The promised return of Christ gives believers hope when grieving. A Bible study lesson for “Promised” on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 from the Lifeway “Explore the Bible” series.

 

Our promised hope in God

I hope you all have had a great week.  Today, our lesson is in the second half of 1 Thessalonians 4 and the title of the lesson is Promised. In the lesson guide, the instructions for the lesson is to focus on hope, and we are going to focus on hope, but we are going to take a little bit different track.

We are just going to start in reading the passage, and I’m reading out of the New Living Translation

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. .

Covid excess deaths 2022

We’ve had a lot of death in the past couple of years. The confirmed number of deaths from COVID worldwide is currently 6.15 million people, but the estimated excess deaths, deaths higher than is typically expected in a year, is between 14 and 24 million. We are over a million people in the U.S. Many people who thought that they would have decades left have retirement funds that they will never spend.

weekly excess deaths from covid 2022

There is always grief when we lose a loved one; but Paul writes that we don’t grieve as those who have no hope.

And what is our hope? Our hope is that this is not the end. Not only is it not the end for us, but that it is not the end for our relationship with our loved one. We will see them the end. This is not the end.

Then Paul gives a little bit of an explanation of what will be.

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died

So the dating of this letter is given between 49 to 51 AD, about 20 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. When you read the New Testament epistles as well as the other writers in that early church, you can tell that they were expecting Jesus’s return at any moment. There was this sense of immediacy.

As I was researching this, it occurred to me that Paul may have been writing to encourage Christians during the persecution they were facing. We know that Christians began to be persecuted early; however, it was not just physical persecution that they faced, but societal pressure … because there a counter culture religion. I found an article about Christian martyrdom on the Dallas Baptist Seminary site

After A.D. 50, Christianity was put on the imperial list of “illicit” sects, and after A.D. 64, it was declared illegal, though this did not always result in continual persecution. Christians had many periods of nominal and benign neglect.[1]

Paul the Apostle

When we think about that, it puts verse 14 into a slightly different context doesn’t it. Not only we will see our departed loved ones again, but for those who die in Christ, they will be with Christ when he returns as a conquering king.

15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.

So there is a lot of debate on this whole section, I’m not going to spend time on the second coming other than to point out that this promise of final victory was the thing that Paul told believers to keep in mind. That since we know that Jesus died and rose again, that we could be certain of not only life with him, but in that final good end.

jesus and Palm Sunday

When Things Don’t Look Like What we Expect

What I want to talk about for the remainder of the time is that first coming. Today is Palm Sunday. Baptists don’t have much liturgy … we have so little liturgy that last year on Palm Sunday the “observance” was a picnic with photos opps featuring Blue Bell and Buckees. I’m not quite sure how someone drew a line between the Triumphal Entry and a rest stop .. But then I’m not a Texan, so maybe this is just something I don’t understand.

Anyway, Palm Sunday is important … It’s important to remember because this is life. God’s plan very rarely looks like what we expect it to look like.

Just a week before the resurrection, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and was hailed as the promised Messiah. This was the culmination of all the Jewish hopes. Hundreds of years waiting for the Deliverer who would not only be their king, freeing them from foreign oppression, but King over all the nations of the earth.

And it was happening.

Imagine how the disciples felt as they walked down the streets of Jerusalem following their leader. The time had come. It was there, and they were right in the middle of it.

But then what happened?

Jesus was beaten for our iniquities

Just a few days later, Jesus was betrayed, he was beaten, he was crucified, and he was buried.

The disciples were scattered. Everything that they had hoped for was at and end.

They thought Palm Sunday was the answer, the culmination It wasn’t, it was only the beginning of the end that was to come. It was not the end itself.

The story wasn’t over yet.

That is what I remember on Palm Sunday. The story wasn’t over.

And your story isn’t over either. Maybe the story of your life hasn’t played out the way you expected it to. Maybe you’re in the middle of something right now where you’re saying, “God, this is not right … this is a load of garbage … things shouldn’t be turning out this way.”

Remember, it’s not the end. Just as Palm Sunday wasn’t the end, and the tomb was not the end, … even the resurrection was not the end.

The end, God’s good end, is not Christ’s resurrection alone, but that because of that we all can have life in him. Life today and life eternally.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope

This is what God meant when he says in Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Last year, in one of the Bible studies we talked about hope and how there were a number of different words in Hebrew that are translated as “hope” in English that have slightly different meanings. We talked about the word “tikvah” that refers to a cord, attachment, or expectation and that implication is a focused or fixed hope or expectation on a thing that is outside of ourselves, we focus and hold on to it.

the hebrew word Tiqvah - Hope

Tikvah is the word used in Jeremiah 29:11 and that is the type of hope that Paul is describing in the those verses that we read.

