The Mysterious Rapture

Our Glorified Bodies

 A little boy was looking intently at his mother’s face and hair.  “Mommy,” he said, “you are so pretty.” The mother replied with thanks and telling him he is sweet.  As the boy continued looking, he saw that there were wrinkles around her eyes and mouth.  He also noticed that she had some gray hairs on her head.

“Why do you have those wrinkles on your face?” He asked.

“Well, son,” she replied, “All those times that you misbehaved and got in trouble, I got a little wrinkle on my face.”

“What about the gray hairs you have?”

The mom replied, “I got one gray hair for every lie that you ever told me.”

The little boy looked at her and said, “Okay, mommy, I just have one other question.  How bad were you that Nana got all those wrinkles and gray hairs?!”

Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers and like mothers out there. I hope you all have a great day of rest and relaxation.  I reminded Dania yesterday that today is Mother’s day and encouraged her to do all the laundry and cleaning yesterday so she could enjoy her day today! Ha.

We continue in our series on the early church. Paul has been speaking to the Corinthians about certain issues that have been creeping up. As we are getting to the end of his letter, he is talking to them about the very important matter of the resurrection. There are some today that think that the resurrection is not important to Christianity. The same thing was happening back then. There were some trying to persuade the believers that the resurrection is not essential. However, that is what our faith is hinged on. If there is no resurrection, then we are in a lot of trouble and we have essentially spent our lives living for what lies beyond this life. Paul essentially tells them that if none of this is true then they might as well eat, drink, and be merry since they are one day going to die.

We, of course, know that we follow the One true God. We know that one day we will meet Jesus face to face and we will spend our eternity worshipping Him. Prayerfully, we live lives that reflect that this is not our home and we live in such a way that we honor His sacrifice for us. It is interesting to note that some of the largest critics of Christianity at least recognize the benefit that Christianity brought to society. Richard Dawkins, known as the fourth horseman of the atheist apocalypse has recently admitted that Christianity brought many great things to society, especially the idea of justice, fairness, love, and mercy. I have an old buddy that does not believe in Jesus, but every time we talk, he explains he is so thankful for Christianity because of the benefit it has brought to society. Oh how I pray that one day he will cross over that bridge and come to faith in Christ. But again, the problem here is that people want to pick and choose what they want to believe. My favorite is that some of these folks won’t come to faith in Jesus because they believe the Bible was written by man.

If the Bible was written by man, then why does Biblical teaching go against our sinful nature?

I think that’s a fair question. If the Bible had been written by some men along the way, then why wouldn’t it tell us to go out and do everything that we want to? Why does it speak against our sinful nature rather than embracing it? We all know why. It does not because the Bible, though it was written physically by men, was inspired by God. One day we will have to get into the intricacies of the Bible and the various cross references between authors over the course of centuries. However, that is way too much for today. My simple question when people ask me why I believe the Bible when it was written by men, I ask them that question. “Why does the Bible go against our sinful nature”. It’s a lot easier for us to sin than it is to live holy lives.

Last week we looked at what it means to be resurrected. Our old bodies must die, kind of like seeds. Then we are raised back up in our perfected and incorruptible form. When we come back, we are not going to be stuck in the sinful cycles we are stuck in now. We also will not be angels. There is that misconception that when we die we become angels, but that is not the case. What is interesting about that is that many assume that people become angels when they go to heaven, but they do not make that assumption about people that wind up in the other place. They don’t assume that those people become demons. Of course, there are a lot of assumptions made about the afterlife. Namely because no one that has gone, save for Jesus and Lazarus, have come back to life. Based on what we see in Scripture, we know that these bodies we have will not be the broken things they are today. Instead, they will be complete and the spirit and physical will align to do God’s will and serve Him. We know that they will be physical bodies since Jesus, after the resurrection eats breakfast with His disciples. Ghosts don’t eat, but Jesus does. We have talked before about how God knows what to do with the dust. For a long time many believed that a person had to be buried in order to resurrect, but just like we talked about last week, God made us from dust and we return to dust. So God can bring us back from anything. My plan has been to be cremated and buried at sea. It is even in my will. However, after talking to Dania, she does not like the idea of us not being buried together, so I guess I need to change my will to reflect a new set of instructions!

