Title: 1 Thessalonians 4 - Rapture
By: Dan Pancake
Intro
We are going to talk about the rapture of the church tonight. I have a couple of questions while you are finding your way there.
What do you know about the rapture of the church?
Are you ready?
Because it may happen at any moment. Right?
Scripture
1 Thessalonians 4
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
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:
17 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.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
What do you know about the rapture?
What do you know about the rapture? Let us hear what you know about the rapture. What do you know about the rapture? (It is going to happen.) For sure. How come? (I know I’m going.) (Seems to be soon.) We don’t know though. Do we? What else do you know about the rapture? How much is it talked about in the Bible? (It will be in the twinkling of an eye.) We know that. Anybody else have anything you want to pitch in about the rapture of the church? (Chaos on the earth afterwards.) Yes and tribulation, for sure. What else do you know about the rapture of the church? Where does that word rapture come from anyway. Did you know it is not in the Bible? It comes out of this passage that we read here.
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:
17 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.
“Caught up” and “harpazo” ”(ἁρπάζω)” is the Greek word for rapture and also another word is "rapio".
Assurance About Those Gone
Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. He is trying to give them some assurance about loved ones who have already died in the Lord. Now, they have already been preaching for some time. The Apostle Paul and all the Apostles believed that the Lord Jesus was going to return before their lives ended. They all believed that. They thought the Lord would return before their lives ended. Of course they did not see the entire church age ahead of them. Like we do, they saw what was going on around them at that particular time.
Now the Lord began to teach the Apostle Paul about the rapture of the church. Somewhere, somehow, He is teaching Paul about the rapture of the church. Notice what he says in verse 15.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
When you read that, when he says, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” Now there is another place in the Bible like 1 Corinthians 7 where he talks about marriage and divorce. He says it this way, “This I say unto you.” I am saying this because this is what I think. However, when he says it in 1 Thessalonians 4:15; He says, “this is what I say because this is what the Lord told me to say.” He says…
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Rapture of the Church
Then he tells us about the rapture of the church.
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:
“The dead in Christ shall rise first:” Now that does not mean just people sitting in church pews that aren’t right with God. That means the dead in Christ—those that we have taken out to the graveside and buried. Carl, I and Todd have buried several people in our lifetimes. In my lifetime I have seen several hundred people pass through the doorway of death. I have stood beside their casket, and I have stood at their graveside saying to the family that the Lord would come and that eventually the Lord is going to rapture and they are going to be the first ones to be taken in the rapture. That is what he tells us.
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:
17 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.
I say that with all confidence because I believe that is going to happen. Why do I believe that is going to happen? I believe that because the Bible says so. We will talk about that as we go through this.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill planned his funeral before he died. That is a pretty good idea. I think I will plan my own. I might even preach my own sermon. They won’t play it. Winston Churchill planned his own funeral and he had them play taps at the end of his service from one of the high towers there in London. In that tower they played taps. Of course, taps mean your life is over, it is time to go. He said as soon as they finished playing taps they began to play Reveille. Reveille means get up! It is time to get up! His point was it might be time to lay down now but there will come a day when it is time to get up. Amen! That is what he is saying in his funeral. That is a pretty good message wouldn’t you say Amen to that? There is a time to get up. I am glad of that.
Where does it come from?
So, where does all of this come from? It comes from the Word of God itself. It does not come from man’s imagination. It comes from the very Word of God. The very first person to talk about the rapture of the church was not the Apostle Paul. It was the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
John 14:1-3
1Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 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.
3 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.
How will it happen?
Paul says it is going to happen like this.
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:
Now I don’t know how all this is going to happen. I just know that it is. Some people say, “Well, every eye will see Him, when you read Revelation, that read that. That is not the rapture of the church. That is talking about the second coming of the Lord which is at least seven years later than the rapture of the church. So, the rapture of the church is going to happen and the Lord is going to come and get the church. I honestly think the church will be taken out immediately, so quickly, that perhaps no one will see where everybody went and the whole world will lose all these Christians. I think the world will be at a time of chaos. That is what Shannon was talking about when he said that.
