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almost two -thirds through John's Gospel. I think when we reach John 15, we'll be two -thirds through. But here we start a new chapter today,
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John 14. The passage that we'll begin to consider today is a very rich one, containing a great deal of truth that warrants our great attention and careful, clear understanding.
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I would venture to say there's a lot of, I think, errant thinking about the first few verses of this chapter, and we'll be talking about that.
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The context, of course, is our Lord addressing his 11 disciples after the end of a supper, the last supper.
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He had sent away Judas Iscariot on his mission to betray Jesus. And it was really after Judas had departed from the 12 that the
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Lord began to open up to his 11 disciples in a wonderfully clear manner, disclosing to them about his and their future.
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And that's what we have here in John 14, one and following. Let's read the first 11 verses of John 4, 14, although we're not gonna get, perhaps, to the first four,
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Lord willing. Jesus said to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled.
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You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
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If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
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And where I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him,
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Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him,
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I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him.
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Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. And Jesus said to him, have
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I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the
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Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the
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Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the
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Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the
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Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. There's some difficulty in breaking down this passage into smaller units.
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I was reading a number of commentaries, and there are so many different attempts to outline these verses.
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But for our purposes, we'll just consider these 11 verses in the following three divisions.
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First, the promise of a place where Jesus was going, verses one through four.
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Secondly, Jesus is the only way to God the Father, verses five and six.
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And then lastly, Jesus as the revelation of God the Father. So we're gonna be here a couple of weeks.
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And so let's consider first, verses one through four, the promise of a place where Jesus was going.
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The Lord first sought to comfort the hearts of his disciples. He said to them in verse one, let not your heart be troubled.
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You believe in God, believe also in me. It's important to understand that this is in the form of a command.
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Let not your heart be troubled. Thank you. The Greek language is quite good at conveying ideas with precision.
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Old Testament Hebrew is very good at telling stories and giving you vivid visual pictures by its language.
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The New Testament Greek language is very good and precise as expressing and declaring ideas.
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And so from the first words of our Lord Jesus, it's clear that the disciples were presently quite troubled in their hearts.
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He was commanding them to stop having their hearts troubled and it is in the form of a command.
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It's an imperative. As one wrote, if the present imperative, and present means present tense imperative, is significant, its meaning will be stop being troubled.
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Jesus is not urging trouble -free men not to start worrying. He's talking to men whose hearts are far from tranquil.
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We should not be misled by the chapter division. These words are to be taken in close connection with the preceding.
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And I think that's a very important matter or note. We tend to see those chapter divisions as dividing, you know, events and sections, but actually chapter 14, verse one is a continuation of chapter 13.
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And chapter 13 describes all kinds of difficulty and trouble and here opening up with chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled.
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And so when we read this statement in the first verse of John 14, we may easily forget what had been taking place that might've troubled the hearts of these disciples.
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Jesus had just got done telling them that one of these disciples would betray him.
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They didn't know which one it would be. And then after Peter had stated he'd be willing to follow
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Jesus, even if it meant dying for him, Jesus foretold Peter of his three denials of him, which would take place that very night before the night was done.
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And we should probably assume this not only troubled Peter's heart, but it must've also been troubling to all the disciples who heard him.
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But most disturbing for them must have been when Jesus revealed to them that very soon he would be leaving them and that they would not be able to follow him at that time.
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That's what we have in John 13, 36. And as one rightly wrote, to men who've left everything for their leader to be told that he's about to leave them is shattering.
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They are all very disturbed. And Jesus knows that within a few short hours, they will even be more disturbed.
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They were a troubled group of men. And here, Jesus commands them to stop it.
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Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled. It's a command that you should not be troubled of heart.
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And given their circumstances and what they were facing, if he commands them not to be troubled, compared to what they were experiencing, you and I are experiencing relatively little, aren't we?
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And the Lord Jesus would command you and me as his disciples today, let not your heart be troubled. He doesn't want us to be troubled in heart.
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Jesus then gave two commands, to have faith, which may also be understood as two reasons for them to stop being troubled in heart.
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Or perhaps he was just commanding them to have faith in their hearts in place of the fear that presently gripped them.
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And usually those two will not abide together. Troubled soul, fear, and faith, they generally don't go together.
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Now, according to our New King James Version, which I read, Jesus said to them, you believe in God.
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That's a indicative statement. You believe in God, believe also in me.
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And so the first clause would be a statement of truth. You believe in God. The second would be a command, believe also in me.
