Sermon Tone Analysis

“After That…”

1 Thessalonians 4:17

 

/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/.

During the swinging sixties, a religious movement swept the United States shaking the churches with the power of a divine windstorm and threatening sedated parishioners settled in comfortable pews … the Jesus People arrived on the scene.

Dressed unconventionally and with a sense of community which threatened the quiescence of old-line churches, these youthful evangelists were seized with a conviction that theirs was the last generation before Christ's return.

That conviction impelled them to vigorously evangelise their peers, thus shaming many long-time believers.

A major impetus to the zeal of these young evangelists was a book which presented the premillennial faith in simplified terms./

/*The Late, Great Planet Earth* became a runaway best seller, and to this day it remains a popular book for those wondering about future events.

The book popularised the concept of/ /*the rapture*, ensuring the entrance of the term into the popular parlance.

But just what is this event,/ /*the rapture*?

To discover the answer to this question, join me in an exploration of one brief, significant verse from Paul's first Thessalonian letter.

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 [*1 Thessalonians 4:17*].

Purpose of The Rapture — Let’s admit front that the word *rapture* does not occur in any English translation of the New Testament.

Many fine Christian people deny there is any such event as the *snatching away *[aJrpavzw] of the Church before divine judgement is at last poured out on the earth.

Frequently, these fine Christian men and women make much of the fact that the word *rapture* does not occur in the Bible.

Such detractors of our pretribulational position are correct in the strictest sense of the word.

However, as is true with other important theological concepts, though the word is absent the doctrine is nonetheless present.

*Rapture* is but the anglicised version of *rapturo*, the Latin term for aJrpavzw, which means *to snatch away* or *to seize suddenly* or *to steal*.

The word *trinity* does not occur in the Bible, but the doctrine is certainly present and assumed throughout the Word of God.

Many of our Armenian brothers wish the word *election* did not occur in the Bible.

We are nevertheless given the promise that God will … keep [those who have kept His commands] from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth  [*Revelation 3:10*].

That verse just cited provides one great reason why those who hold to this ancient, apostolic position, realise the necessity of the pretribulational rapture of the Church.

There is another reason given in our text and I shall provide a brief explanation of that reason shortly.

Sin shall one day be finished.

God shall one day say, “Enough!”  Wicked men will give an account for their wickedness and for the unbelief which has characterised man since the Fall.

That accounting to Holy God is not, in one sense, a compacted, momentary event, but it is rather a series of judgements stretching over a period of one thousand seven years.

The *judgement* is actually four judgements consisting of the ultimate judgement of all the lost, a preliminary judgement of the rebellious of the earth at the conclusion of a thousand year reign by the Lord Christ, a judgement of the nations of the earth at the conclusion of the great tribulation, and a judgement of the inhabitants of the earth throughout the period referred to as *the great tribulation*.

All who have refused the reign of Christ shall be judged.

During that judgement each unbeliever shall individually give an account before God of his or her rejection of Christ as Lord.

That awesome assize is described in *Revelation 20:11-15*.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

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.

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 he had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

The lake of fire is the second death.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

This awesome judgement is one which each sinner must anticipate.

The design is not to discover whether the unbeliever deserves punishment, that is already decided according to the teaching of *John 3:18,36*.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son, and Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

Destiny is fixed now by our response to God’s initiative.

Whether we believe in Christ or whether we reject His offer of grace and mercy determines our eternal destiny.

How can I speak of that judgement without extending to you God’s gracious  invitation to receive the forgiveness of sin now?  Together with the Apostle Paul I plead with you who have until this day rejected God’s grace to now believe the message of life.

Receive Christ and receive His grace.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

For he says,

 

‘In the time of my favour I heard you,       

and in the day of salvation I helped you.’

I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation” [*2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2*].

Will you actually reject the grace of God now offered to you?  Will you refuse to accept His mercy?

Instead of demonstrating the evil which rules your heart and the perversity of your wickedness, will you not rather receive this proffered grace and now be saved?

There is also a judgement of those born during the days when Christ shall reign on earth, for He is pledged from days long past to rule over the earth, sitting upon David’s throne in fulfilment of the ancient promise to His servant David.

During that Millennial reign, children born to Tribulation saints who enter into the Millennial kingdom shall rebel, revealing the wickedness of the human heart; but that wicked rebellion shall be put down in frightful judgement described variously throughout the Word of God [e.g.

*Revelation 20:7-10* and *Psalm 2:8-12*].

This is the final rebellion against God, against His Christ and against all righteousness; all wickedness will at last be firmly and fully put down with the crushing of these rebels.

The rebellion shall be swiftly put down and those wicked rebels shall experience the wrath of the Lamb immediately preceding the final judgement when sinners are called to stand before the Great White Throne of God.

There before that Great White Throne the lost shall receive their final pronouncement of eternal doom.

That awesome judgement which has been pending throughout long ages shall then be accomplished and sin shall be finally done away with.

How awesome that day shall be!  How terrible the sentence pronounced against sinners!

One thousand years before these last judgements when God will have finally wrought judgement upon the earth and its inhabitants, the nations of the earth will have received another judgement.

I find encouragement in this particular judgement since it points to God’s mercy.

Even in the midst of judgement God extends mercy and some shall receive grace even while judged, though the most will reject His mercies and continue in their sinful condition.

All who have rejected His grace shall be judged for their wickedness, the self-serving attitude which characterises their lives.

This judgement of the nations is spoken of by Christ in *Matthew 25:31-46*.

In those verses we discover that this judgement shall be accomplished immediately prior to the initiation of our Lord’s Millennial reign so that none save those who are redeemed shall enter into that kingdom.

Does this not speak to you who have yet to trust Christ?

Though even now under divine condemnation, if you will but turn to Him He will extend you mercy.

There is another series of frightful judgements, so rapid in implementation that they may for all practical purposes be considered as one judgement.

In these judgements God at last calls the population of the earth then living to account for their wickedness.

That great judgement is so overwhelming that it is referred to as *the great tribulation*, th'" qlivyew" th'" megavlh" [*Revelation 7:14*].

God once judged the whole earth because the earth was corrupt … and was full of violence [*Genesis 6:11*] and He shall again judge the earth because it shall have degenerated into a state of utter corruption and violence.

Have we already reached that point that God must soon judge the earth?

The first judgement of the earth was by water; but the second judgement shall be by fire.

Peter wrote of that awesome day and the prevailing attitudes of the inhabitants of the earth at that time.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised?

Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’

But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men [*2 Peter 3:3-7*].

God judges the earth.

How awesome His power!

How awful His wrath toward sinners!

Small wonder that when His judgements are poured out that those then living in the earth cry out: Hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand [*Revelation 6:16,17*]?

A great divine of another era commenting on these verses noted that the most expensive real estate to be had during the Great Tribulation will be mountain caves.

The judgement poured out on the earth in that day of accounting is awesome in scope and awful in effect; no one can expect to stand in that day.

Long years ago the Prophet Amos, warned:

Woe to you who long                                                    

for the day of the LORD!

Why do you long for the day of the LORD?

That day will be darkness, not light.

It will be as though a man fled from a lion                 

only to meet a bear,