Sermon Transcript
We enjoyed this time of worship together and song. Now we come back to the book that we’ve been studying through for several months now, actually I think since September. We’re in chapter 4. We are at one of the most popular passages in the entire book today. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, you want to get your Bible out or app or whatever you’re going to use this morning, message notes.
You want to follow along and really get as much as you can out of this incredible passage that’s here. This is a passage that I think gives perspective on death in the fallen world that we live in. Because the fact of the matter is, barring the rapture coming during our time living, or barring a whirlwind exit, you know, like Elijah got, he didn’t have to to die, got a free pass to heaven. If something like that doesn’t happen for us, we’re going to face death, we’re going to deal with death, we’re going to deal with our own death, we’re going to deal with the death of loved ones. And how we deal with that will depend upon— one of the matters, it will depend upon hope, the kind of hope we have, if we have any hope at all in the face of death.
And so Paul brings this subject up, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, because as he’s been now away from this city that he had the privilege of ministering in over about a 3-week period of time or more, he has now been told, got a report that some of those who he ministered to evidently have died. And the believers who are there are are grieving the loss of these loved ones who had come to faith in Jesus Christ. We’re not told in this passage, nor do we have any other historical account, we’re not actually told what killed those believers. If you look at the diseases of the day, it could have been malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancer, anthrax, smallpox, any of those kinds of diseases. It could have also been that they died at the hands of Nero, the Roman emperor, who hated Christians and was more than willing to put them to death for what they believed and who they worshiped.
So, any of that could have been the cause of their death. However they died, that’s not really what Paul’s going after here. What he wants to do is he wants to bring comfort to this grieving community because they’re hurting in the aftermath of the loss of people that they loved. And people that they cared about. And of course, we understand that.
If you’ve been through the death of a loved one, you know how real grief can be and how that’s just a part of a healthy expression of love, quite frankly, because the only way that you can take sorrow and grief out of death is to take love out of life. If you don’t love anybody, then I guess you won’t have any grief when they die. But if you love them, grief and sorrow are going to be a part of death. And so Paul wanted to do what he could to bring encouragement and hope to these believers who were grieving the loss of their loved ones. So he wrote these words.
Let me read for you this section. Verse 13, brothers, we don’t want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. 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. 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. 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.
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. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage each other with these words. I love this passage. I really do.
This passage has been a great encouragement to me over the years as I’ve gone through death of family members or friends. Friends or others that we know. I’ve seen this passage be a great encouragement to others. Maybe you’ve come back to this passage and it has encouraged you at different times. I truly believe that if nothing else, just understanding what this passage teaches can be a real help to all of us in bringing comfort and encouragement to those who are dealing with death.
Recently, Bernice and I were at a soccer game. We were at an earthquake soccer game, and while I was at the soccer game, being that I was the pastor of the weekend— we typically as pastors divide up the weekends, and we want to be available if emergency calls come in— and so a call came through like that while I was at the earthquake stadium, and it came from El Camino Hospital. It was a nurse that was on the other end of the line, and she was asking if I could come over immediately and minister to a family who was there who was grieving the loss of their mother and their wife. I was with Bernice at the time, and we were with some unchurched friends. We were enjoying, you know, an evening together.
It was something that we had planned several months before, so, you know, I wanted to see if there was any way that, you know, I could maybe still stay at the stadium. And basically, I put her on hold and said, you know, let me see what we can do. And I checked around with the other pastors, and things weren’t working out. But in that short period of time that went by, things went south in the soccer game. When the team you’re not rooting for scores 3 goals, maybe that’s a providential sign.
I’m not sure, you know, I’m not sure that that has anything to do with what went on for the earthquakes at that point in time. But, you know, we decided there’s really no reason to hang out for the rest of this game. If you know anything about soccer, when it’s near the end of the game and the other team’s up 3 already, the chances of your team coming back are pretty slim. So we agreed together we would just head for the gates and go home. So we went out to the car.
It was their car, so we were with them, and they took us home. And after I got home, immediately called up the hospital and said, okay, I could come over right now if the family is still wanting a pastor to come by. Would that be something I should do? She said, absolutely. They’re still here.
