And if you're kind of new to the Bible, 1 Thessalonians is kind of a difficult book to find. It can be. And probably the easiest way to find it if you are new to the Bible is to just go to the very end of the Bible and then just start heading left. And there's a section in the New Testament where there's a bunch of books that start with T. And 1 Thessalonians is the first of those. I kind of taught myself how to work my way through the Bible when I was young, and so figuring these little tricks out, I still think through those. 1 Thessalonians 4, and we're going to start reading in verse 13.
"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words."
Now we're going to work our way through this whole text this morning, but I think I need to share a couple presuppositions that I'm bringing into this text that I hope will be proven as we work our way through the text itself. And we probably would be served, I think, if we started at the bottom there just for a moment where Paul says, encourage one another with these words, because he's got an intention for these words. And if we understand that intention, we'll understand the text better.
And a couple presuppositions I'm bringing into this text. First is this: when Paul says "one another," he means a big group of people, not just a group of people that are experiencing loss. So the context of this text is folks have passed away and those that love them are concerned about their future in Christ, if they have a future in Christ. So there could be a sense in which you'd look at this and think that what Paul's saying, "Encourage one another with these words," he's just talking to a group of people in a very particularly difficult situation. Paul doesn't use the phrase "one another" that way. This is an instance in which Paul is commanding everyone here this morning who's a believer in Jesus Christ, he's talking to you. He's telling you to do something. And he's telling you to do something to everyone else. In this room. At our church, when we see the words "one another," we take it as an agenda for our time together. So whenever we see Paul or anyone else in Scripture use the phrase "one another," we say, okay, forgive one another. That's something we've got to do when we get together. Love one another. That's something we've got to do. Pray for one another. Care for one another. Honor one another. Encourage one another. This is something He's talking to you this morning saying, this is a job I'm giving you. I want you to encourage one another. And he's also giving you the tools. Encourage one another with what? With these words.
Now, that's the next kind of bridge we've got to cross here. What words? What words? If you're trying to encourage your spouse— maybe they're going through a hard week at work or something— you go up to your spouse, you're trying to encourage them. In that moment, Paul's called you to encourage your spouse with these words. Should you simply read this text to them? Is that what Paul is saying? Every word from v. 13-18, those are the words he wants you to use to encourage your spouse or your friend or your brother and sister in Christ. Is that what he's saying? I think he is at some level. But I think, as I said, I think we'll see this as we work our way through the text, I think specifically, Paul's saying the words that he wants us to use to encourage one another are the very words that precede that sentence: "So we will always be with the Lord." So we will always be with the Lord. I believe that is the nexus, the kernel of all biblical encouragement. The encouragement that Jesus will never leave you or forsake you is the heart of every kind of encouragement that you could issue to a brother or sister in Christ. It's the espresso in the latte and the cappuccino and every other drink. It's the key, it's the kick behind all other encouragements. You will always be with the Lord. Christ has promised ongoing care, ongoing assurance, preservation, perseverance for His people. And that is an essential doctrine, by the way, of the Reformation.
You know, you can think of the Reformation as, in some senses, enormous doctrinal reformation. Of course, it was that. But there was also an emotional reformation that was happening. That the Gospel brought an emotional reformation as well. And that emotional reformation was assurance, rest, encouragement, peace, gratitude, Sabbath. The Gospel brings those things, right? And that's the key part of our encouragement to one another this morning. You will always be with the Lord. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. God is committed to your good and to His glory, and both are accomplished through your union as a believer in Jesus Christ with Jesus. Your good and God's glory are accomplished through union with Jesus. That ever stops being the case, your good goes out the window and so does His glory. This is a union of necessity. This is God's intention. This message of God's eternal ongoing care for His saints is the heart of every bit of encouragement you'll ever need. Think about Christmas. It's coming up. What is the encouragement in the Incarnation? His name shall be Emmanuel. God with us.
6 · Oswald cites Jesus' promise of presence in corporate worship as another instance of the 'God with us' theme that runs through Scripture
What is encouraging this morning about this gathering? Principally this: that wherever two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst.
7 · Oswald cites Jesus' promise of eternal security in John 10 as His primary encouragement to disciples—a promise that persists even as they recognize their own weakness
What is Jesus' primary means of encouragement to His disciples even as they become increasingly aware of how stupid they are? I give them eternal life. They will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of My hand.
