You’re visiting a
Christian widow in Thessalonica.
She has lost her Christian husband – possibly because of persecution of their reasonably new-found faith.
She was taught that the Kingdom of God was at hand, that repentance and faith were therefore urgent and she has lived since with the expectation that Christ would come again soon.
But now her husband has died.
Is her man is going to miss the Second Coming of Jesus?
What questions has she got for Paul, Timothy or Titus … whoever gets to do the bereavement home-visit?
Well, whatever questions you imagine she’s got, this passage is the answer they give.
Now, the big thing our culture seems to think shaken people need is information.
She has lost her Christian husband – possibly because of persecution of their reasonably new-found faith.
She was taught that the Kingdom of God was at hand, that repentance and faith were therefore urgent and she has lived since with the expectation that Christ would come again soon.
But now her husband has died.
Is her man is going to miss the Second Coming of Jesus?
What questions has she got for Paul, Timothy or Titus … whoever gets to do the bereavement home-visit?
Well, whatever questions you imagine she’s got, this passage is the answer they give.
Now, the big thing our culture seems to think shaken people need is information.
Support groups always seem to feel that what people need is 'information'.
And funnily enough, that’s exactly the concern for this widow from this apostolic team.
Why are they writing these words for the bereavement-hit and shaken new church in Thessalonica?
This is all about the ‘What?’, the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’ of what clever people call personal eschatology …what happens to the Christian at and after death.
But Paul’s writing team doesn’t tackle it the way so many bereavement visits do by saying: ‘Uncle John is with Jesus now’ … or something like that.
They say ‘Look! This is YOUR future, and theirs’.
This isn’t cold comfort that is being offered.
And funnily enough, that’s exactly the concern for this widow from this apostolic team.
Why are they writing these words for the bereavement-hit and shaken new church in Thessalonica?
This is all about the ‘What?’, the ‘Why?’ and the ‘How?’ of what clever people call personal eschatology …what happens to the Christian at and after death.
But Paul’s writing team doesn’t tackle it the way so many bereavement visits do by saying: ‘Uncle John is with Jesus now’ … or something like that.
They say ‘Look! This is YOUR future, and theirs’.
This isn’t cold comfort that is being offered.
This really is teaching truth to pain that
proves to be inspiration.
And that is SO much more useful and positive an approach!
It doesn’t comfort us in our present sorrow without inspiring us to reach out for the fulfilment of OUR Christian hope.
So let’s first dig in to WHAT the apostolic team is aiming at.
And that is SO much more useful and positive an approach!
It doesn’t comfort us in our present sorrow without inspiring us to reach out for the fulfilment of OUR Christian hope.
So let’s first dig in to WHAT the apostolic team is aiming at.
What is the apostolic team seeking to achieve
here?
The intention of this passage was NEVER to spark contentious discussions amongst believers about eschatology … and that’s important.
The apostles spell this out at the outset in v. 13.
v. 13 "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope."
So many of our troubles in the Christian life spring from being uninformed and so much hope gets crushed and lost by not keeping the big things clear!
The intention of this passage was NEVER to spark contentious discussions amongst believers about eschatology … and that’s important.
The apostles spell this out at the outset in v. 13.
v. 13 "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope."
So many of our troubles in the Christian life spring from being uninformed and so much hope gets crushed and lost by not keeping the big things clear!
"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to
be uninformed about those who sleep in death”
This is a verbal form: ‘those being uninformed’
ἀγνοέω
1) to be ignorant, not to know 2) not to understand, unknown 3) to err or sin through mistake, to be wrong
Did you notice that already the choice of words begins to undo the disinformation about death that is causing these folks their trouble?
The dead people are described (again using that participle – verbal form which is translated here “those who sleep in death”.
1) to cause to sleep, put to sleep 2) metaph. 2a) to still, calm, quiet 2b) to fall asleep, to sleep 2c) to die
Why refer to the dead as ‘asleep’?
Well, to some extent, this language was pretty conventional in the Graeco-Roman world.
It arose as early as Homer (writing probably around 850 BC), but there it just refers to the appearance of a dead body to survivors.
Catullus (84-54 BC) wrote:
But once our brief light sets,
There is one unending night to be slept through.”
