The Return

When Jesus comes back in conquering power, the church, dead and alive, will be caught up in the air to meet Him, not to stay up there, but to join His return in triumph to participate in His exaltation. Come, Lord Jesus. As Christians, we long for His return, but what will it be like? Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us today for Renewing Your Mind. Although there is disagreement among Christians about the timing of Christ's return, the Bible is very clear on certain aspects of His coming. As R.C. Sproul concludes this week's study on the work of Christ, today he explores what the Bible says about Christ's return, and in particular, what the Bible says about the rapture.

Here's Dr. Sproul. Today we come to the last in our series of messages on the work of Christ, and we'll be looking briefly at the return of Jesus at the end of time, where He will consummate His kingdom. And so even though His earthly work has been finished with the cross and with the resurrection, and He is ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father, nevertheless, there's still more to come. He will come again at the end of time to finish the work of His kingdom. Now for centuries, the church has referred to the return of Jesus as the blessed hope, and I want to comment on that briefly. The return of Jesus is our hope.

It's something that we long to see, can't wait to experience. The last words of the New Testament were the words, even so, come, Lord Jesus. Now when we use the word hope in the English language, we refer to something that we wish would happen, we would like to see take place, but we have no guarantee or assurance that it will come to pass.

You may ask me, do I think the Steelers will win the Super Bowl this year? I will say, I hope so, but don't bet on it. But in New Testament categories, the word alpus in Greek, which is translated hope, is not something that lacks certainty. The hope of which the New Testament speaks refers to those promises in the future that God has made whose fulfillment is absolutely certain.

There's no doubt about it. And so we have this hope, and this hope that we have been given by God and by the Holy Spirit is a hope that will never disappoint, is a hope that will never make us ashamed. And this particular hope is blessed. It is the blessed hope of the promise of Jesus' return. Now the New Testament has a lot to say about Jesus' future return.

And we don't have time in one message to look at all of the aspects that are connected to it. But I want to look at least at the correspondence that Paul had with the church of Thessalonica about these matters of the return. And I'll look first of all at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, beginning at verse 13, where Paul writes these words. 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 until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore comfort one another with these words. Now what I've just read here is Paul's teaching about what is popularly called the rapture. The rapture refers to the coming of Jesus and the being caught up in the air with Him of the saints.

And I think there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there about this event. But there are some things that we need to understand fully about the rapture. The first thing is that Jesus' return will be visible. It will be bodily, and it will be in triumph. That He will not come in lowliness and meekness as He did in His first advent, but in this advent He comes in triumph, in power, in glory, on the clouds of glory. And His coming will not be secret, but will be visible. Again, if we recall in our last session on the ascension, on the Mount of Ascension, when the angels spoke to the disciples, they said, Men of Galilee, why are you standing here gazing into heaven? This same Jesus who is gone will return in like manner. And so we look forward to a visible return, just as He left visibly in the Shekinah glory cloud, so He will come again visibly with this cloud of glory. Now there is this view that's very widespread in the church today that what Paul is talking about in 1 Thessalonians is the rapture in which the church will be caught up in the air and then sort of hover up there for three and a half years or seven years or during the time of the tribulation. And then at the end of that period, He will come back again so that you have two second advents at that point. And I think that's a result of a serious misunderstanding of what the Apostle is describing here in 1 Thessalonians. I talked with one of the leading representatives of that school of thought in our culture and in the church today who teach a, quote, pre-tribulation rapture that many people are very excited about that before the church is subjected to persecution and a great tribulation, the church will be evacuated at the time of the rapture and will miss all of this time of affliction and suffering. And when I was talking to this leader, I said to him, help me out here, I said, I don't know a single verse anywhere in the Bible that teaches a pre-tribulation rapture.

Can you tell me where to find that? I'll never forget what he said to me. He said, no. He said, I can't, but that's what I was taught from the time I was a little child.

I said, well, let's get our theology from the Bible rather than from some Sunday school lesson that somebody gave us years and years ago. Well, if Paul's not talking about a secret rapture here, I mean, it would be the worst kept secret in history because here he describes the descent of Jesus to the sound of the great trumpet and all these clouds of glory and all the dead in Christ rising up. I mean, and every eye shall see Him, we're told. Again, where's the secret? It's as plainly visible and public as any event could ever possibly be. Well, then what is going on here with this language of the rapture?

Let's look at it again. The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first, and then those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That is the purpose of the dead rising, and our being raptured up into the sky is not to go away, but to meet Jesus as He is returning.

He's not taking us out of the world to stay out of the world. He's lifting us up to participate with Him in His triumphal return. If you've ever been to Paris, one of the most important monuments in the city on the Champs-L.A.C. is the Arc de Triomphe, the Ark of Triumph. If you've been to Rome, you've seen the Ark of Titus, and there are other arches like that scattered here and there around what once was the Roman Empire.

And here was the significance of that. When the Roman legions would be dispatched from Rome to go into a foreign country on a military campaign, a campaign of conquest, they would go with the standards of the Roman army and the letters S.P.Q.R., Sedatus Populus Quo Romanus, for the Senate, and the people of Rome. That is to say that it was understood in Rome that the conquests of the military were not simply for the politicians that governed the city of Rome, but the conquests were for the enjoyment and the benefit of all the citizens of the city. And so the armies may be gone for a campaign of two years or three years from Gaul or wherever it would be. And then when the armies would return, they would leave captivity captive. They would have this procession of the captives that they brought with them in chains, and there would be this parade.

The soldiers would camp about one mile outside of the city of Rome. And they would send a messenger into the Senate and say, the armies are back, we have the captives that we brought, the leading captivity captive, and it's time to prepare the city now for the triumphal return of the Roman armies. So what would happen in the city? They would hastily construct a large arch through which the conquering heroes could march through to get back to the center of the city.

