Death, Hope, Resurrection, and Rapture

I preached this sermon at North Village Church on 7/13/2025 discussing 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

 

Introduction

Good morning everyone.  I want to welcome everyone to North Village Church this morning.  I am very glad to see you all.  For those of you I don’t know my name is Rhesa, and I helped start the church back in the day.  Also, I wanted to acknowledge Jerry Chou.  He was scheduled to teach this morning but became sick at the start of the week, and I am filling in.  I got notice on Tuesday so please bear with me, and thanks to Jerry for sending me his manuscript.  Just know, if anything I say this morning sounds insightful or intelligent, most likely, that is from Jerry’s sermon.

This Sunday we are going to go through 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  But before we go there, I would like to give a review of what we have learned so far in this book.  This will help us understand what Paul is teaching in this morning’s passage and why he is teaching it.

When I studied 1 Thessalonians years ago, I learned that the overall message is how to be “Blameless In the Day Of The Lord”.  In the first two chapters, we observe that the basis of blamelessness is the gospel.  You’ve heard that before if you have spent any time at North Village Church.  We read in 1 Thessalonians 1:5 that the believers in Thessalonica received the gospel IN POWER, IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, and WITH FULL CONVICTION.  The gospel isn’t just words that we speak, though it is a message that we tell others.  But we know from Romans 1:16 that the gospel is THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION.  It has inherent power like dynamite.  When we tell someone the gospel, when we speak the words, God is there in His power changing minds and converting souls.  That is exactly what happened in Thessalonica.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy showed up in the city.  They properly and accurately preached the gospel.  The Thessalonian church was born, and the church then started to live out the gospel and tell others about it.  Then in chapter 3, we observe that the church in Thessalonica is producing the fruit of the gospel.  Even while they are suffering affliction, they are demonstrating faith and love.

Then in chapter 4, after Paul recognizes that they are off to a good start, he calls for them to EXCEL STILL MORE.  He encourages them to show more faith and to show more love, and to be more and more sanctified (which means to be more obedient to Christ or to be made more holy).  After Paul calls them to excel still more in love, he writes out the verses we are going to cover today.  Remember the message of the book looks forward to the Day Of The Lord, also called the Last Days during the time period when Jesus comes back physically on the Earth.  So Paul starts with their past, moves to their present, and now he is encouraging them to keep moving forward into the future, to the very end.

Let’s read 1 Thessalonians 4:13:

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (NASB95) 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 

First, when Paul talks about those who are asleep, he is using a euphemism that was common in the ancient world, to refer to death as falling asleep.

Paul says he doesn’t want them, or us, to be uninformed, to be ignorant, regarding the meaning of death for Christians, so that you will not grieve the same way a non-Christian would grieve. Paul is reminding the Thessalonians, and reminding us, that death has a different significance for a believer.  I actually had a conversation with a friend of mine named Morgan at work about a month ago on just this subject.  He expressed that it can be difficult to talk to non-believers about death, because we as followers of Jesus have such a different perspective.

For an unbeliever, death is nothing but a cruel ending, a source of great fear, and a reason for despair.  It is the greatest tragedy in the universe, and there is no hope.  At best life is just over.  At worst, as we know, there is spiritual darkness, separation from God, and inescapable judgment.

If we share that perspective, we are reflecting the thinking of our culture. We are unwittingly letting the world shape our understanding of what death means. Paul does not want us to be uninformed about the new reality of our life and death in Christ.  In contrast, the death of a believer in the New Testament is consistently referred to as falling asleep. Because of the work of Christ, death takes on a new meaning. Death is now a temporary condition. Because Christ has conquered death, death no longer has the same hold on us.

Though to be sure we still experience death as a tragedy because humans aren’t supposed to die.  We share that intuition with non-believers, and it goes back to Genesis 1 and 2.  God created us to live forever with Him.  Therefore, we still experience grief when we hear someone has died. I’m sure when each of us heard about the tragic flash floods last week claiming the lives of so many, we immediately felt the weight of that news.  With each new story, there was a response of sadness and pain.  That is the normal response for any human being.  Verse 13 doesn’t say, hey Christians you will not feel grief or you should not feel grief anymore when someone dies.  What he says is that we shouldn’t grieve in the same way as those who have no hope.  

Hope is the key.  In the Bible, hope is not wishful thinking. It is not a sense of possibilities. It is looking forward with certainty regarding what is to come. Let’s look at several passages that help us define Biblical hope.

Romans 5:2-4 (NASB95) and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In this passage we learn several things about Biblical hope.  First, we exult in hope because we get to interact with the glory of God.  We also observe that for a believer hope is an outcome of tribulation.  Reflect on how that applies to our central passage this morning dealing with death.  Last, we read the statement that “hope does not disappoint.” because we have already received God’s love.  We already possess what we need from God.  Next, please read Titus 1:2 with me.

