The Blessed Hope
Christianity 101
CCCAG November 24th, 2019
Scripture- 1 Thess 4:13-18
Intro:
Several years ago I showed a very similar video depicting what will happen when the rapture occurs.
It's pretty dramatic isn't it?
The rapture became a huge topic among Christians in the 1990’s with the Left Behind series of books that came out, but since then has fallen into disrepute.
Many people have gotten very skeptical about the rapture because of various cults and people claiming they know the exact date and time it's going to happen.
You'll remember a few years ago when various groups came out thinking they knew exactly when the rapture was going to take place and then that date came and nothing happened.
One person kept changing it and changing it and changing it until finally the news stop paying attention.
So today as part of our Christianity 101 series I want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about this event called the rapture.
The term rapture is not found within biblical texts, but is a term used to describe an event that is seen over an over again. I like to say that the term computer is not in the bible either, but since this sermon is here on paper and written on a computer, that proves its existence.
Within the Assemblies of God, we call the rapture the Blessed Hope- the moment that Jesus comes back and takes those who are living for HIM directly into heaven without experiencing death.
One of the primary scriptural references for the rapture is found in the Apostle Paul’s writings to the church in Thessalonica.
The context for these scriptures involve Paul teaching some basic principles to the church, and he finishes the teaching with telling them what is going to happen to those who die in Christ. Paul then goes on to teach about an event that will occur at some point before the tribulation.
Let’s read His 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
So, this sounds pretty good right? No dying, going to be with Jesus forever in heaven- best news ever!
So the question is- when?
People have been trying to figure out for century’s when this event is going to happen. Dates have been widely published and then they come and go and nothing happens.
This is not a new phenomenon- people in the early church were doing the same thing. In fact, it was always the number 1 question the disciples asked Jesus- when are you going to take over? When do we get to enjoy our reward in your kingdom?
Jesus answered that question this way first before he went to the cross in Mark 13:32
"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Even after the resurrection, the disciples again asked Jesus about the timing of his return, and Jesus again said-
Acts 1:7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority
Not for you to know. When you were a child, what was the number one most frustrating thing you could hear from a parent?
“Because I said so!”
Why can’t we know when the rapture will take place?
Because God said so!
Why do you think that God didn’t put a date in the scriptures about the rapture?
Allow for answers
Because of human nature. If your boss is on vacation, it’s human nature to relax a bit at work. There might be more goofing off, not following the rules as much, or just general laziness.
Christians are not immune from this, so Jesus left us with this sense that he could come back at any moment.
Turn to Matt 24
Saying that, the bible does speak a lot about the general conditions that will exist prior to the begging of the tribulation, and we believe that the rapture will precede that time.
That allows us a general sense of the timing of the rapture. We have to be careful about that in reading into things hoping that the rapture is next week because you just maxed out your credit cards.
Jesus tells us to keep watch so that we don’t slip away from a passionate love affair with HIM and lose our reward.
That’s the perspective we need before we go any further.
Regarding the timing of the rapture- We know it’s before the tribulation begins. The horseman will not ride until Jesus’ people are out of the way.
Let’s look at the condition of the world immediately preceding the tribulation-
Let’s turn there now and read a few verses. Jesus is speaking in general terms about how the culture will look prior to His return.
Matt 24:10-14
10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
In verse 12, it says that the increase of wickedness causes the love of most to grow cold.
We need to clarify that word “Love” because the world is trying to redefine what love is today. The word for love in the scripture here is Agape- it’s the unselfish, God centered love that desires the best for everyone around us. The expression of this type of love is seeing God elevated in every way in the person’s life, so that HIS maximum blessings may flow toward an eternal reward.
Wickedness seeks to extinguish that love and replace it with happiness. Happiness is a temporary emotion based on limited perception of external circumstances.
For example- the happiness the world pursues is like a person who is starving to death might be happy to find a piece of moldy breads to eat. That’s what sin is- a pursuit of happiness at the expense of long term peace, joy, and presence of God.
That’s why we don’t pursue happiness. We pursue Godly love expressed by joy.
That’s why pursing only happiness is what defines wickedness. It is ultimately self-defeating.
