The Reason for Hope

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE REASON FOR HOPE

 

1 Thess 4:13-18

13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 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 own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till 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 each other with these words.

NIV

We have finally come to the center of what has been called the rapture of the church. However, this is more, it is the word of God that gives us the way in which we will come into the presence of God Almighty. This solves the question about what will happen after the death of this body we are now in. We cannot be sure just exactly what he means to fall asleep. The Greek word does not indicate that means death, but it simply refers to be put to sleep, or to slumber, the figurative meaning is to die. It also gives us the big difference between us and the rest of the world. We live with hope, and those who do not know Jesus, have no reason for hope. Some might think they are going to heaven because they are a good person and all good people go to heaven. This is a false narrative they have been deceived by, giving to them from Satan, through the mouths of false teachers and preachers. The day of our meeting our Lord is coming as sure as our heart is beating right now. Whether we fall asleep, die, or we are still alive, we are going to rise up from this earth in the same manner Jesus ascended from it. His disciples saw him rise up from the earth as it floating in the air until he disappeared from their sight into the clouds. That is exacting what we are going to do someday. Jesus is coming for us, of that, we can have total confidence. Now as to what happens when we fall asleep we are not sure. What we know is that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. We have had friends who were with loved ones at the moment of their last breathe and have testified their loved ones looked as if they were seeing Jesus or an angel there to take them home. If at the moment of our last breath we go to be with Jesus, have a personal rapture in a sense, that would be wonderful. But if we are just asleep until he returns with a loud command and the trumpet call of God, we will not know the difference. Just as each night we sleep, but are not aware of our sleeping or how long we sleep until we awake. It may well be just as that the moment we die, we in essence fall asleep unaware of our being dead, until that trumpet call of God and we awake from our slumber and rise up from the grave and float up into the air to meet our Lord. The point is we are going to ascend into heaven and be with our Lord, however and whenever that happens it just fine with us, because it is going to happen. As far as what happens after that it is up to the Lord. If we come back and rule and reign with him for a thousand years, that would be fine, but if we don’t that would be fine also. Either way, we are going to be eternal beings in the presence of our Lord. Who cares after we ascend to meet him in the air as to what happens next. Although we are told some of what will happen because he gave John that revelation and told him to write it down so others could know. Still, here we are assured we are going to be in the resurrection and the ascension just as Jesus. That is all I really need to know to have hope and to encourage you to that same hope.