Episode 04 - Rapture

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:07] Good afternoon, my name is Pastor Peter Yanada from Eyes to See Ministries International. [00:00:14] We are here each Wednesday at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania to talk about to give you hope in these trying times. [00:00:27] And the hope is found in just one name, Jesus Christ. [00:00:31] The one name lifted above all names in this world and the one to come. And that's what we're going to talk about today, the world to come. Some I'll open in prayer and then I'll get right into it. Father, I thank you that your words will not return empty. They always will, always will accomplish that which you send them forth to accomplish for your good pleasure. [00:00:59] And that when you give us the message to speak as you do each week by inspiration, you speak it into our hearts as you did this message, we excitedly get to gather and speak about what you put on our hearts, which is what we do here Wednesday. [00:01:19] So I thank you that this message will not return empty. It will go forward. [00:01:24] It touches our community, it touches this country, it goes out to Africa and India and Pakistan and every other place that you send it to. So we're thankful we come before you with this prayer with our supplications and hearts full of gratitude and we pray in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:48] Today I'm going to give you a four part introduction to what we're going to speak about today. [00:01:54] But I need to review the first part of the introduction is last week we spoke about a Galilean wedding and the importance of that. [00:02:04] The country of Israel is only about the size of the state of New Jersey and a third of that is Galilee, which the majority of the ministry that Jesus Christ did that we have recorded in the Holy Bible took place in that one area. [00:02:24] Jesus was a Galilean. [00:02:27] Eleven of his twelve disciples were from Galilee. [00:02:31] And the importance of our understanding of a Galilean wedding is that if you look at Israel, Galilee is geographically positioned to the north, Judah is to the south and Samaria is in between. [00:02:51] All of the Middle east, including Israel, have basically the same marriage customs, except in Galilee they're a little bit different. [00:03:04] And if we don't understand this or the customs of the Galileans, their customs and traditions, we're going to gut part of the Gospel out because that's where Jesus had come from. And he used parables and examples, analogies of the customs and traditions so that when he spoke to the people that he was in front of, they would have an understanding of what he spoke about. [00:03:38] It's not by accident that the very first miracle that he performed was In Cana in Galilee, where he turned water into wine. [00:03:51] That is very symbolic of the covenant of marriage which we talked about last week. [00:03:59] One of the things that was left out last week, as I gave you, and I would really encourage you to go back and listen to that message. [00:04:07] One of the things that I left out was there was a part of the betrothal once the Father, and he was the only one that would know the day and the time of the wedding. Now we're looking at these scriptures moving forward, because what Jesus gave us in his word mirrors what the Galileans knew was a wedding. [00:04:35] So once they were aware that this was a wedding he was talking about, they fully understood the content and the context and the magnitude of what he was speaking about in these parables and other examples. So it's important that we understand these. [00:04:56] The Father of the groom would wake the groom up at night, and this is important that you understand it's at night, and say, son, go get your bride. [00:05:07] They were separated for one year, and the groom would come out with the rest of his party into the streets and blow his shofar. Now, again, moving forward, we're going to see scriptures where Jesus talks about this happening. [00:05:28] This was to alert the town and his bride that it was time. [00:05:35] So what would happen is the bride would hear the trumpet blow and so would the rest of the town. And those that were ready, those that were prepared. And all I'm going to say tonight is, because you're going to get a lot of homework, is read the parable of the 10 virgins. [00:05:55] Those that were prepared would come out in the street and follow the wedding party. Now, the bride, there was a litter. [00:06:03] It was a seat like a stretcher with two handles on each side. And two of the groom's party would drop that on the ground, and the bride would get in it and they would lift her up in the air. And that is the scriptures that we're going to look at before we close this evening. [00:06:24] They said in their native language, they referred to that as their custom, as their tradition, that the bride was being flown to the Father's house for the groom. [00:06:42] This is all relatively new archeological and historical information that really has theologians today. [00:06:54] It's exploding, I'll say, within the Christian church, or it should be for those that are aware, which is why this needs to be spoken of. [00:07:05] We are going to talk about at some point what the tribulation is, the great tribulation. [00:07:13] And in the past, and I say in the past, recent past, there were several theological doctrines The Church was divided. There was what they called pre tribulationism, mid or post tribulationism. [00:07:31] This evidence today has eliminated the mid and the post tribulational theology. [00:07:42] So we will take a look at that or begin to look at it today. [00:07:46] But what I want you to do is remember the term Galilee and wedding. [00:07:52] Remember wedding in the past, as humans, we've always been concerned about when things will happen, such as what's called the Rapture. [00:08:08] When will the Rapture happen? [00:08:11] It's not important to understand the when because that's going to occur during. [00:08:19] It's theologically called the imminent return of Christ. That means we'll never know. There is no signs in the Bible that will