You could see the posters hung every where, asking the same question, Have you seem this person, my son, my daughter, my husband or wife. I don¡¯t know where they¡¯ve gone, or if they are alright. A year ago we saw the pictures of people searching for their loved ones in the aftermath of September 11th, people who were confused and frightened. So imagine that confusion magnified a million times.
One minute there they were and the next minute there they were gone. Hundreds of Millions of people all over the world just disappeared. Rich people, poor people, educated people and ignorant people. People from every race, every economic class and every country in the world were gone. And the only thing they had in common was the belief they shared that a Carpenter who lived and died over two thousand years before was the son of God. How would it be explained? What could the authorities possible say that would make sense? Those left behind, which by the way was the majority, were feeling emotions of every sort, confusion, anger, grief. Some wondered what had happened, others knew what had happened, they were just a might concerned because they hadn¡¯t gone.
It sounds like the plot from a ¡°B¡± movie. Invasion of the Christian Snatchers. As a matter of fact there are churches and preachers that treat it with the same seriousness that they¡¯d treat fiction, that is if they were to ever give it a thought. And yet this event where the ¡°Church¡± is taken to be with Christ is mentioned several times throughout the gospels and the Letters of Paul. Christ didn¡¯t view it as fiction, Paul didn¡¯t view it as fiction and the early church didn¡¯t view it as fiction. And if we actually believe the Bible is the word of God then we shouldn¡¯t view it as fiction.
There are people who scoff and say, ¡°For two thousand years the church has been talking about this and it still hasn¡¯t happened.¡± Well that isn¡¯t exactly a new argument. When Peter was writing his second letter he made this comment, 2 Peter 3:3-4 First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will be scoffers who will laugh at the truth and do every evil thing they desire. This will be their argument: ¡°Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly the same since the world was first created.¡± Kind of sounds like today doesn¡¯t it. And then Peter answers the critics with these words in 2 Peter 3:8-9 But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn¡¯t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. And then he adds this warning in 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.
Just because it hasn¡¯t happened doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s not going to happen, it just means that it hasn¡¯t happened yet.
In Christianize we refer to this particular happening as the rapture. And even though that particular term is never used in the Bible the event it describes is mentioned throughout the New Testament. Jesus promised that he would return and collect his church before the final chapter of history was to be played out, time and time again we are told that just as Christ came the first time that he would come a second time and part of that promise was that he would take the church, his church to be with him. And that event has come to be known as the Rapture of the Church. Rapture being defined in Collins English Dictionary as 1. the state of being carried away with joy, love, etc. 2. an expression of great joy, pleasure, etc.
And so there have been books written, movies produced and songs recorded about this event. As Christians we talk about it, we joke about it, ever seen the bumper sticker that says ¡°In case of rapture this car will be driverless¡±, we study it, it intrigues us but I wonder if we really, seriously deep down in our hearts believe that someday that Christians all over the world will disappear. I have a memory of shortly after I became a Christian and went to Bible College, you have to understand that on August 30th I was a heathen fisherman and on September 5th I arrived at Bible College a brand new Christian. And so one morning as I came out of my dorm to go to chapel there was my cousin Rod¡¯s guitar case, in the middle of the side walk, all by itself, no Rod. And as I looked around the college campus I realized that there was nobody else around, and I thought ¡°I wonder if I missed it.¡± And just then Rod came out of the dorm grabbed his guitar case, said that he had forgotten his bible and life was back to normal. Anything like that every happen to you? There will come a time that it will happen. Maybe not today or tomorrow but it will happen.
And so this morning let¡¯s take a look at some rapture questions.
