What Happens to Christians who die?
Four Words of Comfort for the Living:
- We don't have to WONDER what happens when we die. (1 Thes 4:13)
- Jesus gets us to HEAVEN . (1 Thes 4:14)
- Jesus is coming back to GATHER all His people. (1 Thes 4:16-17)
- Someday, we will ALWAYS be with the Lord.(1 Thes 4:17)
Luke 16:22-23, 2 Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:23
John 14:2-3, 1 Corinthians 15:23, 51-52, Philippians 3:21
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:01-00:14
It was a couple of months ago after our last baptism service, I had come home and as soon as I walked in the door I saw Cade sitting in the kitchen and it was obvious that he'd been crying like a lot.
00:17-00:28
And so I saw Cade, then I looked at Aaron, and husbands that have kids, you know the look when you come home from work and your wife has that look on her face.
00:28-00:30
Do you know the look that I'm talking about?
00:31-00:33
I see some husbands like, yeah, I know the look, yeah.
00:33-00:34
Do you know the look I'm talking about?
00:35-00:39
The look that they give you that's like, do something.
00:40-00:44
You know, well, I could tell that Aaron had had a rough ordeal with Cade.
00:45-00:48
And I walked in and I said, what's going on?
00:49-00:51
And Aaron says, will you please talk to him?
00:52-00:54
And I said, what's the matter, buddy?
00:55-00:57
And he started tearing up again.
00:57-01:14
He said, "I don't want to go to heaven." And I'm like, "This is the preacher's kid, and he's crying because he doesn't want to go to heaven." Like, I have completely failed, completely failed.
01:14-01:17
This is what rock bottom feels like, okay?
01:18-01:21
My own flesh and blood is crying because he doesn't want to go to heaven.
01:21-01:38
So I said, "Why don't you want to go to heaven?" And he said, "Because my action figures won't be there." And I said, "Well, you do kind of have a point." I didn't say that.
01:39-01:40
What do you say?
01:41-01:42
What do you say?
01:43-01:48
He said, "But are my action figures gonna be in heaven?" What do you say to a nine-year-old?
01:50-01:51
Well, I told him the truth.
01:53-02:03
And the truth is, I said, "Cade, in heaven, God is going to give you everything that's going to make you happy." Is that true?
02:05-02:07
And at this point, that's all he needs to know.
02:08-02:14
That in heaven, God is going to give you everything that's going to make you happy.
02:15-02:19
And then you find out that the truth is, He gives you Himself.
02:21-02:23
And ultimately, that's where our joy is, amen?
02:24-02:41
But the reason I'm telling you this story is, you know, there's... when we talk about heaven and we talk about death and we talk about dying, there's so much confusion and so much misinformation that it results in grief.
02:44-02:45
What happens when we die?
02:46-02:51
Well, the Thessalonian church we talked about last week, they were waiting.
02:52-02:55
They knew, they knew that Jesus was returning.
02:56-03:05
But remember we had talked about this series that Paul, Paul sort of had to get out of town quickly, so he didn't get to teach them everything that he wanted to.
03:05-03:08
We saw, we see that over and over in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
03:09-03:11
He said, "We need to complete what's lacking in your faith.
03:11-03:18
There's some more stuff that we need to teach you." But we kind of had to get out of town, you know, because of the whole riot and all of those things.
03:20-03:22
And so, the Thessalonians knew some things.
03:22-03:28
They knew Jesus was returning, but there was a lot of stuff that we just can't figure out.
03:28-03:36
Like, okay, wait, so there's a heaven and someday we're going to get a new body, but like what happens before then?
03:36-03:39
And Jesus is going to return.
03:39-03:45
So what happens to those who died before Jesus returns, right?
03:45-03:54
Because you said that Jesus is going to come back and like... So what happens... Okay, so Grandma died and where is she?
03:56-04:00
And like Jesus is going to return, but Grandma's not here.
