We come to God's Word. I'm going to read from 1 Thessalonians 4, starting at verse 13 through verse 18. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. This is God's word. We've been working through this theological letter written to the congregation in the city of Thessalonica. And I just want you to recall the situation for this congregation. They were people who, though they suffered social rejection from their fellow citizens because of their faith, the Thessalonians were doing well. They endured those challenges. They endured them with faith, with hope, and with love. And as they were challenged and as they continued faithfully, they continued to labor patiently. They kept on serving. They didn't quit. And in fact, their example, It was exemplary to the other congregations in the region. But they did live with these challenges. They were substantial challenges. And it was not only that they had to endure social pressures, not only that they had to endure ostracism, they also dealt with sadness. Some loved ones among them had died. And so for some of them, there was just this heavy blanket that that weighted them down with sorrow and it just weighed on them. The apostle Paul writes to them and he offers them comfort in their sadness. Now how does he comfort people who have been crying? Paul brings up the return of Jesus. Paul brings the teachings about, the Greek word is the parousia, the return of Jesus, he brings that to comfort people who are low. So that's what we're going to look at this morning, how the future return of Jesus lifts those who are low. Our text tells us three things. First of all, it tells us when we need comfort, when we need comfort. Then secondly, it tells us what gives us comfort, what will give us comfort. And then thirdly, Who will give us comfort? When we need comfort, what gives us comfort? Who will give us comfort? We start with when we need comfort. And the passage, if you look at those verses, starting at verse 13 to verse 18, the passage is bracketed by the grief that these people have. It's at the beginning and it's at the end. Their need, their grief and their need for comfort, beginning at verse 13. Paul says, some among you have fallen asleep. That's just a poetic, common description for death. Some have died. And he says, I don't want you to sorrow as those who do not have hope. That's the beginning of the passage. The end of the passage brings up their need for comfort. Verse 18, he says, comfort one another. Therefore comfort one another with these words. People in that congregation were hurting. They were sad. Their tears were close to the surface. People were just down about people who in their circles who had died. Isn't that the whole idea of dying and being gone? Isn't that sometimes where your mind goes? Like what would happen to me? What would happen if my parents were to die today and I was left behind? What would I do? What would that be like? Or if my spouse died or if my little one died, how would I get through it? And you just kind of spin out this imagination of what that would be like. Paul says to them, you lost someone. You've lost someone. And I don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope. Note what Paul is not saying. Note what Paul is not saying. Paul is not saying, I don't want you to grieve. He's not saying that. He's not saying, I don't want you to be sad. Paul says, grieve. Grieve, but do it with hope. Paul doesn't want them to fall into this bottomless grief, where you just keep falling deeper and deeper into grief, as deep as you descend, and it just never has a bottom. And so this first thing is, are you comfortable with sorrow? Are you comfortable with sorrow? Sorrow is not a sin. Are you comfortable with sorrow in your heart? Or does, is sadness something that makes you uneasy, uncomfortable? And so you're always, if you detect sadness inside, you're always trying to like jumpstart yourself to like, I gotta turn off this sadness. I need to stop this sadness. I need to put on the happy face. Or maybe not your own sadness, does someone else's sadness Do they make you uncomfortable? You can tell they're sad, and so do you feel so uncomfortable? You actually, you just try to give them space, you try to avoid them. Or maybe you interact with them, but you're always just trying to, I've gotta stop this sadness. I've gotta cheer them up. I've gotta edit their sadness and make it something else. When someone dies, Sorrow is not a sin. And there are many other things where sadness is the right response. Sorrow is good. Many other things where sorrow is the healthy response. You know, the most emotionally healthy person in the entire world, in all of history, the most emotionally healthy person ever to live was Jesus of Nazareth. And when his friend died, it broke his heart. Jesus was sad. And not only that, when Jesus' friends, when Mary and Martha, when they were sad, when they were crying over the loss of their brother, Jesus joined them. Jesus wept. For you, has death taken someone away? Death has taken someone away and you miss them so much. You know, no more calls with them at the end of the day to catch up. No more familiar sound of their voice greeting you with joy. No more hearing their laugh. And there are other times of sadness in view here also, even in this passage, not just death, another source of sadness, seeing other people sad. You know, when we see others who are alone, that's another reason for sorrow. When you see others who are low, well, it weighs our hearts also. Romans 12, weep with those who weep. Share their sorrow. Jesus is calling for empathy with each other. You know, according to one study, 17% of people in their lifetime Like one out of six, one out of six people in this room will suffer major depression in the course of their lifetime. 17%. Ed Welch calls depression a stubborn darkness. Depression is a stubborn darkness. And some people, they experience not just this one time, this major depression. Some people experience chronic depression. For them, depression is this unwanted visitor who keeps on returning. Or depression is this unwanted visitor who never leaves. And if you have endured some sort of depression, once you've been there, didn't it give you a respect? Didn't it give you a respect and a heart for others who are wading through those very same dark waters? Paul says, some people get down, some people get sad, but they retain hope. Others, he says, get sad, and they've got no hope. In the case of sorrow over losing someone in their congregation, Paul says, grieve, grieve, but with hope. Let your tears flow, let the days be blue and gray, but in your pain, Remember, remember that that person still lives, though they have died. That if the person is in Christ, if they're saved, if they've been secured by Jesus, then that person has arrived in heaven. And if you are also in Christ, then one day you will be together. You will be reunited. So weep today, but do it with this hope. But I also have to say to all who are here, any who are listening, if you are not in Christ, if you are not of the faith, then perhaps it is appropriate for you to sorrow in hopeless sorrow. For instance, if your conception, if your belief is that the only reality, the only reality is just physical matter and energy, If that's all that there is, then that means that each one of us is just this interesting, we're all just, each one of us an interesting bag of chemicals and circulatory tubes who will one day stop pumping and we'll all eventually just dry up and we'll just blow away as dust in the wind. And if your conception of reality is that there is no God, if life does not continue after death, then we are to be pitied. We are without God and without hope in the world. And that means those who have already died, they are forever lost to us. And we will never see them again. And the hard truth is that even their memory will pass into insignificance. In the time when this was written, plenty of people, Gentiles and Jews, plenty of people believe that human existence ended after death. that death was the end of conscious existence. There were popular tomb inscriptions that they know about now, popular tomb inscriptions of that time, things that would say something like, I was not, and then I was. I am not, and I care not. See how quickly we mortals return from nothing to nothing. But that's just not right. That's just not right. Every one of you here, every one of you here, your life is like a song. Your life is like a song of some sort. What kind of song is your life? Maybe for your life, the song of your life, it's like a Broadway melody. Or maybe the song of your life, it's a dance groove. Or maybe the song of your life is a breakup ballad. Those are really good, aren't they? Or maybe your life is a song, whatever it is, your life is a song, and it is full of depth, and it is full of beauty, and it is worthy to be heard. But one day, the song will end. And if that's true, and if your departed mother Your lover? Your deceased child? If now that they have passed away, if now they are just nothing, and you one day will be nothing, that is worthy of the deepest sadness and hopelessness that the song is over, never to be remembered again. Are you that kind of sad? A sadness without hope? If this life is all, and if there's no God, then honestly, there's no comfort for suffering and for death. There's no value to any of this suffering, any of this loss. It means that there's no compensation. There is no meaningful compensation for people with chronic depression, people who have gone through agonizing loss. Without God, it is hard to build a convincing case that there's any comfort for sorrow, any meaningful hope in suffering. And so we see when. We see when we need comfort. Well, next, let's look at what gives us comfort. What gives us comfort? Verses 14 through 17 lists some things that will give comfort. Paul becomes, he becomes didactic here. And concisely, Paul covers four major Christian teachings, four major Christian doctrines. Paul employs those four doctrines to comfort those people who have lost, to offer solace. to those who are