Christians Grieve Too! (Part 1 of 2)

Contrary to the way a lot of people think we're not supposed to be people who are happy all the time.

We go through valleys. We experience deep sadness and mourning just like everyone else does. But we ought to grieve differently. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg clarifies the issue of bereavement for believers in a message called Christians Grieve Too. For your faithfulness that is expressed in so many different ways—not least of all in giving to us and preserving for us your Word, the Bible. And we do pray that we might increasingly become students of your Word, that we might hide it in our hearts, that we might not sin against you, that it might correct us, train us, grow us, feed us, lead us. Accomplish the purposes that you have ordained for this study in your Word, in our lives, and in our church. To the glory of your name we ask it.

Amen. First Thessalonians, and the fourth chapter, and the section which begins at verse 13. Paul was responding to a number of questions which had come to him from the believers in Thessalonica. For example, in verse 9, he talks about brotherly love.

Earlier on, he's talked about the whole relationship of moral purity and so on. And now he comes to a matter which was clearly troubling these Thessalonian believers, insofar as some of them had obviously got the notion that all who believed were going to be present, alive, at the return of Jesus Christ. And now they were faced with the fact that a number of their friends and loved ones and acquaintances who themselves had believed had actually died, and of course, the parousia—the return of Jesus Christ—had not taken place. And so, in addressing their concerns, they obviously point them to their teacher Paul, and they ask him to address this matter of the nature of death and expressly the issue of the return of Jesus Christ. And in the verses which begin here in verse 13, and throughout a little more of 1 Thessalonians and certainly into 2 Thessalonians, Paul provides us with rich and important instruction concerning the return of Jesus Christ.

However, we're not going to go any further than the thirteenth verse and deal with this issue of bereavement in the life of a Christian. And to try and guide us through the verse, we will look, first of all, at the word distinction, and then instruction, and then application. Notice with me, first of all, the distinction which this verse contains.

There actually are a number, but I want to point one out in particular. The distinction which exists between those whom he addresses, referring to them in a generic sense—male and female—as brothers or brethren, and those to whom he refers at the end of the verse as the rest of men. So there is a clear distinction between the brothers and the rest of men.

Now, in tracking through this in our studies, we've noticed that brothers is a designation that could equally be translated Christians or family, because it is indicative of their sonship in the family of God. It is expressive of the transformation that has been brought about as a result of God's work within their lives. Back in chapter 1 and verse 9, in addressing them in the early part of the letter, he says that the report is going around of the church at Thessalonica.

They themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. And those believers in Thessalonica were in no doubt as to this amazing transformation which had been brought about as a result of God's grace within their lives. And if you follow through, in verse 4 of the first chapter, he refers to God's initiative in this act of redemption, for we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you.

And the way in which they knew that was because the gospel had come and brought about this change within their lives. In verse 10 of chapter 2, he says, you are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed. And in verse 8 of chapter 3, for now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. Three statements which correlate to the experience of genuine Christian faith—chosen by God, personal belief, standing firm in the Lord. It is as a result of God's initiative and grace that we have been granted the ability to believe, and having believed and moved on, as we find ourselves stabilized by truth, we can be described as those standing firm in the Lord. Now, this distinction, then, ought to be a great encouragement to them.

And indeed, it ought to be a great encouragement to the believer tonight, as well as a challenge to those who are agnostic and unbelieving in the matters of faith. Because it is this living, personal faith designated in this statement of brothers which distinguishes them from the rest of men. Paul puts it very clearly in the Ephesian letter and in chapter 2 of Ephesians, where he describes the pre-converted experience. In verse 3 of Ephesians 2, all of us, he says, also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. And like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. So we were once the rest.

We were not simply like them, we were them. And then, in Ephesians 2, he makes this great statement concerning the change brought about by the grace of God. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, and without God in the world. Now, this is a designation of what it means to be without Christ. And if you have come this evening and you are not trusting in Christ as your Savior and as your Lord, if you have not come to him in repentance and in faith, then the issue is not simply that you are an irreligious person—for you may be very religious. The issue is not that you are a person without interest in the things of God, because you may have a deepening and quickening interest in the things of God. But it is not of marginal significance the circumstance in which the unbeliever finds themself.

Here it is. Separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, and without hope and without God in the world. And we remain in that condition unless we find ourselves, as with the Ephesians, verse 13 of Ephesians 2, but now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. One further reference in which Paul makes the same thing clear is as we've seen in the book of Titus. And in Titus chapter 3, he describes the experience which is expressive of this same distinction. At one time, he says, We too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.

