The Everyday Truth of the Return of Jesus Christ is a sermon teaching us to make every day count and to live in such a way that turns people to the Lord.

Key Verses:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

I’m going to ask you to take your Bible now, if you will, and turn with us to 1 Thessalonians chapter four, 1 Thessalonians chapter four, and want us to read. We’ll eventually be looking at verses 13 through 18. To begin, let’s look at verses 16 and 17. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says:

1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

1 Thessalonians 4:17: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

I want to talk to you tonight about the everyday truth of the return of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Every Day

If the Lord allows me to continue, and we don’t know how long any of us will be here, but if He allows me to continue by next November, and that’s quite a distance out now, a little over ten months away, but if I make it that far, if the Lord allows, I will have been preaching the Gospel for 55 years. Now, I’ve learned a great deal in those years, but I have to tell you, I’m still learning. I don’t know it all, not nearly, and I learn things all the time, and I love it. I love learning new things. I love reading the scriptures. I’ll be honest with you: sometimes, I’m reading, and I say, how did I not see that before? There it is, so clear and so plain, and I missed it.

But quite often, during these years, I’ve been called upon to conduct funerals, and I’ve never turned down a funeral. But I have turned down a few weddings, not many, but a few. But I’ve never turned down a funeral. The reason I’ve never ever turned down a funeral is it is an opportunity to reach out to the brokenhearted, share the Gospel with them, and offer them some hope and some comfort.

Now, there’s more truth in the Bible than any one man could ever preach or teach. And there are some key things that have to be declared over and over again. You’ve heard it. You’ve heard it again, and you’ve heard it again, but you still need to hear it. That’s where we are tonight. We must preach that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again. We must preach that through faith in Him, our sins are forgiven, our souls are saved, and we have an eternal home in Heaven. We talked quite a bit about that this morning. We’re going to talk about some again tonight.

Your Theology

But I want to take another look at this important text and see the everyday truth of the return of Jesus Christ. What I mean by the everyday truth is how belief in the return of Jesus affects our everyday lives. I mean, this is Sunday evening, and most people, on Monday morning, start another week of work or other activities. How does believing in the return of Jesus affect that? Well, it can, tremendously.

I want to interject something here, and I’ve said it here often. I want to say it again. Your theology governs your philosophy. By that, I mean however you believe in God, or whatever you believe about God, that governs how you look at everything else. If you believe in God and you believe that God is a loving Heavenly Father, that’s going to govern how you look at everything else. If you believe there is a God, but He certainly doesn’t love you, that’s going to govern how you view everything else. If you say there is no God, I don’t believe in God at all, that’s going to govern how you view everything else. Your theology determines your philosophy.

In verse 13 it tells us this:

1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,” – we must not be ignorant. Now, don’t get insulted by that. A lot of people do. You say that person’s ignorant, and they think that you’re saying they’re stupid, and that’s not what it means. Ignorance simply means that you are without knowledge in a certain area, and if you stop and think about it. All of us are ignorant to a certain degree. “What’d you just call me?” I said we’re all ignorant to a certain degree. The fact is, there are areas that we don’t have much knowledge about. You may be an expert in certain fields, but then there are other fields where you really don’t know much.

I was talking to a doctor, not long ago, and I was telling him my personal experience with the condition that we were discussing. He said, “Well, I don’t think that’ll work.” And I said, “Well, doctor, I’m not arguing with you because you know more about this kind of thing than I do.” And he certainly does. I wasn’t trying to say, “Buddy, I know more than you.” I don’t. I said, “But let me just share with you my personal experience. In the fact that you told me that your test results show Improvement, I’m going to assume that something is working, and I’m going to keep on doing what I’m doing now.”

I wasn’t trying to be a wise guy. I wasn’t trying to argue with the doctor. He knows his medicine. He knows human anatomy. He knows chemistry. He knows all these things far better than I ever have or ever will. But even so, I don’t want to be totally ignorant, totally without knowledge.

And so, the Apostle Paul, writing here to the church at Thessalonica, he says, I don’t want you to be ignorant, brethren,” – key word, the word “brethren” there tells us that he’s writing to those who are believers:

1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

“Them which are asleep,” – now, asleep in this verse and in this passage is Paul’s euphemism. A euphemism is a word you use in place of another word. We, a lot of times, use euphemisms when we don’t want to say profane words. Well, he’s not doing that, but he is using it to say something that people a lot of times don’t want to hear, and it’s this when he says “asleep.” He means those who have died with faith in Jesus. How do you know he means that? Well, I read the rest of the passage, and it’s very evident.

