Hope in the Coming of the Lord

the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and forever and ever.

It tells us in Daniel 7, 21 that the Ancient of Days is going to come back. And at that time, the saints will possess the kingdom. So Jesus, as God himself, now called Ancient of Days, is gonna return. And it is no coincidence that Jesus is described in Revelation 1 as having the appearance of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7. God most high rules forever and we get to be with him. That is our hope. And that's the truth that we're going to focus on today. Those in Christ have hope because they will be with the Lord forever. Those in Christ have hope because they will be with the Lord forever. And we're gonna look at that in three points today. First, our source of hope is Christ, verses 13 through 14. Our source of hope is Christ. Secondly, our object of hope is Christ, verses 15 through 17. Our object of hope is Christ. And finally, we must encourage hope in Christ, verse 18. We must encourage hope in Christ. First, our source of hope is Christ. Paul begins in verse 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. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

These verses tell us that we have hope in and through Christ's work. Paul had a message of encouragement to the Thessalonians who were worried. He wanted believers to be fully informed of the truth, to understand God's promises, and not worry. Why was there confusion about what was gonna happen to those who had fallen asleep? They were a new church. 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest books in the Bible. Paul was only in Thessalonica for a short time. Perhaps he had not had time to work out for them a full theology of the last times. Or maybe he had described it to them. But they weren't living it out. Instead of being filled with confidence in what happened to those who had died, they had anxiety and were worried that something wasn't quite right. Paul spoke of those who had died as being asleep, emphasizing that their state was temporary, not permanent. This is not some sort of soul sleep as if we were in suspended animation between death and Christ's return. It's a euphemism for death, and both the Old Testament and the Greeks in their literature use sleep as a euphemism for death, so it would have been well-recognized what he was doing. Paul acknowledges that even Christians can grieve, and in fact should grieve, and are expected to grieve. He doesn't tell those who have lost someone to stop grieving. Instead, he tells Christians to grieve differently than non-believers do. Rather than treating the death of a believer with a hopeless grief, a bitter sadness, or a sense of helplessness, Paul tells them to grieve with hope. What is that hope that we can have even in grief? Fundamentally, that hope is Jesus. He is our only hope in life and death. Who are those who have no hope? What about them? I think it refers both to those who believe death is a meaningless end and there is nothing else, and it also refers to those who have false hope in false religions like Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, and other religions that lead people astray from the true hope in Jesus. Those who have no hope are those who believe in universalism, that everyone is going to be with the Lord. Those who believe that they can work themselves into God's presence by being just good enough, or at least better than everybody else on their block. Those are people who have no hope, either because they've embraced nihilism, or they've embraced falsity and have no true hope, which is only in Jesus. So how do we receive this hope that is in Jesus? It tells us right there in verse 13, excuse me, verse 14, since we believe. We believe in Jesus, believe that he died for us and that he rose for us. That in the resurrection, God the Father vindicated Jesus as the true son, the true savior, God himself. We believe Jesus died and rose. That's a fundamental early creed, here even in this early writing and expounded on later by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Jesus's resurrection vindicates the gospel, validates Jesus's claims, and guarantees believers' resurrection. How is this hope manifested? How is this hope manifested? Paul says, through Jesus, God will. Through Jesus, God will. Jesus appears three times in verse 14. Jesus died and rose. Through Jesus, God will bring with him, referring back to Jesus, those who have fallen asleep. You may notice in some of your translations, it refers to it as being in Jesus rather than through Jesus. It is the word that is normally used for through there, but the idea is the same, that those who, by the work that Jesus has done, are in Jesus, united with him and union with him, are those who are going to be saved. It is nothing that we can do. It is nothing that we can earn. It is only what God does through Jesus. Our hope is not in who we are or what we do. Our hope is in trusting God to fulfill his promises. And God's promise is this, that those who die in Christ will be there at the second coming, prepared for eternal glory in the presence of the almighty creator of the universe. What a beautiful picture. What a wonderful hope. And it is a sure and certain hope because the Lord God himself has declared that he will do it. There's a resurrection hope for all who are in Christ. And we need to remind ourselves, in the Bible, a hope is not a wish. It's not a desire, it's not a dream. It's not, I hope I win the lottery, or I hope that that girl that I like, likes me. It is a sure and certain hope. We can compare what James read earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, where it says that we are to be pitied if the resurrection is not real. But we are convinced and we are told by God that it is real, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15,

but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power.