1) What Will Happen? The Short answer is we are going home. The books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians have several references to the return of Christ and the rapture of the church. Details of Paul¡¯s missionary visit to Thessalonica are recorded in Acts 17. He was in the city for a short visit established a church and then as was his custom he was run out of town. Later on he wrote several letters to the believers in that city to clarify specific doctrines and teachings. One of the issues that he addressed in the first letter was a concern by some believers that if the rapture happened and the Church was called home what would happen to Christians who had already died? He answers that in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. And so Paul speaks of the Christians who have already died rising up to meet Christ. Not a pretty picture but I¡¯m not sure that it needs to be a literal translation with graveyards erupting all over the world, although that would be kind of neat or whether Paul was simply trying to make a point that those Christians who have already died will not miss out on the glory of the second coming but will have a very prominent part in it. You will notice that Paul lumps himself in with those who will still be alive when Christ returns. There are a couple of explanations for that. First he may very well have anticipated that he would be alive, there¡¯s nothing wrong with that. Or maybe he was simply using the preacher¡¯s we.
However, Paul gives some very clear details on what will happen. First he says For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God You catch it, there is one shout from the Lord, one call from the archangel and one trumpet blast and then the Lord comes. The Greek word that is used for shout is the same one that was used when a charioteer called to his horses, or the call to the rowers in a galley or a commanders shout to his troops but the word was always one of command and authority. And so it is the Lord himself who announces his arrival this time. No star in the sky, no chorus of angels simply the Lord saying , ¡°Yo, I¡¯m back!¡±
And with that proclamation he calls his church to be with him. Both those who have gone before and those who are still alive. And we are told that they are caught up in the clouds. Again we don¡¯t know if we are to translate that literally as whoosh and we are gone through the roof. Which would be really cool except I¡¯m afraid of heights. When I was at Bible College I had a 71 Cutlass Supreme Convertible and I drove with the top down whenever the temp was above 5¢ª Celsius and my rational was that I didn¡¯t want to ruin the roof if the rapture came.
Or will it be a little more subtle then that, you know, one minute you are here and the next minute you are gone. A hint is given in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. I actually prefer some of the other translations which say in the twinkling of an eye, not that it makes a lot of difference in a research paper entitled "Blink duration as an indicator of driver sleepiness in professional bus drivers," the authors reported that a blink for a sleepy bus driver was 8.23 millseconds and the blink duration for non-sleepy non-bus drivers was 5.19 millisecond. Now I would suspect that bus drivers are pretty close to normal people, so on average a blink would be around 6.71 milliseconds. So even if we do the flying through the air thing, most people won¡¯t see us. Especially tired bus drivers.
And the final description kind of says it all and Paul feels no need to elaborate when he states and will remain with him forever. Him of course being Christ.
2 Who¡¯s Going? The short answer here is ¡°Christians¡±. But what or who exactly are ¡°Christians?¡± That should be fairly elementary, because Christian was first used to mean follower of Christ or the actual meaning was little Christ. However now it doesn¡¯t necessarily mean you¡¯re a something as much as it means you¡¯re not a something else. When someone says they are a Christian in 2002 it simply means that they¡¯re not a Hindu or Buddhist or a Muslim. And so it¡¯s not enough to say that Christians will be raptured, we need to define what we mean by Christian. Perhaps the easiest way would be to say that a Christian is someone who loves Christ and then allow Christ to define how we know if someone loves Him. Which he does in John 14:15 ¡°If you love me, obey my commandments.¡± And then he reiterates in John 14:21Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each one of them.¡±
Remember I said that both 1 and 2 Thessalonians dealt with the rapture of the church? Well listen to whom both letters are address because they both start the same way 1 Thessalonians 1:1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
It is written to the church in Thessalonica, you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the letter, and subsequently the instruction concerning the second coming are addressed to those who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Who¡¯s Staying? The short answer is everybody else. And that¡¯s tough. Because there will be people who are sitting here today that if the Rapture happened right now would have to lock up for us. The keys are in my jeans pocket and they are on the platform behind the curtain. And the reality is that Christians some of you have spouses, children and parents who aren¡¯t going, everyone of us have friends who aren¡¯t going. And I would suspect that there will even be people who think that because they¡¯ve done all the right things, and have dotted all their I¡¯s and crossed all their t¡¯s and have tried to be good and religious, think they are going to make the trip and they are going to be left behind. Jesus made a comment in Luke 6:46 ¡°So why do you call me ¡®Lord,¡¯ when you won¡¯t obey me? In John 3:3 Jesus replied, ¡°I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.¡± You say ¡°That¡¯s not fair.¡± Oh really? Let¡¯s not get into the millions of people who haven¡¯t heard because with television and radio and print the message is out there. I will have to let God deal with the fairness of those who didn¡¯t hear. Let¡¯s deal with those who have had every opportunity to hear and didn¡¯t. The Bible makes a fairly simple proposition when it tells us if we are sorry for our sins, ask forgiveness and turn our lives over to Christ that we will have eternal life. And if we don¡¯t then we won¡¯t. Plain and simple. And when the roll is called up yonder your name won¡¯t be on it. Understand?
