THE RAPTURE: ARE YOU READY?
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. JOKE #1 Pizza or Mobster? The following are either actual mobster nicknames or pizza specials. Can you tell which is which? 1. Big Tuna 2. Pistol Pete 3. Greasy Thumb 4. The Greek 5. Meatball 6. Lucky 7 7. Johnny Sausage 8. Big Brother 9. Burger 10. White Knight 11. Cheesebox 12. T. Town Driller 13. The Grim Reaper 14. The Works. (Answer: odd numbers are mobster nicknames; even numbers are pizzas).
B. THE MOST COVETED SUPER-POWERS
1. Wouldn’t it be great to have super powers? Wouldn’t you like to wake up one morning to find you had, in the words of the old Superman TV show… “powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men?”
a. To be faster than a speeding bullet…
b. More powerful than a locomotive…
c. To leap tall buildings in a single bound?
2. I wonder, if you were given the chance to acquire one super power…what would it be? A recent poll asked this question, and gave participants the following options:
a. Invulnerability f. Invisibility
b. Reading minds g. Super strength
c. Spider-sense h. Genie-like magic
d. The ability to fly i. Great intelligence
e. X-Ray vision j. Incredible luck
3. Which of those, if you could choose only one, would be your super power of choice? Of 9,000 people polled, the highest choice was…The ability to fly.
C. THESIS
1. One of these days we’re going to get to fly, without
airplanes or wings, because the Bible tells us of an event that will happen called “the RAPTURE.”
2. So this morning, we’re going to look at what the Rapture is, the benefits of going up in the Rapture, and the 7 signs that the Rapture is imminent.
3. The title of this message is: “The Rapture: Are You Ready?”
I. CERTAINTY OF HIS COMING
A. WHAT IS THE RAPTURE?
1. “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
2. 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.”
3. The Greek word “harpadzo,” used in 1 Th. 4:17 and trans. as “caught up” was trans. in the Latin Vulgate as “raptus,” from whence we get our English word rapture.
B. JESUS SAID HE WAS COMING BACK
1. Early in His Ministry (Luke 4:18), Jesus told Jewish leaders that He had come to heal the sick. They didn’t believe He could, but He healed the people anyway.
2. Jesus told them He could drive out demons. They didn’t believe He could, but He did it anyway.
3. Jesus told them He would rise from the Dead. They didn’t believe He would.
a. His body was wrapped in grave clothes
b. A heavy stone was rolled against the tomb’s mouth,
c. Soldiers were posted outside the tomb to guard it,
d. The door was sealed so it couldn’t be opened….
4. BUT NO HUMAN OR SUPERNATURAL FORCE COULD STOP THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS FROM THE DEAD! HE’S ALIVE!
5. This same Jesus told us, “I am coming back.” There are 52 prophecies of Jesus’ 2nd Coming, 535 verses! Many Christians have quit looking for His appearing, but HE’S COMING BACK!
6. Many people today make fun of the idea of the Rapture. People like Harold Camping have made a mockery of it.
7. BUT JESUS IS COMING BACK & ALL THE POWERS OF HEAVEN OR HELL, OR ARMIES, OR NUCLEAR MISSILES CAN’T STOP HIM!
8. JOKE. We do wish He’d come back sooner. Like Uncle Pete who had to wait in long lines to get to see the Doctor. When he finally saw him, the Doctor apologized for the wait. Uncle Pete said, “It’s Ok, I just thought you might prefer treating my ailment in its earlier stages.”
II. BENEFITS OF CHRIST’S RETURN
A. YOU WILL SEE JESUS FACE-TO-FACE
1. The Bible says, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven” (1 Thess. 4:16).
2. Imagine the joy of seeing Jesus in person – the ecstasy of seeing His loving face and beholding His glory!
B. YOU & I WILL BE CHANGED
1. “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
2. Imagine your new supernatural body – with new strength, new shape, new teeth (remember, we’re going to eat at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb), new hair, etc. 3. Revelation 21 says He will “wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (v. 4).
C. WE WILL BE REUNITED WITH OUR LOVED ONES IN HEAVEN
1. At Christ’s coming, we “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds” (1 Thess. 4:17).
2. Imagine how wonderful it will be to embrace our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters, our friends etc. in heaven! Surely our hearts will be overwhelmed.
D. WE WILL BE REWARDED
1. Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12).
2. Many people think that all that matters is that they are saved. Nothing could be further from the truth!
3. There will be great rewards for the faithful. Yet not everyone in heaven will receive the same reward:
a. Some will sit on thrones (Luke 22:29-30; Rev. 3:21), while others will “scarcely be saved” (1 Pet. 4:18), yet only as by fire.
b. In heaven, some saints will be richly rewarded while others will have all their works burned up (1 Cor. 3:14-15).
4. It’s like a man needing a wheelbarrow to work on a construction job. He is so poor that a friend has mercy on him and gives him a wheelbarrow. That’s grace. But what he puts in the wheelbarrow after he receives it, is works.
5. Jesus will judge us for: the hungry we feed; the strangers we take in; the naked we clothe; the people we visit in hospitals (Matthew 25:46); the people we instruct in the Gospel. These are things we’re supposed to be doing.
III. 7 SIGNS OF CHRIST’S SOON RETURN
The following signs have never occurred until our day.
A. ISRAEL REBORN AS A NATION
1. In 1948, after over 2,000 years without a country, Israel was again “born” as a nation. “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of His people” Isa. 11:11.
2. In 1967, during war, Jerusalem was retaken and at last became a Jewish city again. Jesus said, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down... until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).
