1. SERIOUS SUBJECTS. IMPORTANT ISSUES.
2. There are a lot of them in God’s Word
• The Bible DOESN’T SHY away from the serious matters in life.
• It speaks very openly & candidly of sin & salvation, of money & motives, even of fears and failures.
• AND as we open His word, it so quickly cuts right to the heart!
Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
As a loving Father does, God gives us counsel and insight on how we might live our lives… very much like the counsel given throughout the Proverbs. Let’s look at Proverbs 3:1ff
• Got questions? Go to His Word. Lack wisdom? Turn to His Word.
APP: What gets us in so much trouble, is that too many times we don’t seek out His word with a question
• AND INSTEAD WE lean on our own understanding!
Psalm 119.130 The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
• We can trust God’s Word to address SERIOUS SUBJECTS and IMPORTANT ISSUES with stark clarity and strong direction!
AND OF all the SERIOUS SUBJECTS addressed in the Bible, matters of LIFE & DEATH are of most importance.
• That’s where we draw our attention this morning.
• TO: Death, Dying, and The Believer! (Read 1 Thess 4.13-15)
NOTE: Death is inevitable.
Ecc. 3.1-2 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
Acts 17.26 "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
It’s interesting that we find so many studies about life & teaching so much about Christian living but not much about Christian dying.
• But like the believers in Thessalonica then, we too now need to be taught on Christian dying.
• Paul thought it very important for these new believers to understand death & to understand what happens after death.
Hebrews 9.27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
NOW As a pastor, I have the privilege of officiating many funerals.
• I have to say, some are easier than others.
• Some are very pleasant and others are not so pleasant.
• I’ve buried people who lived a long full life and they simply graduated and were promoted into heaven. Joy filled the room!
• There was great grief and loss, but also great hope!
• BUT I’ve also buried those who left this earth without Jesus.
• The difference consistently is that…
• One is filled with hope while the other is drowned in hopelessness.
SO Paul, the pastor & shepherd is writing to comfort the brokenhearted Christians who had lost some loved ones to death.
• As was Paul was there for the 3 weeks of planting this church, he shared how Jesus was returning soon!
• WELL they thought it was REAL SOON, and a couple of weeks, & months had passed with Jesus not returning
• And along the way a few loved ones dying.
• SO They were concerned. Did they miss the rapture? Did they miss the resurrection?
• So the poor church was confused. Is there no hope? What? Why?
NOTE: Those are common questions at the loss of a loved one.
• It’s often a confusing time. We ask ‘Why did this happen?’
• ‘Why now?’ Will I have to go through this again? Are you punishing me God?
• Some of those are hard to answer, yet there are other answers that can bring us great comfort and assurance. Look again…
I. (4:13-15) IGNORANCE ABOUT DEATH
1. (13) I don’t want you to be ignorant.
a. They were really mixed up because of ignorance.
b. Literally, “not knowing, not understanding, mistaken.”
c. They didn’t know what was happened after death and it was in their ignorance that the false teachers took advantage!
NOTE: I commend you church for your diligent desire to know God and His Word and His will.
• Your hunger & thirst for righteousness is so refreshing!
Matthew 5.6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
SO WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING those that had fallen asleep, there was a lot of speculation and guesswork.
• But Paul’s answer was not a guess, but God’s word.
• Look at v15, “By the Word of the Lord”
• Don’t you love that?!
APP: We don’t need to wonder OR worry about the death or life after death because we have revelation from God in His word!
2 Corinthians 5.1-2 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
• We have ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY with the revelation of God that we will be with Him… for eternity. That’s a long time!
But there are many speculations out there with hundreds of books written by people who have ‘seen the light’ & returned.
• I’m amazed to see so many people listen to the words of those that have died and come back but reject the words of Jesus Christ who died and rose again from the dead!
John 11.25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
SO THE IGNORANCE OF DEATH IS HELPED WITH A
II. (4:13-15) DESCRIPTION OF DEATH
2. (13-15) Sleep or Asleep is used.
a. That’s how the Bible describes death, as sleep.
b. Looking at someone who’s died, it looks like they’re asleep.
c. The idea here is the body not the soul.
d. This is not a reference to the false doctrine of SOUL SLEEP.
e. But it’s a common Greek phrase referring to death.
f. Jesus used this phrase in John 11:6ff, let’s turn there.
Remember in Acts as Stephen was before the Sanhedrin sharing the gospel with them.
• They became so enraged that they began to stone him.
• As he approaches his death, the Bible says:
Acts 7.59-60 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And even in the Old Testament:
• We read of the death of a David in 1 Kings 2:10 as:
1 Kings 2.10 So David rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David.
1 Kings 2.10 (KJV) So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
NOW as Christians we use the term for death because it reminds us it’s only temporary. Death is not the end but the beginning.
• Our last breath on earth, is our first breath in eternity.
• The body rests until the resurrection.
Daniel 12.2-3 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever.
HAVE You NOTICED that most kids aren’t into naps!?
• They just don’t like them. They aren’t interested in stopping, resting, and especially sleeping.
