All in the Church Will Be Changed

Transcript

GR 1371
03-02-08
Everyone in the Church Will Be Changed
1 Corinthians 15:50-52
Gil Rugh

We are returning to our study of 1 Corinthians 15 today, so if you'd turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15, this great chapter on the resurrection of the dead. It has established clearly for us that in the plan of God believers will experience resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pattern. It will be a resurrection to a glorified body. It will be the same body that is buried, that is raised from the dead; it will be a body not subject to corruption, to decay, to weakness or any of those things associated with this sin-cursed earth and the trouble and penalty of sin that affects and impacts us every day of our lives. It will be a body that will live eternally in the presence of God.

In 1 Corinthians 15:35 Paul began to deal with some of the questions that those who challenged the resurrection of the dead would raise. How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? Having answered those questions down through verse 49, there is one issue that has yet to be dealt with. What about those who are alive when Christ returns? What will happen to them? Verse 50 moves us from what he has been talking about to a new area. “Now I say these brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” Now if you just take that verse as it stands on its own, it can raise some problems for us. We spent some time recently talking about the subject of the kingdom and the kingdom that Christ will establish on this earth when. He returns to the earth. Verse 50 says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Now if that means only people in glorified bodies will go into the kingdom, we would have serious problems. So as we interpret a passage of scripture, we first look at it and see what it says, and be sure we have what it says clearly. Now one of the possible interpretations of this passage is everyone who goes into the kingdom will be in a glorified body, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, and a perishable body can't inherit an imperishable kingdom. We would say that would be a possible interpretation. The problem with that interpretation is it would be in direct conflict with what the Bible tells us about the kingdom. It tells us there will be people in the kingdom in their physical bodies, and in fact some of them will perish.

Come back to Isaiah 65, one passage in the New Testament and one in the Old Testament. You can get the CDs from Sound Words if you want to look more in detail of what we did with the subject of the kingdom in our previous studies. But just to remind you, Isaiah 65. We are in the kingdom, that's what Isaiah is talking about, that time when Christ will establish His kingdom on the earth. Look at verse 20, “No longer will there be an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his days. For the youth will die at the age of one hundred. The one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be accursed.” That means death. But if the perishable couldn't inherit the imperishable, if everybody is going into the kingdom with a glorified body, not subject to corruption, decay and death, how can you talk about people dying. Look down in verse 23. “They will not labor in vain or bear children for calamity . . .” They're going to bear children. Well in the resurrection we will neither marry nor give in marriage, Jesus Christ said. There will be no marrying and bearing children when we get our glorified body. So this passage about the kingdom says there will be people there in perishable bodies and conducting the activities characteristic of these physical bodies, such as having families, bearing children and so on.

Come over the New Testament, to the book of Revelation chapter 20. Now you remember when Christ returns to earth and establishes His kingdom, the first phase of that eternal kingdom is a thousand-year period we call the millennium. That's talked about in Revelation 20, and he mentions repeatedly in the opening seven verses that [the] first phase of the kingdom He will establish has thousand-year duration. Verse 7 then says, “when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison.” So we will have been in the kingdom for a thousand years. And he will come out and deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. They came up on the broad plain of the earth, surrounded the camp of the saints of the beloved city, Jerusalem. Fire came down from heaven and devoured them. Now there is a problem. If only people in glorified bodies went into the kingdom, who is this that after a thousand years in glorified bodies in the kingdom--over which Christ reigns--are now ready to reject Christ, follow Satan, and as a result will perish? I thought the perishable couldn't inherit the imperishable?