They’re still waiting, and so they’d love to have you come over. So I got in the car, I drove over to El Camino Hospital, which isn’t far from our home, and I did what often I have done when you’re going to talk to somebody and you don’t know the circumstances. I prayed. It’s probably what you would do too. I just prayed, Lord, as I meet with this family, would you just give me the appropriate words to share right now, whatever you want me to share?
Got to the hospital, I went inside, and they directed me to a certain room. So as I was walking to the room, again, I’m praying. And I’m sure God has heard this prayer many times from many of us where we put— we’re in a situation, we’re not sure what we should say, but we know that God will direct us, and so we ask him. So I’m praying that prayer, I got to the room, I walked in, and the family of 6 was gathered around the bed where this deceased person was lying. And I began to meet them, 3 adult children, 2 girls and a boy, 2 women and a man.
The man is married, so I met his wife as well. Then I met the husband whose wife is laying there dead. I then met a close friend. And then I stood there for just a moment, and you know, And it can be hard on everybody at a point in time, obviously, like that. And I remember thinking, Lord, you just gotta show me what I’m gonna say right now.
Kind of a Nehemiah kind of prayer, if you know anything about Nehemiah, just a quiet, quick prayer. And so I said to the family, well, why don’t you tell me a little bit about— let’s just call her, it wasn’t her name, but Dorothy. Tell me a little bit about Dorothy. So they’re looking at Dorothy’s body, they’re looking at me, and they’re talking about her life and some of the things that she did and the relationship they shared and all of that. After we had a few minutes of conversation about that, I said, tell me a little bit about her spiritual beliefs.
They said, well, Dorothy loved the Lord. She was a faithful churchgoer. She faithfully read the scriptures. She loved to worship. She was in Bible studies.
Well, after they said that, I knew immediately what we were going to talk about. I knew that if I was just to read for them and maybe make a couple comments about 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 to 18, that this, this could be an encouragement to them. This could be a comfort to them because that’s, that’s the whole point of this. These people have lost loved ones. Paul can’t be there in person, so he wants to encourage them.
So he writes in this letter, a section of this letter, that could be encouraging to them because he doesn’t want them to grieve without hope.
That if you’re a Christ follower, you don’t have to grieve without hope. Now, he in no way, as you’ll see here, he in no way minimizes grief. Grief’s going to be a part of the loss of a loved one, but he wants them to be able to grieve with hope. And so he begins by saying, brothers, we don’t want you to be ignorant. Evidently they were ignorant about those who had fallen asleep, and they were grieving like the rest of men who have no hope.
I love the fact, as you see it here in verse 13, but you also see it in verses 14 and 15, that he calls those who have died, he says that they have fallen asleep. I love that picture. It’s the same picture actually that Jesus used after Lazarus died. He was not with Lazarus at the time. They were in another town.
And when he told his disciples about what had happened to Lazarus, he said Lazarus has fallen asleep. And Jesus said to his disciples— this is John chapter 11— Jesus said to his disciples, let’s go and let’s awaken him. And if you know the account, you’ll remember that the disciples said, well, listen, if he’s fallen asleep, he’ll wake up by himself. You know, we don’t really need to go back there because you remember the last time we were there, it did not go well for you. We just— let’s don’t go back.
And Jesus had to get absolutely clear with them and said, no, you got to understand that Lazarus is died. But Jesus referred to Lazarus’ death as having fallen asleep, and you’ll notice here in verse 13 and 14 and 15, you might underline the words that connect here, that Paul talks about these believers who have died as having fallen asleep. Now, that already suggests some hope in this circumstance because a person who falls asleep will awaken. Sleep isn’t a permanent state. It’s a temporary state.
And so Paul wants them to know right now that those who have died in Christ, and this certainly would give them hope, those who have died in Christ are in a temporary state. They are sleeping. There’s going to be a day where they will be awakened. And then he connects that hope to 3 events. The first one’s described in verse 14 where he says, 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. This first event is Jesus’ return. We believe, Paul says, that Jesus, the one who died and rose again and who is in heaven, that Jesus, as He came the first time, He’s going to come again. And when Jesus comes, He is going to bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him. Now, a couple things to notice about this.