Not only that, they would go around the city with garlands and perfume to cover up the offensive odor of these slaves who were sweating in profusion, and all would be made ready for a triumphal return of the army. And when everything was set, the signal was given with the blowing of a trumpet. And when the trumpet was blown, the citizens of Rome left the city and went out to where the army was and joined the army and came together with the army under the arch, the idea being that they participated in the triumph of their conquering armies. This is exactly the language that Paul uses here. What he's saying is that when Jesus comes back in conquering power, that the church, dead and alive, will be caught up in the air to meet Him, not to stay up there, but to join His return in triumph to participate in His exaltation. You know, when you're baptized, baptism has a double sign. It marks, in the first instance, your participation with the suffering and humiliation of Jesus, but it also marks you as one who will participate in His glory and in His exaltation. And the Apostle Paul warns us if we're not willing to participate in His humiliation and His afflictions, then we will have no part in His exaltation. But what he's telling the Thessalonians is, hey, you're worried about what's going to happen to your departed loved ones, that they're going to miss this triumphal return, this great conclusion of the ministry of Jesus at the end of time?

No. They're going to be there first. The dead will rise first, and then those who are still alive, who are Christ, will be caught up together with this whole assembly to come to the earth again in triumph.

That's what the language is talking about. Well, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul had to correct some misunderstandings that were being pervasive. In the second chapter, he writes these words, Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if it were from us, as though the day of Christ had already come. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin revealed the Son of Perdition, who opposes and exalts Himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that He sits as God in the temple of God, showing Himself that He is God.

And don't you remember that when I was with you, I told you about these things, and now you know what is restraining, that He may be revealed in His own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only He who now restrains will do so until He's taken out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with His breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. Now this lawless one who's being described here, sometimes called the Antichrist, is that He, the lawless one, is coming according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.

And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now Paul's saying before Christ comes with His people, there has to be the great apostasy. And apostasy is not the same as paganism.

Paganism describes people who have never professed faith in Christ. Apostasy has to do with people who have made a profession of faith in Christ, who are members of a visible Christian body or church, who have fallen away from the truth of the gospel. We know that churches can become apostates, where they begin with making a confession of faith that is godly and biblical and true, but then after a certain amount of time they'll begin to embrace pagan concepts, pagan ideas, pagan behavioral patterns, and repudiate their basic confessions and aren't even valid churches anymore. They're apostates. Now I'm not talking about Christians who are true believers, who make a true profession of faith, who lose their faith and become apostates.

Now I'm talking about people who are in the visible church, who have made a public profession of faith, who then deny it. That's what apostasy is. And apostasy happens in some measure in every age, but this is described as the great apostasy, that about the time Jesus is coming back, you can expect a widespread apostasy in the church itself.

That's one of the reasons, by the way, that many people are convinced that we're close to the final advent of Christ because of the manifestations of such apostasy, particularly in the mainline churches in our country, but not just in our country, but in Europe and around the world. But also, as part of this teaching, Paul says, that no one deceive you that they will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now here, Paul is describing what we normally refer to as the antichrist. And if we look at that concept in the New Testament, the idea of the antichrist refers to someone who is more than simply against Christ. In our language, anti means to be opposed to or to be against. But in the Greek use of it, it means against and a substitute for, so that the antichrist is not merely an opponent of Christ, but he seeks to usurp the office of Christ and to substitute himself for Christ.

He sets himself up in the temple as if he were God. Now, that's why it's usually thought that the antichrist will be somebody who's in the religious realm, somebody who, like Satan, is an angel of light, disguising himself as a good person, but is actually working to undermine the authority of Jesus. And so, Paul says that this antichrist or this lawless one, the son of perdition, has to be revealed. And he goes on and says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The New Testament says the spirit of antichrist is always in the world.

And so, there are a multitude of antichrists with the lowercase a, leading up to the ultimate culmination of the spirit of antichrist in capital A Antichrist, the supreme or the worst antichrist that comes at the end. And he comes using deceptive powers, working with the work of Satan, in order to convince people of falsehood rather than the true. And then we are told that he will be destroyed. The Lord will consume him with the breath of his mouth and destroyed with the brightness of his coming. And so, we don't look for the second advent of Jesus to appear until after this apostasy, after this tribulation brought to bear by the antichrist, because it's while the antichrist is here that Christ comes and destroys him with the brightness of his glory and with the breath of his mouth, the power of his word. That's the hope that we have that cannot fail to be fulfilled. The Christian's hope is indeed certain.

That was R.C. Sproul on this Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind, concluding his study on the work of Christ. But there is much more to dig into, including Christ's incarnation, his baptism, his childhood, and more. To help you continue to grow, for your donation of any amount, we'll send you a special resource package featuring the complete series that you heard this week on Renewing Your Mind, What Did Jesus Do?

It is 12 messages, and you'll receive lifetime digital access as well as the DVD set. In addition, this resource package includes the hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's book, The Work of Christ. So for your donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, or by calling us at 800-435-4343, you'll receive both the teaching series and the book. And as a reminder, today is the final day that we're making this resource package available to you for your donation of any amount, so visit renewingyourmind.org today. Each year, thousands of Christians gather in Orlando, Florida, for Ligonier Ministries National Conference.

This year, over 6,000 people registered and tens of thousands of people watched online. Well, next week, we'll be featuring select messages from the conference all under the theme of Stand Firm. Beginning Monday, Stephen Lawson will remind us that we need to stand firm upon the Word of God. So join us Monday here on Renewing Your Mind. .