Grace and peace to you through our Lord Jesus Christ who will come down from heaven to raise the dead to himself to meet him in the air. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. ¹⁴ We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Almighty God and Savior, you have set the final day and hour when we shall be delivered from this world of sin and death. Keep us ever watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, Amen.

What do you say to the family of the deceased at a funeral? What encouragement can you give at the gravesite?

Imagine that you are at the funeral home or a memorial service for someone you know did not believe in God as Father and Jesus as Savior. What do you tell their loved ones? What comfort can you give them? You can send them a card and a nice flower arrangement, but about the only thing you can say is "I’m sorry." There isn’t any real comfort you can give at the death of a confessed unbeliever.

How drastically different is your response when you know the deceased confessed saving faith in Jesus as Lord. Then you can truly give resurrection comfort by saying things like: "She’s in a better place." "He’s gone to be with the Lord." "Death is but a sleep from which Christ will wake your loved one." "Christ rose from the dead and promises that your loved one will rise again, too." "You will be reunited with your fellow believer when Christ returns. You’ll see her again."

On this Saints Triumphant Sunday, the apostle Paul gives us comfort for God’s saints. This comfort can be summed up in three words – rest, resurrection, and reunion.

Paul knows that the Thessalonians, like all people, are naturally afraid of death. We weren’t created to die, but to live. And yet, because of our inborn sin and our daily sins, we will all die. It is our punishment. Death isn’t natural for us. And that is why it is so scary.

Paul tells us that Christians don’t need to be afraid of death. "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." Paul doesn’t want us to grieve like the rest of the unbelieving world. When unbelievers stand at the gravesite, they are comfortless and their mourning borders on despair. They have no hope. The only thing they can cling to is fond memories of the deceased or the grand funeral with the expensive casket with the beautiful flowers. They can only hold on to their memories of the deceased as being a decent, loving person or being a good drinking buddy. Where is the comfort in that?

But as Christians we do have hope. Even amid the darkness of our sorrow a ray of light from a better world cheers us. The Christian mourns with hope for the dead.

That hope comes from Paul who describes the departed believers as "dead in Christ" and those who "sleep." This picture of sleep is no euphemism. Paul isn’t trying to make something unpleasant seem a little better by referring to it with rosy terms. No, he is describing what death is really like for one who is "dead in Christ."

We aren’t afraid to put our head down on a pillow at night and go to sleep. We know that we’ll wake up again to a new day. That’s how death is. We don’t need to be afraid of putting our head down on the pillow of death and falling asleep. Jesus will wake us up to a glorious new day.

A little boy once asked his mother some questions about dying. He asked, "Mommy, what is it like to die? Does it hurt?" Mom replied, "Remember when you were little, you liked to crawl into your big brother’s bed? And around midnight big loving hands would carry you into your own bed. You would wake up in your own room. That’s what death is like. It is waking up in your own room."

Notice that Paul describes the believer’s death as "sleep" but he says, "Jesus died." Why the difference? Jesus’ death is described as "death" because he suffered all the horrors of hell as he died. The Christian’s death is described as "sleep" because we don’t have to suffer any of those punishments. Jesus took care of them for us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55) Christ has taken away the sting of death and has disarmed it. The bee robbed of its sting can’t hurt anymore; the serpent robbed of its fang can’t bite anyone. While the believer may have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it can’t harm him. Christ has overcome death for his people and turned it into sleep. Comfort for God’s saints comes from rest.

Comfort for God’s saints also comes from the resurrection. The world laughs at the idea of a resurrection from the dead. They say, "This life is it, so you’d better enjoy it. When you die, it’s all over. Death is the end. And if it isn’t, we don’t know what’s going to happen." They appeal to their human reason and ask how a body that is dead and decayed can be made whole and come back to life again. They may even appeal to the Bible where it says: "For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:19) But they forget that the Almighty Creator, who once formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, is still the Almighty Creator who can give life to dust once again.

