The Second Coming of Christ: Ready for the Rapture

1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we're continuing in a five-part series through the book of 1 Thessalonians. It's five chapters only. And the series we're in is about the second coming of Jesus Christ, because each of these five chapters in 1 Thessalonians Paul ends with some reference to the second coming. We've been highlighting these over the last few weeks, but here's a summary of what he says at the end of these chapters. In chapter 1, he tells us we've been delivered from God's wrath. In chapter 2, he gives us reasons to rejoice about the second coming. And in chapter 3, we talked about loving others while we wait for his return. Here in chapter 4, it tells us to be ready for the rapture. And in chapter 5, he talks about spirit, soul, and body transformation at the coming of Jesus Christ. So we're going to look here today at chapter 4. If you'll turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I'm going to start reading at verse 13 down through the end of the chapter. And here's what Paul writes. "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope." And by the way, in the first century church, fallen asleep was a euphemism for death. They just didn't want to talk about death because it's not final. It's like we fall asleep and then we wake up in heaven.

So it's a euphemism, but he's talking about death. And he says, "I don't want you to sorrow as others who have no hope about those who have died." Verse 14, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus, those who have died. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep who have died. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." Now before we pause and pray and then dig out these verses here, we're looking today here at chapter four with this exhortation in mind. We're emphasizing the idea that we need to be ready for the rapture. Now when we use the word rapture, what do we mean by that term? I don't want to assume that everybody understands what that word means. That word is not found in the passage we just read, so some of you might be scratching your heads like where does that come from? In fact, the word rapture is not anywhere in the Bible, but the theological concept is. I'll put verse 17 back on the screen for you, and I want to highlight a particular couple of words.

Paul writes again, "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." I want you to highlight in your Bibles the words caught up. Some of your translations might say seized or snatched or taken up. It is from the original Greek language of the New Testament, the word is harpazo, and it means to be seized, snatched, or caught up suddenly. Now you still might ask, okay harpazo, where do we get the word rapture? Well, around 400 A.D., Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into Latin, translated the whole Bible, actually, but as far as the Greek New Testament goes, when he wrote in Latin this verse, he used the word rapeamor. Rapeamor is from the Latin verb rapeo, roptus, and that's where we get our English word rapture. So it has to do with this whole concept of being seized or snatched up bodily from the earth. That's what rapture means. In a simple summary statement, here's the doctrine of the rapture, that there will be a sudden return of Christ in the clouds, just in the clouds, sometime prior to the tribulation, to physically snatch, to take away from the earth, only Christians from the earth to meet him in the air so that believers who are alive at the time will not experience death or the devastating things

that are coming upon the earth. That's what the rapture is all about, So let's first have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we just want to thank you for today. Lord, even the reign of it, we pray for those who have been terribly impacted by this hurricane and ask the Lord that you would help them and minister to them as they recover and rebuild whatever was devastated. We ask Lord for your presence to be active and working even in our own hearts while we read through these verses today so that we would be ready. We would be ready for your imminent return. Thank you, Lord, that you're coming again and we look forward to that day. And I pray that no one here would be worried about it, fearful about it, but only joyful looking forward to that day that you come in the clouds to take us from the earth. So we thank you for this time together in your word and it's in Jesus' name that we pray and everyone said, amen. Well, I, like others of you, grew up in the 70s. The 70s were a time of Fleetwood Mac and the Brady Bunch and the end of the Vietnam War and Watergate and the Pittsburgh Steelers and bell bottoms and hippies and flower children. Okay, that was the decade of the 70s. One of the things though about the 70s that is remarkable

is that it was also a time of a great spiritual revival and renewal and it was often known as the Jesus movement or the Jesus revolution. And during this period of the 70s, thousands and thousands of young people, hippies and flower children as they identified themselves came to faith in Jesus Christ. They got tired of the free sex, free drugs, anti-government, anti-authority lifestyle. They began to realize just how empty they were and so many by the thousands turned to faith in Jesus Christ. And 1971 Time Magazine documented this revival renewal that was sweeping across America as did other magazines like Newsweek and Rolling Stone Magazine. Also in 1972, Life Magazine also picked up on the story. They documented it. You know, Calvary Chapel and Pastor Chuck Smith were at the center of the Jesus movement and about 20 years later in 1991, our church would be birthed here really out of that whole movement. Pastor Chuck was my pastor until he went to be with the Lord in 2013. So we came in kind of on the tail end of all of this. And on the heels of this Jesus revolution, this Jesus movement in the 1970s, a film was produced, really the first of its kind, a Christian film specifically about the Rapture and about End Times, 1973.