So this is great news if you have lost someone. You should not fear for the death of a believer, including yourself if you are a believer. You can continue to rejoice even in the loss knowing that Christ will keep them to the end. He is theirs and he is coming back to claim them and make them his. On the flip side, we should fear for unbelievers. This should give us a heart to evangelize the lost and make the good news of Christ known far and wide to those who are without hope, who have no hope or have placed their faith poorly in a false hope. These are real matters. These are not games. This is about reality and what happens to those who do not know Christ. Secondly, our object of hope is Christ. Our object of hope is Christ. Beginning in verse 15.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left into 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.

Christ comes as a victor to bring us to himself. Being with Christ is our end to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Back in verse 14, we had Jesus referenced three times and that told us about the who. Now here in verses 15 through 17, five different times we have the Lord. Five different times, the word of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, the Lord himself will descend. caught up to meet the Lord and always be with the Lord. If Jesus told us who the who was, Lord tells us the what. Yahweh, Lord of lords, King of kings, ruler of all, the very almighty. God himself is going to come to redeem and take home his people. In verse 15, we are told by Paul that he received this word, this message by a word of the Lord, particularly the message that those who would, the dead would rise first, and that those who were still alive would not precede them. There is no other place in scripture where this is recorded, and by a word of the Lord, he may be indicating a direct revelation that he had from God. Paul is very clear throughout 1 Thessalonians that what he is teaching comes directly from the Lord. And in fact, 1 Thessalonians likely precedes by a decade or more the writing and the sharing of the gospels. But it is very clear from Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21 that Paul here is describing information that is already known and shared among the very earliest churches about what will happen when the Lord returns. we see in Mark 13 beginning in chapter 24.

But in those days after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

So we have this same vision of the Son of Man coming on clouds with great power and glory with his angels to collect those who are dead and alive in Christ. Why does Paul refer to himself as among those who are alive, we who are left? Is he expecting Jesus to return before he dies? Maybe, I don't think Paul had a strong sense of when Jesus might return. But as we will hear next week when we talk about preparing for the day of the Lord, Paul says that we need to live as if Christ will return at any moment, not knowing when. And Paul is doing that himself. It's also not clear exactly why folks thought that perhaps those who were dead would be treated differently than those who were alive. There are some Jewish apocalyptic writings of the time that seem to teach that those who survive until the Messiah comes will have greater blessings than those who died before he came. Don't know if that was in someone's mind or those ideas were being shared at that time. But in any case, Paul tells us that both the dead and the alive Christ will receive exactly the same blessing of being with the Lord forever. The Thessalonians should not have been surprised that Jesus was coming. Paul had been talking to them before about this. Back in 1 Thessalonians 1, 3, he said that he was remembering them before,

our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope. in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was the starting point for the book to remind them of the hope they have in Jesus. And that first chapter ends in verse 10, with them waiting for

