1 Thessalonians 4-5 - Hope for the Living and the Dead
Tom Shrader addresses believers' fears about death and the end times from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11. He explains that Christians who die are immediately with Christ, and that believers should grieve with hope rather than despair. Drawing from personal experience with his wife Susan's death, Tom demonstrates how biblical truth provides comfort in loss while warning unbelievers of coming judgment.
“We want you to grieve, because that's healthy, but don't grieve like those who have no hope.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Thessalonians
Recorded: December 04, 2011
Duration: 42 min
Themes: death, hope, grief, comfort, resurrection, judgment, eternity, fear, grieving spouse, facing death, losing loved ones, dealing with loss, comforting others, widow, bereaved family, end of life
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, 2 Corinthians 5:8, John 3:16-21, Ephesians 1:3-13
Theological Themes: eschatology, end times, salvation, eternal security, sanctification, biblical truth, christ's return, second coming
Full Transcript
If you have Bibles, I'm going to invite you to open to 1 Thessalonians chapter four. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, and the guys will get a Bible to you. If you get a Bible from us, it's page 641.
I want to remind you that right now, at the other campuses, we're teaching the same section of Scripture. We sit down and determine what sections we're going to teach, what book, and then we break it off the way that we see it in the Scripture. We also take that and overlay it against the calendar. We have one more week, and then Christmas. In our minds, we'd try to end the series at Christmas rather than have it move over into the new year. So we ended up with a big section today.
The Structure of Today's Passage
We're looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verse 13 through 18, and then 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verses one through 11. I'm going to try something different. Typically, when I'm dealing with a passage, I just start and go verse 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, then chapter 5 verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. It's a big section. These are passages that are similar enough that I can pull them together, but there are some distinctives here.
In most of your Bibles, you will have titles of these sections. In my Bible, leading into verse 13, it says "Those Who Died in Christ." Beginning chapter five, verse one, it says "The Day of the Lord." I'm going to make some general observations, and then we're going to come back and unpack this and try to apply it.
Understanding "In Christ"
If we take these big headings, verse 13 through 18 of chapter four talks about those who died, and the phrase Paul uses is "in Christ." If you were with us when we studied the book of Ephesians, we said that was one of the key phrases. If we didn't understand that phrase, you're not going to understand the book. If I go back to chapter one of Ephesians: verse three "in Christ," verse four "in Him," verse seven "in Him," verse 10 "in Christ," verse 10 "in Him," verse 11 "in Christ," verse 13 "in Him," "in Him."
The idea here is a believer. To be "in Christ" is to be somebody who knows Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Two Groups in the Room
Today we acknowledge we always have two groups of people in the room: those who know Christ, and those who don't. We're going to speak, hopefully clearly, to both of you today.
To those of you who know Christ, this hopefully will be very comforting, very encouraging, very practical. I will tell you, first hour, there were tears around the room, and up here too. There is that, but it's comforting.
To those of you who don't know Christ, you're going to derive, hopefully, no comfort from me today. You're going to be miserable, and I'm hoping that the Holy Spirit of God would get into your life and move you.
An Invitation to Respond
After every service we have here at Redemption, in Gilbert and all the campuses, we have people in the front of the room. If you are here today and you don't know Jesus, you've never come to this point where you've acknowledged your sin, you've acknowledged that your sin has separated you from God. We're going to talk more about what that means. You've not come to that point where you come to Christ in repentance and faith, believing Jesus is who He said He was. You've never done that.
It may be that you've never heard this, and even after today, you're going to have more questions than answers, which is fine with me. If you have more questions than answers, then come up here and get answers. If you're absolutely confused, then come up here and get clarity. If you just need somebody to walk you through this because it makes sense to you, do that. If all of a sudden today, you're feeling that tension, that yearning, that desire, I'm just telling you what that is. That's not me. That's the Holy Spirit working in your life. You ought to run right to the front of this room when this is over and say, "Tell me what he means. I want to respond. I have no idea."
