God the Son His Coming For His Saints

It just seems like we started this class the other day, doesn't it? And we're already 12 weeks into it, and we're going to be looking at God the Son and His coming for His saints. And I might say this, that one of the most confusing, I don't want to say confusing, doctrines that are contemplated or argued today is this right here, Jesus Christ coming for his saints and Jesus Christ coming with his saints, and the distinction between the two. And there are theologians that are all over the place with respect to this teaching. So in terms of an overview, here's what we're looking at. We've covered his Incarnation, his Ascension, his priestly ministry, and here we are in the Church Age, Church Age starting at Pentecost, which is ten days after his Ascension, and the Church Age ending at the Rapture, or his coming for his saints. So that's what we're going to be looking at today, his coming for his saints. Now, the word coming, Jesus Christ's coming, is used, the particular Greek word, parousia, is used for his coming for his saints and his coming with his saints. So the same Greek word is used.

However, we need to distinguish between these two comings. A lot of people want to put these two comings as one single coming, as one event, but they're actually two. And hopefully we'll see that this morning. At least we'll see some distinctions between here. Roger's going to be coming more next week when he talks about his coming with the saints. But we're going to take a look at this morning, this coming for saints, we normally call the rapture of the church. We'll look at what does rapture really mean. The way we'll approach it is this.

Whether I can get through these five points or not will be questionable. But we're going to be asking the question, well, what is the rapture? If somebody asks you a question about the rapture of the church, what does it mean? So let me ask you, if somebody asked you the question, what's the rapture, how would you describe the rapture to them?

Twinkling of an eye. Fast. So what happens? What happens in a twinkling of an eye? Fast. He doesn't come back to earth. Okay. So he doesn't come back to earth. Where does he come? In the clouds. In the clouds. Okay. He descends into the clouds. Okay, the dead rise first, and then we who are alive. Okay. Alright, good.

Now, does the rapture refer to the dead rising in Christ? Or just to the believers who are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye? Some say yes, some say no. I would say just the ones that are alive, because the word rapture is like joy. So the dead are already with them.

So they already are joyful. Okay. Alright, good. Now what we'll do is, let's take a look at the key passage. In fact, we should look at two key passages concerning what we nominally call the rapture of the church. And maybe, and we're going to see, maybe a better title for it is His coming for His saints. And we'll see why in a minute.

So turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and we're going to be reading verse 13 down through 18. Verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. When it's talking about those who are asleep, who is it talking about? Those who have died in Christ. Very good. Verse 14, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus, and there's the answer, those who sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep, shall not precede them who are in Christ and who have physically died. Verse 16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord."

Now notice in verse 17, there are those who are alive, and those who are alive are those in Christ. And that it may be tonight. He may come. He may come tonight. So those of us who are alive are not going to precede those who are dead, but we're going to meet the Lord in the air. And then verse 18, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

So as we go through this passage, and also 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in verse 51 and 52, we're going to look at what is the rapture, the timing of the rapture, when does it happen, how does it relate to God's total plan, and we're going to take a look at some of the differences between the rapture and the second coming, because there is a distinction.

And then, what's the purpose of the rapture? And then finally, the effects of the rapture. I've got a definition here which I put together in terms of going through these passages. The rapture is the catching away of the church, those who are living from the earth to meet the Lord in the air when he comes for the church. those who also are asleep, those who are resurrected. So usually, if we define the terminology in verse 17 in terms of the catching up, it's talking about the catching away or the rapture of those who are living.

And this was a mystery. This was never revealed before. Those who are asleep, in terms of the resurrection, was that a mystery? Was that revealed before? Sure. That is an Old Testament doctrine in terms of the resurrection. So the resurrection had been revealed, but what had never been revealed is that those who are alive that when Christ returns that those who are alive would be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. So let's take a look at that. Turn to 1 Corinthians. Turn back to 1 Corinthians. Keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians and just turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And look at verse 51. And here's what Paul writes. Behold, I show you a mystery. Help me. Mystery. What does mystery mean? Something that hasn't been revealed before. And it says this. Here's the mystery.

We shall not all sleep. Okay? We, talking about believers now, And so 1 Thessalonians is talking about those who are asleep and those who are alive. It says, we shall not all sleep. We shall not all die physically. But we shall all be changed. We are going to be changed.

