The Comfort of the Rapture of the Church. Part 3
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The Comfort of the Rapture of the Church. Part 3
The Comfort of the Rapture of the Church. Part 3
Last week clarification. I read this quote but did not reference it. The Lord Jesus will descend from heaven, and the “reunion of dead and living believers will be accomplished by the Lord in person” - Vincent WS.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. In this Bible study, we will study one verse - 1 Thess. 4:16:
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.
I. The COORDINATION of His personal descent - 16.
This is not symbolic or typological; it is literal and to be understood, so believers may be informed, correctly as to Christ’s coming, the dead in Christ, and those who are alive and remain.
SLIDE: There are three “with” statements in verse 16 that inform us of the coordination of Christ personal descent at the rapture:
SLIDE: These statements are: With a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God… - 4:16
These three “with” statements are to be taken literally.
1. “with a shout” - “with a shout of command” in the Greek text. “Shout”“Shout” - according to one commentator, the Greek word for “shout” in “Classical Greek functioned as a technical military term for the command of an officer to his soldiers but was also used to describe the cry or shout of a chariot rider to his horses, a hunter to his dogs, or a boat captain to his rowers” - BECNT.
When Jesus arrived four days late to Lazarus’s funeral, He performed the impossible!
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
Jesus “cried with a loud voice” to resurrect Lazarus from the dead; He will do so again with all the “dead in Christ at the rapture of His church.”
It is the voice of Christ that will raise the dead to life:
25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
Jesus Christ will descend from heaven with a “shout of command” and all dead believers“will hear the voice of the Son of God” and be resurrected from the dead.
I am looking forward to that day!
2. “with the voice of the archangel”
In Greek, there is no definite article “the” either before “voice” or “archangel.” Thus, the Greek rendered literally in English could read: “with archangel’s voice.”
The Greek words by which “archangel “is translated is archaggelos, are-con-gyou-loce. It is from two Greek roots that are the words for “chief” and “angel.” Thus, “archangel” means “the first or highest angel, leader of angels” - Zodhiates. The chief of the angels will gather the angelic armies of heaven to escort our Lord to meet His bride - 1 Thess. 4:17.
There is only one other passage where the word “archangel” is used. It is found in Jude 9:
9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
I believe that the archangel Paul mentions in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is Michael the archangel because of Jude 9.
Michael means “who is like God.”
3. With the Trumpet of God - 16
Actually, Greek translation reads “with trumpet of God.”
This is the rapture trumpet, and it is of God. The trumpet of God means “sounds by command of God” - Zodhiates. God, Himself, will give the command for the trumpet to sound and the rapture to take place.
The rapture will be accompanied by the shout of triumph heralded by our Lord Jesus, the archangel’s voice of rejoicing, and the sounding of the trumpet.
This melodic unison will broadcast to the whole world that Jesus Christ has raptured His bride.
Isaiah details a time when God will blow a shofar - ram’s horn - and the world will hear it:
3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth: When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it; And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
God’s word stipulates to “All the inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth… when he blows a shofar, you hear it.”
Jeremiah wrote, in his day, that the shofar’s sounding was a warning to “flee from the midst of Jerusalem” because of the “disaster” and “great destruction” that was coming upon Judah and Jerusalem.
1 “O you children of Benjamin, Gather yourselves to flee from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, And set up a signal-fire in Beth Haccerem; For disaster appears out of the north, And great destruction.
Tekoa - a city a little south from Jerusalem - HAL.
Beth Haccerem, “vineyard houses,” is located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem - HAL.
Just as the trumpet was blown in Judea for the Jews to flee the disaster coming, so the rapture trumpet is a signal of the Church’s escape from the tribulation period of God’s wrath and the “disaster” and “great destruction” that is to come.
However, this does not mean believers will not experience persecution, sorrow, pain, suffering, and the tribulation of this sinful world.
Never is the rapture of the church to be misconstrued as a promise that believers will escape all suffering on this earth; that is a false doctrine and a lie.
Jesus taught us:
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
The Lord, Himself, will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with voice of archangel, and with the rapture trumpet of God! Are you ready? If you believe and know Jesus, then you are ready.
