Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20020526.htm

I THESSALONIANS: STRENGTHENING CHRISTIANS
Part V: Settled Living In View Of The Believer's BLESSED HOPE
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) When the terrorist attacks occurred last September, many people quickly became concerned about the future!

(a) A Christian I know, upon being troubled at the terrorist attacks on September 11, has moved out West to live in peace in a distant Western State in America! He has pretty much given up on living here in the East, thinking it is a lost cause regarding terrorism, and is trying to find peace of mind in the Far West!

(b) Another Christian decades ago announced to me that the country was going so badly that he decided to set up shop in a very rural part of America's South so that "when" the nation collapsed economically, militarily or politically, he would have a "haven" for persecuted Christians to use for hiding from their persecutors!

(2) However, what further heightens this concern even among Christians is the fact that books by Christian authors today predict the Church will experience some of the sufferings dished out by the antichrist during the coming Great Tribulation:

(a) Marv Rosenthal's work, The Pre-wrath Rapture of the Church is a revival of the old Mid-Tribulation Rapture view that the Church will experience the first 3 years of antichrist's rule on the earth. Thus, he asserts we Christians will have to live under at least some of the antichrist's reign until he sets himself up as god in Israel's temple in fulfillment of Daniel 9:27.

(b) Another book, one by Robert H. Gundry titled The Church and the Tribulation has proposed a new form of Posttribulationism, one that distinguishes the Church from Israel and teaches the Church will go through the Great Tribulation and be raptured just before Christ's Second Coming to earth (John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, p. 19, 60-68).



In view of current world terrorism coupled with CURRENT beliefs by SOME Christians that the Church will FACE the antichrist's Bible-predicted reign, WHAT does the BIBLE teach, and HOW do we FACE the FUTURE?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "Some say the Church will face ALL of antichrist's reign in the Tribulation where others hold we will see SOME of it! In the aftermath of September 11, I find such ideas troubling, so could you CLARIFY the Bible's prophecy on this and offer us DIRECTION?"
  1. Paul wrote to believers who WORRIED over PROPHETIC events:
    1. The Thessalonian converts grieved that deceased Christians would MISS the Church's being taken to heaven in the RAPTURE and be raised at the START of Christ's earthly, MILLENNIAL reign:
      1. Before Paul met the Thessalonians, they knew Old Testament saints would be raised at the start of the Messianic Kingdom:
        1. Paul had begun his outreach at Thessalonica's synagogue, Acts 17:1-3. Those there who trusted in Christ included Hebrews and proselytes to Judaism who knew the Old Testament, 17:4.
        2. As such, these people would have known of the resurrection of the just at the start of Israel's Messianic Kingdom: (a) The resurrection was a basic Hebrew doctrine, cf. Hebrews 6:1-2. (b) Since Daniel 12:13 in the Old Testament implies saints would be raised at the start of the Messianic Kingdom, this basic resurrection doctrine would have been known by these Christians, and that BEFORE Paul had evangelized them.
      2. Yet, at the death of some of them, these Christians thought their deceased would miss the Church's rapture: due to their Hebrew heritage, their concern for the dead but not for themselves would exist only if they held to the Pretribulation rapture of the Church, but thought dead Christians would be raised at the Kingdom:
        1. As these new converts knew Daniel 12:1 told the Tribulation would be history's worst time of human suffering, and their worry was not for their own welfare, they had to know God would "rapture" living believers before the Tribulation, cf. also John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, 96ff.
        2. Thus, the concern of Paul's readers was an errant assumption deceased brethren would miss the Pretribulation Rapture and have to wait to be reunited with them at Christ's Kingdom!
    2. Paul thus needed to address their concern about the Church's future:
  2. To EDIFY these Thessalonians, Paul told how ALL DECEASED Christians would experience the RAPTURE of the Church at the TIME ALL LIVING Christians would do so, cf. 1 Thess. 4:14-17!
    1. Since Christ died and rose again, and as not only living but deceased Christians still EXIST in Christ, Paul foretold God would bring the souls of these believers WITH Jesus FROM heaven when He returns to gather living believers to Himself, 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
    2. Indeed, Paul wrote these souls would be united with their bodies and raised just before living Christians are also changed, 4:15, 16b NIV.
    3. This event will occur with Christ's descent from heaven with a great shout of God's archangel and trumpet call, 1 Thessalonians 4:16a.
    4. Next, all living Christians will be changed (1 Cor. 15:51) and "caught up" (the Latin word is "rapture," cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 4:16-17) to be united with the others and the Lord in the air, 4:17a.
    5. The whole Church will then forever be with Christ, 1 Thess. 4:17b.
  3. From what his readers would know coupled with Paul's words in 4:18, we learn the Rapture is PREtribulational and PREmillennial:
    1. We before learned Paul's readers knew from Daniel 12:1 about the Great Tribulation, and that Daniel 12:13 implied the Messianic Kingdom of blessing came after this terrible Great Tribulation!
    2. That means Paul meant them to know of Daniel 9:27 where antichrist rules with more peace in the first half of the Tribulation than he does in the latter half, cf. also Matthew 24:4-6, 15-21 with 1 Thess. 5:1-3.
    3. If we couple all this with Paul's call in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 for his readers to comfort each other with his words on the rapture, he must have meant the rapture occurred before antichrist was ever revealed; otherwise, his readers who knew Daniel 9:27 and 12:1, 13 could not have felt comfort if they knew they would identify antichrist at all!
    4. Hence, the Rapture comes before antichrist is revealed as antichrist, meaning it is PRETRIBULATIONAL and PREMILLENNIAL!
Application: (1) To find consolation about the future, we must trust in Christ as Savior from sin, Jn. 3:16; 1 Thess. 4:13-18. (2) Then, being IN CHRIST, we can afford to ABOUND in doing God's will, enjoying God's comfort about the future, (3) for His Word promises we will ESCAPE the antichrist's WHOLE reign by the Rapture!