tell us that. So we have to be ready. Just like this Galilean wedding, they had to be ready. [00:08:35] However, We should be concerned with why, why is this going to happen? [00:08:50] And if we understand why, most of the division within the body of Christ within the Christian Church will go away. [00:09:01] So it's being revealed to us. [00:09:03] Why will there be a rapture? And if you understand why there will be one, you will understand somewhat when on the timeline, an end time timeline that would occur, not the exact day and the time, but on a timeline. And you will see that there is no other event right now in our theology, in eschatology that needs to occur before the Rapture. There are prophetic words that are going to come post that, but there's no other event right now in the Bible, recorded in the Bible that needs to happen. [00:09:48] So we need to understand why. [00:09:51] Remember the term Galilean wedding in general, but more specifically wedding. [00:09:58] Now, part two of this op of this introduction is we're going to look at. Remember in the beginning in session one, I said we would look at some of the names and titles of Jesus Christ. [00:10:12] Tonight's title is the title Lamb of God, Lamb with a capital L. [00:10:23] Old Testament foundations for this title can be found in Genesis, chapter 22, verse 8, Exodus 12, 3, 13 and Isaiah chapter 53, verse 7, the book of Isaiah, the prophetic book of Isaiah. [00:10:45] If you read that book, that book defines or lays out the entire gospel that you will see in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. [00:10:58] So we have Old Testament foundations for the title Lamb of God. And we also have New Testament fulfillment and revelation of the title, among others. [00:11:13] But specifically for Tonight, write down First Corinthians 5, 7, First Peter, chapter 1, verses 18 to 19, Revelation chapter 5, verses 6 to 12, and Revelation chapter 7, verse 10. Remember the context, the Lamb of God. [00:11:40] Now I mentioned Two scriptures from the book of Revelation. [00:11:46] Open that book sometime this week and look at chapter one, verse one, and you will see the very first sentence starts the revelation of Jesus Christ with a capital R. [00:12:03] And then I would encourage you to compare Hebrews 1:1:3, where it is given to us that the Son of God, who is the Lamb of God, is God's revelation. Revelation to us. [00:12:22] He's the express image of the invisible God. [00:12:26] The revelation of Jesus Christ given by the Father, given by God the Father to his servant John for all his servants. For that information. [00:12:40] Now part three of tonight's introduction is titled the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. [00:12:50] Your scriptural foundation for this is Revelation, chapter 19, verses 6 through 9. [00:13:03] And I would reference also in the in the New Testament, the parable of the marriage dinner found in marriage in Matthew, chapter 22, verses 2 to 4, and the parable of the great supper in Luke 14, 16, 24. [00:13:25] So we have a Galilean wedding, the title the Lamb of God, the marriage supper of the Lamb or of the marriage dinner. [00:13:40] So there is the why we're going to see tonight. [00:13:44] You're going to see the invitation in the marriage supper was already given last week and it'll be reinforced. And then part four of tonight's introduction is titled the Wrath of the lamb. [00:14:01] Revelation chapter 6, verses 16 to 17 details the opening of the sixth seal. [00:14:11] Now I'll talk about that in a minute. And Also Revelation, chapter 14, verses 9 to 11 adds further detail in what you'll read in chapter 6. [00:14:25] So remember the revelation of Jesus Christ, given by God the wrath of the Lamb. [00:14:35] Beginning with chapter six in Revelation, you will begin to see as recorded, the seven seals or the seven seals of judgment. This is all part of the why the marriage supper, the seven sealed judgments followed by the seven trumpet judgments. [00:15:00] So the seventh seal that is opened by the Lamb of God, the only one worthy to open the scroll, the seventh seal that he opens will open the first trumpet or initiate bring the first trumpet judgment in seven trumpet judgments, and they are followed by seven bowls or vials of judgment. [00:15:29] Now it's important for us to understand as God's children, if you're born again, if you've called on the name of Jesus, you will be saved. Jesus said you need to believe Jesus is who he is, which is why we're talking about him. There's many other things you'll hear that you need to do, but the Bible's very clear. [00:15:55] That's one of the things. The first thing these judgments or the wrath of the Lamb is what we're going to look at in 1 Thessalonians Paul's letter to the Church, I repeat to the Church in Thessalonica, chapter 4, verses 1 13, and also chapter 5, verses 1 11. These are key scriptures that Paul the Apostle is given the Church when they had questions on the events to come. [00:16:36] The timing of some of these events, he's bringing clarity to. [00:16:43] He's bringing clarity into their confusion because they have questions. [00:16:50] Seven seals of judgment, seven trumpets of judgment, seven bowls of judgment. [00:16:58] These occur during what is called the Great Tribulation. [00:17:02] This is not the Antichrist or Satan bringing wrath upon the world. It's God the Father bringing wrath upon the world. Jesus is going to judge the world, those that are alive on the world, through these judgments. And you'll see or begin to see why. The why part, not necessarily the when. Let's not focus on when, but why do we need to understand the Rapture? [00:17:34] That's important, the why. [00:17:37] So my question right now, before I get into the rest of the message, is you are being given knowledge tonight. [00:17:48] And you were told that you should never take what I say at its face value. You should pick up a Bible, go into the Bible and either confirm or deny what I'm saying as the truth or a lie. [00:18:07] Why should you do that? For the saving of your soul? [00:18:13] If I'm giving you the truth, you will be reinforced and able to stay steadfast and your hope will be