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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
So before we read it, let's pray and ask for God's help and blessing.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We need every word
of it because we do not live by bread alone but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. We need it to be strengthened and
matured because our Lord Jesus Christ prayed, Father, sanctify
them in truth. Your Word is truth. Help us then to have that attitude
towards this, Your Word. Work Your own work in our hearts by Your
Word today. For believers who are here today who are bereaved, we
pray that You would comfort them. For believers who are here today
who are struggling with doubts about these very questions, we pray
that You would strengthen and assure them. For unbelievers who
hear this word and have no certain hope of the life to come, we pray
that You would change their hearts, grant them belief in Your
promises and in Your Gospel, and then comfort them by Your Word.
All this we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
You know just in these last few days here in Jackson, Andy Taggart
has done that very thing in the wake of the tragic death of his son
Brad. As he spoke at the memorial service, what did he do? He went
to the Scriptures. He went to the Bible and he brought to bear the
truth of the Word of God on a very, very difficult situation for him to
handle, for his wife and children to handle, for the whole church and
community to handle. That's what a Christian funeral is designed to
do. And isn't it interesting that so often Christian funerals go right to
this passage, sometimes quoting the whole passage in the course of
a funeral service and it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? What Paul
is saying here not only applies to the Thessalonians two thousand
years ago, it applies to us, because the Bible doesn't just teach you
how to live, it teaches you how to face death, and Paul's doing that in
this passage.
The first thing youll see in verse 13. Don't miss this little phrase. It
might sound like a throw away phrase but it's very significant. We do
not want you to be uninformed, brothers. Now in some of your
translations it may say, Brothers, we don't want you to be unaware.
That's polite. In some of your translations it might say, Brothers, we
don't want you to be ignorant. Paul uses this phrase over and over
in his writings. Youll find it in Romans 1:10. Youll find it in Romans
11:25. Youll find it in 1 Corinthians 10:1, 1 Corinthians 12:1. Youll
find similar verses in Philippians and in Colossians. He regularly
says to Christians, I don't want you to be uninformed. In other
words, there are certain things that it is very important for us to
understand. We really need to understand those things because
truth is what God uses to comfort and strength us. Theology is for
our comfort. And Paul is going to make that very point in this
passage.
Paul is very concerned that we not be ignorant about the truth of this
passage. He's saying, It is very important that Christians
understand that truths of this passage because this truth that he's
going to tell you in this passage is meant for comfort. Paul knows
that theology, truth about God, is what God uses to comfort us, to
strengthen us, to grow us, and that is his great concern in this
passage. So there's the first thing I want you to see. Theology is for
comfort. He says, Brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't
want you to be unaware. I don't want you to be uninformed about this
important truth.
And then look at the second half of verse 13. He says this, And
here's why - I don't want you to be uninformed about this because I
don't want you to grieve like pagans. I want you to grieve with hope.
Look at what he says in verse 13 That you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. Paul, it's interesting here, Paul does
not say, Christians, you should never grieve. You believe in the
Gospel, you believe in Jesus, you believe in the life hereafter, you
believe in the bodily resurrection, so you shouldn't grieve. Paul
doesn't say that. You know, your acts of grief for a believing loved
one departing, is an act of gratitude to God who gave you the gift of
that person in the first place and it honors their memory. And Paul
doesn't say, Christian, don't grieve. But what he does say is this. I
don't want you in that grief, to grieve as one without hope. And the
pagan world in Paul's day and today was filled with hopelessness.
And then, notice in verse 18, he says not only that but he says to
encourage one another with these words. Encourage one another
with these words, Paul says in verse 18. In other words, encourage
one another with truth. Take the truth of the Word of God and use
that to encourage one another in the hour of death. The Lord Jesus
Christ did that on the night that He was betrayed, the night before He
was crucified. John records so many of the things that He said to His
disciples in John 13 to 17. You know, one of the interesting things
that Jesus spent a lot of time teaching about on the night that He
was betrayed, the night before He died, was the Trinity. Now some of
you think the Trinity is sort of speculative and abstract and
impractical. Isn't it interesting that Jesus would spend time teaching
His disciples the Trinity right before He died? Why would He do that?
Because who you believe God is makes a difference in how you live
life. And so He needed to teach about how the Father related to the
Son and the Son to the Spirit and the Spirit to the Son and the
Father so that His disciples would know their God better.
That's not the only time He does that. In John 16:33 He does it
again. Remember what He says? He says, In the world you have
tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. He
acknowledges that theyre in the midst of trial and tribulation, but He
says, They can take heart, they can take courage, they can be not
afraid why? Because He has overcome the world. What is He
doing? He's connecting their anxieties to theology, to the truth of
God, and then the truth of God's Word is what? It's helping them
know how to handle, how to respond to, how to cope with their
experience. And Paul is saying in verse 18, Encourage one another
with these words. Is there anybody who does a better job at this
than Al Chestnut? Are you one of the many recipients of his
Scripture encouragements where he brings to bear the Word of God
in your life and he gives you a word of encouragement? We ought all
to be giving that kind of encouragement because heaven knows we
need it. We live in a world filled with troubles. Even in the most godly,
wonderful Christian homes there are heartbreaks and troubles and
we need the encouragement of the truth of God, the Word of God,
rich, sound, Biblical theology. And this is what Paul is saying.
Brothers, encourage one another with these words.
What words, you ask? Well, that leads us to our last two points. Go
back from verse 18 and look back to verse 14. This is the first of two
things that Paul says provides us encouragement in the hour of
death: Jesus bodily resurrection and ours. Look at 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
do you see what Paul is doing there? He's saying to these believers
that, What happened to your Savior will happen to you. If youre not
alive when He comes again, Paul is saying, youre going to die just
like He died, but youre also going to be raised just like He was
raised. Paul points to Jesus bodily resurrection and he says to
every believer who lives, not in that final generation when Jesus
comes again, we're all going to be dead and buried but we're going
to be raised just like He was raised. Paul is grounding their hope in
the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. He saying, Jesus lived and
so will you. Jesus was raised from the dead, bodily, and so will you
be. Now that's a truth that's easy to say, it's a short sentence that
flows off the tongue, but it takes some work to get it deep down in
our hearts.
I'm very often asked in the hour of death, I wonder where heaven
is? Pastor, do you know where heaven is? And my answer is this: I
don't know where heaven is, but I do know that all those who trust in
Jesus are going to be with Jesus forever. And wherever Jesus is,
there is heaven, and we're going to be with Him forever. And the
apostle Paul is saying to these Thessalonians, Encourage one
another with these truths. Believe these truths. Bring the Word of
God to bear on your experience. Even in the valley of the shadow of
death, youll find comfort and strength. You know, so often when I'm
talking with you after a funeral or at a graveside service, one of you
will say to me, Ligon, I just don't know what people do who don't
have Christ and who don't believe the Gospel. I don't know how they
handle this. And I always say to you, I don't know either. I'm so
thankful we have Christ and we have the Gospel. And Paul's telling
us to encourage one another with that truth, even in the valley of the
shadow of death. May God bless His Word to you all. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You
would work its truth deep down into our hearts so that it really, really
constrains us, controls us, guides us, so that we can yield to it in the
tribulations and trials of life. And well give You the praise and the
glory for it, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Now Paul's encouraged us with the thought of the bodily return of the
Lord Jesus Christ in His second coming, so let's take our hymnals in
hand and turn to number 327 and well sing the fifth stanza of One
Day He's Coming.
Receive the Lord's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.