Now … whilst he uses the word ’sleep’, that’s really where the similarity with this verse ends, because Catullus writes of a sleep from which you never wake a sleep that lacks Paul’ central element, the element of hope!
The apostolic team’s idea as they write these words is almost certainly dependent on the teaching of Jesus.
There’s that well-known account of Jesus healing the daughter of the synagogue ruler in Matthew 9:24 where Jesus says:
“the girl is not dead, but sleeping”
Gupta points out helpfully:
Now, of course, Paul’s point in calling death ‘sleep’ is to point out that Christian death is lived out as Christian life … more life in the presence of God rather than less!
Cyril of Alexandria says “To him, as being life by nature, there is nothing dead. Having a firm hope of the resurrection of the dead, we call the dead ‘those that sleep’ for this reason. They will arise in Christ, and as the blessed Paul says, ‘They live to Him,’ because they are about to live.”
This is a verbal form: ‘those being uninformed’
ἀγνοέω
1) to be ignorant, not to know 2) not to understand, unknown 3) to err or sin through mistake, to be wrong
Did you notice that already the choice of words begins to undo the disinformation about death that is causing these folks their trouble?
The dead people are described (again using that participle – verbal form which is translated here “those who sleep in death”.
1) to cause to sleep, put to sleep 2) metaph. 2a) to still, calm, quiet 2b) to fall asleep, to sleep 2c) to die
Why refer to the dead as ‘asleep’?
Well, to some extent, this language was pretty conventional in the Graeco-Roman world.
It arose as early as Homer (writing probably around 850 BC), but there it just refers to the appearance of a dead body to survivors.
Catullus (84-54 BC) wrote:
But once our brief light sets,
There is one unending night to be slept through.”
Now … whilst he uses the word ’sleep’, that’s really where the similarity with this verse ends, because Catullus writes of a sleep from which you never wake a sleep that lacks Paul’ central element, the element of hope!
The apostolic team’s idea as they write these words is almost certainly dependent on the teaching of Jesus.
There’s that well-known account of Jesus healing the daughter of the synagogue ruler in Matthew 9:24 where Jesus says:
“the girl is not dead, but sleeping”
Gupta points out helpfully:
Now, of course, Paul’s point in calling death ‘sleep’ is to point out that Christian death is lived out as Christian life … more life in the presence of God rather than less!
Cyril of Alexandria says “To him, as being life by nature, there is nothing dead. Having a firm hope of the resurrection of the dead, we call the dead ‘those that sleep’ for this reason. They will arise in Christ, and as the blessed Paul says, ‘They live to Him,’ because they are about to live.”
This information
is not just by way of making conversation.
“we do not want you to be uninformed”.
“we do not want you to be uninformed”.
C. Really
relevant information
“so that
you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope."
λυπέω to make sorrowful,to affect with
sadness, cause grief, to throw into sorrow … so that you will not be grieving
like the rest of mankind that have no hope in the dark face of death.
We saw previously that Thessalonians believers have broken with their biological family members and pledged their deepest allegiance to their new family of faith … so were they supposed to weep and wail and rend their garments over believers who had passed away?
Well, that can’t be right because Paul is addressing the new understanding of death in faith that these new believers should adopt.
Paul here is saying that most pagans grieve without hope, and THERE's the differnce between it and Christian grief.
Now, there is some evidence in the pagan legends of classical antiquity that there was some sort of afterlife or other … there is stuff about it in Plato.
But while there is continued existence in some of those legends, there certainly is very little real HOPE.
So Theocritus writes:
“hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope”
We saw previously that Thessalonians believers have broken with their biological family members and pledged their deepest allegiance to their new family of faith … so were they supposed to weep and wail and rend their garments over believers who had passed away?
Well, that can’t be right because Paul is addressing the new understanding of death in faith that these new believers should adopt.
Paul here is saying that most pagans grieve without hope, and THERE's the differnce between it and Christian grief.
Now, there is some evidence in the pagan legends of classical antiquity that there was some sort of afterlife or other … there is stuff about it in Plato.
But while there is continued existence in some of those legends, there certainly is very little real HOPE.