So with passages like this and others, we come back to 1 Corinthians 15 and we'll move onto verse 51 since we can't solve verse 50. No. We have to say well maybe our original thought on this verse is not correct, it is too much in conflict with what the scripture says in other places. It can't mean that only people in glorified bodies will go into the kingdom. So is there another way this could be understood. And one of the things we do is look at the context. Who is this letter written to? Well if we go back to the beginning, in 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul says he is writing to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. He's writing to the church. So what he says in 1 Corinthians 15:50 is true of the church. Just like in chapter 15 he has limited his discussion of the resurrection of the body to the resurrection of believers. He hasn't talked about the resurrection of unbelievers. Now other places in scripture it talks about the resurrection of unbelievers. But Paul doesn't mention it in 1 Corinthians 15, he is concerned to focus on just one subject—the resurrection of believers, and particularly the resurrection of believers in the church.

When he talks in verse 50 and says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, nor the perishable inherit the imperishable, he's talking about what is true of the church. No one in the church will go into the kingdom in a physical body. Everyone who is part of the church will be glorified to go into the kingdom. Where these other people come from, we talked about that when we talked about the kingdom. We'll mention it again in our next study, briefly. So we understand verse 50 to be saying everyone in the church must get a glorified body. We've already looked at the fact that believers who have died will get glorified bodies. They'll be raised from the dead and have a body like Christ. What about those who are alive when Christ returns? Well Paul says, I have some new material for you. I have material that has not before been revealed by God so that you can understand that even those who are alive at the rapture of the church, we'll talk about that term later and more fully in our next study, those who are alive at that time will get glorified bodies also.

So he comes to verse 51 and says, behold I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. That word mystery, we get it from Greek, lusterion. We've just translated it over into English, mystery. A mystery in scripture is something that had not been revealed by God but is now being revealed. It's not something difficult to understand. It’s something impossible to understand apart from God revealing it or making it known. This is important. What often happens in theology, it happens in other areas but theology is my concern, is people change their interpretation of scripture. They continue to use the same terminology, but they give it different meaning. This is happening with the word mystery. It has been generally agreed that a mystery is something that is not known apart from revelation from God. Now some who want to change their view on things continue to use the word, “mystery”; but they say it doesn't mean something that is new, that hasn't been revealed before. Part of the motivation of some of these is they want to read the church back into the Old Testament, so they can't have it as totally new revelation. So you have to be careful. Sometimes you are reading someone and it seems like they're saying the same thing I am, they're using the same words. But they don't mean the same thing by it, they've given it a new meaning. I think it borders on deception, or maybe stronger than that, it is deceptive to redefine the terms and then use them in a context where people understand them in the previous meaning.

Back up to Matthew 13. This word mystery is used 27 times, if I counted right, in the New Testament. We're not going to look at all 27 usages, but just a sample, so we are clear on how it is used. Remember really Jesus' public ministry to Israel and His offering of a kingdom comes to a close with Matthew 12. There you have the unpardonable sin mentioned. You have judgment on the nation pronounced. Matthew 13, Jesus begins to teach in parables. Verse 10, the disciples came and said to Him, why do you speak to them in parables? This had not been His pattern before. Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. . . .” Verse 13, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, hearing they don't hear, nor do they understand.”

Verse 16, “Blessed are your eyes because they see; and your ears because they hear. . . .” And then He explains the parable to them. I have new material regarding the kingdom to reveal, but it's not my intention that the crowds understand. They have rejected Me. The offer of the kingdom to them is over. But I want to reveal this new material to you, my followers, regarding the kingdom. It doesn't change the kingdom, but it gives additional material regarding the kingdom. That's what the mystery is.

Come over to Romans 11. Paul says in verse 25, for I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. Paul says I have new material to tell you regarding what has happened to Israel and what is happening to the Gentiles. You see the Old Testament talks about the salvation of Gentiles, but it was always in the context of Israel being the center of God's program and work in the world. Now Israel has been displaced for a time by the church and by a ministry to Gentiles. Paul said this is material that was not known in the Old Testament. God's work in the church was not made known. So I want you to understand this mystery, something now that I am revealing to you that was not known before. That's why we talk about the church age as a parenthesis. It was part of the plan of God, but it was not part of the revealed plan of God, until you get to the New Testament apostles and prophets like Paul. Now you have new material.