John 14 is the first mention of the rapture of the church. Is it going to happen? Jesus said it is going to happen. I happen to be one of those people that believe Jesus. What do you say? (And they all said, Amen!)
Titus 2 is another place you can go and find a little bit of scripture related to this.
Titus 2:13
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
This is the Apostle Paul talking to his son in the faith, he called him, Titus. Titus was the bishop of the church. I think it might have been in Cyprus. He was at the church somewhere. He was presenting the gospel. Paul was writing to encourage him. He is reminding him that the Lord is going to come. He tells him that grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men in verse 11 of that same chapter. In verse 13 he says, we are looking for something wonderful to happen. What are we looking for? The blessed hope. You and I are still looking for the blessed hope.
Now I got saved in the 1970s. It has been a little while back. Anybody here with me get saved in the 70s? Amen! Some of you were not even born in the 70s. Amen! Glory to God! I got saved in the 70s. What I want to make the point of is when I got saved and came into the church in the 70s; the churches—by the way—at that time were in a state of revival. All the churches were in revival. The Baptist churches, the Holiness churches, Nazarenes; everybody was in a state of revival. We did not know it. We thought we were all a bunch of dead Christians back then. If everybody was not shouting the house down, everybody would say the service was dead tonight. You might have had four or five people saved and they would say the service was dead tonight.
However, the whole church was in a state of revival. Here is what they preached all the time. “The Lord is coming. You had better get ready! The Lord is coming! You had better get ready!” That was the message. All of these people have been here all this time can tell you that. The Lord is coming. You would hear this testimony all the time in the church. I am so anxious for the Lord to come. I can’t wait to see Him. I just believe He is going to come any moment. Right? Well, He did not come. Does that mean He is not coming? That just means we are fallible and we don’t know what we are talking about. Would you say amen to that?
Hal Lindsey
There were people like Hal Lindsey that made that movie The Late Great Planet Earth. In that movie he is talking about the Lord is going to come without any doubt the Lord is going to come.
Jack Van Impe
Jack Van Impe, I don’t know if you…Jack Van Impe had so much scripture memorized. He went everywhere. He preached right up to the end of his life that the rapture of the church is going to happen at any moment, but it didn’t happen.
Does that mean it is not going to happen? No. Paul says we are looking for that blessed hope. It is our hope. When we have a hope—hope is not like the world has a hope. The world says I hope it doesn’t rain, but it is raining. Right? That is kind of a wishy thing. We wish that. However, our hope is not based on something that is weak, something that is just a wish. It is an actual hope. Hope means my hope is laying in something that I have tremendous faith in. hope in the sense of the Bible talking about hope is the promise that God made to us and we are absolutely sure that he is going to carry it out. So, Paul said this a promise that came from God. This is a blessed promise and it is our blessed hope. It is before us. God is going to do it. God is going to carry it out because this is our blessed hope. It is an encouraging hope. Would you say amen to that?
I love the Words of Jesus. “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there, you may be also.” I want to be with Him some day. Don’t you? Amen!
Comforting Hope
It is a comforting hope. Oh, what a comfort it brings to your heart. Paul says in…
1 Thessalonians 4:18
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
It is a comfort. I realize that people have all kinds of stuff going on. Some people are busy in life. They don’t seem to have anything wrong with them. They are not really looking at the end of life. The truth of the matter is that Christianity teaches all of us to look to the end of your existence here in this world. It is only when we get that right that everything else in life can be right, peaceful, joyous and happy.
Hubert Humphry, I know you might remember him, us older people. He was the presidential candidate on the democrat’s side in the election of 1968. He lost. He found something in that election that he didn’t know before. After the election was over, he was diagnosed with lung cancer—I think it was. He was only given a few months to live. During that time, he came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He said these word, “I did not know how to live until I knew I was going to die.”
