We're in our study here on page
120, ABCs of Christian Growth, and we are dealing with the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And on page 120 there, we will
continue through that. Last week, we discussed the promise
of his coming. We looked at his first coming,
and now we're going to look at the second coming here, beginning
with the mention of it being in two stages. So, in a sense,
the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was in two stages.
Remember, we had the prophecy of his birth, all those prophecies
of his birth, and we had the prophecies of the cross, or his
death, and also, as well, his resurrection and ascension and
so forth. So, just the same, says the coming
of Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem was a private event, unnoticed
by the world at large, Relatively few got to share the joy of the
moment, primarily those who were looking and waiting for his coming. We've got a few passages here.
Luke 2, 25 says, Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting
for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
In chapter 2, verse 36, it says, And there was one Anna, a prophetess,
The daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher, or Asher, she
was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from
her virginity, and she was a widow of about four score and four
years, 84, which departed not from the people, but served God
with fastings and prayers night and day, And she, coming in that
instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him
to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. This is speaking
of Jesus coming in in that time. And then one other passage here,
Matthew chapter two, verses one and two says, now when Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying,
where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen
his star in the east and we are come to worship him." So notice
that just a few came to see him. Just a few were a part of that
event. In fact, even the wise men were
a part of the event later. They came not at his birth, but
after he was two or three years old. or I think is about two
years old, if I remember correctly, is, but when our Lord hung upon
Calvary's cross, it was a public display in view of all. So too,
just like that, just like his first coming, his second coming
is going to be in two distinct stages. We use two words to distinguish
these phases. We talk about the rapture and
the revelation. Or, and often people will just
call the rapture the rapture, and then they'll say the second
coming of Christ is the second coming of Christ. That sometimes
confuses people, and then, you know, people say, well, what
about when Christ comes back, isn't
he coming back during the rapture? Well, yes, he is, but he's not
gonna set foot on the earth at that time. He's coming for the
saints. And then there's going to be
seven years of tribulation, and then, then there will be the
revelation where he will come with his saints and touch down
on the Mount of Olives. But the rapture of the saints,
we're going to look at here. And if you're watching online
and you disagree, please bear with me because there are some
good evidences here, although it doesn't deal with every possible
argument of disagreement in terms of when it happens and all of
that, but it does deal with some. This is an event, or a major
event, or the next major event, I'm sorry, on God's prophetic
calendar. The term rapture is not found
in the Bible, but it's meaning is, and the meaning of the word
rapture is to be caught up. In fact, the Greek word, if you
speak Greek, I don't think any of you do, but if you spoke Greek,
the word in Thessalonians there is harpuzzo,
which is like the harp or the pluck. And so the catching out
or to be caught up or to be plucked out, that's the concept there.
But the meaning there, caught up, is what we use for the word
rapture. Rapture, I believe is, if I remember correctly, it's
a Latin word describing the catching up of the saints. So we're gonna
look at some key scriptures about the rapture here. 1 Thessalonians
4, verses 13 through 18. But I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you, by
the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under
the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangels, and the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort one another with these words." Another passage that
deals with this concept here is 1st Corinthians 15 51 and
52 says behold I show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we
shall all be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye at
the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed then the other
passage that deals with it here is Philippians yeah Philippians
3 20 21. It says, for our conversation
is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. So we're
going to look at some true and false questions here. First question
here is, the rapture is an instantaneous event. Meaning it's not like
progressive, which happens over a long period of time. Instantaneous. It happens at a particular point
in time. True or false? True. Very good. Number two here. The rapture
concerns only deceased Christians. That is, only those who sleep
in Christ. False. You are correct. All right, at the rapture, the
Lord will send his angels to gather the saints and bring them
to heaven. That's a tricky one. Yes, the
answer is false. That is correct. In fact, when
you look at the other passages where it talks about the angels
gathering the elect from the four corners of the earth, that's
speaking of the end of the tribulation. That's speaking of the destruction
of people, not the salvation of people. That's not the rapture.