Look in Romans 16:25, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, . . .” Now note this, “ . . . according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested.” You see what a mystery is? It's something that was secret before, but now God has revealed it so that it can be known by His people. That's what a mystery is. It's something that has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested. So it is new revelation.

In 1 Corinthians 2:6, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.” But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. You see it wasn't hidden to God, this is material that is part of the plan of God, that He chose to keep secret from people until His designated time. It's the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood, for if they understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Verse 9, just as it is written, “The things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” We sometimes use this at a funeral, but you understand he's not talking about material we won't understand until we get to heaven. Because look at verse 10, for to us God revealed them through the Spirit. They've already been revealed. What he is saying in verse 9, these are truths that you could not know by just human activity, using your eyes, your ears, your mind, your wisdom. You cannot penetrate and understand the secrets of God. He has to reveal it. We could not have entered into an understanding of His plan and program of salvation unless He revealed it. So a mystery is something that can't be known by just human means. It must be by revelation.

Chapter 4 verse 1, let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. We have been entrusted with this revelation, so that's what we have. We have now this revelation more complete. Now we have to be careful and the reason we have to be careful and have mystery defined properly, those wanting to redefine it want to go back and say it doesn't mean new material that wasn't known before. And then they want to go back and find the church in the Old Testament. They don't interpret the Bible historically, grammatically, they interpret the Bible historically, grammatically, theologically. They determine their theological position and then try to reinterpret the Bible according to the theology that they come to with a preconceived, predetermined idea.

Come over to Ephesians 3. This will come up in our next study, so we're taking a little longer time to have the background. Ephesians 3. Paul is speaking of his situation again. Verse 1, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of your Gentiles. He's in prison as he writes this letter. And it's because of his ministry to the Gentiles. Remember Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, his ministry focused on reaching the Gentiles. If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you. He had been entrusted with a measure of God's grace. Remember 1 Corinthians 4:1? We are stewards of the mysteries of God. That by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. Verse 4, by referring to this when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. [Ephesians 3:5-6] “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it is has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

So verse 8, to me the least of the saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. You see that constant emphasis, this wasn't known before. I don't know it, Paul says, because I am more intelligent or I have greater wisdom. I know it because God in His wisdom chose to reveal it to me. So through me it might be made known to you. This wasn't known by the Old Testament prophets. In other generations, verse 5, the mystery of Christ was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Holy Spirit. So the mystery is new material, not before revealed.

Colossians 1:26, Paul is concerned that he might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. And the focus in verse 26 is the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This whole plan of God in focusing salvation in the Gentiles and in the church was not made known in the Old Testament. That's why in the Old Testament you study the prophets, you come to the first coming of Christ as the prophets spoke of it and you come to the second coming. And that's why Peter said Old Testament prophets didn't understand the suffering and death of Christ and the ruling and reigning of Christ in glory. You know why? In the Old Testament it's not revealed that there are two thousand years between the first coming of Christ and the second coming, because that was a mystery not revealed. That wasn't revealed to Paul. It's not in the gospels. Be careful. People read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and say, this is what Christ did, this is what Christ said. This is New Testament. This is the church. No, it's not. The Law of Moses did not come to an end until Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead. The church does not begin until Acts 2. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the gospels, are part of the Old Testament, the old covenant. They are under the Mosaic Law. This kind of failure to keep clear what scripture makes clear leads to confusion. Then we have the church and Israel blended. We think we're in the New Testament, we're talking about the life of Christ on earth, He must be talking about the church. The word church is only used twice, I believe, in the gospels. I mean, it's not the focus, Israel is still the focus. You have to have the death and resurrection of Christ so you can have the church established in Acts 2. That's a mystery. It’s unfolded through Paul and others.

