As followers of Christ we are encouraged to not only walk in holiness, in love, and honesty; but we are also to walk in hope. To have hope is to have a confident expectation. We are to live with the confident expectation that we will be reunited with believing loved ones at the return of Christ. As the New American Commentary says, “The living and the dead will be reunited and will be together with the Lord forever. It is this expectation that makes Christian grief the grief of temporary separation. It is still grief, but it is grief moderated by the anticipation of a certain and joyous reunion in Christ.”[1]
What we see in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is a comforting reminder concerning the rapture of the church. Though the word ‘rapture’ is not found in the Bible, the concept is certainly present. To be ‘raptured’ is to be ‘caught up.’ I firmly believe that the next great event on God’s prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church. To experience the full comfort that this passage brings, it is required of us that we have a clear picture of Biblical eschatology. The center point of all history is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone that lived before the cross was looking ahead to the cross for salvation. Everyone living after the cross is looking back at the cross. No matter what age one has lived in, he or she must go to the cross to be saved. We are justified by faith in Christ alone. After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. This marked the birth of the church and the age of grace. This is the dispensation that we live in today. There is coming a day, however, when the trump of God will sound and we will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air. This is what we know as the rapture of the church. While we are in glory at the marriage supper of the Lamb, a period known as the Great Tribulation will take place on the earth. Seven years of turmoil will consume the earth with the rule of the anti-Christ. After that seven-year period, we will come back to the earth with Jesus. This is known as the second coming of Christ. He will destroy all His enemies at the battle of Armageddon. Then Jesus will establish His Kingdom on earth and we will rule and reign with Him for a thousand years. During this time, Satan will be bound. After the millennium reign, Satan will be loosed for season and will deceive many. Time will culminate at the Great White Throne Judgement where all those who have failed to believe on Jesus will be judged and then cast into the lake of fire. God will then create a new heaven and a new earth and we will live in that new world for all eternity!
Our text at hand, however, deals with the rapture of the church. That wonderful day when the dead in Christ will rise and we will meet the Lord in the air! As we consider the rapture of the church and that glorious hope we have in Christ, there are several principles concerning the rapture that we should consider.
There is no need for sorrow. In verse 13 Paul encourages the Thessalonian believers to not be sorrowful over their believing loved ones who have died. He tells them there is no need to sorrow as though there is no hope. Paul is not reprimanding the believers for mourning the death of loved ones. As Jamieson and Brown writes, “Not all natural mourning for dead friends is forbidden: for the Lord Jesus and Paul sinlessly gave way to it (Jn 11:31, 33, 35; Php 2:27); but sorrow as though there were “no hope,” which indeed the heathen had not (Eph 2:12): the Christian hope here meant is that of the resurrection.”[2] It needs to be understood that it is okay to mourn. Mourning the death of a loved one is not only natural, but very appropriate. Wiersbe says, “Christians are expected to mourn when loved ones die, but they are not to grieve as do the people of the world who have no hope. Certainly Christ expects us to shed tears and feel loneliness (see John 11:33–36) as we go through the valley; but in the midst of our sorrow, there must be the testimony of the living hope we have in Christ (1 Peter 1:3).”[3] However, unbelievers mourn with no hope. They do not have that confident expectation in a resurrection and in the coming of Christ. But for us as believers, we have a hope. We have a confident expectation that we will see our believing loved ones again.
Our believing loved ones are with Jesus. Verse 14 assures us that at the rapture, Jesus will bring with Him those who died and went home to be with Him. Paul reminds us of the resurrection of Christ. If Jesus truly rose from the dead, then we can be assured that our believing loved ones will also rise again. In verse 13, Paul encourages the believers to not be ignorant of this very important truth. We can take comfort in the fact that the bodies of our loved ones are just asleep. Their soul is currently in the presence of Jesus. Warren Wiersbe says, “Sleep in Jesus” in v. 14 is literally “put to sleep through Jesus.” Regardless of how a believer dies, Jesus Christ is there to put him to sleep. Of course, the soul goes to be with Christ (Phil. 1:20–24; 2 Cor. 5:6–8); it is the body that sleeps, not the soul. The word “cemetery” means “a sleeping place”; it is the place where the bodies sleep, awaiting the resurrection.”[4] The Bible also teaches us in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that to be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord. Think about it. The very instant that your loved one took their last breath on this earth, they were immediately standing face to face with Jesus. What joy they must have experienced in that moment of transition from this life to the next! They were also reunited with family and friends who were there before them. How special and beautiful such a home going for the believer!
