"What Is Dispensationalism? The church has a new promise" Revelation 3:10 Sunday Evening Worship Service

We're continuing our series on what is meant by the term dispensationalism.

And I actually wasn't planning on including a sermon on the rapture in the series, but I uh emailed the series out to uh some of our elders and asked them uh what they thought of it before I before I started it, and uh that was the main response I got is that I needed to preach at least uh one sermon on how the rapture fits inside of dispensationalism, because oftentimes people associate um dispensationalism with the rapture, and so I'm eager to do this.

I've I've done it before, but I'm eager to return to the topic again.

But I do want to preface it and say I was initially going to overlook this part of dispensationalism because it is difficult to talk about, it's difficult to uh describe with clarity what's in the future.

Um there's a lot of difficulties inherent in talking about the rapture.

Sometimes people, when they think of the rapture of the church, they think of the left behind series.

And so when they hear that you believe in the rapture or the pre-tribulation or rapture of the church, they you know they immediately want to know if you believe like everything in the left behind series kind of thing.

So that adds a confusing element to it.

There's also so many schools of thought on eschatology and on the rapture, uh, so many different definitions, especially through church history, not just today, but through church history, it's very confusing when you try to identify what different uh church fathers, even um pre-Nicene church fathers, first 200 years of church history, what they taught about the rapture becomes very confusing because they had they didn't have the kind of framework and the concepts and the schemes that necessarily either covenantalism or dispensationalism do today.

So it gets very confusing.

But the main reason it's hard to talk about the rapture is Isaiah 61, verse 1 and 2.

Isaiah 61:1

I just want to read this to you.

Uh the Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me because Yahweh has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

Verse 2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, and to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them beautiful headdress instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, etc.

So that verse, as we read it, that should sound familiar to you.

This is the passage that Jesus read in Luke chapter 4 at the synagogue in Nazareth.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

He read it and said, This is fulfilled in your hearing.

But if you notice, when Jesus read it, he didn't read all that I just read.

He read Isaiah 61, verse 1, and then Isaiah 61, verse 2a, but skipped B, and then later on through his ministry claims, you know, C is something that not only he would do, but that his followers would do as well.

Isaiah 61:1

And so here's a passage that has three different components to it, but when you first look at it initially, it's all one unit.

You wouldn't divide this passage up into three parts just in your own reading of it, but that's what Jesus does in the synagogue.

And he says, you know, the first part of it is fulfilled right now, that it is first coming, Jesus came to earth to do the things described in verse 1 and the first part of verse 2.

But he skips the second part, and the reason he skips the second part is because that remains for his second coming.

But then the third part of it becomes an attitude that permeates in the church.

And so there's kind of a division as you look forward into time.

If you were to be uh one of the recipients of Isaiah's letter, one of his original recipients or the original audience, so to speak, you would read this, and it would not occur to you that there are two different comings bound up in chapter 61, verses 1 and 2.

That probably wouldn't cross your mind.

Now, maybe you could get there with a little bit of work about the structure of Isaiah and uh some of the prophecies in Isaiah seem to describe two different time periods.

So I'm not saying it's far-fetched.

I'm not saying you couldn't get there.

It's just not the normal way you would understand it initially.

It takes additional revelation, namely where Jesus stops reading the scroll in Luke chapter 4, and his own ministry, where he describes two comings to understand this.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

You even get this in Acts chapter 1, where the disciples have some questions after the resurrection.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

The disciples asked Jesus, Are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel now?

And that was after Jesus had taught on it for 40 days.

They had some questions about the timing of it.

Like they didn't get that, actually, not quite yet.

It's the next thing that's gonna happen, but first there's like a 2,000-year period.

And so this is the nature of what uh Bible scholars often refer to as telescoping prophecy.

And I like that phrase.

Uh like one of those pocket telescopes that collapses in and of itself, and they expand it.

That's the way so much prophecy is in the Bible.

It collapses and it expands.

There's different periods.

Or an analogy that's often used is that of the mountain peaks.

You look at a mountain peak where I'm from in Albuquerque, there's the Sandia Mountains there, and through all of town, it looks like there's one mountain.

The Sandia Mountains, there's one mountain.

But when the sun hits it just right, you see the tram cables that go up the mountain and they disappear halfway up the mountain.

And then they re-emerge at the top of the mountain.

And until you ride the tram, you don't understand what's happening.

Well, when you ride the tram, you realize there's actually two mountains there, and one goes up and the tram goes way down, and then up the second one.

You can't tell that from the city.

It looks like one mountain face from the city.

You have to actually get up on it to realize, oh no.

And uh, and the first time I learned that was trying to hike it with my stepbrother.

We were ill-prepared, and I will remember that the rest of my life.

Lots of life lessons were learned.

Specifically about the difficulty of talking about the rapture.

Some things that uh look far off, look like they're unified.

But then when you get up on them, you realize there's actually some distance between those peaks.

And so Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2 should be a little lesson to us, a little warning shot about uh epistemological humility here, a little warning that you should be a little humble when you approach these topics, especially the topics of eschatology, because um you probably don't know as much as you think you you know.

Isaiah 61:1

So, with that said, I do want to move in to how I understand, as I look forward to the mountains uh in the future of our world, how I understand that and how I hold it.

And I do hold these uh truths dearly to my heart, but I also hold them loosely because I recognize I'm looking at a mountain from a distance.

So let me give you some definitions to make the most of our time tonight.

Um, first, the millennium.

Uh the millennium, we talked about this last week.

It's a thousand-year kingdom where Jesus reigns on the earth.

It's often even called the millennial kingdom.

