Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
Topic: A look at the hope found in the Second Coming of Christ

• Illustration: Eclov shares the story of the funeral of pastor Bob Russell's father.
• One of the bedrock truths that every Christian must know and understand is this: Jesus Christ is coming back for his disciples, whether we live or sleep.

• There are over 300 verses in the New Testament about the Second Coming of Christ—about one verse for every 30 verses in the whole New Testament.
• No passage tells us more in one place than the passage before us: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.
• We can't afford to be ignorant about the Second Coming of Christ, because it affects everything we believe and everything we do as Christians.
• One of the most important tasks we as Christians have is encouraging one another with the good news that Jesus is coming back for us.
• When believers from the church in Thessalonica began to die, and Jesus had not come back yet, they were worried about them.
• Paul assures them about the fate of those Christians who have passed away.
  • Illustration: Eclov shares the story of attending a celebrative funeral.
• Everything starts with this bedrock confession of the Christian faith: "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."
• We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
  • Illustration: Harold J. Ockenga once said, "Death is the God-forsaken experience of a condemned soul."
• This is the death of Jesus; he died in the fullest and most horrible sense of the word—the God-forsaken experience of a condemned soul—so that we might live in him.
  • Illustration: Alexander McClaren once wrote: "His death makes our deaths sleep, and his Resurrection makes our sleep calmly certain of awaking."
• Those who have fallen asleep are living with Christ as surely as we here are living with Christ.
• The Bible is very clear that the moment we die, we are consciously present with the Lord.
• Believer's bodies are, you might say, incubating; they are dormant just like the lily bulbs that are under the ground out in our gardens, waiting to come to life.
• Don't think they'll miss a thing, for they are consciously with the Lord.
• In fact, those already asleep in the Lord get to be first in line!

• We don't know everything about Jesus' coming back, but there is enough here to encourage every believer, no matter what our circumstance of life.
• At the signal of the Father, when time has reached its fullness, Jesus Christ will return in spectacular fashion.
  • Illustration: Eclov shares the story of how Greg Fisher once thought aloud about what Christ would shout when he returns.
• Perhaps the trumpet that sounds the Second coming will be like the shofar, the ram's horn trumpet with a two-note call.
• Our fellow believers who have been with the Lord will now experience the resurrection of their bodies.
• I believe we will then experience the Rapture, for the Latin word for caught up is rapto, meaning, "to seize, to carry off."
• We will experience a reunion with God in the clouds, in the domain that once belonged to our enemy.
  • Illustration: Eclov shares a poem by Douglas McKelvey about the Second coming. 
• When we gather with Jesus, we who were sinners and who had no love for him till he loved us first—the redeemed of Jesus—will be like the halo of his glory.

• The faith that we have so carefully cultivated and guarded will no longer be necessary; faith is being certain of things unseen.
• I don't know if resurrection bodies have adrenaline, but this I know: no one in all that excited assembly of saints and angels who meet the Lord in the air will be more thrilled to be there than Jesus himself.