The rapture is presented as the catching up of the church at Christ's imminent return. The sermon builds the doctrine from 1 Thessalonians, John 14, Acts 1, and 1 Corinthians 15 by tracing Christ's departure, His promise to receive His people, the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the transformation of living believers. This hope is treated as both a future certainty and a present motive for holy living. The message closes by emphasizing that the expectation of Christ's coming should purify daily life and keep believers watching for Him.
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Turn with me please to First Thessalonians chapter one. And the last two verses in the chapter, First Thessalonians one, verses nine and ten. First Thessalonians one, verses nine and ten. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Here's a beautiful definition of conversion. The person who is converted turns to God from something else, from idols, literal idols, or whatever was the idols of your life or my life before. He turns to someone from something, and it has two results. To serve the living God and to wait for his Son. To serve and to wait. Two aspects of what happens. when conversion takes place. And perhaps this little passage could be a sort of a topic sentence for our meeting this morning, where Brother Milo has ministered very capably on serving, going back to Nehemiah and the man who sets before us a great example of work, work for the Lord, serving the Lord, serving the living and true God.
And I want to speak this morning. Not about waiting, but about that which we wait for, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to talk about the rapture, the catching up of the church. And I'm going to use a little different approach this morning than I usually use when I speak about prophetic subjects. I'm going to make an assumption. I'm going to speak as if As if we knew nothing about it. As if this was a totally new subject that you'd never heard of before. Now I know that's not true, of course. I know that you know a great deal about it, about the rapture of the church.
And yet there are times when we need to go right back to ground zero and build a doctrine from scratch. Start out in the scripture. as if we knew nothing at all and just start with the scripture passages and see what's taught and develop the doctrine. And this can have an advantage when it comes to teaching somebody else who doesn't know anything about the subject. And while I talk to you and you know a great deal about it, you will have opportunity from time to time to teach the truth of the return of Christ to people who have never heard of it, know nothing about it. Church people, religious people, all around us who have never been taught anything about the subject of the coming of the Lord to catch up his church.
And I'd like to suggest to you that in this study that you, if nothing else, you write down the passages that I'm going to use. I'm going to take them in a rather logical order, sort of a building order. And I'm going to note from one passage to the next, what simple ideas are repeated and what ideas are brought in new as the truth is developed. If you have a piece of paper and you have a little room, not only write down the passage, but make sort of two columns, a column for a repeated idea and then a column for the new aspect of the truth that's brought in.
And you may find it very helpful to go back then and study these passages on your own. Even more helpful probably is to teach the truth to somebody else. You can sit through a message or a Bible study and you can say, fine, I understand that, I learned that, I know that. And then you go home and your next door neighbor comes in and you say, I'm going to explain this out to this person, I'm going to teach them. And the minute you start explaining it, you... Well, now, wait a minute. Now, what was this point? Now, I've forgotten that. And you realize you didn't grasp it nearly as well as you thought. There's no better way I know of than learning something than to teach it.
The minute you try to teach it, you discover what you didn't know, and then you really learn it. So to a Sunday school class. to a group of children, to a group of neighbors, to some women who come in to visit you, to some men where you work. You can take and give a little teaching along a subject like this and really begin to learn it yourself. And having these passages in some sort of a logical order is the key to teaching. Now, the first two or three are not exactly related to the rapture. They're going to lead up to the subject. Matthew, Matthew chapter sixteen in verse twenty one. Now this takes place immediately after Simon Peter's great confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And the Lord Jesus then had said, On this rock I will build my church, first announcement of the coming church that he was going to build. And then in verse twenty one, he says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. From that time forth began Jesus. This is two years into his ministry. He is in the third year of his three years of ministry.
Before he tells his disciples that he's going to die. He had been offering the kingdom, so to speak. The message had been going out. He had been increasingly rejected. And now he begins to prepare them for what they were not expecting he was going to die. Look at it here in verse twenty one. He was going to suffer. He was going to be killed. He was going to be raised again. Three things. He was going to suffer. He was going to die. He would be raised. Now go on to John chapter thirteen. And here we are a year later now. Almost a year later. We've come to the end of that third year of his ministry.
In John chapter thirteen we have the Lord gathering with his disciples. on the night of the Passover meal, the evening before His crucifixion. He will be awake all night, part of it praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, part of it standing trial, and in the morning, early in the morning, nine o'clock in the morning, he'll be nailed to a cross. He is coming right up to the point of dying. He has told them already he's going to die and rise, but he has more to tell them. In verse twenty-six of the chapter, he sends Judas Iscariot out.
