“Story Time” – The Flood – Genesis 6-8

I guess it was about 3 and a half years ago that my dad called me up and said he had hurt his back and wouldn’t be able to make the drive up to Runaway Bay where he had been the interim pastor for a while, and he wanted me to go take his place for a couple of weeks until he got better.  I said I would.  I had preached a few times before but I was not called to be a preacher or a pastor. 

Long story short, Pop wound up having to have back surgery and the church just kept asking me to come back and so that gig seemed to be working out pretty good for all of us; it worked out until somebody casually mentioned that I should be the pastor.  I blew that off because it wasn’t a real option, I was just sure.  But then later somebody else mentioned it and then it was even brought up at one of the many business meetings we had and I knew I had to finally explain to them why that was impossible.

And so I thanked them for the nice thought and then laid out plainly how that was not going to happen for all these different reasons.  First off, I am divorced and for most churches, I wouldn’t have to go any further.  That would be a deal-breaker right there.  Also, I wasn’t called by God to be a pastor.  I wasn’t educated and I had no experience.  Thank you.  Let’s move on.

And I thought I was plain.  I thought I laid it out so that it was easy to understand.  I explained all the reasons why it would never work, no way, no how!  But do you know what happened?  You’ll never guess.  That church…this church called me to be their pastor.  The first time I prayed about it, God made it plain to me just like He had been making it plain to the church all along.

In spite of what my resume said; in spite of what the world said, in spite of what other churches said, in spite of what even I said, this church followed what God said.  And because this church did what God said to do, this church has been blessed.  And it doesn’t have anything to do with me.  From all the reports I have gotten, if these last 2 Sundays have shown anything, it is that God is at work at Christ Fellowship.  God is at work, not Todd.

And God is at work at Christ Fellowship because it lives by faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says that it is impossible to please God without faith.  What that tells me is that the other side of the coin is that with faith you can please God.  And this church has proven over and over again from Runaway Bay to Lake Bridgeport that this church will do what God says to do no matter what other people might say. 

For us at Christ Fellowship it doesn’t matter what other churches think we ought to do.  It doesn’t matter what the Southern Baptist Convention thinks we ought to do.  It doesn’t matter what the banker or the realtor or the neighbors think we ought to do.  We want to know what God says to do.  And God has honored that attitude.  He has honored our efforts.  He has blessed us AND has blessed the convention, the banker, the realtor and He has most certainly blessed our community through this church.

And do you know why He has blessed us?  It’s not because we are special or super-Christians or more spiritual than others.  He blesses people who are obedient to Him.  And when He says in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that we should live by faith and not sight then we know that there are blessings of obedience just like there are consequences of disobedience.

For today and for the next 3 Sundays I want to talk more about faith and obedience.  And I want to do it by going back and looking at some of the great stories of the Bible.  Do you remember when you were a kid and you would go to the doctor’s office or the dentist, there would always seem to be a big blue book on the shelf called the Great Stories of the Bible or something like that.  Do you remember?  Before I could read I used to look at the pictures of all the great stories like Noah and the ark, Daniel in the lion’s den and the exodus from Egypt.  I was fascinated by those stories then and I still am today.  And the one thing that all of those great, miraculous stories teach us is about faith.

 

 It took faith for Abraham to be willing to sacrifice Isaac.  It took faith for Elijah to call down fire from heaven.  Just like it took faith for a little Wise County church to call a pastor nobody else would have.  And because this church has already shown great faith, I know I am not teaching something new here, but I do hope to encourage all of us to continue to live by faith and grow in our relationship with the Lord by seeing how God works when His children are obedient in faith.

So turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter 6 as we start our story time for this week with a look at Noah and the ark.  We will hit a few verses from chapter 6, a few from chapter 7 and a few from chapter 8 to get a good picture of this great miracle.  Let’s start with Genesis 6:9-22.  Then we will immediately go to chapter 7:17-24.  And then we will read chapter 8:1-2 and 18-21.  It’s not really as long as it sounds.  Have faith!

“This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. ¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress^[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high^] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit^[c] high all around.^[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” ²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

Chapter 7  “For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.²¹ Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. ²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.”

Chapter 8  “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.”

