[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
soaring through the Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. We're back in the Bible again. [CHEERS] And we
have the privilege of being able to look at
two short letters tonight, Paul's First and Second
Letter to the Thessalonians. So get your Bibles out, or
your phones out or iPads out or whatever, and get to 1
Thessalonians, Chapter 1. Sitting next to you is
somebody with a broken heart. Maybe not right
next to you, maybe in your vicinity, but guaranteed
somebody close is going through some difficult waters. And though we sang great
anthems of praise and faith, I thought it would be good
to begin praying for those that we're sitting next to you. So, Father, we want to pray
for those sitting to our right, knowing that somebody
right there is perhaps dealing with heartbreak,
loss, difficulty with a parent or
a son or daughter, a disease, an event,
that has shaken their faith that has caused them
to feel even abandoned by you. But, Father, I pray you
would reassure them. And, Father, we pray
together that you would minister to that one. And for somebody sitting on
our left Lord, in that vicinity or behind us or in front of us,
for the same things, Father, we pray for your comfort,
your presence to be known. We pray that your
Holy Spirit, even through our time together
in the Word of God, this Bible study, that you
would administer to hearts, you would soothe the
rough ground, and pray, Father, that you would bring
hope and healing in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, we can get into 1
Thessalonians, Chapter 1. We are dealing with
in these two letters perhaps the very earliest
writings of the Apostle Paul. Many believe that 1
Thessalonians was Paul's first letter chronologically. Not everyone agrees. Somebody will place Galatians
before that, written around 49 some think. And then 1 Thessalonians
around 50 or 51, followed by 2
Thessalonians months later perhaps, no more than
a year later after that. But we're dealing with
some of the earliest writings of Paul the Apostle. And his subject
matter, though we're dealing with an early
letter, his subject matter is way far into the future. He deals with end
times, last things. He deals with eschatology. That means the study
of last things. I found an interesting
article or it came across my
reading this week, an article about an 18-year-old
from Ecuador, 18-year-old girl. Her name is Angelica
Elizabeth Zambrano Mora. Don't know why she has so
many names, but she does. 18 years of age. According to the
article, she says she was dead for 23
hours, during which time she met Jesus, who took her to
heaven, also showed her hell. And it's interesting-- again,
this is just her experience. She said, in hell she saw
Michael Jackson, Pope John Paul II, and a host of
other celebrities. But what got my attention
is that during that time the Lord showed her
the glories of heaven, spoke to her about the rapture
of the Church, and the end times. And she was then given
instructions-- this is, again, just according to
her experience-- she was given instructions
to warn people that death is a
reality and that there is any eternal judgment
coming and to warn people of the horrors of hell. Fascinating article,
but honestly, I don't need an article
to be told about heaven or hell or the rapture
or the end times. We have Paul's letters to
First and Second Thessalonians about the end times,
about these events. And you might say that
1 Thessalonians is about the gathering
of the Church and 2 Thessalonians is about the
gloominess of the tribulation. They are letters that
deal with end times. And what's interesting
to me is that Paul only spent, at the most, a month,
I'm guessing three weeks or just a little bit
over, because he preaches for three Sabbaths we're
told in Acts, Chapter 17 in the city of Thessaloniki. He's not there long. But he was there long
enough to tell them about the coming of the
Lord in the future, about the future tribulation
period, and then to write letters to remind them
of what he had taught them. So Paul felt it of
great importance to tell a church that he just
started about the end times. Why is that so important to me? Because I remember
the last few years speaking at a place on the
East Coast, down in the South. Won't even mentioned
where exactly. But I was asked by
one of the leaders to speak on the end times. And then the pastor found
out that I was going to speak on the end times. He goes, oh, no, no, no,
don't talk about that stuff. My church doesn't
know that. yet. That's so advanced. We haven't even
gotten there yet. I haven't told them about that. And I was puzzled by that,
because I thought, how can you go through the New Testament at
all without going through that? And I said, how long was the
church been in existence? He goes, oh, only 15 years. Well, by 15 years,
man, you should have the Book of
Revelation and Daniel and 1 Thessalonians and
2 Thessalonians down pat. Paul was there for
just a few weeks and already he was teaching them
about these things and to look for the coming of the Lord. But they were
rattled by something. They were bothered by something. And so he writes
these two letters. Think of 1 Thessalonians
as centered on the return of Jesus Christ. And think of 2
Thessalonians as centered on the retribution
of Jesus Christ. Think of 1 Thessalonians as
dealing with the day of Christ and 2 Thessalonians as dealing
with the day of the Lord. One is he's coming for his
church, 1 Thessalonians. One he is coming with his
Church to judge the world. That's his second
coming, 2 Thessalonians. Paul went to the
city of Thessaloniki on his second
missionary journey. You can read all about it,
not right now, but later on if you don't have
the background, in the book of Acts, Chapter 17. He had been in Philippi. Remember, he gets a vision
of the man from Macedonia while he's in Troas. Come over to
Macedonia and help us. He goes there. The Philippian jailer