It's described at the end of the book of Revelation, along with, I mean, a third of Isaiah is about it, for example, much of the Old Testament.

A lot of the prophets, basically the prophecies that weren't fulfilled in the first coming of our Lord, many of them will be fulfilled in the second coming of our Lord.

We talked about this last week through Ezekiel.

We looked at that section of the chapter 30s, those that stretch of eight or nine chapters in Ezekiel that talks about this, and even Ezekiel 44, it ends with the millennial temple described there.

So there's a lot in the Bible about the millennium, but it's I think it's called the millennium because it's a thousand years, um, and described as a thousand years in the book of Revelation 19 and 20.

Uh it's also described in Daniel chapter 7, Zechariah chapter 8, and I have a list of the chapters in Isaiah where it's described, but it's like a lot of Isaiah.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention Zechariah 8 · chapter mention

So millennium, file that definition away.

Uh second coming.

Second coming is a term that refers to the events that take place around the return of Christ to earth.

So Jesus has a second coming.

This is part of the apostolic confession, the Nicene Creed.

We look forward to his return to earth.

This is how the book of Revelation ends.

Even so, Lord Jesus come quickly.

Uh Jesus ascended into heaven, and when he ascended there, it was declared by the angels that as you saw him go up, he's going to come back.

So there's a second coming of Jesus.

He's coming back to earth.

He's not coming back to earth to be born again and live another life again.

That's already been accomplished.

He's coming back to earth by returning bodily in the air.

That's the second coming.

But the phrase the second coming of Christ, it's used to describe more than merely his body appearing in the air.

It's a phrase that's used to describe the events that happen around that time period.

Just like when you speak of the advent of Jesus and his initial coming to earth, what you mean by that is likely the uh birth of John the Baptist, the prophecy, the virgin birth, the prophecy that Mary would be with child, the angel telling them what they would name the child, the wise men traveling, all of this is part of the first coming of Christ, including his birth and his flight to Egypt and his return to Nazareth.

Even though his proper first coming, like his introduction as the Savior, doesn't really begin until his baptism.

Yet all of the rest of that is still considered part of his advent.

The same thing is true with the second coming.

There's a package of things that happen around his second coming, such as, well, I give you a list of there, uh the rapture, which we'll talk about in a few minutes, the tribulation, the seven-year period of trial on the earth, we'll talk about that in a few minutes.

The Antichrist that's described in the Bible, who will be unveiled in the temple, that's part of this package.

The abomination of uh desolation that's described in Daniel chapter 9 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

That's all part of the second coming.

So those are the two definitions the millennium, second coming.

Now, you need a couple more words.

I know this is new for some of you, and I hope you can see that with my color scheme there, uh, because I certainly can't.

Um there's three different concepts here, three different categories on how these two relate, how the millennium relates to the second coming.

The first is the premill uh view, it's called premillennialism, which is the belief that the second coming comes before the millennium.

That's why it's called premillennial.

So the second coming happens before the thousand-year reign of Christ.

There's also the post-millennial view.

Um the postmillennial view is the idea that the second coming happens after the kingdom of Christ on this earth.

Uh a lot of the um early Puritans in the United States, anyway, were postmillennial, like Edwards was post-millennial today, like people like Douglas Wilson, R.C.

Spro Sprawl was postmillennial on every other day.

Um Tim Keller would be post-millennial.

Those are the kind of people that are post-millennial today.

It's this idea that the church will bring about the kingdom of God on earth, so the kingdom will be brought into earth uh through um the church as it expands its influence and as it transforms society, and the church will experience the kingdom life in this world now, and then at the end of a thousand years or a long period of time, Jesus will return to usher in the eternal state.

That's post-millennialism.

Uh I told you who um believed in post-millennialism.

Next is a millennialism.

Amillennialism is the uh belief that the millennium is not a literal a thousand years, ah being the alpha privative, which just means negative, it negates something.

Umillennialism means no millennium, no thousand-year reign.

Uh amillennialism is the idea that the kingdom is now spiritually, that Jesus is inaugurated as king in heaven.

He reigns over his kingdom from heaven, and the church is living its life now as citizens of the king.

But this is not a millennial kingdom.

This may be the kingdom, and as much as we experience the spiritual life and kingdom ethics in our own life now.

Um, but the Lord isn't going to come back and start his kingdom.

He's going to come back and close out this world.

All millennials believe in the second coming.

They just believe that the kingdom is being experienced now, not in some future stage or era.

And the all millennial view is held by Michael Horton, almost every Presbyterian you've ever met or heard of, uh, Mark Dever, J.I.

Packer, and others.

So I gave you the people who believe in all millennialism and post-millennialism.

Premillennialism is taught by John MacArthur, John Piper, D.A.

Carson, Wayne Grudim, and the Apostle Paul.

Just for a short list of people.

Um this is the different views of the millennium.

And so you understand that why this is important to get to the rapture is because these three views, premillennial, postmillennial, all millennial, the whole debate about the rapture is only inside of premillennialism.

So if somebody is all millennial or post-millennial, they're not going to have a view on the timing of the rapture.

Like that's not part of their framework.

So I just want to spell that out to you because oftentimes we get confused.

We, it's very easy to elevate the timing of the rapture above the timing of the millennium.

But if you're talking to a non-millennial or a Presbyterian or someone, uh, and you identified yourself as post-trib or pre-trib or mid-trib or whatever, they would probably know what you meant, but they wouldn't have a framework to respond to that because it's outside of their view.

So, a couple more definitions before we jump into the rapture tonight.

First, let me define the tribulation.