It’s spiritual heroin- you never get the same high you did when you first shot up, so you need more and more to chase the high that you had at first, and you are never satisfied.
That’s what is wrong with our society today- they are chasing the spiritual heroin of wickedness and pursing happiness apart from God.
I don’t care how much you redefine what is good and evil- you’ll never find what you are looking for. Ever. Even if you get a momentary thrill, it will be replaced by further emptiness.
That’s the condition of the world prior to the rapture, and in large part, describes our culture today- the pursuit of happiness over the pursuit of God.
Turn to 2 Tim 3 (sight pause)
What is seen in the world is first seen in the individual. The Apostle Paul spoke prophetically to young Pastor Timothy about how the individual person will look in the last days before the rapture-
2 Tim 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Pretty bleak isn’t it?
Isn’t this what we see in a certain, supposedly tolerant portion of our nation today? Protesting intolerance of sinful choices and lifestyles with acts of extreme violence? These are people who have embraced the lie.
You may think, “well they are young and were fooled into falsehood.”
No
The bible is very clear about sin. If you chose sin, it’s because you have loved darkness more than the light.
What the heart desires, the will seeks, and then the mind rationalizes.
That’s the condition of the world, and of people who don’t know Jesus.
Now lets turn in our bibles to see what Jesus will be looking for in the generation that will enjoy the blessed hope of the rapture. There is a whole chapter of the bible dedicated to this.
Turn in your bibles to Matthew 25.
I’m going to frame the next part of this message by asking a question-
Why will the rapture occur? What’s the point?
Hint- it’s not to get us out of a difficult situation on earth.
The rapture is simply the call that goes out that the bridegroom is coming for His bride and a wedding is about to take place.
That’s the main point- immediately after the rapture takes place, what will those raptured be doing in heaven?
Attending the marriage supper of the lamb- that’s the marriage reception after the church is spiritually married to Jesus. It’s a huge celebration and feast that some theologians believe could last for 10 earth years.
Why is this concept important to the rapture?
When a bride is about to be married, do they go out to a barn and clean the stalls, bale some hay, and then run around and wrestle pigs right before she walks down the aisle?
No, the bride makes herself ready. She does everything she can to make herself beautiful for the groom.
That’s the heart of the person who will be raptured- our worship of Christ in every part of our lives will make us beautiful to Him.
Because God LOVES HIS SON, and the Father isn’t going to give a sloppy, indifferent, lackadaisical bride to HIS beloved son.
Keep that premise in mind as we study Matt 25.
In Matthew 25, Jesus switches and begins to talk about the time when He comes to get his bride, the church. He tells three different parables to describe this event and what will be required to attend the marriage supper of the lamb.
The first parable is the parable of the virgins. This parable describes the heart condition of those who will be taken in the rapture, and those who will be left behind.
Matt 25:1-13
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
7 "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
9 "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
10 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12 "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
In this parable you see 2 groups of people; the wise virgins and the foolish virgins.
The wise virgins kept themselves ready for the bridegrooms return while the foolish virgins were lazy and distracted from earthly pursuits.
The key verse of this parable is verse 13-therefore keep watch.
Let me illustrate this
In the military we were going through an evaluation that all military units have to go through at certain intervals. My last unit was a service battery in a field artillery unit. Our job was to bring ammo, food, supplies to the gun batteries, and to serve as a backup to the headquarters battery if they were destroyed. Since we were a non-combat battery within a combat unit one of those evaluations tested our ability to defend ourselves against an attack by an enemy that had slipped through the front lines and was trying to take out the supply chain.
Rumor had it that they actually had a Ranger platoon (special forces) that was going to do the assault, but we had no idea when they would do it. Then one of our senior NCO’s thought he heard in the mess hall that they were coming at 2300, or 11pm on the second to last night we were in the field. I was a fairly new sergeant at the time, and since I had infantry experience, the 1st sergeant put me in charge of setting the defense.
So at 2300, we were all ready- we had placed listening and observation posts out and they were well hidden, trip flares and non-lethal booby traps were set, mostly trip wires with cans to make noise, crew served weapons loaded and ready so we were ready to repel the assault. Every snap of a twig, every strange noise in Ft McCoy’s woods and we were sure that was them coming.
