The Revelation of Jesus Christ
“The Transfer and Transformation of the church”
INTRODUCTION
We have not yet addressed the question concerning the role of the church during all the events of the final days. It is true that the church is not specifically referenced after chapter 4.
Most all biblical scholars agree there are two phases to the return of Christ in the last days.
There is a moment in time when Christ comes back in the clouds and snatches up the church with Him back to heaven. There is the moment when Jesus Christ returns back to the earth in power and glory with his victorious saints to rule and reign on the earth. One is called the rapture. The other is called the second coming. Some lump the two together and call it the second coming or Day of the Lord in two stages. Revelation does include a clear description of the rapture taught by Paul.
In order to better understand the rapture, it nature possible chronology, we must look to other passages of Scripture.
The main views concerning the rapture of the church boil down to three basic views.
The pre-tribulation rapture where Jesus returns for his church prior to the tribulation.
The mid-tribulation rapture where Jesus returns for his church after the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation sometimes called pre-wrath rapture.
Finally there are those who hold to a post-tribulation where Jesus returns in the air to catch up his church and turns right around and descends to the earth to destroy the wicked and to rule and reign during the next 1000 years.
There is also a minority who advocate a partial rapture where Jesus returns only for those who are ready.
This can be a very hotly debated subject. Everyone insists that their view is based on the Scriptures. Interestingly each view demands specific Scriptural proof from the other but none of them can produce one.
Ultimately, the point is…
Jesus will return for his church as promised.
No amount of heated debate will affect the actual return one bit. Our primary responsibility is to be ready whenever he comes. Scripture calls us to be found faithful at his return; holy and blameless.
Have you ever thought about having a body that functions as originally designed? Have you wished you could go back to a previous body weight or ability? Are you tired of aches and pains and doctor visits? Do most of the entries in your address book begin with DR? How about you fight against fleshly desires? Do you wish you would always do what you know to be true? Do you wish that your walk with God did not look like a stock market graph? Talking with Jesus would be the priority of your life. Your life would actually reflect the words of the songs you sing. Your relationship with Jesus was as tangible as the relationship with your spouse.
Do you ever wish you had full capacity of your brain and perfect emotional health?
No more drama. Perfect eternal perspective. No depression or boredom. No more emptiness.
No more hopelessness or lack of purpose.
Do you ever wish that this incessant badgering by the devil would just stop? I am here today by the authority of the word of God that all of the above and more will be a continual reality.
THE NATURE OF THE TRANSFER AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHURCH
More important than the timing of the rapture is its actual substance Having said that, the bulk of material written generally deals with the timing of the rapture rather than the wonder of the event. Volumes have been written about when will think it will take place. Yet not much space is devoted to actually exploring exactly WHAT will take place. More Scripture is given to the nature of the event than the timing of the event. Perhaps the reason no one can find a specific scripture related to the time is that God wants us to focus more on the what than the when.
The rapture of the church includes more than just catching Christians up to meet Jesus in the air. It is more than a change in location. It is more than escaping an uncomfortable circumstance. It concerns the physical uniting of living and previously deceased Christians with their Lord. In order to hang out with Jesus, there must be a fundamental transformation of body and soul. He indwells every born again individual by His Spirit but will personally and physically relate to every born again believer at the rapture of the church. It is not only a rapture or evacuation from the earth but a supernatural complete transformation. Sometimes it is called the resurrection or translations of the saints. It is equated to the grand resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He is called the first fruits of those who would follow in their own glorious transformation.
I think for the Christian, this is the culmination of our personal journey. There is more to come after, but this is the birth of our eternal existence. It is the wedding ceremony, the marriage, our wedding day. Just as the wedding day is not the end but the beginning, so the resurrection of all believers in Jesus is only the beginning of our everlasting life. There is more to come.
The glorious return to earth, the Millennium of governing the earth, the final demise and judgment of Satan and all the wicked, the establishment of our eternal home in the New Jerusalem. This is a grand day not to be diminished by arguments of its timing.
The terms
The specific term “rapture” is not actually found in the Scripture.
The English word comes from a Latin word, rapio, which means to seize or snatch in relation to an ecstasy of spirit or the actual removal from one place to another. In other words, it means to be carried away in spirit or in body.
Rapture is the Latin translation of the Greek word “Caught up” found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:17
This Greek word means “to carry off, take by force, snatch, snatch away (Philip), catch up (Paul to the 3rd heaven) snatch (sinners out of the fire), caught up to heaven (Jesus to God Rev 12:5).
It is in the passive voice indicating an action done to us.
The “catcher”
It is clear that Jesus comes to “receive us unto Himself”
If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:3
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
The “caught”
All those “IN” Christ both dead and living since Pentecost will be transferred and transformed.
It encompasses all those who by the Holy Spirit have been placed into the body of Christ upon their confession of faith in Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
Some think that this verse indicates that the Baptists will rise first (dead in Christ ? ).
The term “IN Christ” is a very rich concept found all through the New Testament.
It indicates our vital connection to Jesus Christ. It showcases all the benefits of relationship with Christ “in Him we have, were, are…” It identifies those who have been placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit by faith in the finished work of Jesus.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized (identified or placed) into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
To be in Christ is to be vitally connected to Christ as the body is connected to the head.
The event
Jesus will bodily return in clouds as he promised at His ascension. Jesus will shout out to us.
An archangel will also shout. The trumpet of God will announce the even. (Not to be confused with the 7th judgment trumpet.) The bodies of those who have died “in Christ” will be raised and reunited with their owners in a six-foot head start (rise first).
