The Rapture
About this sermon
In “The Rapture,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about eternal life and hope, Bible prophecy, faith. Drawing especially from 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, John 5, Daniel 12, the teaching emphasizes that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on faith. The message argues that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. It connects this with the conviction that thankfulness remembers God’s mercy and guards the heart from entitlement and complaint. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on the resurrection while working through John 5, Daniel 12, Isaiah 26. The message argues that Christ’s resurrection establishes the believer’s hope and the certainty of God’s final victory. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through Isaiah 26, Matthew 24. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on Bible prophecy while working through Matthew 24, Daniel 70, Revelation 13. The message argues that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. It connects this with the conviction that Jerusalem is presented as a biblical and prophetic focal point in God’s purposes. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on the Antichrist while working through Matthew 24, Revelation 13, Daniel 26. The message argues that the message examines biblical descriptions of the final adversary and the deception surrounding his rise. It connects this with the conviction that prophecy should produce discernment, readiness, and faithfulness rather than speculation alone. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on eternal life and hope while working through Matthew 24, Revelation 13, Revelation 6. The message argues that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. It connects this with the conviction that angelic activity is examined within the biblical passage and its prophetic sequence. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on the beast system while working through Revelation 13. The message argues that Revelation’s beast imagery is connected with coercion, worship, and end-time deception. It connects this with the conviction that the message examines biblical descriptions of the final adversary and the deception surrounding his rise. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on eternal life and hope while working through Revelation 7, Luke 17, Revelation 8. The message argues that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. It connects this with the conviction that angelic activity is examined within the biblical passage and its prophetic sequence. The practical emphasis is to remain watchful, grounded in Scripture, and ready to obey Christ.
Odle focuses on divine judgment while working through Revelation 7. The message argues that God’s judgment is treated as righteous, certain, and a reason to repent while mercy is offered. It connects this with the conviction that biblical faith trusts God’s character and acts upon His promises. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
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- 0:00:00
your presence lord nothing better than the holy presence of god your peace lord your love for us lord when you manifest yourself lord in our midst in our hearts when you are the lord when you show up lord you're always there god but when you truly bring forth god your presence and your power and we can feel your anointing we can feel your glory and your your hand upon us and your smile uh over us lord there's nothing better lord than your presence nothing better in this world or nothing better than your holy awesome presence jesus we love you we thank you for your precious blood that allows us to experience the presence in the holy of holies we thank you lord god that we don't serve a dead dry empty distant god but lord that we can draw near because of the blood of jesus we can draw near lord with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience we can draw near and worship you in spirit and in truth and together and lord you promised you would manifest yourself and lord you do it lord i sent you here today and lord i worship you and i thank you for all of your goodness for every time you've manifested yourself in my life and i know lord that everyone here is grateful and thankful for every single moment second that you have touched them and they have experienced your presence thank you holy spirit thank you holy spirit of truth thank you jesus thank you jesus praise you and worship you just take another moment just worship him in your own words just thank him just bless him thank you lord bless you mighty god king of kings and lord of lords the only way the only truth the only life jesus jesus christ of nazareth god who came in the flesh we worship
- 0:03:00
and adore and magnify and exalt you lord thank you for all of your goodness thank you that this song jesus really i mean it's for all of us but when we were singing it we just kept coming to mind all right gang are you ready are you ready for this um yes amen well we're going to go into this on the rapture this morning and we're going to teach it because um even though since we've been meeting as a church and having bible studies and different things and even though i even in the last end time series i did last year or even i guess it started in 2009 i never addressed this i alluded to it but i never addressed it in detail and i really felt strongly that as we did the bible prophecy thing last week that i needed to address this subject and you know kevin and i spent a lot of time working together so we've spent a lot a lot of time talking about this um andrea came to um the um the youth bible study and we talked about it some there in the friday night bible study so they'll be more familiar with it but i don't i i really think you guys never really got to hear or or i never got to get into it so that you guys could hear it so i wanted you guys to get it and and it's not and some of this is going to be repetitious for others but bottom line i think it's good to get it down in you and be able to understand it and be able to share with people why you believe what you believe and maybe you don't believe that what i believe about the rapture and when it's going to take place you know but that's up to you to decide after you see all the evidence anyway so we're talking about the rapture this morning so let's just uh get into it here we're going to look at these six passages very quickly just to give the background on it so go ahead and turn to first thessalonians 4 13. first thessalonians 4 13 we're going to read a few scriptures to just establish the doctrine of the rapture in the bible i mean i there are actually some christians who do not believe in the rapture they're uh a millennial uh they just believe that revelation was a is a spiritual thing it's a they spiritualize the whole thing they believe that yes jesus is coming back one day but the church is going to gradually
