|
1st Thessalonians 4:13-18
“But
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him. For this we say unto you by
the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with
these words.”
The Church Should
Live In Expectancy Of The Return Of Christ
“1st Thessalonians chapter 4, beginning in verse 13, Paul says, “But I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,” no it isn’t that he doesn’t want us to
be ignorant, it’s concerning something, “But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even
as others which have no hope. For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are asleep.” (verses 13-17) “prevent” is the old King James word for
“precede”, ‘we shall not precede or go before them which are asleep.’ “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: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these
words.” (verses 14-18) Paul now coming to instruction to these
Thessalonians about their loved ones that had become believers, that had
died. Evidently when he was there,
he talked to them about the Kingdom of God and about the return of Christ and the
end of the age [man’s or Satan’s evil age], the fact that Christ was coming,
something the Church embraced since its inception. Even the unsaved world today, when something happens,
catastrophic, you’ll see in Time Magazine and Newsweek and so forth all of the articles about Armageddon, ‘and is this
Armageddon? And are we headed
towards Armageddon? and even the unbelieving world knows the Bible has something to say about “the
Last Days,” it has something to say about the “Close of the Age,” it has
something to say about the fact that man will be destroying himself, at some
point. Jesus said things will get
so bad that if he wouldn’t return when he did there’d be no flesh left alive,
on the planet (cf. Matthew 24:22). So these Thessalonians, hearing Paul talk about the return of Christ and
the Kingdom, are now thinking to themselves, because this is all brand new to
them, they don’t have the benefit that we do of having the entire New
Testament, of having combed through these things for years of so much of the
teaching, and Christian bookstores, tapes and media. Paul had been there [for only three Sabbaths, remember],
Paul had left. And now some of
their loved ones had died, and they’re thinking ‘Are they going to miss out
on the Kingdom Age?’ ‘We’re waiting for Christ’s return,
this is something that’s immanent, it could happen at any time.’ We know Paul taught them that, because he says down here in verse 17,
“then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord.” Personal pronoun, including himself, “we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up…” Paul expected to go. He expected
Christ to return in his lifetime, he said to the Corinthians, ‘You young
men that are single, if you marry that’s not a problem, you have to tend to the
needs of your wife. But I would
rather have you remain as I am, single, the Lord is coming.’ If all of the single men in the Church would have listened to Paul the
Church would have died out in the first century. But the point is, he was expecting the Lord’s return, and he
spoke that to the Church, that the Church should live in expectancy of the
return of Christ for his Church. The return of Christ with the Church is a different thing, and
we’ll talk about that. So here are
these Thessalonians, they’re new believers, some of their loved ones have died,
and they’re thinking ‘Well does this mean they’ve missed out? Are they missing out on the Kingdom,
what’s going to happen when Christ comes?’ And
Paul has to address that issue and talk to them.
What Is
“Soul-Sleep”?
He
says “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” (verse 13) ‘I don’t want you to be uninformed,’ that’s Paul’s way of saying that, ‘I
don’t want you to be uninformed in regards to those who sleep.’ Now he’s not talking about what we do every night, it’s the Christian
designation for death in the New Testament. Because the Christian doesn’t die, Paul says ‘To be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, I’d rather die and be with
Christ. But it’s
needful for me to be here with you.’ And the New Testament teaches us that when the believer dies the body is in the
grave, it decomposes, sleeps. It’s
gonna be raised again, but it sleeps. But the consciousness [spirit-in-man, cf. 1st Corinthians
2:9-13) is with the Lord. That’s
physical death to the believer. [And Calvary Chapel’s teach that that spirit-in-man component of
Christians stays conscious upon death, and goes to heaven to await the
resurrection and re-uniting of it to it’s body at the 1st resurrection to immortality] To
you and I, physical death is the separation of our consciousness from our
physical frame, from this space-suit. Some people want to take this and turn this into “soul-sleep” [which is
based upon what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes where those who believe in
“soul-sleep” believe the spirit-in-man goes unconscious at death and goes up to
heaven], the fact that when you die, you lay in the ground, in the coffin, your
soul’s asleep till the resurrection, which anybody with a first grade reading
level should be able to get around. Paul doesn’t say ‘I’m excited, I can’t wait to die, oh that’s gain,
just love to sleep in the ground until Jesus comes, be trapped down there,
sound’s wonderful.’ Elijah, when he lays on the widows son
and prays three times for this young boy that had died, it says ‘his soul
came into him again,’ which
clearly tells us that his soul had departed. It wasn’t sleeping in the body [but it could have still been
unconscious up in heaven with the Lord, and that would fit Ecclesiastes and the
LORD merely sent this boy’s spirit back
into him]. Revelation chapter 6,
we see the souls of those that were martyred for Christ at the altar of God,
saying ‘How long Oh Lord, before you avenge our death?’ They weren’t in their bodies, they were in heaven. And you can read through the New
Testament and see that for yourself. So, for the Christian, physical death, when our body dies, it is the
separation of the consciousness from the physical frame, the physical frame
