Scripture reading: Amos 5:18-24.

Sermon text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

You’re saved to sit, until you die or fly, which ever comes first...

but perhaps the waiting for either is the worst.

It seems that over the past several decades — perhaps as long as a century — most of American Christianity has implied this philosophy of salvation even if we didn’t state it in this fashion. Based on our reading of passages such as the sermon text today, we’ve acted as if a person’s eternal destiny matters more than anything else, and that salvation involves only our eternal destiny.

I hope that in this century, we realize the fallacy of this philosophy. God redeemed us with the blood of His Son so we might work to enact His plan for creation. Although sin’s final defeat will not occur until Jesus’ return, we must still accomplish God’s will for fallen humanity and for the creation He declared good. As we work our way though St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, we must ask ourselves an important question, and it’s not the only people usually ask in this passage. Most people ask, “When will this take place?” Instead, I want us to ask, “What does this passage say about my life today?”

Sermon

When we examine the Jewish beliefs of the first century A.D., we begin to realize that the Jews had long looked for “The Day of the Lord,” or the day when God would make right all that was wrong in the world. To the Jews, this meant that God would raise up the Jewish nation at the expense of the Gentiles and then judge the unrighteous Gentiles who had persecuted His people for centuries. To the Jews, the Day of the Lord would end with them on top of the other nations for a change.

Old Testament prophets like Amos had long warned the Jews that the Day of the Lord meant something far different. The judgment on “That Day” (to use another Old Testament term) would encompass everyone, both Jew and Gentile. Anyone not living by the covenant in faith would face condemnation and eternal punishment.

To some degree, “the Day” of judgment came in Jewish history with the conquest of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C. and the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Except for a brief time in the first century B.C., the Jews would never again rule themselves until 1948.

Jesus also spoke of “the Day” as recorded in Matthew 24-25. The disciples wanted to know all about the Day of the Lord in relation to Jesus’ declaration of judgment on Jerusalem. Many of Jesus’ statements regarding The Day were fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by the Romans; others remain unfulfilled to the present time.

The Jews had long looked for a Messiah whose coming would herald the Day of the Lord. Daniel had prophesied His coming, almost to the very day. Jesus had seemed to fulfill Daniel’s prophecy, but His crucifixion surely proved that He could not serve as the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

Jesus’ resurrection, however, signaled a turning point in history. The resurrection to everlasting life as Jesus had tied to Moses and then explicitly stated by both Isaiah and Daniel had begun! Jesus had risen from the dead, leading St. Paul to declare Him “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Creation rejoiced: Her Redeemer had come! The resurrection changed everything. Yes, the Day of the Lord would bring judgment, but Easter brought redemption from the judgment. Easter changed everything.

As the Church expanded throughout the Roman Empire, believers everywhere looked to the resurrection of Jesus to see their ultimate future. They knew that as Jesus had risen, they, too would live forever. Most people interpreted His promise to return, recorded by St. Luke in Acts 1, as an imminent reality. Unfortunately, many died awaiting His return. What would happen to those who died? Would they fail to participate in the eternal life?

St. Paul heard these questions from the Thessalonians and wrote this letter to them. In the sermon passage, St. Paul gave an eloquent and authoritative answer to the questions.

First, St. Paul assured the Thessalonians that they should retain their hope in the eternal life; they would see their loved ones again, even though they had died in this life. While Christians may grieve over those we have lost to death — last Sunday’s events remind us of those we have lost — we hold onto the fact that the dead still live in some way, and that they will return to life one day.

This hope revolves around the resurrection. “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” Before the resurrection, believers wondered about the ultimate question of life: “What next?” Practically every civilization on the planet came to believe in some sort of life after death. St. Paul answered that for the Christian, the life to come would continue in the presence of God, for God would "bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, when Jesus returned to earth as He promised, He would bring back those who had died believing in Him for their salvation.

St. Paul continued by telling the Thessalonians, “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.” He had received an authoritative answer from God Himself regarding the resurrection life; now, he would pass it on to the Thessalonians. According to St. Paul, anyone alive when Jesus returns will not “precede” those who have died in faith. What does he mean? What does “precede” imply?

In the Roman Empire, the emperors sometimes visited far away cities spread throughout his realm. When the people of a city heard the emperor was coming, they would never wait for him to appear at their gates; this would have insulted the emperor. Instead, the citizens would travel outside the city and meet the emperor away from the city and then give him a royal procession into their city. Everyone would turn out for the procession, cheering the emperor and his entourage and escorting them into the city.