^18 “So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. ²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

Ok.  So after reading all that, I think we can all agree that this is just a fairy tale, right?  It’s just a myth; a story told to entertain young kids and maybe to teach a good moral lesson.  Oh, sure, just because Jesus believed it and Matthew, Luke, Peter and the author of Hebrews all believed it doesn’t mean we have to.  I know it’s not true because “scientists” *wink wink* have proven that many animals could never fit in a boat that size. 

 

And if they did fit, there wouldn’t be enough room to hold food and water for all of them.  And how would only 8 people be able to take care of that many critters?  There would be chaos.  Not only that, but if the ark floated up to the top of the mountains and lodged there, how would the people, much less the animals, get down from such heights?  It’s all just too much to believe for anybody with common sense.

On the other hand, if you have a hard time believing all of that then you must have a hard time believing that the sun comes up in the east every morning.  You can’t surely believe that cells multiply in the body, that babies are born or that hair grows on heads!  At least some heads.  Because I dare you to explain how that works if there is not an infinite Creator Who can and does do miracles!

If you want to argue all that then you have missed the point.  And the points I want to make this morning are that God gives instructions, God gives judgment and God gives promises.  Let’s look quickly at how God gives instructions.  You can have faith that God has given you instructions on how to live your life just like He gave Noah instructions.  God gave Noah detailed instructions on how to build that ark.  You see in chapter 6 that no detail was left out. 

God told him how long, how wide, what to put on and what to leave off.  And God gave those instructions because it was a matter of life and death for Noah.  Do you realize that the only kind of boats they had in those days were only big enough to hold a few people and not meant to go any further than maybe a couple hundred yards from land?  Nobody had ever imagined a vessel this big or imagined a need for one.  Talk about thinking outside the box!

But in chapter 6 did you read the part where Noah asks God why and how?  No?  Did you see in chapter 7 where Noah complained that it was too hard and too much work?  Or maybe it was in chapter 8 where Noah doubted God and His instructions.  No.  In fact, there is no record of Noah ever saying anything.  But it does say in 6:22 that “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

Oh, I wish that could be said of me!  I wish that God could have faith in me that when He told me to do something, I would just do it instead of trying to figure out why and then figure out a “better” way and then make excuses for not doing what I was told to do.  God has given us detailed instructions on how to live our lives and He has given them in His Word because it is a matter of physical and spiritual life and death that we follow them. 

So many times though we want to pray and ask God what His will is for something when He wrote it in His Word thousands of years ago.  “Yeah, but God, see, my case is a little more complex than most and so I need to hear a new word from you.  See, I have these feelings that make this different.  I have certain beliefs that you have to fall into.  I’m different, so talk to me differently.  God, why don’t you speak to me?!”

Maybe He won’t speak to you because He has already spoken in the Bible and you have not read it or choose not to follow it.  Why should He speak again if you choose not to listen?  You can have faith that God has given you instructions for your life and you can have faith that not following those instructions will lead to judgment.  Because God gives judgment.  He always has and always will judge sin.

Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a friend visited Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, "I'm looking for loopholes."  Fields was a comic and that’s a humorous thing to say but at the same time a tragic reality for too many people.  They want a loophole to what God has commanded.  They want a way to live like they want to live and yet slip into Heaven on a technicality.

Well, you can have faith that God is a just God and there is no loophole.  No man comes to the Father except through the Son, Jesus Christ.  The people of Noah’s day didn’t think they were going to hell.  Their good deeds outweighed their bad deeds.  Well…almost sorta kinda.  Oh, sure, there was some violence and disobedience but it’s not that big of a deal.  Surely God would understand.

 

 

Well, from the first part of Genesis to the last part of Revelation you can see that God judges sin.  Sin is anything that displeases Him and the Old Testament says in Psalm 7:11 that “God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day.”  The New Testament says in Romans 14:12 that “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”  And we saw a few weeks ago that there will be a judgment to come for everybody.  Not only did the other people around Noah suffer the consequences of their wrong living in this life, but they also will suffer eternally.

God gives instructions and God gives judgment.  You can have faith in that.  But you can also have faith that God gives promises.  The beginning of Genesis chapter 8 says that God remembered Noah.  Noah worshiped God and God blessed Noah and made the promise that He would never again destroy all living creatures as He had just done.  Do you know that God gives His obedient children promises even today?