I have my calendar, and I have all this stuff planned through 2051. I'm guessing I won't be here, and if I am, I won't be reading. Everything's planned. I have some really important stuff on here. You have important stuff that you're dealing with. You don't have anything even remotely close in terms of importance as responding to this message today. Anyone who knows me will know I tend to under-promise and over-perform, and I'm going the opposite way here. I'm telling you, it cannot get any bigger than this.
If today, at the end of this time, you're not sure what I said, then assume it's my fault and I didn't explain it. Ask the men and the women in the front of the conference center to say, "Hey, what did Tom mean?"
The Background: Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica
The background, if you'll remember, is Paul, in His second missionary journey, comes to the city of Thessalonica, and He does there what He does typically. He goes, and if there's a synagogue, He begins to teach and work with the people. He was in Thessalonica three or four weeks. Out of that, He established a church. He has sent Timothy back on a reconnaissance mission.
Answering Questions About the Future
Bring a report back to him, to Paul. And now he sits down and pens, actually, first and then second Thessalonians, and in this, he's trying to encourage them. Last week, one of my favorite things, the first lesson I ever taught in scripture, he talks about their work of faith and labor of love and their steadfastness of hope. You can just hear, in the proper sense, you can just hear how proud he is of them.
So, he writes to encourage them. Last week, he says, verse one of chapter four, to exhort them to walk in a way as they walk. What he's saying is, here's how you're to live. As you're living life and following Christ, I want to encourage you, exhort you to live this way. But also, we said, he's writing back to answer questions and concerns that they might have. And so, that's what we're going to look at today. He's responding to some questions. And he's talking about future events.
Our Fascination with the Future
There's kind of something in us where we always want to know a little bit about, you know, what's going to happen? What are stock prices going to do? You know, what's going to happen in the business community? Who's going to win this election? Even personally, you get people that go to an astrologer or a palm reader, and they're going to help me sort this out. Is there, do you see a man in my future? You know, is it a husband? Do you see a woman? What's going on?
I went back this week and just kind of glanced through a book called Megatrends 2000. So, if you're really sharp, you're going, wow, pal, you're 11 years late. But what I was doing, the book was written 21 years ago, and I was going back to see how much they wrote about and kind of, not necessarily predicted, but said, if we look at trends, here's what we see, how much of it was accurate, and they were amazingly accurate. So, you have all sorts of that around you. And we know that as those things begin to come up around us, we know they affect us.
I'm listening to Howard Schultz, he's the CEO of Starbucks, and he said the other day in this interview, I don't know if he said 50 or 40%, but he said, we will, within three to five years, we will do more transactions at Starbucks by scanning your smartphone than cash or a credit card. Now, I don't know what it means, but it means something.
The Questions That Arose
Well, Paul goes, here's some people who are curious about the future, and they're responding to what they heard. And here's what they heard. They heard that Jesus is coming again. They heard from the Old Testament, there was this thing called the day of the Lord. They knew that it had this anticipation with it, and they got some sense that this was coming, but it raised questions, like, when is this going to happen?
It's the same thing that happened to the disciples. Right before Jesus ascends into heaven, the disciples say to Him, Lord, is this the time that you're restoring Israel? And He said, it's not for you to know at the time. So, we've been wondering that all along, right?
God saved me in 1980, and right at that time is when Hal Lindsey and the late great planet Earth and all of this is coming on. And since the time of Christ, since that time there's been this idea that Jesus is coming and He's coming soon. In fact, that's what He said, right? Behold I come quickly, behold I come soon. And the problem is He said that 2,000 years ago. So we need definition in that. And we know from Scripture is a day is a thousand years, so when He says He's coming soon you go, oh I guess it's not going to happen. Folks, He's only been gone two days, okay? So He's coming again.
The Problem They Faced
Well now the question they have is what about those, because they thought this was coming. Look in verse, we're still in chapter 4, verse 15. We who are alive, who are alive. So it seems as though even Paul himself is thinking, oh my golly, He's going to come and I might still be alive. So see how they're saying this is coming.
Here's what's happening. Time is passing and believers are dying. So it raises questions. The natural question, what happens when you die? And then the question, kind of practical, is what about this we're supposed to be with God and Jesus isn't here yet? And so you have these big questions, okay? What happens when you die and the end times?