So Theocritus writes:
“hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope”
2. There IS Christian grief
Now before we get carried away on a wave of unhelpful
Christian triumphalism, let’s first be clear that Christians do grieve.
The point being made here in these verses is that the WAY Christians grieve is quite singular, but grief is a valid Christian experience.
Famously, the Lord Himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John
11:35).
In Acts 8:2, godly people ‘mourned deeply’ over the martyrdom of Stephen.
The point being made in that passage back in Matthew 9:24 is NEITHER that the girl was only asleep and not dead, NOR that the mourners were wrong to grieve … but that Christ is the Conqueror of death and His intervention was ground for good hope.
There you have it.
What distinguishes Christian grief at the loss of a loved one is that Christian grief causes the grieving believer to cling to the hope that Christ’s resurrection holds out to THEMSELVES.
Our response to other believers’ decease is to resort to the hope in which we live.
The point being made here in these verses is that the WAY Christians grieve is quite singular, but grief is a valid Christian experience.
In Acts 8:2, godly people ‘mourned deeply’ over the martyrdom of Stephen.
The point being made in that passage back in Matthew 9:24 is NEITHER that the girl was only asleep and not dead, NOR that the mourners were wrong to grieve … but that Christ is the Conqueror of death and His intervention was ground for good hope.
There you have it.
What distinguishes Christian grief at the loss of a loved one is that Christian grief causes the grieving believer to cling to the hope that Christ’s resurrection holds out to THEMSELVES.
Our response to other believers’ decease is to resort to the hope in which we live.
Now there IS hope in the non-Christian world ... but it is
not hope as defined in the Bible.
Hope in the non-Christian world is: 'I'd like to think so', or 'I wish for this to be the thing that happens or the way things turn out'.
In the New Testament the noun ἐλπίς - the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.
But it is what lies ahead of the living believer (now grieving) that the apostolic team addresses … holding out to those grief-struck people the hope of the Biblical Day of the Messiah.
Nijay Gupta is very strong on this:
“… the early Christians placed the weight of their hope on the ‘Day of the Messiah’ (so Phil. 1:10; 2:16 cf. 1 Cor. 15:23; 2 Thess. 2:8; 2 Peter 3:12-13). So even in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Paul does not tell the Thessalonians – the dead in the Messiah are at peace with God in Heaven. However he understood their present existence, it was more important that he tell them about what lies ahead.”
What’s more, Paul does this using fantastic images like something out of a science fiction novel.
It seems strange and easy to misunderstand for us, but to first century Jewish people (who like Paul had an ‘apocalyptic imagination’, this was the way that pressurised people comforted, helped and inspired themselves again with a vision of God’s future deliverance.
An apocalyptic mindset expected God to break into space and time to reset the balance of power for His Kingdom and restore what had slipped away into chaos in their current experience.
Gupta helps us again with what’s going on here:
“Paul does not discourage or dismiss grief. He simply wants believers to know the power and plan of God. God intends to restore the Christian dead, and He will do it.”
So Paul goes on to reveal an apocalyptic-style glimpse of the eschatological events that are yet to unfold … as the Lord Jesus returns to take up the throne of His Kingdom on earth.
But just before he gets to the visionary stuff, Paul roots the whole thing in the this-world reality and reason that Christians don’t grieve like the rest who have no hope.
Hope in the non-Christian world is: 'I'd like to think so', or 'I wish for this to be the thing that happens or the way things turn out'.
In the New Testament the noun ἐλπίς - the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.
But it is what lies ahead of the living believer (now grieving) that the apostolic team addresses … holding out to those grief-struck people the hope of the Biblical Day of the Messiah.
Nijay Gupta is very strong on this:
“… the early Christians placed the weight of their hope on the ‘Day of the Messiah’ (so Phil. 1:10; 2:16 cf. 1 Cor. 15:23; 2 Thess. 2:8; 2 Peter 3:12-13). So even in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, Paul does not tell the Thessalonians – the dead in the Messiah are at peace with God in Heaven. However he understood their present existence, it was more important that he tell them about what lies ahead.”
What’s more, Paul does this using fantastic images like something out of a science fiction novel.
It seems strange and easy to misunderstand for us, but to first century Jewish people (who like Paul had an ‘apocalyptic imagination’, this was the way that pressurised people comforted, helped and inspired themselves again with a vision of God’s future deliverance.