He gives him the stop. And then in verse twenty-seven, he says, That thou doest do quickly. Rather interesting here, the Lord Jesus is in charge of the situation. He is not the victim of circumstances. He is not going to be arrested and going to be put on the cross and everything is beyond his control. This is what is going to happen. He's going to be arrested and die, but he is still in charge. And he gives Judas the thought and he says, all right, now is the time to do what you're going to do. I'm still in charge here, Judas. Go ahead and do what you plan to do. But I'll tell you when to do it. Do it now. And he sends him out. And now because the cross is so eminent, so close, he goes on with his disciples one more step.
He's going to tell them something that he didn't tell them before. He just told them he was going to die and rise. Go down to verse thirty-three. Judas is gone now. The machinery of the wheels of the coming crucifixion have been put into motion by the Lord Jesus himself. And he says in verse thirty-three, Little children, yet a little while I am with you, ye shall seek me. And as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come, so now I say to you, whither I go, he's beginning to tell them now that he's going away. He's going to die. He's going to rise. He said that before, but now he's going to go away. He's going to leave them. And because he's going to leave them, he gives them a new commandment in verse thirty four, the new commandment that they love one another.
In other words, it's like a father dying, you see, and he's approaching these disciples as little children here. Little children, he says, he's like a father on his deathbed, gathering his family around him and saying, I'm going to leave you now. and I want you to stand together. I want you brothers and sisters to join together and be united together because I'm going to be away from you now and you'll have to be joined in love. You'll have to have this family relationship stronger than ever before. See the connection between verse thirty-four and verse thirty-three? I'm going away. Love one another. And then in verse thirty-six, Peter says to him, Peter says, where are you going?
Whither goest thou? And Jesus answered him, Whether I go, you canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Now here again is something new. I'm going away and you are going to follow me. Later on, you are going to come on the same journey. You are also going to come where I'm going to go. Peter in verse thirty seven says, why can't I follow you now? Why do I have to wait till later? Why can't I follow you now? And this question brings on the very famous verses in John fourteen, the first three verses of the chapter.
This is why they couldn't follow him then. Verse two. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. Now here's our first passage having to do with the rapture. This is the first time it's mentioned in the Bible. This is the first occurrence of of the specific promise of the Lord Jesus to come back in this aspect of his second coming.
This is a new idea to these disciples that he was going to come to take them to a place somewhere else. All through the Old Testament you have indications of the return of Christ to rule on the earth. And even in the gospel, you have the prophetic passages about the second coming of Christ coming back to the earth to establish his kingdom and to rule on the earth. But here is something new, something different, something not taught before. The Lord Jesus is going to come and take his disciples up there, where he is going. He has gone to prepare a place.
and they can't follow him now, but he will come again and take them to that place. Now we've had basically three new things. In Matthew, sixteen, twenty-one, the promise or the forecast that he would die and rise. And then in John chapter thirteen, the statement that he was going to go away, the ascension. And now in John fourteen, the indication that he would come back to take the disciples to the place where he was going. This then becomes a very important passage because it introduces the subject of the rapture of the church. I will come again, notice that in verse three, and receive you unto myself.
Now we'll go on to John chapter twenty-one. John twenty-one verses twenty-one and twenty-two the Lord has just told Peter that he's going to die for his faith and Peter looks down the beach that they've been walking along and he sees John following and Peter turns to the Lord Jesus and says, Lord, and what shall this man do? You've told me about my future. Now tell me about his future. Verse twenty-two, Jesus says unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
Follow thou me. If it's my desire that John stays alive till I come back, what business is it of yours? You just go on and follow me and serve me. Now that's what the Lord said. Now John, the writer of the book, speaking about himself here and this incident, he says the saying then, verse twenty three, the saying went abroad among the brethren that John wasn't going to die, that he would live until the return of Christ. John was still alive you see and evidently that saying was still abroad there was a story around all over among the Christians that Jesus had said that John was going to live till Christ came and they were looking for his coming you know but John says now he didn't say that he just said if if I will let he tarry till I come what is that to be John's quite specific as he writes the book.
He says, now the Lord didn't say that he'd come back in my lifetime. He just opened the possibility of it. This is interesting. This is very important. It's the Lord Jesus himself who opened up the possibility of his return within the lifetime of John. And if within the lifetime of John, then what about within the lifetime of you and I? Now this is what we call the imminent return of Christ. This is the doctrine that Jesus Christ may come back at any moment. He could come today while these meetings are in progress. He could come tonight. He could come tomorrow. He might not come for a hundred years, but he could come today.