goes in the grave, and sleeps. That saying, “sleeps” probably came from Jesus in John chapter 11, you
remember when he got word that Lazarus was sick. Mary and Martha had sent for him and said ‘Lord,
come. Your friend, Lazarus, the
one you love, he’s sick unto death.’ And Jesus tarried, he waited, he didn’t
go right away. And the disciples
said ‘Lord, don’t you think we should get down there to Bethany, Lazarus
is…’ and Jesus said, ‘He’s
sleeping.’ And they said, ‘Well, that’s good if
he’s sleeping, he’s probably getting some rest, he’ll be getting over this, no
sense going down and waking him up,’ and it says, ‘Then Jesus had to say to them, ‘no, no, Lazarus is dead.’ But Jesus’ view of Lazarus, because he knew Lazarus was getting up
again, was that he was sleeping. [Jesus said that same thing about Jairus’ daughter when she had died, he
said she was sleeping, and all the mourners laughed him to scorn it says. Same words, because to Jesus, she would
be getting up again, which she did minutes later. She was dead when Jesus said this.] And you remember, he went and called
him forth. But Jesus used that
term, I’m sure the apostles were very impressed with that miracle, picked up on
that, and then to them the believer, entering the death of the physical body,
consciousness goes to be with the Lord, the body sleeps. The unbeliever, is not the separation
of the physical frame only, but it’s the separation of the consciousness from
the presence of God. That’s
spiritual death. The believer dies
once, that’s physical death, but not spiritual death. The body dies, you go to be with the Lord. At the resurrection the physical frame
is raised again to be joined with the consciousness in the presence of the Lord
forever. The unbeliever dies
twice, he dies physical death, and then at the Great White Throne, he dies an
eternal death, his body is raised and then cast into outer darkness forever,
and there’s eternal suffering. [There are various beliefs held within the
greater Body of Christ about soul-sleep, whether the spirit component within
each human remains conscious or unconscious upon the death of the human body,
or about the fate of the “unsaved dead.” To read about some of these, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm. Personally I don’t know which is true, will wait and find
out. Good rule to go by: “Our individual
beliefs and interpretations on a prophecied subject will not change the reality
of it’s intended outcome by the Lord.”] That’s not intended for man, anyone here this evening who doesn’t like
that idea, I don’t blame you, gives you the heeby-geevies, I understand. That’s good, means you’re using your
brain. God has made a provision
through his Son where you can only die once. If you’re born-again, you can only die once, the physical
death, but not die eternally, not die twice, not die spiritually.
Don’t Sorrow Like
Unbelievers At The Death Of A Love One
Paul
is addressing these Thessalonians saying, ‘Look, concerning those that
are asleep, I don’t want you to sorrow as others who have no hope,’ and that was the problem is they were
sorrowing like unbelievers. They
were sorrowing like they had lost somebody forever. They were sorrowing hopelessly. And the New Testament teaches us that our sorrow, when we
lose a loved one, is not a hopeless sorrow, if we lose someone whose a
believer, but it’s a selfish sorrow. It’s ok to be sorrowful, Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with
grief. Jesus stood at the tomb of
Lazarus and wept. There was
sorrow. It doesn’t say we’re not
spiritual because we mourn or because we weep. Sadly, there are too many Christians that are under that
impression, that if they grieve and they weep over the death of a loved one
that’s gone on to be with the Lord, that therefore they’re not spiritual,
because they go through that process. The Bible doesn’t teach that at all. If you didn’t sorrow I’d worry more about you when you loose
a loved one. But it shouldn’t be
hopeless, it shouldn’t be tombstone vigils where you find people in the
cemetery crying by the grave, and they’re tortured and it goes on for
years. No, no, they’re asleep,
Paul says. We know where our loved
ones who believe in Christ are. In fact,
imagine what they’re looking at right now. I did a funeral yesterday, a wonderful man in the church,
he’s gone on to be with the Lord. And whenever that happens I think, ‘You know, I really don’t enjoy
doing the funeral of an unsaved person, it’s so difficult.’ Because you have to get away from the person as quickly as you can and
get to the Scripture, so you can challenge those who have opportunity to receive
Christ [ah, that’s like walking through a spiritual/emotional minefield, don’t
envy you, Pastor Joe]. But when
it’s a believer whose gone on, it’s so remarkable, you hear the family laughing
and talking, ‘He’s probably doing this in heaven, he’s probably
straightening out his mansion, putting on a few finishing touches, when we get
there he’s going to introduce us to everybody,’ you know, all of that personality
lives on, it’s not ended, and it’s remarkable to hear those things, when there
are tears mingled with laughter, and memories that are sweet and strong, and
hope attached to the whole process. What a wonderful thing. And
your loved ones who have gone on before you, imagine what is before their gaze,
right now. [that is if the
spirit-in-man remains conscious upon death.] Try to imagine what they’re looking at right now in
glory. And if you tried to talk to
them, ‘Dad’ ‘Leave me alone,’ just imagine what’s before their gaze,
no sorrow, no death, no sadness, looking at the face of Christ and the glory of
God, a scene in heaven that’s unimaginable. But Paul says, ‘I don’t want you to sorrow as others
who have no hope, a hopeless sorrow.’ Theocretus,
in this day a Roman philosopher, said “Hope is for the living. The dead have no hope.” Well, that’s not true, of course. What is our hope? Many of the tombstones in Thessalonica said ‘No hope.’ There were some philosophies that embraced some form of an afterlife,
some ethereal realm. Many of them
said there was no hope, no hope of marriage continuing beyond the grave, no
hope of relationships continuing, there was no hope.
