Comfort for people who need answers to their problems.
1. Believers
should Cheer up v 13,14.
- Mourning
for the dead
Pagan: "I was not, I became, I am not, I care not"
Believer: "with Christ which is better by far"
- the
Meaning of death.
3
times he uses the idea of "sleep" sleep "through"
Jesus v14. Death transformed by Jesus.
2. Believers
must Look up v15 -17.
- Watch
Live
every day as though it is today that He will come.
- Walk
His coming and our - service 1:9,10; soul winning 2:19 love
3:12,13; care for others 4:18; holiness 5:23.
3. Believers
will Rise up v15,16.
- They
are coming with Him (no soul sleep)
- They
will rise up before us who are alive.
4. Believers
will be Caught up v17.
- Suddenness
like Philip in Acts 8:39
- like
the Roman "snatch squad" Acts 23:10
5. Believers
will Meet up v17.
- meeting
place? in the air
- meeting
whom?
with
the saints who have died v14
with
the saints who are alive v17a
with the Lord v17b
- meeting
length? for ever John 17:24
6. Believers
must Lift up each other v18.
- the
people who need lifted up.
- the
bereaved, the elderly, the sick, the fallen, the rejected, etc.
- the
words that will lift. no comfort like the comfort of Truth