2 Peter 1:4 says, “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.”  The Bible is filled with literally thousands of promises from God but I want to remind you of just a few.  Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Or how about “"But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus"? That's Philippians 4:19.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

And one more:  John 10:28 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

God’s instructions are plain.  His judgment is sure.  And His promises are eternal.  And for those followers of Jesus that are obedient, we can have faith in God.  We can have faith that whatever we are going through, He is with us.

We can have faith that He will protect and provide for us.  We can have faith that He loved us enough to send His Son to die for us and to pay the debt we owed for the sins we have committed.  We can have faith that that is enough.  Have you done that? 

Have you asked Jesus to be Lord of your life and to forgive you of your sins?  When we do that, His Word says that He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  And you can have faith in that forever.

“How Does It End?” – The Second Coming – Rev. 19:11-16

So, here’s the scene.  You go home after church tonight and change into your pj’s, pop some popcorn and sit down on the couch and turn on the TV.  You scroll through the stations until you see a movie you would like to watch.  It’s just coming on so this is perfect.  And it turns out to be really interesting.  You are glued to the tube, sitting on the edge of your seat.  It’s the guy in the white hat against the guy in the black hat.

Through the whole movie, the guy in the white hat has protected the pretty girl who, in return has made goo goo eyes at him back.  He has made good choices even when they were difficult.  He has remained honorable through the whole show.  All the while Mr. Black Hat has schemed and stolen and lied and been basically a big ol’ meanie-head.  And now it’s high noon and time for the showdown.

White hat walks out of the general store with the pretty girl watching nervously through the window.  Black hat walks out of the saloon with a bottle of whiskey.  They start to walk towards each other with that suspenseful piano music playing in the background.  And all of the sudden Mr. Black Hat pulls his six-gun and shoots Mr. White Hat right in the heart.  He grabs the girl and rides off on his horse.  The end.

How do you like that story?  Pretty horrible, huh?  Nobody makes a movie like that.  Nobody wants to see the good guy lose the girl, much less get killed.  What kind of justice is that?  It’s also why I don’t want to watch “Ol’ Yeller” ever again.  I’ll get misty-eyed just thinking about what happens to poor Yeller.  I don’t want to see that stuff.  Everybody roots for the good guy, right?  But now the good guy is dead and there is no way anything good can come from it.

Well, that is exactly how the disciples felt in John chapter 21.  Listen as I read starting in verse 2.  “Simon Peter, Thomas , Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.”

Let me stop there and just say this was a bad time for the disciples.  They had watched Jesus die on the cross and now He was gone and there was nothing else for them to do but what they had done before they had even met Him.  They went fishing.  But now they couldn’t even catch any fish.  This was just the worst.  All of their lives they had been reading that Old Testament script about how the guy in the white hat was going to come and save them and then He did come but now He is dead.

But what they didn’t know was that it was the end of the movie but not the end of the story.  There was a sequel coming soon.  If it were a movie sequel they would be able to see that the guy in the white hat had been shot but the bullet was stopped by a Bible in his shirt pocket.  He gets up off the ground, finds the guy in the black hat, fights him and kills him and then takes the girl home and marries her and lives happily ever after.

And what is even better is that the disciples and all of us believers through the ages will have a part in the movie.  Did you know that?  You are going to be a part of the greatest epic that ever happens in the history of the world.  And the name of that sequel…is “The Second Coming.”  Let’s turn to the book of Revelation to see a trailer for that show.  And our narrator for this epic is the Apostle John, one of those who just happened to be with Peter when he went fishing.

Revelation 19:11-21 is the screenplay for how this show goes.  But I’ll warn you.  This is not rated G.  It has violence and mature themes.  Let’s read it.  I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords. ¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”   ¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Now that’s how a story ought to end, right?  Which is appropriate as we continue our series entitled, “How Does It End?”  We have seen the judgment that is to come to believers and the judgment for unbelievers.  We have looked at the Rapture where Jesus snatches up His church in the air, in the twinkling of an eye.  And for some people that would be enough.  It would be enough that God takes all of His children to Heaven and just leaves Satan on earth with his minions to run wild.  But for all of you that crave justice, that wouldn’t be enough.

