Church, go ahead and take your Bibles with me and turn to First Thessalonians 4:13-18. As we begin our study of this passage this morning, let me start by asking a probing question of everyone. Here’s the question for us. How do we deal with death? How do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, deal with death, Verse By Verse Fellowship?

Reportedly Benjamin Franklin said once, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Thankfully, those of us who are Christians, only have to die once. But we’ve got to pay taxes every year! 

At the end of his life, the cynic Mark Twain called death “the Impartial Friend.” He said, “Death [is] the only immortal who treats us all alike… the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.” You might say it this way, “Death doesn’t discriminate. The Grim Reaper is an equal opportunity reaper.”

There’s an old Italian proverb that goes like this: “Six feet of earth makes us all equal.” And to all this we as, Christians, respond to that by saying, “Yes!... but no.” Yes, we are all equally destined for death, unless Christ returns before that. All men buried under the earth are equal. But our destinies after death are not equal. 

Well that’s what this message is about this morning. It’s interesting as we get to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 this week, because throughout this Book, Paul keeps saying, “as I told you” and “as I already taught you.” When he gave the commands concerning sexual purity, he said in 4:2, “you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” And then he said in 4:6, “as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.” 

But there’s no statement like that in our passage today. Paul doesn’t say, “Remember what I told you about death and the Lord’s coming…” And I wonder if part of the reason the Paul was so concerned about the church and concerned about their spiritual health is because he got chased out of town before he was able to tell them about the nature of death and the Lord’s coming. And maybe that’s why he was so panicked earlier as we saw in Chapter 2, about their spiritual state. And perhaps because of the persecution that the Thessalonians were experiencing, some of the Thessalonians had been put to death by the authorities. That shouldn’t shock us, because some wanted to do that with Paul when he was in town! 

Whatever the case, there seems to be some confusion and some existential angst among the Thessalonians about what happens to people when they die. Will they miss out on Jesus’s return? Will they enter into eternity with those who are alive when Jesus returns? 

And you know what? If that’s the case, I’m glad that Paul wasn’t able to teach the church thoroughly about these things when he was in Thessalonica. I’m glad that he had to sit down and write them specifics about these things in this Book. Because as part of God’s providence in that, Paul wrote a letter that has been preserved and utilized for centuries to encourage churches like ours. What a precious thing it is that we have 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to teach us about life and death and the rapture at Jesus’s return. 

Paul says, “we do not want you to be uninformed [ἀγνοέω – ignorant], brothers.” The Holy Spirit co-wrote these words in the Scripture for our benefit too, not just for the benefit of the Thessalonians. So, let’s not be ignorant about death and Christ’s return, Verse By Verse Fellowship!  

So here we go, church. Write these down in your notes.

How do you deal with death?

Here’s the first answer to that question. #1. 

1) You grieve with hope (4:13)

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, 

That word for “asleep” is the Greek word κοιμάω. It’s a euphemism for death, but it conveys a waiting period for resurrection. We don’t die and extinguish forever. We sleep. 

We actually derive our English word “cemetery” from this Greek Word, κοιμάω. A koimētērion was a sleeping place. John Stott calls cemeteries “dormitories of the dead.” That’s why Christians and Jews before them never burned bodies or threw them down a river. They buried them. They buried them in hope of the coming resurrection. More on that later! 

13 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. 

Now, let’s talk about this statement here, because this is a fascinating juxtaposition. We grieve. We grieve, Christians. But we grieve with hope. Let’s talk about that. Why do we grieve? And why do we have hope? We grieve, because in the words of one pastor, “death is an intruder.” “Death is an intruder. Death is not the original design. We were not meant to die. We were meant to last.” So it’s right to grieve death. 

Think about Jesus and what he did when he encountered the death of his friend, Lazarus. Did Jesus marginalize death? Did he play it down? “Oh, Mary, Martha, stop being so emotional! Death’s no big deal. Buck up, soldier.” No! What did he do? Well he did two things. First of all, he wept. You guys know that. That’s the most memorizable verse in the Bible! John 11:35 – “Jesus wept.” But also, even before he wept, he got angry (John 11:33). And those were the emotions that preceded Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead: anger and sadness. 

