1 Thessalonians 4:13-18--The Coming of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
English Standard Version
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The Coming of the Lord
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. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

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Many of the questions that the Thessalonians had for Paul centered around the big theological term "The Second Coming of Christ."  That phrase actually talks about two different events which are the next two topics that Paul addresses in his letter.  The first is what we call The Rapture of the Church where Jesus returns in the skies (not setting His feet on the ground) and the dead in Christ will be raised first to meet him in the air and in the "twinkling of an eye" those who are alive in Christ will be transformed to receive a body prepared for the New Heaven and the New Earth like Jesus's resurrected body.  They will be raised to live with Him forevermore.

Paul points to the certainty of this resurrection of the saints because of the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, because Jesus is the Firstfruits of a greater and better resurrection that is to come.    We can point to what God did for Jesus to say that's what God is going to do for those of us who are in Christ. 

There will be an announcement made to all the earth with the shout of an archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God.  Like the trumpets in the Old Testament, the trumpet sound could signal a holy convocation where all of God's people were to gather together at the Tabernacle/Temple or a call to battle/war.  I think this is somewhat both as all the saints will be gathered together in the heavenly Temple, but the LORD is going to start to pour out His wrath on the unbelievers who are left during the time that we call The Great Tribulation.  There is some question about if the Church will go through any of the Tribulation, but that is not covered in today's passage (though we may get a partial answer to that in tomorrow's passage, and I've already given my thoughts on this as we studied the book of Revelation recently).

Paul encourages the believers in Thessalonica to know that no matter what they are going through, God is faithful to keep His promise to them.  They can hang onto this hope to help them get through any hard times that they are going through.  He tells them to encourage each other with these words.

It is clear from additional teachings on this topic later that the people were concerned about some other questions we will address later:
1) Did we miss the Second Coming?
2) How soon will it happen?
3) Since it is happening "soon," should they still be engaged in day-to-day tasks like their jobs?
4) How should they live in light of this truth and expectation?
5) What is going to happen to their friends and family members who are not ready for the Rapture to come?

Some of these questions will be addressed in chapter 5, but others will have to wait until Paul writes them a second letter called 2 Thessalonians or they will have to share letters written to other churches to get the full teaching of Paul and the other apostles on these issues.  Though these letters were written to specific congregations with specific questions and issues, these letters were also open letters to all the churches and the Church as a whole.  We even see instructions for these letters to be shared with other churches sometimes.  Thankfully, all these letters have been preserved for us today in the Bible and we have them all in one place and can compare the epistles of the various apostles to the various churches and see how one Spirit game them one message that was not the message of man, but the message of God Himself.