Asleep in Jesus

today in our Bibles to 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. But I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

In Acts chapter 17, we're told about the beginning of this church here at Thessalonica to whom this letter was written. Thessalonica, a city in Greece, the apostle Paul along with three others had gone there, three other disciples of the Lord Jesus had gone there after leaving Philippi and they preached the gospel. And we're told there in Acts chapter 17 that on three Sabbath days Paul went into a synagogue of the Jews and reasoned with them out of the scriptures that the Messiah, the Messiah that had been promised and was pictured all through the Old Testament, prophesied of his coming, that it was necessary that he die and rise again from the dead. Silas, Timothy, and Luke, they were accompanying Paul. And then we're told in Acts that Some of the Jews believed. He's in a synagogue of the Jews, but there was not only Jews in that synagogue. There were Greeks, that is, some who had been proselyted.

The Jews basically were the only nation that believed there's only one God. Monotheists. Most nations were polytheists. They believed in many gods, and some had been proselyted to this wonderful truth that there's only one God. There's only room for one God. There's not room for two gods, because God is omnipresent and omnipotent, all-powerful. Yes, and all-knowing.

So some of the Greeks, that is Gentiles, had been proselyted to the Jewish religion, to Judaism. That's why in the synagogue there was Jews and Greeks, and some of the Jews believed the gospel, which Paul preached, and some of the Greeks, some of those who'd already been proselyted to Judaism, they believed the gospel and were told also that of the chief women, not a few believed. In other words, there was a great number of Jews who believed.

Now, generally, I believe most people think because we're told there that he reasoned three Sabbaths, three Sabbath days, that Paul was only in Thessalonica for three weeks. We know that there was a great demonstration or turmoil that was raised against Paul and believers, and for his safety, for the safety of these believers, Luke and Timothy and Silas, they all were taken on or moved on to a place called Berea. And it's interesting that they pass through two cities that are named, but we're not told that the gospel was preached in either of those two cities.

That reminds us that God is sovereign, that the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but you cannot tell from where it's coming or where it's going. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. That God is sovereign as to where He sends the gospel, and even there, to whom He causes the gospel message to be effectual. In other words, those whom He saves. We know it's all in His hands. It's all according to His purpose and according to His will.

But they moved on to a place called Berea, and they preached the gospel there until some of those from Thessalonica, some of those Jews who didn't believe, had such a hatred, such an animosity to the gospel. That shows you the condition of natural man. how the natural man hates God and hates the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would anyone hate a message that tells us that God so loved the world that He actually gave His only begotten Son to save His people? Why would anyone hate that message? Because men are depraved. Because men, you and I, all men by nature, come into this world aliens from God. And that enmity with God, only God the Holy Spirit can overcome in the new birth by preaching the gospel. But yes, they then took Paul. It seems like they used a little deceit.

They took him to the ocean like they were going to put him on a ship, but they didn't. They sent him to Athens. And in Athens, he asked, he was alone there, another city in Greece, the largest city in Greece, He asked that Timothy and Silas might come to him as soon as possible. They might be sent to him.

Look at that in chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Wherefore, when we could no longer forebear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. and sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith." In other words, Paul asked that Silas and Timothy come to him as soon as possible, but when they came, then Paul, being so concerned, having such love and compassion for this church at Thessalonica, he sent Timothy back. He said, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone and sent Timothy, Timotheus, our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel to establish you and to comfort you concerning your fight. His concern, Paul's concern for the church at Thessalonica caused him to send Timothy back. And he sent him back, as that verse tells us, to establish and comfort them in the faith. Now, how was he to do that?

How is anyone established in the faith? How is anyone comforted by the faith? By the gospel. by the gospel, and that's the reason that we continue to preach the gospel. It never grows old, and that is the way believers are established in the faith. When a person is born again, born of the Spirit of God, he's a newborn babe. He needs to learn, needs to hear. And I tell you, at the end of our lives, We're still in that state. We're not newborn babes, but we still need to learn. We still need to hear the gospel and be established in the truth of God and be comforted through His Word.

