Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I received a text this morning from a friend. It simply said “He’s gone. His last breath at 8:10 this morning”. The text was speaking of a friend at whose bedside I have spent a part of almost every day for the past several weeks. You’ve had the same experience. And if we are honest with ourselves, we know that someday, someone is going to write a very similar text about you and me. “He’s gone.” But what does it mean?
Today in our journey with the apostle Paul, as he is writing his first letter to friends in the Macedonian city of Thessalonica in the year 50ad, Paul answers that fundamental life and death question. What does “he’s gone” mean, when someone we love has breathed their last breath and their lifeless body lays there before us?
Death is a very real human experience, it is inescapable and each time it happens, no matter the circumstances, it brings pain and grief and often unanswered questions. The people in Thessalonica had evidently sent word with Timothy back to Paul that they needed some answers, some GOD answers about death. As you try to explain to your children or grandchildren what death is, are you confident you are giving them good GOD answers?
Paul is writing in the 4th chapter of His Thessalonian letter: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.” (1 Thess. 4:13) It’s true, isn’t it? Most people, in every part of the world grieve when death happens. Some will do extravagant things in their grief, attempting to keep in contact with their deceased friends or family members.
Paul acknowledges that reality but calls his Christians friends to understand there is a much better way to respond to death, a God honoring way. First, notice his use of the phrase ‘sleep in death’. We understand sleep, we each need it every day in order to survive! We understand that while sleeping we are still very much alive. Our bodies are resting, almost motionless, but our hearts are beating, our lungs are breathing, blood coursing through our veins, even our brains thinking. We are alive, but sleeping. Paul was not confused nor was he confusing people, but he wanted to draw a comparison between death and sleep.
Death is a permanent cessation of our normal body function. Our hearts stop beating, our lungs stop breathing, blood stops coursing through our veins, our brains stop functioning… BUT our soul and spirit, that part of us made in God’s image, do NOT stop existing or functioning, they remain very much alive and no longer reliant upon now, our dead human bodies. Do you understand that my friends? This is Paul’s first, major point of encouragement in helping us understand human DEATH, as God explains death to us.
Of course, that statement calls for some clarification… what is my soul and what is my spirit? SOUL is that part of you that we all know, and which really defines you: it’s your personality and your thinking and your emotions and your will power. God put all that inside you while you were still in your mother’s womb. It’s God’s unique design for you! When you think of a person, of course the first thing you imagine is their appearance, their face, their build, their smile, at least how they looked the last time you saw them. But think more deeply about them and you’ll start thinking about their SOUL and that describes who they really are and the emotions you have when you think about that person.
SPIRIT is that spiritual and moral part of us which enables us to understand good and evil, right and wrong, God and Satan, heaven and hell etc. We are born with a sinful spirit which naturally tends toward doing wrong things, saying hurtful things, being selfish in our choices etc. But when we trust in Jesus to save us from our sin God gives us a new, holy, spiritual nature and the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us. Now, with that spirit, we have a desire to live a God honoring life led by our new spirit!
Now, at my death, my body will cease to function, but my SOUL and my SPIRIT will remain fully alive and vibrant unaffected by the death of my body. Because I have trusted Jesus to be my Savior, my SOUL and SPIRIT will leave my dead body and will be taken by Jesus directly into His Presence. That’s why Jesus said to the repentant criminal on the cross: “Today you will be with ME in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) But, for the person who has never trusted Jesus to be their Savior, and therefore they have only a sinful spiritual nature, their soul and sinful spirit will also leave their body at death, but it will go to a place called Hades, which is a place for the devil, his demons and all people who have rejected or never trusted in Jesus for their salvation from their sin.
So, EVERYONE has a body, a soul and spirit, and for everyone death is the same experience of separation of their soul & spirit from their dead body. And there are only two places where human souls & spirits go, immediately at the time of death. And by God’s design each and every person decides where their soul and spirit will go at death, and that decision is their response to Jesus Christ!
As Paul shared the Gospel of Jesus with people in many towns across the Roman empire, who had never before heard about Jesus or His mission to rescue people from their sin, of course the death and resurrection of Jesus was always central to Paul’s explanation of Jesus and His Gospel.
I would imagine very often people would raise their hands and ask Paul, “so, where is Jesus today?” And that gave Paul the opportunity to explain the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9-11) and that while in heaven now Jesus is saving completely anyone who repents of their sin and turns to Jesus for salvation (Hebrews 7:25) and Jesus is also interceding with the Father for all those who have believed in Him. (Romans 8:34)
I think the Thessalonian Christians also had the same question Christians have had since the ascension of Jesus when those angels said, “This same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) The question, I’m sure you’ve heard it: … “WHEN is Jesus coming back?” I wonder what your answer is to that question, my friends?
Paul addressed that next as he continued in this letter: “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… 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…” (1 Thess. 4:15,16) There it is my friends, God the Father’s promise that YES, He will send Jesus Christ back to earth again!
And do you see this second time will be somewhat similar to the first time, but also very, very different!? No, Jesus won’t come this next time as a baby born in an animal stable! But YES Jesus will be announced by angels, in fact the voice of the Archangel! No, this next time the arrival of Jesus will not be quietly in an animal stable with a few shepherds coming to see, but this next time the announcing sound will be the Trumpet Call of God!!
I wonder friends, do you like marching bands in parades, or bands at football games or band concerts? I wonder how loud, how beautiful will be the trumpet call of God!? In other words dear friends, while the first time almost nobody in Bethlehem had any idea Jesus had just arrived, this next time nobody on earth will be unaware of the splendid, spectacular arrival of Jesus Christ!
But did you notice one other very important thing Paul said? “God will BRING WITH Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him!” Wow, now that sounds preposterous, remarkable, almost unimaginable. . . and it is! In fact, it will be so spectacular I need a lot more time to explain it, so we’ll pause here to reflect on all I’ve written today, and we’ll come right back here tomorrow to find out about this spectacular event which will happen, perhaps in the near future! In the meantime, here’s a great song to help us celebrate the powerful, wonderful truth of 1 Thess. 4:13. Yes, death is very real, but it can actually be a time of celebration as we consider what awaits us in heaven with Jesus. . .
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 4:13-16).
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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