That's a seven-year period, uh, the final period of this age before the kingdom.

It's a period marked by the wrath of the Antichrist, who will pour out his wrath on the nations of the earth, who will pour out his wrath on Christians, on believers, he will pour out his wrath on anybody he can get his hands on.

He launches a global war.

Uh, this is the period of time described in Revelation beginning around chapter six, uh, forward up to Revelation 19.

Um, it describes the uh seals being broken, the trumpet judgments, the bulls described in Revelation.

That all takes place during the seven-year period of time.

Daniel chapter 9 is where we get the idea that it's seven years from.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

Daniel calls it seven years in Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

Jesus says that it's a time of, quote, great suffering, unlike anything that's happened from the beginning of the world.

So it's Matthew 24, verse 21.

Matthew 24:21

So somebody even today asks, do you think this is the great tribulation now when you hear about war in Ukraine and suffering around the world?

And my mind just goes back to Matthew 24, 21, where Jesus says it's a time of great suffering, unlike any time you've ever experienced in the world before.

Um, no, this is not it.

Uh Ukraine's always at war, it seems like.

Um so this is a Matthew 24 describes the tribulation as a new and uniquely uh wicked period of time.

The rapture, on the other hand, uh, is the physical removal of the church from the earth.

Uh the word rapture, it's called the rapture from the Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17, which is translated in English as caught up.

1 Thessalonians 4:17

But that word uh rapturo just means to be removed from the earth.

It's the physical removal of the church from the earth.

Uh, it's the time when Jesus comes in the clouds with the souls of believers who have already died, and they're reunited with their bodies in the air.

Remember, your body's in the ground.

If you die before the rapture, your body goes in the ground, your soul goes to be with the Lord forever.

When the Lord returns, he'll bring your soul with him, and your body will rise from the ground, they'll be reunited, and you'll have a physical, renewed resurrection body from that point forward.

And you will be met by Christians who are alive at the coming of the Lord.

They will meet you in the air.

That's 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 17.

1 Thessalonians 4:17

This event is what closes out the church age.

It's described in John 14, verse 3, where Jesus says, I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I'm going to come back and get you.

John 14:3

That's that's I I take that as the rapture.

Jesus says, I'm going to go to heaven, make a place for you, then I'm going to come back and fetch you.

I'm going to grab you and take you with me.

1 Corinthians 15 says, It'll happen at the trumpet blast, uh, and you'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye.

You won't experience death, Paul says there.

You won't die, you'll be changed at the trumpet when the Lord sounds it.

And of course, 1 Thessalonians 4.

We might look at that passage more in depth later.

Or now, actually.

Let's flip over to 1 Thessalonians 4.

Um it's probably worth just spending a minute here before we get into Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Um Thessalonians 4, verse 15 is a good place.

Verse 14, Paul says, We believe that Jesus died and rose again.

And he'll bring with him, verse 14 says of 1 Thessalonians 4, those who have fallen asleep.

In other words, those who have died, when Jesus comes back, he's going to bring their souls with them.

This we declare to you by a word from the Lord.

So the Lord has revealed this to Paul, that we who are alive and are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

And so he's describing a time period where he's alive on earth, and the Lord is going to come get him, but he's not going to be with the Lord before those who have fallen asleep.

He's giving comfort.

So you have a loved one who died, that person is already with the Lord, even though you're here on earth.

So it's kind of a way of saying, don't mourn like those who have no hope.

If a believer dies, you should have some joy.

You have sorrow, of course, but you should have some joy because they're with the Lord.

And now what's that gonna look like?

He says in verse 16, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, which is this Greek expression means loudness, like there's there's gonna be a lot going on.

The voice of an archangel, so he's got a trumpet wingman announcing his presence, the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

So the first thing that happens when the Lord returns, trumpet blasts, the dead rise, speaking of their bodies, of course, because he already said he's descending with them in the air.

So now the bodies meet them.

We who are alive, verse 17, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord.

So encourage one another, verse 18, with those words.

So that's where the word rapture comes from.

It's not a made-up word, it's from verse 17 there.

Um, the timing of the rapture, that's what I wanted to talk about tonight because this is uh a component of dispensationalism, it's part of the dispensational uh hermeneutic and how we see the future.

There's three views in the timing of the rapture: pre-trib, uh pre-wrath, or mid-trib.

It's kind of called interchangeably there, the same thing, or post-trib.

Those are the three really logical possibilities here.

The pre-trib view is that the rapture happens first.

Um the rapture happens in that rubric on the screen, the rapture happens before the tribulation.

So it's called pre-trib, before the tribulation.

Uh pre-wrath or the mid-trib view stresses that the first part of the tribulation is the Antichrist's wrath on the world, and the second part of the tribulation is the Lord's wrath on the world.

So in the pre-Wrath understanding, that's how the seven-year period of tribulation plays out.

And so the church is here experiencing the wrath of the Antichrist for the first half of the tribulation, but then the second half, and it might not be, the difference between mid-trib and pre-wrath is that it might not be exactly the midpoint.

So it used to be called mid-trib, this idea of three and a half years of rapture took place, but uh very few people believe that anymore.

Now it's more kind of the mid-trib view has become more popular.

I mean, the pre-wrath view has become more popular, which means at some point in the second half of the tribulation.

So maybe four years into the tribulation or five or six, you don't know, but at some point in the second half, the tribulation switches from the wrath of the Antichrist to the wrath of the Lord, and the church is raptured at that point.

So that's the mid-trib or the free wrath view, and then finally the um post-trib view, which is the idea the church experiences all of the tribulation, and then the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation.

