The King Returns For Us – Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The dead in Christ will rise when Jesus returns to the earth. They'll join Jesus in the air just before those who were alive at the time of His coming. In a moment, more about a very special day when our bodies will become immortal. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, when Jesus returns, why is it that the dead in Christ rise before the living?

Well Dave, someone has humorously suggested that the reason is because the dead have farther to go than the living. But I think the Apostle Paul's point is simply this. It's all going to happen, as he says in 1 Corinthians, in the twinkling of an eye.

Now how much time is a twinkling of the eye? Not very much. And it's going to happen so quickly that the difference that was mentioned here in scripture, of course, will be negligible. The point is, Jesus Christ is going to come, and there's going to be a whole generation of believers who will not die.

They will be translated into glory at the coming of Christ in what we call the rapture of the Church. I've written a book entitled The King is Coming. We want you to have a copy, because we believe it's going to help you. It'll prepare you for the future. It'll motivate you to live for Jesus Christ in this world, knowing what it's going to be like in the world to come. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours.

Go to rtwofferer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And until the Lord comes, may we all be found faithful, waiting for His glorious appearing. You know, it's so tempting to hurry over this, but let's not fall into that temptation.

Do you realize what this means? I'm thinking of my father who died at 106 years old. I'm thinking of relatives, friends who are in heaven, children whom we said goodbye to and who are going to be up there, who are there now with Jesus, and they are going to return.

I mean, just imagine. You've got all of these souls of the dead, the Bible says, coming back with Christ. Now, the souls are very much alive, but the first stage is Jesus comes back with those who have died.

That's exactly what the text says. So God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. That's number one. Number two, their bodies, their bodies will arise from the dead. Now we have to pick up the text again. I'd like to begin here at verse 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Wow. Their bodies are going to join their spirits. The souls will now be clothed, as the Apostle Paul says, because their bodies will rise from the dead. And it says, the Lord will descend with a shout of command.

He will say, get up. You've been dead long enough. And there they will be. The bodies will rise and connect with their souls. Something like the resurrection of Lazarus.

Jesus is at the tomb of a dead man. You know, when I was growing up, we used to say, you're making enough noise to raise the dead. Well, I'm sorry, but you're not making enough noise to raise the dead. It's very difficult to raise the dead. I've taken students to a cemetery to preach to the dead, and they turned white.

That is, the students did. But the graves were still closed. But when Jesus stands at the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus says, come forth. Lazarus, come forth. It was Augustine who said, thank God he said Lazarus come forth.

If he wouldn't have named him, the whole cemetery would have come up from the dead. In fact, that's exactly what the Bible teaches. It says that the day is coming when the dead shall hear his voice. And they shall be resurrected some to the resurrection of life and some onto the resurrection of damnation. But in the end, everyone responds to the voice of Jesus, the shout of command. And when he shouts, the dead come out of their graves.

Believe me, they will. And then it says the voice of the archangel. It's probably a reference to Gabriel. I'm of the opinion that many angels are going to accompany this event. They were there when Jesus was born. They're going to be there when he returns. In fact, some of the other texts talk about Jesus coming with angels. And so they will be there too.

And with the trump of God. What was the trumpet used for in Old Testament times? The trumpet signified it's time to move. You remember when Israel was in those camps in the desert and it was time for them to move and then they would blow the trumpet. And you could imagine that people who are asleep, even they would begin to move. I remember as a joke, someone who could blow a trumpet actually blew a trumpet in a bedroom where his friend was sleeping to wake him. And thankfully his friend awoke. The other option of course would have been to die of a heart attack. Jesus will come with a blast of a trumpet and the dead in Christ, in Christ will rise first.

They actually have an advantage. That's what the apostle Paul is teaching. If you think that it's a disadvantage to die and not be present at the appearing of Jesus, I mean, you're wrong. Paul says here, the dead in Christ shall rise first. That's in verse 16.

Well what's the next sequence? First sequence, the Lord returns with the saints of those who died. That is he brings the souls of those who died with him. Secondly, their bodies are raised from the dead. Thirdly, the living believers will be instantly transformed. They will be instantly changed. They will get their bodies instantly, their permanent eternal bodies.

