Good Monday morning friends, today is June 3 and we are reading together 1 Thessalonians 4.
May I invite you to begin your reading today with the last verse of chapter 3, for this powerful statement serves as a preamble to Chapter 4… “May He (Jesus) strength your hearts, so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.” (3:13)
Both of the great themes of this 4th chapter are found in this verse. First is Paul’s call to God honoring, holy living. Second is the soon return of Jesus to earth.
Note vs. 7 “For God did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life.” Every town Paul has visited thus far in his journeys were so very much like our towns and cities today. Everywhere in the world, when people gather to live in clusters of humanity, there is business, education, health care, law and order, religion and social activity. The normal human interaction in all this surfaces our personalities, character, attitudes, and as a result the contrasting worlds of right and wrong, honest and deceitful, fair and injustice.
Jesus’ primary message was that God created humanity IN HIS IMAGE, and thus God has a design for how humans life is to be lived. That design calls for a loving and honorable relationship with God which is gained and nurtured through Jesus Christ, both here on earth and for all eternity in heaven.
In contrast, the devil, as we know, has an opposite design for human life, and the sin nature with which we are born like a magnet, draws us continually to this dark, selflish, destructive lifestyle. Satan’s desire is that we each live in the quagmire of this painful dysfunction, die in regret, and spend eternity with him in the endless pain of hell.
Paul spends the first 12 verses of chapter four calling his readers to look closely at their lifestyles and evaluate…let’s do the same, my friends. Are our lives honoring to God, helpful to each other, building a healthy and wholesome society or. . .the ugly alternative? Paul is asking a simple question: “what difference is Jesus making in your life”?
Don’t you love his challenge and encouragement in vs. 11 & 12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anyone.” Wow! How would your extended family, your neighborhood, community, even your church be different if everyone who claimed a relationship with Jesus lived like that everyday?
The second major theme of this 4th chapter is vs. 13-18 which you’ve probably heard at Christian funerals. We understand Paul uses the phrase “fall asleep” to represent what we call, death. He uses “fall asleep” here and the phrase “depart” or “departure” in other of his letters to emphasize the transitional nature of death. Death, as we know it, is the separation of our immortal soul & spirit, from our very temporary, aging, slowly decaying physical body, right? And death will be every human being’s experience, no exceptions.
Verse 14 is very important. Link it with chapter 3:13 and you will see two vital truths. Jesus is returning to earth, as he left. That’s what the angels explained at His ascension in Acts 1:11. It’s what Jesus spoke of with His disciples when He said “…I am going to prepare a place for you…and I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be were I am.” (John 14:1-3) No one knows exactly when, but Jesus will return, as He left. Visibly and intentionally.
That begs the question WHY? We understand why He came the first time… to accomplish the Father’s Redemption plan for us. Jesus became our ransom, our atonement sacrifice, our liberator!
But why this next time? Look at vs. 16&17. One of Jesus’ purposes in His second coming is to gather together all His people, both alive and dead, and give them resurrected, heavenly bodies to live forever with Him.
Please look very closely at the second part of 1 Thessalonians 4:14 “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.” Who are these? Where are they now before Jesus’ return? How will Jesus bring them with Him when He returns to earth? These are everyone who has ‘died’ as a Christian. They trusted Jesus for their salvation during their lifetime and when they died, their soul & spirit went to be with Jesus, while their body was buried or burned or in some other way disposed of. Their souls & spirits are alive with Jesus in God’s presence, so when Jesus returns, He brings them with Him!
That’s what Paul meant when he wrote “absent from the body is present with the Lord” in 2 Cor. 5:8; and also what he meant when he wrote “I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far.” (Phil. 1:23) We’ll look at both of these, and other similar verses when we read those chapters. These and many verses show us clearly when a Christian ‘dies’ their body remains here and begins to decay immediately, while their soul & spirit goes immediately to be with Jesus. Without a body? Yes. God is Spirit and there is no need presently for us to have physical bodies in the place where God, Jesus, the angels, and the departed Christians are right now. Our glorified bodies won’t be needed till later and that’s part of why Jesus will return again, to give us heavenly bodies!
Verse 15 & 16 give a more detailed explanation of this remarkable return often called Jesus’ ‘second coming’ or perhaps you’ve heard the phrase ‘the rapture’. Do you see several very important points Paul clarifies here.1. Many people will be alive and eyewitnesses to Jesus’ return. It will be unexpected but very real. 2. A loud announcement will accompany Jesus’ return. Perhaps something like the angelic choir in Luke 2, maybe something entirely different… but it will be attention grabbing I can assure you. Everyone will witness it! 3. A resurrection will take place. Suddenly…all over the world, anything that remains of the bodies of Christians who have already died, will rise up and be transformed into a heavenly, glorified, immortal body and be reunited with their soul & Spirit which Jesus has brought with Him from heaven. Can you picture it? How many hundreds of millions of Christians from all time past, will be resurrected and reunited with their soul & spirit in that moment? Of course God doesn’t need anything left of our old bodies to create a new one, right? So don’t worry about the ‘dust to dust’ affect of time, or cremation, or those whose bodies are pulverized in explosions or similar deaths. God needs nothing to create new bodies for His people.
What can you imagine this will be like?
Will we see it… oh, my yes! How do I know… when Jesus rose, His new body was similar to the body which has been crucified, but it was a healed, and seen by many, yet a different and glorified body. You might want to re-read John 20 or Luke 24 to refresh your memory on Jesus’ resurrected body. We have every reason to believe our resurrected bodies will be very similar. 1 Corinthians 15 is a more detailed explanation of our resurrected bodies.
Now do you see what verse 17 says my friends, about all those Christians who are alive here on earth at the instant Jesus returns and this global resurrection is taking place? “we…will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” It means those who are alive and living normal lives in this instant, will experience a radical transformation, as their bodies will be changed immediately into the same type of heavenly body the resurrected have received…and there will be a grand, family reunion in the air.
God’s family from all time in history, united with Jesus in the air, all of us with heavenly bodies. And then what?“And so we will be with the Lord forever.” You’ll notice dear friends, Paul is not giving us a detailed account of future events like the Millennial Kingdom reign of Christ; or the Great White Throne Judgement; or so many other future events outlined in Revelation, Daniel and other prophetic Scriptures. Paul is answering two questions… is Jesus really coming back again and what happens after we die?
And then Paul’s final statement in chapter 4… “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Paul wants us to understand that God knows this life can be painful for us. But we are not saved only for this life… we are saved also to live with Jesus for eternity…and to get from here to there either our bodies die and our souls & spirit’s go to be with Jesus, until the resurrection when He gives the dead new bodies, or we receive new, heavenly bodies when He comes and transforms us instantly.
It’s either resurrection or transformation for ALL Christ followers of ALL time. And those new, heavenly bodies are immortal, designed to live with Jesus in heaven forever! Now that’s reason for celebration, do you agree?
Have a great Monday… keep your eye open, Jesus might come today!
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)