Word of God. Friends, if I go a day without being in the Word,
I'm going to fall into sin so heavily. You would never, ever,
ever, ever recognize me. Wow, the pastor's got problems.
You better believe I've got problems. Because if you don't think I
can get angry, or if you don't think I can get selfish, if you
don't think I can get bitter, if you don't think I can get
pity, thank God you can't jump into
each other's heads, right? My friends, our minds are an
awful place when they're not in tune with Christ and His Word.
If we're not meditating on Christ, We ignore Him. We ignore the
Word of God. If we just think we can handle
this stuff, we fall into sin so deeply. And the greatest sin
that we ever fall into as the church is the sin of self-reliance.
See, y'all thought I was talking about all crazy stuff. Was he
an arsonist? Was he a murderer? What is he?
I'm a murderer at heart, in my flesh. But by God's grace, He
put that to death. It's the sin of self-reliance,
the sin of doubt, the sin of, yeah, I know this is what the
Bible says, But Paul says, I don't want you
to be ignorant. I don't want you to be uninformed. I want
you to know these things. I want you to know the Christ who saved
you. I want you not to just know the Gospel, the good news of
His salvation, but I want you to know Him intimately. And I
want you to know the details of what He has taught you and
what He's teaching you. I want you to continue to work
on these things. I want you to teach them to others. I want
you to be encouraged. I want you to be empowered. I
want you to understand that God alone speaks through His Word,
and His Word is Jesus Christ. I want you to remember that the
words of Christ are the only place that you'll find salvation.
And that salvation that keeps you, that sealing, is only through
the Word of God. That you are going to have hope
because you've learned Christ. You're going to be able to forgive
because you've learned Christ. Or have you not learned Christ,
as he asked the Ephesians? Knowing provides hope and peace
and comfort and endurance and power and empowerment and holiness
and resolve and forgiveness and joy among many things. And he
said, we want you to be informed. We don't want you to be ignorant
of these things. What is it that he's talking
about? I do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those
who are asleep. Now, oh gosh, you get heady people
in the room with the Bible. And we love to posit. We love
to theorize about what it is that that means. What does the
definition of is run? Because that is not a conversation
you want to get in. I've had it. I've had that conversation
for months. It's like that long-distance
chess game, and you're waiting on the other guy to move, and
you're thinking, why is there a checker chip on the table?
How did that get here? He lives across the state. How
did he even put this down here? What's that Oreo doing on my
board? Well, that's why the Oreo got
there. I'm not saying words aren't important. They're important.
But friends, listen. The word sleep is just synonymous. It's all over the New Testament.
I could give you, whoa, let me not exaggerate, maybe 18 references.
of the idea of being asleep is synonymous with death. That's
what they called it. That's the wording they used. We call it passing away. Passing? Passing away where? Passing on. Moving on. Scooting. Going to
see the Lord. I mean, you know, do we get in
the car and just go see the Lord like we see Granny? So there's
always these little idioms, these little euphemisms, these little
phrases that take place. We don't need to read too deeply
into them. We need to see, okay, this is
what he's talking about. Those who are asleep. When the
first century church here in Thessalonica spoke of death,
that's the phrases they used. They weren't stupid. They weren't
thinking they were asleep and just couldn't be waked up. They knew they were dead in the
flesh. And so Paul said, I want you
to be encouraged. I want you to be informed so that your joy
is full about those brothers and sisters who have died. Some
people will argue, well, those are the martyrs. No, they're
not. It doesn't say anything about martyrs. Martyrs are inclusive
of that. But also the old Christians who just passed away or those
who just died of starvation or those who were murdered by the
sword because they just were standing in the wrong place.
