Sermons

Even for Christians, death is a difficult subject. But for those who have no hope beyond this life, facing death personally or through the loss of a loved one can feel devastating and even crippling. Which is why it was so challenging for the new believers in Thessalonica to shift their perspective on death. Watch this sermon as we hear how the apostle Paul instructs the early Church believers — and us — to take heart in the hope of the resurrection.

  • View Sermon Transcript

    Download sermon transcript icon Download .pdf

    We're in the midst of a series focused on the apostle Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. Shortly after starting a new church in the large seaport city of Thessalonica, located in the north of Greece, Paul is forced to leave rather abruptly due to opposition he faced because of the message of the gospel. And now several months have passed, and like a good pastor, Paul writes a letter to the Christians in Thessalonica addressing some of the specific questions and concerns they have based on a report that he received from his colleague Timothy. So here you have a group of people who have only been Christians for a matter of months, and they're living in a pagan, Greco-Roman city, and they've got questions about their newfound faith. And as we've seen, they're confused about a number of foundational topics like work and sex and death. 

    Death may be the topic that raises the most questions and poses the greatest obstacle to faith for all of us. I thought that I could illustrate this by quoting a few lyrics from a contemporary song.

    Sunday mornings were your favorite. I used to meet you down on Woods Creek Road. You did your hair up like you were famous, even though it's only church where we were going. Now Sunday mornings, I just sleep in. It's like I buried my faith with you. I'm screaming at a God I don't know if I believe in, because I don't know what else I can do. I'm just holding on to everything that's dead and gone. I don't want to say goodbye, because this one means forever. Now you're in the stars, and six feet’s never felt so far. Here I am alone between the heavens and the ambers. Oh, it hurts so bad for a million different reasons. You took the best of my heart and left the rest in pieces. 

    That song is entitled “In the Stars,” and it was written by a 22-year-old named Benson Boone. It's about his great grandmother who died at the age of 97. He explains that, like many grandmothers, she was always doing her hair, and Sunday morning was her favorite. They would meet on Woods Creek Road in order to pick her up and drive to church together. But now that she's gone, he just sleeps in on Sunday mornings, screaming at a god that he's not sure he believes in because he feels like his grandmother took the very best part of his heart and left the rest in pieces. Boone later said in an interview that her death triggered a number of questions for him. Well, why is this happening to me? And why is this happening now? 

    That, of course, is the big question: How are we supposed to face death, and how are we supposed to cope with the loss of the ones that we love the most? If you're wondering about any of those questions, you've come to the right place, because that is what this section of Paul's letter is all about. So as we turn to 1 Thessalonians 4, I would like us to see what we can learn today about 1) The Tragedy, 2) The Mystery, and 3) The Hope of the human condition.

    13But 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. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For 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. 16For 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. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

    The Tragedy

    First, let's consider the tragedy of the human condition. As we learned last week, a regular feature of Paul's teaching was to instruct his followers that Jesus lived, died, and rose again, and that one day he would come back, he would return, in order to usher in a whole new world. But this led to at least two misunderstandings in the church in Thessalonica. For one, apparently people thought that Jesus' return was going to happen so soon that they gave up their jobs and stopped working. But secondly, it left them totally unprepared for the profound emotional shock of death, especially as related to the loss of a loved one. 

    Now you can imagine, these people had just become Christians, they're living in this pagan city, they assume that Jesus is going to come back at any moment now that they have embraced this new faith. But then a friend, a family member, someone deeply close to them dies, and they weren't expecting this. They didn't see this one coming. And now they're deeply disturbed. What happened to that person? Where are they now? Are they okay? Will we ever see them again? This is, of course, the tragedy of the human condition for all of us. We all know that eventually we're going to die, but at the same time, we know deep within our bones that death is wrong — that it doesn't fit. This is not the way it's supposed to be. 

    It may be an even more acute problem for us as modern, contemporary people. Think about it: Our culture trains us to assume that death is nothing to be frightened of. We're told to consider death to be nothing more than a transition. That's the word that's often used. We transition from a state of being alive to non-existence. So people say, “Look, if you're not alive anymore — if you cease to exist — then there's no you left to worry about it. So there's nothing to be afraid of.” If that were true — that we simply cease to exist (How would we even know if that were true?) — then maybe we could face valiantly our own death. We could just resign ourselves to our fate. 