The film was called "A Thief and the Night." How many of you saw this movie when you were growing up? Okay, so some of you did. "A Thief and the Night." You can tell by the amazing graphics that it was a top notch high budget Christian film. (congregation laughing) I'm not making this up. It was shot entirely in Iowa and it had a budget of $68,000. And it portrayed the Rapture with people just suddenly vanishing, you know, suddenly missing, which is what happens in the Rapture. But in the movie, I remember watching this that when people would get raptured, their clothing would be left behind and it would be neatly pressed, laid out on the floor, and I can remember in the scene like grandma, grandma got raptured and her dress was perfectly laid out on the floor, still wearing her apron and her glasses were where her head would have been. I mean, some law enforcement officer would have come in with chalk and drawn out the body, there just wasn't a body. And I remember watching this at 10 years of age and it scared the living daylights out of me, okay? And I don't even know what living daylights really means, but it's scared it out of me. And I remember thinking to myself,

when the Rapture happens, does this mean that everybody goes up naked? (audience laughing) And I don't really wanna see grandma naked, you know? (audience laughing) That's not a scene I wanna see on the way to heaven. So it scared me. And I can tell you, I'm not the only one. I looked this movie up to see if it's still available. If you wanna get scared, it's still on Vimeo, like for free, you can watch it. But I looked up on imdb.com. You know that website where you can look at movies and stuff and see like all the details about the film? imdb.com, the first three reviews that people had left about that movie. Here's the first one, they called it disturbing. The third review, quote, "gave me nightmares for years." (audience laughs) I scroll a little further down. The fifth review, I'm gonna read some. From the fifth review, this is what it said, quote, "I saw this movie twice in the 1970s. "I was of the tender age of six. "And then again, when I was eight, "this movie terrified my brother and I "and shaped how we viewed the world with distrust. "I am now 40 years old. "One through years of counseling. "I have taken this experience to fulfill a purpose.

"I am nearing my licensure as a psychologist, "specializing in childhood trauma," end quote. (audience laughs) I'm telling you, this movie was scary. Now, that was my generation. When my kids were growing up, around the year 2000, came out the Left Behind series. So I'm gonna have you remember the Left Behind series. And Kurt Cameron, okay. And so they portrayed similar things like this. And I remember in the Left Behind series, there was the character whose name was Nikolai Carpathia. Okay, he portrayed the Antichrist. And my kids would say to me, "Dad, "you look like the Antichrist." (audience laughs) Now, in my younger years, I may be closer to this guy, but they kept saying it to me, and how do you feel as a dad, like you remind your kids of the Antichrist. All right, but I capitalized on it, everybody, okay. 'Cause I would be like, all right, children, it is time for you to go to bed now. (audience laughs) You know, anyway, you get that off the screen. So that was a joy hearing your kids say, "You remind us of the Antichrist." All right, anyway, unlike those movies, unlike those movies, when we talk about the subject of the rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, this should not scare you, it should prepare you, everybody.

It should prepare you. The church in Thessalonica was scared. Here was their fear, and Paul's gonna address it right at the beginning of our text. Their fear was that for their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who had died, they're gonna miss out on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That's what they thought. They thought everybody who's died now was not gonna be a part of enjoying the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And Paul is gonna address this fear first thing. Look again in your Bibles at verse 13. Paul writes, "But I do not want you to be ignorant brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope." So I'm gonna share with you what I call the five Rs of the rapture, the five Rs of the rapture. And the first one is that we are reassured of life after death. That's what the rapture means. In part, we are reassured that there's life after death. Paul, there in verse 13, is reassuring the believers in Thessalonica that their fellow believers who have died are not gonna miss out on the Second Coming of Jesus. In fact, Paul tells us here that those believers who have gone on before us will actually come with Jesus just in the clouds. And they're gonna basically be like the welcoming committee