8 · Oswald identifies Jesus' joy—the joy set before Him in His passion—as the desire that believers would be with Him, a prayer recorded in John 17
What's the joy that Jesus had set before Him? The joy that He prayed the Father would extend to believers in Jesus as He prayed in John 17. Father, I desire that they also whom You've given Me may be with Me where I am.
9 · Oswald argues that courage is the root of encouragement, and that Jesus supplies courage for mission by promising His abiding presence in the Great Commission
You hear this over and over again. The key, the kick in every drink, the kick in every encouragement is this ongoing assurance: I'm with you. I'm with you. Right now, the Lord would assure you and encourage you this morning, He's with us right now. He's with us despite what our affections say. He's with us despite what our distractions say. He's with us right now, and that's what we find encouraging. That's what I find encouraging. Throughout all my life, I need courage. Courage is the root of encouragement. What's the thing that keeps me from sharing Jesus with people? Lack of courage. Now, I will sometimes see that lack of courage being increased by lack of training, other things. It all comes down to having the guts though, doesn't it? Where does the courage come from? Well, Jesus dispenses encouragement in His Great Commission. Listen to it. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Now, He's going to give us that kick of encouragement, that one thing that's going to get us moving, that's going to give us courage. And what is it? "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
10 · Oswald applies the promise 'we will always be with the Lord' to the practical struggle of knowing what to say when encouraging others, and to the battle against idolatry—arguing that God's abiding presence is both the content and the power of encouragement
So when Paul says here, "Encourage one another with these words," We understand, okay, God's calling me to be an encouragement to my brothers and sisters. That may or may not be a difficult thing for you. If you're introverted or extroverted, sometimes folks just don't know what to say. Sometimes you want to love someone and you don't even really know how to talk about it. You don't know what to say. Can you believe that God in His faithfulness has brought to you this morning words to say that will encourage a true brother or sister in Jesus every time. Words that cannot fail. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and left and just went, "I'm so stupid. I totally missed the chance to encourage that person or care for that person. I spent the whole time talking about myself." You ever leave a conversation thinking, "I wish I would have said this or that." What if after today the Lord has equipped you with something you know must always be said? And something you know that when you say it will actually consistently encourage your brothers and sisters. You have it. You will always be with the Lord. That's an amazing gift from God. You're struggling with fighting idols? Fighting things you love more than Jesus? Think money, for instance? Well, the Lord comes in and says, "Keep your life free from the love of money." Hebrews 13:5. And be content with what you have. Why? Why should I fight this idol, Lord, that I've really grown to love? Why should I fight the idol of sexual temptation? Why should I fight the idol of financial security? Why should I fight these things? The verse ends this way: For I will never leave you or forsake you.
11 · Oswald pauses the exposition to issue a direct pastoral charge: those struggling with assurance should seek help, because lack of assurance undermines the foundation of all encouragement
There's enormous power in this idea of assurance. And I just want to say for a moment from a pastoral heart, I was a youth pastor for a few years. If you're struggling with your assurance, I want you to take that seriously and I want you to seek out someone to care for you and help you. Don't diminish the negative effect lack of assurance can have on your life. Go find someone who's trustworthy and humble and will tell you the truth and get help. Don't go through prolonged seasons in which you are struggling with this alone. Because if encouragement is rooted in "I will never leave you or forsake you," and you are carrying this ongoing nagging doubt, then the whole root of encouragement is something being taken from you. So go get help. Go talk to someone. There are people here who love you and will care for you and have been there themselves. And they will be happy to sit down with you and think about this with you and not give you easy answers to hard questions, by the way. They'll actually love you through this process.
12 · Oswald signals a shift from the pastoral/applicatory theme of encouragement to the eschatological content of the passage, preparing the congregation for a second pass through the text
So this idea of comfort is enormous. It's huge. And that's really, I believe, the whole point of this text ultimately. Paul is driving us to see that this truth will always be true. So Jesus, to those whom He has called, will never leave or forsake them. This passage is also about something that we call eschatology. So it's about encouragement on one hand, but it's on eschatology on the other. Eschatology is a theological word. I kind of like it. I try to get rid of the ones that aren't helpful, but I think this one's kind of helpful. And it just refers to the end of the story. How does this all play out? What happens at the end? And this passage is most certainly about that as well. So I've implanted that sort of perspective on encouragement in your heads. Now let's look at this text again for the eschatological component.