And we know that God is just.  We have all heard Romans 12:19 that says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  Well here you go.  Here’s justice.  Our setting is the Battle of Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation.  I once heard an end-times specialist talk about how things were going to end and how he closed his talk was to say, “If you want clues as to when it is coming, keep your eye on Israel.”

Here we have nations all over the world coming together to battle Israel and each other.  But in the middle of their fighting, they won’t miss what happens as Jesus comes back to earth to finish the fight.  And when He does He will come back visibly.  He will come back victoriously.  And He will come back with vengeance.  Let’s look again at verse 13.  It says who is coming back.  His name is the Word of God.

This isn’t the first time John calls Jesus the Word.  He starts his gospel with those words.  In John 1:1 he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God and the word was with God.”  He says in verse 12 of Rev. 19 that His eyes are like blazing fire which symbolizes His all-seeing, all-knowing, all-revealing sight.  He has on His head many crowns.  In fact, He has every crown.  He is the King of the universe, the King of Zion, the King of every believer, the King and Husband of the church.  He is the King of kings.

He will not be mistaken or missed.  He is coming visibly with His robe dipped in blood; the blood He shed for us on the cross by which He offers us salvation; the blood of the believers which He is coming to avenge and the blood of His enemies which is as good as spilled right there on the battlefield.  All of which stains His robe royal red like the King that He is.

And He will come visibly riding a white horse.  This is not the colt on which He rode into Jerusalem the last time as one riding in peace.  This is a horse ridden in victory and He rides in holiness and purity.  And it says He rides it to make war.  What a horrible thought to be an enemy of God at this last day.  Isaiah 2:19 says, “People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.”

He will come visibly and He will come victoriously.  Look at verse 14.  It says, “The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.”  Who are the armies of Heaven?  Well, there may be angels involved in this battle but John sees us.  He is talking about all the believers riding behind Jesus on white horses too.  But look how we are dressed.  In fine linen, white and clean.  Jesus has blood all over His but ours are spotless.

Now, I would like to think I was going to be riding that white horse into battle like John Wayne with the reins in my teeth and a sword in one hand and a machine gun in the other, blasting away at the bad guys with a bazooka and RPG’s but that’s not how it happens.  I said earlier that we will play a part in this epic but we are pretty much just extras at this point.

Jesus is the victor.  We are on His side but Jesus is the great warrior.  And look at verse 15 to see His weapon of choice.  Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.  Yes, the same Jesus Who was present at creation and spoke the universe into being and populated it with water, mountains, animals and even people just by speaking will end it all with His mouth.

When the U.S. attacked Iraq they said it would be shock and awe.  And it was pretty impressive.  But when the enemies of God look up and prepare to fight against the Lord, they will be shocked but I don’t know if they will have time to be awed because it will not last long.  Jesus doesn’t need our help.  He doesn’t need the help of the angels. 

We say often around here that “God’s got this.”  When you are scared, don’t worry.  God’s got this.  When your month exceeds your money, don’t worry.  God’s got this.  When your world seems to be crashing down around you, let not your hearts be troubled, be still and know He is God…God’s got this.  We say that because the same God that has plenty of power to overthrow all the powers of hell and every army on the planet all at the same time has all the power necessary to take care of you on this side of Heaven as well as the other side.

He is coming visibly.  He is coming victoriously.  And He is coming with vengeance.

 A despondent woman was walking along the beach when she saw a bottle on the sand. She picked it up and pulled out the cork. Whoosh! A big puff of smoke appeared. "You have released me from my prison," the genie told her. "To show my thanks, I grant you three wishes. But take care, for with each wish, your mate will receive double of whatever you request."  "Why?" the woman asked. "That bum left me for another woman."  "That is how it is written," replied the genie.  The woman shrugged and then asked for a million dollars. There was a flash of light, and a million dollars appeared at her feet. At the same instant, in a far-off place, her wayward husband looked down to see twice that amount at his feet.  "And your second wish?"  "Genie, I want the world's most expensive diamond necklace." Another flash of light, and the woman was holding the precious treasure. And, in that distant place, her husband was looking for a gem broker to buy his latest bonanza.  "Genie, is it really true that my husband has two million dollars and more jewels than I do, and that he gets double of whatever I wish for?" The genie said it was indeed true. "Okay, genie, I'm ready for my last wish," the woman said. "Scare me half to death."   (Sermonillustrations.com)

Vengeance!  I saw an anonymous quote that said, “The divine wrath is slow indeed in vengeance, but it makes up for its tardiness by the severity of the punishment.”  The severity of God’s vengeance cannot be overstated here.  Because unless you are a bird, this day is going to end badly for you.  The first coming of Jesus brought forgiveness and grace but the second time He comes, He is coming to bring judgment and He is bringing it with a vengeance.

