Elevate - The Story Pt 30 - Live Ready

The speaker encourages believers to be excited about the event of Jesus coming to gather them, rather than fearful of the end times. He discusses the thriving church in Thessalonica and how Paul encouraged them to continue their good work despite facing intense persecution. The speaker explains that Paul also addressed questions about what happens to believers who have died and reassured them that they will be resurrected and be with Jesus forever. The speaker emphasizes the comfort and hope that believers have in knowing that death is not the end and that they will be with Jesus. The speaker also highlights the importance of living in light of the rapture and eagerly awaiting redemption, given the current cultural marginalization of the church and signs of the end times. The speaker acknowledges that many believers have fears about the end times due to misconceptions and lack of teaching about the rapture. Finally, the speaker notes that the rapture is not mentioned in the book of Rev He says, encourage one another, that this event is eventually going to happen. It may not happen in your lifetime, but it might happen tonight. And he says, encourage one another. The thought of being raptured ought to be an encouragement to you, not something that causes fear because you're afraid of the end times because of the stuff that happens in the book of Revelation. Get excited about this. Jesus is coming to get you. Welcome to Elevate, from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama, with Pastor John DeQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message, and welcome to Elevate. We are jumping in today into the penultimate message in this year-long odyssey called, The Story Series. Where we are right now is we're in the New Testament, and we see that Jesus has ascended and He left the church, and He sent His promised Holy Spirit. And with that Holy Spirit, the apostles and those that were working among them were going throughout the known world, and they were preaching the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit. And they're building up churches. And where they go, they're raising up churches, and the kingdom of God is growing. And so last week, as we were in this chapter as well last week, we talked about how when Paul went to a city called Thessalonica, and when he went to the city, he was met with much opposition from the people that were there, the Jewish people that were there, because he always would go to the synagogue first. And so they ran Paul and his companions right out of Thessalonica, and they went on to a nearby town called Berea, where they had much greater success with the Jewish people. Even though the Jewish people in Thessalonica rejected Paul and ran them out, there were still a number of Gentiles that came to Christ. And so Paul really did leave a very good church in Thessalonica. There just was not a lot of Jewish converts. It was the Gentiles. And so the Gentile Christians in this city of Thessalonica, they were coming out of an extremely pagan lifestyle. And so Paul was concerned for the church, right? I mean, they were just coming out of all of this false god worship and all these things. And Paul's concerned. He doesn't want somebody to come in and start preaching things that are false and sowing all kinds of confusion. So he's really concerned about this church. But he had left, if you remember, when he left to go to Berea, he left Timothy there in Thessalonica, and he gets a report from Timothy, his companion, and the report had glowing reviews, just glowing reviews about how well this church was doing in Thessalonica. This was a thriving church that was doing very, very well. And so when Paul writes to them in the book of First Thessalonians, he writes to them and he encourages them to keep up the good work that they're doing, which they're doing in the face of intense persecution. And the persecution back then, it's not like the persecution that you may face where somebody calls you a bigot or something because you don't believe the way they do, right? No, they would actively round them up and kill them, right? That was the kind of persecution they were facing and Paul wanted to encourage them. In fact, they were doing so well. Look at how Paul opens this letter to the Thessalonians. He says, we always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, I hope that somebody writes that about authentic life church one day. I really do. You know what? That's high praise coming from the apostle Paul. Amen. But besides encouraging them to keep on doing what they're doing, Paul needed to address some questions that they had regarding the believers who had died and what quite happens to them. Remember, they had this whole pagan way of worshiping all these years and you know, everything that Paul taught them, they weren't going to, they weren't able to retain everything. Right. And so they had some questions and the questions were like, all right, if Jesus is going to come back and take us with him to heaven, well, what happens to somebody that was, that was a believer in Jesus Christ, but they died, they're going to miss out. Right. They were really concerned about this. And so Paul needed to, uh, to clear this up, uh, for them. But also he wanted to give them something to look forward to as they continually face persecution. And so here's what, uh, what he begins to say in first Thessalonians chapter four, beginning in verse 13, he says, 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. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe that God will bring Jesus, uh, will bring with Jesus. Those who have fallen asleep in him, 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 proceed. Those who have fallen asleep. What he's saying is if you die before Jesus comes back, they're going to heaven before you are right. The people that die are going to heaven before the ones that are raptured. So it's clear that Paul is encouraging them that when a believer dies, they've not missed out. They will be resurrected and they will be with Jesus forever. So they don't have to grieve like people who have no hope. You know, this is a scripture that I and many other ministers will quote when giving a funeral, right? Why do we do that? Because there's comfort in knowing that this is not the end, right? This isn't all that that life has to offer. This is just all that life has to offer on this side of eternity, right? But it's comforting knowing that believers have the hope of being with Jesus to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's great hope. This is a much more comforting notion than the pagan beliefs that they held in the past that once you're dead, you're dead. You're worm food. That's all you are. Now they have the hope to know that they will be with Jesus. So it's not only did Paul need to bring them encouragement about what happens to a believer who passes before Christ's return, but he was giving them instructions throughout this letter about how to live as they eagerly await their ultimate redemption. He's addressing the issue of how do we live in light of the rapture? How do we live ready? How do we live in light of the rapture when Jesus comes to gather his saints? And so it's good for us to pay attention to the words that Paul's writing to the Thessalonians here, because he's giving them a plan. He's giving them a way to conduct themselves, a way of posturing themselves before God as they eagerly await this amazing event. How do we live in light of the rapture? And if we don't live long enough to be alive when Christ returns, how do we live as we eagerly await our redemption? Either through death, because if you die, Christ has already come for you, right? Or through the rapture. And why? Why do we need to discuss this? Why do we need to talk about this? Because I don't know if you watch any news. I don't know if you're quite abreast in what's going on out there, but the world has dramatically changed in the last 20 years. It is, and never before have we seen the world so close to the conditions that are foretold in the Bible regarding the end times and the environment in which Jesus will gather his church. The culture right now, and it's not just American culture, it's all across the world, and much worse in many places across the world. But the culture is attempting to marginalize the church, to elevate man above God in the name of following the science, right? We just believe in science and we're greater than God. They twist the teachings of Jesus into hate speech, and we may not be persecuted like the early church was right now, but I promise you, it's coming. Be ready. Now, we don't hear much preaching about the rapture anymore. Part of that's my fault, because I don't preach much about the rapture. But we really don't hear much about it. In fact, it seems that many believers have some fears. They have some unfounded fears with regards to the events of the end times. Because when we think about the rapture, when we think about that moment where Christ comes to gather us, we immediately, our mind goes immediately to the book of Revelation. That's what happens. We go into Revelation, and we know in there that there's all these things that are going to happen, all these horrible things, these judgments that'll take place, these plagues, the political upheaval, the persecution, the false religion of the antichrist, and all of that stuff that we know is found in the book of Revelation, we begin to get a little bit scared about it. Now, if you were a part of the Revelation class that we did, we did 12 weeks of Revelation, and we went through the entire book line by line, if you were a part of that class, you know that the book of Revelation is a victorious book. Right? It's a victorious book. It spells out the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ over sin and evil and death, and it includes us in that victory. However, the rapture of the church, which is the next significant biblical event to happen in the biblical timeline, if you look throughout all the biblical timeline and you see all the prophecies that have come and all the things that need to happen, the next significant biblical event is for Jesus to come and get his saints. But it's not mentioned in the book of Revelation. If you read the book of Revelation, you don't see the rapture of the church there. Why? Because it's already happened by the time we get to Revelation. It's already happened at that point. We won't be around for all that crazy stuff that's going to happen in the book of Revelation. Listen, I mean, all that fear, all the mark of the beast, right? The antichrist, you know, fire raining down from heaven, water turning to blood, all that craziness that's going to happen. We're not going to be here for it. Is that exciting? Anybody? We don't have to worry about that. So those of us that believe and live for Christ now will be gone, will be taken up with him and we'll cover more of that next week. And so concerning the rapture, this is what Paul writes to the Thessalonians in chapter four, beginning in verse 16. And he says, 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. 