04:00-04:05
And like there was so much confusion about what happens when we die.
04:07-04:12
That's why I want you to jump down to verse 18, because here's the sermon, verse 18.
04:12-04:15
Paul says everything we're going to look at.
04:16-04:29
He says, "Therefore, encourage one another with these words." So when I'm looking at the passage this week, I wasn't like, "Okay, so I'm supposed to take these words and draw out this eschatological chart," and that's not what he said.
04:30-04:31
What did he say to do with this passage?
04:32-04:58
He said, "Encourage one another with these words." And I promise you, there are some people sitting in the seats right now that are stirred up, maybe discouraged, maybe a little depressed, because you're not sure what happens when we die and what happens to those who have died.
04:58-05:01
And, well, we're going to comfort you.
05:02-05:03
with these words today.
05:05-05:23
So on your outline, you know I don't do a lot of cross-referencing usually, but I have some cross-referenced verses on your outline so that as we go through them, I wanted you to have them handy so that when you go home, you're like, "Well, he said this, but I wasn't sure about that." You can look these verses up again, okay?
05:25-05:27
So there's some cross-referencing there for you.
05:27-05:30
But on your outline, what happens to Christians who die?
05:32-05:34
Here's four words of comfort for the living.
05:36-05:41
Somebody's like, "Well, I'm looking at the outline now, there's a lot more than four words on there." Come on, don't be smart.
05:42-05:42
You know how it is.
05:42-05:45
If somebody says, "I'd like to have a word with you," you know what that means, right?
05:47-05:48
We're going to comfort you with the words.
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Okay, four words of comfort for the living.
05:50-05:56
Number one, I love, man, I was like trying to pick a favorite this week, and I could not do it.
05:57-06:01
But this was like, you know, one of the ones tied for first.
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This is so comforting.
06:03-06:06
Number one, we don't have to wonder what happens when we die.
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We don't have to wonder.
06:08-06:09
We don't have to wonder.
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What do you think happens when we die?
06:13-06:14
We don't have to wonder.
06:15-06:17
Look at verse 13.
06:17-06:27
Paul says, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep." means have passed away.
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We're going to talk about that in a second.
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We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
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First of all, yes, we grieve.
06:45-06:47
Grieving is normal.
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There are some even in the Christian church that are like, "Well, you shouldn't grieve.
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I mean, if you know Jesus, you should know better.
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You shouldn't grieve." Grieving is fine.
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Grieving is normal.
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Grieving is expected.
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Okay?
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This passage isn't saying we don't grieve.
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The passage is saying that we don't grieve in the way that others grieve.
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Okay?
07:10-07:11
But we still grieve, right?
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What does Romans 12, 15 say?
07:14-07:20
That we rejoice with those who rejoice and we weep with those who weep.
07:22-07:23
So we should grieve.
07:24-07:25
It's okay to grieve.
07:27-07:28
Grieving is normal.
07:28-07:31
We're going to miss the person, right?
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That's why we grieve.
07:33-07:36
This person was a big part of my life, and I miss him.
07:37-07:38
I miss him being in my life.
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I miss being around him, and I just miss him being around.
07:44-07:47
So we grieve, but not like the pagans, okay?
07:47-07:51
We don't grieve like the pagans, as others do who have no hope.
07:53-08:02
People who don't know Jesus Christ or people that are involved in some other religion, they don't have confidence in what happens when you die.
08:02-08:24
The best that every other religion in the world, other than what the scriptures teach, other than what the Bible teaches, every other religion, the best they offer is, "Do your best and you might get rewarded when you die, we're not sure." There is a huge question mark in other religions about what happens when you die.
08:25-08:33
Even in Islam, you can be a devout Muslim, but when you stand before Allah, he may or may not let you in.
08:34-08:40
I guess it depends how he feels that day, but there's no guarantees other than jihad.
08:42-08:43
That's a different story.
