Joel M Bradshaw

13But 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. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For 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. 16For 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. 17Then 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. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.–1 Thessalonians 4

1. INFORM. The Thessalonians expected Jesus to return at any moment, and so when their loved ones began to die, they were upset for a new reason. Maybe their loved ones would miss out on the return since they had already died. Was there no hope for them? This is the basic context of this section.
2. HOPE. This is what sets a Christian funeral service apart from others. We uniquely have hope. For the Thessalonians, Paul needed to remind them of what will happen when Jesus returns. For us we know that our loved ones who died in Christ are with him now. They did not miss out on anything, but are in Paradise with Jesus.
3. TIMELINE. Jesus will return in an unmistakeable way. And the ones who have already died will rise from the grave first. Their resurrection was guaranteed when Jesus resurrected. Since we believe when we bury someone that this is just their body we put into the ground, in some fashion, their souls will rejoin their body at this point. Then all of us who are still alive will be caught up together with Jesus and our loved ones who previously died. This caught up is the only time in the Bible when the famous ‘rapture’ word is used.
4. RAPTURE. I believe far too many words have been written about one verse. Is the rapture real? Yes. When will it be? When Jesus comes back. Will it be something anyone could confuse? No, it will be unmistakeable. When will it be regarding the great tribulation? I don’t think that matters. God is glorified if the rapture is before the tribulation in that he protects his church. God is glorified if the rapture is after the tribulation in that he has his church endure. If you make me choose, I choose post not pre or mid. God is glorified MOST in my opinion by preserving his church through the tribulation. Speculation beyond that is unnecessary and misses the point of the text which is Jesus coming back and our faithful loved ones not missing out.
5. GRIEF. My wife and I have buried 3 of our 5 children. All babies. My wife and I have also both buried our fathers. We grieved and still grieve, but we do so with hope. We will see them again. They are with Jesus now. Saying goodbye is never enjoyable, but the perspective of hope is a game changer. When there is no hope, the grief is exponentially worse.–JMB