So we will always be with the Lord...

Resurrection, Rapture, and Reunion
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Sunday, November 10; Preaching: Associate Pastor Nathan Snyder

[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.

Have you ever been separated from a loved one?  Maybe they moved away.  Maybe you moved away.  Maybe they went off to college.  Maybe they went off to serve with the military.  Or on a missions trip.  We feel some measure of grief in these separations.  As long as we expect to see our loved one again, however, our grief is mitigated.  The painful grief of losing someone to death is that we will not see them again in this life.  There will be no reunion.  They are simply gone.  Death is separation.  Body separated from soul.  Person separated from beloved person.  It is a tragic reality we all face.  Yet the gospel declares good news.  Through Jesus there will be resurrection and reunion.  Death’s separation will be obliterated.  Furthermore, the gospel holds out the hope of eternal fellowship with the Lord Jesus himself.  This is the very definition of life!

Paul is writing to the Thessalonian believers, who were relatively new converts since he had shared the gospel with them.  The return of Christ is a central theme of this letter (1:9-10; 2:19; 3:11-13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11, 23-24).  We would do well to think often of the coming return of our Lord.  In 3:11-4:12 Paul shows that our expectation of Christ’s return has implications for how we live.  We are to live holy lives, abstaining from fleshly lusts, loving one another, and working hard in this present world.  Now Paul shows that Christ’s return has implications for how we face the pain of death.  There seems to have been some confusion among the Thessalonian Christians about what would happen to those in their midst who had died before the return of Christ.  When Paul speaks of “those who have fallen asleep”, he is referring to those believers who have died.  What will happen to them?  Will they miss out when Christ returns?  Will we see them again?  Paul did not want them to grieve like others who have no hope.  He does not write simply, “We do not want you to grieve.”  It is good to grieve death because death is not good.  It is a blight upon God’s good creation.  God did not create body and soul to be torn asunder.  He did not create us to be ripped away from those whom we love.  Death came into the world through sin.  Yet the Christian’s grief need not become despair.  We grieve with hope.

[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. [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.

The foundation for our hope is in Jesus who died and rose again.  Death is the penalty for sin.  Jesus paid for the sins of his people on the cross.  Death thus died in the death of Christ.  He rose victoriously from the dead.  His resurrection becomes the pattern for his people.  When he returns, he will resurrect those who are dead “in Christ” and bring them with him in his victorious descent to the earth.  I love this phrase “in Christ.”  Everyone who trusts Christ to be their Lord and Savior and source of life is brought into Christ.  We are united with him in life and death.  Death may separate us from our loved ones here, but death does not separate us from Christ.  In fact, our communion with Christ is more immediate after death as we await the resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23).  Death will never do us part from our Lord.  This itself should give us great hope as we face our own death.  And then we have the hope of resurrection.  We will receive a glorified body like our Lord’s (Philippians 3:20-21).  Paul makes the point in our text that believers who are living when Christ returns will not precede those who have died.  The dead in Christ will rise first.  Only then will those living also be caught up to meet the Lord (v. 17).  The Thessalonians were concerned about the destiny of those who had died.  Paul says that they will actually receive special honor as the first to rise and meet Christ.  We long for Christ to return for it will mean the end of evil and the beginning of Christ’s eternal kingdom on earth.  But if we should die before he returns, we will in no way miss out.

Paul encourages us in verse 16 to anticipate and feel something of the weight of glory surrounding our Lord’s return.  Jesus will return from heaven, and all of heaven’s glory will shine upon the world as he does.  He will come “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.”  Jesus says in John 5:28-29 that at his command all the dead shall rise.  I don’t know if the phrase “with the voice of an archangel” is describing the sound of Jesus’ voice, or whether an archangel will add his voice to Jesus’ command.  Either way, the sound will echo across the earth, as will the mighty call of God’s trumpet, announcing the final victory of Christ over every enemy, including death itself.  No one will miss the sound.  It will drown out every other.  Ipods and iphones, TV’s, conference calls, political speeches and debates, the cheers of sports events, car horns, jet engines, gunfire and exploding RPG’s, all sounds on earth will be drowned out and silenced by the sound of heaven and heaven’s King.  This ought to put all activities in this present life in perspective.  And it ought to put death in perspective.  Death does not have the final word.  Christ has the final word, and he will overturn death forever.

[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. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Lord’s return will mean resurrection for those who are in him.  It will also mean a permanent reunion for all his people.  We will all be caught up to meet our returning Lord, and so we will always be with him.  You may have heard the term “rapture” connected with the end times.  The word refers to being caught up, and it comes from verse 17.  Christ will descend in clouds of glory and all who belong to him will be caught up to meet him in the air.  Paul is using an image that would have been understood by people during his time.  If a high-ranking officer came to a city, especially if it was the emperor himself, people would come out of the city to meet him.  Then they would all return into the city with him.  We who belong to Jesus, likewise, will get to join him, the true Emperor, in the air to welcome him to earth as he comes in glory.  That is the rapture.  (See also Matthew 24:29-31).

I think the most glorious words of this entire passage are these: “And so we will always be with the Lord.”  This is better than any family reunion in this present life.  All the family of God will be together and death will never again come between us.  When death separates us now, it is only temporary.  Our greatest joy will be that we are together with our Lord.  This is the heart’s desire of every child of God: to be with Jesus, and to be with our brothers and sisters.  Jesus too desires to be with us.  Remember his prayer in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”  Paul is saying that God will grant exactly this desire.  So, yes, we grieve the separation of death, but we grieve with hope.  Our Lord will return, he will raise the dead, we will join him in his glory, and we will be home with him forever.  So encourage one another with these words.

The last thing I would like to say is to those who are not yet in Christ.  If you are outside of Christ and his family, please don’t stay on the outside looking in!  Come on in!  Embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the Source of life, as the Resurrection Son of God.  Do not spend eternity separated from him.