The Second Coming of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead

This teaching about the Second Coming is very important, very key for the Church of Jesus Christ, and that is why we have been working on this subject over these past few Sundays. And what we are going to be doing is going through two or three, or four, different key passages in Scripture that help us understand this subject much better: the doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have not even taken many notes; instead, what I have done is simply select the passage. They are key passages, and then I let the passage guide us as it speaks for itself, so that we can explain and round out this doctrine. What I want is for you, at the end of three or four sermons on this subject, to be well instructed concerning one of the great teachings of Scripture, which is this doctrine that the Lord is coming, and He is coming a second time to gather His people.

So here in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 13 onward, 4:13 through 18, it says: “But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who sleep, so that you may not grieve as the others do who have no hope.” In the midst of a series of other teachings that he is developing here in First Thessalonians, the apostle Paul says, I am going to take a moment to speak to you, “and I do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who sleep.”

There are a couple of things here. Number one: I have said several times that the apostle Paul uses that expression, “I do not want you to be ignorant.” He uses it, for example, in First Corinthians, chapter 12, where he says, “I do not want you to be ignorant concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” And here he says, “I do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who sleep.” The Lord does not want His Church to be ignorant concerning this doctrine.

That is why it is so important that, in these times, we take opportunities to ensure that the Church of Christ is well taught. Because I believe that one cannot have a thoroughly Christian mindset without an understanding of the particulars, the details, and the different principles that accompany this doctrine of the Second Coming.

Now, I am intrigued that the apostle Paul says, “concerning those who sleep.” Who are those who sleep in this case? The dead, the people who have died. But Paul uses a somewhat gentle expression; he says, “concerning those who sleep.” Why does the Bible speak in terms of “those who sleep” instead of those who have died or the dead? Because those who sleep have the hope of waking up, yes or no? Normally.

I remember that the Lord Jesus Christ also, when He spoke of Lazarus as He was going to the tomb to raise him, remember? He says, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps.” And the disciples, who did not understand Jesus Christ’s symbolic language, said, “Oh, well, if he is sleeping, then that means he is all right because he is going to wake up again.” The Lord said, “No, he is dead.” But He used the expression “sleeps” because, of course, He was going precisely to wake him up.

And I believe it is important for us to understand that. That is not simply a little play on words. The children of God do not die. At most, the children of God sleep and pass from an imperfect life to a perfect life. For the children of God there is no death, brothers and sisters; for the children of God there is a great hope of eternal life, and death is simply a moment that transfers us from here into eternity, and I am going to talk a little more about that.

So Paul says: I do not want you to be ignorant of the details, the particulars of the doctrine of the Second Coming. And we also see something else here: the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is related to other doctrines—in this case, the resurrection of the dead as well. Because these two things are going to take place simultaneously, and we are going to see how the coming of the Lord is related to the resurrection of the dead.

Why does Paul not want the Thessalonians to be ignorant concerning those who sleep? He says: “So that you may not grieve as the others do who have no hope.” Who are the others? Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, those who do not have the hope of the resurrection because they do not have the risen Christ.

So Paul is teaching about this so that we may comfort ourselves. When we lose a loved one, how good it is to know that if that person died in Christ, that person rises to be with the Lord, and that we do not have to experience that sorrow, that heartrending anguish of the others who have no hope. Have you ever been at a burial, a funeral where the people do not know Jesus Christ? Those heartrending cries from the people—they throw themselves on the floor, pull their hair, and have to be restrained so that they do not throw themselves in with the dead person—and what terrible pain is felt. How dreadful it is when people have no hope, when they do not know where their dead are going. When what they have is a doctrinal fog because no one has taken the time to teach them that the children of God.

Let me tell you: a person can cry, and I believe should cry, when a loved one dies. When a loved one dies, who does not feel pain? Who does not feel the loss from the fact that I am not going to see someone I love anymore here in this world? It is legitimate to cry, and I believe it is even healthy. But what the Bible tells us is that the weeping, the crying of a son or daughter of God is weeping tinged with hope. It is weeping that knows there is consolation as well. It is weeping that knows that what is there is that person’s body, but that his or her soul, his or her spirit, is with the Lord.

You know, I am personally going to confess something to you: I do not much like looking at the dead when they are in their coffins. I plead with my wife; I tell her: Look, the day I die, if I die before Christ comes, cover me up. Because in reality, I see that person lying there—amen, and I respect, look, any preference, I hasten to tell you right now, right? If you want your whole body to be laid out for viewing and people to look at you, et cetera, amen, glory to God, or if you want to do that with your loved one. But personally, I believe that the way I feel about death and life is that I know what is lying there is the vessel in which the person’s spirit resided, and that if the person died in Christ, that spirit is with the Lord.