I told you this was not rated G.  It’s pretty graphic here.  In verse 15 he says, “He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”  John also talks about seeing a winepress in chapter 14 of Revelation.  There he sees “The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse's bridle.”  NLT

He is comparing the wrath of God to a winepress where the blood flows like wine for 180 miles, which is about half the length of Israel.  So, why is Jesus so mad?  Why does He have to kill everybody and do it in a way that is so gruesome?  Is it because of how they treated Him at the cross?  Is this for spitting on Him and pulling out His beard and whipping Him nearly to death before nailing His hands and feet to the cross while He hung there naked until He died?

Is this just about getting revenge?  Is He saying, “Boy, you really messed with the wrong guy this time!”?  I can answer those questions with an emphatic, “No!”  No!  Because is any of that really any worse than any sin I have committed?  When I make the choice to lie, steal, gossip, lust or even worry, is that not the same thing as shaking my fist in the face of Almighty God and swearing that I know better than He does?

Every time I sin it is an offense to God.  It is one more thing holding Jesus on that cross.  I might as well be holding the hammer that drove the nails into His precious hands every time I sin.  But do you know what?  He has forgiven me.  He has forgiven you, too, when you accepted Him and His forgiveness.  And He would have forgiven any one of those who beat Him or mocked Him or killed Him if they had just repented and asked.

No, that is not why Jesus is so angry at His Second Coming.  His righteous anger burns for those who willfully rejected Him.  And they didn’t just do it once.  It was their lifestyle; their ongoing attitude of rebellion – a stubborn way of life that continually resists, rejects and insults the One who came to earth to die for them so He could provide the way for them to have eternal life with Him in Heaven.

But they rejected Him having been warned over and over and over again.  They wanted to live their own life.  They wanted to live life their own way and so God makes good on His warning and gives them what they have been asking for.  As believers and followers of Jesus we do not get what we deserve.  We get grace and mercy.  Unbelievers get justice.

Do you remember that passage in John 21 that I started reading earlier where the disciples had gone fishing but didn’t catch anything?  Let me read a little bit more.  Starting in verse 4.  “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. ⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. ⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. ⁷ Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸ The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish.”

I love that story!  Can you imagine how Peter must have felt?  Can you imagine the grief, the shame that he was carrying around, knowing that he had denied Jesus 3 times and then abandoned Him?  But now Peter sees Him again and He is alive and he can’t wait to row to shore.  He jumps out and swims.

He swims because Peter knows that on that shore is forgiveness.  He knows that on that shore is the end of his guilt and shame and the beginning of an abundant life here on earth and he knows he is not guaranteed another breath and so he gets to Jesus as fast as he can.  And that’s just what Jesus was waiting for.

And that is what He is waiting for you to do today as well.  Why let your pride stop you any longer?  How has that worked out for you so far anyway?  Do it today.  Ask Jesus to be Lord of your life and to forgive you of your sins and change your life for all of eternity.  That’s what He is waiting for.

“How Does It End?” – The Rapture – 1 Thess. 4:13-18

Somebody tell me about something that is coming up that you are looking forward to.  Are you going on vacation?  Is there a holiday coming up you are looking forward to?  You can’t wait for me to be quiet?  What is it? 

Now tell me how you are preparing for this big event?  What are you doing to prepare yourself physically, mentally, financially, spiritually, etc? 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith had just reached the airport in the nick of time to catch the plane for their two-week's vacation in Hawaii. "I wish we'd brought the piano with us," said Mrs. Smith. "What on earth for?" asked her husband.
"I've left the tickets on it."

We all know that preparation is important but did you ever think how important it was to be ready for Jesus to come back?  I’m not sure who wrote it but I like this poem.

There's a man in yonder glory I have loved for many years,

He has cleared my guilty conscience and has banished all my fears.