13 · Second full reading of the primary text, now positioned after the pastoral framing to emphasize the eschatological content
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who fall asleep, who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
14 · Oswald uses a personal story about overcoming childhood bullying to illustrate the logic of testing God's promises against the hardest trials first—if the promise holds there, it will hold everywhere
Ultimately, this promise of Jesus to always be with you needs to be tested against some of the most difficult things you'll ever walk through in this life. If this promise doesn't work through addiction, depression, death, then it's not a true promise. When I was a little kid, we moved from school to school quite a bit, and often I was the subject of bullying. I hadn't quite grown into all of this girth at that point. I was tossed about to and fro a little bit as a kid moving from school to school. Eventually I learned that the best way to overcome that whole issue was to find the biggest, baddest bully on the playground and just go up and punch him. This is not a recommendation, not a pastoral recommendation, kids. I don't think that happens anymore, but the way that it kind of eventually got to how I finally found some relief was I just have the biggest fight first. And if I fared okay, even if I didn't win, if I fared okay in the biggest fight, then I'd be okay in all the subsequent fights. In fact, many of those lesser bullies would just leave me alone.
15 · Oswald transitions from illustration to theological claim, arguing that God's promise of presence must be tested against death—the ultimate helplessness—and that the Gospel demonstrates grace superabounding over sin
So what if we took God's promise to never leave you or forsake you and held it up against the most difficult thing to ever happen to you? And we saw Him being faithful. What if we found the time in which you were most helpless and put that up against His faithfulness? And we saw that His faithfulness swallows up your helplessness effortlessly. What if we saw that where your sin abounds, His grace abounds? Much more. That's what we see in this text.
16 · Oswald identifies spiritual death—the problem the Gospel solves—as worse than physical death, and positions the Gospel as the foundation for all encouragement in this passage
And friends, I actually don't believe that everything I talked about just now, the worst thing that's happening is your physical death. There is something worse. And it's the root of encouragement that we need to see this morning. It's the Gospel. This whole thing starts with Paul saying this: For since we believe, that Jesus died and rose again.
17 · Oswald argues that Paul's pastoral method in 1 Thessalonians 4 is to take the Thessalonians back to the Gospel rather than merely answering their questions about death—a model for all pastoral care
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again— these folks are facing a dramatic crisis in their life, and Paul, instead of just simply answering the questions they have about what happens when I die, what has happened to my mom as she has passed away, Paul actually goes a step further. The step necessary, by the way, for you in your life and me in my life, and that is back to the Gospel and reasoning out of the Gospel. Paul is sort of doing the pastoral equivalent here of teaching a man to fish. They have a crisis, and rather than simply give Pat answers to the crisis, he goes into real pastoral care and takes them back to the Gospel.
18 · Oswald defends the practice of taking people back to the Gospel in pastoral care, acknowledging that it can feel frustrating to those seeking immediate solutions, but insisting that the Gospel is the true fix
I don't know what your experience is like being pastored by Gospel-centered men here. I know you have Gospel-centered pastors here. I know that sometimes I detect in my people a bit of an eye roll when they come in because they have a struggle with depression or pornography and I bring them back to the Gospel and they're thinking, "Could you just please fix this problem?" That's what I'm trying to do. This is the power of God right here unto salvation. So we take them all the way back to the Gospel Because friends, all encouragement is rooted there.
19 · Oswald issues a direct pastoral charge to the congregation: true encouragement always takes people back to the cross, not to statistics, optimism, or worldly comfort
Please don't encourage me without the Gospel. If I get cancer tomorrow, please don't come and tell me my odds. I'm so weird, I probably will be the one guy to die of it if there's only one. I'm also neurotic enough to be confident that's going to happen. Let's hear ourselves when we encourage one another and understand that a lot of encouragement is actually just annoying. I'll tell you one kind of encouragement that's never annoying. You get me back to the cross. And you get me back there right away. And I may not appreciate you taking me to the cross. You just walk on. And then the next person come up to me and the next person take me to the cross. And then the next person take me to the cross. The next person take me to the cross. Let my church be full of people who when they see my crisis take me to the cross. That's what I need and that's what Paul's doing here. He's driving these people back off the edge of them staring at a very big problem and taking them to the ultimate problem that God has solved. Our sinfulness. He's taking them to the cross.