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However, in the English Standard Version has a better translation, and it puts both clauses as commands.
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Believe in God, believe in me. And that's probably how it should be understood.
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And we don't have time to get into it, but actually in the Greek language, the form of the verbs, the way it's spelt, it can go either way.
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In fact, both clauses, it could be, you believe in God, you also believe in me. It could be two commands.
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Believe in God, believe in me. It could be a statement, you believe in God, and then a command, believe in me.
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It could be any number of those, but probably it should be understood basically as two commands.
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And so we would prefer the English Standard Version translation over the
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New King James Version in this particular instance. And so whereas he had commanded them to stop having their hearts troubled, here
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Jesus was commanding them to continue to believe in God the Father and to believe in him.
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And so first Jesus told them, believe in God. Again, a command.
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And with the present tense imperative or command, there is a continual force being conveyed.
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He's not saying begin to believe in God. He's saying be believing in God. It's a command. And the context demands that Jesus referring to God the
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Father, although he doesn't call him God the Father, does he? Believe in God. This command of Jesus for his disciples to believe was within the context of Jesus very soon being arrested and crucified.
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Oftentimes, however, these words of John 14, one and two are quoted with disregard to the context.
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People are told not to have your hearts troubled, but they don't present the context in which these words were given.
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The Lord is about to be arrested and crucified. And so as one wrote,
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I think this is Donald Carson rightly, however appropriate it may be to cite the words do not let your hearts be troubled at Christian funerals.
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They were first addressed to disciples who under substantial emotional pressure were on the brink of catastrophic failure.
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Let not your hearts be troubled was the command. And so Jesus commanded his disciples who have troubled hearts to believe in God.
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All that Jesus was about to experience, all that his disciples were to experience was due to the will of God, the father, believe in God.
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In spite of all that's happening to you, in spite of all that we're gonna be experiencing, in spite of what you see happen to me,
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Jesus says, believe in God. Things are not falling short of God's purposes.
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God has a plan and a purpose in all this. Believe in God, regardless of what kind of events are falling out before you.
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That's what he's telling his disciples. They were to trust God knowing that whatever was falling out for them and their master,
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God's good and perfect will was being accomplished. And that should be our understanding and our attitude toward life and all the experiences.
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That doesn't mean that everything that happens to us is good but everything that happens to us is an outworking of God's good purposes.
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And thankfully he brings good out of everything that happens to his people, those who are loved of him in Christ.
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But then second, Jesus commanded his disciples, believe also in me. This too is a command to his disciples.
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They believed in him. After all, they had left all to follow him. Perhaps their faith in Jesus was wavering a bit.
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It's one thing to believe in God. It's quite another thing to believe in him who's right before them.
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As one wrote, the hearts of the disciples were filled with a medley of emotions. They were sad because of the gloomy prospect of Christ's departure.
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Ashamed because of their own demonstrated selfishness and pride. Perplexed because of the prediction that one of their own number would betray their master and that another would deny him and that all would be ensnared because of him.
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And finally, they were wavering in their faith, probably thinking how can one who's about to be betrayed be the
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Messiah? Yet at the same time, they love this master. They hope against hope.
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Think of how difficult it would have been for them. Believe in God, believe also in me.
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And so they were to continually believe on him. Again, the same force of a present command.
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Why should they do so? Because Jesus himself is God. Believe in God, believe also in me.
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And they're set side by side with each other. Now some say, such as Jehovah's Witnesses might look at this verse and argue that here
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Jesus distinguished himself from God. Believe in God, believe also in me. There, you see?
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Jesus here doesn't equate himself with God. But this would be a wrong conclusion.
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The very fact that Jesus gave the same command to believe in God, and then he immediately also gave the command to believe in him, places
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Jesus as equal with God, does it not? Believe in God, believe in me. It's one and the same, as it were.
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The same kind of command. And so the command to believe in him places
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Jesus as equal with God. Jesus is God incarnate, God's own son.
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Believe in God, and the context indicates God the father. Believe also in me,
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God the son. As one wrote, if Jesus invariably speaks the words of God and performs the acts of God, and he has throughout
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John's gospel, should he not be trusted like God? If he tells his followers not to let their hearts be troubled, must it not be because he has ample and justifiable reason?
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Of course he does. And yet, if we think about it, put ourselves within that situation, that setting, we could understand the difficulty that these disciples must have been having to continue to believe in Jesus, when they consider all that occurred and all that was about to occur.
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And so, in contrast to the first command, believe in God, the second command, believe also in me, was probably most difficult at this time.