How? when, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. And that word for moment is the smallest. It's the word where we get our word Adam from. It's the smallest indivisible thing there is. So Scripture is trying to say, you know, in a moment. It's the smallest, teeniest amount of time there is. Now someone's going to say, well, hold it. An atom is divisible. Yeah, we can split an atom. But the thing is, you don't have an atom anymore. So anyhow, it's talking about the smallest amount of time.

In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. So here Paul talks about the two things, those who are dead are going to be resurrected and those who are alive are going to be changed. Okay, let's think about this for a moment.

In terms of prior to the rapture, Prior to this point in time, or Christ coming for his saints, you've got the church age and you've got believers, you've got saints, those who are in Christ. Some have died physically, they're absent from the body, but they're present with the Lord. So their body has been put in the ground and their soul and spirit is with the Lord. then you have those who are alive here on earth. And that's what you have just prior to his coming. When he comes, when he descends in the clouds, there's going to be that trump. And the dead in Christ, those who are asleep, and the word sleep is a very soft term for the word death. And those who are asleep, are going to be resurrected, and resurrected to meet the Lord in the air. However, it says, those who are alive will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and they shall also meet the Lord in the air, but they're not going to precede those who were dead to meet the Lord. Question.

Those who are dead in Christ and are resurrected, what kind of body are they going to have? Anybody remember what 1 Corinthians tells us about the resurrected body? What's it like? It's a glorified body. It's a glorious body. What else? It's sown in corruption but raised in incorruption. It's incorruptible. How about the body of those who are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye? What kind of body are they going to have? Same. Except they're not going to go through physical death.

And then so many times people will quote Hebrews. said, well, hold it, it is appointed unto man once to die, right? And after that judgment, what happens? Are we violating that scriptural, it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that? How do we resolve those two? That passage in Hebrews, in terms of It's a point that the man wants to die.

It's just a general principle. It's a general principle as time goes on. However, it isn't a principle that applies to the rapture. When the Lord comes and takes us, if we're alive, it's just a general principle. Okay, okay. Has God violated that principle? I don't want to use the word violated, but has God, has that principle applied for all time except for here at the rapture? Was there anybody else in history that didn't die physically? Enoch and Elijah, right? I mean, they were caught up. They didn't die physically.

Right. So so that passage in Hebrews is just a general it's just a general principle. OK. I don't know if you can see this, so therefore I don't know if I want to go through every aspect of this of this chart. I just want to cover this, though. There is a view out there by theologians. It's called the partial rapture position, and it's an incorrect position. But this is what it says.

It says, not all believers will be raptured. So when Christ comes and descends into the clouds and there's that trump, these theologians say, not all believers are going to be changed in a moment and twinkle an eye and meet the Lord in the air. Only those who are watching and waiting, because there are passages in scripture that admonish us to watch and to wait for the coming of the Lord, for that glorious hope that we have. And they say, if you're not watching, and you're not waiting, then you're going to miss the bus. So what they add to this is that there's some degree of spiritual worthiness that you have to reach and you have to be watching and waiting. Let me ask you a question about being worthy, worthiness.

What does the Lord tell us about our worth, whether we're watching or waiting or not watching or waiting? Based upon our merits, right? Pardon me? Based upon our merits, our good work? That's what they're saying. There's some merit involved, spiritual merit. Are these groups of people saying you can lose your salvation? No. All they're saying is that they're believers in Christ, but because they're not watching and waiting, and because they haven't reached some degree of spiritual worthiness, whatever that is, undefined, that instead of being caught up to meet with the Lord in here, they're going to go through the tribulation period.

Okay, so that's the position out there. totally incorrect, because every one of us in Christ is worthy. I mean, we're in Christ. We are in that inseparable union with Christ. So if he returns for his saints, we are all saints. Whatever degree of spirituality we have, it doesn't matter, because we're all in Christ. We're all saints. timing of the rapture. Let's look at that.

And here's the thing. As I said, this is the most controversial topic or even disagreement among Bible scholars. And there are There used to be three views. There are four views now because Marv Rosenthal just wrote a new book, The Pre-Wrath Rapture.

So when I'm putting this in terms of time, there's one view that says that the rapture is going to occur prior to the tribulation, pre-tribulation. The other says that the believers in Christ are going to go through half the tribulation and then God's going to take them out. The Lord will return, take them out. at the middle of the tribulation. In Marv Rosenthal's book, if you go through that and you look at the timing and understand what he means by pre-wrath, he defines the wrath of God occurring, the most intense wrath of God occurring about three quarters into the tribulation. So where this is pre-trib, this is mid-trib, this is three-quarter-trib.