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. That should just make you happy. Couple things about this and what we're talking about here. First of all, you'll never see the word rapture in the Bible. If you go to your glossary at the end of your Bible, just before you get to the map, right? If you go there, you look for the word rapture. It won't be. It may be there as a definition, but it certainly won't lead you to a, to the word rapture in the Bible. It's not there. It's a word that we have used to describe the events that are described in places like first Thessalonians. Secondly, I need you to understand this and if there's any confusion that you may have, know this, that the second coming of Jesus Christ and the rapture, there are two separate events. So when we talk about the second coming, if listen, if you're looking forward to the second coming, then you're, then you might be looking forward to living through the tribulation. The rapture and the second coming are two separate events. What Paul is describing here is not the second coming of Christ. If you read on in first Thessalonians five, Paul then will then describe the day of the Lord and the day of the Lord. Anytime you see the day of the Lord in scripture, just know that it's referring and it's synonymous with the seven year tribulation period, which culminates with the second coming of Christ. Okay. So he explains that. I encourage you to go and read first Thessalonians five to get a greater understanding. But what he is describing here, however, is that Jesus will appear and that we will all be caught up with him. Caught up. It's this Greek word harp, harpeza, which means to seize or to take for oneself. Come on. He could take me for himself. That's good. And in Latin, this word is rapia mora, which also means caught up or taken away. And that Latin word is where we get the word rapture. Okay. So it's kind of like through the languages we eventually get to this word rapture, but he is literally going to gather us up to him. It's going to be an amazing moment. Jesus will come down from heaven with a loud command. With a great trumpet blast, with the voice of the archangel, which I assume is the angel Michael, because he's the only archangel that's mentioned in the Bible. And the first thing that will happen when Jesus appears in the air is that the dead in Christ are going to rise. Just know this. Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Okay. You also will be resurrected from the dead. Your physical body will be resurrected from the dead. And if you're buried six feet under, that grave is going to be ripped open and your body is going to somehow, through reverse decomposition, come back together and meet your spirit and become perfected. And you will be with Jesus in that bodily form, but in a perfected bodily form. And you've been cremated and you've been scattered out in the ocean. Listen, I don't know how it's going to happen, right? But I figured if with just a few words, God could send the galaxies spinning out into the universe, surely he can figure out how to take an ash that floated all the way to China and another one that's caught up in the Gulf Stream and somehow get those things together and resurrect your body. But it's going to happen, all right? The dead in Christ will rise. We will have seen the simultaneous resurrection of every dead saint that is buried on this earth throughout all of history. It's amazing. Well, I need to think it's amazing. And then after that, and listen, I know some of you know this back and forth like the back of your hand, but I know that some of you don't. And that's why we're covering this in the detail that we are. I want you to have something to look forward to, folks. I want you to know what's going to happen. And after that amazing resurrection, right? He's going to gather those that are still alive in Christ. So Jesus Christ came this afternoon in the middle of your football game, right? The first thing that's going to happen is you're going to see bodies flying up past your window, right? And then you're going to go, you're dead in Christ will rise first and then you. And then from that point on, the Bible encourages us. Paul tells the Thessalonians from that point on. With the Lord forever, never to be separated again from that moment. Amen. Now, the second coming of Christ takes place after the seven year tribulation period. So that's the time where all the judgments are raining down on the earth. That's when the Antichrist comes to power, right? That's when he declares war against Israel and the two witnesses. And then the mark of the beast, the dreaded mark of the beast. Listen, can I just say something to all