So, we're basing these answers mostly on the passages that we
just read. Okay, so, at the rapture, believers,
or saints, will be caught up into the air to meet Christ. Ooh, very good. At the rapture,
all Christians, living and dead, will receive a glorified resurrection
body. That's what 1 Corinthians 15
talks about there. That's going to be exciting. No more knee
problems, or elbow problems, or hip problems, or back problems,
or thigh problems. Praise the Lord. All right, let's see here, fill
in the blank, whatever it is, whatever body problem you have.
No more pimples? None of that, none of that. All right, so let's see, where
were we here? Number six, according to Matthew 24, 42, the rapture
will be announced to give us time to get ready. Watch therefore,
for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. Now, let me just
give a disclaimer here. Matthew 24 is not talking about
the rapture. It's talking in general about
the coming of Christ, but specifically as it deals with the gathering
at that point, that's speaking of when Christ returns on the
white horse in Revelation 19. This is after the tribulation.
That's not speaking of the rapture there. It's speaking of the coming
of Christ to destroy his enemies and set up his kingdom. So, again,
when you look at this prophecy, just like the prophecy of the
coming of the Lord the first time, I mean, the first time,
see, there was a 30-year gap from his birth to his crucifixion. Well, the second time, there's
only a seven-year gap So when the Bible speaks of it, it's
almost as though it's one and the same is coming. It's like
when you're looking across mountain ranges, you may see somebody
standing on a mountain over there, and you see somebody standing
on the mountain beside them. It looks like they're standing
on the same mountaintop from where you're looking, but there's
actually They're actually one of them standing on one mountain,
and the other one's standing on a mountain behind them. They're
both on different mountains, but they look like they're standing
next to each other from your perspective, because you just
see these little sticks sticking up, right? But there's a valley
in between them. So like a timeline would be,
you see the one, but you don't notice that there's a little
valley in between that you don't see the other one. That's the
way that, in fact, that's the way that some of the, Old Testament
prophets and some of the Pharisees in Christ's time saw all of the
prophecy of the coming of Christ. They saw his birth and his kingdom
all at the same time. The prophecies of his second
coming, they saw those as part of his first coming. And so they
rejected his first coming because he didn't fulfill the prophecies
of his second coming. Because they looked at it as
he was supposed to do all of that. That was all supposed to
happen. And some Jews, even today, reject Jesus because all of the
prophecies weren't fulfilled in His first coming. Only the
prophecies of His first coming were fulfilled. That makes sense.
The second coming, they see as the same thing because they're
looking at the same Lord where He's standing on that mountain
and that mountain back there. Makes sense, that mountain of
time. But there's a huge valley of,
so far, about 2,000 years in between the two. but they're
still, they're like, he was supposed to do, you know, like you look
at the prophecy and you see fulfillment of the prophecy there, and then
you see it there also, and they think, well, it's the same person,
he's supposed to fulfill that all at once. Well, no, he fulfilled
the first part, and he's still coming to fulfill the second
part. So, just the same, we have this rapture, short little window,
and then return. Okay, so when we talk about the
return, don't get it confused. When people say the second coming
of Christ or the second advent, all of that, some people do mean
a post-tribulational rapture, which wouldn't be a rapture at
all. It would just be a resurrection. I mean, the Lord would be here. Why would we need to be caught
up in the air? He's coming here. What would be the point? In Revelation
19, it actually speaks of us being with Him in heaven and
coming with Him from heaven. So, somehow we got there. Somehow. And there's no evidence
in Revelation 19 of anyone being caught up from the earth to be
with Him. We're already with Him when we're coming to the
earth. So, I've read and I've studied the return of Christ
from all of the viewpoints. from the concept of a pre-tribulational
rapture, which is what we're teaching here, from the concept
of a mid-tribulational rapture, or what they call pre-raft rapture,
before the great tribulation, and then also from a concept
of a post-tribulational rapture, or just the return concept. And then there's other viewpoints
of like an amillennial viewpoint, where they don't see the millennium
as a literal kingdom where Christ will come. They believe we're
in it now, and we have to make the world good enough for our
king to come back. By the way, a lot of politicians
that are religious politicians believe that. Yeah, and you know what? That's
why, by the way, that's the fuel that burned for the forced religion on people from
England. And when we came to America,
they forced it on people because they wanted to have, they thought
that they were the ministers of Christ's kingdom. And they
were enforcing his will upon people, so that when the earth
is good enough, he will come back. They're still doing it
today. Still doing it today. You gotta
get, you know, democracy and freedom in the whole world now.
