Those that have died in Christ, they're spirit as in His presence, their body is asleep,

and they will not miss the great event of the gathering together of the Church when Jesus comes.

That is the promise of Scripture.

You've probably felt the sadness of a loved one's death. You might also know the pain of

losing someone who never put his faith in Jesus Christ. But can you imagine being a Christian

who's taken up in the rapture, and once you're in heaven, not seeing the Christians you once knew?

What if your loved ones who died before the rapture weren't there? Now, those might sound

like foolish questions, but the early church struggled with those same doubts. So how well do you

understand the truth about the rapture and the day of the Lord? Consider that today on grace to you

as John MacArthur continues, his series called The Rapture and the Day of the Lord. And now here's

John with today's lesson. What happens to Christians who die? What happens to Christians who die?

We want to know what happens after we die, and we would like to know what happens to the bodies of

those we love when they go into the grave. Those are pressing issues. And they were equally pressing

issues on the young believers in Thessalonica. Remember now, those to whom Paul wrote this letter

had only been in Christ a matter of a few months, and they had only had just a few weeks really

of exposure to Paul's ministry, so they were very much babes, and they had become very troubled about

this issue of what happens to Christians when they die. Paul says, look, I know you're concerned

about those Christians that die from time to time, and I know you're concerned that maybe they're

going to miss the gathering together, and you love them, and you want to see them again, and you

want them to be there, and they're not going to be there. And you're going to wonder, where do they

go, and where are they? And how can we recognize them if they're not there in bodily form, and it

won't be like it was, and will the reunion happen? And he says, look, I don't want you to grieve

...