of you? Don't be afraid that you're going to accidentally take the mark of the beast. I know that that fear exists out there. Your credit card, right? Your vaccination, right? Whatever it is, whatever, unless Jesus has already come back and you miss it. And unless that mark is required by a one world government in order to buy and sell, that you have not taken the mark of the beast. Don't be afraid of every little financial thing. I mean, the technology is moving that way, but don't be afraid that you're going to accidentally take the mark of the beast before the rapture. Okay? Just put it out of your mind. If something looks convenient and cool, as long as you're okay with it, feel free to engage in it as long as it's not wrong or evil, right? But don't be afraid that you're going to take the mark, okay? Is everybody with me on that? Just like alleviate that thing. But seven years after the rapture, after all of this stuff has happened, Jesus will physically return to earth. His feet will touch the earth. And when He comes, we're all coming back with Him. Everyone that's been raptured is coming back with Him. And that's the second coming. And when He comes back and we come back with Him, it's to defeat Satan, to bind Him in the bottomless pit, and then we will reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years. We call that the millennium. And then, after that, the final judgment. The earth is destroyed. The new heavens and the new earth are created. Now that's a whole lot of information packed into a few sentences that we could spend weeks and weeks and weeks unpacking this. But know this. The rapture comes first, and we're all out of here if we believe. And that's what Paul is talking about to the Thessalonian church. But look what he says in verse 18. I love this. He gives all this information. Dead in Christ will rise. And then we that are left are going to be caught up with Him. And then he says in verse 18, Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Can I tell you something? The thought of the rapture. He says encourage one another, that this event is eventually going to happen. It may not happen in your lifetime, but it might happen tonight. Right? And he says encourage one another. The thought of being raptured ought to be an encouragement to you, not something that causes fear because you're afraid of the end times, because of the stuff that happens in the book of Revelation. Get excited about this. Jesus is coming to get you. He's coming. Now the idea of the rapture is not encouraging when one of two conditions are present. Number one, you're not living for Christ, and so you're afraid you won't go. Or you just not understood the events of the end times properly, so you're afraid. So I hope that I've cleared up number two for you right now. You don't have to be afraid. If you are ready to meet Jesus, if you make sure that you are ready, and you just eagerly await His appearing, just know that all that other stuff, the mark of the beast and the antichrist and all that, you don't have to worry about any of that as long as you live ready now. So what do we do in the meantime? What do we do while we're here on this earth and we're ready and we're waiting for God? Well, that's what Paul spends a lot of his time in the book of 1 Thessalonians giving them instructions about. While we're here, while we're looking upward for Christ to return, while we're looking for Him to come get us, while we're still occupying, how ought we to live in preparation for this event? And I think, and this is among many things that are in here, I think Paul gives three really clear instructions to the Thessalonian church that I think will sum up a lot of what else is in 1 Thessalonians. Stuff that we can together put in our pockets and go throughout this life understanding this is how we live ready. This is how God is calling us to live in light of the fact that He is coming soon. 1 Thessalonians 3, beginning in verse 12, says this, May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. Now remember this, as he's writing these instructions, that your heart would overflow with love. Your love would increase and overflow, right? Remember that this is a church facing intense persecution. That means the government was against them. They were rounding them up. They were killing them. They were trying to squash this new belief system that had just emerged. And so the church stood in a really strange place because on one side they're part of the family of God. They're part of pushing this new kingdom of God forward, right? And then, on the other side, they're in complete opposition to the pagan culture and the government of that city. And they're standing right in between those two things. Does that sound familiar? To how things are right now? You know, the moral values that we held dear, that we hold dear, that are based in the Bible are being challenged at every level of culture and government right now. Abortion is still rampant and being fought for. Alternative sexual lifestyles are being celebrated and forced on children. The transgender movement is challenging the basic created order of male and female, the way God created us. And amidst that, the culture and the government are increasingly seeing the Christian movement as a threat. So they're