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[0:00] This morning is an introduction to the rapture, part four. And in the description, I thought the last comment was interesting.

[0:14] It says, listen carefully and try to maintain your composure. It'll be interesting if we can all do that.

[0:26] Please turn at this time to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And we'll be looking at verses 13 through 18.

[0:43] Verse 13.

[1:13] Verse 14. 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 not precede those who have fallen asleep.

[1:39] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

[1:50] And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

[2:07] And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

[2:24] In connection with the rapture of the church, which is also referred to as the translation of the saints, the Thessalonian epistle from which Gary just read concludes with, therefore, comfort one another with these words.

[2:41] And the apostles' explanation and revelation of the mystery, which was never known before, never even thought of before, is designed to provide comfort for those whose loved ones have gone on, and if what we think is true actually is true about someone had written a spurious letter to the Thessalonians suggesting that the rapture had already taken place and that they had missed it and so on.

[3:13] These kind of rumors get circulating and the apostle Paul is setting the record straight here and he concludes his presentation with the idea that their knowing that is to provide a real measure of comfort for them because we sorrow not as others who have no hope.

[3:32] And then when he says in 1 Corinthians 15 addressing the same subject as the rapture, he encourages them there to their steadfastness and to their labors for the Lord.

[3:44] And he concludes that passage with saying, Therefore, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

[4:01] So, in other words, hang in there and keep fighting the good fight. That's the conclusion of the Corinthian passage. It is to stimulate them on to further service, and here it is to comfort their hearts.

[4:13] We have just recently begun engaging the subject of the rapture. It is one of the most dramatic things that one could possibly imagine. It is totally surreal.

[4:25] It is otherworldly because it is otherworldly. And what is going to happen is this. And it is all tied up in the word catch away or caught up in the Thessalonian passage, which in the Latin Vulgate translation is the word rapto, R-A-P-T-O, from which the English word rapture is taken.

[4:47] And it conveys the idea of a rapturous, breathtaking, whoosh, a snatching away, just as if a mighty hand reached down and grabbed an object just whoosh like that and whisked it up.

[5:02] And that's the way the rapture is going to be. Only it is going to involve millions of people. I cannot begin to fathom that.

[5:18] But that's what the text is saying. It's going to be one of the most cataclysmic events that has ever occurred. It is going to involve the removal, the physical removal of the earth, of every believing human being situated anywhere on the globe.

[5:43] And it's going to happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, just like that. And it is imminent. That imminent is spelled I-M-M-I-N-E-N-T.

[5:59] And it simply means it could occur at any time. It also means there is nothing that has to take place in prophecy before this snatching away can occur.

[6:15] It has been imminent to every generation that has ever lived. It was imminent in the time of the Apostle Paul when he first wrote of it 2,000 years ago.

[6:27] There is every reason to believe that he thought the rapture could very well take place in his lifetime. Imminence is designed to contribute to godliness and godly living.

[6:44] Like 1 John when he says, Everyone that has this hope in him, everyone that looks forward to this, who will love his appearing, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself.

[6:58] What's that mean? It means you get your act together spiritually. It means you straighten out what needs to be straightened out. It means that you mend fences if there are fences that need to be mended.

[7:12] It means that if you have apologies that you need to render to somebody, you get on with it. It means if you have to forgive somebody for someone who wronged you, make sure that forgiveness is in place.

[7:25] Get your spiritual house in order. Because at any moment, the Lord may come. We are to live in that expectancy.

[7:37] And if you do, and you really believe it, it will affect your priorities. It will affect your agenda. It will affect your attitude.

[7:48] You will be a changed person if you really believe this and live in the light of it. But I must also add, because honesty compels me to do so, knowing human nature like I do, and I know it well because I'm one of them, there is always a tendency to think, well, 2,000 years, he hasn't come yet.

[8:15] The likelihood is, won't come in my lifetime. I've got plenty of time. I can get my act together when things get a little more, you know, critical. Meanwhile, I can just indulge myself however I choose to.

[8:29] Well, that's the attitude of the foolish virgins in Matthew's Gospel that didn't bring along enough oil for the lamps and ran out and so on, you know.