3. Jesus said when Israel buds forth as a nation and gains possession of the holy city, Jerusalem, it signals the end time and the return of Christ.
B. ABILITY TO EXTERMINATE THE HUMAN RACE
1. In Matthew 24:22, Jesus said that “if that time of troubles were not cut short, no living thing could survive; but for the sake of God’s chosen it will be cut short” (Revised English Bible).
2. For the last 60 years, due to the many thousands of nuclear bombs possessed by the U.S and Russia, the human race has lived with the threat of “mutually assured destruction.” The whole world could be blown up many times over.
3. Since then, many other countries have joined the nuclear club: Great Britain, China, France, Israel, N. Korea, India, Pakistan, and sometime soon, Iran.
4. The good news is that Christian believers have an assurance, that Jesus Christ will intervene to save mankind from annihilation. This prophecy could not be fulfilled until man had the potential for self-extinction through weapons of mass destruction.
C. RISE OF RUSSIA, CHINA, EURO-UNION
1. RUSSIA. Ezekiel 38-39 prophesies the rise of the Land of Magog in the far north, who’s allied with many Middle Eastern countries that are enemies of Israel. The description is unmistakably Russia. Daniel likewise prophesies about the King of the North who would seek to invade Israel.
2. RISE OF CHINA:200 MILLION MAN ARMY
a. “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates … that the way of the Kings of the East might be prepared. And the number of the army … [was] two hundred million” (Rev. 16:12; 9:16). Time mag. 1965, China claimed army that size.
b. KARAKORAM HWY , HIMALAYAS
3. RISE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION.
a. “The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth….The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.” Dan. 7:23-24
b. E.U. MAP fulfills Daniel 2 description.
D. THE GOSPEL PROCLAIMED AROUND THE WORLD
1. Matt. 24:14. The Bible has been translated into nearly 2000 languages, and missionaries have gone to every country of the world. If a nation is unevangelized today, it’s not because the missionaries didn’t go, as much as because the leaders of the nations chose to expel the missionaries.
2. The vast majority of unreached people groups -- the Muslim population -- live in geographic areas that had been reached by the early church before Mohammed arrived in the sixth century.
3. Europe was the stronghold of Christianity for centuries but now 90% of its inhabitants are not Christians. Yet we would not say they had not had an adequate witness of Christ, but rather that their children ultimately rejected that witness.
4. Now the really unreached areas – China, Siberia, southern Africa, North and South America, Australia, etc. HAVE received an adequate witness of Christ! Jesus could come at any moment!
E. INSTANT WORLDWIDE COMMUNICATIONS
1. Only with the technological advances of the last few years has it become possible for the events in Revelation 11 to occur—for people around the world to see the fate of God’s final two witnesses.
2. Rev. 11: 3, 7-10 tells how people all over the world will be able to view their dead bodies during the 3 ½ days that they lie on display in Jerusalem. This wasn’t possible before satellite television, portable communications devices and the Internet.
F. THE RISE OF HOMOSEXUAL DOMINANCE
1. The “SIGN OF SODOM” in Luke 17:26-30 says “Just as it was in the days of…Lot,…Sodom….It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”
2. Gen. 19 describes a time when homosexuals had taken over and were aggressively promoting their agenda. It’s clear that history is repeating itself. Jesus said He would come back when this occurred.
G. TECHNOLOGY FOR 666 FEASIBLE
1. The advent of computerized banking, the internet, product codes & scanners, and the digital network make it possible to track and regulate the financial purchases of each person.
2. Rev. 13:16-17 says that the Antichrist will make it impossible to purchase anything, unless you take a mark of allegiance to him, that involves the number 666.
3. God warns us that anyone who takes this mark forfeits eternal life.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: “PREPARED”
1. On December 26, 2004, the world watched in horror as a massive tsunami hit Southeast Asia.
2. An earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean triggered a huge tidal wave as high as 100 feet tall that came crashing on shore across the region.
3. The tsunami did damage as far as the east coast of Africa, 5000 miles away.
4. Over a quarter million people died in the rampaging waters and devastation that followed. Entire island populations and coastal villages were wiped out – every man, woman, and child in some cases.
5. According to the Associated Press, there was one notable exception to the loss of life. The Morgan sea gypsies live in small thatch huts on the beaches of Thailand.
6. They were living directly in the path of certain disaster. Yet every single member of the tribe survived, while most of their neighbors drowned in the rampaging waters.
7. Why? The tribal chief explains, "For generations our fathers warned us that if the waters ever receded fast, they would quickly reappear in the same quantity in which they disappeared."
8. On December 26 when the sea suddenly drained away, many of their neighbors ran to the beach with baskets to pick up stranded fish.
9. Not the Morgan sea gypsies. The chief ordered his tribe to run in the opposite direction, to the mountains and safety. When the tsunami hit, the entire tribe was spared. (David A. Sargent)
10. What was the key to their survival? They were warned and obeyed. Today you are being warned of another tsunami that’s coming, another global cataclysm: the Second Coming of Christ! You too must seek shelter from the wrath of God that is coming on the world!
B. THE CALL
1. Only those who’ve sincerely repented of their sins and turned to Christ for salvation will go up in the Rapture.
2. Jesus said, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect Him!”
3. Can you say without a shadow of a doubt, that if the Rapture of the Church were to happen today, that you would go?
4. Prayer of repentance and for salvation.
[Thanks to Lowell Lundstrum and Ajai Prakash (Signs of Christ’s Return) for input on this message]
