After that, we who are alive and remain 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.then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
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… are going to be in his home get to live in his home but the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4 17 there will be I love this in a message paraphrase he summarizes it there will be one huge family reunion with the master can you imagine how emotional that's going to be you know the more of my family and friends that are on that side of death the dearer heaven becomes to me my mother is in heaven my father is in heaven my older brother Jim is in heaven my youngest child Matthew is in heaven I have many dear friends over 38 years in this church who are now on that side of death they're in heaven and the more of my friends who get there the more dear that becomes to me I don't know when I was a young person I didn't really think about heaven that much. First, it seemed so boring, the way the world describes it. And second, it seemed like a long way off. …
… and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we who are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's what you say. You say you'll be reunited with your loved one again. And that is why after he made that statement, the Apostle Paul added this, therefore comfort one another with these words. And Bible prophecy causes us to want to live a godly life. Studying Bible prophecy causes us to want to live a godly life. the more that we learn about the future, the more we'll be motivated to live right in the present. You know, it's an interesting thing to note that whenever you read what the Bible says about the future, there is usually an exhortation to live a godly life attached to it. So it's always with a purpose. As an example, 2 Peter 3, 11 says, since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives we should be living. …
… with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. And we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. That's what's going to happen to these two witnesses. Verse 13. And in that hour, there was a great earthquake and a tenth of Jerusalem fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. That doesn't mean they were converted. That means they realized what any imbecile could understand that God had done something great. They see this great sign, but it's not enough to lead them to repentance. Verse 14, the second woe is passed. That is the sixth trumpet is passed. Behold, the third woe, the final trumpet is coming quickly. And it comes in verse 15, the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which signals the beginning of the bold judgments and the return of Jesus Christ. …
… and we'll all be changed. Then 1 Thessalonians 4 says that dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And then it goes on to say, therefore, comfort one another with these words. Now I know, oh, that the teaching of the rapture has fallen out of favor with some. They'll say the word rapture isn't even in the Bible. Well, the word rapture comes from the Greek word harpazo, which is found many times in the New Testament, including 1 Thessalonians 4. It means to be caught up or to be taken by force. This is when we receive our new bodies, and this is when we are reunited with our loved ones that have gone on before us. And this is something we can all look forward to, the bodily resurrection. because now our bodies are breaking down. And eventually if the rapture doesn't come, we'll be laid in the ground. …
… but rapture is in the Latin Bible. Then we who are alive and remain shall be raptured together with them in the clouds, notice this, to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Why are we arguing about it then? Why are we arguing about it? Think about it. Why do we argue? This church doesn't believe in the rapture. this church believes in a half rapture, this church, no really, only certain saints are going to go out. What kind of a deal is that? Well, pastor, what if somebody's sinning when the rapture happens? That will probably be you. Because listen, do you realize how often we sin without even knowing that we're sinning? For example, for example, you know how big of a sin you committed today? I'm going to tell you. Did you today go visit orphans? You just sinned. It's called the sin of omission. The Bible commands us, if we have true religion, we will visit the widows in their affliction, and we will go to the orphans. Did you visit any widows today? …
… Then we who are alive, who remain, 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. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. What comfort. Paul says, stir each other up to, well, that's a different writer, to love and good works. I'm misquoting verses here. But we're to think on the future and what God has in store for us and to comfort one another with these words and remind each other. What a blessing to anticipate it all. Friend, have you placed your faith in Jesus? We would really like for you to join us there. And you can. that's why Jesus God in the flesh died on that cross because of his great love for you the Bible says he died there in your place to suffer the judgment you deserve for your sins so that you could be forgiven so that you could be rescued from spending eternity in hell and be brought back into a right relationship with your maker but Jesus rose from the grave three days later and today he is offering all humanity the forgiveness of sins, peace with God and the free gift of everlasting life in his eternal kingdom. …
… And with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up. That's the word rapture in Latin or hapazo in Greek. Together with them in the clouds. Notice where's the location? In the clouds, in the glory, in the atmosphere. To meet the Lord in the air. and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Can you say amen to that? Amen. The return of Jesus Christ, if it's tonight, should excite you to no end. Now look, if you're not happy about that and you claim to know Jesus, but you're a little nervous about that because you've been, I don't know, hanging out with Rocky or sleeping with Bubbles and the Holy Spirit is saying to you, hey, you better knock it off. I could come back. You better get right. You better get ready. God might be, Listen, if you're not excited about Christ's return, I want to ask you why. …
… for this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain hello suddenness until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who have fallen asleep or died for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the shout with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, wow, in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And of course, based on John 14, verses 1, 2, and 3, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. And all God's people said, amen. Absolutely. The imminent appearing of Jesus Christ ought to be a motivator for our Christian maturity. Knowing that Christ could come back tonight should cause us to grow up. Knowing, really believing. You know what? I'm not going to rush. I'm going to start to land. …
… The dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And comfort one another with these words. Listen to this. When God's people died over and over and over, the scripture said they went to be with their fathers. Listen to this verse in Numbers chapter 27 in verse 12. Moses is about to die. And he said, go to the mountain, Moses, and there you will die and be gathered. What a beautiful little part there. And you shall be gathered to your people. Who's his people? His family. You'll be gathered unto your people. Abraham, Genesis 25 and verse 8. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, yielded up his spirit, and died at a good old age. Tell somebody I want to die at a good old age. An old man full of years and was gathered to his people. You know, that's my people. My family, Sharice, Aaron, Connor, Courtney. …