• They usually see it as some sort of punishment, the worst of the worst in time outs!
• BUT as we get older, a nap starts to look pretty good!
• Far from a punishment, it’s a reward?
• Nap? Did someone say nap?! We’ll be first in line!
NOTE: A Christian doesn’t have to fear death any more than fearing the taking of a nap. You WILL WAKE UP!
• So sleep, it’s not a reference to the SOUL but the BODY.
From the ignorance, to the description, finally the confidence we can have as Christians in death.
III. (4:13-15) CONFIDENCE OVER DEATH
• Let’s flip over to 1 Corinthians 15.20ff
Paul makes it clear that when a believer dies his soul goes to be with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5.6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
Jesus told the thief on the cross next to him:
Luke 23.43 And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."
There was a pastor who knew that his friend had lost his wife.
So he went over to the house to encourage & comfort him.
He told his firend, “I’m sorry to hear you lost your wife.”
But his friend answered, “You can’t lose someone when you know where she is.”
TRUE, the body remains on this earth, but the real person in with the Lord!
• You are not your body. The real you is something outside of the shell. That’s good news!
• It’s good to know we will not have this body forever!
• The real you will have a different body forever!
NOTE: Though we look at a person and say that he/she died, it’s more accurate to say that he/she moved! He was promoted!
• Don’t sorrow Paul says, as those who have no hope.
• There is hope, wonderful hope in the Lord.
In the time that Paul wrote this letter, death was a hopeless endeavor among the Greeks.
In the face of death the pagan world stood in despair. They met it with grim resignation and bleak hopelessness. Aeschylus wrote, “Once a man dies there is no resurrection.” Theocritus wrote, “There is hope for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope.” Catullus wrote, “When once our brief light sets, there is one perpetual night through which we must sleep.” On their tombstones grim epitaphs were carved. “I was not; I became; I am not; I care not” William Barclay
NOW when Paul says to be careful of sorrow, he’s not saying that death won’t bring sorrow and grief. It will and it does.
• But it’s a different kind of sorrow. It’s hopeful and steady!
Ecc. 3.4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
AND Jesus put to rest the thought that GROWN MEN don’t cry when we read of him weeping before the tomb of Lazarus.
John 11.35 Jesus wept.
EXPERTS Tell us that there are several stages involved in response to the loss of a loved one.
When you lose someone there’s a great feeling of ripping & tearing away. You can’t just push it down and ignore it.
• First there is DENIAL: this can’t be happening. It’s all a dream.
• Then after the shock settles in, there’s GUILT. If only I would have been there. I could have helped.
• Then ANGER/BLAME: why didn’t the doctors do this or that?!
• Then comes a time of GREAT DEPRESSION as your feelings are coming to the surface and sorrow grips your heart.
• But then there is that time of ACCEPTANCE & HOPE & CONTINUING. It’s all fairly predictable and very normal.
When the Hebrews buried their dead they mourned for a month.
• The Egyptians set aside 70 days for mourning.
• Jacob, at the thought of losing Joseph…
Genesis 37.34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
• David at the loss of his son Absalom:
2 Sam 18.33 Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: "O my son Absalom--my son, my son Absalom--if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!"
Martin Luther was a good father. His sturdy spirit, which could face an emperor in war, was almost broken by the death of his precious daughter Magdalena at the age of fourteen. "God," he said, "has given no bishop so great a gift in a thousand years as He has given me in her." He prayed night and day for her recovery. "I love her very much, but, dear God, if it is Thy holy will to take her, I would gladly leave her with Thee." And he said to her: "Lena dear, my little daughter, thou wouldst love to remain here with thy father; art thou willing to go to that other Father?" "Yes, dear Father," Lena answered, "just as God wills." When she died he wept long and bitterly. As she was laid in the earth he spoke to her as to a living soul: "Du liebes Lenichen, you will rise and shine like the stars and the sun. How strange it is to know that she is at peace and all is well, and yet be so sorrowful!"
Confidence! v14, IF we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
• That word IF is so important. It’s the HINGE of our HOPE.
• If you believe it then you have hope. If not then U R in trouble.
Death is inevitable. The statistics concerning death are very clear.
• One out of every one dies.
• Yes there is great comfort, wonderful hope, sustaining joy in knowing that eternity is ours by faith in Jesus Christ.
Amos 4.12 "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was one of America’s great preachers. His first wife died from cancer when she was in her thirties, leaving three children under the age of twelve. Barnhouse chose to preach the funeral himself. What does a father tell his motherless children at a time like that?
On his way to the service, he was driving with his little family when a large truck passed them in the highway, casting a shadow over their car. Barnhouse turned to his oldest daughter who was staring disconsolately out the window, and asked, "Tell me, sweetheart, would you rather be run over by that truck or its shadow?"
The little girl looked curiously at her father and said, "By the shadow, I guess. It can’t hurt you."
Dr. Barnhouse said quietly to the three children, "Your mother has not been overrun by death, but by the shadow of death. That is nothing to fear." At the funeral he used the text from the twenty-third Psalm, which so eloquently expresses this truth.