All right, come back to 1 Corinthians 15. The mystery that he wants to address here now, the new revelation that hasn't before been given, we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. And some of you chuckle because of the way this is used in the nursery. That's not a valid application but it's a humorous one. What he is saying is that not every believer is going to sleep, not every believer is going to die. Some of us in the church will not experience physical death. But you know what? Every church believer will experience bodily transformation. So that's the point. It's not going to happen that everyone in the church, Paul realizes it could be that Christ will come for the church and we who are alive will now be changed. When he says we will all be changed, he's not necessarily saying it's going to happen in my lifetime, but you speak as we would now. I could say to you, we're looking forward to the coming of Christ when the dead will be raised and then we will be changed. But I don't know for sure that I will be part of those who will be changed while not having to experience physical death. But I speak that way because that's where we are living today, and we are anticipating today—the return of the Lord for the church.

How will this happen? Verse 52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable. And we who are alive will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, this mortal must put on immortality. Both the dead and the living in the church must be changed, glorified to go into the kingdom. That's his point. This will not happen as a process, it will happen in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. That word moment, we get the English word atom from it. It's from the Greek word that means something that can't be cut, can't be divided, with a negative on the front—not divided, not cut. So we have the atom which was something that couldn't be divided. In an atom, just the smallest particle of time, the twinkling of an eye. We sort of mix the metaphor here in our English translations, it's sort of gotten ingrained and gets carried on in subsequent translations. Stars twinkle and eyes blink or bat. But we've come to use the twinkling of an eye as something that goes so fast. Our eyes blink so rapidly; we don't even notice them. We don't say, I couldn't see because my eyes blinked. I mean, our eyes go so fast we don't pay attention, don't even notice it is happening. The point here is in just an instant of time, you can't even measure this, that quickly, faster than you can snap your fingers. If the rapture would occur now, every believer sitting in this auditorium would be gone and you wouldn't be thinking, here we go, because it would be here we are. Because faster than you can think or you blink your eye, I'm here, I'm in the clouds with Christ with glorified believers. That's how fast it will be. In an atom, faster than your eyes blink. You read the commentaries, they all try to comment, blinking of an eye is too slow. Well, I get the idea, that's fast enough for me. That atom of time.

What's going to happen? The trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised. And there's an order. Paul will elaborate the order in the parallel passage in Thessalonians. We’ll go there in a moment. The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. You can't say we'll be raised, we're going to be caught up from the earth, but we won't be raised in the sense of coming out of the grave. We're just going to undergo a transformation as we move from this earth to the clouds in an atom of time. Talk about the power of God to raise a body from the dead that has disintegrated. Just think about it, the power of God to bring about a transformation that rapidly from purely physical perishable bodies to glorified physical bodies, imperishable, in an atom of time. Only the power of God could bring that about.

The trumpet will sound. We have to talk about the trumpet. In our next study I want to talk about the timing of the rapture of the church. So I'm going to be referring to the rapture of the church without getting into much detail on the time, but since the trumpet is mentioned here we have to talk about the trumpet. And the trumpet becomes key for people, particularly some people that don't have the correct view, if I could prejudice you, on when the rapture will occur. We're told at the last trumpet. And what is the last trumpet? That will help us identify when the rapture will occur. I don't think it does. Now let me tell you what some of the possible views are.

