The apostle Paul is writing to Christians to encourage their faith to grow further and deeper. While the Christians in Thessalonica are doing well, he is urging them to excel still more (1 Thessalonians 4:1). We have noticed that Paul is looking at areas in the Christian life that might be easily overlooked when trying to be pleasing to the Lord. Paul has written about holiness, exposing the problem of sexual immorality. Paul also wrote about love, exposing the problems of not aiming to live a quiet life, not minding your own business, and not working with your own hands. But in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 the apostle Paul is going to shift his discussion to the second coming of Christ. It seems in our religious culture that there are two perspectives when it comes to the second coming of Christ. One perspective is to scare everyone, suggesting that every world event or every change in the country’s culture must mean that Christ is coming back today. I think this has led to the other perspective which is to suggest that the second coming does not matter at all. The suggested idea is that it does not matter what we believe and there is no reason to study it because God wins in the end and he is going to come back. What we are going to notice in our lesson today that the apostle Paul did not subscribe to either of these perspectives. Paul did not ignore the topic but also did not try to instill a constant fear in these Christians either. What do we need to know about Christ’s return so that we can be pleasing to God? What hope are we to have in knowing that Christ is coming back? Please open your copies of God’s word to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we are going to look at how we can excel even more in future hope.
Having Hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13)
Paul sets the goal for writing this section in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. He does not want Christians to be uninformed about those who have died “so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” As we begin I think it is important to notice that Paul does not say that Christians do not grieve the loss of their loved ones. When Stephen was stoned in Acts 7, we read that they buried him and made loud lamentations over him (cf. Acts 8:2). The people of God still grieve. What Paul is saying is that our grief is different than the grief of those who do not belong to Christ. In particular, the contrast comes to hope. Those who are not in Christ do not have hope while those who are in Christ do.
Now there is an important implication here that will be more fully expressed in this paragraph and in other scriptures. Physical death is not the end. Verse 13 does not tell us that when we die then that is the end and there is no hope. Verse 13 does not say that when you die it is just over. This leads to a striking conflict in our culture today. The idea of afterlife and resurrection are very hard to accept. No one has seen either of these things with their own eyes. Our culture is very attracted to stories from those who claim to have died for a couple minutes, been brought back to life, and then sell books on what they saw while physically dead in those minutes. Even the apostle Paul was rejected in some cities where he preached because he preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So on one side we have the seeming impossibility of life after death. But then again, I have never been to a funeral where anyone stood up and said that their loved one has died and that is the end. Everyone holds on to hope. We will explore this problem further later in the lesson. But the question that we need to ask as we finish verse 13 is what is the hope that Paul is trying to give Christians?
Missing Nothing (1 Thessalonians 4:14-15)
Paul wants us to have hope. Paul wants us to grieve differently. So how can we do these things? Look at verse 14. Paul says that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again… Before we continue we need to let this truth sink in. If you believe that Jesus died and rose again, then you must believe what Paul is going to say next. Friends, you are here because you believe Jesus died and rose again. The death and the resurrection of Jesus is the crucial basis for our faith. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus did not raise from the dead, then everything that we do is in vain (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14,17,19). Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then we also believe through Jesus that God will bring with him those who have died (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Paul puts these two events together in our faith. Because we believe Jesus died and rose again, then we must also believe that God is bringing with him those who died in Christ.
Time does not nullify the power of God. When Christ returns, everyone who has died in Christ is going to participate in his coming. Look at verse 15. Anyone who is alive, who is left until the coming of the Lord are certainly not going to go ahead of those who have died in Christ. Here is what Paul is saying: there is absolutely no advantage to being alive when Christ returns. If you are alive when Christ returns, you are not getting something extra. If you have died before Christ returns, you are not missing out on anything. Those who are alive do not go ahead of those who have died in Christ. Those who die in Christ miss nothing. Please think about this idea. There are those who have died in Christ over 100 years ago. There are those who died in Christ 1000 years ago. There are those who died in Christ nearly 2000 years ago. Yet there is not a single one of them who is missing out. So this makes us want to know how this will be. Paul will now describe the return of Christ in the next two verses.
The Event (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
Here is how this can be possible: look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. The Lord himself will descend from heaven. Can you even imagine what this is going to be like? We are given one visual in the scriptures to help us grasp what will happen. In Acts 1:9-11 we read that after Jesus rose from the dead, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of the sight of the apostles. Then two angels say something about this event to the apostles who saw this happen. “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Paul confirms this image. The Lord himself will descend from heaven.