And if you look down there in 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse 6, we read, but now when Timotheus came from you unto us, So we, now I want you to follow with me. I've got a purpose in this. They took the gospel and preached there in Thessalonica. They were there for some time. Most people believe no more than three weeks, but here's my point. We're not told that they were only there three weeks. And then they're in Berea and then they go, Paul at least, first of all, goes to Athens alone, sends for Timothy and Silas. They come and then Paul, sent them back, sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to this church to see how they were doing.

And then in verse 6, notice he gets this report from Timothy. But now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you." It brought Paul back good tidings, the scripture says, good tidings concerning their faith and their love.

Now, I want you to keep your places here, but turn back to Acts chapter 18. In Acts chapter 18 and verse 1 through 5, after these things Paul deported from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and Greeks, and when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia."

Now this is when Paul received that word from Timothy, that good word concerning the church at Thessalonica. And you see there that he had reasoned in Corinth in the synagogue, it says, for several weeks or every Sabbath. And the point I'm making is that enough time, enough time had passed from when Paul was in Thessalonica preaching the gospel until he writes this letter back to them from Corinth Some had passed away in that church.

Some of those who had believed the gospel, who had been saved, had now passed into eternity. And that's the reason, if you turn back to our text, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 13, when he said, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. Again, we see that a person may be saved and still not have knowledge of various things that are true. And evidently in this church at Thessalonica, they were confused, maybe by some false teachers, we're not sure, but they were confused about Believers who had left them, who had died, who had gone out into eternity. What will their position be?

And will believers, those who are alive when Christ comes again, will they have precedence over these who have already passed away? Some believe, they were of the opinion that those who had already passed away, they were going to miss out. on much of the glory that's going to come to the believers when Christ comes again for his people.

Now, we know from his second letter to Thessalonica, the church here, that some had embraced the idea that Christ was coming right then. You know, it's been 2,000 years ago since the Lord said that he would come again. But some people believed He was going to come right then, you know, in their lifetime. And I think all of us, maybe, we want to believe that, that Christ is going to come in our lifetime, but we're not told that.

That's one of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was I don't want to say ignorant of, but he tells us in Matthew 24 that he himself did not know the day. The angels don't know, and he himself did not know. Only the Father, only the Father knows when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come again. And when I use that word ignorant concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, I hope you all understand he was willingly ignorant of that. As God, he knows all things, we know that. But he did say only the Father knows. But my point is there was confusion. There was ignorance in this church. at Thessalonica concerning the resurrection, concerning believers who had passed on into eternity.

And because of that, the Apostle Paul realized, thought in his own heart and mind, that this needed to be addressed. And that's what we see here in these verses of my text. You might say, Preacher, you went all around the world to get here. Maybe so. But the point I'm trying to make, I wanted to make is, there was enough time, we don't know how much time had passed between when Paul left this church and when he wrote this letter. But long enough, enough time had transpired that some in that church had passed away. Now I want to make four observations to us this morning, or four points.

First, now first observation is, Paul speaks of death as sleep. He speaks of death as sleep. Notice he didn't mention anything here about someone dying, but he speaks about people sleeping. Now, in the Scriptures, in the Word of God, that's not peculiar to Paul. He isn't the only one who does this. And it's not peculiar to the New Testament either.

Even in the Old Testament, the death of believers is spoken of as sleep, and let me say this, it's not peculiar even to believers, because the Word of God uses sleep concerning the death of both saved and unsaved. Let me mention a few verses of Scripture as concerning the Old Testament using this term.

David, King David, who He's also, remember, called a man after God's own heart. We read this in 1 Kings 2, so David slept, so David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And then his son Solomon, Solomon slept, the scripture says, and Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

The Lord Jesus Christ, when he would inform his disciples, his 12 disciples, that Lazarus had died. You remember, Mary and Martha sent word to the Lord Jesus Christ that, he whom thou lovest is sick. And the Lord tarried there and didn't come to where they were in Bethany. And then the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth.

Don't you love that? When one of our brothers or sisters passes away, leaves this world, that we're able to say our friend, our brother, sleepeth. Sleepeth. Lazarus, our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth. And I want you to look at this verse, if you will. Turn back to Acts. Acts chapter 7. And this concerns Stephen. In Acts chapter 7. And the last two verses. Acts 7 verse 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He fell asleep. As I've already said, the scriptures refer the death of lost men and save men as sleeping. But, and this is very important now, If you re back here in I Thessalonians with me, here the Apostle Paul is only speaking about believers when he uses this term because he says those who are fallen asleep in Jesus. You notice that in verse 14 if you ve turned back. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus. He's only speaking about those who sleep, who have fallen asleep in Jesus. It is only those who believe the gospel, those who believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that is the gospel according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, how that Jesus died according to the scriptures for our sins and was buried and rose again according to our scriptures.

What does it mean to be in Jesus? These fell asleep, that Jesus or fallen asleep in Jesus. Well, to be in Jesus means, first of all, they were loved with an everlasting love. They were loved with an everlasting love. They were loved, the scripture, our Lord said this in John 17 in his prayer, they were loved even as the father loved his son. That's the first thing it means to be in Jesus. It means to be loved of God.

The only reason that you're saved today, that I'm saved, if I'm saved, if you're saved, is because of God's love. Not because of anything. Not the slightest. Not the smallest. Thing in you or in me is the cause that you're saved. But you're saved if you're saved because of God's love. We love Him because He first loved us. And had He not loved us with that particular love, that special, peculiar love, we would never love Him. We really wouldn't. The second thing about being in Jesus is not only being loved with an everlasting love, but it is being called. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The call. And that calling, not just a general call, the general call is being given right now and everywhere today where the gospel is preached. But the efficacious call, the particular call, is men, and sometimes it's two men sitting on the same pew, maybe even brothers, born of the same mother and father, and one God calls. and one God passes over. It's the mercy of God, isn't it? Called, effectually called, just like Matthew.

Here's a man who was a publican. He was a tax collector. He had a good job. From what we can gather about publicans, they made plenty of money, whether honestly or dishonestly. They were hated of the Jews. Here he is, sitting at his desk, and people that were coming by, he would charge them taxes and levy taxes on them.

And the Lord Jesus Christ came by one day and said, follow me. He got up. left his money, left all to follow Christ. That's effectual, isn't it? That's effectual. And what money he had made, he gave a big supper, invited all of his friends who were publicans also, come and eat, come to my house, And of course, he invited the Lord Jesus there too. And that's when the Pharisees, you know, they just couldn't, they couldn't take that. They were too religious. Your master, Jesus, he's gone to be a guest of sinners and publicans.

Well, that's who he came to call. And he does call. And the third thing, sanctified. That means simply set apart by the Spirit of God to live for Him, to live for Christ, to glorify God. That's who Paul is talking about, who has fallen asleep in Jesus.

They were loved, they were called, and they were sanctified by God. You see, The Roman Catholic Church, and I hate to mention this, hate to ever make reference to them, but it's necessary. They teach and have taught for many years that saints are men or women who've done something extraordinary, believers who've done something extraordinary, and so they're canonized. They're declared to be saints. St. Bartholomew, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Thomas Aquinas, all of these saints they've made.

And because they're now saints, you can pray to them. You can call upon them. The Bible doesn't teach any of that, my friends. That's a lie from Satan. Every child of God is a saint. If you're one of his today, you've been set apart and you are a saint. You read the letters here. Paul was writing to the saints that be at Rome. The saints that be at Corinth. Yes, don't fall for Satan's lie.

If you're not a saint here, and by that I mean you've been set apart by the Spirit of God calling you through the gospel, and your desire now is to serve God, to honor Him, to live for Him. You're not perfect. You're not without sin. I'm not saying that because we know that's not true. But you would if you could. You would live without sin if you could. That's who Paul is talking about, have fallen asleep in Jesus. My second observation is, what is meant by this term sleep? When we talk about believers, is it sleep of the soul? Are we saying that the soul sleeps? Well, the short answer to that, of course, is no. No. There's one of the religious cults of our day that teaches that a soul does not exist apart from the body. And so, since the body is in the grave, then the soul is inactive.