[8:40] It is short-sightedness, and it is a presumption upon the Almighty. Actually, we are called to be conformed to the image of Christ, and we ought to bend every effort and utilize every avenue that helps move us toward that goal, because that's the only thing worth living for.

[9:04] Not your retirement, not your hopes and dreams, unless they include this. This is the only thing really worth living for. This is the only thing that matters.

[9:16] The old saying is, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Everything else is superfluous.

[9:28] Our attitude needs to be that of the Apostle Paul that we are willing to spend and be spent for whatever will further the cause of Christ. Christ.

[9:39] And if we are living in the expectancy of the translation of the rapture of the saints, maybe today, maybe before this service ends, we don't know when it's going to be.

[9:53] Nobody's interested in setting dates. That's probably one of the most foolish things you could do. But eminency is a reality, and God has established it as eminency, so that each and every generation could be impacted by the truth that theirs may be the one.

[10:14] And you don't know that it isn't. So we should live in the light of the expectancy of the return of Christ. The last time we dealt with this subject, we considered a scenario that is something I must confess has been in my mind for a long, long time.

[10:35] And you know where I got it? I'm confident. I can't think of his name. But I remember the preacher. I was a student at Cedarville College. It must have been about 1959 or 60.

[10:49] He was a chapel speaker. Very polished, very persuasive, very articulate, great delivery, everything, kind of captivating, one of those spellbinding speakers, you know.

[11:00] And I remember him talking about the rapture and what it was going to be like and the graves opening. And he mentioned you could go to any graveyard, any cemetery, anywhere in the world where the rapture would occur and here are all these disturbed plots all over the place, all of these holes where there were believers and they came up out of there.

[11:28] They came up out of the vault, out of the casket, out of the earth and were gathered to be with the Lord. So you've got cemeteries that are pockmarked everywhere.

[11:40] And I got to thinking about that kind of a scene and what kind of an impact that would make on the survivors and it's pretty impressive. Well, there's no question that when you have the incredible, massive disappearance of millions of people worldwide, you can only imagine the conflagration that's going to take place, the confusion, the questions, the fear.

[12:12] All kinds of theories are going to float around. What happened to these people? Where did they go? What are these graves being opened? What does all this mean? And the more I thought about it, particularly of late, the more I think I have come to the conclusion that I allowed myself to be unduly influenced by the good, articulate intentions, the dramatic preaching of one of my fellow clergymen who is probably with the Lord by now because he was long in years then.

[12:42] So if he were alive today, he'd be about 125. So I think it's safe to say that he knows better by now that that was not right. But you know something?

[12:52] I've also come to appreciate this and that is how subject to being influenced we are by other people. How eager and willing and susceptible we are to basing our positions and our convictions on what some other human being says.

[13:12] And very often it's a pastor. And that thought scares me. It really does. So let me repeat a little thing that I've developed over the years and it certainly is true and that is every preacher has two great fears.

[13:32] If he doesn't there's something wrong with him. He should have two great fears. And the first fear is that people will not believe what he says. that's a legitimate fear.

[13:44] The second fear is that people will believe what he says. And that's equally a great fear. Because there probably isn't anything that terrifies me more than the thought of leading anyone astray about anything.

[14:02] I wish I could say that I'm not capable of that but I am. I've often said that every system of theology has holes in it.

[14:15] Nobody has it all together. None of us has it 100% right. I know I don't. And I'm still looking for error and when I find it I try to root it out and replace it with truth.

[14:27] That's what study and growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ is all about. Last thing I want to do and the last thing I want to have to give an answer to God for is Marv you misled those people.

[14:39] You told them thus and so and that wasn't true. No. You wouldn't do it of course intentionally and I don't even want to do it unintentionally. I regard this as a sacred charge.

[14:52] I take it very very seriously. That's one reason that I often have a Q&A because if I say something that isn't true God help you to catch it and bring it to my attention and I assure you I will not be offended I will be grateful because we're looking for truth.

[15:20] Lots of controversy surrounds this subject of the rapture. Different positions taken. We haven't even looked at those yet. But there is the pre-trib rapture that we embrace.

[15:32] There is the mid-trib rapture. There is the post-trib rapture. Each of these have sincere Christians lined up behind them who know and love the Lord just as much as we do but we disagree regarding some of these things.

