Taking the congregation to heaven
Taking the congregation to heaven
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Let us now try to understand correctly what God’s Word teaches, from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-58.
1. Jesus, the crucified savior, rose from the dead, appeared to His disciples and many witnesses, and was then taken up from the Mount of Olives into heaven. At this time the believers there were gazing intently at heaven, when two angels appeared to them and said:
Acts 1:11
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
It is mentioned in 23 out of 27 books of the New Testament that Jesus will return. Therefore, the return of Jesus is a truth that every Christian accepts.
2. No human being knows the day of Jesus’ return, but it is certain that a large group of people will be alive on earth when he returns.
In the Word of God, we find that God made a special revelation to Paul about the future of all of them at the second coming of Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:13
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-16
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
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.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—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.
1 Corinthians 15:54
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Philippians 3:21
who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Below is a word that Jesus said that is related to the things mentioned above.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
3. God’s will is that all men repent and come to salvation.
However, what we see today is a decline, not people repenting and coming to God.
Children of God, let us all earnestly pray to God to create a spiritual awakening in our society. In order to bring people to salvation, let us act faithfully to proclaim the good news.
In the next chapter we will talk about the purposes of the rapture of the church.