First Thessalonians 4:13-15, The coming of the Lord, part 1
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 · Andrew Molloy · May 16, 2021
Thessalonians, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192251418

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're looking at 1 Thessalonians 4 and then 13-15 and this is part 1 of a 2 part series, The Coming of the Lord part 1. Next week is part 2, which Bob you have right? That's the schedule. Okay yeah that's the schedule. Yeah that's what I have and Roger, send me an updated schedule. I just turned to the most recent one I have. I think I have the dated one. Anyway, yes, I'm on for next week. Okay. Great. I will. I'll do that. So today's passage... Oh, and I didn't change my heading there. I'll have to do that later. But we're in 13 through 15, 1 Thessalonians. Here it is.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. A short little three verses today.

Today I'm going to concentrate, though I'm going to really hover over verse 14 today. I found that very interesting and very important. And then we'll move quickly through verse 15 at the end, is my plan. It's just how it worked out. Maybe that's the Holy Spirit working the lesson out.

So last week, verses 9 through 12, it was exhortations from Paul to the Thessalonians after he left. He'd been away about a year and a half, a year, a year and a half. He was instructing them on brotherly love, exhorting them to orderly living. Now he, in verse 13, he moves to a completely different subject to address a little issue that they're having there in Thessalonica. and that is the topic of Christ's return in the clouds so when he starts out verse 13 by saying we do not but we do not want you to be uninformed brethren uh... that uninformed is agnao and it's uh... it's the uh... letter alpha you see the alpha there a uh... followed by Noeo, I think it's how you pronounce it.

You put those together and you get Agneo. And that means, neo means to perceive with the mind or to understand or to have understanding. But when you put that alpha in front of it, it negates that. So it's not perceiving, not understanding, and not to have understanding, pretty simply. A couple weeks ago, Roger had this word. My word today, in verse 13, is uninformed. Roger's verse from a couple weeks ago, in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, was unaware. Same word, agneo.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. So it's just that they don't understand or they haven't heard what Paul's telling them today. They haven't heard this yet. And brethren is, he's addressing the Adelphos, word for brethren, and we looked at yesterday, last week, the word Philadelphia, brotherly love. Well, the Adelphos, or the Delphos, is the brothers in the word brotherly love. So, I don't know if my Greek conjugation, I think it is, I don't know if it's correct, but I have last week's verse was to love the Adelphos. Adelphi, probably, is how you'd say that. But that's a word for brothers. Moving on to this word for those who are asleep. The word asleep is koimeo, and it has two meanings. One is for sleeping, regular nightly sleeping, and then as a euphemism for death.

And I have two handy verses here from Jesus' words in Matthew, Matthew 27, 52. The tombs were opened and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. I guess that's not Jesus talking because he was dead and he rose to heaven when this happened. But you have that, we're talking about tombs, the word fallen sleep is the euphemism for death.

So it's koimeo meaning death, you're in the grave. Then in Matthew 28, 13, the Roman officials said, you are to say his disciples came by night and stolen them away while we were asleep. And that's koimeo too. And that's just, you know, they were in bed sleeping.

So two meanings for koimeo. this morning and we'll get to that a little more later but I'll move on to this phrase so that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope and the background of this is the Thessalonians were caught off guard because after Paul left they thought the Lord would come again and they'd enter into the kingdom with Christ himself.

However, some of the members of their fellowship had died. And Paul had been instructing them from the Old Testament scriptures that Christ would come again to set up his kingdom. So they knew about the second coming and the thousand-year millennial. But some of their their brethren, their Delphoi, I think that would be the word for brothers, who they had Philadelphia for, brotherly love for, they had died. And maybe two, a family member or two in their fellowship had died. So they made a leap to the conclusion then, that those who had died since Paul's visit a year to a year and a half ago would not share in the reign of Christ when he came again to set up his 1,000 year millennial kingdom. And this is some commentary from Ironside.

The extent to the Thessalonians' knowledge was that only the still living saints would be able to welcome Christ upon his return physically. and then follow him into the millennial kingdom. Their knowledge was correct, but it was short of complete is what I say here. They thought that their dead brothers in the grave were in another sphere and wouldn't be able to welcome Christ personally. So they thought that these deceased believers, the saints who are referred to as being asleep, are short-changed from sharing into the kingdom, and so they're without a living hope.