Uh John Piper teaches this, Douglas Mu and some others.

Uh, and Piper's teaching of it, he describes it kind of as the yo-yo effect, which is a pretty good imagery to describe what is meant by the post-trib rapture, that the Lord comes back, raptures the church, so we meet him in the air, and the Lord descends to establish his kingdom.

So we go up to meet him and then descend to rule with him, the yo-yo approach to the rapture.

Um, so that's the that's the post-trib view.

Now, I reiterate that all three of these views are inside of premillennialism.

So I tried to note that on the right side of the screen there.

The pre-trib, the mid-trib, the post-trib, they're all inside of premillennialism.

And so that's why we're getting kind of down into the weeds here uh in eschatology.

So that's why, like I said, I think it's fine to hold uh these doctrines loosely.

Hold them, but hold them loosely, just like Dan right now is holding that we'll have time for the closing song tonight.

He's holding it loosely.

He would like to see it happen, but it's just it's loosely being held.

Um so uh why do I believe the rapture will be before the tribulation?

Um I'm gonna give you two reasons.

I have several uh in my notes, and uh last time I preached this sermon, I think I gave you four or five, but I've narrowed it down to two for tonight so we have time to get into Revelation 3.

Why do I believe the rapture is gonna be before the tribulation?

Two big reasons.

First, scripture seems to give two events with divergent attitudes towards them.

Um the second coming uh versus the gathering together with the Lord.

They both seem to be described differently when you read, not just Isaiah, but when you read the New Testament, there's kind of a different attitude connected to both of them.

So they're both future events.

The second coming is future, and us being gathered together with the Lord, the rapture is future, both are future.

But when Paul describes the rapture, he describes it with a sense of joy, doesn't he?

Like there's anticipation, like I can't wait to see Jesus.

Even John that way.

You know, when we see him, we'll be made like him.

John ends the book of Revelation with, Come quickly, Lord.

There's this like eagerness, like you want to see you want Jesus to come back and get you.

Paul says, Encourage each other with these words.

Encourage one another.

I mean, did you catch that?

Language, encourage.

That's very different than how the Bible speaks of the second coming in general.

Like it's the day of the Lord, it's the day of wrath, it's the day of unparalleled suffering in the world.

It's a day where Jesus says, you better hope you're not pregnant when this happens, because you won't make it.

I mean, that's very different than encourage one another with these words.

I mean, it's hard for me to bring those two together.

It's hard for me to bring together, hey, I'm sorry you're going through this.

The Lord gives you grace and I want to encourage you.

And man, you better hope you're not around when this goes down.

They seem to me to be two very different events that are difficult for me to reconcile.

I mean, 2 Corinthians 1 verse 14, Paul says, On the day of our Lord Jesus, you will boast of us, and we will boast of you.

2 Corinthians 1:14

That's a very eager, happy event, isn't it?

I'm going to be stoked to see you in heaven in 2 Corinthians ends with whichever ones of you.

Get there.

1 Thessalonians 5.

I mean, you're probably in 1 Thessalonians 4.

You can flip over to chapter 5, verse 2.

You yourselves are fully aware, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

People are saying peace and security and sudden destruction will come upon them.

As labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they won't escape.

I mean, see the difference between encourage one another with these words, and it's going to come like a thief, and you won't escape it.

They seem to be talking about two different events, at least with two different attitudes.

2 Thessalonians 2, verse 2.

2 Thessalonians 2:2

Don't be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or by a spoken word, by a letter seeming to come from us.

The effect of the day, Lord, has come.

He's telling him, don't panic.

It hasn't hasn't come yet.

Verse 2 Timothy 4, verse 8.

2 Timothy 4:8

Henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day.

And not only to me also, but to all those who loved his appearing.

Do you see the different attitudes?

You know, one camp, you're like, I'm loving the idea of the appearing of Jesus Christ.

I'm waiting for it.

It's our blessed hope.

Also, man, uh I'm terrified, it's overtaking the world.

I'm terrified, it brings sudden destruction with it.

Like labor pains upon a pregnant woman.

It's just very, very different attitude.

So that's one reason I think of uh in the pre-tribulation rapture, because when I put those two events together and I see how the Bible describes both of them with very different kinds of language, I think that the most natural way to reconcile those two would be to put the rapture first, because then this makes sense.

I'm looking forward to the coming of the Lord.

I want to be caught up together with him in the air.

I want Jesus to come back, come quickly, and then uh-oh, I missed that.

Now it's trouble and heartache and wrath on the world.

That's bad.

So that makes sense when you put him in that order.

But if you flip the order, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Doesn't make a lot of sense.

So let's say it differently.

I know I said I narrowed my list down.

This is basically two ways of saying the same thing.

Destined for wrath versus rescued from wrath.

That's the kind of attitude the Bible speaks of these two different events.

Some people are destined for wrath and some are rescued from wrath.

2 Peter 2, verse 9, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

2 Peter 2:9

Here Peter even uses Sodom and Gomorrah as the example for what's awaiting us.

And he tells his readers, like, don't you know?

Like, here's a basic truth about God.

Think of Noah, think of Lot.

God knows how to rescue his people from the judgment he pours out on the world.

So that's kind of Peter's attitude towards this.

That people in the world are destined for destruction.

But if the Bible teaches you anything, it's that God knows how to rescue his own children from that.

That's 2 Peter 2, verse 9.

2 Peter 2:9

Or 2 Timothy 4, verse 18.

2 Timothy 4:18

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

So notice there's a change of location there.