The first one I think is a possibility because it fits the context of 1 Corinthians 15. The last trumpet. Well you think about the last trumpet just like you had the first Adam and the last Adam, verse 45, contrasting Adam in the Garden in Genesis and then Christ as the last Adam. We talk about the last trumpet, well when is the first trumpet? Well when does the first trumpet appear in scripture? The first time a trumpet is mentioned in the Bible is in Exodus 19:13-20 to signify God's arrival, if you will, on Mt. Sinai. The trumpet sounds, and then it sounds to call His people to meet Him at Mt. Sinai where Moses will come up and receive the Mosaic Law. So if you're going to contrast the last trumpet with the first trumpet, you go back to Exodus 19 where the trumpet sounded to announce the presence of God and the call for His people to come to Mt. Sinai to meet Him. Now here this last trumpet may be God's call to come and meet Him. You say, how does that fit? Look down in verse 56, the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the Law. So in the context here he refers to the law. Interesting. The first use of trumpet, the first time in scripture we have a trumpet sounding is in the context of the giving of the Law in Exodus 19. The last trumpet where we will be called as those who are no longer under the power of sin and the penalty of the Law, to now meet Christ in the air to go to glory to meet His Father. And Colossians 1 says to be presented in His presence as those who are holy and without spot, blameless.

So that's a possible interpretation of the last trumpet. It's the trumpet to call us, the redeemed in the church, set free from the power of sin and the law to the presence of the God of glory. I don't know that, that's the best view, but at least it's possible in the context since Paul does refer to the Mosaic Law in the context here. He's been contrasting the first and then Christ as the last in the success of His work of redemption in overcoming sin and its penalty. And Paul brings the law in here in the context.

I don't believe this trumpet can be effectively connected to the trumpets of the book of Revelation. Turn over to Revelation 8. Now we remember how the book of Revelation unfolds, after the opening chapters. Chapter 1 is where Christ is presented in His glorified state, chapters 2-3 have the letters addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor, then chapters 4-5 you have the throne room in heaven, where I believe you have the church gathered before the throne of God in the glories of heaven. Chapter 6 begins to unfold the details of the coming 70th week of Daniel, the 7-year tribulation. That will run from chapters 6-19, where we come to the return of Christ to earth in chapter 19, and the establishing of His kingdom in chapter 20.

Now beginning in chapter 6 you have a scroll that was rolled up. And the way they roll a scroll, they write on it and they write so far and then they roll it up. Then they drop the hot wax on the edge which seals that. In other words if it's opened you can see the seal will be broken. Then they write further and it's rolled up and then it's sealed. There is a scroll and they could see looking at it there are seven seals on it. And this contains the completeness of God's program for His creation. And so they start and break the first seal and it is unfolded and a judgment comes out. And they unroll the second one. The first four are the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you remember. When you get to the seventh seal, out of the seventh seal, come seven trumpets. When the seventh trumpet sounds, there will be seven bowls coming out. So everything is contained within the seven seals.

When you come to chapter 8 the seventh seal has been opened, verse 8, when the Lamb broke the seventh seal. Jesus Christ is the only one, even in the courts of heaven, who is eligible to take the seven-seal scroll, you remember, if you go back to the throne room scene in Revelation 5, and to break its seals. Because He is the Lamb that was slain, because this seven-seal document not only contains judgment and wrath on an unbelieving creation, it also contains the completion of God's plan of salvation for the redeemed. And so it takes the Redeemer to be able to unfold the plan of God.

When the seventh seal was opened, Revelation 8:6, the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first sounded and a judgment comes on the earth—hail, fire mixed with blood are thrown to the earth. A third of the earth is burned up, a third of the trees are burned up, all the green grass is burned. One-third of the earth, tremendous devastation. The second angel sounded, blows his trumpet, another judgment is poured out on the earth. Verse 10, the third angel sounded; verse 12, the fourth angel; chapter 9 verse 1, the fifth angel; chapter 13, the sixth angel. Now the book of Revelation is following sequentially, in order, events one after another. The first seal, the second seal, third seal, through the seventh seal, out of which come the seven trumpets. The first trumpet sounds, the second, we just move chronologically.