is one to Christ. Lydia is one to Christ. A church starts there. Trouble erupts. He moves on. And he makes his way to
the city of Thessaloniki, which was the capital of the
Roman colony in that area. Again, he's on his second
missionary journey. There are about at the
time of Paul 200,000 people living in this city. I mentioned as the capital
of that Roman colony. Sizable population. And it happened to be on a very
important route called the Via Egnatia, or the Via Ignacia. It's a stretch of Roman road. You can still see
it to this day. Really, it was a continuation
of the Appian highway from Rome. And it extended across land. And the Via Ignacia
happened to be situated and led you right to the
city of Thessaloniki. Very, very important and very
loyal town to the Roman Empire. So Paul goes there. Acts 17 says for three Sabbaths. Three Sabbaths is three weeks. For three Sabbath days,
he's in the synagogue. He's telling them about
Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. It says, many believed in him. Some Jewish people, many Gentile
people, and some leading women of that city believed in him. But, again, wherever Paul
went, he stirred it up. And so it says-- and I
love the King James-- I'm reading the New King James. But the old King James says,
lewd fellows of the baser sort. Isn't that a great
description of creeps. Lewd fellows of the baser sort
were hired, a group of thugs were hired, to spread a bad
report about Paul and his team, to get him kicked out of town. And it worked. And here was their report. They said, these men who have
turned the world upside down have come here to us also. I wish that the world around
us could say that about us. Those people over at
that Church Calvary, they've come to
Albuquerque and they've turned the world upside down. Good. Actually, we're here to
turn it right side up. It's already upside down. It's in a world of hurt. It needs the gospel. So Paul was forced after
three weeks, maybe four-- he was there three Sabbaths. But let's say he
was there a month. He was forced to leave. He leaves Thessaloniki,
goes to a town called Berea, where it
says, those in Berea were more fair minded than those
in Thessaloniki in that they received what Paul said
with all readiness of mind, but searched the
scriptures daily to see if those things were so. So Paul went from
Thessaloniki to Berea, finally ends up in Athens. While he is in
Athens, he must have heard from Timothy or Silas. Hey, this is what's going
on over in Thessaloniki. Paul decides to send
a letter quickly, probably not from Athens. My guess is he went all
the way down to Corinth, and he wrote a letter. Within several months,
he writes a letter back, one of the first letters
in the New Testament to the Church at Thessaloniki. Now, I mentioned that the great
themes of First and Second Thessalonians are
on eschatology, or eschaton, the final events. It is estimated that one out
of every four verses in 1 and 2 Thessalonians deal with
the subject of the end times in some way. I didn't add them up. I just read that. So I can't attest
to that personally. But I know there's a lot. I would go with 1 in 4. I do know this. Every single chapter
in 1 Thessalonians ends with a reference to
the coming of the Lord, or the end times. Let me show you that. Look at Chapter 1. Go down to Verse 10. It says, "And to
wait for His son from heaven, who He
raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us
from the wrath to come." Coming wrath, the
coming of Jesus Christ mentioned in one verse. Look over at Chapter 2, in
Verse 19, "For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing. Is it not even you in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" There it is again,
front and center. Look over Chapter 3, Verse 13. "But I do not want you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep,
lest you sorrow as others who have no hope for if we believe
Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with
Him those who sleep in Jesus." We'll get to that, but
go down to Verse 17. "Then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall
always be with the Lord." It's the rapture of the Church. Go down to Chapter 5, Verse 23. "Now may the God
of peace Himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit,
soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ." Sometimes I will meet a
Christian who will say, the coming of Jesus Christ
and end time prophecy events really are inconsequential. They're really not central
to the New Testament. And I want to say to
them, would somebody then please tell that to
Paul the Apostle? Because apparently
he doesn't know what you know in your
advanced knowledge. Poor Paul hasn't
caught up to you. He felt it central,
that he mentions it in every single chapter
of one of the earliest letters he writes. He has passed on this knowledge
to a Church in just a few weeks time. And then he writes about
the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord
in the following book. Now, here's what we know
about the coming of the Lord. Paul tells us that
it will happen. He never tells us
when it will happen. You get into trouble when you
try to guess by your charts the exact time of
the Lord's coming. We know seasons. We know we're in the
season of the end days. We don't know when. I didn't think we would
last past the 1980s. I'm sure glad we
have, because I'm looking at people
who wouldn't be bound on their way to heaven if
the Lord would have come back then. I'm glad for his patience. I rejoice in it. Now, before we get into
these chapters-- and, again, this is just a survey. So we're going to
just be touching down on a few of these things
throughout these two books. There's something that
is noteworthy to me about church planting in Paul. It evidently doesn't take
long to start a church. Now, I know, kind of modern
approach to church planting is that you go into an area,
do a demographic study, find out who's