Paul tells Timothy, the Lord's gonna rescue me from all the evil by bringing me into his kingdom.

I'll be moved.

And that's how I'm gonna notice how Paul's planning of being rescued is not ambiguous.

He doesn't say, Lord's gonna rescue me with a bomb shelter.

He's gonna rescue me by cryptocurrency.

No, he's gonna rescue me by moving me out of this world into his kingdom.

So you can see why this whole scheme only makes sense inside of premillennialism, I think.

Daniel 70 weeks, uh, which I won't go all into, but man, I wish I had time.

I love I love that passage, Daniel chapter 9.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

Daniel lays out a time period for the future events.

Seven periods of seven, that's 49 years until Nehemiah is gonna rebuild his wall.

Then 62 times 7, that's 434 years from the uh Nehemiah's wall in the temple to Jesus' entry.

That's a total of 483 years.

There's one period of seven years left.

In the middle of the 69th and the 70th week is the church age.

That's where we are right now.

So there's still that seven-year period at the end, a seven-year kind of period that's dangling over the church right now.

We know it's in the future.

It's not for the church.

We're in the gap.

We're not for the church, it's for Israel.

The church was a mystery to them.

There's enough in there, you see the gap between the 69th and 70th weeks.

There's enough to know something's happening there.

Something is going on in that week.

That's why there's a gap.

But and here we are in the church, and the week is in its future.

So, why, with that said, why is it, before we get to Revelation 3, why isn't everybody pre-trib then?

Why are there opposing views?

And well, I mean, the objections I've heard to the pre-tribulation rapture view, the most common objection, if people are being honest, is it just sounds extreme.

Like the Lord's gonna remove Christians from the earth, like that's a big deal.

Like that's that's huge.

Like, they're just gonna be gone.

I mean, that's that's too far-fetched.

Like that's too much.

It's so different than anything we're experiencing now.

And if you're being honest, that's true.

Like that's what that's what we're talking about, is that the church is getting removed from the earth, physically, caught up together with the Lord in the air.

Like, that's what this describes.

So, yeah, I agree.

Like, that sounds really out there.

But also, it's, I think it's what the Bible teaches.

And the Bible teaches other really out there things.

And I mean, you could make your own list at home for fun someday.

Like, what are all the like really out there things?

Like, they're gonna walk around the wall seven times and blow trumpets, it's gonna fall, and Rahab's gonna be rescued?

I mean, manna, don't even get me started on manna.

From the water from the rock to feed millions of people and watermelon, there's all kinds of the resurrection comes to mind also, by the way.

That's pretty, but more to the point, what about Pentecost?

I mean, how did the church start?

Tongues of fire on people's heads, speaking in languages that they didn't learn, and everybody hearing them and believing the gospel and radically saved and baptized at the steps of the temple?

I mean, that's out there.

But that's how the church started.

So it may it fits with me to see it end in a similarly dramatic fashion.

Uh, another reason um that people don't believe, that's the one reason I hear it.

Another reason that people often reject the pre-shared rapture is uh it's not taught through church history.

People say that.

It's not you know, a new view invented in the 1840s or whatever.

But I say unto you, that's not entirely true.

Um, first of all, even if it were true, that's not a reason to not believe something you think the Bible teaches it.

Uh it is a reason to give you pause.

You know, if you if you're going down the road of a new doctrine, you probably do want to take a breath and you know, think like, is this what churches, this is what my church believes and my church teaches, and who else believes and teaches this?

Ask all kinds of questions, of course.

But I would also say that it's not really historically new.

And I mentioned this at the beginning of the night earlier.

Um, but you know, the church fathers in particular used terms differently uh than we use it.

They they saw the tribulation differently than we see it, their categories were different, but it is not unusual to see people throughout church history that were looking forward to the Lord removing believers from the earth by some kind of dramatic uh removal.

Um so I don't think it's as novel as people often think.

But the third reason, uh I believe in the preacher rapture is Revelation 3.10.

So you can turn there.

We're gonna spend the rest of our night there, Revelation chapter 3, verse 10.

Revelation 3:10

This is the seven letters to the churches.

This is the second to last church, the church of Philadelphia.

These churches are in descending order, by the way.

That's important to notice.

Um they go in descending order of health.

The healthiest church here is the church of Ephesus.

They had Timothy as their pastor.

Uh those people rocked.

Uh, they were drifting away from their first love, and so they get this letter to restore them.

But they were by far the most mature New Testament church, without a doubt.

And the churches kind of go in descending order, and if you study these churches, you understand that.

And so the church of Laodicea, I mean, you wonder if anybody is saved there.

The image of the church of Laodicea is that they locked the Lord out of the church.

And um, you know, it's just they're gonna get spit out.

Look at verse 15, Laodicea.

They're gonna get spit out of their mouth.

Um, spit out of the mouth.

That's pretty um dramatic that they're gonna be rejected by the Lord.

But back to the church of Philadelphia.

Um, in the church of Philadelphia, it's not a healthy church, but it does seem uh like there are believers there because the Lord calls them overcomers.

Look at verse 12 the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Um so the Lord is uh calling to them.

This is a contrast, I think, um, to the church of Laodicea.

The church of Laodicea he says, if anyone conquers, I'll let them sit on my throne.

Right before that in verse 20, he says, I'm knocking on the door.

If anyone hears my voice, can you let me in?

kind of thing.

So, bad news in Laodicea.

But Philadelphia, they're not the best church.

They're towards the end of the list here.

Nevertheless, the Lord is holding out hope for them.

And to encourage them, he tells them bad things are about to happen in the world, namely Revelation 6 forward, okay?

