OK, you're dead, now what? (part 2)

OK, you’re dead, now what?  (part 2)

“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” (I Thessalonians 4:13-18, ESV).

            We continue our series on death and life after death, and let me begin by reminding us of what we saw in the last article:

            First, when we die, our bodies return to the earth.

            Second, when we die, our souls/spirits are immediately in the presence of Jesus (for believers) or in a place of torment (for unbelievers).

Third, when we die, our souls/spirits are conscious and experience pleasure or pain.

Fourth, when we die, nothing we do can change our location from the place of torment to the place of pleasure or vice versa.

We continue by looking at a passage that is usually popularly misinterpreted these days, but, if you are not aware of the misinterpretation, I will not go into it, so there won’t be any added confusion.

What do we see?

First, our bodies remain in the earth and our souls/spirits remain with Jesus in the place of pleasure (or, if you are an unbeliever at death, in the place of torment) until Jesus returns.

This is based on what we concluded regarding the texts we looked at last time.

Now, the Thessalonians were concerned about what happens to those who die before Jesus’ Second Coming – would they miss out on it?, so Paul seeks to reassure them with the passage above.  So, what does it say?

Second, when Jesus returns, the dead believers will meet Him in the sky and then the living believers will meet Him in the sky.

And we have two questions, I would think:  “Didn’t you already say that when we die we are immediately and eternally with Jesus?  Why would the dead have to go up to meet Jesus in the sky?”

Our spirits/souls are immediately and consciously with Jesus at the moment of death, but our bodies return to the earth.  So, what Paul is saying is that when Jesus returns, the bodies of dead believers will be resurrected and reunited with Jesus in the sky.  And then, the living believers, body and spirit/soul will join them in the sky.

“What is the point of meeting Jesus in the sky?  Why don’t we just meeting Him on earth?”

The point is the symbolism:  when a king returned from battle (especially), a crowd of people would come out of the city to meet him to join in the triumphal entry into the city.

Remember what happened during the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem:

 “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’” (John 12:12-13, ESV).

Third, when the bodies and spirits/souls of believers are reunited with Jesus in the sky, we will be with Jesus forever as humans – bodies and spirits/souls joined together as one.

More next time….