WWUTT 512 We Will Always Be With the Lord?

The Hope of Christ’s Return in 1 Thessalonians 4

The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians about the coming of Christ, and then said to them to encourage one another with these words. We shouldn't be divided over eschatology, we should encourage one another when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Thessalonians 4, the section where the Apostle Paul is describing to the Thessalonians the coming of the Lord. We start in verse 13 to the end of the chapter.

Paul says,. 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.

So yesterday we looked primarily at verses 13 and 14 and contrasted the hopefulness of those who have faith with the hopelessness of those who have no faith. The Thessalonians who believed in the coming day of the Lord with the Epicureans or the Greeks who did not believe any such day existed.

They didn't even believe that the human spirit would continue to live on after the body had died. The person just perished and ceased to be. There was no hope for the future. There was really no purpose or meaning to life whatsoever.

For the person could do whatever they wanted to in life and then they just died. And those who had lived a life in which they had been oppressed their entire lives could not even look to the future in hopefulness of being delivered from that oppression.

Because that was just the lot that they were given in life and so be it. But those of us who struggle, who go through hardships, who feel aches and pains in our bodies, who mourn when we experience the loss of friends or family members, when things do not go our way, we do not lose hope because we know that Christ will return to make all things new.

And the kingdom that is coming for us does not even compare with the struggles that we are enduring in this present life. Jesus said to his disciples, those who endure to the end shall be saved. And so we look to the future with hope.

We have the promises of Christ himself, the testimony of his death on the cross for our sins and resurrection from the grave so that all who believe in him when they die, they will not perish, but they will be raised again imperishable as he was and will dwell with him forever in his eternal kingdom.

But between this life and the life that is to come, that is promised to us who are in Christ, there is death, which most of us will experience. Most of human history has died and most of present humanity will die.

Even if the Lord should come back today, most of planet Earth will perish because to follow Christ is to be on the narrow road. We are the few who have been chosen by God for salvation, but many will perish in his wrath.

So most of us are going to experience death. What we're reading about here in First Thessalonians 4 is a hopefulness for everybody, not just those who are looking forward to the coming of the Lord while they're still alive.

Like we will see Jesus coming in the clouds and we will meet him together in the air. So this is not just a message for them. This is mostly a message for those who are going to experience death. And we have nothing to fear of death, though it is not going to be a pleasant experience.

It is death itself is described in First Corinthians 15 as the last enemy. So to die is not pleasant, but we have hope even in death for what we experience or what we will be given on the other side will be everlasting life.

Death as the River in Pilgrim’s Progress

So to to consider this further, the the the anxiousness that we might have about the looming enemy of death that will eventually overtake us, most of us. I went back to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and toward the end of the Pilgrim's Progress as Christian and hopeful are about to come to the celestial city.

First, they have to pass through a river. There is a river between the land through which they have journeyed and the Great Hill on which the celestial city stands. And so this is that section of of Pilgrim's Progress where John Bunyan writes about what it is that he sees in this story.

Now, I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river, but there was no bridge to go over and the river was very deep. At the site, therefore, of this river, the pilgrims were much stunned. And again, this river represents death.

That's what John Bunyan is writing about here. The radiant men who represent angels standing with them said to hopeful and to Christian, you must go through or you cannot come at the gate. The pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to the gate.

The men said, yes, but there hath not any save two to wit, Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that path since the foundation of the world, nor shall until the last trumpet shall sound. The pilgrims then, especially Christian, began to despond in his mind and looked this way and that, but no way could be found by them by which they might escape the river.

Then they asked the men if the waters were all of a depth. The men said no, yet they could not help them in that case. The men said, for you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the king of this place.

They then address themselves to the water and entering Christian began to sink and he cried out to his good friend, hopeful. I sink in the deep waters. The billows go over my head. All the waves go over me.

Hopeful said, be of good cheer, my brother. I feel the bottom and it is good. Christian said, ah, my friend, the sorrows of death have compassed me about. I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey.

And with that, a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian so that he could not see before him. Also here, he in a great measure lost his senses so that he could not, he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage.

But all the words that he spoke still tended to discover that he had horror of mind and heart fears that he should die in that river and never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here also, as they that stood by perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim.

It was also observed that he was troubled with apparitions of hobgoblins and evil spirits forever and a non he would intimate so much by words. Hopeful, therefore, here had much ado to keep his brother's head above the water.

Yes, sometimes he would be quite gone down and then air a while he would rise up again, half dead. Hopeful also would endeavor to comfort him, saying, brother, I see the gate and men standing by to receive us.

Christian said, it is you. It is you that they wait for. You have been hopeful ever since I knew you. Hopeful said to him, and so have you. Christian said, ah, brother, surely if I were right, he would now arise to help me.

But for my sins, he has brought me into the snare and hath left me. Hopeful said, my brother, you have quite forgot the text where it is said of the wicked, there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm.

They are not troubled as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Psalm 73 verses four and five. These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters are no sign that God has forsaken you, but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness and live upon him in your distresses.

Then I saw in my dream that Christian was in a muse a while to whom also hopeful added these words, be of good cheer. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. And with that Christian breakout with a loud voice.

Oh, I see him again. And he tells me when thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee and through the rivers. They shall not overflow. The Isaiah 43 to then they both took courage and the enemy was after that as still as a stone until they were gone over Christian.

Therefore presently found ground to stand upon. And so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow. Thus they got over. Now, upon the bank of the river on the other side, they saw the two shining men again who there waited for them.

Wherefore being come out of the river, they saluted them. They said, we are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation. Thus they went along toward the gate.

