THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
What will happen when Jesus
comes again? That question is answered,
in part, in the passage we have chosen out of I Thessalonians. We read in
I Thessalonians 4:13-18:
“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.” In these
verses the apostle Paul is not interested in all the events that take
place on that day of Christ’s return. He
concentrates his attention on those events that pertain to the gathering in of
the elect church. He does not focus on
the destruction of the creation or on the resurrection of the wicked in that
day. Paul intends to answer one
question: How will God, through Christ,
gather His church to Himself in that day of Christ’s coming? And the reason for this is to comfort the
hearts of the saints in Thessalonica, and our hearts today too.
You see, because of
their ignorance of the final resurrection, the saints in Thessalonica were
mourning over the death of their loved ones as those who had no hope. The thought that their loved ones would in no
way participate in the victory and glory of the final gathering in of the
church bothered them. Their loved ones
were dead and buried, never to see in their bodies the great Day of the
Lord. So Paul, in order to comfort God’s
people, instructs them in the blessed truth of the final resurrection. Not only
those who are alive and remain on the earth will be present when Christ
returns, but the entire church, from the
beginning of time to the end of time, will be present in that day—even the
saints that long ago have died and whose bodies are long gone. When Christ returns, then His shout will go
forth, and the dead in Christ shall rise.
Their bodies, reunited with their souls, will be taken with all God’s
saints to heaven. Such is the fact of
that great and notable day. All God’s
people, those living when Christ comes again and those who have died, will all participate in the gathering in of the
church.
But there is a
significant part of this passage that we have not yet covered. And that is the manner of this gathering in
of the church. How will Christ gather
together the church at the end of time?
And what will be the order of events in that day? This, too, Paul lays out for us, especially
in verses 16 and 17 of the verses that we read.
This, and the great comfort that all this affords us in life and death,
will be the focus of our attention in this broadcast.
What will happen
when Christ returns? What will be the
order of events in that day? As clear as
these verses are, we must bear in mind that there will be much happening in
that final day of Christ’s return. To
attempt to order each one exactly and to understand just how all these events
could possibly happen in a day, almost simultaneously, is difficult. Perhaps this is so because in that day, time
will be swallowed up in eternity. And it
is hard to understand the order of events, especially when we start speaking of
eternity. Nevertheless, the events that
are involved in the gathering in of the church in our text are clear
enough.
Christ shall
literally return to the earth, even as He went up. When Christ ascended into heaven, He did so
by merely floating up into the sky and disappearing into the clouds. And while the disciples were staring after Him, two angels appeared and made this promise
(Acts 1:11):
“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven.” When Christ returns finally at
the end of time, it will be in contrast with His ascension. Instead of seeing Him ascend into the
heavens, as did the disciples, we will see Him descending from heaven. That is what Paul also teaches us in verse 16
of this passage, the very first part:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven.” Jesus Himself instructs us in
Luke 21:25-28
that when all the events of that day begin to transpire, then we
should look up, that is, cast our eyes to heaven, because it is from heaven
that our final redemption comes.
The miracle of that
day, of course, is that when Christ descends, all the
world will see Him. His coming will
shine as the lightning from the east unto the west and every eye shall behold
that coming. This means that when Christ
returns He will not come to stand in any particular place or locale on the
earth itself. No specific country will
receive that honor. In verse 17 we learn
that the saints will be gathered together and shall be caught up into the
clouds to meet Christ in the air. The
picture that the words of this passage draw for us, then, is that Christ shall
descend from heaven and remain in a certain point in the skies where all will
be able to behold His presence. And from
there, from that vantage point, He will gather together all His church. Even this, of course, implies a miracle
beyond all human comprehension. But it
is there that Christ shall stand in the sphere of the earth and shall gather
His own unto Himself.
There will be three
signs that will accompany that return of Christ to the earth. These are recorded for us in verse 16: “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.” With Christ’s
visible return, we shall hear three things:
a great shout, the voice of an archangel, and the sound of a trumpet
blowing.
Now, before going
into these individually, we must understand the significance of them. These sounds herald the gathering in of the
church. That is the significance of
these signs from Old Testament history itself. In
Leviticus 10,
we learn that Moses made for himself two beautiful
silver trumpets. These silver trumpets
were made for the particular purpose of calling the people of
The instruction of
this chapter in Numbers does not stop here.
There was something else of significance that took place in
Now, at the end of
time, these same signs accompany the gathering in of the
This
latter task of gathering the saints still living at Christ’s return, we learn from
Matthew 24:31,
will be fulfilled by the angels. That explains as well why the voice of the
archangel will be heard in the day of Christ’s return. The archangel is an angel of higher rank
among the angels, probably the highest rank.
That archangel will take charge of the sending out of the angels in an
organized manner to gather together all the saints that are yet alive on the
earth unto the assembling together of the church.
As we have noticed
already, the sound of the trumpet will be a summons, too. The church will recognize the meaning of that
sound and, when it is heard, all the saints will be waiting, even preparing
themselves, for that greatest assembly of the saints in heaven.
These are the
signs, then, that accompany the coming of Christ from heaven to the earth.
There is more, of
course. There will be a certain orderly
way that the saints are gathered. We are
told in verse 16 that the “dead in Christ shall rise first.” And then in verse 17, “Then we which are
alive and remain” will be gathered together.
Verse 15 points that out to us as well.
We read there: “We which are
alive and remain…shall not prevent them which are asleep,” that is, “will not
precede those that are asleep.” That is
what that term means, literally. “We
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them
which are asleep.” In other words, the
gathering in of the dead in Christ shall precede the gathering in of those that
are yet alive at Christ’s coming.