built up today in the time that we're in, and you will begin to look up and eagerly await the return of Christ. Because there will be a second coming of Christ. [00:18:34] There was a first Advent, there's a second coming. And the event that we're going to talk about in a few minutes and is going to happen in between those two events. [00:18:47] So my question for those that listen, that are hearing, and I pray tonight, Lord, let the Spirit, let those hear what the Spirit saying to the churches tonight. Open our ears. [00:19:04] The definition of wisdom is applied knowledge. [00:19:09] The Bible refers to it in the Book of James as be a doer of the word, the knowledge that you're given, and not a hearer, only deceiving yourself. [00:19:24] So you're being given knowledge tonight. I encourage you to go confirm it in the Bible. [00:19:31] And my question to you is, will you be wise or will you be foolish? [00:19:47] Now part of your homework and as a teacher in the body of Christ, as a pastor, I wouldn't be doing my job if I just got up behind the pulpit and preached or taught at a midweek service without giving you homework, I need to challenge you. The message should come from the Holy Spirit and it should prick us in our hearts to challenge us to take this information and go research it. [00:20:21] So if you look at Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, you will see there is an outline, he gives an introduction, and within the introduction you'll see the purpose for the letter, a survey throughout the letter, special features noted within that letter and a basic reading of it. We talked about hermeneutics last week. [00:20:53] So you're going to be given the word of God tonight, rightly divided. [00:20:59] In other words, I'm not going to cherry pick scriptures to make a point to you tonight. I'm going to give you the scriptures, the truth, the word of God in the context that it was given. [00:21:15] The context Remember a Galilean wedding and remember Galilee and Judah are both in Israel. [00:21:24] Galilee to the north, Judah to the south. [00:21:29] These are distinct regions separated by Samaria. [00:21:34] And there are cultural and traditional distinctions between Galilee and Judah. All you need to know tonight is there's geographical distinctions, there's population and cultural differences. We talked about those with the Galilean wedding last week. There are political and economic differences, there's religious observance differences, and there's social perceptions and historical contexts within these two regions that are different. [00:22:12] Just like I was born in New Jersey on the East Coast, I have family in Arizona. We have differences. [00:22:25] We're also going to look at what is the end time, what's called the end time timeline. [00:22:32] And I want you to keep this question in your notes for now. Can the return of Christ truly be said to be imminent? In other words, it can happen at any time without warning. [00:22:47] Remember that question. [00:22:51] Because the Rapture, I would tell you this evening is going to be the imminent return of Christ and yet the second coming of Christ. [00:23:04] There is signs given to us by Jesus himself on what will occur before that happens. [00:23:14] You will see tonight in the scriptures that what is called by the church the Rapture and I will give you these definitions shortly because there is a lot of, there's a lot of information on the, on the Internet that's false information. [00:23:38] It starts out with a truth, but the concluding remark is false. The truth is the word Rapture is not in the Bible. [00:23:49] The false statement is there is no rapture. Now, unfortunately, the majority of people today do not believe in an event called the Rapture. [00:24:02] And yet at the same time, the majority of people in the world believe that there will one day be an end of the world. And A large part of that percentage actually believes when surveyed that will happen in our lifetime. [00:24:21] The majority of the people in the world could care less about the rapture because they don't believe that Jesus Christ is who he said he is. And that's the sad thing. That's the. That's why the Church was given a commandment to witness for Christ. [00:24:46] Now, if you look at Thessalonians, which we will do in a minute. Before I get into that, I just want to. [00:24:53] I want to clarify something. [00:24:56] I'm going to give you some definitions. [00:25:02] We're going to start. What is the rapture of the Church? That's what we're going to look at. [00:25:09] Now, the word rapture came from a theologian who translated the Bible into Latin. [00:25:24] The word rapture. The word for rapture is primarily raptus. That's R A P, T U S. It is derived from the verb rapure, R A P E R, which means to seize or to carry away. [00:25:46] This is important. [00:25:48] Remember in the Galilean wedding, we talked about when the bride heard the trumpet blow and she came out into the street, the groom's entourage set a gurney down with a chair in it, and the bride humbly got into that and they lifted her up to carry her away to the groom's father's house. This is information that we found out through historical documents today. [00:26:26] It means to seize or to carry away. So in classical and ecclesiastical Latin, those are. That's a big word. Raptis simply means. [00:26:40] It conveys a sense of being carried away, being seized or being transported. [00:26:49] Now, in a theological context, as a believer, what does this mean to you? It means Christ is going to carry away the faithful people to heaven. [00:27:05] That's why we're going to look at 1 Thessalonians 4:17. You'll see this in verses 13 through 18. [00:27:14] And it is directly tied in to what Jesus said as a Galilean in the parables and his explanations. [00:27:24] Simply, when the disciples said. [00:27:28] When he talked about the end of the world, they asked the question, lord, when will this happen? When will these events take place? And that is what is called Jesus's Olivet discourse. [00:27:44] So from a theological context, the bride of Christ will be lifted up or carried away. [00:27:56] Now, what is. Why am I saying