Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. It's a word of comfort that Christ is coming. It's a reason to be secure. We don't have to be frightened about the future. We know that we are secure.
And our eyes are looking upward and onward. On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about God's exit strategy for his children from tribulation.
Now here's Doctor Graham with his message. Up, up, and away. I invite you to take God's word and turn with me now to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. You can be up. in a very down world.
In fact, It's been well said that it is your uplook. that changes your outlook. in life. I'm calling this message up, up, up. and away.
Because it describes what will take place when Christ comes. for his own. And we're going to be talking this morning and in the days ahead. about the second coming of Christ. about the final hours of human history and life your future and my future.
Now, when we talk about the second coming of Christ, there are many things, of course, we don't know. that we can't understand this side of heaven. And the more we study our Bibles, there are certainly questions. And we must be careful about fanaticism and foolishness and speculation when it comes to the coming again of Christ. We must not sensationalize or even, in my view, fictionalize.
These great Events. But now having said that Having said that there are questions, Let me say that the longer I study the Bible, And the more we move forward in our lifetimes, I believe more strongly in the second coming of Christ than ever. I do. I believe the Bible teaches that Jesus is coming, that it is one of the major themes of the Bible, that Jesus is coming for us personally. Here's what we can know.
Jesus is coming again, literally. Coming again for us. How do we know that? Because he Promised. Has Christ ever broken I promise to you.
Absolutely not. And he will fulfill this promise. He said, I will come again. And when he comes, we're told that he's going to take us home. immediately to be with him.
And so we know that Christ is coming. We know that we're going to be taken into his presence. And therefore, we know we need to get ready. Jesus said, We are to pray, thy kingdom come. And when you're praying for the kingdom to come, you're praying for the king.
to come.
So let's look at these verses regarding the evacuation of God's people in the last hours. Verse 13 of chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord. that we who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ. shall rise first.
And then we who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so will we ever be with the Lord. Therefore. Comfort one another. With these words.
Pause. Perspective on the second coming at this point was to challenge. God's people with the second coming and to comfort us as well. He says in verse 13, I don't want you to be ignorant. or uninformed.
regarding these truths. And while there are many questions, we cannot afford to ask those questions and to seek to know God's answers not by speculation, but by revelation. This we say unto you, by the word of the Lord. Did you know the book of Revelation given to us to describe many of these events that we're talking about in these days? There is a special blessing promised to those who read and heed the message of the coming of Christ.
Christ is coming at the right moment. We don't know when Jesus told us not to set dates. He said, The angels in heaven don't know. The Son of Man in his own humanity said, I do not know, but the Father in heaven, he knows. And we do have a date with destiny when Christ comes.
When he comes, he will come suddenly. He will come secretly like a thief in the night. And I believe at that point, millions of people will be mysteriously evacuated from the coming storm. And then we'll begin the final countdown of history with the Great Tribulation and Armageddon and the coming of the King. the millennium to reign in the millennium to reign and to rule.
But first, let's talk about this event that we call the rapture. Up. Up and away. It's described here very clearly. in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
And first of all, let's look at the rapture disclose. The rapture disclosed. There is a sense, of course, in which this is a mystery. In fact, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, 51 calls it a mystery. Behold, I show you a mystery that we will all be changed immediately in the twinkling of an eye.
Now, it is clear, according to this passage and others, that the rapture will take place. Debates ensue as to when. And to how But it's obvious. that this is this event is going to take place. The rapture.
Now the word rapture is not in the Bible. Neither is the word Trinity of the Bible, but of course the truth of the Trinity, Father, Son. and Holy Spirit is clearly taught in Scripture and revealed in God's Word. The word missions is not in the Bible. But Christ gave us a mission.
It's the great commission. And we know that missions is the call of every Christian and of every church.
Well, the word rapture is not in the Bible. In fact, it's a Latin word, rapturo, which means to snatch, to capture, or to rescue with joy and delight.
Sometimes we use the word rapture to describe. delight or rapturous delight. The word that Paul uses here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is a word when he says caught up together with them in the clouds, harpazo, which means to seize, to capture, to take away, to translate.
