Text: 1Thessalonians 4: 13-18
Years ago, there was a great physician know for his healing skills. Back then, many people could tell you how this man saved their lives. Needless to say, the sick and suffering kept him very busy, So busy that he and his co-workers were exhausted by the end of the day.
One day a man came to him and begged for his help. You see, this man loved his daughter very much and she was sick, so very sick. The desperate father pleaded that he come to his home. And to his great relief, this busy man agreed to make a house call.
For the first time the father was hopeful for his daughter. But as they made their way, someone came to him with some dreadful news. His twelve year old daughter, his only child, had died.
It must have felt like a punch to his gut. It seemed that all was lost. Too late for a house call. Yet the physician did not turn back. He went on. He even told the father something that seemed too good to be true.
Picture the scene. They arrive at the house where people are wailing with grief. The father and mother go inside with the man and his coworkers. They enter the room where the lifeless body of the young girl lays. But before they go in the man says to the people outside, Stop wailing, She is not dead, but asleep.
The Bible tells us the people laughed. You can understand why. After all, the girl was dead. And no one could change that—except this man who came to this house that day. Only he could make these words so true. She is not dead, but asleep. For the One who spoke them is not just a man. He is the very Son of God, our Savior. And with God nothing is impossible.
Have you ever been inside such a room? Have you ever looked upon the lifeless body of a loved one who died believing in Christ? If you have, you know what grief is all about. If you haven’t, you know a fellow Christian who has. Their little boy or girl. Their beloved husband or wife, father or mother who have died in the Lord. To each one of us who knows such grief, to each of us who will know it someday, Jesus says something that seems too good to be true. He says something that we can hold tightly as we commit that lifeless body to the earth. He [or she] is not dead, but asleep.
And this is where this Word of God comes in. For here God comes to us with words that can temper our grief. He comes with words that can fill that painful void in our hearts with something this world cannot give—hope. And not a wish. Not a maybe, but a hope that you and I and every grieving Christian heart can look forward to:
The Hope of Life Together as the Saints Triumphant
13 Brothers, 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. Every person grieves the loss of a loved one. There would be something wrong if we didn’t shed tears. There would be something wrong if we didn’t ache inside. But when that loved one has died trusting in his/her Savior our grief is not the grief of a dead end with nothing more to follow. Think about it. What did Jesus call that young girl’s death? What did he make it? A sleep.
Well here Christ’s apostle call the Christians death the very same. A sleep. Not once but three times. And when someone goes to sleep, what do we expect? We expect that person to wake up, maybe sooner, maybe later. So yes, we grieve but we grieve with that hope.
You see, our Christian faith does not leave us stranded in the pain of that moment. No, the Holy Spirit dresses our wounded hearts with the hope that is ours in Christ. 14 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
Think about it. We know and believe that the very Son of God suffered and died for us and all people. He suffered the wages of our sin. He suffered what we deserve so that we could be spared on the day of Judgment. But death did not have the last word with Jesus, did it? That’s why we are here on Sunday mornings instead of say another day. For on a Sunday morning long ago, that body of Mary’s son, given in death, became alive once more. He came out of that tomb. So death did not have the last word with Jesus. Life did.
Well now by faith you are united with Christ. In your baptism, the Holy Spirit united you to him. So now his death to take away sin is yours. But not just his death. Also his victory over death. That victory belongs to every Christian. So that the obituary that says ‘he died’ is not the last word for that body in the grave. No, life is. The Hope of Life Together as the Saints Triumphant.
5 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. It seems that some of these Christians were worried about their fellow Christians who had died. They worried their loved ones would somehow miss out when the Lord Jesus comes on the last Day. More than once God’s Word pictures it like a joyful wedding celebration that would be sad to miss.
Well these people worried that they would go on without them. And in a way, what we see at the grave site might say the same. For we go on in this life without those we leave there.
But no, the apostle tells us. 16For 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. Now don’t misunderstand. We know that when a Christian dies, angels carry his soul to be with Jesus in the paradise of heaven. But that is only until that great day to come. The Day of Resurrection. The Day when those bodies fallen in weakness, pain and death will rise. They will awake to live and not as they did before. Not afflicted with sin or disease. Not afflicted by a world that can break our hearts. But to live in glory, glory we can’t possibly imagine.
And here Paul reminds us. This is not some kind wish, some pious sentiment, to keep us going. This is the hope that Jesus gives us as we stand at the gravesite of that departed believer. This is the hope Christ gives us as we leave the cemetery empty and alone. For this is God’s promise and he does not lie.
So let’s complete the picture. 17 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. There are many things we can look forward to in that day. We will be swept up from this perishing world like Noah’s family in the ark. We will be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye.
But there is something very special in these words I would like you to think of today. For right now there is a great divide that stands between us and those who have left this life. It’s a divide that keeps us from those we love and threatens to take them away. But the Day is coming when that deadly divide will be no more. For what are we told here? Together with them…we will be with the Lord forever.
Every now and then you see it on television. Maybe at a school gym, or a sports stadium. A mom and her children are there not at all suspecting what is about to happen. Then they turn around and there he is coming their way with a big smile. Still in uniform, he’s just come from the war in Afghanistan. They run to each other and they hug for the longest time. And the words we hear. Let me look at you. I love you. I’ve missed you, daddy.
But what is too often the case. Dad has to go back not once, or twice. Maybe even six times. That happy reunion is often followed by another troubling goodbye.
Dear friends, there comes a time when we all have to say goodbye in this life. And when it’s the goodbye that death demands, it can seem so empty, so hopeless.
But our faith in Jesus speaks to us in that darkness. For his Word promises a different kind of reunion. A blessed reunion from which there will be no more sad goodbyes. That is the hope that Jesus gives. That is our hope for the Day of His coming. The Hope of Life Together as the Saints Triumphant. Amen.