Keep an Eye on the Sky

We should all be ready to meet Jesus, that is, all true believers. We should walk in the power of the Spirit, always keeping an eye on the sky, watching for Jesus to return and catch us up into the air to be with Him forever. That is how most true believers lived in the early New Testament church.

The believers in Thessalonica were becoming concerned. It had now been some time since Jesus rose from the grave and ascended into heaven. They were faithfully keeping an eye looking toward heaven expecting Jesus to return, while faithfully walking with Him. Like us, they fully expected Jesus to come at any moment and call them home to spend eternity with Him. But where was He?  Loved ones began to die. What would become of them?

Paul wrote the believers in Thessalonica to comfort those among them who mourned departed loved ones. Paul told them not to be concerned about their fellow believers who had died and were buried. He didn't want them to be sorrowful and mourn "as others who have no hope" (1 Thess. 4:13b). Then he made a remarkable statement of truth that must have sent shivers up their spine. "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus" (v. 14). That's right! We will not leave them behind, but rather, when Jesus comes back to gather us unto Himself, "the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (vv. 16-17). From that moment forward "we shall always be with the Lord" (v. 17b).

Peter spoke to this same issue when writing the believers who were scattered throughout Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). He told them to remember this truth: "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). He told them that God wasn't procrastinating or reneging on His promise, but was being "longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (v. 9).

Peter was telling them not to worry. The Lord's delay is to allow more time for people to be saved. In other words, He is not being slow or lazy; He is being longsuffering. He is making time to allow His kingdom to grow. He would prefer that none "should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Returning to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul was saying not to worry about your loved ones who have gone on before you. They will not miss out on anything. In fact, they will meet Jesus in the air before we do. When God calls us home, or when God summons us to heaven at His return, "the dead in Christ will rise first" (v. 16b) and the rest of us who are still alive "shall be caught up together with them in the clouds" (v. 17) to be with Jesus. We will spend all eternity with the Lord. These are to be words of comfort.

What Paul describes in these verses is often referred to as the "Rapture." The word rapture does not occur anywhere in Scripture. The Greek word used here is harpazo. It is translated as "caught up" in our English translations. Latin translates this word as rapturo, which is where we get our English word rapture.

The rapture of the church means that we will all be transformed; our bodies changed in an instant. "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51-52). What better description can there be of the Rapture?

The Rapture will come as a surprise, perhaps when we least expect it. No one can know the day or the hour. It "comes as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:2b). "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober" (vv. 4-6). So we are to keep an eye on the sky while walking in the Spirit, watching for Jesus to come and snatch us away. Amen.