Do we have hope?

[AI translation] The most used Bible reading guide in our church last week was the two letters of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians. Many of us have read these letters, and it may have occurred to the careful reader that there is one central theme in both letters: the return of Christ at the end of time. (1 Thess 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:13-18; 5:23) Just as we saw two weeks ago that Ephesians had a key word which encapsulated the whole letter - "in heaven" - so too this letter very quickly has a key word from which the whole letter opens. And this is none other than "parousia", that is, the return of Christ. In fact, both letters were written because of certain misconceptions about the Lord's return which had developed in the church at Thessalonica. There were some who were so caught up in the anticipation of the Lord's return that they neglected their daily work and made very unsober preparations for that glorious day. There were also those who were worried about their loved ones who had died, wondering what would happen to them, whether they would miss out on the joy of the Lord's return. Therefore, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul gives the believers the right information about the return of Christ and how to prepare themselves properly for it. And in the second letter he teaches us about the signs that will precede and accompany the parousia. I have just read the most striking part of the first letter as the main text. This is the culmination of the whole message of the letter. So lavishly do these few verses pour forth the precious rays of Christian hope that we can hardly help grasping them. Let us now try, in the light of this passage, to ask ourselves: do we have hope, or, more generally, what is the content of our hope?"I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of those who have fallen asleep, lest you should sorrow as others sorrow, who have no hope," begins the apostle. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring forth those who have fallen asleep, through Jesus with him." (1 Thess 4:13-14) So he starts from the painful thing of parting from someone you love, parting in such a way that there is now no possibility of ever seeing each other again on earth. The pain of such a parting is felt by Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers alike. And yet there is a great difference in this sorrow: believers, Christians, do not grieve in the same way as others who have no hope. For where, for the non-believer, all hope is gone, where secular science, wisdom and authority can only say: abandon all hope - that is, at the grave - for the believer, that is precisely where true hope begins.
With the eyes of faith, one can see beyond the grave, and there, in the reality of the world beyond the grave, one can see Someone who has also lain dead in the cold tomb, just as we will, but is no longer there because He has risen. He is already beyond death, beyond the grave: in the world of eternal life. For the believer, the resurrection of Christ is the rock-solid foundation of faith on which rests the hope of the resurrection of his own dead and of himself. (1 Thess 4:14) So vital are these things that it is understandable that God does not want us to be "ignorant" of them. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of ignorance in this area, and therefore also a great deal of imagination and error. Those who are "ignorant", that is, those who do not know, do not know what God has revealed to us in His Word concerning the departed, fall into such dangerous delusions as the doctrines of spiritualists, spiritual theologians, spiritual scientists, metaphysicians and other such victims of Satan. In vain do we seek to draw back the veil from things which God has not revealed to us in His Word, in vain do we seek to know things which God did not want us to know. There are mysteries which God has reserved to Himself, but there are things revealed to us, which He has revealed to us, which He has communicated to us (cf. Deut. 29:29) And what God has revealed in the Bible about the condition of the departed is perfectly sufficient that we should not grieve over them as those who have no hope.
There is no doubt in Scripture that death is very much the same for the believing soul as it is for the unbelieving. While death is the wages of sin, and this is true for believers, it is true, the real peril of dying: damnation, has already been suffered for the believer and in his place by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has, as it were, taken away the edge of death, its poison, its judgment: damnation for the believing soul! The moment a man accepts Jesus Christ as his Saviour by faith, he immediately receives the blessing of Christ's death and resurrection. It is therefore as if he himself had died with Christ, as if he himself - like Christ - had already passed through death, hell and the grave. Beyond: there, in the world of eternal life, where Christ is, with Him. So, whoever is in Christ, whoever believes in Christ, whoever "believes himself into Christ", who believes his own life into the died and risen Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, for him not only "as if" but also in reality eternal life has begun. To this Jesus says: "He who believes in me, though he dies, yet lives" (Jn 11,26).
The believer has already on earth the miracle which Jesus expressed: "He has eternal life, and shall not go into condemnation, but has passed from death into life" (Jn 5,24). (Jn 5,24) Those for whom Christ has already died do not see death, and even if such a person dies, he is still alive, that is, even the physical process of dying does not mean death for him, but the completion of eternal life already begun in faith! He who believes in Christ already has eternal life, and will be resurrected on the last day. Jesus Himself testified to this before many hearers with these words: 'Now it is the Father's will who sent me, that whatever He has given me should not be lost, but should be raised again at the last day. Now this is the will of him that sent me, that whosoever shall see the Son, and believe on him, may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:39-40) It is perfectly understandable that the Scriptures call the death of a believer a sleep. This is not a subtle expression in the Bible, but it gets the point across. Jesus, on hearing the news of Lazarus' death, says: "Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep". The first martyr, Stephen, also "fell asleep" after he cried out for the last time in the shower of stones falling on him, "Lord Jesus, take my soul to yourself". Many in Thessalonica, too, after becoming believers, fell asleep. Well, the point is precisely that we should not grieve for those who have fallen asleep, because God will bring them out through Jesus, together with Him. The soul that entrusts itself to Jesus can no longer be reached by death and hell. When the earthly tabernacle of such a soul decays, the heavenly tabernacle is ready and waiting. To move out of the body is to move into the Lord!