First, it’s to realize that when a person dies who’s in Him, and you might circle or underline those words, because for Paul to say in Him is to say this is a person who believes in Jesus Christ. This is a person who before they died believed in Jesus Christ for salvation, a person who came to believe as Paul is saying here that we believe, we believe in the one who died on the cross and who was risen, who rose from the dead. We believe in him. And in the same way, if they believe in him, when they die, they’re going to go to be with the Lord. And there’s going to be a day where they’re going to return, where they’re going to return with the Lord.
Now, how are they going to go to be with the Lord? Well, they’re not going to go to be with the Lord in their bodies because their bodies have died or their bodies have fallen asleep. So what’s he talking about? He’s talking about our souls or our spirits. Our souls are going to, without skipping a beat, continue to live and go to be with the Lord.
Now you may have heard of the concept soul sleep. Have you heard of that before? That some people when they die, their soul sleeps. This is actually an idea that was popularized popularized in the 1800s. And the idea was when the body dies, the soul also dies.
So essentially then you’ve got to live without any hope. And of course what you see here is Paul saying that’s not true. He said it before it ever was a belief in the 1800s. But Paul is saying here is that when a believer dies in Christ, their soul goes immediately to be with the Lord. And it will be with the Lord until the Lord— look at— until the Lord returns.
And when the Lord returns, he is going to bring with him those who have fallen asleep in him. Actually, Jesus talked about this matter of the soul being immediately at death with the Lord. He talked about this with a thief that was on a cross. You remember when Jesus was on a cross, there were 2 thieves that were next to him that were crucified. One on each side.
One of them ridiculed Jesus, and the other one came to believe in Jesus and asked Jesus to save him. And Jesus then said to this one who asked for salvation, he said, Luke 23:43, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. Now, was he saying your body’s going to be with me? No. He was saying today your soul is going to— at the point of death, your soul is going to go immediately to be with me.
It will be transported to a new home with me in paradise, in heaven, where I will be. You may remember the Apostle Paul talked about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9, where he said, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent, to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord, so that where the Lord is, A believer will be at the moment of death, the believer goes immediately in soul to be with the Lord. That’s why D.L. Moody said it this way, soon you will read in the newspapers that Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it.
I shall be more alive then than I am now. See, he believed that the soul went on living even though the body slept or the body died. The soul, our soul goes on living. You may remember Stephen. Stephen was the first church martyr.
He was killed for his faith. But just prior to his death, Stephen looked up into the heavens and he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. What was he saying? He knew that though his body was going to die, that his spirit was going to go on living. And at death, immediately, He would go to be with the Lord, Acts 7:59.
Stephen’s body didn’t die. Excuse me, Stephen’s body died, but not his spirit. So, the point is, is that when Jesus returns, He’s going to return— let’s just use the people we’ve talked about here. Jesus is going to bring with Him Stephen in his soul, and D.L. Moody, who’s living in his soul.
And the souls of all of those who have died in Jesus Christ, they’re going to come down from heaven with the Lord to the skies, it says, from the place where they have lived since their bodies fell asleep. They’re going to come back with the Lord. Now, how does that sound? Encouraging? Hopeful?
See, that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to help these believers who are ignorant about what’s happened to a person when they die. He’s trying to help them in their grief so that they They know that that wasn’t the end. If you’ve had a friend or a loved one die and they had a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, this is absolutely the best news that you could hear, that they are alive today and they are with the Lord in heaven. They are with Him in paradise.
But there’s more. Verse 15 says, according to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left, So the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. Not only does Paul give them hope through Jesus’ return, but also he talks about the resurrection. The resurrection, because when the Lord returns from heaven, his first action, it says here, will be to raise the dead in Christ from their sleep.
He’s going to raise those who are sleeping, the bodies, he’s going to raise them from their sleep. Now that may sound like, really? How’s he going to do that? Especially these people have been dead for eons. How’s he going to raise them from the grave or from ashes or from the sea or from wherever their body is scattered.
Really? How’s he going to do that? How’s he going to raise up believers’ bodies?