suffering. What are the four doctrines? He covers very concisely the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the saints, the ascension, and the communion of the saints. So Paul's brief, I will be brief. Let's see how these four doctrines give us comfort. First of all, the return of Jesus, the return of Jesus. Verse 15, Paul talks about the coming of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, the coming back, the arrival once again of Jesus. The Greek word parousia, it comes up often in the scriptures. Jesus has come once. He already came once so far. By the end, he will have come twice. Think of the life arc of the God-man, Jesus, the life arc, his incarnation, his humiliation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, and his return. Think of that life arc, the incarnation, the eternally existent divine son of God took on flesh and he became a real baby, in 0 A.D. And then incarnation to humiliation for 33 some years. Jesus lived in a low condition. He experienced all temptation and the miseries of this life, this humiliation, and then his crucifixion. How did his life end? Jesus became the scapegoat for the sins of his people and the wrath of God crashed down on him on a fatal cross. And then there was resurrection. Jesus rose to life on the third day. Then the ascension, he rose into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of God. And the last thing in the life arc of Jesus, return. Jesus comes this second time to finish the redemption of his people, to judge the living and the dead, to judge the world in righteousness in that in that schedule of events for the divine son of God, we are sitting one final step from that last event. Jesus will come again. And what will that look like? Verse 16, Jesus will descend from heaven to earth. Now how does that, how does that help us when we are down? The return of Jesus. The return of Jesus means that your suffering, your suffering, believer, has an expiration date. Your depression will become dawn. Your chronic pain will turn into just a memory. Jesus comes to wipe away tears. And knowing that, Knowing that does not remove your pain. Knowing that does not reduce your pain. But it does tell you that all sorrow is temporary. It does tell you that when Jesus returns, sorrow and crying will pass away. And knowing the return of Christ, it at least, it puts a floor to how low you may sink. I don't know about you, but I personally, I find long road trips, to me, they're almost unbearable. It's sort of like this evidence that there really is a purgatory, but it's here and now on these long road trips. I dread these eight-hour trips driving somewhere. I just have no interest in doing these 33-hour trips across the map. but there is one thing that has enabled me to do it over and over and to get into the van. It's the certainty that we will get there. We will finally arrive in Florida. We will finally get to the Rocky Mountains. We will finally see those beach sands in Western Florida. We will not endlessly be on the road. Your suffering will end when Jesus returns. The second doctrine he brings up, it's the resurrection of the saints. The resurrection of the saints. Verse 14 says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Then verse 16, he says, the dead in Christ will rise first. Now a number of things happen. A number of things happen when Jesus comes again. But one event is that those who have already died, Those people who have already died, they come back to earth with Jesus when Jesus comes back. And as that happens, their dead bodies will come together and body and soul, they will be rejoined. They will live again, body and soul, together. Now that's a miracle. That is one of the massive miracles that will happen. Because sometimes people die and they just can't find the body. Sometimes the body's lost at sea and it just decomposes, is ingested by the sea creatures. Sometimes people die and what happens to the body? Cremation turns them into just scattered ashes. What this is saying is that Jesus will find the body. Jesus will reassemble a body. And you're like, well, how could he do that? Like, is that even possible? I mean, you remember, Jesus is the creator. Jesus is the one who created DNA. And so it will be easy for him to remake you using just sparse elements. And the new body that Jesus resurrects will be joined to the soul, and it will be a body which is fit for heaven. Now, how does that help you when you're down? How does that, the resurrection, how does that help you when you are down? The resurrection repairs every wreck. The resurrection fixes everything that is broken in your life. Many of you have seen someone you love wither and eventually die. you know, not only decrepitude of the body, maybe as they approached death they had that very hunched and stooped back. Or maybe you saw them lose incrementally their lung function. But maybe not just you saw their body decay, maybe it was their mind. Dementia, Alzheimer's, and you knew the painful long separation of them no longer recognizing you. It was in their