C Kenneth Robinson
1 Thess 4: 15-18
I would like to say a few words about the rapture. Clearly, the Lord has in mind that we move from our circumstances to His circumstances. The exercise of all ministry has had its place in the dispensation to encourage believers not to settle down in their own circumstances, be it personal, family, business, ecclesiastical, anything of that nature. The rapture is a majestic triumph to take us from our circumstances into His circumstances for ever. To me that is wonderful, and a very precious thought to consider. We may struggle, we may struggle in moral exercises, but feel we are making a little progress; but something far greater is very, very imminent. It is a majestic thing to think about it, and it is delightful to see how Paul touches on it. In actuality, it will happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. That is a marvellous matter to think about. We as believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He will come from where He is to meet us in the air to take us to that place which He has prepared. He went before, and says, “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place”, John 14: 2. Do you not wonder what it will be like? It is not a physical house: it is a spiritual house, never to be touched by sin, and never to be touched by weakness or even touched by death. Everything of nature is finished. We will have the glorious enjoyment of being in the presence of Christ forever. That is all as a result of God’s operations with every one of us to bring us to Christ, through the operations of the gospel, and His own sovereignty that caused us to respond to the presentation of Christ. We have, I trust, received Him into our hearts. There are those who have died who are the dead in Christ; they will be raised first. Their spirit may be with the Lord but in actuality the body awaits the change: “Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power”, 1 Cor 15: 42, 43. Sown in mortality and corruption; raised in immortality and in incorruption. How precious it is, therefore, to contemplate. Let us appreciate the blessing of such a glorious future. We go to where He is. Redemption has accomplished this and divine purpose has called us into it. I, for one, can only say that I long to be there, to leave circumstances of weakness and worry and concern and illness. And the Lord would touch our affections to make us realise that. He supports us by His priestly service in grace through every hour and day and night, but the rapture will take us entirely out of this need, into a realm where He is. He comes into the air: “The dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. Let this settle into our affections and particularly into our minds as well that, when we may get down or depressed, what immediately lies before us is the precious privilege that we will meet the Lord in the air, and be taken into what divine glory and divine planning has prepared for us. This earth is not our home. We go through it. This earth and all that relates to it, commercially, economically, everything of that nature is not where we ought to find our interests. The Lord would draw us and appeal to us and quicken our affections that He has another realm altogether. And He, having been rejected here and humiliated, now is the Centre and the Sun. There is another world of which Christ is the glorious Centre, and we will be there.
I trust this is for edification. Pause for a minute and look forward to consider what is immediately before us. We do not fix the time. The timetable is by divine appointment. The Father, who is in charge of all the seasons, knows when it is going to be, and He will give the word when Christ will rise from the throne, and He will come into the air, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. What a gathering that will be! How many souls there are. How much history has been involved in this scene, and “then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together … to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. There is a great comfort in that. We shall be always with the Lord. What I am, my weak conditions, are transformed into a glorified body. We shall be in a glorious condition for that realm and be sustained there to enjoy with Christ the perfection and glory of divine thoughts for us. You look around and look at your local brethren and ponder, ‘Where are we finding our life?’. Is the life and circumstances here, and every aspect of it, our life? Do we respond to a quickening touch in relation to divine things and divine Persons? Let us set ourselves for that by the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ touches our inwards and affections and draws us to His circumstances. The Song of Songs says,
“Draw me, we will run after thee”
chap 1: 4.
I suggest we need to ponder the greatness of the rapture. We could then go on and talk about the appearing, when we will come out with Christ. But that is another subject in itself: the glory of it, when He will reign and He will have the assembly alongside of Him. I wanted just to emphasise what a great truth the rapture is. But let it be more than a truth: it is going to be a reality.
May these things touch and stir and move our hearts, for His Name’s sake.
Glasgow
24th July 2012