Stepped on by a camel. For whatever reason they died,
they died, but they were in the church. They were part of the
brotherhood. They were part of the saints. They were important
to each other. Let's don't underplay the reality
that these people, these first century Christians, loved each
other so passionately, and yet they were seeing each other die. A very wise pastor told me years
ago, as I was discouraged because I just did not feel a connection
with certain groups of people in my church. And he said to
me at the door after the service one day, he said, Brother James,
after you do two or three funerals amongst these people, he said,
you'll have an intimacy that you'll never be able to get rid
of. And he was right. When you grieve with people over
the death of loved ones, there's a unifying power behind that. When we go through experiences
with each other and suffer together, there is a powerful stronghold
there. And I'm using that as a good thing, a cohesiveness
that takes place. Stronger than any good time,
any ball game, any picnic, any good opportunity to go fish or
do whatever it is we like to do. It's stronger than all that
because those things hold us together. But when we suffer
together, our suffering unites us. Because it is the purpose
of God to unite us to Christ in our existence, in our reality,
in our understanding. Christ had to suffer in order
to bring us to God. And in like manner, when we suffer,
we are actually experiencing in a small way the suffering
of Christ. It's a small way. And it's a promise for us. People die. And people love those
people who die. Even the most horrible person
you can think about, if they died today, somebody loved them.
Somebody cared for them. Somebody's a parent to them. Somebody's a friend to them.
Somebody's a sibling to them. Somebody loves them. Somebody
will grieve their loss. And the Scripture here doesn't
teach us not to grieve, but the Scripture here teaches us how
to grieve. He says, I want to teach you about death. I want
to teach you about those who have died so that you do not
grieve as the world grieves who has no hope. You see? Don't worry. That's the point of this. To
teach these Christians how to grieve when they lose each other.
Not the details of a rapture or the details of the second
coming. It's about the end game. It's about the finality of it.
It's about the eternality of it. We want you to understand death.
Paul says, death is a reality for every human being since Adam. Every human being, every person
born in this world is going to experience death. If the Lord does not return,
all of us will. But as the Scripture teaches
here at the return of the Lord, I mean, He's not going to wait
for the human race to die out, then come back. He could. We don't know. But we do know
that Christ is coming back. And we do know that the Scripture
teaches that death is a reality. We do know that the Scripture
teaches that death is a consequence of what? The fall? It's the wage
of sin. It's what we earn. It's what
we're due. We do understand that the death for the believer, though,
is temporal. Because unbelievers, not only
are they going to die on their flesh, they're going to die on
their spirit forever. So there's a second death. There's a spiritual
death. There's a continual and eternal
torment and damnation that comes because it is just and it is
right and it is perfect and it is loving and it is holy. For
God to bring recompense against us for the sake of His name. but somewhere in the mystery
of the wisdom of God, in the purpose before the world began,
God has planned and perfectly orchestrated and with absolute
certainty put forth Jesus Christ in love to propitiate for us,
to satisfy His judgment against us, to substitute in our place
as an object of wrath. So therefore, we are forgiven.
And if we die in our flesh this day, we are still forgiven. We don't face condemnation. We
don't face eradication, annihilation, or anything else. We want you
to understand that death is coming. But do not be ignorant, beloved. Look at verse 14. Since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will
bring Him, with Him, those who have died. You see that? Don't fear death,
beloved, because we believe. Because we believe. Since we believe, we know God
will bring those who have died with Him through Christ Jesus.
You won't believe it. You will not believe it. There
is so much argument about the word order of this text in the
Greek. It will make you want to claw
your face off. What does it mean? Is it in Jesus?
Through Jesus? With Jesus? By Jesus? What does it mean?
