1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Introduction
Do you labor under certain intolerable aspects of life?
If so, you need hope.
The bible says we will never endure the trials of fallen life without……hope.
Did you notice in v.13 Paul contrasts folks who are grieving life’s miseries with hope, those who grieve without hope.
so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope
Means confident certainty. A joyful, certain expectation that everything will end up as it should be.
Our confidence is based in history. Christ was on earth reversing the curse. Our hope is assurance in the finished product.
Here are four facts, each one guaranteeing the righting of a wrong:
1. Christ is coming again
Why? It is the fitting end to a love story. The husband is coming for his bride. The word in Greek for coming is parousia.
Paul’s readers would be familiar with it as a technical term in two senses:
Religious cults: a hidden divinity who makes his presence felt by a revelation of his power
Cultural politics: official term for visit of a person of high rank.
2. The dead in Christ will come with him
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
There was a fear among the Thessalonians that those who had already died had missed out, would be left out when Jesus returned. No, Paul clarifies, they are only sleeping.
What wrong will be righted? Jesus will reunite us with our loved ones who have died.
3. When we meet them in the air we will be transformed
What’s wrong with all human beings right now?
It’s only one thing: sin, its presence and penalty.
This event described here rights that wrong. Jesus’ return marks the great resurrection, first mentioned in Daniel 12, promised by Jesus in John 5:28-29:
28Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Far from being disadvantaged, those who died in Christ will be raised first. Paul unpacked this a bit in 1 Cor.15, showing Jesus’ resurrection body is the first fruits, the prototype of ours. If he was raised, you have to be raised.
4. No one will miss this event
Christians can suffer and endure hardship confident that God will do what is just in the end. Jesus is coming to rescue us from evil and injustice, and repay those who do wrong.
And it is not simply that we’ll be freed from evil, but that the presence of a rotting world will be replaced with the presence of pure love, joy, truth, light, goodness:
and so we shall always be with the Lord
This is the righting of the ultimate wrong, not living in God’s presence.