Why was Jesus sad? Why was he weepy and angry? Because “Death is an intruder.” Death wrecked God’s good world. And Jesus picks a fight with death, and he defeats it. That’s the great story told in the Gospel of John. Jesus defeats death, and we reap the benefits of that.    

So yes, we grieve during times of death. But because of Jesus, we grieve with hope. Hope for resurrection, right? In fact there are times in the OT when people would grieve bitterly. They would weep and wail and even scream in times of grief. Think about Job and his friends when they first greeted him (Job 2:12). Grieving like that is perfectly appropriate when you are confronted with death, especially unexpected death. 

But here’s what you don’t do when confronted with death. Go ahead and write these down in your notes. I’ll give you…

Four Wrong Approaches to Death:

1. Stoicism 

Here’s something to never tell your kids at a funeral. Everyone listening? “Buck up, soldier! Keep a stiff upper lip!” Don’t ever say that. “Don't cry, son. You need to be strong.” Don’t ever say that. Don’t ever tell your kids that. Don’t ever believe that. That doesn’t mean you are required to cry. I didn’t cry at my Granddaddy’s funeral. But I was sad. And I didn’t feel strong. And I didn’t look down on anyone around me who was crying or wailing with grief. We should grieve. It’s sad. We’re human. We feel the loss of those we love. We’re not robots or Stoics who view emotion as evil or pathetic or contemptible. You know stoicism is actually a very pagan approach to life and death. That’s not the way Jesus lived or dealt with death. And neither should we. 

Here’s another wrong approach to death.

2. Naturalism

This is also a very pagan approach to life and death. “Oh, it’s natural. Death is just natural.” No, it’s not! Death is an intruder on God’s good world. 

You guys remember in “The Lion King,” when Mufasa gives Simba that lecture about the “Circle of Life”? The lions eat the antelope, but then they die and become fertilizer and the antelope eat the lions. And then Elton John starts singing, “It’s the Circle of Life.” Some people think that way about humans and the death of humans. “It’s just natural. People become fertilizer.” 

No! We are made in the image of God. And we were made to live forever. And there is eternity as part of our being. And death is an intruder on that. 

So forget naturalism. Here’s another wrong approach to death.

3. Nihilism

Are y’all familiar with that term, Nihilism? Nihilism is a stream of philosophy that concludes that all life is meaningless and pointless. Life, death, religion, morals… It’s all utterly meaningless. You live. You die. 

Bertrand Russell, the 20th Century atheist and author wrote once that the universe as he understood it is purposeless and void of meaning. He said that the entire sum of human endeavors is “destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system.” Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist apologist expressed much the same view: “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” With beliefs like that, why grieve at death? Death sounds like an escape with a philosophical system like that! Remember that Guns N Roses song, “Live and Let Die.” There’s a certain Nihilistic quality to that song. 

And finally, there’s an approach to death and life called… 

4. Hedonism

Hedonism is the belief that the pursuit of pleasure is the chief goal in life. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Actually, this approach to life is given some credibility by the Apostle Paul… more credibility than these other approaches to death. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:32, “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” In other words, if death is final and there’s no hope for anything after, then yeah, “Live it up!” What does it matter? If we have no hope for anything better, why not live a life of self-indulgence while we can? 

But we do have hope for something better. Don’t we? And there are rewards from this life that we will receive in the afterlife! So yes, we grieve when death gets the best of us, when death rears its ugly head. We grieve, and we even weep, like Jesus wept. But we don’t grieve like those who have no hope. 

So, what’s our hope? Well let’s talk about that. Write this down as #2 in your notes. How do you deal with death? Well first of all you grieve with hope. And secondly…

2) You defeat death (4:14)

To that you might say, “Defeat death? How do you do that, Pastor Tony? Didn’t you already say that death is unavoidable? Death and taxes, the two great certainties in life. How do I defeat death?” Well, you don’t actually. You don’t defeat death…not on your own. But you put your faith in one who has. 

