WHAT IS THE RAPTURE?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
But I would not have you to be 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 unto 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 archangel, and with 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.

When I consider the blessed hope there are two things that come to my mind:
· The return of Jesus Christ
· The pre-Tribulation rapture of the Christians

That which makes the return of Christ for the believers a blessed hope is the very fact that, when He comes, He will come to remove us from this earth prior to the most terrible time the world has ever known.

While the Great Tribulation is a part of the plan of God and is a necessary part, it is nothing to go through if you can escape it.

And you can escape – in fact, if you are saved, you will escape it.

Let me begin with a brief overview of the entire theme of the Lord’s Return:

A. Shortly after Adam and Eve sinned God promised them that one would come from the seed of a woman and bruise the head of the serpent.[1]

This was the first promise that One would come to deliver man from his sin.

B. Later on God promised Abraham that from the children of Abraham, specifically the Jews, would come on in whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.

C. And much later on Isaiah prophesied
Isaiah 9:6
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

D. All through history the godly Jews waited for the Lord to come and deliver them from their sin.

And the godly Jews expected Him to be born of a woman.

This is the idea of the Lord’s first appearance as a man to men on earth.

It was also promised that this One who would take away sin would be Israel’s king forever and ever.

In 2 Samuel 7:16 (KJV) the Bible says
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

And in Psalm 45:6 (KJV) I read,
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

· When Jesus came the first time He came as a child born in a manger in Bethlehem and He died to pay for the sins of the world.
· When Jesus comes to earth again He will come in great power to establish His kingdom for ever and ever!

And according to Revelation 19, when He comes to do that, He will bring His saints with Him.[2]

Somewhere between that first coming and the future second coming, all of the Christians will have to be taken to heaven so that they can return with Jesus.

That point, when the Christians are taken up to heaven, we call the Rapture.

We have no real idea when the rapture will take place.
· The Bible gives no signs so that we can get ready. and
· There is nothing stopping it from taking place at this very moment, except the secret will of God

We don’t know when it will happen, but we can tell a lot about what it will be like when it happens.

You won’t find the word rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Instead, you see the words, “caught up[3]” referring to the rapture.

“Caught up” is translated from the Greek word “rapto.”

And that word has several meanings, all of which describe the rapture.

First
I. TO CATCH AWAY SPEEDILY
When the rapture does take place and all the Christians are taken to heaven, it is going to happen FAST.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (KJV)
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a 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.

I have heard that the twinkling of an eye is in the “milli-seconds.”

That is quicker than the eye can see.

What this means is that it is going to be sudden and unexpected.

It will come like a thief in the night[4], the Bible says.

You will not have time to prepare unless you prepare ahead of time and stay that way.

Unsaved people won’t even know it happened until it is over.

Imagine the chaos caused by cars going down the highway and all of a sudden, the driver is gone.

Or the pilot of the airliner is gone.

Those kinds of things are speculation but very possible.

I don’t know how the unsaved that are left on this earth will explain how so many people disappeared at one time, but I am sure that it will create sudden chaos and confusion.

The rapture will happen quickly.

If you aren’t saved, you need to get saved now so that you are ready when it does happen.

Secondly
II. TO SEIZE BY FORCE
As tragic as it is, there are some Christians who love this world and the things they have acquired in it.

They won’t want to go to heaven when the Lord calls them.

Christians should never allow themselves to get so caught up in the affairs of this life that they are anxious to get caught up into heaven.

I wonder sometimes if God doesn’t allow us to suffer so often so that we keep our eyes off of this world and keep them looking forward to heaven.

Illustration:
The story of Lot in Genesis 19:

The Bible teaches that Lot was a just and righteous man[5]but he moved to the wicked city of Sodom and grew to like it there.

We don’t know how long he lived in Sodom, but eventually, the city got so wicked that God chose to destroy it.

But He couldn’t do it with Lot there.

God sent two angels to warn Lot and tell Him to take his family and leave town.

But Lot was so involved in the affairs of Sodom that the angels eventually had to take him by the hand and drag him out of the city.

That is a tragic story but I know some Christians that, if the Lord came today, He would have to drag them to heaven.

Thirdly
III. TO CLAIM FOR ONE’S SELF
If you are a real Christian, you need to come to grips with the Bible fact that you are not your own.

You have been bought with a price.[6]

And that price is the blood of Jesus.[7]

If you are a Christian Jesus owns you.

He paid for you with His own life.

And you are obligated to glorify God
· In your body and
· In your spirit

That is not bad because the other choice is to belong to the devil and to live your life glorifying him.

And that is what all the unsaved people do.

When Jesus calls for the rapture, He is going to take all those that He has bought to be with Him.

Ephesians 5:27 says He will,
“present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing!”

This also lets us know that only those who are His are going.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 says that only those that are "in Christ" will go.

And you can almost always tell who is in Christ because,
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) says
If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.

Real Christians act differently than the rest of the world.

Fourth
IV. TO MOVE TO A NEW PLACE
Jesus said
John 14:2-3 (KJV)
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

We Christians have a dual citizenship:
· We are citizens of this earth and
· We are citizens of heaven.

And we are supposed to serve as spokesmen for our heavenly home.

But when the rapture happens, then our job on this earth will be done.

At that time it will be “Home - here we come.”

We will be pulling up stakes down here and settling in with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lastly, rapture means,
V. TO RESCUE FROM DANGER
That tells us something very important about the rapture:
It will take place before the terrible Tribulation that will try this world.

There is just no way to put all of the rapture verses together and fairly and literally interpret them without believing in what we call the Pre-tribulational Rapture.

It doesn’t take much sense to see that this world is getting pretty rough. Just in the last few years alone, we have witnessed
· Many states approving same sex marriages
· Many others refusing to oppose them
· Forced health care
· Falling economy
· Muslims[8]placed in the highest offices of our land
and the Bible teaches that it is going to get worse.

It will get worse than the world has ever known.

But when this Tribulation starts, there will not be a Christian one on the earth.

Look at 1 Thessalonians 1:10 (KJV)
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Christians have been delivered already from the wrath to come.

Another verse is Colossians 1:13 (KJV)
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

And there is Revelation 3:10 (KJV)
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Christians don’t need to be tried. Jesus was already tried for us.
He literally took the wrath of God for us so that we wouldn’t have to.

God, I believe, is withholding His wrath until the Christians are all gone.

That’s what He did with Lot, remember?

I believe that is what is being referred to in
2 Thessalonians 2:3-8 and especially verses 6-7.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-8 (KJV)
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Conclusion:

1. There is nothing that could stop the rapture from happening today.
   No man knows the day or the hour, so the Bible tells us to always be ready and you prepare for the rapture by getting saved.

2. The rapture will be complete.
   · All Christians will hear the trumpet
   · Every Christian will be taken

3. Your only chance to be saved is before the rapture

The Bible does teach that multitudes of souls will be saved during the Tribulation, but the Bible also teaches that those who rejected the chance to get saved before the rapture will believe a lie after the rapture and not get saved.

For all of us that are saved and living right with God, all of this is exciting.

If it is not exciting to you
· Maybe you need to get saved
· Maybe you need to get right with God

[1]Genesis 3:15 KJV
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

[2]Revelation 19:11-14 KJV
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called 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 with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
[3]1 Thessalonians 4:17 (KJV)
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.
[4]1 Thessalonians 5:2 (KJV)
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
[5]2 Peter 2:7-8 (KJV)
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
[6]1 Corinthians 6:19-20 KJV
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
[7]Acts 20:28 KJV
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

[8]I originally prepared this message in 2013. Who could have guessed at that time that we would have people like AOC and her friends holding positions in our congress?