Sermon: A Living Hope

This evening we're just gonna take a quick look at First Thessalonians as we continue our way through that book in verses 13 through 18 of chapter four. First Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. If you wanna grab a pew Bible, it's on 9, 8, 7 and the Pew Bible 9, 8, 7 in this evening verses 13 through 18 in chapter four.

Someone asked me tonight, uh, how's the sermon? I said, oh, let's not call it a sermon. They said, okay, homily. I said, oh, let's not call it a homily. These are thoughts on one Thessalonians chapter four, verse 13 through 18. Let's pray before we open God's word this evening. Our Father, we do thank you for the gift of your word and we thank you that it is living inactive and sharper than any two edge sword. And we pray even this evening that as we open it together,

that it would be good for our souls in the few minutes that we look at it and may give you praise and may it work in us that which is pleasing in your sight. And we pray all of this in the strong image Jesus. Amen. One Thessalonians chapter four verses 13 through 18. This is a holy inherent sufficient word of God, But we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep. 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 until the coming of the Lord will not proceed. 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. The grass withers and flower fates. Word of God is forever and speak to God. Amen. Well, Paul hears he is riding to the thesal and akins here. Uh, they are struggling with the fact that some

among them have perished and that they have died and that the question that they have in their mind is not so much will their bodies be raised, but is it that they will miss out on something when the Lord returns be because they're in the grave. And so Paul, as he speaks here in one Thessalonians chapter four, you'll notice he says it two different times. He says that they fallen asleep. It's a euphemism for the fact that that they have died

but they fallen asleep. And by that it's not a stoic kind of thought where he's trying to put away the idea that there is death. He's not trying to sanitize death, but rather he's helping them to see that for the Christian it's about momentary the moment your eyes close in death. They're opened in life

given this illustration before, but it's my favorite. Along these lines, uh, Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse was the longtime pastor of 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia. And his wife died. And while driving to the funeral for his wife, his kids were in the backseat of the car and they were crying as they were headed to their mom's funeral. And while they're driving down the road, there was a large truck, think semi-truck that went passing

by the car that they were in. And the shadow of the semi-truck fell upon their car and passed over the backseat and over the front seat and on it went. And Dr. Barnhouse being a good preacher, used the moment and turned to his kids in the backseat and he said, would you rather be hit by the truck or by the shadow of the truck? And this kid said, oh daddy, the shadow of the truck, well why the shadow of the truck and not the truck?

Because the shadow can do us no harm. And Barnhouse said, exactly, the Lord Jesus was run over by the truck of death so that you are only hit by the shadow of death. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death in the Christian for the Christian death has no sting. It's gone. I literally have no fear of death, not an ounce of fear of death. Now I have the fear of the pain of death. There are certain ways I don't want to die,

but I have no fear of death. 'cause I know the moment my eyes close in death, they awaken in the presence of Christ,

the sting of death has been taken. And so he says to them, you must not grieve as others do with no hope. Why? And now he gives the answer four verse 14 four, since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

So here's the train of thought that Paul is going through. Look, you, you have no reason to fear death. You even as you grieve those that you have lost, you don't grieve as those without hope. No, we have great hope. And this isn't kind of a pollyannaish hope. This is a fixed hope. This is a resolved hope. This is a hope that is secured.

How can you have such hope? He says, because we know that Jesus died and Jesus rose well, what good is that to you? How does that secure your hope? How is it guaranteed to you Christian, that because Jesus died and Jesus road rose that you will rise? How do you know that He notice that language that he uses here? He says, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Let me get there kind of in a roundabout way this evening, in the few minutes I got, many of us grew up on playgrounds at school and there was inevitably that moment where you're getting ready to play kickball. Oh man, I could play kickball, kickball, soccer, baseball, and there would be two people that would be the team captains. And you're all lined up there and they're gonna choose their teams. Now, for some of us on the playground,

that was an absolutely horrible event because you knew you were going to be like the last person or the teams were gonna be even. And there was gonna be one person left and they were gonna say, Hmm, you can watch.

It feels good to be chosen. It doesn't feel good to be left in limbo, not knowing whether you're chosen or not. You know, we all love wedding days and we love wedding days because we already know what's going to happen. The bride's going to walk down the aisle and the groom is here. But can you imagine if there were five grooms up here and the bride walks down the aisle and chooses one of them? We wouldn't like weddings because it's tenuous.

We'd like to know that you've been chosen. Fixes it. It's interesting throughout the scriptures is that God chooses people don't like Romans nine. They don't like Romans one, they, but this is true throughout the scriptures. God chose Abraham outta the earth, the kades out of all the people in the face of the earth. He chose Moses, he chose Aaron, he chose Israel as we're told in Deuteronomy seven out of all the nations

of the earth, he chose Saul to be the first king. He chose David. As we've been going through Second Samuel to be the second king, God chooses.

But all of those are but types and shadows leading to the chosen one.

Isaiah 42 is a prophecy concerning the coming of the chosen one. And Luke records in the transfiguration in Luke chapter nine, verse 35, the words of God the Father where he says, this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him. Jesus is the chosen one of God that is, it's ultimately in and through the person of Jesus Christ that God has chosen to work out his redemptive plan. All of those that he has chosen before they were means

by which he is working out his redemptive plan. But they were all types and shadows leading to the chosen one, the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom ultimately the redemptive plan would be accomplished. There is only one mediator between God and man and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we're united to Jesus in faith, then we know that we will be saved through him.