An apocalyptic mindset expected God to break into space and time to reset the balance of power for His Kingdom and restore what had slipped away into chaos in their current experience.
Gupta helps us again with what’s going on here:
“Paul does not discourage or dismiss grief. He simply wants believers to know the power and plan of God. God intends to restore the Christian dead, and He will do it.”
So Paul goes on to reveal an apocalyptic-style glimpse of the eschatological events that are yet to unfold … as the Lord Jesus returns to take up the throne of His Kingdom on earth.
But just before he gets to the visionary stuff, Paul roots the whole thing in the this-world reality and reason that Christians don’t grieve like the rest who have no hope.
Why is it
that Christians should not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope?
Fundamentally because Christians have hope, but a hope that is not like the fables and fairy tales of classical antiquity but rooted in the historicity of Christ’s real resurrection!
v. 14 "For 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."
In all that follows about the apocalyptic vision Paul casts
towards these Thessalonians in the very next verses, the reality he wants them
to get hold of is this … THIS is the concrete language stuff and where the
emphasis in the whole passage lies.
We believe THIS:
Fundamentally because Christians have hope, but a hope that is not like the fables and fairy tales of classical antiquity but rooted in the historicity of Christ’s real resurrection!
v. 14 "For 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."
We believe THIS:
A. Jesus died and rose
The hope that
Christians have is not mere wishful thinking, but a confident expectation BECAUSE it is tied to fundamental historical realities.
The Greek text there in v. 14 uses the word γὰρ (for) which is not translated unless the causal sense is implied in the context and in this one it is, so what we seem to have here is an ‘if … then’ clause saying ‘if Jesus rose from the dead (which He did) THEN what follows is also true i.e. we shall also be raised with Him.
As Shogren puts it: “Paul argues that belief in Jesus’ resurrection leads to a corollary, namely, the resurrection of the saints.”
The Greek text there in v. 14 uses the word γὰρ (for) which is not translated unless the causal sense is implied in the context and in this one it is, so what we seem to have here is an ‘if … then’ clause saying ‘if Jesus rose from the dead (which He did) THEN what follows is also true i.e. we shall also be raised with Him.
As Shogren puts it: “Paul argues that belief in Jesus’ resurrection leads to a corollary, namely, the resurrection of the saints.”
B. God will bring us with Jesus
At this point there’s
a marked change of language type.
The apostolic team have been using concrete language to refer to the concrete events of Christ’s and believers’ resurrection.
But now suddenly the apocalyptic language starts to kick in.
Here’s where the apostolic team go on to frame the whole prospect in picture language which touches on themes that someone steeped in such culture would recognise, grasp and lap up.
For us … we need to get hold of that cultural background or we are going to totally misunderstand.
This ‘gathering together’ of all God’s people, living and dead, picks up what the gospels have to say about the Lord’s Second Coming: ‘the appearance of the Son of Man’.
So, Matthew 24:31 says:
“… he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
But how will this be … what will actually HAPPEN?
Now here’s where the Apocalyptic, non-literal picture language really takes off.
The apostolic team have been using concrete language to refer to the concrete events of Christ’s and believers’ resurrection.
But now suddenly the apocalyptic language starts to kick in.
Here’s where the apostolic team go on to frame the whole prospect in picture language which touches on themes that someone steeped in such culture would recognise, grasp and lap up.
For us … we need to get hold of that cultural background or we are going to totally misunderstand.
This ‘gathering together’ of all God’s people, living and dead, picks up what the gospels have to say about the Lord’s Second Coming: ‘the appearance of the Son of Man’.
So, Matthew 24:31 says:
“… he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
But how will this be … what will actually HAPPEN?
Now here’s where the Apocalyptic, non-literal picture language really takes off.
vv. 15-17
"According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive,
who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who
have fallen asleep.
16 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.
17 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 for ever."
I want to be very sensitive around this point because these verses
have been taken to mean something about what will happen for believers when
Christ returns … something that many really fine Christians have been taught
and believe.
This is what can happen when you read the Bible literalistically, that is, as if it doesn't sometimes use poetry or other non-literal language to teach its' literal truth.
