Living Like It Was Your Last Day 1Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11
When’s Jesus coming back? When was the last time you thought about that or pondered the question? You might say, well Jay, Jesus said Himself that no-one knows the hour or the day when He will return. That’s right of course. But he did say that He would return. Paul here said regarding that Day that “you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” I think there are seasons that we all go through as believers when we think about it a lot and other times hardly at all. If you have been confronted with your own mortality through illness, you may have thought about it more. I was certainly brought into that place when I was studying these passages this week.
The Thessalonians had suffered persecution for their faith; indeed, Paul and Silas had to leave Thessalonica due to the intense persecution they received after preaching the gospel there (Acts 14?). But the locals who did hear the gospel and got converted had to stay, some suffered intense persecution, some lost their lives. Paul here referred to those as falling asleep: not a soul sleep, but had departed this life for the next. Paul wanted to remain with them to give them more teaching but was not able to due to the intense persecution (1 Thessalonians 2:17) and was only with them for three weeks (Acts 17:2 – 3 sabbaths). But he wanted the church to be comforted and not lose hope for those who had died and he wanted them to meditate and think about not only where those were who had died but also upon the Day of the Lord and His return.
Indeed, he said, “I don’t want you to be uninformed or ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)
Yet this church that only had apostolic teaching for 3 weeks was taught in both letters about the Rapture, the Day of the Lord and even the Man of Sin who we know as the Antichrist. So, if baby Christians are called to know about this stuff surely, we should be teaching on it.
Paul reminded them of the cross and the resurrection: “we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (verse 14) Jesus died but rose again, Paul reminded them that we as His children will follow Him in the same way. Though we die, we will also rise as we sang last Sunday.
Paul said the dead will actually rise before us. (verse 15) They will be the first cabs off the rank, as it were, to get their glorified bodies. They have been separated from their bodies, but they will be the first to be reunited with a body, but it will be in form of Christ’s resurrected body. This will be a general resurrection of those who have died in Christ. They will get their bodies first. Matthew 27:52,53 is a curious verse that mentions a group who were resurrected after Christ rose: “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” Were these raised like Lazarus only to die again? Yes, I believe so. Remember Jesus at his initial resurrection said to Mary Magdalene, “do not touch Me.” Why? The reason was given: “because I have not been to the Father.” This implies His earthly body was raised, but after ascending to the Father he would get a glorified body that would later appear to the disciples when He encouraged them to touch him: “see my hands and feet, put your hand in my side – see I am not a ghost.” Paul said, “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” (verse 15) They’ll rise first.
There is only one thing that precedes this and that is “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.” (verse 16) This will be a global, obvious, glorious, frightful, undeniable, unavoidable event. Jesus said, “as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.” (Luke 17:24) No-one will miss it. Then the trumpet blast will usher in a wake-up call for glorified bodies to be united with their souls for eternity.
Paul spoke of this body in greater detail in 1 Corinthians 15. Then, we who are alive on the earth in that period of history will be caught up with them in the air and will always be with the Lord. He said to encourage each other with these words. Why? Because they didn’t have much theology after only 3 weeks of Paul’s teaching and the prevailing Greek philosophy at the time was that once you die you cease to exist. Some Greek philosophers and ancient writings are full of this pessimism regarding death: “Of a man once dead there is no resurrection.” (Aeschylus); “Hopes are among the living; the dead are without hope.” (Theocritus) and finally; “Suns may set and rise again but we, when once our brief light goes down, must sleep an endless night.” (Catullus). Seems rather morbid and hopeless. Paul was reassuring the Thessalonians to believe in Christ’s teachings on the resurrection and not the prevailing pessimistic voices of the Greeks. He said, “encourage one another with these words.” (verse 18)
The Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5: 1, 2) Paul said no need for writing because it will come “like a thief in the night.” Jesus said the same: “for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (Luke 12:40)
It will be global because night and day are mentioned when it happens. Jesus again said “that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left." This brings us to the next point Paul mentioned, this event we call the rapture. Paul said in 1Thessalonians 4:17, those “who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” This word is harpazó, translated rapturo in Latin, where we get our English word ‘rapture’ from. But the Greek word harpazo Definition: to seize, catch up, snatch away as by obtaining by robbery. You won’t know the day or the hour. It may well be today. Why? Because it will be unexpected, and this is why we need to live like it was even our last day on the earth; that we are, in fact, like the Apostle Paul said in his letters that Christ’s return is imminent. John said that these things would happen soon – in Revelation.
So, make your plans, but allow the Lord to guide your heart with respect to His undeniable and imminent return. This is how we should live.