So, he said, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” Now, Paul is not saying there that when somebody you care about passes away, you cannot grieve. That’s not what he’s saying. It’s not what he’s saying at all.

The truth of the matter is you’re going to grieve when somebody you love passes. You’re going to grieve. Why? Because you miss seeing that person, and it’s not wrong to grieve. It’s normal to grieve. It’s natural to grieve, and to a certain point, it’s healthy. Why does he say to a certain point? Well, you can go too far, even with grieving. But I don’t think most people are doing that. Now, I’ll say this: he says I don’t want you to sorrow, but there’s no period there. There’s a comma, and the rest of the sentence says, “even as others which have no hope.”

I talked about doing many funerals, and I’ll be honest with you: I’ve seen people who were believers grieve, I’ve seen people who were not believers grieve, and there is a difference in how they grieve. They both grieve. They grieve differently because those who know the Lord, believe in His return, and believe in a resurrection have hope. Those who do not have no hope.

Of all the services I’ve done, I remember one that I did right here in this auditorium, and by far, the majority of the people present were not believers. We sang the hymns, we shared the scripture, and we prayed. I tried to bring words of comfort, but nothing said or done stopped the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because they knew that the one who had passed away, they had seen that one for the last time ever. No hope. No hope.

Believers Have Hope

But there is hope, and if you look at verse 14, he says:

1 Thessalonians 4:14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” – stop right there. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, that is the Gospel. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. The same writer who wrote this to the Thessalonians writes to the church at Corinth and says:

1 Corinthians 15:1: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;”

1 Corinthians 15:2: “By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;”

1 Corinthians 15:4: “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

Clear, very clear that is the Gospel, that is the Bible definition of the Gospel. So, if we believe that, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, “even so them also which sleep in Jesus,” – again, being asleep, a euphemism for death, those who have died believing in Jesus, “them also which sleep in Jesus,” – watch the next verse very carefully, “them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

What a statement. What a statement. Do you understand what he’s saying there? He’s saying God is coming, and when God comes, He’s going to bring those who have died with faith in Jesus with Him. Now, how is that possible? Well, I’m going to tell you we had a little discussion about this earlier.

When You Die

When somebody dies, how long is it between the time they die and the time they are in the presence of the Lord? Let me just try to help you with that a little bit.

First of all, there is nowhere in the Bible that talks about soul sleep. Some people teach that. They say, “Well, when you die, your spirit just goes to sleep in the body, and you get buried in the grave.” The first problem with that theory is not everybody gets buried in a grave, but let’s not even go there. You get buried in the grave, your soul sleeps in your body until the resurrection, and then the resurrection comes, and your soul wakes up, and you’re alive again. You do not find that in the Bible. You won’t find it in the Old Testament. You won’t find it in the New Testament. You won’t find it anywhere. It’s not there.

What the Bible does say is this. Think about Luke chapter 16, with the rich man and Lazarus. It says, “It came to pass,” Jesus said, “It came to pass that the beggar died, and the angels took him to heaven.” Now, when did that happen? Well, Jesus said that. We look at Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter five, and he says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” No interim in between. You’re absent from the body; you’re present with the Lord.

Now, if you were to go back to 1 Corinthians 15 again, and you get down to the end of it, it talks about the Rapture, the catching away. And you know what Paul says? He says, “It’s in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

“Yeah, but preacher, that’s the Rapture. That’s not talking about when you die.” I don’t see why there’d be a great deal of difference. I don’t. When a person dies, they are in the presence of the Lord. There’s no interval, and if there were an interval, where would they go in the meantime? “Well, I think they stay here on Earth with unfinished business.” You won’t find that in the Bible, either. I’m sorry, but you just won’t.

Now I’ve heard stories, and I’m sure you have too. Maybe you’ve had experiences. I’ve heard people say, “Well, my loved one died, and I saw them again after they died.” I’m not going to debate that with you. I’m not going to argue with you. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what you saw, what you didn’t see. I couldn’t say. But I’m telling you, when a believer dies, the believer goes to be with the Lord.

When the Lord Comes

Now, here’s the thing that you have to understand. What he’s saying here is this:

1 Thessalonians 4:15: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [or precede] them which are asleep.”

So, this is said by the Word of the Lord, by the Bible. And in verse 14, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” But verse 15:

1 Thessalonians 4:15: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”

“We say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain,” – we made reference to this, this morning. Some people will still be living. There’ll be people living on Earth when the Lord comes to take His people home. Will you or I be there? I couldn’t possibly say. But there will be people, believers on Earth, when the Lord comes.

