Today’s Topic: The Revelation of the Rapture: Importance of Preparation
Scripture: Matthew 3:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51,53
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Now if you are prescribing to the fact that the church will be raptured before tribulation then your mindset is that you do not need to get prepared. Like I have stated before the church will be here during the tribulation. Now if you are turning from your religious ways and deciding to give God a chance to show you the truth about the rapture then you must understand that preparation is vitally important. Do you know that if God did not prepare His people for what He was going to do then their hearts would faint or they would not be able to comprehend the thing that God was doing or even recognize it was God doing that very thing? Let me give you some powerful examples to why we need to be prepared.
Children of Israel post Exodus from Egypt – Exodus 19:10-11
Now in this scripture we see God telling Moses to go prepare the people for two days and He gave instructions on what to do. On the third day, God would come down in the sight of the people on Mt. Sinai. Now God tells them what to do to prepare for His coming. Now here is a early hint. This is a type and shadow to foretell the Return of the Lord. Now let’s remember there was a voice then after Egypt that God spoke through to warn the people and His name was Moses. So there is a voice that comes and gives instruction to prepare the people for whatever the Lord is going to do, even in His return.
Old Testament Prophets up to John the Baptist
What do you think God was saying through the prophets? He was trying to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah and even the return of the Messiah. Now this message was not just to Israel but to the world to show that the Messiah would come to save mankind. The Jews were not exclusive in this redemptive work. Let’s prove it. One prophet in particular I was studying was Jonah and for anybody who knows the story of Jonah, Jonah was a Israelite and he was called to take a message to Nineveh. Of course, the Ninevites were Gentiles and the Jews had no dealings with the Ninevites and the Assyrians of the region. But the message God sent through Jonah was for the city of Ninevah to repent or be overthrown and of course the city did but Jonah was upset that God did not overthrow them so he could see it. Just like God had mercy on the children of Israel he will have mercy on the Gentiles and in the fullness of time Jesus will come and change the landscape of the world so that no longer is there Jew or Gentile but one church under Christ. This is just a small example and we can site many for the prophecy of Jesus coming and His return.
John the Baptist – Matthew 3
Here in Matthew 3 we see John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness preaching the Kingdom of God is as hand and he is also saying “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Now of course around Matthew 3:7,8 we see John criticizing the Pharisees and Sadducees and warning them of the wrath to come and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. Now John is the voice and the messenger that warns the people that the Lord is near and they need to get their lives in order through repentance and preparation for His arrival. So even before they see Jesus, there is a messenger that goes forth to prepare the people.
So using these examples we see that this generation needs to be preparing the next for the return of the Lord. Because there will be an announcement before His return. But it is our responsibility to inform and prepare the generations for the return of the Lord. Preparation is essential because it seems like we are moving to a time where less people are coming to Christ and the information being given about Christ from those who are prominent in the media are mostly about the acts of Jesus and not His message of the Kingdom of God present on Earth now and Eternal to come. Hosea 4:6 states it best that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge and if they reject knowledge, they reject God. We are progressing to this great falling away. When it pertains to the rapture, there will be signs and we will know when the rapture will happen, but we must be prepared. The way we prepare ourselves is just like John told us to do the first time. Get our lives in order through repentance and bring forth fruits that are worthy. What happen back in Exodus 19 and Matthew 3 is no different with what will happen with the rapture and the return of the Lord.
So it is time for the church to take all the hooping, dancing and singing and put it behind the Word of God through sound biblical teaching. Notice Jesus did not sing to the multitudes in the scripture. He is the great Master teacher and it is the gift of the teachers that really need to be brought out in this time because it is that gift that instructs and gives direction to the things of God. We are so worried about being Apostle, Pastor, Prophet and Evangelist because they look like the prominent roles but God said you need all 5 in unity. In all of our clamming for power we do not get instruction and we lead people down the wrong path with our doctrines and our beliefs instead of what the Word says. Preparation is needed now and our leadership has been charged to give such instruction about these last days and if we fail to do so, the blood of those people will be on the leadership’s and the delegated Kingdom citizens’ hands.
In the next message we will dive into our foundational scriptures and answer those myths about the rapture.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
