Eternal Encouragement - 1&2 Thessalonians
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
June 8, 2025 :: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
There are some really encouraging words in this passage today, and Paul says that we are not just supposed to be encouraged by these words, but to encourage each other with these words.
So my goal in this message today is to encourage you with these words and to encourage you to encourage each other with these words! Does that make sense? We are not fully obeying this verse until we have encouraged someone else with these encouraging words.
Our summer series on these two letters is called “Eternal Encouragement,” and I hope it has been encouragement to you already. It has to me.
The last section, that we looked at last week, was really encouraging because Paul said that these folks were doing really well and just to keep the up good work. They were striving to please God with their whole lives. They were living out a holy sexuality with their bodies. They were loving their brothers and sisters in Christ and not being a burden to each other. And Paul said, “Well done, you, keep it up. Do that more and more and more and more.”
But the words in this section, the last 6 verses of chapter 4 are maybe even more encouraging because they are directly about the return of Jesus Christ.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
We’ve noted that Paul talks a lot about the return of Christ in these two letters. He mentions it at least once in every chapter. But now, he’s not going to just mention it, but to go deeper into teaching about it and its relevance to their (and our) daily lives. Because Paul was concerned that the Thessalonians may have not understood some important things about the Lord’s return. Specifically, about how it related to Christians who had already died. Look with me at verse 13.
“Brothers [and sisters], we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope” (v.13).
Paul was concerned that there was something lacking in their understanding about those disciples of Jesus from Thessalonica who had already died (see 3:10). When he says, “those who fall asleep” in verse 13, 14, and 15, he doesn’t mean people who got sleepy during a long sermon. They might not be missing anything too important!
He’s using “sleep” as a metaphor for death. Where have we seen that before? Have we, perhaps, recited a famous passage in the Book of Daniel about that already this morning?
“Multitudes who [what?] sleep in the dust of the earth...” (Dan. 12:2)
We say at funerals that the deceased’s body is being “laid to rest.” Jesus said that Lazarus had fallen asleep, and what He meant was that Lazarus had died.
That’s why he mentions “grief.” Because the Thessalonians were confused about those who had already died.
Now, it’s not 100% clear what their exact point of confusion was. Some, perhaps, had missed what Paul had taught them already about the resurrection and the return of Christ. They weren’t there that day. Others, perhaps, had misunderstood what they had been taught. It seems like they thought that maybe their loved ones were really missing out on something important if they died before the Lord returned.
Some may have gotten the idea that no Christian would die before the Lord returned. Paul had taught them that the return of Jesus could be very soon, and so they all might have expected it to happen right then, and then be shocked when some of them died before Jesus came back. What happens to them?! Did they miss it?!
Paul had taught them that the return of Christ was going to be glorious. And, here, their brother or sister in Christ had died, and did that mean that they were going to miss Jesus’ return?
Some of them might have even thought that the dead were going to miss heaven altogether. Because Paul says he didn’t want them to grieve like the rest of the population that have no hope.
Does that mean that Christians should not grieve? Do followers of Christ feel bad and weep and cry when their Christian loved ones die? Yes, often, yes. Is it bad if we do? Of course not. What did Jesus do at the tomb of his friend Lazarus? John 11:35 (shortest verse in the Bible), “Jesus wept.”
His tears were perfectly appropriate, and so are ours when we have to say “goodbye” to a loved one. Even if it’s not “Goodbye forever,” but “See you soon.” Jesus knew that He was going to raise Lazarus, and yet He wept.
So, yes, we grieve, but we do not grieve like the rest of the population who have no hope. If our loved one belonged to Jesus, we have hope!
For the world, death is the end. If you are an atheist, then you think that when you die, that’s it. There is no more. There is no more you. There’s nothing to hope for, nothing to hope in. No hope.
But it’s different for us who belong to Jesus. We grieve, but we grieve with hope. And verse 14 says what our true hope is:
“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.”
I want to summarize the encouraging words of this passage in three points, and here’s the first one.
Encourage each other with these words:
#1. JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN, AND SO WILL ALL OF US!
Amen. Isn’t that encouraging?! Say that to the person sitting next you. Say their name, and then say, “Jesus died and rose again, and so will all of us!” That is, if we belong to Jesus and if we die, then we will rise again.