We all know the gramophone record. It is not the material that is important, but the song that is engraved on it. Imagine that the record gets old, the sound gets crackly, maybe even breaks - but that's okay, because a heart has taken over the song and continues to sing it, and loves the song so much that it re-makes the broken pieces of the record, so that it can engrave and preserve the precious melody again. Your body is the record, your soul is the melody: Never mind if the record is shattered, if the song that was you was in the heart of Christ before, then you will continue to sing for eternity even after you have parted from your body, until the resurrection when the Lord will reinsert the melody of your soul into the re-cast record, into your resurrected body. Franklin Benjamin, the famous printer, wrote his own epitaph before his death, which reads, "Here lies the body of Franklin Benjamin, like the binding of an old book, the cover of which has been removed. Even if the binding is eaten away by worms, the work itself will not be lost, but will reappear in a new and more beautiful edition, revised and corrected by the Author."
How right the apostle is when he says that we who have such hope have indeed no more reason to mourn than those who have no hope! Those who are left behind are more to be pitied than those who have fallen asleep in Christ. Moody's wife was right when, on the death of her husband, she bade her friends that the funeral service should not be tinged with sadness, but with triumphant joy, for the day of her Lord's coronation in heaven is no occasion for sorrow. Of course, it is only those who have fallen asleep in Christ who are spoken of in the Word, and only those who have fallen asleep in Christ who have already lived in Christ: for whom Christ was life on earth. So even the state of the man who lives in Christ immediately after he falls asleep is much, much happier and greater than it was before he fell asleep, yet the great fact of the Lord's coming remains the true foundation of Christian hope, for then - at Christ's return - those who have fallen asleep in Him will receive their resurrected bodies. Of this glorious moment is spoken in verses 16-17 of our basic hymn: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with an alarm, with the voice of an archangel, and with a divine trumpet: and they that were dead in Christ shall rise first; and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds into the air before the Lord; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
So at Christ's return, when they see the Son of Man coming through the clouds of heaven, as He Himself said, three things will happen:
1) Those who have fallen asleep in Christ will be resurrected (But only those who have fallen asleep in Christ!);
2) Those in Christ who experience this glorious moment in the earthly body will be changed in the twinkling of an eye in something like the way Christ was changed on the mount of glory: that is, without dying, there will be a transition from transience to glory, a transformation of the earthly body into a glorious, resurrected body;
3) Both the resurrected and the changed are caught up together through the clouds to meet the Lord in heaven!
This will be the joyful ascension of the Lord's church to be with him forever. This will be the first resurrection, which will come a thousand years before the resurrection of those who have no hope in Christ. The first resurrection is for life and eternal fellowship with Christ, and the second resurrection is for judgment and the final reckoning.
This expectation has been the hope of the Church from the beginning, and even if it has been relegated to the background for a long time, it is increasingly revived and strengthened in the souls of the Lord's faithful. He in whose soul this hope is truly alive is sustained in the midst of all earthly tribulations. It is this living, vital hope that made the apostles so powerful, the early Christians so steadfast, the followers of Christ so joyful in all ages, and it is the fading, the fading away of this living hope that has made our Christianity so weary, discouraged, useless.
Today more and more people are again waiting for the Lord to return from heaven. Today again, more and more hearts are filled with sincere, longing prayer for that happy moment when they will be caught up to meet the Lord. Will you be among the raptured? - that is the great question! Whether we will live to see that moment in this body, or whether we too will fall asleep: that is not the important question. But it is very important whether you are in Christ, whether you belong to the church of Jesus?
No one who does not belong to the Lord's church will have a part in the first resurrection and the rapture. And the only way to enter into this church of Jesus is by conversion. What will happen to you? When the Lord comes, do you know what will happen to you? Jesus says, "There will be two in the field, one will be taken up and the other will be left behind. (Mt 24,40-41) Do you know which one will be taken up? The one who is converted. And which one is left there? The one who is not converted, not born again by the blood of Christ.
Well, are you already part of the good Shepherd's flock, or are you still not? But then delay no longer! It is the only thing necessary for your soul, your life, to be saved by faith in Christ, so that you may be one of the multitude of those who know that they have been redeemed to eternal life through the blood of the Lamb!
Amen
Date: 21 May 1950.