07 Sep
2025

Grieve with Hope

Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

“It’s better to feel pain, than nothing at all. The opposite of love’s indifference.”
—The Lumineers, “Stubborn Love”
“Every Christian friend that goes before us from this world is a ransomed spirit waiting to welcome us in heaven. There will be the infant of days that we have lost below, through grace to be found above. There the Christian father, and mother, and wife, and child, and friend, with whom we shall renew the holy fellowship of the saints, which was interrupted by death here, but shall be commenced again in the upper sanctuary, and then shall never end.”
—Jonathan Edwards, Heaven is a World of Love

SERMON OUTLINE
1. Why do we need hope?
2. How do we get hope?
3. How can we encourage each other?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

How would you explain what hope is and how might you distinguish between worldly hope and Christian hope?

Share a time you experienced being especially hope-filled. What contributed to your hope and what effect did hope have on you?

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. What does this passage show you about God’s character and about being his follower? What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in this passage?

Studies have shown that “good relationships keep up healthier and happier,” but we also know that these relationships don’t last forever. Sooner or later, death takes everyone including us. What are some ways the world tries to deal with this reality?
How does the reality of death point us to our need for hope?
According to Paul in this passage, how should Christians respond to death?
J.C. Ryle in Heaven wrote, “There is something unspeakably comforting, moreover, as well as glorious in this prospect. It lights up the valley of the shadow of death. It strips the sick bed and the grave of half their terrors. Our beloved friends who have fallen asleep in Christ are not lost, but only gone before… We parted in sorrow, and we shall meet in joy; we parted in stormy weather, and we shall meet in a calm harbour; we parted amidst pains and aches, and groans, and infirmities: we shall meet with glorious bodies…And, best of all, we shall meet never to be parted, never to shed one more tear, never to put on mourning, never to say good-bye and farewell again. Oh! it is a blessed thought, that saints will know one another in heaven!” How does the hope of heaven practically encourage, inform, and equip us for living today?
Paul wrote to the church in verse 18, “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Who can you encourage with the reality of heaven this week?
What from this passage and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week or praise God for?

 

PRAYER

Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?

For to me
to live
is Christ
and
to die
is gain.

Philippians 1:23