So if you don't like the word rapture, Then use the word translated. are caught up. or taken away. But without a doubt, Jesus is coming. To transform us and to transfer us from here to eternity.
And when he does, it will take place immediately. And it will take place, I believe, imminently. That means at any time. There is no sign that needs to be fulfilled that at any moment. Christ could come.
We live with a sense of immediacy and imminency of the return of Christ. Christ could come before I finish this sentence. Before I finish this sermon. Christ could come again. And I believe Christ is coming before the great tribulation and judgment that is coming upon the earth.
And we'll talk more about that in another message, but just For you to check that out, look at chapter 1 of this same book of 1 Thessalonians and chapter or verse 10 of chapter 1. when it speaks of waiting for the sun from heaven. Whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath. to come.
He delivers us from wrath. We are not called to judgment. But to salvation. And therefore, we believe that Christ is coming at any time. We're not looking for the tribulation or waiting for the tribulation.
We're waiting for the Son of God to come from heaven. We're not looking for the Antichrist. We're looking for the Christ. We're not looking for judgment. We're looking for Jesus.
He's coming for us. And you know, there are some dramatic illustrations in God's word that describe the coming of Christ just to give us an idea of what this could be like. when he takes us away. In the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 5, we meet a man by the name of Enoch. And Enoch, the scripture says, walked with God.
And after he walked with God, The scripture says something very unusual about this man. He said he walked with God and he was not. For God took him. Later on in Hebrews 11, God's Hall of Fame, it says, And Enoch walked with God and he was not, that is, he did not see death because God took him on to heaven. This man was walking with God.
He did not pass through death, but rather God translated him into heaven. And the Bible teaches, just as Enoch was translated into heaven as an individual, there will be an entire generation of believers who are going to be translated, caught up, raptured into heaven. There's another man in the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah. Rather than dying, he was taken into the presence of God according to the scripture. in a chariot of fire.
He was transported gloriously into the presence of God. Moving to the New Testament, in Revelation chapter 4, John on the isle of Patmos, exile there for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, has heard from the risen Christ, the glorified Christ, who is coming again. And then in chapter 4 and verse 1, he said, I heard the voice, the voice of a trumpet, as it were, the voice of a trumpet saying, come up here and I will show you what will happen hereafter. And that's just an illustration, you see, of what will take place when Jesus says, come up. Here.
You say, well, this all sounds rather supernatural to me. No, it doesn't sound supernatural. It is supernatural. As a matter of fact, the entire Christian faith is supernatural. It is based upon the supernatural virgin birth of Christ, the supernatural sinless life of Christ, the supernatural sacrificial death of Christ, the supernatural powerful resurrection of Christ, the supernatural glorious ascension of Christ, and the supernatural...
Return of Christ. is all supernatural in fact. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul Highs. the return of Christ to the resurrection of Christ and the cross of Christ. He said, if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Just as surely as I believe in the resurrection of Christ, I believe in the return of Christ for his own. And because Christ has accomplished Our salvation In the forgiveness of sin, One day he will accomplish the completion of our salvation when he takes us to be with Here. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message Up, Up, and Away. We're excited to share that we have a new way to connect you with us. It's our texting service designed to keep you connected with everything happening here at PowerPoint.
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Jack Graham called The Jesus Book, a Christ-centered journey through scripture that shows how every part of the Bible reveals the person and work of Jesus. This book will help you understand how the entire Bible points to Christ from Genesis to Revelation and how His living word can bring peace. confidence and clarity to your daily walk with Him. The Jesus book is our thanks for your gift of $10 or more. And so when you give, know that your support helps take God's word across the airwaves, into homes, prisons, and hearts all over the world.
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Now let's get back to today's message, Up, Up, and Away. But then let's take a deeper look. A more detailed look because the rapture is described here in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18. We have a few of the details. And remember this, Paul established by his own Witness.
The church at Thessalonica. Then he moved on to other cities to share the gospel in the second missionary journey.
So He would Communicate with the Christians there at Thessalonica, and these Christians had questions. And they had a real question. Obviously, the Apostle Paul had taught. The truth that Christ was coming again, but they were confused. Because they were expecting Christ to come.