interested and who's not, tailor a church around
that demographic. Paul just would go to the place
and unleash the word of God, just let the Gospel
out of its cage, just proclaim to whomever
happened to be at the riverside or in the synagogue, and just
watch with the Lord might do. So he started it. It was growing. It was flourishing. Chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians-- if you're looking for themes
of this book or divisions, it's about the
transmission of faith, the transmission of faith. I'm going to take
you to Verse 2. "We give thanks to God always
for you making mention of you in our prayers,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of
love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God and Father, knowing beloved brethren,
your election by God. For our Gospel did not
come to you in word only, but also in power and
in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance as
you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the
Word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So that you became examples
to all in Macedonia and in Akaia who believed. For from you, the
word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only
in Macedonia and Akaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward
God has gone out, so we do not need
to say anything. For they themselves
declare concerning us what manner of
entry we had to you and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true
God, and to wait for His son from heaven whom He
raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us
from the wrath to come." Notice the three tenses
of the Christian faith. Past tense, you turned
to God from idols. Present tense, to serve
the living and true God. Future tense, and to wait
for His son from heaven. The Christian life
is a dynamic life. It's not something that happened
to you once way back when. It's something that must be
translated into present day experience. It will carry you
to a hopeful future. I think we see that if you go
all the way back now to verse 3 and notice this. "Remembering without
ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and
patience of hope." Your work of faith,
that's past tense. That happened in your past. You believed, you were saved. But then your work of faith
led to the present experience of your labor, or
serving, of love, which also leads you to the
future, the patience of hope. So faith calls us back
to a crucified Savior. Love calls us up to
a crowned Savior. Hope makes us look forward
to a coming Savior. Faith, hope, and love. Or faith, love, and hope. You turned from idols to
the living God to serve Him. And you wait for
His son from heaven. So those are the three tenses
of the Christian faith-- past, present, future. Now, notice the two
directions of the Gospel. And let me just sum them up. The gospel comes to you. But then the gospel must
go through you from you. Those are the two directions. So I want you to notice
this in the text, Verse 5. "For our Gospel did
not come to you"-- but it did, it came to you-- "in Word only, but
also in power." And then look at Verse 8, "For
from you, the Word of the Lord has sounded forth." So it must come to you. That's how you get saved. But then when it really
has done its work in you, it moves through you. And that's where
life gets fun, man. That's where it's really
exciting is when you just make yourself a vessel. Like, Lord, who do you
want me to talk to today? How do you want to use me today? Through you. By the way, when it says the
word of the Lord sounded forth. It's an interesting word-- exechetai is the Greek word. It's from the Greek
word echos, or echo. It means to reverberate. So picture the
Gospel reverberating through the valleys in that
area and through the canyons and mountains. It began in those disciples,
but then it echoed through them. The word of Lord came to you. The word of the Lord
echoed forth from you. Remember, Jesus said, "What
I tell you in the darkness, proclaim it in the daylight. What I whisper in
your ears, tell it, shout it from the rooftops." That's the echos,
the echoing narrative of the Gospel "For from
you, the Word of the Lord sounded forth." Let's suppose we had
an unlimited budget. We often talk about generosity
multiplies capacity. And it's true. But let's say we had
an unlimited budget, and we could rent stadiums
around the country every night of the week and fill it
with crowds of people to preach the Gospel to
them from the stadium. Suppose we're renting stadiums
that seat 50,000 people. And every night there's bands. There's evangelism. We call people forward. And let's say every
single night, 1,000 people come forward to receive Christ. You go, wow, that
sounds exciting. But actually in
35 years time, it is estimated, with all of those
new converts, every night, 365 days, for 35
years, in 35 years you will be further behind
the task of world evangelization than
the day you started. You go, well, I
don't understand. How is that possible? Because of the birth
rate, we would never be able to catch up saving
that many souls every night, 365 days a year, 35 years. We'd never be able to catch
up with the exponential growth of populations around the world. Now, you hear that. You go, well, Skip,
why did you share that? That's discouraging. Why should I get
involved in evangelism? Here's why. Let's say you were
the only person alive on Earth who is saved. No one else, just you. In one year, you decided,
in the next year, I purpose in my heart
to share the Gospel and by God's grace lead
one other human being to faith in Christ. Let's say a year
goes by, and you've led one person to Christ. You take that
person and you say, brother or sister,
let's covenant together in the second year
that we're each going to lead someone to Christ. And let's say you
do by God's grace. That's year two. Then year three,
each person does it. You get the drift, right? So every year, each
