Text 1Thess.4:13-17 Memory Verse Luke 17:29
INTRODUCTION
- – What Is The Word Usually Confused For “Rapture” In The Christendom?
- – What Is The Relationship Between The Lifting Of Noah’s Ark By Water And The Lifting Of Believers In Christ To Meet Christ In The Air?
- – Why Is It Preferable For “A Thousand Years” In Scripture Not To Be Viewed As A Number But As An Idea?
- – After God created the earth, when did He say He will evacuate everybody, destroy it and abandon it desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah?
Objective
At the end of the lesson, the audience should be able to see our lifting up (ascent) to be with Christ as the separation Jesus predicted; see the duration of our stay with Him as a perfect time set aside by the Father for a perfect separation from evil (a thousand years) and as a final commissioning of housing units prepared for us, the believers in Christ, as announced by Christ Himself before now.
Presentation
Step 1
OUR BEING LIFTED UP, THE SEPARATION JESUS PREDICTED (cf. Matt. 25:31-46)
a) This separation ór lifting up to meet Jesus in the air will enable Jesus to destroy everything that causes stumbling beneath – cf. Matt. 13:24-30,36-43.
b) This separation (lifting) will be similar to how water lifted Noah, the righteous and his household and, thereafter, destroyed the wicked beneath and then the water dried up for a new earth to begin. (cf. Luke 17:26)
c) We, too, are waiting for God’s promise – the new earth and new heaven – after Jesus has destroyed all agents of wickedness, but this time, by fire. (See 2Pet.3:13; Rev. 21:1-4)
Step 11:
WE WILL BE WITH CHRIST IN (AN INNUMERABLE) A THOUSAND YEARS IN THE AIR (Our lead text)
a) A thousand years here refers to complete a time needed for perfecting God’s restoration and not any literal number. (cf. Rev. 20:1-6; Ps. 50:9,10; 1Sam.18:7)
i. One day can be taken as ‘a thousand years’ in so far as it is enough for completing God’s assignment. (cf. 2Pet.3:8)
b) God’s fullness of time today (see Gal. 4:4,5) is equated with ‘a thousand years’.
c) If even it will take a twinkle of an eye (cf. 1Cor.15:51,52) for the devil and all his seraphs to be separated finally from man’s affairs, it is ‘a thousand years’.
Step 111:
OUR ASCENSION, A PATHWAY FOR GOD TO COMMISSION OUR HOUSING UNITS
a) The destruction of the world system (the corrupt works of men) will be followed by the descending of our mansions prepared for us by Christ. (cf. John 14:1-3; 2Pet.3:10-13)
b) It will be so because heaven is never known to those who are spirit-inclined in its distance but in its pleasance. (cf. 2Pet.3:13)
i. it is described as ‘home of righteousness’ (ibid)
c) Then and forthwith, that one hope and faith will become real when we reoccupy our recovered territory, ‘The Garden of Eden’ or ‘The Paradise of our God’.