Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: This passage has not been written to be dissected and analyzed and regurgitated in some theology class. It hasn't been written so that Christians can argue about it. It's been written to give us hope, the hope that Jesus is coming back and heaven is ours.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "Devotion." Let's listen in as JP gives part two of "The Rapture."

JP Jones: Nothing has to take place before Jesus could come back. He could come back at any time. In fact, Peter in 2 Peter 3 says this is one of the statements that mockers or criticizers will give. They'll say, "Yeah, you've been talking about His coming and it hasn't happened yet. When is it going to happen?"

In 2 Peter 3, the same thing as Jesus' teaching in Matthew 24 and Paul's teaching here in 1 Thessalonians 4 and chapter 5, it could happen anytime like a thief in the night. When you least expect it, when you're saying peace and safety, when you're having your nice comfortable discussion as if those things didn't really matter, the end could come and you're face to face with eternity.

For believers, that gives us great hope. Great anticipation, so that Paul would even say, "I would love to be in that company." There are going to be people alive when Jesus Christ comes back. He says in this teaching that there is a resurrection order. First, those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, are going to be resurrected and then those who are alive.

What this teaching is, is what we call the rapture of the church. In this passage, what it's saying is there's coming a time Jesus is coming back. Those who are alive are going to be witnesses to this event. Those who have already died in the Lord are going to be with Jesus. Then Jesus is going to first resurrect those who have died. Their bodies are going to be resurrected and then the experience is going to be for those who are still alive. They're going to be resurrected.

This event is known as the rapture because in the Latin Vulgate, which is the Latin translation of the Greek New Testament, because after the Greek New Testament was written and it was translated into various languages, Latin because of the influence of the Roman Empire was the dominant language and so the Greek Bible was translated into Latin. In the Latin Vulgate, the term there where it says and those who are alive are going to be caught up with the Lord, the Greek word is the word *harpazo*, which means to catch up or to snatch up or to grab.

The Latin word is *raptus*, and that's where we get the word rapture. If you've heard that or read anything about that, the doctrine of the rapture is this teaching of Jesus Christ coming back and gathering together believers to Himself. Those who have already died, resurrecting their bodies, and those who are alive, taking them up immediately to be with Him in heaven.

It's called the rapture of the church. Tremendous teaching to give us hope, to give us comfort, to encourage one another. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15, a parallel passage that goes into more detail about the resurrection dynamic because it says in 1 Corinthians 15 that this body is sown a perishable body, but it's raised up an imperishable body and then it says in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed.

Did you know that men are going to get to heaven before women? Yeah, because it says in Revelation 16 that there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. I said that last service and one of the women came up to me and said, "Well, if that's true, it's only because the Bible says the dead in Christ are raised first."

There is a resurrection order and this is what Paul wants to let us know. Remember the reason why he wrote this? What motivated him to even write this is a question in the minds of the people. What about my dear ones who have died? What's happening with them and will I see them again and what's God's plan for them? He writes words of hope and assurance. They're with the Lord.

When Jesus comes back, He's going to bring with them all who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Then there's this great resurrection event and first those who have already died to be with the Lord, they will receive resurrection bodies and then those of us who are alive are going to be caught up together with the Lord. We don't know when it's going to happen, but you know what's certain? It is going to happen.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you're still alive, you're going to be caught up with the Lord. Paul writes to the church at Philippi in Philippians 3 and says, "Our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we are eagerly awaiting a Savior who is going to translate and transform this humble body to be like His glorified resurrected body." That gives us hope, you see.

There's coming a time when Jesus is going to wipe away every tear, it says in Revelation 21. He's going to take away all pain, He's going to heal all cancer, He's going to restore all relationship, He's going to remove all sin, He's going to take away the very presence of evil and we will live eternally with Him in joy, in hope, in love. It's going to be greater than even we can imagine.