What Is The Hope Of
The Believer---“the Blessed Hope”?
So,
what is the hope of the believer [called “the Blessed Hope” by many]? Well he goes on in verse 14, “For
if” now the class
condition is not “if we believe” he knew as Christians we do believe, so you
could more properly read that “For since we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him.” So, because we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, we have this hope. So we shouldn’t sorrow in hopelessness. Our hope is not just afterlife in some ethereal realm, we’re
Christians, we believe in resurrection, not just afterlife. We don’t just, you know you hear of all
these kind of near-death experiences, ‘I saw light, I heard music, and oooh,
I was going close to the light, and I got sent back,’ Look, who knows. You can’t
build anything there [doctrinally speaking]. Jesus didn’t have a near-death experience, he had a
dead-experience. You and I are not
going to have a near-death experience, we’re going to have a
dead-experience. I don’t want to
hear about near-death experiences, because I ain’t just getting near it, I’m
getting thrown into it at some point in time. I’m getting nearer to it than I want to, I’m going all the
way into it. And I’m going through
it, into the Light, into glory, closing my eyes in this world and opening them
up in the next. And the remarkable
hope that we have in regards to our loved ones is not just afterlife but it’s resurrection. Jesus said when he was risen, ‘Touch me, doth a spirit have flesh
and bone? Feel me.’ He had to say to Mary, ‘Let go of me, stop holding
on, I haven’t ascended yet.’ So what we believe in is “resurrection”,
that we’re going to be transformed, the Lord is going to raise our physical
frame and it’s going to be joined again to the consciousness [spirit-in-man
that it was separated from], so that when you see your loved one, you see your
grandma in heaven [in the Kingdom of heaven], you’re not just going to go ‘Oh
grandma’ and run right
through her, you know, go ‘aaah,’ right through her. You’re going to
have this, [he’s slapping his chest]. Jesus said, ‘Touch me, doth a spirit hath flesh and bone as you see
I have?’ They embraced him. They handled him, they held onto
him. Mary hugged him and wouldn’t
let go of him. But what we’re
looking forward to with our loved ones, with our children that have gone on
ahead of us, is to put our arms around them, and feel them again, and the
warmth, to bend over and smell that smell again. It’ll smell like incorruption, not corruption, don’t get me
wrong in any way. But transformed. [Comment: Different parts of the Body of Christ have different
interpretations about what our immortal bodies will be like and composed
of. If we are composed of spirit
as God and the angels are, it may be that spirit is more solid than physical
matter, and is also eternal. Personally, we’ll all have to wait and see.] Our grandparents, our husbands and wives that are gone on
before us, our parents. Not lost,
not hopeless, selfish, that’s how we sorrow, selfishly. We wish they were right here so we
could hold them, but they’re not. But we’re not hopeless. That’s the unbelieving world. There’s going to be a reunion that’s going to be remarkable. And in that reunion, we’ll be
transformed. You won’t even need
name-tags, because then we will know fully, even as we’ve been fully
known. I know if your dad went on
to be with the Lord and he was bald, he was 80 years old, and he was
overweight, when he get’s to heaven he’s the tall thin guy with all the hair,
but you’re gonna know him when you see him, you don’t need name-tags. Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus,
and Peter and those guys knew who they were, saw them, on the Mount of
Transfiguration. I heard a story
about an old farmer that came in from upper Saskatchewan, and just lived in the
boonies his whole life, no electricity, none of the modern conveniences, there
was some thing with a property deed, an inheritance, and he comes in to a big
city in Toronto, and he’s amazed at everything he’s seeing, and his wife, she’s
looking in a clothes store next door, and he and his son see this giant tall
building, his son says ‘I’ve never seen anything like this, let’s look at
this,’ so they go in
the ground floor and their looking for stairs, he sees these two metal doors,
this old woman walks up with a cane, she walks up, pushes a button, these doors
open up, she kind of hobbles on, the doors go closed, they watch, they see this
thing go up, two, three, four, five, six, seven, up to thirteen, and they just
stand there watching and it comes back down again, and the doors open up, and
this beautiful [laughter] staggering young woman walks off of the elevator and
walks out the door. And the old
farmer looks at his son and says “Son, stay right here, don’t let them shut
this off, I’m going to go get your mom and run her through here once!’ [laughter] Heaven, transformed. I
imagine we’ll all be again around thirty-something, around there. I think Adam was around there when he
was created, Jesus was around there when he was crucified, it says ‘Our
bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body,’ David was that old when he took the
throne, great age from what I remember. “But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him.” (verses 13-14)
Let’s Take A Closer
Look At The Event
Verse
15 says, “For this
we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep.” Now,
verse 15 is not looking back, it seems that the grammar looks forward to verses
16 through 18. He’s encouraging
now these Thessalonians, “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord
shall not precede them which are asleep.” And that’s
what they were worried about, ‘Well, the Lord’s going to come, Paul told us
that Christ is returning, we’re waiting for the Kingdom, it’s going to be