[15:45] So we'll have to thresh that out as well. Now I want to address that subject about the graves being open because frankly I don't think it's right.

[15:55] I don't think the graves are going to be opened. At all. I don't think you will be able to tell that there was even anyone there.

[16:08] The graves are going to look just like they did before. They will not be impacted at all. That's my new position. And we need to explore what in the world we would base that on.

[16:22] So let's go first of all to 1 Corinthians 15. And by the way we're going to be exclusively in Paul's letters simply because Paul's letters the only place you will find any reference of the rapture.

[16:37] Now I know some think that John 14 and a passage in Matthew where two are in the field one's taken and one's left that that's speaking of the rapture and we'll look at that as well but that is not in reference to the rapture at all.

[16:52] It has nothing to do with the rapture and I think we'll be able to demonstrate that. But first we want to look at 1 Corinthians 15 and if you've got a Bible we'll be giving your fingers some exercise this morning.

[17:04] We're going to be all over the place and we'll probably be in some of the gospels as well. Beginning with verse 35 of chapter 15 talking about the kind of bodies.

[17:16] this was predicated upon the idea of the resurrection of the human body being undesirable because everybody knows what happens when a human body dies and the decay process sets in and deterioration and so on.

[17:35] The only object is then to get the body in the ground as soon as you can because it goes to putrefaction and the composition decomposition process sets in.

[17:48] That is typical and natural of all biological life. From the smallest amoeba to the human being to the elephant that's exactly what happens to the flesh. So the idea of the dead coming back is not very desirable especially if you're looking at it from the view of the ancients.

[18:06] How are the dead raised and with what kind of body and there's a clue what kind of body do they come? You fool or you foolish ones.

[18:19] It is as if Paul is saying actually you ought to know the answer to that. That which you sow, that is that which you plant in the ground does not come to life unless it dies.

[18:35] And that too is an age old principle. Out of the death of that seed that is planted comes new life. And he's making a parallel here.

[18:46] He is making an analogy and he's saying and that's the way it's going to be with the human body. It's going to be planted one thing and it's going to yield something else.

[18:59] Let's read on. And that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

[19:09] But God gives it a body just as he wished. And to each of the seeds a body of his own. All flesh is not the same flesh. But there is one flesh of men and another flesh of beasts and another flesh of birds and another of fish.

[19:24] There are also heavenly bodies, earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly is one. The glory of the earthly is another. Glory of the sun. Glory of the moon. Glory of the stars. In other words, these are all different.

[19:35] And I want you to note the word that he keeps using over and over again is glory. Glory. Glory. That has to do with effulgence, with brightness, with splendor, with an absolutely incredible kind of being and appearance.

[19:55] That's glory. And we don't really know much about this thing, glory, because none of us is glorified. We're all a work in progress, but the time is coming when that's going to change.

[20:10] So also, verse 42, is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, that is, subject to decay. It is raised an opposite kind of body, not subject to decay.

[20:27] What kind of a body will that be that will be a physical body, but not subject to decay? It will be a glorified body. That's the whole meaning of glorified.

[20:38] It is sown in dishonor, or weakness, some say character, and that has to do with when we are planted, when we are buried and planted, we are planted as imperfect human beings.

[20:56] We live a life that was flawed all of our life, and our body partakes of that flaw, and our body is a flawed body that is planted in the ground.

[21:10] But it's not going to be that when it comes forth. It is going to be raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, raised in power.

[21:21] You know, the older we get, the more feeble we become. time. Finally, we can even get to the place where we can't stand on our own two feet.

[21:34] We have to have a wheelchair. We have to know, if you're going to go to the mall, you have to know where the benches are, because you're going to make it from one bench to the next, maybe with a walk or something.

[21:45] That's the typical debilitation of the physical body. That's the way it just breaks down. It ages, and it wears out. Someone said, what doesn't hurt, doesn't work.

[21:59] It is sown in weakness. You know, right before you die, you're probably weaker than you've ever been at any time in your life.

[22:13] You're just ready to check out. You can't even lift a little finger. Matter of fact, the time will come when you won't even have the energy to go.