What are we looking for? We are looking for the Lord to come. He is our encouraging hope, our comforting hope, our motivating hope. That is what keeps us going. We keep going.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Purifying Hope
Keep going no matter what. Why? The Lord may come. Amen! It is a purifying hope too. Jesus said, you had better pay attention for you know not what hour your Lord may come. That kind of keeps us on the straight and narrow. Do you make mistakes. Yes. You do. I will tell you, don’t ever keep a long list of sin. If you commit a sin, take care of it that day. Amen! You say, I don’t ever sin. Well, that’s a lie right there. You had better start repenting.
The Apostle John was caught up. This is a type of the rapture of the church in Revelation 4. I gave you those papers Wednesday night and I wanted you to read those scriptures. I hope you did. Spend a little bit of time reading those scriptures in Revelation 4 and 5.
John in chapter 4, after the message to the seven churches is caught up into the heaven. It says after this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were a trumpet talking with me which said, “Come up hither and I will show you the things which must be hereafter, and immediately, I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in the heaven.” He gets into this vision of heaven.
Here is what I want to point out. John at this point is like the rapture of the church. Up until chapter 4 begins in Revelation; you will read about the church. Jesus said, this is a message about what was, what is, and what is to come. Chapter 4 says this is what is hereafter. What happens? John is caught up into the heavens. We believe that is a type of the rapture of the church, showing us that when the future is before us; there is a moment in time when the Lord will come and will bring all the church home to be with Him. Amen!
What is the rapture?
So, what is the rapture? Well, we already talked about what the word means. Let’s go to another scripture.
I will do this quickly. I don’t want to labor this too much. I just want to spend some time enjoying what the Lord said about the rapture of the church. If you can’t enjoy that, then enjoy me enjoying it. Will you?
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Mystery
First of all, the rapture of the church was a mystery. When you read that in the Bible, Paul uses that several times in his writings. One time, he is talking about the church itself. He said this was a mystery, but now it is something that is revealed. A mystery that he talks about was a mystery.
I love mysteries. Patty and I watch mysteries all the time. I am sick of Hallmark Mysteries. I like something with a little excitement. Amen! That is good preaching too. Isn’t it?
A mystery is something that before was unknown but now it is known. How is it known? Because God gave these instructions to Paul. Remember? He says, this is what I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. So, he is giving us some more information.
1 Corinthians 15: 51
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
So, here is what he is going to tell us. We are not all going to sleep. The word sleep here means die. There are going to be some people on the earth when the Lord returns. He is going to call them home to be with Him in heaven. They are not going to pass through the doorway of death. Will that me? Will that be you? I don’t know. All I know is that if we live long enough, we are going to pass through that doorway. Right? Something is going to come to take us from this world. I am glad there is a provision for that as well. Amen!
The Bible tells us when we go to sleep in this world, we open our eyes in the presence of the living God. If our earthly house be dissolved, we have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He goes in the same passage—to absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Listen. Everybody goes, but the Christians are going to go in the rapture, someday. You might not be among those which are alive and remain. You might be one of those who have gone on before. However, you are going to go first. When you have come six feet out of the ground—your body anyways—your spirit will already be with God. Your body comes up out of the ground and when it gets to earth’s surface, all of those dead in Christ, all of those living in Christ are going to be caught up together. We shall not all sleep.
Here is another promise that he tells us. We all shall be changed. Wait a minute! What do I need changed for? I bet you know. (congregation laughs) Don’t you get up in the morning and look at that person looking back at you? It is not pleasant. Is it? As the years go by, it doesn’t get more pleasant. We need changed. Of course, we can’t to heaven in this physical body. We have to have something better than this. We are told in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians that there is a new body. It is sown an earthly body, but it is raised a heavenly body. It is sown in weakness but it is raised in power. It is sown in corruption—which means decay—it is going to be raised in incorruption. I can’t wait for that! Amen! There is a lot of corruption over at my place. It is going to be raised. Amen!
