Christians: People Who Grieve With Hope
Please bear with me as I introduce this morning’s lesson. While it may have a depressing beginning, I promise the ending is much more uplifting. Most, if not all of us have been to at least one funeral in our lifetime.
Others of us have been to more funerals than we care to count. When we go to a funeral, specifically one of a loved one or close friend, we typically do two things:
a. We mourn the loss of further friendship and fellowship with the person who has passed from this life.
b. We come to terms with our own mortality, and the certainty of our own death.
I believe that our text this morning is Paul’s response to questions asked about these two things by the Christians in Thessalonica of some brothers or sisters in Christ who had recently passed away. While the church at Thessalonica was a young congregation, less than a year old, it seems that some of their brethren had recently passed away. They now questioned whether they would ever see their deceased brethren again, or if our Lord’s second coming applied only to those who were still living.
This morning, as we consider our own mortality, let me encourage you to look closely at what Paul has to say to each of us who are Christians.