his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Now in verse 16, he who had previously ascended up to the Father now descends from heaven. As we saw that glorious picture last week from Daniel 7 of the ascension and all of heaven breaking forth at the arrival of the Son of Man, we now see that when he comes back, It is not going to be a quiet, subtle affair. No one is going to miss this. He comes with a cry of command. This is a command that can be given to subordinates. It is the word used in John 5 where it talks about Jesus will command the dead to rise. It will come with the voice of an archangel. We don't know exactly what an archangel is. Only Michael is so titled in the Bible in Jude 9. And we think that same Daniel is referenced, excuse me, that same Michael is referenced in Daniel 10 and 12 where he's referred to as the chief prince, great prince, and his angels. In Revelation 12, he is seen fighting the great dragon who is Satan. It seems to just mean somebody who leads other angels because he always seems to be accompanied by a myriad of angels who are there following his leading. We see that these angels come either as heralds to proclaim what is happening or as generals to lead the thousands and thousands of angels who come alongside. It also comes with the sound of the trumpet of God. This is not a musical trumpet. It's not playing a song. It's a signal. The trumpet of God is used in the Old Testament either to call people to worship, to send the signal that they are to gather to worship the true God, or to gather the military as the Lord's people go in to battle, to fight with him at their side. So this is not going to be an invisible return. It is going to be a very visible return with a sky full of angels and trumpet sounds and cries. And I can only imagine the roar of all the saints from all time and places gathered together for the first time ever in one place to worship their Lord. It's a big announcement. It's a big gathering. And it tells us here that the dead in Christ will rise first. This is that key phrase of in Christ. It doesn't say that the ones who died and they had their doctrine perfect will rise first. It doesn't say that those who were more holy than the other ones will rise first. It says those who are in Christ will rise first. Those who are Christ, His bought and redeemed people, who are not perfect in doctrine or in behavior, but were forgiven and saved and are united in their brother Christ. This isn't a lot of description here, despite the noise we've just seen described. It doesn't tell us in this particular passage what happens to the non-Christian dead. We saw back in 1 Thessalonians 2.16 that there's this idea that there's stored up wrath that's going to come upon those who are not Christ. And next week in 1 Thessalonians 5, we're going to hear about preparing for the judgment that comes when Jesus returns. But right here, the focus is on God's people, those who are in Christ and those who will be raised. So the dead have risen, and then we who are alive, who are left, the same language used before, will be caught up. This is the same language that Jesus tells us in John 10, that nobody will be able to snatch or catch up his people out of his hand. In Acts 8, it's used for Philip being caught up in the spirit. In 2 Corinthians, Paul uses it for being caught up to the third heaven. And in Revelation 12, it says,

she gave birth to a male child. one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God to his throne.

Again, we see that Christ is the first fruits. Just as he was caught up to heaven, so shall we be caught up to heaven. So we've made it this far without mentioning the word rapture. But this is it, caught up. It's a Greek word that when translated into Latin becomes rapio, and that's where we get the word rapture. It means to be caught up. The main point right here of this section is the main point for the entire sermon. It's not about the details of how all this happens. It's that all those in Christ, both dead and alive, together with each other and with the Lord. All those in Christ, both dead and alive, will be together with each other and with the Lord. Those who are alive get called up to the clouds, as we've already talked about in Daniel, that is associated with God. At Sinai, he is covered in cloud. In Ezekiel's vision, he's covered in cloud. In Isaiah, he's coming on clouds to fight battles for his people. And as we've already heard in Mark 13 above, it's how he's going to come back in the clouds. We see that at Jesus' ascension in Acts 1-9, where he goes up into the heavens on the clouds, and the people who are gathered are told by two men who stood before them in white robes, whom we can only assume are angels,

men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

We've already alluded to this, but this idea of meeting a victor is a key part of Roman culture. What's being described is a victory procession. A victorious general has returned from battle to claim victory and to celebrate with his people. This is a victory celebration, and those in Christ are being led away to share in the glory that Christ brings as victor. But it is not a temporary celebration. It is an eternal feast. No grief. no suffering, no struggling, no sin. And even in midst of a glorious, encouraging passion, we hit the high point. So we will always be with the Lord. So we will always be with the Lord. So we will always be with the Lord. This is the way. This is how we will always be with the Lord by being raised from the dead, or caught up if we were alive, and the whole purpose of this is for us to be in his presence, to be with him. Neither this passage nor the time allows me to go into a full theology of eternity, but at its core is his presence. Not the sun, not the moon, They're not gonna be necessary. His glory will be all that shines. And we are reminded that we cannot be in His presence outside of being in Christ. Being in God's presence without being in Christ means judgment. It means eternal punishment. Being in his presence is the ultimate glory of the new heavens and the new earth. All other magnificent descriptions of eternity, however accurate, are mere reflections of this reality. The golden streets, the shiny jewels, the great city, the absence of anything sinful or wrong or evil, all of that is because we are in the presence of God. We heard already this morning from Psalm 26 one, where the King, the Messiah is being blessed. And it says, for you make him most blessed forever. The highest form of blessing eternally.

