by Bill Stevens
PART 4
The Graves are Going to Burst Open!
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
I was in my late 20’s and had been to many funerals by this time. One of my acquaintances’ father-in-law died and I went to show him my support at the funeral, but I didn’t expect to see what I did. His wife and her sisters were weeping and wailing over the death of their dad, saying… we will never see daddy again! It was the most hopeless sound I had ever heard in my life. Genuinely, they did not have any hope, at all. But as followers of Christ, we are giving precious promises and an internal hope that nothing and no one can take away.
Jesus wept too at the funeral of a friend, Lazarus. But he did not weep out of hopelessness. He wept over the deep personal pain that death had brought into this world. He grieved because people he loved were grieving and hurting. He saw into the emotional heart of people and knew the deep grief and hopelessness they were feeling. He really felt and fully understood their pain, as he does your pain too.
Christ gives us in his Word, the Bible, a tremendous passage about his return that is full of great and precious promises that calms our nerves, encourages our soul, and enables us to grieve differently than those who do not know Christ.
You need to grieve, but grieve with hope!
Hope helps us overcome the deepest pain that accompanies death. The people this was written to had been misled to believe they missed Christ’s return and would never see their loved ones again. They were grieving without any hope.
But notice this, you need to grieve. Grieving is natural, normal, and needed for your healing. Unless you allow yourself to express your grief and feel the emotions, you will not heal. The length of time in your grieving does not describe how spiritual or unspiritual a person really is. However, too many love their grief, nurture it, and cherish it like a pet they can’t put down. The mourning process is just that, a process that an individual has to walk through. Each person is different as to how long they walk through the grieving process. But you need to walk through it, and grieve. Although you will never stop missing your loved one, if you move through the grief process fully, you’ll be able to go on with life in a healthy way.
“I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.” C.S. Lewis
Unhealthy forms of grieving
Too many times people try to handle their grief in a way that is unhealthy. Some have called these abnormal, but unfortunately, they occur more often than grief that is handled healthily.
Absent grief: They act as if it never occurred and try to avoid the pain. Whether your flavor is John Wayne or Spok, neither have a healthy attitude and way of handling grief. Stoicism is basically believing emotions are a sign of weakness and should not be expressed. It is unhealthy and not realistic. These emotions will come out some kind of way, unhealthy ways if you are not careful.
Inhibited grief: They block it and “suck it up” and only show a little. They fear what other people will say if they actually show how they really feel.
Delayed grief: They stuff it and hope to work through it later. Sometimes this person is the leader in the family and must handle all of the arrangements. Circumstances dictate that they have to lead and handle things. Many times, this is the firstborn or one that has first born characteristics. They stuff it, and when the funeral actually comes, they are numb and it doesn’t really hit until later. Or they have stuffed it so long, that a year or so later at someone else’s funeral they just break and flood with emotions. Why? They never properly grieved the death of their loved one.
Chronic grief: This way keeps the loss alive, like the person mentioned before who would nurse and nurture their grief like it was a pet they are unwilling to put down. They hold on to it continually and refuses to head to a place of closure. They are really stuck at some stage in the grief process.
Displaced grief: Basically, they take their feelings and their grief out on others, become bitter toward life, and destroy their relationships with their displaced/misplaced grief.
You can find a list of dozens of other unhealthy ways to grieve like cumulative grief, exaggerated grief, traumatic grief, and prolonged grief. However, there is one right way to grieve and that is grieving with hope in Christ!
“Grief … gives life a permanently provisional feeling. It doesn’t seem worth starting anything. I can’t settle down. I yawn, I fidget, I smoke too much. Up till this I always had too little time. Now there is nothing but time. Almost pure time, empty successiveness.” C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
The Christian view of death
Christ gives a picture of death as sleep, so for the Christian death, is no more than a sleep. The person who died their spirit is not asleep, it is with Christ. The picture is that when a person is asleep, there is no tragedy, no hopelessness, and they are going to wake up in a little while refreshed, renewed, and ready to go!
The Bible teaches that when a follower of Christ dies, their spirit/soul is immediately ushered into the presence of Christ. They are with God in Heaven immediately! “Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 (NLT) The body is left behind, to be placed in the ground, but the person you loved dearly is with Jesus in Heaven.
Jesus was walking down the street one day with a huge crowd around him and a dad name Jairus came to him to see if he would heal his twelve-year-old daughter. As he was speaking to Jesus, someone from his house came and said, don’t bother Jesus, your daughter is already dead. Jesus saw it and heard it, and put his arm around him and said, only believe, and walk with him all the way to his house. There was a large crowd of paid mourners at his house. Yes, people would actually pay to have people mourn at their house when someone died. This was a sign of respect and the more people mourning, the more influential that person was in the community.
