JESUS CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN!!
"This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11, NKJV)
Devotion #11 of 15
               
THE SHOUT AND THE LAST TRUMP
     In another affirmation of the open and apparent manner of our Lord's return, Paul comforts believers. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess 4:14-18).

     The Thessalonian brethren were confused about the coming of the Lord. The Spirit-filled Apostle did not dismiss their views as though they were of no consequence. They thought those who had died were going to miss the Lord's return. Paul corrected them in a telling discourse that is in sharp conflict with much of the contemporary teaching on Christ's return.

The righteous dead will come back with Jesus
     First, God will bring those who have died in the Lord back with Christ (verse 14). Second, those who remain in the body until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have died, in being united with the Lord as complete persons, spirit, soul, and body (v 15). The glorified church will join the Lord together, in "one body." The second appearing of Christ will unite all the people of God, as He has purposed (Eph 1:9-11).

Jesus returns with a shout
     All of this will occur in an arena of earthshattering noise. The Lord Jesus Himself will descend from heaven. He will not come in the Person of the Spirit, as He did at Pentecost, but in His own Person. When He comes, He
will descend "with a shout." This is His own shout; the shout of victory and  triumph. As God went "up with a shout" of old time (Psa 47:5), so Jesus shall come down "with a shout." It will be an awakening shout that causes the earth to "cast out her dead" (Isa 26:19). Jesus foretold this very day in John 6:28-29). "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28-29).

The voice of the archangel
     Jesus will also descend with the accompanying "voice of the archangel." Michael is an archangel (Jude 9). Perhaps he is the one who will give the shout of reaping, for the angels are the reapers, sent to "gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity" (Mat 13:41). They will also "gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," with the "sound of a great trumpet" (Matt 24:31).

The trump of God
     But that is not all! There will also be "the trump of God." With piercing blast it shall reverberate throughout the realm of the curse! The frightening sound of Sinai's trumpet shall be as a vague whisper in comparison to this sound! Paul calls it "the last trump," capturing our attention with arresting words. "In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:52).

     The Holy Spirit is so specific on this that one wonders how any confusion could exist on the point. But we are in the land of the enemy, and Satan through subtlety has corrupted the preaching of the Lord's return. In the day of the Lord; when He comes as a thief; when the Lord descends with a shout;
when the voice of the archangel is heard; when the trump of God pierces the cosmos--in that day, "the dead in Christ shall rise first." "First" in relation to what? "First" in relation to those who are alive and remain, being "changed," or putting on immortality. He is not saying that the saints will be resurrected before the wicked! That supposition cannot be supported by any clear word of Scripture. In passing, the word "resurrections" is never employed in Scripture! Resurrection is ALWAYS in the singular, never in the plural. There are no exceptions. Paul's point is that the "dead in Christ" will be raised from the dead BEFORE those that are "alive and remain" put on incorruption. All of this will occur in a brief period, described as "a moment," and "the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor 15:52).

PRAYER POINT: Father, in Jesus' name, I seek for grace to prepare for the coming of Your Son--my Lord. I desire for His shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, to bring joy to my heart, and not fear and dread.

-- TOMORROW: THE PUNISHMENT OF THE UNGODLY –