20 · Oswald uses a personal anecdote about babies and heartbeat devices to set up an analogy for the Gospel's role in comforting believers
I love babies and for the most part, babies love me. I am fascinated by babies. The whole idea of a baby is amazing to me. And there was a long time when I was pastoring, we'd have babies born left and right and I'd get to go to the hospital and see them. It was just an amazing time. And usually, babies are kind of like me. I'm kind of built as a mobility baby PlayStation kind of thing. I'm kind of designed— God made me to make babies happy. It's just part of my calling. I would lose weight, but the babies would have nowhere to sit. They sit on my belly and they play with my beard. I'll tell you, most babies just love me. And I think babies are just amazing. One of the things I found— One of the things I learned as I was doing all these hospital visits years ago, seeing all these babies born, in premature babies sometimes they'll put some sort of a heartbeat device into the crib as a way to soothe the baby. Some sort of a rhythmic repeating boom boom boom boom boom boom.
21 · Oswald completes the analogy: the Gospel is the heartbeat of God, a rhythmic assurance of love that must be placed beside every crisis, no matter how unique the suffering
The Gospel is the heartbeat of God. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. And you may think you have the most spectacular and unusual set of circumstances anyone's ever heard of, and I'm still going to put the heartbeat of God next to your ear. Because that's what you need. You will always be with the Lord. He loves you.
22 · Oswald charges the congregation to make a habit of pulling every crisis back to the Gospel in real time, anchoring hope in 'since we believe that Jesus died and rose again
So we've got to get better at pulling our crisis back to the cross. We've got to get better in real time at saying, you know what? You know what? Since I believe that Jesus died and rose again, and then out of that of finding the hope we need to endure whatever we're going through. That's the key. Going back time and time again to: "Since I believe that Jesus died and rose again..." You've got to go back to the Gospel as your source of encouragement and as your source of encouraging.
23 · Oswald uses an analogy about dim headlights going unnoticed in the city but becoming obvious in the country to illustrate that many Christians don't realize how weak their Gospel is until they face severe darkness
Have you ever forgot to turn your headlights on? And driven for a while not realizing you had your headlights on? Now, I grew up in Jeff City, Missouri, which is kind of city, kind of not. Sometimes I go out fishing out on the dirt roads, gravel roads outside my hometown now. And I'll tell you something, forgetting to turn your headlights on is a city problem. When you're out in the middle of the country, you don't forget to turn your headlights on. You know why? Because when you're in the city, there's a lot of borrowed light. A lot of light from other sources. And you maybe don't even necessarily know how dim your lights are. And then you get into an especially dark patch of road. And then you know, don't you? I have an old 1991 Jeep Cherokee I take fishing, and the headlights are just about out on that thing. It's not something I notice when I'm in the city, but when I turn down this one road where there are no more lights, I can barely see the road anymore.
24 · Oswald argues that not all formulations of the Gospel are equally robust—the test of a true Gospel is whether it can sustain believers through the darkest trials
Friends, I bring that up because it is not enough to simply say, go to the Gospel when you're hurting, I have to also ask you this question: How bright is your Gospel? How powerful is your Gospel? Is your Gospel thick enough, rich enough, potent enough to provide ongoing assurance in all situations? That's the real question at hand here. Paul brings them back to this truth: Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, And he brings them back there because in that sentence is the power of God, the assurance of God. All the power you'll need for life and godliness is in that sentence. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again. But you've got to understand what that really means.
25 · Oswald introduces a quotation from J
In his 1956 introduction to John Owen's "The Death of Death," Packer wrote this:
26 · Oswald cites Packer to argue that a diminished Gospel—one lacking the Reformation doctrines of human inability, divine election, and particular atonement—cannot sustain believers in severe trials, and that the kind of Gospel Paul preaches in 1 Thessalonians 4 is the robust Reformation Gospel
Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered that Gospel (the real Gospel) for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing, hence our troubles. For the substitute product does not answer the ends for which the authentic Gospel has in past days proved itself so mighty. He goes on to say, accordingly, the themes of man's natural inability to believe, of God's free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ specifically dying for His sheep are not preached. What Packer is saying there is that the Gospel, the Gospel of the Reformation, is the Gospel bright enough to encounter and encourage anyone in a dark, dark, dark situation. And so when Paul's bringing them back to the Gospel. We know as we read the Scriptures, that's the Gospel he's bringing them back to. And it makes all the difference. It really does make all the difference. The Gospel—the kind of Gospel you have—makes all the difference.