Paul starts with what we know based on what has already happened. Jesus had died and has come back to life. He has laid down and gotten back up again. It actually says, “He died,” not just that He fell asleep. No quiet metaphor here for Jesus.
We know how He died. He was crucified. And we know why He died. He was bearing our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).
That’s why it’s good news that He died. Because He was dying in our place. But He did not stay dead. He got up again.
Do you believe that? I do! That may be the craziest thing we all believe as Christians, and we believe a lot of crazy things! We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that means that our sins are paid for and that He is going to bring us back to life, as well.
You and I may die, but if we belong to Jesus, we are not going to stay dead!
A lot of people think that the point of Christianity is that when we die we go to heaven. And, praise God, when we die, our souls do go to be with Jesus (see 2 Cor 5:8, Philippians 1:21-24).
But that’s not the end of the story! We believe that we are going to come back to life, body and soul reunited (see Romans 8:11, 1 Cor. 6:14, 1 Cor. 15:12-25, 2 Cor 4:14, Col. 1:18).
And that’s guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus. Remember on Easter, how we said that Jesus is the “firstfruits?” The early crop that shows how the harvest is going be. Because Jesus lives again, we will live again!
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life...” (Dan. 12:2).
The unimaginable power that brought Jesus back to life will bring you and me back to life one day, someday, too. And that’s true, not just of us, but of all the Christians who have died including all of the Christians that you and I have known and loved and lost.
I said the other day that I have never preached through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. I’ve preached from these books, but never through them. But I have preached this passage several times. Because it is very appropriate for the funeral of a Christian.
I preached it at my Grandma Mitchell’s funeral in 1999. My dad’s mom. Grandma has been gone now for almost 26 years. But I expect to see her again. Because Jesus died and rose again and so will she. She hasn’t missed out.
Ever walk through a graveyard and see the names of the Christians buried there? Some you may know. Most you do not. One day, every single one of them is going to come out. And they are not going to miss out on the return of Christ! Verse 14 again.
“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.”
When Jesus returns, He’s not leaving His sleeping followers in their graves. He’s bringing them with Him! And not just their souls but their bodies, as well. And we know that on the authority of Jesus Himself. Look at verse 15.
“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.”
Do you follow that? It’s a little twisty, but it’s wonderful. Paul says the Lord Himself has revealed this. I’m not sure when He did. I don’t think it’s directly taught in the Gospels though Jesus did talk a lot about His return in the Gospels.
He may have taught this then, but it wasn’t recorded in the Gospels. We know He taught many things that didn’t make it into Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There wasn’t room (remember John 21:25!). Or maybe, He revealed it directly to Paul, and now Paul is giving it to them. Any of those could be when, but what we know for certain is that Paul knew for certain that this was from Jesus Himself.
And that is that we who are alive when the Lord comes (the “parousia”) will not be privileged ahead of those who have died!
He’s saying, “Don’t worry, Thessalonians, your loved ones will not lose their place. They will not miss out. You are not going to have the greatest experience of seeing the return of Christ with your own eyes, and your dead loved ones just missed the boat and are out of luck.”
No, no, no. If anything, they will have the front row seat. Look at verse 16.
“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. [V.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.”
They are not going to miss anything!
How encouraging that must have been for these precious people to read.
“The dead in Christ will rise first.”
Now, I don’t think that means that they will be the first to be resurrected, though that’s probably also true (see Revelation 20:4-7).
I think he means that before the next thing that he’s going to talk about in verse 17, first, the dead in Christ will be resurrected. This is the order of things. Jesus died and rose again, and so will all of us (if we die)! And it will happen in this way. Listen to verse 16 again.
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven...”
The Lord Himself. He doesn’t just send somebody. He’s coming in His own flesh. His own body. The same body that He died in and rose with and ascended with.
And He’s coming...in loud! V.16 “...with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God...”
That sounds loud to me! When the Lord comes, He’s going to issue a very loud order. Remember when He was at tomb of his friend Lazarus, after He was done weeping, what did He say? “Lazarus, come out!” And we said last year that maybe if He hadn’t specified “Lazarus,” that everybody would have come out!
