The Resurrection Protocol

A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they are atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks.

There is, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.

"Because I'm not an atheist."

Then, asks the teacher, "What are you?"

"I'm a Christian."

The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asks Lucy why she is a Christian.

"Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian."

The teacher is now angry. "That's no reason," she says loudly.

"What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?"

She paused, and smiled. "Then," says Lucy, "I'd be an atheist."

************

“The Resurrection Protocol”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Scripture Reading

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 For 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:

17 Then 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.

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

In recent days we’ve heard a lot about the end of time, the coming of Christ, the Apocalypse, the Mayan calendar and several other end time statements that have provoked a good deal of interest and in some cases hysteria, predictions of the end of time, and to be honest, a lot of meaningless hype! Since this is Palm Sunday with Easter right around the corner I felt that it would be helpful to look at what the Bible says about the Resurrection and the return of Christ. This is not new for men have speculating on the end of the world for two thousand years. Let me give you a few examples:

SIX THOUSAND YEARS

Early Christian writers held that at the end of 6,000 years of history, Christ would return and reign for 1,000 years (referred to as the Millennium). These included Barnabas (c. A.D. 100), Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (c. A.D. 150), Lactantius (c. A.D. 325), and Methodius, Bishop of Tyre (c. A.D. 300).

For example, Barnabas wrote:

As there have been 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham, and

2,000 from Abraham to Christ; so there will be

2,000 years for the Christian era and then would come the Millennium."

(Some believe the 2,000 years of the Christian era are not modern 365.24-day years, but prophetic, or "God-years" of 360 days each, beginning with the year of Christ's crucifixion, which scholars debate as from A.D. 30 to 33.

Church father Irenaeus wrote concerning a belief of the early church: "For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed; it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand years."

Lactantius, tutor of the son of the Roman Emperor Constantine, stated in his Book of Divine Institutes, Chapter 14: "Let the philosophers know that the six thousandth year is not yet completed; and when this number is completed, the consummation must take place."

Later, in A.D. 1552, Bishop Latimer wrote: "The world was ordained to endure, as all learned men affirm, 6,000 years. Now of that number, there be passed 5,552 years (as of A.D. 1552), so that there is no more left but 448 years (ending in A.D. 2000)."

ILL: THE OLD FARMER

A farmer had an old clock that just about was gone. One night it struck 16 times. He woke up and said, wife get up, it is later than it ever has been before. IT IS TRUE TOO CONCERNING THE COMING THE LORD

[not looking for undertaker, but uppertaker! (Jerry Shirley)

I. The Setting for Paul’s Instructions

ILL – What you don’t know can hurt you!

a. They were disturbed – “They were being persecuted”