Hope in Resurrection

Would you take your Bibles this morning and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we'll be reading verses 13 through 18. 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. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

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. 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. 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. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Let's pray. Father, now as we look into your word, we pray that you would communicate to us these truths, that you would communicate to us once more the gospel. For without it, Lord, not only are we lost, but we are without hope in the present life. And so I pray that you would help us to grasp the truth of the gospel in this particular area for your name's sake, for our sake, and so that we might glorify you in the world in which we live.

In Jesus' name, amen. Brad Wolf is the CEO of a Silicon Valley company called IDEO. And he's also the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. He was so frightened and fascinated by death that when he would go to bed as a boy, he would ask his parents to bang pans down the hall so he knew they were alive Two years ago he founded a non organization called Reimagine End of Life Reimagine went to New York City in the last few months and held a festival, and it was about 300 events all around the city. and it was a festival to talk about death.

In some of those events, they had an open mic time where people could talk. At the beginning of one event, a room mostly of millennials said in unison, I am going to die. One man in his 30s talked about losing three of his young friends to cancer in recent months. Elena talked about the loss of her mom right after college graduation and the death of her dad right before her wedding.

And being an only child, she said, my family went extinct. Another man talked about visiting a medium to contact a lover of his who had died. Why in the world would anyone start up an organization about death? why would people even attend a festival for the purpose of conversing about dying tell you why death is inevitable and people will try anything to find some kind of hope in the face of death this generation is not this generation is not the first to face death by any means Every generation before us has faced death since the beginning of time.

The question is, how do you face it? And can you face it with hope? In an ancient church, the church in Thessalonica, they were starting to lose some hope. And the Apostle Paul addresses that in the epistle of 1 Thessalonians. now let's remember where we are you remember that paul has moved from reflection chapters one through three you done well to direction chapters four and five but there more to know and to do And that where we find ourselves where he talking to them about what they need to know and what they need to do in order to be faithful followers of Jesus.

He's now moved into telling them some of the things that they needed reminded, they needed to be reminded of, telling them some of the things that were new, but he's now moving in the direction of saying, okay, having said what we've said about our mission to you and your reception of the gospel, let's now talk about how you need to progress, how you need to continue in your growth. You remember, as we've said many times, that Paul is in Corinth when he wrote this letter. He'd sent Timothy back to Thessalonica in order to find out how they'd been doing in the face of persecution.

And that Timothy had returned to Corinth with a report that they had done rather well, that they had stood their ground, that they were remaining faithful to Christ. But somewhere in that report, he also told Paul that they're struggling with grief to a certain degree. There's some of them who are starting to lose hope. And maybe you need to address that.

And so Paul writes these directives to them so that they know how they ought to think and how, in fact, they ought to comfort one another in the face of death. And that's what we find in verses 13 through 18 of chapter 4. Let's read them again. Now here's what's happened. It's interesting, in verses 15 and 17, he's using a phrase. That phrase is, verse 15, we who are alive who are left until the coming of the Lord.

We who are alive who are left. He says that in verse 15 he says that in verse 17 The ones who are alive are the ones who been left the ones who remained Now, that word left is a word commonly used to refer to those who had survived a tragedy that left others dead, but them alive. And that word left there is a common word for that. We might put it this way.

We might say, we who are alive, who've survived. now he's talking to them as those who've survived now when you come back to chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 there's a hint of what's going on where he says for you brothers became imitators of the churches of god in christ jesus that are in judea for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the jews who killed both the lord jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displease God and oppose all mankind. Those of us who are left, he's talking about those, evidently some have died in the persecution. And these are the survivors.

These are the ones who have been left behind. Whatever those questions they had, they had some questions. What about those who died in the persecution? And in verses 13 through 18, he's addressing that issue. What about those folks? What about those folks?

Whatever those questions might be, it has left them discouraged, grieving, and with little hope. The question is, how can you have hope in the face of persecution and in the face of death? Where can you find hope? How can you have hope? And he gives us two answers in verses 13 and 14. You can have hope because you share in Jesus' resurrection.