- 0:06:00
take over society and culture and improve everything and save everything and and make the kingdom and that jesus is just going to come back and everything's going to be okay that's called kingdom now theology or dominion theology it's pretty much what the catholic church believes um i also happen to know that it's what rick joyner and morningstar believes and a lot of a lot of charismatics are getting into that what they call kingdom now or dominion theology i believe it's a complete error because there's too many prophecies and scriptures that tell us that things are not going to get better in the end that the church is not going to get better in the end as a whole that there's going to be a great falling away a great apostasy that there's going to be more deception that that there's going to be a degeneration of the society to the point that they are the majority are worshiping the antichrist the beast the false prophet taking the mark of the beast we are not headed to better days until jesus comes back and that is that is the fallacy really in the whole dominion now kingdom theology so believe it or not there are those who who teach that there is not going to be a rapture of the church now i want to say this out front because people get caught up in in terms the term rapture is not in the bible okay people just now call it that but if you want to be biblical if you want to get technical we're going to read it it's called the catching away of the saints our gathering together to him um meeting the lord in the air the the resurrection the first resurrection i mean it's there's several names for it but it's just been called the rapture for so long most people understand that term but anyway we're gonna start first thessalonians chapter four um it's believed by most bible scholars and we can pretty well be sure that first thessalonians and sec first thessalonians in particular was one of the first new testament books written time-wise okay so let's start reading paul was writing to this church and verse 13. we'll start there he said but i would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep or dead that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that jesus died and rose again even so them which sleep in jesus will god bring with him for this we say unto you by the word of the lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the lord shall not prevent them which are asleep 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 and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
- 0:09:01
the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord wherefore comfort one another with these words so this was the first time in the new testament that the mystery of the rapture or the catching away of the saints of meeting the lord in the air this was the first time that it was revealed or taught to the church they didn't even know about this okay this is where paul talked about he went into the desert of arabia and god gave him revelations and that the gospel he preached was not from man but it was by direct revelation from god and so that's why he says very strongly here i am saying this to you by the word of the lord all right so this is a strong he's making it clear to them this is a revelation from god this is what's going to happen just for the sake of what we're going to get into a little bit later i want you to really remember what he says in verse 16 about it he says the lord himself will descend from heaven now this is this is not the second coming of jesus at armageddon but it is part of the second coming and this is what a lot of people don't understand the word perusia that's used about the second coming or the coming of our lord is a word that means an event that begins with multiple things happening it's not a one-time thing so the jesus descending from heaven and then calling up with the great sound of a trumpet calling forth his people up to meet him in the air is something that's going to happen near the second coming and i'm going to prove that but that is not what we term the second coming of jesus at armageddon to do something else he's coming at armageddon to destroy the armies of the world that follow the antichrist and and set up his kingdom from that point on but he says here the lord will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trump of god and then he goes and the dead in christ will rise first and then we which are alive and remain uh will be called up to meet the lord in the air so that's the main scripture go to first corinthians 15 yes okay when a person when the what he's talking about there when he says the dead in christ will rise first what he's talking about is when a person dies now before the rapture before the second coming if they're born again they're walking with jesus their body goes into the grave but their spirit and soul go to heaven when the resurrection take place god's promise that we will be redeemed both spirit soul and body and that there will be a resurrection of the body and so what happens is is that the bodies come out of the grave and they're given a new body and we'll see that in a second i'll turn to that scripture where he says when we see him
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