July 20, 2008
Scripture:
Prayer
Hymn 218 – He is coming, coming for us
Prayer
Last time I talked, we looked at the letter to Laodicea. What comes next on God’s time line? It is the rapture; our hymn gave us a clue. Read I Thessalonians 4:15 – 18. When the Lord comes, Christians who have passed away will rise first. Then those who are alive will meet them in the air. Our bodies will be changed; we will get glorified bodies that will never get sick or hurt. Together, we will all meet the Lord in the clouds and He will escort us to Heaven.
One of the first things that will happen when we get to Heaven is the Judgement Seat of Christ. We will not be judged for our sins; those have been taken care of already. Our lives will be reviewed and we will receivedrewards for what we have done for the Lord.
So if all the Christians are in Heaven, who will be left on earth? Only those who are unsaved will be here, and they will go through the tribulation, a seven year period of hardships on earth. If you were engaged to someone, would you want your fiancée to go through a difficult time? No you wouldn’t, and neither did the Lord. That’s why we, His bride, will be taken before the tribulation begins. Some Christians believe we will go through the tribulation, but Revelation 3:10 tells us that we will be kept from the hour of temptation, which is the tribulation. Well, there is a lot more here, but we will have to wait until the next time I speak, Lord willing.
What we read follows Peter’s account of the transfiguration; his view of the Lord at that time was much different than most Christians. The experience that Peter, James, and John had must have been breath-taking. They saw Moses (typical of Christians who have died) and Elijah (typical of those who will be raptured). Peter leaves out the fact that he said something foolish at the time, and he also leaves out part of what they heard from Heaven: “Hear Him [Jesus].” How important it is for us to hear Him and follow His word!
Peter’s experience was different from Paul’s: Paul was caught up to the third Heaven and was unable to describe what he saw; he saw the Lord in Heaven. What Peter and the others saw was a preview of the kingdom on earth; it was prophetic of the Millennium.
Peter carries on with that idea of prophecy; he says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” But usually, prophecy deals with the earth. The Church is a heavenly body, so it is not usually a part of prophecy. Instead, we have the hope of His coming, as we have seen with the children. But there may be a bit of prophecy here: when we hear that shout, all Christians will go to Heaven; will everyone else go to Hell? What about the remnant we read about in the prophets? It is an interesting thought, and worth considering.
So we have said that prophecy deals mainly with the earth; but this is written to Christians. In An Introduction to Isaiah, Mr. Bellett said, “When I listen to the gospel of the grace of God, I know myself to be addressed as a sinner … When I read the practical … Scriptures … I see myself trained, and kept, and educated as a saint. But when reading prophetic Scriptures, I have to take knowledge of myself as a friend. The Lord is disclosing His secrets to me.” Lazarus, who sat at the table with Him, was a friend. Abraham was a friend of God; God told him what He was going to do with Sodom. God didn’t put the books of the prophets in the Bible because we will have to go through what they describe; He did it because He wanted to let us in on the plan. That’s what Peter is telling us; the words of prophecy are as sure as the words of salvation, but they are on hold right now. When we are raptured, it will start to play out. For us, that means we should be watching for that Morning Star. The real morning star is only visible to those who are looking for it. We can and should be enjoying the Lord’s things right now, looking for His coming.
V. 20 – what is a private interpretation? Many people today take a single verse of scripture and make it mean something it does not by not looking at it in context. The Holy Spirit wrote and compiled the Bible; He is the key to understanding it as well. If we don’t read Scripture the way it was intended, we can come up with wrong conclusions. It is like a group of carpenters, each building part of a project: their pieces don’t make sense until they bring them together to connect in a final masterpiece.
Hymn 338 – I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour
Prayer