this to you? The New Testament was written in cone Greek, not in Hebrew, not in Aramaic and not in Latin. It was written in Greek when Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world during his empire. [00:28:23] Classical Greek was converted, for lack of a better term, by Alexander and what we call today cone Greek because he wanted his empire to be able to understand the Greek language. So they simplified it. [00:28:43] Apostle Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament was from what is today modern Turkey. [00:28:55] He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, as the word of God said. [00:28:59] He spoke Hebrew. [00:29:03] Jesus would have spoken Aramaic from Galilee, which was a different dialect. And probably they spoke in Judah the Hebrew. But the bottom line is the Pharisees and the religious leaders still spoke Hebrew. [00:29:20] And they wrote in Hebrew the documents for what they understood as the church at the time. [00:29:31] So Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles goes out and he writes in Greek. [00:29:45] The Greek word for that Latin concept meaning caught up is the word harpazo, which means to seize, to snatch or to take away swiftly. [00:30:02] When we look in first Thessalonians, the word rapture is not going to appear in 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, within verses 13 to 18, however, the word harpazo is going to when it was translated into English and we'll see that. [00:30:29] So is the specific Latin word for rapture in the Bible? [00:30:37] No, not in the new King James Version. Not in the King James. [00:30:43] It's not in the English Standard Version. [00:30:47] These are three Bibles that are word for word translations which I would recommend you use. [00:30:56] It's not in those. [00:30:58] However, the phrase, the word harpazo for the phrase caught up or to carry away is. [00:31:06] And remember again, going back to the Galilean wedding, the bride would get into that litter and be lifted up and carried away to the room that the groom prepared at the father's house. [00:31:30] So we see, we're going to see throughout Scriptures as we move forward into these teachings that all the information that Jesus gave us when he said, I must leave, but I will come back, I'm going to prepare a room for you in my father's house. [00:31:52] He said that to the disciples because they understood he was talking about a wedding. [00:32:00] So we have to understand he's talking about and giving us information from his culture to his people. Jesus is speaking from his heart to the heart of the people that are listening to him. [00:32:18] If we don't understand the Galilean culture in context with these scriptures, we have. And if we don't convey this information, we have gutted the gospel. [00:32:33] We've gutted Christ from the gospel. [00:32:37] The church is so divided today. [00:32:40] It is such a travesty. [00:32:42] How is the world? [00:32:45] I have unsaved family members and their question to me, does dad or cousin, how come the church. [00:32:57] What says is the Christian church can't agree on anything when the first century church was in agreement to everything. It was the outside world that didn't agree with them, that persecuted them. Today. [00:33:14] And I'm going to. I want to. [00:33:17] You can hear the voice of God several ways. [00:33:21] The Holy Bible gives us at least, at least 18 different ways that by inspiration of God, God tells us how he speaks to us. Not just audibly, but 18 different ways that at least I found when you learn how to hear the voice of God, you could boldly say what I'm going to tell you tonight. [00:33:50] He told me to teach the church who I am, why I came, and how important that is. [00:34:02] And I can tell you that it is a travesty within the body of Christ, the ecclesia, the church, whatever you want to call it, that we. [00:34:14] I'll just say we are unwilling to either gather together outside of the own walls of the assembly that we chose to gather with and can't work together over the commonalities. [00:34:29] And I will give you a personal example that out of 135 churches in Adams County, Pennsylvania, when we did the Hope for the City event to teach people about who Jesus was, only 13 churches that were invited participated in one way, shape or form were willing to do that. [00:34:56] The majority of them wouldn't do it. I believe some of them conveyed this to me and others didn't, that we were not of the denomination. I'll just say that they were. [00:35:12] And yet we're supposed to be part of the body of Christ. So my challenge to the church tonight is in addition to the homework assignment I gave you, while you're in the book of Revelation, read verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ given by God, and then go to chapter two and three and you'll see Jesus tell John his analysis through seven letters that are going to go to the church. [00:35:46] He tells the church, the body of Christ, what they're doing good, and he tells them what they're doing bad. And he says repent. [00:35:56] So when Jesus started his Galilean ministry, the first thing he said was repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [00:36:05] And here we go through the entire New Testament and Jesus, the word of God opens up in the book of Revelation with an astounding analysis of the church and tells them to repent or he's going to do certain things. [00:36:25] Those are some of the teachings we'll look at in the future. [00:36:31] So what is the rapture of the church in one phrase? It's the taking away. [00:36:43] Remember I said don't concentrate on when will this happen, this event, end time Event. [00:36:53] Because we're asking the wrong question. The question we need to ask is why is this event going to happen? [00:37:00] And that's what we're going to see tonight. [00:37:05] In the introduction, You were given the invitation, I called it to the marriage supper of the Lamb. [00:37:18] In the context. Remember, keep in mind a Galilean wedding and the wrath of the Lamb to come. [00:37:30] You'll see that in Revelation, but you're going to see the beginning of it today in the same letter to the