to welcome those who are being snatched from the earth. Notice again in your Bibles, verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep, those who have died in Christ, in Jesus. So see, the saints will come with Jesus. Now again, this is just in the air, in the clouds. When we talk about the Second Coming of Jesus, sometimes people, they just kind of merge two separate events and it needs to be distinguished. It is all under the banner of the Second Coming, but the first phase of the Second Coming of Jesus is only in the air, in the clouds, to gather the church from the earth. Then there will be seven years of tribulation. Then Zechariah the prophet tells us that Jesus will return to the earth with the saints and he will rule and reign for a thousand years and then there's a new heaven and a new earth. So that's also part of the Second Coming, that's the second phase. The first phase is only in the air for the church. The second phase is with the church to the earth, separated by the period of the tribulation. So what we're talking about here is the first phase of the Second Coming. When he comes just in the air. But when he comes in the air, he's coming with the saints. He's coming with those who have predeceased us

so that we can join with them. Now, please understand that presently when someone dies Their spirit separates from their body at the moment of death, and their body goes into the grave or gets returned to dust, either by natural decomposition or by cremation, and their spirit goes to be with the Lord. So presently, anyone who has died, knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior, their body is in the ground. Their spirit is what went to be with the Lord. Paul will tell us this in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6, 7, and 8. He wrote this. "So we are always confident, "knowing that while we are at home in the body, "we are absent from the Lord." Meaning, while we live here on earth physically, we're not with the Lord, he's in heaven, we're here on earth. But he adds, "For we walk by faith, not by sight, "we are confident, yes, well pleased rather, "to be absent from the body "and to be present with the Lord." That's what he's talking about. The day we die, our body disintegrates, our spirit goes to be with the Lord, so to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And so the first order of business that Paul tells us here in this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, first order of business is for the benefit of those saints who come back with him in the clouds, like the welcoming committee, they need their glorified bodies, 'cause only their spirit has been in heaven up to this point. And so, if you look at your Bibles at verse 16, it says, "For the Lord himself would descend from heaven "with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, "and with the trumpet of God, "and the dead in Christ will rise first." Now you look at that, you go, "Wait a minute, Pastor G, "I thought the dead in Christ were coming back with Jesus." Yes, true. But this says that they will rise first. Yes, true. So here's what it's helping us to understand. Christ returns in the clouds with the saints, but only with their spirit. What rises from the grave is their resurrected, glorified body, much like Jesus got when He rose from the dead. And that glorified body will then merge with their spirit so that they will now have a glorified body. And Paul says that's the first order of business. Those saints who have only, whose spirits have been in heaven with the Lord will now get their glorified bodies. It will be resurrected from the grave or wherever their ashes were scattered.

God will do all of that. This is for the believer. Glorified resurrected body now rises from the dead, merges with the spirit so that they can now be together again. They get their glorified body first, those saints. But then you might be wondering, well then for the generation that gets snatched from the earth and gets raptured, when do we get our glorified bodies? And the answer is on the way up. On the way up, this is the second thing. Yeah, some of you know, it's a better body than what you have, isn't that right? It's glorified. But this is the other aspect of the rapture because everyone at this point will get their glorified body. The saints first who have gone on before us get theirs, then we, alive and remain, will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. We get our glorified bodies on the way up. This is Paul 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Listen to what he wrote, verses 50 to 54. He says, "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit in corruption." In other words, what he's saying is, we cannot get to heaven in our physical frame as we are now.

That's not permissible. You cannot take what is corruptible, what is frail, what is mortal and transport it to a place that is immortal and incorruptible. So, he says, "I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit in corruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. Here it is, we shall not all sleep. We shall not all die. But we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we, the ones who are remain, shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that his written death is swallowed up in victory." Let me tell you what he's saying there, everybody. He's saying, he's reminding us, there is a generation, and it might be us, who knows, that will not experience death, that there is a generation alive on earth believers at the time that the trumpet of God is sounded and that Christ returns in the air and we will be snatched and caught up

and changed on the way up getting our glorified bodies No more aches, no more pains. You get a glorified body, no more disease, no more cancer, no more paralyzed limbs. Everyone will be made completely whole, just like the resurrected glorified body of our Lord. In fact, John will tell us that in first John 3-2, he said, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." So number one, the rapture means we are reassured of life after death. Number two, it means we all get resurrected bodies. And the third thing the rapture means is that we are, number three, reunited with loved ones. This is verse 17, "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them." Meaning those saints who have gone before us, those believers who are already in heaven, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord, in the air. Friends, look, our loved ones and our friends who died in Christ will be waiting for us cheering us on. If we are that generation that will get raptured, what a glorious day that will be to see this welcoming committee with Jesus in the clouds, and among them are your friends and loved ones who have gone on before you in Christ, who will be standing there waiting for you,

