Prepared - The Day of the Lord

I. Introduction

A. Finishing series on being prepared. Are we a people dressed in service with our lamps burning watching in expectation? Are we inviting all humanity to fill up the banquet hall of our Father?

B. Toi Markham response to series, “Whatever is troubling me today will it matter if Jesus comes back tonight?” If you are ready of the second coming, you are ready for anything!

C. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 - What will the Day of the Lord be like?

D. Humility in this. Please don’t marry your eschatology to the gospel or evaluating someones’s commitment to Jesus. I reserve the right to change my mind on this topic. So why teach it? Because it the Bible does give us pictures because that day needs to be real to us.

II. Day of the Lord

A. The Trumpet - 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NIV) “16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Matthew 24:31 (NIV) “31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 (NIV) “51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Sounds of God coming have always invoked either jubilation or panic. Think of God coming after the fall in Eden, Sinai, Pentecost, etc.

Trumpets were used in the old testament to proclaim the entry and proclamations of the king. They were blown the the around the season of atonement in Isreal to proclaim God’s freedom and deliverance. (Lev. 23:23 / Lev 25:9)

3:00 was a time for the sacrifice of the lambs and it was customary to blow the shofar.

This trumpet proclaims the entry of the king and the proclamation of the beginning of something new.

Your response to the sound depends on if it’s your end or beginning. Will it be for you like a fire alarm going off or the royal trumpets of the entry of your king? PLAY SOUND OF SHOFAR

B. The Rapture - 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (NIV) “17 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 forever.”

Rapture - from the Latin “raptus” “carry off” It wasn’t used in the English until the 1600’s. The greek word “harpazo” means to snatch or collect. It’s a collecting of God’s people where they are snatched up to the air. “to meet the Lord in the air.” Says nothing about leaving the earth.

The rapture theology as we know it today in American Evangelical Christianity came from the 1830’s. It explains a carrying off of Christians, then a 7 year tribulation, and then a literal thousand year reign. Most Western Christians hold to this belief. I personally can’t see it.

My main issue with our rapture theology is escapism. I don’t see in story of scripture a theme of escapism. We should not be focused on escaping our context but instead redeeming it.

“The language and images seem to be depicting the arrival of a grand dignitary. The heralds announce his coming. The crowds surge out of their city to meet him and celebrate his arrival. At this point such a dignitary would not take the crowd with him and leave. Rather, the crowd would escort him back into the city.” (Michael Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians, vol. 33, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 155.

Follow this understanding of “rapture” and we should be excited about being the welcoming committee to Christ’s return to this earth. Think of Jesus’ entrance to Jerusalem but now to the whole earth..”Hosanna, to the son of God! Blessed is who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

C. The Judgment -Revelation 20:12–15 (NIV) “12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Judgement of Faith - This is about your faith in Christ.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NIV) “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” Is your name written in the book of life? Entrance

Judgment of Works - This is about your service to Christ

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV) “10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” What is written beside your name? Rewards

A new vision of judgement - a rewards ceremony with heavenly assignments based on our service.

III. Conclusion and Invitation

A. Are we ready. Can we proclaim it!

B. Revelation 22:20 (NIV) - “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”