Limapela Education Project
Faith in Action
This project aims to provide quality education to children in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
A great deal of confusion surrounds popular beliefs about life after death. In this ninth sermon in his series on biblical prophecy, preached at Greyfriars' Classical Service on 21 June 2009, Rob Yule shows that Paul's teaching about Jesus' return arose from a pastoral situation, and addresses the practical meaning of Jesus' return for us today. Where popular beliefs about life after death are often vaguely spiritual in nature, Rob shows that Christian belief in Jesus' return is very 'down to earth' - involving the resurrection of our bodies, the reunion of believers, and the renewal of our earth.
Sometimes prophecy arises out of a pastoral situation.
This was the case with Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, written in AD 50, is the earliest writing in the New Testament. With 2 Thessalonians, written a few months later, it is the most prophetic of Paul's letters. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 Paul writes about the return of Jesus - a passage which deals with pastoral concerns that have arisen in the early Christian community of Thessalonica.
Some of the Thessalonian Christians were concerned about the situation of fellow believers who had died. What would happen to them when Jesus' returns? Will believers who have died miss out on Jesus' coming? Would the Thessalonian Christians - and we, for that matter - ever see their fellow believers again? Paul addresses both these concerns in turn.
To the first question, would believers who have died miss out on Jesus' coming, he answers: when Jesus returns the Christian dead will return with him.
'Bothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.' (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).
Paul assures the Thessalonian Christians that because Jesus rose again after his death, we too we will rise again after our death. This won't be immediately after our death - except for the very last generation of believers - but will happen when Jesus returns, at the time of his second coming. 'According to the Lord's own word,' writes Paul, 'we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven…, and the dead in Christ will rise first.' (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16).
So the resurrection of believers will take place when Jesus returns. In fact, the resurrection of our bodies will be one of the major consequences of Jesus' coming again.
God's dominion will break into our world in spectacular fashion. The rot will be routed. Cemeteries will no longer be the dead centre of our communities, but the most happening place in town. The godless will get one heaven of a fright, if you'll excuse the expression, as their complacency is disturbed, their atheism disproved, and their conviction that death is the end exposed as a false hope.
Paul then turns to the second question: will believers see their loved ones again?
The great theologian Karl Barth was once asked this question at a women's gathering. 'Will we see our loved ones on the other side?' 'Yes,' he replied, 'but others too!'
Paul says that when Jesus returns Christian believers will be reunited with one another. 'For the Lord himself will come down from heaven…. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.' (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
After the general resurrection will be the great reunion. The world record for the largest human gathering in history was when John Paul II celebrated mass shortly after his accession as Pope in 1978, when 3.5 million gathered in Czestochowa, in his native Poland (Paul Johnson, A History of the Modern World, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983, p. 700). The gathering of believers when Jesus returns will leave that crowd for dead. It will be the largest and most emotional get-together of all time.
Paul uses three significant words to describe the return of Jesus:
The first word, 'parousia' (1 Thessalonians 4:15) means 'coming' or 'arrival.' In the ancient world the word this word had become a technical term, 'the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, especially of kings and emperors visiting a province' to a public welcome by the local populace (W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1957, p.635).
The term was also used in a hostile sense, as when a foreign king 'arrived' with his army on the border of a land he intended to invade. Its Christian usage of the return of Jesus to reign at the end of the age is therefore very appropriate. As David Pawson says, 'Unbelievers will see him as an alien invader; believers will welcome and honour him as their sovereign.' (When Jesus Returns, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1995, p. 16).
The coming of Christ will also be an 'apokalypsis' (2 Thessalonians 1:7) - an 'unveiling', 'revelation' or 'disclosure' to the world of the glory and power that Jesus now has as exalted Lord. The second coming will demonstrate publicly the reality of Jesus' reign which was concealed in his first coming and is still at present hidden from the world.
David Pawson (When Jesus Returns, p. 17) compares this to the children's story in which an emperor, disguised as a beggar, mingles with his subjects the day before an intended visit, to see how they would treat him. The next day is his apocalypse, when he returns with full regalia and retinue, causing embarrassment and shame as the beggar is revealed as supreme ruler.
