1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
“What A Day of Rejoicing That Will Be”
By Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
Our passage for this morning touches upon a subject that intrigues Christians and offers us the most
glorious hope that we could ever imagine.
The subject is the return of Jesus Christ to earth and the resurrection of the dead!
The concern of the believers at Thessalonica involved dead believers.
Would their loved ones who had died share in the resurrection when Christ returns to earth?
The church at Thessalonica had just been founded...
...it was brand new...
...but it was also being bitterly persecuted...
...they were under savage attack!
Some of the believers were dying.
Some were even being martryed for their faith.
What about their loved ones who had already died?
What about our loved ones who have already died?
So, the Apostle Paul begins this passage with: “We do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall
asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.”
All kinds of concerns about the resurrection arose in the minds of the Thessalonian believers....
....just like they do in the minds of all of us....
...in every generation.
And Paul tells us two striking things about the resurrection of dead believers when Christ returns...
...the first is: do not be ignorant about the resurrection.
Instead, study and grasp what God teaches and be comforted and challenged in the glorious hope that He
gives us.
Second: do not grieve excessively over loved ones who die before Christ returns....
...We are bound to experience sorrow and grief...
...but we are not to suffer the same kind of grief that unbelievers suffer...for they have no hope!
There is absolutely no hope for the unbelievers of the world...
...but there is the most glorious hope for those of us who do believe!
The fact is forcefully declared--those who have died--those who were born again in this life will return
with Christ!
“We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have
fallen asleep in him.”
Note the words: “in him.”....
....God will bring those whom we love who have passed on ahead of us with Christ when Christ returns...
...and that means that they are with Him right now..at this very moment!
Remember the crucifixion?
Remember the criminal on the cross who said to Jesus: “Remember me when you come into your
kingdom?”
And what was Christ’s answer to him?
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The point is this: our loved ones who have died...are with the Lord...
...they are living face to face with Him right now.
We don’t have to wonder where they are...
...when they died, they immediately went to be with the Lord in paradise...and they will never be separated from
Him!...
...and when Christ returns to earth, He will bring everyone who has died in Him back with Him!
Jesus says in John 8:51: “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”...
....and in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Jesus Christ came to this earth to die and bear the punishment of sin for us--and to rise from the dead
for us!
In his book: Living Jesus, Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson...one of my professors at seminary writes: “Faith
begins with the resurrection of Jesus...
...The resurrection is the grounding for the entire Christian life....
...and the resurrection is the chronological beginning of the Christian religion.”
In his book: The Case For Faith, author Lee Strobel writes: “The resurrection of Jesus could not have
been a legend....
...the apostle Paul preserved a creed of the early church that was based on eyewitness accounts of Jesus’
return from the dead---and which various scholars have dated as early as 24 to 36 months after Jesus’ death.
That’s far too quick for mythology to have tainted the record.
The truth is that nobody has ever been able to show one example in history of a legend developing that
quickly and wiping out a solid core of historical truth.”
Our hope---the glorious hope of believers--is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ...
...and there is no greater basis for hope in the entire world!
“According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of
the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel
and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
The dead believers...our mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children, grandmothers, grandfathers who have
passed on ahead of us will be the first to be caught up to meet the Lord.
Now notice that it is only the departed believers who will arise--no unbeliever will be resurrected...not at
this point.
And it will be the bodies of the dead believers that are resurrected!
The believers themselves, that is, their spirits, are already with the Lord...
...and when Christ returns
...their bodies will be raised and transformed to live forever with God...
...the change will be--as the Scripture declares: the infusion of a totally new nature!
As the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians: “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the
perishable inherit the imperishable....for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality.”
Our present bodies are corruptible and mortal, but the nature of our new bodies will be incorruptible and
immortal!
Just think, no more arthritis, no more aches and pains, no more disease, no more cosmetic surgery!!!
“But somone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?...
....All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.
There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one
kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another....
....So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown
in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
The new bodies we will recieve as believers will be perfected so that we can live with God forever in the
new heavens and the new earth.
“And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
This is where the great union of the living and the dead will take place!
We shall be reunited with all our loved ones, and even more wonderful than that--we will be reunited with
all believers of every generation!
We will all be together...
...rejoicing in the presence of Him who has saved us and transformed us into perfect and eternal beings...
...What a day of reunion and rejoicing that will be!!!
“Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
God does not reveal the events of the end time simply to satisfy our curiousity...
...He tells us about these glorious events so that we can prepare and comfort one another.
There is no need for complete discouragement on this earth...
...no need for extreme and paralyzing sorrow and grief...
...no need for hopelessness...
...and there is no need for ignorance concerning these things!
Because the Lord Himself has given us the most glorious of all hope!
As John was given a glimpse of heaven....
...he wrote in Revelation:
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language....
....they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the
throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living
water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Are we all sure that we know Christ?
Has everyone in this room been saved?
Will all of us experience the resurrection of the dead?
There comes a moment in which the Spirit of God convicts us, calls us, speaks to us about opening our
hearts and making certain our relationship to God.
If you are unsure about your relationship to God....
...would you like to leave here today knowing that if you died on the way home, you would be ready to meet
God?
If so, now is the time to repent, and give your life to Jesus Christ....
