What Does It Mean That “The Dead in Christ Will Rise First”?

What does it mean in 1 Thessalonians 4 that the dead in Christ will rise first? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. You can always post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Naomi. Hi, I had a question on what can you do when you are in a marriage where you are motivated to wanting to grow closer to God, but your husband continues to be distant even after he has been saved? Just like some assistance, maybe a prayer on my marriage as well. Yeah, let's open up with a prayer for Naomi and for her marriage. Dear Heavenly Father, I want to pray for Naomi right now, Lord, and ask that, one, You would help her to draw near to You, Lord, to be faithful to You in her pursuit of You, Lord, through Your word, through involvement in the church, and also, Lord, in loving and caring for her husband as well. That You would draw them closer together, and that for her husband, Lord, who seems to be distant from You at this time, Lord, that You would be at work in his heart as well, that he would see what You're calling him to as a husband in loving You, in serving his wife, in sacrificing for her, and in seeking to draw near to You as well together, Lord. So would You please be with them, would You bless their marriage, and would You draw them closer to You, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Naomi, I have spoken with many people in a similar situation, so I really want to draw near to Jesus. I'm married, I'm with someone who either isn't a believer, or maybe they are a believer. In this case, you know, you say your husband is a believer, but he's just not really interested right now in the things of the Lord. And of course, I think it is important for you to be able to communicate with him clearly, to talk with your husband, and as a Christian, even going to him, approaching him as his wife, but also as a sister in Christ, and saying, hey, look, there's something wrong with this situation, with this picture, there's an issue here spiritually, and because you care about him as your husband, but also as a Christian, you want him to be in a good place, spiritually speaking, in a healthy place. But I also think of what Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse 1, and I think that this is one passage you can go to, Naomi. Peter said, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing that you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. In other words, as you seek to honor the Lord, to be faithful to your husband, to conduct yourself in all ways in a manner that is pleasing in the sight of Jesus, your Savior, that that in and of itself, as you're there living in peace with your husband, is a powerful way in which God works. And so I just want to encourage you to continue to be faithful to the Lord in the things that you know he's called you to do, as you pursue Jesus in loving your husband and serving your husband as well. And I believe that God oftentimes, I think that's what Peter is getting at here in 1 Peter 3, uses that. So the conduct there, but also the clarity and communication. That doesn't mean making him feel bad or beating him over the head with the Bible.

I don't think that you're doing that. But honestly, communicating with your husband and saying, look, I want us to pursue the Lord together. This has to be a central part of our marriage, of our family, and something's missing right now. And trying to get to the root of what the issue is and maybe even getting some outside encouragement, maybe a Christian counselor or even a pastor. I hope that you guys are plugged into a church somewhere.

Maybe that's part of the issue. Maybe he's not interested in going to church. But getting some outside help, the encouragement of maybe a wiser, older brother in the Lord for your husband or certainly your pastor, if you have a pastor. And so Naomi, may God bless you and bless your marriage as well. Thank you for reaching out to us.

Some great counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology.

Maybe how your Christian walk is supposed to intersect with what's going on in our culture today, because it can often be a real challenge to be a believer in today's world. Here's the number to call if you have a question for Adriel. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Sella in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Sella, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, guys. I appreciate you guys so very much. You've helped me out so much in the past.

So thank you, first of all, and God bless you all always. What I was hoping to get today is somewhere you could point to me in the Bible is how to interact with just negative people, adults mainly, that I live with. I'm more focused now and I heard the previous caller, so that did help a lot. I'm just focused in my being and who I am to be as a new creation. So I really want to change my way, the way I speak and the way I think, but I find myself going back, especially when I encounter these people I live with that are very, very negative.

Excuse me. So I understand what you told the previous caller about being gentle and just kind of doing... I find it hard, because if I do, I feel as if I'm condoning or I'm agreeing with the negative thing that they're doing. If I don't speak out and say something, I'm hoping and have a way to answer that. So I'm feeling it has to do in the realms of just being gentle and pointing out the negative things, but I just constantly being bashed. Yeah.

Well, okay. Thank you, sister, for that question. How do we interact with people around us who are maybe very negative, divisive even with regard to the truth, with the things of the faith? And how do we interact with them in such a way that we're not just sort of approving of what they do, while at the same time not being disrespectful or communicating in a way that would dishonor the Lord? So a couple of passages come to mind. The first one that I was thinking about was in Titus chapter 3, verse 9. It says, Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned.

Now there, Paul, as he's writing to Titus, is saying, look, there are some people who... I mean, and we've had conversations. You've had conversations, I'm sure, with people like this, right, who have no interest actually in the discussion, in a conversation, in growing together and learning from each other. They just want to kind of be divisive and cause problems and maybe be insulting.