mind, decaying. In the general resurrection, the new body is the body of life, it says, not the body of death. In the general resurrection, the new body is a body of incorruption, not of corruption. They will be well. They will be well. And believer, if it is your body, that is dying of tumor or some kind of decay, if it's your body that has something that's broken, maybe a troubled mind, you will be restored whole with a paradise body, no more sciatica, no more intrusive, racing thoughts, no more nightly terrors. no more deadness inside. The resurrection is the repair of everything that broke in the fall. The scripture says death is swallowed up in victory, 1 Corinthians 15. The third doctrine that Paul talks about the ascension. And what he says here is just in the same way, with the same certainty, just as Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection, just as Jesus ascended into heaven, so we who are in Christ will also rise up into heaven when he returns. Verses 16 and seven, it says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Paul wants you to have a picture of this. I want you to have a picture of this. On the day that Jesus returns, Jesus is going to travel geographically from heaven to earth and with him comes all who have previously died. And there's this, not just a sight, there's a sound. There's this accompanying shout from the highest angel, from an archangel. And there's also the signal tones of the trumpet of God. Like, haven't you been around sometimes and you hear the You think, is that the hurricane alarm? What's going on? You hear the signal tone of the trumpet of God. And then there will be this planetary convulsion when millions, billions of all the souls who have believed and died, the planet will be shaking and they will rise from the earth and all of their bodies will rise from the ground into the sky. It'll be glorious. And we who are still alive on that day, we will rise up and join them, meet them in the air. That's your ascension. Now, I mean, you've just got many questions. We've got many questions about this, but I invite you just like park the questions and just marvel, marvel at your ascension. And about All this that's in there about the voice and the trumpet, the signal trumpet, this worldwide note signaling the greatest medical event in human history. It's gonna be public, it's gonna be everywhere, and the Bible says every eye will see him. Colossians 3, 4, when Christ who is our life appears, on that day when he appears, then you also will appear. You will appear with him, that's our ascension. You also will appear with him in glory. Your ascension means you are going to appear worldwide in glory. Do you realize what this ascension means for you, believer? It means glory. It's the vindication. It's the vindication of everyone who died in obscurity in the faith. It's for every believer whose death was utterly unfair. It's for every believer who died because your medical procedure got botched and it killed you. And it means for all who died in their faith, those who were martyred, this is their vindication. And those who pulled the trigger and sent them to heaven, they will look and see, it says, on that day, and they will be dismayed, they will be ashamed, they'll be terrorized. Believer, that is a comfort in your sadness. Every injustice set right, Every false accusation that is circulating in the family, your reputation, your life will be vindicated. Every false narrative about you will be discarded. Your ascension is the public announcement of the court and the court has ruled in your favor. And so church, some of you have been wronged. Some of you have been blamed, shamed, and damaged. And maybe no one believes you. And maybe everyone believes that all your trouble is all your fault. But on that day, the truth will be seen. We sing, he will hold me fast, for my savior loves me so. We sing, raised with him, raised with him to endless life, he will hold me fast when he comes at last. There's comfort in your coming ascension to glory. The fourth doctrine that Paul brings, the communion of the saints. Verse 17, it says, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. When Jesus returns, what's that saying? When Jesus returns, it's together forever. It's together forever. For those of you who are in the military, it is the last deployment, and now you're home. for good, you will never deploy again. And if you're a Christian, here's something that I know about you. If you are a Christian, I know this about you. You love Jesus. You love Jesus. Not perfectly, not consistently, not as much as he loves you, but you do. You do love him. And in your best days, you've got this longing to be with him. Your heart aches to be with Jesus. We are all, we are all women, all of us, we are all women in this sense, church. We are the bride, we are the bride. And Jesus is our man, the best man in the whole world. And that wedding day can't get here soon enough. And not only will we be with Jesus face to face, We, we will be together. The body of Christ, he says we will be