trying to minimalize us. That's why they're calling us hateful, bigots, small-minded, stupid. We're at odds with the culture and the government in many areas, as were the Thessalonians. But look, what is it that Paul instructs them with? He says, may the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else. Paul says, in the midst of your fundamental differences with the culture all around you, in the midst of state-sanctioned persecution that you are facing, through all of that, you ought to be overflowing with love. Now that's easier said than done. If you're like me, you've got to fight a little twinge of anger every day as I see another headline, another video, another political maneuvering that flies in the face of biblical truth. You know, I'm not called to get angry about that stuff. I'm called to love. Now, there's a righteous anger. We're not going to stand for this. But what it should produce in me is not bitterness, but yet I ought to be walking in love. Folks, we are called to be a beacon of light and love in this chaotic, anti-God world that we live in. That's our calling. And let me tell you, time is short. Listen, we don't have time to be getting offended with each other and the church. I'm telling you. The things people get offended about and leave churches, and they're so stuck on it. It's amazing to me. It's like you realize that this is so much bigger than the fact that you didn't like the one little thing that happened. Right? We don't have time for that junk. That's nonsense. This culture wants you angry and divided. Listen, if you turn on the news, there's always someone fanning the flame of partisan politics, racism, economic unrest, all that stuff. Why? It keeps you angry. It keeps you divided. That's the plan of the enemy against you, to try to get you angry and divided, but we are not called to live that way. We're called to live above it. And how do we live above it? Let love overflow from your life. It's love. If you're sitting in this room today and you are embroiled in arguments with your fellow believers or with your family or your co-workers, listen, check yourself and begin to ask God to do what Paul was praying for the Thessalonians, that the Lord would make your love increase and overflow. Right? If there's somebody in your family that you just refuse to talk to because one time when we were at the family reunion, they took the extra ham sandwich and they knew I needed that extra ham sandwich and I wanted that thing, but I'm never talking to her again because she always does this kind of stuff and it's been 15 years. Let me tell you, pick up the phone when you get out of this church today. Pick up the phone and let love increase and overflow in your life. If you're sitting in here today and you're stewing with anger about things you can't control and letting it make you bitter and jaded, begin to ask God to make your love increase and overflow. Ask the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal these things of bitterness and hate and unforgiveness and today let Him do a work in your heart. So He's encouraging us to let our love increase and overflow as we live ready for the rapture. But look what He says here in chapter 4 beginning in verse 3. He says, it is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God, and that in this manner no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins as we told you and warned you before, for God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. As we navigate this world, we are not called to look like this world. You were saved from sin. You were rescued from addiction. You were given a new heart and a new mind in Christ and your life ought to reflect God's value system. And so He tells them they should be sanctified. Sanctification is the process of looking less and less like the world and more and more like Jesus Christ. That's what sanctification is. It's a departure from who you were. Right? And a turning to who Jesus has called you to be. And there's a lot of good arguments out there tempting philosophies that exist now but are in direct opposition to Scripture. And sexuality in our culture is one of those things. I don't preach about this a whole lot, but I'm going to say this. The church has become so liberal with regards to sexual behavior. Sex, listen to me. Any young people in the room, listen to me. Sex ought to be between a man and a woman within the confines of holy matrimony. End of story. As believers, we cannot be out there seeking sexual partners outside of marriage. Shacking up with our boyfriends and with our girlfriends testing it out, testing sex out with a partner just to make sure that we're compatible. That's the way the world thinks. Don't allow our culture to dictate your... Y'all got quiet when I started talking about sex. But we're called to live holy in this regard. Paul's dealing with it. Can I tell you that 90% of the sins listed in the Word of God have to do with sexual deviancy? That's been the way that Satan has been polluting us for generations, for thousands of years. It's through sexual activity. Let's get this right. Let's get it right. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church. To find out what we have going on or to make a donation, you can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.