You've got the Red Church Bible, it's on page 1156, that's page 1156, 1 Corinthians 15,
and the second reading is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13-18, that's on page 1188.
So 1 Corinthians 15 first.
Thanks Sarah.
Close to the mic now.
Okay.
I declare to you brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but will all be changed in a flash,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality,
then the saying that is written will come true, death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.
Let nothing move you.
Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord,
because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 to 18, page 1188.
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.
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.
According to the Lord's own word,
we will 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.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,
and 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.
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.
Therefore, encourage each other with these words.
Okay, thanks Sarah and Kate.
I'll just ask Ryan to come up,
and you'll be able to tell from Ryan's accent that he's not a local.
Ryan has been here the last couple of years,
part of our church family.
Work brought him here,
and his wife and two boys and a little girl.
And we look forward to it.
Ryan will be sharing with us now.
Just before Ryan speaks, we'd just like to pray.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you that you teach us from it.
Lord, we pray that you would help Ryan
as he teaches us from your word this morning.
Show us the things that you want us to learn, Lord,
and help us not just to listen,
but to act on the things that we hear this morning.
We pray for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit,
that you would, through him, teach us what you want us to know.
We ask these things, Lord Jesus, in your name.
Amen.
Thanks, Ryan.
Thank you, Ian.
Good morning, friends.
It's good to be here.
I say that particularly because there is a distinct possibility
that we might not be here at all today,
that we wouldn't see each other.
I actually debated about even preparing a sermon for today,
reason being that as we continue our session on 1 Thessalonians 4,
today we're going to talk about the rapture.
So it's possible that we could have all just been raptured up this morning,
and actually at about 10 until 11 this morning when there were six of us here,
I was growing concerned that it had, in fact, happened.
But we are here, and as we'll see, the rapture is this big event that's going to happen.
It's an event that sees Christ catch up his whole church, all the remaining believers, in one big motion.
We'll also see that this could happen at any moment,
which brings me back to my point that I even really need to prepare.
Being that I'm still here, clearly I did,
but I will say that always the optimist, I did wait until the very last minute to prepare.
If you would, turn with me to 1 Thessalonians.
You're probably there from what we just read.
I do want to go through that again real quickly.
That's the primary verse that we'll be working through today.
So 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13 to 18.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
Therefore, encourage each other with these words.
I think occasionally we lose a bit of perspective when we read Scripture,
because at times it's easy to look at it and we'll read Leviticus,
the same way that we read Romans or Revelation or any of the books of the Bible,
and we look at them because they have chapter numbers and verse numbers
and these handy little headings,
and so we kind of look at them all the same.
But they're not all the same.
They're not the same style of writing, despite the formatting similarities.
This book, 1 Thessalonians, is a letter to friends.
It's not a historical account or a broadly prophetic word,
but rather a practical, loving note from a dear friend.
So today I'd like to talk about the return of the king.
Oh, not that one.
Okay, we'll talk about the return of the real king.
So if you have something to write with,
we're going to go through five points today through this passage.
Revelation, return, resurrection, rapture, and reunion.
So Revelation.
Well, how many of you have been watching the Olympics the past few weeks?
Okay, at least one.
Thank you, Sarah.
I'm a huge fan of the Olympics.
Actually, today my wife's favorite event is coming up.
The closing ceremonies will be here,
which means I won't be firmly planted in front of the TV anymore.
Throughout the course of the Olympics,
has anybody watched any events that weren't already familiar to them?
Did you see weird sports that you hadn't seen before?
Yeah?
Shane, what did you see that was new to you?
Yeah, judo.
There were some strange ones.
Fencing was one to me.
It's not that I was unfamiliar with the general sport of fencing,
but to watch it, I really had no idea what was going on.
It seemed like every time somebody scored,
I always thought it was the other guy who had gotten the point.
I just couldn't follow what was going on.
Or taekwondo.
You know, this is one that seems pretty straightforward,
but it's pretty hard to keep track of.
And of course, when I turn one of these on,
the kids run into the room,
and they immediately want to know everything that's happening.
They want to know who's winning and how they're winning
and how the sport goes,
and I have no idea on some of these.
And this is a little bit like what Paul's dealing with
as he's talking to the Thessalonians.
There's a new group of believers here in Thessalonica,
and they've heard and they've seen what's going on,
but they don't fully understand everything.
Like me with taekwondo,
I get that they should kick each other in the head,
but beyond that, most of it's lost on me.
And so Paul begins his part of explanation in verse 13
with this sentence.
He says,
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant.
Now, I really like things like this in Scripture
where you get a little bit of a vision
into the personality of each of the writers.
Only a really good friend could begin an explanation of something
by saying,
You're so ignorant about this
that I'm going to explain it to you very simply.