We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. And then here's the change. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. So the distinction is not a superficial distinction. It is a foundational distinction. It is a vital distinction. It is the distinction between brothers and sisters in Christ and the rest of men. It is the distinction between faith and unbelief, between life and death, hope and hopelessness, rock and sand, broad and narrow, light and darkness.

And there is no middle territory. We are either brethren in Christ, or we are like the rest of men—without hope and without God in the world. Now, loved ones, if that does not stir within you some kind of evangelistic quickening of your heart, some kind of stimulation, motivation in my own spirit to the issue of what we're facing amongst our non-Christian neighbors and friends, then we are in some kind of severe spiritual malady. The distinction, then, which the verse provides. Secondly, the instruction which this verse conveys.

He conveys instruction, essentially, regarding two areas. First of all, to deal with their ignorance on the subject of death. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep. In the matter of Christian living, ignorance is never bliss. Indeed, Paul frequently addresses the matter of ignorance, and he does so to point out how dangerous ignorance really is.

And I'll just give you three references to this effect. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 1, for I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers—and he goes on to address the problem of ignorance. Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians, in verse 3, I do not want you to be ignorant of these matters. Romans chapter 11 and verse 25, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Many problems in Christian living can be traced to ignorance.

And so he is concerned that they won't live in ignorance, because ignorance will breed confusion, and confusion will breed disruption, and all men are of chaos. And so if there are those amongst the Thessalonians who, like the Corinthians, were beginning to suggest that perhaps the resurrection had somehow a spiritual element to it, and that we were not anticipating the bodily return of Jesus Christ, that our loved ones who had died were somehow in some quasi-conscious state, lost in some time warp somewhere, Paul says, that kind of ignorance will be very disconcerting to you. And conversely, knowledge is, by Paul, described with frequency as a key to blessing.

And we pray this, he says, in verse 10 of Colossians 1, in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. And I say to you again, that's why we study the Bible in this way. I can't tell you what a relief it is to me to be gone for a couple of Sundays and not to have to come back and think, goodness gracious, what am I supposed to say to these people? I don't know how a person does that Sunday by Sunday and week after week, trying to come up with a topic to address. I commend those who are able to and do with great effectiveness—it's no judgment on them—but for me, it is a great liberation to know that I gotta get back to 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13, and I've gotta get back to 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13. And if you're tracking with me, you expect me to be there.

And why? So that your knowledge may increase, so that we will not live in ignorance, so that when the issues of life face us and when the pressures and difficulties buffet us and when the questions of death overwhelm us, we'll be able to say, Oh, yes, I remember! That's in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 13.

I hope you have some kind of little notebook, some kind of little process of storing things away, some way to build up your own little compendium of discovery, so that one day when you gather your children and grandchildren around you, and they'll say, Tell me some of the things you've learned over the years, Grandpa, you'll be able to turn to that companion book to your Bible, or you'll be able to turn to the leafs that you've inserted in your Bible, and you'll be able to go to the day when you made that point of progress and made that great discovery. Now, will you notice carefully that he refers to those who fall asleep and not to those who are asleep? I don't want you to be ignorant about those who are actually falling asleep.

It's the present participle. He is not referring to those who are asleep. And his use of the present participle, I think, is very important, indicating the way in which death has been transformed for the Christian. A number of people asked me, after our studies in 1 Corinthians 15, concerning this issue of, Well, if we're sleeping, how are we sleeping, and I thought we were actually with Jesus, and how can we be with Jesus if we're really asleep, and do we sleep for very long, or when does that stop and start?

And I understand those questions, is because they buffet me as well, and I've found this to be very helpful. The picture of sleep regarding death is a common picture. It's common in all sorts of places, completely outside the scope of the Bible. It is also a common picture in the Old Testament, as we read, of the saints of God who are described as having entered into rest from their labors. When you come into the New Testament, you find a similar use of this notion of sleep, but the primary emphasis, I think, in pointing to the issue of sleep is to identify the temporary nature of death for the believer—that it is not a permanent condition, that it is a momentary experience. It is if you like forty winks, if we might put it in that way. The kind of element that comes across clearly when the sisters come to Jesus concerning Lazarus, his friend, and their brother, and they press him in relationship to these things—and John records it in the eleventh chapter, in the eleventh verse of his Gospel, the words of Jesus, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going to wake him up.

