Transcript

One time on Gilligan’s island, Maryann was missing. The professor said, “There’s not a sign of her anywhere.” Gilligan responded, “You’re not supposed to be looking for signs, you’re supposed to be looking for Maryann!”

Philippians 3:20 teaches the Church: “For our [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also WE LOOK for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is a daily joy given to us to look for the Lord, who could come at any moment. For the Rapture of the Church, the Body of Christ is not supposed to be looking for signs, we are supposed to be looking “for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

However, under prophecy for Christ’s Second Coming, there is a difference, as Israel was taught to look for signs of His coming.

Luke 21:25,28 read, “And there shall be SIGNS in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations…And when these things begin to come to pass, THEN LOOK UP, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

At the Rapture, Christ will descend from heaven and catch the Body of Christ up to Himself in the air and then take us to heaven to forever be with Him there. Heaven is our hope and is the place of our eternal citizenship.

At the Second Coming, Christ will descend all the way down to the Mount of Olives, and He comes to establish His kingdom on the earth, which is Israel’s hope and is the place of her eternal citizenship.

It’s important to rightly divide God’s Word between the Rapture and the Second Coming. To be Rapture ready we need to have a proper understanding of these two future comings of Christ. The Apostle Paul points out this difference in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

“But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”

Within the Corinthian church, doubts were creeping in about the resurrection of our Lord, and there was debate about it, and some were even denying the resurrection.

In response to this, Paul wrote the Corinthians to defend the truth of Christ’s resurrection, which in turn guarantees all future resurrections.

Paul then explains the future resurrections for both Israel and the Church, the Body of Christ, which are both assured by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In verses 23-28, Paul outlines the prophetic “order” of resurrections, and he begins with Christ’s.

When Paul spoke of the gospel of salvation which saves us from all our sins in verses 1-4, he made it crystal clear that Christ’s resurrection was prophesied, as he says, “He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

In Acts 2, in Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, he spoke of a prophecy in Psalm 16:10 of the Messiah’s resurrection, and that Jesus Christ was its fulfillment as Israel’s Messiah.

Acts 2:24-31: “Whom [Jesus Christ] God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning Him…Thou wilt not leave my soul in [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Therefore being a prophet…He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in [hades], neither His flesh did see corruption.”

Christ’s resurrection was the “firstfruits,” Paul wrote in verses 20 and 23, meaning that His resurrection was the first of more to come. Christ’s bodily resurrection guarantees the great harvest of bodily resurrections yet to come in the future.

You see this by a miracle that took place surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection. When Christ died on the Cross, Matthew 27:51-53 reads,

“And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

On the cross, shortly after the 3 hours of darkness at 3:00, the Lord cried with a loud voice crying out “It is finished,” and the Lord dismissed His spirit and died.

At that moment, the veil in the Temple tore from top to bottom. And the ground shook from an earthquake. This earthquake was so powerful it caused rocks to split in two and graves to split open.

Because of the Sabbath days that followed the Lord’s death, for 3 days no one lifted a finger to close these grave sites. Then on resurrection morning, after the Lord rose again the third day, saints from these open graves arose as well. They stood up walked out of their tombs and went into Jerusalem, appearing to many people.

Christ was the firstfruits. He destroyed the power of death and arose victorious over it. And Christ’s resurrection as the “firstfruits” speaks to the fact that more are to come.

His resurrection guarantees the certainty of all future resurrections. Those who came forth from the grave after His resurrection are a picture of this truth.

But we must rightly divide between the resurrections to come. Paul sets the order according to prophecy in verse 23, and first is “Christ the firstfruits.” Next in the order of the prophetic resurrections is: “they that are Christ’s at His Coming” verse 23 teaches.

Notice that it says “they” not “we” or “us.” This resurrection speaks of the resurrection of the prophetic saints after Christ’s Second Coming.

Revelation 20:6 says, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

When the Lord comes at His Second Coming, He comes in vengeance to defeat the Anti-Christ and his massive army at the Battle of Armageddon.

Following this battle, in Daniel 12:11-12, Daniel prophesies of a 75-day period after the Second Coming and before the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom.

A number of events take place during these 75 days. And it is at this time that the “first resurrection” takes place. Daniel prophesied of this resurrection in 12:2: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…to everlasting life.”

Job wrote of this hope in Job 19:25-27: “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

The “first resurrection” is the resurrection of all prophetic saints from the past prior to this dispensation of grace, as well as the resurrection of all the martyred tribulation saints in the future, after the Rapture. They will all be raised from the dead by the Lord after His Second Coming and prior to the Millennial Kingdom.

These saints will be raised by Christ on the earth. They will all enter Christ’s earthly kingdom in glorified bodies. Their bodies will be raised and changed and will be like Christ’s resurrected body.

1 John 3:2 speaks of this when he wrote, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…we know that, when He shall appear [that is, at the Second Coming], we shall be like Him.” And these people will never die again. Daniel says they’ll awake to “everlasting life.”

