Pray, Persevere, Give

 This is the edited text of my Sunday, September 13 message titles, Pray, Persevere, and Give. You can watch the message on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8bFNfY5FF4

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Last week we looked at the glorious scene in heaven John describes for us in chapter five where the Lamb who was slain was found worthy to open the seals which will unleash a series of judgments on earth. The chapter also describes the uncountable multitudes who cry out worthy is the lamb to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.  We turn our attention today to the last chapters of this book, and the way it describes the future home of those who have rejected God’s Messiah, and the home of those who have received God’s Messiah.

We turn to chapter 21 of the Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. . . .and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away . . . .”

Now to verse 27: “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

And the first few verses of chapter 22 “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 

I want to reiterate – no one will enter this new Jerusalem, no one will enter eternal life without first having come through the DOOR which is Jesus the Messiah. We spent time last week looking at the unchangeable reality that Jesus Christ is mankind’s only savior and hope for eternal life, so we will not rehash that message today.

 

Instead, I want to speak now specifically to the Christian: There are only one of two ways you and I will enter that city. Death is one avenue. Scripture seems clear to me that when the Christian dies, our souls go immediately to our Father in heaven.

 

As the apostle Paul tells us, Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)

 

And then again in Phil 1:23ff "But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;  yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” 

 

That is why you and I can rest in the blessed assurance that our loved ones who have died in Christ are right now in His presence, along with the great multitude we spoke of last week, all crying out “to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

 

So, that’s one way Christians will find themselves around God’s throne – through death.

 

But there is also another way – a way that bypasses death. It’s called the Rapture of the Church. I’ve talked about this before, but I revisit this topic of the rapture again – as well as some comments about the coming and nearly supreme ruler of the world known as the anti-Christ – because the Lord could call me home tomorrow – and if He should do that, I want to go to Him knowing I have shared with you the full message of God as best as I understand it.

 

Simply defined, the doctrine of the rapture states that at some time before Jesus returns to earth, He will suddenly snatch all of His followers out of this world. Many believe the purpose of His snatching us away is to shield us from the global devastation that will accompany the final seven years of this earth’s existence – and especially the last 3.5 years of that period. In fact, some of the early church fathers – such as Irenaeus and St. Cyprian in the second and third centuries who believed that was the reason for the rapture.

 

It will happen ‘Suddenly’ – as in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’ St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will 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 imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

 

The apostle talks about the ‘snatching away’ in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17):  “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, 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, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

 

It's important to note that the Greek word Paul uses here for ‘caught up’ – or snatched away in other texts – is harpazo. For example, Philip is suddenly harpazo’d from the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:39; The apostle Paul tells us he was harpazo’d to the Third Heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2; Paul also tells us the Bride of Christ will be harpazo’d from the Earth to meet Jesus in the clouds (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17); And we read in Revelation 12:5, Jesus is harpazo’d to His Throne in Heaven.

 

Some argue the word ‘rapture’ doesn’t appear in our Bibles, and they are correct. The word does not appear in our English translations. But the apostles didn’t write in English. They wrote in Greek.

 

From A.D. 405 until the year 1611, St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Greek New Testament was the official version of the Bible for much of Christendom. That changed only in the early 1600s when King James I commissioned the English translation we know as the King James Bible. When Jerome translated the Greek scriptures into Latin, and he came to a verse such as 1 Thessalonians 4:17:

 

“Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord,” Jerome translated the Greek word harpazo (har pah zo) into the Latin rapiemur (ray pee mah).

 

The verb rapiemur (ray pee mah) is from the root verb rapio (ray pee oh), from which we get the English word such as ‘rapt’ – as in someone pays rapt attention to the television program. It is also from the word rapt that we also get the word ‘rapture.’

 

So, while the word ‘rapture’ does not appear in English translations, the sudden snatching away of Christians is clearly taught in the Greek and Latin New Testaments – which of course predate the 1611 King James Bible by some 1400 years.

 

Whether true Christians will be suddenly snatched away before, during, or after the Great Tribulation might make for a fascinating discussion over coffee – But that is not the crux of my message this afternoon. What IS the crux is this: While the timing of the rapture is unknown, it WILL happen. And I for one am anticipating that trumpet sound.

 

Before I bring today’s message to a close, there is yet one more important detail that I must remind you of, and that has to do with the antichrist. The Scriptures talk of him as a powerful religious and political leader. The New Testament writers also warn of him as one who works miracles, and John warns us that he will have so much economic authority that unless a person has what will probably be a microchip under the skin of his hand or forehead, he or she will not be able to conduct any kind of business transactions – from paying rent, to buying food, to receiving medical care.

 

Revelation chapter 13, the antichrist “causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark.”

 

But now for some good news as I close. When the Lord’s disciples

asked Him in Acts 1: “Is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’  Jesus said, in essence, “Guys, it’s none of your business when the Father has appointed that time.  But what IS your business is to be My witnesses both in Johns Creek, in Georgia, in the United States, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

 

How can you and I do that?  Well, here are some keys: Pray, persevere, and give.

 

First, pray for a child-like heart, a heart that trusts our Father in heaven as we did when we were little children, trusting mom or dad – without even thinking about it – to care of us and to protect us from harm. As I prepared this part of the message, I remembered some of the lyrics from Twila Paris’ song, A Heart that Knows You:

 

“Thought I knew so much, but I've got so much to learn. Got so far to go, so much left to burn. Thought I knew you well, but I struggle in your hands. . . . . [But] a heart that knows you is a heart that can wait, [and] die to the dearest desire. And a heart that knows you is a heart that can still celebrate, following love through the fire.”

 

So, pray. And persevere. Keep doing the right things even when you don’t want to do the right things. Even when you are tired, or depressed, or lonely, or broken. You and I have choices in those circumstances to give in to our emotions, or to push through those negative emotions toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Remember what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith . . . (Then Paul tells him further down in this text): “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”

Listen, Christian – people are watching us. They are listening to us. They are observing how we handle the troubles that fall across our lives. Pay close attention to yourself and to your responses to life’s hard and easy circumstances. In Christ, with Christ, and through Christ, persevere on your journey toward the Celestial City.

Pray. Persevere. And give.

John writes in his third epistle, “Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.”

There are multiple ministries and missionaries faithfully and honorably doing God’s work and which could benefit from the monthly support of Christians such as ourselves. Even if it is to send a couple of dollars each month – we become FELLOW WORKERS with the truth.

Jesus is coming for His Bride – you and me. He is coming to bring us to our heavenly home, either through death or by way of the Rapture.

May the Holy Spirit, please prepare us for our final journey home by teaching us to pray, to persevere, and to give, so that others may hear the wondrous story of the Christ who left His home in glory for the cross of Calvary. Amen.