Now, if you drop down to verse 15,
it says,
According to the Lord's own word.
Now, here clearly we are in the New Testament,
but this really starts to sound a lot like
what we would hear from Old Testament prophets.
If you would, turn back with me to the book of Jeremiah.
We're going to look at chapter 1,
and almost right at the beginning,
right in verse 2.
My wife's going to help me with the page numbers
for everybody in the Red Bibles.
7.55 if you have one of the Red Church Bibles.
So, Jeremiah chapter 1 in verse 2.
And here it says,
The word of the Lord came to him
in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah.
Now, if you just drop down to verse 4 quickly,
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
In verse 12,
The Lord said to me,
Verse 14, the same thing,
The Lord said to me.
Okay, now just real quickly,
chapter 2,
verses 4 and 5.
He says,
Hear the word of the Lord,
O house of Jacob,
all you clans of the house of Israel.
This is what the Lord says.
So what you'll see as you go through Scripture,
as you look at the prophetic words
that God had spoken to the prophets,
as he spoke them back to people,
this is a pattern.
You know, when they come back
and they deliver the message
that the Lord had given them,
they say something like,
This is what the Lord says.
Or, as we see in Thessalonians,
According to the Lord's own word.
So we can see that this is not just
Paul's interpretation of what's going on,
but this is a specific revelation
that God has given him
as part of the progressive revelation
of God's truth to the people.
Now, as a side note,
this is what makes
some of Jesus' teachings so interesting.
If you think back to the Sermon on the Mount,
when Jesus was speaking to people,
he kept saying to them
throughout that whole message,
You have heard that it was said that,
but I tell you that.
He was taking all this stuff
that they had been told
and that they had believed was truth,
and he was taking it.
And, you know,
and it was so complicated
and so challenging for them
because it really meant
a couple things.
It meant that the teaching
that they had received
was possibly wrong or incomplete
and that what Jesus was saying
was now true,
and he was setting himself up
in a position of authority,
of the authority of God,
and it's no wonder
that he upset the establishment
in doing this.
So to the point of revelation,
it's important to see
that in this passage,
it's clear that this is
a prophetic word
that God has given to Paul
for the purpose of delivering
to the people.
Point two, the return.
So I'm going to make you
a promise right now.
What I'm going to say next
is the best news
you are going to get today.
In fact, it will be the best news
that you ever get.
Christ is coming again.
If I stood here and said nothing else
for the rest of the morning,
that alone should encourage you
more than anything
you will ever hear.
And ultimately, we'll see
that this is one of the main points
that Paul's making.
Now, for those of you
that don't know,
my wife and I have three children,
all of whom are fairly inquisitive.
It's not uncommon for us
to have a discussion
about something,
and then hours or days
or even weeks later,
they'll come back with a question.
And you can tell that they really
thought about what we discussed.
And once they've kind of
wrapped their minds around
the basic idea,
it raises a whole bunch
of other questions.
Well, this is exactly
what we see from the Thessalonians.
They have some very practical questions
surrounding the return of Christ.
Things like,
what exactly is going to happen
when he comes back?
What's it going to look like?
When is it going to happen?
Which would be
a really handy thing to know.
What happens to the people
who have already died?
How is all of this going to occur?
However,
if you're like me,
you've probably wondered
things like this
a time or two yourself.
In fact,
this is one of the areas
of generally what I'll call religion
that gets quite a bit of press.
You'll see this show up
in the news.
Anybody remember these people?
This was a group
that drove around the U.S.
in all these buses.
They left their jobs
and drove around
to tell everybody
that the end of the world
was coming on May 21, 2012.
I guess they missed it.
Although they did put out
a press release on May 22,
saying that they had
incorrectly interpreted
scripture
and that they had
a new date for everybody.
So stay tuned for that one.
Or how about this one?
The Mayans.
The Mayans have told us
that the end of the world
is coming in December 21,
so I guess we have
a few more months
to find out
if the Mayans
are on track with that one.
Although they use
the stars as their guide
and not scripture.
Well, we could spend
a lot of time
debating these dates and times
and a lot of groups have
talked about
when it's going to happen.
And in fact,
we could spend
a great deal of time
going through
and talking about
the timeline
of when all of this
is going to happen.
And if you want to have
a fun exercise,
we can spend some time
digging into all of this.
You could spend
an entire sermon series
talking about
the dates and times
of all of these.
But the reality is
there's a very simple answer
to when this is going
to happen.
We have no idea.
We are not told
when this is going
to happen.
Now,
we do have some idea
based on scripture
of when in the series
of events
it's going to happen.
If we look back
real quickly
at our passage
in 1 Corinthians,
that's chapter 15,
verse 52,
we are told
that this will happen
in a flash,
in the twinkling
of an eye.
It's going to be
just that quick.
