Turn with me to 1.Corinthians 15:51-58.
Today, we will take up a topic which was recommended to me by a member of this church. Now some preachers do not like for members to recommend sermon topics to them, but I do. I may not preach them all, but I will prayerfully consider any topic that any of you would mention to me; and in all honesty, I think I have eventually spoken about most of the ones that have been mentioned to me.
Before we begin in earnest, I must tell you what you already know, that Mississippi is a battleground in a very active and belligerent cultural war that is presently underway. I must tell you that recent events have made me very proud to be a Mississippian, and you, too, I think, ought to be very proud of your state. Your pastor has been very active in this conflict, and it is my intention to remain active in it; so do not be surprised if you see my face from time to time in various contexts.
As we know, the Beast will be given power to make war with the saints and overcome them; yet we, as the Apostle Paul, must continue steadfast in the faith, fighting the good fight to the very end. Well, we do not want to preach the sermon before we have read the text, so let us look at 1.Corinthians 15:51-58.
I.Corinthians 15:51-58:
51Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
We are not going to consider every aspect of eschatology today, but we will consider the truth of Scripture concerning the rapture of the church. There is so much confusion today concerning the rapture. What is the rapture? When will it occur? Could it occur at any time, even this very hour, or are there things that must occur first? Why is it important for us to understand this business about the rapture?
Well, I want to break it down just that way for you this morning; and so we will discuss three main points about the rapture. First, we will consider just what the rapture is. Next, we will consider the timing of the rapture; that is, when will it occur? Finally, we will consider why the doctrine of the rapture is important to us today.
First then, What is the Rapture?
The rapture is the final act of God in this age wherein He calls the remnant of His people, that is, those who are alive and remain at the time of His coming, unto Himself. (Repeat). Rapture means literally, a catching away, or a snatching.
In this fifteenth chapter of the Book of II.Corinthians, Paul tells us about the rapture of the church. He says, “Behold, I shew you a mystery.” A mystery is not something that cannot be known, but it is rather something which cannot be known unless it is expressly revealed to us, and that is what Paul is doing here. He is telling us about the doctrine of the rapture of the church which had theretofore been a mystery. … but no more … it would be a mystery no longer for Paul has revealed it to us.
You see, this idea of the rapture had not been clearly described in the past. Paul is really the first one to talk about it directly. Now some of you are already saying, “wait a minute preacher … what about the Olivet discourse?”
Indeed, Our Lord Jesus Christ does speak about the rapture of the church there, but it is difficult to see the exact nature of it there. Let us see what He says in Matthew 24:29-31:
29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
In Matthew 24, and in the other renditions of this treatise by Jesus Christ in Mark 13 and Luke 21, we find Christ speaking about the gathering of all the elect, both living and dead. Though some could try to dispute that point, Mark is clear that this is a gathering of the elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
The elect are gathered from the earth, as well as from heaven, according to Mark, and so, this is the rapture and it occurs at the conclusion of the tribulation, when Christ returns in glory, to defeat the antichrist and the nations allied with him! Moreover, we know from the writings of the Apostle Paul, that the resurrection of the dead in Christ is followed closely by the rapture of the living elect remnant, those which are alive and remain.
Paul wrote in I.Thessalonians 4:16-18: 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Paul assigns several characteristics to this rapture as he describes it to us. First, he says that it will occur rapidly, in the twinkling of an eye. Now some Theologians have attempted to surmise about how long it takes an eye to twinkle. It is sort of like trying to figure out how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, or whether or not Adam had a belly-button. These are pointless endeavors. The point is that the rapture will happen very quickly, and that is what we need to know.
Also, he says we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Most of the elect will experience physical death, but some of the elect will still be alive at the return of Christ and these will be changed from mortal corruptible bodies to immortal incorruptible bodies at that time. Did you know that you will still have a body after the return of Christ? You will.
Paul tells us in our text for today that this new immortal incorruptible body will not sin and will not die. The Apostle John gives un considerably more information about this, but that will have to be our topic for another day. Just know that after the rapture of the church, that you, as a true believer in Jesus Christ, will possess a body, which is not only free from the penalty of sin (as you are today), but it will also be free, entirely free, from the power of sin.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin .. It is as if Paul is taunting sin and death as he asks these rhetorical questions to which the answers are so obvious. Sin and the death that has resulted from it, shall have no more power over you, for you will abide perfectly in the revealed will of God from that point in time through all eternity.
Well, When Will This Rapture Occur?
This second point is perhaps one of the more controversial questions which circulates in the evangelical church today. If you draw your Theology (particularly your eschatology) from popular movies about the rapture, you will labor under the false impression that the rapture could occur at any time … that it might even occur today. However, if you draw your Theology (particularly your eschatology) from the Bible, you will discover a different picture entirely.
When will the rapture occur? Paul tells us very clearly and plainly so that it is astounding that so many in the church could miss it. Remember, what the Apostle has written is infallible and fully authoritative – it cannot err. What does he say?
He tells us that the rapture of the Church; that is, the raising of the dead and the gathering of the elect that are alive and remain … that this event in future history will occur at the last trump, or the last trumpet. Now that is really simple; the rapture occurs at the last trump of God. If you want to know when the rapture occurs, the authoritative apostle Paul says that it will occur at the last trump. So if you can determine when the last trumpet will be sounded, you will find out also when the rapture occurs.