He says, we are going to be changed. We will be changed into what God wants us to be, into an eternal state. We will be with Him forever. The Bible also tells us that no man has ever seen the Lord and lived. That is because in this earthly body we could not stand to look upon the presence of the Lord. That is why Moses, when he wanted to see God, God said, I can only show you my hinder parts. He showed him the afterglow of God as he went by. That is all he could stand. He could not stand any more than that in a human body. We are going to have something better.
We are going to be changed in a moment. How fast is that? It says in a twinkling of an eye. Back through the years, back in the 70s they really got into this. They got into this twinkling of an eye. Somebody tried to measure it in some sort of a second. It is a portion of a second. I don’t know how quick that is going to be. I will tell you what is going to happen. If you are alive when the Lord returns, you are going to be doing whatever you are doing in your earthly life then all of a sudden you are going to be on your way to heaven. Amen! I like that idea. You might have had something important to do too. However, if you are like me, you probably did not remember what it was. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. Paul says it again. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. So, it is a mystery. It is not just for those who are dead but also, for the those who are not dead who are going to be alive at that time.
Why do we believe in the rapture? Well, our Bible tells us so. Right? We believe that very message of the gospel says there is a rapture of the church. Notice the message of the gospel. The birth—well, we were born into the world. Right? The life of Jesus. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection. Then His ascension to heaven. Amen!
Do you remember what the angels said when Jesus went to heaven?
Acts 1:11
11 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 ye have seen him go into heaven.
How did He go up? He just floated up into the heavens. That is how we are going. Amen! Notice what He says in that passage I read to you before.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
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:
The Lord Himself will come! He is not sending an angel. He is not sending a representative. The Lord will come! Here is what is going to be. He is going to receive His bride home to be with Him. The church is the bride of Christ.
I hear people talking about stuff. We try to measure things what we know about human stuff. We get it all mixed up. I have heard people say things through the years. I thought, “Boy, I hope that is not the way it is.”
It is not a romantic relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and the church. It is the deepest kind of love relationship that can ever be known because He is Almighty God. He is going to change us in a moment of time. We are going to be home to be with Him. Like a bride prepared for her husband. He says, “I am going to tell you, …going to have to do a little cleaning somewhere along the way.” Amen! We have all got dirty in this world. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
We use to go to church with people all the time that said, “One sin and you are not going to go!” That can’t be the case. Jesus Christ died for our sin. I am not saying the church should live in sin. I am not saying that. I am going to tell you; you let Him take care of the sin problem. You just take care of living for Jesus. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Why do we believe in the rapture? It is because the Word of God is teaching us to do so. Who is going in the rapture? If He came tonight, are you ready to go? Amen! Who will go in the rapture? We read that right here in verses 14 and 15, if I can get back to it for a moment.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
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:
That means all of the church. Boy! Wouldn’t you like to see that number. I love God’s people. I have learned to love God’s people a lot more through the years. I think one of things that teaches you and I that we truly are Christian is that we begin to grow in the characteristics of the Holy Spirit. I have been talking about this…a little bit. So, you have heard it. The characteristics of the Holy Spirit that Paul told us and I believe there are many more than this: Love, Joy, and Peace. I believe that as you live for the Lord and grow in Christ, your love for God’s people, for His church, and for His Lord grow. It is better. It is stronger.
Patty and I have been married almost 50 years. I will tell this on her. Just before we left the house, she gave me a kiss and she said, “I love you!” I about blown over. Na. She tells me that often and I tell her that often.
Here is what I am trying to say. We had love for each other when we got married and it was wonderful. Those early years of marriage, there is just nothing like them. They are wonderful, as you grow together. However, somewhere along the way that love changes from one thing to something else. It changes into a more comfortable, a more assured, a deeper kind of love than it was before.
Reception
Listen. The Lord Jesus Christ loves you. He wants you to come to heaven to be with Him. Are you ready to go? If He came tonight, are you really ready? I know that the rapture is going to be a reception. When we get home to be with Him we are going to be where He is.