Now look at what the text says. Verse 17, then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together, raptured with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Now the apostle Paul taught that there was going to be a whole generation of Christians who would be alive at the return of Jesus. Same events spoken of in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. That means we shall not all die, but we shall be changed. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. And it will happen in a twinkling of an eye. How long does it take for your eye to twinkle?

Well, actually, I think I heard it's about one fiftieth of a second, just like that. There's going to be a whole generation of believers who are going to go from this existence to their eternal bodies in a second. After the dead in Christ have been raised, the apostle Paul says, probably a few seconds after that, they will be raised and will be with Christ. And it says he will come with the clouds together with them in the clouds. The appearing of Jesus is always associated with clouds. That can be because clouds sometimes represent even human beings.

Maybe it's a reference to all the angels. You know, the Bible says that we are living with a cloud of witnesses, or it may be simply a natural event in the heavens as Jesus comes. And now all these Christians go up and they are with the Lord in the clouds.

I think that God decided to hide what takes place there from the eyes of the world, because the world will have to come up with an explanation as to why so many people disappeared. And so we will ever be with the Lord. And that's number four in the sequence. Living believers, number three, will be instantly translated. Number four, both groups meet the Lord in the air.

You know, that word meet actually is used sometimes where you have a delegation meeting an important person. So not to stretch it too much, but it's almost as if the people now who have been raptured joining as they do, those who previously died, and they of course have been translated, and everybody who believes in Christ, all those in Christ have their permanent bodies. It's almost as if we are going toward Jesus in a procession. And we're saying, hail King Jesus. Thank you for coming for us.

Thank you for redeeming us. Here we are, Jesus, everlasting King. And then Paul says, so shall we ever be with the Lord, always with the Lord, as this translation says. Always means forever.

Think about it. We're going to be with the Lord. Pre-tribulationism is correct. We're going to be with the Lord during the great tribulation on earth. We will be in heaven with the Lord. No matter what you believe about the future, we will be with him when he returns in glory to establish his kingdom.

We'll be with him during the thousand year millennial reign that we will talk about in this series. And we will be with him while we reign with him forever and ever and ever with him. You know, and of course it's not only being with Jesus.

Oh, how wonderful that is. But it's also being with all of our friends. Clearly, that's why the Apostle Paul says, encourage one another with these words. It isn't just that everybody is going to be with Jesus, but everybody is going to be with everybody else that they knew on earth. So that when somebody dies who's a believer and we say that we shall see them again and we shall connect with them again, we actually mean that. The departures on earth for Christian are never permanent, never permanent.

You never really say goodbye. You say goodnight. You know, the expression that those who sleep in Jesus, the imagery is of, well, you mothers, you can relate to this.

You have a little baby, you have fed the baby and now you have lulled the baby to sleep. When Christians die, it is as if Jesus in his arms has lulled them to sleep. And then of course they shall rise to be with him forever and ever with him. So comfort one another, encourage one another with these words, weep, but not as those who have no hope.

Now, the implications of this for all of us I think are somewhat to momentous, aren't they? One of them is an inspiration and a motivation toward holiness. Listen to what John says. He says, beloved, now are we the children of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.

Think about that for a moment. You'll be like Christ. That is, you'll have a body like Jesus.

I mean, we're talking about no doctor bills because no cancer, no aches, no pains, no need for sleep. We will be like him for we shall see him as he is. And then as the New Testament always does, it doesn't give us these prophetic words just to satisfy our curiosity. John goes on and says, and he who has this hope in him purifies himself even as Christ is pure. The motivation to holy living is always there.

It is always presented. The return of Christ is presented to change us, to change our priorities, to say all the things of this world that I think are so important. I want to exchange success for significance. I'll tell you the next message that I preach in this series is going to be very sobering because the next message is based on 2 Corinthians 5, 10 where it says, we all, speaking of Christians, we all shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad.

Wow. So it's a motivation to holiness. Secondly, obviously it's also a motivation for preparedness. I don't know whether there is a word like preparedness, but let's just say there is now a word like that.

I mean, can you imagine a table with bits and pieces of plastic and wood, but also some little bits of iron, iron filings, and then a very strong powerful electromagnet just goes over them and you've got all these little iron filings, all being pulled up and connecting to the magnet and everything else is left behind. When Jesus returns, the question I want to leave you with is, will you be left behind? Actually that might be a great title for a series of books.

