Transcript

Robby Robins was an Air Force pilot during the first Iraq war. After his 300th mission, he was surprised to be given permission to immediately pull his crew together and fly his plane home. They flew across the ocean to Massachusetts and then had a long drive to western Pennsylvania. They drove all night, and when his buddies dropped him off at his driveway just after sun-up, there was a big banner across the garage—‘Welcome Home Dad!’

“How did they know? No one had called, and the crew themselves hadn’t expected to leave so quickly. Robins relates, ‘When I walked into the house, the kids, about half dressed for school, screamed, ‘Daddy!’ Susan came running down the hall—she looked terrific—hair fixed, make-up on, and a crisp yellow dress. ‘How did you know?’ I asked.

“‘I didn’t,’ she answered through tears of joy…‘we knew you’d be home one of these days. We knew you’d try to surprise us, so we were ready every day.’”

With our Blessed Hope of the Rapture, we need to be ready every day for our Savior. Keeping Christ on our mind is key to our spiritual growth.

And since the Blessed Hope could take place at any time, we are to think of Christ daily, knowing that any day is a possible day that He is coming for the Church, the Body of Christ.

At some point, one generation will be alive when Christ comes to catch the Church to heaven before the Tribulation period. And you never know, we may very well be that generation.

To be ready for the Rapture, we need to know what to expect when the Rapture does take place. We’ll look at the details of the Rapture in these next couple episodes.

1 Thessalonians 1:10: “And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

The Church, the Body of Christ is taught to wait for God’s Son, who is coming from heaven. Like the Thessalonians were doing, according to verse 9, while we “serve the living and true God” we wait for the living and true God to catch us away to heaven.

We wait for Christ while we work for Christ. “Wait” speaks of a patient, confident, eager anticipation. We are each to keep an eye on the sky while we serve the Lord, knowing that Christ could come for us at any moment.

We wait for God’s Son, “whom He raised from the dead.” The return of Christ is just as sure as Christ’s resurrection.

The return of Christ is in the same category as Christ’s resurrection. Christ arose from the dead. What seemed like an impossibility happened. Christ is coming for the Church, the Body of Christ. What seems like an impossibility is going to happen.

And Christ rose from the dead as He said He would. Christ is coming to catch the Church to heaven one day, just as He has said. He is faithful to His promises in His Word.

The focus is on Christ in 1 Thessalonians 1:10. We’re not waiting for an event, we’re waiting for a Person. We’re not waiting for the Rapture, we’re waiting for Christ. We’re not waiting for signs of His coming, we’re waiting for our gracious, loving Savior.

Verse 9 speaks of how the Thessalonian believers had been saved and “TURNED to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Verse 10 speaks of another turn, turning our hearts heavenward to wait for Christ to catch us away.

And when He does come, each believer will turn their heads, look up, and see Him, the living and true God, and He will catch us way instantly to forever be with Him.

Christ’s coming is about His resurrection and our resurrection. It’s about the One who is “the Resurrection and the Life,” the One that said “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,” coming to give life and raise the dead bodies from the grave of those who are members of the Body of Christ.

Christ rose from the dead bodily. His tomb was empty. At His coming for the Church, He comes to give the Body of Christ our bodily resurrection, and those graves will be empty.

He comes to give changed bodies to both the living and the dead like His resurrected, glorified body. As Philippians 3:21 says about the Rapture: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”

And Christ comes from heaven to catch us away to heaven to dwell with Him there forever, because that is our hope. Our citizenship is in heaven for eternity.

The Thessalonians were actively waiting for God’s Son from heaven. This implies the possibility of Him coming at any moment back then during their lifetime. From the very beginning of the dispensation of grace, this has been the hope of the Body of Christ.

The imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ continues to this moment. We too wait for our Savior, knowing that He could come at any time and during our lifetime. For the entire age of grace, the Church has had the imminent hope of Christ’s coming.

And when He does come, He’s coming back to save and deliver His Church “from the wrath to come.” Coming wrath refers to something yet to come. This phrase is pointing to the time of unprecedented wrath on this world in the 7 year Tribulation period.

Zephaniah 1:14-15 says of that time, “The great day of the Lord is near…and hasteth greatly…the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress….a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of…thick darkness.”

Those who are saved and are in Christ, are safe from this coming time of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth. We will be delivered from it by Christ at the Rapture, the catching away of the Church to heaven.

But if you have never trusted Christ, you are in danger every single day of being left behind to face this terrible time when God’s judgment and wrath will rain down on earth.

We pray that you are ready for the Rapture by trusting Christ as your Savior, that He died for you and for your sins and that He rose again the third day.

Trusting this good news saves you from the wrath to come in the Tribulation.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.”

These verses teach us what we need to focus on as believers as we stay Rapture ready.

In verse 18, Paul had written about attempting “once and again” to get back to Thessalonica, but that “Satan hindered us” and he had been unable after multiple attempts.