You can look at it that way. And then there are those who believe that the leaders are going to go through the entire tribulation, and then the Lord's going to take them out. Okay, so which is it? This is really critical to know and to understand. Because, let me give you the bottom line.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 ends with a wonderful admonition. It says, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. If we have to go through any part of the tribulation, that ain't comfort. That is not comfort. Now, we need to understand why did Paul write what he wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4? Why did he write it at all? And the reason why he wrote it is the Thessalonian believers, someone came along and taught them that believers who have died are not going to experience the wonderful time when the Lord returns for His saints, only those who are alive are going to be with Him, and not those who were asleep. And they're not going to experience that. And Paul is trying to correct that incorrect teaching that someone came along and taught them.

Okay. Here's what we believe, that the pre-tribulation view is the biblical view. And the question is, why? And here's the reasons. Look at verse, back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And look at verse 17. It says this, 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 so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Now, look at that verse and make an observation. Who's writing it? Who's writing this passage? Who has the Lord taken to use to write this passage? Paul. Okay. Is Paul alive when he's writing this? Yeah? Hopefully? Okay. When it uses that little pronoun, we, who does that include? All believers. Who else does it include? If I used the pronoun, we all, am I including myself? But if I say you, you all, I'm not including myself. But it says we, right? It includes Paul.

So what was Paul's frame of reference with respect to the rapture? could be any time in his lifetime, and he would be included. We all will be chained and caught up. So he expected the imminent return of Christ. It could have happened, and he was expecting it. That was his expectation. So it could have happened at any time.

So what that says is, I want you to look at, keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and just turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And I want to show you the concern that these believers had. Look at chapter 2 and verse 1. It says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our, Paul is including himself, by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind."

That you're not shook up and agitated and all rattled in your mind. And these believers were shook up and rattled in their mind, and they were being, and it's interesting, the word here used in Greek, is the word of a ship which is tied to its moorings and then it comes loose and it starts floating away from its moorings, the word shaken, that there's waves that are coming and shaking that ship and loosening from its moorings. And so these believers were taught and someone's come along and rattled them and shook them all up and they were being loosed away from the moorings that they had in the Word. So that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, that is, nor by letter, somebody tells you something or somebody writes you something, as that the day of the Lord is present. Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come except there be the falling away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." Okay, what does all that mean?

So, Paul is talking about our gathering together unto him. These believers thought that that already happened, and they were left out. They thought the Day of the Lord happened and they missed the bus. So what we find here is this, is that the rapture initiates the Day of the Lord. You see how Paul ties our gathering together unto him with the Day of the Lord.

He ties them both together. So now the question is, what's the Day of the Lord? We need to understand what the Day of the Lord is. So he ties them both together, and so I believe that scripture is teaching this, that the gathering together unto him, the rapture, and the Day of the Lord, the start of the Day of the Lord are synonymous. They occur at the same time. So the question is, what is the Day of the Lord? Somebody in the street comes up to you and says, okay, what's the Day of the Lord? They've just been reading this passage of Scripture. What's the Day of the Lord? I'm going to summarize it.

If you go through all of the Old Testament prophets. And much more is written about the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament than the New Testament. But if you go through the Old Testament with respect to the Day of the Lord, and as you're reading these prophets, it's talking about the Day of the Lord being gloom and doom and wrath being poured out, etc. And then you read over another passage It talks about the day of the Lord and it's talking about a day of blessing and dry land or desert land being made into groves of trees and things are blooming and little children are walking around. putting their hands in a snake's nest, and they're dwelling with tigers and lions, etc., you find that that's also the Day of the Lord. So, as you go through Scripture, the Day of the Lord is all-inclusive.

It includes the time of wrath, which is the Tribulation period, Daniel's 70th week, and it also includes the kingdom period, the thousand years that Christ will rule and reign on earth, where all of those blessings will occur. And there will be plenty, and there will be no more famine, etc. etc. So Paul is saying this in 2 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 2, that the rapture comes first, then the day of the Lord. The falling away, the apostia, notice, back to 2 Thessalonians, notice that he says, let no man deceive you, in verse 3, that the day of the Lord shall not come except the falling away first.

