I tell you a mystery

Good morning. Nancy and I got a call this morning about 6 o'clock letting us know that the Lord had called our sister Carol home. Of course, with only hours before meeting you here, there's a certain amount of mental scrambling and my thoughts through that. When a few years ago the Lord had taken Hal home, that took place midweek, and then I kind of scrambled for a few days to change the character of the morning service.

What happened here this morning, There wasn't time to change a lot, and fortunately we don't need to, because today's passage has to do with the rapture, the Lord's taking of saints to be home with Him. And so by the Lord's accident, if you will, the passage is perfect. I don't need to change a thing. It's exactly what needs to be said.

And as we step through this, I will just, at certain points, bring up the application with the homegoing of our Sister Carol. This passage here is the grand finale of chapter 15. Chapter 15, as we've been studying through it, has been talking about the resurrection in great part. The first week was about the content of the gospel.

And that's that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again. And that's what a person needs to understand and believe in order to be saved. And by the way, that's exactly the same message as Isaiah chapter 53. A person needs to believe that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again.

Here we, in the last verses, 50 through 58 in chapter 15, are dealing with the chapter that is what has become known as the Rapture. We'll explain briefly here what we mean by that. The word Rapture does not show up anywhere in the Bible. It is the Latin word or Latin-based word in the English language that talks about that catching up of saints into heaven.

As Christ was physically raised from the dead, so also We, and I mean to use that pronoun, we will be physically raised from the dead, except if we're alive in these present bodies when he appears. And that could happen at any time, as we'll talk about shortly here. The Lord could take us all home alive that are gathered here this morning. It's possible. So this last passage here in 1 Corinthians 15, and by the way, this has been an exciting passage to go through, an exciting chapter, hasn't it?

Talking about the resurrection, the mountain of evidence and the consequences of the Lord's resurrection, the first fruits. Here in this passage, it tells us about what has come to be known as the rapture, the taking up, of the saints, when our Lord will come for all of us in the body of Christ, both the living and the dead. Sometimes Christians will use this term, the rapture, to only talk about those who are alive and taken to be with the Lord. But in fact, the rapture is the taking up of all the entire church from that first day, Acts chapter 2, until the day when the Lord takes all the church to be with Him.

So it's the living and the dead. All are included in the rapture. So if you're a believer here this morning and you're hoping to be included in the rapture, don't worry about it. You will be included. Guaranteed. There is no exception to that. There is a chart on your handout. I'm going to step through it here up on the screen just to make sure that the points are clear.

At Christ's first coming, He died and was buried, He was raised and ascended and seated in the heavenlies. We were identified with Him in those things. It is His death for our sins, His substitution for us, that is the core of salvation. There is added to that all the benefits of our having been identified with Him in these five things.

Here we are now at some point and the rapture may indeed be very close. It could be today. This rapture, this taking up of the church is something where the Lord will not come down all the way to touch the earth, but will come and we will meet Him in the air. It will be a time when comparable to the Jewish wedding ceremony where the father says to the bridegroom, go get your bride. That will be the time when the father will say to the bridegroom, go get your bride. You and I will be included in that taking home, whether we are asleep in the Lord or whether we are alive at that time.

There is next the seven-year tribulation following and then the second coming. During this seven-year tribulation period, we will be with the Lord, and in the second coming, we will come with the Lord. There's then the millennial kingdom, a thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, summarized in the first half of Revelation chapter 20. And finally, a new heavens and a new earth.

That's the quick outline, and you'll find that one slide on your handout. I also included, and it's very appropriate, I think it's also on your bulletin there, 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18. This is another kind of primary and very compatible passage about what we have come to call the rapture. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. And by asleep, He's not talking about those who are just sleeping in whatever form or shape. He is using it as a euphemism for those who are in Christ but have died, as has just taken place with our sister Carol. He's using it in that way. It is a matter of use of that word asleep that our Lord Jesus Christ used and Paul himself used on more than one occasion, including this one.

And here is a wonderful part of this verse. So that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. Several very important things about that this morning. Does it mean that we won't grieve? No. It doesn't mean we won't grieve, okay? Nancy and I have already shed some tears and we're probably not done. Doesn't mean we won't grieve. But we will not grieve as those who have no hope. Because it won't be a matter of, well, that's the end of Carol. It'll be a matter of, she's gone home ahead of us. Rats, she beat us home, right? We won't grieve as those who have no hope. Why?

Because even though she will be missed greatly, the hope is absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. And that's one reason, as Paul makes these statements, he doesn't make, it'll probably be this way, it would be nice if it turned out this way. He makes absolute and certain statements.

Verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, core of the gospel there, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. If you are saved, God will bring with all those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, including Carol. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain "...until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep." And we'll talk about that in a little bit. Verse 16, "...for the Lord himself will descend from the heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."

Including some people you know and love. I'd like to give you a possible explanation I say this is a possible explanation because I think it fits with what scripture says. I don't have all the biblical detail on it so I want you to weigh it as that. But I think it's helpful at a time like this and it explains people's language where here we look towards a future event called the rapture and yet you hear people talking about she's home with the Lord.

I think that an understanding that is consistent with scripture goes like this, that someone who died around 35 AD, for example, the deacon Stephen, who was the first recorded Christian martyr, is taken home in time, because after all, the Lord is not limited by time. The Lord is not limited by time. that someone like Stephen was taken home so that as soon as his eyes closed in death, they were opened up beyond heaven's gates. He experienced no centuries of waiting or twiddling his thumbs wondering what's going to happen or when this is going to happen. His eyes closed in death and they opened up beyond heaven's gates. The person who is a believer that died at 1000 AD, the same thing. Someone who died at 1800 AD, the same thing. Carole King, the same thing.

She's not waiting around in some limbo room, twiddling her thumbs saying, I wonder what's happening, you know? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There's no waiting around between now and then. We can say, I believe rightly, Carol is face to face with our Lord. And yet, in earth time, we're waiting for the rapture. I think that's an appropriate way to understand it. If my explanation isn't quite correct, I'm sure the Lord will correct it. and I'm sure at this moment Carol knows exactly what the right explanation is.

Okay? Anyway, let's continue. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord. Always. Not so long for now or it's been nice I wonder what's next. We will always be with the Lord. Always. Therefore, this couldn't come at a better time. Comfort one another with these words. Comfort one another with these words.

There's a 14-page package on the pre-tribulation rapture on the cabinet to the right if you want to explore that. Those copies may go quickly or may even be gone as of this moment and so we'll send out additional ones via email. It addresses even some of the different, supposedly different rapture views and so feel free to avail yourself of that. You have on the bottom of page one of your handout, a kind of a poetic pattern arrangement of verses 50 through the first half of 54.

And it goes like this. What's on the screen is to underscore some of the things that are repeated or to highlight the pattern. One of the things that comes out here is, behold, I tell you a mystery. In other words, he's revealing something. It is from that point he makes the negation. We shall not all sleep, okay? But then the rest of it is, we will, and we will. And then he begins to explain things with the rest of that passage. Then you also see in there these patterns, and that's why the words are lined up. And notice the all is a key point there. And so on down through the chapter.

Feel free, because yours is a black and white version, to do any underlining, drawing lines around things that may be helpful to you. There is additionally, this emphasis on we will all be changed. If you're a believer here this morning, guess what? You're going to be changed. We will all be changed.

And he goes on to explain the timing of it. He goes on to explain the character of it in those verses. There is additionally in the last part of this kind of an alternating between perishable and mortal and imperishable and immortal. One more thing, this word, in a moment, this is atomos, which means it's such a small point in time that this change takes place.

It's not some long, drawn-out process. In this tiny, tiny, little amount of time, this massive change takes place. Tiny, tiny amount of time, huge, huge change. I once saw, based on this passage, on a church nursery room door, they shall not all sleep, but they shall be changed. OK? All right.

Flesh and blood, an imperishable, excuse me, a perishable body. Paul used flesh and blood to refer to those living in this present body. Our Lord had also done similarly in Matthew, and Paul continues on in a couple other books, Galatians and Ephesians, and also the author of Hebrews uses this as well. Those living in this present body are flesh and blood. As he referred to the present body as perishable, it points to the relentless pull of death on this body.

This is a body which has that relentless pull to it. That's the character of it. But this body is not of the character where God wants to take us next. And so that's why, right now, Carol has a different body than the one that she left here with. The Lord has already fitted her already given her a body suitable for where He wants to take her. And that's forever. Because forever, she will be with the Lord. And so will we.

You see, at the start of that passage, the things that are in parallel are the Kingdom of God and the Imperishable. In order for those of us who are in the church, this is the body of Christ. Those who are believers here this morning are included. to be able to take our place in this coming millennial kingdom when Christ will reign upon this present earth, we're going to need new bodies that are fit for that time and fit for the service that we'll be called to. So Paul is about to reveal something to believers there in Corinth and to us.

He's about to reveal a mystery. Now, a mystery is not something that remains mysterious, but something that was not revealed before, but is now, at this point in time, being revealed. Colossians 1.26 is the classic verse, because it says, a mystery, something not revealed before, but now revealed. So he says there, behold, I tell you a mystery. Now, it's not, behold, I tell you a moose story. It is not, behold, I tell you a mystery story, or anything of that sort. It is, behold, I tell you a mystery.

