Called Out - Independence Day

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God...on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:16-18)

"Hades" (hell in the KJV) is the state of people after death. It means “unseen” or “grave”. The word "church" is the Greek word “ecclesia” and means “called out ones”. Christ Jesus is the first to die and be called out of death never to die again, the “rock” or foundation stone of our faith. And he has promised to return and resurrect mankind (call people out of death).  So what the above verse says to me is that DEATH will not prevail for we will be CALLED OUT of death at the resurrection.

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also....For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout...and the dead in Christ will rise...Therefore comfort one another with these words” (John 14:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Our Independence Day!

Comfort For Troubled Hearts

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also...Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you..." (John 14:1-3, 27)

Jesus knew that after his death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven his followers would still be troubled.  So he left them, and us, with the peace that comes from the promise of his return.  His words were given to comfort them as they testified to the world of his resurrection and awaited his return.

After many years had passed and Jesus had not yet returned, some of those followers had fallen "asleep".  Jesus and Paul both referred to death as sleep.  So Paul was confronted with a question about what would happen to those who had fallen asleep when Jesus returned. His answer to them is one of the most comforting passages of Scripture in the Bible...

"...we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 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. 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words."  (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Many have died over the past 2000 years, but the promise of his return and our rising together to meet him in the air still comforts and gives us peace.

“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:35-39)

Confidence and Faith in what? The return of Jesus the Messiah of course.

What was the will of God for them? To endure in the faith of the return of Jesus to save them.

“Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven…and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Acts 1:11; Hebrews 9:28)

Some were shrinking back from believing Jesus would return and deliver them from the Roman Empire and restore the Kingdom to Israel. That displeased God because they did not believe his promise. Thay needed to keep the faith that God would….

“…send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time..” (Acts 3:20-21)

And Jesus through Paul has told all nations that Jesus will return for we Gentiles as well…

“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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14)

The older I get the more this hits home. Good thing I also trust the following to happen to me after I have “vanished away”…

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep (vanished away) so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope…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…comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)