His Return and Dinner at the Table
Notes
Transcript
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning all!
I trust you have had a good week, but I bet at times it got busy and perhaps a little stressful as you tried to figure out how you would get it all done.
We have all been there, but I would remind you there is only such much we can do in a certain period of time physically. And instead of frustration, complaining to yourself and others, ask the Lord to show you wisdom and grace through the task you are seeking to accomplish.
Now why do I say that? I just want to remind you that He is faithful.
He is faithful in all things… do you trust that?
When you look around and see our world crumbling in sin.. Do you recognize that He is still faithful?
As we see all the violence, in our street and in our larger cities… Do you recognize that He, the Lord is faithful?
This truth leads us to ask a question?
Lord, How long before your return?
How long before you return for your church and take us home, how long before you deliver us from the filth of this world?
We ask those questions, and still yet to you trust the Lord, do you trust that He is faithful?
I do.. God’s promises are faithful and true. They are yes and amen..
Paul would remind of this in 2 Corinthians 1:20....
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
So this morning I want us to consider the second coming of Jesus and then we will look also at the future events that take place because of His return.
So lets look at our text for today...
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
A beautiful passage - one we hang onto in this life, and we refer to it a great deal when we have lost a loved one…why? It s promise, a promise of a better and bright day that awaits all of us, past present and future.
So this morning why is Paul writing this...
They are waiting for the second coming of Jesus.. and some have passage and they are concerned about what will happen to those loved ones who have gone one ....
So lets examine this and much more today, beginning with this thought..
1. His return will signal the promise of God Fulfilled...
1. His return will signal the promise of God Fulfilled...
My friends, Jesus promised those who followed Him that he would return, that He wold come again into this world to receive, His own.
You see I believe my friends that God the father has always desired for His people to be in His presence physically.
When you start off with creation, Adam and Eve where there in the garden, this beautiful Utopia is the only way to really describe it … and God was there with them.
And sin disrupted it all … and from that moment on, God was at work preparing the Son to be the means to deliver the world from sin.. And return His children into His presence.
Consider Jesus, the night before his crucifixion, he is speaking to them about his departure, but He promises them(and us) that He will return for His children.
Listen to John 14, verses 1-3
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
I love this passage, Jesus is reminding them to not lose hope, in a few hours He will be arrested killed and buried… but through it all, as they have trusted God the Father, continue to trust the Son.
The Father has a vast home prepared for the world, the Son was completing the will and work of God to make all things ready through the cross…Soon he would return for them, He promised them that where He was, they (us) would be also...
Now going back to our main text, I Thessalonians 4, Paul describes that day. How did he know… The Lord had told him… v 15
A day was coming when the trumpet would sound… Gabriel or Michael perhaps would signal the advent of Jesus and the Lord would descend from the heavens in the air to call up the church, His redeemed saints ....
This event Jesus promised, the Apostles taught… Jesus is coming again, it is imminent, it could at any moment, it will happen when you least expect it
God will keep his promise… He always does...
The question is … are you ready? Have you ever asked Jesus into your heart, to save you, to make you well on the inside that you be able to join Him there on that day?
So with the Lord’s return, what will happen on that day...
2. The Dead in Christ Are Raised....
2. The Dead in Christ Are Raised....
This is important, the Bible has always taught there would be a resurrection day. A day when the dead would be raised.
For many, including those like the Pharisees, they believed a day would could when all would stand before the Lord to be judged… Sometimes we refer to this as a general resurrection from the dead. The righteous and the unrighteous together at one time.
But Paul here and of course John in the book of Revelation are more specific in this matter. So lets examine what is being said...
As the Lord returns in the air… the call comes (get up, arise my children who slumber) and the dead in Christ shall rise.
So what is happening here… At death we know that the body and soul are separated.. The body is at rest, but not the soul.
Paul reminds us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. At death, the real essence of who we are (if we are saved) will be with the Lord.
Those who are dead in their sins, I believe the soul is already in hell, suffering, waiting for the final day of judgement, ( Dr, Lawless buddy saying its hot )
But saved and lost alike, the body is dead, it has stopped, It is committed back to the earth, through burial, cremation…what ever. The body, the shell is at rest for now… The soul is alive… eternal.
But at His command the dead in Christ shall rise… verse 16 in I Thess 4
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
And then also from last week, verse 52, I Cor 15
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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Consider this my friends, at that moment, when the trumpet of God has sounded, the command of God comes forth and the dead in Christ rise.
And in the moment, in the instant, the twinkling of an eye, the mortal has put on immortality, the perishable has put on imperishable.
So what happens, faster than the blink of our eyes, the Lord will return, the command happens and those in heaven, are instantly join back to their bodies and the bodies are raised. And we are not like we use to be, no longer sick, sinful bodies, but instead they are raised perfectly, immortal, imperishable.
How beautiful my friends, Jesus own voice will raise us, just like when he called out Lazarus, come forth and He came. His voice is powerful my friends. Remember when Jesus cried out at the crucifixion, He cried out it is finished and the graves of many of the saints were opened.
Now all of theses on this side were raised mortal, but when Jesus returns from heaven with the saints of God, When he calls the dead in Christ will rise, and they will rise in a glorified body, made like His, made like we were supposed to be from the beginning of time, before sin ruined and corrupted this world.
And those who are alive… are caught up… meaning the rapture of church. Rapture is the Latin word for the Greek here meaning caught up. Remember my friends historically, the Bible went from the Greek and was translated into Latin and from there into English.
And so the dead who are raised and those who are alive are changed and together we will be with the Lord forever.
So what happens after Jesus comes back for his church?
3. The Judgement Seat and Tribulation...
3. The Judgement Seat and Tribulation...
Now there are several views about the Tribulation, some people are Premillennialism and some are Post....meaning the church must endure the tribulation before the rapture..
I have always understood the position of Scripture to mean that the church is raptured, taken to heaven and then the tribulation takes place here on earth while church is with the Savior.
So all that I saw and teach will focus on the position of Premillennialism, and while Jesus returns to gather the church please understand that Jesus comes in the air and the dead and those who are alive are caught up in the air to meet the Lord.
Now I say that just to remind you, Jesus has not placed his foot down upon the earth yet, that day is coming.
But we are caught up in the air and then on to heaven. So what happens while we are with the Lord in heaven…
So lets consider this… we are caught up into heaven to be judged. So our judgement is in heaven, we are saved, nothing changes that but we must give an account for our life in Christ.
Remember the parable of the talents, the Master went away and returned to settle the accounts of his servants.
So the Bible says 2 Cor 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Remember my friends, ever knee must bow before the Savior, in His Olivet discourse, Matthew 25 there is a day of reckoning where the saved and lost(sheep and goats) are separated and judged by the Lord, Jesus being the righteous judge. he saved will appear before Jesus and the lost later before god at the great white throne...
So back to Paul, he reminds us that we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ and also in Romans 14, verse 10-12
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
So clearly the born again believer, while forgiven of their sin, must give an account of their life in Christ. Our works are judged to determine is they are rewarded or if they are not worthy and result in a loss of rewards.
Consider I Cor 3;15
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
The rewards are referred to as “crowns” in the New Testament as in 2 Tim 4:8
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
.So since our salvation is already secured, since our sins have already been atoned for, one aspect of this judgment is the issue of faithfulness, how have we lived and served the Lord Jesus with the gifts he has given you… what did we do with the talents we have received?
Now I can hear a voice in the wilderness saying, what gifts, talents.. what did we receive in Jesus?
We received life, hope, salvation, we have been blessed with the joy of being a witness, plus specific gifts like preaching, teaching, and so forth..
What have we done with these gifts… these talents that have been entrusted to us while the master was away, literally before He returned.
Were we faithful, or not..??
Did we exhibit Christlikeness, Did we do the right things for all the right reasons...
I Cor 4:2 says
2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
We have to stand before Him....
Let me ask you a question… How would you be found today?
We must give an account of our deeds, every thought, every inclination of the heart when we stand before the Savior.
And then there is the situation on planet Earth.. Tribulation…
The Tribulation is seen as a period of 7 years of suffering here on earth, based on Daniel prophecies in Dan 9:20-27....
7 years of horrific suffering… Now there is much that could be described and said here and that really is a study in and of it self.
But at the end of that time Jesus is coming again…this time he will establish His Kingdom.... for a 1000 years...
but the real issue at this moment, if you stood before Jesus today.. what would he say to you.. well done… or why didnt you...
Now today we have looked at the truth that Jesus is coming again...
The dead in Christ will rise
We who are alive and remain will be changed
Then there is the judgement seat of Christ...
But we are going to stop here at this portion of the message today, next week we will finish part 2… His kingdom established, the Great Battle and the A New Heaven and a New Earth...