Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday May 6, 2007

The Day of the Lord: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17-The Rapture of the Church

Lesson # 1

Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5:1.

This morning we will temporarily suspend our studies in the book of Romans by beginning a series of classes dealing with “the Day of the Lord,” which I will conduct each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

One of the major lines of prophecy running throughout the Old Testament and continuing through the New Testament is the prophetic truth related to the Day of the Lord.

The term “Day of the Lord” occurs in the following passages: Isa.

2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezek.

13:5; 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18 (twice), 20; Obadiah 15; Zeph.

1:7, 14 (twice); Zech.

14:1; Mal.

4:5; Acts 2:20; 1 Thess.

5:2; 2 Thess.

2:2; 2 Pet.

3:10.

The phrases “that day” or “the day” or “the great day” also refer to the day of the Lord and appear more than 75 times in the Old Testament.

The frequency with which the day of the Lord is referred to is evidence of its importance in the plan of God and the passages noted above reveal that the idea of judgment is paramount in all of them.

This judgment includes not only the specific judgments upon Israel and the nations at the end of the tribulation that are associated with the 2nd Advent, but from a consideration of the passages themselves, includes judgments that extend over a period of time prior to the 2nd Advent.

Thus, we can conclude that the Day of the Lord will include the time of the tribulation.

The scope of the Day of the Lord has been a matter of debate among interpreters of the Scriptures.

Some refer the Day of the Lord to the years of the tribulation period only while others relate this to the 2nd Advent of Christ and the subsequent judgments immediately connected with the event.

The first view held by Scofield is that the Day of the Lord would cover that time period from the 2nd Advent of Christ to the new heaven and new earth after the millennium.

Ironside expresses the other view, which coincides with Scofield’s as to the terminus of the Day of the Lord but begins it with the tribulation period so that the events of the tribulation, 2nd Advent and millennium are all included within the scope of the Day of the Lord.

Zechariah 14:1-4 makes it clear that the events of the 2nd Advent are included in the program of the Day of the Lord.

2 Peter 3:10 gives authority for including the entire millennial age with this period known as the day of the Lord.

2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

If the Day of the Lord did not begin until the 2nd Advent, since that event is preceded by signs, the Day of the Lord could “not” come as a “thief in the night,” unexpected, and unheralded, as it is said it will come in 1 Thessalonians 5:2.

The only way this day could break unexpectedly upon the world is to have it begin immediately after the rapture of the church, which is imminent.

When an event is truly imminent, we never know exactly when it will happen.

So again, the only way that the “day of the Lord” could break unexpectedly upon the world is to have it begin immediately after the rapture of the church, which is imminent.

1 Thessalonians 5:1, “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:2, “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

1 Thessalonians 5:3, “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”

1 Thessalonians 5:4, “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief.”

1 Thessalonians 5:5, “for you are all sons of light and sons of day.

We are not of night nor of darkness.”

1 Thessalonians 5:6, “so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.”

1 Thessalonians 5:7, “For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.”

1 Thessalonians 5:8, “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 5:10, “who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

We thus can conclude that the “day of the Lord” is “not” a literal twenty-four period but rather is an extended period of time beginning with God’s dealing with Israel after the rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period and extending through the 2nd Advent and the millennial age unto the creation of the new heavens and the new earth after the millennium.

The “Rapture” is a technical theological term for the resurrection of the church, which is imminent, invisible to the world, and terminates the church age dispensation.

The “Rapture” will take place in the earth’s atmosphere when the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly and forcefully remove the church from planet earth in order to deliver her from the Tribulation period.

1 Thessalonians 4:13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.”

1 Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 4:15, “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 not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

1 Thessalonians 4:18, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

The rapture is the “blessed hope” of the church since it delivers her from the wrath that is to come upon a Christ rejecting world during the Tribulation period, which will be the worst period in all of human history and immediately follows the rapture.

Titus 2:13, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”

The Lord Jesus Christ in His Upper Room Discourse first speaks of the rapture.

John 14:1, Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”

John 14:2, “In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”

John 14:3, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, {there} you may be also.”

Notice the Lord says that He will “receive us to Himself.”

Compare it with this passage in 2nd Thessalonians, which deals extensively with the rapture.

2 Thessalonians 2:1, “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him.”

The rapture of the church is distinguished in Scripture from the 2nd Advent of Christ.

The Rapture delivers the church while the Second Advent delivers Israel.

The Rapture is seen only by the church and is therefore invisible while the Second Advent is the visible manifestation of Christ on the earth.

The Lord meets the church in the earth’s atmosphere at the Rapture, whereas the Lord physically lands on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem at the Second Advent.

Signs do not precede the Rapture whereas visible signs precede the Second Advent.

The Lord claims His Bride at the Rapture but He returns with her at the Second Advent.

The Rapture completes God’s program for the church while the Second Advent is related to God’s program for Israel.

The Rapture is a mystery, not known to Old Testament saints whereas the Second Advent is prophesied throughout the Old Testament canon.

The Rapture leaves creation unchanged whereas the Second Advent entails a change in creation.

The Rapture does not fulfill God’s covenants to Israel whereas the Second Advent marks the beginning of their fulfillment.

The Rapture precedes the Tribulation whereas the Second Advent follows it.

The resurrection or rapture of the church was a mystery that was not known to Old Testament saints.

1 Corinthians 15:50, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

1 Corinthians 15:51, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.”

1 Corinthians 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 will be changed.”

1 Corinthians 15:53, “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

1 Corinthians 15:54, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP’ in victory.”

1 Corinthians 15:55, ‘O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?

O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”

1 Corinthians 15:56, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

1 Corinthians 15:57, “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

The rapture is something we should be eagerly anticipating because we will receive our resurrection bodies at that time.

Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship exists from eternity past in the realm of the heavens, out from which also we ourselves at the present time are eagerly anticipating as Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:21, “Who will cause our humiliating body to be outwardly transformed to be identical in essence with His glorious body because of the power that will enable Him to marshal all things created to Himself.”

Dr. Gerald B. Stanton, a professor of Bible at Biola College for many years, and writer of several prophecy books, states the following: “Immanency consists of three things: the certainty that He may come at any moment, the uncertainty of the time of that arrival, and the fact that no prophesied event stands between the believer and that hour.

The purpose of such immanency is that the Church may be in a constant state of expectancy, always looking for and waiting for the coming of her Lord from heaven.

Not only is the hope of His return a source of comfort and encouragement to the believer, but also it is a very definite incentive for service and for holy living.”

This is what John is saying in 1 John 3:2-3.

1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.

We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is and everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

The technical phrases “the Day of Christ” mentioned in Philippians 1:6, 10 and 2:16 and “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” in 1 Corinthians 1:8 all refer to another prophetic category, namely, the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church that will be conducted by the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor.

3:11-15).

These passages are exclusively referring to the church and do not refer to “the Day of the Lord,” which has reference of course to Israel.

Characteristics of the Day of the Lord: (1) Immanency (Isa.

13:6; Ezek.

30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1; Obad.

15; 1 Thess.

5:2).

(2) Judgment (Obad.

15, Joel 1.15; Isa, 2:11; Jer, 46:10; Amos 5:20; Zeph.

1:7ff; Ezek.

13:5; Mal.