A Balanced Approach
Now I will tell you this, and I wrote this down, I want to make sure I get this in there. A lot of people have huge interest in this topic. I am NOT one of them. And by that I mean it's not that I'm not interested in the topic, it's just I'm saying that people just study and study and study and study and study and study and study. I'm making no comment, that's good. You're in God's Word, that's good.
Two big mistakes we can make. Ignore this completely, that's bad. But I think it's equally bad to just be absorbed in this stuff. So when you get the guy who's saying, you know, October 12th, He's coming, come on. But we got to know at least what Paul has here for us. He's writing this for a reason.
Paul's Pattern of Communication
Now look at the pattern in both of these sections we're going to look at. In chapter 4, verse 13, he says, we do not want you to be uninformed. So he's saying, there's some communication here. In chapter 5, verse 1, the second part, he said, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know. So he's saying, here's what I want to do. I want to communicate information to you. It's not my information, Paul says, it's God's information. So I want to tell you what God has to say about these two big questions.
And then, both in both sections, so from verse 14 through verse 17, Paul's answering this question, what about Christians who die and Jesus comes again? In chapter 5, he's talking about the day of the Lord from the end of verse 1 all the way through verse 10. He's talking about the day of the Lord, how it applies both to those who don't know Christ and those who do. But look at both of these sections end with essentially the same idea. Verse 18 of chapter 4,
Our Response to Death Should Be Different
Therefore comfort one another with these words. So whatever's going on in here, His intention as He writes to people like us, is that we would find comfort here. The same thing is true in chapter 5, verse 11, "therefore encourage one another, build one another up, just as you also are doing." So He's not saying to them, you aren't doing this. He's saying, I want to answer these questions, and my ultimate goal is to give you comfort.
So get the sense of this. Look at chapter 13. Now we're going to work our way through verse 13. "We do not want you to be uninformed." Literally, uninformed, ignorant. So it's very important. If you have a choice between being ignorant or stupid, take ignorant, because if you're stupid, there's no hope. Ignorant is simply going, okay, be informed. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, you know, I go, I'm uninformed. I don't know. How would I know?
He said, I don't want you to be uninformed. Now they're afraid, and they're concerned. What's the antidote to fear? Knowledge. I'm going to tell you what's going on. So here's how we say it around here all the time. What you know trumps what you feel. I know these things.
Addressing Fear About Death and Christ's Return
So He's going to address this. They've got a fear. Here comes the day of the Lord. What's that going to mean? And then they have this practical fear. When I die, what happens? And what about those? So imagine, somebody you love desperately dies. What happens to them? And again, they don't have to prove it. They don't have this whole book to be working from. What happens to them in light of the fact that Christ is coming again? They've died. Are we ever going to see Him again? What's going on in that?
So He says, here's what I want to do. I want to give you some information, brother, and we don't want you to be informed about those who are asleep. Now He doesn't mean in the back room. He's talking about the euphemism for these are people who are dead, and they're people who are dead in Christ. They're asleep, and it communicates a whole sort of subtleties there, but one of the things it communicates is they will awaken again.
So let's put it all together. I don't want you to be uninformed about those who have died. Why? So that you will not grieve as do those who have no hope.
Grieving with Hope
Now I want you to look at that. I'll take a sip. You look at that last phrase. What is Paul in there not saying? Paul is not saying, we don't want you to grieve. He's saying, we don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope. They are asleep. What He's talking about here is their body.
In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8, He says, to be absent from the body is to be present or at home with the Lord. Here's what He's saying. At death, the believer's body goes into the ground or the ocean or whatever, but consciously we're ushered into the presence of God. So Jesus can say to the thief on the cross, "this day I will be with you in paradise," though their body's going over here, and it's gonna rot away. There's this consciousness. So those who have died in Christ, they are consciously aware somehow they're with Jesus.
And in this process He says, listen, this is different than the world. I'm going to come back to that in a second. But He said, I want you to grieve, but I want you to grieve with hope, not like those who have no hope. And that was the condition they were in.
The World's Hopeless Response to Death
William Barclay in his commentary talks about pagans facing death. And He was saying, in that world at that time, it was filled with despair, that death was met with grim resignation, bleak hopelessness. And then He just quotes a couple of the ancients. Once a man dies, there's no resurrection. Another, there is hope for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope. And one of the tombstones, it read this: I was not, I became, I am not, I care not.