This phrase, as do the rest who have no hope, in verse 13, the rest is loipos, it's an adjective, and it means the remaining people or the remnant or the other group that's not addressed. So that's what that loipos means. Those who have no hope, that word hope is alpice and it's a confident expectation of good things to come and a joyful expectation of good things to come.

Interestingly enough, you can have a negative hope. You can think about negative things and have a hope for bad things too. So it can go both ways, but this is a good hope. An example of a negative hope would be the fact that the Greek pagan population, and these would be the others, not the saints, but the loipos, the loipos ones, the remnant, the remaining, people in Thessalonica that miss out on the coming and the rapture of Christ, they traditionally had engravings on their tombs that read, without hope, And this phrase was a common funeral tiding given to a dead one's relatives.

So Macaulay gives a couple of examples where, you know, they'd write a card that said, I'm sorry about Joe, your brother who died. It's too bad. Too bad he's got no hope. No hope of resurrection. It's what they literally say to the family members. So it's kind of a Debbie Downer kind of situation, being without hope. So that's their mind frame, their mindset from just their culture.

On to verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. And part A of verse 14, for if we believe Jesus died and rose again, you'll recognize that as the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4.

And it's a past point fact, the fact that Jesus died. Aristactive, active, indicative fact. It's reality. Happened at a point in time. He died, he was buried, and he rose to life on the third day according to the scriptures according to 1 Corinthians 15.

Macaulay says that this fact is the basis for our hope and it was the basis for the Thessalonians' hope too because Paul had taught this to them. Verse 14 is a first class conditional statement In an if-then statement, the first part is assumed to be true, that Jesus died and rose again. The simple gospel. So Paul had, he was 100% positive that these Thessalonians knew that fact.

And they just had some issues with the fact of the second coming and their dead brothers and sisters in Christ. Part B of verse 14 is, even so God will bring him those. Let's look at that. Even so, you could replace even so with then. So you could say, if we believe Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring with him those who are falling into sleep in Jesus. Falling asleep in Jesus.

The even so is the apodosis, or the result of, The if clause right this is the pertussis in I think that's a Greek Greek logic right if then statement So Andrew on this first class conditional. I mean, I think it makes perfect sense that it is a first-class conditional, but How did you know to state it as that? I? The commentators said it's a first-class condition.

Also, the original structure, the if-then, there's a little shorthand I'll pass along to you that you can tell. It takes a little bit of work, but you look at the original, you can tell if it's a certain tense, you can be assured it's a first-class condition, therefore it's assumed to be true.

So we can do it, we actually can do it for ourselves. I'm lazy sometimes, I don't always do it, but you can actually figure it out. I think that's true a lot of times, but sometimes, not this verse particularly, but sometimes I'm a little uncertain how to drill down on that, and I know Roy knows how to do that well too, so I'm just getting from my own personal instruction. I think if you just read it too, it's obvious.

Sure, sure. There's some statements in scripture that are an if-then statement that aren't true, so it's not a first-class conditional, because the like the first part that pertasses is a hypothetical situation or the second part which is the then statement is also a non-true statement. And there's first class conditional, second class conditional, third class conditional, and I think there's even a fourth class conditional statement. But if you just read this, it would also be true if it weren't a first class, but if you don't believe that Jesus died and rose again, what follows is not an accurate description of who you are, right?

Yeah, exactly. I don't want to get bogged down here, but go ahead. Yeah, the gospel right there. And so we can put in since, we believe. And one commentator doesn't think you should do that. He thinks you should leave open the if for argument's sake, is what he said.

So this clause is key to understanding this dilemma we've been having in the past couple weeks. and that I've been thinking about, and that's the parrhesia of Christ, the arrival, the appearance of Christ. When you read a verse like this, is it talking about the rapture or the second coming?

The other week Roger was on 1 Thessalonians 3.13 And that says, so that he may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. And you read that, and I read it for the first time when we started Thessalonians, and oh, that's a reference to the second coming, right?

Because it's with his saints, with all his saints. The rapture is for his saints, second coming is with his saints. But then Roger, correct me if I'm wrong, Roger, but you concluded that though it sounds like a second coming verse, it is in fact a rapture verse. It's coming for his saints. And I think I have the, this is, you might not agree with me, but this is how, I think it makes sense here, and this verse 14 is key to it. So let's look at it.

The key, I believe, is two classes of saints. There's the living saints on earth, and the saints who are presently with Christ in heaven, right? There needs to be a bifurcation of saints, two divisions, two classes. The saints in heaven are separated from their physical bodies presently, like my dad, would fall in that class.