remarkable, our loved ones have died, they were believers, are they missing out
on this?’ ‘No, we’re saying this by the
Lord, that we which remain until the coming of the Lord, we’re not going to
precede, go into the Kingdom before those who are asleep,’ “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: then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one
another with these words” (verses 16-18) We’re
supposed to comfort one another with these words, because of the hope we have,
the resurrection, of reunion. But
it relates to us even today in this sense, that there’s comfort in us in
regards to these things. Yesterday
I watched family, relatives, friends, tears but he’s with the Lord, gonna see
him again. Look what’s happening
in the news, it could be soon. Imagine what he’s seeing, comfort one another with these words. What great comfort they have been for
generation after generation of believers. “And the Lord himself” I like that, he’s not sending a butler, you know, you get picked up in a limo,
they send the chauffer to get you. No, “the Lord himself shall descend”, what he’s saying is “the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” out of heaven, atho, into the atmosphere, notice we’ll be
caught up into the clouds. So, it
seems ‘the Lord descending into the lower atmosphere,’ if Satan is the prince of the power of
the air, here’s Jesus stepping right into that territory to take us. And he’s going to come into that realm
and it says, “with a shout.” Now, that’s a word that has a lot of
force behind it, it relates to a command, it’s a word that relates to
purpose. What will that shout
be? Will it be audible? I don’t know that. You remember when in John’s Gospel the
Father spoke from heaven, and some thought that it thundered. It was God’s voice. When he shouts, will it be audible, or
will it just be heard by believers? We don’t know. And what
will he say when he shouts? I
don’t care. Because it’s going to
be something like ‘Come on home! Now! Get on up here!’ one of those things, I don’t care. The Lord himself is going to descend with a shout! He’s been waiting for a long time to
come get his Bride. ‘Honey, I’m
home’ that’s what he’s
going to say. Wedding day, he’s
going to say with a shout. “with
the voice of the archangel”,
that’s an interesting piece mingled in there, I don’t understand it
completely. The archangel is only
mentioned one other time in the New Testament, that’s in the Book of Jude, and
he’s named there, it’s Michael the archangel. Now “archae” tells us he’s one of a kind, whenever we read about Michael the archangel, there’s always a definite
article there for his name, there’s only one archangel. We don’t have to wonder who this is
here, this archangel the Lord sends, voice of the archangel, that’s
Michael. What he has to do with
this process I’m not sure. [keep
us from all flying off into outer-space in shear joy and then need rounding
up?] We know from Daniel chapter
12 that he is the prince that watches over the people of Israel. Maybe because there’s an exchange in
hominines at this time [huh?]. The
Church is being taken out, God beginning to work with his people Israel to
fulfill the 70th week in a miraculous way, perhaps there’s some
intermingling of that, I don’t know. But the archangel, that’s an interesting combination here. And it says “and with the trump of
God.” Now, this is not the Trumpet that
happens before the vials, after the seals in the Book of Revelation, but there
are people who want to put it there [post-trib Rapture interpretation], saying
it’s the last Trump, the Trump of God is something that happens
there. Well, if you read clearly,
those are not trumpets of God, those are trumpets of angels. In Revelation chapter 8 it says the
last three angels were about to sound, when one of them flying through the sky
said Woe, Woe, Woe, in regards to the next three trumpets there about to sound,
they were three woes. This says
“Comfort yourself” in regards to this trumpet. So this is not a Woe, Woe, Woe trumpet. This is something that sounds to gather
God’s people, 1st Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 51, ‘We
shall not all sleep,’ that means as a Christian, we shall not all have the death of our physical
body, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,’ we have that sign on our nursery back
there, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” [laughter] It’s a different application of 1st Corinthians 15, ‘We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the speed of light, twinkle of an eye, an
atamos, at the last trump.’ [Comment: 1st Corinthians 15:52 says “at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound…” The last trumpet of the seven last
trumpet plagues is at the end of all the trumpet blasts of God, at the point in
time when the Seven Last Plagues begin. This is where the various prophetic interpretations don’t agree with
each other, and I personally don’t know whose right, correct at this point, and
suspect no one has the right interpretation yet for these prophecies.] “For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” A remarkable
picture this is giving to us here about these things taking place. And we’re to draw comfort from them, as
we look at them. Now, why? Because it says we’re going to be
caught up, in verse 17. “Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up” when
this happens, the dead in Christ shall rise first, I don’t know what that’s
going to look like. Are they going
to blow out of the ground in the cemetery? [I’m hoping we all blast out of the ground like MX Missiles J] I’ve got a lot of people who go through this question, ‘Should I be
buried or cremated?’ And some people just have the
heeby-geevies about getting cremated. ‘You know, it sounds like judgment, you know, I don’t want to be
