12-13-2020 weekly message

Meditation of the week: Psalms 91:1-16

Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

Title: The Coming of Christ (Second Coming on Earth) and  Gathering together unto Him (Second Coming in the Air-Rapture)

          When the members of Thessalonians church heard the mysterious words in the gospel of grace received by  Apostle Paul from Jesus Christ, they did not receive those in human words, but in the words of God, holding on to the hope in the words, and preaching the gospel with all their hearts in the midst of all persecution and tribulation.

          Apostle Paul testified of the faith of them:

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.  “(1Thessalonians 2:13)

          When the members of Thessalonians church heard the mysterious words in the gospel of grace received by Apostle Paul from Jesus Christ, they did not receive those in human words, but in the words of God, holding on to the hope in the words and preaching the gospel with all their hearts in the midst of all persecution and tribulation.

         God confirmed the words of  Apostle Paul as the Words of God that are in his fourteen epistles.

           The members of the Thessalonians church devoted their whole heart to the ministry of preaching the gospel that the Lord Jesus had requested, believing and waiting for the two kinds of hope that they had deeply in their hearts in the words they heard through Apostle Paul.

          The two things they hoped for with all their hearts were the first one was to see the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the second to be eager to see the day when they gather together before Him.

               Of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, they believed his second coming to the earth to judge them that not know him as well as them that not obeyed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flaming fire taking vengeance on them, and punish them with everlasting destruction from the presence  of the Lord, and from the glory of his power(2Thes. 1:8-9) They also believed that the Lord Jesus Christ would accomplish his will by establishing his kingdom on earth. 

         They also believed in the day of the rapture when the Lord Jesus Christ resurrect their bodies and gather together before Him who appears in the air. When Apostle Paul testified of two kinds of events in the day of the rapture.

        As the first event, he testified saying, ” But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.“(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

          The bodies of the saints who died and slept in Christ are waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the tomb, but their spirits and souls have already ascended into heaven and are with Him, and when He opens the heavens and appears in the air,  Christ is coming with their spirits and souls. He will resurrect their bodies of the saints in the tomb to be united with their spirit and souls.

          As the second event, he testified saying, ” For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

          Apostle Paul exhorted saying, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Born again Christians are bound to face all kinds of persecutions and tribulations as they engage in spiritual warfare with the devil in the present world ruled by the devil. Therefore, only the day when Christ appears and bring them up to heaven is the only thing for them to be comforted.

Before Jesus left the world, he told his disciples:

” These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

         The members of Thessalonians church were living in comfort amid severe persecution and tribulation, eagerly awaiting for the day of the rapture and the day of Christ’s Second Coming on earth.  They seemed to believe of the rapture while they were alive. There were someone who deceived them at that time as these days. There were time-limited eschatologists who deceived people setting up their time frame and made their hearts shaken and frightened.

          Resurrected Jesus appeared to Apostle John and spoke of the type of church that would be raptured before the Great Tribulation. In writing to the angel of the Philadelphia Church, The Holy Spirit seems to divide the church that is to be raptured from the church that shall be left behind in the Great Tribulation:

“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

10Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Rev. 3:8-11)

          Apostle Paul testified of two events that must happen before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the day of Christ (rapture) when Christ appears in the air:

” Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;“(2Thessalonians 2:3).

          That’s right! The first one the so-called apostasy that the churches of God are falling away, and the appearance of the Antichrist who shall unite the whole world under his feet to build hid kingdom in the Great Tribulation against the kingdom of Christ to come. Two thousand years ago, the devil who took over the whole world by crucifying Jesus Christ who appeared as the King of the Jews in the land of Israel and set up the Kingdom of heaven sent many antichrists to the world. Apostle John testified of this:

“3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jeus Christ is come in the flesh is not of Gosd: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:3).

          “Apostasy” witnessed through Apostle Paul has reached an irreversible point today. Even almost all churches in the world that declare to believe in Jesus as the  way, truth, life, and their Savior and the Lord  have  joined with WCC and WEA long time ago in the deep adultery with the Roman Catholic Church that is the Whore before God and finally  in uniting with all religions And the Lord will deny them all in the day of judgment as Apostle Paul testified:

” If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:” (2 Tim. 2:12)

           Now that the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and Christ’s Second Coming on earth are very near at hand. The devil will now make the so-called Antichrist appear to establish his kingdom on behalf of himself against Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, which will be established after Christ’s Second Coming. Nowadays we already have seen all that have been prepared by the devil for the kingdom of Antichrist under the slogan of New World Order as well as Freemason, Illuminati as well as deep state or shadow government.  People all over the world are now seeing all kinds of filthy conspiracy and frauds. Whole world now seeing all kinds of lawlessness popping up from the deep state that has dominated all the politics, religions as well as major mass medias.  

         Apostle Paul testified that the antichrist was about to appear in his own time. He also testified that when the Antichrist appears, the mystery of iniquity will come into action, but there will be one to prevent from his appearance, but when he is taken out of the way,  the lawless man, the man of sin, the son of perdition that is the Antichrist, will finally appear.

           We’re seeing the 2020 U.S. presidential elections and seeing a man fighting against deep state scams, fighting them and stopping their atrocities. However, we are not sure if the man who is blocking is the one that Apostle Paul spoke of, but we need to watch awaking spiritually.

           When he appears, according to the working of Satan,  he will deceive with all power, signs, false miracles, and deception, and those who are not saved will be deceived. But finally, after the Great Tribulation, the Second Coming Lord Jesus Christ will remove him with the spirit from his mouth and throw him into the lake of fire.

           Therefore, the saints awaiting the rapture and Christ’s return on earth, pray our Father God who gave us the Lord Jesus Christ as well as eternal comfort and good hope to comfort our heart and establish us in every good word and work.

Amen! Hallelujah!.