The Rapture of the Church

First Thessalonians chapter one, maybe pick up where our brother William left us this morning with the truth of the rapture. I've been thinking upon that quite a bit and we might look at it or prove it maybe in a little bit of a different way than we're used to. We generally would go to First Thessalonians chapter four but we're going to eventually go to chapter five and just show you the chronological movement of the Spirit of God from four to five but we'll start in First Thessalonians chapter one.

We'll keep a close eye on the time here, make lots of room. So maybe this affects more the younger people. There's such a rise of Reformed theology around us.

The truth of the rapture is looked upon as being something that J.N. Darby would have come up with. It's amazing. You go and google it and they'll say the brethren J.N. Darby, you know, 1800s and whatever but what we're going to do is we're going to go to the first century.

I guess you can't really get any better than that. We'll go right back right to the source and we'll see what they actually taught and what they believed and for the younger people, you know, sometimes some of these things you might think, oh well that's just what they believe in the gospel hall. Well I would try to encourage you some of the things that I will say and others will say.

Take it home and prove it to yourself. Go through the references and just look at it as if you had to defend it because you're probably going to meet people at school well-meaning and they're going to say, well you believe in the rapture, what's that? And so you got to know how to defend these things from the Word of God. So just nice and quickly, it's lovely the backdrop of first Thessalonians.

Paul was only there for about three weeks and there was tremendous persecution and there was a letter written, you can get that when you get into second Thessalonians, where someone had signed it by Paul. It was a false letter. You're in the tribulation.

No, no, Paul says by the Spirit. So it's nice to incorporate the backdrop on which some of these words are going to appear. What you're going to notice here in chapter one is you're going to have a reference to the wrath.

And then you're going to find the very same Greek words in chapter five, the wrath. That's what I'm going to show you. So verse number nine, he reminds them of chapter one, he reminds them of their salvation.

For they themselves show of us what manner of unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So here's the verse we want. Verse number 10, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Now in our English Bible, I emphasized in verse 10, the three times that you have the English word from, from, from, it all sounds the same in our English. But in the Greek language, you've got two very distinct words for that English word from. You have a word that means away from.

And then you have a word that means out of. Okay? So they're very, very distinct. Those that want to study this, Mr. Newberry, I recommend his Bible.

He has a prepositional chart just before the New Testament. And he shows you a fascinating array if you want to get deep into the scripture, and he'll show you that. So we have an English word for away from, then we have an English word, a Greek word for out of.

Now I'm going to read the verse, and I'll insert the meaning. I want you to notice how carefully the Spirit of God has done this. Verse 10, and to wait for his son from out of heaven.

We know that the Lord Jesus is right in the midst of heaven. He's seated at the right hand of his Father. We all understand that.

And whom he raised from the midst, out of the dead. We know that he didn't just come up to the border of death. He went right into death.

And the Spirit of God in himself, he came out of death. Here's where it changes. Which delivered.

Sounds like a past tense, but it's a present parsable. Something that's ongoing. Which is delivering us away from the wrath to come.

See how carefully the Spirit of God made a change. If the Spirit of God hadn't have made that change, this Bible then would teach mid-tribulation rapture. Out of the wrath to come.

But how carefully the change. So dear child of God, it's always good to pay attention just to grammar. Pay attention to change of words.

Pay attention to the whole context. And this is how we come away with an understanding of what the Bible teaches. Now let's go over to chapter 5. I want you to notice quickly how chapter 4 ends.

Sometimes in our minds we can allow chapter divisions to almost segment a letter. As if what's in chapter 4 is completely separated from chapter 5. But you know back in that, I mean the chapter divisions, verse divisions, that didn't come until like the 1500s and something. Prior to that it was just the way you and I would write a letter.

Just one long letter, paragraph, paragraph. So sometimes when you're reading a passage, an epistle, sometimes it's nice to try to eliminate the chapter numbers and just see where the natural divisions occur. I want you to notice how we end chapter 4. This is where we normally go to prove the rapture of the church.

Look at verse number 17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up. That's four English words, but that's actually one Greek word.

You want to learn a little Greek today? Harpazo. There it is. We're all Greek scholars now.

That is the Greek word harpazo. When that Greek word is picked up by the Latin and it starts to move into English, that's how we end up with the English word rapture. Okay? So there will be people and they will say to you, oh you people in the gospel hall, you believe in the rapture and the word's not even in the Bible.

Well, here's your comeback. Harpazo. That's it.

And then just Latinize it. Raptor and raptus and rapture when it eventually comes into our English. So the English word might not be there, but the actual truth of it, and of course it's linked with the raptor, which comes down quickly and snatches away his prey.

That's the idea. It's the idea of being caught away quickly. So we have a biblical word that has that truth in it.

Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. So the truth of the rapture is a comfort.

It is. Marvelous. You ever sometimes think of what we did here this morning, the Lord's Supper, this doing remembrance of me.

And we can always just have a backward look. Calvary. Isn't that wonderful? But what did the Lord add? Until I come again.