Well, in situations like that, I think you can just say, look, I'm not going to put up with that. If you're interested in having a conversation and talking about Jesus, great. And I hope that you are, because there's nothing more important than Jesus and what he's done for us. But if all you want to do is argue and be divisive, then I'm not going to waste my time. And so I think that there are instances where we have conversations like that. But in other cases, right, maybe people that you live with where it's not easy to just avoid that individual, how do you communicate maybe a disagreement without it becoming an explosive argument or an explosive fight? Well, I think that the advice that Paul gave to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 is very helpful here. He says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 24, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. Notice who he says we should be kind to there, everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. And so we're called as Christians in our communication to be kind to everyone, to communicate with gentleness, with respect.

Why? Because we believe that God can work in an individual's heart. And you know what he says there, sister, correcting those who disagree with that gentleness. In other words, it's not just saying, okay, believe whatever you want, that's fine. You can disagree, and you can correct those with whom you disagree on the basis of what God's word says, we should. And in that situation, we require the boldness that the Holy Spirit gives, and that's something we could all use. And so I think praying that the Lord would give you boldness and wisdom to speak the truth of his word in love in a way that's gentle and respectful, and praying that the Lord would ultimately bring people to repentance, that he would do the work that he can only do, changing an individual's heart.

And so we don't want to communicate the truth in a way that's abrasive and rude, and that just serves to further drive people away, I think. I think we need to do what the apostle Paul is telling Timothy to do here, but we also don't want to just stay quiet and be ashamed of the truth, because we know, like Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16, that the truth of the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That's the hope that you can have as you communicate with these people where there's some disagreement. It's just knowing God is able to use his word to transform an individual's life. And so I'm going to correct with gentleness, with respect, with love, praying that the Spirit would be at work in this individual's life.

God bless you. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and one of the most difficult issues for Christians to navigate in today's culture is homosexuality. So we have prepared an excellent resource we'd like to offer you on that topic today.

Yeah, that's right, Bill. It's called Ten Things You Need to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality. It's free when you sign up for our weekly newsletter.

I mean, going back to having these discussions where we can disagree with one another, and where we want to be able to engage with each other with that gentleness and respect that Paul mentioned to Timothy there in 2 Timothy chapter 2. We want to help you do that. And in order to do that, you need to be well informed. And so we created this resource to help you understand what the Bible has to say about this topic. Again, it's called Ten Things You Need to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality. You can get it over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Of course, you can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources, and you can call us right now if you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life. Our phone lines will be open for the next 10 minutes or so.

So hop on your phone right now. Here's the number to call. It's 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the core. And we would love to hear from you. Well, here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners. This is from Patricia.

Hi, I've been listening for a couple of years. First Thessalonians 4 16 to 18. Well, basically it says for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the Archangel's voice and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ear. And so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore encourage one another. Now I thought I'm a little confused here that people who have Christ and died went to be with him immediately yet. It says here that the dead in Christ will rise first who are the dead in Christ if we who are Christians and pass away. I thought we went directly to be with the Lord.

Thank you. Yeah, well, you're absolutely right. When we die as believers, we do go to be with the Lord immediately in his presence. Our souls are made perfect in holiness. Our bodies go down. They rest in the grave.

They're still United to Jesus Christ in a very real sense, but they're in the grave and we're in the spirit perfected in the presence of the Lord worshiping God around his throne. And that's not our final destination. This is where a lot of people get confused.

And so look, friends, if you've been told, hey, you need to ask Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven when you die. And then you imagine that heaven is the final destination. We're all going to be sort of floating around in this disembodied state because our bodies are, you know, boy, they were messed up anyway. Thank God we're spared of those bodies and we get to just be in heaven flying around on angels wings, that kind of thing.

That's not what the Bible teaches. Yes, we are going to be in heaven for a period of time. It's what theologians call the intermediate state. And it's intermediate because it's in between our death and the final resurrection, which is our hope. We're going to rise again with perfected glorified bodies. This is why Jesus Christ himself rose again from the dead so that we would have the hope of the resurrection and of the life of the world to come.

It's God restoring this created world, this physical world that we live in. That's what we're looking forward to as believers. And that is what the apostle Paul is talking about there in First Thessalonians chapter four. Again, he says that the Lord himself, verse 16, will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Not that they weren't in the presence of the Lord worshiping him already, but that they're going to rise.

They're going to be resurrected. And he says their resurrection is in one sense going to precede ours. Then we who are alive, that is those who are on the earth at the final judgment, at the resurrection, 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. This is meant to be a comfort for the church, the fact that we have this hope that we're going to rise again bodily, physically, just like Jesus Christ himself rose again. And so the focus here is not on going to heaven in this disembodied state.

The focus there in First Thessalonians four and five is the day of the Lord, the final judgment, and the resurrection of the dead. And so that's what Paul is speaking about. God bless. Thanks so much for your call. Patricia, I appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. Let's go back to the phones. Paul is on the line from Nashville, Tennessee. Paul, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, thanks so much for what you guys are doing.

