FORERUNNER SCHOOL OF MINISTRY DAVID SLIKER Session Twelve: Paul and the Nature of the Day of the Lord Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the New King James Version. I. THE COMFORT OF THE SECOND COMING 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18 A. The certainty of the Second Coming will be a huge comfort to believers in the days ahead, as persecution and martyrdom increase. Our hope rests in this unshakable truth: those who sleep in Jesus (have union with Him after death) will rise again at His coming. B. This passage in Thessalonians was meant to comfort future believers who expected the return of Jesus in their lifetimes, but who saw their loved ones die before Jesus returned. C. This is the essence of the Book of Hebrews, written by Paul a little while after he wrote the two letters to the Thessalonian Church: 1. That faith in the better covenant (Heb. 8:6) assures us of better promises all people have access through Christ to the full benefits of the Kingdom and union with God Himself; and we may look forward by faith to that which is unseen: a homeland, a better country (Heb. 11:13-16), the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. (Hebrews 11:13) 2. That in the coming hour, there would be many who died in faith, who would be saved by grace but not see the full consummation of the promises of God. Even upon their death, their full destiny was afar off. This is not a heavenly destiny. To sleep in Jesus is not their full destiny. Their full destiny is for their spirit to reunite with their resurrected body, for them to fully enjoy the city God has prepared for them in the age to come as they rule with Him over the nations of the earth. 3. The consummation of the promises in fullness will begin at the event that Paul describes in 1 Thess. 4:16-17 the Parousia (coming, arrival, or advent) of Jesus to the earth to establish His Kingdom. 4. Unlike those who have no hope, we will not take this passage for granted in the days ahead. The Bride of Christ will cling to its promise, knowing that the hour of Jesus return is near, as end-time events unfold and become more intense. As the spiritual climate becomes increasingly dark (1 Tim. 4 and 2 Tim. 3), our hearts will actually increase in joy and confidence because of the truth of this passage. We will truly comfort one another with these words.
Session 12 Paul and the Day of the Lord Page 2 5. Comfort does not have the meaning here that we might imagine. Comforting here is in the sense of fortifying or strengthening one another against the storm of what will come. Knowing the promise of these words, we will brace ourselves and stand firm, withstanding great pressure, because we believe in the nearness of the great reward. II. THE TIMES AND THE SEASONS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD 1 THESS. 5:1-11 A. Paul continued by urging the people to continue pressing on faithfully into the heart of Christ, that they would be set apart distinctly from those with darkened minds, whose comprehension was veiled because of their condition. The distinction is that because of their/our appointed position of salvation through Jesus, they had/we have the ability to understand the times and the seasons. B. Paul called them sons of light and sons of the day. As those who were of the day (filled with the light of truth), they were called to be sober, to put on the breastplate of faith and love (thus guarding their hearts by pursuing confidence and tenderness) and to put on the helmet of the hope of salvation (thus setting their thoughts on the hope of His promise that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. ) C. To be sober is the second thing Paul commands us to do. The first thing he tells us to do is watch. We are to watch, to understand the times and seasons of the Lord. As a result, though the rest of the world will be caught off guard by the sudden, traumatic events surrounding the Day of the Lord, that Day will not overtake us in the same manner. 1. Watching does not imply evaluating world events to obtain information; watching is intricately linked to a spirit of prayer. It is inseparably tied to interacting with the Holy Spirit through Scripture meditation and study, prophetic revelation and understanding, and active fasting and intercession, which enable us to be intimately connected to the heart of the Lord and alive with understanding about the times and the seasons in which we find ourselves. D. The point of the passage is that most people will not have this dynamic understanding, but will instead be disconnected from the reality of the times, as in the days of Noah or Jeremiah. Many over the coming years will either prophesy (from within the Church) or proclaim (from among the nations) Peace and safety! being unaware of the coming storm that will soon trouble the whole earth. E. This dichotomy of those who are disconnected from God proclaiming one thing, while God is busy preparing those who are connected to Him for the opposite, will reach its apex during the last seven years before Jesus returns. At the beginning of the final seven-year period it will appear to the nations that people have achieved, by their own efforts, an unprecedented time of peace and safety. 1. Nobody, except the prophetic Church, will be able to imagine that three and a half years later a storm will erupt on the planet. This storm will be of unprecedented magnitude. Jacob s Trouble will be the Great Tribulation for every single person alive on earth.