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Keep on believing in me, wrote William Hendrickson. Keep on believing in me will be much more difficult.
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How can the disciples continue to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, son of God, son of man, when he's dragged off to the courts, condemned by rulers, nailed on a cross, and mocked by onlookers?
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Only the kind of faith seen in Abraham, who against all hope, in hope believed, can prevail in such circumstances, and that's why they are bidden, keep on believing me.
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You realize how difficult that must have been for these disciples? And so, here we have, in our
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Lord's words, really the remedy that our Lord has provided for us to deal with troubled hearts. Do you have a troubled heart?
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Believe on God, believe in God. You have troubled hearts? Believe also in Jesus Christ. That's how
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Christians are to address their troubled hearts. J .C.
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Ryle, I thought, wrote appropriately. It's a rather longer quote, but I felt you would benefit from it. For 18 centuries, they have been peculiarly dear in Christ -believing servants in every part of the world.
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Many are the sick rooms, which have been enlightened. He's talking about these words of John 14.
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Many are dying hearts, which they have cheered. These words, let us see what they contain.
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Heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank or class or condition is exempt from it.
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No bars or bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes, partly from outward, partly from the body, partly from the mind, partly from what we love, partly from what we fear, the journey of life is full of trouble.
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And even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. And even the holiest of saints find the world a veil of tears.
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Faith in the Lord Jesus is the only sure remedy for troubled hearts. To believe more thoroughly, trust more entirely, rest more unreservedly, lay hold more firmly, lean back more completely.
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This is the prescription which our master urges on the attention of all his disciples.
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No doubt the members of the little band which sat around the table at the last supper had believed already.
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They had proved the reality of their faith by giving up everything for Christ's sake. Yet what does the Lord say to them here?
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Once more he presses on them the old lesson, the lesson with which they first began, believe, believe more, believe distinctly on me.
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Never let us forget that there are degrees in faith and that there is a wide difference between weak and strong believers.
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The weakest faith is enough to give a man a saving interest in Christ and ought not to be despised, but it will not give a man such inward comfort as a strong faith.
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Vagueness and dimness of perception are the defect of weak believers. They do not see clearly what they believe and why they believe.
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In such cases, more faith is the one thing needed. Like Peter on the water, they need to look more steadily at Jesus and less at the waves and wind.
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Is it not written that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed or fixed upon thee?
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Isaiah 26, three. But it's a suffering and dying savior.
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Yes, who came to life again, but it's a suffering and dying savior in whom we have placed our faith.
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When Jesus was about to die, everything these disciples had ever been taught by their families and synagogues would be discredited.
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They were to watch their savior suffer and die, but their faith was not to waver even as they saw this unfold before them.
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They were to believe in him still. At this point, they truly did not know or it really had not been very evident to them that his suffering and death, which their master would endure, would not end their hopes and dreams, but that Christ dying on his cross would secure their long -held dream of dwelling in the presence of God, their savior.
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They didn't see it. Even though Jesus had taught that to them, they didn't understand it. Even when he taught them about his resurrection after three days, it didn't sink in.
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And when they saw him hanging on the cross, it must have been a great cause of discouragement and disillusionment to him.
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They didn't believe that women on the day of the resurrection that he was raised from the dead
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I mean, can you imagine how their whole lives must have been shattered? And it's within this context,
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Jesus told them, believe in God, yes, believe in me also. Calvin wrote a good word on this.
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The son of God then who is Jesus Christ holds out himself as the object to which our faith ought to be directed and by means of which it will easily find that on which it can rest for he is the true
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Emmanuel, meaning God with us, who answers us within as soon as we seek him by faith.
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It is one of the leading articles of our faith that our faith ought to be directed to Christ alone, that it may not wander through long windings and that it ought to be fixed on him and that it may not waver in the midst of temptations.
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And this is the true proof of faith when we never suffer ourselves, we torn away from Christ and from the promises which have been made to us in him.
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And then as he commonly did, he hit on Roman Catholicism. When Popish divines dispute, or I should rather say chatter about the object of faith, they mentioned
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God only and pay no attention to Christ. They who derive their instruction from the notions of such men must be shaken by the slightest gale of wind that blows.
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Proud men are ashamed of Christ's humiliation and therefore they fly to God's incomprehensible divinity.
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But faith will never reach heaven unless it submit to Christ who appears to be a low and contemptible
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God and will never be firm if it does not seek a foundation in the weakness of Christ.