[22:27] Take a breath. Now, that's weakness. That's weakness. It isn't going to be like that when it's glorified. It's sown, buried in weakness, but it's going to be raised in incredible power.

[22:46] It's going to be a burst of energy, the likes of which you have never experienced experienced in your life. Wow. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

[23:00] It is sown a perishable body, raised in imperishable, sown in dishonor, sown in weakness, raised in power, sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

[23:13] body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul.

[23:26] The last man, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. What will a spiritual body be like? It will be just like the body that Jesus Christ had when he came out of that tomb.

[23:38] It was the same body that went in the tomb, but it wasn't the same body. It was a body that underwent a process so that he was the same person, but with a glorified body.

[23:52] Continuing on here, we're in 1 Corinthians 15. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural. Then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthly.

[24:03] The second man is from heaven. As is the earthly, so also are those who are earthly. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, which is what we have right now, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

[24:20] That's just another way of saying we're going to have the image of the risen Christ, a body like his. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood, which is what we've got right now, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable, inherit the imperishable.

[24:43] Behold, now here comes Paul's mystery again. I tell you a mystery. What that means is, folks, I'm going to let you in on something that nobody has ever even dreamed about before.

[24:58] Because it has never been revealed before. This is the first time that God has ever made this known. He has had it tucked away in his divine heart and memory from eternity past, but he never let anybody in on it until he revealed it to Paul.

[25:22] And Paul is giving it to the Corinthians, to the Thessalonians, and he's giving it to us. And you know, from eternity past, something else God had tucked away in his own mind and heart that he had never revealed to anybody, not to angels, not to humans, not to anyone, until one day he revealed it to a man named Moses.

[25:54] And he communicated to Moses what is called the law of Moses, the Torah. Moses didn't originate it, but Moses was the funnel through which God poured it to the nation of Israel.

[26:09] The Apostle Paul did not originate the rapture or any of these mysteries. He was as completely in the dark regarding all of them as was anybody else.

[26:22] And God chose him to reveal this mystery to believers in the same way that he chose Moses to reveal the law to Israel. So keep in mind the concept, if you will, because it is as solid as it can be.

[26:38] What Moses was to Israel, Paul the Apostle is to the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is Jew and Gentile melded together to make one new man.

[26:51] Whole new concept never before even imagined by anyone. So, he goes on to say, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, the mystery, verse 51, I'm sorry, I tell you a mystery, a mystery means that which was not previously disclosed but is now made known.

[27:13] We shall not all sleep, that is, we shall not all die. Well, if we're not all going to die, then that means some of us are going to be alive. but that may not apply to this generation because everyone here in this generation may die.

[27:31] Good possibility that we'll all die physically. There is also possibility that we won't. So, we may not all sleep but we shall all be changed.

[27:47] Whether you die or whether you're living when it happens, the change is going to be instantaneous for all. And those who are buried are going to rise first.

[28:02] You see, we're all going together. We're all going together. We're all going to be on the same level. But the reason, of course, those who died first are going to be raised first is because if we're going together, we're going to wait for them.

[28:20] And we've got to wait for them to accomplish six feet before we all get together and all go up together. So, they get a little bit of a head start because they've got further to go.

[28:32] Do the math. Okay? The dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.

[28:45] And that change will consist of the perishable putting on imperishable, the mortal that is capable of dying putting on an incapability of dying.

[28:59] And then when that happens, death is swallowed up in victory. While we're in the Corinthian neighborhood, come over a couple of pages to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This glory thing is mentioned all throughout scripture, but it really takes on new meaning when it comes to be applying it to Christ and to us.

[29:18] 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 8. We are afflicted in every way. And Paul is writing here, he's including himself in this afflicted because this is a personal pronoun.

[29:33] It's a plural personal pronoun and he's talking about himself and his co-workers and maybe he's even including the Corinthians as well. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, stuck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

[30:00] For we who live, we who are presently alive, are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake. Paul was living in the midst of an age of persecution and believers were dying right and left just because they were believers and this is under the persecution that was exacted upon them by Rome and at times it was more intense than others and sometimes it would ease off a little and then a new emperor would come and he would crack the whip and the persecution would start all over again and it went on like this for decades and Paul says, death works in us, but life in you, but having the same spirit of faith according to what I have written, I believe therefore I spoke and we also believe, therefore also we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.

