Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you are a parent or grandparent who when you return home after traveling find young children voices asking “so, what did you bring for me?”, as they hold out their little hands to you expecting you might have a gift or a surprise for them?
Yesterday we looked closely at a very powerful statement made by Paul regarding an experience all of us will have...death! We saw that ‘death’ is actually ‘departure’ when our soul/spirit will leave our human body and go to either Paradise or Hades and continue living, either with Jesus or separated from God.
We also began looking at God’s promise that Jesus will return to earth someday! And Paul gives us a surprising glimpse into this amazing return: Jesus will bring something with Him! “…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…” (1 Thess. 4:14)
The first coming from heaven to earth of Jesus, the Son of God, through the miracle of the incarnation is the first miraculous aspect of the Gospel. Jesus was sent by God the Father (John 3:16) to make it possible for sinful human beings to be forgiven of their sin by God and spiritually transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit of God, into a people of God, who will spend eternity with God. (John 5:24)
The Gospel, the ‘good news’ of Jesus declares Jesus lived a sinless life, then died on the cross an atonement death, then rose from the dead three days later, and after showing Himself alive to many different people over a period of 40 days, Jesus ascended back to heaven again. (Acts 1:1-11)
In his letter to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul is confirming that God the Father will send Jesus Christ the Son of God from heaven to earth again in the future, and this time Jesus will not come alone! All those who have died, or as Paul calls it ‘fallen asleep’, having believed God’s Gospel and trusted in Jesus for their salvation, have experienced the separation of their spirit/soul from their body. While their body remained here on earth and decayed, their soul/spirit was taken immediately from their body into Paradise, by Jesus Himself, to be with God.
Do you see Paul is making it clear that when Jesus returns the next time Jesus will bring with Him ALL the souls/spirits of ALL those who have died trusting in Jesus!
WHY you might ask? Paul continues his explanation of this great event with an answer to that question: “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord Jesus, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thess. 4:15) Did you notice Paul is basing his statements on something Jesus had said? So what is that, and when did Jesus say it? Repeatedly Jesus spoke of ‘eternal life’, right? Jesus was talking about eternity future for EVERYONE.
For those who trust in Jesus for their salvation from their sin condemnation, their eternity will be spent in God’s heaven, with God, the angels and all people of all time who have trusted in God. For those who have not, their eternity will be spent with Satan, with the demons and all people of all time who have not trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation in a different place, called hell.
So it’s very important my friends that we understand God did not create human beings to ONLY have this brief existence on planet earth. Eternity awaits all of us, and in that eternity, we will have our soul, our spirit and we’ll have bodies designed by God for eternal life which are similar to our earthly bodies but also different.
The body of Jesus Christ is our example. After His resurrection, Jesus’ body was similar but very different from the human body He had, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, lived with His disciples, and died on the cross.
Paul continues his explanation with these words: “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thess. 4:16) Yesterday we looked at the first part of this statement, the description of the spectacular return of Jesus to earth. Today we are looking at that last phrase “the dead in Christ will rise first.” “Rise” means resurrection. Those who have died having trusted in Jesus Christ, will experience God’s power in a resurrection.
God will create new, heavenly, eternal bodies which Jesus will reunite with their soul/spirit which Jesus has brought with Him from Paradise where they have been with Jesus since the moment of their death. Resurrection, you see, is a reversal of death ‘departure’. As their soul/spirit left their body when they died, and was taken by Jesus to Paradise, so now Jesus will bring those souls/spirits, all of them, from Paradise and reunite them with a new, eternal, God made, glorified body!
Do you see how this will be our human experience of what Jesus experienced when He died and was raised to life again after three days? By the way did you know Paul wrote a great deal more about this human resurrection miracle experience and a fuller description of this eternal, heavenly body followers of Jesus will receive? Yes! 1 Corinthians 15 is an entire chapter dedicated to explain this resurrection in more detail.
Finally, Paul concludes this remarkable description of this amazing event with these words: “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 Jesus forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:17,18) This, my friends, means that whenever this great return of Jesus takes place, in an instant, a twinkling of an eye, two great transformations will take place affecting billions of people. First, all those through all time, who have died already, trusting in Jesus, will be resurrected and second, any of us who have trusted in Jesus who are alive at that moment will experience a different type of resurrection.
Our bodies will be transformed, instantly, into the same heavenly, eternal, glorified bodies. And then ALL of us, the resurrected dead and the transformed living, will elevate into the sky, just as Jesus did from the Mount of Olives on His ascension day, and we will meet the Lord in the clouds and return to heaven with Him!
Now ponder that for a moment. There’s a word that has been used to describe this moment and it’s called “Rapture”. Rapture means ‘to gather up’ and that’s exactly what God will do. He will ‘gather up’ His people from all time.
Of course as you imagine this remarkable Rapture event, as Paul has described it, there’s the other part which Paul does not describe here, and that’s what happens here on earth when suddenly EVERY living, authentic Christian is ‘taken up‘ from here and joins Jesus in the clouds? What chaos will result on this planet with every Christian gone, instantly!?
I’m sure you have noticed over recent years how strongly most societies in our world have been working to push God OUT of every segment of society… education, health care, business, government, politics, entertainment, the family, marriage and every other aspect of human life. When this day of “rapture” happens, our world will finally have what much of humanity has been attempting for so long. Do you know what that is?
A Godless world. No living person on the planet will at that moment be a born again Christian, they will all be with Jesus! Oh there will be many devoutly religious people still here, followers of every religion and faith system in the world, but they will remain because they have NOT trusted in these words Jesus spoke: “I am the way, the truth and the life, NO one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
So let’s pause right here my friends, imaging what it will be like on this planet 1 hour after the ‘rapture’ takes place? And here’s the biggest, most important question: WHO in your extended family, beginning with YOU, will be left behind on this chaotic planet, when Jesus ‘raptures’ up all His people? I have no song today, for while that rapture day will be glorious and wonderful for all of us taken up with Jesus, it will be the darkest, most horrific day for everyone else who has refused Jesus! And right now, Jesus invites you and me and every person to make sure we are not left behind by trusting in Jesus to save us from our sin condemnation. I think it’s time to pray, thanking Jesus that His salvation offer is available to every person, today!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 1:13-18.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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