Paul says in verse 14,

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 

Do you believe, Verse by Verse, that Jesus died and rose again? Because if you don’t, I want you to know that there’s no hope for you at death. And there’s no defeat of death that you can anticipate. 

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. 

Everyone got that, right there? That is the essence of the gospel, right there! In verse 14… “through Jesus.” That’s how we defeat death. Christ died and rose again. We die, but we will (like Christ) rise again, thanks to Christ purchasing our victory on the cross. 

Notice here that Paul says that Jesus died, but Christians just fall asleep. Does everyone see that? Why did Paul say it that way? Well, one commentator I read this week said that Paul doesn’t refer to Jesus’s death as sleep, because Jesus endured actual separation from God at his death. He cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani” (Mark 15:34). Jesus endured actual separation from God at death, so that when we die, we don’t have to. We just go to sleep in Jesus. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). More on that in just a second. 

Donald Grey Barnhouse, the great Presbyterian minister in Philadelphia, was trying to explain this to his kids after their mother had died. And of course, the kids were distraught and grief-stricken over their mother’s death. And their father, Dr. Barnhouse was trying to help them, and trying to help them process their grief in the light of the gospel. And at one point, he looked up, and he said to them, “Do you see that truck?” “Yes.” “Do you see the shadow of that truck?” “Yes.” “Would you rather be hit by the truck or by the shadow?” The youngest kid said, “By the shadow.” Donald Grey Barnhouse said, “Because Jesus was hit by the truck of death, your mother only had to go through the shadow of it.” 

Jesus was hit by the truck of death so that we only have to go through the shadow of it. Yes, we have to die. But death can’t hold us. That’s why Paul is so animated in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection of the dead. Paul even goes so far as to say that if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead then our faith is meaningless. You might as well eat, drink, and be merry in this life, because there’s nothing after death. 

But Paul says in that great chapter, “Christ was raised from the dead.” And his resurrection is the “first fruits” of our own resurrection. And that’s why Paul can say mockingly at the end of that great chapter, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (15:55). Paul is mocking death with that statement! It’s as if he was saying, “na-na-na-na-boo-boo.”   

By the way, just a bit of clarification here. You might wonder, kind of like the Thessalonians here, what does happen when we die? And when do we receive our resurrection bodies? Well after you die, your bodies go to sleep as Paul metaphorically says here in 1 Thessalonians 4. But your self-conscious souls go on to be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8). In Philippians 1:23, Paul says that he desires to depart this life and be with Christ for that is better. So, if you die before Christ returns as millions of Christians have done over the centuries, your soul will go to be with the Lord. And you will continue in a disembodied state for a time, until Christ returns and you receive a new body. This is what theologians refer to as “The Intermediate State.”  

You will either be in a disembodied state or you will receive a temporary body while you await your permanent resurrection bodies. I say temporary body, because that’s presumably what Moses and Elijah had on the Mount of Transfiguration when they appeared to Peter, James, and John (Matt 17:1-8). Did they have their permanent resurrection bodies? I don’t think so. They just had a rental.  

Similarly when you die, you will enter into a temporary state awaiting Christ’s return, the intermediate state. And you might ask, “What do people do in the intermediate state?” Well they do the same thing that we do here on earth—they wait for resurrection. They wait for their new bodies just like we do, except they get to wait in the presence of the Lord without any concern for death or sin. Lucky them. 

Go ahead and write this down as #3 in your notes. Here’s a third way that you deal with death. 

3. You wait for resurrection (4:15-16) 

Let’s look at what Paul writes here in verse 15. This is good stuff, church. This is the kind of thing that gives me goosebumps. This is the kind of passage you memorize and recite to yourself when life gets hard. 

15 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. 

16 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. 