He had not come, and some of their loved ones, their family and friends, had died.
So now they're worrying, now they're wondering. What about these who have gone on? Have they missed the rapture? And that is why the Apostle Paul, God gave him these words for them and for us to say, no, look. I don't want you to be ignorant concerning those which are asleep, that is, those who have died in Christ.
Because we're not going to perceive those. They're going to be caught up with us in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There's going to be a great resurrection. of the saved dead. Those who have died.
Whose body is in the grave. But their spirits are with Christ for To be absent from the body is to be present. With the Lord. And on that day, The graveyards, the seas. The rocks We'll give up.
The dead. in Christ. And those glorified spirits will be Miraculously. gloriously united. With their bodies.
And these will be in the presence of the Lord. He said, You don't have to worry about your family and friends. They are safe and secure, and they will be with us at the rapture. And then he speaks of the rapture when he says, We who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Notice that Paul expected the second coming in his own lifetime.
He said, We who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord. Paul himself was not expecting something else. Paul himself was not expecting a tribulation. He was not expecting the judgment. He was.
thoroughly expecting to be with Christ. to be taken up. And to be with Christ. And he said, We will be raptured up together with them in the clouds.
Now, there are some sounds that signal this event. He speaks of the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God. What is this shout? John 5, 28, we're told, The hour is coming in which all the graves will hear his voice. The best illustration, of course, is in John chapter 11.
When Jesus came to the grave, to the tomb of Lazarus. His friend who had died for three days, dead and in the tomb. And after prayer and after shedding tears. For his buddy, his friend. Lazarus.
Jesus spoke. And he said, Lazarus. Come forth. The old country preachers used to say, It's a good thing Jesus called Lazarus' name. When he said come forth or every grave would have given up the dead He said Lazarus Come forth.
And Lazarus came out of the grave.
So on that day, there will be a shout. And the graves will give up. The dead, those who have died in Christ. And then the voice of the archangel in sequence with this voice of Christ Himself. By the way, the voice that calls is a commanding voice.
The word shout here is the shout of a military commander. And then the voice of the archangel, the only archangel that is mentioned by name in the Bible, is Michael the archangel. And so this may be Michael. The angels will attend. You know, at weddings, there are attendance.
Escorts. With the bride and the groom. Jesus spoke. A parable about this and said that the coming of Christ is like a wedding, and then the shout will come. Behold, the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him.
Well, these angel bands will be there. You know, the Bible tells us that angels provide for us and minister to us. They guide us and guard us in some way through life. And so perhaps on your way up, up, up, you're going to meet your guardian angel for the first time.
Some of you need to apologize for what you've been putting That angel threw. is keeping up with some of the things you've been doing. But It will be a glorious moment. And then the trumpet. We'll sound.
In the scripture, the trumpet was sounded for two reasons. for worship and for war. For worship, when the children of Israel were called together for the feast or the great celebrations of worship, and when they were called to battle. And so the trumpet sounds as if to say, There is now in the presence of God eternal worship. We are called to worship Him forever.
And we are now hearing the trumpet of war because the wrath of the Lamb has come and there will be war. on earth.
Now, maybe you've had the idea that the second coming of Christ is all big one event. You know, Jesus comes and boom, that's the end of the world. But when you dig a little deeper in the scripture, you realize that Christ. I believe is coming first. Secretly, suddenly, mysteriously, miraculously for his saints.
And then he will come at the end of the age, after the great tribulation, with his saints to establish his kingdom. Kingdom. The Bible teaches, I believe that there's a resurrection of the saved dead. as in this case. And then at the end of the age, there will be in Revelation 20, where we read about a resurrection, a second resurrection, which is the resurrection of the unsaved unto judgment.
And so all of this is written.
so that we could be reminded to get ready. We don't know. What's going to happen? Exactly, but we know this is going to happen. You say, well, for example, If all of these millions of people are suddenly evacuated and they exit and they're gone.
Are they going to hear this sound? Are they going to hear the trumpet? What about all these people? How are they going to know?