So there's a whole group of people who have no hope. Now I've observed it's all people who have no hope legitimately, but they kind of create one. So I found all sorts of people, and they try to come up with something about what happens when you die. And when you push them on it, you talk. And I don't mean that in a confrontive way, I'm just saying as you have a dialogue with them, begin to work these things through, and you begin this discussion, and you say, where did you get that? It really, it's just something that they kind of cooked up. If they had the courage, they would say to you, "well if I was God, this is how this thing would unfold."
Personal Application: Walking Through Loss
Now I'm going to take, and this is really dangerous. I'm going to work here without a net. I didn't script this part. I didn't even make any notes in this. I just wrote down autobiographical. So I'm going to talk about Susan. So I'm going to take Susan's death, and I'm going to try to take it and apply it in my life in light of this scripture.
So obviously, Susan and I are two people who love each other a lot. I think I loved her more than she loved me, but that's, no, I'm too excited about that. So we were together 35 years. So it only makes sense that when she died, and honestly, and the prior leading up to it, because this was not something that happened overnight, that there's a sorrow in there. The girls, this is their mom. So there's a hole in their heart that nobody at any time is ever going to replace.
So here's the question. You can play this out a thousand times. As I walk across campus, as I go into the commons, as I go about my daily life, everywhere I go, everyone asks me the same question. What is it? There you go. You're never going to have to ask that again, because I'm about to answer it for you. And it's not that I appreciate it. Because the reason you're asking, I think, is because you care. And the fact that you care makes me so happy, like, I can't, I finally just went through all the cards, stacks, volumes of cards. There are people, and my friends are telling me all the time you don't know how hard it is to keep people away.
from you. They want to bring you food. I so appreciate that. Do I look like I need to eat? I appreciate it.
I've said on a couple of occasions I'm lonely, but I don't think people are the answer. I'm processing stuff, and so I'm going to answer the question, how am I? I am really, really, really, really good. The second question I get is what? How are the girls? The girls are doing really well, and what I want you to see is the reason—this is my understanding or my sense of it—the reason the girls are doing really well, the reason that I'm doing really well is the doctrine that's laid out in this verse.
Living Out the Hope We Have
The reason I have my phone is not because I'm ignoring you and checking football scores. Here's a text I got from Haley Friday morning, or Friday afternoon at 2:29. Here's what it says: "Brayden is in his room singing. Take this world, and Brayden's just turned six. Take this world and give me Jesus. This is not where I belong." That was the opening song from Susan's memorial service, and then Haley wrote after it, "Missing Her Today."
At almost the same time, on the same day, I got this text from Sarah: "The girls' party—that's the party at school—the girls' party was a success. One more thing off the list," and then she writes this, "Wanted to call mom to tell her Reagan gave Santa a big hug." They miss Susan. It's the kind of thing they would talk about. I know every family's close, but these guys are really close. They miss Susan. They are grieving, but not as one who have no hope. They know they'll see her again.
Somebody the other day, who doesn't know Christ, doesn't care about Christ, and doesn't know what to say, said, "I'm sorry for your loss. Susan's in a better place." Yes, but I don't know how you'd possibly know that.
How God Prepared Us for This
It's the same thing with me. I know how risky this is, because everybody responds to all of these things differently. I'm just trying to tell you here's my approach. I had seven years to get ready for this. Now, that doesn't make you ready for it, but it allows you to be ready for it. Three of the last years were intense, and the last year, really intensively.
From seven years ago, I knew that what happened on October 30th was going to happen. They told us that. The cancer's not operable, but treatable, meaning we can postpone this. God was extraordinarily good, because when we started, we prayed, "God, let Susan see Brayden be born." She saw Brayden, Gracie, Yale, Brooklyn, Lucy—saw six of them. She was very blessed. God was very, very gracious.
