Welcome to Books of
the Book, we're looking at
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1 Thessalonians, and today
in particular we will be looking
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at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
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My name is Jon
Paulien and with me as my
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Pastor, Jon Ciccarelli.
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Jon tells a little
bit about the passage
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we are looking at today.
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Well Jon here we are in
Chapter 4:13-18 and Paul is
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really wanting them to be
knowledgeable about something.
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Specifically when Christ
comes again and what happens
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in those last times.
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So let's not waste
any time and move forward.
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Alright, this passage is
grounded in a whole series of
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passages in Chapters 4
and 5 where Paul is trying to
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correct them in
some practical areas.
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At the beginning of Chapter
4 he talks about sexuality,
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work ethic in verses 9 to 12.
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Then he shifts to the
second and coming, about the
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knowledge they need to
have about the second coming.
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In Chapter 5 moves on to
perhaps the attitude that they
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have towards second coming.
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Then he gets into some
leadership issues and then even
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talks about
prophecy in Chapter 5.
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We will come to
those passages later on.
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But here in 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18 he is trying to
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correct some misunderstandings
that they have about the
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second coming and somehow,
some people have died in the
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church, it has already
been six months and already
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they have had some
deaths in the church.
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These deaths really
threw them for a loop.
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It seems that somehow
they believe that Jesus coming
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was so soon that they would
all just join Him together.
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Now why would it
bother them, that
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some of the people had died?
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Aren't they going to be
resurrected? We know that.
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Evidently they did not.
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In Judaism there was a theory,
and Thessalonians perhaps
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we're thinking
along these lines.
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That people who were alive
when Jesus comes would be taken
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up to heaven, but those who
died would stay here on earth.
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If that is the case, that
meant that throughout eternity
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you would be
separated from your loved ones,
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if they died before Jesus came.
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So in Judaism you had this
idea, this confusion about the
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resurrection and maybe
the Thessalonians applied that
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to the Christian faith. I
think the bottom line here
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is that belief does matter.
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There are a lot of
people who see doctrine is not
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important, it's just about
our relationship with Jesus.
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That is so important, that
is really the critical thing.
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But doctrine is important
too, what you believe matters.
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I remember one of my
daughters, when she was young,
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we didn't know about this
until later, but she believed
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there were monsters
under the bed and that they are
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confined under there
unless it is totally dark.
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So she would ask for the
door to be left open, or a light
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to be left on and we
could never understand.
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She would not tell
us why she was asking.
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Beliefs matter and they
affects the way you live.
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There are some people in
today's world who love Jesus,
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they have a relationship with
Him, but their beliefs about
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the second coming I think
Paul would find problematic.
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So brings us back to
the purpose of prophecy.
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This is a practical text,
Paul isn't talking about the
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second coming just
as an intellectual.
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There is a real issue in
the church and this knowledge
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is going to help them
deal with that problem.
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It is so important, I
think that beliefs matter.
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I think it determines
also how we behave, right?
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As you said, the whole
idea, I think I had the same
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monster under my bed. - Yeah?
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So what we believe
really does impact us.
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It's like when I talk with
my wife and we talked about
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raising our children, we
said it is important what we
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teach them, but discipleship
is more caught than it is
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taught, because what we
believe is what we really live.
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We can say we believe in
things, but what we believe is
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how we really
live our life on that.
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You know I had an experience
once when I was going to
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College and studying theology.
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One of the things we had
to do was to go out with an
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evangelist and do
visitations and so forth.
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And there were some good
visits, but I remember one visit
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that I was
really disheartened by.
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There was a disagreement
between someone who is attending
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the meetings
and this evangelist.
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They weren't agreeing
with our views of prophecy.
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And I saw this conversation
escalate right before my eyes
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and it was like the love
left the room, the compassion
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left the room and it
was just about being right.
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The person I was with
was determined that I'm going
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to win this argument.
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The idea seemed like a
redeeming and reconciliation
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which was gone, but that
is why there is redemption and
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reconciliation because
Jesus is coming back again and
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we want everyone to be there.
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But sometimes our beliefs,
our doctrine sometimes they
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need to impact how we
live our lives in a great way.
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That is right! Well lets
see what Paul has to say in
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Chapter 4:13 and I will mention
again that the translation
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of 1 Thessalonians are my
own so that we can bring out
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some of the nuances of the
Greek, the meanings of certain
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words, sometimes the grammar
can affect the way we look at
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the passage, it doesn't
always show up in translation.
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Translation sometimes is
thinking more about how it flows
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in the English, so
sometimes the sentences is
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changed a little
bit in the translation.
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Verse 13 says:
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Now he doesn't say
died, he says they are asleep.
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But in the ancient world
sleep was a common metaphor for
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death, you see! A lot of
times we talk about things
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in metaphors and
analogies and spiritual life,
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that is true, the fruit of
the Spirit, that is an analogy,
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it is a metaphor
and it helps us to get
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a handle on some things.
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Now Paul had spent only
three weeks in Thessalonica.
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These people had a pagan
background and evidently some
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things were missing.
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There was a scholar named
Adolf Deismann who collected
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some ancient letters, I talked
on an earlier program about
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digging up ancient letters.
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Would you read us
one of those letters from
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an ancient Greek
person to a friend?
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Sure I would be happy
to, this letter reads:
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Impressing! - Yeah it
is! But you know it is really
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not too unlike the way we
experience it today, in today's
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society, and you know
my experience with people,
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in our world today
there is this lack of hope.
