How should we catagorize the last verse in this chapter? “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Is this a command – an authoritative “comfort one another”? If we make it into a command, doesn’t it loose some of its comforting properties? “If you don’t comfort others, you have sinned against Christ.” “If you aren’t easily comforted, you must lack spirituality.” Is this an exhortation, or is it merely a really good suggestion? “When you are in the midst of a period of persecution, or when your personal problems have mounted so high that you feel like are being crushed, or if you are suffering grief and loss, comfort yourself with thoughts on the return of Christ.” Although there is nothing wrong with comforting yourself with these words, the verse tells us to comfort one another. For lack of a better term, I think that I’ll call this a loving and helpful suggestion..
There is so much here to see and to learn in this scripture that is it is often quoted. But I have to admit that I don’t directly teach and preach from it as often as I should. It is a divisive text – it affects various people in such different ways. Some fear the things we find here, while others hate them. And others love these words and can’t get enough of them. I hope that you are among this last group of people. If you hate or fear this scripture, the only possible explanation has to be your distance from the Lord. Either you are lost and still in your sins. Or you are a Christian so filled with the sin and the world that you are blinded to the beauty of Christ. This is theological material over which some people get excited, but others just get bored. For some, this is like a room in a small museum – one of those into which you are permitted to enter. You can touch the tools or the furniture that our predecessors used a hundred years ago. Admittedly these furnishing may be antique, but they are still utilitarian. And their age and the craftsmanship used to put them together, make them valuable for various reasons.
Here we have Paul, one who loved the Lord with all this heart, with all his soul and with all his mind. He had “set his affection on things above not on things on earth.” He was “seeking first the kingdom of God and the Lord’s righteousness.” There was a magnet in glory, so strong upon his heart that he was ready leave immediately. Another Christian may be just as anxious for the translation of the saints. But he may be so faithless, tremulous and sinful that he only wants to escape his earthly responsibilities. This was not the way it was with Paul, and this is not as it should be with us. There are five key words which open up these six verses – ignorance, sorrow, faith, hope and comfort. May the Lord bless our brief study here this evening.
Our first key word is IGNORANCE – verse 13.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.” Despite being told that we live in a “day enlightenment” ignorance is a major implement in Satan’s control of our society. And as Brother Stewart pointed out a couple weeks ago, it appears that modern education has become a tool of Satan. But I have found that ignorance doesn’t need much Satanic encouragement. I used to be surprised by how little professing Christians know about the predominant themes of the Bible. Even the members and children of our church sometimes amaze me at how little they understand. Things which I know have been taught, are often not being heard or learned. Some, I fear, are even like the rich man of Luke 16. He was a member in the society of Israel during the days of the Lord Jesus. He may have been a worldling, or a Sadducee, but he was certainly not a hermit. He most likely had the standard Jewish education of the day, whether or not he believed a word of it. When you boil it down, he didn’t give two hoots for Jehovah, heaven or eternity. Then one day the scales fell off his eyes, and he found himself in Hell. He instantly became a fundamentalist, a Biblicist, and a missionary – but it was too late. If there wasn’t such an ignorance of Hell in our society, this church would be filled with heavenly petitioners. And if we had a true picture of Heaven, we would have different problems than the ones that plague us. If we knew the future rewards for faithfulness to the Lord it would revolutionize our lives with faithfulness. If we could see now what our lives will be like 200 years from now, we’d be dying to get into Heaven. How ignorantly so many professing Christians behave when one of their loved ones dies. This was one of the reasons that the Holy Spirit added this paragraph to Paul’s letter. There is a kind of Christian sorrow and there is an utterly different – worldly sorrow. But many Christians display the worldly variety. Is it selfishness or ignorance which makes us weep so uncontrollably over the departed Christian?
Satan is a minister of darkness and ignorance. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” And he has blinded the minds of a lot of professing Christians as well. The Devil will do anything to keep us from the joy that there is in the Lord. He’ll bend over backwards keep the lost in ignorance of their fate and Christians of their potential in Christ. So he opiates us with worldly entertainment and secular activities.
But Christ on the other hand has an entirely different kind of ministry. John began his gospel by reminding us that Christ is the light of the world – as opposed to darkness. Christ came into world to reveal the heart of God. “Jesus saith unto (Thomas), I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.”
And then Paul comes to us pleading for a bit of intelligence. Ignorance had robbed these Christians in Thessalonica of some other keys to this passage. “Wake up”, says Paul, “Open your eyes, learn, and throw off that gloominess of yours.” Ignorance is like the little pack-rat who trades buttons for silver spoons. The soil of North America has been enjoying nearly 200 years of continual peace. But during the War of 1812 it was no so. The Americans burnt the city of York which was eventually rebuilt and became Toronto. And then the British tried to do the same with Washington DC. Finally on December 12, 1814 the Treaty of Ghent was signed, in Belgium. However word was slow in traveling, and the Battle of New Orleans was fought after peace had been declared. Hundreds of lives were uselessly lost and wasted because of ignorance.
What is your Biblical I.Q. after all these years as a Christian? For example, do you selfishly wish that you could stay a little longer in this sin-cursed world? Do you foolishly hope that Christ does not return to earth today? We could go off into a hundred other areas, but that would take us away from our scripture. Ignorance is something that is a genuine thief among God’s people. “I would not have you to be ignorant brethren.”.