But it's interesting, I think this is the key, so that when Christ comes for the living saints on earth, which are these Thessalonians who are kind of bothered that their sleeping saints aren't going to be able to participate in the coming of Christ, he also brings a set of saints with him, right? they're the disembodied soul spirit saints who need to be reunited with their transformed bodies to be like them. I mean in a sense that fits with the definition of the church right? The church is the body and to think that that's the interpretation that's so appropriate here makes perfect sense. Yeah and some of the present-day church right now has bodies like you and me And some of the present day church saints do not have bodies, the ones in heaven. And he needs to, and to be complete, he needs to give them all resurrection bodies. So they're a living corporate entity, his bride, right? So I think that's the key is when you see, you could read when he's coming with his saints, that could be a reference to the rapture as well. Did I say something here, Andrew? Yeah.

It may help a little to establish that this if and it has a present tense if we believe that which is a derivative present goes right along with those who are sleeping. That's a present also. Yeah. the coming of the Lord with those who were sleeping is in this verse 14 is after verse 13 verse 13 they are sleeping verse 14 they're coming with them it's a whole different static than sleeping they're no longer sleeping they have been joined to him and he's coming back with them to take us to another life, to be with Him, right here. Isn't that neat? Yeah, it sure is.

And that's why this verse is so neat, but that's exactly right. So I say that the verse from before The coming of the Lord with his saints is a raptured verse 2 that we've established here. But it's the saints coming down, meeting their new bodies in mid-air. So I just wrap up and say, I think this verse 14 sort of answers the uncertainty of chapter 3 verse 13. That's good Andrew. It does explain it. Yeah, and hopefully that's right. Hopefully you all agree with me. If not, we can arm wrestle after class. We'll do it over Zoom. Right, right. We'll do it over Zoom, right? We'll do that over Zoom.

So let me hang out some more on this, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, a couple parts here. Fallen asleep, again, is quimeo and refers to regular nighttime sleep or, metaphorically, for death. The cool thing about verse 14 is there's two deaths in this verse. The first term in verse 14 is in the first part of the verse in the gospel message. Jesus died and rose again. Well, that word died is not koimeo.

It's apothenesko. So, yeah, it's a real physical death, a real perishing, you know, lights out, apophnesko. And I believe there is, in that Greek word apophnesko, I believe included in there, because my Greek conjugate can't do that, but I think what's implied in that word is nekros, N-E-K-R-O-S, which is dead. That means corpse, dead, I think they're related words.

So the idea is that Jesus died and went into real physical death so that we may live and his resurrection to life is our resurrection to life by identification with him. More on this, who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Here's what Christ said. But now, well no, this is from Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10. Paul says, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Lord Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

So you he's saying that Jesus Christ abolished death and brought life and immortality through the light of the gospel Hebrews 2 14 therefore since the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise also partook of the same That through death he might render powerless Him who had the power of death now, this is devil and That's such a great verse, Hebrews 2.14, because it, I think, eternally says that the victory has been claimed eternally. Unfortunately, Satan still has a role here, but nevertheless, I mean, he has been rendered dead once and for all because of the cross, right? Yeah.

And Jesus' word himself in Matthew 9.24 about that little girl who died, he said, the girl has not died.

And that word is, that was aposnesko. It might be another word for died, but he's saying really dead, you know, lights out dead. She has not died, but is asleep. And everyone laughed at him. And that word for asleep is koimeo. So Jesus, even before he went to the cross, it was as good as done, right? He said, hey, saints, Saints are asleep, they're not dead.

It's interesting, you're getting to it here where it says here that they were asleep in this verse and in verse 13 they are sleeping. That's quite a contrast. You don't need to be concerned for those who are sleeping because when the Lord comes back he's going to bring with him those who were sleeping. They're all under slavery. Right, right. Because they're going to be awakened. Right. And I think, hold that thought for just a moment here.

So the conclusion I have is because Christ's work at the cross, He conquered sin, death, and Hades by His work on the cross. Those that believe in His work never die. We have an eternal life, and we have it now. We are never referred to as the dead, the necros, as the dead are referred to in Revelation 20, for instance.

