Snatched Away Series

Snatched Away

End Times Series- War in Israel

CCCAG November 12th, 2023

Scripture- 1 Thess 4:13-18

Intro:

Over the last several weeks we have been going over what the bible has to say about the times we are living in reference to what is going on in Israel.

If you have missed any of those messages, I encourage you to go to the podcast listed on the back of your bulletin to catch up. You’ll get a lot of perspective about what is going on.

Today we are going to be reading about an event called the Rapture. If you have been around the church for any length of time, you have heard dozens of sermons on this topic. The last time I taught on this was in 2019 when we did our Christianity 101 series.

If you were here- it’s not the same message- completely different so you still have to pay attention.

And you should pay attention.

Today this topic seems to be more urgent. As we look at a world spinning out of control, and the events going on in Israel, we are all wondering how much time we have left before the end occurs.

The Bible is vague as to the exact timing of the rapture, but it does give a few hints as to the season it could be occurring.

So today we will be studying what many in the church have called the blessed hope of the church- that there will be a generation that never experiences death but gets directly caught up to heaven.

So turn in your bibles to the New Testament book of 1st Thessalonians Chapter 4.

By the way- if you don’t have a bible and need help getting one, please let me know and we will get you one. It’s critically important in these days to have your own copy of God’s word to read for yourself.

There are a ton of false teachers out there, so you need to be able to check for yourself what they are teaching to make sure it’s actually what God says in HIS Word. Not only that, but sooner or later this book is going to be illegal to own, or it will be changed to the point where you won’t be able to get an accurate translation.

Let’s read this teaching-

1 Thess 4:13-18

13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 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. 17 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. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Prayer

I like this. This has been the hope of the church for almost 2000 years. In fact, early Christians would greet each other with the word “Maranantha” which meant “Come quickly” showing how much they were looking forward to this event.

Now, the word rapture doesn’t appear in the bible to describe this event. It’s a Latin translation of the Greek word used here in the bible that means to snatch away, and the church began to use it to describe Jesus coming back to get his church.

Today, we are going to look at what the bible has to say about this event by looking at 3 different topics that inform us about the rapture.

The First will be a couple of examples of people in the Old Testament who were caught up to heaven without dying,

The second will be the “why” of the rapture- why does Jesus come and remove his church from the world?

Then we will end with looking at “who” will be those who meet Jesus in the air.

Let’s begin with the biblical examples-

Let’s go back to Genesis-

Tucked in the middle of a genealogy that many of us glaze over when we are reading the bible is the first example of a person who God took directly to heaven without experiencing death.

Genesis 5:21-

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.