27 · Oswald unpacks the first element of 'Jesus died and rose again'—substitutionary atonement, in which Jesus bore the believer's sin and its consequence to the grave
Let's just break this sentence down for a minute and think about it. "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again..." There's 3 things happening here at least. The first is this: Jesus died for me. He didn't do that merely as some sort of demonstration of nostalgic affection for me. He died for me as an act of atonement. Jesus took my sin on Himself and He carried my condemnation for my sin against a holy God to the grave. Jesus died for me.
28 · Oswald unpacks the second element of 'Jesus died and rose again'—the resurrection as evidence that sin has been fully atoned for, because if any sin remained on Jesus, He could not have risen
Jesus also rose again, which means my sin that Jesus died carrying was fully atoned for. The consequence of sin is death. Right? What killed Jesus? My sin. My sin. He knew no sin. He became my sin. What put Him in the grave? My sin. My sin. He bore the consequence of my sin—death. But then He rose again. And one of the glorious things that tells us this morning is this: my sin is no more. If even one of my sins had remained on Jesus, He would have stayed in that grave forever. My sin has been atoned for as evidenced by the resurrection. I am justified because Jesus stood up, walked out of the tomb. My sin is completely atoned for. The cross tells me that the Father had a loving plan to care for me while I was still an enemy. The resurrection tells me that plan worked.
29 · Oswald identifies a third element in 'since we believe that Jesus died and rose again'—the miracle that the believer believes at all, having been raised from spiritual death and given new desires for God
But there's a third glorious thing that I have to draw your attention to this morning. This is the thing that's shocked me about God, affected me the most over the last few months. Back at that sentence, "since we believe that Jesus died and rose again." Three beautiful things I'm seeing: Jesus died for me. Jesus rose from the grave. My sin is atoned for. But here's the third miracle I see in that little verse there. I believe it. If I need to be encouraged at any moment in my life, even when I'm staring death in the face, let me go back to this truth. There was a day in which I was incapable of believing this. And there was a day in which I was not interested in being encouraged, by God's presence. I didn't want to be around God. I was trying to get away from Him. You come and tell me Jesus is always with you. I'm like, would you tell Him to stop? Would you tell Him to leave me alone? And now you tell that to me and I'm encouraged? Friends, a great evidence of God's ongoing assuring care for me throughout my whole life is this: I was already in a grave. I was already dead. Dead to Him in every way.
30 · Oswald contrasts a synergistic 'rope-throwing' gospel (in which the sinner cooperates with grace) with the monergistic Reformation Gospel (in which God raises the spiritually dead), and explains his church's partnership with Sovereign Grace as rooted in doctrinal alignment
Friends, there's another gospel going around and that gospel says something like this: I was drowning in the sea of my own sins. Jesus rowed out in the incarnational rowboat threw me a line, I grabbed onto the line, He pulled me into the boat, rowed me back to shore, and together we've been walking ever since singing Gaither hymns or something. Friends, that's another gospel. Here's the Gospel. Dead bloated corpse laying face down in a cistern I had dug in my own willful defiance against God. And Jesus came to me in my death and raised me from spiritual death to live with Him and for Him forever. That's the Gospel. You know why we've stalked Sovereign Grace for however many years we've stalked them? Because we want to lock arms with a group of men and women who are walking forward into the world on mission together proclaiming that Gospel.
31 · Oswald argues that the monergistic Gospel is pastorally superior to the synergistic gospel because it sustains believers in severe helplessness—depression, miscarriage, deathbed—when they cannot 'grab the rope
Why? Is this a matter of doctrinal pettiness? No. Here's the problem. You've got someone one day, a friend, maybe yourself, who is absolutely, totally depressed. They can't get out of bed. The rope-throwing gospel does that person no good. A person who's gone through 3 or 4 miscarriages in a row, the rope-throwing gospel does nothing for that person. They're wondering, will this ever change? Am I being punished? Have I done something wrong? And a rope thrown to them matters nothing. They will not be able to grab hold of that rope. You know what else? They'll look at that rope and they'll feel ashamed because they can't grab a hold of that rope. What about this? Jesus came for me while I was still an enemy. While I was dead in my sins and transgressions and far off from Him, He came and preached peace to me. He picked me up in my spiritual death, in my defiance against Him, breathed eternal life into me, and gave me a spirit which desires His presence forever. Friends, that's deathbed hope. That's utter depression hope. That's complete loneliness hope. That's rebellious child hope. That's encouragement.