So I simply see a remnant there; it reminds me of the person, and all of this is beautiful, but I prefer to remember that person before the Presence of the Lord, vibrant, full of life, full of joy, with his or her personality. And precisely for that reason, the truth is that death does not frighten me. If I found myself facing the actual moment, perhaps it would be different, but the truth is that those of us who are in Christ Jesus can rest peacefully in the Lord. We do not run away from it; death does not hold the horror for us that it holds for those who do not know the Lord.

That is why the apostle Paul says in First Corinthians: “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Death is swallowed up in victory.” Hallelujah, because Christ has already destroyed the dominion of death. And when we know that Christ is coming to rescue the living and the dead who lived in Him and died in Him, then death ceases—do not let death frighten you, my brother, my sister. The important thing is that you have your passport stamped and in order, your visa for the Kingdom of God; that must be secure, because if you are in Christ, then you can be confident in the Lord Jesus.

The Lord Jesus Christ says: “He who lives and believes in Me shall never die,” hallelujah. And so the apostle Paul wants them to understand that these dead are not dead but asleep. Why? “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Jesus those who died in Him.” In other words, when Christ comes in His Second Coming, He will see to it that those who have died in Him are raised and taken with Him.

Now it says in verse 15: “For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord: that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep, because the Lord Himself, with a commanding shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” In other words, there is an order here; those who die in Jesus, those who confessed Christ as Lord and Savior during their lives, will not be left there in oblivion.

It seems that in the Church to which the apostle Paul was writing there was a fear: And what is going to happen if the Lord does not come soon? What is going to happen to our dead? They have been placed in the grave and their bodies have decomposed. So the apostle Paul writes to tell them: No, do not worry about that. Those who died with the Lord will be raised together with Him when Christ comes.

Let me point out a small theological element here, and it is this: in the Church, in the Church of Jesus Christ in general, there are doctrinal differences about what happens to people when they die, and die in Christ. Do they sleep in total unconsciousness until Christ comes, or are they present before the Lord and conscious of what is happening around them? I personally believe, and the Bible teaches me, that no, when a person dies in Christ Jesus, that person passes into a state of consciousness before the Presence of God.

I believe that what the Word is referring to, rather, is that the bodies of the dead will be united—a glorified body will be united with the soul of that person who died. That is interesting because one of the things I believe happens there is that we often do not have a clear idea of what heaven will be like. Are we going to be there, as I sometimes said, wearing a robe, floating in the air, transparent so that people can see through us, or what? I believe we are going to have a body, the body we had here on earth, but it will be a renewed body, a glorified body, amen?

And that is what the Word says: that the dead will be raised. And I believe that, in some way we cannot clearly understand, they will be made alive and glorified, and those bodies will be united with their souls, which are in the Presence of the Lord, and then a complete resurrection will take place. And those of us who remain here—whichever generation it may be that receives the Lord Jesus Christ—will be taken up into the air to meet the Lord and be with Him forever, as we will see later.

Now, what support do I have for thinking that? Because there are brothers and sisters—and neither can we say that they are “heretics”—I believe that, for example, the Adventists believe, I think, that when people die, they die and remain asleep until they are raised on the last day. And the truth is that we cannot blame them, because there are things here in the Word, as in this case—those who sleep will be awakened, et cetera—that seem to suggest that as well. But there are many other texts that are clear that when a person dies, that person is conscious and enters the Presence of the Lord.

What are some of those texts? In fact, Sister Fanny gave me one that slipped my mind this morning while I was discussing this, and it is the passage about the thief who was beside Jesus and said: “Lord, remember me when You are in Your Kingdom.” And what did the Lord say to him? “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” He was not going to be sleeping; he was going to be with the Lord in paradise.

Second, the apostle Paul, in Philippians, says that—he says: “I am in a quandary because I do not know which is better: to remain here on earth and be used by the Lord to advance the Gospel, or to be in the Presence of the Lord, because to be with Christ is far better, and to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

So that passage is there as well. Another passage that comes to mind is the passage about Lazarus—not Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, but Lazarus the beggar. The Word says that when he dies, he is carried to Abraham’s bosom, which is a Jewish expression referring to paradise, right? And this miserable rich man, who did not help Lazarus when he was in the world and did not share his food with this beggar, is said to be in a place that is hell, remember? It is a place where there is—he says that he has—the rich man says, “Lord, send Lazarus, or whoever it may be, to touch the tip of my tongue with his finger so that I can drink because of this terrible, consuming thirst I feel.” And the Lord says, “No, there is an impassable wall, there is a chasm; one cannot have contact with the other.”

