Hope in Grieving - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a funeral before, but there’s this heavy feeling of sadness over the death of somebody. Everybody is dressed in black, people are crying, and for many there’s a sense of hopelessness. In a sense they are right, because we’re all going to die.

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and because of our sins, “the wages of sin is death…”
But what’s the second part of that verse?
“… But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In Christ, we have hope. A hope of an eternal future spent in the presence of God. So there no longer is this hopelessness for Christians. There is hope in Jesus Christ.

So the big question for the Thessalonians in this next passage asks the question, “What’s going to happen when the second coming of Christ happens?”

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV) which is printed on the next page. These are the words of God written through Paul in this letter. And I’m going to emphasizing a few parts of the passage. But read it and then re-read it. Look up in a dictionary the words that you don’t know so that you can fully understand what is written.


1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV)
“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. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 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. 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. 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

There you go, a little bit of eschatology (study of the end times). When you guys close your Bibles and do your closing prayers, don’t turn your minds off and be insensitive to the Holy Spirit and the moving of God. A thought to meditate on for the rest of the day or night: Think about the hope we have in God. What are we supposed to do with that hope? How are we supposed to act as hopeful people? And why do Christians decide to live in a way that they hope in Jesus Christ? Of course there are so many other questions that deal with our hope in Jesus Christ and I want to challenge you all to address those questions and seek answers for them in God’s Word.