And it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself who sets this expectation before his disciples. And when folks come along with teachings that deny the imminent return of Christ, bear in mind that it was the Lord Himself who set that thing before the disciples. He might come at any time. Now, the book of Acts, chapter one, verses nine to eleven. We're not really dealing with the rapture in these passages. We're dealing with the coming of Christ that will bring about the rapture. The rapture is the catching up of the church.
Acts chapter one, verses nine to eleven. And when he had spoken these things, that is the great commission that's in verse eight, when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Now notice the description of the ascension of Christ. It is probably rather important to the understanding of the rapture of the church they watched him go he was taken up they saw him ascend he did not ascend instantaneously he did not suddenly disappear he rose and they watched him rise and he ascended up into the clouds they followed him as he went up the way you and I might follow an airplane with our eyes taking off from an airport and climbing into the clouds They watched him rise.
We're not told how fast he went, whether slow or fast. We don't know. But we are told that they saw him go. And they saw him go into the cloud. And in verse ten, they were still looking up. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as he has seen him go into heaven here are two angels they stand beside these disciples and the disciples are just looking up at the clouds and and with amazement wondering what's happened they saw him go and then the angel say why do you stand gazing up into heaven that is now you've got to go back to Jerusalem you've got to work to do you've got to enter into your into your service but this same Jesus is going to come back again in like manner as he saw him go away.
Six words to emphasize here. This same Jesus and in like manner. This same Jesus, the return of the Lord Jesus, he's coming back in a physical body just as he went away. Never mind all these ideas of some sort of a spiritualized return of Christ. It's the same one who went away who's coming back. Handle me and see, said to Thomas, to the disciples. A spirit hath not flesh and bone as he see me have. To Thomas, he said, put your fingers in the holes in my hand and put your hand in the spear mark in my side. The Lord Jesus, who could take and eat fish in a honeycomb with his disciples, a real resurrection body.
Much greater, much superior to the body of the first birth, but nevertheless a physical body. The same Lord Jesus is coming back again. He could be seen with the eye, the physical eye, and in His return we'll see Him the same way. And then He's coming back in like manner. In like manner. There's a similarity about His return to His going away. Let us move on now to First Thessalonians chapter four. And the descriptive verses of the rapture here are verses sixteen and seventeen.
Verses sixteen and seventeen. For the Lord Himself, first Thessalonians four, verses sixteen and seventeen, for the Lord Himself, remember what we read before, this same Jesus, the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which 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. This is a very familiar passage to us, most of us, all of us perhaps, and yet to the average Protestant and Roman Catholic in our land today it is almost an utterly unknown passage.
The idea of the church being caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds is just about a complete unknown to most people around us. So let's make it known to them. Let's teach it. Let's study it ourselves, these two verses. Notice the elements that are being repeated here from what we had before. The Lord shall descend. We've had that. We've been told that in Acts. We've been told that in John fourteen. He's coming again, the return of Christ. Secondly... the idea of remaining unto his coming, we which are alive and remain. We have that in John twenty-one, the possibility of some being alive when he comes.
And then the third thing that's repeated here, the idea of being with the Lord. So shall we ever be with the Lord. We have that in John fourteen, that where I am, there you may be also. So much is repetition. But now there are at least three things here that are not repetition of what we've had before, but they are new elements added to the description. First, the more detailed description of His coming, specifically the three sounds that will occur. In verse sixteen, there will be a shout, there will be the voice of the archangel, And there'll be the trump of God, the trumpet sound, three sounds.
Now it's possible that these are only two sounds, that the shout is by the archangel and that these are not two different things. But I doubt it. I think probably these are three distinct things. The shout, meaning the shout of the Lord himself. Remember when he raised Lazarus in the grave? Lazarus, come forth. And I think there'll be the Lord himself calling, calling forth the believing dead out of the grave. And then beside that's the voice of the archangel. Now I may be wrong about that. It may be that these two are the same. But I would take it there are three different things here. The shout of the Lord, voice of the archangel, that would be Michael.
And then the trumpet sound. So there'll be three sounds in connection with his return. Secondly... the idea of being caught up the whole concept of a meeting in the air. Now, you wouldn't get that from John fourteen. John fourteen, the Lord says, I'll come again and receive you unto myself. I'm going to prepare a place. I'll come back and receive you. And you might just read that and say, well, that means you'll come all the way back here. And from there on, we'll go with him up to heaven. But here we discover that he's going to come not all of the way back but only part of the way and we're going to meet him I'm to go back to Prince Edward Island in October and my wife is coming to meet me and go back with me but she's going to meet me in Chicago and not here she's not coming all the way to Iowa she's going to meet me in Chicago I'm going to go to Chicago and meet her there and then together we're going to go back to to Prince Edward Island after a few days there Well, this is the idea here that is being introduced.