You think about this. we fall asleep in Jesus at the end of verse 14 well that word in is dia and it can be translated through Jesus or by Jesus or by the means of Jesus and many commentators, a lot of these guys I've been studying this week use the word through for dia which gives Jesus the agency of our life and he determines the length of our days by personally putting us to sleep and then waking us up. As I say in point K here, he puts us to sleep for a time, just a separation of our soul spirit from our body, who wakes us up. And that's Jesus and how he does it, next week Bob will tell you that, but it's with a shout or a command. I noticed that Macaulay had a little phrase kind of dovetailing what you're saying. He has the phrase, through Jesus, death becomes sleep. Yeah. Oh, that's good. I didn't catch that. Yeah. And this was all new to me. I never really thought of this until studying this verse. It could be rendered, you know, by Jesus.

We are sleeping. Let's say we're sleeping now. Let's say we're all in the grave. We're sleeping by Jesus' power and His agency. Amen. Yeah. And then He's the one to wake us up, too. So, Weist had in his little book, which I really like, his Golden Nuggets book, Here's more evidence. Christ himself, John 8, 51.

Truly, truly, I say unto you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. And we says that the real rendering reads like this. If any one man keeps my saying, he shall absolutely not see death. Never. So it's a strong negation. And then he goes into this kind of thing where he says there's six words for to see from casually looking at a thing, I think that's blepo, to down six levels of seeing to where you see you actually fix your eyes upon something and really see it with purpose and full contemplation and with interest and purpose and full acquiescence.

That word is sierreo And that's the word up there in John 8.51 is, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see of death.

So what Weist says is, the moral of it is, when a person is being put to sleep by Jesus, and that's what Weist has, he uses that by Jesus for dia. As he or she is dying, he will not look at death with interest. and for a purpose. He will only be an indifferent spectator of death. His eye, though, will be fixed upon Jesus." Hebrews 12, 2, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So I think this is really cool, this seeing and how it works into this falling asleep and death in this verse.

So the terror and awfulness of death, real apofnesco, are not experienced by the believer. You and I have our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our attention will not be focused on death, nor will we experience its bitterness. O death, where is thy sting?

1 Corinthians 15.55 says. So Andrew, I've not looked at this recently, but to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I mean, what's the Lord there? That's Christ. Who's the Lord? Yeah, it's Jesus Christ himself. Well, we assume that. Does the text really interpret that exactly that way? I mean, I'm happy with it, whichever way it goes. Right, yeah, I think so. I guess you'd have to look at what word they use for Lord. Is it curios?

Yeah, I don't have it open right now. I think so, because that's a plain reading of the verse, right? So when you're absent from the body, present with the Lord, You're sleeping, right? You're, as Roy would say, in the present tense, asleep? That's where scripture needs to complement itself, and I would say what you're studying here today really relates to it with the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Actually, Bob, we're kind of getting the fine details of what that present with the Lord looks like. It's the state of sleep, which is interesting. And it's just the thing that's asleep is our bodies, right? And it's just repose, reposing in the grave temporarily.

So Jesus went the full course. He experienced by real death, he really died, the stinging bitterness and awfulness and the terror of death as our substitute. And by his work he conquered it, he wrestled back its sting and its power by going to the grave for us. I mean he accomplished a lot at the cross. He just got it all done so that all we do is sleep. To kind of wrap up this section, Part D here is a really cool story. Maybe you've heard it before, but I'll read it.

Peter Marshall was the chaplain of the United States Senate and he faithfully had a standing appointment to speak at the United States Naval Academy Chapel on Sunday, December 7th, 1941. News came that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. and the Lord laid on his heart another message entirely from the message he had prepared for that morning. He changed his sermon to be on the subject of death because in his audience would be hundreds of young men who may now come face to face with death from that day forward, of course by being drafted in the Navy. He told the story of a family who had a little boy with a terminal illness, and his parents found the courage to tell him one day that perhaps soon he was going to die.

The boy took it in and he accepted it, but then he went about his life again, doing normal little boy things, going out to play for a while. But after some time, one day he came back in out of clear blue sky and asked his mother, Mom, what's death like?

She was taken off guard by the question and after renewing the matter and she made the pretense of having to go in the kitchen to do something because she was weeping and she wanted to hide her crying from him in order to regain her composure before going out again to talk to her son. While she was in the kitchen, the Lord gave her a beautiful answer. She said, Son, do you remember how you played outside so hard this summer?

You'd come back inside and lie down on the couch and you'd fall asleep. And the next morning you'd wake up and there you were in your room, all tucked into your own bed. And you didn't remember how you got there? Well, she said, your dad had come in along after you'd fallen asleep and he picked you up in his strong arms and he carried you upstairs to your room that we had prepared for you. You simply fall asleep here and God will pick you up and when you wake you will be there where God has prepared a place for you.

So that's a neat little story that I just wanted to add in there, I think it's apropos to the lesson, verse 14. Yeah, I was reading it throughout the week and I couldn't really get through the end of it without choking up. Verse 15, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not perceive those who have fallen asleep. This is new information from Paul saying that God will bring forth those who have fallen asleep in Jesus or by Jesus with the information that the sleeping saints will not be left out of the glory of Christ's coming.

Just a word about the word precede. If you have a King James version, the word there is prevent. And back in the old times, the old King James, in the Middle Ages, the word prevent meant to come before, and not what it means today, which is to stop or to cause from happening. The word prevent means that today.

So the verse means the alive saints will not come before the sleeping saints. And actually it's going to happen instantaneously together that the sleeping saints get their bodies reunited to their spirit and souls. It's new information because, and Bob will look into this more next week, but yeah, the rapture is new information. here for these Thessalonians. It wasn't in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

It was though briefly mentioned by Christ himself in the book of John, in the Gospel of John, where he says, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. and will receive you unto myself where I am, where I am there you may be also."

John 14 1-3. So and I never thought of that as a rapture verse really either but it's a very, he just touches on the subject right there without the details. So that's a new way to look at that passage from the book of John. How are we doing? In every case, Andrew, it's who we are in Christ that's sleeping. Yeah. And it's who we will be in Christ that's not sleeping, that comes back alive, living. Isn't that neat? Yeah. Yeah. And you could argue that those who are sleeping are alive right now. Of course they are, right? Alive with Him because they have eternal life with Him in Heaven right now.

Some final thoughts is a little poem that touches on our subject of verse 14. I'll just read the first stanza here. and you can read it for yourself later but it's sleep on beloved sleep and take thy rest lay down thy head upon thy savior's breast we love thee much but jesus loves you best good night that's from 1882 entitled sleep on beloved i don't know who wrote that the other final thought i had was this hymn from the little flock book by Margaret McKay, who lived in the 1800s. The first stanza of her hymn was, Asleep through Jesus, blessed sleep, from which none of ever wakes to weep. A calm and undisturbed repose, where powerless is the last of foes. Stanza two, Asleep through Jesus, oh how sweet to be for such a slumber meat, with holy confidence to sing, that death has lost its venomed sting." So, a really nice hymn there.

One of the things here that Andrew parallels what you're saying is that the Thessalonians were worried about those who had fallen asleep, using the word here. in Christ, that they wouldn't be with the Lord when He comes back. They were looking for the Lord to come back to be with Him. Their focus was on Him. And they didn't want those who had died ahead of them to miss out on that union with Him. We focus on ourselves rather than, we're going to meet Him. Right? And that ties into that fixing your eyes on Jesus, you know, the author and finisher of our faith, the Hebrews. Yeah, I don't think...

What I understand, what they knew in the Thessalonians was that they were going to be alive and Jesus would come back in person and then set up the kingdom immediately. and so the the rapture was a mystery the great tribulation too might have been not well understood by them it could be that Paul just had because he only had three weeks with these people it was a gap in what they knew well one one is is he's coming to take us to be with him the other is he's coming back and he's going to be seen and he will be coming as a judge. And it's interesting the order of the Holy Spirit presenting information there. First we have the rapture, and then we have the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is judgment. It's throughout the Old Testament. Well known by the Jews. Right. Yeah, and well covered in the Old Testament too.

In fact, I think Paul gets to the Day of the Lord later on here in 1 Thessalonians. Actually, we're going to be teaching that part. Yeah. And it's interesting, the judgment part is referred to as the Day of the Lord, but the rapture part, when he raptures us up and then we have the Bema Seat, that's always referred to as the Day of Christ. So there's the day of Christ and the day of the Lord, two different things.

And I think we need to keep in mind rightly dividing the word of truth and that some still teach the post millennial rapture. Right, right. That's not the church. You're right. Yeah. So hey, more arm wrestling with people. post-tribulationist and mid-tribulationist, right? Alright, well I'll close up here.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time studying your word and yet future events that you will return and take us up to be with you and we'll rejoin the saints who are asleep in Jesus and we'll see them again and we'll have a wonderful reunion anytime now, imminently. We just pray that you do come again and come soon, Lord Jesus. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.