Today we are going to look at the difficult discussion on the rapture. There are several ways of looking at the rapture and there is no definitive conclusion. However, you know my philosophy, if it is in the Bible, we cannot shy away from these topics. We have to jump right in and figure out what we can about them. If you have your Bibles, please turn them to 1 Corinthians 15:50–58

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 CSB

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

This chapter is often brought into the discussion of the end times. There is a lot of debate about the end times and what it all means. Later writings Paul will talk about being called up into the cloud. We have no real idea about what this all means. There are scholars that have devoted the majority of their lives in trying to understand what it means. I am not one to try to make any guesses as to when Jesus is going to come back or whether Christians will be spared from tribulation at the end times and all of that. From my vantage, that is not a kingdom, it is not an eternal issue. There are certain things within the Bible that are going to confuse us and we will not be able to nail it down completely and come up with a definite answer to solve the confusion. That is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. It does become a problem when we start looking down on other people for their viewpoint of it. That is definitely something we should not do because when it comes to this issue here, we may be right, but we might also be wrong.

As you all know, the conclave just recently elected a new pope. This is a very big deal for the state of the Catholic church and it is also a big deal because for the first time in the history of the Catholic church, an American was elected to become pope. Pretty neat, right? Even prior to the pope’s election, there were the dispensationalists that were saying that there is a prophecy saying that there would not be another pope after the last one. So they were already starting the “it’s the end of the world as we know it” conversation. Then the American pope was elected and some of them went even further down the dark path of be ready because Jesus is clearly coming back in the very near future.

Now, I am not saying that Jesus is coming back in the very near future. He very well cold come back right now if it is His time. The only thing I know for certain is that He is coming back and that I do not know when. To think I did would make it seem like I am better than Jesus. When Jesus was on earth and He was talking with the disciples about the Holy Spirit, they wanted to know if that meant He was going to restore God’s kingdom on earth. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and intertestamental times was seen as the precursor for restoring God’s kingdom. Certainly it is a precursor, but there is no timeline on it. At the Bible study on Thursday we were reading the story of Samson and how he meets Delilah sometime after he pulls the Gaza city gate and posts out of its foundation. We are not given an idea of the timeline. We just know that it happened some time. We know that God is going to restore His kingdom one day, but we don’t know when. We can’t determine the exact day. Mark 13:32

Mark 13:32 CSB

“Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father.

So if we try to determine the exact date, then we are in for a rude awakening. I have no idea when it could be.

So if we try to determine the exact date, then we are in for a rude awakening. I have no idea when it could be.  We should be wary of people that claim they know when it is going to be.  I remember in the late 1900s when Jack Van Impe would be on PBS claiming that the end of the world was coming on December 16, 2000.  Well wouldn’t you know it, that came and went over 24 years ago and here we are. No one knows the day or hour, so if we are standing and waiting for Jesus to come back, I would say we should not hold our breath waiting for Him. He could come back before we get done with this worship service or He could come back 500 years from now.  Rather than try to guess when He is coming back, it’s best to just be ready for His arrival at any time.

         What’s the danger in trying to determine the exact date of Jesus’s return?  I would say if we could pinpoint it to the day, then we could just kind of do what we wanted to and live how we wanted to live with the intent of correcting ourselves before He comes back.  There is a big difference between being ready always and getting ready.  Back when Dania’s parents lived in Northern Virginia, she would go up there to see them and I would stay behind down here.  Typically it was just for a few days.  If she told me she was coming back on a Friday, when do you think I took the time to thoroughly sweep and swab the floors.  Yep, I would wait until Friday.  That’s not to say I wouldn’t do some regular sweepers, but I would wait until the day of to really get in there and do the deep cleaning.  If she had shown up on Thursday, then she would not have been dazzled by the shiny floors.

         All that to say, we must be ready for His return at all times. Jesus tells the parable of the ten young women waiting for the groom to arrive. Five of them were wise, but the other five were foolish.  The foolish ones figured that the groom would be there within a few hours. They figured all was well and they had plenty of oil in their lamps, so they went out in the night and burned their oil without hesitation and no resupply.  The five smart ones brought a flask of oil with them.  The groom winds up running later than any of them expected and they fall asleep.  Until a cry pierces the night with the announcement that the groom is here and it’s time to come meet him.  The foolish ones didn’t have any oil, so they go and tell the smart ones to give them some of their oil, but the sensible ones refuse and tell them to go to town and buy some more.  The groom arrives and the feast starts while the foolish ones are in town buying oil. They get back and demand to be allowed in, but they are turned away by the groom because he does not know them.  Jesus warns in Matthew 25: 13 Therefore be alert because you don’t know either the day or the hour.  We have to be ready at any moment, not just for a fixed moment.  Being ready for an event is a lot easier than being ready for any moment. 

