INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Death is a time we do not like to face.
• We have many people here today that have lost loved ones to death. When death comes, it seems like our hopes and dreams for the future are crushed. Some have lost loved ones at an early age, some after many, many years together.
• Losing a loved one can be a life-changing event in our lives. There never seems to be enough time.
• One day, unless the Lord returns first, we will all face our own death and or the death of our loved ones.
• What happens when we die? Is it game over? When we are immersed into Christ, ones of the promises we have from God is eternal life.
• As Christians, we have hope; we believe what Jesus says concerning our eternal destiny in Him.
• Death is not something we look forward to, BUT it is something that will bring major changes to us. We must maintain our sense of anticipation and hope in the face of death.
• The letter to the Thessalonian church was written to help people to live with a sense of anticipation and hope. People were dying each day and those who were still alive were afraid their deceased loved ones were going to miss out on the return of Jesus.
• Paul wanted to reassure them this was not the case and he wanted to reinforce reasons for them to have hope and to keep their sense of excited anticipation for the Lord’s return.
• If we are living life as if there is no God or no eternity, we will have a sad hopeless existence. Having hope for the future can change a person’s life.
• Let us look at the REAL HOPE we have for eternal life today!
• WE will begin with verses 13-14.
• SLIDE #2
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 ( ESV ) 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.
• Let us begin by looking at the foundation of our hope.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The FOUNDATION OF OUR HOPE
• When we live for Jesus, we need to have a foundation on which to build our beliefs and hope on.
• The Thessalonian church was banking on the hope of eternal life, we should be banking on the same hope. For hope to be real, there needs to be a basis for our hope.
• SLIDE #4
A. What is the basis of our hope for eternal life?
• We all place our hope in something for our salvation.
• Many people place their hope in their goodness. Some people place their hope in their position in life, and some people hope that once we die, we just die. Some people place their hope of eternal life in false religions.
• According to a 2004 Barna study, 54% of all adults believe that if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in Heaven. (2004).
• Goodness is relative, what standard are you going to use to determine if your goodness is good enough? The bible tells us ROM 3:10 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one.
• What is the foundation for the person who is going to rely on their position in life? ACT 10:34 Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality.
• What is the foundation for the one who puts their hope in material things? Can you take your stuff to the grave; can you buy your way into eternal life of God?
• What is the foundation of false religions? It is a bunch of baseless empty promises.
• SLIDE #5
• Acts 4:12 ( ESV ) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
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• I have been a part of a lot of weddings, but I have yet to sit down with a young lady or young man who came to me to plan a wedding that did not have a date set and a person who had already agreed to marry them.
• I have not had anyone come to me and tell me they wanted to plan the wedding they might have a few years from now with an unknown person. The plans start when we have a ring and a date! They have a basis for their hope!
• On what foundation are you building your hope for life after the grave?
• Are you planning a wedding when there is no hope to have a bride or groom?
• SLIDE #6
B. The Object of our hope will dictate our pattern of life.
• From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders.
• What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.
• "Stay in school," he admonished, "and I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you." At that moment the lives of these students changed.
• For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling." Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.
• These young people for the first time in their lives had some sort of hope of getting out of their terrible circumstances. With hope, they studied, stayed off drugs, worked hard.
• When we decide to marry someone, it should change the way we act, we are to no longer run around like we did when we were single, and we quit chasing others because we have found the one we want.
• Throughout this letter Paul reminds the reader that the anticipation of Jesus returning should have an affect on how we live our lives!
• SLIDE #7
C. Jesus is the foundation of our hope.
• Jesus is the reason that we can have hope.
• Our hope is rooted in what has been done and promised in Jesus. Our hope is in our confidence in what God will do; it is rooted in what He has done! These elements of the Christian’s hope are missing from all other religions.
• SLIDE #8
• Ephesians 2:12 ( ESV ) remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
• Paul wants us to remember that if you have Jesus, you have a solid foundation for your hope.
• This foundation can give us peace and it can comfort us when we lose a loved one before the return of Jesus.