cremated.’ Well there were a lot of Christians who
were burnt at the stake. A lot of
Christians eaten of lions. And
even if you get buried, in three or four years you’re going to look like you
got cremated. [laughter] You know, I’m not trying to sell
anything here, whatever you’re conviction is, it’s cheaper, I tell Kath all the
time, ‘Just cremate me,’ ‘I’m not gonna do that, it’s
terrible.’ I think, ‘You got four kids, what do
you mean, save some money for once, please!’ [laugher] ‘Well if you die Honey, you know,
leaving me with four kids, you’re gettin’ cremated.’ ‘Don’t you do that!’ ‘You won’t be here to do anything about it. Next time I see you it’ll be in heaven, Jesus will be there
and you’ll have to act like a Christian, you’ll have to be nice to me.’ [laughter] ‘You won’t be able to yell at me about this.’ But people go to these ridiculous, in unbelief, raises all
of these ridiculous questions. ‘What
about people that are cremated? What about people that are eaten of sharks? What about donor, organ donor things, what, what about if
you got somebody else’s liver, a Christians liver when the Rapture
happens?’ [laughter] ‘Does your liver disappear?’ I’ll stop there…there that’s safer. You know, people raise those ridiculous
questions. “The Lord himself
will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first:” (verse 16) whether they’ve been dead a thousand years or two weeks. They will come with him, spirit and
soul, consciousness, and their physical frame, Jesus body was raised from the
grave on the third day, our bodies will be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, his body passed through the walls, he appeared and his disappeared, new
model---we’ll be raised incorruptible, those of us who have gone on before
us.
We’re Caught Up In
The Clouds
Then,
those of us that are alive and remain until that day will be caught up to meet
them in the clouds, some argue in clouds, which can mean in groups, that Jesus
would come and say ‘Okay, Northie Philly, South Philly,’ I mean, however it happens, that’s
fine with me. But if I’ve been
waiting that long for my bride, she’s going with me all at one time. And that’s what I tend to think, that
we’re just caught up into the clouds to meet him in the air. “Caught up”, that’s our word
“rapture.” You know, if you’ve
been coming here, and you’re new at all this, you’ve heard us give, you know,
sometimes Christians just talk about that, the Rapture. They put bumper stickers on about the
Rapture. People are scratching
their heads, ‘Well what does that mean? Is it a saucer thing? Is it a UFO thing? Is it an
abduction thing? What is
this?’ But we’re going to disappear. And then they get home and they get out
their Concordance, ‘I knew it. It ain’t in the Bible. Can’t
find it.’ Well, those of you here this evening
that are reading the Latin know that it’s from the Latin, the old Latin, the
Vulgate, Raptus,
which means “to be caught up.” It’s harpodzo here
in the Greek, our word, “caught up.” And it’s a word we find throughout the New Testament. I’ll look at a few places, I’ll read
them so that they’ll be on the tape, you don’t have to get blisters
turning. In Matthew 11, verse
12 it says “From
the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent, harpodzo, take it by force.” Again, Matthew chapter 13, verse 19, it says, “Then when someone hears the word of the kingdom, and understandeth
it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away, harpodzo, that which was sown in the heart.” John chapter 6, verse 15 says, “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and, harpodzo, take him by force.” Again, John chapter 10, verse 28, “I give unto them eternal life, they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them, harpodzo, out of my hand. My Father which gave them is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them, harpodzo, out of my Father’s
hand.” Acts chapter 8, I’m just going to run
through several verses here, and then we’ll come back to our text. Acts 8, verse 39 says, “And when they were come up
out of the water,” this is Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, “the Spirit of the Lord, harpodzo, caught away Philip, that the
eunuch saw him no more.” Again, Acts chapter 23, verse 10, says, “And when there arose a great
dissention, the chief captain fearing lest Paul should have been pulled to
pieces…to command of the soldiers to go down and, harpodzo, take him by force…” Jude 23 says
this, it says, “and of some have compassion, making a difference, others
save with fear, pulling them, harpodzo, out of the fire…” pulling them out. Revelation 12, verse 5, the man-child is caught up, harpodzo, to heaven. So where we find this word in the New Testament, it speaks
of being taken away, being jerked away, being plucked away, by force. Paul says here, “Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up, plucked away, pulled away, taken by force, and that is our word Rapture. So when we speak about the Rapture,
Paul is saying that the Lord is not going to wait until the entire earth
disintegrates to the point where there’s no one alive, and morally it’s so
measured there’s nothing worth redeeming, the Lord will come for his Bride
before that, the same way anyone who loved his children or loved his bride would
come to take them out of a desperate situation. And when he comes, those who have died in faith will be
raised, as he descends with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of
God, and those Christians that are alive at that time will be caught
away, with force, from the face of the earth, plucked up. That’s the Rapture, that’s what’s
going to happen to us that believe, when Christ comes. And I think, what a testimony to an
unsaved world. And comfort in that
for us, for a reason. It says ‘Comfort
yourselves, with the fact that this is going to take place.’