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That's a good word. Our faith is in a crucified savior. Yes, he rose, but it's
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Christ who suffered and died and gave himself in obedience to his father and suffered to pay for our sins.
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It's him in whom we have our faith. Now, before we move on from verse one,
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I think it's important that we stress this point. When Jesus gave this word, let not your heart be troubled, he was speaking to his disciples exclusively.
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He did not want them, and by proper application, he does not want you and me, who are his disciples to have troubled hearts.
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But it would be a mistake to take these words of Jesus and apply them wrongly to those who are not disciples.
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Those who do not believe on Jesus Christ have no warrant to have their troubled hearts eased of their trouble.
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In fact, to be biblical, we would say that non -disciples, non -believers in Christ, have many reasons that their hearts should be troubled.
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They are apart from Christ, who is the only one through whom God bestows the forgiveness of sins.
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He who does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior should be very troubled. We would say if he's not a disciple of Jesus Christ and he does not presently have a troubled heart, he's ignorant of his true present state before the
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Lord. He is not mindful of his future state when he's rejected forever, ejected forever from the presence of the
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Lord. He's in his sin and he lies under the wrath of God. His eternal destiny is one of eternal banishment from God and eternal punishment by God for his sins.
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And so as our Lord Jesus declared in our passage, he's the only way unto God the Father for salvation, then the one who is a non -disciple, a non -follower of Jesus Christ, is without God, without hope in the world, is destined to receive his just damnation.
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His heart should be very, very troubled. Don't give these words of promise, let not your heart be troubled to a non -disciple.
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Well, the only remedy for that one, of course, is to do what the Lord Jesus told his disciples, believe in God, believe also in me.
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That's what you tell that one. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, come unto God the
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Father in faith through him. And in this way, becoming a believer in Jesus Christ, he may too receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of everlasting life, only upon believing wholly in God and his
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Son savingly, only then can he have his troubled heart eased.
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And only then can he rightly experience the peace of God that God gives to his people who believe on him.
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But the command in this context, let not your heart be troubled, is a word to Christians.
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And we would say to the non -Christian, unless and until you believe on God, unless and until you believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, let your heart be troubled.
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That's what you need, to have your heart troubled until you settle in faith in the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.
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Well, we next read in the next verse that our Lord began to explain, expound on the future destiny of his disciples.
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Verse two reads, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so,
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I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. In this verse, of course, the dwelling place of God, presumably heaven is set forth by the metaphor of a house, my father's house.
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Heaven is the home for the Christian. And we long to finally arrive and be at home.
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It is a large house, my father's house, a large house, it has many rooms or dwelling places.
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And that's the better way to understand this rather than the King James, New King James translation, mansions.
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It's a house, and within this house are many rooms, abiding places.
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Jesus was telling his disciples that though he was going away, he was going to secure for them a dwelling place.
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He was gonna make it possible that they too could enter there. He's not saying he's going to build abiding places or mansions, they're already there.
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In my house are many abiding places. I'm gonna go to assure that you have access to that place.
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I'm gonna make a place for you. And that's what Jesus did. Until Jesus went from the cross into the presence of God the
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Father, of course, on the merit of his life and death, we had no part in that, did we? It was promised to us, but it was secured for us when
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Christ died and entered into the presence of the Father on our behalf.
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As one wrote, the father's house had been mentioned by Jesus already. In another sense, he described the temple, earthly temple in Jerusalem as my father's house.
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Here, however, my father's house is plainly not the earth. It is a heavenly home to which
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Jesus is going and in which his people are also promised a place. Earlier during that week,
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Jesus had said where I am, there my servant will also be. And now he adds to that promise by saying that he will take his followers there personally.
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They had been dismayed when he spoke of going away. Now they're assured that his going away is for their advantage.
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He's going to get a place ready for them. And having done that, he will come back and take them there.
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And so it's a promise, of course, of the second coming of Christ. The promise of Christ to his disciples is the age -long need and desire, as well as the long -held purpose of God for his people to dwell in his presence, to be with God, to be with his son.
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To dwell in God's presence as his people is to know God, to have him as our Lord, our God. And that brings every blessing with it.
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One basic aspect of sin is the desire for and the delight in things that God has made, rather than in God who made them.
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By definition, that's what idolatry is. I love the things God made, but I don't really love the
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God who made them. That's idolatry. God himself is the source and abundance of life, even eternal life in him.
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Oh, he gives a lot of good things to us too. And he gives them for us to freely enjoy, but they are only right and enjoyable as we see them as connected with him, the giver.
