The Hope of the Resurrection

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We are going to be in the fourth chapter this morning.
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I want to again welcome everyone on this important day of worship, the day we call Resurrection Sunday.
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We call this Resurrection Sunday because it is today that we celebrate the raising of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead after he paid the price for sins on the cross.
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And he was in the tomb and today would be the day that he rose and there is no more important event in human history than the day that Jesus Christ rose from the grave.
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We know that the atonement is because of the result of his death, but the vindication of his claims, the vindication, the very foundation of the truth that what he said was actually the truth came when he raised from the dead, when Jesus came out of the tomb, it was proof that all he had said about himself, about God, about salvation, all he had said was true.
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I was once asked and I'm asked quite often, I enjoy question, I enjoy interaction, particularly with young people because they tend to be the most honest inquisitors.
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They'll ask you questions that adults sometimes are afraid to ask, but a child will just spit it out.
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One of the questions that's often asked is, well, and it's leveled usually in this this way, they'll say, well, why do you think you're right and everyone else is wrong? It's usually said just that way.
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And my answer is usually this, and this is this is my answer to that question, that it doesn't matter what I believe.
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What matters is what is true, because if it's true, it's true whether I believe it or not.
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And if it's not true, it's not true whether I believe it or not.
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I cannot make God exist simply by believing in him.
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And I cannot make Jesus Christ his son simply by believing in him.
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He is either existent.
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He is either his son because it's true or not because it's true.
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And my belief, thank you.
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My belief doesn't make it any more true or not true.
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So I have to ask the question, what is the truth? That is the question and the question is, why would we believe that the resurrection is true? Why do we believe that everything Jesus said was true? Well, let me inverse those questions, because the reason why we believe everything Jesus said was true is because he raised from the dead.
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If Jesus had died, gone into the tomb and placed in the tomb and stayed in the tomb and became a rotted corpse and was still there to this day and we could go back to the tomb to this day and see where his body was laid and know that there are still in there remains, though they be two thousand years old, that there were some form of remains there, we would know that Jesus Christ.
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Was not the Messiah.
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But the very fact that he raised from the dead gave vindication to the claims that he was, in fact, God's son.
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When Jesus was raised, he was witnessed by over 500 people.
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He spoke, he ate and he fellowshiped with large crowds, some of which, like Peter, had actually been in a state of unbelief.
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One of the things that people try to propose is, well, the reason why these people think they saw Jesus alive is because they believe they were going to see him alive.
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That's not the case.
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Their hope had been dashed, their belief system had been crushed when Jesus died on the cross.
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They did not expect to see a risen savior.
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Most of them had huddled away themselves in fear, as Peter had done, denying the very one.
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Who had gone to the cross, but, you know, when he raised from the dead, that same man who denied him three times, that same Peter who would not say that he even knew Jesus was willing to give his own life as a testimony that Christ had been raised.
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You see, Peter's testimony is an amazing testimony, really, because what was the only thing that could have given him the strength to go to? And we for those of you who don't know how Peter died, Peter died as a martyr as well.
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And tradition tells us Peter died on a cross upside down.
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If dying on a cross is bad, dying on an upside down cross would be even worse.
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A pain, what would give him the courage to go to that cross and say, don't crucify me as my Lord, crucify me upside down only.
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If he truly believed he had seen the risen Lord, what would turn a man like Paul who hated the church, who literally went to arrest church members so that he could imprison them, so that he could see them tortured and, yes, even killed if they would not reject the Savior Jesus Christ? What would make a man like him turn to Jesus Christ and become the most prolific New Testament author? Only an encounter with the risen Lord.
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It's the only thing that makes sense.
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As I said in my earlier preaching, people don't die for a lie if they know it's a lie.
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If Peter knew Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead and it was all just a lie, don't you think when his head was on the chopping block, he might have recanted? Don't you think if Paul had never seen Jesus raised from the dead, when he was taken before all of those different kings and he was taken before all those different leaders and he was beaten and he was stoned and he was excommunicated from his community, don't you think one time he might have said, well, it was all a lie? Liars make terrible martyrs.
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The testimony of the early church is founded on the blood of Christ and on the blood of the martyrs, which testify that they saw Jesus alive.
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And the reason why today is such a vital day in history is because the faith that we have is faith in that resurrection.
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That faith is what our entire hope is built upon.
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If you are a Christian and you do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you are not a Christian.
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You may have that name by title, but it is by title alone for the apostle Paul says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
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And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
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Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
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If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we of all people are the most to be pitied.
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Beloved, if Christ is not raised, we above all men are the most to be pitied.