What do you think it means? Because Christ has been raised
from the dead, therefore in the same manner, not only because
He proved it through Christ, but through the power of Christ,
through the authority of Christ, through the work of Christ, through
the sufficiency of Christ, through the command of Christ, God will
bring us alive, or with Him, and we will live. We believe that Jesus died. Without
the death of Jesus Christ, there is no redemption. There is no
redemption without the shedding of blood. There is no remission
of sin without the shedding of blood. There must be payment. Blood is the cost of sin. Death
is the cost of sin. Christ is the final and eternal
Lamb. He is the one who forever and
always satisfies judgment. No goat. Potted flower, no dove,
no lamb has ever propitiated, but was just a shadow of the
One who was to come, who was Jesus, the eternal Lamb. Jesus
not only died, but He rose from the dead. He was vindicated. He was seated up next to the
Father, the right hand. He was put back in the place
of His position, God of the universe, the ruler, the King of kings,
the Alpha and the Omega, the eternal One, the never-changing
One, the all-sufficient One, the One who is worthy of all
things. Jesus Christ came to earth in the likeness of men
and died in His flesh, died as a man. suffering the penalty
of sin and death, which was not His, nor do Him. But yet God
vindicated Him and raised Him from the dead. And in that resurrection,
we have the hope of eternal life. I have dear brothers in this
city who are full preterists. That means they believe the second
coming has already taken place. It's an engaging conversation. engaging conversation. They would
scoff at this teaching today. Friends, the old adage, the devil is in
the details. Sometimes he sits at the corner of our desk and
he helps us dive into details that are not there. And I'm not
saying that in relation to the full predecessor, I'm saying
in relation to this text right here, don't read into that which
is not clearly seen. but see that which is clearly
read. Jesus has been raised to life. Jesus is the Lord over death. Listen. God is sovereign over
the death of a flower. The lilies of the field, the
sparrows, the birds of the air, the creatures of the forest,
God is sovereign over the number of hairs on your head. Everybody
looks a certain direction when I say that. It's just funny. Or the lack
thereof. God is sovereign over it. The
Scripture says that He counts them. He knows the number. He
doesn't have to count. He knows. He knows when one falls
to the ground. He knows when one sparrow dies.
He knows when one flower wills. Are we not more important than
those things? Do not think your death is an
untimely death. Do not think that the death of
your loved ones and the death of the church and the death of
those who are part of our body are untimely, for they are in
the sovereign hand of God. God who knows no time, who does
not stand any longer in the feet of history. He does not stand any longer
at the feet of time. Christ is the Lord of time. He
subjected Himself to be like the creation for a short time,
and now He is back in His place of reign. There is no untimely death. Ultimately,
as we see here, The Scripture says that there's not only no
such thing as an untimely death, but that the Lord is a commander
over these things, not only death, but in the resurrection from
the dead. Verse 16 says, for the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ
Himself, will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the
voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God,
and the dead in Christ will rise first. Rise where? From the dead. They will rise from the dead.
Well, that sounds like a fairy tale.
Jesus rose from the dead. Lazarus rose from the dead. Many others were commanded to
life after death. Eutychus rose from the dead. Who's Eutychus? He fell asleep during Paul's
preaching and fell out of the window and died. That'll make you stay awake.
Let's just sit on a ledge somewhere. And the Scripture teaches that
others rose from the dead that are not recorded by name. And if Jesus is God, and He is,
and the Scriptures are true, and they are, then we have eternal
life and the promise of a resurrection from the dead. So death is not
the end, it is just the beginning. It is not the final state. It
is a resting state. Death is not an enemy, though
it is certain. Did you hear that, church? How
is death an enemy when Christ is the King over death? O death,
where is thy sting? It's gone. It's gone. It is gone. So when our loved ones die, we
actually, at the core of our soul, are celebrating. Though the longing of our heart
is broken. Cause brokenness. The Scripture is not prescribing
here to not grieve, is it? It's saying to grieve, but do
not grieve like the world. Grieve as someone who has hope. You ever left someone dear to
move away or visited for a season and they're going to go back
wherever they are? And you grieve, you weep, you
long to see them again, but you know they're not going anywhere.
