Transcript

Easter Sunday morning, take your Bibles and let’s go to John 14. I am taking a brief break from our study through the book of Amos. Lord willing we will return there next Sunday Lord’s day but this morning John 14. I want to talk about the doctrine of the rapture, “God’s Great Rescue of His Children.” God’s great rescue of his children. He has promised this to us and one of the clear places where this promise comes through is John 14 in verses 1 through 3. Jesus says,

1 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you [here it is], I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

All of mankind lives under one of two destinies and only one of two destinies. You are either destined for holy retribution or your are destined for a holy rescue. It’s one of the two. Now, for those who believe in Christ, they are destined for the great rescue of God. You see, Jesus is the agent of our redemption, he wrought that out on Calvary, and he’s the agent of our rescue on the appointed day.

The Scriptures have much to say about this theme of God rescuing his children. Galatians 1:3-4, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” Can I just make a side note here? As you look at the vile perversion and wickedness that is no longer being tolerated in our culture but celebrated by our culture, is there not a part of you as a child of God that says, “Lord, please rescue me”? 2 Timothy 4:18, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed,” and notice this, “and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” So part of the ultimate rescue that our Lord gives to us is that time when he takes us out of this sin-cursed world, a world that hates him and hates us, and receives us back to himself and brings us out of this present dark kingdom.

You see, Jesus is mighty, in fact, he’s Almighty. He’s mighty in his faithfulness. He’s mighty in the faithfulness to his word he’s promised us and to the work he’s performed on our behalf. Listen, there is no way Jesus is going to die for our sins, be raised for our justification, intercede for us faithfully at the Father’s right hand and then fail to come again and receive us unto himself, therefore rescuing us from the sin-cursed world that hates us and hates him, and from the awful wrath that he’s going to pour out on the earth at the end of the age. He has promised that he will come again and rescue his children. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 reminds us that we are “not destined for wrath.” Did you hear that, child of God? If there is a holy God, then there must be a wrathful, holy retribution against sin, but for those who know Christ, he has not destined us for wrath. Friend, that’s good news. That’s good news.

Three things about this great rescue I want to point out in this morning’s message. I. God’s great rescue foreshadowed. God’s great rescue foreshadowed. The Old Testament, you see, contains a collection of shadowy pictures and illustrations of that which will come forth literally at a later time and most of it literally has come true when the New Testament era began and the New Testament was written. These shadows or these pictures, these illustrations from the Old Testament are sometimes called types. You’ve heard the word “typologies.” And sometimes they’re referred to as shadows, something appeared in the Old Testament and you don’t see it all clearly yet, it’s something of a shadow but then in the New Testament it unfolds in full bloom. Well, this holds true for this final event that God has planned for his children on earth, that is, the rescue of those children in the rapture.

Now, let’s mention a few of those illustrations from the Old Testament that form a shadow of what’s going to be finally revealed at the end of time when the Lord returns to rescue his children. Remember Daniel, a teenage boy enslaved in Babylonian captivity and the king issued an edict that no one could pray except to the god that Nebuchadnezzar had ordained but when Daniel heard that, he just kept right on praying three times a day toward God in Jerusalem. Well, they found out about it. The penalty was the lions’ den. Daniel is cast into the lions’ den and this troubled the