together. We, it's so important that he says we. Every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, and we shall be one. It means this is going to be the end of every strained relationship. It's the healing of every broken relationship. I've been a follower of Jesus for many years now, and one thing that I was not prepared for, I didn't expect to lose relationships in this journey. I didn't expect to be divided from other fellow followers of Jesus, divided over race, divided over presidents, divided over baptism, over all sorts of messy things. Even Paul, even Paul lost friendships. Paul and Barnabas, they split over the matter of Timothy. You know, I heard a story of two men. They had been friends. They were both Christians. They were both ministers. But something happened. And for a long time, they could not even shake hands. Do you see how the text says, we shall always be with the Lord? everything that divides us on that day. No more divisions. No more divisions. No more uneasy distance. No more avoiding eye contact. We shall, we shall always be with the Lord. We've seen why we need comfort. We've seen what gives us comfort. Finally, who gives us comfort? Who gives us comfort? Who can sit with you when you're low? Verse 18, he says, comfort one another with these words. We need others to come to us. We need others to come to us when we are low. Sometimes it's with the ministry of presence, like Job's three friends, when they initially got it right and they just sat with him. in silence. They sat with him in his grief and they were there in silent support. Sometimes with the ministry of presence, sometimes with the ministry of writing. Verse 13, Paul writes to the Thessalonians to offer them hope. With presence, with writing, sometimes with the human act of speaking, you use your voice. Comfort one another with these words. There is something about how we are wired as human beings made in the image of God. We need to hear words. We need to hear words from others. We need to hear words from other people. Isn't that why? Hearing loss, hearing loss in old age, it's so hard because hearing loss in old age, you become socially isolated when you can't hear people speaking. In his letter, 2 Corinthians, Paul says, God is the father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to be saved. to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Do you know someone who's in trouble? Do you know someone here who's in trouble? Could you bring them the comfort of God? Are you in trouble? Are you in some sort of trouble? You need someone to bring you the comfort of God. And are you down? Are you down right now? Jesus knows what it's like. Jesus was down. Psalm 69 gives us the thoughts and the heart of Christ. Psalm 69 verse 20, this is Jesus speaking. Reproach has broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. Are you down? And you wonder if Jesus will come? You wonder if Jesus will come to you? Jesus will come to you. Jesus will come. Well, how do you know? How can you be sure that he's going to come to you? You can be sure that Jesus will come to you when you are down because Jesus knows what it's like to have no one come to him when he was down. Jesus was down and no one, came to comfort him. Listen to how Psalm 69 describes him. I looked for someone to take pity, and there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. On the cross, Jesus was weighed down with the weight of all our darkness and sin and it weighed him down, down to the very bottom and Jesus looked. He was looking for someone to take pity and there was none. Jesus looked for comforters there were no comforters. They gave him gall, they gave him bitterness to drink. And worst of all, not just people, God did not come to him. His father denied him comfort. So Psalm 22, the voice of Jesus, my God, my God, why have you not come to me? Forsaken me. Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? Believer, no one came to comfort him. But because of that, he will never leave you without comfort. He will surely come to you. He is coming. And so perhaps today you endure shame, you endure humiliation, you have been excluded, and you're in agony. Jesus. was abandoned. Jesus went through agony, but it was thousands times worse. Anguish. He lost all hope of being able to avoid that course. He lost all hope of avoiding agony so that you will never, ever have to endure the infinite, endless agony. And he looked past that. As he went through that infinite quantity of agony, he looked past that. He could see through it because He knew this. He knew that because he would die alone, we shall live together forever with him. And so grieve, but with hope. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we see you. We love you. We long for you to come. And we are holding on to this hope of your coming and all that will come to us in that. We pray, Lord, that you would give us hope in our sorrow, that you would enable us to share in the sorrow of others. And would you be glorified in our midst. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.