Please open up your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7. Our Old Testament scripture reading will be Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. And it is the word of God that equips man for every good deed. It's full, it's sufficient, it is inerrant. And it is God's means to make sure that we are prepared to meet him. And here the Lord feeds us. And every day in our bodies as we hunger, there's a hope for lunch. Or there's a hope for dinner. There's a looking forward to. And yet, man does not live by bread alone, does he? But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So listen now to the Word of God that indeed feeds us. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Thus far, the reading of the Word of God. And in our New Testament reading, we turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, beginning in verse 13. Please turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 13, here once again, the Word of God. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. May the Word of God and the God of the Word bless this to our hearts. As we go to him, we'll take a look at the legal system, particularly the legal system today as it relies, as it reflects on the use of what's called a declaration, excuse me, a dying declaration, something that the courts allow today in criminal testimony trials. So let me read you this, this little definition of a dying declaration. In the law of evidence, a dying declaration is a testimony that would normally be barred as hearsay. Hearsay is second-hand information or second-hand testimony, but may, in common law, be admitted as evidence in criminal law trials because it constituted the last words of a dying person. So ultimately, the rationale is, if somebody is dying, they have, and I'm quoting now back again, a settled, hopeless expectation, hopelessness, or they are hopeless and they have an expectation of death. So again, it's a settled, hopeless expectation of death. And somehow, that expectation is going to translate into a more reliable testimony, or at least in some manner give it more reliability. The challenge to that is we are Christians, and we know that what proceeds out of the mouth is ultimately from the heart, so we know that the heart is wicked. So, simply having a hopeless expectation of death isn't going to change the heart. In fact, we know, the Bible teaches us in Jeremiah 17.9, that the heart is wicked. It is deceitful above all things. So we need to keep that in mind. So we understand that this settled, hopeless expectation of death is unable to produce greater reliability. So let me pose something for you to ponder as we work our way into God's Word. What can a Christian's settled hope in Christ produce? What can a Christian's settled hope in Christ produce? I'm going to lay out, there's going to be five short points. The first four of the five are all going to be parked in verses 13 to 14. Think of it this way. We're building a dam. We need the superstructure. Once we have that in place and the water is backfilled, we can open up the floodgates and we can watch verses 13, excuse me, verses 15 to 18 just the beauty wash over us of what God is doing here. So we're going to primarily park in 13 and 14 to start off. And these are the five points. Settled hope grows out of distinction from that of settled hopelessness. Point number two, settled hope is more than intellectual belief. It is certainty in Christ. Settled hope delights in our union with Christ. Settled hope comprehends what Jesus did in bodily rising from the grave. And lastly, settled hope rejoices in our eternal union in and with Jesus Christ. I will repeat those throughout. So if you didn't get those and I talked too fast, just be patient. You'll hear them again. One of the questions I'd like to pose you, another thing to be pondering as you look at this, this is contextually dealing with death of a Christian. But it doesn't have to. That is, settled hope doesn't have to stay in that context. Some of the contexts that you may be dealing with in your own life today may include trying to find that hope, that settled hope in the midst of struggling with a difficult marriage, Or maybe facing constant physical pain in your body. Or maybe feeling alienated by a friend. Or if you're a student, maybe you're overloaded by the work in front of you. Maybe you're confused about your direction in life and are looking for hope. Lastly, maybe you're overwhelmed by some particular sin, and you've carried it so long, you've not been able to conquer it, that you almost feel hopeless, that you will never be able to reign over it as Christ has given us the grace to do so. So whatever it may be, I'm sure I'm missing out some of the perspectives of hope where you are needing. Think of what that is, and as we work our way through this today, note, take note of how it is that one comes about gaining this settled hope. So, I'm assuming you are all in Ephesians 1, 4 through 13. I want to lay a little bit of background, just a short bit of it. This is the Thessalonian church. Paul came through. He only had a short period of time. They're basically three to five months max old as a church. So they are a baby church. In this letter, this is Paul's first letter to them. He is writing back to them. He's been desiring to know their status after he had to leave in a rush for fear of his own life. Timothy has reported back. So he knows