church. And that's in. [00:37:41] So keep in mind, wedding, that's a key word tonight and a key phrase is the Lamb of God. [00:37:52] You were given the title, you were given scriptures, the marriage supper of who? Of the Lamb. [00:38:00] And the wrath to come, the judgment by God upon the earth of all those who rejected Christ. [00:38:09] Your Bible will show you it's the wrath of the Lamb. [00:38:15] When Jesus allowed himself, I'll repeat that, allowed himself to be crucified. [00:38:28] The purpose for that crucifixion was there had to be a perfect sacrifice. [00:38:35] 1. A lamb had to be sacrificed, as was culture, a requirement that was without spot and without blemish. [00:38:48] And that is Christ. So what did that crucifixion accomplish. [00:38:57] At the Last Supper? Jesus ushered in this new covenant by handing out a cup of wine. Go back and listen to the Galilean wedding and you'll see the father hand the groom a pitcher of wine and the groom hand the bride a cup, at which time it was the father. And this was the difference of the Galilean wedding. In all of the Middle east, out of all the Middle Eastern countries, the difference was the father of the groom gave the father of the bride a written covenant contract that was written in front of witnesses at the gate. That was the importance of the public. [00:39:44] The this public announcement. They needed witnesses to usher in the covenant. [00:39:49] The bride could never say. I never knew that it was given in writing. We have the Bible. We've been given a written covenant by God. [00:40:01] Jesus ushered in the new covenant, the Last Supper. [00:40:06] And he said, I will not partake of this fruit of the vine again until that time in the future when we are reunited. [00:40:18] He also said, I'm going to my father's house to prepare a room for you and then I will come back. The Galileans understood he was going to leave, but it was a promise that he was coming back. [00:40:36] So let's take a look at first Thessalonians. [00:40:41] Briefly, I'd like you to open your Bible, if you have it, to chapter one, verses one through ten. [00:40:48] Is Paul's greeting, or you could say his salutation and thanksgiving and his opening greeting to the church. Now, these letters that were written were called circular letters. [00:41:05] So they were given to somebody to bring to the church and they were instructed to pass this around to the other churches. [00:41:14] So this is just as applicable today. [00:41:17] Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever for us today as the church as it was in this day. [00:41:28] The Word of God, the eternal Word of God, heaven and earth will fade away, but the Word of God will not. [00:41:38] So if you look in the greeting, chapter 1, verse 10, it says, and I'm quoting this, I'm reading this directly from the Bible. [00:41:52] And to wait for his Son with a capital S. The Son of God from heaven, where is he at? Where is Jesus at? Where's the Lamb of God at? He's in heaven. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. [00:42:12] Even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. [00:42:20] I want to repeat that. [00:42:23] And I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to give you my own amplified version of this. [00:42:31] And to wait the church to wait for his Son, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God from heaven. [00:42:42] He's seated at the right hand of the Father whom he raised, whom the Father raised from the dead. [00:42:51] Even Jesus, which delivered. [00:42:55] Plural, past context. [00:42:58] Excuse me, past context. Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath of God. [00:43:06] It's a past tense. At the cross, Jesus said, it is finished. We need to understand what that means. [00:43:14] Your divine healing, which is the children's bread. [00:43:20] You'll see that when Jesus addresses the woman who wants him to deliver her possessed daughter, and he says, it is not good for me to give the children's bread to the dogs. And she makes a profound statement and says, yes, master, but even the dogs eat from the scraps from their master's table. And he delivers her on that faith, the daughter. [00:43:49] So you hear the phrase sometimes healing. Divine healing is the children's bread. If you're a born again believer at the whipping post by his stripes, you were healed. You're healed in the heavenlies. Whatever your infirmity or affliction is, you need to apprehend that by faith it is finished. [00:44:15] And now we're going to look at verse. [00:44:18] We're going to go to Thessalonians 4, 13, 18. [00:44:27] The sudden coming of the Lord. I gave you the definition of the word imminent and asked the question tonight. Is the return of the Lord truly imminent? [00:44:40] The sudden coming of the Lord. He's coming Keep this in mind. He's coming. To do what? [00:44:49] To deliver. [00:44:53] The deliverer is coming. [00:44:57] He's coming soon. [00:45:01] There was such. [00:45:05] There was such an understanding of what Jesus meant in the first century that there was a reverent fear of God which is waned significantly today. [00:45:20] And there's many reasons for that. [00:45:26] But there was a sense of urgency. And I can tell you the purpose of meeting at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania each Wednesday is for you to be inspired back, if you haven't been there, to have a sense of urgency for the return of Christ. The imminent return of Christ. [00:45:52] And another lesson will give you the difference. You'll see the difference between the catching up of the Church, the taking away of the Church, and the second coming of Christ. [00:46:05] Just as a side note, not to tickle your ears, but to raise your curiosity, after chapter three in the Book of Revelation, the Church is never mentioned again until chapter 19. [00:46:23] Why is that, I ask? [00:46:26] Because it's not there. It's been taken away. [00:46:31] And then we're going to look at 1 Thessalonians 5, 1, 11. [00:46:43] So chapter four in Paul the Apostle, a true apostle of God, he has the title, he's been given that by Christ, and he's called of God to be an apostle. [00:47:00] So he's not using