Key scripture – “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

As a Christian do you know the greatest hope that you have? It is the absolute certainty that Jesus Christ is coming back!

Only God knows when He is coming back, but the date and time of His return is set, and Jesus Christ is coming again! I believe someday very soon we will see Him coming back just like it is described in the Key scripture.

So I want to encourage you today with the absolute truth from the Word of God that Jesus Christ is coming again!

If you are thinking, “If the fact that Jesus Christ is coming again is the greatest hope that Christians have, why are so many Christians sad, sullen, filled with fear and dread as they think about the future?” Because they don’t have at their core a full faith grasp of this reality, that Jesus Christ is coming again! The hope that I am talking about is not magic. It is not a motivational speech or a preacher pep-talk. The hope that we have is actual bed rock reality, because it is anchored to God’s Word, which is our solid immovable bed rock. That is why we have hope, which is the confident expectation that something fabulous is going to happen for sure in the future.

God, the Creator of the universe, has declared a certain future for every follower of Jesus Christ. You have to understand that, and that’s why Paul says “we do not want you to be uninformed brothers,” but there are a lot of people, including Christians, who do not understand that Jesus Christ is coming again. Skeptics like to say, “Christians have been saying for over 2000 years that Jesus is coming back and it has not happened,” but that does not mean it is not going to happen because the Prophets in the Old Testament were saying for over 4000 years the Messiah was coming before it actually happened.

In the Key scripture today, Verse 14 tells you how to maintain your hope. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” Believing that Jesus Christ is coming again is the greatest hope of every Christian, and you need to understand it and believe it because it is not yours until your faith is exercised toward it. It is what is inside of you that counts and that is where faith resides, but if there is no faith in your heart embracing the hope that Jesus is coming again then you won’t live like God, our Father, wants you to live which is with the confident expectation that better things are ahead.

The reason why we can say better things are ahead is because we know how it ends, Jesus Christ is coming back! He is going to put everything as it should be, every wrong will be righted and there will be nothing but justice and righteousness. Everything that your heart is longing to know will be answered, and we will rejoice and reign with Him through all of eternity. That right there is a rock that will never move. That is a rock that you can stand firm on. That is the centerpiece of hope.

Verse 15 says, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” In this Verse it says something that you don’t see very often in the Bible where it says, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord”. That is essentially scripture declaring itself to be scripture. The Word is telling you that this Word is the Word from God. This must be really important, because God is saying to us, “For this I am declaring to you who are alive until the coming of the Lord…”
Paul is also telling us that when the rapture takes place, all of the Christians will be a part of it, the ones that are alive and the ones who have already died. Picture this, the Christians who have already died are going to be in the Jesus parade and we are going to join them as we all get caught up together with the Lord in the air. You will see all your relatives and friends that went before you. How awesome will that be!

You may be thinking how do I get that type of confidence? You get confidence by experience. A baby Christian does not have the same kind of confidence an experienced Christian has, because it is over time that you get confidence in the Word of God as you see His promises come true over and over and over again every single time. The longer you walk with God, His promises become so so precious to you because you know that they are absolutely positively true. They become exceedingly great and precious to you because you know that you can put your full weight on His promises and you will never ever ever be disappointed with God’s faithfulness to do what He says He is going to do. Sometimes you may wish that He did it sooner, but afterwards you see that His timing was just perfect. Sometimes you may wish He would do it differently, but afterwards you find out that His ways are always best.

God knows each and every promise He has made. Jeremiah 1:12 says that God watches over His Word to perform it. So when He said His son, Jesus, is coming again, don’t you believe that He is going to make sure that will come true? Whether you see it or not, whether you feel it or not, does not matter because God watches over His Word and He will make sure all of it comes to pass.

The Bible says that we should be looking for the coming of Christ, but if you do not know what the coming of Christ looks like how can you be looking expectantly. Verses 16-19, tells us what the coming of Jesus Christ looks like.

1. The Lord himself is coming. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven.”Jesus is not delegating this job to anyone. When God says, “Hey Jesus, head down there and gather up my kids.” Jesus will not tell the elders to do it, He will not tell the angels to do it, He will not tell the saints to do it, instead He will get off of His Heavenly throne and He will personally come back. So we all should be looking for Jesus Christ.

2. We meet the Lord in the clouds. Verse 17 says, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” We will meet the Lord in the clouds, and everyone not just us but everyone will see Him. Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, 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. Even so. Amen.” Someday, and I believe soon, the clouds are going to part and all of us will see Jesus coming back.

3. This is all going to happen suddenly, “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.” What will be shouted? I do not know what our Savior and Lord is going to say but it is going to be a SHOUT, not a whisper, with the voice of the archangel, which is not going to be like anything we have ever heard before.

4. At the sound of “the trumpet of God”. It will only be a trumpet, no other Instruments will accompany it. A trumpet is always the instrument chosen to sound the alarm, to rally the troops or when a king is entering a room. When this trumpet blows, it is not going to be a message of retreat because this is announcing that Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords has come back for His children.

5. We will be caught up together with the Christians who have already fallen asleep. What a wonderful reunion with our loved ones who have already gone to sleep as we are all reunited with the Lord in the air.
Please notice that even though everyone sees Jesus when He comes back it is only the dead in Christ and those who are alive in Christ that will be meeting Him.

6. We will be with the Lord forever and ever. It will be so wonderful in Heaven that we will sound silly if we say to another saint, “Have a good day.” They would look at us and say, “Are you new around here?” It is hard to imagine how glorious it will be to spend every day with Jesus. We will never ever get over the excitement and joy of being in Heaven living with Jesus. Think about it, when you are in Heaven, Jesus will be living in your neighborhood forever and ever.

Therefore, Versus 18 tells us to “comfort one another with these words”. That means to come along side somebody and lovingly say, “How are you doing? How can I help you?” This is the picture of someone who comes and tenderly says, “Come on let’s work on this together. I am here to help you.” That’s what comfort and encouragement is and that is what we as Christians need to do for each other. We also need to encourage each other with the Word, “Maranatha”. This is a word that we all need to add to our vocabulary, because it means “Come Lord.” (1 Corinthians 16:22).

So here it is, this is your hope, Jesus Christ is coming again, the skies are going to break open, and Jesus is going to return, and when He does; every question is going to be answered, every wrong is going to be righted, and we are going to reign with Him for all of eternity. You’re hope is there, right there. You are not in control, you’re not going to dictate what happens, because He is in control. All that you need to have hope in is the fact that, Jesus Christ is in control, He is Lord, and He is coming back. That is where hope is found. The people that don’t follow Jesus just see a hopeless end, but the followers of Jesus see an end with hope.

There is no gray area here, there is no riding the fence, because you are either a child of God or you are not. If you have not placed your hope and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you need to do it today, because this might be the day that the Lord returns and when you miss the opportunity, it is gone forever.

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, I have so much hope, joy, and excitement, that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is coming back to get all of His children. All my hope and trust is in You and Jesus, the living Word. I know like I am sitting here breathing that Jesus Christ is coming back. I lay all of my plans down and I take all of my eggs and put them in the Biblical hope basket. I put all my weight, my life, and my eternity, on the truth and the reality of God’s Word and His promises. Because I have turned from my sins and embraced Jesus Christ by faith, I know that my future is in Heaven. This is my hope. This is my reality. Jesus is coming back! WooHooo! Maranatha! In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.