Parks, Alan: Week Of Meetings 2003-10 ~ Rapture Of The Church

Thank you, lady and gentlemen, again. Good evening, everyone. And I just want to say what an absolute joy and a thrill it has been to be back. It's hard to believe it was six years since the last time, and the Lord be not come, I just have a sneaking hope that it's not six years until I get back again. It's been a real joy, and I thank you for all of the fellowship and for the hospitality, for the honor of the invitation of being at one of my favorite places to speak. For all of the kindnesses and the nice remarks that you have made in between meetings and fellowship and talking, and for meals in homes and for meals in the dining room for that rather lovely apartment this year. Uh, we miss Jean, but nonetheless, every speaker is the fortunate beneficiary, having received the apartment that she usually stays in, and it's just been a joy and a delight. We pray that the Lord's blessings will be upon all of you, uh, even as some of you return back to your homes, and for those of you who live here, we hope that the Lord will just be with you and until we meet again, which may be in a coming day. Pray for the, we do often, in fact, and we will continue to pray for the leadership here at the park, that things will go well and that you will continue to grow together and in grace, above all in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We love the Park of the Palms. Wish I was sixty two. I think I'd move here. And, uh, we pray for the Lord's blessings to be upon you. We're going to be looking tonight in First Thessalonians chapter four. and for those of you who are here this morning, that is exactly where I intend to read. I'm not looking to read in second Thessalonians or first Timothy. I understand this morning that I asked everybody to turn to Ephesians four, and I read from Galatians four. And you all are laughing at me. Just wait until you get my age, and then laugh. Aye, yi, yi, when I found out what I had done, well, it didn't take long. And I will not say who led the charge. But his wife's name is Jeanette. First Thessalonians chapter four and verse thirteen, But I would not have you to be untaught, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others, devoid of hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 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 those who are asleep. 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, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort, exhort, encourage, challenge one another with these words. There are certain times in life when you just kind of need to hear this again. People that do not know the Lord Jesus and people that don't know the promises of his word will more than likely ever read something like this and then say, oh, what a pipe dream. Do people actually believe that the heavens will open, and that accompanied with a huge cloud of saints of all of the age- ages, will come the Lord Jesus to somewhere in the upper reaches of our atmosphere, and bodies of those who died, and bodies of those presently alive, will arise and meet him in the air. Sounds a touch fanciful to some people, I'm sure. But we who know Christ know that this is no pipe dream. As surely as you sit and I stand here tonight, we are going to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. It is no wonder that the apostle could say, comfort one another with these words. When these words were written by the apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonica, approximately thirty to thirty five years, we believe, had passed since the death, burial, resurrection, and finally the ascension of the Lord Jesus back to glory. In that period of time, in this rather important outpost of the Roman Empire, thirty five years, thirty years even brings change. Those of you who are veterans here look back over the last ten years at the park, and you will know that some have died. Others have moved on, and they live elsewhere now. Time brings change. And to the Thessalonians, time had brought change. It would appear that maybe false teaching had come in. At least it was starting to circulate. The apostle had to deal with it very, very resoundingly in the second letter, which most scholars believe was just months, perhaps even weeks, after the first letter. Some had taught that because of the persecution of the church, that the saints presently alive in Thessalonica had, ha- had found themselves in the day of the Lord. And the apostle in the fifth chapter of the first letter, and in a particular way, the second chapter of second Thessalonians, had to deal with that. That indeed, they had not entered the day of the Lord. That no matter how grievous they were, the sufferings that they were enduring were part and parcel of the Christian life, when God so allowed. He needed them to know that before the day of the Lord, several things had to happen, but everything as far as God's timetable would be set in motion with this most blessed event known as the rapture of the church. Some of the saints had undoubtedly lost loved ones. There were perhaps a number who had been martyred for the cause of Christ, and the saints had a legitimate question. What happens to those who have died? May we say, admittedly a little bit crudely, have they become second class citizens awaiting the rapture of the church? And the Apostle Paul wants to straighten it all out. He said, I do not want you to be i- ignorant, says the King James. The word really is untaught, brethren, concerning those who are asleep. First clue. So that you sorrow not, even as others, devoid of hope. One of the saddest things that anybody in my position can ever do is take the funeral of a person who died apart from hope. They are wonderful opportunities in the gospel. Chances are those people, if they didn't know Christ, had many friends who also don't know Christ, and they come to pay their final respects at a funeral service, and so