Perhaps the loud command here is, “My people, come out!” And all of the Christians who have died will obey! They will be getting up out of their tombs. They’ll be rising up out of the sea if they were buried in the ocean. Their molecules will reassemble and reform if their ashes were spread somewheres.
And not like zombies. It doesn’t say so here, but Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 and Philippians 3, that their bodies will be changed, transformed to be like His glorious body. These are the just the undead. These will be the truly alive.
Church, this is not a metaphor or a bed time story; this is what’s going to happen! Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant about this! He wants us all to know this and to be encouraged by it. And encourage each other by it!
“The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel...”
Who’s that? Who is the only archangel who is named in the Bible? What’s his name? Michael. Remember him from Daniel chapter 10...and chapter 12 where our memory verse is found (see Jude 9, as well)? The archangel is yelling, too.
And somebody is playing a trumpet! Trumpets in the Bible aren’t so much for music as they are for assembly and announcing God’s marching orders.
All three of these loud noises are there to wake up the sleeping and get them going. Even if their sleep is the sleep of death!
“And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
And notice it doesn’t say the “sleeping in Christ.” It’s really clear here. These folks were totally dead, and they will be totally alive. And they will totally not miss the return of Christ!
Encourage each other with these words:
#2. JESUS WILL COME BACK FOR ALL OF US!
Amen?! He’s coming back, and He’s coming back for all of His people. Isn’t that encouraging?
Say that to your neighbor. Encourage the person next to you. Say their name, and then say, “Jesus will come back for all of us!”
That’s the point that Paul is making in the first part of verse 17. Look at that.
“After that [after the dead in Christ rise first, then], 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.”
“Together with them.” You see how it’s all of us? It’s not just those who are alive when the Lord returns. And it’s not just the those who have died before the Lord returns. It’s both at the same time. It’s them, and us, and Jesus together. Nobody misses out. None of Jesus’ people miss out.
Jesus is going to come back for all of us.
The Greek word translated “caught up” in verse 17 is “harpazo,” and it means “snatched up, or swept up, suddenly.” It’s often a violent word. Like somebody got grabbed or swept away like by a rushing river. And, of course, this is the opposite of being swept away into death, this is being swept up into the life that is truly life!
The Latin translation of “harpazo” is “rapiemur” from “rapio” which is where we get our English word “rapture.” The alive in Christ will be “raptured” together with the formerly dead in Christ “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”
Let me ask you a question: When is this going to happen? When is Jesus going to come back for us?
Answer: I don’t know...and that’s okay.
All I know is that it will be soon. And that “soon” is a very elastic term. I also know it’s closer now than it ever has been.
The Bible is very clear on the fact that it will happen and very vague about when it will happen. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that at that point He didn’t know!
And I’m sure that Paul didn’t know either. Some people think that Paul expected to be alive himself when the Lord returned because he says, “we who are alive and are left” in verse 17.
But that’s just because he was alive then. The “we” are any Christians who are alive when Jesus returns. “We” will be taken up together with those who had already died.
And there are several different opinions among faithful Bible-believing Christians about when this rapture will take place in relation to the other events of the “End Times,” especially that dark time period we often call “The Great Tribulation.”
The three main views are called:
The Pre-tribulational rapture.
The Mid-tribulational rapture.
And the Post-tribulational rapture.
So it’s whether the rapture happens before, during, or after the tribulation.
Some of you have never heard of these things. Some of you have heard too much about these things. Some of you have been taught that there’s only one right way to think about these things.
If you want to find out more about the different arguments for the different views, I recommend this book by three different distinguished professors from Trinity that presented all three main views at what we now call the EFCA Theology Conference, back in 1981.
Which one is right? I’m not sure, and that’s okay.
I think it’s okay for us to differ on this. All three positions are acceptable within the Statement of Faith of the EFCA.
Article 9 says, “We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.”
If can agree about all of that, then we can disagree about the timing of Christ’s return and be just fine. Because we can’t change it, anyway about it.
I heard someone say once, “We’re not on the planning committee. We’re on the welcoming committee.”
And we need to be ready to welcome Him!
I was taught the pre-tribulational rapture position when I went to Bible school, and I respect that viewpoint and revere all of my teachers. It very well may be right, and it makes sense of a lot of the biblical data. It might very well be your position, and praise God if it is.