II. The COMFORT of the Rapture - 16-18
1. The Dead in Christ “will rise first” - 16
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.
When our Lord comes in glorious angelic escort, there is going to be a resurrection of the dead.
All who are dead in Christ, “will rise first.”
Remember: “We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep...” - 1 Thess. 4:15
All N.T. believers in Jesus who are asleep in Christ, will be resurrected from the dead “first.”
2. Living Believers are “caught up” snatched, seized -17
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.
Once the dead in Christ are resurrected, “we who are alive and remain shall be caught up....”
Flesh and blood, living believers will not be resurrected from the dead; they will be “changed” and “caught up” because they will not be dead but “alive.”
SLIDE: Notes on “Caught up”
•The New Testament was written in the common Greek language
•The Greek word harpazo was translated to our English words “caught up.”
•Harpazo - ar-paz-oh - “to grab or seize suddenly so as to remove or gain control, snatch away, take away in such a way that no resistance is offered. It generally meant robbery of another person’s property though not always. It also denoted an open act of violence in contrast to cunning and secret stealing. - Logos Lexicons.
SLIDE: How do we get the word “rapture” from this text? That is a very good question.
To understand how we got the word “rapture”, we have to go back to the Latin translation of the Bible.
The Latin vulgate is the Latin translation of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.
The Latin translation was completed in A.D. 404 taking the Christian scholar, Jerome, nearly 22 years to complete.
SLIDE: The Latin Vulgate transliterates the Greek word harpazo (ar-paz-oh) to this Latin word “rapiemur.”
SLIDE: “Rapiemur” means “drag off, snatch, seize, carry off...” - DFL, Logos.
SLIDE: Among the Latin root forms of rapiemur is the root raptus
SLIDE: From the Latin word raptus, we get our English word “rapture.”
SLIDE: Review
SLIDE Photo: In Olympic weight training, there is a power lift called “snatches.” Snatches are when an athlete seeks to move weight from the floor to above his head in a very quick, rapid, and forceful movement. At the right moment in history, Jesus Christ is going to “snatch” the living believers right off the floor of the earth to the air in heaven!
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
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.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
All who have died in Christ will be “resurrected” at the Rapture of the church; at this time, they will be given their new, perfect, sinless, and eternal body, and we who do not sleep “shall be changed… in the twinkling of an eye.”
3. Living believers will caught up “together with them in the clouds” - 1 Thess. 4:17.
Both dead and living believers will be “caught up together in the clouds.” One second we’re on earth separated from our deceased, believing loved ones and the next twinkling of the eye we are transformed into our incorruptible bodies meeting our loved ones who loved Jesus in the clouds!
4. We caught up together in the clouds “to meet the LORD in the air” - 1 Thess. 4:17.
Satan, who is “the prince and the power of the air,” is going to see the beginning of the end - Eph. 2:2. Satan will be reminded of his pending doom when he see the victory celebration of the Christ with His bride at their glorious gathering in the air.
Where is the Lord Jesus going to meet His beautiful, redeemed bride - His church? He will meet all of us in the “air!”
“Air” - Eph. 2:2, “air” is aer, eye-air, - the same as in our verse. It is the “atmosphere immediately above the earth’s surface - BDAG.
We will meet the Lord in the air.
5. “and thus, we shall always be with the Lord - 1 Thess. 4:17.
We will never be separated from the Lord Jesus Christ; we will always be with Him and follow Him wherever He goes for all eternity! I can’t wait to be with the Lord, Jesus.
6. We are to “comfort one another with these words” - 1 Thess. 4:18
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
“Comfort” parakaleo, para-kuh-lay-oh, - to instill someone with courage or cheer, comfort, encourage, cheer up - BDAG.
God wants all of us to cheer each other up with these hope filled rapture “words” without apology or shame.
Believing in this biblical doctrine of the rapture of the church is designed by the Holy Spirit to comfort, encourage, and cheer up the body of Christ.
May all believers be obedient!
Here is what you need to do to receive eternal life and become a participant in the future rapture of the Church
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
May you know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him.