The Lord speaks of the resurrections according to prophecy in John 5:28,29: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

The first resurrection is a “resurrection of life.” It is the “first” resurrection of prophecy, the resurrection of all the saved under Israel’s program.

Peter, James, John, David, Solomon, Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Esther, Mordecai, Ruth and all the prophetic saints, their bodies will be raised from the dead and gloriously changed and joined to their spirit and soul, and they’ll enter the kingdom in these bodies.

And as Matthew 8:11 says, “…many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:24-26: “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

Paul defines the kingdom on earth for us here as “when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For [Christ] must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” Following the thousand-year Kingdom, comes the time when “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

Revelation 20:13-15 describes this time: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [hades] delivered up the dead which were in them…And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

This is the second resurrection of prophecy. There are 1000 years between the first and second resurrections. This is a resurrection for all unbelievers of all ages.

It’s called the “resurrection of damnation” in John 5:29. Daniel 12:2 prophesies of this resurrection and says “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…to shame and everlasting contempt.”

At the second resurrection, the physical bodies of the unsaved will be raised and joined with their spirits which have been in hades. And the resurrected bodies given to the unsaved by God will be indestructible and able to exist forever in torment in the lake of fire.

The unbelieving are then judged at the Great White Throne and cast into the lake of fire. Once this final judgment is over, both death and hades are also cast into the lake of fire.

Death speaks of the grave and the temporary holding place of unsaved people’s bodies, and Hades speaks to the temporary holding place of punishment for unsaved people’s souls in the center of the earth.

Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire after the Great White Throne, because there will no longer be physical death, and there will be no need for hades.

And it is at this time as 1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And as Revelation 21:4 says “there shall be no more death.”

So prophecy foretells of 3 resurrections: Christ’s, those saved under Israel’s program to enter the Kingdom on earth, and all unbelievers to enter the Lake of Fire.

And Paul says that this is the “order” they’ll take place. But when we go over to verse 51, Paul reveals a new and different resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

After Paul gives the prophetic order resurrection, in verse 51 he brings up a coming of Christ and a resurrection that had never been revealed before.

Under Grace, we, the Body of Christ, have our own resurrection, completely separate from these prophetic resurrections, which will take place at the Rapture.

The word “mystery” in the Greek means “to shut the mouth.” I always think this must have been a word that Greek-speaking parents used with their children!

This word “mystery” though speaks of something which God had said nothing about in the past, until He revealed it. And He revealed this resurrection and coming of Christ to Paul. This is why Paul says “Behold, I show you a mystery.”

All the previous resurrections: Christ’s resurrection, the first resurrection, and the resurrection of damnation were all revealed in the Old Testament, but not this resurrection for the Body of Christ.

Christ revealed to Paul a resurrection that had never been foretold in Scripture.

The “first resurrection” and this resurrection of the Body are two different resurrections. The prophesied “first resurrection” is for Israel and the prophetic saints, and will take place after Christ’s prophesied Second Coming to Israel.

In verses 51-53, this never-before-revealed resurrection is for the Body of Christ, and will take place at Christ’s never-before-revealed coming: the Rapture.

The Rapture, with its resurrection, was a “mystery” and is part of the “revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began” as Romans 16:25 says, the message of grace which had been hid in the mind of God, and revealed first to Paul.

At both the Second Coming and the Rapture, a resurrection takes place. At Christ’s Second Coming to Israel, a resurrection for redeemed Israel takes place. At the Rapture of the Church, a resurrection for the Body of Christ takes place.

Notice how the personal pronouns change from “they” to “we” here, as Paul applies this coming of Christ and this resurrection to us the Church, the Body of Christ.

In Paul’s epistles, he’s addressing the Body of Christ and he tells us here, “WE shall not all sleep, but WE shall all be changed.”

In verse 23, Paul talked about “THEY” that are Christ’s at His Second Coming, speaking of Israel. Here he’s speaking of us, “we,” the Body who are Christ’s at the Rapture.

The Rapture is resurrection day for the Body of Christ ONLY. Only those saved in the dispensation of grace will be raised at the Rapture.

Job, Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, Peter, John the Baptist, Mary, all the bodies of the saved prophetic saints will remain in their graves until the “first resurrection” of prophecy after the Tribulation period, when they’ll be ushered into the Kingdom of heaven on earth.

But at the Rapture, all the saved under this dispensation of grace, from the Apostle Paul on, all those who have been saved under the terms of salvation for this dispensation, believing Christ died for our sins and rose again, will be raised at the Rapture of the Church.

So, the order for the future resurrections is this:

(1) The Rapture and resurrection of the Church, the Body of Christ to enter heaven, which could take place anytime.
(2) Seven years later after the Tribulation at Christ’s Second Coming, the first resurrection of prophecy takes place to raise kingdom saints to enter the Kingdom on earth.
(3) One thousand years later, the second resurrection of all unbelievers to enter the Lake of Fire.