    But here's the problem: We live in a modern world where many people have given up faith in God or perhaps never had faith in the first place, and yet we still have to look to something to give our lives a sense of meaning and significance. And so what do most of us do? We look to our love relationships — with a parent, with a child, with a spouse, with a lover — we look to our love relationships as the source of our value and meaning in life. And that is why death shatters us. We might be able to accept our own death stoically, but what we really can't stand is the thought of being cut off forever from the ones that we love the most. The philosopher Charles Taylor said that it's not just that our loved ones that matter to us, or that they leave a grievous hole when they're gone, but our love relationships seem to demand eternity. What a striking phrase. Our love relationships seem to demand eternity because we have made those relationships central to our meaning in life. 

    So it may be precisely as modern people that we need to hear what Paul has to say about death more than ever. We've made ourselves more and more vulnerable to the devastating nature of death because we've centered our lives on our relationships with the people who matter the most to us, and yet at the very same time, we're less and less equipped to deal with the reality of death because, as we move away from faith, we lose some of the most powerful resources available for coping with the tragedy of death. And so as a result, like the Thessalonians, we too might find ourselves totally unprepared to deal with the profound emotional shock of losing someone close to us. But that's why Paul writes this letter. He says that he doesn't want us: 1. to be uninformed or 2. to grieve as others do, as everyone else does in the world — to grieve as those who have no hope. 

    The Mystery

    Paul turns from the tragedy of the human condition to the mystery of our promised future, which has now been revealed to us in the person of Jesus. Paul had previously taught the Thessalonians about the life, the death, the resurrection, and the promised return of Jesus. But now, since some of their loved ones had died before Jesus' return, they're worried. They're worried that maybe those who have died are going to miss out on the promised resurrection. So Paul goes into more detail, and he provides a little new material in order to explain this promised future. He explains it in terms of three stages, and I think that it's really important for us to keep these three stages clearly in view, because even as committed Christians, Bible-believing Christians, we might get confused about the relationship between these three stages. So this is what he lays out for us. He tells us about 1) death, 2) resurrection, and then 3) new creation.

    Death 

    First he addresses death. In verse 13, he says, “We do not want you to be uninformed about those who have fallen asleep.” Clearly the word sleep here is being used as a euphemism for death, and it's an appropriate metaphor, because when you die, your body is motionless like when you are asleep. But for Christians it's an even more appropriate metaphor, because for Christians death is only temporary, like sleep. And it may just be that in the same way, in Mark 5, when Jesus goes to the home of a man named Jairus, whose daughter has died, Jesus goes into her bedroom, and he takes that lifeless hand into his own and says, “little girl, it's time to get up.” And it may just be that when Jesus comes, when he brings about that final resurrection, that's what he'll do. He'll take us by the hand and say, “It's time to get up.” 

    So death is likened to sleep, and this is how cemeteries got their name. A cemetery literally means “sleeping place.” It is the sleeping place for the dead. Jesus uses much of the same language. For example, in John 11, when he goes to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, and the disciples are a little confused about why he's even bothering, but he explains to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to awaken him.” So death is only temporary. Death is a mere form of sleep in the eyes of a Christian. 

    Now, some of you may have met my wife Ashley's mother, Pat. And if you knew her, you knew that she was a strong woman of faith. She knew that one day Jesus would raise her up with a new physical body, but as she approached the end of her life, after a multi-year battle with cancer, there was one thing that she was seeking clarity about. There was one thing she wanted to talk to me, a pastor, about before she approached the very end of her life. And her question was, “I know that Jesus is going to raise me to new life at the end, but what happens between now and then?” In other words, after I die, where will I go? Where will I be? And that, of course, is the question that her grandchildren had as well. Thankfully, Jesus answers that question for us, and he answers it from the cross. 

    You may recall that there was a criminal crucified alongside Jesus, and as he hangs there, he says to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And how does Jesus respond? Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Now notice, Jesus doesn't say anything about purgatory. In fact, there's no talk of purgatory in the entire New Testament. And if ever anyone needed to work off their sins before they get entered into the presence of God, you would think it would be the criminal that's executed on the cross beside Jesus. But Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” But paradise is not the final destination. No, paradise — being with Jesus — is simply the intermediate state where we await the final resurrection. 