Session 12 Paul and the Day of the Lord Page 3 2. This storm will come suddenly, like labor pains come upon a pregnant woman. Paul made the terrifying statement that those people who are unprepared and disconnected will not escape the sudden destruction it will overtake them. III. RESURRECTION AT THE SECOND COMING 1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-34 A. There were some in the Church at Corinth who had taught the people there that there was no resurrection of the dead, which was a common tenet of Sadducees in that day. It may have been that some of the Sadducees disciples still clung to this mindset, even after their conversion to Christianity. 1. Paul was beside himself as he wrote about the implications of such teaching. a. If that teaching were true, then Christ Himself could not have risen from the grave, which would mean the Father had not raised Him, which in turn would imply that the Father had not appointed Jesus as the judge and king of the earth; b. If this were true, then there would be no victory over sin or death through the power of His resurrection, and we would have no hope of freedom and victory in this life or the coming age. c. And if we had no hope of freedom and victory, if we had no hope of a future destiny, then our hope in Christ was futile and pitiable. 2. In truth, our hope in Christ goes far beyond our human lifespan. Our hope in Christ is the hope of our resurrection, the hope of our eternal inheritance and reward. This hope empowers us to die daily and emboldens us to endure persecution and affliction in righteousness and with tender hearts. The more real the age to come is to us, the harder we will pursue the knowledge of Jesus unto righteousness. B. The glorious triumph of Christ is that He will ultimately destroy His enemies particularly death itself. Those who belong to Jesus at His Second Coming will be able to fully enjoy life and union with Him forever and will enter into an unprecedented level of intimacy and unity in their relationship with the Father. God the Father will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). C. The first fruit of this promise was the resurrection of Christ. Christ s resurrection is our divine proof that resurrection from the dead is a certain, indisputable fact. We are to be bolstered and strengthened in our resolve, knowing that our destiny lies in Jesus, who has paved the way for us to follow Him when He returns for us. D. Afterward those who belong to Jesus will be raised from the dead, not as disembodied spirits in heaven but as glorified saints on earth. This is the awesome promise that we look forward to with joy.
Session 12 Paul and the Day of the Lord Page 4 E. Then comes the end, when Jesus will deliver the Kingdom to God, making all things subject to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24, 28). Jesus will put an end to all rule and authority and power; put all enemies under His feet; destroy death for all time; and bring everything into subjection to Him all so that He can then give it all to His Father. F. The end will come after Jesus, with His Bride beside Him, works for a thousand years to accomplish these things. Upon the completion of His work, a true ending will come and a whole new beginning with God. We will enter eternity and a life with God that no mind can conceive or dream of. IV. TRANSFORMATION AT THE SECOND COMING 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-58 A. In this Scripture, Paul gave a few hints about the nature of our resurrection: How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? B. The magnificent truth is that Jesus wants to do more than raise us from the dead He wants to give us bodies that are glorious (radiant, shining with brightness), incorruptible (free from the effects of sin and death), and supernatural (natural bodies with supernatural capacity to enjoy God) bodies that bear the image of the heavenly Man Jesus, glorified and beautiful in every dimension. C. This unbelievable gift of resurrection from God the Father will be dynamically linked to our position and destiny in the age to come. God will give us the divine equipment and tools necessary to fulfill our calling to rule over the earth with Jesus. He does this to some extent now, in this age He gives us grace, provision and the capacity to walk out the function to which He calls us. 1. The level of ministry we will function in during the millennial reign and in eternity is far beyond what we have the capacity to accomplish with our corruptible bodies. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor can corruption inherit incorruption (1 Cor. 15:50). 2. That we don t operate now as we will when we have resurrected bodies has nothing to do with how God views us. Our non-resurrected bodies could not physically handle the fullness of God s glory and power they would be destroyed. In His sovereign mercy and kindness, God will only set us in a place of authority and proximity to Him when we have the capacity to handle the encounter without being destroyed by His glory and power. 3. We will be able to function in close proximity to Jesus and the Father in glory only when we have bodies that can handle the rigors of inheriting the Kingdom of God without tiring or growing weak, only when our bodies are operating at full strength forever.
Session 12 Paul and the Day of the Lord Page 5 D. Like the celestial and terrestrial bodies, our resurrected bodies will have varying degrees of brightness; as one star differs from another in glory (1 Cor. 15:41), so will each of us differ in the way our glorified bodies shine (Dan. 12:3; Matt. 13:43). V. JUDGMENT AND GLORY FOR THE SAINTS AND THE EARTH A. The fiery judgment of those who persecute the worthy Bride (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12) B. The resurrection and judgment of the saints (2 Corinthians 5:1-11) C. The Day when truth of our works is declared (1 Corinthians 3:5-17) D. Judging the faithfulness of the stewards of the mysteries believers who have been entrusted with Scripture (1 Corinthians 4:1-5) E. The saints prepared to judge the earth (1 Corinthians 6:1-4) F. The King will judge the earth on the appointed day (Acts 17:22-34)