He writes these words to give us hope, to give us encouragement if we're followers of Jesus Christ. But he also writes these words of warning if we're kind of sitting on the fence, if we're not really sure where we are with God. Because he continues on in the next chapter just with the same idea talking about the reality of these events of Christ's coming and says in 1 Thessalonians 5:1, "Now brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they'll not escape."

In this same teaching about the reality of Christ's second coming, he talks about this event called the rapture and then he says but there is also the day of the Lord which is coming. All through the Old Testament and the New Testament, this same terminology, the day of the Lord, is used and it's always used about judgment. The day of the Lord is a time period of God's judgment when God punishes those who reject Him and rebel against Him and break His laws.

There are descriptions in the Old Testament of times where Israel experienced a precursor of the day of the Lord which is kind of a type of the ultimate day of the Lord which Paul is saying is coming. It's known as the tribulation or the great tribulation. Jesus spoke about it in Matthew 24 in great detail. It's one of the primary teachings of Jesus. In Matthew 24, he talks about some of the specific events that are going to be part of this day of the Lord and part of this great tribulation period.

Jesus uses the same terminology, by the way, that Paul uses here. He speaks about how it is going to come on like birth pains on a woman where at first the pain is less severe and infrequent and then it becomes more severe, more frequent and there's a regularity about it. In the same kind of analogy, Jesus and Paul say there's coming a time when God is going to judge this earth and those who have not obeyed His Son and responded to His offer of salvation.

There are going to be signs and there's going to be a pattern of the intensity of those judgments. Even that is to warn people so that when they see it happening, they can still repent. They can still come to an oil of knowledge of Him because they can see and read the times. So Paul says here, the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night and he says destruction will come like labor pains even while people are saying peace and safety. These are just the facts of the passage.

Then he comes back to this theme of hope for believers in Jesus Christ and he says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Even though the day of the Lord is coming and even though this time period of God's judgment, righteous judgment is coming, God hasn't appointed us for wrath. God has appointed us to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

These are the facts of this passage. But what about some of the specific timing and nature and events and dates, the stuff that makes up controversy? What about some of that stuff? Let me tell you, the hope of the church is the second coming of Jesus Christ. There are opinions about the second coming of Christ and godly people, sincere people hold different opinions.

I want to first of all say there's much respect we need to give to one another as we work out our understanding of certain things that we're not absolutely sure on. There needs to be a humility and a teachable spirit and there needs to be an appeal to what God's word says as our authority. Having said that, let me share with you what some of the main views are and then I'll tell you what my personal opinion is. You're free to disagree with it. You'd be wrong, but you're free to disagree.

I'm teasing you. Here are the main views among followers of Jesus Christ with respect to some of the differences of opinion. First of all, in terms of the nature of Christ's coming and the rapture and the millennial reign of Christ. That word millennium comes from Revelation 20 where it talks about Jesus reigning on earth for a thousand years. It says it five times that Jesus is going to reign on earth for a thousand years. In Latin, out of the Latin Vulgate, the word thousand is millennium.

The term millennium refers to this thousand-year period of Jesus' reign on earth and people have differences of opinion about that and they have differences of opinion about the rapture. So about Christ's coming and the millennium, there are three main views. One is called the post-millennial return of Christ. Post means after the millennium. This view goes something like this: all the language in the Bible about the rule of Christ on earth is symbolic and should be interpreted symbolically so it's not like a literal thousand, it's more of a symbolic kind of thousand, a long period of time.

What's going to happen is that the influence of Christians on earth is going to have such a great effect upon the community and society and business and education and everything else and the world's just going to get better and better and better so the millennium will be on earth and the world will get better and better and better and it's almost a state of perfection and then Jesus will return to a perfected earth. Not a whole lot of people believe that anymore. But that was a very strong view a hundred, two, three hundred years ago.