32 · Oswald applies the logic of monergistic grace to physical decay: if God loved us when we were spiritually dead and disgusting, our future physical decay cannot diminish His love
There's going to be a day when I'm even less to look at than I am now. I'm going to be sick, diseased, panting for breath. I'm going to smell bad. I'm going to be nothing to behold. And I will be able to know that in the past I was far more disgusting, far more helpless, far more confused, far more ignorant, and that didn't stop my Savior from loving me. And if He loved me Then? Then He will keep loving me.
33 · Oswald signals a rhetorical shift and acknowledges time constraints, marking the transition from Gospel exposition to eschatological application
Well, I need to speed up. But that's the most important part anyway. This is all bonus stuff after that.
34 · Oswald explains the phrase 'even so' as a pattern-following construction—believers will walk the same path as Jesus through death and out of the grave
Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so. Even so. What does the phrase "even so" mean? The phrase "even so" is actually kind of interesting. It's a combination of two pretty common Greek words. Nothing special there, but when Paul uses them, he is sort of turning us to think about us following a pattern. "In like manner" or "in the same way" is another way that Paul would talk about this. It's there in Romans 5 quite a bit when Paul is saying we're like Adam in this way or like Jesus in this way. So Paul says here that since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring those with Him who have fallen asleep. What he's saying is that we're going to walk the same walk that Jesus did into a temporary death. We're going to walk the same walk as Jesus did out of the grave.
35 · Oswald cites 1 Corinthians 15's firstfruits language as a clearer picture of the same pattern—Jesus' resurrection is the first of many, and believers will follow
1 Corinthians 15 uses other language to describe this and it's probably a little bit more clear. He talks about Jesus being the firstfruits from the dead. And friends, that's just a beautiful picture to me. And every Easter I tell my people, when you see the empty tomb of Jesus, remember among many things, remember this. Think this: one day, I'm going to do that too. The firstfruits from the dead.
36 · Oswald retells the story of the 12 spies and the firstfruits they brought back from the Promised Land to illustrate what 'firstfruits' means—a taste of the promised blessing to come
You know, there was a story where Moses has got all the people lined up. They're thinking about moving into the Promised Land, hoping that that's ready for them, that they're able to do that. And they send the 12 spies into the Promised Land. And Moses says, while you're there, scout out the land, etc., but also see if there's any fruit in the land. And the Bible says that indeed there was fruit in the land, and it was big fruit. If you read the story, it's just enormous, beautiful, sweet, juicy fruit. And they bring this fruit back in. It was the season, they said, of the first fruits. They bring this fruit in. That's the first fruit the people of Israel ever tasted of this Promised Land.
37 · Oswald completes the firstfruits analogy: Jesus is the firstfruits of the new creation, and believers will be like Him—resurrected with glorified bodies
Jesus is the first fruits of a promised land that will bless His people forever. And that fruit is good. That fruit is glorious. I can look to my Savior Jesus and His life outside of the grave and realize that His plan to atone for my sin worked. But I can also look to Him and see that one day I will be like Him. As Philippians 3 says, my lowly body will be transformed to be like His glorious body. That's an amazing thing. That's a glorious thing. One day I'm going to be like Jesus.
38 · Oswald identifies the second tier of encouragement: progressive conformity to Christ, which is the 'good' that all things work together to accomplish
And friends, that's the second hope that you can work into your encouragements. You will always be with Jesus. And subsequent to that, subordinate to that, you will become more like Jesus. That's another encouragement we have in the Gospel. That all things work together for our good. What's our good? Ongoing conformity to Jesus Christ.
39 · Oswald explains the Roman imperial procession as the cultural background for 1 Thessalonians 4:17's image of being 'caught up to meet the Lord in the air'—a picture of believers reigning with Christ
So not only are we going to be with Jesus, not only are we going to be like Jesus, we're going to reign with Jesus. The Romans' government authority structure, the hierarchy was top-down. And so you had the emperors, then you had the people below that, the governors and so on and so forth. When these guys would go into a city, they would stand outside the city a bit and have all of the city officials come out of that city and meet them there. And then they would march in together into the city in victory and in unity. That's a glorious picture of what this text is telling us will happen for those who are in Christ. Jesus is coming to reign over all things. And He is going to catch up His believers and allow His believers, His people, to reign with Him in all things.
