What sorts of feelings and emotions do these images evoke? A casket. A funeral coach. A cemetery. You may know people who begin to panic at the mere sight of such things. For many people “death” is a most unpleasant topic – one they will avoid at all costs. Maybe you don’t like to think or talk about death. There may be good reason for that. Perhaps you are still learning to cope with the recent loss of a friend or loved one. If that’s the case, my heart goes out to you. Please don’t think I’m being insensitive as I share with you today what the Bible has to say about this difficult subject. Just the opposite is true. I want to be a source of encouragement. I want to offer you the comfort that God himself gives to those who mourn the death of one of his saints. The Apostle Paul had the same goal in mind as he wrote to the Thessalonian Christians. He realized, that at least in some circumstances, a lack of knowledge was the cause of a great deal of sorrow, pain and fear. Picking up on that thought, we’ll borrow Paul’s words as our theme and say with him: We don’t want you to be ignorant…1) about those who have fallen asleep in Jesus or 2) about those who are left till his coming.
St. Paul had founded and served the congregation in Thessalonica for less than three weeks when persecution drove him out of town. That had hardly given him enough time to train those new Christians in all the teachings of Christ. Nevertheless, the church in Thessalonica thrived. The Christians there knew Jesus as their Savior and were eagerly waiting for his return. But as the weeks and months went by a nagging question began to trouble them: “What would happen to those Christians who died before the last day? Had death robbed them of the joy to come?”
A lack of information left the Christians in Thessalonica not just ignorant, but spiritually wounded, to the point that they were grieving for their dead in a way that was most unhealthy for their faith. The same can happen to us. It seems to me that in our own day and age ignorance is caused not so much by a lack of information as it is by an abundance of wrong information that proves to be spiritually dangerous.
Stories of Near Death Experiences have become the subject of best-selling books, movies and television shows. Likewise there are TV programs that tell the tales of disembodied souls preoccupied with unfinished business here on earth. Flip the channel again and hear of people who, in their grief, look for signs or seek out mediums in hopes of discovering that their loved ones are happy in death. While others insist that the dead cannot experience happiness or sadness because death is nothing more than a state of limbo. If you want a completely different take on it all, you can always find someone who is convinced that loved ones who have died become angels sent back to earth to look after us. It’s all so confusing—perhaps even for us Christians. Let’s face it, loss and sadness, fear and emptiness leave us susceptible to all kinds of strange ideas, ideas that don’t lessen our grief but only compound it as they attack our faith in Christ.
This is very reason why Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. “Fallen asleep” – is that just a delicate way of describing death? “He looks so peaceful.” “She looks like she could be sleeping.” Those are the sorts of things people say to fill those awkward moments of silence at the funeral home. Is that what Paul is doing? Not at all. He isn’t dressing up death. He’s defining it. For the Christian death is sleep. This is not wishful thinking. This is God’s truth made ours by the faith God gives us. Listen: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
Let’s back up for a moment. Death always involves separation. The Bible teaches that all of us were born spiritually dead. The sin we inherited from our parents separated us from life with God. That’s a terrible way to exist and an even worse way to die. In other words, if a person is still separated from God by sin at the time of physical death – the time when a person’s soul and body are separated, one from the other, then there is no hope. That soul and body are destined to be separated from God forever. This is eternal death in hell.
Now we can consider and appreciate what Paul has told us. When it comes to the physical death of a Christian, there is no reason for us “…to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Why? Because we believe that Jesus died. We believe, as Scripture promises that in his death Jesus took the sinner’s place in hell where he suffered God’s wrath as our Substitute and so united us to God by separating us from our sin. Sin is no longer ours and therefore no longer charged to our account. Thanks to Jesus, our sin is gone – dead and buried. We know this for a fact because Jesus left our sin and its punishment behind when he rose from the dead. He lives to keep his promise: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). Everyone who believes in Jesus is free from sin’s curse. For this reason, and this reason alone, the believer is declared by God to be his saint, one who is holy through the saving work of Christ. A saint has no sin to suffer for in death. And for the believer death is a mere sleep. To be more precise, it is the believer’s body that sleeps the grave, while the believer’s soul continues to live, wide awake in the mansions of heaven and in the company of Christ. This is what Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross? “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The souls of all believers are with Jesus in paradise. Together they are the saints triumphant, the holy one’s of God who now know and share in the perfect joy of Christ’s triumph over sin. “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17). Oh how this truth puts all our grief into its proper perspective. Yes, we grieve at the death of a believer. We grieve for ourselves—for our loss. After all, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus haven’t lost anything. They’ve gained everything. They now possess all that they have ever longed for and more in Christ. The joy that is theirs forever lessens the sorrow that for a brief time is ours—a sorrow that cannot last because we have so much to live for, so much to look forward to. This is what Paul is getting at when says: We don’t want you to be ignorant about those who are left till the Lord’s coming.
As we mourn for our loved ones who have died in Christ, we might have a silly notion that they are at some disadvantage. After all they are missing all the births and baptisms, the graduations and weddings that we get to attend. Their absence brings tears to our eyes. But these too are wiped away by the promises of a loving Savior whose Word reminds us, that while we cannot all be together for the gatherings of this present age, these will soon be replaced and overshadowed by a celebration that will never end, the grand reunion that will bring all us believers together forever. When it comes to this celebration there will be no advantage to one or the other, the living or the dead. Because no one will be late to the party. Paul says: “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16).
Paul has already told us that when our Savior returns God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. Constantly in his care and keeping, Jesus will bring the souls of our loved ones with him on the last day for one purpose – to reverse what death has done. Death has separated body and soul. As the One who has conquered death, Jesus will reunite the body and soul of every believer who has experienced physical death. In this way, the bodies sleeping in the grave will be awakened to new, unending life. And we who are still alive will be there to see and celebrate it all – moms and dads, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers together again and always.
“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Reunited as the saints of God, all of us, in what Paul elsewhere describes as the “twinkling of an eye” will be transformed from mortal to immortal. Jesus will give us bodies that can’t wear out so we can live a life that will not end. We’ll be caught up to meet Jesus in the air. This is how the Bible speaks of the rapture – not as an event that leaves some behind on earth to face a time of tribulation. It is the culmination of the Lord’s final judgment. We believers will stand with him safely in the air as he prepares below our feet the new heaven and the new earth that will serve as our last and lasting home.
“And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Paul has saved the best for last. We looked forward, and rightly so, to a happy reunion with all who have died in the Lord. But as wonderful as it will be to see again loved ones long parted from us, our greatest joy of all will be Jesus. Think of it, to be in the presence of the One who loves us so that he gave his very life to save us sinners for himself. Finally we will see his loving face, finally we will give him perfect praise and finally we will honor him as his saints triumphant. Picture the scene dear friends. Hold on to the vision and share it with each other every chance you get.
When the happiness of a family celebration is tempered by a loved one’s absence, use the occasion to remind each other of the family reunion our Lord has planned for us. That gathering could come yet today. But if it doesn’t, if the Lord delays his return, if the months and years ahead bring more funerals, remind each other that the believer’s casket is nothing other than a cozy bed. We’re simply tucking our loved one in for a short night of rest. The dawn will soon be here and when it comes it will be the voice of Jesus that rouses the believer from the sleep of death to a new, eternal day.
We don’t want you to be ignorant about these things or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. The Lord speaks about the death of his saints in such a clear and comforting way so that we can do the same. “Therefore encourage each other with these words!” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Amen.