1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God… Just as the ripe ears of corn which grew on the plains and the mountain sides of Palestine wore immediately brought into the Temple, and waved before the Lord, as a pledge that every ear of corn standing on and growing in Palestine should be safely reaped and gathered in, so the resurrection of Christ is a demonstration that we, His people, shall be raised again. If we sleep in Jesus, God will raise us with Him; because He lives, we shall live also. Dry up your tears, then. Sometimes you go to the churchyard; sometimes you attend the remains of your relatives to their long homes, you go to "The house appointed for all living"; and sometimes you see the bones lying round the grave, and you are tempted to take them up, and ask, "Can these bones live? Can these dishonoured, dishevelled, and denuded bones live? Can the dead live again?" "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." As surely as the sepulchre of Christ became an empty sepulchre, so surely the sepulchres of His people shall become empty sepulchres; as surely as He got up, and sang a jubilee of life and immortality, so surely shall His people come out of the grave. How beautifully has the Prophet Isaiah expressed it: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." (Dr. Beaumont.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: |
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