I really appreciate your show. I love the Word of God. I've been a believer for many years, raised my kids in the Lord, did Bible study every morning before they got on the bus, had devotions every night, this type of thing. Almost 30 years I was married and my wife ended up divorcing me. We had some issues and she divorced me. And through that, I still love the Lord and I still love His Word. I'm amazed that He's even still chosen to be part of my life. But I picked up the alcohol, which was a problem years ago.

I picked it back up and it's really becoming an issue. I love God and I want to obey Him and this struggle is killing me. I don't know what to do. I've tried Celebrate Recovery, I've tried AA, but it all seems so generic and ethereal. It hasn't worked for me and I would just like some prayer and maybe some direction because I really don't want to do this anymore. It's a couple early in the day and then three or four cocktails at night.

It doesn't seem like a big deal, but to me it is. I want to be more for Him and it's just a real struggle for me right now. Let's pray for our brother Paul right now. Dear Lord, we come before you. Thank you, Paul, for this question and also this request for prayer and for help. Lord, I pray that you would be with him. I pray, Lord, that you would help him to find comfort and life in you, that he wouldn't feel like he needs to run to these other things, to alcohol, Lord, to give him peace, but that he would be able to rest Jesus at your feet, experiencing your grace, experiencing your mercy, and being filled, Lord, with your Holy Spirit so that he might live and walk in a manner that is pleasing to you and honoring to you in all respects. Lord, be with our brother.

Give him strength. Give him the accountability that he needs as well and give him your grace, Lord, in this moment. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. You know, Paul, I think that a lot of times, you know, when we've gone through difficulties, there's a temptation to find refuge in any number of things. For some people, you know, they turn to relationships. For some people, maybe it's food. For other people, it can be alcohol and it can be, I think, a coping mechanism, a way of putting Band-Aids on the pain that we feel, on the wounds that we've experienced, on the guilt and the shame. I don't know if that's what it is for you, but I know that it can be that for many, many people. And I want you to be able to experience the love and the grace and the peace that is in Jesus Christ, not needing to run to those things. And when you find yourself beginning to become dependent upon these things, this is like an everyday thing.

You have to have five drinks, six drinks, you know, starting early in the day. It becomes this sort of coping mechanism. You have to say, Lord, help me not to lean on those things as a crutch for myself, but help me to lean upon you and to heed your word, Jesus. I think about what Paul told the Ephesians in Ephesians 5, verse 15. I want to say this to you as well, brother Paul.

Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. One, I want you to know, when you go to Jesus with this struggle, you say, God, I want to love you, and I'm failing in this area. When you go to him, confessing your sin, Paul, he forgives you.

He washes your sin away. Even when you fail again and again, when we go to him sincerely in repentance, he forgives us, and you need to rest in and receive that word of forgiveness, but then you also need to get the accountability and the support that you need from brothers in Christ, from a pastor. I hope that you have a church that you're a part of where you can be honest about these things, and you're going to be supported by the fellowship there, by the pastors.

There's going to be accountability and care for your soul. I think that that's very important, and maybe you've tried some of these other kind of accountability-type groups or 12-step programs, and you've found that that hasn't been helpful. Different things work for, I think, different people, but certainly getting outside support, accountability, beginning with the church, I think that's really important in your local church where you are, but then also sort of realizing this pattern of behavior and asking yourself the question, you know, what is it that I'm running to when I'm feeling pain and shame? Am I running to Christ, or am I just trying to numb those feelings through distraction?

And so often that's what we try to do, isn't it, friends? We don't want to deal with the deeper issues, whether they're sin issues, whether they're past hurts in our lives. We don't want to deal with them, and so we try to distract ourselves with work, with alcohol, with any number of things, and Jesus says, come to me. Come to me and let me work on those deeper issues, areas in your heart, in your life, where there needs to be healing, where there needs to be forgiveness, where there needs to be grace. Come to me. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

I'm gentle and lowly in heart. And so Paul, I just want to say, man, keep going to Jesus. Experience his grace by faith and get that accountability that you need. Bill, I don't know if you want to add anything there in terms of other support systems for Paul. You know, I think the fact that Paul has tried AA and he's tried Celebrate Recovery and hasn't found any hope there. One thing you said that's so critical is that he's plugged into a local church, and you and I both know sometimes when people go through divorces, one or the other ends up leaving the church that they're plugged into. So Paul needs to find a church if he's had to leave the church or felt he had to leave the church, where his wife attends, that he needs to find a place where he can get that support.

And the other thing is this. Maybe it's time for some kind of an inpatient program because he's tried these outpatient approaches, these support groups, and they haven't worked for him. So I think a Christian inpatient program where he's receiving support 24 hours a day might be the way to go. And it sounds like he's just about to the point where he's ready to take a more drastic action. So that's the other thing I would encourage.

Yeah. You know, this is something I've thought about before, Paul. There's an article that I wrote over at corechristianity.com why you should stop trying to numb your pain. You've been through a lot, it sounds like, between family and life and ministry and all of these things. And you've been through a lot, brother.

Go to Christ and let him bring the healing that only he can bring in your life and get those encouragements from the outside that you need as well. God bless. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.