40 · Oswald frames the believer's entire life between two cries of Jesus: 'It is finished' at the cross (inaugurating the Christian life) and 'It is begun' at the return (consummating the Christian life)
Look at verse 16 real quick. I just want to focus on this phrase: "the cry of command." Jesus will descend with a cry of command. You know, my whole hope is based on Jesus crying things out. My whole life happens between two cries of Jesus. On the cross, through cracked lips, scratchy throat, blood in his mouth, pulling up oxygen to pass it through his vocal cords. His last words, he cried out with a loud voice, "It is finished." And my life began. Atonement was made. I was no longer an enemy. I was freed both from the legal guilt of my sins and also from the power of my sins in this life. My life began with "It is finished." And now this text is telling me Jesus is going to descend, and this time not with cracked lips, with blood in His mouth, this time with lungs full, glorified lungs full of air, cry out in a loud voice something to the effect of, "And now it's begun." It is finished. It has begun. My whole life is nestled, cared for, protected in between these two enormous edifices of assurance: "It is finished." "It is begun."
41 · Oswald traces Trinitarian action in the passage: Father sending the Son, Son dying and rising, and Spirit working through believers as they encourage one another
We see the whole Godhead working in this text. We see the Father sending the Son. We see the Son dying and coming back. Where do we see the Spirit? The very last sentence in the text: "Therefore encourage one another with these words." The word for encouragement there is really the same word that Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit elsewhere. Parakaleo. Paraclete. Where do we see the Spirit in this text? We see the Spirit in you walking through your brothers and sisters encouraging them with these words. That's where we see the Spirit. We see the Spirit at work in the body calling one another forward.
42 · Oswald identifies three 'calls' in the Christian life: the Father's effectual call, the Son's cry at His return, and the bride's ongoing call to one another—'He's got you
There's actually 3 calls. The 2 are the big ones. The 3rd is the call of the bride. Over and over and over again to one another saying, "He's got you." He's got you. Jesus died and rose again. You believe that. He's got you.
43 · Oswald summarizes the three tiers of encouragement: Christ's ongoing presence, progressive conformity to Christ, and corporate fellowship—the 'we' of the body of Christ
I said that there's a kernel of Christian, the root of all Christian encouragement is, "I will never leave you or forsake you." I said there's a second level, and that is that I will be more like Jesus progressively over time through His sanctifying work. But there's a third promise. Not "I will always be with the Lord." "We will always be with the Lord." There's 3 elements of Christian encouragement I want you to remember this morning. First and foremost, most importantly, take them to the cross and show them He's got you and He always will. Take them to the future and say, "One day you'll reign with Him. You'll be like Him." But there's a third essential ingredient, and that's you. You. A root of Christian encouragement is this idea of "we." The fellowship together, arm in arm.
44 · Oswald gives concrete instruction for how to encourage someone: be physically present, take them to the Gospel, and show them the eschatological hope
You want to encourage someone this week? You know someone that needs encouragement? Do those three things. Go to them. Be with them, right? Talk to them about the Gospel. And show them how it all plays out in the end. And I think you'll probably walk out of there having encouraged that brother or sister in Jesus.
45 · Closing prayer in which Oswald intercedes for the helpless and downcast, prays for a culture of encouragement in the church, and calls on the Spirit to bring the spiritually dead to newness of life
Let's pray. I am mindful this morning, Lord, of the helpless, the downcast, the poor in spirit who are just unsure of what to do next, where this is all headed. I pray that through Your Spirit this morning, You would help them to see the glory of the Gospel. He died and rose again. He died because our sins were upon Him. He rose again because they were atoned for. And that You would also help them to see, Lord, that they are absolutely smothered in rock-solid preservation through the Gospel. I pray also, God, that You would stir up in this church, as I pray for my own church, a sense in which there's an ongoing personal responsibility, personal accountability. We get up, we look in the mirror, and say, "I have a responsibility to encourage my brothers and sisters in Jesus. This is something I'm called to do. I know how to do it now." That you would cultivate an even greater level, a greater community of encouragement, culture of encouragement at this church. Father, I thank you so much for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And more important than everything I've said is if there's anybody in this room today cannot taste the glory of these promises. Lord, I pray that you'd help them to see that they can, Lord. They can. The Holy Spirit's here today to do what he's done to so many in this room, to pick them up out of death, to bring them into newness of life. We pray these things in the name of our confident conquering, preserving Savior and King, Jesus Christ. Amen.