Bad things are gonna happen.

But I want you to know, in verse 10, if you keep your patient endurance, if you endure, right now, through your persecution, if you're endure, you're in the synagogue, verse 9, of Satan, you're uh the synagogue of Satan is coming to you and corrupting the church.

I'm gonna turn it around, verse 9 says.

I'm gonna turn it around.

I'm gonna turn the synagogue of Satan on its head.

I've loved you, he says in verse 9.

I'm gonna rescue you.

That's verse 10.

You've kept my word about patient endurance.

I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

I'm coming soon, verse 11.

Hold fast to what you have, so no one can seize your crown.

So he's appealing to them to hold on to their faith.

They're going through a trial, they're tempted to apostasize, they're tempted to uh bring in Satan worship into their church, which is an insane temptation, but that's what they're dealing with.

And so Jesus tells them, I am going to rescue you if you hold on to the truth.

So, one way of understanding this verse is to say, he's just motivating them to go through the great persecution.

There's a great tribulation, he's telling them, hold on really tight, and if you make it through, I'll get you.

But when you start to look at these words, you realize that's not what he's saying.

When you zoom in on Revelation 3, verse 10, he's saying something I think much more dramatic than that.

Revelation 3:10

I say every single phrase, even in some places, word of Revelation 3.10 is pointing to the pre-tribulation of rapture.

And let me show you what I mean.

We're gonna walk through this verse now.

First, let's focus on the phrase, I will keep you.

Right in the middle of Revelation 3, verse 10.

Revelation 3:10

I will keep you from the hour of trial that will come upon the earth.

The subject of that promise, the I here is Jesus.

Jesus is saying, I will keep, and the object is you, I will keep you.

In this case, he's speaking to the Christians and the beleaguered and persecuted church.

The word translated here, keep, doesn't, it's not the word for rescue.

The word translated here for keep is to take something and hold it close to yourself.

Sometimes it's translated to preserve something or to guard something.

That's the word used by the wedding guests in John's gospel, and it says, Oh, you've kept the best, the best wine.

You know, normally the host keeps the best wine to last, but you've you've uh gives the best wine first, but you've kept it to last.

You've guarded it, you've kept it close to yourself.

It's the word that Jesus uses in John 17, verse 11.

John 17:11

Father, keep them in your name.

Jesus is praying for his church and he says, Father, I want you to keep them.

When Paul appealed his arrest, the governor ordered him to be kept in custody.

That's the same Greek word, until he went to see Caesar.

It's used of keeping your chastity in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 37.

1 Corinthians 7:37

Or keeping the commandments of God, 1 Timothy 6, verse 14, or keeping the faith in 2 Timothy 4, verse 7.

1 Timothy 6:14 2 Timothy 4:7

Sometimes it's translated reserves, that God reserves our inheritance for us in heaven.

That's 1 Peter 1, verse 4.

1 Peter 1:4

So in all these cases, in all those examples, the thing's not kept at a distance, the thing is kept close to the one who's keeping it.

It's used in other places like keeping watch over the body.

The guards kept watch over Jesus' body in Matthew 27.

Uh Peter was kept in prison, Luke says in Acts 12, verse 5.

Acts 12:5

But in those examples, that was keeping over something.

Even that was relatively close.

There's a you know stone between the body and the guards, but they were keeping watch over it.

This isn't keeping them over the trial.

This is keeping them, the Lord himself keeping them.

It has this imagery of being kept close to him.

So what I'm the point I'm making with this word is you don't keep something at a distance.

That's not how this word is used.

You don't keep something in a safety deposit box.

You keep something away from something else by bringing it with you.

That's what the word means.

And so there's this language here in here in Revelation 3 of the church being kept that Jesus says, I will keep you.

The implication is towards himself.

And specifically the next word, I will keep you from.

And as I mentioned this morning, English prepositions are pretty interchangeable.

You know, this morning I preached about Ephesians 6, around Ephesians 6, in Ephesians 6, on, out, amongst Ephesians 6, etc.

But all those phrases mean the same thing.

But Greek, the prepositions are pretty specific, they're spatially related.

Revelation 3 verse 10, the preposition is ek, I will keep you ek, means out of.

Revelation 3:10

It indicates removal of something, especially when it's paired with keep.

So the idea that I'm keeping something out of something means I'm getting it and keeping it near myself and taking it away from it.

That's what the word out of means.

So it's not, I don't think it's grammatically tenable to say that what Jesus says is going to keep you in it.

That would be a different word.

He's not going to keep you through it.

That's a way it's commonly interpreted, is that because they're faithfulness, Jesus will keep them through the tribulation.

You know, like they're in a storm and he'll just close the door.

So he'll keep them, or like the ark kind of imagery.

You know, that's I don't think that's exactly what's going on here.

He says, I'm going to keep you out of it.

Near Himself.

Now, what are we being kept out of?

Well, I want to draw your attention here to the word the.

Very critical word, the word the uh the word the is definite article.

Greek doesn't really use definite, indefinite the same way we do in English, but definite means to show identity of something.

So the lack of the article would show quality, the presence of the article shows identity.

So a common example in Greek grammar books, if I were to say, I have a story this morning, a cat came to my door.

You'd want to know what cat.

But if I said the cat came to my door, you would know, oh, you're talking about your wretched cat.

The article is what carries the day there.

The article lets you know it's the identity, it's something that is identified versus something of the quality of a cat.

So that's what's happening here.

The hour of trials coming upon the whole earth.

The presence of the article means it's something that is identifiable, not just a period of trials that generally come upon the earth at all periods of time.