what's going on. So he knows what to write to them. So in this letter, he's dealt with already how wonderfully faithful they are in the midst of their incredible persecution and their persecution continues to increase. And yet they're holding tight onto the faith that Paul had shared with them through the teachings of Jesus. Now he's getting ready, and in chapter 4, he turns and he pivots, and he's now dealing with the specific questions that they have asked of him. They have questions of the congregation. So in particular, one of the questions that he is facing, and he's going to deal with in our verses today, I think it's one question, but there's two parts to it, and we never see the question, he doesn't say, ah, I want to answer your question. and then tell him exactly what the question is, we have to look for his answer to be able to understand what was the question to begin with. The question appears to be this. What will happen to those believers who have already died upon Christ's return? They're a young church. They may have been people, Christians, that have already died. They may simply be working through the theology as they realize, as a body of Christ, we have people nearing death. What happens to them? And the second part of this is, will they miss out on any aspect of Jesus' glorious second coming? What a neat disposition the church has. It's standing strong in persecution and it's others focused. Paul, no less than three times, has already commended their love. And you can see their love. It's others focused because they're asking the question, not what's going to happen to us. What's going to happen to our loved ones that have died in the faith upon Christ's second coming? That's who we're concerned about. That's the question that we need answered. So we look to bullet point number one, it's settled hope grows out of a distinction from that of settled hopelessness. So in First Thessalonians 4, 13, we read, but we do not want you to be uninformed. The idea is ignorant or without knowledge. Brothers, and really the word there in the Greek could be interpreted, and if you have an NIV, you'll see it, brothers or sisters, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep. The word sleep, we have to get a hold of it. We actually read it a little bit in the LBC confessional that Rob Roy read, as well as we sung it today. So we have an idea of it. But it wasn't unique to the Christian church. Pagans also referred to death as a state of sleep. So, when he refers to that, he's actually referring to the death of the physical body while the soul continues on. And when you think of soul, think of that inner conscious person, that part of you who makes you who you are, the uniqueness of you, and particular to human beings, that we are made in the image of God gives us a personal inner consciousness that is different than any of his other creatures that he has created. We know this. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians. It is interesting how much the Corinthian church in this area He deals with death and life after death, as he does with the Thessalonians. I'm just fascinated that both those churches seem to be in the same place asking the same questions. But in Second Corinthians five, he says, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body. That means death. And present, be present with the Lord. Well, what's present with the Lord? That's the part that is the soul. The body stays behind. It's organic. We are dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Our bodies, our physical bodies decay. They are susceptible to the corruption and the organic bringing back to the state of being in dust. But I want to give you a picture here. When the soul arrives in heaven, What's the transaction? Transaction is not the word I'm looking for. What's the interaction? What's the relationship of the soul to other souls? In Luke, and you don't need to turn there, we're only going to take a look at two verses. In Luke, Christ tells a parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man was dressed in such a way that he had wonderful clothing, and he ate of the best foods. And Lazarus was a poor beggar at his gate, and he is dressed poorly, and he is covered with sores. And the picture is that actually the dogs lick his sores. That's the state he is in. And so moving forward, and I want you to see this, don't get hung up. This is a parable that is designed to deal with the different places people land. You're going to see, and your mind will start to shape possibly thinking, oh, that these people have bodies. It's not the point of the parable, so don't get lost on that aspect of this parable. But I want you to see what we're looking for is interaction, relationship. So, here it is in Luke 16 verse 22. The poor man, Lazarus, died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side." Now, you may have caught something. There was two phraseologies repeated in there. Let me read it again so you catch the significance of the interaction. The poor man Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. The emphasis that is being made at that particular point is the intimacy that occurs of that soul with other souls upon their arrival. It refers to it as paradise. We can say that that's a synonym for heaven. Being at, excuse me, Lazarus being at Abraham's side is an incredible intimacy that the Jews would catch that we would miss. Who is