Paul also notes the sound when the Lord returns. He will return with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. It is not hard to envision that this image is telling us that when the Lord returns it is going to be loud. A shout is loud. A shout is the opposite of a whisper. I do not know what the voice of an archangel sounds like. But an archangel is powerful and authoritative so, with the shout, this should also be loud. But the trumpet of God really helps us see how loud this return will be. This has a parallel back in Exodus 19 when God came down to meet with his people at Mount Sinai (cf. Exodus 19:10,16-19; 20:18). The text tells us that the noise was so loud that the people were terrified. The Lord coming down is not a subtle, comfortable event. When the Lord returns, it is going to be a major event.
Now notice what is first at the end of verse 16. The dead in Christ will rise first. This is the point Paul was making earlier. Those who are alive when Christ returns do not have advantage or go ahead of those who have died in Christ. Rather, when the Lord returns, then the resurrection of the dead will occur. Therefore, those who have died in Christ will miss nothing. But please notice there are two more keys to this scripture in verse 17 that help us understand what is happening in the return of Christ.
First, those who are alive will be caught up in the air together with those who have been raised from the dead. Now this is a verse where many teach a complicated rapture event from which leads to many end times theories about people being left behind or a great tribulation or some other event. But please notice the simplicity of what is described here. When the Lord returns, then it is the end. The dead in Christ will rise from the dead and meet the Lord in the air. Those who are alive still will also meet the Lord in the air. The phrase I want us to see is “caught up together.” The first encouragement given to us is that we will be caught up together. I think one of the places we can see Jesus express this hope is in John 11 when Jesus is speaking to Martha. In John 11:24 we read Martha telling Jesus that if Jesus had been there then she knows that her brother would not have died. What is she saying? She is saying that they would still be together and she would not have this grief if Jesus had been there. Now think about that Jesus says in response to Martha in John 11:25. “Your brother will rise again.” Is this just a clinical statement of truth about resurrection? What is implied with resurrection? What is implied is being together again. Being fellow heirs in Christ in the kingdom of God implies being together. Being caught up together has no meaning or value if it does not mean that our grief is lessened. Paul did not want God’s people to grieve as those who have no hope. The hope Jesus gave Martha was that her brother would rise again and that will be meaningful to her. Allow me to make this point in another way: there is no possibility of what we have in the present being better than what we have coming in the future. There is no disappointment that is ahead of us. We will not say that life on earth is these fleshly bodies was better than the raised and glorified bodies we will receive in Christ returns. Our hope is that we will be together.
Second, those who are dead in Christ will be raised and those who are alive will be caught up with the Lord. Now look at the end of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. “And so we will always be with the Lord.” This is the other comfort we have so that we do not grieve like other who do not have hope. Who are the “we”? We who are alive when Christ returns and we who were raised from the dead when Christ returns. We all will be with the Lord always. Please notice that the location is not the point. The person is the point. It is not about where we will be. It is all about who we will be with. Eternity is about our ability to be with the Lord always. Our hope is to be glorified with resurrected bodies so that we can always be with the Lord.
Concluding Hope
Our comfort is to know that when we die, we know with certainty that this is not the end. Just as Jesus died and raised from the dead, so we also know that those who have died in Christ will raise from the dead and be gathered together with those who are alive at his coming. There is a great reunion coming for all those who belong to Christ Jesus. Our hope is that we will be with the Lord always.
But this text leads to another question that may be on your minds. What about those who die but not in Christ? I think there is something important to keep in mind that can be forgotten when speaking about God’s judgment. God’s judgment is always right. God’s judgment is always fair. God’s judgment is always perfect. There will be no miscarriage of justice on God’s part. But we are also told another aspect about God that we must not forget. God does not want any to perish (cf. 2 Peter 3:9). This can be hard to believe but God loves your loved one more than you do. This is why he gave his Son so that those who would come to him and obey him would not perish. God does not want your loved one to perish more than you do. So whatever happens with our friends and loved ones, it is right. But faith leaves these things in God’s hands. But we must also accept that there is no one who will be in eternity with the Lord, enjoying relationship with him that did not live for that relationship now. What we can do is make sure that we have made ourselves ready by living lives that are pleasing to him and excelling more and more in it.