He is coming in a moment in the twinkling of an eye,

And no time will be allotted for you to utter one good-bye.

No time to kiss the husband or embrace the loving wife,

If they are but united in the bonds of holy life.

Are you ready, Christian, ready, for shout and trump and voice?

Will His coming make you tremble or cause you to rejoice?

Are you walking, talking with Him daily, taking Him your care,

Do you live so close to heaven that a breath would waft you there? 

Quoted in Fairest of All, Herbert Lockyer, Eerdmans, 1936, p. 71.

What preparations are you making for one of the greatest events in the history of the world?  I read about a little girl who was asking her mama questions.  "Mommy, do you believe Jesus will come back?" "Yes." "Today?" "Yes." "In a few minutes?" "Yes, dear."

"Mommy…would you comb my hair?"  Don Hussong.

I’m afraid that is probably more preparation than most of us have made.  And while we need to be prepared for it, it is also one of the most comforting things to know and understand more about the rapture of the church.  I say it is comforting because that is exactly why Paul writes the church in Thessalonica.  He wanted to comfort them with the truth of God’s Word about what happens when we die and how this whole rapture thing is going to happen.

Just like there is today, there was some confusion back then about what was going to happen in the end.  Do you ever think about it?  Do you ever think about how it is going to end?  Well, this is part 2 of our sermon series entitled, “How Does It End?” and today we are going to look specifically at the rapture.  And while some people don’t accept the idea of a rapture or “snatching away” of the church before the Tribulation, I think you will see why it is important to be prepared for it and how it should affect your life today.

Let’s turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians and chapter 4:13-18.  Thessalonians is back in the back of the Bible just past Colossians and before the other “t” books, Timothy and Titus.  And like I said, Paul is writing to comfort them about some questions they had about their loved ones who had died.  And even today this passage is used to comfort family members at funerals or anytime somebody needs encouragement because there is nothing but good news here.

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. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Wow!  There is a lot going on in those verses and a lot to see.  And I told you that there was nothing but good news here and that’s true.  But as for my sermon, I have good news and bad news.  Now, I know as well as any preacher that every good sermon has 3 points and a poem, right?  Pretty sure that’s what Peter did and 3000 people were added that day.  So my good news is that I already have the poem out of the way.  The bad news is that I have 5 points.  But I promise they will be as brief as possible.

I want to say before we get to the points one thing real quickly about a phrase Paul uses in verse 13.  When he says “those who fall asleep” we all know that he means “to die”.  It’s like saying someone has passed away.  It’s just a little more delicate to say it that way and in no way should it be taken to mean that our souls sleep.  There is no soul sleep.  He is only talking about our physical bodies.

Now the points I want to make I give credit to commentator W.W. Wiersbe for making them all start with the same letter so they are easy to remember.  We will see the revelation, the return, the resurrection, the rapture and the reunion.  Maybe making them all start with the same letter will make up for having so many of them.  First let’s look at the revelation that inspired this passage.  Look at verse 15.