We had a dear brother in this church for many years, and I couldn’t count the times he would tell me, and I’m going to quote him as close to verbatim as I can. He would say, “I’m going to be here when this thing’s over.” And what did he mean by that? He meant he believed he was going to live to see the coming of the Lord. Well, he didn’t. You’d say, “Well, that was foolish on his part.” I don’t think so. Do you know what I do think? I think the Lord called him home. That’s what I think. I think he went to be with the Lord.

Now, friends, what I’m trying to tell you is this, “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” That word “prevent” really is like pre-event or we shall not go before them. Usually, when we prevent something, we stop it. He’s not saying we’re not going to stop them. It’s saying we’re not going to go before them. “How do you know?” That’s what it means. Well, again, I read the rest of the passage.

Look at verse 16, and this tells us how it’s all going to happen:

1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” – now let’s stop right there. “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” Who is going to descend from heaven? The Lord. The Lord himself, not an angel, not somebody else, not a personal representative.

With a Shout

“The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.” Now, that’s interesting, “with a shout.”

Take your Bible, if you will, and hold 1 Thessalonians chapter four. We’re going to come back to it. I was just going to share this with you, but I think it’ll help you to see it. Turn to Revelation chapter four. Now, to totally understand what we’re about to read, you need to read Revelation chapters one, two, and three, and you need to read the rest of chapter four and go into chapter five to get the full understanding. But I think you’ll catch on. Revelation four and verse one, this is John writing, and he says:

Revelation 4:1: “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven,” – isn’t that a wonderful thought? “A door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were,” of a what? Trumpet. Isn’t that interesting? Keep that in mind. Let’s start the verse again:

Revelation 4:1: “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

Now, what happened there? John was on Earth. He sees a door open in Heaven. He hears a voice that sounds like a trumpet and the call is to come up here, “Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.”

I want to tell you a story. I don’t have to tell it, but I think it fits. This is many years ago, decades ago, I was at the University of Florida, and it was a graduation day there. I was not a student there. I was visiting and walking with my friend, Robert Ernst, who is now and has been for many years, a missionary in Australia.

But his brother was graduating that day from the University of Florida. We were walking down the hallway, and we were talking about the return of the Lord. As we were walking in the hallway and talking about it, up over our heads on the speaker system, a voice said, “Come up here.” Look, you know, we thought this is it, we’re going, but obviously we didn’t. But I just had to share that with you, but evidently, I like that better than you did.

But anyway, it says, “Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.”

Read the first two words of verse two with me, “And,” what? “Immediately.”

Revelation 4:2: “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”

“Immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set,” In where? Heaven. John says I heard a voice that sounded like a trumpet. I heard it say come up here, and immediately, he was in Heaven. Do you see that?

Now, back up to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” – that doesn’t tell us about that shout. It doesn’t tell us what it is, but I suspect it’s something like, “Come up hither.” What do you think?

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.” I wish we had time to go into that, the archangel. There seem to be degrees of angels or ranks of angels if you will. Michael is an archangel. Gabriel appears to be an archangel. But the fact of the matter is the voice of the archangels shouts, and with the trump [or trumpet] of God,” – does that sound similar to you to what John wrote? It kind of does, doesn’t it? Yeah, this is Paul’s writing, and he’s writing this quite a few years before John wrote the Revelation. “Oh well, are you saying John copied Paul?” I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying they’re talking about the same thing:

1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

That’s how we know what “prevent” means in the previous verse. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Now go back, if you will, and look at verse 14:

1 Thessalonians 4:14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

Dust of the Earth

When the body dies, the body dies. A question came up today, it comes up often about cremation, and if I’m cremated is that sinful? And I’ve heard preachers say, “Oh, you can’t do that. That’s a heathen practice, and so forth. The heathen burn their bodies, the Christians bury.” Well, there may be some truth to that, and I’m not going to argue that right now.

But here’s what I want you to understand. If you believe the Bible, if you believe the whole Bible, you’re going to believe this. You’re going to believe that God made man from the dust of the Earth. If He made man from the dust of the earth, He can resurrect man from the ashes. I guarantee you He can. Why would one be harder than the other? “Are you saying that it’s okay to be cremated?” I’m saying that’s your personal decision, that’s what I’m saying. Now, it’s not going to affect resurrection. It isn’t, it can’t.

There are so many other ways in which you know that’s true. People die, and their body returns to dust. The Bible tells you that the spirit goes to God, who gave it. The body returns to the dust from which it came, returns to the Earth from which it came. There’s no question about that.