Paul says here that for one generation of the Body of Christ who are alive at the Rapture, they will not sleep, or they will not die. Instead, they will be “changed.”

At the Rapture, a trumpet will sound, to gather the Body of Christ to heaven, and to announce the close of this dispensation of grace.

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

And He will call out and raise their bodies from the grave in glory and power, and will unite body and soul together. And they’ll be fitted with incorruptible, immortal bodies.

Then the living will be changed, and He will transform the bodies of the living members of the Body of Christ in the twinkling of an eye and likewise give them incorruptible, immortal, glorious, powerful, spiritual bodies, and catch us away to heaven.

When John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was eighty years of age a friend asked him, “Well, how is John Quincy Adams?”

“Thank you,” he replied, “John Quincy Adams is quite well. But the house where he lives is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it, and it is becoming quite uninhabitable. I shall have to move out of it soon. But John Quincy Adams is quite well, thank you.”

At Christ’s coming at the Rapture, these earthly houses in which we groan will change in the twinkling of an eye. On that “glorious” day, our bodies will be fashioned like Christ’s “glorious” body, the body of His glory in which He possesses eternally in His glorification.

Our glorified bodies will never wear down, break down, or corrupt, and they will never die. We will live forever in our new, glorified bodies with Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Verse 58 teaches us how Christ’s resurrection and knowing the certainty of our resurrection at the Rapture, should affect the way we live. We see here two effects that our faith ought to have upon us as we are Rapture ready.

The first is to be stedfast and unmoveable. In this context, we are talking about the truth of the Resurrection. There are many who deny Christ’s resurrection. There are many who confuse the resurrections to come.

For us who believe and understand, we have a responsibility to defend the truth, stand for it, and not move from it. On this, we will not move, and we stand firm:

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and was buried, and He literally and physically rose again the third day from the dead, triumphant over sin and death.

The resurrection tells us that our sins are forgiven completely through Christ and His Cross, and His resurrection guarantees all who have believed, life now and forever. The resurrection shows that Jesus Christ is God and the only Savior, who alone has the power to save. We must be steadfast and unmoveable with this truth of the resurrection.

On this also we must not move, and we must stand firm: there is a resurrection coming for Israel at Christ’s Second Coming, and there is a resurrection coming for the Body of Christ at the Rapture. We must distinguish between our resurrection and Israel’s.

And we must stand for it. When Christ returns at the Rapture, it will take place before the Tribulation ever begins, and the Body of Christ will be taken to heaven, which is our hope. And we will be given new, incorruptible, immortal bodies.

In all this we must hang on tightly, not give an inch, remain fixed, not move off center, not let doubters or mockers or anyone, undermine or weaken our confidence in Christ’s resurrection or ours at the Rapture.

The second effect our belief in the Resurrection ought to have on us is to throw ourselves confidently and wholeheartedly into serving the Lord, and to abound in this.

We should live for the One who by grace, loved us and gave Himself for us, who because He lives, we shall live also. Our sure, confident hope should motivate us to serve Him.

The “work of the Lord” is not something that just pastors and missionaries do. This letter and this verse was written to a church. The “work of the Lord” is something we all do. All the Church is to serve and God wants to use each of our lives for His glory.

The work of the Lord involves all we do for Him, in praying for others, serving in the local church in any area, helping others, showing God’s grace, love, and kindness, sharing the gospel, or talking to others about the Word of God.

It involves giving time and attention to our marriages and to our children, raising and building our families by God’s Word, and it’s about being a good testimony in our daily work or at school, and in all of parts of life. God wants us to “abound” in these things.

And the resurrection changes our perspective about service. We may pour prayers and efforts into some task that seems like a black hole, into someone’s life that seems beyond reach, into some dream that seems as dead as a doornail, but with the God of the Resurrection, we know that things are not always as they seem.

We have a living Savior who is at work, and He uses our service, and nothing done for Him is ever done in vain. We know and trust this as walk by faith in Him.

And the Lord of life and the God of the resurrection is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think through us and our service.

The resurrection teaches us that life now is an investment in the future. Without it, the sensible thing to do is live for the moment, for me, for now, as it says in verse 32: “If the dead rise not…let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.”

But because Christ lives, we should live and serve in light of eternity, knowing that our hope is absolutely true and sure, knowing that our service, all our work and labor is never in vain in the Lord, knowing we will be rewarded and honored by Christ Himself one day for our faith, faithfulness, and all we do for Him.

Andrew Murray wrote this, “God has no more precious gift to a church or an age than a person who lives as an embodiment of His will, and inspires those around them with the faith of what grace can do.”

As we stay Rapture ready at all times, may the resurrection and our hope drive us to abound in service, to live by faith in our living Savior, and show what His grace can do in and through our lives.