Over time, however, I have come to lean in the direction of the post-tribulational rapture position.
One reason is that this “rapture” does not seem very “secret” to me. It seems loud and public. With resurrections and shouts and trumpets.
And the word translated “to meet” the Lord (“apantaysis” in verse 17) was often used to describe the reception of a dignitary, perhaps a king, and the people who come out meet him then turn around and come back with him on his royal visitation (see Matthew 25:6, Acts 28:15 for examples of this word in action. Is that what is meant by “bring with Jesus” in verse 14?).
Perhaps that’s the picture here. All of Jesus’ people being swept up into the air when Jesus returns and then following Him down to earth to inaugurate His kingdom.
But it does not say that outright. It only says that they will be caught up together with each other in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. It doesn’t say where they are after that, in heaven or on earth.
It does say, however, WHOM they will be with! V.17
“And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
#3. ALL OF US WILL BE WITH THE LORD FOREVER!
Encourage each other with these words!
Say that to your neighbor. "Neighbor, all of us will be WITH the Lord forever!”
Yes, forever. As in, there will be no end to our “withness” with the Lord. We will never be separated from Him in any way that matters.
Right now, we have His Spirit in us. Hooray for Pentecost! But we are away from Him, bodily. And those who have died are with Him in their spirits. Absent from the body means present with the Lord. But they are not with him bodily either.
But one day, and one day soon, we will all be–body and soul together–reunited, resurrected, raptured, and with the Lord Jesus forever!
All of us!
That’s the emphasis here. That we’re together with each other and Him. Nobody left behind. Nobody second class. Nobody missing out.
Everybody caught up together in the clouds to meet the cloud rider, the Son of Man who approached the Ancient of Days and received a kingdom that would never pass away (Daniel 7:13-14).
The King of Kingdoms. And we will never leave His presence.
Never, never, never. With the Lord forever, with the Lord forever, with the Lord forever.
No wonder, Paul says (v.18), “Therefore encourage each other with these words!”
This time last year, we were studying chapter 14 of the Gospel of John where Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be [what?] with me that you also may be where I am” (Jn. 14:1-3).
It doesn’t get any better than that. And it doesn’t matter what your position on eschatology is, because it’s the same for all of us, “We will be with the Lord forever.”
What is the application of all this glorious truth? It’s verse 18, “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
Encourage each other with these words!
Take these words and encourage each other with them. Write them on a card and give them to a brother or sister in Christ. Remind your brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus died and rose again and if we die, we will rise, too! Remind your brothers and sisters in Christ that the Lord himself will come down from heaven for all of us. Remind your brothers and sisters in Christ that we will be with the Lord forever. And encourage them with these words.
Remember, encouragement comes in two major flavors: consolation and exhortation. I think the emphasis here is on consolation. These are comforting words. This is not just helpful information. This is consolation. “Comfort each other with these words.” Say these words to someone, and say that this is going to make everything okay.
It’s right for us to say these things at a funeral for a Christian. Don’t just say, “He’s in a better place.” Especially if he’s not. But if the one who died is a Christian, say, “He will not miss the return of Christ! He will not miss the resurrection. He will not miss the great reunion.”
It’s right for us to encourage each other that the dead in Christ will not miss out on anything truly important. And it’s right to tell each other that on our deathbeds. When I’m on my deathbed, and you come to visit me, I want you to remind me of this.
“Matt, you’re dying. But you’re not going to miss the return of Christ. You’re not going to miss the resurrection. Matt, you’re not going miss the great reunion in the air.”
Because this is our blessed hope. Brothers and sisters, encourage each other with these words.
Urge each other with these words. The emphasis here is on comfort, but the other flavor of exhortation is also true. These words should spur us on. Our statement of faith says, “The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.”
We’re going to talk about that more next week when get into chapter 5.
Encourage each other with these words. Because are not obeying this verse if we just believe these words. We are not obeying this verse even if we are just encouraged by these words. We are not fully obeying this verse until we are encouraging other believers with these words.
Now we know. We are not ignorant. We have been taught, and we are now responsible for what we do with what we know.
“Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
***
Messages in this Series:
01. "To the Church of the Thessalonians" - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
02. "We Loved You So Much" - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
03. "You Are Our Glory and Joy" - 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
04. "Do This More and More" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
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