Do I miss her? Sure, I miss her. But it was amazing. Susan died on October 30th. October 31st is what? Halloween. You got little kids. What do you think we're doing? We're trick-or-treating. Life goes on. Now listen to me. Life goes on in light of that truth. I don't mean it in a callous way, like "I'll never think about it again." Life has to be led. There are things that we need to be about, we need to be doing that God called us to do—you, me, us.
Finding Hope in Jesus' Return
Where do I find the hope? I find the hope in understanding that Jesus is coming again. That's what He's trying to talk about. What happens when we die? Here's what He's saying. He's saying everything will be all right. Ultimately He's saying we're going to see them again.
Now we're going to do something different because we wouldn't do it at this point. We're going to stop in chapter four and go down to chapter five, because what He deals with in chapter five is a little bit different. He's talking about the day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord
They had heard about the day of the Lord. It's an important biblical concept. It's mentioned 19 times in the Old Testament, four times in the New Testament. It's also spoken of as the day of vengeance. It deals with the immediate, near expectation of God's return for the purpose of judgment. Now we're going to see something different from chapter four.
In chapter five He says, "Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." It's going to come in a sudden way, in an unexpected way. A thief doesn't announce that he's coming. We're going to see a contrast when we get to chapter four.
He's going to come like a thief in the night. While people—or while they, and now He's talking about unbelievers—while they are saying "peace and safety," then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. It'll be like a lady giving birth. She knows that it's coming, but they don't know when. This is something, He says, you can count on.
The Reality of Destruction
What's coming out of this is destruction. The word destruction here is not the idea of annihilation. It's the idea of separation from God. One author says it this way: It's not destruction of the being; it's destruction of well-being.
I was listening to a story the other day on the news. Somebody's driving along, gets in a car wreck. Bam, they die. It's over. I hear from somebody else they knew them. They didn't know Christ. Think about this. You're driving along. You got Andy Williams on. He's singing, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." And bam, and the next thing you experience is separation from God for all eternity. No hope.
We want you to grieve, because that's healthy. But don't grieve like those who have no hope. Here, He's talking about those that have no hope—those who are headed for destruction, separation from God. They came into the world children of wrath, sons of disobedience, separated from God, and they died that way.
in verse four, here's the contrast. You're not in the dark. Let me read you verse four, five, six, seven from the message, a paraphrase. My friends, you're not in the dark. So how can you be taken off guard by any of this? You are sons of light, daughters of day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let's, verse six, let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open.
He says, you know this is coming. He uses words in verse six like be alert, be sober. And He contrasts dark and light. It's the same idea that Jesus Himself had.
The Contrast of Light and Darkness
Leave your finger right there, we'll come right back. I just want to familiarize you with a passage of scripture. Honestly, this is the most familiar of all passages, probably, John 3:16. So if you have a Bible from us, it's page 577. John 3:16, for God so loved the world, gave His only begotten son, whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And then He talks about God coming into the world.
God sent His son into the world. He didn't send that son into the world to judge it, that the world might be saved through Him. Verse 18, he who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already. That's what Jesus will come. Now we're going to finalize this thing.
This is the judgment, that the light, and here's the contrast, light, those who know Christ, those who understand, that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light for their deeds were revealed. So they don't want to be in the light. Once they see God, they understand that truth, they understand who they are, they see their sin. For everyone who does evil hates light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that the deeds may be manifest as having been wrought in God.
Being Sober and Alert
So here's what, and he goes back to Him, he said, listen, it's this light, it's this dark, be sober of spirit, they're in the dark, they're roaming around, you be sober, be on the alert. And we're going back to now 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse eight, since we are of the day, let us be sober. And we put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation. So he identifies those big three, faith and love and hope. It's the hope of salvation for God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, alive or dead, we will be together with Him.
So I said, here's this contrast. On this day of the Lord, there will be judgment. Those of us who know Christ have put our faith and trust in Him, have breastplate of faith and love, and that helmet of salvation. And as He talks about salvation here, He's not just talking about past tense. He's not talking about that day, that moment in time when God saved us, He's talking about present and future.
The Three Tenses of Salvation
So I'll give you theological terms. Here's what He's talking about. Present, He's talking about sanctification. Future, He's talking about glorification. So as He talks about us, here's what He's saying about those of us who know Christ, is we should be in the process of being ever set apart from sin and set apart to God. And one day, we're going to be in this glorified body.