I want to cover that up for a minute. When you think of the falling away, what do you think of in times? Departing from the faith. Right? That there will be this great departure from the faith. Okay. Now here's the question. Does this mean, when it says, except the falling away, the apostia occur first, the Day of the Lord isn't going to happen, unless, until the apostia, the falling away first. Now, if we interpret the falling away as the departure from the faith, that there's going to be a departure from the faith, What have we just done? We just said before that the rapture is, what, imminent?

There is no prophetic events that need to occur between now and the rapture. Not one. Paul, in his lifetime, expected the Lord to return. There was no prophetic event. It could have happened after he had penned the letter. So there couldn't have been any prophetic events like the falling away from the faith first. Do you see where I'm going? Or we're saying this, that the rapture can't occur until there's this falling away, this departure from the faith. Right? Can't say that. Okay. So, if we correlate Scripture with Scripture. So here's the point.

Now the question is, well, what does this falling away mean? And the word apostia means falling away or departure. And it's the falling away from something and the departure from something. Something is departing. Something is falling away. So the question is what? Is it believers falling away from the faith? No, it can't be, because then we're setting a precondition on the rapture, right? I believe what Paul is talking about is what he's talking about in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13-18. That the falling away, or the departure, is the departure of the saints, of those who are alive. They're departing from the earth.

Does that make sense? Do you see the connection there? So if they're not there to be deceived, who are you talking to? He's talking to these Thessalonian believers who someone has come along either by word or by letter and has convinced them that the day of the Lord has already occurred.

And they missed the boat. And they're sorrowful. And I think what Paul is saying is, let no man deceive you What has to happen first, the departure has to occur first. And he's telling them, you are not in the day of the Lord. Does that help? Yeah, it does. It just seems like if they weren't there, then they wouldn't be deceived. Do you understand what I'm saying?

It seems like by the very fact that he's giving them an event or some sort of life, or some sort of event that occurs, for them not to know that they'd missed it. Why would he even give them up? Because they wouldn't be there, right? If they were truly believers, they wouldn't be there. Right. Because in their frame of reference, they believed that they will have to go through the tribulation period. Right?

And he's saying, no, you are not going through you are not going through the tribulation period. See, they thought they were then in the tribulation period, but they missed the bus. And so therefore, they're going to go through this tribulation period. But just to show you that, look down Go back to 1 Thessalonians 5 because he answers the question here in verse 9. He says this, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to attain salvation by the Lord. So the tribulation period is a time of wrath. And he already told these believers that they're not appointed to wrath, to tribulation. He had to write second Thessalonians because someone came along and said, oh yes you are. You're going to go through the tribulation period.

So, let's go back to our picture. Now, since there are so many controversies among Bible scholars, I don't know where everybody is in this room concerning the rapture and when and the timing of it. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask here.

So you understand what it's saying so far in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Why can I say that? That what Paul is saying is that is that the falling away has to occur first, the departure, and I think he's talking about the departure of the saints, has to happen first, and then the day of the Lord.

Okay? That's what he's saying. So this is how we can set our timing, if you will, or understand God's timing, is that the believers are going to be taken out before the Day of the Lord, and the Day of the Lord consists of these two events, the seven-year tribulation period and the thousand-year millennial reign of the Lord on earth. Okay? That's key.

If anybody asks you about timing, you can go to these passages of scripture and get the timing. I've given you the definition of the Day of the Lord. Now the thing is this. I did not put in all the scripture references, but if you just read through some of the Old Testament prophets, you can understand the Day of the Lord. I had to summarize it. But the other thing is this, that it talks about the Day of the Lord. So let's turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We were just there. And look at verse 1. But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Okay? So how does a thief come? Unexpected. He doesn't call you up on the phone, doesn't send you an email saying, I'm coming. It's totally unexpected, right? So the Day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, unexpectedly. Isn't it interesting that the Day of the Lord isn't going to happen until the departure or the falling away comes first.

So unbelievers who remain here on earth after the rapture, if they were ever heard of the prophetic events, they should know that all these believers are missing. They're gone. And that's going to start this period of God's wrath, this seven-year tribulation period.

As we just talked about in verse 9, let me just read down through verse 9. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we're at verse 3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as prevail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like Matthew chapter 24, as you go into the beginning of Matthew chapter 24, this is the tribulation period.

But you brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Okay? You're not going to be part of that day. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not sons of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober-minded."

So here's one of the passages that we talked about before that some Bible scholars will use to say, if you're not watching, If you're not waiting, then you're going to go into that tribulation period. So they use this to say that not all believers are going to be raptured. This is the partial rapture position. Verse 7, For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunk, are drunk in the night.