The end Paul is describing has taken much longer to come about than I’m sure Paul was ever expecting it to. But the hope is still there. That is still what we look to. Just a little over a decade after Paul wrote this letter, he was martyred in Rome, along with many other Christians in Nero’s brutal persecutions.

holding on to hope

But we still have the same hope, the same thing that we are looking forward to.

Not having a liturgical tradition, this is another thing that we miss out on … a regular reminder of that hope.  This is a Catholic prayer for the dead.

Prayer for the Dead

God our Father,

Your power brings us to birth,

Your providence guides our lives,

and by Your command we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,

their lives change but do not end.

I pray in hope for my family,

relatives and friends,

and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ,

Who died and now lives,

may they rejoice in Your kingdom,

where all our tears are wiped away.

Unite us together again in one family,

to sing Your praise forever and ever.

Amen.

It is a reminder of who God is, that he is good, that he cares for his own, and that God will have the final victory and his kingdom will not be denied.

That is a current prayer. I’m going to read another prayer from the Didache, which was a very early document of the church. It was a kind of “how to do church” manual And part of it includes a prayer for after communion. Listen to the similarities.

Didache: Prayer After Communion

But after you are filled, thus give thanks: We thank You, holy Father, for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever. You, Master almighty, created all things for Your name’s sake; You gave food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to You; but to us You freely gave spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Your Servant. Before all things we thank You that You are mighty; to You be the glory forever. Remember, Lord, Your Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Your love, and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Your kingdom which You have prepared for it; for Yours is the power and the glory forever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God (Son) of David! If any one is holy, let him come; if any one is not so, let him repent. Maran atha. Amen. But permit the prophets to make Thanksgiving as much as they desire.

Those are prayers recited by Christians. But now I’m going to read to you a Jewish prayer read in remembrance of people who have passed away. It’s called the Mourner’s Kaddish.

Mourner’s Kaddish

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world

which He has created according to His will.

May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,

and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;

and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored,

adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,

beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that

are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us

and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights,

may He create peace for us and for all Israel;

and say,

Amen.

May he “establish His Kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,” It sounds a lot like the Lord’s prayer doesn’t it?

And I’m going to end with reading Psalm 72. Paul wrote about how the king would come, but David wrote about the kingdom itself.

Psalm 72

1 Give your love of justice to the king, O God,

and righteousness to the king’s son.

2 Help him judge your people in the right way;

let the poor always be treated fairly.

3 May the mountains yield prosperity for all,

and may the hills be fruitful.

4 Help him to defend the poor,

to rescue the children of the needy,

and to crush their oppressors.

5 May they fear you as long as the sun shines,

as long as the moon remains in the sky.

Yes, forever!

 

6 May the king’s rule be refreshing like spring rain on freshly cut grass,

like the showers that water the earth.

7 May all the godly flourish during his reign.

May there be abundant prosperity until the moon is no more.

8 May he reign from sea to sea,

and from the Euphrates River[b] to the ends of the earth.

9 Desert nomads will bow before him;

his enemies will fall before him in the dust.

10 The western kings of Tarshish and other distant lands

will bring him tribute.

The eastern kings of Sheba and Seba

will bring him gifts.

11 All kings will bow before him,

and all nations will serve him.

 

12 He will rescue the poor when they cry to him;

he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.

13 He feels pity for the weak and the needy,

and he will rescue them.

14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence,

for their lives are precious to him.

 

15 Long live the king!

May the gold of Sheba be given to him.

May the people always pray for him

and bless him all day long.

16 May there be abundant grain throughout the land,

flourishing even on the hilltops.

May the fruit trees flourish like the trees of Lebanon,

and may the people thrive like grass in a field.

17 May the king’s name endure forever;

may it continue as long as the sun shines.

May all nations be blessed through him

and bring him praise.

 

18 Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel,

who alone does such wonderful things.

19 Praise his glorious name forever!

Let the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Amen and amen!

Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Yes, and let his glory shine in us.

Additional Resources


This Bible lesson was originally taught by Carla Alvarez on April 10, 2022 in the Kingdom Citizen Bible study Class at the Second Baptist North campus in Kingwood, Texas.


Endnotes

[1] “Ancient Christian Martyrdom,” accessed April 9, 2022, https://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/anceint_christian_martyrdom.htm.