You've heard it, those of you who've been around at any length of time, you've heard there'll be this place, no more sickness, no more tears, that wonderful place. You'll have that body. I mean, my body is just, I'm starting to bleed for no reason like old people do. I mean, it's just awful. And I look at it and go, this is an earth suit. This is, because of sin now, this is going to wear out. I'm not getting better, I'm not healthy. I'm not going to be more healthy in 10 years than I am now. I'm closer to death now than I was at the first service. These are the things that drive me all day long. This is why I'm a sick dog.
But this is all He's saying. But listen, you have hope because I have that salvation. The sanctification's what's happening. And this body is one day going to be put in the ground. Jesus hasn't come yet, but put in the ground. My consciousness, my soul will be with Jesus.
The Hope of Christ's Death
Now, He finishes that and He says, listen, here's our hope. And He says it in verse 10, it's that Christ died for us. Now, hang on to that for a second. We're going to hold two thoughts here. Look how He ends it. I want to encourage you with this thought.
So He's talking to those of us who know Christ. He's talking to those who are very afraid about the day of the Lord. They understand the judgment is coming. And they're saying, what about me? And He's saying, don't you be worried. The judgment and the destruction is coming for sure.
So if you're one of that group today and you're going, I don't know Christ, whatever that means. I don't believe this. I don't believe what you do. I believe something else. And here's what He's saying. Your judgment is as certain as my salvation. It's got nothing, if that sounds arrogant to you, you misread it. Because my salvation has nothing to do with me. It's God who saved me as He will you in the process of coming in repentance and faith if you come.
Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord
Now, back to that original idea. So that was a little bit of a parenthetical insert there. Here's what He's saying. Back to chapter four. We don't want you to be uninformed about those who have died. We don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope. So we want you to understand something here. Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
I have not gone up to the cemetery since Susan was buried. Honestly, don't even have much interest in it, to be honest with you. Just not, first of all, she's in a cemetery and I have a spot where they're going to stack me right on top of her. And we're at Green Acres. I hate that name. All I can think of is that as we're driving in singing Amazing Grace, I'm thinking, green acres is a place for me. Farm living
That's all I can think of - I hate that name. Terrible name, they should change that name now. But her body's there, but she's with Christ.
So that's why there's no - again, I think I have people, and I'm trying to be as honest as I can. If it's too honest, I apologize. But I seem to have people who feel like I should be more sad or something. Well, I'm responding to what He's telling me here. She's in heaven.
I talked to a guy the other day who didn't know Susan had died. He said, "How's Susan?" I said, "Oh my goodness, she's great." He said, "Oh, is she off the chemo?" I said, "Yeah." And he just went through all this litany. "Well, is she not going to the doctor?" I said, "Nope." And he said, "What?" I said, "She's dead, she's in heaven." Now, he's not a believer. But I mean, I believe that. So in my own sense, honestly, all that just has a perspective. And living my life right now is pretty easy. There's just stuff I don't know what to do, some of it.
Grieving with Hope
I know all of you watch everything I do. And I know you're all watching to see me screw this up somehow. And I'm sure I will. But I'm sad. But I don't grieve like somebody who has no hope. I grieve in my own way - it's the way of a believer.
Now He says, "I'm going to give everyone hope." Look at this, verse 14: "If we believe that Jesus died" - there's the same idea - "and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." So we're now talking about those people who have died, Susan and all the believers.
"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord" - so there's His authority - "that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep." So He's talking about something different than what was in chapter five. He's not talking about the day of the Lord; He's talking about coming again. A word that we might associate with this often is the idea of a rapture.
The Sequence of Events
So here's the sequencing: "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God." And here's what's going to happen: "The dead in Christ will rise first." So those bodies that are in the oceans and the ground, they're going to rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them. And then in the clouds we go and we meet the Lord in the air, and we will always be with the Lord.
So what happens to those who die? Well, they're immediately in His presence. Then there's this moment where the body and the soul are united. Those who are alive - will I ever see Him again? Not only again, you're going to see Him forever. I don't know how all that plays out. I just know that you have it and we're caught up with the Lord forever. That's your future.