Titus 1:2 (NASB95)  2 … the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 

This verse teaches us that our hope is eternal life and that it is not based on wishful thinking.  It’s based on a promise that God has made.  Can we trust God to give us what He has promised?  Well, the verse says He can’t lie.  It is not even possible for Him.  This assures us of what we hope for in Christ.  Finally, let’s read 1 John 3:3 together.

1 John 3:3 (NASB95) 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

The 1 John 3 passages refers to a similar time period to our central passage.  It hints at a transformation that we will experience in the future.  The hope refers back to that transformation.  In verse 3, you see the power of Biblical hope.  Hoping in Jesus purifies you from sin.  Therefore it has great benefit for every day of your life.

Going back to how Christians should view death in light of our hope versus how non-believers view it, the theologian John Frame uses two letters from the second century after Christ to demonstrate the difference. The first is from a non-Christian, Lady Irene, who writes,

Irene to Taonnophris and Philo, good comfort. I was as sorry and wept over the departed one as I wept for Didymas. And all things whatsoever were fitting, I did . . . But, nevertheless, against such things one can do nothing. Therefore comfort ye one another.

Irene is described as experiencing ‘the difficulty of those whose business it is to console and who have no consolation to offer.’ All she could say was, against death, one can do nothing.

The second letter is from a Christian of about the same time, Aristides writes:

And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort the body as if he were setting out from one place to another near.

Death for a Christian is described as similar to going from one place to another. One perspective views death as the end of all hope. The other views death as a temporary journey to a future hope.

The next two verses show us the basis for this certainty in Chrisitan hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:14–15 (NASB95) 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Two things I want to point out here.  First, Paul knows that the Thessalonian church believes that Jesus died and rose again.  Verse 14 uses a first-class conditional statement, which means that the first part of the sentence is known to be true.  There are also 2nd-class and 3rd-class conditional statements.  In a 2nd-class condition, the initial phrase is assumed to be possible but unlikely.  An example is, “if my son grows to 7’ tall, then he has a great chance to play in the NBA.”  In a 3rd-class conditional statement, the initial phrase is written in the past tense about something that didn’t occur, to explain how a different action would have produced a different outcome.  An example is “If my daughter didn’t drive above the speed limit, she would not have been given a ticket by the police.”

But verse 14 uses a 1st-class conditional statement.  This means we can interpret the “if” to be a “since”, or “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again”.  I want to emphasize that the statement is certain in the same way that our “hope” in verse 13 is certain.  

The outcome of our belief is that “God will bring with Him those [of us] who have fallen asleep in Jesus”. This truth springs from the fact that when we believe in Jesus, we participate with Jesus spiritually in what He accomplished in the gospel.  He died to sin, so we died to sin.  He was raised from the dead to live a new life, therefore we are raised from the dead to live a new life.  We who have believed have already been resurrected spiritually, and a day is coming in the future when we will be resurrected physically as well, just like Jesus.

The second thing I want to point out about this passage is that someone had taught them a lie.  A false teacher had crept in and told them something that could threaten their ability to excel still more, it could short circuit their sanctification, and ultimately their blamelessness on the Day of the Lord.  Paul doesn’t explain the false teaching but he does refute it.  You can see it by how Paul answers it.  It goes something like this, “if you die before Jesus comes back, then you don’t get to be with Him when He comes back”.  It is unclear what other justification the false teacher gave for this statement, or what other detail went along with it.  However, we know the basic message because Paul says, that it isn’t true, Paul says ”when Jesus comes back, he will bring along all of those who have believed in Jesus and died.”  

Further than that, the Bible says that those who have already died, Jesus will gather to Himself first when He comes back physically.  The word used for “the coming of the Lord” is parousia.  It refers to the physical presence of someone, not merely spiritual.  So for clarification, when we die, our spirits go to Jesus to be with Him.  But what 1 Thessalonians 4 is talking about is physical in nature.  Going back to the false teaching, maybe it implied that those who died in Christ would be with Him spiritually but would miss out on physical resurrection.  We can’t know for sure, but that seems to be the message when reading between the lines.  But let me emphasize that the “coming of the Lord” is talking about His physical presence.  The same word is used multiple times to refer to Jesus, various people, and even the anti-Christ, and in each case the coming is physical.  Let’s look at a few more examples of how this word is used.  They are all from 1 Thessalonians since this event is key to understanding the letter.

1 Thessalonians 2:1 (NASB95) For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain,

The first use of the word “coming” describes when Paul and his missionary team showed up in Thessalonica.  It is clearly referring to them traveling physically.  There really is no other option.  In the same chapter we get a reference to Jesus’ coming.

1 Thessalonians 2:19 (NASB95) 19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

You get a double bonus in this verse because it mentions being “in the presence” of Jesus.  That phrase means being in a geographical location next to someone or something.  Then afterwards we get the same Greek work, parousia, for Jesus coming, that means a physical arrival.  Paul is setting up a precedence for how he uses the word “coming” throughout the book.  And there is more when you look at chapter 3.