[30:59] For all things are for your sakes that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, in other words, this is why we do not lose heart.

[31:14] This is why we don't quit. This is why we don't throw in the towel. Because even though our outer man, that's this flesh and blood, our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man, that's the human spirit, that's the real you that's on the inside that is not subject to decay like the fleshly body is, it is being renewed day by day for momentary light affliction.

[31:43] Get that. Whatever your pain, whatever your heartache, whatever your issue, whatever your negative, whatever your adversity, Paul says it is momentary.

[32:00] Now, I know it probably feels like it's lasting forever and will never go away, but comparatively speaking, it's momentary.

[32:11] It's but a moment. And it is a light affliction. Not a heavy affliction, but a light affliction.

[32:23] Now, I know some people are going to say, Amar, you don't know what my affliction is. There's nothing light about it. This is heavy. Well, again, comparatively speaking, it's a light affliction, but it is producing for us an eternal, and that is contrasted with momentary.

[32:43] Can't get much more contrasting than that between momentary and eternal. It is a weight of glory, and that is contrasted with the light affliction.

[32:55] It is a weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

[33:06] Well, how can you look at things that are not seen? If they're not seen, how can you look at them? You look at them with your mind, with your spirit. These are not objects like this that you look at.

[33:20] These are perspectives. These are thoughts. These are understandings. that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, that's all physical stuff, but the things which are not seen are eternal, and that has to do with our spiritual being.

[33:39] While we're in the ballpark, let's go to Philippians chapter 3. Quickly, please. Philippians chapter 3. I do hope you have a Bible, and if you don't, your neighbor will share theirs with you.

[33:53] when you come here and you don't bring a Bible with you, you would be better off to forget your shoes than you would to forget your Bible, because that's what we're supposed to be about.

[34:07] Verse 20, Philippians chapter 3. All of these things are talking about this same rapture idea, this catching away. Verse 20 says, for our citizenship is in heaven.

[34:20] I think that King James translates that, our conversation, which is not a good translation. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where you are a permanent resident. Here, we're just temporary.

[34:33] From which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Eagerly.

[34:44] That means like this. We put our hand over our brow so as to shade the light from our vision and we're looking for a clearer vision to be able to see afar off.

[35:01] That's the idea, the meaning of eagerly waiting the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice what he's going to do when he comes. Who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory?

[35:26] There's that word again. By the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

[35:39] How is he going to do that? Do you honestly think that will be some kind of a challenging problem for him? This one who could say, let there be light and there was light, who brought forth all the living things, do you think that this is any kind of a challenge for him?

[36:00] Of course not. It'll be as easy for him to do that as anything else that he does. he will conform this body to a body of his glory.

[36:17] I want you to see how prevalent this is because it's easy to just read over a lot of these verses and not pay that much attention to them. Colossians 127, over, I'm just turning one page.

[36:31] Verse 20, well, let's start with verse 24. Paul said, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

[36:52] In other words, when Christ suffered here on this earth, and then he left with a glorified body, he left behind more orders for more suffering, so that he continues to suffer.

[37:07] He paid the price of redemption in full, and his suffering on that cross is over with, but he left a suffering agenda behind, and you and I are to fulfill that.

[37:18] Because as members of the body of Christ, Christ continues to suffer through us. As his people suffer, he suffers. And this is what he's talking about here. I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

[37:35] Of this church, I was made a minister, according to the stewardship from God, bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.

[37:49] That is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.

[38:13] And what is it? Christ in you, the hope of glory. You ought to read this, Christ in you, the absolute guarantee of future glory. That's the resurrection body he's talking about here.

[38:26] This glory thing is all about being rid of these bodies and adorning ourselves with that resurrection glorified body.

[38:37] And it is going to be something. And while we're still close by, Colossians 3 and verse 3, For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

[38:51] This is, we've died to the flesh, this is the Romans 6 thing. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, when will that be? The rapture.

[39:02] When he is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. And the passage from 1 Thessalonians 4, we've looked at before, but I do want you to look at 2 Timothy.

[39:19] Just keep going. And by the way, it should not surprise you, this is all Pauline stuff. Why is this limited to Paul? Because Paul was the only one to whom God revealed it.