Well, he tells us, verse 16. He’s going to do it with a loud command from the Lord, possibly a loud voice like Jesus had when he, at Lazarus’ tomb, said, Lazarus, come forth! It says that it’s going to be the result of a word from the archangel. Who’s that? Well, the only archangel that’s identified, Jude 9, is Michael.
We’re told from Jewish tradition that, that there’s a belief that there are 7 other archangels. We just aren’t told that in the Scripture anywhere. There certainly could be other archangels, but the Lord is going to, through an archangel, maybe Michael, say something at this point in time. I don’t know what— we’re not told what He’s going to say. You know, it’s about time, or, you know, here we go, or, we’ve been waiting for this, or, yahoo, or something.
You know, we’re not told. There’s going to be a signal from the trumpet of God in verse 16, calling the dead in Christ from the grave, and they are called from the grave in order to be called to Jesus Christ. And they’re going to, it says, be resurrected from the earth to the sky. Do you see that? They’re going to be resurrected from the earth to the sky, and when they get to the sky, they’re going to join up.
They’re going to join up with their souls. Their bodies are going to join up with their souls, and they’re going to receive a glorified body and a glorified soul so that they’re going to become Christlike. They’re going to receive a Christlike glorified body. Now, you say, well, that’s more like a description, Dave, of what’s going to happen, but I mean, come on. How’s that going to happen?
Really, how’s that going to happen that these people that have been dead for years and years and years, how’s that going to happen? Well, I would encourage you to think about this in light of the God that we know from the Scriptures, the God who made the first man from dirt. Dirt. I mean, how’s that possible? It’s not possible except nothing’s impossible with God.
If God can make the first man from dirt, certainly He can remake man and woman from dust and ashes. And you might also, as you’re thinking this through, consider that mankind, we, we’re God’s workmanship. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 talks about how we are His workmanship, that we are His design, that God is the potter and mankind is the clay. And He literally molds us and He shapes us into the people that He wants us to be. So, He’s the one in charge of this thing.
And we’re also told in the Scriptures that God is the one who breathes life into those that He creates. He’s the one that gives us life. He holds the keys to life and death. In other words, what you see in the Scriptures all tells me God can get the job done. He can not only raise the dead, as we’ve seen in the Scriptures, but He can recreate their bodies into what’s going to be a new and more beautiful edition and bring us back to life.
You say, has He ever done that before? Yeah, well, we can see it like in a person like Lazarus, but we can also go back to Good Friday. What we now know as Good Friday, the day that Jesus died. Are you familiar with this passage found in Matthew chapter 27, verses 50 to 53? It says this: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
So this is the moment of Jesus’ death. And behold, the curtain of the temple at the moment of Jesus’ death was torn in 2 from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city, and they appeared to many.
You ever seen that passage before? I mean, to me, This is a passage that strengthens our belief that God can raise the dead. We’re not told how long these people were in the grave. We’re just told that they had been in the grave. And something happened, miraculous happened on that Good Friday, on that day that Jesus died.
Maybe it was such that God wanted people to know that he was in charge of life and death. When Jesus died. And there was a resurrection. There was a resurrection to those who were saints, to those who were God followers, and they came to life. It’s interesting when you read the passage closely, it says that the tombs opened, they came to life, but they hung around there for a couple of days until after Jesus’ resurrection.
So Friday, Saturday, Sunday, sometime on Sunday or in the days after, those saints who were dead now showed up in the holy city Jerusalem and began making appearances to people. Now, would that get your attention? I think so. And it says it wasn’t a couple people, it was many, many who were resurrected from the dead. Now, have you ever seen anything like that?
No. Would we like to see something like that? That would be wonderful. But here’s what we know. That’s what’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen all around the world when Jesus comes back and he calls forth his children from the grave.
What a day that’s going to be. And those loved ones that we miss right now, and those loved ones we wish we could be with right now, and those loved ones that we wish we could have conversations with right now, Those loved ones who were adopted into God’s family, they’re gonna be given new bodies, Christlike bodies. They’re gonna be able to eat still. They’re gonna walk through walls. They’re gonna be able to have conversations.
