A Word in Season: Hope in Sorrow (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

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The lady came up to me at the end of a service in which I had been preaching. She asked if she could speak to me, and stepped a little bit away from the door where I was standing.

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She said, I need to know what's happened to my sister. I asked her what she meant.

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Her sister had died not long before, and for this lady, death was a blank.

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She had no real idea of what was involved, and what happened afterwards either to a believer or an unbeliever.

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Everything beyond death to her was empty and vague.

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So I spoke to her. I explained as simply and as clearly as I could what happens to someone when they die, whether they're a believer or if they're an unbeliever.

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I don't know her sister, I had no idea who her sister was, never met this lady before, but I explained those things to her, and she thanked me and went away, and I hope that she was, in some sense at least, satisfied.

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To know what happens when we die, especially if we're Christians, is of vital importance to every believer.

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Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope, 1

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Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 13. I don't want you to be ignorant,

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I don't want you to not know what happens to those who fall asleep in Jesus, because there is sorrow when someone that we know and love dies.

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It's grievous, it's distressing. There really is a breach that takes place.

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And yet, there are people in this world who have no hope. There's no sense of what the future holds.

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They perhaps don't know Jesus Christ, and for them, the future is bleak and dark.

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But those who know Christ as their saviour, sorrow with hope.

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They know that death is not the end. They know that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so,

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God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Although death has separated the body and the soul of our beloved brother or sister, and although death has separated us in some measure from that brother or sister, in terms of the immediacy of our communion, our closeness of fellowship, one with another, nevertheless, death has not separated either that one or us from Christ, and therefore from one another.

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The Lord Jesus himself died and rose again. And knowing that that is the case, we also believe that God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

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And there's that beautiful falling asleep in Jesus language that the Bible sometimes uses to describe the experience of believers who have now died and whose souls are now with Jesus Christ.

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We can't afford to be ignorant about that. It's one of the things that gives us hope in the face of death, and it's one of the things that gives us hope in the face of sorrow over those who have died.

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Now is not the time, and we don't have the time, to explain in rich detail the biblical teaching about the heavenly hope of a believer.

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The separation of body and soul at death, the soul going to be with Christ, which is far better, the body resting in the grave until the resurrection of the last day, when the body and soul will be reunited, the soul perfect and sinless, the body now glorified like Jesus Christ, and that whole redeemed, restored, glorified humanity now going to enjoy all the blessings and pleasures of the new heavens and the new earth.

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And that's just the skeleton outline, if you will. But we can't afford to be ignorant of that.

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So I hope that you will study your Bible. I hope that you will dwell upon its truth.

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I hope that you'll find a preacher at the door of the church building or in some other way, your pastor will be able to explain to you the true and eternal heavenly hope of all those who fall asleep in Jesus.

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For when we have that knowledge, then though we may still sorrow, yet it is not without hope.

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And that hope is held out not only to those who are now in Christ, but to all who come and trust in him for salvation.