June 2, 2012
Morning Worship
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Subject: The Rapture
Title: The Next Great Event in World History
I believe this is God's Word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
And I appropriate it to my life today…
Matthew 24
1Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars…but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time.
26“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29“Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
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2 Timothy 3:1-5, 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Video
The Rapture of the Church – the Next Great Event in History… Titus 2:11-13, 11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13Brothers, 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. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Those who have died in Christ are alive with Him in heaven now. At this point it is their spirit that is alive but they have consciousness of everything. They are in the presence of God. Some think that in death the soul sleeps or goes dormant until the resurrection. Ephesians 3:14-15, 14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. In verse 14 it says that Jesus will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Matthew 22:31-32, 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
15According 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.
15According to the Lord’s own word… John 14:1-3, 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
16For 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. 17After 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. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Jesus is coming from heaven…
He is coming with a loud command… literally, a cry of incitement. A call to action… a stirring up… When Jesus comes for His church it won’t be done secretly – people will know it is happening…
The archangel is coming with Him… there is only one archangel mentioned in the bible and that is Michael. He is the leader of the angelic forces. It was Michael who assisted Gabriel in breaking through the stronghold of the prince of Persia in the book of Daniel.
and with the trumpet call of God… Not the same as the last trumpet judgment in Revelation… This is a call for the church to rise…
The dead will rise first… Not only is Jesus coming for His church but also He is coming with the angels and the spirits of the dead that will be reunited with a resurrected body. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
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… This clearly tells us that there is a period of time that separates the resurrection of the dead and the Rapture with the millennial reign of Christ. We believe that this is the period mentioned in Daniel as the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy. This is the tribulation period so clearly described in Revelation 6-19. I believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, meaning that the church will be taken from the earth before the 7 year tribulation period begins. Revelation 3:10, Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and let’s look at some of the verses there to help determine the timing of the rapture.
Verses 1-2 tell us that the rapture is a sure thing… when it happens the world will know it. 1Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. The Day of the Lord mentioned is not the Rapture but the seven years of judgment that follows the rapture and the culmination of that judgment with the millennial reign of Christ. . So Paul seems to be saying, if the Day of the Lord has come then why are we still here?
3Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
This is the Antichrist. The spirit of the antichrist is always in the world. Satan does not know when the Lord is going to return for His church so he has to be ready in every generation to have his man ready. We often look at the end times headlines from an American perspective. News flash. By the time of the rapture we can assume that because of the lack of reference to the US in the scripture, that we will have become insignificant in the world by that point.
6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. These verses, in my opinion, give one of the clearest explanations for a pre-trib rapture. Paul says that the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. But something or someone is able to keep him at bay. So stop and think about this. What person operating on the earth today would be able to keep the antichrist from rising to power? The Holy Spirit, right? But it tells us that the restrainer will be taken out of the way. The Holy Spirit will always be here on the earth. It is His spiritual influence that holds the universe together. If He were taken out the world would cease to exist. But it is the Holy Spirit working through the body of Christ. It is the true church that keeps the antichrist from rising to power. When the church is removed then the door is opened for laws to be changed and evil to reign in the world.
8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
The difference between signs and wonders done through the power of God and signs and wonders done through the evil one. The first always exalts the Lord and causes people to come to salvation. The latter exalts itself and leads people away from eternal life.
I want to close with this warning given to the church. …They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Those who are alive when the rapture takes place, who have heard a clear presentation of the gospel, and yet chose not to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, those people will be the recipients of a powerful delusion from God, so that they will believe the lie. Many people think, “I’ll wait until the rapture and then I’ll get saved if I miss it.” The truth is, they won’t be able to. Think about it. If they didn’t trust the Lord when they heard and when the Holy Spirit was actively at work drawing them to the Lord, what makes them think that they will believe later? …all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
We have a joyful hope – a promise from the Lord Himself. Don’t miss out on it.
