1 Thessalonians 4:17

WORDS OF COMFORT

‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’

1 Thessalonians 4:17

These words come to us as words of comfort, words of hope, in our hours of bereavement. They emphasise one of the great lessons taught us by the Resurrection, that because Christ rose from the dead the future of the believer is assured.

I. Our blessed dead.—We are often puzzled about the state of our blessed dead, but God’s Holy Word tells us all we need to know about them. No doubt it leaves much to be revealed at that great day when all secrets shall be disclosed; but the Apostle tells us clearly (1 Thessalonians 4:13) that the soul which has passed away in the faith of Christ is with Jesus. ‘Them also which sleep in Jesus’ is the phrase used, and there could not be a more beautiful description of the faithful departed. Truly St. Paul had ground for rebuking unseemly grief. We are not to sorrow as those who have no hope; we have a sure and certain hope, and it is fixed upon the Risen Saviour.

II. It was this great doctrine of Jesus and the Resurrection that St. Paul first preached to the Thessalonians (Acts 17:3); and now, when he is writing to them, calling them to sanctification, he reminds them again that it is Jesus and the Resurrection which is their one hope for this world, the world to come, and through all eternity.

III. But the Apostle looks forward.—He knows something of the depth of human sorrow: he knows how the heart bleeds when a loved one is taken from our side; he knows how eagerly we anticipate the great reunion. And in great and solemn words he tells us that when the Lord shall come the second time ‘the dead in Christ shall rise first,’ and ‘then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ That is our hope for our loved ones who have gone before; that is our hope for ourselves who will follow after—an eternity spent together with the Lord.

IV. Let us learn some practical lessons for our own comfort from these words of the Apostle.

(a) The chief joy of heaven. To us the chief joy of heaven will be that we shall be in the presence of Jesus. To be with Christ, that is the deepest aspiration of the Christian heart.

(b) The union of Christ and the believer. Do not these words of St. Paul to the Thessalonians emphasise the closeness of the union which exists between Christ and the believer? ‘In Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 4:14), ‘In Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 4:16)—could anything be closer? This beautiful idea sends us back to the words of the Master Himself. ‘I go to prepare a place for you.… I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also.’ No separation; absolute identity; and, ‘for ever with the Lord.’ And as the believer is, and will be, one with Christ, so in that great Resurrection Day shall we be one with each other. That will be the great reunion—

Father, sister, child, and mother

Meet once more.

We are looking forward to that day. At every Eucharist, when we thank God for His servants departed this life in His faith and fear, we pray that ‘with them we may be partakers of the Heavenly Kingdom.’