Paul gives credit to Jesus Himself for giving him this revelation.  In 1 Corinthians, Paul is telling the church at Corinth about this same subject, the resurrection, and he tells them how he got this information in chapter 15:3-8.   “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
So, Paul is starting off here assuring us that we is writing is absolutely true because he got it from the mouth of Jesus Himself.  Then he goes on to talk about the return of Christ.  It is my understanding that President John F. Kennedy once asked Billy Graham if he really believed that Jesus Christ was going to return one day.
“Yes, sir, Mr. President.  I certainly do” said Billy Graham.
Kennedy then asked, “Then why do I hear so little about it?”
And that’s a great question.  It ought to be on our minds all the time.  It ought to be that one great thing that we look forward to and enjoy talking about.  The Bible talks a lot about it.  And here Paul gives us some details about how it is actually going to happen.
In verse 15, he describes it as the “coming of the Lord”.  That word “coming” is the Greek word “parousia” which is also used to describe the Second Coming of Christ but this does not mean that they are the same event.  Not at all.  We will talk about some of the differences as we go but the first difference is that at the rapture, Jesus will appear to His followers, not on earth, but “in the air” as he says in verse 17.
At the rapture, Christ appears in the air without setting foot on the earth.  At the Second Coming, Zechariah 14:4 tells us that “His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east.”  (Dr. Jeffress, Perfect Ending, pg. 75)
Now, let’s look at what Paul says about the resurrection.  Some people are confused about this but Paul makes it very understandable.  He says, “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… and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
First, I love how Paul uses the pronoun “we” to suggest that he expected he would still be alive when Christ came.  Theologians call this the doctrine of Imminent Return, meaning that we believe this could all happen at any moment.  And when it does happen, Paul says that the dead in Christ shall rise first and then the believers who are still alive.  But how can that happen if we know that when we die that being away from the body is at home with the Lord as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:8?
Well, when we die, our spirit goes immediately into the presence of the Lord but our body is left behind just like the body of Christ was left behind until that first Easter morning.  So, Paul is saying that the bodies of the dead will be resurrected first and then those who are still alive will join them in the air with Jesus.  Well, that brings up the question of how the bodies of the dead will be resurrected especially if they have decomposed or maybe not all there.  What about those who have been cremated or lost at sea or blown apart by a bomb?
Well, Paul is talking about resurrection, not reconstruction.  In 1 Corinthians 15, starting at about verse 35, he points out that the resurrection of the human body is like the growing of a plant from a seed.  The flower is not the identical seed that was planted yet there is continuity from the seed to the plant.  Christians shall receive glorified bodies, like the glorified body of Christ.  The dead body is the seed that is planted in the ground.  The resurrection body is the flower that comes from that seed.  (Wiersbe, pg 180)
Now let’s look at verse 17 to see the actual rapture.  “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.”  If you will notice, the word “rapture” is not used here.  In fact, the word “rapture” itself is used nowhere in the Bible.  But the Latin translation of the phrase “caught up” is “rapturo” from which we get the word “rapture”. 
To be caught up literally means to be snatched quickly from one place and moved to another.  It is the word used to describe what happened to Philip after he baptized the eunuch in Acts 8.  He was snatched up, caught up, raptured, if you will.  And here Paul says we are going to hear 3 things at the rapture.  We are going to hear God give a command with a loud voice.  We will hear the archangel.  And we will hear the trumpet call of God.
And all of this is going to happen in the twinkling of an eye, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:52.  We will hear Jesus call out just like He did in front of the tomb of Lazarus.  You have heard it said that if Jesus had not used the name of Lazarus when He cried out “Lazarus, come out!” that every grave would have opened.  Well, He is not going to use our names and every believer will come out and be raised up to Heaven with Jesus.
I don’t know what the archangel is going to say and I can’t imagine what the trumpet of God is going to sound like but it will be obvious.  It will be unavoidable.  It will be glorious.  And it will lead to the reunion of all believers, the bride of Christ, being united with the Bridegroom.  We will be resurrected and transformed into the type of body Jesus had after His resurrection.  And it will be a body free of the pain and suffering and tears that come with these bodies we have here.
Let’s look closer at the reunion.  In verse 17, where Paul says we will “meet the Lord in the air” that Greek word translated “meet” carries the idea of meeting a royal person or an important person.  (Wiersbe, pg 181)  How cool is that?

Tell of Aunt Sandra’s funeral and family reunion.   I love my family but I want to see Jesus first in Heaven.

When I think of everything He has done for me; that He has forgiven me when I didn’t deserve it; that He has given me peace and joy and an abundant life here on earth just like He promised; when I think of how He has made good come from bad even when it was bad choices I have made; when I think of how He loved me before I loved Him and He loved me enough to die for me, then I can’t wait to see Him.

Yes, I have a lot of questions for Him.  And I don’t know if I will still have all of those questions when I get there or not but I have an idea that it will be enough just to be in His presence.  I will have all of eternity to visit with my family and to pepper David and Paul and Elijah with questions.  I will have all of eternity to visit with Rahab, sing with Mary, and laugh with my Aunt Sandra.

Since I have already blown the “3 points and a poem” ideal for a sermon, let me give you one more quick poem by Richard Baxter:

My knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim,

But it's enough that Christ knows all,

And I shall be with him.

So, what are you doing to prepare for the rapture?  Are you ready spiritually?  Does it motivate you to live a more Christ-like life?  What do you want to be doing when He comes?  Maybe a better question is what do you not want to be doing when He comes?

Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes and let Jesus speak to you “Softly And Tenderly”.