it gives you a golden opportunity in the gospel. But there is such a feeling of barrenness and desolation as you stand behind a podium like this, or even a portable one. I've had that experience, as have others here. You hardly know what to say. While there is enormous sadness in the hearts of those who know exactly where their loved ones are in heaven, there is still a sense of rejoicing because we sorrow not as others devoid of hope. There's a little island in the Bahamas called Great Guana Key. For many years, the only thing great about it, to be quite honest, was the size of their flies. There is a natural coral harbor there. It's not overly high, but it's impressive in its own little way. For years, when I would go there to sing, there was only one church that met on the island. It was the Church of God. They had a very small, slight man, a godly man. He was their pastor. He and his wife labored faithfully. They had three children on a rather dismal outpost at the time, on a beautiful island. Two of his children, as far as I know to this day, go on well for the Lord. He had another, and his was his son Rupert, who was a rebel with a cause. Rupert broke his parents' heart, hearts, and he was in his middle to later twenties and left the island of Great Guana Key one night. Two boats, four men. They were going to the mainland of Marsh Harbour, the third largest city in the Bahamas, largest in Abaco, and they basically closed the bars down. They got back in their boats to start the forty-minute trip back to their island home. Rupert and his friend were in the first boat, followed not that far behind by the second boat. They were small open vessels, maybe eighteen feet with an outboard motor. And because of the condition that they had put themselves in through a night of drinking, they misjudged the mouth of the entrance of the harbor, and at full speed, that little boat slammed into that coral wall. For about ten to twelve years afterwards, every time I went in, I could still see the scarring on the base of that wall. It's eroded now through time. The bodies of those two fellows floated in the water rather instantly, mangled remains, and their friends coming in had heard the crash and fished their bodies out. And even though it was in the early hours of the morning, they started screaming as their vessel pulled towards the dock, and it woke the town up. And an older man, a Church of God pastor, faithfully serving the Lord for years, told me afterwards that he instantly knew that it concerned his son. He threw on some clothes, and he ran down to the dock, and lying on its back was the mangled remains of his prodigal son. Those who were there say they will never forget it. When that godly little man stretched himself on top of the body of his son, said, oh Rupert, my son, my son, would God I had died for you. Oh Rupert, my son. They don't embalm in those out islands. Funerals are the next morning. And there was but one person there to take that funeral. That father stood up and said, if you have a Bible today, I would ask you to turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter sixteen, where I will be reading to you about my son's eternal home. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. How do you face eternity without Christ? How do you face eternity devoid of hope? Thank God for the inspired words that Paul gives us. We sorrow, but we sorrow not as others who have no hope. He said, if we believe, verse fourteen, that Jesus died and rose again, and there, of course, is the anchor upon which our hope is found. It is based on the resurrection of Christ from the dead. More on that later. Even so, those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. I would like very, very simply tonight to leave five points with us for our encouragement. Five concrete facts of the re- of the rapture of the church as revealed in this particular section. It is based on the revelation. It is based on the return. It's based on a resurrection. It is based on the rapture. And it will be a glorious reunion. Verse thirteen says, I do not want you to be untaught. Verse fifteen says, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. This is based on the concrete fact of direct revelation. The Apostle Paul was not fishing around in his mind for something that would make these saints feel good. He was not interested in a panacea that would temporarily, like a band-aid, cover their wounds. Rather, much like First Corinthians chapter eleven, when he said that I have delivered unto you that which also I received, how that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was being betrayed, took bread, and so on. That unbelievably clear teaching of the Lord's Supper was based on a direct revelation, and so is this. Why would we ever want to substitute human speculation for divine revelation? It's a mystery to me. And it is based on the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ. You see, saints previously had kind of gradually and a bit progressively been taught concerning this revelation, that it is indeed not the soul that sleeps, but merely the body. When a person dies, it's the body that dies. The soul lives on forever. The apostle wants the soul, the saints to know that the souls of their loved ones are not only safe and protected, but they are enjoying all of the bliss that heaven can possibly afford. It is based on a divine revelation. It concerns the doctrine of his return. And there is nothing perhaps in life, and maybe nothing in some of your hearts tonight that will encourage you more, if you are especially broken hearted, to think of the doctrine of his return. In John chapter eleven in just three verses, verses eleven, twelve, and thirteen, we find this out. We find that the Lord Jesus died. He prophesied his death. It wasn't just that he slept, it was that he would die, and his death, of course, means that we need not fear it. Paul writing in two Corinthians chapter five