You come to chapter 10 and you have a break in the flow, if you will. And chapters 10-14 unfolds material related to events in the middle of that 70th week of Daniel, which remember, is divided into two three and a half -year segments. In the middle certain things happen. Now you don't find the seventh trumpet until you get to chapter 11 verse 15, then the seventh angel sounded. And then when you get to chapter 16 verse 2 the bowls begin to pour out. And if you've studied through Revelation you'll remember that each of the judgments gets more severe. The seal judgments are terrible, the trumpet judgments are worse than the seal judgments, and the bowl judgments are worse than the trumpet judgments. And what happens, every time a bowl is turned over and spilled out on the earth, another judgment occurs. And we come to the climax of the return of Christ in chapter 19.

But the seventh trumpet is sounded in chapter 11 verse 15. Now some say the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15 would be the seventh trumpet of Revelation, because that's the last trumpet here in this series. But that's not true, can't be true. Where are we? We're in the middle of the tribulation. How do I know that? Look at chapter 11 verse 2, the last statement, they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, they will prophesy for 1260 days. Three hundred and sixty days is a prophetic year rounded off, 42 months is three and a half years, 1260 days is three and a half years. We're three and a half years away from the end of the tribulation, we're in the middle.

Come down to chapter 12 verse 6, Israel flees into the wilderness, the end of the verse. She has a place where she'll be nourished for 1260 days. Look at verse 14, the middle of the verse, Israel again in the wilderness. She was nourished for a time, times and a half time. A reference from Daniel, a time, two times and a half time. Come down into chapter 13 verse 5, authority to act for 42 months was given to him. We are repeatedly told we have three and a half years to go before Christ returns to earth in chapter 19 and establishes His kingdom in chapter 20. The seventh trumpet of Revelation is not the last trumpet, because there will be a trumpet sounded when Christ returns to earth to establish His kingdom. We'll look at that in a moment.

You ought to note something. Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians about 55 A.D. We date that pretty clearly from events in Acts 18, from the secular rulers, the ruler in Corinth at the time and those events. So in 55 A.D. he would have written 1 Corinthians. Do you know when the book of Revelation was written? Ninety-five A.D. The Corinthians had no idea what Paul was talking about if the last trumpet is the seventh trumpet of the seven trumpets in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation won't even be revealed for another 40 years. In fact, the Apostle Paul didn't know about the seals, the trumpets and the bowls, because God won't reveal that until He reveals it to the Apostle John. Paul will have been dead over 25 years when God chooses to reveal this information to the Apostle John. So to just jump in and say, that seventh trumpet of Revelation, that has to be the last trumpet Paul is talking about when he writes 1 Corinthians. Then Paul didn't have any idea what he was talking about, neither did the Corinthians. So I think that kind of connection, some have tried to establish a mid-trib rapture of the church on the basis of the seventh trumpet of Revelation. We'll talk a little bit about that next week. I think it's a fallacious connection, and besides he didn't say the seventh trumpet in 1 Corinthians, he said the last trumpet. And if you want to go to the last trumpet, there will be a trumpet sounded when Christ returns to earth and that would be in Revelation 19.

Come back to Matthew 24, His return is recorded in Revelation 19 but it is also recorded in Matthew 24 and there the trumpet is mentioned. I don't think this is the trumpet of 1 Corinthians, but you ought to be aware of it. Matthew 24, and this follows the same progression as you have in the book of Revelation—the coming tribulation prophesied by Daniel, the 70th week of Daniel. Verse 15, Christ has been talking about it in the preceding verses but in verse 15 He focuses on the events of the middle of the tribulation. Remember that is when the persecution of Israel will break out, will last for 1260 days or 42 months, Revelation 12 and 13. Verse 15, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, then flee. What does Revelation 12 tell us? We didn't read it all but some of you remember from previous studies. There is a place provided for Israel to flee in the Transjordan area, east side of the Jordan, the region of Jordan, now modern Jordan, Amman, down to Petra, that lower part. They'll flee where a place is prepared. She will be nourished for 1260 days, we read in Revelation.