… he's lying big right here. He is not a liar, nor a man that he can lie. This is by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain, notice Paul says we who are alive because he lived with an expectancy that the coming of the Lord would happen in his lifetime. He included himself in the people who were alive. He said, we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain, notice this phrase, shall be caught up, not just caught up, but caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. The Christians in Thessalonia were so expectant of the coming of the Lord. …
… They're first in line. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up, harpazo, raptured together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So he concludes chapter 4 with the joyful hope of the gathering together of the saints with the Lord in the air, including those loved ones who have died before those who are alive at that time to meet the Lord. we'll all have an incredible reunion with the Lord, with our loved ones, in glory. what I didn't have time for last week is the interesting parallel between what we read here and the book of revelation the book of revelation by the way is pretty easy to discern I wrote a book called you can understand the book of revelation based on the premise that it was meant to be understood because that's how it is presented blessed are those who read and keep the words of this prophecy in chapter 1 of Revelation, verse 3. …
… in Jesus for this we say to you by the word of the Lord don't worry we're going to go back over all those phrases that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. I wanted to read to the end so that I could technically say no matter when we stop tonight that I have finished the chapter it's my little cheetah moany thing that I do. Okay, so back to verse 13, I do not want you to be ignorant. I've discovered whenever Paul uses this terminology, I don't want you to be ignorant about something. It's generally an area that Christians are the most ignorant of. …
… In chapter 4, a good chunk of it deals with that, but just notice in verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. and then chapter 5 I had to find the verse verse 23 now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely may your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ this frequent mentioning of the coming of Jesus Christ and the idea that they were waiting for him to arrive at seemingly any moment. It's been called in another letter that Paul wrote to Titus, the blessed hope of the church. The blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the great, great theme in this book of the coming of the Lord, both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. Now, again, I just mentioned that Paul had only been in Thessalonica a few weeks, three Sabbath days, less than a month he preached there. …
… first Thessalonians 4 it's the loudest verse in the bible there's archangels and there's trumpet it's there's the shout. Here's the way it ends. We will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and he didn't put a period and so we will always be with the Lord. Thank you. Paul loved that prospect. I hope you do. Glory with him. So step one, we must be raised from the dead bodily. One, because Jesus today has a body. Two, step two, in this bodily form, He wants us to be with him to see his glory. Step three, when we see it, him, we will be made like him, including a resurrection body. That's step three, to finish step two. If you thought step two doesn't work. Well, it didn't, but it does. Now, 1 John 3, 2. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be is not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we will see him as he is or Philippians 3 21 we await a savior of the Lord Jesus who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself arrivals and routes... …
… will rise first. After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage one another with these words. This is the promise of Christ. And that is he will come back for his people. He will celebrate the inauguration of the next era with a great rescue mission. And this is the hope embraced by followers of Christ. And we do so with confidence. We've examined his resume. We've looked at his track record. We've seen what he has done. Doesn't it make sense that we believe what he will do? After all, as we have pointed out, he is the only one to finish his work before his work began, the only one to create a universe, the only one to appear on earth before his birth, the only one whose life is described before it began, to leave heaven and to become human. The only one who speaks with divine authority, who has the authority over death and disease, the only one to live a sinless life, yet die a sinner's death, and then defeat his own death, and now to be seated at the right hand of God. …
… and they're gonna go and meet Jesus in the air. And after that, we who are still alive, the believers, and who are left will be caught up. We're gonna come back to the words caught up. We'll 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. And Paul said, this isn't something to be afraid about. It's not something to worry about. He said, this is something to be excited about. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. This is very, very good news. Now, how's it gonna go down? I'm gonna tell you exactly precisely how it's gonna go down. And anyone who disagrees is wrong. I'm joking. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you a traditional view of in-time events. And I'm gonna tell you just very clearly that this is debated and disputed. What I'm gonna give you is kind of the classic, most generally accepted viewpoint. But there are very smart people who say, no, this goes here and this goes there and this, that, and the other. …
… is a mystery as far as the Old Testament is concerned. This is a completely different event than the day of the Lord. And here is the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain living believers until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. This isn't talking about judgment. This is a very comforting passage, letting us know that the Lord is going to come and take His church out of this world. There's nothing about judgment in that text at all. And beyond that, after the rapture has taken place, comes the beginning of the judgments, and the day of the Lord, of course, culminates that. The day of the Lord is seen to be near. …
… who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." comes to the earth. Believers go to heaven. Amen. Because we are not of the darkness. We are sons of light, sons of the day, and we are not destined for wrath. Jesus said, I go to prepare what? A place for you, and if I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. That's why in the book of Revelation you see the church in chapters 1 to 3 on earth, and then all of a sudden the church in heaven in 4 and 5, and then the tribulation begins in 6. …
… their glorified resurrected body. Then he says, we which are alive and living in a here when that happens. He said, following the transformation and that resurrection, he says, likewise, we're going to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It's not going to be a time to be afraid. This is the body of Christ. This is the bride. You know what's happening? The bride is going to meet the bridegroom. The bridegroom is coming after the bride and it's all going to be one glorious occasion. That promise belongs to every single person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. You say, well, I don't believe any of that. Well, let me ask you this. Then what's your plan? If you don't believe that, what's your plan? You say, well, I'm just going to die and that's going to be the end of me. And I want to tell you, my friend, you can't prove that. …