They have been given a hope that means a lot to them about a fantastic experience that is held out as a prospect to them in the difficult and disappointing experience that life in this world can be for us … and especially when there’s disillusionment or personal suffering in the pot we really don’t want to go around smashing down inspiring things that they’ve heard.
Many very fine people see this as something they call the Rapture, being sucked up to Heaven out of their current hard experience to start of reigning with Christ for 1,000 years … it gets elaborate and complicated but it misses a few things going on in this text and adds a few in that aren’t there (for example that the Lord isn’t going up into Heaven to take them up but they are going above ground, i.e. out of the grace and into the air to meet the descending Lord).
Now let’s be clear I don’t want to stamp on your precious things or kick your pearls out of your hand, but the facts as I see them in this passage are these:
They have been given a hope that means a lot to them about a fantastic experience that is held out as a prospect to them in the difficult and disappointing experience that life in this world can be for us … and especially when there’s disillusionment or personal suffering in the pot we really don’t want to go around smashing down inspiring things that they’ve heard.
Many very fine people see this as something they call the Rapture, being sucked up to Heaven out of their current hard experience to start of reigning with Christ for 1,000 years … it gets elaborate and complicated but it misses a few things going on in this text and adds a few in that aren’t there (for example that the Lord isn’t going up into Heaven to take them up but they are going above ground, i.e. out of the grace and into the air to meet the descending Lord).
Now let’s be clear I don’t want to stamp on your precious things or kick your pearls out of your hand, but the facts as I see them in this passage are these:
The big point the
team introduce at the very outset is ‘don’t worry NO-ONE is getting left out or
left behind by the Lord’.
"According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”
You are NOT to worry about your already passed relative, they aren’t going to miss out on the Lord’s big Return.
It really is as simple as that.
But Paul's going to tap into a cultural feature his readers are aware of to illustrate the grandeur and significance of the big day.
"According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”
You are NOT to worry about your already passed relative, they aren’t going to miss out on the Lord’s big Return.
It really is as simple as that.
But Paul's going to tap into a cultural feature his readers are aware of to illustrate the grandeur and significance of the big day.
B. The Lord Himself will
come DOWN FROM
HEAVEN, v. 16
Now this is important.
The Lord is with us here and now in this world as we live our lives with Him … in fellowship with Him … day by day
He is with us in the person of the Holy Spirit Whose temple we are … He is the One Who has made our heart His home.
But the Risen, ascended, glorified Lord JESUS … God the Son … is at this point seated at the right hand of God the Father on His Heavenly throne where He intercedes for the people of God.
For the time being.
But remember that Acts 1:11 has the account of the angels at the Ascension of Jesus delivered to the Apostles who watched Jesus leave:
“They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
The Lord is with us here and now in this world as we live our lives with Him … in fellowship with Him … day by day
He is with us in the person of the Holy Spirit Whose temple we are … He is the One Who has made our heart His home.
But the Risen, ascended, glorified Lord JESUS … God the Son … is at this point seated at the right hand of God the Father on His Heavenly throne where He intercedes for the people of God.
For the time being.
But remember that Acts 1:11 has the account of the angels at the Ascension of Jesus delivered to the Apostles who watched Jesus leave:
“They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
This is the vision of Jesus coming back ... how will things go when He does?
Here is the
solution to the Thessalonians’ particular problem, you see?
Paul insists that according to a word from the Lord he’s received (no canonical Scripture makes this point so this has to be a reference to a special revelation Paul’s received) those who died in Christ are going to be raised to be with Christ first of all.
First the dead in Christ will be resurrected and then the living believers.
Paul insists that according to a word from the Lord he’s received (no canonical Scripture makes this point so this has to be a reference to a special revelation Paul’s received) those who died in Christ are going to be raised to be with Christ first of all.
First the dead in Christ will be resurrected and then the living believers.
What does that MEAN?
Here’s the
thing, the language being used here is of the appearing of a King to take up
His kingdom and those who are with him and supportive of him going out of their
city to meet him as he comes along.
So here comes the Lord from where He is coming from … out of the sky where the Apostles saw Him ascending in Acts 1:11 and where they were told He would be seen coming back from.
