What God Says About The Future I Series

WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT THE FUTURE I

Part 1: The Rapture

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: “COMFORTABLE”

1. Two sisters inherited the family farm. They desperately needed a bull to breed with their heifers and they only had $600.

2. The brunette told her sister, "I’m going to go look at a bull-calf in Jewett. If I decide to buy it, I'll contact you to bring the truck & trailer and haul it home."

3. She looked at the bull and decided to buy it, but the owner wouldn’t take less than $599, or no deal. She bought it and (being before cell phones) she went back to town to send a telegram.

4. She had one dollar and the telegram cost $1 per word. The telegraph operator was curious how she would notify her sister and tell her to bring the truck and trailer to come retrieve the bull – all in one word!

5. After a few minutes of thinking, she nodded and said, "I want you to send her the word ‘comfortable.’"

6. The operator shook his head. "How’s she going to know to do all that with just the word "comfortable?"

7. The brunette explained, "My sister's blonde. It's a big word. She'll read it very slowly.....”

B. WHY DO I PREACH ABOUT THE FUTURE?

1. BECAUSE JESUS DID. Close to 20% of the words & sayings of Jesus were predictive in nature. Jesus talked a lot about end-time events; so should we!

2. BECAUSE GOD HAS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. Jer. 29:11

3. IT GIVES HOPE BEYOND PRESENT DISCOURAGEMENT. The Lord’s coming is our comfort (1 Th. 4:18) and hope (Tit. 2:13).

4. IT’S A MOTIVATION TO STAY READY & WITNESS; Mt. 24:44; Lk. 12:40.

C. THESIS

1. First, we’ll look at God’s great End-Time Plan and its first component – the Rapture. Next, we’ll look at what it’ll be like if you miss the rapture. Third, we talk about the qualifications for going in the Rapture.

2. The Title of this message is, “What God Says About The Future, Part I.”

I. GOD’S PLAN & THE RAPTURE

A. END TIME PLAN OF GOD

1. Diagram: agfbrakpan.com/clientfiles/events/rapture-pre-mid-post-trib-part1.htm “Timing Of Rapture,” Pre-Tribulation Segment only.

2. The first event, in the blue box to the left, is the Rapture of the Church. This is the removal of God’s people from the sphere of judgment which will occur during the second phase – The 7-Year Tribulation (red box). While the Tribulation is happening on earth, God’s people will be in Heaven at the Bema Judgment where Christ rewards them for their obedience and diligence in His service (similar to Olympic Game rewards).

3. The Third Phase will be the 2nd Advent or the Visible Return of Jesus (blue box, right) to defeat Antichrist, destroy evil, and set up His Kingdom on Earth, from Jerusalem, for a 1,000 years [the Fourth Phase – Millennium, yellow box], fulfilling God’s promises to the Jewish people about their Messiah.

4. The Last Phase will be after the 1,000 years (not on the chart) where God will Judge all the wicked Dead & depose them to another dimension. The He’ll destroy the old universe & earth, and make new ones which have never been tainted by the sin or rebellion. The New Earth will be dominated by the enormous golden & bejeweled city, New Jerusalem, which will be our home with God for all eternity!

B. WHAT IS THE RAPTURE?

Definition of “Rapture”: “Christ’s sudden, brief, and unannounced coming in the air to catch away His Church before the ‘Day’ of God’s wrath begins. Jesus returns to heaven with His saints for the Believer’s Judgment and Marriage Supper of the Lamb.”

1. THE EARTHLY PICTURE OF IT.

a. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a

loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” 1 Thess. 4:16-17.

b. I wrote up this drama of the Rapture in 2005: “Imagine yourself driving along in your car one day when you hear what sounds like a long blast from a trumpet. Your car begins to reel back & forth & you realize that an earthquake is taking place. You slow down your car, pulling over next to a cemetery. The earth continues to rumble to a crescendo and suddenly -- like a hundred missile silos popping open – hundreds of graves burst open and what appears to be human forms shoot up into the sky and out of sight. Dazed, you get out of your car to get a better look around. Suddenly, you feel a strong presence of the Lord down in your soul like you never felt before. A brilliant flashing on the horizon catches your attention. In the distance, the sky is filled, from one side to the other, with a million streaks of lightning. It races across the sky getting ever nearer and nearer. A strong tingling sensation begins down in your soul and moves outward to every part of your body. An awesome power settles over you and torrents of love, joy, victory, and praise course through you like a river. Somewhere you hear the singing of angels as you watch your body being changed, altered, transformed, recreated & you feel like you’re a baby about to be born. With joy, you see Jesus beckoning, hardly aware that your feet are leaving the ground. The earth falls away as you explode into God’s eternal Kingdom!