this title for any reason other than his apostolic authority for the word of God to be built upon the chief cornerstone and the apostles and prophets, as the Bible says. [00:47:18] First Thessalonians 4, 13, 18, verse 13. He opens with one of my favorite phrases, and I said this in lesson one. [00:47:33] But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. [00:47:48] We have a blessed hope. [00:47:50] And part of that is not just heaven, but that Christ will come back for what we're going to talk about in a few minutes. [00:48:02] Most people don't read or they hesitate to stay away from the Book of Revelation. It seems to most people as a very complicated book. [00:48:14] But if you keep in mind that first sentence you were given tonight, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ by God for his servants, given to his servant God. The whole book is about Christ. [00:48:30] It's not just about the Great Tribulation which most people think it is. [00:48:36] And again, the misunderstanding is the Great Tribulation is God pouring his wrath out among those that rejected Christ. [00:48:48] Now when we get into these judgments of Christ, you'll see the very first one is introducing the Antichrist. And Satan will pour his wrath out upon the world. At the same time So I can assure you, by the written word of God, if you are a human being breathing right now, you do not want to be alive during the Great Tribulation. [00:49:19] It will be literally hell on Earth. It will be the wrath of God, the wrath of the Lamb, poured out upon those alive on earth. [00:49:32] And that will trigger Satan pouring his wrath out to prevent as many as he can at this time in history, the history of the world, which will come to an end soon, from receiving Christ, from believing Christ. [00:49:53] People are going to cry out to the rocks in the mountains to fall on them, so they die. And they won't be allowed to. [00:50:03] Only the ones that receive, the ones that believe in Christ at this time will be martyred. The Bible says you'll be martyred then because of what the devil's going to do, what Satan's going to come with a vengeance after the rest of the possible people that will receive the kingdom of God. [00:50:31] And unfortunately, through research, through surveys given to us by Lifeway and Pew, these are legitimate surveys, survey companies. The majority of the world today does not believe in Jesus Christ, number one. [00:50:50] And a lot of the Church is losing its belief, whether he's even going to come or not. [00:51:00] And the beginning of that is by the Church teaching the world there's no such thing as the Rapture in the Bible, because that word's not in there. [00:51:11] Well, being caught up, you'll see, is. [00:51:17] So my prayer this evening opening was that your ears would be open to hear the truth. [00:51:24] And I will go back to when the Israelites came back from captivity to Israel. [00:51:33] They came in three waves. And in the second wave, the prophet Nehemiah and the priest Ezra came back. And their task was to rebuild the wall, rebuild Jerusalem from the destruction that God allowed to happen. [00:51:55] The Bible says Ezra, Nehemiah and Ezra called the people to one place, and they all came, all of them came to one location. And Ezra, from early morning to midday, read the Scriptures to God's people. [00:52:13] But this is a big but. [00:52:16] They received the Scriptures, the Word, because they were given an understanding. You've been given the knowledge and an understanding tonight. So will you be wise or will you be foolish with what you learned tonight? And I encourage you to be a Berean saint and go search the Scriptures and you will find if you do a hermeneutical study of the Bible, what I'm giving you tonight can be confirmed in the Word of God. [00:52:51] But I would not have you be ignorant. Brothers and sisters, he's talking to the Church. And the word ignorant means by definition, a lack of knowledge. [00:53:04] What's happened is Paul started a church in Thessalonica. [00:53:16] And Jews followed him there. [00:53:21] Jews that persecuted him followed him there and he had to depart quickly. [00:53:31] So in his departure, he senses he sends his protege Timothy to Thessalonica. And he says to him, I want you to see how the church is doing there. We didn't really get a chance to disciple them. [00:53:49] So Timothy goes there and he writes back to Paul and gives Paul what's happening. [00:53:59] One of the concerns that the church in Thessalonica had your brothers and sisters who are already sleep was there are some of our brothers and sisters that have died and we understand you're coming back, but we're confused what's going to happen to them? And you'll see Paul address this question in these verses, in these six verses. That's why he says, but I would not have you ignorant brothers and sisters concerning them which are asleep, so that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. So as the Church we should have hope. [00:54:44] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again. [00:54:50] Even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. [00:54:56] Did you understand that those that have gone before us, Those that have died in Christ, this applies to them. [00:55:10] For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. [00:55:27] So there's the answer to their question. [00:55:30] Just because we are still alive today and those that have died before us, we're not going to prevent those that are dead in Christ from this event. [00:55:42] Now here it is. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump or trumpet of God. [00:55:58] And the dead in Christ, in Christ shall rise first. Remember the Galilean wedding. The groom, when the Father said, go get your bride, the groom grabbed his shofar, his trumpet, went out in the street and walked through the community blowing the trumpet. [00:56:18] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up. [00:56:25] That's that Greek word, harbazo, that we talked about. Shall be caught up together with them, the dead in Christ in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. [00:56:41] And so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is a very important scripture. They are we which are alive on earth today, which are in Christ, will be caught up, which will be snatched up. [00:57:03] Caught up. Harpazo, together with those that have already died, that are in Christ, that are asleep, will be caught up in the clouds. [00:57:18] Remember when Jesus Ascended, he went up into the clouds. And the angel said to the disciples, this Jesus will come back the same way that he departed from you in the clouds. We will meet the Lord Jesus in the air, not on the ground in the air. [00:57:40] And so shall we be with Christ forever. [00:57:45] Will be with him forever. [00:57:48] Verse 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. [00:57:53] As the church, it doesn't matter what assembly you attend and gather with on Sunday or any other day of the week, we as brothers and sisters in Christ should be comforting one another with this hope. [00:58:10] It's a hope that we have that the world doesn't have. [00:58:17] Now we're going to jump over to chapter five, My subtitle for verses 13 to 18. [00:58:29] You can write this in your notes. This the sudden the imminent coming of the Lord. [00:58:37] First Thessalonians 4, 13, 18. [00:58:41] Now the subtitle for 1 Thessalonians 5:1 11. [00:58:48] The day of the Lord. [00:58:50] You're going to see what the day of the Lord is. [00:58:53] Verse 1. But of the times and the seasons. Brethren, brothers and sisters, you have no need that I write to you. [00:59:04] For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. [00:59:13] Now I want to pause a minute because we're going to look moving forward at scriptures where Jesus refers to this phrase, a thief in the night. Paul is quoting a scripture given by Christ. Remember, Jesus said, follow me 29 times in 12 conversations in the four Gospels. And then Paul, this very Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He's quoting a phrase given by Jesus, a thief in the night. [00:59:46] The why, the wrath. [00:59:50] Your hope. [00:59:53] If you are in Christ and you understand the Galilean wedding, the custom of that wedding and these scriptures you were just given with an understanding in first Thessalonians and I'm only touching the tip of the iceberg here. [01:00:12] If you have some understanding, I hope you have an inspiration to look further into this. [01:00:21] You will not be one that's caught as a thief in the night because you would have prepared for your wedding day. That's what we are to do right now. We're being prepared. We have to be in preparation. Just like the bride in the Galilean wedding in the first century. That's what we are supposed to do right now. [01:00:44] It's the world that will be caught as a thief in the night. The majority of the people today on earth which don't believe when this event happens, these events take place, they will be caught by surprise because right today they could care less about them. They don't believe. [01:01:06] They're like the days of Noah. They're marrying and giving away in marriage. [01:01:12] What are we doing today? [01:01:14] Does it have anything to do with our eternity? [01:01:18] What is our preparation? [01:01:21] Verse 3. For when they say. [01:01:25] When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail upon a woman with child. [01:01:34] And they shall not escape. [01:01:37] They shall not escape when they say peace and safety. There's a lot of people in the world, especially our current president, trying to have peace talks with the Middle East. [01:01:50] And he's proclaimed at times there is peace coming through this peace accord that he's part of. He is actually being used to fulfill biblical prophecy right now. Whether he knows it or not. [01:02:10] It is the unbeliever who will be saying peace and safety. [01:02:16] This could mean that the world will be expecting and hoping for peace. But the day of the Lord and its worldwide distress will come upon the world suddenly as a thief in the night. And that will destroy any hope for peace and security. [01:02:37] Those living at this time during the wrath of the Lamb, we'll have all hope and any security within peace in the world. It'll be totally destroyed. [01:02:52] The seven seals of judgment, the seven trumpets of judgment, the seven vials of judgment being poured out by God, his wrath upon the earth. There is no peace. [01:03:11] Unfortunately. [01:03:12] I believe, and my belief comes from statistics given by Lifeway and Pew Research. [01:03:24] By surveying the church, most of the church does not believe in the Rapture. Today, Out of 450 random sermons that these two research companies surveyed the church, they found out that only 2% of those random 450 sermons that they looked at, only 2% of them included any, any scriptures at all that had anything to do with Bible prophecy. And yet 27% of the Bible is Bible prophecy. And that statistic is even more so in the New Testament. [01:04:16] And it's not being preached. So do they not have an understanding? [01:04:21] Because right now there should be a sense of urgency for the church to have an understanding of where we're at and what's going to happen, what's coming. [01:04:32] And it needs to be preached and taught. [01:04:37] Verse 4. But you brothers and sisters are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. [01:04:45] You are all the children of light and the children of the day. [01:04:51] We are not of the night nor of the darkness. [01:04:54] We are children of lights, the Father of lights. [01:04:58] Therefore let us not sleep as do others. And he's not talking about the dead here, but let us watch and be sober. [01:05:09] We should be watching the times. [01:05:12] And we should be diligent in our preparation to get ready for the wedding feast of the Lamb. [01:05:21] We were invited. The invitation's gone out. [01:05:25] If you've accepted it, you need to still be doing something. [01:05:30] For they that sleep in the night and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober or diligent, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. [01:05:46] And for a helmet. The hope of salvation. The blessed hope of salvation. [01:05:53] Verse 9. Highlight