Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20061015.htm

SPECIAL INTERLUDE
"Finding Real Comfort At The Death Of A Loved One"
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In recent weeks, I have been moved by the great sense of loss that several in our congregation have experienced with the death of a loved one.

Several have lost a father or a mother, an aunt or a wife. I can empathize with the need, for yesterday was the second anniversary of the passing of my own Dad.

What is so striking in considering this subject is the sense of the vacuum the departure of the loved one has left -- people want to know what to do about handling the pain of that tremendous vacuum!



Since we have finished our study in John's Gospel, it became apparent that I use this Sunday's message to minister a special message on finding God's COMFORT at the loss of loved ones in death.



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "My loss of a loved one in death has left a VACUUM that I find AGONIZINGLY hard to handle. CAN I find REAL comfort?!"
  1. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 dwells on finding COMFORT at the death of BELIEVERS versus the HOPELESS GRIEF the LOST know:
    1. God does not want us to grieve over the death of fellow believers with the same hopeless, painful grief that the unsaved know, 1 Thess. 4:13.
    2. Thus, after teaching the comforting truths of 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17, Paul urged us to comfort one another with those verses' truths, 4:18.
  2. Those truths reveal God NOW edifies deceased believers in Christ's all-sufficiency, and that LIVING believers may find that same EDIFICATION in SPIRITUAL UNION with the DECEASED via MUTUAL FELLOWSHIP with JESUS, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17:
    1. Paul noted that the deceased in Christ "sleep in Jesus," a reference to physical death as a temporal state, 1 Thess. 4:14b KJV; Jn. 11:11, 14.
    2. This phrase is better translated: "are fallen asleep through Jesus" (aorist passive participle, koimaythentas, "are fallen asleep" with the preposition, dia, "through [instrumentality of] Jesus", cf. U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 710; Zondervan's Analytical Grk. Lex., p. 234; Hendriksen, I-II Thessalonians (NTC), 1974, p. 112)
    3. This phrase reveals that through the work of Christ, these believers were made to enter and remain in this deceased state by His oversight, and other Scriptures expound more fully on this subject (as follows):
      1. Revelation 1:18 reveals Jesus decides when and how a believer (or anyone else!) dies, and where his soul goes after death!
      2. Now, as the believer is dying, he is not left alone, but his spirit is escorted by the indwelling Holy Spirit who sealed him at salvation, and He goes with the believer through the dying process and on into eternity to stay with him forever, Ep. 1:13-14; 4:30; Jn. 14:16.
      3. At death, the believer's soul is instantly taken by God's angels to heaven, Luke 23:43, Hebrews 1:3-4, 2 Cor. 5:6,8 and Luke 16:22.
      4. When he arrives in heaven, God gives him a temporal body until the resurrection when he regains his original body, 2 Cor. 5:1-4.
      5. What the deceased there know is "far better" than here, Phil. 1:23: (a) he knows joy, eternal pleasures (Psa. 16:11), (b) peace (1 Sam. 28:15) and (c) comfort (Lk. 16:25), (c) he recalls earthly associates (Luke 16:25-28) and (d) he ponders Christ's glory and salvation and his own return to earth to rule with Christ, Revelation 5:6-10.
    4. However, to the blessing of those still ALIVE, the current and future state of the departed believer and Christians who remain alive are not only now spiritually intertwined in Christ, but will one day merge in the realm of physical experience at the rapture , 1 Thess. 4:14c-17:
      1. Paul revealed that the destiny of deceased and living believers is set under the authority of the Word of Christ, 1 Thessalonians 4:15a. Thus, Christ rules over all believers, deceased and living!
      2. According to Christ, He will bring deceased Christians with Him from heaven when He comes for us living believers, 4:14c-16.
      3. After the souls of the deceased Christians have been reunited with their raised earthly bodies, we believers who remain alive will be changed (1 Cor. 15:51-53) and caught up to be reunited with the raised Christians and Jesus, and we all will forever stay together as the completed Body of Christ, 1 Thessalonians 4:17!
    5. Thus, the living believer is to find comfort in fellowship with Jesus in the same spiritual union with the same All-Sufficient Lord Jesus Who is at work currently comforting the deceased (1 Thessalonians 4:18):
      1. Isaiah 26:3-4 reveals we believers on the earth can know full peace when we focus and rely upon the Lord; then, Matthew 11:29-30 teaches that when we follow God's will in our lives, we find rest to our souls, or what deceased believers spiritually experience as they "sleep through Jesus" in their CURRENT state!
      2. Thus, we who believe in Christ and remain alive can SHARE in the same SPIRITUAL fulness our beloved deceased associates in Christ ALWAYS have all by trusting and obeying our All-Sufficient Lord's Word in our earthly lives! (1 Thess. 4:18)
  3. Conversely, if we grieve over the loss of one who did NOT trust in Christ, we must heed the WISH of the poor LOST man who was in torment after his death in Luke 16:15-16, 28-31: HE WISHED that his STILL LIVING FAMILY might TRUST in CHRIST!
Lesson Application: Since APART from CHRIST there is NO REAL comfort in death, but IN Him there is not only PRESENT, REAL COMFORT in SPIRITUAL BLISS with the DEPARTED through JESUS, but ALSO the blessed hope of EXPERIENTIAL REUNION with them at the rapture, (1) may we trust in Christ to be saved and be put into fellowship with Him. (2) Then, to OFFSET our current GRIEF, may we live (a) by faith in Christ and (b) obey His Word to enjoy all the SAME SPIRITUAL comfort our Lord gives the DECEASED as we TRUST and HEED our All-Sufficient Savior, Jesus and His written Word!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