Abraham? Abraham is Father Abraham had many sons. You remember the good old, we grew up as young parents after I was saved in a Baptist church and that was a regular song that we would sing. And it's helpful to me because it reminds me, ah, Abraham is the father of all Jews. So to be at his side is a particular intimate relationship. Interesting enough, Luke earlier in chapter 13 talked about Abraham and the other patriarchs. And then he does something in 13, 28 and 29, and he talks about that everybody that is in heaven will be feasting, part of the kingdom feasts with God. Well, I want to keep that theme for a second. Lazarus at Abraham's side. Abraham is the most esteemed person in the Jewish minds. And so to be at his side is a place of honor and esteem. And yet, what is the significance of the intimacy of the side? Do you remember at a particular feast we would call the Lord's final supper, the last supper? Jesus is conducting the Last Supper and John, the one who he refers to himself, the disciple who was loved by God, by Jesus, he won't refer to himself out of humility directly. He won't call himself John in his own gospel. He is reclining on the side of Jesus. We know that because we know how they would dine, and everyone would dine in such a way that you would lean on the person next to you, and with the other hand, you would be eating food. So again, there's the picture of eating, you're by his side, and it's the ultimate place of intimacy. So when we read this with Lazarus and Abraham, we get a picture of Wow, not only are we esteemed, not only is the soul of the Christian esteemed in heaven by the other souls, but they are in such a place of relational intimacy with other believers in Christ that is a particularly joyful picture that we grasp a hold of. Let's continue on. Verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, that's mourn, as others do who have no hope. Who are these others? These are the people who did not place their trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. What does it mean that they have no hope? They mourn as those who have no hope. What he's getting at, and again, referring back to Corinthians, we see this dealt with. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, 32, identifies an attitude of those people that are unbelievers. And he says it by a way of what they say, a saying that they have. And they say this, eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. So that's the statement, interesting enough, that's kind of the statement of American commercials today, but that's the statement of the unbelievers. Get it all today. Get it now, because the only thing you can be certain of is now. And that's the hope that the unbeliever has. Unbelievers have a settled, hopeless expectation of life after death. So they take the attitude, get it all now. It's all this life or nothing. So we see that settled hope grows out of distinction. That is the ability to contrast settled hopelessness in a situation, i.e. death, with the biblical settled hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Not situational hope, but grounded hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Settled hope doesn't remove you from your circumstances. We all know that one. We all live the difficulty of our circumstances. It takes you through your circumstances. The Thessalonians were not told not to grieve. They were instructed to grieve as Christians who have hope, as Christians who have their hope rightly placed in a person and the work of that person. So the point number two, settled hope is more than intellectual belief. It is certainty in Christ. And we turn to first excuse me, verse 14 now. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, I'm going to focus on the word believe for a second, and understanding attitudes of hope. And hopefully these are progressive attitudes in the Christian's life. And you may find yourself in one of these places, and you may have been up at this place, progressed to this, and sometimes in the midst of the difficulty, you take a step back and you're in a place you already were, and it's not the same. attitude of hope that is necessary for a believer to have that settled hope. Let me walk you through it. If our belief is simply information-based, then our attitude of hope is merely possibility. It sounds something like this. Well, anything is possible. So, yeah, that could happen as you are taking in the information that the Bible gives us. The next attitude, the progressive towards a more settled hope, a more firm belief, is this. If our belief is undergirded by time spent connecting it to other biblical truths, then our attitude of hope is increased to probability. We've moved from possibility, that could happen, to probability, which sounds something like this. That makes sense. Yeah, I can see that happening. You've now got more information. The information is now more significant to you. You're connecting dots. Interestingly enough, this is why we study theology. When you start to connect the truths of the Bible that are not written systematically, you start to come to a place where your hope is grounded more and more in what you're learning as the truths that are compiled into doctrines. Somebody will say, you know, I'm just bored with doctrine. probably have a weak hope in who Jesus Christ is then, because doctrine helps us understand the person and work of Christ in deeper, lasting, critical