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This is why today is so important.
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It is the day that we are called to remember the watershed moment of our faith when our savior was raised and with it his testimony was vindicated.
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And we're going to look at a passage of scripture now, which is very important because it focuses on the benefit that we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And I I ask you to stand again because this is God's word.
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And we will read First Thessalonians four, verse three.
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I'm sorry, verse 13.
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And we'll read to the end of the chapter.
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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.
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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
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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 perceive those who have fallen asleep.
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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command and with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
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And the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
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And so we will always be with the Lord.
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Therefore, encourage one another.
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With these words, father, as we examine the text of scripture this morning and give exposition of it, I pray your mercy upon us.
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I pray your mercy upon this congregation that you would open their hearts to receive the word.
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And I pray that you would keep me from error, O God, as I am a fallible man and capable of teaching what is wrong, and I pray that you would keep me from that.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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One of the most difficult things that anyone ever has to face in life is the loss of somebody that we love, whether it is a prolonged illness which results in death or a catastrophic accident which produces immediate and sudden death.
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The cessation of human life can be one of the most traumatic experiences that we ever have to face.
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I know as a young man.
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I worked from the time I was 16 until my early adult life, I worked at a funeral home.
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And I believe that was God's providential assignment because it really gave me an opportunity and it forced me to really have to deal with the idea of loss and what what it's like to be with people who lose someone that they love and the reality of what life was all about.
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I've seen people at their best and I've seen people at their worst.
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And as I said, I believe it is one of God's providential tools to lead me to where I am as a pastor.
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Interestingly enough, I met a pastor the other day.
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He and I just became friends.
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He's Sovereign Grace Baptist Church is where he's at.
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And we're Sovereign Grace Family Church.
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So we kind of connected and became friends.
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And he and he's been at that church, I believe, about as long as I've been senior pastor here, maybe a little longer.
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And he said he's not done a funeral yet.
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It's a young church.
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I thought that was interesting because conversely, I've done over 20 funerals in my short time as minister here.
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And I've seen families grieve in all different kinds of ways, I provided over, presided over services for folks who were very old, for folks who were not so old, and even for a child who had not yet met her first birthday.
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And I can say from experience that in every case, no matter the age or condition of the deceased, there was a tremendous outpouring of emotional grief that came.
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When the life ceased, in fact, many years ago, I actually wrote a paper on the subject of grief and I used it for less than their material here at the church, I actually did an entire lesson just on how to grieve.
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Because it is such a difficult thing.
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Now, I say this about grief in my experiences with it, because in this passage of scripture, what we are doing, what we are seeing is we're actually witnessing the Apostle Paul in his attempt to comfort the church of Thessalonica in regard to their grief.
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You see, the early church, like every church since, like every generation since, believed that they were the church that was going to see Jesus's return, even though Jesus had just ascended into heaven only years before.
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Even though that had really, in the grand scheme of things, just happened, they believed they were going to see his return in their generation and every generation since has been like that.
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Every generation thinks their generation is going to be the one.
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In fact, if you go around the city, you'll see banners, things that say May 21st, and we're going to talk about that next week.
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I'm going to actually discuss that.
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But the point is, every generation believes it's the one that's going to see Jesus's return.
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Every generation feels that way.
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And of course, the early church, they had heard Jesus saying, truly, truly, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things are fulfilled.
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And they they could have easily assumed that what that meant was that his return was going to happen in their generation.
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That's how they could have easily understood what Jesus was saying.
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It's not what Jesus was saying, but it could have easily been understood that way.
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So it's fully understandable that they would hold the belief that Jesus was coming.
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But there was a problem.
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People were dying.
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They were thinking to themselves, Jesus is supposed to be returning.
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But I look around and I have family members who are dying.
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I have friends who are dying.
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There are people in the church who are dying.
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And the natural question is, well, what about people who have died? What will happen to them when Jesus returns? So that's what Paul's addressing here.
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Verse 13, he says, but we do not want you to be uninformed.
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The word uninformed in some of your Bibles, it may say ignorant.
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The word ignorant simply means to have no knowledge of something or to not understand something.
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I'm very ignorant of many things.
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Car repair, cooking, cleaning.
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Ask my wife.
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I have quite a lot.
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I have quite a list of ignorances.
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And that's what he says, he says, but there's one thing we don't want you to be ignorant of.
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We don't want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.
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Now, that word asleep can be confusing to some because they see the word asleep and they think, now, why is he concerned about people who are asleep? This is an obvious euphemism, and it is a clear biblical euphemism used oftentimes by the Apostle Paul and others to describe people who have died.
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Why do they use the word sleep? Well, some people think that that means that what happens when a person dies is that their soul goes to sleep.
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It's called psychokinesia or soul sleep.
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And they believe that the soul stays asleep until the resurrection.
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But the Bible doesn't teach that.
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The Bible teaches that the soul is separate from the body at death and that the soul is with the Lord.
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The soul of believers is with the Lord.
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Luke 16 tells us that when the rich man and the poor man died, that the poor man's soul was taken to be with the bosom of Abraham.
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You remember, he was where Abraham was and that the that the rich man who was mean and who was vindictive and who did not share his wealth was taken where he was taken to Hades.
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Right.
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This is the story in Luke 16.
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It was an immediate thing at death.
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There are other places where Jesus looked at the man on the cross and he says, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
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Today, so we know that the body and the soul separate at death and the soul goes to be with the Lord or it goes to be in the place of torment until the final judgment.
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So when it says asleep, it doesn't mean the soul is asleep in the body.
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This is simply referring to the rest of believers, that when a believer dies, that it is not.
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A turmoil like experience, but rather it is a peaceful experience, much like we have when we fall asleep.
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He goes on to say.
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We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as those who have no hope.
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Beloved, that phrase is the key to the entire passage.
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Paul is not telling his hearers not to grieve.
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And I've heard that before.
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I've heard people say, no, as a Christian, you shouldn't grieve.
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You should just always rejoice.
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You should never have grief in your heart when you lose a loved one.
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Beloved, that is not true.
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Abraham grieved when his wife died.
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And we see all through the scripture, different people of great faith grieving at the loss of someone they loved.
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And the Bible says when Jesus was outside of the tomb of Lazarus, even Jesus wept.
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Grief is very natural.
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But the apostle Paul is telling us something important.
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He is saying, do not grieve as those who have no hope.
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Who is he talking about? Beloved, again, I reference back to my own experiences, both in funeral homes and in performing funerals.
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I have been in services with people who have no hope.
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I have been in services with people who think this life is all there is.
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And when this life is over, your soul simply extinguishes and your light goes out.
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And that's all you were.
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That's all you are.
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And that's all you're ever going to be.
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And beloved, they can not deal with death because to them, death is final, Paul says you do not approach death that way you do not deal with grief that way we deal grief with grief as a temporary separation, not as an eternal separation.
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He says, you don't grieve as those who have no hope.
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Why? Why don't we have the same type of grief that the unbeliever has? The Bible says in 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.
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That's the answer.
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That's why we have hope.
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That's why our grief is different from their grief is because when they see that person die, when they see that person in the casket, when they see that casket lowered into the ground and the dirt covering the casket, they believe it's over.
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But the Bible says, because Jesus has been risen, we know we too will be risen with him.
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We have confidence in his resurrection, and as such, we have confidence that because we are in him, we too will be raised.
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God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
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When I see my loved one who is in the Lord go to be with the Lord, I know that if I am still alive when the Lord comes, people ask me all the time, do you think you're going to still be alive when the Lord comes? I don't know.
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And no one knows, the Bible says no one knows the day or the hour, not even the guy who put up the billboard, even though he's fairly confident, he doesn't know.
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But when he does come, those who have died, who have fallen asleep and have gone to be with him will return with him.
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And we will all be together forever with the Lord.
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Verse 15 says, 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 and see even here, one could conjecture that Paul himself considered that Jesus may come in his lifetime.
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He says we who are alive.
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He's speaking of himself and that we who are alive and until the coming of the Lord.
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And Paul is speaking in a sense where at that time he was still alive.
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But you see, Paul, since he's died, has moved into the other category, he's the one that's asleep and now we speak the word we that personal pronoun gets applied to us and we can say that we who are alive for the coming of the Lord and if we die and the next generation is a generation when the Lord comes, they can read that with the personal pronoun and know that we are the ones who have fallen asleep.
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You see, that personal pronoun always stays with whatever generation it is until the generation is that Jesus comes, he says, 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.
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Will descend from heaven.
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With a cry of command.
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And with the voice of an archangel.
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And the sound of the trumpet of God.
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And the dead in Christ will rise first, I once knew a church.
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Not far from here, actually down about an hour south, and the pastor's daughter played the trumpet and he decided.
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In preaching this sermon, I had to tell the story because I was I was preparing the message, I remembered this as he was preparing the sermon, he had his daughter off.
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In the.
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Choir room with the door slightly open, no one could see her, and when he got to the portion, when he said the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the King James says, shouted with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God.