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And the sadness, especially
when it comes to death and
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dying, it's like well if
you don't believe in God it's
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like well do what you can
but you just get through it,
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but just this
sadness and this grief.
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In the United States we
are entering for the first time
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a post-Christian society,
where there is a gap between,
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the generations of people
who do not and have not attended
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church so there is a growing
lack of hope I think in our
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society because the
message of Christ so needs to be
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heard in the hope
of His resurrection.
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The whole circle of life
thing, and environmentalism,
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everything is just cycling
through where there is really
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no future, it's
just more of the same.
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Think a lot of that,
Paul's concerned that Christians
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should grieve
differently. - A hum!
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He is not saying Christians
shouldn't grieve, he is
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saying Christians
grieve differently because they
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know some things that
take the sting out of it.
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you know I am glad
that he said that in this
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sense because our theology
is really no good unless
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it impacts how we live.
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I love astronomy, I love
looking at the stars and the
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planets, and when I was
looking for a telescope to buy
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I went to the store that
was supposed to be the biggest
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showroom of
telescopes in North America.
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I was on that showroom
floor and there were so many
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telescopes to look at and I
finally asked the gentleman,
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I said knowing my price
range, and I narrowed it down
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to about three, I said
which is the best telescope
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for me would you say?
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He said there is only one
answer, the best telescope is
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the one that gets used.
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So he said, which one
are you going to use the most
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because that is
the best one for you?
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I think the best theology
is the one that gets used.
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So when we look at this,
the hope of Christ coming back
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it ought to impact
how we live our lives.
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And yes, we can grieve,
we can be sad for the loss of
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someone, but it
is not without hope.
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There is that grief of
loss, we should be sad that we
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lost someone very close to us,
but yet underneath that grief
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there is hope, we are
going to see them again.
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We are going to
be with them again.
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Just like I mentioned in a
previous episode telling my dad,
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I will meet you by the tree.
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There is that hope that
we are going to see each
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other again, so it is
okay to have joy and loss
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at the same time.
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You know there are some
natural stages also to death
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and dying that
we can be aware of.
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Just real simply,
the first one is denial,
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no this is not happening.
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We don't accept
it, we have shock.
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And then, and then we become
angry at the situation and
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maybe even angry at God in that.
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Then we move from anger to
a bargaining stage, okay God
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maybe if You do this, I'll do
this and we can work this out.
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We try to make bargains
with God and then maybe we slip
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into some depression as
well about the situation.
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And finally,
finally there is acceptance.
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But I think the passage
we are looking at today, Paul
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gives us that hope to
remind us that remember, this is
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not the end of the
story, there is more to it.
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Well I remember when my
mom died, and that was a very
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traumatic moment in many ways.
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But she donated her body
to science so we didn't have a
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memorial until a month later
when everybody could come in.
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It was amazing, it
was almost like a roast.
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I mean we were telling
funny stories and stuff that she
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had said, some of the
little quirks and so forth.
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For two hours we
were celebrating somebody
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who have brought us so much joy.
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I thought wow, that is
different than a lot of funerals
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and it is all because of
this passage that we can grieve
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but grieve in a way
that there is joy, there is
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celebration, it
is simply different.
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Funerals are different when
you grasp Paul's message here.
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Verse 14 is where he
brings in the solution.
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We want to really
catch this before the break.
00:11:50.51\00:11:53.51
1 Thessalonians 4:14:
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I put that in twice in
my translation because it is
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unclear what the
through Jesus is about.
00:12:12.59\00:12:15.16
Scholars have debated
back and forth, but the point
00:12:15.16\00:12:18.27
I want to make right
now, and we will come back to
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that after the break.
00:12:21.27\00:12:22.37
The point I want to
make right now is this.
00:12:22.37\00:12:24.54
Paul says our view of the
resurrection, our view of the
00:12:24.54\00:12:31.58
future hope is all
about Jesus. - Yeah!
00:12:31.58\00:12:34.68
It's all about the resurrection
of Jesus, if Jesus died
00:12:34.68\00:12:38.29
and rose again, then we
too, like Him, if we die,
00:12:38.29\00:12:44.06
we will rise again. - Amen!
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He was assuring the
Thessalonians they will see
00:12:46.39\00:12:49.96
these folks again, they will
come back and that God is going
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to bring them just the way Jesus
was brought out of the tomb,
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God will bring them out.
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And he makes the same
point in 1 Corinthians 15:22
00:13:02.14\00:13:06.18
We will look at the King
James version on this one.
00:13:06.18\00:13:10.19
So this is the promise
that the resurrection of Jesus
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guarantees the resurrection
of God's people, you see!
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It isn't a maybe,
it isn't boy I hope so.
00:13:28.57\00:13:31.84
The Christian hope is more
than hope, the Christian hope
00:13:31.84\00:13:34.91
is a certainty that what happen-
ed to Jesus will happen to those
00:13:34.91\00:13:38.78
who love Jesus. -
That is good news.
00:13:38.78\00:13:41.22
That was the difference in
my mom's funeral, and that is
00:13:41.22\00:13:45.19
the difference when
Christians are grieving because
00:13:45.19\00:13:48.89
they know what Jesus has
done, and what He will do.
00:13:48.89\00:13:52.56
That brings us to our break,
we thank you for watching.
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