So, here’s the timing of everything. At some point in the future, Christ will return. Remember what I said last week. Nobody knows the hour or the day of His return. Jesus made that absolutely clear in his “Olivet Discourse” (Matt 24:36). So, if someone tells you they know the exact timing of Jesus’s return, they are actually doing you a favor. Because now you know that that person is nuts, and you don’t need to listen to anything they say. Because nobody knows the exact timing of Jesus’s return. 

But rest assured Jesus is coming back! And when he does, it will be unmistakable, at least to those of us who are awaiting it. Because it will be accompanied by a cry of command and the voice of an archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God. It will be a visible and audible and terror-inducing event. And according to Paul, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” 

Now what that means is that all of those who have died before us, those who have died in faith, died in Christ, they will be given new bodies. Those disembodied spirits in the Intermediate State that are in the presence of God will receive their new bodies first. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (15:53). So, the “dead in Christ” will be raised first and receive their new bodies, and then those who are “left until the coming of the Lord,” that is those who are still alive when Christ returns will receive their new bodies. And dead or alive, we will be raised in Christ Jesus. 

Paul says in verse 17, 

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up [raptured] together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air

And this will all happen in a flash. I don’t want you to think that we’ll be sitting around for hours watching the dead in Christ try on their new bodies. 

“O wow, don’t I look fabulous?” “Yes, yes, can I get my new body now?” No, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep [that’s a reference to those who are still alive when Christ returns], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (15:50-52). 

So, as I put these texts together (1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15), Paul clearly believes that all of this will happen in a flash. The “dead in Christ” receive their new bodies first. Then those who are alive are “translated” from old bodies to new bodies. They metamorphosize like butterflies. They are raptured. 

Now let’s talk about this word “rapture” because this is an important term. The word rapture is derived from the Latin word raptura which means “to be seized or snatched.” The Greek word for this term is ἁρπάζω (harpazō) which means “seized” or “grabbed” or “taken away” even forcefully, like a thief who steals loot in the night. Jesus said he will come like a “thief in the night” (Rev 16:15, Matt 24:43, 1 Thess 5:2). It’s not my metaphor, it’s Jesus’s. He’ll come like a thief and he’ll grab us and take us. “You’re mine!” “Come with me!” “Here’s your new body.” 

And we will be translated from old body to new body. We will shed this skin like a snake. Like a lizard. And we will put on the skin of immortality. So let’s just celebrate that for a second, shall we? Let’s think about this. No more death. No more sin. No more sickness. No more cancer. No more hangnails. No more ingrown toenails. No more acid reflux! Can I get an “Amen” on that? Hallelujah! 

No more ALS. No more dementia. No more rheumatoid arthritis. No more trips to the hospital or the optometrist or the dentist? No more colonoscopies. Can I interest you in that, church? Now you know why Paul mocks death in 1 Corinthians 15. “O death where is your sting?”

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:54-57). 

So! How do we deal with death? Well, we grieve with hope. We defeat death through our faith in Christ Jesus. Actually, he did the defeating. We just do the believing. We wait for resurrection. And then, finally, write this down under #4. We encourage one another. 

4) You encourage one another (4:17-18)

Are you feeling encouraged this morning? I hope you are. Paul says in verse 17, 

17 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

Now the “them” in that sentence are the dead in Christ who rose just a split second before us. They will precede the raptured saints by just a fraction of a second. They receive their bodies just before we receive our bodies. 

And you might wonder, “Well if it’s all happening so quickly, why does Paul make a big deal about the timing here? Why does he emphasize that those who are dead in Christ rise first and will precede those who are still alive? Why does Paul even comment on it?” Well there must have been some contextual issue in Thessalonica that Paul was addressing. I don’t know. Maybe, like I said, because of the persecution in the church, some of the Thessalonian believers had died. And the church was confused. They were saying, “The dead are going to miss Christ’s return. They died. They’re going to miss out!” 

And Paul’s like, “no-no-no-no-no. Listen! They won’t miss out. In fact, they are going to get there before you. Just a split second before you. But still, they won’t miss it.” And you won’t either, Christian, if you die before Christ returns.

Back to verse 17.

17 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. 

