How Not to Believe in His Second Coming!

STUDY: #875-CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: OCTUBRE 27, @ NOVIEMBRE 2, 2015

Topic: "How Not to Believe in His Second Coming!" I Thessalonians 4:13-18

There was a great concern in the brothers of Thessaloniki about the hope of lifting of the brothers when the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST would occur. They wondered what would happen to those who had already died when the Lord would return to find his people. It was something new for them; they didn’t know how THE LIFTING AND RESURRECTION would be. They didn’t have a clear understanding of that long-awaited event, for such reason their fears. Therefore, the hope of the SECOND COMING had brought these problems to the brothers in Thessalonica. They were expecting the COMING OF THE LORD to occur immediately, hoping to be alive when this happened; but, they were concerned about the Christians who had already slept (or died). They could not be sure if those would also participate of the glory of that day. Paul responded to them that THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY DIED and THOSE WHO ARE STILL ALIVE will have the same glory! He tells them that they should not have sorrow like the unbelievers who have no hope (I Thessalonians 4:13 "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.") Before, what was death, the pagan world was plunged into despair. They faced this with a grim resignation and arid hopelessness. But, Paul establishes here in this epistle a great principle: A person who has lived and died in Christ IS STILL IN CHRIST and WILL RESURRECT IN HIM! Between Christ and the person who loves Him there is such a relation that nothing can break it. It exceeds death! Christ died and rose, in the same way the person who is united with Christ will be resuscitate! So that: "...to not grieve..." When believers pass from this life what happens to them is that, rather than to die, their bodies remain as asleep. So believers should not be sad like those who have no hope. At His death for us, Jesus tasted death with all the troubles that shares a death on a cross. But, through the death of our just and holy Savior, death itself WAS CONQUERED! From there the death of Christians has become only: a dream. "...those who have fallen asleep in him." (Vs. 14) So, the belief in the resurrection of the dead is based on the believer's faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 4: 15th "According to the Lord’s own word...") It seemed here that Paul refers to a special revelation given to him by the Lord. This revelation was communicated to Paul himself. God showed him the order in which the events of THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD would happen and that the apostle describes as follows: "...we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep." The teaching that Paul communicates to the Thessalonians brothers (doing so with the authority that gives him that this is the word of the Lord) is that Christians still living when the Lord comes will not receive the Lord before those who are asleep (died) resuscitate first. Those who are alive for that

big day will have to wait for "the dead in Christ to resuscitate first." Paul waited that way thinking that he would be alive when this happened. The apostle continues to say in Vs. 16: "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” That the Lord Jesus Christ will descend from Heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3 and 10:12) since the day of His ascension (Acts 1:11). That He will come down "...with a loud command...” that here comes a cry with a sense when a warlord sets in motion a whole army. That He will come down "... with the voice of archangel ..." with the voice as of the Archangel Michael who is the only one who the scriptures gives that title (Jude 1: 9). That will come down "... with the trumpet of God ..." which is an unambiguous reference to I Corinthians 15:52 "... in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” The dead in Christ will rise first! By saying "in Christ," the apostle specifies that such resurrection is typical of those who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:13). The Apostle Paul continues to say in I Thessalonians 4:17 "After that, we who are still alive, and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." Here we can see expressly prophesied THE RAPTURE OF THE BELIEVERS (THE RAPTURE), both those who have died and resurrected on that day as those who are alive and who will be transformed (I Corinthians 15:51, 52). Nor can it be overlooked that the Old Testament sets the resurrection of Israel after the GREAT TRIBULATION (Daniel 12: 1-3). It says that that encounter of the Lord Jesus Christ with His Church will be held in the air, not on earth, which clearly distinguishes that day from the day the Lord returns to earth as announced in Zechariah 14: 4 "On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south." (Matthew 24:29, 30; Revelation 19:11-16). All believers in Christ dead or alive will have part in the Rapture (Rapture of the Church). The Body of Christ will enter completely into heaven you cannot enter there mutilated. "Therefore encourage each other with these words." I Thessalonians 4:18 This is our faith and our hope! Amen.