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And when he said the trumpet of God, she blew the trumpet.
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And I said, you know, I mean, of course, everybody that day went to the altar, as they call this somewhat of an emotional appeal, if there ever was one.
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But I'm always reminded of that in my experience, because I know people would have been shaken by it.
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And I know too many people who have bad hearts and I wouldn't want to do that.
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But in any event, I mentioned that because there is coming a day when the true trumpet will sound.
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And though that was a dramatic, that was something that that pastor did to bring a dramatic effect and somewhat to appeal to the emotions of the people and to get them stirred up, the reality of the truth is no yet or excuse me, no less striking.
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The reality is one day we will hear the trumpet of God.
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One day, the archangel of God will shout and at that shout.
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And at that trumpet call, those dead bodies which are deep within the grave will receive their spirits back and they will give be given a new body and they will from that moment be with the Lord forever.
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And we, too, will be given a new body.
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The Bible says in first John, chapter three and verse two, Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared.
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But we know that when he appears talking about Jesus, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
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Beloved, when Jesus came out of the tomb, he had a glorified body.
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And when we, too, are raised from the dead or if we, too, are alive, when Christ returns, we, too, will receive a glorified body so that we will forever be with him.
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We will no longer have these bodies of frailty.
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We will no longer have these bodies of pain and suffering.
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We will no longer have these bodies that cannot do what we need to do to worship God.
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Verse 17 says, Then we who are alive and who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
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So we will always be.
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With the Lord, beloved, that is a picture of what we call the rapture.
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Believers who are alive when Jesus return will not die.
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Instead, they will be translated to their new bodies.
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And take him to be with him.
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First Corinthians 15 describes this, it says, I tell you, this brother's flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable be imperishable.
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Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
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Then, beloved, if you are alive when Jesus comes and you are a believer, this is your lot.
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This is what will happen.
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He says we shall not all be changed.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment.
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And the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.
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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.
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Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
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But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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Why do we labor? Why do we seek to love the Lord? Why do we seek to do for the Lord? Why do we seek eternal things rather than temporary things? Because this world is not all there is.
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And I know some people live like it is.
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Some people live like this world is all there is and that's all they've got to worry about.
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And what's going to happen tomorrow? And they worry about their lives and they forget that vanity of vanities.
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All is vanity, that what is truly important.
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Is what will last forever and the hope that every believer enjoys.
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Is the hope of eternal life and verse 18 says, therefore, encourage one another with these words.
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There is nothing more encouraging in the Christian life than the fact that because of the work of Christ, a believer does not have to fear death.
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The universal fear of human beings, the enemy that we all have to face one day, has been defeated in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Because he died, the sins of those who believe in him have been forgiven.
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And because he lives, all those who believe in him will live as well.
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My question to you this day and a question that I hope reverberates within your heart is, are you in him today? Are you his or do you live for the vanity of this world? If you are in him, then you are to be encouraged today because Resurrection Day is the day that we celebrate the promise of what we had to look forward to.
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This day and every day, we should remind each other, we should encourage one another with the words that because Christ is raised, we, too, will be raised.
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And when we grieve, which we will, and when we suffer, which we are actually promised will happen.
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We should encourage each other by saying, let not your hearts be troubled.
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If you believe in God, believe also in me.
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For in my father's house are many rooms.
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And if it were not so, what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you so that that where I am going, you may also go.
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And then Thomas said unto him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
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How then can we know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
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And no one comes to the father.
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But by me, if you are not in Christ this morning, those are the words I leave with you.
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Thomas asked the way and he was given a succinct answer.
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There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, God has provided no other savior.
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And there is no other way.
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In him, you will experience resurrection and joy.
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Outside of him, you will experience the condemnation for your sins.
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I encourage you to repent and come to him today in Jesus name.
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Let's pray.
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Our father and our God, we are humbled every time we consider the resurrection and the work that was done on our behalf by Christ on the cross.
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And Lord, we do want to pray.
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We want to pray for every person in this room who has been under the hearing of the word.
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We want to pray specifically, Lord, for those whose hearts are outside of Christ, whose lives are being lived outside of Christ, who do not have a desire to follow after Christ, to seek his will and to learn about his word and to follow him.
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We pray, oh, God, that this time would be used by you to convict hearts and to encourage them forward in the truth.
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We pray, oh, God, for every believer here that they would be encouraged by the truth of the resurrection and that you would remind us every day of the glorious truth that Christ is raised.
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And because we are in him, we, too, will have resurrection.
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These things, Father, we ask and we seek you and we ask you to do in Jesus' name.
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Amen.