The Coming of the Lord (2)
1 Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted
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13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thess 4:13
I’ve been waiting to get to this topic because there’s much confusion surrounding it. We’re going to break it down carefully and methodically.
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
First is that Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant when it comes to death, which he then ties to the coming of the Lord implying that he doesn’t want us ignorant of either death or the coming of the Lord. Ignorant means “to err, to commit a fault or faults arising from the want of discernment, knowledge, insight.”
It appears that some were sorrowing for the death of loved ones as those who have no hope in the resurrection due to ignorance. Hope is “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.” We have two things to look forward to:
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in His heavenly abode
The future resurrection at His coming
Although we might be sad that this person is no longer with us, there should also be a joy and hopefulness of seeing them again one day when those who have already died in the faith return with the Lord. The only requirement to be in the faith or born again is to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus died and rose again (v. 14).
13 Beloved brothers and sisters, we want you to be quite certain about the truth concerning those who have passed away, so that you won’t be overwhelmed with grief like many others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who died while believing in him.
The Coming of the Lord
The Coming of the Lord
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
The phrase “by the word of the Lord” is used both in the Old and New Testament for inspired prophetic speech meaning Paul heard directly from the Lord concerning this subject of those who have died in Christ and those who are alive at His coming. We can take this to the bank!
Here is the order:
Those who died in the faith will be resurrected first and come with the Lord
Those who are alive and remain on the earth will be resurrected and meet Him and His army of saints and angels in the air
Now let’s look at the word “coming,” because it’s a VERY, VERY important word. In the Greek it is the word “parousia.” In the NT, it NEVER referred to the Lord’s first coming always His second in glory. It was originally used to describe the visit of a person with high rank, especially a king. "It was an arrival that included a permanent presence from that coming onward” (Spirit-Filled Life Bible). What this means is that there’s only one Second Coming and Paul ties the resurrection of all saints to it meaning that there’s not any secret in the middle of the night rapture.
Let’s read it again:
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
“We who are alive and remain until the COMING OF THE LORD...” Or we who are alive and remain at the coming and then permanent presence of the Lord from that point on will not be resurrected before those who have already died. None of the early church preached a rapture pre-Second Coming. That became a doctrine about 180 years ago.
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Matthew 24:29-
I want to point out several things:
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
The phrase, “immediately after the tribulation of those days,” giving us the time reference point of the events that follow such as the sun darkening, etc.
All the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see Him returning
The Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven just as the angel stated in .
He will send His angels with the sound of a trumpet to gather His elect from one end of heaven to the other.
Elect means “beloved chosen ones.” It’s referring to Christians, those who compose of the church. They are also called saints. It is NOT referring to Israel because you must be born again in order to be a Christian whether Jew or Gentile. So verse 31 is referring to the ingathering of the believers—those who are alive and remain at His coming.
Now looking back, we see that our ingathering is IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days with a visible returning in which all the earth sees Him coming on a cloud and with a trumpet.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Let’s look at a few things in this passage:
The Lord will descend with a SHOUT
The VOICE of an archangle
With the TRUMPET of God.
This is a very vocal and visible event unlike what’s mostly taught about the rapture.
The word “clouds” is literally “in clouds” and was used by Greeks to refer to a large body of individuals. Whether it’s a glory cloud or a large gathering of people doesn’t really matter because both can apply.
“Meet the Lord in the air” gives us the location of the ingathering a.k.a. rapture. Meet means “to meet coming from different directions, a meeting.” It also means “to meet, either in a friendly or hostile sense.” Air is referring to the space surrounding earth, the air we breathe not the 2nd heaven. It’s in our atmosphere. And, finally, the phrase “caught up” refers to being “snatched up, to seize with force” and is the idea of military spoils where you seize to remove or control. The Hebrew equivalent is in .
36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
What makes this significant is the Exodus is the best picture of the end of the age that there is in the Bible. The plagues didn’t touch the Hebrews; yet, they endured increased persecution and tribulation by the Egyptians (symbolic of the world system) during the plagues. It’s the same at the end of the age. We won’t be touched by any of the trumpets, seals, bowls but persecution will intensify. But we will plunder the world system!
The word “meet” has even more significance.
The Greek word apantēsis is not a verb (go to meet) but a feminine noun (to meet or have an encounter), and in this context it is the bride of Christ rising to be with Jesus to have an encounter or “[bridal] meeting.” This rarely used Greek word is also used in the parable of the ten virgins, referring to the virgins rising up to meet (have a meeting) with the bridegroom.
There is a period of 30-70 days after our catching away that the wrath of God is poured out on the world. It might be when we have our bridal supper or maybe we come down and kick butt with Him. I’ve not studied that out enough.
14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Rev 14:14-
This is the Lord reaping and gathering His people, the vision of what Jesus described in . Let’s read what happens right after:
17 Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18 And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” 19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
Reve. 14:
Right after this are a quick succession of the bowl judgments, which are the wrath of God with no call to repent like in the previous disasters. The age of grace has ended. The king is about to set up His throne on the earth.
51 Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Cor 15:51-
The dead are resurrected, we are changed in the twinkling of an eye. The word changed is “to change the form or nature of a thing.” Twinkling of an eyes is the BLINKING of an eye. Go ahead, blink. That’s how fast we are changed into our resurrected bodies.
23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
1 cor 15:23
Coming is parousia. I hope you clearly see that our catching away cannot be separated from His Second Coming. There’s two other events that must happen BEFORE His Second Coming.
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
2 Thess 2:1-
Falling away
The man of sin revealed
Notice that Paul once, again, joins the “coming (parousia) of the Lord AND our gathering together to Him in this verse. They are NOT two separate events.
The Day of the Lord
The Day of the Lord
1 thess 5:1-
1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
The phrase thief in the night has been used to refer to the catching away a.k.a. rapture as proof that it’s a secret event where you’ll be at work and suddenly your coworker will vanish into thin air. But Paul is saying that the catching away will come as a thief in the night; he’s saying that the DAY OF THE LORD will come as a thief in the night AND that we are not in darkness that this day should overtake us like a thief.
12 Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Does this sentence mean we’ll be there for it? LOOK FURTHER INTO THE TIMING OF THIS BECAUSE OF THE WATCHING FOR HIM ASPECTS. SOUNDS LIKE WE’RE STILL HERE. Jude has some stuff on it too.
