Encouragement comes to the informed.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed (agnoeō) about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For 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. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 37: The Last Judgment (Part 1)
Finally we believe,
according to God’s Word,
that when the time appointed by the Lord is come
(which is unknown to all creatures)
and the number of the elect is complete,
our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven,
bodily and visibly,
as he ascended,
with great glory and majesty,
to declare himself the judge
of the living and the dead.
He will burn this old world,
in fire and flame,
in order to cleanse it.
Then all human creatures will appear in person
before that great judge—
men, women, and children,
who have lived from the beginning until the end
of the world.
They will be summoned there
by the voice of the archangel
and by the sound of the divine trumpet.
For all those who died before that time
will be raised from the earth,
their spirits being joined and united
with their own bodies
in which they lived.
And as for those who are still alive,
they will not die like the others
but will be changed “in the twinkling of an eye”
from “corruptible to incorruptible.”
Summary
Often agnostics like to think of themselves as being intellectually superior to those of us who are certain about our beliefs. The evidence that the Bible is true that is sufficient for the rest of us just isn't good enough to be sure about for their advanced intellects. But Paul demonstrates what it truly means to be agnoeō in today's passage: uninformed. And he warns you not to be that, for to be uninformed is to have no hope.
But informed Christians are on the other end of the hope-scale. We know that Jesus is alive, and that when the time comes, God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. This changes the way we grieve the death of a loved one; we certainly feel the pain of loss, but we know the pain is temporary and will resolve when Christ returns.
It's the manner in which Christ will return that grabs our attention today. But as Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, paints the picture of the coming of the Lord not with vivid colors or imagery, but rather acoustically - he tells us what it will sound like. We'll hear the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God!
Imagine what that will sound like! If you live in the midwest, you know the ominous sound of tornado sirens. Even when they test them on the first Wednesday of the month, the sound of them interrupts every other activity. Perhaps the uniformed - the agnostics - will be frightened of the bone shaking noise announcing the Lord's return, but those who recognize the unmistakable sound will rejoice!
Dig Deeper
What always amazes me about the Bible's descriptions of the second coming is how brief it will be. There are no accounts of long, protracted battles between Heaven and the armies of evil. Even the final battle of Armageddon will be over before it ever really begins (Revelation 20:7-10).
In the scene Paul describes here, even as the sound of the trumpet still rings out, the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We don't even need to wait for the Lord to get all the way down! The moment He appears in the sky, His entire Church will be assembled around Him!
But members of the Church will not be the only people participating that day. As our Confession reminds us by summarizing other Bible passages, all people - all of the men, women, and children, who have lived from the beginning until the end of the world will be summoned there by the awesomely terrible sound of the trumpet. Sadly, though, as we read yesterday, not all people will join Christ in His Kingdom.
Often times, even solid Christians think of the second coming with fear and trembling. The Bible doesn't explain every detail of it, so our minds try to fill in the blanks with imaginative and often wildly inaccurate details of our own. So I love the way Paul ends this passage. He reminds you that the second coming ought not frighten you. Rather, encourage one another with these words!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose victorious Son will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matthew 24:31).
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be encouraged by the Bible's teaching about Christ's glorious return;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Revelation 10
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