Today we are going to study one of the most exciting and comforting portions of the word of God as Paul describes for us the happening that is most commonly known as "the rapture of the church". The word "rapture" comes from the Latin "rapio", which was used in the first Latin version of the Bible. It means "to be caught up, to be carried away, to be snatched up, to be seized, to be taken away". Paul, however, uses the Greek "harpazo", a word that has the same meaning as the Latin and which indicates a sudden event, an event that takes place "in the twinkling of an eye". (1 Corinthians 15:52)
The apostle is not certain that the believers of Thessalonica understand how the removal of the church from the world is going to be accomplished, and there seems to be some confusion among them about how this is going to work for those believers who have already passed on. Today's passage should be a comfort to anyone whose loved ones in the Lord have already passed from this world. They are not going to be left out of the "wedding" of Christ and His bride (the church). While they lived, the rapture of the church was the moment they were waiting for, and they won't be cheated out of it simply because their physical bodies could not endure until that day.
The people of Thessalonica grew up in a pagan culture where mourning for the dead was a drawn-out process. Pagan mourning rituals involved useless practices and sometimes even self-harm in the form of cutting themselves. The problem with pagan religions is that they had no power to save souls; the persons involved in them could never have any comfort about his or her final destination, and those who mourned for them thought they could engage in rituals that would "help" the dead person to reach a final destination with the gods. Paul knows that since the people of Thessalonica grew up with false ideas about the dead, they might be confused about what happens to their Christian loved ones who have passed on. He writes our passage today so they will not mourn as those who have no hope.
"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4:13) He comfortingly says to them, "You don't have to grieve as if you won't see your loved ones again. They are not lost. You do not see them in the flesh now, but they have not ceased to exist. Their bodies are merely sleeping until Christ calls them out of the dust to reunite their resurrected, immortal bodies with their souls."
What is the proof that the bodies of believers will be resurrected? The proof is that Christ rose from the dead in an immortal body, and He promised to resurrect us in bodies just like His. As Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians, "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." (1 Corinthians 15:42b-43) The body of Christ was sown (buried) and it was raised in power. Christ will never die again. We who belong to Him will also be raised in power, never to die again.
"For 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." (1 Thessalonians 4:14) Where are the souls of the believers who have passed out of this world? They are in the presence of Christ. They are absent from the body and present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8) When Christ comes for His church, the souls of these believers will come with Him to be reunited with their resurrected bodies.
The bodies of these believers will be the first to be "caught up" to Christ. They will rise before those believers who are still living. "According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until 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, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16) Why do the bodies of the dead rise before the living are caught up? The Bible doesn't tell us, but this morning while I was studying our passage I found myself being very thankful that the dead are going to rise first. I have loved ones whose souls have already gone on to be with the Lord. My father died thirty years ago and my mother died twenty-three years ago. I witnessed both of their deaths. If I'm still living when Christ returns for the church, I want to be standing here on earth to witness their graves breaking open and their immoral, imperishable, indestructible bodies rising to be reunited with their souls. They deserve to rise before I do. They deserve to have their bodies be changed before mine is changed. Their bodies have been sleeping in the ground for a long time, and their turn should come before mine.
Can you imagine the shout of joy that's going to go up when the living believers see the bodies of their loved ones rising to be with Christ? Immediately after this amazing miracle takes place, all who are in Christ who still remain on earth will be caught up to be with Him, and with their loved ones, forever. "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18)
We miss our loved ones, but we don't need to mourn like people who have no hope. Christ, who is our hope, has made promises He's going to fulfill. Our believing loved ones who have left this world are present with Him in spirit. Their bodies will be resurrected, just as His body was resurrected. We will see them again in the flesh and we will be with them, in the presence of our Lord, forever.
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