Return Of The King

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.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

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.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

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 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.

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.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

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.

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

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.

Amen.