The Lord is coming back, but he's not coming all the way back. The meeting is going to be in the air. The meeting is going to be in the clouds. We'll be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So this is new to the description. The Lord hadn't said this in John fourteen. I might say here though that John fourteen is a very important passage to clarify one point about first Thessalonians four. here in first Thessalonians four if you take it by itself the the these two verses do not tell us what happens after the meeting in the air and some Christians believe that the church is going to be caught up and meet the Lord in the air and then come right back to the earth this is called the post tribulation rapture view that the church will go through the tribulation and then the Lord will come and the church will be caught up and meet him there and come right back to the earth and the Lord will rule on the earth And from this passage alone, you can't say that that's correct or incorrect.
It's John XIV that makes it clear that the purpose of the return of the Lord is to take the church to heaven. In my father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may be. So it's the combination of that passage with this passage. that makes it clear that when the Lord comes back, we're going to meet him in the clouds and then we're going on to heaven. We're not coming back to the earth here. Not at that time. Do you have the description that comes here? There's going to be a great shout. There's going to be a great trumpet call.
It's going to be the voice of the archangel. And the Lord Jesus is going to descend into the clouds. Clouds, that's another element that's repeated from Acts one. Remember, he went up into a cloud. He's going to descend into the clouds and we're going to be caught up now we haven't discussed here the words together with them in verse seventeen caught up together with them this is a new element introduced here this is the element of of the dead in christ also rising this hadn't been clarified before and apparently the Thessalonians were quite troubled because some of their number had died And the Apostle Paul is writing to explain to them they don't need to worry just because some of the believers have died.
Those believers have not missed the rapture. They will rise. In fact, they will rise first at the end of verse sixteen. The dead will come out of the graves. These are the believing dead, the Christians, will come out of the graves first before anything happens to us. Then we are going to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now these are the new elements here then. The further description of His Coming, three sounds, the idea of being caught up, the meeting in the air, and the idea that the dead Christians will also be included with the living Christians. Now before I go on to the next passage, I want to define this word rapture because it's not a Bible word.
It's a Latin word. It comes from a Latin word, the Latin word. participal raptus, R-A-P-T-U-S. And it means in Latin to carry off, to seize, to transport from one place to another. And the English word rapture, R-A-P-T-U-R-E, that's derived from this, has a basic meaning of transporting a people from one place to another, to define it from the Random House Dictionary. the carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence, transporting.
That's the primary meaning. Now, out of that comes a sort of a secondary meaning, the ecstatic type of thing, the emotional, the overpowering emotional feeling that sort of transports you into a realm of joy or happiness, not physically transported but emotionally transported. into another sphere. And this is the way the word is commonly used. You know, the girl has got a new diamond ring on her finger and her heart is filled with rapture. She has just got all, she's got a, look at that diamond ring, she's showing it to all her friends, you know, and that type of thing. We had it in one of our hymns this morning.
Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight. The meaning sort of a perfect happiness. Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face what will it be, when with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ, who died for me." Now that's the way the word is used commonly today. And the original meaning, the idea of a transporting of a people from one place to another, has pretty well dropped out of common usage. And you go and talk to an unsaved person about the rapture of the church, he wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about. You're using terminology that's unknown to him.
And so it's better to talk to people who are not familiar with this terminology about the taking away of the church, the catching up of the church, the removal of the church from this scene, from this earth scene. That's the doctrine. The word's not important because it's not a Bible word anyway. It's a theological word that's been applied to this teaching. of the church being caught up. Here it is in verse seventeen. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up. Now that's the rapture, the catching up of the church to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us go to First Corinthians chapter fifteen. First Corinthians fifteen. Now I just have a few minutes left and I want to go rather quickly over two or three more passages and then conclude.
First Corinthians fifty in the end of the chapter verses fifty one and fifty two. Behold, I show you a mystery. A mystery is something that was hidden in the Old Testament, now being revealed, a secret now being made known. I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now notice the elements here that are repeated from First Thessalonians four.
We shall not all sleep. Some will be alive. It is coming. Some will have died. We've had that before. Some will remain alive, will not all sleep. Second, the idea of a trumpet. Here it is again repeated second time. The trumpet will sound. But there are two new elements here. First, the change. We are going to be changed. We are going to be transformed. Rather obvious, of course, that the dead will be changed. When you raise a dead person from the grave, you've got to make a change in the condition of his body. It may have decayed away to ashes. And obviously, in the resurrection, his body has got to be changed.