But Jesus told them, the little girl is only asleep, she is not dead, and they laughed at him. He walked in and said to the little girl, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” and she came to life! Jesus described death as sleep in several places. Sleep is a figurative word in the Bible describing the actual death of the body, but the spirit/soul of a person is with God in Heaven!
The Christ Follower’s Hope is Built on a Strong Foundation
“For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. 1 Thessalonians 4:14
Foundation of Faith in Jesus Christ!
True followers of Christ believe that Jesus was fully God and fully human, that he died, was buried and was raised to life on the third day. This is a deep-seated personal faith that changed the person into a follower of Christ. It is not just an intellectual assent to a set of doctrinal beliefs, but they had a life-changing encounter with Christ.
Jesus is returning one day because he made the promise on multiple occasions and is the focus of much Bible prophecy. He is returning to gather together the rest of all his followers who are alive on planet earth. No everyone won’t see death, there is a terminal generation, the last generation where the followers of Christ will not see death.
Notice what will happen.
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.
17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (NLT)
The Lord Jesus Christ is returning.
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Yes, our Redeemer, the one with nail-pierced hands, who died on the cross for our sins! Jesus Christ is coming down from heaven in the air. He is not stepping foot on the earth currently. It is going to be a loud shouting, trumpet sounding occasion! The realization of the Christian’s faith. Your faith will become sight! He will return personally to receive his children to himself.
The Resurrection of the Dead in Christ
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He is bringing with him the spirit/soul of all the Christ followers who had died. The believers who have died will rise from their graves. But aren’t they with Christ? Yes, their spirit/souls are with Christ, but their bodies are in the grave. Followers of Christ will be given a new body, a resurrected body, like Christ’s resurrected body after he arose from the dead. A body that will never die and never see sickness ever again, a perfect body. The Lord Jesus will recreate their body into a new resurrected body and unite it with their spirit/soul in the air.
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“It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” 1 Corinthians 15:52 (NLT)
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“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3:2–3 (NLT)
Christ Followers will be Gathered Up!
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Then those Christ-followers who are alive on planet earth at that time will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This terminal generation will not see death but will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and they will be given a new resurrected body instantly. This is called the Rapture by many.
A Wonderful Reunion Day
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It is going to be a great reunion day!!! You will see your Christ-following friends and family members again! Their flaws will be gone and yours will be too! We will all meet the Lord Jesus in the air.
A Day of Rejoicing!
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“Then we will be with the Lord forever.” All believers will forever be with their Lord and Savior, King Jesus! It will be a time of great rejoicing! You will be face to face with Jesus, the one who loves you so much that he died on the cross, so you might have life!
“Joy is the serious business of Heaven.” C.S. Lewis
So! Encourage one another with these words!
Dear friends, I hope you receive the encouragement that is in this passage. It is also translated as “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Jesus understands your pain and sorrow. He suffered like no other person.
“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!” Isaiah 53:3–4 (NLT)
What if I don’t think my loved one had a relationship with Christ?
Yes, some of our friends and family reject Christ completely. We are responsible to share the message of Christ, but no one can make anyone follow Christ. Christ doesn’t even do that to us. Christ will remove the pain of this life by His presence. Heaven is going to be so good and being with Christ is going to be so great, that you will never remember the way life was before. None of us knows the decision a person makes in his mind/heart in the moments preceding death.
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” ” Revelation 21:4–5 (NKJV)
Is it possible someone had a deathbed conversion while they were in a coma or before they departed? I want to say yes, because God’s Spirit is so much more powerful than we can imagine, and His grace is so much greater than we can imagine, and we simply don’t fully know what is happening inside someone’s mind while they are in a state of unresponsiveness to us. It doesn’t mean they are not responsive to God.
A friend of mine who is a pastor tells a story about how a man was in a coma from a car wreck. The family asked the pastor to share the message of Christ with the man in a coma. The pastor said, he had never done anything like that before but went anyway. He read the Scripture verses and explained it to the man in the coma. No one knew if he would come out, but weeks later he came out of the coma, and all he remembered hearing was the pastor reading the Scripture, explaining the passages, and praying for him! He became a follower of Christ! God is bigger than we can imagine and He is much more gracious and patient with people than we are. He doesn’t give up on people easily. We see that in the cross of His Only Son! He will go to extreme lengths to reach us! So have hope, my dear friend! Have hope!
You say, there is no way I can have hope that I will see my loved one in Heaven. They were just that rebellious against God. Then have hope in the character of God. Have hope that God is going to take this bad situation and use it to bring people to know Him and follow Him. We can have hope because God can bring good out of any situation! Have hope that He will help you walk through this. Have hope that He is going to wipe your tears away.