ways that are necessary to aid us in the midst of tragedy or hopelessness in our life. Let's continue on. The last attitude of hope. If our belief is also rooted in the trustworthiness of God, This is the character, this is the person of God. Specific to our text today, this is the person of Jesus Christ. Then our attitude of hope transforms into firm certainty in Christ. It sounds like this. I know that is what will happen because that is what Christ has promised. You understand the promises. You understand, I'll say it this way, doctrinally, the difference between promises and just precepts. Precepts meaning these are things that should logically happen. Most of Proverbs is a precept. If you do this, most logically this happens. It's not a promise. And sometimes we go out wrongly and we grab Proverbs and we say, I'm going to hold on to this promise. And particularly as it relates to raising up our children. And then when our children don't become believers, we go, oh, God's not able to keep his promises. Well, it wasn't a promise to begin with. It's important to understand what an actual promise of God is. So you do not place expectations on where there should not be expectations because God didn't say it was a promise. God said it was a precept. It was a means by which of carrying this truth in a general direction. Let me continue on. It was, excuse me, let me let me explain. In John 11, 25, Jesus said to her, Martha, and I'm bringing us back to the context of what we're studying in First Thessalonians. That is the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. That is a promise. That is something that we stand on and go, because of that and because of who he is and his trustworthiness, now I have certainty in my belief. I have certainty in Christ. So we see that settled hope grows out of distinction from that of settled hopelessness. Settled hope is more than intellectual belief. It is certainty in Christ. And then we see that settled hope delights in our union with Jesus. Let me continue on to the latter part of verse 14. For since we believe, now we believe with certainty, we understand what we're after. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, I want to take died and rose again as a couplet, as two of them together. And then we're going to look at rose again separately. Um, as it relates to Jesus died and rose again, we can look at first Timothy, uh, chapter two, verse 11. And it says this, it gives us a real nice understanding here. Uh, concise. The same is trustworthy for if we have died with him. We will also live with Him. It's a trustworthy saying given by a trustworthy apostle who follows a trustworthy Jesus Christ. You can bank on this, that if we die with Him, we will live with Him. But what is this union that he's speaking of here? Because that's what he's talking about. If we die with Him, we're in union with Him. We are united to Him. I'm suggesting to you that the union, it has many facets, but the one particular in this situation is the union of righteousness. We are made righteous when we act upon the faith given to us as a gift of God and we profess belief In the person and work of Jesus Christ, we believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, died a death for us who could not live a perfect life and are alienated with God. That righteousness is then bestowed on us by Jesus Christ. The righteousness that we received by Christ through faith is the standard. This is interesting. We're talking about the second coming. We're going to start to see this in the latter verses. The righteousness that we received by Jesus Christ through faith is the standard by which we will be vindicated and thus resurrected. Interesting. Let me read you this from G.K. Beale. He has this to say about vindication and justification, and he's referring to Acts 1731. Let me first quote to you Acts 1731, and then give you his comments. He says this, excuse me, God says this, because he, God the Father, has fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. All right, now let me give you G.K.' 's editorial on this. The proof that God will judge the world on the last day by his appointed human agent, that would be Jesus Christ, is that this agent of judgment, Jesus himself, has been raised from the dead. That is, and this is the key, if the other stuff kind of got you confused, just listen to this latter part. The logic appears to presuppose that Jesus Christ's resurrection has demonstrated him to be just. He was raised because he was just, he therefore is just, therefore he is the just one to identify who is just. He is the one which will vindicate us. Now, this has got to get you guys going, because, wait a second, if He's the one that bestows, and the theological word is, imputes His righteousness, if He is the one who clothed us, I like metaphors better because it helps me, I have a simple mind, if He's given that beautiful white robe of righteousness, in contrast to the dirty rags of self-righteousness that I had before, then he will absolutely be able to justly identify who is just because he's the one who's close to you in the perfectly white robe. He's not going to go, kind of gray, kind of a gray robe, maybe it's not as tattered as I thought. No, no, no. He knows white robe, my robe of righteousness that I've given him, tattered, worn stench of tattered rags. That's what differentiates ourselves, at least ourselves from who we used