But then notice that both the sinful rich man is conscious in death and Lazarus, the beggar who is taken into the Presence of the Lord, is also conscious in a place of enjoyment. So we see these two things, right?

Now I tell you, brothers and sisters, there is always an area of uncertainty in these doctrines. We will never know these things one hundred thousand percent, and we must be very tolerant of one another. Do not go around condemning anyone because that person is using the Word and saying, “But Pastor, look, I see this,” amen. And give people their space as well and present your arguments to them, but do not say, “Oh, you child of hell, you are going to go to hell because you do not believe this, you do not believe that.”

Look, the doctrine of the Second Coming, eschatology, and Revelation contain many things about which we are sometimes not completely clear; the Bible does not make them one hundred percent clear. We must be generous with one another, use the measure of light we have, and ask the Lord to help us and continue enlightening us more and more. But I do believe that when we die, we enter the Presence of the Lord, and that body will be waiting for the day when it will be glorified and brought to life. I believe it is important for us to understand this because I think many people have an idea of heaven as a disembodied place, of eternal life as though we are only going to be playing harps for all eternity; I think that is terribly boring. To me, I think that would be hell instead—playing without ceasing.

No, I want to eat, I want to work, I want to invent things, I want to continue growing, amen? And so do you, brother. So I believe heaven will be a place of great creativity and much work. And I believe that in our bodies we are not going to recognize ourselves. Glory to God, you are going to be more handsome than you were here, I assure you, brother. Sister, those flaws that you lamented so much here will be gone over there—forget about them; it is going to be absolutely tremendous, okay?

And Peter says, “They are going to be tangible bodies.” I tell the brothers and sisters that I would compare it this way: I believe Jesus, who is the firstborn—He is the firstborn from among the dead—is a good example of what we are going to be. Notice that when Christ rises, He rises with a body, but it is a glorified body. It is a body that does things: it is here, it is there, it moves from one place to another; He appears to the disciples, and they think He is a ghost because He enters the room and they do not know how He got there.

And the Lord says, “Look, no, I am not a ghost. Do you happen to have a pupusa around here? Find one for Me, so we can see.” This is the Miranda version of the Bible. And He takes a fish—they give Him a fish—and He eats it, and it is not as though there are little holes and the food begins coming out through the holes, right? It stays inside Him. He tells them, “Look, it is I. I am real, I am genuine”; and He also tells Thomas, “Come, put your hand into My side.” He had the marks.

Do you know what, brother? I believe that when we see Jesus, He will still have the marks on His hands, and He will have the mark on His side because it is the body of Jesus; it is a glorified body. But it is a body; there is a mystery there. But I believe our body will be a body without the limitations it had here on Earth.

And the other difference, I believe, according to what the Bible says, is that they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; and for many of you, perhaps that will be a blessing. I do not know—for others, perhaps you will say, “Hey, goodness, I was hoping I would make up for it in heaven,” but unfortunately it will not be that way. They will not marry; they will be like the angels, the Lord says. But aside from that, we will have a strong, glorified body with which we will be able to travel to Mars and the Moon without having to use airplanes or anything else, glory to God. So what God has for us is tremendous.

There is, however, an order to the coming of Christ: the dead are reunited, I would say, with their souls and are raised from the grave; and we are taken and carried by the Holy Spirit to meet the Lord. Verse 16 says: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

So look at what the Second Coming of the Lord will be like: it will be something glorious and remarkable; people will know when Christ comes, brothers and sisters. The Bible says that every eye will see Him. It will not be as though you are there at the factory on Monday and they say, “You know, didn’t you know that Christ came yesterday?” “He came? I didn’t hear anything about it.” “Yes, man, it was on CNN.” No, it is not like that. When Christ comes, the whole world will know it, brothers and sisters.

It says here, “with a commanding shout.” What does that mean? It is as though an order is going to be given. The coming of Jesus will be unlike any other event that has ever occurred in history. It will be perceived simultaneously by all the nations of the Earth. I imagine it will be like some kind of projection: they will see it in Australia, and they will also see it in Canada and Alaska. It will be something—I do not know—virtual or something, but very real.

It says: “With a commanding shout, with the trumpet of God and with the voice of an archangel.” In other words, everything natural and supernatural will conspire to make it evident that Christ has come. It is an event that will change history completely, and it is accompanied by momentous circumstances. I believe that those who read Revelation, for example, can see there these great events that are going to take place. At the Second Coming of Jesus, we are going to see glorious things; things will happen in nature, in heaven, on earth, in the sea, and in history—wars and different kinds of situations. We will see all of that later, but it is an event unlike any other in all of history, and one of the things that happens is precisely this resurrection of the dead; they then join the living in the Lord and are taken to be with Christ.

