Peter Barnes: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
SERMON NOTES: GRIEF WITH HOPE (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
Some became confused when a Christian died before the second coming. From their conversion, they knew about the second coming – 1:9-10. Paul is wanting to clarify more than correct. Hence we have the problem (5:13); the answer (5:14-17); and the result (5:18).
- Christians grieve with hope.
– 5:13; an inscription on many ancient tombs: ‘I was not and I was, I am not and I care not.’ Bertrand Russell called death ‘a night of nothingness’.
– Paul is not opposing grief of any kind – see Gen.23:1-2. Those who are asleep are alive in their souls and awaiting the resurrection of their bodies (cf. Luke 17:1-8; Luke 23:43; 2 Cor.5:8; Phil.1:20-23; Rev.6:9-11).
- The victory of Christ.
– 4:14-17. This is only a comfort to Christians.
(a) Jesus has died and risen from the dead (4:14a; 1 Cor.15:3-4).
(b) The saints will provide a kind of royal escort for the coming of King Jesus (4:14b-16).
(a) ‘we’ in 4:15 does not mean that Paul thought that he would be alive when Christ came again (see 1 Thess.5:2).
(b) verse 16 does not describe a secret rapture!
– Paul claims Christ’s authority for this – 4:15; Matt. 24:29-31.
- Comfort and encouragement in the victory of Christ.
– 4:18. The Greek word can mean ‘comfort’ (NKJV) or ‘encourage’ (NIV, ESV). D. L. Moody in 1899: ‘This is my coronation day.’ When ‘Rabbi’ John Duncan’s first wife and infant daughter died, he recited the Shorter Catechism, Question 37: ‘The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in the grave till the resurrection.’