Hopeful Grief | 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Scripture

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

About this sermon

Introduction: We live in the world that was left after the fall. It is a world full of hostility and the destruction of sin. It is a world in which a great enemy of humanity continues to operate until the new world comes. That enemy is death. The great murderer — Satan — has already been conquered. The last enemy — death — has already been conquered. But we await the day when what has been won and settled by the Lord Jesus Christ is fully revealed. Until that day we must endure days like today. Until that day we are not spared suffering, grief, sadness, loss. BUT WE DON’T SUFFER ALONE. WE HAVE GOD. WE HAVE EACH OTHER — THE PEOPLE OF GOD. WE HAVE GRACE. WE HAVE TRUTH. WE HAVE HOPE. Tonight, I want us to think about those things. I want us to think about how our God has uniquely loved us and put us into a position completely different from lost humanity. • CHRISTIANS KNOW A UNIQUE GRIEF No hope (vs.13). There can’t be two sadder words than those two words. No hope means no share in the eternal future that belongs to the people of God. No hope means no part in it, no faith in it, no future expectation of it. THIS IS WHERE WE ALL ONCE WERE. ESV Ephesians 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-- 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. • THE GRIEF THAT BELONGS TO THE HOPELESS There is a kind of grief that people in that position experience. No TRUE hope of reunion. No TRUE hope of future fellowship. In fact, what makes that “no hope” even sadder is that the people who are in that position hold to FALSE HOPES. Those false hopes differ from person to person, but what they all have in common is that they aren’t true. The hope that there is no life beyond this one. The hope that the unknown and unknowable will provide a glorious surprise. The hope that there is a heaven that matches earthly, false, views of God, and false views of righteousness, and false views of justice, and false views of paradise. When people lose loved ones and they are without hope, they know a grief that is not only bitter due to the present, but especially bitter because they have no beautiful, glorious, truthful expectation regarding the future. They are left with nothing that is certain except judgment. ESV Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. • THE GRIEF THAT BELONGS TO THE HOPEFUL The believer knows a different kind of grief. The grief is real. The grief is in some ways common to all people. You can talk to someone who isn’t a Christian and we would be able to identify with a lot of what they feel. The grief is painful. BUT WHAT IS ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE TO THE CHRISTIAN IS THAT THE GRIEF IS NOT HOPELESS. Our hope is on display even in the way that THE DEATH OF A BELIEVER IS DESCRIBED. It is like sleep. This refers to the condition of the body. It is described in this way because sleeping people are at rest, and sleeping people are not dead. They will wake up.

Topics

• Hope
• Suffering & Trials