But people will be left behind. My question is whether or not it's you. You know, dogs can be very loyal.

In fact, I think they all are. There is a story about a man who had a very close relationship with his dog and then the man, the old farmer died. They took his body and they put it in a coffin in a box and they put it on the train. And according to the story that I heard, his dog came to the train every single day when it came to the station. The dog always hoping that his master would return. God says in the Old Testament, the donkeys know their owner.

The cows know where the stalls are, but my people, they don't know. I have to ask you a simple question today. Do you love Jesus?

Do you love his appearing and do you love him for the right reasons? The parliament of world religions many years ago, I met a woman and I asked her somehow, I forget how the conversation began, but I was asking her if she loved Jesus and she said, Oh yes, I loved him. And she began to cry. She said, I love him.

I said, why? She said, I love him because of all the miracles he did. I love him because he loved children. I love him. I love him. I love him. And I looked square into her eye and I said, you also love him because he died on the cross as a sacrifice for sins so that we could be forgiven and know God.

And she broke eye contact with me and said, I never thought of that before. You can even love Jesus for the wrong reasons. And I urge you today, if you've never trusted him as savior, he did die on the cross for our sins so that we could know him so that we could connect with God and so that we could be what the new Testament calls in Christ. So that when the rapture happens, we're caught up together with the Lord in the clouds face to face with Christ, my savior face to face. What will it be when with rapture I behold him Jesus Christ who died for me only darkling. Now I see him with a darkling veil between, but another day is coming when his glory shall be seen. I hope that all of us will be ready. And just to be clear, this event is going to happen. And today we are closer to that event than we were yesterday. Every day that we live is a day closer to the return of Jesus Christ. Now, perhaps when I told the story about the woman whom I met who said that she loved Jesus, you wondered how that conversation went.

Well, I need to emphasize that she was believing in the wrong Jesus. That's a longer story than we can mention here, but it is so important that we believe not only in Jesus, but the Jesus of the new Testament. He's the one who is able to save us.

He is the one who is returning for us again. We're making available to you a very special resource. It's entitled The King is Coming, 10 Events That Will Change Our Future Forever. If you're a believer, you're going to be participating in these events. When I wrote this book, I tried to bypass some of the controversies, some of the things that divide Christians, because what I wanted to do is to help people to understand those events that most Christians agree on will happen in the future. Once again, the name of the book, The King is Coming.

For a gift of any amount, we're making it available to you. Imagine having a book in your hands. You can, of course, underline passages.

You can go back and reread it. Here is what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call right now 1-888-218-9337. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Tears in the life to come. Many Christians fear those tears will fall if they end up in heaven without those that mean so much to them. Jerilda listens to our program.

This is what she writes. The Scriptures say that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. How can this be if we know that some of our loved ones did not make it to heaven? Someone told me that God will ease the memories we have of those loved ones.

Is this true? First of all, I want to say that we're not entirely sure why there are tears in heaven. It might be because there are loved ones who are not in heaven with us. The other reason might be tears of regret considering the way in which we lived in light of all of the benefits and all of the privileges that God gave us. But I don't think it is true to say that the way in which God is going to wipe away those tears is by blocking our memories so that we don't remember that we have relatives who are not with us who may be in hell.

I doubt very much that God solves a problem by taking away our knowledge. I would rather think that He wipes away our tears by giving us more knowledge. That in heaven we will see things from His perspective with such clarity that we will be convinced that God has done all things well. Also, in terms of our family members, remember that in heaven we will be part of one larger family. So the same affection that we feel now toward our family members will be felt, I believe, to all the members of the heavenly community.

So relationships are going to be changed. All that I know is that God is going to wipe away all tears. And that should give us the assurance that no matter what has happened, at the end of the day we will be rejoicing in God, confident that He did what was well and very good. In ancient Corinth you can see a platform where judges once sat.

On the front is a nameplate, Bema. That's the word Paul uses regarding the judgment seat of Christ, where all believers will give account of their deeds. Next time on Running to Win, join us for a probing look at every Christian's appointment at a heavenly court of justice. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.