Nothing can prevent us from seeing our loved ones again. If you are a believer in Christ, absolutely nothing will prevent you from seeing your believing loved one again. Paul encourages us in verse 15 that based on the authority of the Word of God, those who sleep in Jesus will not be prevented from rising again at the rapture of the church. Take comfort child of God, you will see your loved one again. The separation we are experiencing now is only temporary. It is just for a short time. For Jesus is coming again soon and we will see our believing loved ones again. This begs the question: “Will we know each other in glory?” The answer is emphatically, yes! I truly believe we will know each other in the same way we know each other now. Your momma will still be known as your momma in glory! And on that day of the rapture, we will see and hold our loved ones again. What a glorious reunion we have to look forward too!
Jesus Himself will descend from Heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Paul encourages us with the fact that at the rapture, it is the Lord Jesus Himself that will descend from Heaven and call us home to be with Him! He doesn’t send a representative or an escort. Jesus Himself leaves the throne of Heaven and descends into the earth’s atmosphere. As Jesus descends from Heaven, there is the sound of a shout. It is not clear who makes the shout, however, I personally understand it to be Jesus Himself who shouts. This is a commanding shout. It is the voice of one in authority. Jesus is also accompanied by the voice of the archangel. Some say that the shout is perhaps coming from the archangel. Though I get the sense that it is Jesus that shouts the command and the archangel is repeating the command like the chief officer repeats the command of the captain. This implementing of a chain of command in calling the saints to meet in the air is also heard along with the trump of God. Ellingworth suggests, “The closest equivalent in some languages is simply that God will shout a command, the archangel will speak, and people will hear God’s trumpet.” [5] Who blows the trumpet is also not certain, however, being the trump of God, one could conclude that it is God Himself that blows the trumpet. However you look at it, Jesus will physically descend from Heaven and will call His children to meet Him in the air by giving a clear and authoritative command.
Our believing loved ones will be given a new resurrected glorified body. At the end of verse 16, Paul says that the dead in Christ shall rise. The souls of our loved ones are already with the Lord. However, at the rapture, their bodies will be resurrected and their souls reunited with their bodies in a new and glorified state. This glorified state is described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. We will not all see physical death, but all believers will be changed. At the rapture of the church, we will all be transformed into a glorified state. Our corruptible bodies that is prone to sickness and death and decay will be transformed into an incorruptible body that will never again succumb to the effects of sin. Our mortal bodies that can die will be transformed into an immortal body that will never die. What a joy it will be to see our loved ones who experienced the death of their physical bodies through cancer or some other painful disease or experience, resurrected and gloriously changed!
We who are alive at the rapture will meet the Lord in the air. There will be some believers, perhaps even among us today that will live to the time of the rapture. Though I plan and prepare for a possible physical death in the future, I live with the expectation that I will go by way of the rapture! Paul says that we will be ‘caught up’ together with our loved ones and we will together meet the Lord in the air. We will meet Him somewhere between earth and Heaven. As we are gathered unto Him, we will be escorted into the halls of that glorious city, the New Jerusalem, we call Heaven! Paul encourages us at the close of verse 17 that from that moment on, we will forever be with the Lord. No more separation. No more sin. No more shame. Nothing will keep us from His presence. We will forever be with Jesus!
Paul concludes this encouragement to walk in hope with the words in verse 15. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” There is no greater comfort for the believer living in this troubled life, than knowing that Jesus is soon to come to call us home. To walk in hope is to live with this expectation. It is to continuously remind each other of the rapture that is soon to come. It is a day we all long for and live for with great anticipation. As John said in the book of Revelation, “Even so come, Lord Jesus!”
[1] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, pp. 140–141). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 390). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1992). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p. 602). Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1992). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p. 602). Victor Books.
[5] Ellingworth, P., & Nida, E. A. (1976). A handbook on Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians (p. 101). United Bible Societies.
Pastor Chris Noland 