I SHALL KNOW HIM
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
God is so good. God is sooooo good! Although we have failed God so many times, He has never failed us. When things in our lives have got the hardest, that’s when God has been the strongest. When we have been too weak to walk alone, God has carried us. He is the Creator and the sustainer of all life. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.
The birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was foretold thousands of years before it was fulfilled in every minute detail. He Himself fulfills at least 109 separate and distinct prophecies that prove He is the Messiah.
In the 4 gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we find that Jesus prophesied over 170 different events to come. Now, 2000 years later, many of these prophecies have been fulfilled. There is simply no reason why we should believe that those prophecies that relate to future events, things yet to come, will not happen.
The signs of those times are everywhere, and the day and the time is drawing close when up in Heaven God will say “it is time,” and God’s trumpet will sound announcing that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again.
Jesus said in John, Chapter 14, verse 3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Rejoice and be happy my friends, for the Lord is coming back to take His people home!
In the fourth chapter of the book of First Thessalonians, the apostle Paul describes the first phase of the second coming of Jesus. Let’s look at what Paul said in verses 13 thru 17.
13. 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. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15. 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. 16. 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: 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.
Look at verse 15 again – “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” When you have divine revelation you surely don’t need human speculation. We have God’s word that Jesus is coming back again.
Psalms 119:89 says “Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.” When God’s word says it, then it is settled in heaven and it ought to be settled on earth as well. There’s not a prophecy anywhere in the Bible that either hasn’t come true or will come true. Jesus is coming back again, and He’s coming for you and for me. Glory to God!
Sometimes when I read these scriptures I get to where I want shout and holler and put my dancing shoes on!
Now let’s look at the return of Jesus Christ. In verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4, the Bible says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven.” My friends – the Lord himself is coming back for us. He is coming visibly. He is coming bodily. He is coming personally. He is coming gloriously! Shout it from the rooftops – Jesus is coming back.
In Acts 1:10-11, we read, “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he, Jesus, went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
This same Jesus who was born of a virgin is coming back.
This same Jesus who stilled the raging seas is coming back.
This same Jesus who fed the 5000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread is coming back.
This same Jesus who was nailed to a cross is coming back.
This same Jesus who conquered the grave is coming back.
This same Jesus who sacrificed His life in order that we might have life eternal, is coming back to take us home.
You know, after the resurrection and before Jesus ascended to heaven, He appeared to His disciples, all except Thomas, who was not there when he came. Let’s look at John 20:24-29;
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!"
27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Jesus went away visibly with the scars of the cross upon hands and body. One day soon, He’s coming back, and those same scars will be visible to us.
There was an old, blind woman named Fanny Crosby. Perhaps you have heard of her as she wrote more than 8,000 hymns in her lifetime. One day someone said to her, “How are you, an old blind woman, going to know Jesus when you come into His presence should He come back?” Then Fanny went into her room and sat down to write, and wrote that beautiful hymn, “I shall know Him.”
My wife Melissa will come now and sing it for us.
I SHALL KNOW HIM
BY Fanny J. Crosby
When my life work is ended,
and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.
Oh, the soul thrilling rapture when I view His blessed face
And the luster of His kindly beaming eye;
How my full heart will praise Him for the mercy, love, and grace
That prepared for me a mansion in the sky.
Thro' the gates of the city in a robe of spotless white,
He will lead me where no tears will ever fall;
In the glad song of ages I shall mingle with delight,
But I long to meet my Saviour first of all.
I shall know Him, I shall know Him
And redeemed by His side, I shall stand
I shall know Him, I shall know Him,
By the print of the nails in His hand.
Frances Jane "Fanny" Crosby. One time a preacher sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when He showered so many other gifts upon you." She replied quickly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind?" "Why?" asked the surprised clergyman. "Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!"
In verses 16 and 17 of the fourth chapter of First Thessalonians, Paul speaks not only of the return of Jesus, but he calls our attention to the home coming of the saints. When the trumpet sounds, Paul said, “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.” Could God have made it any plainer than that?
Jesus will come suddenly and the events of His coming will happen in rapid succession. In Revelation 3:11 Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly.” It will be fast. It will be momentous. It will be overwhelming.
Jesus will come suddenly, but He will also come as a thief in the night. Paul said in Thessalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” When Jesus comes in the air to carry His bride home, that being all those from the beginning of time that have accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior, He will come at an hour that we know not.
Rev 1:7 says;
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Every eye shall see and every ear shall hear the shout of the Savior, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God. Can you just imagine what this will be like?
The Bible says in I Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…we shall be changed.” The “twinkling of an eye” is that little sparkle which flashes in your eye when you recognize someone you haven’t seen in awhile, or for whom you have a very special feeling. Just that quickly, all believers will be drawn to Christ, Jesus Christ, our Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
Oh! Can you just imagine standing at a cemetery when Jesus comes? As the graves miraculously open up and the dead in Christ begin to rise, and then shout, and say to each other – “Come on let’s go home!”
Those who are living when He comes will be caught up in the clouds, along with the dead. The old bodies of the saved, living and dead, will be transformed by the mighty power of Jesus into new and glorified bodies. Philippians 3:21 tells us that our bodies will be “fashioned like unto his glorious body.”
That’s right, my friends, when Jesus comes in the clouds to claim his bride, the church, to take his saints home, we will go with Him where we will live forever. Once we get to heaven we will be rewarded according to our works, but it took God’s sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus, for us to be able to receive this gift of salvation.
All believers will become one with our Lord Jesus in a union so intimate that the Bible describes it as the consummation of a marriage.
I am sure that virtually all of us have attended a wedding at some time in our life, probably several. And we all know that as the organist turns up the volume and begins to play “Here Comes the Bride,” that we all stand and watch as the bride marches toward the altar and her waiting groom. But this time it will ring, “here comes the groom” as we are drawn towards Christ.
In the beginning, God gave man dominion over the earth, but man forfeited that dominion and the devil had his day. But when Jesus comes back, Satan will be bound for a thousand years.
After that thousand years Satan will be released once again, only to be cast into hell for all eternity. Today, Satan is not in hell. Ephesians 2:2 states that he is “the prince of the power of the air.” He has been allowed to freely roam this earth. In Peter 5:8 calls him a “roaring lion…seeking whom he may devour.”
But our God, the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will send Satan on a one-way trip to hell to face eternal damnation.
Jesus is Lord over all. Philippians 2:11 says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Are you ready to meet your Creator?
Are you ready for the Second Coming of Christ?
Have you built your house upon the solid rock?
Do you know my Jesus?
If not, I plead with you to not delay.
He is coming soon.