Those still alive will be “caught up”. All will be transformed and physically gathered to Christ in the air and accompany Him back to heaven.
The duration
It will occur at a moment in time. Paul describes the event in very specific terms.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
We are so used to gradual change. We are used to slow and measured progress. We are taught no to expect instant growth. That will all change at the transformation of the church.
It will happen instantaneously. At the blink of an eye, Jesus will do in us what we all need and want.
The effect
Just what will happen to us at that moment in time? Like I mentioned before.
This is a very personal event. It is the culmination of our journey. There are no more changes necessary. We will be fully equipped to joyfully and meaningfully live with Christ for eternity.
Effects for the body
A significant amount of space is devoted to the body transformation aspect of the rapture. Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, will instantaneously finish the redemption process He started. Romans 8:9-11
This will be the conclusion of the promise of Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
In Philippians, Paul calls for us to have a similar attitude of service and humility that Jesus had.
He encourages us to live by God's standard not the standard of the world. He warns us not to set our minds on the things of this earth. The basis for such behavior lies in who we are and who we will become. We are citizens of heaven awaiting transformation.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. Philippians 3:20-21
It is clear that Jesus is going to do something with these fleshly bodies that will take supernatural power when he returns from heaven. We get some idea of what it will be like because he compares about our new bodies to the current glorified resurrected body of Jesus.
We have some idea of the nature of that body by studying the post resurrection appearances of Jesus to His disciples. Luke 24:36-43
They will be material, recognizable, touchable, functional (eating and drinking).
The word transformation is the idea of reconfiguring; introducing a new scheme of things.
There is a future plan for these bodies. Paul calls it the finalization of our redemption.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:22-23
Paul expands on the nature and necessity of glorified, transformed bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:39-58
God differentiates between living beings. There's a difference between the bodies that men have that differs from that of animals and birds and fish. He also indicates that there is a heavenly or spiritual body. These all have their place and all reflect a unique glory. Paul indicates that we all had a natural earthly body that is perishable and weak. At the resurrection, God brings about a phenomenal transformation.
Paul powerfully illustrates the difference.
Our bodies change from perishable to imperishable
Not so glorious to glorious.
Week to powerful
Natural to supernatural
An image of the earthly to an image of the heavenly
And he tells us the necessity of such a transformation.
Flesh and blood can't inherit the heavenly kingdom.
Perishable cannot inherit imperishable.
He calls it a mystery; something that no one has experienced before. The body of every believer (we all) will be changed, made different. It must or it will not survive the trip.
We will experience a transformation from mortal to immortal, weak to powerful, plain to glorious, perishable to imperishable. Death will no longer be a factor. Death will no longer bear a sting. The last enemy of humanity will suffer its final defeat through Jesus.
God will finally remove a constant drag on our journey, the flesh. Paul cried, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Jesus!!! With transformed bodies there will no longer be a flesh to contend with. The sin principle entrenched in our flesh like a deadly parasite will be completely purged.
On the soul
I believe John alludes to another aspect of transformation.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:1-3
Many passages of indicate a supernatural body transformation. John indicates there will be an equally amazing soul transformation. At that moment we will have a heart like his.
We will be pure as he is pure. We will be blameless as he is blameless. We will relate to God as he relates to God the father. We shall behold him. We will become like Him when we behold him in our transformed bodies.
John urges us to embrace this truth in a way that causes us to purify ourselves even now and continually become like him even now in anticipation of that glorious day.
On the spirit
There is no indication of a spirit change on that day. I believe it is because the work in the core of our being has already been accomplished. We have discussed that supernatural and rebirth of our spirit on previous occasion.
CONCLUSION
All of the yet unfulfilled deep inner longings of our heart will find ultimate fulfillment on that day. It is our wedding day. It will be the day of Christ Jesus in which he completes that which He began and receive His bride.
Marvel WOW!
Anticipate
God’s grace motivates us to deny ungodliness and worldly desire and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in their present age by anticipated life in the next and looking for the blessed hop and appearing of the glory of our Savior who died to purify a people to enter into relationship with and reflect His nature. Titus 2:11-14
Paul anticipated the reward coming to those who love and anticipate His appearing. 2 Tim 4:8.
Peter urged us to anticipate the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
What is that grace? Transformation? In light of that future transformation, he urged his readers to live holy NOW! Not to be conformed to this world but live holy as He is holy. (1 Peter 1:13-19)
Paul urged the Colossians to seek the things above (eternal) and to set their mind on the things above where Christ is and where our live is now hidden. His motivation is that one day, when Christ is revealed in all His glory, we too will be revealed in glory due to our great transformation. In the meantime we are to consider ourselves dead to the old life and passions and reflect the new passions instilled in us as we are being renewed into His image. Col 3:1-17
Prepare
Paul warned about impurity during the engagement period.
2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2-3
Paul reminded them of God’s heart to enjoy intimate relationship with us creatures. He talked about God’s promise to live in them and one day among them. Paul then urged the Corinthians to take the promises to heart and prepare.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1
John expressed a similar response to such an intimate relationship with God through Jesus.
As sure as Jesus came the first time in fulfillment of many prophesies, He will return again in glory in fulfillment of God’s promises. Are we ready? We shall behold Him and we will all be changed. We will be like Him in every way, right down to the nature of His glorified body.
Having such a hope, John urged us to prepare, to continually purify ourselves in this life.
1 John 3:1-3
Affirm the truth.
Embrace the truth and express your emotion.
Commit