[39:33] You will not find this truth in the Old Testament at all. It isn't supposed to be there. It's supposed to be revealed at this time and place where Paul is revealing it.

[39:44] 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 Paul is talking on the one hand not so much about Christ coming to him, but about him going to Christ.

[40:21] I fought a good fight. I'm ready to be delivered. My time has come. But he's also talking about those left behind for whom the coming of Christ is imminent and we love his appearing.

[40:36] Don't you just love the appearing of Christ? I can't imagine any Christian dreading it. Now I know there are some youngsters who make foolish statements like this.

[40:53] I don't want the Lord to come until I get married and have kids. You never know what you might be saved from. But seriously, we all have this kind of wish list.

[41:05] We don't want the Lord to come until we can do this. I'd like to have a couple of years of nice retirement and travel a little bit before the Lord comes. We've all got that kind of inclination.

[41:16] It's just part of our humanness. But I'll tell you, if you can just say this and just deal with this. I want the Lord to come when he deems it is the absolute perfect time to come.

[41:33] Trust me, that's the time that would be best for everybody. Just like it was with the first coming. Galatians tells us that it was in the fullness of time that God sent forth his son, made of a virgin, made under the law to redeem them.

[41:47] That was the first coming of Jesus. And when that fullness of time came, Christ came. And when the fullness of time comes, he's returning for the translation.

[41:58] We don't know when that's going to be. Now, quickly, we've got to tie this together because we've got to get those graves emptied without them being disturbed. So, in Matthew chapter 28, here we find the beginning of some clues.

[42:14] Matthew 28 and verse 1. Now, after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn, this is after the resurrection, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

[42:30] And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

[42:41] Now, I want to inject something here that is really very, very important. When the angel came down there and rolled away that stone, Jesus was already gone.

[43:01] He was already gone. the angel did not roll away the stone so Jesus could get out. He rolled away the stone so the women and the disciples could get in.

[43:14] The tomb was already empty. He's gone. How did he get out? Well, he's so strong that he rolled away the stone.

[43:25] No, he didn't roll away the stone. He didn't need to roll away the stone. The stone was very much intact. In fact, when they go inside and they examine the place where the Lord lay, do you know what's laying there?

[43:39] Grave clothes. The shroud left behind and the linen napkin that was around his head was folded and laid aside.

[43:50] the burial garments are still there. They're just emptied. And we don't know to this day whether the shroud of Turin that the Roman Catholic Church has jurisdiction of, whether it's the real thing or not.

[44:08] It just cannot be positively verified, but it could be. I'm not prepared to say that it wasn't. It could be. It was something like that.

[44:20] So the grave clothes were left and the linen napkin, the napkin was tied around underneath the chin up to the top of the head and tied in the knot at the top. And it did that to hold the mouth closed.

[44:34] Because when people die, the jaw sags and the mouth drops down, the jaw drops down usually. And that's just what happens to the physical body usually.

[44:46] So they take a napkin and they tie it around, just like a bandana tied around the chin knot at the top, and it holds the mouth closed. And that was lying there too. How did he get out of those things?

[45:04] That's what a glorified body is capable of doing. A glorified body is not impeded by physical objects that would stand in its way.

[45:15] body. That's just one of several things that distinguish these bodies that we have from a glorified body. This is a body that will not have limitations that this body has.

[45:31] Well, Mark, over to the next gospel, Mark chapter 16. These are all accounts that follow the resurrection. Mark chapter 16 and verse 1.

[45:47] They came to anoint Jesus. You recall the reason for them coming to anoint Jesus was because his body was not fully prepared for burial.

[45:58] Remember? And the reason it wasn't was because they didn't have time to do it. If you're going to prepare a corpse for burial, especially in the Jewish method, it takes time to do that.

[46:09] You have to wash the body completely, and then you put all of these myrrh and aloes and spices on it for preserving effects, and you cover the whole body with these things.

[46:21] And it was a very expensive proposition. And they didn't have time to do that. So they just gave him a hurried-up temporary burial with the shroud, laid out there on the stone, and then because the Sabbath was rapidly coming on, they had to be finished.

[46:40] They couldn't do anything with the body after the sunset, because that's work. You can't work on the Sabbath, not even on the body. So they had to just temporarily put the body there, and then they vamoosed out of there with the idea of coming back after the Sabbath and finish the job of preparing the body.

[46:58] So they were coming back that they might anoint him, and very early on the first day of the week, that is the Sabbath is over, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen, and they were saying, here are these women, they're walking along and making small talk, and they're excited, and they're talking about the death, and the resurrection is the furthest thing from their mind, tomb, and one says to another, oh, by the way, when we get there, there's this big massive stone there, who's going to roll away the stone?

[47:31] We can't do that, this thing weighs several hundred pounds, they couldn't roll away the stone, and looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large, and entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe, and they were amazed, and he said, don't be amazed, you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified, he has risen, he's not here, it's another way of saying he's already gone, how did he get out?

[48:08] That was the resurrection body, and in Luke, all of them contributed to this, so there really ought not to be any doubt for us, in Luke's gospel, chapter 24, first day of the week came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus already gone, and interestingly, enough, they were excited, understandable, and they went and told these to everyone, and verse 10 says, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, other women were telling these things to the apostles, these are his most loyal, committed followers, telling the apostles, apostles, and their words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

[49:12] Can you believe that? The apostles would not believe them? I think it is so neat, to me, this is one of the outstanding evidences for the resurrection and its validity, I think it is so neat that the first people to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead are believers.

[49:35] believers, first ones to deny it, were those who would have most wanted it to be true, but they just couldn't believe it.

[49:46] Why couldn't they believe it? Because dead people just don't come back to life like that, and the words seem to them as idle tales, and they dismissed it. These women, you know, they get so emotional, and so distraught, and so upset, and they think they just wanted Jesus to be alive so badly, that they thought he was.

[50:07] Oh, they'll be all right tomorrow, after they calm down. Fellas, if your wife has something serious to confide to you, don't dismiss it.

[50:20] Don't dismiss it as idle tales. You better give it a heads up. She may very well just know what she's talking about, like these. And then, the last one I want you to consider is in John chapter 20, in verse 1, and while we're turning to it, let me just begin quoting it, if I may.

[50:41] The Jews, the apostles, were in this upper room. They were all kind of antsy and scared because they had good reason to believe that those who arrested and arranged for the crucifixion of Jesus could very well be coming for them as well.

[51:02] and in verse 19 of chapter 20, when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were.

[51:14] Why were the doors shut? For fear of the Jews. This is the religious establishment of the day which the high priest and Caiaphas and all the rest were apart.

[51:25] They were afraid that now that they have crucified Jesus, what they're going to do is round up his followers and take care of them also.

[51:38] And they were terrified. They were all holed up together behind this door. The door doesn't say that it was locked, but it does say that it was closed. And Jesus came and stood in their midst.

[51:54] What does that mean? It means just what it says. It doesn't say Jesus knocked on the door and they went to the door and answered it.

[52:06] It just says he stood in their midst. How did he get there? This is that glorified body. It can walk through solid objects.

[52:18] How can that be? I have no idea. I've never been a glorified body. But this is what we're going to do. I'm sure that even these glorified bodies are going to have some kind of limitations on them.

[52:33] But I don't know what they will be. I know they will have this kind of capabilities. And other times it talks about Jesus just appearing to them. And it doesn't mean that he appeared to them because they saw him coming.

[52:48] It just means that where he wasn't, all of a sudden, he was. just like that. And you know something?

[53:00] Stop and think about it. This is the same way that angels operate. Angels never appeared to people because they looked up and saw them coming.

[53:11] If you look at Luke's Gospel chapter 1, when Zacharias is in the temple and he is performing the priestly service, he is in a small enclosed area.

[53:24] He is there all by himself and his sole responsibility, which would be his only responsibility as a priest for his entire lifetime, was to light the incense there.

[53:37] And we are told that an angel, it was the angel Gabriel, appeared to him, just like that, just out of nowhere. Where there was nobody, all of a sudden, there's somebody. And it's that angel.

[53:49] And Zacharias says, whoa, he's scared witless. He has reason to be scared witless. And you know what the angel said? Same thing angels always say.

[54:01] Fear not. Don't be afraid. It's okay. It's okay. Don't be scared. It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you, that kind of thing. This is the same angel that appeared to Mary and announced that she would be the mother of the Messiah.

[54:17] Same angel that appeared to Joseph, her husband, in a dream. And when the angel appeared to Mary, guess what? She was terrified. Scared to death.

[54:30] It isn't as though, because angels kind of take on what looks like a human appearance. And most people think that they are humans. And they've even been called men. But they're not men. They're angels.

[54:40] angels. And these angels just show up and appear where there is no basis for them to be there at all. They're just boom.

[54:51] They're there. You don't see them coming. You don't see them leaving. They just appear and they disappear like that. I don't know what an angel body is going to be like, to what degree it's going to differ from a glorified body that humans will have, but there is some connection there.

[55:11] Some kind of similarity. Maybe in some ways completely different, but in some ways. You see, my suspicion is this. I can't prove this, but it's just a Wiseman suspicion.

[55:23] My suspicion is we, we are the ones who are in a sphere of abnormality.

[55:38] we are not the norm. We are abnormal. And what makes us abnormal is our fallenness.

[55:51] What we have fallen from in Adam and Eve was what was supposed to be the norm. I guess in a manner of speaking you could say that we are the new norm, but it is woefully deficient of what the real norm is.

[56:14] And when these bodies are glorified, we will return to the real norm. These bodies are irregular, abnormal, flawed, corruptible, everything else that's wrong with them.

[56:33] And it's all going to be fixed. It's all going to be changed. Question is, is that your portion?

[56:44] Do you have this hope? If you are in Christ, it is just as if it's already completed. That's how certain it is.

[56:55] If you are not in Christ, then this does not include you. You will remain. You will be here. left behind.

[57:14] I don't understand at all how that's going to work or how people who are left behind are going to be impacted. You know, there was a tremendously popular series of novels that were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Johnson on the series on the left behind.

[57:33] And I'm sure that they are right on track on a lot of things. And they probably missed it on some things, too, because we just don't have all the answers to this subject. But it is absolutely fascinating.

[57:45] And to close with this thought, when the rapture occurs, those graves are going to be completely undisturbed, in the same way that the stone was still over the mouth of the tomb when Christ came through it.

[58:05] and they rolled away the stone, the angels did so that the women could get in, and that John and Peter could get in, not so that Jesus could get out.

[58:16] These bodies, these glorified bodies, are going to constitute the original norm, perhaps. I don't know if it's going to be exactly like Adam and Eve, or how that's going to be different, because, you know, their bodies, their bodies were not what you would call perfect.

[58:33] They were innocent, but they were capable. They were capable of corruption, and being corrupted, and they did, but ours will not be, and it's going to be entirely different.

[58:46] We've got a little bit of time to spend yet, wrapping up some loose ends with the rapture thing, and if you have questions, feel free to submit them in writing, and I'll do my best to treat them. And then we are going to launch a series that will prove to be the very linchpin, the very heart and soul of biblical prophecy, and that has to do with the 70th week of Daniel.

[59:07] It is very involved, very intricate, very powerful, very revealing, and I'm looking forward to getting into that. Would you pray with me, please? Father, we are pleased with the subject matter simply because it's an item of scripture, and simply because you have emphasized the truth and the reality of it, circumstances surrounding it, as much as you have, through the heart and mind of the apostle Paul.

[59:37] And we recognize him as being the apostle to the Gentiles, in the same way that Moses was a kind of an apostle to the nation of Israel. And what Paul has revealed constitutes a radical update, a radical new revelation compared to what had been known to that time.

[59:59] And we want to be as up-to-date as you want us to be, and as up-to-date as you've provided for us. So enable us, we pray, as we consider these subjects, to understand them in the light that you have provided, and to be a people who are appreciative and committed to ordering our lives aright in light of the soon return, the possibility, the imminence of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[60:26] Should there be any here, did not have that comfort, does not have the assurance, does not have the joy of the anticipated return of Christ and being gathered unto him.

[60:39] We pray that they will know no peace, no liberty, no joy, no satisfaction, until they find it all in and through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

[60:57]  To this end we pray in his name. Amen.