Now you must note that the city stood upon a mighty hill, but the pilgrims went up that hill with ease because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms. They had likewise left their mortal garments behind them in the river for though they went in with them, they came out without them.

They therefore went up here with much agility and speed, though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher than the clouds. They therefore went up through the the regions of the air, sweetly talking as they went, being comforted because they safely got over the river and had such glorious companions to attend them.

So indeed, most of us are going to have to pass through that river death between our present life and the life that is promised to us to come. But if we are in Christ, death has lost its sting and we will come out victorious on the other side, having shed the mortal garments that we went in with and will be raised to immortality.

So while it might be a fearful thing to experience in the body to feel the body passing and the soul separating from our mortality, we have hope in Christ because of what is written in the pages of Scripture that we will not perish in that passing over, but will be delivered to Christ and his celestial kingdom.

The Dead in Christ and the Coming of the Lord

Verse 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. Indeed, they have gone into death, but they are coming out on the other side.

And furthermore, you will be reunited with them together in glory, the hope and the promise that we've been given in Christ. 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, those who have gone before you.

And even we who are left will be caught up together in the clouds and we together will be forever with the Lord. Verse 15, for this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive, who I'm sorry, 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.

Now, there are some who will say that up until the apostle Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians in first Thessalonians 415, there had not been a revelation about what the day of the Lord would be like.

But that's simply not true because Jesus talked about it in Matthew chapter 24 and in Mark and in Luke. So there are other accounts of of what that day would be like. Paul had preached about it before with other churches, but he did not have the opportunity to share it with the Thessalonians.

So this is not a new revelation that had not yet been taught by the apostles until Paul sent this to the Thessalonians. Remember that Paul had to flee Thessalonica very quickly because the Jews wanted to kill him.

He was only there for a few weeks. So there were things with the Thessalonians that he just didn't get the chance to teach them. Now we know that he taught them some things because when we get to chapter five, verse one, Paul says now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

That's exactly the way that Christ described it in the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24. So clearly Paul did teach them some things about the coming of Christ. He just didn't get the chance to teach them about the dead in Christ rising first, that they will be participants with us on that great day.

So do not lose hope yourselves and do not lose hope concerning your brothers and sisters in the Lord who have preceded you in death for we will all be together on that day with the Lord. We who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

They've preceded us. We will not precede them 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. What are these three noises signifying?

A declaration of war. So when Jesus comes back, it is going to be loud, it is going to be announced, it is going to be bright and everyone will recognize it. And the day of his return to receive his own to himself is the same day that he comes back to make war on his enemies.

The day of the Lord and the day of the rapture, the day that we go to be with him, are the same day. Let me be perfectly frank with you. There is no such thing as a secret rapture in which people will silently just vanish and no one will be able to tell what's going on or there'll be piles of clothes left behind where a Christian once stood, all that kind of a thing that is all made up.

It is myth. It is not anywhere in the Bible. There is nothing in scripture about a secret rapture that is is a Jesus. You have to read that into the text. There is nothing in the Bible that talks about people just silently vanishing without a trace, without a trace other than the clothes they left behind.

All of the Christian apocalyptic literature that has been written or the the films that have been made perpetuate this myth that some secret rapture is going to happen. And it's it's been horrific to children.

I was just reading a comment from Jared C. Wilson earlier this week, or I think it was last week, where he was talking about the fear that he experienced when he was a little kid of believing that his parents have been raptured in the middle of the night and he would wake up and have to run to their bedroom to see if they were still there.

I've heard many stories like that. You may have even experienced something like that. We'll have no fear because that is not the way that the rapture is going to take place. No matter what, which way you cut it, somebody has to do a U-turn.

Either Jesus is coming down from heaven and then we are going up to meet him in the air and then he turns around and goes back into heaven and we go up with him or Jesus comes down from heaven and we meet him in the air and we U-turn and come back down to earth with him as he makes war on his enemies.

So one way or the other, somebody's got to turn around and go back the way that they came. But the way that Paul paints this picture here in 1 Thessalonians 4 has all the indications that we meet Christ in the air and then turn around and start going the same direction that he is going.

This is the way that people would come to the city gate to meet a king or an official or some sort of dignitary that was coming to the city. They would be there at the gate waiting for him. And then when the king would come in, they would move with the king as he went to the palace.

And that's the picture that we have here. It's the Greek word apentesis, which means to meet. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet apentesis, the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord. There's a very similar word. It's not the exact same word, but a very similar word that Jesus uses in Matthew 25, 1. And then he says, verse 18. And this is this is very important.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words, because there are so many differences of opinion related to the coming of Christ. And we will divide over those things. We can all agree that Christ is coming back, but then we will be divided over the manner in which we believe that he's coming or the way that we interpret what the scriptures say related to how Christ is coming back.

We should not be divided over those things. We can we can have differences of opinion and still be encouraged by the fact that we know that Christ is going to come to conquer his enemies, to make all things new, to rescue us from the evil and the death that is prevalent in this world.

And when it says we will always be with the Lord, what a great hope and promise that is that we can all encourage one another with with these things. And take heart, Christian, the things that you are experiencing now, what you go through in this world, Christ is going to return and lay to rest.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Can't we encourage one another in that? It's good to have discussions about eschatology. We should, in fact, your eschatology will affect the way that you understand the entire Bible.

So we should have discussions about those things. We should talk about it and teach it and not stray away from that. That's something that that I, as a pastor, have had to learn. I've had to get over my fears of teaching eschatology, afraid that, you know, people are going to divide over it and they're going to leave the church.

But rather, we need to encourage one another. And so let us take hope in the words that we have read and the promises of Christ, our Savior, who is going to return to receive his own to himself. And we will be always with the Lord.

Amen.

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