this for God. [01:05:57] God has not appointed us the church to wrath, but to obtain salvation, final salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. [01:06:11] If you search the Scriptures, you'll see that we are called to righteousness, onto holiness and onto final salvation. [01:06:22] For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with with Him. [01:06:39] Wherefore comfort yourselves together, edify or lift up one another, even as also you do. That's what we should be doing right now. That's the purpose of this Wednesday evening. [01:06:57] The opportunity to speak at this platform is why in my prayers daily, I bless each day Community media of South Central Pennsylvania. Because whether they were aware of this or not, every single crown given, every jewel given from every opportunity people have to believe in Christ through this message, they will be a part of that once more. [01:07:34] I ran out of time. [01:07:37] One of my hopes and prayers I love in the book of Acts, when Paul went somewhere, he was able to speak to an audience from when he opened his mouth until the day. [01:07:50] And they listened just like Ezra, but he was giving them an understanding of the word of God. [01:07:59] You've been given knowledge tonight. [01:08:03] You've been given an understanding of that knowledge. I encourage you. [01:08:09] I beseech you, brothers and sisters, go search the Scriptures. [01:08:17] And now I'm going to pray over all of us. [01:08:21] Father, I just pray and I come before you in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names in this world and in the world to come, who sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father. [01:08:37] And we thank you that you will say one day to Jesus, son, go get your bride. And when he comes, he will call us to him, catch us up in the air, in the clouds to him, his feet never touching the ground. [01:08:59] And in the future, I ask that you inspire the spirits of the church to go look at the Second Coming. Because Jesus touches down his feet, then these are two, clearly two separate occurrences. [01:09:17] So I'm asking you by your spirit, to send your spirit out and put it on our hearts to search the Scriptures. [01:09:28] I pray for a divine hunger and thirst, for the church to be prepared as a bride in preparation for that eager and exciting day. This is our betrothal period. [01:09:46] They had to wait in the first century for one year. [01:09:50] We've waited longer than that. [01:09:53] But your Word says a day to the Lord is as of a thousand and a thousand as of a day. [01:10:00] We don't know when you're coming, but we do know, and we have the evidence through the Scriptures that your return will be imminent, that you will come as a thief in the night. [01:10:12] So I pray that you prepare your church, prepare our hearts to understand, put a sense of urgency and a fear of the Lord in all of us, to prepare ourselves for that day so that we are not left behind. [01:10:32] A reverent fear. [01:10:36] Because there's many people occupying seats in the church that are not prepared. [01:10:47] Some of them by their own self will and others because they haven't heard the truth yet. And yet your Word says there is no excuse for any. [01:10:58] For the glory of God is all over the heavens and the earth and we have no excuse. [01:11:04] But there are those called to teach and preach and we are all called to be witnesses for Christ. [01:11:15] So we are in a time where we need to be telling everyone that yout send us to. [01:11:27] That are poor in spirit. So Lord, I pray that yout put on the hearts of the church to ask youk each day where would you'd have us go? [01:11:37] Because you know where that low hanging fruit is. [01:11:40] So that we're not spinning wheels speaking to those that have already purposed in their heart, that already have hardened hearts like Pharaoh, that they will not believe. [01:11:53] We need to go to the ones in the highways and the byways. [01:11:58] Just like the parable where the Father, the. The the owner sent his servants out to bring those others back in to give them the invitation. [01:12:14] I thank you God, that your word never returns empty. [01:12:19] I thank you for the opportunity to speak those messages that you put on my heart that can be confirmed by the word of God, that are rightly divided to give an understanding to your people. [01:12:36] Because your Word says in Hosea four, six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And the lack of knowledge that you were talking about is knowledge of God. Which is why you put on my heart to get behind a microphone and tell the truth and the Word, the world, who you are, so that all of heaven rejoices over one sinner that comes to repentance. [01:13:08] But you also said that you already know that many will not, most will not. And we see that statistically today through research and surveys. [01:13:19] And we see that number growing. [01:13:24] How can the world. [01:13:27] How can the world be inspired without your spirit from the church, which is so divided that they look at us and say, my, how they argue today when they said of the first century church. [01:13:44] My, how they love one another. [01:13:48] And those people were the ones that turned the world upside down. So, Lord, I pray that we all have this revelation. [01:13:55] To love one another be salt and light. [01:14:00] We know God. I know that's your purpose. [01:14:03] I know that I've given them the scriptures. [01:14:06] I know that you cannot lie. For these scriptures are in my heart. So I can boldly thank you today for already answering this prayer. I believe you already answered it before I even came in here to give utterance to the message you gave to me. [01:14:24] So hallelujah. Praise God and thank you. We bless you, Father, for blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. [01:14:40] And that you will come send your son, the Lamb of God, to come and get his bride before the wrath of the Lamb is poured out on this lost and dying world. [01:14:54] Amen. [01:14:57] Holy, holy, holy Lord God, God Almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to thee Holy, holy, holy.