They're just going to go do that which they must do. That's how we ought to grieve
with death. It's not we're going to have
an elongated Absence. Scripture teaches that we have
hope because Christ raised from the dead. We believe and we understand
that the timeliness of death and those who die are in the
hands of God and that they are with Christ in spirit and that
they will ultimately, just like all of us, will be with Christ
in the flesh. The dead at the time of death,
even those who are not in Christ are aware Don't believe the idea
that we just live in a comatose state. Friends, that is a frightening
reality. If that were true, that would be horrifying for me. To
just not be conscious. I could not comprehend that. Being good. We are dead in the flesh. We are alive in Christ. Paul
taught the Romans that there were many, excuse me, I will
get there in a minute. The scripture teaches us several
places what gives that explanation. Lazarus and the rich man. They
were aware of their death. They were aware of torment. They
were aware of paradise. Stephen, as he's being stoned
in Acts chapter 7. What does he do? He looks up
and he sees Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, standing
at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because He was about to
be with Christ. That's when they stoned Him.
That's when they just decided, nah, we've got to hurry up and
kill this guy. I mean, they were stoning Him
because of what He preached. But when He said those things, the
fury, They're like, we'll show you. We will take your life from
you. They condemned Stephen into eternal paradise. He won. He received the crown of life. The cries of the martyrs in Revelation. Paul who says, absent with the
body is present with the Lord. The same Spirit that rose Christ
from the dead dwells in you, Paul tells the Roman church.
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life
to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Friends, we as a people hold
to the teaching, to the doctrine of a physical resurrection from
the dead. We hold to the doctrine of a
continual state of existence and consciousness. We hold to
the teaching that Scripture shows us and reveals to us that there
is not a hiccup in our existence, even though our body may die,
our soul and the consciousness of our existence live forever.
We know that every human being who dies in this world will either
exist in the presence of the peace and the rest of God, or
exist in the waiting for the judgment of God, which is judgment
in itself. We want you to agree with hope,
beloved. Here's some of the things that really sort of helped me
through the years. The dead in Christ are happy to be dead. They're happy to be dead. If God were to allow us to ring
the doorbell of heaven, ding dong. This is a joke now. There's
no doorbell. Yeah, can I help you? Ask my
family members and my friends if they can come on back. And
they'll be like, you better lock that gate, God. We're not going
anywhere. We're rejoiced to be with Christ. That's what we want. We fight
the idea. We struggle with it. We love
our family. We love our church. We love what we're doing for
the grace and glory of God. We love, we love, we love, but
we love Christ more. Paul showed this dichotomy. To
live is Christ, to die is far better. I do not know what I
wish to do, for I long to go and be with Christ, for that
is what I live for. That's my heartbeat. To live
is Christ, but to die is to be with Him face to face. So that
what I'm living for, for your sake, is for Christ, that I may
stand before Him honorably. gloriously saying, Christ, your
work in me has been fulfilled. Oh, but Paul says, but I know,
I know for your sake I shall remain in chains, in bondage,
in beatings, in prison, that your joy may be complete. so
that you may grow to know and to love and to live for the sake
of Christ, so that you can endure to the end, that one day we shall
all rejoice in this day. Friends, Paul, the apostle of
Christ, has his reward. And all the saints of Christ
who have passed away, who have fallen asleep, are with him. And one day we will be with them. And one day we will be raised
to life in our mortal bodies without arthritis, tendonitis,
oh my gosh-itis, and anything else that might be happening
to us. Without fear, without sin, nothing but Jesus. The world does not have hope.
Remember what Paul told the Ephesians. For you at that time were separated
from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and you
were strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and
were without God in the world. You have, without Christ, no
hope, beloved. We have hope. There's hope. This world is not what it's about.
This life and all of its suffering is not worthless. It's got a
purpose. So we want you to have hope.
We want you to rejoice in the coming of Christ. We want you
to have comfort. We want these words to ring so
true to you so that you may be encouraged by each other. That's what he says in verse
18. And he paints a picture. He paints
a picture of Christ's return. I'm going to ask some questions
in closing. And then you just leave with
them. Do we believe in the second coming
of Jesus Christ as Scripture teaches that He shall return?
Do we believe in the resurrection of the dead as Scripture teaches
that we will be raised to life in the flesh? Do we believe that
those who are alive will be transformed to be like Him. Yes, we see that
in all sorts of letters in the New Testament. That we will see
Him face to face. John wrote that we will be like
Him. Peter wrote that we'll be like Him. So then what does it look like
here in 1 Thessalonians 4 at the second coming of our Lord?
