Christ's Trumpet Call!!!
Notes
Transcript
The melody of “Taps” evokes many emotions…
General Daniel Adams Butterfield of the Union Army in 1862 wrote this melody
First used and still used to signal the ending of a day to lay down to sleep
Soon would also be the melody as a soldier is laid to rest at military funerals
In 1891 it was required to be played at military funeral ceremonies
The day’s end… going to sleep… death: this is an area of life that impacts all of us.
Daily we have been updated with death tolls… All of us will die some day, some will even truly live, but the question is where will you spend eternity?
Death had impacted the Thessalonians as well and they were troubled.
Paul writes his next portion of the letter to comfort and encourage the people he loves so dearly. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (Today we can leave here encouraged!) READ LAST VERSE FIRST
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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 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. 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. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Paul makes a statement earlier in his letter 1 Thessalonians 3:10 that there are things “lacking in their faith”
He will take a good portion of his letter to them now to inform them on future things!
He begins addressing future things by address a current concern in the church.
“If we are to live right today, We need to think right about tomorrow!”
As followers of Christ we approach death with Hope!
As followers of Christ we approach death with Hope!
We have a hope that the rest of the world does not when our loved ones fall “asleep” who are in Christ!
What occurs after death is a mystery for most of the world around us…
Philosophers have pondered this question
Scientist have tried to answer the question or discover the place
Some have tried communicating with those who have gone
There are investigations with those who have gone and returned
Mankind is constantly searching for answers for an event that is inevitable for us all
God gives us a clear answer in His Word… The scriptures do not want us to be unaware rather informed. The Thessalonians were wondering some of the same things.
They knew Christ would return…BUT was it only for the living?
Did those who died miss the opportunity?
Scripture gives us a definition of death:
“them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (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.
He cannot bring them when He returns unless they are with Him.
It is not the soul that sleeps; it is the body.
James 2:26—“For as the body without the spirit is dead.”
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
At death, the spirit leaves the body, and the body goes to sleep and no longer functions.
The soul-spirit goes to be with the Lord, if the person has trusted Jesus Christ.
“Absent from the body, and … present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Death for the one who is in Christ (vs 14) “if we believe” is not the same!
“IF” we believe in Christ death, burial, and resurrection
To be “in Christ” Cross to the Rapture
We do grieve… we are separated for a time
We do have hope… we will see them again!
I recall stating to a friend, “I hear you lost your wife. I’m very sorry.” He replied, “No, I didn’t lose her. You can’t lose something when you know where it is—and I know where she is!”[1] ~ Wiersbe
Believers have hope in death because we have a Risen Savior!
Believers have hope in death because we have a Risen Savior!
Jesus Christ faced death at the cross
When the scripture speaks of believers… we are asleep
When it speaks of Christ… He died
He was buried
Three days in the tomb
On day three death could not hold Him!!!!
Jesus Christ conquered death so you and I don’t have to fear it!
Jesus is the first resurrection and we shall follow!
Because He was raised from the dead so shall we be raised! (vs 16)
We will have a new body!
Philippians 3:20–21
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
NOTICE: The authority involved in the resurrection event…
Lord Himself comes…NO delegation
There is a shout! A command, the power of His Word
Voice of the archangel
Then there is a trumpet (Revelry Blast!!!!) Wake up The Son is here!
This event is not only for those who are dead but also for the living!
Christ’s return gives Hope to His Church!
Christ’s return gives Hope to His Church!
Paul has been building up and encouraging them through the whole letter on the coming of Jesus:
1:10; (we wait patiently for His coming)
2:19; (our hope)
3:11-13 (even in his prayers for them)
4:16 (the dead will rise!)
4:17 (we too will join them!)
Look at the phrase CAUGHT UP:
Bible Word Study | ἁρπάζω
ἁρπάζω harpazō take away; seize; snatch away
snatch away, carry off; to be a robber; thievish; have; torn
Louw-Nida to seize, to snatch away, to take away
Nowhere is the word Rapture in the scriptures… this verse is where we get this word however.
Rapture is a state or experience of being carried away. The English word comes from a Latin word, rapio, which means to seize or snatch in relation to an ecstasy of spirit or the actual removal from one place to another[3]
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.
The living in Christ will be removed from earth to heaven.
Notice several things…
We meet Him in the clouds, Jesus does not return to earth at this time
We meet up with those who have died in Christ
We, from this time forward, will always be with the Lord!!!!
You and I need to understand these things!
“If we are to live right today, We need to think right about tomorrow!”
We no longer grieve as the world, We have true Hope, Comfort ONE ANOTHER with this!!! Jesus is coming, the Son of God.... and you and I can have a relationship with Him!