There's a forward look as well. It's perfectly balanced in what we are doing, what we did here this morning. But then notice how it flows into chapter five.

You have a perfect chronological flowing of events. And this is where I stick when I'm arguing with these people. Verse number five, but he just moved out of a comfort, something that comforts the believers.

And you can almost tell by the word, but it's like a change of feel in the context, but of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write onto you for yourselves know perfectly that. The day of the Lord. Oh, now, if you're studying the Bible, obviously you're going to start to look up phrases, words, where do they appear? You take this phrase, the day of the Lord.

It only appears three times in the New Testament. That's kind of interesting. Then you start to look back in the Old Testament and you'll discover it's 27 times in the Old Testament.

This is going to take some time. So you go back into the Old Testament and you start going through the first time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time. By the time you get going through them, there's one thing that's going to become very clear to you.

Judgment, darkness. This is not a positive scene. How do we leave chapter four? Meet the Lord in the air.

Wherefore comfort. Now, all of a sudden, but, and now we run right into this phrase, the day of the Lord, no comfort judgment. So right away, you can see how things are starting to change.

The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief. Oh, you start to look up that Greek word. How many times does that appear in the New Testament? 16 times.

Start looking at the first time it appears, the second time, the third time, go through all 16 of them. What will you discover? The context is on believers. Always.

Without exception. So the Spirit of God has given us a volume, a book, that is precisely put together. It's not haphazard.

It's not just throwing, like you and I, like me, if I'm writing a thank you note to an assembly and I'm, you know, I don't want to be too short. I don't want to be too long. So I sometimes will throw in added words just to fill it up a little bit.

I'm just being honest with you. Spirit of God never does that. Nothing is a filler.

Nothing is extra. Everything is perfectly placed. What are we doing when we go through this process? We're allowing the word of God to fill the mind.

It's not me coming to the Bible with a preconceived idea and I want it to say this. This is how we defend the truth of the rapture. This is how we see the distinction between the rapture, the Lord coming to the clouds to call his believers away, and this is how we make a distinction between the return when the Lord comes right down to the earth.

So we'll just keep on moving here. The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now he's going to start to use this night and day quite a bit.

Now here's what I want you to notice. I'm going to introduce you to the definite article. We all know what the definite article is.

T-H-E. In our English, we have the indefinite article A-A-A-A. Then we have the definite article the.

In the Greek, there's no indefinite article. Not at all. That's why when you're reading a particular Newberry Bible, every time you see the word A, it's going to be often italicized because it's just not in the Greek language.

The power of the definite article is what I want to show you here. What we're going to read in the next couple of verses, I want you to notice when he calls it the day and then he says day. The day.

Day. He started out by introducing us to the day of the Lord. A very unique day.

Just for the younger people, I know grammar is...I wish I had paid more attention when I was in school, but I know your grammar today. They've really done away with a lot of this stuff. There's a tremendous power in understanding the word of God.

It'll just come alive to you when you get a little bit of grammar. If I took you out to the parking lot to show you the power of the definite article and I just said, you know, parking lot full of cars and you're just looking around like this, all of a sudden I would say, now look at the car. All of a sudden you've lost sight of the entire parking lot and now you're focused on one unique car.

This is what's going to happen here. He's going to talk about day just in the general sense. I'll show you where that comes in and then it'll in will come the day.

He's gone right down to something very unique. So keep that in mind. Look at verse three.

For when they...you notice that? This is another thought. Notice the pro...when they, not we. No.

How come he changed? What happened in chapter four? We, which are alive and remain. We, we. All of a sudden the believers are taken out up to meet the Lord in the air as the, as the chronological flow of the story is developing.

Times and seasons. The day of the Lord. Darkness.

Judgment. They. The believers are not there.

See that? That's so important to notice that. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon us? No. Them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.

What's happening? You see that English word travail? Look up that Greek word. You know where you'll find it translated as sorrow? Matthew 24. The Lord Jesus is taking the disciples.

Matthew chapter 24 verse 1 to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Those verses. He's taken them through the four horsemen of a revelation. And all of a sudden he gets after the fourth horseman.

The tribulation period. And what does he say? These are the beginning of sorrow. Travail.

You know what the Spirit of God has done there? He's dropped a time marker for you. From Matthew 24, right here to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. So all of a sudden the Spirit of God is bringing in context for you. Oh, I see what's happening.

Then I back up peace and safety. This is getting us into another big old line on Sunday, but Daniel chapter 9, the signing of the peace treaty. Have you ever seen the amazing things that's going on in this world? I think we're living in tremendous times.

I have believers that are asking me questions. Are those peace treaties they're striving for in Israel? Is that the peace treaty the man of sin is going to sign? No, no, no. The rapture hasn't happened yet.

We can go further into 2nd Thessalonians. And right now the Spirit of God is called the restrainer. And he's holding back the devil and the plans that he wants for this world.

I can guarantee you this from the scripture. There will be no ultimate peace treaty signed with Israel until the church is raptured home. That's what the Bible teaches.