God Measures Time
Morally
Revelation
says this, ‘And they said unto the mountains and the rocks, fall on us,
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb. For the great day of his
wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand.’ You’ll find it in Revelation 14. Revelation 19 says this in regards to the day of his wrath, ‘And
out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, he treadeth the winepress of the
fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.’ The point
is, this world is headed for judgment. God measures time morally. Remember he said to Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet
full, in fact I believe Genesis 18 or 15, but he said ‘in four
generations, 400 years, then I’ll bring the children of Israel into the land.’
[Genesis 15] And God used the children of Israel to
mete out judgment on the Canaanites. But God waited for 400 years, there were those who turned,
Rehab the harlot turned and was saved. Any of those people could have turned. But God measures time morally. And when it comes to a point, he doesn’t use a clock or a
calendar, he measures time morally, and when it comes to a point where he
realizes ‘There is no longer anything that can be redeemed in this,’ then he moves. [Comment: meditating on this, when there is no one else that God feels
he can save, no one else who is willing to come to Jesus for salvation, no one
else who will accept the call to salvation, then the gig is up, time has run
out. Rehab and her family were
saved in the nick of time, just at the beginning of the conquest of Canaan.] Because of his holiness, because of who
he is, he can’t be benign in regards to that point, when it comes. He can’t just be static, because he’s
moral and he’s holy and he’s righteous. And when righteousness in the sense of judgment comes in contact with
unrighteousness, then we have judgment. Happens every day across this city, when a policeman catches
someone speeding, and justice comes in contact with injustice, with
unrighteousness, something is meted out, in a courtroom, whether there’s a
trail for murder or for something when justice, when a righteous judgment comes
in contact with a lawbreaker, with something that’s been done in rebellion
that’s unrighteous, judgment takes place. And God is coming to mete out his judgment on the world. Now he’s going to do that in his
wrath. When we read about that,
and it isn’t like God’s up there cooking, steam coming out of his ears, fire
coming out of his nostrils, and he’s just gonna come and start, heads are gonna
fly. That’s you and I. That’s what we do with anger. And that’s usually thumos, and it deals with emotion. That’s the kind of anger that explodes,
there’s an outburst, and then it calms down and subsides again. If you’re married you know about that
kind of anger. [laughter] It’s not
right, but it happens. And
occasionally there’s a place to describe God’s emotion in a place where the
word thumos is
used, but most often we have this word orgae that’s used, and that is more mental
than emotional. And orgae happens by decision, by watching, by
waiting. The wrath of God is
patient, it is in its motion now, there are those, Paul says, who are
treasuring up wrath unto themselves. It says that you and I were at one time the children of wrath, that we
were the children of disobedience, destined for wrath. That God is looking at this world and
its injustice and all that’s going on, the movies that are put out that mock
him, the legislation that’s being passed that flies in the face of all that’s
good, holy and right, those who misrepresent him and fleece God’s people for
money, constantly in the name of God, the murder, the war, the injustice and
bigotry, that God is observant in all of those things, and that he is watching,
and that his wrath is building. And when it comes, it comes with a purpose. It doesn’t just come to smoke everybody. That’s you and I. It has purpose, it has thought, it has
decision. And as we look in the
Book of Revelation we see first those Seals being opened. It’s measured. There’s a governor on it. Because even then God is hoping to turn
men and women to himself. Then it
intensifies with trumpets, and then finally it’s seems unmeasured as vials are
poured out on the earth. But God’s
wrath will come, his justice coming in contact with unholiness and
unrighteousness, judgment will come, but it comes with purpose, God longing
even in those days when his wrath begins, to draw the hearts of men and
women. And I believe that maybe
the greatest ingathering the world has ever seen happens in the first three and
a half years of that tribulation period. But for you and I, it tells us this, in chapter 1, verse 10, that we’re to wait for his Son from
heaven, “whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from
the wrath to come.” Here in chapter 5 of 1st Thessalonians, verse 9, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain
salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” There’s thought, this is
deliberate. Ephesians chapter 2,
verse 3 tells us that we were children of wrath. Colossians 3, verse 6 by
nature we were children of wrath, children of disobedience. You remember John the Baptist said ‘Who
warned you to flee from the wrath, the orgae, to come?’ the day of God’s judgment. But there’s a warning. And part of the comfort, and part of
the Good News, part of what we’re to take to heart as we look at this text, is
that we’re not appointed to wrath.