God can no more leave us in the grave than he could leave Christ in the grave. 'cause you see by faith, what the scriptures say is that you and I are united with him. And so as he died, we died as he rose. So we rise. There's a union there. He's the chosen one of God. And if you have faith in Christ, you are united to this chosen one of God. That means that there is never doubt. Your salvation is never in doubt. You're being raised from the grave to everlasting life.

And having union with the Father is never in doubt. And that's why the church is called the chosen throughout the scriptures. Ephesians one, Colossians three, James two, one, Peter one. We are chosen in him and we have salvation through and in him. If we are in Christ by faith, you can never be rejected It's guaranteed through him. You have a living hope through him. Your body will be raised from the grave.

It's solid.

Paul says, for this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord.

We don't know where this word of the Lord is at 'cause it's nowhere in the gospels where Jesus says these very words that Paul is saying. But you remember John 21 where John gets to the end of his gospel and he says, look, if we recorded all of the things that Jesus did and all the words that he said, all the books in the world couldn't contain them. And this is surely one of those things that the Lord said that was passed on that is not recorded in the gospels.

But he says this, the dead in Christ will rise first and then we who are alive, the dead in Christ. He's reassuring them. They're not going to miss out when what we call Christ perusia. When Christ returns upon the clouds in a second coming, it's not as if they are going to miss anything. That was the concern of these Thessalonians. But our loved ones, they're going to miss out on, on seeing this glorified Christ. They're going to miss him coming up on the clouds.

They're, they're going to miss this great epochal event. And he's saying, no, no, no, no. Here's what's going to happen. They're going to be raised first and they're going to be caught up into the clouds with Christ. And then those of us, we who are still alive and Paul is not referring to himself, he's referring to Christians, we Christians who are still alive, then we shall be caught up into the air. That's the glorious scene is

that the Lord Jesus is descending from the heavens. There is a a rupture between heaven and earth. And he descends. And as he descends, he's surrounded by a myriad, the host of angels and they're all descending with him. And as he is descending bodies of those who have been had had faith in Christ, they're raised from the grave. Their bodies as descend up, their souls are descending down and their body and souls reunited in the presence of Christ.

And then those who are alive still on the face of the earth, we are caught up into the air with him. And why the air? Because at least in the ancient world, it was demons that controlled the air. He's the prince of the power of the air. Paul says it shows Christ dominion. He rules over it all and he's come to return to rule over it all.

You'll notice this is not a secret rapture. There's no such thing. It's very noisy. Verse 16, the Lord will descend with a cry of command. There'll be the voice of an archangel. There'll be the sound of the trumpet of God. No secret rapture. Nobody's missing it. It's gonna be there for everybody to see. Everybody's gonna hear it. And then you notice the true great blessings. There are two, it's very interesting language to me.

He says, we will be caught up together with them.

For those of you that have lost loved ones, that's a sweet word right there. Those that have preceded us in death, that their bodies are raised, they're now in the sky with Christ and we're caught up together with them.

You're reunited with your loved ones and have died in Christ, in the sky with Christ. And people say, oh, will we recognize each other? Yes. Uh, will we love seeing the loved ones that have departed? Yes, be caught up together with them. The second great blessing is so he says, so we will always be with the Lord.

So we will always be with the Lord, body and soul dwelling with him forever.

That's the promise of the resurrection for those that are in Christ.

Let me give you, he says at the end, he says, therefore encourage one another with these words. Let me give you a few encouragements from these words. Five things. Five, quick encouragement. Die well without fear of death. Die. Well, you're a Christian. If your faith is in Christ, you have nothing to fear. Die well look in faith to Christ. Look with hope. To Christ. Die well without fear of death. Second grieve. Again, Christians grieve but grieve with hope.

And we mourn with those who mourn. We weep with those who weep. We we truly grieve because death is a real enemy and he does rob, but we don't grieve as those without hope. We grieve differently. Third, expect and long for Christ's return. Expect and long for Christ's return. He hasn't forgotten about his bride. No groom forgets about his bride. He's returning. So you expect his return and you're to long for his return.

You're to live in light of his return to shape yours and my lives day in and day out. You're to always live with the cross before you and Christ return before you. Those two things should dominate yours and my minds and hearts as we go through our days. Christ died for me. Christ is returning for me. It should shape your day.

Fourth, be ready for Christ's return at any moment.

Jonathan Edwards is one of my favorite theologians. He wrote a whole list of resolutions and he had a number of resolutions that almost said the exact same thing. These were things that he sought to live by and it was something along these lines resolved never to do anything that I would be ashamed of doing if it was the last hour before Christ returned.

That's not a bad resolution.

Be ready for Christ return at any moment. And lastly, encourage one another. Often, often with the hope of Christ, it's so easy to lose sight of the fact that we have a bridegroom that loves us desperately. We have a bridegroom has conquered all, and we have a bridegroom who is more than returning down the aisle. He is descending from heaven and he is coming for us. And it's so easy to lose view of that, to get so caught up in the mundane thing

of today or tomorrow. And so worked up, oh, I can't believe this happened and that happened. And why didn't that happen? And your bridegroom's coming.

It's gonna be okay. He's coming.

And we're gonna encourage one another with that. Often with the hope of Christ.

It's a glorious text. Should get a lot more attention than a few minutes. But let me pray for us, our Father, we are thankful for the fact that we have a bridegroom that is returning upon the clouds. Death truly has no authority and the life of the Christian that is a defeated enemy. How we look forward to the day when there shall no longer be wars or rumors of wars or disease or death.

But all shall be laid in right subjection under the feet of Christ, never to raise its head again. And so we pray with the apostle, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly. May we live in light of your coming with that kind of hope. We pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.