Paul gives us this resurrection comfort, "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."

Paul places our faith in the resurrection upon the immovable rock – upon the resurrection of Christ. Just as certainly as Jesus arose from the grave, so also will the dead come forth from their graves. Yes, Jesus died, but he also rose again from the dead by his own power. Even Jesus’ enemies admitted that his grave was empty. Jesus tells us about himself: "I am the resurrection and the life." If Jesus has power over life and death, then death couldn’t hold him. If he is Almighty Son of God then his promise is real: "I live and you also will live." If Jesus is the giver of life then all the dead will rise.

Christ will be coming down from the heavens. This will be the reverse of what the disciples saw at Jesus’ ascension when they saw him go up into the sky. Jesus coming won’t be humble like before with swaddling clothes and a manger. He will return as a conquering king. Jesus, who is presently sitting at the right hand of God, will descend to earth with the voice of the archangel and the blast of trumpets. It will be the shout of victory and the trumpets of triumph. The last enemy to be conquered, which is death, will release its grasp from the dead and they will arise. The sleeping army will gather for its final review before the throne of God.

Just before Sharon Peterson died, she asked me what happens at death. I told her that the last breath you take on earth means the next step you take will be in heaven. There is comfort in the resurrection.

The Bible also tells us that there will be a great family reunion in the heavens. "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." Sadly, in this world of ours, we can count on our families being broken up. Children will grow up and move away. Relatives will argue and not speak with each other. Divorce tears apart husbands and wives, children and their parents. Death will claim family members as its prey. The family circle will be broken. We can fight against it all we want, but sin is here to stay. So is death.

The comfort we have is knowing that "we will be with the Lord forever." Death and its painful separation will be unknown and the reunion of our families will be eternal. We will first meet the Lord and then we will meet our departed brothers and sisters in Christ. If our loved ones believed in Jesus and died in Christ, then we will be with them once again in heaven. We will be with our aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren. We will all be reunited as members of God’s family for all eternity.

We are to encourage each other as God’s saints with these words of resurrection comfort. This week I received a phone call from Luke Hendricks. Luke was in my first confirmation class at Faith. He is studying to become a pastor at our ELS seminary at Bethany. Luke is also going to Iraq for a year as a soldier in the Army Reserves. Luke asked that if he died in Iraq, if I would conduct his funeral. That means a lot to me. That’s pretty special. He also told me that it would be between me and the Seminary president. That is a high honor. And it is encouraging. It is encouraging to see a young Christian man, willing to fight for freedom, who isn’t afraid to die, because he knows the comfort reserved for God’s saints: rest, resurrection, and reunion.

Let me finish with a fantastic story about one lady’s hope and resurrection comfort. Betty was diagnosed with cancer and had been given three months to live. Her doctor advised her to start making preparations. She contacted her pastor and asked him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the funeral service, what scriptures she would like read, and what she wanted to be wearing. Betty also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite Bible. Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.

"There's one more thing," she said excitedly. "What's that?" came the pastor's reply. "This is very important." Betty continued. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand." The pastor stood looking at Betty not knowing quite what to say. "That shocks you, doesn't it?" she asked. "Well to be honest, I'm puzzled by the request," said the pastor.

Betty explained, "In all my years of attending church socials and functions where food was involved---and let's be honest, food is an important part of any church event, spiritual or otherwise---my favorite part was when whoever was clearing away the dishes of the main course would lean over and say 'you can keep your fork.' It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming. When they told me to keep my fork I knew that something great was about to be given to me. It wasn't Jell-O or pudding. It was cake or pie. Something with substance. So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder 'What's with the fork?' Then I want you to tell them, 'Something better is coming so keep your fork too.'" The pastor's eyes were welled up with tears of joy as he hugged Betty goodbye. He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death. But he also knew that that she had a better grasp of heaven than he did.

So the next time you reach for your fork, let it always remind you oh-so-gently that there is something better coming. Rest, resurrection and reunion. Amen.