For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your presence.

And thankfully this morning, we've been able to sing of this glory. In Ancient of Days, we were reminded,

though I may not see what the future brings, I will watch and wait for the Savior King. Then my joy complete, standing face to face in the presence of the Ancient of Days.

In hark, I hear the harps eternal.

Mighty Jesus, bear us over. bear us over, take us there, there to kneel before thy throne. May we join the saints forever, praising thee and thee alone.

That's it. That's the rapture, being caught up into the presence of God. There's nothing about timing. There's nothing about direction. Is he coming to earth to bring us to earth or is he coming to take us back up There's nothing about millenniums. There's nothing about the transformation of the body that Paul explains in 1 Corinthians. There's not even anything about judgment. I promised people there were going to be no charts, no math, and this section doesn't really require that. But I know that people are still asking some questions. But there's nothing about timing here. As I already said, next week we will be talking about the need to await his imminent arrival as a thief in the night and being prepared for it whenever it comes. Could be tonight. Could be 100 years from now. Could be 10,000 years from now. We do not know. We are not told. And if we needed to know, scripture would tell us. What does scripture tell us to worry about? Not when, but about being ready and prepared. And the focus is fully on the end state of what those who are prepared by being in Christ gain. One final statement about placing this in the larger picture. In postmillennial, amillennial, and historic premillennial views, the rapture we just discussed and the second coming are the same thing. It's one second coming. Dispensationalists see them separated by a period of time. But I think if you look at what's going on here in 1 Thessalonians, that it seems to describe the single coming that the Thessalonians should be prepared for. As we've already said, it is not invisible. It is an announcement of victory. The victory has already been won. The victor is prepared to be escorted by his people. And there's no indication that he is leaving anybody behind who is his. And we see this throughout 1 Thessalonians. The coming is mentioned in all five chapters of 1 Thessalonians. So what does this great and glorious truth about our end being to be in God's presence forever tell us? It tells us for one thing, as Keith repeatedly reminded us over the last several months, that we are elect exiles. This is not our home. Our most important thoughts must not be here, and on the things of here, but on eternity. If your vision of life on earth is not God-focused, you are misdirected. If your vision of life on earth is not God-focused, you are worried about the wrong things. If your vision of life on earth is not God-focused, You're going down the wrong path. You're walking away from the truth of the gospel. Likewise, if your vision of glory land is not God-focused, you are on the wrong path. Yes. Eternity for those in Christ will be more awesome and wonderful and pleasurable than any of us can possibly imagine. But it's not about fulfilling our desires. It's not about doing what we want or finally having time to do all those things that we didn't get around to doing in this life. It's about being in the presence of God Almighty. so that we can feel his glory and feel his love and feel his very essence in a way that we can't remotely understand from our position here on earth. So our vision of what eternity means has to be focused on God and God alone. And our final application from this is actually our point three. Paul helpfully provided an application point for us. Point three, we must encourage hope in Christ. Verse 18, we must encourage hope in Christ.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

These words about life and death and resurrection and armies of angels coming should be used to encourage and comfort people. Both here and next week in Chapter 5, we will see Paul use one of his one and others. Encourage one another with these words. In 511,

therefore encourage one another and build up one another just as you are doing.

Elsewhere where Paul goes through the one another's, they're mostly general, as in 2 Corinthians 13, where the same word is used for comforting one another. Hebrews 3, where same word is used for exhorting one another. And Hebrews 10, where it's used for encouraging one another. In most of those cases, it's pretty general. It's something good to do, encourage one another, comfort one another. But here's where we get the meat on the bones of what you actually should be encouraging them with. And that is this message of Christ's return and the hope that we have in it. What are the words that we should use to encourage people? What we just read. For those in Christ, resurrection and the return of Christ mean eternal presence with God. For the wicked, resurrection and the return of Christ means judgment. In John 11, in the story of Lazarus, Jesus tells Lazarus' sister Martha,