They’re gonna be in a perfect body. They’re gonna be free from pain. They will be free from disease, and they will be free from sin. And what Paul wants to say to these people who are grieving is, don’t let your perspectives be such that you don’t realize what God is going to do for your loved ones, that he is going to resurrect them, their bodies. He is going to resurrect their bodies from, from the dead.
So in your grief, grieve with hope. Grieve with hope, expectation. And then Paul points to one more event, one more event that can be such a great encouragement at a time of death. Verse 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, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Forever.
After that— after what? After Jesus’ return with the souls, with those who had died in Christ. After that, and after the resurrection, where those who were sleeping that were in Christ are resurrected from the tombs. After that, after all of that, the rapture is going to come. And the rapture, of course, is the day when Jesus raptures those who are alive And he now takes them to join these other loved ones and himself in the clouds, in the sky.
Now, I love thinking about the rapture. You’ll notice here that the word rapture actually is not used, but the word comes from Latin, and the word rapturo is used to describe the catching up. Rapturo means the catching up. It translates the 2 words you see in here in the passage, caught up. So, rapturo is used to describe something that is caught up or seized or taken away.
In fact, Kenneth Wuest, who is a Greek scholar, says if you look at the different ways that these words catching up or rapturo are used, you’re going to see that they’re used in different contexts including to speedily catch away something, to speedily catch away something. We’re told in the Scriptures that this is going to happen like the twinkling of an eye. It fits. It’s used— the word is used to describe something that’s moved from one place to another place, like from an old home to a new home. Remember Jesus, when he told them that he was going to leave them, it troubled them.
And Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe in me. And then he said, in my Father’s house are many dwelling places, and I am going to prepare a place for you. And then I will come again, and I will take you to be with myself.
That’s the picture that is brought out in the words catching up or raptured. There’s going to be a move from here to there, a move from earth to heaven to be with the Lord. And then the word is also used to describe the claiming for one’s own self, a picture of a woman, for instance, who’s betrothed to a man to be married. And that man comes to his betrothed one, to his loved one, and he takes her to the ceremony where they are to be married. It’s a great picture.
And this word is also used to describe the rescuing. Of one from danger, the rescuing of one from danger. Fascinating. We’ll talk about it next week. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, it talks about the rescuing from judgment.
Could certainly be applicable right here. How does all of that sound to you? That Jesus is going to come, and Paul was anticipating— look at the words closely— Paul was anticipating that he was still going to be alive, that he was going to be living at the moment that Jesus came. He’s thinking, this is going to happen in my lifetime. Now, it didn’t happen in his lifetime, which means that he’s going to be among those who come back with the Lord, and he’s going to be among those whose bodies are resurrected to meet their souls and to be glorified in the heaven.
He’s going to be among that first group. But there are others who will still be alive, and after all of that happens, they’re going to be caught up, caught up. What a picture this is, that we’re going to be together with the Lord, and we’re going to be together with those who died in Christ. It could happen during this service. The rapture could happen right now.
If the rapture were to happen right now during this worship service, Those of us who’ve been saved, not by our works, but by the work of Christ, by God’s grace, those of us who’ve been saved would just simply rise up into the air, into the sky to meet the Lord, to meet the Lord. And we will meet those who are already there because the others are going to come— go first. Those who have come back with the Lord and those who are raised from the dead, those who are in Christ, They’re going to be there, and they’re going to be there to meet us. There’s going to be this giant reunion in heaven. There’s going to be this giant celebration in heaven.
Can you imagine what it’s going to be like to be with each other and the conversation and the hugs and the laughter and the catching up and all the rest that’s going to happen up there? That’s why Ann Judson, a missionary to Burma, said it this way before her death, oh, the happy day will soon come when we shall meet all our friends who are now scattered meet to part no more in our heavenly Father’s house.
No more grieving. No more feelings of loss. We’re going to be together and we’re going to catch up.
Now, does that help in any way our levels of hope? Some of us, we’ve gone through the death of a loved loved one that was very painful, the death was very painful. You could still remember the last time that you were with them. You could still remember the conversation. You still live in the grief of that.