08:45-08:49
See, in other religions, it's, "We don't know.
08:49-08:52
We're not quite sure." But you see, we're informed.
08:53-08:59
We are informed because the truth of the Bible is radically different than what other religions teach.
08:59-09:08
We're going to look at them in just a second, but I want to call your attention to this word "asleep." We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep.
09:10-09:18
When the word sleep shows up in the Bible referring to death, you'll notice that it always refers to the body, the physical body.
09:18-09:18
Why?
09:19-09:25
Because from the point of view of the living, it's just a temporary thing.
09:26-09:27
Do you understand that?
09:28-09:35
From the point of view of the living, somebody that dies is referred to as sleeping because it's just a temporary thing.
09:36-09:37
Like, well, what do you mean by that?
09:37-09:40
Remember when Lazarus died, Luke chapter 11, what did Jesus say?
09:41-09:45
Jesus is like, "He's sleeping." What do you mean by that?
09:45-09:45
He's going to get up.
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And in Lazarus' case, he got up very soon.
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It's just a temporary condition.
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But understand this, this is so important.
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Don't miss this.
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I get asked this question almost as much as any other question I get asked as a pastor.
10:01-10:08
I get asked the question, "When you die, do you immediately go somewhere?
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Or are you unconscious?" Well, here's the answer to that question.
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This is from the Bible.
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But your spirit is never unconscious.
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There's no such thing as soul sleep.
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There's no such thing as purgatory.
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Okay?
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None of those things are true.
10:32-10:41
The Bible says that when you die in Christ, we're addressing Christians today, when you die your spirit immediately goes straight to heaven.
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Like, I need some scripture to back that up.
10:44-10:45
Well, I have them on your outline.
10:46-10:53
I want to reference quickly, first of all, Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
10:53-11:05
And Jesus tells how they both died, and the rich man went to Hades where he was suffering, and Lazarus went to, Jesus said he was in Abraham's bosom.
11:07-11:14
And some people have taken that to mean that there's some spiritual realm that's referred to as Abraham's bosom, and that's not what that means.
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He's talking about heaven.
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Jesus in the book of Matthew talked about in heaven reclining at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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So, this concept of Abraham's bosom just means you're in heaven with Abraham.
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And their day, when they sat at the table to eat, they weren't sitting in chairs at the dining room table.
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They would actually recline at a flat table.
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So, when they would eat, they were actually kind of laying on each other.
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And that's what Jesus was talking about here, was Lazarus was reclining at the table with Abraham.
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He's at Abraham's side, or in Abraham's bosom, meaning he's kind of... How many people are glad we don't eat like that today?
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I love you guys, but I wouldn't want any of you laying on me while I'm trying to eat, okay?
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But that was how they did it, and that's what we're talking about here.
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But the point of the story is, immediately upon death, their spirits went somewhere.
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2 Corinthians 5:8, Paul says, "We would rather be away from the body "and at home with the Lord." Do you notice there's nothing in the middle, okay?
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He didn't say that there was some intermediate state.
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When you're out of your body, you are where?
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You're at home with the Lord.
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Philippians 1:23, Paul says, "My desire is to depart and be in purgatory." No, he didn't say that.
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"My desire is to depart and sleep in the grave." No, he didn't say that.
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What did he say?
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"My desire is to depart and be with Christ." That is far better.
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So here's a word of comfort for you today.
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We don't have to wonder.
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We don't have to wonder, "What happens when I die?
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What happened to my grandma who died?
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What happened to that awesome Christian neighbor I had that died?" We don't have to wonder.
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We know exactly what happens.
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Number two, word of comfort for the living, number two is Jesus gets us to heaven.
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Jesus gets us to heaven.
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Look at verse 14.
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He says, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again." I want to stop here because we're about to hit this big teaching here on future events.
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But you have to understand before we get to that teaching that all of this is predicated on the truth that Jesus provides the way of salvation.