Is He coming twice and then again? Is it 2A and 2B? Or is it the second coming and
the third coming? Is He coming just to get us dead and rapture
His church and then coming back a third time? Or is He coming
once and for all? What does Scripture teach? That
He's coming once and for all. So anything we impose on the
text here that doesn't stick with that doesn't make sense.
So the point of this is to teach these Christians to be encouraged
about those who have died that they are full of hope. And that
we who are here are full of hope. And we should look forward to
that day when Christ returns. And we should rejoice because
we have comfort. in Christ as the King of our
lives. Friends, do you understand supremacy?
No. But we understand a little bit
of supremacy. As Pink would say, is that God's
sovereignty is a display of His supremacy. Or an exercise, rather,
of His supremacy. Something is supreme, there is
no bigger, there is no greater, there is no higher, there is
no more power greater. God is supreme. Christ is supreme. Therefore, He holds all things
in His hands. Paul says to the Colossians,
He upholds the universe by the word of His power. Friends, if
this is true of Christ, we have nothing to fear. Nothing. So what holds us in fear? We
go back to the beginning. We forsake the Word of God. Our flesh doubts it's going to
doubt, but what overcomes that doubt? Christ through His Word.
What overcomes us seeking other lovers, us seeking other hope,
us seeking revenge? The Word. What leads us out of
temptation? What delivers us from evil? God
does this work through His Word, by His Spirit. We are powerless in our flesh
to do anything. Christ is powerful to do all
things. For that which is impossible
with God, with man, is possible with God. There is nothing that Christ
cannot do in your life this day. The difference is that when we
are in His Word, we are trusting in Him. When we trust in ourselves, we
forsake this. It may not be this way for you,
but I believe it is. That day that we forsake the Word of God,
we fall into sin. What grieves your soul? What labors on you this very
moment? You will never be free of it
as long as you think you can't be in your own power. You will
never have joy as long as you continue to work in your own
flesh and in your own understanding and in your own application.
You will never have success in suffering, joy, peace, hope,
except that you trust in the fullness and the power of Christ
to sustain you and to keep you and to give you the endurance
so that He is credited for His work. Beloved Christ has saved
you by His grace, and Christ will keep you by His grace. Be
encouraged to be strengthened by the grace of God which is
yours in Christ Jesus, dear Timothy. Grace to you. Grace be with you. How do we have the grace of God
in Christ Jesus? Through the words of Christ Jesus. You sound like a Bible worshiper.
I am not the cow and paper, but the
Savior, the living Word, the Logos that became flesh and dwelt
among us and who now sits at the right hand of the Father
interceding for us. Are you in Christ today? Are
you believing right now? Not yesterday, not when you get
home. Are you believing right now on
Christ? Is He your hope for salvation,
for life, for peace, for freedom? I pray that He is. Let's pray. Father, thank you for saving
our souls. Thank you for giving us hope. Thank you, Lord, for your word
as it continues to work in us. As we labor, as we fight, as
we struggle, we rest all at the same time. Lord, I pray for the saints who
are so burdened this day, some of them among us, some of them
who are so burdened they cannot be with us today. Lord, please
help us to pray unhindered for each other. Help us to put away
the sin that so easily ensnares, to repent, to walk in righteousness
through Your power. Give us a heart for Your Word.
And Lord, as we strive to be more involved in each other's
life, Father, You know the enemy will come against us. We trust
in You because You are victorious over him and he does nothing
without Your sovereign decree. So, Father, we pray that You
would take away the failings of our flesh. that you would help us to be
full with all of your fullness and to encourage each other with
the truth of Christ, the truth of your heart, the truth of your
power, the truth of your gospel, that we might live together in
such a way that nothing, nothing stops us from worshiping and
from loving each other and from laboring Help us not to grow
weary. Help us not to give up. Keep us. And keep us near, as you promised
you would. Father, we thank you for this
opportunity to worship. In Christ's name we pray.