This is only a temporary issue, he says. John Stott, commenting on this, it is then, because a human corpse lies in the grave still, as it were, resting and awaiting resurrection, that it is appropriate to call death sleep and to call a graveyard a cemetery. The word cemetery, which I didn't know till this week, actually comes from the Greek komaterion, which means a sleeping place. Hence the notion that is conveyed in our cemeteries. But the picture of sleep, even used in that way and pressed to its fullest as a picture, is not intended to convey in the New Testament the idea that the condition of the soul in the interim period between death and resurrection is one of unconsciousness.

Very important to understand that. The picture of the soul between the moment of goodbye and hello is not a picture of unconsciousness—that sleep helps us to grapple with what is happening to this body. But it does not explain the totality of the experience of the soul immediately following the parting of body and soul in the moment of death.

Now, we can't delve deeply into this, but let me turn you just to a couple of portions. Luke chapter 16 and verse 19 and following, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. I don't want to delve into this except for you to see that in the telling of this story, Jesus clearly taught that after death there would be an immediate awareness of bliss or pain.

Jesus was not teaching some soul-sleep existence before ever that was encountered but was teaching—and it's important in the use of parables that we don't press everything to illogical conclusions—but certainly it is clear from this that he is making it obvious to his readers that when you die, you're gonna know whether it's good or whether it's bad. You're going to know whether it's heaven or whether it's hell. You're going to know whether you're with Jesus or whether you are absent from Jesus. Luke chapter 23—and you can study these passages for your homework and at your leisure—Luke 23 and verse 43.

You know where I'm going. The man on the cross addresses Jesus and says, Remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. You find the same thing in the expression of Paul in relationship to death in Philippians and chapter 1, where he says, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And then he says, I don't really know whether I can choose staying alive or dying and going to heaven, because I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart, notice, and be with Christ, which is far better. But it is more necessary for you that I remain in this body.

Now, we could say more concerning that, but that probably is enough for just now. He wants to address, then, the ignorance of these people in relationship to this matter of falling asleep. He also wants to provide them with instruction concerning the issue of grief. Paul is not here suggesting that the believer is to be free from grief altogether, but rather that he is to be free from the grief which marks the pagan in the face of death. For the unbeliever, in death there is only the dreary wail of despair that is covered up with small talk and finery, far too much plastic and fake flowers, and a deep emptiness. For the believer, there is the exulting, tear-stained psalm of hope. There is genuine grief, but it is not the grief of unbelief. It is the grief attached to the nature of loss.

So then, there is a distinction which the verse contains between those who are in Christ and those who are the rest. Grieving in loss, but believing with hope. An encouraging message from Alistair Begg on Truth for Life.

Any time we face a crisis, whether it's because of the death of someone we love or any other trial we're facing, we look around for comfort. And for believers, God's promises are a source of peace in the midst of the storm. So I want to suggest to you a tremendously encouraging collection of daily readings written by the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon draws the analogy that God's promises are like bank checks that point us to a future reality that is guaranteed. He's written a devotional that is titled, Check Book of the Bank of Faith, and each day includes a promise God has made to us in Scripture, followed by a brief reflection. This book comes in a rich leather cover, and it's cleverly designed to be the size of your checkbook it can fit in your pocket. Check Book of the Bank of Faith makes a great stocking stuffer. You can request a copy for yourself when you make a needed year-end donation today, and you can purchase additional copies to give as gifts.

Simply go online to truthforlife.org slash donate or click through the image you see on the mobile app. You know, our study about God's providence in the midst of prolonged periods of difficulty couldn't be more perfectly timed to close out 2020. I'm sure you'll agree this has been a challenging year. So our team has prepared a study guide that goes along with Alistair's series, My Times Are in Your Hands. This is a 12-session study guide that is perfect for any group to tackle during the new year or for you to work through on your own. It's a great way to apply Alistair's teaching to your personal situation.

It'll help you trust in God's providence. Find out more when you go to truthforlife.org slash store. And finally, if you have not yet ordered the American Gospel documentary film set exclusively from Truth for Life, don't miss this opportunity. These films take an extraordinary look at how the gospel message has been distorted in America. American Gospel features dozens of interviews, including one with Alistair Begg. You'll learn how the prosperity gospel, faith healing, and religion without any kind of judgment, how all of that has taken root in our culture. There are two full-length films that are part of this offer, American Gospel Christ Alone and American Gospel Christ Crucified. They come on DVD and they include streaming instructions as well. Both documentaries are yours for just five dollars and the shipping is free. Visit truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapeen. Be sure to join us again tomorrow as Alistair calls us to consider what the Bible says regarding grief when he concludes his message, Christians Grieve Too. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.