Death Is Not The
End Of It All
Concerning
those that have died, our loved ones, we have great hope in regards to
resurrection. We’re not ignorant
concerning those who are asleep, and our sorrow is not a hopeless sorrow, as
those who carry on and carry on, broken, without hope. You know, I can’t imagine that. Every time I go to a funeral, I can’t
imagine being an unbeliever and facing death. I remember being 8 years old when my Grampa died, he lived
in the house with us. And I wasn’t
a believer yet, I was a child. And
the emotions, the strangeness of the viewing, at 8 years old, for somebody I
sat next to day after day, and talked to and asked a thousand ridiculous
questions that an 8-year-old would, and he delighted in it. I think he made up answers
sometimes. Somehow I guess he knew
the Lord was going to take him, he died on Thanksgiving, but before he died he
bought a Bible to give to me on Christmas day, it was under the tree. I was completely confused about how
that happened. It wasn’t until I
got saved I thought that this man was probably a believer. And I’m so looking forward to seeing,
he’ll be the guy with the long white mustache and suspenders, the pipe, I’ll
smell him before I see him. I know
that smell. I sat next to him many
hours. But I remember seeing my
father at the graveside just break, and weep. My dad grew up in the Depression, went through World War II,
that generation just didn’t act like that. But I watched that. [I know what he’s talking about. My dad served in the Navy at Pearl Harbor during part of WWII, quiet,
stoic type, strong, silent type.] It was hopeless, was hopeless. I’m thankful my mom and dad are saved now. I can’t imagine facing death as an unbeliever. I want to encourage you if you’re here
this evening, and you don’t know Christ, you don’t have to do that. Look, Buddha had some good stuff to
say, he’s in a pot in a temple, his remains are in a pot somewhere, bones or
dust or whatever, he’s in a temple somewhere. Mohammad is in his tomb. Zoroaster is in his tomb. Confucius is in his tomb. Grant’s in his tomb [laughter]. There’s an empty tomb in Jerusalem. [applause] And that’s what we believe, that he died, and he got up
again, on the third day. He got
up, arose, incorruptible, and said ‘Death, where is your sting, grave where
is your victory?’ And that’s at the center of what we
believe, that he paid the price for our forgiveness, he died for our sins, he
was raised for our justification, the demonstration of God accepting the
payment of our sins in that resurrection, God’s acceptance, God’s endowment,
the power of God demonstrating it raising him from the dead, and we believe
that our sins are paid for, and we believe that if the same Spirit that raised
Christ from the dead dwells in you, he’s also going to quicken your mortal
body, that that’s going to be the process for us. You know, what a great thing. When that time comes, if the Lord tarries, you know, I have
my preference. I want to die in a
rocking chair, rocking, rocking and rolling. I don’t want to die hooked up to tubes somewhere. Some people do good there, I just would
be a bad witness, after trying to be a good witness my whole life. I’d just be a bad witness, ‘Don’t
stick me with that! Don’t do
that! Just pull the plug outa the
machine.’ My preference is to just be there,
maybe have my Bible, cup of coffee, ‘OK Lord.’ I love Jacob, props himself up, prophecies over his 12 sons, it says he pulls
his legs up in the bed, blasts off. What dignity. The life,
filled with the Holy Ghost at the last. Instead of being tortured by death it tells us in Hebrews, there are
those who spend their entire life tortured by the fear of death. You know, it’s only man that says ‘What
is this all about? Why am I
here? Where is it all going?’ Cows do not stand in the field saying, ‘Isn’t this
strange? What’s the purpose of all
of this? Do you think there’s an
afterlife? You know that big gray
cow over there, had that near-death experience the other day [laughter], drove
past the slaughterhouse and came back again.’ It’s
only man that measures these things out, and God’s able to minister to our
hearts in those things. You know,
everyone here needs to think about that who doesn’t know Christ. I think about it in the context of
resurrection, in the context of hope. It tells us in 1st Timothy that in Christ, in his death and
resurrection, death has been abolished. The power of it is gone. Because, you know, for the unbeliever, death is the end of things. It’s
the end of hope and dreams, it’s the end of relationships, it’s the end of
plans, it’s the end. [Comment: Within the body of Christ there are a few different interpretations
about death, heaven and hell. To
read some of them, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] For the believer, it isn’t. For me it’s not the end of relationships, so many of them I’m looking
forward to seeing again. When I do
a funeral I spend the next day thinking of all the wonderful people I love here
in this church that have gone on to be with the Lord. I think of my Grandpa. I think of Whitfield, Spurgeon, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
Noah. It’s the beginning of
relationships, not the end, for me. It’s not the end of my hopes and dreams. Because the Bible describes heaven so vividly, says we have
an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved for us
in heaven, so part of my dreams and aspirations are to step through and to see
that. [Comment: the Kingdom of God is coming to earth
with Christ at his 2nd coming, and earth will become the
Headquarters of the Universe when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven to
forever reside on earth, cf. Revelation 21:1-23.] To behold Christ, to stand around his throne in a great
throng, and in an eternity to be there. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning, for a believer. Death has been abolished. It’s not the end of my plans. I’m planning on all of this. I don’t know when. But I’m planning on it. I don’t imagine, I can’t, for an
unbeliever to face this. Paul says ‘I don’t want you to be ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep,
that you sorrow not as others who have no hope, because since we believe that