    So the idea here is that when we die in the Lord, our bodies rest in their graves, but we ourselves are immediately with the Lord, with Jesus. That is paradise. That is paradise itself, to be in the presence of Jesus, and there's no better place for us to be. And the apostle Paul says the exact same thing in Philippians chapter 1. He says that his ultimate desire is to depart, to die, because to die would mean to be with the Lord. But even though he knows that's his ultimate desire, he knows that that is not the Lord's will for him right now, because he can still be of use to the Church. And so he says, my desire is to depart and be with the Lord, but is far better and necessary for me to remain. So the moment we die in the Lord, we are with him in the presence of Jesus, and therefore we have nothing to fear. 

    Resurrection 

    But then what? Well God has promised to do for us at the end of history what he did for Jesus in the middle of history. Just as God raised Jesus up with a new physical body to enter life in a new physical world, so he promises to do the same for us, to raise us up with new physical bodies to enter into a new physical world. And although this is a bit of a mystery, Paul goes on to reveal what will happen at Jesus's coming. You see, that's the underlying theme here. What is actually going to happen on the day that Jesus comes back, when he returns? And so he says, beginning in verse 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.” Now, he goes on to explain that those who are still alive on that day when Jesus returns will not be at any advantage to those who have previously died. In fact, those who have already died in the Lord will be raised first so that we will always be together with the Lord. 

    But this is hard to put into words. If you read through 1 Thessalonians 15-17, it might seem at first like you're watching an apocalyptic movie filled with over-the-top special effects. But you have to realize that Paul is trying to describe something that no one has ever seen or witnessed before — something so transcendent, how could you even put it into words? N.T. Wright suggests that describing the Day of the Lord would be like trying to describe the color blue to someone who was born blind. How do you describe colors to someone who's never had the ability to see? And that's what Paul is trying to do for us. He’s trying to describe a day that we can hardly even imagine. But the way in which he does it is by referring to images from the Old Testament, with which he would have been very familiar. 

    If you pay careful attention, you realize that many of the images that Paul is using here to describe the day of Jesus' coming come from the story of Exodus, when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments. Because what happens? He goes up on the mountain, and the mountain is surrounded with clouds and with fire. And clouds in the Scriptures are always a sign of God's mighty, powerful presence. And then, when he's on top of the mountain, he hears the sound of a trumpet blast, and then he descends from the mountain with the 10 Commandments. So something similar is going on here. Paul is not telling us exactly what it will be like, but he's telling us it'll be like that. It'll be something unmistakable, something truly awe-inspiring and transcendent. In verse 16, he says that Jesus will descend from heaven just as Moses descended from the mountain with a cry of command, with the voice of an angel and with the sound of a trumpet. But we shouldn't press these images too far; they're just painting a picture. But what we know is that the return of Jesus will be personal. It'll be visible. It'll be universal. We won't be able to miss it. It will be unmistakable.

    But verse 17 is notoriously difficult and the source of much confusion, so it's important that we take a moment to unpack this. Now remember, Paul's purpose is to explain what is going to happen on that day. Now he's just told us that those who have already died will be raised first. Well what about those who are still alive on the day that Jesus returns? He goes on to say, “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Now that verb — to be caught up — can also be translated as to be seized or to be taken away suddenly. And in Latin, this verb is rapere, which is the root for the English word rapture. So this is where some theologians down through the centuries have introduced the idea of a rapture. This is where rapture theology comes from. But I actually think it is a misunderstanding of that word and of what Paul is trying to communicate here. 

    The very purpose of this section of the letter is to show us that the Second Coming of Jesus and the final resurrection are linked. They can't be separated. They happen at the same time, and therefore we shouldn't insert other events in between the coming of Jesus and the final resurrection, like purgatory or like a rapture. Rather they happen at the same time. One flows into the other. And so they immediately result in a third stage. So the idea here is not that God is going to suddenly snatch people up and whisk them away, up into the clouds in order to avoid some kind of unpleasant sequence of cataclysmic end-time events. No, that's not God's objective. Jesus comes and raises us to new life so that we might enter into the third stage: the new creation.