Verse 21, then there will be great tribulation such has never occurred since the beginning of the world up to now, nor ever will be. And then we're going to have the coming of the Son of Man. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, and if we had read Revelation 19, just after the 7-year tribulation Christ returns. Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days you have these signs in the heavens. Verse 30, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Remember Acts 1? The angels told the disciples just as Jesus ascended to heaven in the clouds, He'll come in the same way to earth. He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet. They will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the earth to the other. So those who are post-tribulational, they are wrong like the mid-tribulational, but they connect the trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15 with this trumpet. This is the trumpet that sounds at the end of the tribulation, before you go into the millennium. We'll talk about the problems a little bit with that. But this is a different trumpet than the seventh trumpet of Revelation, the seventh trumpet of Revelation happens in the middle of the tribulation. This great trumpet sounded in connection with the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, happens at the end of the tribulation, after the tribulation of those days, the end of the seven-year tribulation.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 15. I think we first have to understand Paul doesn't explain this trumpet, it's taken as something they will understand. I think probably the best understanding of the trumpet here is it's in the military context. Everyone in the Roman world, that would include the Greek world because they were under Roman domination remember. We are familiar with Roman activities and the trumpet could be sounded to send people to war. This is true in Jewish writings as well, comes out in secular writings among the Romans. They blew the trumpet to go to war. They blew the trumpet to call the troops back from battle, a call to return home. So I think it's probably in the military context and Paul has used the trumpet that way already. Look back in 1 Corinthians 14:8. For some reason the translators became a little cute here and instead of translating the word, “trumpet,” they translated, “bugle,” so you might miss it. But it is the word, “trumpet,” you have it in the margin probably. Verse 8, if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? Everybody is familiar with how the trumpets work in the context of the military. You have military occupation everywhere in the Roman world, everybody is familiar with the trumpet sound to go to battle, to return from battle. It's used that way in Jewish writings as well. So I take it probably in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is using it in the context of what would be true in the military. Just as the trumpet was sounded to send the troops out to battle, so the trumpet could be sounded to call them to return home, to come back from the battle. And basically at the rapture Christ is calling the church home from the battle. We could go through all the passages that most of you are familiar with to talk about we are engaged in a battle right now. Paul will tell Timothy in his last letter to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, not become entangled with the affairs of this life. Why? You are in a battle. No one in battle entangles himself with the everyday affairs of life. Everything is involved with being a soldier. You know what's going to happen at the end? The trumpet is going to sound and we're going to be called from the battle, called home. So I think that is what he is talking about with the trumpet. And that would be one that the Corinthians would readily identify with and Paul has already talked about.

Come over to I Thessalonians. I'll just mention it, I promise. I Thessalonians 4 is a parallel passage. I do not want you to be uninformed brethren, beginning with verse 13, about those who are asleep. The Thessalonians' concern was a little different than the Corinthians'. The Thessalonians were concerned, what will happen to those who have died. Will they miss out? Paul is concentrating writing to the Corinthians, what about those who are alive? He mentions the dead in passing. In Thessalonians he mentions those who are dead. I don't want you to be uninformed about those who are asleep, Christians who have died. You don't grieve as those who have no hope. Doesn't mean you can't be sorrowful, have tears at the funeral of a loved one. But it does mean it's not that hopeless grief. Because we know we will see them again, but it's painful to be separated from them even for a time.

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. I love the way that's put. Christ is going to bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. They've been with Christ, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For I say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede, go before, those who have fallen asleep. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first.” Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall always be with the Lord. So you see our separation from loved ones who are believers in Christ and they die, we'll see them again. Well I still have sorrow. I miss them. Yes. But it's like your child goes off to college. You may cry because they are leaving home, but you don't grieve with total despair like they'll never be back. There is hope seeing them again. That's the hope we have, loved ones who have preceded us in death, they're not gone forever. When Christ descends in the clouds, He will bring them with Him; and He'll call their bodies from the grave and they will move back into those bodies which have been glorified. Immediately following that, we who are alive will undergo an instant transformation to glorification, and we'll all meet together in the air. You'll note, we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Doesn't talk about the Lord coming to earth here. We meet the Lord in the clouds, in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever.