And then in verses 15 through 18, he says you can have hope because you share in Jesus' triumph. Let's look at the first this morning. You can have hope because you share in Jesus' resurrection, verses 13 and 14. Honestly, it was my intention to go all the way through verse 18, but I accumulated so much stuff that I thought I'm not going to be able to get it all in one.

So, we'll hit the rest of it next week. But here's the point that we want to see this week. You can have hope because you share in Jesus' resurrection. Alright? Now, the first thing he mentions in verse 13 is you need hope in a hopeless culture. You need hope in a hopeless culture.

The culture of Paul's day and the culture of our day gives no hope in the face of death. No surprise there. The world stands against God. It has not the resources nor the ability to give anybody hope in the face of the inevitable of the curse of sin. No one can give hope other than Christ. So that shouldn't surprise us.

But what's true now is true then. And by the way, when he talks about those who fall asleep, He's talking about those who have died. It's a euphemism, a nicer way of saying they've died. And it's a common term. Some people have taken that term to say that when you die, you go into a thing called soul sleep. That's what Jehovah's Witnesses teach.

That you go into soul sleep. That you just kind of are in limbo until Jesus comes. That's not what he's saying here. I mean, it was a common term in the Old Testament, right? David died and what? slept with his fathers right um the even the greek writers of that day talk about death as sleep and so recognize here he's talking about people who have died they're dead okay now paul says to them that in their grief unbelievers have no hope do you see that in verse 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 this is the way he speaks of unbelievers and when he wrote the book of Ephesians as he will write a few years from now he talks about unbelievers as those who are without God and without hope in the world unbelievers do not have hope in his day they didn't have hope many writers wrote about death and grief.

A letter of consolation to one couple wrote this, I am so sorry, this is from about the time where Paul was alive, I am so sorry and weep over the departed ones as I wept over Didymus, but nevertheless, against such things one can do nothing. Right? One of the writers of the Latin world at that time, a man named Plutarch, wrote this, Indeed, though there are many emotions that affect the soul, yet grief from its nature is the most cruel of all Right There no hope A poem was written in that day It goes like this The sun can set and rise again, but once our brief life sets, there is one unending night to sleep.

That's how they thought. There is no hope. None. None. We're done. unless we think we're superior let's look at our own culture and see that there is no hope from what our culture tells us we live in a culture that gives us naturalistic explanations for everything that is there's no supernatural there's no supernatural and so you are nothing more than a random collection of molecules in a random world with no purpose at all right you cannot you must not speak of supernatural realities like a human soul or heavenly glories or a new earth or even god physical reality just is and all there is there is nothing more than exists than that all of it existing with no meaning or purpose so when you die you're no different than the dog who's gotten hit on the road.

You have no future. You have no existence. You have no hope. You're just dead. That's it. It's the end of everything.

You know what that looks like? I can tell you what it looks like. I've seen it. It's a woman. rocking back and forth at the side of a grave, wailing as her son sits in the coffin above that hole and just wailing and saying, I will never see him again. It's a man draped over the coffin of his wife as his family tries to pry him off. so that they can get to the cemetery That what it looks like That what people live with And that's the way it is.

And like the Thessalonians, our culture too often shapes our thinking. At the moment of tragedy, the Thessalonians did not allow their confession, what they believe to inform their reaction when confronted with the death of their friends. Often at the shock of death, our minds are more conformed to the hopelessness of the world around us than they are informed by the gospel that we believe.

Now listen, when Paul writes in Romans 12 and says, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, he's hitting on something that's very important. That is, our culture forms our thinking. Our thinking then determines how we act. Our beliefs, our interpretations, our attitudes, our thinking determine how we respond in life.

And too often, the culture around us, the water we swim in, makes, forces and conforms our mind to think like that. Even though we're Christians, we're slowly and steadily conformed to the thinking of our age. I hear it from God's people. Wow, he was really lucky. He averted that tragedy. Luck?

It's providence, isn't it? Wow. And some Christians, right, are conformed to the hopelessness of this age. And they lose hope. But I want you to notice here that Paul does not say, notice that Paul does say that we should Paul does not say don't grieve, does he? Do you notice that?