Everybody goes through trials, and Philadelphia goes through trials, and Lodicea goes through trials, and Sardis goes through trials, that we all are trying our own trials in life.

That's not what the article is doing there.

The article is telling you there's something specific and identifiable that the readers would know as a period of trial.

And so that's why it's often connected to the tribulation that's been taught by Jesus, by Paul and 2 Thessalonians, and elsewhere.

It's something identifiable.

Jesus is saying, uh, not I'm going to deliver you from the concept of trials that are generally on the earth since the fall, but rather I'm going to deliver you out of the specific period of trials that are easy to identify.

And I think in the context is the identifiable period of trials is what's coming in Revelation 6 and forward.

Next word, hour.

And here the word is idiomatic, much like the English word season.

If you told me you were going through a rough season of life, I wouldn't think you meant a literal three-month period.

I would understand that you mean there's a period of time in your life that is difficult right now.

And the same is true here.

Doesn't mean there's a literal 60-minute trial coming upon the earth, but rather there is a smaller, designated piece of time.

Jesus, I think, refers to as the great tribulation, it's a period of time that's about to come on the earth.

It's not the normal trials the churches go through, which are described in Revelation 2 and 3, by the way.

But he has in mind a distinct future period of time.

Specifically a period of time of trial.

This is a period of trial.

The word can mean testing or tempting.

It's the same word used in James, same word that Jesus uses in the Lord's Prayer.

Interesting, the word that Peter uses in 1 Peter 4, verse 12.

1 Peter 4:12

Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing.

Same word that's used there.

This is the idea that the Lord knows how to test his people to purify them.

So not every trial is from the devil.

Some trials are from the Lord to purify you.

And you know this trial versus temptation is all about how you respond.

The Lord doesn't tempt you, but the Lord does put you through trials.

If you respond with sin, that's from your own heart, not from the Lord.

If you respond with perseverance, that's from the Lord.

That's basic biblical framework.

It's the same Greek word, trial and temptation.

It hinges in how you respond.

So here there is a period of trial that is coming on the earth.

And Jesus says, I will rescue you out of it, I will keep you out of it, because it's not designed for you, would be the implication.

Of course, trials are designed for Christians.

He's not saying that if you love Jesus, you won't go through trials.

I have heard this verse used and abused and misused up and down and back all around the world again.

This idea that if you're faithful, the Lord will keep you from trials.

No, if you're faithful, you're likely going to be faithful because you went through trials.

That's what makes a faithful person.

That's not what he's talking about here.

Not, I'm gonna keep you out of trials in the world if you're faithful.

That's like health, wealth, prosperity.

Send them 50 bucks.

This is something different.

This is there's a period of trial that's not designed for you.

That's because testing generally reveals the quality, it doesn't you know that's what he's not the hour of the tribulation coming on the world is not designed to reveal if they are Christians or not.

That's being established by their current trials.

There's a future period of trial that's coming on the earth that is not for Christians.

In fact, the next phrase that is coming.

So he's not talking about the normal trials that they're going through now.

He's not saying, yeah, life is hard.

The synagogue of Satan opened up across the street from First Baptist Philadelphia.

That's a trial.

But that's not that's not what he's talking about.

There's a different period, not what's going on from the fall until now, but a different period of trials and persecutions that are coming to the world, and he's saying, I'm gonna keep you out of it.

It's not here yet.

It's not here yet.

Jesus says the same things, you know, you'll you hear war and rumor of war, earthquake, that's not it, that's not it, that's not it.

When the Antichrist is there, that's it.

So it's a different, distinct future period of time.

And it's coming upon the whole world.

The whole world.

I read uh a book on three views of the rapture this afternoon.

I looked at it again to refresh my thinking on this, and uh, it's amazing that people want to argue that this phrase the whole world here just means the whole world that it was known to Jesus, not a global persecution, just what was known to Jesus, so it could be more local.

There's some trial coming to Philadelphia in particular, and he would keep them out of the trial in Philadelphia.

But that's not, I mean, it's it's it's the word for the whole world, not just the entire known world, but I mean it's Jesus who's speaking, he knows the whole world.

Anyway, I don't even understand the distinction.

He's talking about a global period of trial.

The phrase is expanded in verse 10 to include all those who do.

Dwell on the earth.

That's how the phrase of the verse ends.

All those who dwell, everybody who dwells on planet Earth will be hit by this great tribulation.

It won't be a localized earthquake.

It won't be a tsunami just on the you know the Asian coast or the California coast.

It won't be a drought just in a desert somewhere.

It's going to be a global epidemic.

And then finally, the purpose of this is to try, to try those who dwell on the earth.

The period of trials has an objective, to try people.

As I mentioned, it's the same word that's used earlier.

That's why the ESV even translates it the same way.

It's the hour of trial that's coming to try you.

It's the same word.

The one sending the trial, God, has a goal to expose the people that dwell on the earth is falling short of his standard.

It's the word you used to describe how the Pharisees demanded Jesus to perform a sign to prove that he was the Messiah.

They're putting him on trial.

And of course, he didn't do it.

He's not going to cater to them.

It's the same concept for which Jesus rebuked the crowds later.

He said, Why are you testing me in Matthew 22?

You hypocrites, why are you putting me to the test?

That's the word that's used here.

So the idea is that there's an hour of trial coming to the earth.

It's not designed to try Christians, it's designed to expose people on the earth that's falling short of the standard of God.

I mean, in the closer context, Revelation 2, verse 10 says the devil was testing the church of Smyrna to provoke them to sin.