And now we do it in the name of freedom. But anyways, the
answer to that question about the rapture being announced,
will it give us time? The answer is no. It's not going
to be announced. It's just going to happen. Now, even regardless
of which one you're talking about, because I've had some people
say, well, if you go to Matthew 24 to substantiate your stuff
on the rapture, but then you're wrong because Matthew 24 is not
talking about the rapture. Or at least you say, It's not
talking about the rapture. I said, well, yeah, it's not
talking about the rapture. It's talking about the return
of Christ, which is a general concept, but specifically it
is talking about the return of Christ, like at the end of the
tribulation. So does that apply to the rapture? Well, there are certain aspects
that are similar. We don't know when the Lord will
come for the rapture and we don't know when he'll come back at
the end of the seven years. No one knows the day or hour,
even though, We can take the time of the signing of the treaty
there, the covenant, as Daniel chapter 9 says, we can take that
time, we can say, okay, the Antichrist signed the covenant, now we've
got seven years from that day. Depends on what calendar you're
using. Depends on how that all works
out. You still don't know. In fact,
well, people who get saved during that time, I believe they'll
have at least an idea. The rest of the world, it's going
to come upon them like a thief in the night. They're not gonna
know. But still yet, no one knows the time that it's gonna happen
or the exact date, per se. In fact, I believe there's a
window there toward the end of that seven years where it'll
happen in that window. That's a whole other really fun
study all by itself. Phil number 7 here. According
to 2 Peter 3 verses 3-9, it says, knowing this verse that there
shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lusts
and saying where is the promise of its coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant
of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world
that then was being overflowed with water perished. but the
heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept
in store, reserved under fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, skipping a whole line, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise. As some men count slackness,
but as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish,
but that all could come to repentance. According to this passage, the
only reason the rapture has not taken place is that the Lord
wants to save sinners. Correct? True. True. Very good. Very good. And by
the way, this day as a thousand years and a thousand years as
a day, that's not to be used as a timeline for creation. He's
not even talking about creation there. He's talking about, well,
he's talking about how creation will be destroyed. All of creation
will be destroyed. Um, But basically, the context
is that God is not slack. Just because God waited a couple
thousand years doesn't mean that he's not going to judge the earth.
He will judge the earth. So the revelation of Jesus Christ,
this is the second phase of the return of Jesus Christ. Revelation 19, verses 11 through
16. You know, we could look at Revelation
19 as a whole, but we don't really have time for it right at the
moment. But you should at some point.
Beginning of Revelation 19, you see the saints in heaven. But
anyways. And I saw heaven open, and behold,
a white horse, and he that sat upon him was faithful and true.