What he revealed there is that a change from these perishable kinds of bodies to the imperishable kinds of bodies that we're going to be given, in that change there will be those who have died in Christ. That is, those who sleep. And falling asleep on the pew does not count. Alright? But those who have died in Christ are euphemistically called those who are asleep in Christ. Or sometimes just those who are asleep. Why that word sleep?

It's a recognizing that this body here that we've got is not something the Lord's just going to leave as is. He's going to make a change in it. Those who sleep are the dead in Christ. There will also be those who are alive when he appears. Whether those who are asleep or those who are alive, he will take his entire church to be with him at that time. Both will have these new and kind sorts of bodies. Bodies that are ready for and prepared for the kingdom of God and for eternity. suitable bodies for that time, that place present with him. The next part says, we and all, and that's not the same as all y'all. Okay. All right. It's different.

Paul wrote here in such a way, and as we'll see shortly also in the first Thessalonians passage we pointed to, that those taken alive when Christ comes could have included him. Notice he says we. Paul wrote with the idea that Christ could have come to take his church at any time. Paul could have been included. The saints in Corinth that he is writing to could have been included. He includes us here today. We. All. The rapture always was, in Paul's day, for all the people who read these very same verses over the centuries, and in our own day, imminent in any time event. It doesn't mean that it has to happen at some specific period of time, but it could happen at any time.

Now, there are those who teach that the Bible conveys that only those who are faithful and looking for Christ's coming will be raptured. A partial rapture. There are even some who say that all of the rapture timing views, if you've heard of those, are all correct because Christians will get raptured at different times depending on when they're faithful.

That doesn't seem to be the picture here. We, all, is what Paul says. And by the way, the people that he's writing this to were Christians that he had already told them in the beginning of chapter 3 that you guys are fleshly. You're anything but faithful. But guess what? We, all, will go. Paul wrote we and all to show that the entire church is included here. Notice this passage we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. He also put we several times in the passage. We, we, we. There's a pattern of certainty also in this passage. We will, must, will have. There isn't a I hope so. There isn't a perhaps. There isn't a probably or possibly. in any of this passage at all. We will. We must. We'll have. Most certainly. Okay? It's spelled out throughout this entire passage. It's not just a nice thing to hope for as a possibility. Wouldn't it be nice if we had new bodies? Wouldn't it be nice if the Lord would just take us to be with Him? No, that's not what He's saying.

It's a will. It's a must. It's a we'll have. It's a done deal. It's a certainty. It's something we can count on. It's not, I hope I'll see Carole King again. I know. It is absolutely certain. Paul tells this certainty, and we had earlier, as we have now, this sign here. I don't know where that was, but taxes and death are, of course, the classic things that are said to be certain. And this sign says taxes, always. Death, now there's a loophole. The change from this present body type to the new one is an absolute certainty for we who believe. And it's a big loophole, a really big one. It's not a maybe loophole, it's a certain one for everyone who believes. The other point that comes out in this passage, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and actually a twinkling of an eye is what the original language says, not as some long drawn out process, but bang, it happens. We may not finish the service. And it wouldn't be a, well, folks, let's see if we can get this on the microphone. I think we're about ready to go. It won't be that. Okay.

It'll be one moment I'm talking and the next moment I'm not. And I hope this place is real empty if that happens. Right then and there, in a moment, in the smallest measurement of time conceivable and possible, right then will be changed from these present perishable bodies to the new ones. In an instant. We won't have time to say, what's happening to me? There won't be one of that beam me up issues where it kind of takes a little bit for all the little sparkles to get done. None of that.

Rather than simply leaving this body here on earth and then creating a new substitute body, however, the way that Scripture describes it, especially with Christ as the beginning example, the first fruits, God doesn't make a new one as a substitute for this one. He somehow changes the material from this present one into the next. Why do we say that? Remember when Christ was resurrected in the accounts that are described there in all four Gospels.

They didn't go to the tomb and find the body still in the wrappings and then Jesus standing nearby. What they found is the wrappings that he had been in were now empty. He was gone. And he had a new and kind resurrected body from the change out of that old body. Somehow the material of that old body is used and changed for the new one.

You have on page three of your handout also this next section in the poetic pattern. Then will come about the saying that is written, the death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is the victory of you? And I have this written in sort of in rather literal language, and there's a reason for that. Death, where the sting of you? And here's one of the reasons why I put this in rather literal language. Our English translations are sometimes done in order to make the English smooth, but in doing so, sometimes things drop out that are significant.

