Thank you for selecting this message by Dr. James Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman preaches verse by verse through the entire book of the Bible. From all of us at Living Water of Lapine here in Central Oregon, we hope that it will encourage you and feed you spiritually. And if you would like to leave a message after the sermon, our contact information is found on the sermon page where you found this sermon. Now may God richly bless you as you listen. Years ago, Henry Ward Beecher was invited to visit an atheist club that was being presided over by the brilliant and blasphemous Robert G. Ingersoll. He went and he listened to Ingersoll as he made a witty speech in which he unmercifully attacked Christianity, and then sat down to thunderous applause. Ingersoll then turned to Beecher and invited the famous preacher to say a few words. Beecher slowly rose to his feet. Gentlemen, he said, you will forgive me if I appear somewhat preoccupied, but this evening I witnessed something shocking. Let me tell you about it. I saw a blind man groping at the curbside. I saw a young fellow offer to help him across the street. But just as he took the blind man's arm, a great hulk of a fellow came along. He boxed the young man's ears and chased him off down the road. Then he came back and he seized the blind man's stick and he beat him with it. Then he pushed him headlong into the mud, and he went away laughing. A silence followed his tale. Then Ingersoll jumped to his feet. The bully, he exclaimed. The bully. Do you know who he was, Beecher? The unspeakable bully. Yes, Beecher said quietly. As a matter of fact, I know who he was. Who was it, demanded Ingersoll. It was you, responded Beecher. You were the man. Listen to me. Man is poor and blind and wretched. He has little enough to learn on as he gropes his way through life. Few will help him. So what do you do, Ingersoll? You come along and you pull out all of his props from under him. You rob him of his faith. You push him in the mud. You bully those who would help him. And then you go laughing on your way. Oh, yes, I know who the man is. It is you. Today, there are bullies who attempt to rob Christians and knock the props out from under them. Only these bullies are not atheists. They come from inside the ranks of professing believers, and they seek to rob us of some of the most encouraging and faith-building passages of Scripture that we need to be leaning on, especially in these last days. Don't even bother studying with passages like the one we come to today. discussing the things that our passage lays forth has produced so many arguments. Just let God work it all out in his perfect way. We don't need to know. When I was in college, I had a pastor say to me as we walked out of a restaurant together, eschatology, in times matters, has so much that we just don't know. Why spend time and effort on that when there is so much in Scripture that we do know and are accountable for? You need to focus on being obedient to what we do know, he said. Now, he is just one of many believers today who don't want us to study it at all. it will all pan out. Don't let it concern you. Just let it be. But this is robbing believers of something that is very valuable to our faith. You see, when Paul came to Thessalonica and started the church there, Acts 17.2 tells us that he did it in less than a month. He only had three Sabbath days in which to reason with them out of the scriptures. In less than a month, Paul had done a Herculean task. He preached the gospel, converts were made, and a church was born. Then he taught these brand new believers the great truths of the Christian faith. But here's something to consider. Out of all the important things there are to teach a freshly born church, Paul taught them about end times. Now, maybe you've heard, as I have, that the deep truths of end times is only for mature believers. It shouldn't be given to new believers. You know, isn't it too bad that Paul wasn't given this wisdom? He hadn't been with the Thessalonian believers for a full month, and yet he was teaching them end time prophecy. In fact, when we get to the second letter of Thessalonians, we'll see that he had taught them about the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist, and other things that are to come. You know what? Paul demonstrates for me that there is value in knowing these things. My hope is that today's passage will inspire you to share the perspective of what Adrian Rogers once said. I believe we ought to be living as though Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tonight. Let this passage today excite your faith. Sorrow looks back Worry looks around, but faith looks up. Now, before we turn to our passage, let me give you its context. Paul told these people at Thessalonica... I don't know what I did here, but I did something that just turned it off. So Paul told these people at Thessalonica that when he was with them that Jesus is coming and we are going to see him. And we are going to reign with him in his kingdom. And they were all expecting the Lord to come at any moment. But in the interval, some of the saints in Thessalonica had died. And the believers in Thessalonica had lost a lot of hope because of their departed loved ones. Well, what's gonna happen to them? They won't have a part in the spectacular return of Jesus. They're going to miss out in participating in His majestic kingdom rule. They won't reign with Christ because they've already died. And do you know what happens? You get buried. Your body decays. It deteriorates. So my dear loved one is going to miss out. and they were very discouraged. So Paul wrote the passage that we are gonna be studying this morning to put their hearts at ease and to tell them that those who have died have not missed the second coming of Christ. There will be a heavenly homecoming, a reunion with all of our saved loved ones. who have gone on before us. We will all be snatched up to meet the Lord in the sky. Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up. Verse 13, 1 Thessalonians chapter four reads this way. but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. Do not be ignorant about these things, Paul writes. The Greek term uninformed Aganeo literally means ignorant. Do not be ignorant about end-time prophecy. Study and grasp what God teaches. Be comforted, be encouraged in this glorious hope that God gives to us. Now, perhaps, Some of you might be a little bit more encouraged if Paul had used the word dead instead of sleep. Doesn't that communicate a little bit better, with more certainty? Do not be ignorant about end time prophecy. Not all will remain dead, but instead he uses this word sleep. And I've got to be honest, I used to wish that Paul was more clear about what he was writing about, thinking that the word dead was a clearer way of stating it. But there's two things that I have come to realize, and now it makes much better sense to me, because I see that asleep is actually clearer. Number one, In most cultures, the idea of sleep is a euphemism for death. It certainly was to the Macedonian culture when Paul wrote this. So the Thessalonians would not have been confused at all. Number two, the dead body of a Christian and the body of a person who is sleeping are very similar. A person who sleeps does not cease to exist. and neither does the believer who dies. Sleep is temporary, and death for the believer is temporary. Sleep was gonna have an awakening, and death for the believer is gonna have an awakening at the resurrection. 2 Corinthians 5.8 says, Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Now, Paul's use of the word sleep in 1 Thessalonians 4.13 reinforces the point that he is making. Their loved ones who have died will awake at the rapture. And as a matter of fact, they will awaken even before those who are still alive are snatched up. They will be part of the glory of Christ's return. This means that Christians do not mourn when their fellow believers die like non-Christians mourn at funerals. Christians weep, of course. There's nothing wrong with that. Paul never says that Christians are not to weep. What he does write is that we are not to sorrow as others who have no hope. I simply must show you what Chuck Swindoll writes about this. He writes, how tragic is a hopeless grief? How desperate the sobs of those who kneel before the grave with no prospects of ever seeing their loved one again. Without a God-given revelation, humans are left with only unanswered questions. Where are they now? Is there life after death? Is my father in torment? Will I ever see my mother again? Paul says believers in Christ don't have to grieve like that. Yes, they grieve at the loss of a loved one. Paul doesn't condemn appropriate mourning. Only unfeeling psychopaths would face the death of a child or a parent or sibling with the proud logic of Mr. Spock. There's nothing Christian about an emotionless vacuum. The death of a fellow believer is indeed a sad occasion. Believers aren't called to chiseled stoicism. We're called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 23, 4. But in that walk, we can have the God of hope at our side, reminding us that death is not the end, and that an eternal dawn will come after the darkness of night. The basis of this hope isn't just a line of a creed that says, I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and it isn't merely a handful of hymns singing about some glad morning in the sweet by and by, nor is it a few moving graveside sermons crafted to soften death's blow with platitudes of, she's in a better place, or his striving is over. The solid foundation for our hope is a fact of history. Jesus died and rose again. 1 Thessalonians 4.14, which I want to turn your attention to now. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Believers can have hope in the resurrection because of what happened to Jesus. Jesus died and he rose again. Believers can now trust that those who have died will be resurrected. And then when Jesus comes, they will come with Jesus. Look at verse 15 now, the next verse. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Now, please notice that first he assures his readers that the details that he is about to share didn't spring from his imagination. They aren't educated guesses or clever interpretation of obscure passages. No, they come from the word of the Lord. But I believe he's primarily indicating that these details are new revelation. These details had not previously been told to you when I was with you. And what a great picture it is. God is about to break his silence. You know, one of the great mysteries of the past 2,000 years has been the total and lasting silence of God. Fearful injustice plagues society, and God is silent. Domestic tragedies occur, and God is silent. Famines wipe out complete populations. Pestilence, plagues, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions occur. And God is silent. Persecutions, the Holocaust, crimes and atrocities are committed. And God is silent. Wicked men grow rich on the misery of others, trading alcohol, drugs, and sex. And empires are built and sustained by syndicated crime. And God is silent. Regimes have flourished on the systematic enslavement and exploitation of millions. Political parties show more corruption today than ever. And God is silent. False religions hold millions in soul damning spiritual darkness. And God is silent. The great cry of humanity is why? Why is God silent? Why doesn't he act? Why doesn't he speak? The answer is simple. He has. He has spoken. He has displayed might and miracle on an unprecedented scale on this planet. He has intervened. He did so 2,000 years ago while the world is witnessing in this mysterious silence what it is we're witnessing is the infinite patience of God. And here is Paul's new revelation, how it speaks to that. When God breaks his silence, it will be with a shout. He has spoken once in the grave by sending his son to this planet and they murdered him. He sent his spirit, and the world ignores him. The next time, he will speak with an authoritative shout, and the whole creation today is holding its breath, waiting for that shout. What a mighty shout it will be. His is the voice that wakes the dead. We hear this shout three times in scripture, and each time the gates of death were opened. First time was at the tomb of Lazarus. John 11, verses 43 through 44. Read this way. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out, his hands and his feet bound with linen strips and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Now the second time the shot was heard was from the cross. Matthew tells us what happened there. Matthew 27 verses 50 through 53. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top. to the bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and 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 appeared to many." First time, one man was raised. Second time, many were raised. But Paul gives the Thessalonians a new revelation, that there will be a third time this shout will occur. And it will be the most spectacular of all of them. He writes that this shout will result in the wholesale exodus from a lot of graves. This mighty shout will ring out across every continent on earth, the Arctic poles, the desert wastes, the ocean caves, the valleys and the prairies, the crowded urban graveyards, the world's great battlefields. All the dead in Christ will raise. They will all come forth. Martyrs of the faith will rise. Missionary pioneers will rise. Apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, the least productive members in the church will rise. Countless numbers. 10,000 times 10,000, thousands of thousands. For the first time in history, the whole church universal and triumphant will be assembled. Every member will be present. This new revelation from Paul describes this shout in two other ways. He gives three different descriptions of the same sound. The three sounds that 1 Thessalonians 4.16 lists. the commanding shout, the voice of an archangel, and the sound of a trumpet are all three the same utterance. Why do I say that? We know this because of the very precise original language of the New Testament. The Greek employs a grammatical principle called apposition. Now, bear with me for just a moment. I promise I'm not going to take you into the weeds and keep you there. But let me just explain this for you. Whenever a writer of first century Greek wanted us to consider what he was listing to all refer to the same thing, he would use the equivalent of our English word, and, only once in that listing. And it would come between the last item and the next to the last item in that list. So it would look like this. The shout of command, the voice of an archangel, and the sound of a trumpet. You see the proper Greek grammar places and. between each item in the list, indicating each one is different. Only when he wants to indicate they're not different will he use the word and at the end. So if Paul wanted us to see these as three different sounds, he would have written it as the shout of command and the voice of an archangel and the sound of a trumpet, but he didn't. He used and only once at the end, and that's a rare thing that you see in scripture with lists, but he does it here. So that we would know these are descriptions of the same sound. In English, we don't have such a rule of grammar, but the precise language of the Greek does. So when Jesus calls forth the dead, it will be like a military command, a shout of great authority and irresistible command. Every long decayed particle from every saint, even if it has been dead for thousands of years, will respond immediately. But this shot will also have the quality of the voice of an archangel. What's that about? The voice of an archangel means ruin for the world. The voice sends the angels forth to war. Amnesty is over. His patience has come to an end. God has broken off diplomatic relations with the world that murdered his son. For long centuries now, the warrior angels have been straining over the walls of heaven, so to speak, eager to avenge the terrible wrongs that the wicked children of Adam have inflicted on their beloved down there on planet Earth. But the angels have been held back by his sovereign grace. Now, finally, the angels come to the forefront. Throughout the seven-year tribulation, angels are prominent. They sound the trumpets, they pour the vials, and issue warnings and proclamations. The sudden outbreak of angelic activity will also be heralded by the shout of command. The removal of the church has cleared the way. Now angels can go to war. And third, to further punctuate that the silence of God has ended, this utterance will also have the quality of being like the sound of a trumpet. Now, this is not the only place where Jesus's voice sounds like a trumpet. In Revelation chapter one, verse 10, Jesus's voice is like a trumpet telling John to write down all that he is about to see. John did, and it is the book of Revelation. The voice of Jesus sounding like a trumpet is associated with the events in the book of Revelation. God will end his seemingly long silence when he raises the dead. Verse 17. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Now, an important distinction needs to be made between what is described here, the rapture, and the second part of Christ's return. Jesus is coming back, and I believe he's gonna be in two parts here. First is what we see here in verse 17, what it just presented. Jesus will not come during that coming to the terra firma of the earth. His feet are not gonna touch the ground. He comes and he meets the saints in the air, it says. Somewhere in the atmosphere between earth and space, we will experience a great meeting, a reunion with our loved ones and our Lord. And verse 17 also declares that we will be with him forever. Sometime after the rapture, Jesus is coming back and that's this time his feet will touch the ground, Mount Olivet near Jerusalem. And because verse 17 says that we will be with him forever, we must be coming back with him. Now, our passage today deals with a rapture, not Jesus' return when he comes back to the earth and touches ground. So let's take a little bit more time to look at this rapture. Paul wants us to be encouraged by knowing about it. And therefore, let me take you to another passage of scripture where Paul wrote about it. Let's do some more thinking about this resurrected body. What is it gonna be like? 1 Corinthians 15.35 says, but someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? Well, that's a very good question. I'm glad that some have asked it, prompting Paul to give us an answer. Paul answers it by giving us an illustration. He says that it's gonna be like a seed that falls into the ground and dies. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 36 through 38. You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body." God has given us a marvelous example right out of creation. Every time you plant a seed in the ground, that seed rots. It dies. It decays. And yet somehow, there is a sense of continuity. There is a germ of life that remains and can come back fully as itself in a different form. Even though that seed goes into the ground, even though it dies, even though it decays, even though it rots, there is a principle that causes it to spring forth into something even more glorious. Please consider how an egg corn can be the same thing as an oak tree, the same life. Isn't it quite a marvel that a mighty oak tree can come out of a little egg corn? Have you ever looked at a giant oak tree and realized how it became such a glorious oak tree? What an improvement. Two years ago, we had millions and millions of ugly repulsive worms all over the ground here in Central Oregon, all over the streets, all over the driveways, which were stained from smashed carcasses and body juices. But the majority of them were able to go into the ground where they spent two years in a cocoon. And this year, millions and millions and millions have emerged as Pandora moths. We're battling them at our house. Are you battling them at yours? From ugly crawling creatures to winged insects, the same and yet not the same. Look at a lump of coal. And then look at the diamond that you men gave your wives when you wanted to marry her. They're both the same. Both are carbon. But one is carbon in humiliation, and the other is carbon in glory. Oh, what a change is going to happen to you and I. 1 Corinthians 15, again, going back there, verses 43 through 44, say this. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. The God who created the universe out of nothing, with a word is fully able to reassemble the decayed bodies of all his saints for thousands of years in a moment of time and make them even more glorious. It won't matter if the person died in an ocean and was swallowed by sharks or if he was eaten by carnivorous animals out in the desert Or if he was buried in a forest and the roots of the tree absorbed his body, sending its particles into its bark and into its leaves. Creator God can recreate it and make it even better. Now let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter four. We've been talking about the resurrection. Our Lord said, first of all, to be reassured. Your dead loved ones are not going to miss it. We are all going to be raptured. Now, the word rapture is not here in the text. But that doesn't mean there is not going to be a rapture. Because the Bible describes the rapture. It's true, the word rapture is not found anywhere in the Bible. However, catching away is found and is used right here. It is just like the word trinity. That's not found in the Bible, but it is certainly taught and described. And the word millennium is not found in the Bible, but scripture speaks of a thousand years, which means exactly that. we will be snatched up. And the word snatched up carries some powerful meaning. Jesus, his coming, is absolutely decisive. It will be sudden, as 1 Corinthians 15, 52 says, in the twinkling of an eye. There will be no opportunity for those who have been sitting on the fence without asking Jesus to save them. It'll be too late for their long-delayed conversion. Verse 18. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. What a glorious family reunion it's gonna be. Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and relatives, even all of our heroes of the faith. Such a revelation of end time events. must have come as awe-inspiring news to the Thessalonians, who were confused and needed to have some of these pieces put together for them. Several times this week, as I studied this passage, my eyes were welling up with tears. I have such an anticipation of being reunited with my mom, with my Aunt Mary, my grandma, all who shared the gospel with me, and I know I put them through a lot of hours on their knees praying for me. I can't wait to see my father-in-law, who lived most of his life as an atheist, but in his final hours, less than 24, He gave his life to Christ, trusting him for salvation. We prayed so long for that. I can't wait to see him. He is a beautiful testimony of God's unexpected grace. One day, there is gonna be a moment like no other. With a thundering shout and a blast of a trumpet, Christ will split the sky, blast open the graves, and claim his own. Then we who are alive, plodding through this dark world of sin, suffering, and death, will finally see our Savior face to face. We'll meet those loved ones who have gone on before us, now transformed into glorious bodies. We will all be taken to heaven to be with our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you ready? I believe we ought to be living as though Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tonight. I close with the words of Warren Wiersbe. He wrote, I once saw a quaint inscription on the graveside in an old British cemetery, not far from Windsor Castle. It read, Pause, my friend, as you walk by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. Prepare, my friend, to follow me. I heard about a visitor who read that epitaph and added these lines. To follow you is not my intent until I know which way you went. We Christians have a wonderful assurance and hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his promised return. Do you have that hope today? Which way are you going? Sorrow looks back. Worry looks around. But faith looks up. Pray with me, please.