It will be like a thief
in the night
that he comes.
So this is all going
to happen very quickly,
but we don't have
any idea
when it's going to happen.
I won't steal
Jonathan's thunder
because I know
he's going to probably
dig into this next week.
But from all of this
that we get in scripture,
first,
I have no idea
how the people
on the bus
got May 21st
or any other date
from those passages.
But,
interestingly,
our passage
in Thessalonians
shows Paul
speaking expectantly
about Christ's return.
He says,
we,
he's talking about
in our lifetimes.
if you look at the we
in that way,
and this is known
as theologically
the doctrine
of the imminent return
of Christ.
He says,
we who are still alive
and are left
will be caught up together.
Now,
you could take that
to mean that he is
expecting Christ
to return in his lifetime,
or you could take it
to mean that he's speaking
of the universal church,
that he's speaking
of the church,
Christ's church,
when he's saying we.
Now,
clearly we know now
that Jesus didn't come back
in Paul's lifetime.
But what I do want
to come back to
in a little bit
is Paul's mindset here,
that he is living expectantly.
He is living every day
for the return of Christ.
Well,
let's just take
a quick second
to see where
in the course
of the end time events
the rapture will happen.
And this is one
that's much more difficult
to answer conclusively.
We have some insight,
but I believe
it's impossible
to know for sure.
Now,
there are varying
schools of thought
on the topic.
Some believe
that the rapture
will happen
before the Great Tribulation.
Some believe
that it will happen
in the middle
of the Great Tribulation.
Some believe
that it will happen
at the end.
And while it's interesting
to discuss and consider,
ultimately,
it doesn't really matter.
In fact,
the general belief
is that this letter
to the Thessalonians
would have been written
before John even had
his vision
on the island of Patmos
and the book of Revelation
was even written.
So for the believers
in Thessalonica,
they didn't even know
that the Great Tribulation
was coming.
They were simply
looking forward
to the return
of the king.
Regardless of the timing,
this is a powerful
and life-changing truth
to consider,
that the God
who made us
sent his son
so that we could
be reconciled to him
and he is coming
back for us.
Third,
the resurrection.
If we look back
at our passage
in Thessalonians,
he says,
Brothers,
we do not want you
to be ignorant
about those
who fall asleep.
Well,
Paul isn't talking here
about people
who are literally sleeping.
This would have been
a common way
to talk about people
who had died.
In this culture,
at this time,
the prevailing belief
was that once you died,
there was nothing else.
There was no common belief
that there was a life
after death.
Now,
once this became
a central teaching
of the Christian faith,
it naturally came
with a lot of questions.
And when it comes
to those chaotic moments
that will be happening
when the rapture happens,
the Thessalonians
are thinking about
what might be going on
and one of the pressing questions
expresses this sentiment.
They say,
Okay,
I get that the living believers
will be taken,
but what about the people
that already died?
Well,
as we just read,
Paul confirms for us
that they will rise first,
followed by believers.
Now,
if you thought,
when I mentioned
the dead coming back to life,
your first thought
was zombie movies.
I need you to put down
the remote
and step away
from the TV.
But you're not
the first one
that might have
this ghastly image
of the dead
returning to life.
In that same passage
in Corinthians,
you might just
keep your finger there.
We'll go back
and forth a bit.
If we look
in chapter 15
in verse 35,
it says,
But some may ask,
How are the dead raised?
What kind of body
will they come?
And now you go down
to verse 42.
It says,
So it will be
with the resurrection
of the dead.
The body that is
sown perishable
is raised imperishable.
It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body.
It is raised
a spiritual body.
So clearly,
no matter the physical
state of the body,
it is raised anew.
As God once formed us
from the dust
of the earth,
he shall form us
again,
new,
imperishable,
glorious,
powerful,
spiritual bodies.
Obviously,
the resurrection
of the dead
holds a powerful
and prominent place
in our Christian lives.
It was Jesus'
claims of his own
divinity and resurrection
that brought him
into such conflict
with the Sadducees
who did not believe
in the resurrection
of the dead.
The resurrection
of the dead
demonstrates death
over victory
and sin,
which are the
dominion of Satan.
This amazing truth
reminds me of one
of my favorite passages
of scripture,
which we see in Ephesians.
It says,
Wake up,
O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
The rapture.
Back to Thessalonians.
If we look at verse 16,
it says,
For the Lord himself
will come down from heaven
with a loud command,
with the voice of the archangel,
and with a trumpet call of God,
which is to say
you won't be able to miss it,
and the dead in Christ
will rise first.
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.
So this is what's known
as the rapture.
Now, you may have noticed
that the word rapture
doesn't actually appear
in this passage anywhere.
Just so you know,
this isn't a Christianism
that's been made up
somewhere along the way.