My widowed mother and I have talked by phone once a week since my father's passing two years ago yesterday, and these conversations have run the full gamut of emotions! Everything from laughing at recalling funny things Dad did to the occasional weeping have been involved in this incredible process! Naturally, it has not been easy to "let go" of the beloved one!

However, of invaluable insight in it all has been the remark Mom has occasionally made about the comfort she has found through reading and applying God's Word.

She reported that as soon as Dad had passed, she knew she had to get into Scripture to find balm from her sense of tremendous loss. She began by reading the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, and, starting there, found a deep comfort provided for her in the comforting ministry of God the Holy Spirit to her heart through God's Word.

She recently told how she walked into a Church she visited a few weeks ago to hear a godly pastor expound out of the Old Testament passages on the Hebrew tabernacle. He was explaining how Jesus is the prophetic fulfillment of the various articles and priestly ministrations of the tabernacle. She said, "As the Pastor exalted Christ in that message, my heart literally rejoiced!" Her grief was swallowed up by the ministry of the All-Sufficient Savior in spiritual unity with my Dad who right now knows such comfort all the time!



So, to HANDLE the deep PAIN of our sense of LOSS in the passing of a loved one, may we first (1) receive Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and hell by faith in His work on the cross to become united with Him in spirit, John 3:16. Then, (2) may we trust in Him in our lives and heed His Word; we will find the indwelling Holy Spirit of God working to comfort our hearts and to fill us with the very same deep joy that the deceased in Christ know all of the time, cf. Philippians 4:6-9 and John 14:16-18!

In this way, we can SPIRITUALLY stay UNITED with the departed in our EXPERIENCE until God unites us in the PHYSICAL realm at either our own passing or the rapture!



Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In recent weeks, I have been moved by the great sense of loss that several in our congregation have experienced with the death of a loved one.

Several have lost a father or a mother, an aunt or a wife. I can empathize with the need, for yesterday was the second anniversary of the passing of my own Dad.

What is so striking in considering this subject is the sense of the vacuum the departure of the loved one has left -- people want to know what to do about handling the pain of that tremendous vacuum!



Since we have finished our study in John's Gospel, it became apparent that I use this Sunday's message to minister a special message on finding God's COMFORT at the loss of loved ones in death.



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )