Ready or not, here He comes.

A hope that will carry me home

The lines of that last song say, I've got a hope that will carry me home. And if we're a person who has a relationship with Jesus Christ, I think if you've been around New Hope long enough, you understand what I mean by that. It's not that you're a member of the church, not even that you've been baptized, but that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And every one of us who say we have that relationship, we ought to live every moment of every day with a hope that will carry us home. That's the thrust of today's message, found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, jumping in about verse 12 or 13. And the message is about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Next to tithing, it's the other subject I hate to preach about, except I'm very excited to preach about it today.

As you know, the series is Ready or Not, Living in the Light of Christ's Return. And I'm wondering, in the adventure of our everyday lives, do we give much thought to the fact Jesus is coming back again? Do you remember how you feel the night before you leave on vacation? You wake up before your alarm clock goes off, don't you? Because you don't want to miss the flight, because you can't wait to go. Remember how you felt as a kid the night before you went to Disneyland? You could hardly sleep with the anticipation of what was to come. And do we ever have a moment like that in life where we're that excited about, number one, our own death, or number two, his coming back for us again? In this passage, it talks about a sound that is made when Jesus Christ comes again. And my buddy and friend of New Hope over the years, Bob Berthold, along with our worship team, sang about the midnight cry.

If you're under 40, that song probably didn't do as much for you as it did for those of us past 40. And I'm saying that from experience. I would hear people preach about the second coming of Jesus when I was younger, and I thought, oh, I got a lot more living to do before I need to worry about that. I think we live in a culture where unless we're needy for something, we don't think much about what the future after life here is going to be like. But when we have tasted death with family and with friends enough, it begins to occupy a bit more of our thinking process.

And I've got to be honest, folks. To preach about the second coming of Jesus, it's absolutely crazy. In people's minds this is more fictional than Star Wars. This is weirder than Star Trek, and yet it's reality. This is as much truth as the birth of Jesus at Christmas. It is as much the truth as the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. But because there are so many perspectives about details of the second coming, and people fight and argue and fuss about it, most of us preachers just love to stay away from it. It's one of two perspectives. Some can't wait to talk about it, to convince everybody they're right about their perspective. There are pre-trib premillennialists, mid-trib premillennialists, post-trib premillennialists, there are dispensationalists, and there are amillennialists. Do you all know what any of that means? About eight of you are nodding your head yes. And then I forgot the most important one, panmillennialists. And that's the one most folks fall into. Everything will pan out at the end.

So we get so caught up in these extreme areas trying to figure out apocalyptic prophecy, which was written in a nondescriptive way to begin with, that we just throw up our hands and say, I love Jesus, when I die I'm going to heaven, and we sort of leave it there. And guys, there is so much more for us that ought to create anticipation, excitement, and hope, that we ought not to avoid the topic.

Calvin, and Boudreaux

Let me see if I can give you a contrast with two quick illustrations, two different attitudes about approaching this subject. We'll jump in at 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13. Are you familiar with Calvin? You might not be. How many of you know who Calvin is? Okay, it's a cartoon. A little cartoon that was in the newspaper. It wasn't even on TV. Calvin and Hobbes. I'm still not making any headway here. Anyway, the boss caught Calvin sitting at his desk staring out the window one day. And he said to Calvin, why aren't you working? Without much thought, Calvin confessed to his boss, because I didn't see you coming.

Now, let's look at another perspective. There was a Louisiana game warden who had been tracking Boudreaux, who was the infamous Cajun poacher. And late one night, he stumbled upon the criminal's cabin. Climbing upon the roof, the game warden waited for dawn, hoping to jump the poacher as he emerged from the cabin. The game warden, after a fitful night of trying to stay quiet, heard Boudreaux making breakfast in the morning, and the smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing was a temptation to his rumbling stomach. And then to his surprise, Boudreaux stepped out of his cabin, looked up on the roof, and yelled, hey, warden, you might as well come on down and have breakfast with me. Over breakfast, the game warden asked the wily Cajun, how did you know I was on the roof? Boudreaux grinned and said, I didn't, but I do that every morning just in case you're there.

I didn't see you coming. I did it every morning just in case you were there. Which perspective is better? The sermon series title is Ready or Not, Here He Comes, Living in the Light of the Second Coming of Jesus. And today's sermon is Ready or Not, Here He Comes, Where Will You Be? And my intent for asking that question this morning is not the same intent as some of the preachers I grew up hearing preach about this subject. I grew up as a kid in a very conservative Baptist church, and man, when they preached on Jesus coming back again, they got fired up. And here's how it would often go. How would you like it if, when Jesus came back again, He caught you in the movie theater? And I used to always sit there and say, I'd be just fine. I'm just watching a John Wayne movie. And boy, if they really got into it, they'd want to know, how would you feel if God came back and you were in the pool hall? Half the deacons of my dad's church had pool tables in their house. So I figured, hey, it's probably okay.

You see, my intent is not to intimidate you that we must be sitting somewhere on our knees with folded hands at the time that Jesus comes back again. Remember, this is the same Jesus who said, I've come to give you life and life more abundant. I don't think he's going to be upset if he catches us in a theater, all right? We'll just be happy we're alive when he comes.

But the real question I have here is really much more basic than that. And the question I have here is, are you going to be in ground or on ground? How many times has somebody asked, hey, how you doing? And the response comes back, hey, I'm above ground, aren't I? So that's my question for today. Where do you think you'll be? Will you already be dead and buried, or do you have any anticipation, expectation, and most important of all, is there any excitement in you, that you might be alive when Jesus comes back again? That the midnight cry that Bob just sang about could come in mid-service today. Maybe not yours, but the next one. Wouldn't that be exciting? So let me ask you this. Which is more intelligent? I didn't see you coming, or, I do it every morning just in case you are. And I don't mean to infer that you're not intelligent. Paul did that.

What the Thessalonians were afraid of

Let's read it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Brothers, and that also means sisters, we do not want you to be what? So Paul's the one who makes the reference. I don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of humanity, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command and the voice of an archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. I hope you all love rollercoaster rides, because it's going to be a humdinger of one. Therefore, encourage each other with these words.

The Thessalonian Christians apparently were experiencing some strong anxiety over issues that they did not fully understand. Paul, in his brief time with them, had taught them something about the return of Jesus, but they didn't understand it or grasp it. And from what Paul says in our text, we can conclude that the Thessalonians were concerned about what would happen to believers who died before Jesus Christ returned. Their ignorance of the hope Paul spoke about had created anxiety and frustration in their lives. And you know what? It will do the same thing in us if we don't have a sure hope because of faith.

As we look at this passage, it's important that we understand something of what was going on in the culture of that day, from which believers had been redeemed. It was the pagan world. And when we say that word pagan referring to that time period, it doesn't mean that they were uneducated, it doesn't mean that they weren't contemporary, it simply means they didn't have a belief in Jesus Christ. That simply is what the word pagan means as we reference back to that culture. And verse 13 states that that part of the world had no real hope of life after death.

There was an inscription on the wall of Thessalonica at that time period which states, after death, no reviving. After the grave, no meeting again. The culture basically believed you live, you die, that's it. Done. Extinction. Warren Wiersbe, pastor and author, talks about how that generation lacked a lot of hope, and he said a typical inscription on a grave demonstrates this reality. One they found on a grave dating back to the first century said, I was not. I became. I am not, so I care not. While some of the philosophers like Socrates sought to prove happiness after death, the unbelieving world had no word of assurance on the subject. So Paul writes about it specifically to the church at Thessalonica.

You see, hope that is founded in faith in Jesus Christ enables us to endure difficult days, turbulent times, and uncertain futures. Mature faith produces healthy hope. These were men and women with faith, but it wasn't maturing, and so they were experiencing this anxiety of hopelessness regarding the subject of death. In this passage, we're going to look at three threes, okay? Three reasons for our hope, three hope-filled sounds we should be prepared to hear, and three words of summary that should fill us with hope on a daily basis.

Three reasons for our hope

So let's jump in at the first one, three reasons for our hope. In verses 13 through 15, we have the hope of the assurance of eternal life. The Thessalonians were concerned that they would never see their Christian family members or loved ones who had died. You see, they expected Jesus to come back any moment, and they were uncertain of what would happen to those who would die the day before, or a week before, or a month before the return of Christ. They also feared what would happen to them if they might die before Jesus came again. Paul made it clear to them that death is not to be feared. Our hope is eternal life, not through church membership, not even through baptism, but through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And death, believe it or not, is the springboard into a face-to-face fellowship with Jesus.

You see, our relationship with Jesus doesn't start face-to-face. It starts at that moment when we understand that we can't do life on our own, when we understand that life without God is impossible for us to live, and there is no hope in the future. When we understand that, we come to a conclusion about ourselves, using a word we hate to use. I am a sinner. Not because of the sins I've committed, but because I've lived in independence of God. That's what makes me a sinner, independent of God. And Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay the debt of all the sins of all humanity. And when I understand who Jesus is and what He did for me, and I want Him to come live in my life, and I thank Him for His forgiveness, and I invite Him to come, at that moment, our personal relationship starts. Soul to soul, the Holy Spirit of God bringing into my soul the very presence of Jesus Christ Himself. That relationship starts. But it's not face to face. I don't see Him as He is. That doesn't start until after death.

Guess what, folks? My dad, who walked in spirit fellowship and partnership with Jesus Christ for about 72 years of his 96 years of life and living, last December 12th got to see Jesus for the first time face to face. That's incredible when we stop to think about that. Paul states that when Jesus comes, God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep. Two times in verses 13 through 15, the apostle used the term for death, and he likens it to sleep. And that term, by the way, is never used in the New Testament for anyone except those who were believers in Jesus Christ. It never says that a non-believer, when he dies, falls asleep. And there's a wonderful lesson here. It shows us that death, for the one who believes in Christ, for his body, is nothing more than a good sleep. Rest for this physical body.

So let me ask you a question. When somebody in your house, a member of your family, falls asleep, whether it's for a nap or at nighttime when you go to bed, do you run and call 911? Sometimes when he snores, you'd like to, okay? But you don't, because you know this is not an emergency. You know that their body is resting, maybe not quietly, but it's resting. And you know they're going to wake up again, and you'll have contact with them, and you'll do things with them again.

And that is why the New Testament regards the death of believers, for their physical body, as nothing but sleep. The soul, which has been enjoying fellowship with Jesus, begins that fellowship face-to-face immediately at the death of a Christian. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6 through 8, says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Here's the context of that whole verse. Therefore, although we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the physical presence of the Lord, for we live by faith now, not by sight. So we are confident, and prefer rather to be absent from this body, so we can have sight along with our faith. We are home with the Lord when we are absent from the body. This is our hope. What? The assurance of eternal life.

The second hope that we have in these verses is found in verse 16, and that is the resurrection of our bodies. We have a body that is physical. You go read Genesis, and it says out of the dust of the earth God shaped our lives. It's material. But as I mentioned earlier, we have a part of us that is not material. The Spirit, that part that was made in the image of God, is what enables us to communicate with God, through understanding the Word, through prayer, through God nudging us at times. This is our communication level with Him. It is this part of Christians that continues on in a face-to-face relationship with God after we die. And this face-to-face relationship is part of our great hope. But another part of our hope is not just that our soul and spirit go to be with God when we die, but that there'll be a day when our soul and our spirit will slap together again with that material part of us, which is dead and buried or cremated, this physical thing that we know is our body. That's why Paul said, when Jesus comes, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Now, if you grew up in a Baptist church, preachers would tell you that's the Presbyterians down the road, the dead in Christ. And the Presbyterians would say that's the Episcopalians on down the road. That was always denominational humor. But no, those who are physically dead will rise first. Now doesn't that make sense? Because see, those of us who are alive when Jesus comes, we're already above ground. So they've got to have a head start just to catch up with us, so that we get to go together. So it makes perfect sense to me that the dead will rise first, because I don't need to be risen from the dead. I just need to be changed.

The first thing that will happen when Jesus comes back is that the saved who have departed this life through death will have resurrected bodies, just as Jesus did after his resurrection. And sometimes people ask me, Tim, I know of people who died in infancy. I know babies who have been slaughtered before they were born. I know people like your dad who lived to be 96. What's our body going to look like on resurrection day? Will I be a baby? Will I be an old person? You ready for this? I have absolutely no idea. Because the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what our body will look like here. Please don't go out and quote me and say this is the way it's going to be because Pastor Tim said so. This is just my take on it.

Number one, which I do believe to be true, is it will be perfect. It will be exactly the way God wants us. And I suggest to you, we'll all be 33 years old. Now, these two over here are not saying hallelujah, because they don't want to be 33 years old. You haven't experienced that yet, all right? But that's always sort of been my slant. Why? Because Jesus lived to be about 33 years of age. Before He was at that perfect time, the time had now come that He was the perfect sacrifice for us. So, I don't know, 33 just seems to be a great time. Most of us were really good and healthy at that time, and we stopped being immature 20-year-olds, and we were now at a mature level. So I'm going with 33, all right? And I promise you this, if it's not, I'm not going to be disappointed. It's okay. But the whole point here is, don't worry about those who've died. They're already with Jesus. They will come back with Him to pick us up, and their bodies will be awakened and reunited with them.

And then the third hope we have in this passage. Number one, the hope of eternal life. Number two, the hope of a resurrected body. And number three, which is what the whole overall thrust is, the hope that Jesus is coming again. Many, many have tried to explain away and write away the second coming as being something that really isn't a personal return, that it's not reality. But according to the scriptures, the coming of the Lord is just as sure as the birth and the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

The coming of Jesus involves two aspects. Number one, He's coming to claim His own. And I really don't find any disagreement among the large constituency of Christianity about that issue. And that's what we're looking at today. Jesus is coming to claim His own children. The second part of the second coming, this is where all the different perspectives come in, and that is He's coming to restore perfection to sin-damaged creation. Revelation 21:1 says there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. How all that transpires, folks, I have no idea. God does, and I'm going to leave that with Him.

Three hope-filled sounds

He comes to claim His own. We've looked at the three hopes. Now let's look at the three hope-filled sounds that we ought to be listening for. They're all mentioned in this passage. They were all mentioned in the song that Bob sang. This is all suggested by three sounds which the Apostle Paul connects with the appearing of Jesus. What I love about this passage is, it is the Lord himself who comes. Did you notice how that was phrased here? Jesus himself will come. He's not sending an angel. He's not sending a choir. He's not sending the disciples. The scripture says Jesus himself is coming.

And the first sound, you guys know what it is? The first sound is the command of Jesus. It's a clarion call from Jesus. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding shout, with a midnight cry. And who was that call, that command, addressed to? Jesus himself said, in John chapter 5, verse 25, the hour is coming and now is. Let me pause here just for a moment to talk about time and eternity. Do you notice how Jesus put the two together in that statement? The hour is coming, and now is. Observe the blending of time and eternity. You see, what's about to take place is coming in time, but it is now in eternity. Time has sequence, past, present, future, but eternity only has one dimension. It is the ever-present, the always now. And we struggle with that, and the Thessalonians did too. The hour is coming, and now is, when all those, this is Jesus' own words, when all those that are in the grave, what are they going to hear? They're going to hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they shall come forth.

Think about your best friends and your loved ones, where you've stood by their graveside, and imagine what that looks like on that day when they burst out of there. How would you like to be leaving flowers at the moment that it happens? I tried to get visuals to throw up on the screen, and every visual I found looked stupid. It might be reality, but it's something so bizarre, so different. And yet, this is what Jesus said. We will come forth. Remember, Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus. And the Scripture says Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And to the amazement of the crowd, the dead man appeared in the doorway of the tomb, still wrapped up in his grave clothes. He heard the voice of the Son of God, and he came forth. A lot of commentators over the years have pointed out this truth, and if you haven't heard it, let me point it out for you today. If Jesus hadn't said, Lazarus, come forth, think about how many people would have come out of the graveyard that day.

The hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come forth. That's what Paul's talking about here. The cry of command is addressed to the dead, those in the graves, those whose bodies have simply fallen asleep. The other question that I've been asked over the years, and that I asked my Bible college professors when I was a student, is this. What's Jesus going to say? What is it he's going to say when he comes with a cry, with a command? You ready for this answer? I have no idea. Because it doesn't tell me. I have a couple of suggestions if he hasn't figured it out yet. Maybe he should yell really loud when he comes, It is finished! Those were his last words on the cross. It is finished. It's done. I'm finished with sin in the world. I'm finished with the sorrow of death in your lives. I'm finished with the corruption on earth. I'm finished. And I'm going to take my children home.

The second sound, after the command of Jesus, is the archangel's voice. Now, any time an angel showed up in the Bible, what was the first thing the angel had to say to the humans? Do not be afraid. See, I don't know what the angel is going to say either, any more than I know what Jesus is going to say. But I know he's going to say something, because it says that he is. So I suggest to you, probably the first thing he's going to say is, hey, don't be afraid, dead people walking. Don't be afraid, okay? Because the dead in Christ are going to rise first. We're going to say, whoa, where'd y'all come from? He's going to say, hey, don't be afraid. This is just according to the plan and the will of God. The angel is going to announce the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection of those who've already died.

And then there'll be a third sound. What's that sound? The trumpet. That's the one we most associate with the second coming of Jesus. But it's the third sound. The call and command of God. The voice, the shout of the archangel. And now, the trump of God. Just as it was heard on Mount Sinai when the law was given. The trumpet sounded so loudly that day from heaven that the people yelled out to Moses, stop it, we can't stand it. Sometimes that's what people say on Sunday morning in church during worship. Folks, get used to it. It's going to be that way on that day.

1 Corinthians 15, Paul identifies this when he says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not all believers will go to heaven by death. Paul thought he was going to be one of those caught up in the air. Hasn't happened. It's been 2,000 years. We shouldn't become calloused about it. We ought to be just as excited and anticipatory as Paul was then. It'll make a difference in the way we live. It'll shape our attitudes about life today. Are we Calvin? I didn't see you coming. Are we Boudreaux? I do it every morning just in case.