The Latin word for caught up
is rapturo,
which is where we get
the word for rapture.
Now, I like made up words
as much as the next guy,
but not so much
in my theology.
As we can see,
Jesus is going to come
with a loud call
and gather up
all the believers,
past and present to him
in one giant motion.
We'll be caught up.
We'll be raptured.
As I read this week,
I came across
a Greek scholar
that outlined
the various meanings
of the word
for the Greek word
for caught up
and how each of those
speaks to part of the act
of Jesus claiming his church.
The first was
to catch away speedily.
So as we saw,
this is going to happen
in a flash.
It's going to happen
in the twinkling of an eye
like a thief in the night.
The second was that he will,
it means to claim
for one's own self.
And we know
that the bridegroom
is coming back
for his bride
to claim her as his own.
It means to move
to a new place
because the earth
is not our home.
There is a place
reserved for believers
in heaven.
It means to rescue
from danger
because we know
that the devil,
our enemy,
is like a roaring lion
prowling around
waiting to devour us.
And we will be rescued
from that very real danger
in this one act of love.
And finally,
the reunion.
I don't know about you,
but I long for this day.
I pray for his return.
It's true at the very core
of my being
that I am not at home,
that I'm not whole,
that my eternal destiny
is forever in him.
And I can't wait
to see him face to face.
I can see a few important points
in these final two verses
of chapter 4.
First,
this will be a glorious reunion.
As we've already discussed,
we'll all have glorified bodies
and we are going to meet
the King in glory.
As one theologian put it,
the suffering that we endure today
will be transformed to glory
when he returns.
Second,
this is going to be a long meeting,
like forever.
The end of verse 17 tells us
that we will be with the Lord forever.
He has assured us
that this is an everlasting union.
We will never be separated
from him again.
We will live in his presence
forevermore.
And third,
Paul gives us a command.
He says,
use this teaching
to encourage one another.
Friends,
if we can't be encouraged
that the author of life
is coming back
for his treasure,
then our priorities
are in the wrong place.
And this is what I see
in Paul's mindset.
that he's living expectantly
for Christ's return.
The first part of his message
to them is academic.
He's talking about
the last moments on earth
and the process and protocol
of what will happen.
But much more importantly,
he doesn't leave
the Thessalonians in academia.
He takes them to application.
Paul lives as though
he understands
it could come at any moment.
I don't know if everybody here
knows Christ as their Savior or not.
If you don't,
please hear this.
Jesus is not
a deathbed decision.
He's not simply
a character in history.
This isn't religion
and it's not about
a church building.
This is about
the one relationship
that has
eternal ramifications.
Death is coming
to us all.
It's an appointment
that we will all
have to keep.
There's no guarantee
when it will come.
We're not assured
tomorrow
when the day comes
or the Lord comes,
we will be called
to account
on one basis alone.
We will be found
innocent or guilty
based solely upon
whether or not
we have entered
into a personal
relationship
with Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the only one
who lived a perfect life
and died for the sins
of mankind.
He paid the debt
that we can never pay.
He rose from the dead
conquering the grave.
He ascended into heaven
where he reigns
until he comes again.
We are told in Ephesians
that we are saved
by grace through faith
and this,
not of ourselves.
It's the gift of God
and not by works
so that no one
can boast.
There's absolutely
nothing that you can do
on your own
to save yourselves
from the judgment of God.
It is only through
the mercy he showed
upon the cross
and the power
of the resurrection
that we can come
before a loving
and just God
and know that
he will call us
his own.
Whether Jesus comes
to collect his bride
or death comes,
the decision to accept Christ
is one that cannot
afford delay.
If you've not made
that decision,
I pray that you would.
Simply tell God
that you know
you've sinned against him,
that you want
to be forgiven
and that you know
Christ is the only way
to his forgiveness.
Accept Christ
as your Savior
and turn from
a lost life
to one
filled with
the glory of God.
The words that you use
are unimportant
as God knows
the desires of your heart
and is waiting
for you to come home.
If you want to talk
with anybody about it,
feel free to chat to me
or find one of the other men
in the church
because, brothers,
we do not want you
to be ignorant
for the Lord himself
will come down
from heaven
and we 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.
Friends, I hope
you live expectantly
knowing that the return
of the King
is imminent.
Let's pray.
Father God,
for generation
upon generation,
people lived
in expectation
of the coming
of the Messiah.
And Father,
we live in a time
where we can look back
upon that Messiah
and have life in him.
But Father,
we can also look forward
to his return.
We can look forward
to that day
where you come back
for your church,
where you come
to call your own
to yourself,
when we can finally
see you face to face.
Father,
we thank you
for the truth
of your word,
the power
of your Holy Spirit,
the love
and mercy
of your Son.
And we pray
all of these things
in his name.
Amen.