If you have been with us in our study of the mysteries of Christ, as found in the New Testament, you know that in the last two broadcasts we have been looking at the mystery that has to do with the mystery of what we will be like after the resurrection. We will be resurrected to a new life. We will be resurrected with new bodies. We will be changed and so forth, and we are looking at that. We saw this mystery in 1 Corinthians 15, and we saw something about what our bodies will look like in eternity.
I am going to look at one more aspect of this mystery and that is found in 1 Thessalonians 4 in what we often call, the Rapture. I know in some of our other broadcasts we have looked at the Rapture. The word “rapture” simply means to be caught up, and it is found here in this text. The Latin word for caught up means “rapture”. That’s where we get our term. It’s the idea that we are going to be caught up to be with Christ. So, that is another aspect of this mystery of being changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 talks about it, it says, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” So, those who have already passed away don’t cease to exist. They are already with the Lord in their spiritual state right now, and when He returns, they will come back with Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:15, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” Now we are going back to this mystery of the resurrection. We saw in the book of Daniel that the Old Testament saints were promised a resurrection from the dead, but it was kind of a general resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, we saw some more particulars about this mystery and the changing that will take place. Now we find here ,in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, that the dead in Christ will rise first from the grave. So, this is the promise of the believer, the New Testament believer, the church, resurrecting from the grave at this particular point in time. It says, “the dead in Christ will rise first”. So, those that have already passed away will rise first. Then he says, in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” I think every Christian has hoped they would be part of that group that would be here on earth, alive to greet Christ when He calls us to be with Him. So far, no group has managed to do that. Maybe we will be that group and we will be the ones who will greet Him when He calls us up, but if not, and if we have already passed away, we know we will be resurrected- even before those that are on the earth. We will be called up to the clouds to meet the Lord in the air . . .