The third term, 'epiphaneia', means 'appearing' or 'manifestation'. It was a religious term in the ancient world, meaning 'a visible manifestation of a hidden divinity, either in the form of a personal appearance, or by some deed of power by which its presence is made known.' (Arndt-Gingrich, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 304). In the Greek Old Testament it is used to describe the visible appearances of God, when the glory of God came down and filled the Tabernacle or the Temple.
Applied to the second coming (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 2:8) the term 'epiphany' particularly emphasises the visibility of Jesus' return. Paul makes clear that the return of the Lord will not be something secret or hidden - as those who teach a 'secret rapture' claim. It will be an awesome public event, a visible manifestation in history of the glory and reality of God. Paul is echoing what Jesus himself had earlier stressed. His coming again will be public: it will be like lightning flashing across the entire sky for all to see (Matthew 24:27).
The imagery that Paul uses to describe Christ's return is drawn from two sources:
The Biblical background to Paul's description of Jesus' return is the Old Testament language of theophany, describing God's 'coming' or 'coming down' to earth - particularly the awesome theophany on Mount Sinai, when God's presence caused the mountain to shake and smoke and the people to fear for their lives (Exodus 19:20, 34:5, Numbers 11:25).
All the incidental details of Jesus' coming described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 - the loud voice, the trumpet blast, the clouds - accompanied the great theophany on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:9, 16, 19, 20:18, 24:15). The majestic descent of God on Sinai at the beginning of Israel's history will be re-enacted in the glorious coming of Jesus at the end-time. It will be the greatest sound and light show in history.
The contemporary secular background to Paul's imagery was the civic custom in the Greco-Roman world where a public welcome was given by a city to important visitors. At the coming (parousia) of a sovereign, important dignitary, or military leader, or at the accession of a new ruler, the whole population would go out to a public welcome (apantesis, 'meeting', 1 Thessalonians 4:17) and form a triumphal procession to escort him through the gates back into the town (G. Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. I, pp. 325, 380).
Properly understood, this imagery indicates that at the second coming believers are caught up into the air, not to go with Christ to heaven, but to return with him in triumphal procession to earth to share his earthly reign. The meaning is the exact opposite of the popular Rapture teaching that we will be airlifted out to leave this old world behind.
Ben Witherington says, 'The language about the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 does indeed speak of a meeting of Christ in the air, but the parousia imagery in the context strongly suggests that thereafter both Christ and believers return to earth.' (Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World, Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press, 1992, p. 230).
The Christian hope is therefore very 'down to earth.' Our beliefs about the future are often unbiblical, owing more to Greek philosophy or popular sentimentality than to the actual teaching of the Bible.
The New Testament says little about our existence immediately after death. What it does say indicates that while heaven is our immediate destination, it is not our ultimate destination. Heaven is like a waiting room, where the disembodied souls of believers are 'with Jesus' until he returns to earth and they are reunited with their bodies at the resurrection. Paul here in 1 Thessalonians indicates that believers who have died will accompany Jesus from heaven to earth at his return - and it is here on earth, not in heaven, that we will 'be with the Lord for ever' (4:17).
This is consistent with the teaching of other passages in the Bible:
Paul tells us that believers will rule on earth: 'Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?'(1 Corinthians 6:2).
The Old Testament prophets looked forward to a coming earthly reign of the Messiah and glorious renewal of this earth that would accompany it (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:1-9, 65:17-25, Micah 4:1-3).
The book of Revelation indicates that our ultimate destiny will be to live in a 'new heaven and a new earth' where God himself will dwell among human beings (Revelation 21:1-4).
David Pawson sums up the Bible's teaching of our earthly destiny when Jesus returns: 'The Bible clearly depicts "earth" as the ultimate destiny of all who have been saved. But not this old earth, a new earth.' (When Jesus Returns, p. 39).
This is the focus of Christian hope. It is realistic, comforting, and wonderfully fulfilling of the physical existence which God has given us.
Rob Yule, 21 June 2009
© 2009, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church