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All of this is predicated on the truth that Jesus provides the way of salvation, and that is so comforting.
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You know why?
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That means it doesn't depend on me.
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If it was up to me to get to heaven, I would never make it.
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I have failed and failed and failed, and guess what?
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I'm going to fail today, and if God gives me tomorrow, I'm going to fail.
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I'm living in fallen flesh.
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I'm going to fail.
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I am willing to fail and so are you." And if it was up to us to earn our way to heaven, like, "Okay God, I'll be good now," none of us would be there.
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That's why Paul reminds us of this glorious truth of the gospel.
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All of this that he's about to teach about going to heaven is based on the fact that Jesus died for our sins and he rose to give us eternal life.
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First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 56 talks about these things that we're talking about this morning.
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When you get to the end of First Corinthians 15, Paul starts taunting death.
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"Oh, death, where is your victory?
14:52-15:02
Death, where is your sting?" And in verse 56, Paul says, "The sting of death is sin." You know honeybees?
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Do you know honeybees can only sting once?
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Did you know that?
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knew that. Like everybody, party on. Okay, so you're totally going to get this.
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Honeybees can only sting one time, and then what happens to them? They're dead, right? They can sting once and then they die. So understand, when Jesus was on the cross, he was experiencing the sting of death. And just like that bee couldn't like buzz down and sting Sally and then come over and sting me. When Jesus took the sting of death on the cross, death doesn't have a stinger anymore. I don't have to fear the penalty of my sin because it left its stinger in Jesus when he was on the cross. So that's why just like that bee is dead and powerless after it stings someone, Paul says that death, death itself is dead and powerless against us when you believe in Jesus Christ.
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He took the sting on the cross, so now there is no sting.
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So I don't have to wonder what happens when we die, and Jesus gets us to heaven, and this stuff is now, but the question is what's going to happen in the future?
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What's going to happen at the return of Christ, and that's where he gets in in these next couple of verses.
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So I want you to study with me here, okay?
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Number three, Jesus is coming back to gather all his people.
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Jesus is coming back to gather all his people.
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Let's pick up in the text.
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Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will, look Look at this, "Bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
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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.
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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. 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." That's saying a lot, and we're going to break this down for all of our Savior, very simply, Jesus is coming back to gather all his people.
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The verses 14 and 15 tell us that Jesus is coming back, and when he comes back, he's going to be bringing those spirits of those sleeping, in other words, the people who have died that their spirits are in heaven, those spirits are going to be coming back with Jesus Paul says in verse 16, "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command." That Greek word for cry is actually a military command.
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I love that.
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When Jesus comes back, it's not going to be like, you know, when I'm trying to get my kids out the door, "Come on, come on, get your shoes on, come on, come on." It's not going to be like that.
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It's going to be a military command.
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Jesus ascending with his people, giving a command to assemble everybody.
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Line up.
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We're out of here.
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Military command, ultimate authority that Jesus alone possesses.
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Awesome. Everybody say awesome.
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See, we talk about stuff being awesome, but stuff isn't awesome.
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That cheeseburger you had yesterday wasn't awesome.
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OK, that TV show wasn't awesome, but you know what is awesome?
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So let's try that again.
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Everybody say "awesome." Awesome.
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Awesome.
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Then notice it says, "with the voice of an archangel." You're like, "who's that?" You know there's only one angel named in the Bible as an archangel, and that's Michael.
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That's in Jude in verse 9.
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So my best understanding of this is Michael's coming alongside Jesus.