He s coming back to take up His Kingdom and the followers of Christ are pictured as ‘going out’ to meet Him (the way the crowds went out to King Jesus and hailed Him as He came to establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday … which He achieved there, incidentally, by means of His death and resurrection!
So here comes the Lord from where He is coming from … out of the sky where the Apostles saw Him ascending in Acts 1:11 and where they were told He would be seen coming back from.
He s coming back to take up His Kingdom and the followers of Christ are pictured as ‘going out’ to meet Him (the way the crowds went out to King Jesus and hailed Him as He came to establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday … which He achieved there, incidentally, by means of His death and resurrection!
It was how you greeted a coming King ... travelling out along the road he was travelling along towards you to greet him and acknowledge him before he arrived.
And that ‘in the air’ means quite simply ‘in the atmosphere’.
Not, clearly, where the dead in Christ had been ‘in the grave’ but where they all were now (some having been OUT of the atmosphere in the grave first) but all meeting with Him now in the atmosphere.
There is no indication that Christ takes either the dead believers or the still living believers with Him back up into Heaven but that the believers go out to meet Him and accompany Him, on His continuing journey to set up His Kingdom fully on the new earth.
But none of that is really the big point here!
And that ‘in the air’ means quite simply ‘in the atmosphere’.
Not, clearly, where the dead in Christ had been ‘in the grave’ but where they all were now (some having been OUT of the atmosphere in the grave first) but all meeting with Him now in the atmosphere.
There is no indication that Christ takes either the dead believers or the still living believers with Him back up into Heaven but that the believers go out to meet Him and accompany Him, on His continuing journey to set up His Kingdom fully on the new earth.
But none of that is really the big point here!
It is FAR too easy to get tied up with fascinating speculation launched of cultural misunderstanding and lose the big point!
“And so WE will be with the Lord for ever.”
Did you get that?
Here’s where it has all been leading to.
Here’s the big point.
No-one is getting left behind.
As He promised in the Gospels and in Acts, He is returning to gather His people to be with Him together forever.
We will all – including the people you’ve loved and lost who were believing in the Lord – be gathered together again as we’re gathered to the returning Lord.
Did you get that?
Here’s where it has all been leading to.
Here’s the big point.
No-one is getting left behind.
As He promised in the Gospels and in Acts, He is returning to gather His people to be with Him together forever.
We will all – including the people you’ve loved and lost who were believing in the Lord – be gathered together again as we’re gathered to the returning Lord.
So Paul can finish out his pastoral explanation with …
v. 18 "Therefore encourage one another with these words."
But there was no reason they referred to for such hope … they had no philosophical or mythical reason for it, all the while longing that the distraught grieving person might have hope.
For Paul & co. things were not like that.
Yes, of course, believers are human, and it is undeniably human to grieve.
But believers face loss knowing that the future work of God is to wipe away every tear and soothe mourning shouts of agony (you can check this in Revelation 7:17 and 21:4).
There is no need for the sort of grief their pagan neighbours exhibit, since every believer will enjoy Christ’s presence forever.
Death appears to be the end with nothing good left to come.
But because of Christ’s death and resurrection for His followers in the faith it isn’t the end but the beginning … the beginning of being gathered to the Saviour in a glorious life with Him that will go on forever.
That’s great, but why are you telling us this Paul?
What is the action point from our meeting?
v. 18: “encourage one another with these words.”
v. 18 "Therefore encourage one another with these words."
But there was no reason they referred to for such hope … they had no philosophical or mythical reason for it, all the while longing that the distraught grieving person might have hope.
For Paul & co. things were not like that.
Yes, of course, believers are human, and it is undeniably human to grieve.
But believers face loss knowing that the future work of God is to wipe away every tear and soothe mourning shouts of agony (you can check this in Revelation 7:17 and 21:4).
There is no need for the sort of grief their pagan neighbours exhibit, since every believer will enjoy Christ’s presence forever.
Death appears to be the end with nothing good left to come.
But because of Christ’s death and resurrection for His followers in the faith it isn’t the end but the beginning … the beginning of being gathered to the Saviour in a glorious life with Him that will go on forever.
That’s great, but why are you telling us this Paul?
What is the action point from our meeting?
v. 18: “encourage one another with these words.”
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