When you open up your shades in the morning, is it to see what kind of weather we're having? Or is it by chance to get a glimpse of Jesus' first arrival on the scene? We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

I've been in a variety of churches across the country over the years in my lifetime, and I've been by their nursery, where they take care of their babies during service time. And in some churches, I've seen this sign over the door of their nursery. It says, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This verse really doesn't have to do with babies, but it does have to do with living saints. We who are not asleep, we're not going to die. Paul includes himself in that. But we will be changed, just like that. Those of you who are 94, you're going to look 33. You can't wait. Sorry, kids. You're going to look 33. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But it's going to be the best 33 you could ever imagine. And oh man, is it going to be the ride of our lives.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Corruption shall put on incorruption.

There was a farmer who grew up in church and had heard these sermons on the second coming and this verse of 1 Corinthians 15, that we'll be caught up in the air and changed just like that. And he finally gets to a big city for the first time in his life, and he goes to the tallest building in the city. It's over 20 stories tall. And as he's standing there in the foyer of that building, he notices a rather old and not very tiny and not very attractive woman get on the elevator, and the doors close. And he watches the numbers above the door go higher and higher and higher until they got to the very top floor. And then he watched, after a moment or two, those numbers began to descend again. Ten, nine, eight, five, four. And it got back down to the ground floor where he was watching all this. And all of a sudden, those doors that had closed opened up again, and now a tall, slim, beautiful woman comes walking out. And he looks over to his son, and he said, go get your mama. She needs to take a ride. I don't think that's the intent of this, but we shall all be changed. All of us.

Resurrection, rapture, reunion

Let me wrap this up. Three words of summary that fill us with hope. Number one is resurrection. The resurrection of believers is the first thing that takes place when Jesus comes again. And that ought to thrill all of us. Here's the deal. If I had a heads up that it was coming, quite frankly, I wouldn't know which cemetery to go to, because I got parents in one place and grandparents in another and best of friends in another. I wouldn't know which one to stand by. But the resurrection is real, and it's the first thing that will happen when Jesus comes again.

Number two is a word that you don't find in the Bible, but it's talked a lot about, and it's the word rapture. It's not a biblical term, but it's a term we've assigned to a biblical event, and that is the rapid departure of all believers from the earth. Whether those who are dead and resurrected, or those who are alive at that moment, when we are snatched up in the air at the trumpet sound, we're raptured away from this world that will be destroyed.

And then there's reunion. Verse 17. Paul said, and so we, not me, we, we will be with the Lord. Those who were dead at the time he came, and those of us who were still relating to each other, we will be together, all of us, finally and forever, together. Resurrection, rapture, reunion. That ought to give us hope.

Let me close with this. The Reverend and Mrs. Porteous were taken prisoner by Chinese communists in 1931. They were led to a very lonely spot on the top of a hill where they were going to be executed. The leader said, this is the place. He had them kneel down. He took a long knife out of its sheath on his hip, and he raised it and placed it to the necks of the courageous couple. Their death seemed to be imminent. However, instead of cringing and crying for mercy, this couple began to sing an old hymn. And as they began to sing, the bandits stared open-mouthed at each other as they heard the words. 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? Those two were ready for death and thought this would be the last song they would ever sing. But no slice of the knife ever occurred. When they opened their eyes, they noticed the executioner replacing the knife in its sheath, and he and his bandits turned and walked away. In fact, it says that the pastor and his wife were just a bit disappointed. They were ready to meet their maker face to face.

Do you have that kind of expectancy, that Jesus could come in the next moment? What a difference it would make in the way in which we live. And don't you want to take a whole lot of folks with you when that moment comes? So why don't you pick up some Easter invites and take them with you today.

And if you have never had this kind of excitement about your own death, or the coming of Christ, what does the Bible say? He who lacks faith, do what? Ask of God, who gives it very generously. So why don't you ask for a level of faith today that gives you excitement and anticipation, both about death and about the second coming.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the privilege of life with you that you afford to us. If there's someone with us today who's never invited your son, the Lord Jesus, to be their personal Savior, man, I probably should apologize to them for such a crazy message today. But you knew about this before you ever arranged their visit today. So I pray they heard enough to know that in the quietness of this moment, sitting right where they are, they can say, Lord Jesus, I don't understand all there is about the resurrection of the dead and the second coming of Jesus, but I do know this. I don't want to be afraid to die anymore. And I want to believe there is something greater than this world for me after I die. Jesus, I've heard enough today to believe you are the answer to both of those issues. So I'm ready to invite you into my life. Father, for the vast majority who are already believers, I pray that many of them are saying, Lord, strengthen my faith, so I have an expectancy about your coming, and I have great hope about my death. Thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.