Satan hindered Paul reuniting with the Thessalonians, but then Paul wrote about a meeting that Satan will not be able to hinder or do anything about: the meeting in the air.

Often you’ll hear believers say “I’ll see you here, there, or in the air.” That’s what Paul is talking about here. If he didn’t see them here or there, he would meet them in the air.

Nothing could diminish Paul’s hopeful, joyful and sure anticipation of seeing them again, if not in this life, then in the one to come and at the Rapture.

As Paul knew he would meet Christ and be in His presence at the Rapture, Paul knew also that he would be in the Thessalonians’ presence at the Rapture, and then with these members of the Body of Christ forever in heaven.

This is where real comfort is found for those who have lost believing loved ones to death, that we can say the same of them: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?”

We who are assured of spending eternity in Christ’s presence in heaven, have the sure hope of seeing our loved ones who are in the presence of Christ right now in heaven, and we have the hope every single day of seeing them again at His coming at the Rapture.

Paul knew without a doubt he would recognize the Thessalonians in heaven. And we will know our loved ones in heaven. His joy and sure hope was to spend eternity with them.

We call our children our pride and joy. And the same was true for Paul in the spiritual sense with those who were saved by Christ through his life and labors.

They were his children in the faith and his glory and joy, back then and for eternity.

And Paul refers to these saints as his “crown of rejoicing.” These crowns are people. This gives us some insight into what will constitute our reward in heaven.

Part of our reward will be seeing people whom we lead to Christ, safe in Him, in His presence forever. We will rejoice forever in seeing people saved by the grace of God, whom we had a part in leading to the Savior, whether by prayer, financial giving, planting seeds, or being the one who personally led them to Christ.

Paul’s greatest hope, his most joyful aspiration, and his crowning achievement was to see men, women and children in the presence of Christ at the Rapture. Paul was willing to do anything he could to make sure people were not left behind when Christ returns.

Josh McDowell, the Christian apologist, tells the story about a gentleman he knew who worked in the business world and his job was known as “an executive headhunter.” He recruited corporate executives for large firms.

This man told Josh McDowell that when he interviews an executive, he likes to disarm him. “I offer him some coffee,” said the headhunter, “then I take off my coat, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, or whatever, until he’s all relaxed.

“Then, when I think I’ve got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, ‘What’s your purpose in life?'” The headhunter said, “It’s amazing how top executives, sharp, educated men and women, fall apart at that question.”

Then he told about interviewing one fellow recently. He had him all disarmed, had his feet up on his desk, talking about football.

Then the headhunter leaned over and said, “Bob, what’s your purpose in life?” And the executive, without blinking an eye, looked back at him and said, “To go to heaven and to take as many people with me as I can.”

The headhunter told Josh McDowell that for the first time in his career, he was speechless. He had never encountered anyone who was so prepared, so ready to state his purpose in life: “To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.”

To be ready every single day for the Rapture, we need to have an evangelistic heart.

Our purpose in life should be: to go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can. This was the Apostle Paul’s purpose. We are called to follow Paul as he followed Christ.

We often talk about material things and that you can’t take it with you when you go. And that’s true. But there is something you can take with you at the Rapture and to heaven.

You can take your family. You can take friends. You can take co-workers. You can take the people you lead to Christ with you. And they will be a crown of rejoicing for you for all eternity.

It’s been rightly said, “Only two things in this world are eternal—the Word of God and people. It only makes sense to build your life around those things that will last forever.”

This is true. To be Rapture ready, we need to build our life by the Bible and obey it by faith, and invest our lives in people.

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

In this part of his letter, Paul wrote the Thessalonian church, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren.” There was something here that the Thessalonians were ignorant of and did not know that was troubling them.

After Paul had led these Thessalonians to Christ and established their local church, he taught them about Christ’s coming at the Rapture for the Body of Christ before the 7-year Tribulation. But in the meantime, a question and a specific concern had arisen regarding saints who had died.

They had difficulty understanding what happens to a believer who had died when Christ comes. They were concerned that they might somehow miss the Rapture since they are not here when the Lord returns, and thus be excluded from participation in it.

To answer their questions and to calm their fears, Paul describes the order of events at the time of Christ’s coming for His Church, the Body of Christ.

Paul wrote them to clear up their confusion “concerning them which are asleep.” That reminds me of the Sunday school teacher who asked her class why it’s important to be quiet in church. One bright little girl quickly piped up, “Because people are sleeping!”

That is the main subject in verses 13-18, those who are asleep. In verse 13, he writes, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are ASLEEP.”

Verse 14 reads, “even so them also which SLEEP in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

Verse 15 says, “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are ASLEEP.”

Those who were “asleep” speaks of those who have died. Sleep is an appropriate simile of death, because in death a person seems to be sleeping, they have the appearance of sleeping.

“Sleep” is a hopeful word though, because sleeping assumes a future awakening, or a resurrection. Sleeping speaks to the fact that like physical sleep, physical death, the death of the body, is temporary, just like our nightly sleep is.