verse eight, talks about being absent from the body and present with the Lord. Is death a loss? It's an enormous loss. You know, I might be wrong in this, but I've often felt that there are ti- at times Christians who feel the loss of loved ones maybe even more keenly than some unsaved do. I've met a lot of unsaved families, and they're really fractured. If you've ever heard on the radio this, um, Dr. Laura, syndicated radio hostess, and she's on the air. They actually dropped her from our station. I was pretty thrilled about it, but she's on the air for several hours every day telling everybody how to solve their problems. She was born a Presbyterian and converted to Judaism when she married her husband, and she has quite a morality about her, and let me tell you, if you've ever heard her, she gets pretty preachy. And I'll never forget being in Nassau, no, I'm sorry, in Green Turtle Cay in December, a little island down in the Bahamas, and I flicked on the evening news only to find out that the body of her mother had been found in an apartment in Los Angeles, and the coroner estimated that it had been five weeks since she died, only to have it come out that for twenty two years, Dr. Laura had been estranged from her own mother. I thought to myself, how dare she give advice when she can't even get along with her own mother? May have been the mother's fault initially, but how gross. They interviewed her on TV the next night. She talked about her mother, and there wasn't a tear. She said, it has been so long since I spoke with her, that to be really honest, I'm sad, and I'm sad that she died alone, but she made her own bed, and they found her lying in it. She didn't even go to the funeral. But you see, when you're in Christ, there is an enormous set of bonds. We are owned by, and we worship and love the same Lord Jesus. And we pull together family members, or we should, in a common cause, the advancement of the kingdom of God. And so when a Christian dies, I honestly believe that the loss is maybe even more keenly felt than in some families of those not saved. Obviously, there are multiple exceptions to that, and I've thought that through sometimes. Death is indeed a loss, but in a sense, we really haven't lost someone when we know exactly where they are. Several of you have been to Skyland, and I ask for your indulgence, you have heard this story before. Dear little lady in New Hartford, Iowa. She's still with us, remarkably, because the last time I saw her, she was ninety two, and that's going back some years. In the space of seven weeks, she lost five people who were the dearest to her in life. The first two were a thirty nine-year-old grandson and his nine-year-old son, her great-grandson, killed instantly when a drunk driver ran a red light. Just a couple of weeks later, her oldest daughter lost a five-year battle with cancer and went to heaven. About six or seven days after that, her only son taking a shower collapsed of a massive stroke, and they believe that he was dead before his body ever hit the floor of the shower stall. And finally, less than seven weeks after that accident had claimed her grandson and great-grandson, her husband of seventy-one years went home to be with the Lord. What do you say to someone like that when you see them the next time? If you're me, I can promise you this, it'll probably be the wrong thing. And I walked up to her, she's a diminutive little lady, she's fairly hard of hearing. I took her hands in mine, and I said, Miss Lillian, I, I don't even know what to say, hon. I don't know what to say. She said, about what? I said, about all the tragedy in your life. She said, tragedy? What do you mean by tragedy? I said, well, I heard about all of the home calls, your great-grandson and your grandson and son and daughter and Uncle Ben. She said, darling, that's not tragedy. That's the goodness of God. I said, how can you say that? She said, because in his infinite goodness, God has given a tired little old woman five more reasons to long for his return. Supernatural, isn't it? Supernatural. She understood that she really hadn't lost them. Yes, you lose the opportunity to fellowship with them and the relationship. She knew right where they were. Notice in verse fifteen that the apostle says, for this we say unto you. And as I mentioned this morning, he looked for his return, and he knew that it was imminent or at any moment. And when we think of the return of the Lord Jesus to the air, let us just say this for our encouragement tonight. He will either return with us or for us. Either way, we will be there if we know Christ. Again, it is based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. The Sadducees doubted it. The Athenians mocked it. But there will be, in verse sixteen three separate things that take place. First of all, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. Then there will be the archangelic voice, and finally the trump of God. This shout of command. There is continuity, isn't there, in the scripture on so many things, everything really. And there is continuity, I am convinced, when it comes to the human body and the soul. It is sown in dishonor to one day be raised in honor. The continuity is that the dead body is the seed, but the glorified body will be the flower that springs. There is marvelous continuity. Was it here that I said it? I'm getting things run into my mind, but I've often wondered how the Lord is going to be able to resurrect some of the bodies of saints that have perished in the most unlikely of ways. I know of a lot of Christians that were in the World Trade Center buildings in New York City that awful September morning. Just ash and dust. Long ago swept away into storm d- gutters with rains, picked up in huge buckets by front-end loaders, loaded onto trucks and sifted over on Staten Island. It's all gone now. How will God do that? I really don't know, but he who made everything from nothing can make everything anew from