Some of us, we’ve gone through deaths that we would look at and say it was just very unfair. I just don’t understand why this happened.
This doesn’t in any way minimize what a person has gone through. But what this does from the Apostle Paul’s perspective is it brings hope. These 3 events bring hope.
And I don’t know, you know, what the condition of your heart is this morning, but I hope that this can bring you hope because there’s a place where death and hope meet. And where is that place? It’s in Jesus’ coming. It’s in Jesus’ return. It’s in the resurrection.
It’s in the rapture. And when we come to see that, that elevates our hope. It infuses us with hope, even in the midst of crisis and loss.
Several years ago, I was asked by our neighbor who lived across the street, if I would come over to a gathering that she was planning for her family and her friends and say a few words of comfort to all of those who are going to be there to remember the life of her 22-year-old daughter who had died of cancer. After a long fight with cancer, she died. And this woman who I had had several conversations with over the years, even conversations about spiritual things, which she wanted nothing to do with. She said to me on more than one occasion, I don’t want anything to do with Jesus. I don’t want anything to do with God.
But after her 22-year-old daughter died, she wanted me to come over and offer some hope. And so I said, yeah, I’ll do that. And so the afternoon came for that. The house was full of people. I walked in, as I walked over thinking, what am I going to say?
Because I did not know the daughter. I knew the daughter only from a distance. You know, I’m the neighbor that, hi, how you doing? That’s about the only relationship I had with the daughter. Knew the mother quite well, but not the daughter.
So I didn’t know what her spiritual condition was. I didn’t know what her spiritual beliefs were, none of that.
There were people there that were just eating and kind of milling around, and so I got into the eating and milling around thing, and I just started asking questions about this daughter. Tell me a little bit about her. They told me some of the stories and the relationship, and you know how this can be where you’re just trying to, you know, get through this and share stories that can be an encouragement to each other, and so they were doing all of that. And with each story, you know, I had a little bit more of a perspective on the amazing person that this young adult was. But then I came across a couple, and I sat down with them, and I said, would you just tell me a little bit about this daughter?
And they said, we would love to. They started sharing a story, but then they shared this. They said, Dave, what you need to know is that you need to know that 2 years ago she received Jesus Christ as her personal Savior.
And she has lived through this cancer when it hit with a whole different perspective on life and death because of the relationship that she had with Jesus Christ. Christ saved her. I asked for, you know, more of a description of how did it happen, and this couple was involved, and and her coming to faith in Christ and all of that. And of course, I felt like that conversation was providential, that what I needed in order to be able to share something that could be helpful to everybody who was there, I had it now. And so when it was time, the host, the mother, gathered everybody together in the living space there and And she said, let’s just tell stories.
And so she had them all tell stories, and then she looked at me and she said, this is Dave, and he’s a pastor, and I asked if he might say something. And so I said, you know, coming over here, I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna say, but then I’ve had these conversations, and I had a conversation with this couple, and I was told a little bit about her faith in Jesus. And so what I wanna do for you is I wanna read a passage from the Bible. It’s found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verses 13 through 18. And so I read this passage just like you could in a time of need, and I made a few comments.
Like, I love the language that’s used here, that these loved ones had fallen asleep. It’s a temporary state. It’s not a permanent state. It’s one from which this person or these people will awaken.
And she’s going to awaken. She’s sleeping right now, but her soul has already gone to be with the Lord, and one day she’s going to come with the Lord in his return. And her body is going to join her soul, and she is going to be transformed and become like Jesus Christ, the one that she loved. And there’s a day where we can join her. When Jesus comes, he’s going to also take all of those who are his children and catch them up in the heavens, and they are going to be changed.
What do you think that did for the gathering? I know what it did for me. It gave us some hope. In fact, the mother, as I was leaving, said, Dave, thank you. This meant so much, so much to me.
Thanks for coming.
The reason this passage is here is because even though death is a part of life, we don’t have to grieve without hope. When Christ is our Savior. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. And then he said, do you believe this?
And that’s really the key question. Do you believe this? Because if you believe this, you can live with hope. You can live with hope now, even in the midst of death, now and forever.
Let’s pray.
