SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2014 9:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: What Happens
to Christians who Die PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:15a
Message of the
verses: “For this we say to you by
the word of the Lord,”
We are talking about the Rapture of the Church in our
past SD’s, and will continue to do so until we have completed our study of 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18. Paul is showing
the believers at Thessalonica that they can be comforted through the teaching
of this doctrine: “Therefore comfort one
another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:18).” These words have comforted many believers
down through the church age, as they give them hope that they will one day be
resurrected, that is be given a new body when the Lord returns to the clouds
above the earth and calls His bride home to be with Him.
We
will be looking at the last sub-point from John MacArthur’s commentary on
verses 13-15a which he has entitled “The Pillars of the Rapture,” and this
sub-point is entitled “The Revelation of Christ.”
We are also studying the book of Jeremiah and many, many
times we see in that book “The Word of the Lord came to me,” or something else
along those lines showing that Jeremiah was receiving revelation from the
Lord. In our partial verse today we see
the same thing, that is that this teaching about the Rapture of the Church came
directly from the Lord, now as to when it came to Paul is not actually given,
but we do know it was given to him from the Lord. Some would say that this was taught by our
Lord when He was on the earth, but there is no clear evidence of this in the
Gospels other than in John chapter fourteen where Jesus said that He was going
to make a place for His own: “1 "Do
not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father’s house are many dwelling
places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place
for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3).” Now when we look at Paul’s writing to the
Corinthians in the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians we see “51 Behold, I tell
you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed (1 Cor.
15:51-53).” Notice the
word “mystery” in verse 51, and that word means in the NT teachings that God is
showing us something that has not been revealed before, so the Rapture of the
Church has not been revealed before.
The following is a quote from John MacArthur and then a
person that he has quoted in his commentary:
“Although the Lord talked in the Gospels about a trumpet and the
gathering of the elect, the difference between those passages and the present
one outweigh the similarities, as Robert L. Thomas notes: “Similarities between this passage in this
passage in 1 Thessalonians and the gospel accounts include a trumpet (Matt.
24:31), a resurrection (John 11:25, 26), and a gathering of the elect (Matt.
24:31)… Yet dissimilarities between it and the canonical sayings of Christ far
outweigh the resemblances… Some of the differences between Matthew 24:30, 31
and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 are s follows: (1) In Matthew the Son of Man is
coming on the clouds, in 1 Thessalonians ascending believers are in them. (2) In
the former the angels gather, in the latter the Son does so personally. (3) In
the former nothing is said about resurrection, while in the latter this is the
main theme. (4) Matthew records nothing
about the order of ascent, which is the principle lesson in Thessalonians.”
As stated before it is unknown as to when and
how Paul received this message about the Rapture of the Church. John MacArthur states that it was possible
that he could have received it from one of the NT prophets like Agabus from
Acts 21:11 and that could be true, but my thought about this perhaps he could have
received it soon after he became a believer and then went to Arabia. “15 But when God, who had set me apart even
from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal
His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not
immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to
those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once
more to Damascus (Galatians 1:15-17).”
When we read about this account in Acts nine we do not see the part when
Paul went to Arabia, but it was in Arabia that God taught him the things that
he learned about the gospel and perhaps about the Rapture of the Church.” With all this said we can be assured that
Paul’s teaching on the Rapture, this “mystery” was given to him by the Lord,
whether through a NT prophet or when he was taught by the Lord in Arabia does
not truly matter to us. The main point
is that God taught this truth to Paul and he passed it on to the Thessalonians
and now we benefit from this teaching as Paul wrote to Titus “Tit 2:13 Looking
for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ;” This hope throughout the ages of the church has brought
comfort to the hearts of many and is still doing this today.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful to
the Lord for this hope that I have in the Rapture of the Church, a hope that
has comforted me in the loss of believers who are of my family and friends.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray that God will give me an opportunity to
tell someone about this hope that I have today.
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: “Shepherd for his
father-in-law.” (Exodus 3:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “What caused the most sorrow
to the elders at Ephesus?”
Answer in our next SD
7/8/2014 10:47 AM
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