your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

Jesus' question is also our question today. Do you believe this? If you are a believer, this message should be encouraging beyond measure. Even in your grief or suffering or struggling or trials, you can rejoice in the knowledge that God has promised eternal life to his people. You can counsel one another during trials that they are temporary. God has you now and he has you internally. As Paul elsewhere says, you should be able to rejoice in all circumstances, knowing what Christ has done for you. If you are not a believer, you must also understand your state. God created us to be in relationship with him. God is holy and perfect, but in our sin, we fell, we rebelled against him, we broke that relationship. In return, God sent his own son to reconcile that relationship. We deserve God's punishment, but Jesus came to live the perfect life that we could not live and died to take on the punishment that was rightly ours. He redeemed us out of our bondage to sin. He did this so that those who repent of their sins and place their trust in him by faith would be born again to an abundant life now and an eternal life with God. This is a full restoration of eternal sinless fellowship and worship with God. The very purpose for which we were created. He chose to create us. He didn't have to. We rebelled. He loved us. He didn't have to. He sent his son to die in our place so that we could be restored to the way creation was meant to be. And he promises that he does that in Jesus Christ. And we have that intended eternal relationship with God because of Christ. Oh, sinner, what is your response to the good news of Jesus Christ? We can also encourage one another, even this very morning, with the Lord's Supper. One movie scene that has always stuck with me comes from a 1980s film, yes, I'm that old, called Places in the Heart. It was Academy Award winner. It was famous at the time, and its final scene was very confusing to a lot of people. Actually, look it up on Wikipedia, and something like a quarter of the entire article about the movie is about this final scene. It's set during the Depression, and there's lots of family strife, there's racism, there's murder. It's a very serious film. But in the final scene, It goes to a small rural church. Doesn't look quite clear, but about 25 people there. The pastor gives a short Bible reading, and they start passing out the Lord's Supper. And it starts going down the row. Now, I was struck as, you know, a teenage Baptist of, this is the first representation I had seen for low church communion ever, right? It's always, you know, an archbishop in a cathedral with music and people coming up in robes. And this was simple folk passing the plate from one to another. And as it goes down the row and gets moved on to the next row, the pews are fuller. And you start seeing people who died earlier in the film. People who sinned against each other. In one case, one character had killed the other character. And you see the plate being passed as each partakes. And they are united together. Our Lord's Supper is a foretaste of the wedding supper of the Lamb. where all saints across all time and all places will be together as one in the presence of God. It's gonna be a family fully reunited. Not a biological family, but a spiritual one of all Christians. Brothers and sisters brought by our older brother into the presence of the father. full and complete reconciliation and restoration between each of us, as well as between us and the Father. That is a glorious picture. And this morning, we are privileged to have a small foretaste of that as we remind ourselves of that reconciliation. Finally, we can encourage one another to know that we're gonna be in his presence. And as a result, we're going to be glorified and rule with him. God didn't have to make us, but he did. He didn't have to forgive us, but he did. He could have forgiven us and left us, but he not only forgave us, but adopted us and took us in and made us his own and gave us all the glory that he gives his true son, Jesus. And we've been told over and over again in the scriptures we've referred to that not only are we going to be there, but he actually makes his kingdom our kingdom, that we are ruling alongside him. Last week, Keith finished his sermon on Daniel 7 by reading from Revelation 21 about how all things are made new. As we close today, let's hear from Revelation 22 as we hear about what happens after all things have been made new. Revelation 22, verse 1.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any, no longer will No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have done for us out of your sovereign grace and sovereign will so many things that we do not earn, so many things that in fact we have sought to reject. Father, we place ourselves in your hands knowing that in our own merit, we have nothing, but we only have you. We look forward to being with you forever. We look forward to this perfect grace, this perfect love, this perfect glory. May you, yourself, sanctify us completely, and may our whole spirits and souls and bodies be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You who calls us are faithful. You will surely do it. Father, Have us trust you as loving father, faithful comforter, gracious savior, and glorious Lord. We pray all this in the name of he who is victorious over sin and death, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, amen.