Then the devil will be allowed to finally bring the ultimate peace treaty between the Arabs and Israel. It's true. We're just looking at the setting of the stage.

That's all we're looking at. So don't get distracted by all of these things that are happening. Keep to the Word of God and understand all of these secular events and how the Word of God lays out the chronological order.

Notice what we read now in verse number four. But ye, brethren... Now he comes back to the Christians. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that... Now in our English Bible we don't have the definite article.

But if you have a Newberry Bible, you'll see the little tiny x. I'm going to insert it for you. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief. The day of the Lord.

Once again you have another statement. The day is not going to overtake you as a thief. Why? Because we're raptured home and out of here.

Keep reading. Verse number five. Ye are all the children of light and the children of... Now in your English Bible, do you know as the is italicized? It's not the day he's talking about.

He just says you're linked with the day. Daytime. Light.

Now I know this is Sunday afternoon. You're probably thinking, oh my land, too much grammar. Well, wake up.

This should excite you. We are not a group of people that have gotten together and came up with this tremendous truth of the rapture. No.

We're looking at the scriptures. And God has given me a peek into it. And he's let me see it.

What a wonderful thing that is, dear child of God. There's something that we are missing today. We don't hear enough about prophecy because we think it's too heavy.

Shame on us. Man, I like to see someone who goes and buys an iPhone, newest one. It's too new.

It's too heavy. I won't touch it. Get your mind into it and the spirit of God will enlighten you.

Tremendous. Paul was only three weeks, we find in the book of the Acts. It was with these believers.

And then he left. What does he say in second Thessalonians chapter two? He says, do you not remember I told you these things? He would say, oh my land, why would you tell young believers about prophecy? Get a hold of the future, dear child of God. It will keep you out of the world.

Okay. God has tremendous bright future for us. And if we have an understanding of that, that will actually guide my feet right here when I live in this very dark world, because it's going to get darker.

Verse number five, you're all children of light and the children of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep.

Now that's an interesting word. When you're in chapter four, three times, them that sleep, them that sleep, them that sleep. But you'll notice it's a different Greek word.

In chapter four, it's the word that's linked with death. They've died, but to God, they're just sleeping because he can raise them again. What are we looking at here? It's the idea of slumber.

See, it amazes me, wherever you get the rapture in the Bible, how many times it's a reference to sleeping, being just not really engaged. This is what can happen to us. We can allow the world and everything just to sort of rock us to sleep.

And we can forget about what is really going to happen. So he's trying to encourage them. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.

I remember my father telling me, Scott, there was hardly a conference that we were at as young believers, year after year after year, where you wouldn't get people mention the rapture. When was the last time you heard the rapture? Well, I mentioned it last Sunday, last weekend stout, but not in my mind. When was the last time you heard it before that? We need to keep this before us because it is going to happen.

Not an amen. Are you sleeping? Wake up. It's tremendous, dear child of God.

This is the hope of the church. He's longing for it. Do you realize that? What a moment it's going to be when he steps out of heaven.

His father tells him to go and get his bride. Oh, what a moment. And he, for the first time, he calls the bride home and he sees the entire church moving off of this earth.

Saints that have died in Christ raised. Believers that haven't died changed. And one glorious bride just moves up to meet him.

We always think of the effect of the rapture on us. Think of the truth of the rapture on him. I died for these people.

I love these people. I want them with me forever in heaven. Where's the first time in the Bible you read the word love? You know this.

Genesis 22, the love of a father for a son, Abraham and Isaac. Where's the second time you read of the word love in the Bible? Isaac meets his bride and he loves her. My, what a lovely picture of Christ in the church.

It's tremendous. Keep that before you. Verse six, let us therefore not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep slumber, slumber in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

But let us who are of, definite article is italicized, we are of day. The idea of light or the daytime. Be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

For, oh I love this, God hath not appointed us to wrath. There it is. How did 1 Thessalonians 1 start off? We're going to be taken away from the wrath to come.

You've got the very same expression in chapter 5. He hasn't appointed us to go into the wrath because of the truth of the rapture. So keep that in mind as well. But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we, I love this, that whether we wake or sleep, it's not the word for death.

It's the word for slumber. You know, dear child of God, that to me is a tremendous encouraging statement. Do you know what God is telling you? Whether you're fully awake and looking forward to the rapture as a believer or whether you're slumbering as a believer, he's still going to take you.

What an encouragement to wake up. Well, this is not, the truth of the rapture is not just for those that are looking forward to it. No, no, no, no.

In Christ, linked with him, it's for all believers. So just how carefully the different words are being changed. They sound all the same to us in English, but this is where you have to go just and study just a little bit deeper.

Verse 10, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. These individuals were going through tremendous trials.

People had died because of their faith. And all of a sudden, the Spirit of God, right back to the first century, causes this man to pick up his pen, and that truth falls upon their ears. There's a comfort.

So, dear child of God, as I bring my comments to a close, I hope you're comforted by the truth of the rapture, and may we allow it to get down to our feet and affect our lives in such a way that we will live to glorify him.