He doesn't say don't grieve. He doesn't say, or he says we should not grieve in a particular way. Don't grieve like the others who have no hope. Don't grieve like others who have no hope. Your attitude as a Christian should not be nor should you ever communicate you're a Christian so you shouldn't grieve. Don't you believe in the sovereignty of God?

That is not a biblical way of speaking How many times have folks said to me Pastor I sorry I crying so much I must be selfish I mean my husband is with the Lord in glory. I want to say, grieve. Cry. You're not being selfish. The Apostle does not say, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve.

That's not what he says, is it? He says, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope. You should grieve, but you ought to grieve differently. You ought to grieve in a way that's different than your unbelieving neighbors. Of course you should grieve. You live in a sin-cursed world that's broken, that is out of joint.

The world that God created has been cursed by sin and it isn't adequately fulfilling what it was always intended to do. We're out of joint. The world is not what it should be. Of course we should grieve. What about that woman whose husband dies? A love of 42 years with all the tenderness and joy and adventure they had as a couple now ends.

Of course there should be sorrow. When that lovely gray-haired couple gets the notice from the Department of Defense that their boy, the one they raised, the one they played with, the one they dreamed with, the one they loved, is coming home from Afghanistan in a coffin. Don't you think there ought to be grief then? Yes, absolutely. because death destroys.

It destroys. It arrives as an unwelcome visitor at every door. And grief does and should come with it. God does not say, do not grieve. God says, grieve differently. Grieve differently. now it's clear that Paul means to say that you can only grieve properly when you have hope and he means to inform you so that you can find that hope so where do you find that hope what does he indicate to us here Well, he says, verse 14, you can find hope in Jesus' resurrection.

It's interesting to me that the Apostle points you to Jesus right away. What is the answer to every question? Jesus. That's exactly right. Jesus. He points you to Jesus first.

It's interesting, he says, 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 for since we believe that jesus died and rose again whoa he starts there we believe that jesus died and rose again now look he's saying the reason that they have no hope is that they're uninformed they're unaware i don't want you to be uninformed you've forgotten something or you've you're not aware of something and they had forgotten the truth of the gospel. They had forgotten the truth of the gospel. The gospel which should be at the very center of our lives in everything that we face, the gospel should be right there.

And what is that gospel? What is the truth? For we believe that Jesus died and rose again. There it is. There's the gospel in a nutshell. Jesus died and rose again.

That's the gospel. And that's exactly what that mission team had proclaimed when they arrived at Thessalonica. Turn back to Acts chapter 17 for a moment. Acts chapter 17, verses 2 and 3. Here is a summation of the message they had when they arrived in Thessalonica. And there you read these words.

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. And saying, this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. What was their message? That the promised one, the Messiah, the anointed king, the Christ, was to suffer and to rise from the dead.

Here is a repetition. Now, what does he say? Essentially he says nothing different than what he said when he first came into town. He said for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again There the gospel the repetition of their creed Now listen, the answer to their grief is their creed. The answer to their grief is their doctrine, what they believe. a little bit of a footnote here you might put footnote Pastor Tim rants for a few minutes if you do not know your doctrine you are not prepared to live life you are not prepared to die doctrine is essential and what he does is repeat to them the creed that they believe He repeats to them the gospel.

He gives them the right view of Jesus, that Jesus died and rose again. Here is your hope. It is simply in the fact that Jesus died and rose again. But you say, well, that's fine. But how does that give hope when I'm facing death, when I've lost someone, when these Thessalonians have lost their friends to persecution? How is there hope in the fact that Jesus died and rose again?

It's simply this. Every believer has been united to Christ. Here is how our verse should read, okay? And you've heard me read it this way. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him, now who's the with him? Not God.

He's talking about Jesus. So we could say, even so, God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. You've noticed that I've put that little phrase, through Jesus, at the end, with those who fall asleep. Because as I read that, as I looked at it, as I looked at what others said, the grammar, the syntax, everything says that it should read those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.

So what does he say? He's saying God will bring with Jesus those who fall asleep through Jesus. He talking about the unity or the fact that we are united to Christ All believers who have died have died through Jesus If you a believer you die through Jesus That is you die in Christ You die in relationship to Jesus. You don't die alone. You die united to Jesus.