something, and he knows right where it is. There's an amazing place in London, England, called the Bunhill Fields on City Road. It's immediately across the house from the, the street from the John Wesley House. I had heard about it for years, took us three days to find it, but we finally did. My time is flying away from me tonight, but nonetheless, when we went finally into the Bunhill Fields, we started looking for a number of graves. Charles and Susanna Wesley, his mother, are buried in the Bunhill Fields. It was originally the the dissenters portion of the cemetery when the Church of England began leaving the gospel, and great Christians dissented against them leaving the gospel. They were not allowed to be buried in the sanctified cemetery. Let me tell you, their dust has more than sanctified that little part. Susanna Wesley, ladies, had twenty two children. Seventeen of them survived into adulthood, and all seventeen either married full-time workers or became those who work full-time for the Lord. And you will never find a thing in history about her husband, Mr. Wesley. What a heroine of the faith. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, has a quite ornate tomb in the Bunhill Fields. William Cooper, the great poet and songwriter, hymn writer, looks like Cowper. His remains are in the Bunhill Fields. God moves in his mysterious ways, he wrote, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the deep and rides upon the storm. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, sinners plunged beneath its flood lose all their guilty stains. William Cooper is also buried in the Bunhill Fields. Seventeen of the great worthies of that era of Christian faith. There was one cemetery, well, one tombstone in that cemetery that I was anxious to see. We would not leave until I found it, and I couldn't. Finally asked a man who was obviously a caretaker there. I said, sir, I'm looking for one particular grave, and I cannot find it. Can you help me? He said, come with me. I will lead you to there, but I am curious. Please tell me why you would like to know where that gentleman is buried. I said, sir, it's been a treat of mine for years in a lot of countries of the world to sing his hymns, and I would just like to honor his memory for a moment. And he led us to the burial place of Dr. Isaac Watts, one of the greatest hymn writers that has ever graced God's planet. I sat there on a tombstone, actually, looking at that fairly ornate stone, and I said to Carol, in the presence of that little man who led us over there, honey, what a place this would be at the rapture of the church. Lots of precious dust here. Lots of precious dust. There will be three sounds. There will be the shout of command. There will be the trumpet, always used, of course, to herald the arrival of a great person or royalty. And there will be the archangelic voice. I remember being asked one time, what do you suppose the shout of the Lord will be? I do not have a clue, but I will tell you this, every believer, dead or alive, will know exactly what he's saying, and we will go. It is called the rapture. Kenneth Wuest, in a rather excellent book on the rapture, has given us five different definitions that he likes, potential definitions for the rapture of the church. The first one is to catch away speedily. I kind of like that one. I had heard once in a conference a preacher say that the average human being takes one thirtieth of a second to blink their eye, and that that is the twinkling of an eye. And I remember as a young boy sitting there going... And of course, you know, whenever you try to blink your eye, it's a lot longer than when nature does it for you. But I have to be honest, that, that is not what this means. As light speeds its way through the universe, what is it, Two hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second? Is that what it is? It is. As light speeds its way through the universe at two hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second, touches the cornea of the human eye and goes out on its journey into eternity. That is actually what's meant here by the twinkling of an eye. It is so immeasurably fast that we can't even describe it tonight. That's how quick it will be. To catch away speedily. A second definition Mr. Weise gives is to seize by force. I don't really like that one, but I think in some instances it might be true. I remember once, back in the nineteen seventies, I was sound asleep on a bus in my bunk, top bunk, and a dear, dear friend, a hero of mine named Rusty Goodman came in. I looked at my watch as he shook me awake. It was four o'clock in the morning, and he said, Squirrel, Charles, that was their driver, is tired, and I've got to drive for the next three hours and give him a nap. And he said, and I need some company. I said, get somebody else. He said, nope, it is your turn. I had to go up in the jump seat, four in the morning till seven. And I will never forget that conversation, even though I was maybe nineteen or twenty years old, as Rusty talked about the rapture of the church. And I will never forget one comment that he made. He said, Alan, if I could ever give you one piece of advice as you face life, don't put your roots down too deeply. He said, honest fact is I have met Christians in my life, and he said, I hate to even say it, but it would take the Lord to be able to snatch them off this planet. No one else is powerful enough to. I've never forgotten that. And as typical of most of the conversations that I had with that man over a lot of years, he was not only right, he was scary right. To seize away by force. Thirdly, to claim for oneself. I like that one. After all, he's waited a long time for his bride, and the rapture will be a claiming for himself of his bride. A fourth definition is to move to a new place, fairly self-explanatory. And fifthly, he says it could mean to rescue from danger, and we understand that too. The rapture of the church