Using the term “sleep” speaks of how one day the lifeless body will awake from death in the resurrection and be changed at the Rapture.

It’s interesting to note that our word “cemetery” comes from a Greek word meaning “sleeping place.” And the Bible often refers to death as sleep.

In John 11:11-14, the Lord told the disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep…but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”

When Stephen was being stoned to death, Acts 7:60: “He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

The Bible does not teach that the soul sleeps at the time of death. In Luke 16, the rich man and Lazarus were both conscious after their deaths. 2 Corinthians 5:8 teaches that to be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord.

For the believer, when we die, our souls go immediately into the presence of the Lord, while our bodies go to sleep temporarily until the Rapture. But the soul and spirit of the believer is very much alive and conscious with Christ in heaven, as Paul shows here too.

Paul says concerning believing loved ones who have died, that we “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

Paul does NOT say that the believer is not to have any sorrow or to grieve. Paul does not rule out sorrow. We rightly grieve and are sorrowful and cry when a loved one dies. Christ Himself wept at the death of Lazarus, though He knew He would raise him.

It is a matter of degree. We do not sorrow “even as” or not to the point or degree of “others which have no hope.” Death of a believing loved one brings sorrow, but the sorrow is mingled with hope at the prospect of seeing them again, knowing that our separation from them is only temporary and our reunion with them is for eternity.

A believer grieves differently than someone who does not know Christ. The believer hurts with hope. We grieve with hope. There is no need for hopeless despair and sorrow, because we have the certain hope of being with those in Christ again.

Those who have “no hope” are unbelievers. They have no hope of heaven, and specifically here no hope of reunion. Unbelievers have no hope of ever seeing unbelieving loved ones who have died ever again. It is a final, permanent parting. That is true cause for sorrow.

For the believer with a believer who died, Paul is saying we don’t grieve like people who have no hope of a reunion. We grieve like people who do have hope of a reunion. It’s not a matter of if we’ll see them again, but when.

1 Thessalonians 4:14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

Paul now qualifies who believers will see again, who the Rapture is for, and how a person has hope and the hope of the Rapture: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again.”

This is how those with no hope can have hope. By faith alone in what Christ did for us in dying for us and rising again.

Now these are the terms of the gospel of grace for today. This was not the requirement in the past to be saved. They had to keep the law, bring the proper sacrifices, the gospel of the kingdom required sinners to repent, confess their sins, sell all that they had, be water baptized and believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.

But in this present dispensation, the gospel of grace for today says only to believe that Jesus Christ died for you and rose again. The moment you believe this, you are placed into Christ forever by the Holy Spirit, you become a member of the Church, the Body of Christ, and you have hope, the hope of eternal life, the hope of heaven, the hope of the Rapture.

By this qualification, we learn that the Rapture is only for the Church, the Body of Christ because these are the terms which place a person into the Body of Christ.

The Rapture is exclusive to the Body of Christ. From its first member, Paul, to the last member saved before the Rapture. At the Rapture, the Lord will only raise the bodies of the Body of Christ, and will usher us into heaven, which is our hope.

The saints who died under Israel’s prophetic program and in the future Tribulation will be raised after Christ’s 2nd coming to enter the earthly millennial kingdom, which is their hope.

But the reason we CAN be caught off this world and raised and be gathered to Jesus Christ and taken straight to heaven is because “Jesus died and rose again.”

Having believed this, God’s Word says we’re forgiven of all our sins, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we’re accepted in Christ, we belong to God, heaven is our home.

The Rapture is built on the death of Christ, the perfect payment for our sins which has taken all our sins away and made us qualified and ready for heaven and to be taken straight there at the Rapture.

And the Rapture is built on the resurrection of Christ. As He conquered death for us by rising again, He conquers death for us at the Rapture, and the dead are raised with a bodily resurrection because He rose again with a bodily resurrection. Because He lives, we will live, and we will live eternally with Him in glory.

Christ conquered sin in His dying; He conquered death in His rising. This is the basis for the Rapture of the Church, and how and why believers can be taken to glory.

When the Lord comes at the Rapture, verse 14 says He will bring the souls of all the members of the Body of Christ who have died and are in heaven with Him.

The Lord cannot bring believers who have died when He returns unless they are with Him already in heaven. This teaches that the soul of the believer who has died is presently with the Lord.

Those who “sleep in Jesus” are those who have believed that Jesus died and rose again. And at Christ’s return for the Body, God will bring them with Him, or with Christ.

And at that time, those who are alive and are in Jesus at the Rapture, will see and meet those who have died and are in Jesus at that day.

No believer is left out of the Rapture. All members of the Body of Christ take part, those who have died and are in heaven and those who are alive and on earth at that time.

The apostle is teaching, “Don’t worry that those who have died will miss out in the glory of the Rapture. God will bring them back with Christ.

“They’re coming to the Rapture with Him. We’re going to meet Christ in the air, and we’re going to meet those saints already in heaven. So don’t sorrow as others who don’t have any hope, because you have nothing but hope.”