1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 – My Ride Is Coming – Bible study

1Thessalonians 4:13-18 My Ride Is Coming I want to speak to you tonight on the rapture of the church. 1.Let me say up front that I know the word "rapture" is not in the Bible. a. The word "rapture" comes from the Latin translation of our Bible and it means snatched or caught away. b. It is the Latin word for the phrase used in \#1Thess 4:17\. 1Thess 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be CAUGHT UP together with them in the clouds. c. For those who do not believe in the rapture, they seem to think the word being absent from the Bible lessens the doctrine. (1) It does not. (2) The phrase "saved by grace" is not found in the Bible, but I am. The phrase "saved forever" is not found in the Bible, but I am. (3) My name is not in the Bible, but Carl is going still going to heaven. 2. I also know the doctrine of the premillennial, pretribulational rapture is a newer doctrine. a. The belief in Jesus would come before the millennial and before the tribulation having only been popular around the church for 70 to 80. b. The reason for that is because most of the church did not take Bible prophecy literally before Israel became a nation in 1948. (1) They should have, but they did not. (2) They pretended that the promises made to Israel were somehow going to be fulfilled by the church and the promises made to the church were symbolic. (3) Thankfully, when Israel became a nation, the majority of the church repented of their sin of unbelief and started believing what God said. Sadly, in our days, people are starting to turn away from believing the Bible again and I hear more people are accepting a mid-tribulation or a post-tribulation return of Jesus or even no return of Jesus. I am sorry for those people but I am going to believe the Bible and I hope you will also. What is the rapture? I. The rapture is the return of Jesus to this earth to collect His church. A. Jesus return is detailed in this Bible section. It along with 1Corinthians 15, give us most everything we know about the rapture. 1. Paul gave us this information for two reasons: a. \#13\ He did not want us to be ignorant of what the Lord has planned for us. b. \#14\ He did not want us to doubt what would happen to our loved ones. B. There are three times when Jesus comes to the earth. 1. Jesus Incarnation – Jesus was born of a virgin to be suffer and die as the Lamb for our sins. 2. The Rapture – Coming invisible thief to the world to claim His own. 1Thess 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 3. Revelation – Jesus will come as the visible, royal, Judge in power to subdue, judge, and reign over the world. Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. II. \#16-17\ The Rapture is a series of events that Paul outlined and gave in the order in which they would occur. 1Thess 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 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. A. "the Lord Himself shall descend" 1. This makes the rapture PERSONAL – Jesus is not sending someone to get us. 2. It makes the rapture a fulfillment of Gods promises a. We are being given a specific promise of Jesus come for us. John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. b. Isnt it interesting that before giving us the promise of His return, Jesus first challenged us to believe Him? Do we really think Jesus is going to break that promise? Acts 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. B. "from heaven with" – Jesus is not going to come empty-handed but bringing some things with Him. 1. Jesus is going to come with a shout. a. I have never understood if it will be Jesus shouting or the arch angel. b. Either way, I suspect the shout will be the command, "Come up hither!" 2. Jesus is going to come with the voice of arch angel. a. I do not know if that means there will be an arch angel with Jesus or if Jesus will be using the voice of the arch angel while giving the shout. b. Why would Jesus need the voice of the arch angel? He might be needing to tone down His voice a little! 3. Jesus is going to come with the sound of the trumpet. a. In the days of Israel, the trumpet was used to call an assembly. b. This is going to be the biggest assembly to date. c. But there will be one larger. The one where the dead are gathered at the Great White Throne will be the largest ever. 4. Jesus is going to come with the dead in Christ. a. Notice that Jesus is coming FROM heaven WITH the dead in Christ. b. That means you have two kinds of Christians. (1) Those alive on the earth. (2) Those alive with Jesus in heaven. c. No one is in purgatory. No one is in the grave. No one has ceased to exist. d. Every child of God is accounted for. C. \#16\ The dead in Christ will rise first. D. \#17\ THEN we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them. E. We will all meet the Lord in the air. 1. Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 15 that all of this will occur in a fraction of a second. 1Cor 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 2. How fast is a twinkling of an eye? 3. The internet had an answer. a. There are three portions of time to consider: the wink, the blink and the twinkling. (There was actually a study done). b. A wink is a controlled movement of the eye and so its length of time is indeterminate, but the quickest wink ever recorded lasted for a half second. c. A blink is a reflex action of the eye and lasts somewhere between 300 and 400 milliseconds. d. A twinkle is a particle of light reflected off the eye. Thusly it travels at the speed of light (983,571,056 feet per second). e. This equates to an infinitesimally small fraction of a second so that if we called a twinkle of an eye one billionth of a second (which in itself is such a small period of time as to be inconceivable) we would still be talking of more time than will be required for the church to be raptured. http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_%27twinkling_of_an_ eye%27 III. The rapture is an important event for almost everyone, A. For the savedliving and dead, it will mean their struggles will be over. They will be with Jesus forever more. B. For the living lost, it means the tribulation will begin and their struggles will be just beginning. C. For the dead lost, the rapture means nothing. They will remain in hell until they are removed to stand before the Great White Throne for judgment.