Well, when does the last trumpet of God sound? How shall we find it? In the Apocalypse, also known as the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John, we will find seven trumpets to be sounded during the coming time of tribulation. As we do not find an eighth trumpet, the seventh must be the last one, and so the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet is the time during which the rapture must occur.
In Revelation 10:7 we find these words: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Here we find the seventh angel sounding his trumpet. He is an holy angel, and so his trumpet is a trumpet of God. The Scripture declares that when he begins to sound, that the mystery of God should be finished. Now while it is uncertain just what this mystery is, we might speculate that it is the same mystery that Paul has spoken to us about back in I.Corinthians 15 … thus, it may be the mystery of the rapture which must occur at the time of the seventh and last trumpet of God.
Now look ahead to Revelation 11:15: And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
We find further evidence of the correctness of the assertion of the apostle Paul, for after the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet of God, then, at that time, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. If this rapture had occurred prior to the tribulation, there would yet be seven years before Christ would come to claim His kingdoms on the earth; but no, He claims them here, even at the time when He has returned to receive His elect bodily, unto Himself. It is in this passage in Revelation that the two witnesses are raised, and it is here that the deceased elect are resurrected and living Christians are raptured.
My friends, there is no secret coming of Christ Jesus where He secretly steals away the bodies of His elect from the world. Nowhere is such a thing mentioned in Scripture! Look at the words of Christ Himself from Matthew 24:21-27:
21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. 23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25Behold, I have told you before. 26Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
During the time of this coming tribulation, notice that there is no secret coming of Christ anywhere mentioned in Matthew here, or in the parallel passages in Mark and Luke. No, He shall come as lightning, so bright as to shine from the East all the way to the West. Luke says He shall come in a cloud with power and great glory.
He does not sneak in the back door meekly to plot the escape of His people; no … He comes as the King of Kings, in power and great glory, indeed, He comes in the Shekinah glory reminiscent of the pillar of fire by night and smoke by day, as His glory was manifested in the days of Moses. He comes as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, as Master and Sovereign over all that is. When those graves open in the ground, and the saints of all time reappear, it will not be very secret. When folks disappear, it will not be hidden from those remaining in their mortal state.
The secret coming of Christ before the tribulation is not only unbiblical, but it is illogical. His secret coming to rapture His people could not really be much of a secret, now could it? All those open graves lying around suddenly would be hard to conceal, would they not?
When the saints are raptured, Christ says (in John 14:1-3) that they (we) will go to be where He is. 1Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Well, Christ is coming to earth, and Revelation 5:10 says that we shall rule and reign with Him here on the earth.
This, of course, leads us to our third point.
Why Is a Correct View of the Rapture Important?
What does it matter if someone believes this idea or that idea about the rapture of the church? If they want to believe that the rapture will occur prior to the tribulation, so what? What can it hurt?
My first response to this is that all false doctrine is harmful. Whether it is the false belief in the literal presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the elements of the Lord’s Supper; or whether it is a contrived and unbiblical doctrine about some age of accountability; or whether it is a belief in salvation by anything other than the grace of God alone with NOTHING added; or whether it is a belief in salvation by deeds such as water baptism, or tongue-speaking, or being a member of some certain denomination; or whether it is a belief that homosexuality is just an alternate lifestyle or that murdering unborn babies is OK; or whether it is a belief that the Bible contains error; or that women may be ordained in the church; or whatever false doctrine it happens to be, it is harmful.
The pretribulational rapture is an errant doctrine, and we cannot fathom the damage that might result from it. However, we can see at least some problems which could result from such a doctrine.
Consider this: Suppose one believes that the rapture must occur prior to the tribulation, and that this is all they have ever been taught, and they have never been able to discern anything else from the Bible. Now, let us suppose that they are among those who will be alive when the great apostasy occurs and the man of sin (ha-anthropos hamartia), the coming antichrist rises to power in the world. The seven year long tribulation will begin as a covenant is confirmed in Israel by antichrist, the abomination of desolation, the possessed of Satan Himself, the son of perdition, the final head of the Beast.
How will they recognize this most evil world leader? They will think that it cannot be antichrist. Why will they think that? … because they have always been taught that they will be raptured before the tribulation begins, and as they have NOT been raptured, this cannot be the final antichrist, the head of the Beast. Might they be deceived?
ABSOLUTELY! Many of them are Arminian, and believe that their salvation depends upon their own appropriation of the grace of God. They will think themselves to be saved when they are not and they will not see the signs of the times. They will be easy prey for the man of sin.
Even those who are truly saved and truly know the Lord will be mixed up because they, too, expected to be raptured before the tribulation and the rise of antichrist. Thus, they will be like the wise virgins … regenerate … but also sleeping just as they unwise and unsaved virgins slept. Their suffering will, no doubt, be worsened by virtue of their failure to watch effectively for the coming of the Bridegroom. The will only recognize antichrist very late in the course of events, and many will mortally perish.
Be wise and know the Scriptures. Observe the signs. Christ Jesus said: (Luke 21:29-31): Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