2315 came, no assault.
2330 came. Still no assault
Midnight came. Nothing
1am came, still nothing. I was doing rounds to the Observation posts and found 2 people sleeping and woke them up.
2am came. Some guys had heard wrongly that the order had come to stand down and they went to their cots. I found them and put them back on station.
3am came. I’m getting tired and sleepy and a little grumpy, but I’m still in charge and doing rounds and communicating with the posts.
330 am, 3 of our 6 posts are not responding to radio calls- they fell asleep.
345 am- the assault happens. The Rangers slipped right past the booby traps, right past the one of the observation posts where the soldiers were sleeping and used red permeant marker across the soldier’s throats to simulate their throats being cut and took that route. They had been in the wood about 100m away from our furthest post since 9pm the previous night observing our defenses, found the soldiers who had the worse discipline, and exploited that.
The point I’m trying to convey is this-
As Christians, we know we live in enemy territory, and we know that attacks from the kingdom of darkness will come. We are living in evil days and it seems like Jesus is taking forever to fulfill his promise to come back. The enemy is using this time to wear us down, make us fall asleep, sow fear, doubt, and unbelief in an effort to destroy our salvation.
But like good soldiers, we need good discipline to stay awake and keep watch.
That is the condition that will assure us that when that trumpet sounds, our hearts will be ready to meet the LORD in the air.
The second parable is found in Matthew 25:14-33.
This shows us the Judgment seat of Christ.
For times sake, I’m going to condense it a bit, but I encourage you to read it and mediate on it and what God is speaking to you through it.
The parable tells the story of a master who went away and gave sums of money to each of his servants in varying amounts. One he gave 5 talents, one he gave 2 talents, and one he gave 1 talent. A talent was a measure of money.
The master was away for a long time. The servant who got the 5 talents put it in deposit in a bank, and it earned 5 more. The servant with 2 talents did the same, and earned 2 more. The servant with 1 talent went out and buried it so no one would steal it or it wouldn’t get lost.
The master returns and demands an account of what was entrusted to his servants. The two that had invested the money and had earned more money received effusive praise from the master and were given even more position and resources to manage. The one who buried his talent brought it back all dirty, stained and unused, and then had the audacity to try and blame the masters character as to why he didn’t try to use it.
The master is furious and throws the last servant into the darkness.
That’s the Readers Digest condensed version of the parable.
What it is doing is describing the Judgement Seat of Christ. This will occur during the marriage supper of the lamb.
This is where Jesus is going to judge each one of us on what we do for HIM in this life. Replace the word talents with gifts, talents, and resources that Jesus has given us to steward in this life.
Will you show an increase for what HE has blessed you with? Or will you allow fear or the pleasures of this life to rob you of an eternal reward?
Or worse, will you allow the things of this life to rob you of your place in the rapture. That’s one of the ways the outer darkness can be interpret here. If you are left behind, you are facing hell on earth as God’s judgments begin to fall, and most likely will have to give your life to stay faithful to God.
What God will judge us on ultimately boils down to worship. Is your worship pure, or is it a secondary or even tertiary consideration in your life?
Worship isn’t just singing songs on Sunday morning, it’s an expression of what you consider most worthy in your life.
The first example of this in the bible was early on - (Cain/Abel)
Worship will determine the heart conditions required in the believer to not be left behind when the trumpet sounds.
Will you be keeping watch, and to be serving Him with every resource that Jesus has given you.
Think about that for a moment.
In the video we watched at the beginning of the message the trumpet sounded, and most people in the church disappeared and were taken to heaven to be with Jesus forever.
But, there were some left behind.
These are the people who play at going to church, but never really commit. It’s not just about church membership. You can be on the membership rolls here and not be saved. That’s why we have the question on the form about accepting Jesus as Savior. That’s your entrance into heaven. Being a member here is just a commitment to one of Jesus’ outposts here on earth.
So I ask you this morning- are you ready?
Jesus is coming back.
There is isn’t anything prophetically that needs to happen anymore. He could come back today, next week, 100 years from now.
Or before I finish this sentence (dramatic pause).
Are you ready?
Time of prayer
Q&A