But the new truth here is that we shall all be changed. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. You and I who are alive, if Jesus Christ comes today, we are going to be changed. Our bodies are going to be suddenly transformed into resurrection bodies. Without going through death, without passing through the stage of death and decay, we're going to have resurrection bodies. And this is a new element brought in here. The change in the believer's body. And then the second element here is this little phrase, in the twinkling of an eye. this idea of instantaneous change. This change will take place instantaneously.
Now notice carefully how this expression in the twinkling of an eye is used. It's not talking about the rapture, the catching up. It's talking about the change that will take place. We shall be instantly changed. It does not say we shall be instantly caught up. A couple days ago I picked up a book. And on the cover of the book was a little description of the story that was inside and it said, millions of Christians shall suddenly disappear, instantly disappear, something like that. Now, that may be true or it may not be true. I rather think that that idea has become very widespread because of the phrase here in the twinkling of an eye.
But notice carefully that what happens instantaneously is the change in the believers. Now, will we be suddenly, if the Lord came right now, would most of these seats be empty all of a sudden, just instantaneous disappearance? Or will the Christians rise as the Lord Jesus rose slowly so that people could see us going? Will actually rise up and disappear in the clouds? Will it happen that way? Well, I don't know. I don't want to be dogmatic about it. I don't think the Bible says, if anything, the implications are from the from the ascension of the Lord Jesus that the rise will not be instantaneous but will be rather slow and perhaps visible.
That it may be that people will see us going. You've often heard the rapture spoken of as a secret rapture. But I would sort of challenge you to just search the scripture and see if that's the case. Does the Bible really teach that the rapture is a secret? That other people are not going to know about it? Well, we have one aspect in which it's secret, in the sense that the unbelievers did not see the Lord Jesus after his resurrection. And I think we could probably say that the unbelievers will not see the Lord Jesus coming in the cloud. But whether they'll see us go or not is another question. What is going to happen instantaneously is the change in the believer.
We're going to be instantly changed in the twinkling of an eye. Now Philippians three, verse twenty and twenty one. Philippians chapter three. Verses twenty and twenty one. For our conversation, our manner of life is in heaven. We live in a heavenly sphere. Philippians three, verse twenty, for our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
Now here again we have the change. That's the repeated element. And then there's the new element. In this change, we are going to be made like Him. Our bodies are going to be made like His resurrection body. First John chapter three. First John chapter three. Verses two and three. Now again, there'll be a repeated element and there'll be a new element.
First John three, verse two, Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, that's a repeated element, we shall be like him. That's repeated from Philippians three. We're going to be like him. The change is going to make us like him. For we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Here's the new element. This is a purifying expectation. If I am looking forward to being made like Christ at the rapture of the church, then I'm going to take some steps in that direction right now.
If I am longing for the day when I'm going to be made like Him, pure and holy, then I am going to right now try to purify my own life by putting away things that are not pleasing to God. I'm going to purify myself. Of course, I can't do that perfectly, like it will be done then. But if I'm expecting to be made like Him, And then I don't want things in my life now that are not pleasing to him. How about you? Is this a purifying hope? Does the truth of the coming of Christ make a transforming difference in your daily life? And then finally the last passage, Titus II, just before the book of Hebrews, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, Titus II, verses thirteen and fourteen, perhaps verses twelve to fourteen.
But my time is gone, so I'll just read verse thirteen and fourteen. Titus two, thirteen and fourteen, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good work. We're to be looking for the coming of Christ. He gave himself on the cross to purify us, to redeem us, and to purify us. That's the repeated element here. And we're to be looking for that hope.
This is not exactly a new element because looking for him was mentioned back in Philippians and in some of the other passages too. We're to have our eyes on heaven. As we read in the opening passage, We're to be a people who turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. We're to be looking for the blessed hope. This afternoon I'd like to go on and talk about what happens after the rapture to those folks that are remaining on this earth and it will be a sort of a little scanning of the book of Revelation, a bird's eye view of the book of Revelation.
So we bow in prayer. Father, we thank thee for that purifying hope, expectation of the coming of our Lord Jesus. It's not a hope in the wish-for sense of the world. It's a certain positive hope because it's promised over and over again in the Word of God. We shall see him and we shall be like him. And Father, for this we praise and thank thee and glorify thy holy name. And we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.