But the dead in Christ shall rise first. God is going to bring those who sleep in Jesus, the dead in Christ and those who died believing in Christ. He’s going to bring them with Him, and when He brings those with Him, they’re going to rise first. He’s going to resurrect their bodies first before the rest of us get to go. Now, why is that? People speculate a lot of things. One person says, “Well, they got farther to go.” But folks, it’s not that much farther. I don’t think that’s the determining factor. The truth of the matter is that’s what God said. He resurrects them first.

What’s going to happen? He’s bringing their spirits with Him. Their bodies have died and returned to the Earth and He brings the spirits with Him, resurrects the body, spirit and body are reunited. Then what happens? Then, they get to make the greatest U-turn in the history of the universe. What do you mean by that? Well, look at verse 16 again:

1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

1 Thessalonians 4:17: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Spirit is coming with Him, body resurrected, spirit and body reunited. “Well, I’d like to know more about that.” Good. Read 1 Corinthians 15, the entire chapter. When you get to the end of it, you’ll know more about it, I promise you. Spirit comes, body resurrected, reunited.

So Shall We Ever Be

1 Thessalonians 4:17: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

There’s no end to it. There’s no “what happens” when that’s over because it’s never going to be over. Now, where do we meet Him? In the air. Remember this morning we talked about Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.” What are we going to do? We’re going to meet Him in the air. What is the purpose? “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” John 14:3, Jesus says:

John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

We are at home with our family and with our friends, and we are at home with the Lord.

Comforting Words

Verse 18, and we’re finished:

1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

“Wherefore,” – because we believe all of this. Wherefore, we believe that Jesus died and rose again, because we believe that he is coming again, because we believe in the resurrection, because we believe that there will be a glad reunion day in Heaven, because we will ever be with the Lord and there’s no end to it, “comfort one another with these words.”

I mentioned at the beginning of the message I’ve been called on to do many funerals. I don’t think there’s ever been one, there may have been, but my memory is far from perfect, I don’t think there’s ever been one when I didn’t go through this passage for the very reason that it gives us. In verse 18:

1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

There’s no more comforting thought that I can give you than to tell you that you can be at home with the Lord forever, and you can be with your loved ones forever.

Dr. Lee Robertson was my pastor for seven years. He preached many truths in the Bible, but one great truth that he emphasized over and over was the Lord’s return. He actually wrote a number of books. I don’t even know how many books he wrote, but several of them were about the second coming of the Lord. One of the books was titled “Some Golden Daybreak.” The title came from that hymn we sang a while ago. Another one was titled “Coming to Chattanooga Soon.” What’s coming to Chattanooga soon? The Lord. He wrote several books on that subject.

But in one of his books, he gave three statements regarding the everyday truth of the return of Jesus Christ. I’ll share those with you. He said the second coming of Christ comforts us, and as we’ve already said this is number one of the three thoughts. The second coming of Christ comforts us every day. Every day, we have hope for our grieving hearts, and we do. Truth number two: the second coming of Christ cleanses us. We have a motivation to live a life that is clean and pleasing to Him if we believe He’s coming again.

The third statement that he made was that the second coming of Christ challenges us. It challenges us to live daily for Him and to work to bring others to Him. The Lord wants us to live every day as if He is coming that day because one day, that will be true. One day, it will be the crowning day.

I’ve heard it said that Christians should not do anything that would make us ashamed if Jesus came while we were doing it. Now, you think about that one for a while. Don’t do anything that would make you ashamed if Jesus came while you were doing it.

Our time is short. Someday, very likely sooner than we think, our time on Earth will be finished. Make every day count. Work to help others to know about Jesus Christ and His offer of salvation. And live in such a way that turns people to the Lord and not away from the Lord.

I heard a man years ago, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even remember who I heard say this. But I heard a man years ago say that when he got up every morning, he would look out his window, look up at the sky, and say, “Lord, is it today?” Not a bad way to start the day. Someone else said, “The Lord is coming. Keep looking up.” Somebody else added to that and said, “The Lord is coming keep looking up expectantly.”

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Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you that we have this opportunity to look at your Word, to read it, to hear what your Word has to say, and to know that your promise is real. One day, you shall come again. Lord, it could be today; it could be tomorrow. We don’t know the time of your coming, but you told us to always be ready.

Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, we’re going to sing a hymn of invitation in just a few moments. We’re going to take the Lord’s Supper. This is a memorial service, but it points to the return of Christ. And as we take the Lord’s supper, we’re told to come with a pure heart. If there’s anything between your soul and the Savior, anything you need to confess, this is a good time for you to do business with God and have things straight before you partake of the Lord’s Supper. We encourage you to do so.

If you need help, come. If you need somebody to pray, come. There’s a decision you need to make, come while we sing.

Father, bless and move in this invitation. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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