St. Paul used this terminology to refer to Jesus’ return. According to St. Paul, those who had already died would join Jesus in His entourage as He returned to earth. However, something important remained in their existence: The dead would need a body to live on the earth again. St. Paul had received an answer to this as well: “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.”

The Church has stated her belief in a resurrection of the body in every creed from her earliest times. St. Paul said this resurrection will occur in conjunction with a “cry of command” (“shout” in the KJV). The Greek word here implies a command issued on the battlefield, yelled loud enough that everyone on the battlefield can hear it. Those who believe in a secret gathering of the saints, in which no one knows what has happened until they “miss” someone, needs to understand this verse. When Jesus returns, the command will ring throughout all Creation. St. John the Apostle wrote in the Revelation, “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him” (Revelation 1:7). When the archangel shouts the cry, all Creation will hear.

The cry will accompany “ the sound of the trumpet of God.” When an emperor arrived at the city, his trumpeters would sound the call, alerting the city that the emperor himself had arrived.  When Jesus returns, the trumpet will alert the world that her King has arrived.

What about the dead who have accompanied Him? St. Paul said, “The dead in Christ will rise first.” The resurrection will come! The glorious dead who have lived in heaven with a temporary “dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5) will receive their permanent resurrection body. This body will never age; it will never suffer. It will remain perfect for all eternity.

Only then will those alive participate. “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.” St. Paul strongly implies that, as the citizens who leave the city to escort their emperor, all living believers will meet Jesus “in the air” and escort Him back to earth to begin His righteous reign. St. Paul gives no clue as to the timing, whether we will return immediately or whether a period of time will elapse. Given St. John’s teachings in the Revelation, I’ll cautiously state that at least some time will elapse between our meeting with Christ and our return to earth to reign with Him in the millennium.

St. Paul had written these words to bring comfort to the Thessalonians. “Therefore encourage [comfort KJV] one another with these words.” Now the Thessalonians knew the rest of the story of their salvation; now they knew what would happen to those who died awaiting the return of Christ to claim His throne over the Creation.

But what next? Were the Thessalonians to sit and wait for the resurrection of their loved ones and their meeting with their Lord?

Not hardly.

St. Paul concluded this letter by telling the Thessalonians to stay alert, encourage each other, and keep working. The world needed to hear about the return of their King. The world needed to see how the King expected them to live, and they needed to see it in His people, those who had already confessed Him as Lord and received His salvation as a result. Then, when some in the congregations didn’t live up to his expectations, St. Paul wrote another letter to the Thessalonians in which he bluntly said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

I think these words apply to us today, and I think these words help answer the questions we should consider. When we hear someone spend more time wondering “when” instead of “what now,” we need to remember St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians.

When we consider the sound of the trumpet announcing our King, we need to look at the world as it exists today. Would we want our King to visit today? Would we want to hand over this world to our King?

For too long, too many have taken the attitude of the early heretics. We’ve heard them say, “The world’s not worth saving. The Bible said it would get worse and worse, so there’s no reason for us to try to change it. Let’s just sit as saved until we fly or die.” Scripture emphatically tells otherwise.

Do we see injustice in our world? Our King would have us change it. Read the book of Amos and see how God views injustice and what He expects His people to do about it. Do we see poverty in our world? Read the Scriptures and see how God demands we care for the poor. Do we see hungry, thirsty, or imprisoned people in our world? Read the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 25, and what Jesus expects of us.

In St. Paul’s time, if a Roman city heard their emperor was coming, the citizens went into overdrive fixing the problems of their city. We should do no less.

What does this have to do with salvation? Why can’t we simply focus on people’s souls and ignore everything else? After all, if the world’s heading for destruction anyway, why should we care about it?

God cares about the world. Read Romans 8 for details.

I sincerely hope that, when you think of the last trumpet, you’ll look around to see how the world looks in your life. If you know someone who needs salvation, let them see how it works in your life. Let them see what worship does to you; let them see the results of the relationship you enjoy with your King. If you see something that needs doing to improve the world, get to work.

The trumpet will sound; we will hear the cry of command. Until then, let’s work so that when Jesus comes, He’ll find the world far better than we inherited it.