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Throughout scripture, they are both suggestive intimations, as well as forthright expressions of the great blessing of dwelling in the presence of God.
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David exclaimed to God in Psalm 16 .1, you make known to me the path of life, you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
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The great desire and longing of the people of God is to dwell in the presence of God, because every possible eternal blessing is experienced there.
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David wrote of the joy the King of Israel enjoys in the presence of God. The King shall have joy in your strength,
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O Lord, and in your salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice? You've given him his heart's desire, have not withheld the request of his lips,
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Selah, for you meet him with the blessings of goodness. You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
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He asked life from you and you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. His glory is great in your salvation, honor and majesty you've placed upon him, for you made him most blessed forever, you made him exceedingly glad with your presence.
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And that should be our great desire and delight, being able to be in the presence of God.
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Not because of just the things he gives us, but because of him for who he is. He, in him is life, and he's given life to be his son.
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And at the end of the Bible, we read of the full and final realization of what our Lord was alluding to here in John 14, two.
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In Revelation 21, we read of John. He saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God, that's the dwelling place of God.
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The father's house is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people.
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God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, no crying.
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There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away. And he who sat on the throne said, behold,
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I make all things new. He said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful. He said to me, it's done.
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I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
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He overcomes, shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son.
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Related to God, dwelling in his presence with every possible blessing to be enjoyed.
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And this is what the Lord Jesus is telling his disciples in John 14 too. I'm going to prepare a place for you.
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And since, or if I'm doing that, I'm gonna doubtless come to you and take you back with me is basically what he's saying.
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And that's what we have in verse three of our passage. The promise of our Lord Jesus, he would return for his disciples.
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Let's read this verse, however, in context. In my father's house are many mansions or in my father's house are many abiding places, rooms.
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If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
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I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there, you may be also.
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Where and where I go, you know in the way you know. So again, our
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Lord's about to be crucified. He was shortly thereafter be raised from the dead and show himself alive to a number of his disciples at various times over the course of 40 days.
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And then he would ascend into heaven. And here he declares he would come again.
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This is not speaking of his post -resurrection appearances, but rather he's speaking about the second coming at the end of the age.
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And this promise of Christ that he would return was affirmed by the angels in Acts chapter one.
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We're not gonna read the entire passage, but you'll recall the story 10 days before Pentecost.
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Jesus rises through the air and is enveloped within that shekinah cloud, glory of God.
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And the disciples are washing, two angels stand by and say basically, why you look up into heaven so puzzled and whatnot, this same
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Jesus is gonna return in the same manner, physically and visibly is what the angels declared.
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This same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
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Acts chapter one, verse 10. Jesus is gonna return a second time to the world at which time he'll cause his people both dead and living to dwell, begin to dwell with him and will continue onto eternity.
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And of course, at the same time, he'll execute the end time judgment on the entire human race. Now, after having stated that, that he's talking about his second coming in John 14, verse three, we should say that for the past 100 plus years, it's been a very popular teaching among evangelicals,
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Bible believers, to believe that the second coming of Christ will take place in two stages. The rapture of the church and then seven years later, the coming of Christ and that the second coming of Christ is in two stages.
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This is a relatively new teaching. It actually originated with a teenage girl in Scotland who was sickly who claimed to have a vision from God, the church won't go through the tribulation period.
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And then it was picked up and popularized in London by some preachers and finally put into Schofield's study
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Bible in 1909 and then 1917. And it has become the dominant belief in the second coming of Christ that Christ is coming back in two stages, the rapture of the church and then the revelation of Christ at the end of the tribulation.
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And it, of course, has been really popularized by the
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Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins. You know, it was just tremendously popularized by Hal Lindsey, the late great planet
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Earth in 1970 when early 71, 72, when I was converted. They teach that Jesus will return again for this church in a secret rapture and then
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Jesus will return visibly, physically in a second portion or the second stage of that second coming at the end of a seven year tribulation and then he will come to the earth and establish it up a thousand year
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Jewish millennium. And those who survive the seven year tribulation will be allowed to continue to live on into the
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Jewish millennium on earth. These dispensationalists, those who believe this end time scenario, believe that many children will be born and raised in this ideal world, this future thousand year millennium.
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And that during this thousand years, there will be natural born people on earth, both saved and unsaved.
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And then Christians will have their glorified bodies and they'll be interacting, relating to one another throughout this thousand years.
