SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2014 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: What Happens
to Christians who Die PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 Thessalonians 4:14b
Message of the
verses: and rose again, even so God
will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”
We are in our third lesson on the Rapture which teaches
us what will happen to believers who die and we are in our second lesson on
“The Pillars of the Rapture,” and in today’s SD we will be looking at “The
Resurrection of Christ,” and the importance of that event and what it has to do
with what happens to believers when they die or as Paul puts it “sleep.”
I want to state at the beginning of this SD that it was
because that the Father accepted what Christ did for payment for our sins that
Christ arose from the grave. There is a
word that is found in several NT passages that also has to do with the Father
accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that word is propitiation: “In this
is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” (1 John
4:10) In one of John MacArthur’s sermons
that I was listening to he stated that in the ancient Greek culture those who
believed in multipliable gods said that this word meant the satisfaction of an
angry god. We know that God is angry
with sin and that when Christ paid the price for sin on the cross this took
care of His anger for those who would accept the forgiveness that Christ has to
offer. Sin is more serious than many
people understand for it is so serious that this was the reason that God sent
Christ to earth to die in our place so that we could be forgiven and have a
right standing with God. Sin cost God
His only begotten Son and so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important
event that has ever happened on this earth.
John MacArthur quotes I. Howard Marshall who wrote “The
death of believers does not take place apart from Jesus, and hence Paul could
conclude that God will raise them up and bring them into the presence of Jesus
at the parousia. God will treat those who died trusting Jesus
in the same way He treated Jesus Himself, namely by resurrecting them.”
Here are some verses that Paul wrote to show that because
God raised Christ He will also raise those who believe on Him and these verses
have to do with the two words in our passage today which are ‘even so.” “"After a little while the world will no
longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also (John
14:19).” “But each in his own order:
Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming (1
Cor. 15:23).” “Now God has not only
raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power (1 Cor.
6:14).” “Knowing that He who raised the
Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus (2 Cor. 6:14a).”
Now here is the way that I understand the different
resurrections that are taught in the Bible, in the New Testament. First we saw that Jesus was the first One to
be resurrected as the passage states He was the “first fruits.” Next will be the resurrection of those in the
Church Age which will happen at the rapture.
I believe that shortly after the rapture the antichrist will be revealed
and will sign the seven year peace treaty with the nation of Israel which will
begin the seven year tribulation period.
Many will come to know the Lord during this period and at the end of
this period those millions who have died for the cause of Christ will be
resurrected along with the Old Testament Saints. At the end of the Millennial Kingdom there
will be a short war as Satan is loosed from his chains in hell to lead it and
as I said this will be a short war. I
believe that all believers who are alive during the tribulation period will
receive their new glorious bodies at the end of this period. The next event will be the “Great White
Throne Judgment,” and this judgment is for all unbelievers as they will stand
before the Lord to show Him why they should get into heaven, but not one of
them will. Now I write all of this to
help us understand why the Rapture of the Church will happen before the
tribulation period, for when we studied the book of Daniel and the seventy
weeks of Daniel we saw that at the end of the 383rd year that Christ
was rejected as the Messiah of Israel and that there were seven years left on
this 490 years of prophecy. Now do not
get confused for the 70 weeks is actually 490 years as the passage states
“seventy sevens” which means seventy weeks of years and this comes up to the
490 years. My point here is that God deals
with the nation of Israel throughout this entire 490 years including these last
seven years so before the tribulation period begins He will take His “Bride” the
Church to heaven with Him where we will have the marriage supper of the Lamb
and also the Judgment Seat of Christ. I
have been a firm believer in a pre-tribulation, and a pre-millennial Rapture of
the Church and have seen nothing in Scripture to change my mind.
In our next SD we will look at “The Revelation of Christ
which covers the first part of the fifteenth verse.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I cannot take for
granted the fact that Christ died for me, as it cost Him His life along with
costing His Father His Son and I never want to take this for granted, but
praise the Lord for His goodness to me for this act and look forward to living
with Him in eternity.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Since Christ took care of my biggest problem,
the problem of sin, I can trust Him to care for the problems I face each day of
my life.
Memory verses for the
week: Review of Philippians 2:5-11.
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ruth” (Ruth 4:13).
Today’s Bible
question: “What was Moses’ occupation
before he became leader of the children of Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/7/2014 11:04 AM
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