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes
were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed in a vesture dipped
in blood. And his name was called the Word
of God. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations, and shall rule them with a rod
of iron. And he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and he hath
on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings
and Lord of lords." So in this passage, verse number 11 calls
him what? Faithful and true, verse 13 calls
him The Word of God. And in verse 16, it calls him
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Very good. So according
to verse 14, which says, the armies which were in heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. What's that? And in Jude chapter 1, verses
14 and 15, it says, Enoch also with are the seventh from Adam
prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are among them of all their ungodly deeds
which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches
which ungodly sinners have spoken against them." According to these passages here,
the Lord Jesus will return with All right, 10,000 of his saints,
the armies of heaven, the saints, he will return with the saints. I think that's where that song
comes from, when the saints go marching in. There will be a time when all
of the followers of Jesus do come to fight a war. but it will
be a physical time when we actually return from heaven. From heaven. At that point, you
know, King Jesus will be literally and physically and he'll be right
there, like, leading that battle. Right now is not the time for
those kind of things. Just because we disagree with
something doesn't mean that we take up our sword and make it
the way that we think it ought to be. Now is the time to preach the
truth and see people get saved. Zechariah 14, verses one through
four, it says, behold, the day of the Lord cometh. All right,
go ahead, Faber, get out of here. The day of the Lord cometh, and
thy spoil shall, my goodness, all of a sudden I get all my
emails like all at once right here, so where'd I go? There
we go. The day of the Lord cometh, and
the spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will
gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall
be taken, and the houses rifled. Notice he says all nations. And
the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off
from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth,
shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when
he fought in the day of battle, and his feet shall stand in that
day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on
the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof
toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a great
valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north,
and half of it toward the south. That's gonna be pretty cool. When Jesus went up into heaven,
he left from the Mount of Olives. And the Bible says here that
he's going to be setting foot on the Mount of Olives. And when
he lands on the Mount of Olives, it's going to be like nothing
we've ever seen. He's going to come down. And you know, like
those movies do with those guys that come flying down from the
sky and they hit the ground. He's going to come down. He's
going to land on the Mount of Olives. And it's just going to
go split open. That's pretty serious. And what's
interesting is he's supposed to walk into the Eastern Gate
to set up his kingdom. And the Muslims have put graves
right outside of the Eastern Gate because they know that it's
unclean for a Jew to walk through that area. So the king of the
Jews obviously wouldn't want to walk through there, but what
they missed is the fact that when he set foot on the Mount
of Olives, it's going to cleave and the whole earth is going
to be ripped open right there from the Mount of Olives to the
Eastern Gate. And all those graves are just
going to come out of the way. That's pretty cool. And by the
way, a lot of people are buried on the Mount of Olives as well,
or in the Mount of Olives. Brother Alex didn't have his,
he didn't mention that when he was here, but the graves on the
Mount of Olives are, they're not like that. They're stood
up, because there are so many of them, and it costs a lot of
money to be buried in the Mount of Olives. Because a lot of people
want to be buried there. It costs a ton of money, but
what's neat is, when he comes back, he's going to land, and
all of that's going to... What's even neater is, seven years Approximately
seven years before that all the saves that are in that mount
buried or they're gonna be Getting up out of there. So anyways,
so we read this passage here says when Jesus returns in glory
he will set his foot his feet down on the Out of all I've said
that word probably what 15 times in the last few minutes So now,
one other passage and then we'll probably stop there and we'll
talk about this time of Jacob's trouble next week, Lord willing. But 1 Thessalonians, or 2 Thessalonians
1, verses 7 through 10 says, and to you who are troubled rest
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
his mighty angels and flaming taking vengeance on them that
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of his power,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. By the way, before we deal with
the question here, where it says they're from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of His power, that's not talking
about like away from, talking about that's where the destruction
is coming from. The destruction says they'll
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord. That destruction is coming from
His presence and it is coming from the glory of His power.
I know a lot of people will say, you know, that hell is a place
where you're cast out away from God, and I'll use that passage
to try to prove it. But in Revelation, it says that
the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they
have no rest. And it says that they're there
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. To try to make that point of
it's a place of, now it's a place of outer darkness, And I would
say that it is a place that is absent of the presence of the
beneficial presence of God, the good presence of God. It is a
place where the presence of God is nothing but wrath upon them. And I believe that that is scripture.
I believe to try to argue that you're being cast away from the
presence of God is unscriptural and it's very difficult to prove.
And you have to twist words like that. So anyways, the revelation
of Jesus Christ will be a time of divine vengeance and destruction. Any questions on what we talked
about so far? I know I just kind of threw in a huge rabbit trail
there, but I have to explain verses sometimes. Sometimes people
mis-teach. Any questions? Comments? Disagreements? Speak now or talk about it next
week? All right. Then, well, let's
pray.