• Verse 14 tells us that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we too will be a part of the celebration! This does not mean that if we do not believe it, that it will not happen, we just will not be a part of the celebration.
• SLIDE #9
• Let’s turn to verses 14-15.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:14-15 ( ESV ) 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.
• Let us consider the evidence for our hope.
• SLIDE #10
II. The EVIDENCE OF OUR HOPE 14-15
• This touches close to the first part of our first point. In reality, for hope to be real, we need some evidence so that we can have confidence in what we believe in.
• SLIDE #11
A. For hope to be real there should be some evidence to give us confidence.
• What evidence do we have that our own goodness will get us to heaven? NONE!
• What evidence do we have that the false religions will give us eternal life? NONE!
• Has Buddha defeated death? Has Mohammed defeated death? Has John Smith defeated death? Has Jesus defeated death? YES!
• If a person comes in and says they are marrying some Hollywood starlet we would want to see some basis for their claim.
• In the early Church, the resurrection was the centerpiece of the teaching of the church. In 1 Corinthians 15, we have a list of those who viewed the risen Jesus.
• SLIDE #12
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 ( ESV ) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
• Since Jesus was raised from the grave, so shall we who believe and are faithful to Jesus. Jesus defeated death for us, that should be cause for celebration and it should cause us to act like we are going to be going to heaven.
• SLIDE #13
• Romans 6:3-4 ( ESV ) Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
• We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• If a person asks another to marry them, it would not be proper to run around on them, would it? When we belong to Jesus, it is not proper for us to run around on Him either!
• Placing your hope in something or someone else is like committing adultery against Him.
• Let’s conclude with verses 16-18
• SLIDE #14
• 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ( ESV ) 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.
• Let us look at the realization of our hope!
• SLIDE #15
III. REALIZATION OF OUR HOPE 16-18
• Hope is hopeless if hope is not realized. For hope to be real, there must be a payday!
• SLIDE #16
A. For hope to be real there must be payday.
• The day that we will receive what we hope for is when the Lord returns, in one sense those who have already died have had their hope realized in the fact that they are with Jesus now!
• Notice that verse 14 tells us that Jesus will bring those who have died in Him with Him. Verse 17 says that we will always be with the Lord.
• I remember as a 16-year-old, I had hoped for a NEW car for my birthday. I KNEW that I would not get one so my hope was not based on reality nor was my hope realized.
• Our hope in Jesus is not that way, we WILL receive our FULL reward in Jesus when He returns. We have already received it in part now. The bible tells us that we have received eternal life NOW. 1 John 5:13.
• I knew that on June 8, 1985 at 2 pm, I was going to have a wife!
• My hope for a wife was going to be realized!
• When my parents knew I wanted to ask Robyn to marry me, they asked me to wait until I was 21. I got close.
• The time that I gave her the ring in October of 1984 to our wedding day on June 8, 1985 seemed endless!
• When I started going to college, I really never thought it would end in a degree until I got through the second year of going full-time. Once that happened, I knew I would one day receive my degree!
• Each semester, I saw a reminder that I would one day receive my degree.
• Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit as a seal to remind us that God is working in and with us. The Holy Spirit was given to us as God’s promise that He would one day come back and claim us as His own! (Eph 1:13, 4:30)
• SLIDE #17
• John 14:3-4 ( ESV ) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
• Isn’t this a great promise? We will always be with the Lord! Our hope is not some carrot that we will never reach.
CONCLUSION
• Paul finishes this chapter with the words, “comfort one another with these words.”
• These words are a comfort to those who belong to Jesus. For those who do not belong to Jesus, there is not real hope for them.
• I have had people come to me wanting me to give them some assurance about their unsaved loved one. I cannot do that. The Bible tells us that eternal life only belongs to those who are faithful to death to Jesus. Revelation 2:10.
• I want to be able to give you comfort and peace today, it can only be found in Jesus. In Christ alone do we find our hope and salvation.
• Do you want to have hope for the future? Have you said “I do” to Jesus?
• The Bible tells us the church is the bride of Christ, the bride that He is coming back to claim! (Ephesians 5:27)