person who's saved leads another person to Christ. In 35 years, you'll be
looking for heathens. You won't be able to find them. It's estimated the
whole world has that potential of being
converted through holy gossip, through the Word of the Lord
echoing forth from your life, reverberating through
you to somebody else. So I'm not saying
do one or the other. I'm saying do it all. Yeah, let's rent stadiums. Let's do freedom celebrations. Let's do special
events and concerts and bring people in
and get evangelists. But let's also
gossip, holy gossip, tell somebody about Jesus. From you, the Word of
the Lord sounded forth. Not from Timothy. Not from Paul's greater
evangelistic crusade of Thessaloniki. Through you. Through you. So that's Chapter 1, the
transmission of faith. Chapter 2 is the
demonstration of love. So Paul leaves. And he goes down to Berea and
then eventually to Athens. Go down to Verse 5, "For
neither at anytime do we use flattering words, as you
know, or a cloak for covetness as God as witness. Nor did we seek glory from men,
either from you or from others, when we might have made
demands as apostles of Christ." We had the authority,
but we didn't abuse it. We were not authoritarian,
even though we have authority. "But we were gentle among
you, as a nursing mother cherishes her own children." It's interesting
that the Apostle Paul uses a feminine metaphor
for his apostolic authority. We were like a nursing mother
who cherishes her own children. Verse 8, "So affectionately
longing for you, we were well pleased
to impart to you not only the Gospel of God, but
also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember,
brethren, our labor and toil for laboring day
and night that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preach to you
the gospel of God. You are witnesses and God
also how devoutly and justly and blameless Lee we
behaved ourselves among you who believe. As you know how we exhorted
and comforted and charged every one of you as a father
does his own children." So Paul compares himself to
both a mother and a father. The authority of a father,
the leadership of a father, the strong voice,
the strong example. But at the same time,
a nurturing mother. And here in Verse 7,
"a nursing mother." Mothers don't intimidate. Fathers can be intimidating. I was intimidated
sometimes by my father. Never by my mother. Oh, she could be firm. Trust me. She could hold her own, this
little 5 foot 1 German lady. And she had a she had
a strong backhand. And I don't mean at tennis. But I could always
approach my mom. I could tell her anything. And then, I love Verse 8, "So
affectionately longing for you, we were pleased to impart to
you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives." Typically, a mother is the
epitome of selflessness. And when I think of
affectionately longing, have you ever seen a mother
separated from her children for any period of time? Not fun to be around. They want to be--
they should be, they're places nurturing
those children. When they're not able to
do that it's difficult. So here's Paul-- again,
he's only been there-- he doesn't know them long-- he's only been
there a few weeks. But such a bond has developed,
of a nursing mother, of a nurturing father. And he says, "I
affectionately long for you." I have the privilege
from time to time to speak in places around the
country and around the world. Some of them have been
exhilarating and fun and great opportunities. But by and large,
my general rule is-- it's the exception
rather than the rule-- I really don't enjoy it
like I enjoy being here. I'm not just saying
that to butter y'all up. There's just something about
being with your own family. Right? You can relax. They know you. You're not impressing them. They're not impressed
by you anyway. So you can just be yourself. It's family. And though I've
had the opportunity to speak in a number of places,
to a number of congregations, there's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Paul had that instant
connection with them. Now, I'm going to take
you over to Chapter 3. And I would call Chapter
3-- and, again, it's not like from Verse 1 to
the end of the chapter, there's a little bit of
fudging in these divisions. But I would call Chapter 3,
exhortation to godliness. Now, he gets direct with him. I'm going to take
it down to Verse 7. "Therefore, brethren, in all
of our affliction and distress, we were comforted concerning
you by your faith. Now, we live if you
stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can
we render to God for you, for all the joy
which we rejoice for your sake before our God night
and day, praying exceedingly that we may see
your face and prefect what is lacking in your faith." It's not far off from what John
wrote in that little epistle of 3 John, Verse 4. It's just a one chapter book. 3 John, verse 4, "I
have no greater joy than to know or see
that my children are walking in the truth." That's what got Paul by, man. That's what made Paul or
John so filled with joy. That makes ministry worthwhile. Especially when there
are those that you know who leave the faith
or they get shipwrecked in their relationships
or whatever, there are those who are
growing and are vibrant and are reproducing. And that gets you through
the hard times of ministry, Paul included. Down in Verse 12,
"And may the Lord make you increase and abound in
love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that
He may establish your heart's blameless in holiness
before our God and Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, with all his saints." "Finally then, brethren,"
Chapter 4, verse 1, "M we urge and exhort
in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and
more just as you've received from us how you ought to
walk and to please God, for you know what commandments
we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of
God, your sanctification." If you ever wonder, man, how
do I know the will of God? I really want to
know God's will. Start with those
Bible verses that tell you exactly what to do. Start there. This is the will of God, your
sanctification, start there. And then move from there. So this is the will of
God, your sanctification. Now he expands on
that, that "you should abstain from sexual
immorality, that each of you should know how to possess
his own vessel, that is His own physical body in
sanctification and an honor, not in the passion of lust,
like the Gentiles who do not know God." Interesting that in
Thessaloniki, there were two deities
that were worshipped called the Cabiri
or the Cabeiri. They were really
demonic manifestations. And they were worshipped
by sexual activity. That was part and
parcel of the background if you lived in Thessaloniki. You knew about that
sensual kind of worship. And Paul knew that. He had visited there. He's writing to them and says,
look, here's part of God's will that you stay
sexually pure and you know how to possess
your physical vessel. Again I just want
to underscore this. I am amazed that it was only
three weeks that Paul was there and a vibrant church, to
the extent that Paul says, man, I have a longing for
you, and, man, we are linked, and, boy, we have
a special bond. And that he in such a
short period of time was able to transmit the truth
of the gospel to the extent that they were
loving and vibrant and he could speak these kind
of truths into their life. They had blossomed that much. What is the secret? This is the question
it brings up. What is the secret of
growth if after three weeks, you can a church that
has grown to this extent? What is the secret
to spiritual growth? It's how you hear. It's the condition of the heart. It's the condition of the soil. Jesus said, "Take
heed how you hear." You can say the same
thing to one person, say the same thing
to another person, and get two entirely
different results. Some latch onto it
and grow immediately, put it into practice, mature
almost instantaneously. Others, not so much. It takes a long time. You got to say sort
of the same thing. And maybe after the 28th time,
they go, oh, yeah, now, I'm getting it. So Jesus said take
heed how you hear. I remember going to India,
and I'm about to speak. And I said to the pastor, so
how long is your church service? He said, well, it depends,
but on average, it's about four hours. Excuse me? Does that include like parking? He goes, no, no, no,
people walk to church here. And many of them walk for
hours to get to church. If you try to end
it in 30 minutes, they're going to think, why
did I walk all day for that? You've got to give
them something. So we expect you
to give a sermon, preach for an hour, hour
and a half, take a break, have a little time of
fellowship, then do it again. The whole thing lasts
about four hours. Now, I wasn't used to that. You know, in America,
we're used to people checking their watches. Make it good. You have a little bit of time. You have a little window. Drop something
really good in there. Now, in the book of Proverbs,
it says, "To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet." So I just thought,
Lord, here goes. I'm glad they have
hungry hearts, because I feel like I'm giving
them better things, you know, I mean
to go that long. But I saw it was sweet to them. They laptop it up. They ate it up. They were hungry for it. Let me take it down
now to Verse 13. And let me just say that from
Verse 13 to the end of the book is instruction
for the end times. Verse 13, "But I do
not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
those who have fallen asleep." That's a euphemism
for physical death. Why? Because, well, you've
seen a dead person. When you close their eyes, they
look like they're sleeping. "Concerning those who
have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with
Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to
you, by the word of the Lord, that we
who are alive and remain until the coming of the
Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep." Here it is, "for
the Lord Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel,
with a trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ
will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall
always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one
another with these words." Now, this is called the Doctrine
of the Rapture of the Church. First time I was told about
the rapture of the church, I was a month old
in the Lord said. And somebody said,
yeah, you know, we're going to get raptured. I go, what does
that mean, rapture? The Lord's going to
actually just snatch us up, take us up into
heaven from Earth. And I said, I
remember saying, here then going, no way,
that's not in the Bible. That's like the goofiest
thing I've ever heard. And I didn't believe it. And I didn't believe
it for a while, I mean for like days and days,
until finally somebody said, can I just show it to
you in the scripture? And I remember reading
this, and reading it over a couple of times. And after reading, I
said, you're right. I was wrong. It's unmistakable. That's exactly what it says. There's coming a time in
history where at that time the Lord will descend and catch
up, take up, remove instantly those who are believers on the
Earth for a whole new chapter in redemptive history. It's called the Doctrine of
the Rapture of the Church. Now, look at the
words in Verse 17, look at the words caught
up, caught up together. The Greek word for
caught up is harpazo. Harpazo. When it's used in the
New Testament 13 times, it is translated to catch up. Four times it is translated
to take by force. Three times it is
translated to catch away. Two times it is translated
to pluck or to pluck up, et cetera. So there is a New Testament
translation called the Wuest translation, the Kenneth Wuest. He was a Greek scholar
who expanded it so you can understand it
in all of its fullness. And he translated
this verse this way. This is from the Greek Kenneth
Wuest expanded translation. "We shall be snatched away
forcibly in masses of saints having the appearance of
clouds for a welcome meeting with the Lord in the
lower atmosphere." Now if somebody says,
well, the rapture, the word rapture isn't
found in the New Testament, it depends on
which New Testament you happen to be reading. You're right, if you're reading
the English translation, like the New King James, you'll
never find the word rapture. But if you happen to be reading
the Latin Vulgate as translated by Jerome, you find this
word harpazo, the Greek word, translated into Latin rapere,
which means to seize by force or to be carried off. Yeah, the word rapture isn't
in the English translation. It is in the Latin. But the doctrine of the
rapture is certainly here. It's here in these verses. What is the rapture? Think of it as a near coming, a
flyby, where the Lord descends from heaven into the
atmosphere around the Earth and instantaneously takes
up those believers who are on the Earth at that time. We join those who are in heaven. They get resurrected first. And then those who are on the
Earth get resurrected second. The rapture is where Jesus
comes for his bride, the Church. The second coming
is when Jesus comes with his bride, the Church,
all the way to the Earth. That's the second coming. At the second coming,
not the rapture, that's when eye shall
see him, as Jesus referred to it in Matthew 24. OK, we've gone
through that before. Don't have to get into depth. I can answer questions
on that later on. We have to finish this,
and go to the next book. Verse 1, Chapter
5, "But concerning the times and
seasons, brethren, you have no need that I
should write to you for you yourselves
know perfectly"-- now, he's writing
a church that he's spent only three weeks starting,
and writes a letter says, you guys, know perfectly
"that the day of the Lord so comes as a
thief in the night. For when they say, peace and
safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor
pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren are
not in the darkness, so that this day should
overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of
light, sons of the day. We are not sons of the
night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us
not sleep as others. But let us watch and be sober." For believers, the Lord does not
of like a thief in the night. For unbelievers, he comes
like a thief in the night. They don't expect Him. Nobody expects a thief. So believers, you know,
here's the analogy, if you expect a thief,
you're going to do something to prevent the thief. You're not going to
have a little note, Dear thief, just in
case you're wondering, I keep my wallet by the kitchen
door in the second drawer from the top. Enjoy the coffee
on your way out. Nobody expects a thief. So the contrast between
unbelievers-- he comes suddenly like a thief, oh, no. But we are waiting for him. We are looking for him. We are anticipating him. Verse 8, "But let us
who are of the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope
of salvation, for"-- Verse 9-- "God is
did not appoint us to wrath, but
to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, I believe Paul is referring
not only to eternal wrath, judgment away from
God forever and ever in hell, but also
temporal wrath, which is what the tribulation is. The tribulation period is God
pouring out his wrath upon the Earth for a 7-year-- really 3 and 1/2 year
period technically, the last part of
that 7-year period is the tribulation period,
the great tribulation period. That'll be a time
of great wrath. We're not appointed
to eternal wrath. We're not also appointed
to temporal wrath. Notice the contrast between
this whole section between us and them, light, darkness,
watching, thief in the night. So that's 1 Thessalonians. Now we have 2 Thessalonians,
three short chapters. 2 Thessalonians is the
sequel to 1 Thessalonians. Now, usually sequels
aren't great, I found. Very rarely. It's like, you know, by the
time you have like Spiderman 53, I get the storyline. It's sort of hard to keep going. So it's like the first go around
is great, but the sequel not so much. Not here. Paul packs his big
punch in the SQL. Now, he writes this letter-- I mentioned he was only
there for a few weeks. He writes the church,
1 Thessalonians, probably within the first year. And within just a
couple more months he sends him this
letter to clarify. If the theme of 1 Thessalonians
is the church and Jesus Christ, then the theme of
2 Thessalonians is the world and Antichrist. So we have a few names for
Antichrist in this book. Look in Chapter 2, Verse
3, "Let no one deceive you by any means for
that day will not come unless a falling away
comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the
son of perdition." Look at Verse 8,
"Then the lawless one will be revealed whom
the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth." So in two verses,
we have three titles for what we call the Antichrist. That's what most of us refer
to that coming world leader as, call him the Antichrist. Even though the
New Testament has like 50 different
titles for him, we have latched on to that one. It's referring here
to the same person. I want to take you to
a Chapter 1, Verse 7, because I want to get to
something as we bring this to a close. "And to give you
who are troubled rest with us when the Lord
Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not
know God and then those who do not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ." These things or
these people, "these shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power when he comes in that day to
be glorified in his Saints and to be admired
among all those who believe because our testimony
among you was believed." Chapter 2, Verse 1, "Now,
brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together to him"-- remember
that was this theme in 1 Thessalonians, the
rapture of the church that's going to take place before
the day of the Lord-- "not to be soon shaken in mind
or troubled either by spirit or by word or by
letter as if from us as though the day
of Christ had come." Now let me throw
something out at you. It is believed by New
Testament scholars that there was another
letter, a forgery. So Paul writes 1 Thessalonians. Somebody else writes a
letter in Paul's name, confusing them greatly,
filled with false doctrine. So that is for the sake
of analogy and argument, 2 Thessalonians. But it's a forgery. Paul writes this letter. Let's just call it
3 Thessalonians, even though Paul only
wrote two letters. They thought that there
was a second letter, Paul writes this third
letter, which is really his second letter, saying,
look, somebody is telling you something that's not true. You've heard about
it, or maybe you read about it in
that forged letter "as though the day
of Christ had come. Let no one"-- Verse 3-- "deceive
you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling
away comes first and the man of sin is revealed. The son of perdition who
opposes and exalts himself above all that is
called God or that is worshipped so that he sits
as God in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that
when I was still with you, I told you these things?" Evidently, somebody
wrote him a letter. That plus persecution has
grown from the first letter to this letter. Here's a tidbit of
information that will help. It was first in the
town of Thessaloniki that emperor worshipped
became a thing, where you had to stand in
front of an altar and you were given
a libellus that said you were devoted to Caesar. You would say Caesar is
Lord, put a pinch of incense on the fire. That was first demanded in
the city of Thessaloniki. So Christians were fiercely
loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, even though it was
a brand new church. They weren't doing that. Persecution was arising. So the persecution was
getting worse and worse. And Paul had talked about
the tribulation period. Some of them are
thinking and perhaps this letter, even said,
don't you guys know, you're in the
tribulation period. The day of the Lord, you're
experiencing that now. You're experiencing
the wrath of God. So they were shaken by
this, because that means what Paul told them was wrong. And so he's writing shortly
after 1 Thessalonians this corrective letter. Don't be soon shaken in mind. Don't be troubled by spirit
or by word or by letter as if from us as though
the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive
you for that day will not come unless a
falling away comes first and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition. So he's saying chillax. You're not in the tribulation. The Lord still is going
to come at some point. Verse 4, "He opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God or
that is worshipped, that he sits as God
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. We call this the
abomination of desolation. Do you not remember that
when I was so with you I told you these things." Three times in the
book of Daniel, he speaks about the
abomination of desolation. It happened historically--
I'm going to make this brief-- under a guy by the
name of Antiochus IV, Assyrian ruler, desecrated the
Temple, worshipped false gods, put the juices of a pig all
over the altar in the Temple desecrating it-- the Jews called that the
abomination of desolation-- demanded worship for Rome. And even though that
happened historically, Jesus comes along in the
New Testament and says, yes, but what
happened in the past is only indicative of something
greater in the future. For he said this. This is Jesus'
words, red letter. "When you see the
abomination of desolation as spoken by Daniel the prophet
standing in the holy place you who are in Jerusalem flee." So he said that he had future. So if you want to know what that
looks like eschatologically-- we don't have time now. I was going to do it. But don't have time. Go through the Book of
Revelation, Chapter 13, on your own, not now. And you'll find out that
what happened historically will be repeated but on
steroids in the future, much greater degree. Revelation 13. Verse 6, "And now you know
what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time." He being the Antichrist, a
man of sin, son of perdition. "And now you know what is
restraining that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work. Only He"-- noticed that it's
capitalized in my Bible. Is it in some of your
translations, He capitalized-- "He who now restrains
will do so until He"-- also capitalized-- "is
taken out of the way. Then the lawless
one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume
with a breath of his mouth and destroy with the
brightness of his coming. The coming of the
lawless one is according to the working of Satan with
all power signs lying wonders, with all unrighteous deception
among those who perish, because they did not receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God will
send them strong delusion that they should
believe the lie. That they all may
be condemned who did not believe in
the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Who is the one that restrains? It's a He. It's capitalized. At least these translators
decided to capitalize it. That is because most
theologians believe that He, the one
who is restraining, is the Holy Spirit-- the Holy Spirit-- but in
a very particular sense. The Holy Spirit in the
believer, in the church. So there comes a
point in the future where God removes the he. He takes him out of the way,
takes the Holy Spirit out of the way. In what sense could
that ever be possible? The rapture of the Church, when
all of the Saints, the church, is taken out of the
world at the rapture, then the Holy Spirit is
taken, not out of the world, but out of the way. Now I know the Church
is not perfect. But the presence of believers
in ungodly societies, Jesus said it's like the