to be and who we are now. And if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you are still clothed in robes that are so clearly seen by Jesus Christ as not being His robes. These self-righteous robes are that may appear in our own hearts We all were there once if we at least as adults who returned to Christianity In other words, I was I received Christ Christ changed my heart regenerated my heart at age 23 I know that I know this the filthy rags that were my self-righteousness I You need to understand that you will stand before God if you do not trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who will clearly be able to identify your rags. You will not fool anyone. You need to turn to Christ and take that which he offers in perfect righteousness because of the work that he accomplished. Our union with Jesus and the righteousness that he has given to those who believe in him makes our resurrection certain. So we see that settled hope grows out of distinction from settled hopelessness. Settled hope is more than intellectual belief. It is certainty in Christ. Settled hope delights in our righteous union with Jesus. And settled hope comprehends, number four, what Jesus did in bodily rising from the grave. Sometimes we take a look at the couplets and we kind of don't really grasp what's the latter half? What's the significance of him rising again? Yeah, I know that it's kind of factual. It's historical. But theologically speaking, what transaction, what transpired, what did that put in motion when he in fact rose from the dead? When he bodily rose from the grave? Let me continue on. Let me restate 1 Corinthians 4.14. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, What did Jesus do by bodily rising from the grave? He demonstrated his power to reign over death. But interestingly enough, in his perfect plan, he has not destroyed death. Jesus has identified, I have the power over death. I have the ability to bring life back to that which is dead. But I have chosen not to bring it to its fullness yet. So let's take a look at this. When? When will Christ destroy death? You have the ability. You might be asking why? I can share with you. If he would have done it back when he was on the earth, you and I wouldn't be here. Because it would have been done and the next phase that we're going to see that would have taken place and we would have been outside the kingdom. So certainly we have to understand. Thank you in some sense, as we all struggle with the difficulty of sin in our lives. And when we look forward to the one day, oh, God. The day that I will not have to fight this fight and deal with this sin that is, I have a proclivity, I have a propensity, I have a bench that this one particular sin is the one that seems to trap me. The day that that is done is the day that we are all looking forward to. But let's take a look. When will Christ destroy death? And this, I actually do want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 26. Go ahead and switch over in your Bibles or on your phone if you use an app. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 26, so that we have an idea of what's transpiring here. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 to 26. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, in other words, those who have died. For as by a man came death, and then they're talking about Adam, by a man has come also resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. I want to put a caveat there. That's all who trust in the person and work of Christ. But each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, the first to be resurrected, the first of the resurrection. Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, and he's referencing the second coming, because we know the first is when he came in his human form. Those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. He's talking about after removing all that is evil. For he must reign. And I want to put this caveat, this is Nick's little editorial in there. He has been reigning since the God-man, Jesus Christ, ascended to heaven. This world is not a world out of control. This world is being ruled and reigned. Nothing happens in this world outside of his sovereign hand. And to grasp that should give us incredible hope. There are Christians out there that don't grasp that. And the question as to why is this happening to me is a dark question of great despair. Because they don't grasp fully the sovereignty of God. Let me read you this quote before the scripture answers the question, when will Christ destroy death? Sam Walden, who happens to be the president of the seminary where I attend, has this to say, since the kingdom of God must come and the coming of this kingdom demands the resurrection of believers, listen to that again, the coming of this kingdom demands the resurrection of believers. This resurrection is an irresistible result and certainty. Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Death is the ultimate enemy of Christ's kingdom and Christ's people. We read that as the last verse of that passage. I just want to just read it again. This is verse 26. It says, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. That's important. He says, death is the ultimate enemy of Christ's kingdom and Christ's people. It must therefore be abolished. The preposition or the presupposition, excuse me, verse 26, is that death is destroyed by way of the resurrection of believers. Think about that. It's kind of a. Oh, duh. That makes sense. How come I didn't get that before? Death is destroyed upon Christ's second coming when he resurrects the bodies of believers. Yeah. So when he takes that which is the stake, death of our bodies, and he breathes life back into the physical bodies that have died, then death is conquered. Death is finally done. Let's continue on. Let me review one last time. Subtle hope grows out of distinction from subtle hopelessness. Subtle hope is more than intellectual belief. It is certainty in Christ. Subtle hope delights in our righteous union with Jesus. Subtle hope comprehends that Jesus, what Jesus did in bodily rising from the grave, he started, he made it known that he has the power to resurrect every Christian person. So let's go forward in our final. We've put the dam in place. The dam is functioning. It has water in it. Now we're going to open the floodgates and watch the beauty of God's Word hopefully flood out over your hearts. And you leave here encouraged in much hope. When you take the hope that the Word gives us here and you apply it personally in your life situation. Let's look. I'm going to read verse 14 through 18 all the way through. For since we believe with certainty that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him, Him being Jesus, those who have fallen asleep, those souls of those who have died already and are with Jesus in heaven. He will bring their souls from heaven. Jesus Christ is coming down. Remember in Acts, actually, I'm thinking it's end of the book of Luke as they're standing and they're looking and they're watching Jesus ascend into heaven and the two angels say What are you looking at? You watch him ascend into heaven. I'm telling you he's coming back the same way. He lets him know Definitively he's coming back. Well, that's the same thing we see here. This is John's been teaching us in Revelation that a lot of Revelation, unless it otherwise specifies, is apocalyptic. It's symbols. Here we have the literal understanding. Jesus Christ, as he ascended into heaven, went up into the clouds, is coming now down with the clouds. Who is he coming with? He has emptied All of heaven, of all of the human souls, all of the souls of the believers are coming down with Christ. That should make you go, oh, this is a biggie. And you start to feel the awe of God as we look at this. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord. Paul's letting them know this is authoritative. I'm not making this up. This isn't metaphorically over-the-top. truthful, this is from God, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. In other words, the answering of the second part of the question, there is no biased advantage for those of us who are, if the Lord were to come today, those who are believers today, we are in our humanly bodies that we were given. We will have no biased advantage if it were to occur today of those that are coming with God from heaven, with Jesus from heaven. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, and what a glorious statement, with a cry of command. And I can't help but think that this statement is what He did with Lazarus. Arise! He says, in the beginning we had the Word, and the Word speaks, and it speaks creation in immediately. When God speaks and says, this is what I want, That's what happens. This is what I believe is happening in the command. He's given the same command he gave to Lazarus, not Lazarus that we saw in the rich man, but Lazarus, the brother of Martha, where he gave him a temporary resurrection. He allowed him to rise for a period of time and then he died a physical death. And actually, Lazarus is coming down with him as one of the souls. No, but it's that same command, that same authority of, arise, Lazarus. And Lazarus came out. He did arise. That's the picture here. With a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. If this isn't public, If you have anything short of realizing that everyone is going to know this is happening, you don't have a big enough understanding of what Jesus is doing here. Everyone will know. There will not be a place on this globe that people do not know Jesus' second coming. And I'm going to further demonstrate that through what the Scriptures give us. And the dead in Christ will rise first. What's happening? Jesus has paused for a second. He stays in the air, and we say, and you go, Nick, how do you get that the souls are going all the way down to earth? Because where are their physical bodies lying in decay and corruption? On earth. And watch the significance of the intimacy of all the believers. There is no biasness. There is no advantage among believers. We'll continue on. And the dead in Christ will rise first. The souls are united with their now resurrected and glorified bodies. That's my editory. Then, we who are alive, who are left. I need to pause right there. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51, Paul is taking the perspective from those who are still alive. It would be our perspective. Here, in Thessalonians, he's dealing with those who have gone on and their souls are in heaven. But I need to give you a fullness, because in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51, he talks about After, because most of that chapter is about resurrection, after the trumpet sounds is when those who are alive, they have not experienced death, we are changed. It says in a twinkling of an eye. Well, what do you mean we're changed? Just as those who came from heaven with Christ and now are being reunited, they're being reunited to their now glorified or recreated bodies. These are bodies now capable of sustaining life eternally with souls. Mark this the souls that came from heaven. This is the hope that I have to tell you that I can't wait for when we when we die and go to heaven. Our souls are perfected immediately in heaven by Christ. That means our souls are never. ever bet towards sin again. Sin is incapable. The disposition of our souls is no longer one that can sin. So when these sinless souls meet these resurrected bodies, we have sinless perfection for eternity in housing and physical body that can sustain life forever, to be forever in the presence of Jesus Christ physically. The God-man in person, able to be touched. Remember he said, touch me, look at my hands, touch my side. That God-man, that person of God will be in our presence. We see here that when, again, moving back to 1 Corinthians 15, 51, Paul is talking to those that would be like us. He's saying right after they get their bodies, our bodies, we are changed. Our bodies are glorified. And we now stand as a heavenly throng. of His chosen, His elect, His believing people that He gave the grace to, in a perfected state with our souls, a perfected state with our bodies, in perfect intimacy, just as the story, just as the parable that He gave Lazarus and the rich man. They stood in perfect intimacy together. That's what the people of God, the universal church, all of the believers across all of time are experiencing. And then what happens next? As now the whole company of God's believers that ever were. Grasp that for a second. How many is that? By the way, all the patriarchs are there. All your favorite Bible characters. at least the good ones, are there. The ones that have faith in Christ are there. So then we see Let me start with 17 again. Then when we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together, all of us as one heavenly body with them, we are one in that, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Something interesting just happened right there that we don't catch. And I need to wind this up. But man, this is so fun to give you this picture that you can take in the midst of your difficulty. He just separated everybody. If the whole body of Christ is now on earth together in resurrected bodies and perfected souls, and they meet Him in the air, He just separated. He took the sheep and He left the goats behind. He took the grain and He left the grape behind. He took the wheat and He left the tare behind. He took the believer, He left the unbeliever behind. And there we are in this state in the air with Him, judgment has begun. Separation marks the beginning of judgment. Now the earth is judged. All are judged according to their works. He has separated out those, the two types. And interestingly enough, a beautiful picture. And continuing with the recreation, after he judges, we read in the latter part of the book of Revelation, then we see the new heaven and the new earth coming down. It's the picture of recreating creation, which is under the curse of Adam. We know that. In Romans 8, we know that. It's under the curse of Adam, waiting eagerly for the curse to be released, for the curse to be lifted. That is what is coming. with the recreation and God continues the recreation and the earth is recreated in such a way that we now rule and reign by Christ's side here on this earth. Christian, if that does not motivate you, I would have to ask you to please examine your soul to see if in fact you are a Christian, because that ought to generate an incredible, settled hope in you that as you look at the difficulty and I am not downplaying the difficulty that you're in. I'm not downplaying the aches and the pains and the continuing breaking down of the body, the difficulty in relationships where people have alienated you, people that you once loved are no longer there. The pain and the loss of losing a loved one, even a loved one that you know is in heaven, the loss of them can be overwhelming. You ache. to be with them. I'm not downplaying any of that. I'm saying that Paul has said, this is settled, physical hope. This is where you hope. This is where you place your mind on. This is what you look for. This is the weight of glory that is not comparable with our suffering. In other words, it's so incredibly more than our suffering. It allows us to get us through our suffering. Let's ponder that as we close in prayer. Oh, Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for what you have done. Thank you for your progressed revelation, that which you've revealed to us over the course of your plan of redemption. And you allow us to see this truth. Father, allow us to grasp it. For those of us that sometimes in the midst of our difficulties, we take a step back and our certainty becomes only probability or even possibility. We get to a place of deep despair, Father. Father, I pray that you would remind the believer of this truth, that you would convict the unbeliever of their need to turn to this truth, the need to leave their dirty, filthy rags and be clothed in the righteousness that your Son offers through his death and resurrection for your glory and our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. What a wonderful way to...