Another interesting word in this scripture is SORROW – verse 13.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” The Lord Jesus and Paul were in obvious agreement about the condition of the deceased Christian. When a body is placed in his grave it is better than a seed in the garden – it will flower – guaranteed. When Christ Jesus spoke about dead Lazarus, he confused the disciples by saying that he was “asleep.” They shouldn’t have been mistaken, but they were. And Paul uses the same terminology, for the same reason that Christ did. He was talking about the bodies, not the souls, of the saints, when he said that they were “asleep.” There is not one physically dead body that shall not awake and rise from this earth. And it doesn’t matter if it is buried in dirt, in sea water, or cremated in flames or with explosives. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
So the Bible elsewhere teaches that every grave shall be opened and all shall arise. But THEN will come some significant differences. Some shall be raised to a new life in glory, while others will be raised only to be cast into the Lake of Fire. These Thessalonians apparently were thinking that of their Christian friends were somehow going to miss the blessings of the Lord’s return. Some of them seemed to have the false impression that there is no difference between the Christian dead and those from among the non-Christians. Paul quickly stepped in to remedy that confusion – there is a difference between the futures of those two groups of people. If you loose a friend or loved one to Hell, then you have reason to dissolve your heart in a bath of tears. But can we grieve over Lazarus who free from his boils and starvation, is basking in the love of the Lord? “Sorrow not as others which have no hope” – there is the command of the Lord – or is it an exhortation?
A third interesting and important word is BELIEVE – verse 14.
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Notice the word that virtually begins this verse – “For IF.” It raises a rhetorical question: Can there be any doubt about Jesus’ resurrection? None whatsoever. There is abundant and overwhelming proof of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It takes a ton of wilful denial of the evidence to reject either Jesus’ death or His resurrection. And Paul says, “if Christ arose, and we are sure that He did, then we can go on to other conclusions.”
Do you have faith enough to believe that Christ is living today? If I didn’t think so, I’d not be here right now. If Christ be not raised, then it would be foolish to be a Christian. By nature, I would rather be a rank humanist and a sensualist. Paul says that based upon the resurrection of Christ comes the resurrection of believer in Christ. If you can believe the one then you should be able to believe the other as well. If we are new creatures in Christ, then the life that He possesses and gave to us, we should now enjoy. Furthermore we shall enjoy it throughout eternity, whether we leave this world through death or translation.
Notice that the souls of the dead Thessalonian Christians were already with the Lord. Just as we read again and again in the Old Testament: “so-and-so died and was gathered to his people.” That is not a play on words telling us that Abraham and others were buried – it is much more. Their bodies were buried, but their souls joined their redeemed relatives on the other side of death. For example, David eventually died and went to be with his little son who had died earlier. He said, “Now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
Some like to say that this Thessalonian text applies only to those who have been saved since Christ died. But I believe that there is only one way of salvation – it is through Christ Jesus and His sacrifice for sin. I believe that Romans 3:25 puts all saints – both from the Old Testament and New Testament – in Christ. I believe that I’ll meet Adam after my translation – and I’ll meet Samuel, Solomon, Daniel and Elijah. Those who are alive and remain at Christ’s coming will meet together in the air with only time to nod our greetings to one another before moving on.
Believe it – just as Jesus rose from dead, so shall all the saints of the Lord. Deny it, if you like, but you will deny at same time the testimony of God. And that is a dangerous thing to do.
Our fourth interesting word is HOPE – verses 13, 15-17.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
In Titus 2:13 Paul tells us to look for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. This blessed hope includes our translation and departure from this globe. Years ago, in what seems to have been a different lifetime than this, I was preaching to a congregation of French Canadian Baptists. As I did a man stood beside me, and repeated in French everything that I said in English. It was my word, my idea, and my thought, but it was translated into a new language. Then just a few years ago, I was in a meeting in Stillwater, Oklahoma, preaching to a small group. For the most part, those people could only understand Spanish, and I know almost no Spanish. But our missionary translated my words into their language so that those people could understand. At the Lord’s coming, like my words, I shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. It will still be me, but I will be transcribed into a much better language.
This is the HOPE of the Saint, the assured, but incomplete promise of the Lord. And Paul expected to be among those alive at that translation, because he believed it was imminent. It is Biblically wrong to look for death or the Great Tribulation rather than the coming of Christ.
Verse 15 contains a word which has changed its meaning since our King James Bible was written. Those who dislike the preacher’s periodic referral to Greek will never understand that “prevent” doesn’t refer to stopping the translation of other people. It is referring to the fact that the living will not “precede” those who have died. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” For some reason, the Lord has ordained a precise order in this resurrection/translation. And verse 16 speaks about Jesus Himself returning for us – this will be a literal return. There will be an actual shout and a literal blast of a trumpet, but these might be heard only by the righteous. Then immediately the sleeping bodies of the dead in Christ shall rise and be changed. And we who are yet alive shall also be changed and caught up to meet the Lord and the others in the air.
This beloved, is the hope of the Saint – the fourth key word in the text.
And the last is found in verse 18 – COMFORT.
“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” It should do the heart good to know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” The Thessalonians were being persecuted for their faith, and some were dying under that persecution. Others were dying more natural deaths, but they were dead nevertheless. And yet the promise of the Lord give all saints cause for rejoicing and comfort. “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
“It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus; our trials will seem so small when we see Christ.” But that is assuming that you are actually a child of God, rather than a child of the world. Which do you love more, Christ or the things of the world? For which do you yearn more, the return of the Saviour or the arrival of some anticipated earthly event? Are you sure that you “have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”