We call this the rapture of the church. Some people say the word rapture doesn't appear in the Bible. You just made it up. And they are right. The word, “rapture,” doesn't appear in the Bible. In fact that could be said of a lot of things. The New Testament was written in Greek, most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. It's all translated. The word, “rapture,” comes from the Latin translation that was used, and we bring that Latin word over into English and we have it as, “rapture.” It was used in verse 17, then we who are alive and remain will be raptured. So next time you talk to someone and they say that word rapture doesn't even appear in the Bible, you say, good point. We should never use that word again. We're going to talk about the harpazo of the church, because that's the Greek word that is used here. Harpazo would be the basic verb that we have translated caught up. It's a word that means to be caught up, snatched away, removed.

So we who remain will be harpazoed, if I can Anglicize it. We'll be raptured, to use the Latin form of the word, translation of the word. Or caught up, that's what it would mean in English. So it's not a matter that the word rapture doesn't appear, so there is no such thing. This is not an argument used by those who grapple with the Greek language of the text because they are well aware they are just talking about what word [you are] going to use for the Greek word that is used here . . . people opposing the rapture because that doesn't even appear in the Bible. We say the word trinity doesn't either. And that's true, but the word that means to be caught up, to be snatched away, to be carried away is used. And we'll pick up next time and look at just three passages where the word harpazo is used and how it is used. And you can see it is used to refer to someone who is carried away, snatched away to another place. And that's the idea here.

That's what we as believers in Jesus Christ have to look forward to. That's our hope. That's why we don't want to become too immersed in this life. That's why even the loss of our dearest loved one is softened by the knowledge, we'll see them again. We're strangers and pilgrims here. I miss them, but you know what? I have hundreds of billions and trillions of years of eternity to fellowship with them. That mellows the sorrow. I still would like to be able to sit down and visit. You lost one of your children, a parent, a family member, a dear friend and there is pain. God doesn't say we shouldn't have pain, sorrow. There is sorrow. Oh you're not scriptural. You have tears. No, that's not it. But I don't have hopeless grief, despair. Why? I'm going to see them again. Some of you travel home and see family. It was great to be back and then we leave and there is sorrow for the parting. But you know what? We drive down the road and say before you know it we'll be back again. That mellowed the separation. That's what Paul is talking about.

You know what happens even for us as believers? We get so absorbed in this life and planning our life around this life and around everything in this life and around what we do in this life and our family in this life. Sometimes we get overwhelmed like the unbeliever and all of a sudden heaven isn't so wonderful and the glory promised to us and the reunion isn't . . . Because oh, what am I going to do? Do the same things we've been doing, live for the hope that He has given us. That's where Paul is going to go when he concludes this chapter. This kind of truth shapes everything we do in this life. We are living with a different purpose, we're living with a different goal, we're living with hope. And even death cannot cancel that hope because death will be overcome and we will end in victory, joined with our loved ones in the glory of Christ's presence in the clouds, be taken by Him to the glory of His Father's presence in heaven for eternity.

Who are these? Those who have come to understand and believe what God says about their sin, about His Son being the only Savior, who have turned from their sin and placed their faith in Christ alone. And they have this hope.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your salvation. Thank you, Lord, for the wonder of it all. Lord, we can be overwhelmed by the magnificence, the splendor, the almost incomprehensibility of what you have promised to those who love Jesus Christ. Lord, how sad that we should be so entangled in the things of this life, the concerns of this world that we should be dragged down to the mundane. Lord, lift our sights to what you have promised, to what indeed is the blessed hope, the appearing, the glory of the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, when we will be transformed into conformity with the glorious body that is His. Lord, for any who are here, who are yet outside this hope because they are yet outside of faith in Christ, may this be a day of salvation for them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.