Again, although this
is so hard to understand, because all these events are rushing in upon
themselves, evidently the order of events would be something like this. When Christ’s shout goes forth, with the
sound of the trumpet, the dead in Christ shall rise from the dead out of the
graves and be gathered with Christ in the air where He is performing His
work. At the same time, the angels will
be sent out by Christ to do their work.
These will gather together the saints who are still living—while the
dead in Christ are ascending into the air to be with Christ. We are taught in verse 17: “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.” In this way God will bring, through Jesus and
with Jesus, both those who are dead in Christ and those who are yet alive at
His coming, to be with Him in the air, and He will take the entire church to be
with Him forever in heaven.
Those are the
events of that day.
The explanation of this
passage of God’s Word is simple and plain enough. It is.
But there are those who grossly misconstrue what this passage
teaches. Some teach that there are
several comings of Christ before the end of the world comes. The second coming of Christ, they say, will
be what is called “the rapture.” This
will be a quick, unexpected, secret coming of Jesus, which will gather together
only the church saints, that is, the saints that are called church in the new
dispensation, and yet will not include the gathering together of the kingdom
people of the Old Testament. Of this,
this passage, they say, makes reference—a sudden return of Christ in
rapture. These New Testament believers of
the church will then go to live with Christ in the air for a period of seven
years. And during that seven years there
will be a great persecution in the earth.
And through that persecution others will be brought to Christ,
especially the Jews. Then Christ will
return again with His New Testament saints, who were with Him somewhere in the
air these seven years, and then Christ will establish at that point an earthly
kingdom, where He will sit upon His throne on earth and will reign for a
thousand years. After that
thousand years He will be taken up to heaven again and the wicked will come to
do battle with this
Now there are all
kinds of different views that stand in connection with this, some speaking of
Christ’s return three or four times at the end of time.
We repudiate the
complicated and far-fetched teachings of the premillennialists. Not only does this stretch the simple meaning
of this passage of God’s Word but it reads into this passage what simply is not
there.
First of all,
nowhere in these verses is there a separation made between the kingdom people
of God in the old dispensation and the church of the new dispensation. That distinction is forced on this passage
and is not supported by any Scripture.
All are church. And God gathers
His church from the beginning of time to the end of time.
Secondly, where
does this passage speak of a secret, quiet return of Christ to gather His
people in a rapture?
There is recorded in this passage an open, visible, even loud return of
Christ. He descends with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of a trumpet. Christ does not silently snatch away His
church to live with Him for a period of seven years in the air. He takes them to be with Him forever,
this passage says. And not in the air! What a strange idea anyway. Who would live in the air somewhere for seven
years? But the Bible certainly speaks of
heaven, and that God’s people will be taken with Jesus Christ at the end of
time to be with Him forever in heaven.
So the instruction
of this passage is clear and simple. And
because it is, it provides for God’s people of every age unspeakable comfort.
Now, let us not
forget that these verses are practical in nature. Scripture here is meant to give comfort to
God’s people. And when we properly
understand the events of the day of Christ’s coming, this Word of God does
provide the greatest of comfort. That is
why Paul gives us the instruction of verse 18:
“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” What words?
Well, the words we have been considering. The dead in Christ shall rise, and shall
take part in that final gathering in of the church. Christ has become for us who are in Him, the
resurrection and the life. God will
indeed fulfill His purpose to take us to be with Christ in heaven. Our death will not prevent our awaking at the
end of time to the wonderful glory that awaits the
How do these words
provide comfort for us? Well, what does
this word say? If we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, so also those that sleep will God bring with Him. Death and the grave are bitter enemies. They are harsh and hard, because they rob us
of our loved ones. They take away the
love and the fellowship that we shared with them in this life. How we hate to say our “good-byes” when a
loved one is slowly taken from us in death.
How we hate it that we could not say “good-bye” when a loved one is
snatched from us suddenly by the hand of death.
And the grave—how final it seems.
When the bodies of our loved ones are left by the graveside, we know
that we will never see them again in this life.
Many of us have experienced that death in one way or another—a
grandfather or mother, a husband or a wife, a mother or a father. Maybe these were even taken from us while
they were young. We know that God does
not limit that to the old. He can claim
an infant, a child, or even a teenager. And how death can hurt.
And it is in that
time of our lives that the words of this passage provide for us the greatest of
all comforts. Someday we, together with
our loved ones, will stand before Jesus Christ.
There will be no more death or the grave. These will have been finally conquered. We will stand, body and soul, alive and with
each other. And all the saints will be
taken into heaven. Our parting at death
is only temporary, only for a short time.
Death and the grave can actually serve us by transforming our vile and
earthly bodies into that which is glorious and spiritual.
And it is with that
hope that we lay our loved ones to rest in the grave. Do we mourn?
Oh, yes! We do mourn. Sometimes we cry our hearts and souls
out. But we are led to that hope,
through the comfort of our fellow saints.
That is why Paul says, “Comfort one another with these words.” We are led there by our fellow saints. And we take turns, sometimes, doing
that. We will not be left forgotten in
the grave. We suffer silently because we
rest assured in the final resurrection and the final gathering in of the
church. We look forward to that one
day. We patiently long for it. It will come.
What a glorious day that will be, when my Jesus comes for me! A great rejoicing will be ours. Be still, my soul. Christ comes again. With uplifted head, I long for that
coming. I pray for it.
And then we will
see our final salvation, and forever we shall be with our Lord.
Let us pray
together.
O Lord, our God and
Father in heaven, we thank Thee that we can look forward to that final coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ when we will be gathered together with all of Thy
saints and taken to be with Thee forever in heaven. We pray that Thy Word might comfort us when
we experience death and the loss of a loved one. We thank Thee for the resurrection of the
body and for life everlasting. Forgive
us of all sin, and guide us now in Thy grace.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Last modified: 14-aug-07