applauding as you come, cheering you on, welcoming you. And I started thinking about like loved ones in Terry's family that have gone on before us, loved ones in my family that have gone on before me. And how they're going to be there waiting. I thought about Terry's grandparents and Terry's sister. I thought about my grandparents. I thought about my dad. I have a brother and a sister I've never, or a sister I've never met because my mom had a miscarriage before I was born. I'm going to meet for the first time. Think about your loved ones and friends and babies. Babies who have gone on before you. It's going to be a glorious reunion. What a day of celebration that will be when we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory, amen. We'll be reunited with our loved ones and friends. We will be joined with them in the air and meet the Lord with them. Well, number four, the rapture means we are rescued from wrath. I talked a little bit about this in chapter one, but just to emphasize this again, here in verse 16 of our text, it says, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God." Notice that is a common phrase related to the rapture.

I just read it a moment ago from 1 Corinthians 15 when Paul talks about at the last trumpet, we will not all sleep, but we all shall be changed. We read about it here in 1 Thessalonians 4. Another place we read about it that I think is a picture of the church being raptured is in Revelation chapter 4. Now in Revelation chapter 4, I'm going to read the first two verses. Listen to what John writes. He says, "After these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet. Speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. And immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne." Now this reference to a trumpet may or may not be a literal trumpet. It may also actually refer to the voice of God that sounds like a trumpet, because when John writes there in chapter 4, he said, "I heard the sound like a trumpet. And I believe that John is a picture or a type of the church." In that, in Revelation chapter 4, when this voice like a trumpet says, "Come up here," he is seized or snatched in the spirit, where he will then write the rest of the book of Revelation

from the vantage point of being safely held in heaven. And so what's interesting is when you look at the book of Revelation in the first three chapters, the word "church" is mentioned 19 times. The word "church" actually used 19 times in the first three chapters of Revelation. Then in chapter 4, when John gets snatched, the word "church" does not appear again until the very end of Revelation chapter 22 verse 16 after Jesus returns to the earth. So it's interesting. who gets called up the sound of a trumpet, the bride of Christ protected. He's a picture of the bride of Christ protected from the tribulation that then comes upon the earth, which he details between chapter six and 18. These are horrible cataclysmic world events that are gonna happen on the earth because God is gonna sound the alarm. It is his final call for as many people as who have rejected him might receive and accept him during this period of the tribulation. And so it's gonna be a terrible time that comes upon the earth. And I believe that the Bible teaches that the church is taken raptured before the tribulation period. So here at Cornerstone, we believe in a pre-rapture position, a pre-tribulation rapture position of the church. There are good brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree. Some will say, I think we get raptured in the middle.

I think we get raptured at the end of the tribulation. I'll quote my good friend, Dr. Ed Hindson, who used to be the dean of theology at Liberty University. Dr. Hindson was here a couple of times at Cornerstone and he was solidly pre-tribbed because he said, when you look at the greatest preponderance of scripture, it shows us that we're out of here before the tribulation. And I remember Dr. Hindson in his raspy voice, he talks about how the church is the bride of Christ. And he says, does it really make sense that God's going to beat up his bride and then take her to the wedding banquet at the end? It doesn't make sense. I agree. It doesn't make much sense to beat up the bride and then invite her to the wedding banquet of the lamb near the end of the book of Revelation. So I think that John is also this picture of rescued before the tribulation. I think Jesus spoke about it that way too. Listen to Matthew chapter 24. We'll read a few verses from Matthew 24. This is verses 37 to 42. Jesus speaking, but as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving and marriage