salt of the Earth. It's like the
light of the world. You remove the salt from the
meat, it corrodes quickly. You remove the light out of the
room, it gets dark instantly. So you remove Christians
and the Holy Spirit uniquely living within them,
their witness, their presence, out of the world, the Holy
Spirit is now out of the way. The restraining influence
of the Spirit in the Church is removed. By the way, Genesis,
Chapter 6, the Holy Spirit was working before the flood. But He said, my spirit will
not always strive with man. So the spirit of God strives by
the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. The Church is taken
out of the world. The Holy Spirit is
taken out of the way. And this will unfold
in the future. Now I'm going to take you
to Chapter 3, the last 20 seconds of our study. "Finally, brethren, pray for
us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified
just as it is with you, that we may be delivered from
unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith." Verse 6, "But we
command you, brethren, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from every
brother who walks disorderly and not according to
the tradition, which he received from us." I'm going to take
it down to Verse 12. "Now those who are such
we command and exhort through the Lord Jesus
Christ that they work in quietness and eat
their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do
not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey
our word in this epistle, note that person and do
not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count
him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now, may the Lord
of peace Himself give you peace
always in every way. The Lord be with you all"--
the salutation to Paul-- "with my own hand, which
is a sign in every epistle, so I write the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Historically, the
church has looked for what we call the
imminent return of Jesus. You know what that means? It means he can
come at any moment. The soon return of Jesus Christ. Historically, the church has
held to the imminent return of Jesus. Why? Because of letters
like 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians and Titus. I'm going to read one verse out
of the book of Titus, Chapter 2, Verse 13. "Looking for"-- what
are we looking for? "The blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." We're looking for that. You say, well, they've been
doing that for 2,000 years. Paul and John talked about
being in the last days. Yeah, I have a whole
explanation for that. I just can't get into it
right now, unfortunately. But there are a few more
weeks left in the Bible from 30,000 feet. I trust that I'll
be able to do that. Put it this way. There is nothing standing
in the way for Jesus to come back tonight. There's nothing that
has to be fulfilled. There's not one little
piece that has to be. I know people say, well,
actually the Gospel has to be preached
all around the world because Jesus said that
Gospel will preached and then the end will come. They greatly misunderstand
that text of scripture. I have elicited that
on other occasions. But there's nothing at
all standing in the way for the Lord to come back. We are on borrowed time. And if you don't
think that that's the historic position
over the Church, you need to study
church history. Alexander McLaren
couple centuries ago said, "The primitive
church thought more about the Second Coming
of Jesus than about death or about heaven. They were not looking for a
cleft in the ground called a grave, but for a cleavage
in the sky called glory. They were not watching
for the undertaker. They were looking
for the uppertaker." I can hear McLaren sang the
upper taker in Scottish. Charles Spurgeon
said, "The Lord's coming is possible any day. It is impossible on no day." G. Campbell Morgan, "I never
begin my work in the morning without thinking that he may
interrupt it with his work. I'm not looking for the grave. I'm looking for him." Dwight L. Moody was asked
the secret of his success. He said, "For many years I
have never given an address without the consciousness
that the Lord may come before I have finished." I would love before I end
this prayer tonight for Jesus to rapture us up into heaven. Come on. [APPLAUSE] Now in closing,
there's a difference between looking at
the coming of the Lord and looking for the
coming of the Lord. Every Christian looks at it. Every Christian
reads the same text, makes the same observation. Observation is different
from anticipation. It's one thing to look at. It's another thing to look
for it, to long for it. Here's the
difference-- a wedding. At a wedding, there are people
who are in the audience. They're observing. But then there's the bride. They're looking at it. She's looking for it. She's longing for that day
to be joined to her husband. As members of the bride of
Christ, I hope you are longing. I hope, like John, you say
even so, come, Lord Jesus, and that you anticipate. I hope you never get tired
of that imminent return. I mean, I've been
looking for the Lord Jesus for years as a pastor. The older I get and with events
that happen, I can't wait. And the undertaker may come. But I'm not looking for him. Looking for the uppertaker. How about you? Amen. [APPLAUSE] Father, the hour
is getting late, both literally and spiritually. We are living in
the end of days. Lord, we are longing
for your return. We want that next chapter
to be kicked into gear. The time when Jesus takes
over, purges the Earth of wickedness,
brings a kingdom age, and all the glories that
we read about in scripture become reality. I pray you get us
ready for the return. I pray if somebody's here
tonight who doesn't know you, that they would say yes to you. They would invite Jesus into
their life, into their heart, as Savior and Lord and Master. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining
us for this teaching from "The Bible
from 30,000 Feet."