But they do that, no doubt, they teach that, because they don't believe the Bible, first of all. But in that way, they have a way to get away around the fact that the scriptures teach that just as heaven, just as everlasting life is everlasting, so is punishment.

It's everlasting. The rich man our Lord spoke about in Luke chapter 16 was in hell when our Lord spoke those words. He's still there. And the same word everlasting is used for those who are with the Lord and those who are being punished for their wickedness. Think about this.

When the Lord Jesus Christ died, what happened Well, he dismissed his spirit into his father's hands. He committed his spirit, his soul. Where did his body go? His body went in the grave, went in the tomb. But his soul didn't go there. No, he told that man that he saved that day, today thou shalt be with me. Where? In the grave? No. Thou shalt be with me in paradise.

In other words, in heaven, in the third heaven, yes. My third observation, there's an alternative reading, alternative translation of these words. These words in verse 14, look at them again, if you will. Them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus. These words could be translated like this. Now listen. Those also who are laid asleep by Jesus. Those also who are laid asleep by Jesus. That translation suggests two wonderful truths to us.

Number one, The time of our death is appointed of God. The time of our death is appointed of God. In Revelation 1 and verse 17 and 18, when our Lord appeared to John, Fear not, I am first and the last, the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I, I have the keys of death and Hades. He appoints the time of our death.

What a comfort it is, those two words, fear not. Fear not. When they come from the mouth of him who was dead, But now it's alive forevermore. Who conquered death? Yes. You know, there's passage in Job chapter 14 when I speak about the time of our death being ordained and set by God. Let me read you these few verses here in Job chapter 14 on this subject.

Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. You know there's some insects that only even live 24 hours. They don't even live to see the sun go down and come up. Man, we're here just a short while. And just think about this. Within a mile of where we are right now, last Friday morning, a high school girl from this school right next door went out into eternity. Life is short. James said, it's like a vapor. It appears for a little while and it vanishes away. Job said, it's a few days.

He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not. Think of your life like a shadow. You're walking along and you're in a particular Direction, the sun's at your back, and there's your shadow, but you make a turn, and where's your shadow? It's gone.

So is our life in this world. And thus I open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee, Job speaking to God. Someone who just lives for a short while, God, would you take the time to even deal with me? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seen his days are determined. The number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass over. Yes, the time of our death is appointed by the Lord. Those also who are laid asleep by Jesus.

And the second thought that comes to my mind by that translation is that the believer's body, as well as our soul, is bought with a price. For you are bought with a price. Glorify God, therefore, in your body. Someone likened the soul of man as a jewel, as a priceless jewel that's in a casket or in a treasure chest, rather, just made out of cedar wood or something like that. Yes, the soul is precious. And it's bought with a price, but so is the casket, so is the treasure chest.

And it is the body, it is the body that is asleep, laid asleep by Jesus and sealed. You say it turns back to dust. I know it does. But I'm telling you, according to the word of God, it's sealed with the Holy Spirit. And when the Lord comes again, it's going to be raised incorruptible. One last thing.

There's going to be believers alive when Christ comes again. We see that, don't we? We see that here because he tells us that those who are alive and remain shall not prevent or precede those who have already died. Because the Lord Jesus is going to bring them with him. And then their bodies are going to be raised. There's going to be a reunion of body and soul. And those of us who are alive, believers who are alive, we shall be changed.

Paul calls it a mystery there in 1 Corinthians 15, because it's going to happen so quickly. And the twinkling of an eye. This gives us assurance, too, that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which, remember, is his body, There's going to be a church here.

He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Upon this rock, speaking of himself, that rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, the gates of hell, Satan and all the demons of hell, all the antichrists that rise up, shall not prevail to wipe out his church. When he comes again, there's going to be believers. He could come today, couldn't he? He could come. We don't know when, but we know he's coming. And that's a wonderful hope for all of God's children. May the Lord bless this word to us here today.

Asleep in Jesus

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