You are united to him. Do you know the Apostle Paul? And by the way, this is the subject of our men of faith right now. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about a little prepositional phrase, in Christ. You say, why are you spending so much time talking about in Christ?

Do you know that the Apostle Paul uses that term over 160 times in the New Testament? That's Paul. Jesus himself talked about the concept of being united to him. Peter talks about it. All the gospel writers in one way or another talk about it. In Christ. you've probably read over that term and not given it another thought but if you look at that term what you're going to find is that unless you understand that term you don't understand anything about your salvation every gift that we have as believers every gift of salvation comes to us in christ and the apostle paul uses that terminology in one way or another with christ in christ through christ he uses that over 160 times in the new testament everything about your salvation hinges on whether you're in Christ or not.

Okay, footnote number two. Pastor Tim gives us some instructions. Go home this afternoon or this week, pick two books of Paul out of the New Testament, and mark every time he uses the phrase in Christ, and see how many times he uses it. He's using it because it's important. We read it so much it becomes familiar, we don't pay attention to it. It's the center of our salvation.

So what he's saying here is you have died through Christ. You've died united to Christ. By the way, look at verse 16, which we'll talk about next week, where it says at the very end of verse 16, and the dead what? The dead what? In Christ will rise first. Do you see that?

Even when you're dead, you're united to Jesus. That body in the ground is still united to Jesus You see So your death in Christ or through Christ you don die alone you die through Christ you die in Christ you die in relationship to Jesus and that's the prelude to your resurrection and so he says even so God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep through Jesus now what does that mean when he says God will bring with Jesus this does not mean that God's going to bring back from heaven those who have died with Jesus. That's not what that phrase means.

It means God will bring back from death with Jesus those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. He'll bring you back from death. You'll be raised with Jesus. Believers are united to Jesus and so we share in his resurrection. Do you not find that everywhere else in the New Testament? You see it in Romans 6.

We died with him, what? We'll be raised with him. You see it in 1 Corinthians 15 over and over and over again. Why are we going to be raised from the dead? Because we're in Christ. We share in his resurrection.

So God, he says, will bring back from death with Jesus those who have fallen asleep we share in his resurrection although it's later in time we haven't been raised yet have we because I'm not looking at dead people so you haven't been raised from the dead yet it's still future but it's still a participation in his resurrection the rest of the new testament talks that way so it says God will bring from death those with Jesus We participate in the resurrection of Jesus. So the question is then, where can you find hope in the face of death? Especially the death of those who belong to you and who belong to Jesus.

Where's the hope? How can you grieve in a way that looks noticeably different than your unbelieving friends? What must you know about those who have died? Well, you've got to know the gospel. you've got to embrace the gospel which proclaims what Jesus died and rose again and you must embrace the gospel which asserts that you are united to Jesus by faith so that since Jesus was raised from the dead so you shall be raised dead by virtue of your union with Christ.

You see? So what's the first thing that he says in the face of death and persecution? He says this, we believe that Jesus died and rose again. Even so, God will bring with him those with Jesus, those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. There's the answer. Where will you find hope when that loved one dies?

There's only one place. It's in the gospel. there's the only not glimmer of hope flash of hope for all who have faced death with a loved one or with one that they know the gospel tells us that believers will be raised with Jesus that even as he was raised so we will be that's the first sign of hope you can find hope because you share in Jesus resurrection the question is will you find hope in the gospel will you find hope in the gospel You see hope does not come by standing on a mic and just blurting out your fears It doesn't come from just talking. It doesn't come from someone saying death is just a natural part of life, because it's not. it only comes in the hope that we are united to Jesus and will be raised just like he was father thank you for the gospel the gospel which gives us hope in the face of the most cruel and incessant enemy death would you help us then lord to look forward to that day of resurrection and to find hope in that.

That with death, everything hasn't just ended. But for those who are united in Christ, who are in Christ, there will always be hope. Help us, Lord, not to be conformed to the mind of this age, but to be informed by the Gospel. We thank You for Your word of hope. In Jesus' name, Amen.