He said, If I go away—that means, when I go away—I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. If you love somebody, you want to be with them. Don’t you? He wants to be with the church. It is also a rescue. If you think about what the rapture of the church is; He is looking toward the end of the church age and the tribulation period. There are going to be a lot of people on earth. The antichrist is going to be revealed somewhere along the way. The whole world is going to be ushered into tribulation right after I believe the rapture of the church. So, what is He doing? He is rescuing the church from that time of trouble.
There is a passage of scripture that tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is taking the church out of the wrath that He is going to bring on the world. So, it is a rescue. Hey, I like being rescued when I need it. How about you? Amen!
Reunion
It is a reunion. The rapture is going to be a reunion. Just since I have been here. I have only been here—Patty and I have been here around this church about 23 years now; somewhere along in there. Seems like a long time. I have been the pastor 18 years, but I have been around here about 23 years. In that time, I have been around this church, this many people have gone on to heaven. At this many, maybe more. It is going to be a reunion. It is going to be a great reunion day when we get to see them. I will tell you something else. There are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters and friends and loved ones. We are going to see them face to face. We will reunite with them. There will be no more hurts. There will be no heartaches. There will be no sorrows. It will all be joy! Glory to God! It is going to be a reunion.
Revelation
It is also is going to be a revelation. When we finally get home to heaven, we are going to finally see why He saved us from our sins. I have wondered. Have you wondered? You might look at me and say, why in the world would the Lord do that for him? Amen! If you knew my life before I got saved, you would say; why would the Lord save a guy like him. Only the Lord knows the answer to that. I don’t know the answer to that. I will tell you, when I get to heaven, I am going to know. However, it won’t matter anymore because I will be in the presence of the Lord. I am not going to be a stepchild in heaven. I am going to be a full-fledged child of God in heaven. How about you? It is a revelation when we get home to heaven. Are you ready to go?
What do we do until we are ready to go? I think we should keep on being faithful as we go. I think we should learn everything we can about how to live for the Lord, and to love Him, serve Him. Then I think we should begin to try to develop a longing for His return.
I know we live in a world today—we have all the creature comforts anyone could imagine. When we were kids there was no way we could imagine the comforts that you and I have today. Air conditioning—we did not have that back then. Boy! I am glad we had it this week. Aren’t you? Anybody here today? Hallelujah! Thank God for air conditioning. Amen! We did not have all of that. We couldn’t envision what we would have. So, a lot of people have built themselves a little heaven on earth. That is just fine until you realize you can’t go on, on this earth. Amen! We have seen hundreds of them through the years. Yes, life is short. Are you ready? Are you ready to go either way? Amen!
The Lord is going to return. He may return tonight before you and I get home. That would be alright. Amen! It may be a hundred years from now. I don’t know. I will say this. What do you know about the rapture? Well, we know all of this stuff we talked about. I haven’t told you one thing that you didn’t know. I could have spent the whole time just bragging on the Lord. Couldn’t I? Amen! Are you ready? That is the important question.
Are you ready?
In this room tonight, if you are not ready; only you know if you are ready. Only you know. That is in the privacy of your own heart. How can I get ready? Well, you have to be saved; of course. That is how you get ready. You have to be saved. If you are saved, you are going to go to heaven. Did you hear me today?
I was listening to an argument a while ago on the YouTube; of course. It was about this Lordship salvation vs. free grace. I listened to one side and then I listened to the other side and I thought they are saying exactly the same thing. Nobody goes to heaven unless they are saved. One guy said after you are saved it does not matter much what you do. I believe it does. That don’t make you saved that just makes you a better Christian. The other guy said, if you are saved, the evidence of the Lord’s salvation is going to be a part of your life. Well, I agree with both of them. But let me tell you this tonight.
If you do not know that you are saved, you already know that. You need to be saved before it is too late.
Come and pray.