    New Creation 

    God's desire and goal is not to remove us from this world but rather to renew this world, and so that is where we're headed. But in order to understand that, we need to see what Paul means by this word meet, when he says that we will meet the Lord in the air. Paul is not suggesting that we're going to remain floating in the air. The goal is not that we would enjoy an ethereal, immaterial existence above the clouds. We know that because this word meet was actually a technical word in the ancient world. To meet someone in this way was a way of describing how representatives from a particular city might leave the city, go out of the city, go out past the city walls in order to meet important dignitary like an emperor or a general in order to escort them back into the city. The goal wasn't to stay outside the city; it was to meet them and to bring them in. And in fact, that same word is used in Acts 28 when Paul pays a visit to the city of Rome. The Christians in Rome hear that he's arrived, and what do they do? They go out of the city in order to meet Paul, in order to escort him back into the city. 

    So here's the thrust of what Paul's telling us. It’s that God's desire is not to whisk us away from this world to experience an immaterial existence, but rather Jesus is going to descend in order to renew the physical world, and we will meet him in the air, somehow, someway, only to accompany him on his final leg of the journey to earth, which is our final destination: a renewed heaven and a renewed earth — a new creation. We see the thrust of this in the final chapters of Revelation, for example, when John the seer is provided an opportunity to glimpse into God's promised future. What does he see? He doesn't see immaterial souls floating up from earth and being whisked away to life beyond the clouds. Rather, what he sees is Jesus descending, bringing the heavenly city, bringing heaven down to earth to renew all things. So death, resurrection, new creation.

    The Hope

    Now you might say, “Thank you very much for that theology lesson, but who cares? What difference does this make?” Here's why this matters. Paul begins this passage in verse 13 by saying he does not want us to grieve as others do who have no hope. Now consider the emotional realism that Paul is offering us here. Paul is not a stoic. Paul is not telling us that we can never show emotion or that we shouldn't be overcome by tears. No, he's inviting us to grieve. He wants us to grieve. When Jesus is standing outside the tomb of Lazarus, even though he knows that he's about to raise Lazarus back to new life, even though he knows that death will not get the last word, Jesus not only weeps, Jesus becomes furiously angry. Do you know that? He becomes furiously angry outside the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. He is indignant. Why? Because he hates death. 

    And what does that show us? It shows us that death is real, but it is also wrong. It doesn't fit. It doesn't belong. Death is an enemy intruder in God's good world. It has no place here, and God is opposed to it with everything within him, and he is going to great lengths to destroy death and to remove its sting. He will stop at nothing to ensure that death does not get the last word. And that is why Paul writes that he doesn't want us to be uninformed, because he doesn't want us to grieve as others who have no hope. He gives us permission to grieve. He wants us to vent fully all of our anger, all of our pain, all of our frustration toward death. We're allowed to scream at the ways in which death so violently interrupts our lives. So we're invited to grieve, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. No, we grieve in hope. We grieve as those with hope. 

    And this is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion, every other philosophy, every other worldview or system. This is why Christianity very quickly overtook the Mediterranean world. This is why Christianity overturned the gods, the idols of ancient paganism. Because Christianity offered something that the world had never heard before. 

    Let me go back to the lyrics of that song with which we began. Benson Boone sings, “I'm still holding on to everything that is dead and gone. I don't want to say goodbye because this one means forever.” Now that's a sad thought, to know that to say goodbye to one we've lost might mean saying goodbye forever. And he later explains how his grandmother took the best part of his heart and left the rest in pieces. But he didn't want to give his listeners the wrong idea that when our loved ones are gone, they're gone forever. And that's why he named the song ”In the Stars.” Because for him, he felt that the stars represent the idea that even though our loved one might be gone, we can continue to cherish the memory of who they were. They're in the stars, and we cherish those moments that we had together. And therefore they're still with us, but only in the sense that they're with us through the memory of them that lives on. 

    And that, of course, is true. Our loved ones live on in the memories we hold. And yet, let's be honest. In our heart of hearts, we want so much more than just the memory of the ones we've loved. If we really could have our way, what we would want would be to be reunited with them. We want to be reunited with their faces, with their voices, with their bodies. And that is precisely what Christianity promises — that, and nothing less. And that is why Christianity spread like wildfire. 

    The secular French philosopher Luke Ferry puts it like this:

    In this arena, Christianity might be said to have used its big guns. It promises us no less than everything that we would wish for: personal immortality and the salvation ofour loved ones…This promise is not superficial: on the contrary it is part of a coherent intellectual framework – a concept of love and the resurrection of the body – and one of extraordinary profundity.

    Now, do you hear what he's saying? This is an atheistic French philosopher saying that the Christian hope is not superficial. It is part of a coherent intellectual framework of extraordinary profundity, because it is rooted in the concept of love and the resurrection of the body. And that is what God is all about. The God of the Bible is a God of love, and the God of the Bible is a God who raises the dead, and he's proven it through the resurrection of Jesus. This is not superficial. This is the real substance of things, and this is what we need. We need the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. It's not just that your memory will live on; you will live on. You yourself will live on in your own new resurrected body. And for those who are united to Jesus in faith, you need not be forever cut off from the ones that you love the most. No, you will be reunited. You will see that face. You will hear that laugh. You will feel that embrace. That is the Christian hope. 

    And here's the point: This is not just wishful thinking. For the Christian, this is rock bottom reality. This is the hope. It is the settled conviction that God will do what he has promised. And that is why Paul says in verse 18 “encourage one another with these words.” 

    So why does this matter? Well, if you're not yet a Christian, or if you're not sure that you're a Christian, this hope, this promise is what you need to grapple with. The Scriptures encourage us to count the cost. There's a cost associated with following Jesus, and so you have to ask Jesus. You have to ask yourself. Is it worth it? You have to count the cost. But you know what? There's also a cost to not following Jesus, too. And the question you have to ask is, can you afford not to take up this promise? Can you afford to pass on this hope? 

    But if you are a Christian, imagine the difference that it would make if you were to take this truth, this hope, deep into your heart and into your life. Well, for starters, it would make you fearless. It would make you absolutely fearless. If you knew that God is going to raise you up with a new physical body to enter a new physical world, just as he did for Jesus, then nothing in this world can touch you. You know that no matter what life throws at you, it can never destroy you. It can never undo you. And that will make you fearless, no matter what comes your way.

    But at the very same time, it would make you not only fearless but tender-hearted. You know why? C.S. Lewis was right when he said, “You have never met a mere mortal.” You never have. Look around. Look to the people sitting to your left, to your right, in front of you, behind you. They're going to live forever. And not only that, but they will be resurrected. They will be transformed. They will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. And if you saw them now, you would be strongly tempted to worship them. We have no idea what we will be, but we know that when Jesus comes, we will be like Him. And therefore the people sitting next to you today will blow your mind. As a result, the only appropriate response would be one of love and affection and adoration. Therefore, the challenge for us is that we need to learn to see one another not as we are now but as we will be, fearless and tender-hearted. Of course, Jesus demonstrated both these qualities in spades, and it's all because of what he's accomplished for us through what we celebrate here at this table. 

    Last week, I mentioned that the artist Vincent van Gogh initially thought that he would follow in the footsteps of his father and become a pastor rather than a painter. And when he was 23 years old, in 1876, he preached his very first sermon. And do you know what the theme of that sermon was? The Christian hope: 1 Thessalonians 4:13. And this is what he said to his congregation that day. He said, 

    It is a good word that of St. Paul’s: As being sorrowful yet always rejoicing. For those who believe in Jesus Christ, there is no death and no sorrow that is not mixed with hope – no despair – there is only a constantly being born again, a constantly going from darkness into light. They do not grieve as those who have no hope – Christian Faith turns life into evergreen life.

    “Christian faith turns life into evergreen life.” And therefore, brothers and sisters, encourage one another with these words.

    Let me pray for us. 

    Father, we all grapple with the tragedy of death. We know that it's real, but it's wrong. It doesn't fit. It doesn't belong. It is not part of your good world, and therefore we rail against it. And we thank you that you give us permission to grieve, but to grieve as those with hope. We thank you for the mystery of the promised future, which you have now revealed to us in and through the person of Jesus, because you promise to do for us at the end of time what you did for him in the middle of time, and therefore help us to hold on to this sure and certain hope of the resurrection — to know that death does not get the last word, that we will get our bodies back better than before, and that we need not be cut off from the ones we love the most. We do not need to say goodbye forever because you have promised that we will be reunited. We will be together with the Lord, always. And therefore, help us to take that truth deep into our heart and into our life so that we might be transformed by it, and help us to encourage one another with these words. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.