Here's another view: it's called amillennialism or the amillennial return of Christ and what that means is there is no millennium at all. All of that is figurative language, there is no reign of Christ on earth, the reign of Christ is in our hearts when we trust Him as our Lord and Savior, the reign of Christ is in heaven, the reign of Christ is in the church, but there's no actual reign of Christ on earth. The world's just going to continue on as it is with good and evil kind like the parable of the farmer who let the seeds sow the seeds and the evil one came and sowed weeds afterwards and the weeds and the wheat grew together and the farmer just said let them grow together and then at the harvest we'll separate them. This view says the world's just going to continue on and then there's coming a day and then Jesus is going to come back and He'll separate the wheat and the tare. That's called amillennialism.

Here's a third view: it's called premillennialism. Premillennialism says this: no, there is a significance in the order of things like the order of 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 5, like the order in Revelation 19 which speaks about the return of Christ and Revelation 20 which speaks about the thousand-year reign of Christ. There's a significance in terms of those orders. The preference in interpreting the Bible is a more literal interpretation, that words mean what they mean and you need to have a more grammatical historical literal interpretation of the Bible.

What that would give you is the premillennial return of Christ and that is that Jesus is coming back and then there's going to be a millennium, a thousand-year reign of Christ. He comes before the millennium and during this thousand-year reign of Christ, Jesus will restore the nation of Israel and fulfill all the promises that the Old Testament speaks about Israel. Jesus will reign as a king like King David as it's prophesied in 2 Samuel 7 and the promises to Israel are fulfilled literally and Jesus establishes His kingdom on earth. What was God's original intention that He would rule on earth is actually fulfilled that He rules on earth. Then the ultimate end comes, heaven and hell. You got three views: post-millennial return of Christ, amillennial return of Christ, premillennial return of Christ.

Now what about the rapture, this event spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4? Well, you got three views on the rapture also. You have what's called the post-tribulation rapture view and that teaches that the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation. There is this seven-year tribulation period, this day of the Lord period. Believers in the church, they go through the tribulation, they are alive during this time of the day of the Lord and then at the end of it, Jesus comes back and raptures the church. Post-tribulation rapture.

Then there's a second view called the mid-tribulation rapture. Many times in the Bible, this tribulation period is described in terms of seven years, it's described in three and a half years and three and a half years, it's described in terms of months, it's described in terms of days and there does really appear a first half and a second half even in the language that's used to describe it. So some people say that the rapture is going to happen right at that middle point. That's the mid-tribulation rapture.

Then the third view is the pre-tribulation rapture view. That says that Jesus is going to rapture the church and that's going to be the first event of this day of the Lord scenario, this end times panorama. First there's the rapture of the church and then there is the tribulation. But God has taken believers out of the earth and raptured them to heaven during this time of judgment during the day of the Lord, the tribulation. That is the pre-tribulation rapture view.

What's my opinion? Well, first of all, real quickly with respect to the millennium, it makes the most sense to me to take the premillennial view because Revelation 19 describes the second coming of Jesus, Revelation 20 describes the millennium, the thousand years. The thousand years is repeated thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years. It is true that there's a lot of symbolism in the book of Revelation, but the way John uses that terminology is so specific and he uses it so many times that he's using it in a definitive way, not in a figurative way. So it's a more literal sense. I think the literal sense makes the most sense. That's the premillennial return of Christ. Jesus comes back and then there is a thousand-year millennium.

What about the rapture of the church? Well, in this passage, in this context, in these verses, here's a couple of factors to help us try to come up with an idea. This is just my opinion, but it looks to me like this is what's happening. First of all, what's the bigger picture of the whole teaching? Hope, encouragement, comfort. That's his design. He's trying to write these things to give us comfort, not answer a theological question. Not make us more intelligent Christians, but to give us hope, to give us encouragement, to help us look at the future with a positive view.

Secondly, as we try to unwrap this passage, there's the chronological order in the way he writes. You've got to take that into account. The first thing he talks about is Jesus coming back and rapturing believers and gathering them together to be with Him forever. Then he talks about the day of the Lord. There is an emphasis in terms of one event and then another event and they're put side-by-side in the teaching.

