Encourage One Another With These Words; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

·22 min·2 clips

What if Paul's words about Jesus' return aren't about adjusting our clocks, but about adjusting our hearts?

Bret Hammond begins by sharing an anecdote from a sermon planning meeting where a colleague found 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 difficult, prompting Hammond to take it on. He notes the challenge of preaching on Daylight Saving Time Sunday when congregants are tired. Hammond reads the passage, which speaks of those who have died in Christ and the promise of being caught up together at the Lord's coming. He reflects on his early Christian experience in the 1980s, when authors like Hal Lindsey predicted specific dates for Christ's return, leading to a focus on timing. Hammond proposes a shift: the passage's core is verse 18's command to 'encourage one another with these words,' making it about hope, not chronology. He explains the Thessalonian believers feared their dead friends would miss Jesus' return, so Paul offers hope rooted in Jesus' death and resurrection. Hammond shares a story about his friend Robert Reese, a former cop and weatherman, who grew weary of hollow condolences at his grandmother's funeral. This illustrates the need for substantial hope. Hammond delves into the Greek word 'parousia,' meaning 'the coming of the Lord,' comparing it to a king's visit that brings renewal to a city. He emphasizes that hope in Jesus is the antidote to hopeless grief. The sermon connects to the Lenten season, noting Ash Wednesday's reminder of mortality and pointing to resurrection hope. Hammond explores the Greek word 'parakaleo' (to encourage), meaning to walk alongside, as Jesus does through the Holy Spirit. He references other parts of 1 Thessalonians about encouragement. Returning to Robert Reese's story, Hammond details how Reese, after his own cancer diagnosis in 2008, walked with others through their cancer journeys until his death in 2012. The sermon concludes with a call to be friends who walk with each other through grief, offering the hope of eternal victory in Jesus.

As heard by us

A sermon turns ancient fear of death into a call to stay beside the grieving.

Death sits at the center of this single-episode sermon, but its real concern is what grief does to the living. It moves from the Thessalonians' fear that the dead had no hope to Paul's assurance that those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will not be left out of victory.

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You want a hard text about death turned into a promise you can carry into grief.

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