When I was on the Cole, I was the maintenance coordinator for the entire ship.  Part of my job was developing a spot check matrix that all of the khakis on the ship had to perform. These spot checks were mini inspections to make sure that the maintenance person knew what he or she was doing and that maintenance was being done correctly.  These checks can be difficult and long because they have to get their hazmat receipts, any tools they checked out have to be present or there must be proof that the tool or test equipment they used for the check was off the ship for calibration, etc.  If a spot check was done properly, it would take a few hours.  So most folks on the spot check matrix would just assign a date and time to do the check so that they were not spending their time waiting on the Sailors to collect their required stuff.  I liked to just drop in and do a spot check right there on the scene.  We would call it a live spot check.  A lot of the Sailors hated it because they had to perform the maintenance with me watching over them the whole time.  Eventually, the divisions got smart and began having their stuff ready to go for an inspection because they just did not know when it was going to hit. 

How much more should we be prepared for Jesus to come back?  Shouldn’t we always be ready for Him to return?  This is why Paul makes mention that this is all going to happen in the twinkling of an eye. It’s going to be a surprise.  So as people get wrapped up in when the end is coming, it’s best not to worry about it.  Instead, we can be ready because we know that it will happen one day. We must be prepared and we must spend our time preparing the people in our lives.  The only way to be prepared to meet Jesus is to know Him beforehand.  The way I see it, and I did not come up with this idea, it was J Vernon McGee. He thinks that the end will be ushered in when the gospel is no longer preached.  That will be when God decides to put it all back in the box.  That makes sense.  The moment that the gospel is no longer preached throughout the world is the moment that the world loses hope.  Jesus is our only hope, not our last resort.  When His message is no longer presented to people, why wouldn’t God decide to restore His kingdom on earth.  So we have to be ready.  We don’t hold our breath expecting that it is happening soon, but we also can’t discount the idea that it could happen in the next few minutes.  If we are ready to meet Him, then we won’t have any need to fear. 

         We will be change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  One day, death will be no more.  Isaiah 25:8

Isaiah 25:8 CSB

When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken.

One day, death is going to be defeated. Here’s the trick, though. Death is already defeated. God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die. When the serpent confronts eve about it, he assures her that they will not die. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and they do not die physically. They continued breathing. they did not die physically, they died spiritually. Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 CSB

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus came and died a terrible death on the cross. He came and took our sins upon His shoulders. He took them to the cross and He nailed those sins there. He buried those sins. When we put our faith in Him and repent of our sins, He wipes our sins away like they never even happened. When God looks at us, He does not see a sinner, instead, He sees His son or daughter. We are one of His children when confess Jesus as Lord. What an amazing thought. That spiritual death that we once knew is gone and now we have life within us.

With that being said, that shows that we already have some of the eternal within us. Remember there are only three things in this world that are eternal, your soul, my soul, and the eternal word of God. Everything else passes away. Eternity is written within us. We are eternal beings. The thing about eternity is that there is no time in eternity. How can there be any time since eternity goes on forever and ever. It has no beginning and has no end. We are not there yet, but that is where we are headed. We are eternal creatures stuck in these sinful and decaying bodies. One day, we will be in eternity with our Lord and Savior. One day we will spend eternity casting our crowns at His feet. That is why Paul can quote from the Old Testament asking where death’s sting is at. Hosea 13:14

Hosea 13:14 CSB

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death. Death, where are your barbs? Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

God has ransomed us from Sheol. He has redeemed us from death. We may one day succumb to physical death, but we will not die spiritually. Death is defeated by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So in the light of eternity, why would we worry about when God is going to restore His earthly kingdom? Why would we try to pinpoint the exact date He is coming back? Since we know that our eternity belongs to Him, why would we be concerned about His timing? Time is nothing relative to eternity. So rather than worry about when it’s going to happen, let’s live lives prepared for His return. Let’s live lives that glorify and honor Him. Let’s live lives that He has called us to.