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Introduction
It is a great comfort to us to know that we serve a Savior who is “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), a Man Who has surely “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).
This is a comfort to us because we are a people who are well-acquainted with grief.
How many times have we walked through that cold valley together!
I look around this room and see family after family that has borne the grief of losing a loved one—sometimes suddenly, and sometimes at the end of a long and draining illness.
And when it comes right down to it, everyone present this morning either has suffered the grief of losing a loved on, or will suffer that grief someday.
And so the Apostle Paul’s words to the Thessalonican church here in our text this morning are important for all of us:
1 Thessalonians 4:13 (ESV)
13 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.
It is sometimes suggested that grieving—sorrowing over the death of a loved one—is somehow inappropriate for a Christian who believes in the resurrection from the dead.
But notice here that Paul doesn’t just end verse 13 with “…that you may not grieve.”
No—he says that he is writing these verses so that the Thessalonian Christians would not grieve like unbelievers.
If you are going to suffer grief, Paul says (and all of us will), then grieve like a Christian.
There is a rhythm to this chapter that I think connects it all back to verse 3—that everything he writes about in this chapter is connected back to our sanctification.
there is a repeating pattern of telling them what they must not do, followed by commending them for something they are doing well:
Verses 3-8 - Do not treat sex like the Gentiles (unbelievers) do
Verses 13-18 - Do not grieve the way unbelievers (those who have no hope) do
Go back to verses 9-12: “No one needs to instruct you in loving one another”
And Chapter 5, verses 1-11: “No one needs to instruct you on how to wait for Christ’s appearing.
So I think that it is appropriate to say that our text this morning is the third installment in the “God’s Great Purpose For You: Grieving like a Christian”.
As God’s Spirit continues to work in you, making you more into the image of the holiness of Christ, even the way that you mourn for your loved ones will be transformed.
Paul wants to encourage his readers that even their mourning will be made holy by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit.
So the way I want to put it to you this morning is to say
A Christian grieves in HOPE through the PROMISE of our REUNION with Christ
Sadly, we are not accustomed to reading these verses for the same purpose that Paul wrote them, are we?
This is one of those well-known passages that is cited in discussions of the end-times; everyone runs to this passage to prove elements of their eschatology or get some glimpse into an end-times scenario.
But look at verse 18—why did Paul write these words?
1 Thessalonians 4:18 (ESV)
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Not “Argue with other over these words”, not “divide from each other” over these words, not “judge each other’s theology” with these words—encourage one another.
Minister to each other in the seasons of grief and loss that you suffer with these words; do’t miss the massive treasure of comfort and hope found in these verses because you’re trying to prove or disprove some point of end-times theology!
So what does it mean to “grieve like a Christian?”
As we look at verses 13-14 of our text, we see that our grief is tempered by the fact that
I.
We have a sure HOPE in our SAVIOR (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)
1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 (ESV)
13 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.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
The grief that we endure as believers is grounded in hope
Because Jesus ROSE from the DEAD (v.
14; cp. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23)
Because Jesus rose from the dead, we have a sure hope that we will rise from the dead.
I take this from the phrase “even so” in verse 14:
1 Thessalonians 4:14 (ESV)
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
In the same way that Jesus rose again, so will all of those who have trusted in Him.
Because Jesus’ tomb is empty today, you have a sure hope that your loved one’s grave will be empty someday!
Paul traces this same pattern in his first letter to the Corinthians—in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, we read:
1 Corinthians 15:20–23 (ESV)
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
Paul says that at the Second Coming of Christ (the word “His coming” in 1 Corinthians 15:23 is the same Greek word, parousia, that Paul uses to describe “the coming of the Lord” in 1 Thessalonians 4:15)—at the Second Coming of Christ, the dead will be raised from their graves.
So that would indicate that what is in view here in our text is the Second Coming of Christ.
This is why Paul points to this event as such a sure hope for grieving Christians--
Because Jesus WAKES the DEAD (v.
15; cp Luke 8:52-55)
Paul describes Christians who have died as “those who are asleep” (v.
13).
This is an important point particularly for the Thessalonian believers, who by and large had come from a Greek background (being that Thessalonica was in Greece, after all!)
The Greeks of that day held to the same worldview as the rest of the ancient world, in that they believed that those who died descended to Hades, who ruled the Underworld
While some Christians take the word “asleep” here to mean that deceased Christians are in a sort of “suspended animation” in their graves until Christ returns, the Scriptures are very clear that when a believer dies, they are immediately brought into the presence of the Lord.
Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would join Him in Paradise--God’s presence--that very day (Luke 23:43).
(It would be very strange for Jesus to promise the thief that he would be “in Paradise” that day if He knew that the thief would actually be sleeping in an unmarked grave for the next several centuries!)
And in Philippians 1:23, Paul said that if he had a choice he would prefer to “depart and be with Christ”, but it was necessary to stay “in the flesh” in order to serve the church there.
If Paul believed that “departing” from the flesh meant slumbering in death in the grave for millennia until Christ returns, it would be very strange to hear him say he would rather do that than pastor the Philippian church!
There are several other passages (cp.
Luke 16:22; Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 14:13) that show that the Bible consistently represents those who have died as being conscious before the general resurrection of [believers] that Paul writes about here.
(T.
Thompson, unpublished correspondence, 11/8/2013)
So instead of some sort of “soul-sleep”, the word “sleep” here in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 simply refers to physical death-- “sleep” was a common metaphor for physical death both in the Christian and pagan world of the 1st Century A.D. Jesus spoke of death the same way in Luke’s Gospel, and the people He was speaking to did not understand what He was saying.
Turn with me there for a moment—Luke 8, verses 52-55 (page 866 in the pew Bible):
Luke 8:52–55 (ESV)
52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”
53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.”
55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once.
And he directed that something should be given her to eat.
Jesus went into that room to raise the dead as easily and naturally as if he were waking her up from a nap—(“Time to get up, sweetie!”)
Here is your certain hope in your grief, Christian—you serve a Savior that wakes the dead!
And notice the detail in this story of how Jesus awakened her from death.
He took her hand and spoke specifically to her.
Just as when He raised Lazarus from the sleep of death (John 11:11), he called him by name, so here He was careful to speak specifically to this particular sleeper.
But on this Day that Paul writes about in our text, Jesus will descend from Heaven “with a cry of command”—and that command to all who belong to Him by faith will be simply, ARISE!
And on that Day all of His children who sleep in the grave will awaken!
Christian, when those seasons of grieving come upon you, grieve like a Christian who has a sure hope in your Savior who rose from the dead, a Savior who wakes the dead with His cry of command at His coming—we grieve in hope because
II.
We have a firm PROMISE for our FUTURE (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)
Verses 15-16 tell us:
1 Thessalonians 4:15–16 (ESV)
15 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 precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 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.
Our grief at the loss of our loved ones in Christ is tempered by the understanding that
The SLEEPERS will be AWAKENED first... (v.
15; cp.
John 6:37-40)
Jesus Himself promised that all those who trust Him for salvation would be raised on the Day He returns:
John 6:37–40 (ESV)
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
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