Then verse 17 says: “We who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The word “caught up” is a very strong term; it means that we are going to be taken. That is where the phrase “the rapture of the Church” comes from, meaning that there is a doctrine in the Church that the Church of Christ is going to be taken and carried away with Him.

And let me tell you that there is also a great controversy about that. And at the risk of—how shall I put it?—making things complicated for the brothers and sisters, let me tell you this: there are two major doctrines about the rapture of the Church. One doctrine, called “the pre-tribulation rapture,” says that the Church will be taken before the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is a teaching that we will also examine later; it is a period in history that, we are told, will be filled with suffering, consternation, and anguish unlike anything that has ever existed before or ever will afterward. It is a time of greater consternation in the world than ever before in history, and after that time there will never be anything like it again. That is why they call it the Great Tribulation, and it is a doctrine found in Scripture.

So some brothers and sisters—many brothers and sisters today; for example, the best-known person in this regard is Brother Yiye Ávila, may the Lord bless him—teach that the Church is going to be taken before that period comes, the one spoken of here, that it will be before the Great Tribulation. They teach that after the Church is taken into the air, it is up there somewhere, I do not know, waiting in a hotel or wherever, because I do not entirely believe that part; but they say it is going to be taken and is in the air while, down below, things are happening: the Antichrist comes and arises, and many who did not adequately prepare their lives are left behind.

How many of you have seen this “Left Behind” series, this series of movies? I do not want to rain on the parade of the brothers and sisters who have seen them. But let me tell you: all of that is very nice. At the risk of getting too far ahead of myself, I want to submit my own view to you, but I promise that I will develop it much more fully later, okay? But notice the sequence here, in other words: first, the rapture of the Church; then a period of great anguish, including this mysterious figure whom we will examine later, called the Antichrist—a diabolical figure who hates the things of God and enthrones himself as king, as God Himself.

So this doctrine says that after the Antichrist rises—and then, after the Antichrist comes—what this refers to as the final rapture is actually a second rapture; and then Christ takes those who were left behind, destroys the Antichrist, and then the end times finally come. What I see, however, again and again in passages like these is that no second coming, no second rapture, is mentioned to me. Instead, what it says here is that the rapture of the Church also takes place together with the Coming of Jesus Christ: the Church is taken, and I find that again and again in Scripture.

So I simply encourage you; I do not want to cause you too much confusion because I will address this more fully at another time. But I suggest that you revisit and reconsider that teaching. For what we are told here is simply that the Lord comes and the dead in Christ rise first, and then those who are alive are taken. It says: “We will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” There is no postlude there, so to speak, or a second phase or a different chapter in which the Antichrist then comes. Rather, what it says is: hey, this is final. The Lord comes, takes the dead, takes the living; they are taken into the air, and we are with the Lord forever. So that is the sequence of the Second Coming.

Then it says: “Encourage one another with these words.” In other words, brothers and sisters, that teaching about the Second Coming should be a reason for joy and hope for us. I am going to ask the musicians to come up here quickly because, rather than moving on to another passage, which is very long—and this morning I only had the opportunity to work on this passage—we are going to leave it here. Later we will take up other teachings. But what the Lord is clearly telling us here in this passage, brothers and sisters, is this: Christ is coming soon; He has a very specific plan; death has lost its ultimate power because we know that when He comes, He will take care of raising our dead, and if we are alive when He comes, we too will be taken with Him, and so we will always be with the Lord.

And we must speak about this doctrine. I ask the Lord to touch your heart this afternoon and for you to engrave upon your spirit that God has a plan, that God has a teaching that tells you: the Lord is coming, and He holds your life in His hands. Therefore, take heart, take comfort; do not allow death to threaten you and create that sense of terror within you, because all things are in the Lord’s hands. God has planned everything; God has prepared everything. There is no detail that the Lord has left unattended.

So we thank You, Father; thank You for Your plan, thank You because Christ is coming, thank You because we do not mourn like those who have no hope, because we know that when Christ comes, He will take us together with Him, and that for those of us who are healed and set free by Christ, there is no death, but simply life and eternal life, and death has lost its sting. You have everything prepared in such detail, for which we thank You, Father. Help us to believe Your promises and to live as those who are simply passing through here, because we have a God who already has everything arranged and prepared.

Bless my brothers and sisters this afternoon, Lord. Thank You for this beautiful service that You have promised us. Send us out from here with Your Peace and Your blessing, in the name of Jesus, amen and amen. Brothers and sisters, I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us stand. Let us celebrate this afternoon with one final song; let us thank the Lord for His visitation. I bless you; you are dismissed, and go to your homes with the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen and amen.