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And this is the most common teaching, of course, of evangelicals today. And I remember years ago, held this view myself for 10 years until 1982 when
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I finally realized this isn't what the Bible taught. But it's so popular and commonly taught and only taught that a lot of evangelicals have never heard anything differently.
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And so when somebody comes along like myself and says differently, we're immediately held or viewed as suspect and that we're teaching some kind of strange doctrine.
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When in reality, that doctrine is relatively new and only popular since about the early portion, first quarter of the 20th century.
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Popularized by Schofield in his study Bible. Well, why do I bring that all up?
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Because it affects how people view John 14, verses one through four.
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These distance ageless argue that this is not Jesus coming to the earth at a future second coming, but they rather argue that this is the rapture of the church.
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He's coming to receive his people back. He comes down from heaven, doesn't come to the earth. He comes down to the clouds, picks up all his people, the church.
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They meet him in the air. Then he returns to heaven. Seven year tribulation takes place in earth and the worldwide dictator, the
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Antichrist will rule. And then at the end of seven years, he comes back with his people for the second coming.
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And they argue that John 14, verses one through three is the first time in the
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Bible, the rapture of the church is clearly mentioned. This is interesting.
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I didn't know this till I read it. And so we read, for example, in Schofield study
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Bible, this promise of a second advent of Christ is to be distinguished from his return to glory, to the earth.
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See, he's saying it's the rapture, not the revelation. It is the first intimation in scripture,
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John 14, first time in scripture, the rapture is taught of the day of Christ.
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See, they distinguish between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. They say those are two different things.
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Here he comes for his saints, there, in other words, the second coming, he comes to judge the nations.
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And so they do not believe and view John 14, one through three, as a reference to Jesus returning to the earth to judge the world, to raise the dead.
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Schofield asserted that here in John 14, one, we have the first occasion in the Bible in which the rapture of the church is promised, which is to be distinguished from his full second coming to the earth, which they claim will take place seven years later.
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Now, there are arguments that the proponents of this two -stage second coming of Christ teaching commonly reiterate in support of their beliefs of a secret rapture of the church, and we might just cite a few of these and then we'll close for today.
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First, they say the Bible teaches that the rapture will occur when Jesus returns in a secret rapture as a thief in the night.
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And there have been a number of books entitled The Thief in the Night, and talking about Christ as a pre -tribulation appearance in the rapture, and they quote 1
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Thessalonians 5. Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the
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Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
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They claim this teaches that when Jesus comes to rapture the church, he'll do so secretly and quietly, stealing away his people in a manner that no one will expect, and that no one will know it until they begin to identify the
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Christians that have been snatched away. Here's some representative statements of writers who advocate this position.
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His appearance in the clouds will be veiled to the human eye, and no one will see him. He will slip in, slip out, move in to get his jewels, and slip out as under the cover of night.
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M .R .D. Helen, radio Bible class. Quickly and invisibly, unperceived by the world, the
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Lord will come as a thief in the night and catch away his waiting saints. The rapture will be a secret appearing, and only the believers will know about it.
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That's in Dake's study Bible, that's the equivalent of the Schofield study Bible, but the
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Dake study Bible is one that's very popular among Pentecostals. It will be a secret rapture, quiet, noiseless, sudden as the step of the thief in the night.
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All that the world will know will be that multitudes at once are gone.
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But the Bible nowhere asserts that when Jesus raptures his people that it will be a silent, secret event.
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The scriptures teach that his second coming will be like a thief, and that he will come when unsaved people do not expect him.
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Just as people do not anticipate when a thief breaks into their house to steal. In fact, the scriptures specifically directly declare that when
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Jesus returns as a thief, that his coming will be very sudden, very loud, climactic, not quiet and secret.
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Peter wrote of this very clearly in 2 Peter 3. The day of the Lord will come as a thief. Now they would argue, well, that's the rapture.
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But notice, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise.
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Doesn't sound secret or quiet. And elements will melt with fervent heat.
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That's the new heavens and the new earth coming. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat.
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Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, new earth in which righteousness dwells.
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When Jesus returns as a thief, it's not going to be secret, but rather it will be sudden and unexpected as a thief.
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For Christians, however, it will not take them by surprise it is coming. For we are to be looking for it and we are to be living with view to his coming.
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And so Paul wrote to the Thessalonians right after he spoke about the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, he wrote this in the beginning of chapter five, but concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly the day of the
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Lord so comes as a thief in the night. By the way,
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I mentioned earlier how they distinguish between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. They say the day of the
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Christ is the rapture, the day of the Lord is the second, second coming. Here, the
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Lord is coming as a thief on the day of the Lord. That itself is a conflict with them, all right?