But understand this, the rapture is not a matter of reward it is a matter of salvation. You can¡¯t do enough good things to make the short list there is only one thing you can do, and that is accept the free gift of salvation that Christ offers.
4 When are We Leaving? The short answer is we don¡¯t know. However there are some indications in the scriptures that we¡¯d be wise not to ignore. Now understand that there are at least three different view points. There are those who claim the rapture will have before the Tribulation happens, we¡¯ll look at the tribulation next week. That is called a pre-tribulation view. There are those who believe that it will happen midway through the tribulation and that theory is called Mid-tribulation and then there are those who believe that the church will have to go through the tribulation and that of course is called Post-tribulation. And each side has their own biblical reasons and it really doesn¡¯t make a whole lot of difference. Personally I side with the pre-tribulation theory. Here are a couple of reasons why. And before I start with this, if you disagree with me here, the appropriate time to discuss it is not following the service, give me a call and we¡¯ll hash it out over a coffee sometime.
In the book of Revelation, when Jesus spoke to the church in Phillipi he said this Revelation 3:10 ¡°Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.¡± If we believe that the word of God was valid for those it was written to 2000 years ago and equally valid for those who read it today, then this is still a promise. That Jesus will protect us from the time of great testing that will come upon the whole world. It was Ronald Ward who said ¡°At the climax of history the Lord will not be without his church, and his church will not be without him.¡±
I read an interesting theory this week in a book written by Dr. M.R. Dehaan 40 years ago. It was in relation to the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians where Paul is writing to the church because some people were saying that the end times where beginning. If you have your bibles turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. That¡¯s toward the end of the New Testament; there are a whole bunch of T books together, 1 & 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Thessalonians and Titus. Paul tells the believers in that church that the Day of the Lord won¡¯t come until the man of lawlessness is revealed. That is the anti-Christ. Listen to 2 Thessalonians 2:7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. So who is the one holding the Anti-Christ back? Some have said that it was the Roman Emperor, but that¡¯s come and gone, others have said that it was Government in general. Dehaan says that Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, and when the Church is raptured that the Holy Spirit¡¯s work here on earth will be done and he will step out of the way allowing the anti-Christ full sway.
Understand that it will take a catastrophic event like the disappearance of billions of people to set the wheels into motion as they are recorded in the book of the Revelation.
We are told that Christ will come like a thief in the night, well let me tell you, by the time the seven years of tribulation are finished there would be no doubt about what was going to happen next. Listen to what Jesus said in the scripture that Bonnie read this morning, Matthew 24:37-38 ¡°When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah¡¯s day. In those days before the Flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.
In other words it will be life as usual. Just like September 11th 2001 like any other day, the day of the Lord will begin just like any other day and that would not be possible after the event of the tribulation as you will learn next week nothing will be the same after the tribulation. And so if it could be any day then it could be today. And that is why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2 For God says, ¡°At just the right time, I heard you.
On the day of salvation, I helped you.¡±
Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.
So where are you at. If suddenly the Lord himself came down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God
would you be ready? If not then today, right now is the time to make sure that you are ready. I¡¯m going to prayer and if you are serious about becoming a Christian then you simply repeat after me, you don¡¯t have to pray out loud, God will hear the cry of your heart.
If you prayed that prayer today then you need to let someone know that you¡¯ve become a Christian, the person you came with or me. If you should have prayed the prayer and you didn¡¯t don¡¯t forget if we all disappear to turn the lights off on your way out.
PowerPoint may be available for this message contact me at denn@bccnet.ca
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