Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
We are going to talk about hope today. We are going to do that today because we are Christians, and it is the one thing that we truly have that the rest of the world does not. I am not talking about hope as some sort of wish or platitude that you put on a coffee mug. But I am talking about *real* hope. Hope that follows you into the ICU and beyond. This is the sort of hope that cannot be bought or earned. It is a hope that can only be given to you as a gift, because the promise of this sort of hope would be utterly outrageous to offer unless it comes from God Himself. Because, as it turns out, the hope we have isn't a silver lining or a place we will live in someday. Our hope is Christ Himself, and I hope that our time together will be one of worshipping Him and reveling in that hope together. I've chosen this passage today because it reflects where I think all of us to some degree where we are today. We lost a great man this week. My task here isn't to try to get us to stop grieving. That's not what this passage calls us to do. This passage calls us not to grieve, *"as those do who have no hope.*" We do have a hope, so our grief is different. It is with sobs and smiles. Tears of joy and pain. One Scholar put it this way: "the hope that we have as Christians does not ignore pain but redeems it." (James Grant Jr.). Let's explore this together. First, this is a letter that Paul is writing to the church in Thessaloniki. Here in this passage Paul wants to help correct a misunderstanding the church had about the return of Christ. You see, like Christians are supposed to, they anticipated the imminent return of Jesus, but they were confused about something. They thought that if you died before Jesus came back, then you would miss Jesus' return! Paul, even in stating their question, is here to give them the correct and comforting answer. Notice how he refers to the dead in verse 13 as "asleep." This isn't Paul being cute or coy. This is Paul living in the realest reality. I've been to many funerals where the casket is open and often hearing how people say, "Oh, it just looks like they are asleep." This is said with obvious pain because the expected next line, "but of course they aren't. This is their state forever." Paul disagrees with that. Here is why Christians should have hope and this is why he calls the dead "asleep," because they aren't going to stay that way forever. Verse 14 starts with "for," meaning what Paul is about to say here has direct implications for the worry present in verse 13. Christians believe in Christ who died and rose again. We worship a living Savior! He really did die, and He really did rise again from the dead. Leon Morris put it this way, "It is significant that he does not speak of Jesus as ‘sleeping’, but says he died. Christ endured the full horror of that death that is the wages of sin and thus transformed death for his followers into sleep." It happened on a Sunday morning just as real as this one. It is a Person with whom we lodge our hope, not an idea. Christianity is not a philosophy of belief that gets you through the moderately tough stuff. I don't need Jesus to get me through my next traffic jam. I need Jesus to carry me over the threshold of death. Because that is what is going to happen to me and everyone I love. So don't give me some high-brow metaphor of new beginnings. Don't give me other religions who can only point to the full graves of their founders. Give me the promise that the Son of God will raise my body one day because His body has already been there and done that. That's what Paul tells grieving families. Jesus isn't leaving their fallen behind. God will bring them with Him. What other promise do you have that goes beyond death? The highest promise that we can give is a lifetime guarantee—good for only as long as you live. Once there is a grave in the picture, the promises stop. But not with the Lord. The promises are only getting started. Paul strengthens the promise in verse 15 by reminding us that this is a word from the Lord. Paul isn't writing a children's fiction that ends with, "And they lived happily ever after." Paul isn't an overeager salesman making deals that he isn't authorized to make. Paul is speaking with the authority from God who says the dead are not going to be left behind. In fact, when the Lord comes again, the dead are the first in line! Let's now look at this scene in verse 16. Like, prepare yourselves for this image. We have been studying Genesis this year, and we are all pretty familiar with Genesis 1 at least. We see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters, and suddenly God speaks, "Let there be light," and there was light. Does any of that sound familiar reading verse 16? God Himself leaves heaven with a cry of command, "Let there be life!" And the dead rise! And there was life! Do you know anything else that makes that kind of claim? This is the hope that we have. And by the way, when the Bible uses the word "Hope," it isn't saying it like we do today. We say things like, "I hope it doesn't rain on our picnic" knowing full well that it can rain. When the Bible says "hope," it means, "this is absolutely for sure what is going to happen." I don't know why you would ever say this, but it would be like saying, "I hope I get taxed this year." It is going to happen. This glorious image that Paul has just painted for you is real and sure. But there is a very crucial detail left at the end of that verse 16. This is for the dead "in Christ." What does that mean? A person is "in Christ" if they are united with Christ, and I choose that word carefully. Like I said at the beginning, this isn't some sort of philosophy that you just mentally assent to. You would not say that I was united with my wife if all I did was acknowledge her existence. That does not make a marriage. Promising to see her on weekends doesn't make a marriage. Being united to my wife means shaping my life around her. She is always in my calculations as