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They say he comes as a thief in the day of Christ, not the day of the Lord. Of course, they're one on the same day, we know.
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For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.
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But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day overtake you as a thief. We know he's coming and we live in the light of it, is basically what he says.
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Bottom of page eight, here are the words of Ralph Woodrow about this teaching of the rapture and Jesus coming as a thief.
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But know this, Jesus said, if the good man of the house had known and watched the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
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Therefore be ready in such an hour as you think not the son of man comes. Christ's return will be like the coming of a thief in the sense we know not when it will occur.
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There's nothing here to indicate a secret coming of Christ in which he will mysteriously take believers out of this world so that no one will know what happened to them or who took them.
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We should not think that the Lord will prowl around like a thief, working in the dark, afraid of being discovered.
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The meaning is he will come as a thief, not that he will act like a thief. And that's the whole point.
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And yet they argue the rapture is him coming as a thief in the night, a secret coming.
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And people will only know after all Christians disappear, pilots disappear, planes crash, buses, you know, now without a driver, you know, a baby snatched from the cribs and the cradles of mothers, unbelieving mothers, and then they're left behind to go through a tribulation period.
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Whereas those who caught up will escape that. This is the teaching of this rapture, secret rapture.
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We believe in the rapture, we're gonna be caught up to be with the Lord, but it's the same event as the second coming, not two separate events.
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Well, then secondly, top of page nine, they say that the passage that speaks of one being taken, the other left behind supports their position.
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When the rapture comes, he's gonna take up some and there'll be others left behind. And the ones left behind, of course, have to go through the seven -year tribulation.
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The passage cited is Matthew 24, 39 through 42. Of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my
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Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, did not know until the flood came, took them all away, so also will be the coming of the
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Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, the other left.
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Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, the other left. Watch therefore, you do not know what hour your
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Lord is coming, but know this, that if the master of the house had made known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
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Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. So they would argue he's coming as a thief, and the ones left behind are gonna have to go through a future tribulation.
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They argue in the passage, the one taken, the other left, speaks of one being caught up in the rapture, and the one left behind must go through the seven -year tribulation on earth.
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But the passage itself teaches that the one taken is not being caught up to heaven. The one taken is the one being killed in battle.
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In fact, I would argue it's not talking about second coming at all, it's talking about the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and that Rome would come in and wipe out
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Jerusalem. It's gonna be so ravaged that one will be taken, one will be left. It's gonna decimate the entire land, judgment of God.
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The parallel passage in Luke 17 make this more clear. Then he said to his disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the
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Son of Man, you'll not see it. And they will say to you, look here, look there, do not go after them or follow them, for as the lightning that flashes out of one part of heaven shines to the other part of heaven, so also the
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Son of Man will be in his day. And again, I'm arguing this is not the second coming, it is the manifestation of King Jesus' judgment upon Jerusalem in AD 70 by the
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Roman armies. And we can clearly see this from the passage. The first he must suffer be rejected by this generation, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be the days of the
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Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wise, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, the flood came, destroyed them all.
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Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, destroyed them all.
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Even so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed, and he's being revealed in judgment here.
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Again, AD 70. In that day, he was on the housetop and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away.
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And likewise, the one who's in the field, let him not turn back, remember Lot's wife. At the second coming, people are not urged to flee.
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Where are you gonna flee to? Here, they're urged to flee out of Jerusalem, away because the
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Roman armies are about ready to destroy them. Likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back, remember
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Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night, there will be two men in one bed, the one will be taken, the other left.
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Two men will be grinding together, the one will be taken, the other left. Two men in the field, the one will be taken, the other left.
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They asked him, where are they taken, Lord? And what was Jesus' response?
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He said to them, wherever the body is, there the eagles, what's meant here is vultures, will be gathered together.
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The ones taken are not raptured up into heaven. The ones taken are killed and their bodies are laid out there on the battlefield and the vultures are consuming them.
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And so the ones taken away are not raptured, they're killed. The ones left behind are the survivors.
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But the whole left behind series is based on a complete reversal of this. The ones left behind are the bad guys, they have to go through the tribulation.
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The ones taken away, the left behind series are the blessed ones, raptured.
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Here, the ones taken away are out there dead in the fields being consumed by the vultures. They completely twist the meaning of the passage.