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are so often talked about in end time events being used by God to accomplish his purposes. So my understanding of this is it's Michael the Archangel alongside Jesus and all of the spirits of those who have died ahead of those who are left on the earth. Verse 17 it says that we who are alive who are left will be caught up together. Underline in your Bible the word caught up, those words caught up. Underline those. Why? Because it's from this word, arpeggio, that we get the concept of rapture, and the rapture is the catching away of the church. The reason I want you to underline this is you hear people say things like, "Well, you know, I don't believe in the rapture because the word rapture isn't in the Bible. Have you heard that? How many people have heard somebody say that? The word rapture isn't in the Bible. It's not. That is a word that's attached to this word that's attached to this concept, okay? So instead of us talking about this event as in, you know, "What's going to happen when Jesus comes back to assemble all of the people living and dead in resurrection?" We've put a word to that concept, and it comes from this "caught up." That's where we get that. It's actually, that harpazo is actually a violent word, meaning it's not like picking blueberries, okay? Jesus is going to come and just... The word's actually a very aggressive word. Like Jesus is going to come and like, "Mine!" And like, the words used like in, what is it, John chapter 10. Jesus said, "No one can snatch you from my hand." It's the same word, snatch. That harpazo. Nobody "I aggressively take you from me because you're mine." And then he says, "No one can snatch you from the Father's hand." And in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus says, "The kingdom is advancing and violent men take it by force." He's talking about the aggressiveness that people go after the kingdom.
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Same word, it's a grabbing.
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That's what the Bible says.
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Jesus is going to come from heaven and he's going to grab all his people.
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John chapter 14, Jesus talked about this during His earthly ministry.
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Remember He said, verses two and three, "My Father's house are many rooms.
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"If it were not so, would I have told you "that I go to prepare a place for you?
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"And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will," look at this, "I will come again "and will take you to myself that where I am "you may be also." So the Bible says Jesus will return with those spirits of the people who died and resurrect their bodies into glorified bodies.
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Okay, those bodies that are asleep in the grave, Jesus, when he comes back, is going to be calling those bodies out of the grave and transform them into glorious bodies, and those spirits are going to be reunited with those glorious bodies.
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Like, well, what about the people that are like alive when Jesus returns, like when do we get our glorified bodies?
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Well, the living immediately receive their glorified bodies.
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That's why we have to do a little cross-referencing here.
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1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 23.
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And then I'm going to read verses 51 and 52.
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But I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 15.
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He talks all about this.
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He says, concerning the rapture, end times, return of Christ, He says, "But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then in his coming those who belong to Christ.
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Behold, I tell you a mystery.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." I used to think that verse was about having babies, you know, because what happens when you have a baby?
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed?
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And I found out that this has nothing to do with babies.
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This has to do with the resurrection that takes place at the rapture.
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He says, "We shall not all sleep," meaning some of us are going to be alive when Jesus returns.
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When is that?
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I have no idea.
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But some of us sitting in this room may very well be alive when Jesus returns.
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We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
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Meaning, instantaneously, if you're alive when Jesus returns, he's like, "Boom!
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You get your glorified body." Yeah, these people that are coming with me, I'm bringing their bodies up out of the grave, transforming them, spirit back in there.
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They're ready for eternity.
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You that are still alive waiting for me, you're ready for eternity.
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Glorified body, instantaneous transformation is what 1 Corinthians 15 says, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Then he says at the last trumpet, "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable." Okay, spirits into the bodies.
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Raised imperishable, and we, meaning those alive on the earth, shall be changed.
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Back to 1 Thessalonians 4, notice he says, you know, "Cry, command, voice of the archangel," And with the sound of the trumpet of God.
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Like, well, what's up with the trumpet?
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Well, in the Old Testament, it's really neat.
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You go to Exodus chapter 19.
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When God wanted to assemble all of the Israelites for a meeting, he blew a trumpet.
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Okay, they didn't send out an email where God's like, "Follow me on Twitter so you know when we're meeting." No, when he wanted all of the people to come together for a meeting, they would blast the trumpet.
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And that's what this is talking about here.
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When Jesus returns, he's like, "All my people together for a meeting!" Trumpet sounds to signify God's people are being called to gather.
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Awesome.
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Awesome.
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So, with this order of events, when you think about it, it's just like Jesus.