I make any decision. And it works the other way around, too! This works the same way with Christ. In fact, one scholar went so far as to say, "Believers are so united to Christ that their own life is his, and his life is theirs. This includes not only forgiveness but also resurrection." (James Grant Jr.) Being united to Christ isn't promising Him weekends. It is a surrender of your life to Him. It is having every decision being shaped by your relationship with Christ. But why should you do that? Jesus didn't die and rise again as some sort of display of ability to impress you. Jesus died and rose again because that is what it took to rescue you. Our sin was an act of high treason against the God of the universe, Jesus Himself. The very justice of God demanded satisfaction. You cannot commit a crime like that and it just be let go. We have a name for judges who do that: Corrupt. God cannot be corrupt. It is against His nature, but He wants to deliver us from the only appropriate punishment for the highest crime in the world, eternity in hell. So God sends His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our substitute. He absorbs all the punishment aimed at us in His death, and provides us all the perfection we need in His sinless life. But if He had just left it there, if there was no resurrection, then we would conclude that Jesus' sacrifice wasn't enough. If He is still in prison as it were, then the sentence still wouldn't have been fully served. But Christ did rise. He did pay the penalty so that God can be just and can justify you. So if you have been united with Christ. If you have surrendered your life, turned from your sins and put all your trust in Christ, then this chapter's hope is for you! If you die before Christ comes, well then, Christ will come get you first! Your body will be reconstituted and raised from the grave you were put in, you will be awakened, as it were, from sleep. And if you happen to be alive when Christ returns, well, then you will join the rest! Again from Morris: "We should not overlook the fact that believers will be caught up with them. There will be a reunion with Christ, but there will also be a reunion with the friends who have gone before." But the real hope is to meet the Lord to dwell with Him forever. That's where the real hope is. It isn't going to a nice cloudy place in the sky. Your hope is way bigger than that. If all you want is a nice place to live, then go get a realtor. If you would like to behold the face of God, the eternal fount of all joy and peace, and dwell forever in the light of His glory that outshines the sun, well, you'll need Christ. And the good news is that He offers Himself to you today. This isn't a clean yourself up program. This is a "I need to be cleaned up" program. Christ said, let all who are weary and heavy laden come to me, and I will give you rest. He didn't say, "Let the weary strengthen themselves, lay down their burdens and then come to me." You need help! He will give it to you. Just ask. Now, since all of that is true, verse 18 encourages us to encourage one another with these words. This is our hope. But as I close, am I saying that this hope only exists at the end? Christ offers everything to you, but you have to die first to enjoy it? Not at all. If we really spent some time thinking about what we have just looked at here, it would change how we live our lives in everything, wouldn't it? It's a silly example, but it makes the point, somewhat. When I was on my way back from Togo, we had a connecting flight through Paris. We had already been flying for six hours just to get here, and it was another roughly ten to go. I was very ready to get home, and they were very ready to get this flight going. It seemed as though there was a mile of people ahead of me, as I was in near the back of the plane. Well, I got to the front of the line (finally) and my ticket beeped red. Not good. I was sent to another desk, with another line, while I watched the rest of the flight board. I got to the front of that line, got things sorted, rejoined the now much shorter line to get on the plane when my ticket beeped red again. I was sent, again, to that other desk, with another line to get that sorted, again. My chest was getting tight. I had been pretty easy going up to this point. But I was beginning to think that I was going to miss this flight because some computer somewhere said I didn't exist. Do you know what would have calmed me greatly? If the pilot of the plane came out and said, "I'm not leaving without you." I would have patiently waited in that line again. It turns out that you are more obedient when you know that your destination is assured. Christ offers you far more than a sure connecting flight. This sort of promise truly takes the sting out of death. And if you don't have to fear death, then I'm not sure what can scare you. Raising toddlers is a lot of work. But if I know that my eternity is settled, it gives me a brand new perspective. It is only when I am not thinking that way do I lose my patience. I forget what is important. It doesn't mean that hard things aren't still hard. Losing someone to death is still hard. God doesn't promise to fully dry our tears here on earth. Things still hurt. But what He does give us is something to hold onto in the pain. Christians are not numb people bouncing off things in this world. We feel everything, but God is so good to us, His promises so sure to us, that we can sing next to a deathbed. And if you can sing next to a deathbed, you can serve a neighbor, forgive an enemy, lay down your life, because Christ's grace will enable you with a hope that goes beyond even death. To really press that point home, that we have a hope that goes beyond death, let me adapt one last thought from a scholar, Rob continues to have the same hope that you and I do. The living and dead in Christ have—present tense— the same hope. Christ will come. Christ will renew the world. And we will dwell with Him.
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