So I know. And I have no problem - I was talking to somebody the other day and I just said, "Yeah, I know I'm going to die. I don't know when it is. I know it's coming. I can't be that far away. I know that it's coming." Does that bother me? Not a drop. Does it scare me? The dying part does; the death doesn't.
The Distinction Between Dying and Death
Watching Susan die was very hard. But the only thing that made that digestible was I knew after dying was death. Do you get that difference there? You see this distinction I'm making? So am I afraid of death? No. Am I afraid of dying? My goodness, I put myself - I numb my fingers when I trim my nails. I'm afraid of everything. I don't know, I couldn't do - I keep saying I couldn't do what she did, but she did and I know I could.
The point is, none of that. Whatever that suffering is, is momentary light affliction. Here's the big point: We are, as followers of Christ, we are in the land of the dying but we go to the land of the living. That's the whole point.
What's He trying to say in chapter four, in chapter five? He told you, "Comfort one another with these words."
The Urgency of the Gospel
The saddest duties I perform are when I do a funeral for people who don't know Christ, somebody who doesn't know Christ. Or I see somebody who knows Christ and they're dying and they have this passion for their family.
I got a call one day from a young lady and she said, "Tom, I'm going to die. I'm going to die now." It's like six weeks away, something like that probably. "Can we meet and talk about it?" I said, "Sure, I love that." So we meet and she said, "Here's what I want you to do. My parents are telling me, 'Honey, we love you so much. We know you're going to die but don't worry, we'll see you again.'" She said, "Tom, they aren't believers. They aren't going to see me again and at the funeral, I want you to tell them they're going to hell."
I said, "Really, sweetie? Well, here's what we're going to do. I got enough issues with people already. I don't need to make more. I incidentally offend people." I said, "Here's what - I'm not doing that. Not because it isn't true. It's just not the loving thing to a grieving mom and dad at that moment." And she said, "Well, I'll write a letter and you read it." And I said, "Okay."
And I did it in the context - I changed it a little bit and stuff - but I said, "Listen, I just want to talk to you, the family right now, specifically her mom and dad. She loved you so much. Now, you may think of ways she loved you. You may think of a card she sent you or something she did for you. Let me tell you how much she loves you." And then I read, "Here's what she wants you to know."
See, we live in that reality. So for me - and as I say, for me it's been 30 years, intensely in the last seven, really intense in the last three, like a pressure cooker in the last one - is this reality. I'm almost afraid to say the next sentence, because I know you're just going to shove this down my throat someday. There's almost a sense in which Susan passes that there's
a relief in that, because she's out of this agony, and she's like, am I sad? I'm very, very, very sad about that. But golly, she's in heaven. See that? It's about all that I can handle.
But you see what He's saying? He's saying, what happens when you die? Well, when you're in heaven, when you die, it's not over. If you know Christ, you will be with Him and come, and there'll be this union forever and ever. If you don't know Him, there is destruction.
The Ultimate Reality
If I know Christ, here you go, almost like a bumper sticker, if I know Christ, this is as close to hell as I'm ever going to get. If you don't know Christ, this is as close to heaven. You think it's bad, I'm with you. This is as close to heaven as you're ever going to be.
Now Paul's going to come and lead us. If you're over in the conference center, Paul will come and close your time. But here in the chapel, Paul's going to come and lead us into a time of communion and then worship.
I'm going to leave you with two things, and I beg you to do them. Number one, if you filled out that card, drop it in one of those boxes. See, you thought I forgot that, didn't you? Get that card in that box. Number two, more important than the card, if you don't know Christ, these men and women in the front of this room are here to serve you when this service is over.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray. Father, thank You for these awesome, amazing truths. We love You, and even that, it's only because You first loved us. God, thank You for sharing with us, not leaving us ignorant and uninformed, telling us what happens. God, there is so much hope. I pray everybody in here who knows Christ, that there was hope and encouragement to people even now grieving, that we grieve. There's nothing wrong with that, but we grieve with hope. God, I pray especially Your Spirit would irritate the hearts and minds of those who don't believe this message and drive them to discussion and maybe salvation. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.