END TIME ELATION
READ 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
I know we have worked our way through this passage in reverse order, but I felt it would be easier to share in this way. In verse 1 Paul gives us a word about the end time elation. He gives us a word of victory, a word of joy.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.”
He's talking about the rapture of the church and the return of Jesus. The blessed hope of the church is not that we are heading into the Great Tribulation.
The blessed hope of the Lord is Titus 2:13, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
I'm not looking for the Antichrist. I'm looking for the Lord Jesus Christ in His coming.
Paul says that I am going to be gathered together with Him. We are going to be caught up together with Him. That word (together) is used one other time, and it is in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…”
Every time you and I gather together in God's house as believers, you and I are getting a precious foretaste and anticipation of the day when we will all be caught up together in the rapture to meet the Lord in the air. Every time we come together, we are having a dress rehearsal for our gathering together by being caught up together with the Lord.
There is hope in the second coming of Jesus, and there is hope for the believers in the rapture of the Lord. In I Thessalonians 4:13(b) Paul says, “…that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”
You have hope! 1 Thessalonians 4 continues in verses 16 & 17 saying, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
I have good news for you. I'm not going to get shook up, but, praise God, one of these days I'm going to get "took up." That's not good grammar, but it's good theology.
Your Friend and HIS,
Pastor Abbott
MEDITATIONS
1. The Lord’s return occurs in two parts: the rapture and the revelation. How do these two events differ in nature and in their respective order?
2. Why would the believer look forward to the rapture of the church?
3. Why should we be excited about the revelation of Jesus Christ when He returns to the earth?
4. Do you know what happens after the return of Jesus Christ to the earth? Why should this excite you?