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The whole argument, the whole title of the left behind series is a twisting misinterpretation of scripture.
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And so, bottom of page nine, we gotta wrap this up quickly, forgive me for the time, but I find this interesting, probably most of you do too.
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And I hope you find it somewhat informative because we're all subjected to this kind of stuff always, through radio, reading, friends, good friends, by the way.
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I'm not gonna read that last paragraph. Let's go to page 10. And thirdly, they say that there must be two stages of the second coming of Christ because the scriptures speak of Jesus coming for his saints, which is the rapture before the tribulation and Jesus coming with his saints, which is the second coming to the earth, seven years later.
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And verses they claim to support this as John 14, three. When Jesus said, if I go and prepare a place for you,
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I will come again, receive you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And so they argue that here,
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Jesus is coming for his saints in the rapture, but at the second coming, Christ will come with his saints.
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And so they say it's two different events. John MacArthur, God bless his soul, and I think he's the greatest servant of Christ, probably in our country today, but he's wrong in his understanding of a two -stage second coming of Christ.
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And he wrote his comments on John 14, verse three, and he's got it as the rapture, not the return of Christ to the earth.
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MacArthur wrote, his departure would be for their advantage since he was going away to prepare a heavenly home for them and will return to take them so that they may be with him.
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Amen. This is one of those passages that refers to the rapture of the saints at the end of the age when
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Christ returns. The features in this description do not describe coming to the earth with his saints to establish his kingdom, but taking believers from earth to live in heaven.
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Since no judgment on the unsaved is described here, this is not the event of his return in glory and power to destroy the wicked.
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Rather, this described as coming to gather his own who are alive and raise the bodies of those who have died to take them all to heaven.
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This rapture event is also described, I mentioned several passages, after being raptured, the church will celebrate the marriage supper, be rewarded, and they return to earth with Christ when he comes again to set up his kingdom.
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And so he argues this is not the second coming, this is the first stage of the second coming, the rapture of the church.
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And by the way, I might just state this, and this is so typical of good people who reason and believe this.
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He's arguing from silence. And by definition, there are rules of logic that have been set down since the days of the ancient
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Greeks and one of the ways you know what is illogical is when you start building arguments on things that are not there.
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In other words, an argument from silence, by definition, is not a legitimate argument, it is illogical.
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And so when he says, there's nothing said here about Jesus coming to the earth, there's nothing said here about judgment, whatnot, it must be something else, that is illogical.
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But it's a common argument that so many make. Well, they would argue
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Christ is coming for his saints here, not with his saints, and then they would argue, say in Jude, this is where Jesus comes with his saints.
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Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, say, behold, the Lord comes with 10 ,000s of his saints to execute judgment.
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They would say that's the second stage of the second coming when he comes to the earth. And so they argue there must be two stages in the second coming, separated from one another by a seven -year tribulation.
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And I would even argue their seven, understanding of a seven -year tribulation is based on a misunderstanding of Daniel chapter nine in the 70 weeks of Daniel.
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And so we would argue, of course, the separating of the one second coming of Christ into two events is not warranted in scripture.
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When Jesus comes again, he's gonna bring the souls of Christians who have died and are with him. They're gonna be reunited with their bodies, resurrected, will be caught up to meet them in the air.
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And so the Lord, at the same second coming, he's coming with his saints and for his saints. It's one event, not two separate events.
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And so the second coming of Christ will involve both Jesus Christ coming with and for his saints who are living at his appearing.
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Now, I know we had to get into that, but I felt like it was warranted because when you read notes and study
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Bibles, Ryrie studied Bible, MacArthur studied Bible, you're gonna see this view, very, very popular view presented, but we would argue it's not biblical.
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It's not historical. It's not even that old. There's one second coming of Christ.
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And that's what the Lord Jesus was speaking about. He would return for them. And he's gonna return for us, thank the
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Lord. And it'll be the end of history, the end of this world and the onset of eternity.
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May the Lord come soon. Amen. Let's pray.
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Father, help us, we pray, to understand these things clearly. And we just pray,
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Lord, that you would help us to not just understand them, but help us to live,
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Lord, in the light of the coming of Christ, that that day not overtake us as a thief, but that we would be ready and desire us for his coming when he will deliver us from this evil world and deliver us from our own sin, when we'll be able to stand in holiness before you, completely exonerated of our sin to the death of Christ, where we'll escape condemnation on the day of judgment, and we'll forever dwell with you, our
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Father, and your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in eternity. May that day come soon, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.