Well, As I read my Bible, it indicates that this is going to happen in the moment, in a twinkling of an eye. It's going to happen so quickly. that millions are going to be missing. And No one will know exactly what happened. talk shows and talk about it.
They'll get some theologians who've been left behind. To discuss it. But the fact is. Here's the sobering part. Many will be left behind.
Many will be left behind. to face a certain judgment. And that's why we Why we say Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden. Your heart. But I need to wrap up this message with a pastoral word because let's talk about the rapture desired.
Again, Paul's desire in teaching these truths was not to tentillate our intellect or to teach us some new faith. Philosophical speculation about end times. No, his desire was to comfort and to challenge the people of God. It was a pastoral purpose, and that is our purpose today. the desire of the rapture.
It's called the Blessed Hope. And Christians ought to desire this time, this moment. Why? It's a word of comfort that Christ is coming. It's a reason to be secure.
We don't have to be frightened about the future. We don't have to wring our hands every time the headlines say something different or something new about the latest. technology or the latest weapon of mass destruction or the latest terrorist attack, we know that we are secure. We are confident. And our eyes are not.
Are looking upward and onward. And it brings us an answer to prayer. Did you know that Jesus prayed for the moment that He comes for us? In John chapter 17 and verse 24, it's the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. He prayed, Lord, that they would be with me, that these that you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold your glory.
And one day, that prayer, one day soon, I believe, the prayer of Jesus is going to be answered. And we will behold His glory. I believe every prayer that Jesus ever prayed is answered, and this prayer will be answered for sure. And we will not face judgment. I don't believe we'll face the tribulation.
And when the heat of the tribulation is on, and when hell is turned loose on earth, we're going to be in the arms. Of Jesus, because God has not appointed us to wrath or to judgment, but to salvation. Then it's a word of comfort because we have hope in the face of death. When the Bible tells us that We will meet Jesus, that we will meet him. It's a word describing the meeting of royalty.
If you've ever had the opportunity to meet a royal or to meet a president, if you've been in the presence of some great person, you know how thrilling that is.
Well, just imagine. And multiply it by infinity times eternity, what it will be like to meet. Jesus. We will be in his presence and all of us together caught up forever in the presence of the Lord. If you have a loved one who's gone on, a mother, a father, a daughter, a son, a husband, a wife.
a loved one, a family member, a friend, we will be together again in Christ together forever. And that means you have an incredible future now and forever. That's why it's called hope. We have a blessed hope. There are tears in the midst of tragedy.
There is sorrow and there is pain. Cut a Christian. We bleed like anyone else, but we live with hope. The blessed hope of Jesus Christ. And he who has this hope in him.
purifies himself and that brings a final word of challenge. And this word of challenge is, get ready, because I'm coming, he said. Get ready. My little children, abide in him, that when he will appear, you may have confidence and not be ashamed. and his appearing.
Frankly, some of you would have to get your life in order right now. Because there's some things in your life.
some relationships that are broken, some attitudes, some behaviors. that would not and do not honor God. You don't want to be in that moment thinking, well, I wish he'd told me he was coming. He who has this hope in him purifies himself. This ought to motivate us for godly living.
It ought to motivate us for sharing our faith. We want to take as many people with us as possible. And the urgency, the emergency of these times demand that we get after it like never before. and point people. To Jesus.
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To join, start a new text conversation by texting Connect to 59-789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Talking about Christ's second coming can be confusing for both believers and non-believers. But the important thing to remember when you have questions about this is to go to God's Word. And I hope today's message has helped shed some biblical light on what will happen in the final days.
My friend, there's no reason. for you as a believer in Jesus Christ to be afraid of the future. If you're a follower of Christ, you can have incredible hope that in fact one day He is coming for you, that you will spend eternity with Him. Remember what the Apostle Paul wrote. that we will not all sleep.
but we will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. That is a sure hope.
So get ready because Jesus is coming again. And that is Today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of $10 or more to PowerPoint, we'll send you a copy of Dr. Graham's book, The Jesus Book, as our thanks. Text the word book to 59-789.
And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about what you can expect at the judgment seat of Christ. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