Revelation 2:10

So even in the seven letters, you already have the idea that churches are going through trials, they're going through testing.

Of course they are.

But there's a specific future trial that will try those who dwell on the earth.

Not designed for the church, but those who dwell on the earth.

That phrase on the whole earth, by the way, it's not unusual.

It's used 11 times in the book of Revelation, and it always refers to people who are experiencing the wrath of God.

All the 11 times in Revelation, John uses it the same way, there's a group of people, namely all those who dwell on the earth, that are experiencing God's wrath.

That's what he's telling the church in Philadelphia, you won't be part of.

I will keep you out of it.

Obviously, the church is not spared from every trial of life.

Obviously, persecution is real, and the gospel is glorified through it.

Suffering is real and the gospel can be magnified through it.

But the book of Revelation is preparing to describe something unheard of in human history.

Chapter 6 and 4 is not the normal cycle of persecutions that the world goes through.

It's something different that is unheard of and unparalleled in world history.

Revelation 4 through 19 doesn't describe the normal sanctifying work of trials and persecution.

It describes the almighty wrath of God revealed against the human race.

And I mean this very seriously.

The entire point of Revelation 3.10 is that for those who are demonstrating the purity of their faith by enduring right now the normal trials that come upon the world, you endure right now because you're saved, you will be spared that trial.

That's the point of Revelation 3.10.

You can get so far in the weeds you almost missed the bigger point.

The bigger point is that they're going through trials right now.

But through the purity of their faith, Paul will rescue them, or Jesus will rescue them from the trial of a come upon the whole, the whole earth in the future.

So when you take all this together, Jesus is encouraging his beleaguered church by telling them that because they overcome the world and hold on to their faith to the end, he will rescue them from the period of destruction that's about to overtake the whole earth.

That period of destruction is described in Daniel 9, Jeremiah 30, Matthew 24.

But here in Revelation, it's described in great detail from chapters 6 to 19, and it's a reminder that God will rescue his elect from across the face of the earth by removing them from the trial that's about to fall on it.

And that's why he tells them.

I mean, he told other churches something similar.

He told Thyratira, hold fast until I come.

Hold fast, hold on, I'll come get you.

He tells Sardis, I'm gonna come like a thief.

I'm gonna come like a thief.

For the dead, that's bad.

But for those holding on, that's rescue.

That's rescue.

For Philadelphia, he says, if you have an ear to hear, hear these words.

The most amazing thing about this, by the way, is that this is the last you see of the church in the book of Revelation.

I used to hear preacher before I before I had bought into the pre-chur rapture myself, I used to hear preacher people say that all the time.

Like, and after this, the church is missing from the book of Revelation.

I'm like, whatever, you know, it's missing from the grocery store today.

That doesn't mean it's a preacher of rapture.

But when you read the New Testament, especially the epistles, it's all about the church.

You can't swing a dead cat without hitting the church and the epistles.

They're all over the place.

It's all about the church.

Everything's about the church.

Why would you swing a living cat?

Is the point.

It's the church everywhere.

And then you get to Revelation, and it's the same way.

Revelation starts like the rest of the New Testament.

Church, church, church, church, church, church, church.

Hey, I'm going to rescue you from the hour of trial.

It's coming upon the whole earth.

Hour of trial.

For practically the rest of the book, no church.

Well, what happened to them?

What's the church doing during the hour of trial?

Where'd they end up?

Well, it says they were rescued out of it.

And of course, we return with the Lord in the air.

The temple descends.

We will reign with him in his kingdom and be with him forever and ever.

We're missing from the book until the end, where we reign with the Lord in his kingdom.

So, in other words, the removal of the overcomers happens before the Great Tribulation.

So a counter-argument would be hey, everybody in Philadelphia died.

You go there now and it's empty.

See, they missed, they missed the Great Tribulation there, just by dying.

Well, my response to that is that's true either way.

You know, great, pre-trib rapture then, because they were spared from it.

I mean, what do you want?

They died.

So why is God giving them a promise if he knows they're gonna die before it happens?

That's the better question to ask.

Why the promise if he knows they will be dead before the great hour of trial comes upon the earth?

And I think the answer is why are these seven letters given to us?

Why do they close out the New Testament's instruction to the church?

Because they describe different kinds of churches?

Certainly.

Because they motivate obedience and they describe what awaits us in the next life.

And I think that's the real reason.

These letters are written to seven churches, but John wrote them down.

And they became part of the Bible, and they are for us to learn from.

And we read this and we're like, I want to hold on.

I want to hold on to the tr through the trials.

I want to endure through every trial that comes my way.

I want the crown of life.

I want to be a pillar in the temple.

I want to reign with Jesus.

I want my white garments.

I want my name in the book of life.

I want all of that.

I want to be celebrated before the Father and the angels.

And that's that's what the promise is to the church.

And one of those is that the Lord will come and rescue us from the hour of trial about to come on the whole earth.

God, we're thankful for the promise of your gospel, that you do rescue believers.

You know us by name.

You wrote our names in the book of life before the foundation of the earth.

And so we're grateful for that.

We do pray for humility.

Again, we know there's an element of future events we can't discern.

The mountain peaks collapse on top of each other.

You know the future, and that's enough for us.

Nevertheless, we do want to approach the Bible and wrestle with what's there and try to make conclusions.

And so I pray tonight that I was faithful to do that and just ask that if there's things I said that weren't clear or weren't accurate or right, that you would just, you know, not them, not let them impact anybody's heart.

But that we would all have enough humility to wrestle with your word and to um decide what is teaching and to hold fast to the truth as we're united in the same line of soldiers together.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.