will be the greatest rescue of hostages that this world will ever know. And, uh, we will indeed be rescued from danger, from the danger and from the defilement of this planet. Now we read here in verse number seventeen that we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Do you ever think about why? It would certainly and easily be in the power of God to instantly translate us from earth to heaven. Why do you suppose he's coming to the air? Well, of course, we know why he's not coming to this earth at that point. He will later, and he will step foot on the Mount of Olives, and they will abs- it will absolutely split asunder. By the way, it only came out in around nineteen eighty eight or nine, even though Jewish authorities have known it for years. Their seismologists and geologists have discovered a fairly small fault. You know, like the San Andreas Fault, the Earth's crust and plates. They've, they've discovered a fairly small fault, and it actually bisects the middle of the Mount of Olives. And it goes down into the Kidron Valley and takes a turn to the north for roughly a quarter mile and ventures its way up across the hillside onto Temple Mount, and as near as they can determine, it goes absolutely underneath that three-named gate, the Eastern, Golden, or Gate Beautiful. When he steps foot on the Mount of Olives, that little fault's going to be activated. And those eighty-ton massive blocks that that humble man who called himself Solomon the Magnificent erected to seal up the eastern gate, I think are going to crumble into just powder. And in that gate he will walk at the second coming with his hands outstretched, and the nation of Israel say, will say, what are those wounds? And he will say, these are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends. That, of course, is the second coming. But why is he coming to the air? Here's a thought. We have an incredibly mighty enemy today. And amongst the titles of Satan is that he is the prince of the power of the air. And I believe in my heart of hearts that the Lord Jesus is coming to the air. He will be entering Satan's realm, surrounded by an innumerable company of witnesses and the saints of all of the ages. And in that split second of time, we will rise, that million strong church, millions strong church. And I believe that the Lord will take a slight pause and allow the one who is presently in control of that realm to see the bride of Christ purchased at infinite cost, and before he sweeps us into his presence forever, Satan will know that he is lost. He will meet us in the air. It'll be a reunion like no other. Death is the enormous separator. Jesus Christ, the glorious reconciler. It'll be a glorious reunion. We will be fashioned anew. The next time that I may see Doris, she won't need a magnifying glass to read. Eileen, I can't wait to see you leap and run. And others here who face so many different difficulties, those in the manor, and even loved ones that some of us have. Aunt Betty's arthritis will be all gone too. It'll be a glorious reunion, for we will be fashioned anew. I was sitting in the room today at three forty, and I got a phone call from my brother. And he said my name, and that was all he could get out. He said, Alan, I don't want to alarm you, but I don't know if mom will make it through the weekend. He said she has been unresponsive now for two days. And he said, I am not sure if you'll get to see her again. What do you say, you know? I just sat there kind of numb. So many of you have been through it. And finally, Lynn said to me, um, Al, if you saw mom the way I just did moments ago, he said, you, you just have to know that this is no life. Do you remember how she never stopped? I said, nope, she never stopped. Do you remember how her home was always open? I said, yep, I sure do. He said, do you remember all the things that she did for us? I said, I never appreciated them, Lynn, until I became a parent. But I look back on it now, and I don't know of too many people that I've ever seen who just live for their family. He said, I walked over to dad in the room, and I just held him, and I said, dad, you know it's not long. He said, I know. He said, Dad, I think if five minutes after mom goes, she could come back and tell us what she's seen, we wouldn't want her to stay. And it's so true. There is coming a day when our bodies will be perfect, and our minds will be perfect and free from the taint of sin. We will be with him, and we will be like him, with a glorious body and mind. It'll be an everlasting reunion. Paul says here that we are to be forever with the Lord. I don't like goodbyes. I really can't even tell you how sad I am that tonight is here. Even coming, I was dreading the week ending because I really like it here. I love it here. We'll never have to say goodbye then. The Lord will reunite broken families, broken friendships because of an ugly curse, and we will know and be known. We will see him, and we will be like him. No real wonder, is it then, that Paul wrote it at the very end of this chapter. Therefore, comfort, encourage one another with these words. May God bless them to us. Father, we are so thankful for this prospect, looking for that glorious hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, for all of the promise and for all of the hope, and for the enormity of the cost that we might even have such a hope, tonight we want to give grateful thanks from the bottom of our hearts. We look forward with huge and keen anticipation to the rapture of the church. Help us, Father, to get up each morning thinking that it might be today, and so order our lives. Keep before us the hymn writer's words that with such a blessed hope in view, we would more holy be, more like our risen glorious Lord, whose face we soon shall see. Father, keep us close to thyself until that moment when we see that face once battered, smiling in love as the bride is welcomed home. This we pray in our Savior's name. Amen.