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Think of Jesus in his earthly ministry.
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Jesus literally died, right?
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Body on the cross, body taken down from the cross, body put in the tomb, stone rolled, right?
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His body was in the tomb.
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Was Jesus unconscious?
26:27-26:28
Did Jesus have soul sleep?
26:29-26:29
What happened to Jesus?
26:30-26:32
Obviously Jesus was still existing.
26:33-26:38
Jesus was still conscious even though his body was in the grave.
26:39-26:47
And on the third day, Jesus was reunited with his new glorified body that came out of the tomb.
26:48-26:50
And it's going to be exactly the same for us.
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See, we're going to die, we're going to spend time away from our body, and we're ultimately going to be reunited with our glorified body.
27:01-27:04
The only difference is, it might not be three days.
27:05-27:10
It might be more than a three-day span between leaving the body and being reunited with the glorified body.
27:12-27:33
That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, 20 and 21, "Our citizenship is in heaven, "and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," look at this, "who will transform our lowly body "to be like his glorious body." You're going to have a body just like Jesus' glorified body.
27:35-27:36
Isn't that awesome?
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Jesus' glorified body, He could walk through walls.
27:41-27:43
Remember, He flew up to heaven.
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Like who's not excited about that?
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You're going to have this body that is glorified and indestructible and ageless.
27:58-28:11
You know, all the back problems and arthritis and cancers and all of those things that, as a result of living in a fallen world, that just are wearing our bodies out.
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We're going to get a body that was designed by God to last forever, just like the one Jesus himself has.
28:23-28:29
We will, who will transform, excuse me, our lowly body to be like His glorious body.
28:30-28:32
So Jesus is coming back.
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He's going to gather us all together and He's going to give us a body just like His.
28:40-28:41
Is that comforting?
28:42-28:57
And then finally, verse 17, He says, "And so," look at the end of the verse, "And so we will always be with the Lord." of comfort this is, someday we will always be with the Lord.
29:00-29:06
Someday, someday, it's all going to be behind you forever.
29:08-29:28
Pain, disappointment, discouragement, as I said, cancer, diabetes, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs, autism, death, all of these things are forever going to be just a distant memory.
29:30-29:33
So we will always be with the Lord.
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So my word for you today, church, under the authority of God's word is this.
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Be comforted.
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Be comforted.
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You are not uninformed.
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We know how this ends.
29:53-30:03
Jesus bought our ticket to heaven with his own blood, and he's coming back to take all of his people there so that we can always be with him.
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This is what keeps us going, and this is what comforts us until we get there.
30:12-30:21
Father in heaven, we thank you that you didn't leave us wondering.
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You actually wrote it down, you put it in a book, and it became the bestseller of all time.
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We have it in our hands.
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We don't have to wonder what happens when we die.
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Even in just these few verses we looked at this morning, you laid it out crystal clear.
30:39-30:44
We thank You God, not just for the information, but we thank You for this glorious plan.
30:45-31:00
What an awesome and humbling thing it is to think that we're going to go through the same type of thing that Jesus went through, that even if our body dies, we're going to have a glorified body resurrection someday.
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Father, I think the most comforting thing in this passage is that the day is coming that we will be with you forever.
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Know how sweet are the times on this earth that we have communion with you.
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How we long for those times.
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How we feel so dry.
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We don't have those times of sweet communion with you in prayer and in your Word.
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But to think that there's going to be a day that perfect, sinless, constant communion with you is going to be the norm.
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We thank You for that.
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So Father, I pray today that very simply that Your words were a comfort to someone here that had a concern about these things.
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Glorify Your name.
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We pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Can you explain the sequence of events Paul lays out in v13-18 regarding the Rapture and the people involved? What was Paul's purpose for describing the Rapture (hint: v18)?
What are some things from this passage / sermon regarding "end time events" that are different than how you understood them previously?
How is "Christian grieving" different from "worldly grieving"?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another