Everyone see that at the end of verse 17? “We will always be with the Lord!” That is so key. Because there’s a lot of debate out there about the timing of the rapture, when is this going to take place, and how it fits into the Tribulation period. 

I’ll just tell you that some of my best friends in the ministry disagree on this issue. We don’t agree on the timing of the rapture. Some of my friends believe in what’s called a posttribulation rapture, that is that the rapture takes place at the end of the seven-year tribulation period. Others believe in what’s called a midtribulation rapture or a prewrath rapture. Others of us [those of us who are right about this issue!], believe in what’s called a pretribulation rapture. That’s the position I hold to. I believe that Jesus will gather his raptured saints along with those who are “dead in Christ.” He will take us up into a place he has prepared for us (John 14:1-3). We will wait there until the end of a seven-year tribulation period, while God pours out his wrath upon the world. And then, we will return with Christ, a la Revelation 19, when Christ comes riding in on a white horse, leading his army from heaven, with a sword coming out of his mouth, with “King of kings” emblazoned on his robe, and “Lord of lords” tattooed on his thigh (19:11-16). 

Like I said, not everybody agrees on this timing. All of this is what’s referred to as eschatology, and eschatology is that branch of theology that requires a lot of generosity between Christians and a willingness to agree to disagree. Because much of end times revelation is cloaked in mystery. Soon enough, some of us will be proved right and some of us will be proved wrong. 

But we should all agree on this. Everyone listening? All Christians throughout church history (true Christians!) have agreed on this too. Christ is coming back for us! “He’s coming to judge the quick and the dead” as the Apostle’s Creed states it. And when he returns, look again at verse 17, “we will always be with [him].” We all believe this. And we anticipate it with great eagerness and longing.

“Therefore,” says Paul in verse 18.  

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. 

Are you encouraged this morning, Verse By Verse? Be encouraged by this! And encourage one another with this, church! Yes, we may grieve in this world. But we’ve got hope. Christ is coming back for us. Amen? 

John MacArthur said about this passage that, “Paul’s purpose in writing about the Rapture [1 Thess 4:13-18] and the Day of the Lord was not primarily theological and eschatological, but pastoral and practical in order to give them hope and comfort.” We can argue and debate the particulars about Christ’s coming and the rapture of the church. I’ve got my views on that issue and I’m happy to debate them. But let’s not lose sight of why Paul wrote this passage. Let’s not lose sight of Paul’s command at the end of this passage. Look at verse 18. This is the only imperative in this whole passage. “Encourage one another with these words.” Christ is coming back for us, church. 

Let me close with this. I want to say something at first that may sound a little discouraging, but then will hopefully ultimately be encouraging. You know we live in a world where death is not as ever-present as it was in Paul’s day. I’m 43 years old, and I realize that most people throughout human history would be entering the latter stage of their lives at my age. 

And what’s amazing is that we live on the safest soil on the planet. For the last 100+ years, America has been a place of incredible, unprecedented safety. And we’ve had relatively good health and long life expectancy too. Which throughout the world and throughout human history, is a massive anomaly! I hope you realize that. 

But even in our safe country, I can assure you of this. Your future will be filled with death. Unless the Lord comes back soon, you will deal with death again and again and again. I hate to be morbid but it’s true. We will deal increasingly with death as we age. Sanja and I are already starting to struggle through that. Two of my grandparents have died recently. Sanja’s mom died recently of ALS. It’s quite frankly a miracle that Sanja’s dad is still alive after all the health crises that he’s had. And we are going to age and start to deal with our own health crises and eventual death. How are we going to deal with that? 

Death is in our future, church. Death and taxes. The two great certainties in our world! How are we going to deal with it? Here’s how we’re going to deal with it—we’re going to grieve! We are going to grieve, because death is an intruder on God’s good world! We brought it here with our sin! So we are going to grieve. But we are not going to grieve like those who have no hope. Because we have hope. 

Christ is coming back for us. And whether dead or alive, we will very soon be with him. We will be with him. Comfort one another with these truths. Encourage one another with 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Bow with me in a word of prayer!