1 Thessalonians 3:13 (NASB95) 13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

There you read the same event that we are reading about in chapter 4.  The word translated “coming” is the same word parousia.  Here we read that at His coming “all His saints will be with Him”.  That’s interesting.  I wonder what that could mean.  The last example comes from the last chapter of the book

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NASB95)  Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again.  We see the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ using the same words as we have seen before.  Now look at what happens at the coming of Jesus, “your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.”  There we have another reference to the existence of physical bodies when Jesus comes back.  We know this doesn’t talk about our current physical bodies, right?  These bodies we live in today will not be preserved.  They will all die and be buried.  They are infected with sin and must be replaced if we are truly going to be completely  “without blame” in the presence of God.  I hope I have established the nature of Jesus’ coming and at least partly how we participate in it.  But when does this “coming” happen?  Jesus answers this question Himself in Matthew 24:29-30:

29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

Do you hear the time phrase, immediately after the tribulation?  We don’t know when that will happen but we know after that Jesus comes back.  How do I know the event in Matthew 24 is the same event as in 1 Thessalonians 4?  Let’s read the next few verses.  Pay close attention to how similar Paul’s description is to Jesus’.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, right?  Since Jesus taught Paul about these events.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (NASB95) 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 

See there in verse 16, that the Bible repeats that God resurrects those who are dead in Christ first.  They didn’t miss their opportunity.  Jesus doesn’t arrive too late for them to have the hope of resurrection.  He starts with them.  Those who are still alive have to wait a little while before Jesus brings them along.

But both groups meet Jesus in the same place, the air, in the clouds.  Jesus descends down to Earth and during that time He collects all who believe in Him to Himself.  Jesus describes the event in Matthew 24:31 in this way:

 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Matthew 24 says Jesus gathers us to Himself from one end of the sky to the other.  1 Thessalonians 4:17 says that believers are “caught up together with Him in the clouds.” I hope you see how similar the language is between the two passages.  When people talk about this event today, they usually call it the “rapture”.  Rapture comes from the Latin word “raptus”, which was translated from the Greek word “arpazw”, which was then translated “caught up” in English.  In all 3 languages, the idea is “to catch (up), to pluck, to pull (away), or to take (by force).”  Combine that idea with Matthew 24:31 and you see that the purpose of the rapture is to gather all Christians together to Jesus as He descends from heaven to come back to the Earth.

This is a controversial topic among Christians..  There are lots of different opinions about the subject.  One opinion is that there is no rapture, but we see clearly from 1 Thessalonians 4 and Matthew 24 that this perspective is incorrect.  There is also a difference of opinion about when the rapture occurs, which revolves around the event called the tribulation.  You see that word in Mark 24:29, where it says the following events are after the tribulation.  This viewpoint is called a post-tribulation rapture.  Others base their stance on other verses in the Bible and say it happens before the tribulation, which is called a pre-tribulation rapture.  Some even say it happens in the middle.  We can differ on those details.  It isn’t foundational to the faith, but it is important to affirm that Jesus will resurrect and gather believers to Himself at some point in time.

This isn’t just theological minutiae.  I urge you all here this morning to not throw your hands up in frustration, and become a pan-millennial.  That is someone who says, “I don’t have any clue what is going to happen in the future but I know it will all pan out in the end”.  It is okay if you do that.  I get how confusing end times stuff can be.  But I hope this morning I have explained why even the subject of the end times is important to study.  We know that God thinks it’s important because He inspired men through the Holy Spirit to write about it.  He has a purpose for us in all the parts of the Bible.  I think that will become at least a little clearer when we read the last verse in our passage this morning.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. 

I love it when the application of a Bible passage is so clear.  There is no guess work required here.  You simply have to follow Paul’s command in verse 18.  He is commanding us through His authority as an apostle to “comfort one another with these words.”  What does he mean by “these words?”.  He means 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  The verses we just studied together.

It is comforting to know that Jesus is going to physically come back to the Earth in His resurrected body.  It is comforting to know that when Jesus is coming back, God is going to resurrect us and gather us to Him in the air.  It is comforting to know that from that point on through eternity we will physically live with Jesus.  Brothers and sisters, this is our hope.  These truths are why we can grieve death differently than the world does.

Remember, 1 Thessalonians is teaching us how to be blameless before God on the Day Of The Lord.  It starts with the gospel being preached.  Then the gospel radically changes you, and you start following Jesus, and you never stop.  1 Thessalonians instructs us to excel still more in faith and love. That process continues throughout the rest of our life, so that when Jesus comes back, we are ready to receive Him.

In order to follow this path, we will need encouragement.  We will need to be motivated and comforted.  Because we all will face situations that are  discouraging, where we lack hope.  At times the troubles of the world will feel overwhelming.  When you go through trials in your life, you may wonder how you're going to get through them.  In those moments remember 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  “These words” will bring you encouragement, motivation, perseverance, comfort, and hope.

Let’s pray.