Lesson: If we trust in Christ for salvation, (1) physical death results in (a) our IMMEDIATE entrance into Christ's heavenly presence, 1 Thess. 4:14b with 2 Cor. 5:6-8. (b) Then, at the RAPTURE, we will be the FIRST to gain our glorified bodies! (2) If we REMAIN alive, (a) we will be "raptured" (b) to JOIN the rest of the Church and Christ, and (3) that BEFORE the ANTICHRIST'S rule ever BEGINS. (4) Then, at that rapture event, ALL of us Christians from Acts 2 to the rapture itself will be FOREVER UNITED with ONE ANOTHER and our LORD! >

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 There's a grave in Canton, Connecticut, with the name, Tanya Barnette on it. It belongs to a young Christian who passed away in the 1980s at age thirteen.

Tanya had cystic fibrosis, a disease that causes an abbreviated life span and lots of medical treatments and loads of discomfort.

Tanya knew she didn't have long to live in her condition. But that didn't deter her: when I would visit her in the hospital near the end, she insisted I play "UNO" with her! She was a spunky player who kept informing me on her "new rules" of the game as we played along so that I NEVER got to WIN in playing against her!

Shortly before she passed away, she gave a Bible to an unsaved relative of hers in an effort to convey how concerned she was that this relative take seriously the claims of Jesus Christ. Tanya knew she was going to be with Christ when she physically expired, and had a strong desire to see that her family and friends believe in Jesus Christ.

At her memorial service, this Church's sanctuary and the balcony, including that back pew that runs the full width of the Church, was filled to capacity! I've never seen anything like it. Doctors, nurses, associates, friends, family, friends at the Church and classmates -- all kinds of people were here to hear what God had me to say in Tanya's stead.

I was glad to be able to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all of those people, thanks to the way thirteen-year-old Tanya Barnette was a living testimony in the face of her physical demise.

She still is. Her grave is marked by a pink marble slab with engravings of her artwork on it, and the description of an activity she wanted so much to do but could no longer, to start "running with God."