until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man. Pause there for a moment. Jesus is saying, look, the culture's going to be very similar. People are just going to be living life like usual, marrying, giving and marriage are going to be eating, they're going to be drinking, they're going to go to work. They're not going to be aware of what is happening because their hearts are hardened, much like in the days of Noah. People's hearts were hardened. They mocked Noah, building an ark, and yet it was God's way of rescuing the righteous. How many got rescued that day from the flood? Only eight in all, Noah and his family. But that picture is the righteous got rescued before the judgment of God came upon the earth in the days of Noah. And Jesus says, as it was in the days of Noah, and Luke adds in Luke 17, and also like it was in the days of Lot, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. What did Noah and Lot have in common? They were righteous men. They and their families were rescued before divine wrath was poured out upon the earth. And thus it is a picture of the church being rescued before God's divine wrath,

before the tribulation period. Jesus goes on to say, in the same passage, Matthew 24 verse 40, then he says, two men will be in the field, one will be taken in the other left. Was that sound like the rapture? The next verse, two women will be grinding grain at the mill, one will be taken in the other left. Watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Jesus even spoke there, and scholars can differ on what he actually meant, but it sounds like rapture language to me. Two men are working, one day one is taken because the trumpet is sounded, the believer is rapture, the unbeliever is left. Two women are working in the mill, one woman is taken, she's a believer, the other one is left. That's why Jesus says you better be ready, because you do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming again. We need to be ready for the rapture, but I believe it precedes the tribulation so that we don't have to go through it. In fact, in the next chapter, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse nine, Paul says, "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, "but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." The last thing is that the rapture also reminds us

that we will be rewarded with eternity. If you look at the closing verses here, this is the last part of verse 17 and verse 18, where Paul says, "And thus we shall always be "with the Lord, therefore comfort one another "with these words." We'll be with the Lord forever. That's the ultimate reward. Heaven and all eternity with Jesus and our loved ones and friends in Christ is our ultimate reward. Are you ready for the rapture? Listen folks, there's a lot of prophecy that still has to be completed in the Bible, but there's not any prophecies that we're waiting for that still need to be fulfilled before the rapture. The rapture could come at any moment. And I wanna mention this, even though I believe the rapture occurs before the tribulation, the Bible does not say how long before the tribulation the rapture might occur. Sometimes in our thinking, we think, okay, we get raptured and then the next day the tribulation starts. The Bible doesn't tell us that. We could get raptured 20 years, 30, 40, 50, 100 years before the tribulation gets poured out upon a year. The Bible doesn't say, so therefore we must be ready as Jesus says there in Matthew 24, 42, watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Are you ready for His return? The rapture in the air could occur at any moment. So the way you're ready is to know Jesus as your Lord and savior. Not out of fear, folks. Out of preparation, being ready, that the one who loves you and died on a cross for you wants to forgive you of your sins. So surrender your life to Him and be ready for the hour when He returns. Amen? Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word today. And I just want to pause and pray for those who don't know you because what point would it be to have a Bible study like this and then not help people understand how they can be ready? The way that we're ready is by knowing you in a personal way. So thank you Lord for the free gift of salvation. I pray right now for those who don't have that free gift. They've never received you as Lord and savior. I pray God you would open their hearts and minds to trust you today. Not out of fear, but out of readiness. Because you're coming again and you want none to perish but all to come to repentance. You have a heart to save us, to rescue us. And so I pray right now for those who don't know you. And I'm going to pause in my prayer and I just want to invite you, if you're here or watching online, to just open your heart and trust Jesus today.

I don't want you to be afraid of Jesus' second comment. I want you to look forward to it with joyful anticipation. But if you're not right with God, you have reason to be afraid. Well, you can change that today by getting right with Him. And here's how you do it. I'm going to lead in a word of prayer and if you want to pray this prayer with me, then join me. And just surrender your life to Jesus today and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and come into your life. This is how it goes. You can just pray this with me. You can just say, "Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. Thank you that you died in a cross for me. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my life and save me. I surrender my life to you, Jesus. And I trust you as my Lord and Savior. I leave my life of sin. And I turn to you as my Savior. Come into my life today, save me. I trust you by faith. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. And Lord, all of us now, either knowing you or having just prayed that prayer and knowing you now, look forward to your imminent return. Thank you, Jesus, that you're coming for your bride. May you find us ready. And we give you praise and thanks together in Jesus' name.

Before you leave today, if you want to get a Bible, come forward, if you prayed that prayer with me, one of the pastors will be here to give you a Bible. If you prayed that prayer online, we'll send you a Bible, 703-844-9969. Just text the church. All right, everybody, God bless you. Have a good day. (congregation applauding) [BLANK_AUDIO]