Thirdly, in this passage after talking about the day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he comes back to this theme of hope because he says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, "God has not appointed us or destined us," the Greek word is *tithemi*, to place something in a specific place for a specific reason. "God hasn't appointed us for wrath," it says, "but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." The wrath of God is not something that any believer should ever fear. It says in Romans 8, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." God has taken the punishment for sin in our place.

But in this passage, what is the wrath that he's referring to? Is it the future end wrath, the final wrath of God, hell? Well, if so, you might find something mentioned of it in the context, but there isn't anything mentioned in the context. But what is mentioned in the context that relates to judgment? The day of the Lord. It makes the most sense in my understanding that the wrath that that's speaking of in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is the wrath that will be expressed in this day of the Lord period.

What's the promise of 1 Thessalonians 5:9 in its context? God has not appointed us to wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. God hasn't appointed us to experience the judgment of the day of the Lord, but to experience salvation. Well, what would give us salvation so that we don't have to experience the day of the Lord? The very thing he mentions at the end of chapter 4, when Jesus comes back and gathers believers up.

So it makes the most sense to me that the teaching of this passage is that the rapture's going to happen before the day of the Lord. That's the pre-tribulation rapture view. Now do you have to believe that view to be a Christian? No. Do you have to believe that view to be a member of Crossline? No. Do you have to believe that view to experience a dynamic relationship with Christ? No. But you know what you do need to believe? In fact, you know what you need to believe so that you will have hope, the blessed hope? Jesus Christ is coming back. And He's coming to save us, to deliver us, He's coming to take us to heaven.

Right now, Jesus wants to give you hope, whatever your life experience is. This passage has not been written to be dissected and analyzed and regurgitated in some theology class. It hasn't been written so that Christians can argue about it. It's been written to give us hope, the hope that Jesus is coming back and heaven is ours. That's a hope I can grab onto today. That's a hope you can grab onto today. Jesus Christ is coming soon. If you know Him, He's coming to give you all the fulfillment of what your heart cries out for.

If you don't know Him, you can get right with Him this morning. You could ask Him into your life right now. You could ask Him to forgive your sins and be your Savior right now and you could know with certainty the hope that He came to give us and the hope that He will give us because Paul says we believe that Christ died and that He rose again and so we believe He's coming back.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, *Facing Goliath*.

Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. Do you know the Bible says that Jesus Christ is coming back again? This is the blessed hope of the church. The hope that we live for is that Jesus is coming back to make all things new and all the reality of heaven will be ours. The Bible says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2: "Eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, it hasn't been revealed to man all the great things that God has for us." That's what heaven's going to be like. It's going to be the fulfillment of our wildest dreams about God's love and mercy and grace.

In fact, Revelation chapter 21 describes for us God's hope and plan of heaven and when Jesus comes back again, He's coming back to bring us to be with Him forever. That's what it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. This is what the Scripture says: "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

According to the Lord's own words, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words."

The coming of Jesus Christ gives us hope. The coming of Jesus Christ gives us encouragement. The coming of Jesus Christ gives us comfort. You see, right now, we struggle. We wrestle. Right now, we're in the midst of a spiritual battle as followers of Jesus Christ. But there's coming a day, there's coming a day and it may even be today that Jesus Christ will come back for His church and Jesus Christ will come to take us to be with Him forever.

The Bible says this is the blessed hope that we look forward to. Is that your hope today? Is the hope of heaven yours today? Is the hope of life eternal with Jesus Christ yours today? It can be and God wants it to be. If you'd like to experience the encouragement and comfort and hope of Jesus Christ, I invite you to pray with me right now.

Lord Jesus, I believe in You. I believe that You're the Lord and the Savior and I believe that You're coming back again and I look forward to meeting with You forever in the air, to being with You in heaven for all eternity. Fill me with that hope right now. Make that hope strong in my heart right now. And I ask for this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.