And this is the way verse 56 goes. The sting of the death, the sin. And the power of the sin, the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory. I started looking at this, I thought, there's a song, you know. The sting of the death, the sin, the power of the sin, the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.

And my apologies for that song because I just didn't have the rest of it. Okay. But you get the point. The way Paul wrote was emphatic here. He bang, ba-bang, the sting of the death, the sin, the power of the sin, the law. After those emphatic, heavy, hard things of death, sin, and law, what does He say?

But thanks be to, again, the God, not just as in the English translations, thanks be to God, but thanks be to the God, that one, The One who gives us THE victory. Okay? It's not an, I hope so, victory. Not something sort of victorious. But THE specific victory. Okay? Through Jesus, oh, through THE Lord Jesus Christ. That One. The specific One. Yes. The One who is ours. Therefore, my beloved children, you must be steadfast. immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

This first part is from Isaiah 26.8 and Hosea 13.4. It's not an explicit quote, but the words are clearly drawn from it. And he says it is written, The definite articles are brought across in the Greek texts very emphatically. And so I wanted to bring that across in this poetic pattern slide here. And then finally, application.

The future rapture is to be a gracious present motivator. You see, the rapture does not make us passive, but the rapture motivates us graciously. for life right now. So death and taxes, this passage makes clear, are not so sure after all. Okay? From a human standpoint, it looks like, okay, that's for real, that's what's going to happen. From a human standpoint. Oh, if you're in New York City, it's death and taxis. Anyway. Okay.

Paul, adapting here from this Isaiah passage, Isaiah 26.8, says that death will be swallowed up in victory. Not just might be. It would be nice. Or we hope that it will. It will be swallowed up in victory.

Death won't be certain. It will be ended. Death will not be certain. It will be ended. No more of this death stuff. See, right now, it's hard because we Don't have Carole King with us. We're not going to see her here at Holly Hills anymore. But you know that that death that separated her for a time from us, that death will be ended. It'll be ended for all of us too.

And so will the sting of death. No more of this ouch from death. In verse 55, this the sting of the death, the sin, and the power of the sin, the law. Death, the sin nature, and the law are interconnected. Paul from Romans chapter 3 up to about chapter 7 kept making that point clear. The three of those are married up here in this same verse here in verse 55, brought them all clearly together. He brought up this, he will swallow up death for all time out of Isaiah.

There's also Hosea 13.4, shall I redeem them from death? O death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?

But thanks be, not to just God, thanks be to God, but the God. And interestingly, Paul said that twice. As he wrote to the church in Rome, Romans 6.17 and 7.25, he said, at once here in this passage, and now as we study through 2 Corinthians, if the Lord allows that, we'll see it three more times. Thanks be to Thee, God. Why Thee, God? It's not like all those other gods out there. You were raised in a culture, there's lots of gods. But I'm talking about THE God.

THE God who sent THE Lord Jesus Christ to save THE saints. That fulfillment of what God promised for Isaiah was graciously accomplished by the resurrection of Christ. The ultimate victor. Paul wrote THE God, the God of Scripture, because the Romans had their pantheon of gods. The Greeks had their pantheon of gods. But none of those qualifies here. This is the God, the God of scripture, the one who sent Christ to be crucified and buried and raised on our behalf.

The future rapture in the final verses here is to motivate character and action now. Grace motivated. Grace motivated. Not in order to gain something, but because we're thankful for what we've gained. A Christian who is not grace motivated does not understand grace and does not understand what has been given graciously. Completely graciously. Grace motivated.

You see, he calls us to live this day for that day. And by the way, that day is this day for Carole King. She is right now in that day. Just as our being given new bodies is by grace, so we are to be grace-motivated even now Doing what we do out of thankfulness, not because, oh, do I have to?

No. Not because I better do this or God won't forgive me. I better do this or God won't bless me. No, I'm sorry. You've already been blessed. And if you want condemnation, I can't even help with that. You'll have to go somewhere else. but it's a recognition of all that God has done, of all that we've already been given, that is to motivate us. Thankfulness. Realization of what He has done and who we are in Him. That's to motivate us. This day until that day.

We'll shortly here be taking the Lord's Table and at the very end of the passage that we commonly quote There, 1 Corinthians 11.26 is, until he comes. We'll be taking the Lord's table and we'll continue to do it until when? Until he comes. This day for that day.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, how almost miraculously placed this is given the circumstances this body is in. and how amazing your grace is. We pray that you would give us hearts that would look this day from the perspective of that day and would live this day for that day. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.