Jesus died, and he rose again, there’s an empty tomb in Jerusalem, that because
the same Spirit that raised him from the dead dwells in you, we’re going to
experience the same thing.’ Then we need to know that those who
have gone on before us, that God is going to bring those with him when Christ
returns. ‘And this we say
unto you by the word of the Lord, that the Lord himself shall descend with a
shout, for us that are living,’ we’re looking at a war in the Middle East, we’re looking at injustice, we’re
hearing about anthrax and smallpox and terrorism. Jesus said in the last days the world would be filled with
perplexity, the word means “no way out.” Men’s hearts would be failing them for fear, looking at the things that
are coming on the world. But Jesus
said when these things begin to take place, ‘Lift up your heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh.’ That word “redemption”, used eight
times in the New Testament speaks of the redemption of the physical frame. When these things begin, that’s our
signal. If you don’t think they’ve
begun, go home and watch the news tonight. It’s time to get out on your launch-pads, Jesus is coming,
he’s coming for his Bride, and he’s going to reach down, with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and he is going to snatch us away
with force from this world. [applause] Now I know
there’s somebody sitting here steaming, ‘This guy’s been reading Margaret
McDonald and John Darby, and he doesn’t know anything about Church history…bup,
bup, bup, bup…baa.’ Look, the beauty of this is, if I head
into the tribulation, I can change my position. You’re gonna be wrong forever. [Now that’s not true. If we believe the Rapture isn’t true, but it turns out to be true, it
just means those of us who don’t believe in this particular doctrine are gonna
be pleasantly surprised by being Raptured up to the Sea of Glass pre-trib, for
the Wedding Feast, a 7 year long Wedding Feast before Christ returns to earth, that’s
all.] I am an avowed
pre-tribulationist. I was a
post-tribulationist, early-on. But
you start to look at God’s wrath, how it is thought out, it isn’t just flying
off the handle, his anger, how it’s measured, the purpose of it. It is for the children of disobedience,
that have been storing up wrath unto themselves, and to a Christ-rejecting
world. And even early-on then, to
turn. And the wrath doesn’t begin
three and a half years through the 7-year period, it begins at the beginning,
when the first Seal is opened, and the antichrist is allowed to go forth and
deceiving, it begins right at the beginning, the wrath of God. In fact there are uses of the wrath of
God in the present tense, right now it’s happening. It says in Revelation chapter 11 the two prophets that die,
it says that they tormented all of the earth for 1260 days, that’s the first
half [no, some believe it’s the 2nd half of those 7 years, so
there’s disagreement within the Body of Christ over this one too]. We’ll do that next week. Hopefully we won’t be here and you’ll
understand all of this. But our
hope, as believers, is in the coming of Christ for his Church, not with his Church, but for his Church. The miracle isn’t when it happens, it’s that it happens at
all. For any thinking Christian,
the miracle isn’t pre, mid, or post-tribulation, the miracle is that he has the
power in the twinkling of an eye to take our physical frames, to snatch them
away from the surface of the earth, with power and authority, and to change us
in an atomos,
incorruptible, immortal. I’m not
amazed that he loves me enough to take me out before he judges a
Christ-rejecting world. The
miracle of it is the power of the transformation, not the timing of the
transformation. We’re to treat our
wives the way Christ treats the Church. He doesn’t dump fire on it, let demons go on it. Some of you might feel you’re married
to post-tribulationists, ladies, I know. He nourishes it and cherishes it. ‘We’ll be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.’ Maranatha, the Lord is coming, his return is immanent, it says many
times in the New Testament. Well
Church history, let me tell you something about Church history, it’s a mess. If you want to know what to believe,
don’t go back to Church history, go back to the New Testament. [I tried to do that, as well as using
the most modern of Church history research authors, and wrote about it at http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/index3.htm enjoy, you’ll be in
for some surprises.] Biblical
theology is what we want, not history theology [which is basically Catholic
theology, is what he’s saying]. Great men were killed because they said they thought Romans and
Galatians taught justification by faith, they were murdered. Because that wasn’t historic [Catholic]
Church doctrine, that was Biblical doctrine. And when they tried to bring simple truths back to the
Church, justification by faith, they paid with their lives. And the Lord coming for his Church, and
the imminence of that, it can happen at any moment, is not history Church
doctrine, it’s Biblical doctrine. Paul said “we”, when we are caught up to be with the Lord. You can’t embrace a post-tribulation
Rapture, or a mid-tribulation Rapture and an imminent return at the same
time. The Lord says ‘Whose this
wicked servant that says in his heart ‘the Lord delayeth his coming?’ that that kind of thing, putting off
the coming of Christ bears bad fruit, eating and drinking and
fist-fighting. It says ‘Any
man who has this hope purifies himself, even as he is pure.’ If we believe the Lord could come at any moment, that has a dramatic
effect on our lives, on our evangelism, on our priorities, on the way we
live. Maranatha, the Lord
cometh. Serve that way, live that
way, hope that way, don’t be hopeless. In the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, you’ll be reunited with
children, with parents, with loved ones, so shall we ever, we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore comfort one
another with these words…[transcript of a connective expository sermon given on
1st Thessalonians 4:13-18, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel
of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
related
links:
http://www.unityinchrist.com/mathew/Matthew24-1-31.htm
|