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting in the breastplate of faith and love, and for helmet the hope of salvation." What hope of salvation is it talking about? Is that saying it's possible that we could lose our salvation? We have to have this hope of salvation. Salvation means what?

Deliverance. And so when we talk about deliverance, deliverance from what? From wrath. From God's wrath. We have that hope. And the word hope there, el piso, means that we have a fixed confidence, an absolute certainty Hope is not a wish that we're going to be delivered. It's not a wish. The word hope is very emphatic in the Greek, and it means it's an absolute certainty. It's an absolute certainty that you're not going to go through, that you're going to be delivered from this wrath.

Why? Why are believers going to be delivered from the wrath? Verse 9. for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He's appointed us to obtain deliverance from wrath through the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's another passage of scripture that teaches us why, in terms of the timing of the rapture, that it could never occur during the tribulation or after the tribulation? Because we're not appointed to wrath. Okay? Set? All right. We've got the timing down.

How about the rapture and the difference between the rapture and the second coming? What I did is just made a few comparisons from the passages that we went through and I added a few more. But Roger, next week, is going to give you a big list of differences or contrasts between the Rapture and the Second Coming. And the thing is, we have to fix in our mind that they are two different events. Because if you read about one and you read about the other, the more you read about each of those events, the more you see that they're miles apart in terms of that they're different events.

The rapture said Christ comes for his saints, and second coming Christ comes with his saints. And the key is the preposition. So over here, it's coming for the saints. Saints go from the earth to heaven. They either resurrected, meet Him in the air, or else they're changed in the moment and they meet the Lord in the air. As you read about the second coming, which Roger will cover next week, the saints go from heaven, where they are, to earth.

The rapture is the initiation, as we just saw, the start of the tribulation period, or God's wrath. In the second coming, we'll see that it is at the end of the tribulation period, or the end of God's wrath. With the rapture, the asleep church saints, those who are asleep in Christ, are resurrected. And at the second coming, the ones that are resurrected are Old Testament saints. Those are the ones that get resurrected here. With respect to the rapture, the alive church saints, those who are alive this coming, are raptured. They change in a moment, twinkling of an eye, and at the second coming, you can't find a passage that talks about any rapture or any translation or any change in believers who are alive on earth.

At the rapture, And after the rapture, there's unrighteousness. Before and after the rapture, there's unrighteousness on earth. Right after the second coming, it's a whole different scene. There's righteousness on earth, and God and the Lord Jesus Christ rules with the blood of iron, and there's righteousness on earth.

The rapture is imminent. It can occur at any moment. The second coming, There's many signs and events that precede the Second Coming. So there's a whole slug of them. What Verne has been going through in terms of all of the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments, All of those have to occur in sequence, so there's all of those events that have to occur.

There is no event that has to occur prior to the Rapture, not even the falling away of the Church in terms of falling into apostasy or unbelief. The Rapture was a mystery that believers would be changed. Never, ever revealed in the Old Testament. Why? because the Church was never revealed in the Old Testament. However, at the Second Coming, the Second Coming has been revealed in the Old Testament over and over again.

It talks about the Messiah returning. At the Rapture, it initiates the rewards to the church. And so then, as you go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, you find that whole passage of Scripture starting at about verse 8 through 15, where it talks about the believers are rewarded. And right after the rapture, it's a time of reward. With respect to the second coming, it initiates judgment to the world. Because when Christ descends, he divides the whole world up into three groups of people. Those on his right, the sheep. Those on his left, the goats. And those before him, which he calls these my brethren, who are the Jews. After the rapture, Satan remains active. He's still alive and well. And after the second coming, Satan is bound, it says, 4,000 years. So nobody who's living on Earth during the Millennial Kingdom can ever say, Satan made me do it.

It's a great comfort. That's a great comfort and a great hope that we have in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to return for us because he made a promise in John chapter 14 that he's going to prepare a place for us. And if he prepares a place for us, he's going to come again to receive us. to where he is so that we can be with him. Isn't that wonderful? And it's imminent. It could happen tonight.

Let's pray. Father, we are thankful. Just thankful for your word in terms of the truth that you have given to us. And Father, our prayer is your desire, is that your desire would be fulfilled in our lives, that we would walk by simple faith and trust in what you have revealed to us, and that our hearts might praise and honor and glorify you and the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray.