Parks, Alan: The Comfort Of His Coming

Of you, and you are starting the new year this January with yet another talent night. This assembly owes me quite a debt of gratitude because two years ago I introduced one of Lorne McLeod's many talents to you, and I believe he did that, and I never got to see the videotape of him, as I told you that he was a very p- profound break dancer. It's my joy this morning to be able to report to you that that's not the only one of his talents. Do any of you have a karaoke machine? And could bring it. January twenty fifth, huh? I may come this time. I may not be invited, and I don't know where I'm going to stay, but I may have to come this time and see what his talent will be this next time. And, uh, Lord willing, I'll be sleeping in my car probably the rest of my visits here. We're going to look at First Thessalonians chapter four this morning, First Thessalonians chapter four, the very last part of the chapter. Aye, aye. And Lord, just in case you're really mad, I got to tell you, I didn't complete what I was going to say about the karaoke machine. It's probably just as well. Please don't do that. Few people I'm scared of, but I walk in mortal terror of that woman. First Thessalonians chapter four and verse thirteen, But I would not have you to be ignorant or untaught, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others, the literal rendering is devoid of hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who 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. Then we who 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. Wherefore comfort, exhort, encourage, challenge one another with these words. In thinking of today, as Sam has mentioned, the very first Sunday of a new year, can you believe it? I was kind of wondering what to speak on, and to be honest, what we're going to be looking at today is something that maybe I need. Maybe you don't necessarily, although I think it's probably good for all of us to be re-reminded of the wonders of the rapture of the church, and then, Lord willing, this evening we're going to look at a place that hopefully all of us will spend eternity in, City Foursquare. And I would like this morning to share from the last part of First Thessalonians chapter four on the comfort of his coming. The encouragement that we have in this last part of the chapter is based on five concrete facts that we will be looking at in the latter portion of this meeting. Revelation, return, resurrection, rapture, and thank God, reunion. Now, I don't usually alliterate. I feel like John Phillips today. It's quite a feeling of power, and I'll be giving them to you later. These are the five basic concrete facts of the resurrection of the church. I do have to tell you, though, that as a believer, they thrill me, these, all five of them do. The whole subject itself thrills me, but it wasn't that way before I came to Christ. The thought of the rapture of the church used to paralyze me with fear. And maybe there's somebody here today, there's some of you that I don't know, and uh, if, if this is something that, as you think of the rapture of the church, i- it's a great unknown to you, or even if it's known, and yet within you there, there's that churning doubt, I wonder where I'll be after the rapture of the church. Then I hope today, perhaps maybe above all else, we who are believers hope today that you will recognize that this could take place, as we've already heard, today, today. And it would be the wise among us who would make sure that they were ready to meet God, if indeed the church is raptured today. Now, these saints in Thessalonica had a very profound question. It was a question that, to be honest, we, we give them. We understand why they were asking it. It's not in any way, shape, or form, uh, a black mark against them that they had questions as they did. Most scholars are convinced that it was about thirty to thirty five years from the formation of the church in Thessalonica, when the Apostle Paul and others in his missionary team went to the writing of this letter. Now, you know and I know that in the space of thirty five years, people are born and people die. And more than likely, because of history and early church history, we learn that in the first century, the churches round about Thessalonica, and I don't think it's anything as a grasp to assume that even here in Thessalonica, there were probably martyrs, those who gave their life for owning the name of Christ. History tells us that these early Gentile saints, when they came to the Lord Jesus and were saved, many of them lost their families, they lost their employment, some of them lost their inheritance, which came if you were basically written out of the family will. Uh, others lost their marriages. History tells us that these were hard times. There was a price, an enormous price, if you came to Christ in many of these Gentile outposts. Now, having said that, I don't think it's that big of a stretch to think that quite possibly there had been some who were saved early on when the gospel came, who had actually become martyrs. They had given up their life because of the person and the work and for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these saints had a very legitimate question. What happened to those that died? If I may paraphrase their question, would they be second class citizens at the rapture of the church? It would appear, because the apostle says so, that while he was with them, he taught them. Actually, he taught them a huge variety of things. He was a great evangelist, but he was one profound teacher too, and he taught them a lot, and he taught them concerning the rapture of the church. He also taught them that, by the way, the rapture between verses thirteen and eighteen in chapter four. and then he taught them in the very next chapter, and apparently had while he was with them in person, concerning the second coming of Christ. Interestingly, there are a lot of people, there are even some who write songs today, and they kind of mix up the second coming of the Lord with the rapture of the church. And so let's be very clear on it today. The second coming is not the rapture. He will come a second time, but not to planet Earth. He'll come somewhere in the firmament, in the sky, and we who are alive, and I hope, I hope I can say that I'm one of them, and remain at the coming of the Lord, and Paul wants them to know those who have slept in Jesus, we will rise in what will be a private meeting in the air, where saints from the ages, and undoubtedly at least a great number of the angelic throng, in company with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will meet together in the air, and so shall we ever go to be with the Lord Jesus. Now, about one thousand and seven years after that, as near as we can determine, there will be another resurrection of the dead. Those that died before Christ, bodies will be raised. Others, of course, pardon me, who died after the, the resurrection, after the, uh, the rapture of the church and so on. And so there will be a second resurrection of the dead. But this deals, the rapture, with the church. It is uniquely for the church. And if you're with us today, and this is brand new, and you say, well, which church? It's not the name of the building that counts. It's the church, which is his body. It is every person, whether they be male or female, younger or older, no matter what color they are or what language they speak. It is every person, and even regardless of who they meet with and how they meet, to whichever denominational name or independent name. Every person who has in their life come to put faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and accepted him as personal savior, they are the church, the church which is his body. We are also known as the bride of Christ. What an awesome title, and what an honor it is. And he, the great bridegroom, will begin the consummation of a, of an eternal love story at the rapture of the church. It is based on five concrete facts. First of all, revelation. Paul says in verse thirteen, I do not want you to be untaught, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others devoid of hope. Look at verse fifteen. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. That's what was behind this. This is not absolutely unique in the writings of the Apostle Paul. The greatest lessons ever given concerning the Lord's Supper that we had the joy of remembering this morning, the Lord Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection. The pinnacle meeting of the local church. Everything else follows in second place behind that, the chief meeting of the church, the Lord's Supper, everything else. That's when we come together in a unique scope. We do not come to get, but rather we come prepared to give. And of course, in giving, we receive more than perhaps at any other meeting, but that's secondary. But we come united together to remember one in his own appointed way, in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup, and through worship and praise and even meditations in the word of God, we come together for the express purpose of remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an absolutely high honor, greatest privilege that can ever be given, ever, to human beings. That's the Lord's Supper. But then we have teaching on that in First Corinthians, pardon me, in chapter eleven, undoubtedly the clearest teaching from the Apostle Paul outside of the institution of that feast. And remember how he introduces the subject. I have delivered unto you that which also I received from the Lord. And so with that in mind, that was another direct revelation. This truth has been given to us through the direct revelation to Paul through the Spirit of God himself. And that's why he says in verse fifteen, this is, we say unto you by the word of the Lord. And he said, I don't want you to be untaught. There are a lot of people that have a lot of opinions on the rapture of the church. You will even find fairly ungodly people today. You might even find those, to be honest, that know little about the Bible, but they have to assume that the world can't keep going on the way it is. And they have an interest, a curiosity in the end times. And even people like that, you would have to say to, why would you ever want to substitute human speculation for divine revelation? God doesn't let us speculate, or he doesn't leave us to speculate. You know, we don't need to. He's given us every single glimpse of the last chapter of the book, and in it all, our team has already won. We as Christians are on the very winning side. Now, it's based on the historical fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. And because of that, Paul gets this new revelation and passes it on. Passes it on first to the church there that had questions, and now down through all of these centuries, he passes it along to us. I have to be very cautious today, and also as sensitive as I can be, that in the last year there might be people here who have lost loved ones. There is enormous comfort in the subject of the rapture of the church. There's also enormous challenge for the believer, for we need to live every day through the day as if he were coming this very day. And with that in mind, it may keep us from doing certain things, or it may jumpstart us towards doing certain things. And on top of that, it it can guard us. That poem that was read this morning, it guards us from that kind of hopelessness. It's so sad to hear that. It guards us from that if we recognize that this might be the day, perhaps today, that the Lord Jesus comes. And it is based on the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul tell- told the Corinthian church, he said, here are several things in a divine progression. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is vain, our gospel is vain, and my very act of preaching it is vain. If indeed Christ has not been raised from the dead, but he was. And because of that wonderful fact, we have hope. We have hope. And part of this hope is the rapture of the church, based on this historical fact. Now, we need to say, in fairness to the Thessalonian believers, that previously, rather gradually, somewhat progressively, they were learning, and they had been taught, that it was not the soul which slept. Human beings are absolutely distinct and unique from the animal kingdom. When an animal dies, even if it has been a beloved family pet for fifteen years, and everybody left behind are in mourning, that animal dies. But they don't possess a soul, to the best of our knowledge. And when they die, they die. But human beings are different. We are a tripartite being, the theologians tell us, it's true. Body, soul, and spirit. And because of that, we are immortal. We will live one of two places, and that forever. And in that, we are part and parcel of what was prophesied in Genesis one twenty six, that we are created in the image and the glory of God. God is an eternal being, and he has made us to be eternal beings. We are the pinnacle above all of the an- animal creation, and actually above the angelic creation, for they were created to worship. You and I have been saved to worship. We are the pinnacle creation of God. And in that, gradually they would have learned that it was not the soul that slept, it was only the body that slept. This was all part of the revelation that is given to the saints here. Secondly, it is a doctrine concerning a return, and the doctrine of his return, I think maybe above anything else, comforts the brokenhearted. Verse fourteen, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. They're obviously not forgotten. He says again in verse fifteen, this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are asleep. The return is before us. In John chapter eleven verses eleven through thirteen, we learn a very critical truth. There were Gnostics in his day, and there are agnostics in our day who doubt that Jesus Christ actually died on Golgotha. In fact, they really disbelieve it. They say, since there's never been any scientific or imperial- empirical proof that a person has really died and been raised again, we can't believe it. So what happened was, in their primitive stage medically, he w- he lapsed into what today we would call a coma. They couldn't detect a heartbeat. They probably, even if they put their face or their ear up to his mouth, mouth and nostrils, they could not feel or hear him breathing, and so they would say, because of that, it was a very deep coma, and they buried him. But he came out of the coma. That was a prevalent teaching, by the way, in the latter part of the first century. Uh, to the doubters, they would have to come up with something, and that sounded about as plausible as anything else, and it's still that way to this day. There are those, I think they are few, but there are those who really honestly would doubt that Jesus Christ actually died. We learn differently all through the scriptures, but John eleven puts it to rest for good. He died. He didn't just sleep. That really was just a euphemism for dying. He, he fell asleep, but it could have been a permanent sleep had God not seen fit to raise him from the dead. But the fact that he actually died means that you and I need not fear death. I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to dying. I really am not. I have never once gotten up in the morning wondering if this was the day that I was going to die. I've had a few close calls, but to be very honest, that's not something that I look forward to. I don't necessarily have a terror about it either. It's just that maybe as human beings, we have this innate fear of the unknown, and you only get one chance to do it. No real such thing as a dress rehearsal. You can't practice it. And because no one that we know of, of course there are fanciful stories, rather anecdotal, but nobody has ever died and come back from, from death to life and then described what the actual act of dying was like. And so I don't really look forward to dying. I really, really look forward to the rapture of the church. That's what I want to be alive for, not looking forward to the act of dying. But nonetheless, the scriptures teach us that we need not fear death, hell, or the grave, all of it because Jesus died. And so Paul wants these saints to know that it is only the body that has fallen asleep. That's why he said to the Corinthian church in two Corinthians five verse eight that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord. That is for the believer, of course. Is death a loss? Well, obviously it is. Uh, it is a profound loss. It's sometimes hard for me, and you're gonna have to bear with me for a moment. It's sometimes hard for me to juxtapose the first verse that we read, where we sorrow not even as others devoid of hope. Because, to be honest, I really think that Christians can sorrow more deeply in some regards than even those that are not saved. I have met a pile of families that are not saved, and they're very estranged. And when one of their members dies, it's not that huge a deal. I find that so sad. Now, I have to be honest, I, I really don't listen to her, and, and I don't really like listening to her, truth be told. But that lady, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, the radio host, you heard recently that her mother was murdered, and she didn't know it for weeks. Nobody did. I find that pathetic. I'm glad I don't listen to her. I couldn't take any advice from anybody like that again. I find that so sad. But when you are a believer, when you are a Christian parent, and your child comes to the Lord Jesus, and to a degree is living for him, you don't just have a father and son, mother and daughter, or whatever bond. You have another bond. Parents and their children, grandchildren even, are brothers and sisters in Christ. And yes, I have a feeling that we actually feel a keen sense of loss because of familial relationship and that bond that is strengthened because of the bonds of Christ. But having said that, we don't sit back as those devoid of hope, wringing our hands and saying, woe is me. Because you really cannot lose someone when you know exactly where they are. And the great doctrine of the rapture of the church teaches us that we know exactly where loved ones are. There are a lot of people that I'm anxious to see when I get to heaven. Some of you have lost parents, many grandparents. Some here have lost children, some have lost grandchildren, aunts and uncles, great variety. We all have those that we cannot wait to see again. But Paul wants these saints, and he wants us to be reminded again that it is only the body that sleeps. Now, no- notice in verse fifteen, the apostle says, this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain. Isn't that interesting? Verse seventeen, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together. Paul looked for his return. That means, that's the meaning of the word imminent. He was waiting almost two thousand years ago. He was waiting on a daily basis and looking for the return of the Lord Jesus. Centuries have come and gone, and let's be honest, we don't know how long it will be until the rapture of the church. We think to ourselves, it it has to be soon. He cannot continue to delay his coming, but we think of things differently than God does. Remember, a day with him is like a thousand years. In a thousand years, this is one day. You say that doesn't make sense. Well, it's not supposed to, because we dwell within the realm of time, but God does not. And so time is absolutely immaterial to God, and that's why scoffers still say, where's the promise of his coming? Ha! He's been saying that for years. It doesn't matter when you're eternal. A couple of millennia is nothing, and when you will never have an end. And so we have to think and refocus the way God does. The return of the Lord Jesus, I believe, is imminent. Here's the lesson concerning his return, point number two: He's either going to return with us, if we die first, or he will return for us. Either way, we will be there. Almost enough to make you happy today, isn't it? Thirdly, it's based on the resurrection, verses fifteen and sixteen, which we have already read. The Sadducees, of course, doubted in the resurrection, and the Athenians outright mocked it. There are still those in the world today who mock it just the same. But there will be, according to verse sixteen, this, this wonderful triplet of action and sound. There will be a shout of command, the archangelic voice, and the trumpet of God. I used to think that they would be in sequence, and who's to tell? Maybe they will be. But I now have come to believe that they will be simultaneous. Just the way that it's structured in the oldest manuscripts, it would seem that these things will just hit and wham. It will happen, and there will be the resurrection. The shout, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. I would love to know what the word is or what the phrase will be that he will shout. I have a feeling that it will be a great command. It might simply be rise or come. It may be a phrase, I don't know. We'll talk about it someday. We all will, but as of right now, I don't know what it will be. The archangelic voice, more than likely Michael, even though there could be more than one, more than likely there will be the archangelic voice, and then the trump of God. A trumpet was always used to herald the arrival of a great person. Still is today, if you happen to be the Queen of England or somebody like that. The trumpet is used to herald the arrival of a great person. Eternity's greatest person will be waiting for us in the air. And we read, the dead in Christ shall rise first. One of the things that Paul and others are very, very careful to do in the New Testament is to give us the continuity of this whole thing. The dead body, in their analogy, is a seed. It is planted in the earth. At times it has been incinerated. Countless thousands of them are in the bottom of ocean and seas and rivers. Some have been buried under feet of volcanic ash, never to be seen again. Others are apparently completely gone. One of the great mysteries that I spend way too much time puzzling over, because frankly, I'll never solve it, is how is he going to do this? How is he going to do this? I just really honestly puzzle over that. Some of you know that I love to dive, and I especially love shipwrecks. So I'm very fascinated by the Titanic. Always wondered in that very cold water, always wondered, would the bodies be so perfectly preserved that they would be just recognizable from thirteen thousand six hundred feet? And of course, Dr. Ballard and others in their studies, as they have actually visited that ship. By the way, if any of you have twenty eight thousand six hundred dollars you don't know what to do with, you can actually take a ride on one of those mini subs and go down. Or you could give it to me and I'd take the ride. But they have discovered that there are organisms that have actually devoured every single part of those bodies, even the bone. Nothing left. How's God going to do that? I don't know. I'll tell you this, he's got to. He can do it. If he can create everything out of nothing, he can also recreate, even if there's very, very little left. We have an enormous God, and there is continuity. The dead body is planted as a seed, but the glorified body rises as a flower. That's the continuity that's painted several places. There is continuity from seed to plant to flower. This resurrection, again, obviously, are those who have been saved through faith in Christ. Revelation twenty, by the way, in John chapter five give us the, the, the teachings concerning the second resurrection of the dead. Now, the three sounds, and all of a sudden, verse number fi- number sixteen, we read at the end, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Do you understand that the unregenerate mind recognizes this? There was a very humble man around the seventh century or eighth century, I forget the exact dates. His name was Suleiman, although in his humility he called himself Suleiman the Magnificent. He was a leader of the nation of Islam, and he studied quite, quite deeply into the Jewish Messiah. And do you know what he found? Found several things. The Jewish Messiah could never be in the presence of death. He also found that at the Second Coming, when he came to the Mount of Olives, he would walk across the Kidron Valley and ascend into Jerusalem through a gate that bears three names: the Eastern Gate, Golden Gate, and the Gate Beautiful. Take your pick. I like them all. It's the same gate. And so Suleiman, the humble man, the magnificent, Suleiman did two things. He planted a cemetery. Didn't plant it, you know what I mean. He made a cemetery right in front of the Eastern Gate. Jewish Messiah, you see, can't be in the presence of death. He also sealed that gate up. They say that the stones, some of them may weigh forty tons that seal up the eastern gate. Some of them are massive, eight feet long by about three feet wide. They're pretty big. He really, really thinks he has it all figured out. All I know is this, those graves are going to open. Those graves are going to open. And that God who can provide localized earthquakes and has done it time and time again, has seen fit. They've known about it in Israel, by the way, since nineteen forty eight. Just started talking about it in the last few years. There's a geological fault. It actually runs right in the heart of the Mount of Olives. It takes a little northern turn as it goes across the Kidron Valley, and as they have studied these plates and the fi- the the the fracture in the plate, guess where it goes under? A gate that has three names. And I believe that the Lord Jesus will come, and there will be a little earthquake. The Mount of Olives is going to split. It'll go right up, and just like pumice, those huge stones are going to absolutely be disintegrated. But the wonderful thing will be the dead in Christ will rise first. He won't need to be in the presence of death. Those bodies will be raised. There is a place, maybe some of you have heard me talk about it before, and if you have, forgive me, hadn't planned to talk about it. It's called the Bunhill Field. It's in London, England. If you're ever at the John Wesley House on City Road in London, England, by all means, budget about an hour and a half to two hours across the street from the John Wesley. House. Seventeen of the great worthies in the seventeen hundreds of the Christian faith are buried in a cemetery called the Bunhill Fields. It is today owned by the Corporation of the City of London, England. But this was the dissenters portion of the cemetery. When the Church of England left the gospel and the simplicity of the gospel, a number of great, great worthies stood up against what they heard, and they brought back a simple, clear teaching of the gospel. They rose up in dissent against the Church of England and the stand that they had taken, which frankly persists to this day. And they wouldn't, were not allowed to be buried in the main portion of the cemetery. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, has the most ornate tomb in the Bunhill Fields. Susanna and Charles Wesley, John was buried there too, but they have reinterred him in the garden behind his home. But all three of them were buried in the Bunhill Field. Susanna Wesley, by the way, gave birth to twenty one children, seventeen of whom survived into adulthood. All seventeen of her children either became, hate the term, but you know what I mean, full-time workers for Christ, or married those who were, all seventeen. And the amazing thing to me is you never read a thing about Mr. Wesley. Seems that the spiritual impact in those seventeen children's lives must have come from their mother, Susanna. William Dafoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, a book that he wrote for his children to read to them before bed, the only book that he wrote that was not one of deep theological impact. But guess which one has survived? Kind of ironic, isn't it? William Dafoe is buried in the Bunhill Fields. William Cooper, the great songwriter. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. He's buried in the Bunhill Fields. One tune that I honestly love to go and s- and just stand beside and honor the memory of is a man named Dr. Isaac Watts, who one month past his eighteenth birthday wrote When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. All of these and many more buried in the Bunhill fields. And every time I'm there, I will look at Carol and I will say, I don't think there's a better place to be at the resurrection of the just. Could you imagine being here at the rapture of the church and watching all that precious dust gathered together again, and now a glorified body ascends to the Lord Jesus? It will take place in the resurrection at the rapture of the church. There are five definitions in my library at home, in my books, concerning the, uh, the rapture itself. Here's one, to catch away speedily. I like that one. It's not my favorite, but I like it because it's true. How can you like, not like something that's true? I once was told when I was young, in the Ice Ages, I was told that the, the twinkling of an eye is the blink of an eye. I heard that from a conference platform, maybe more than one. And then I read somewhere that the blinking of an eye, when it's involuntary, it's always longer when you're doing it yourself, but I always heard that the blink of an eye was one thirty second of a second. Let's time it. Uh, and that's not what it means at all. As light travels, at what is it, One hundred and eighty six thousand miles. Is that right? As light travels at one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per hour, and sec- seconds, I'm sorry, you got it, and and glints off the cornea of the human eye and then goes out into eternity. That is the twinkling of an eye. It is nearly immeasurable. It is so infinitesimally small. That's the, that that's kind of neat, to catch away speedily. I like that one. Here's one I don't really like, but I'm afraid it's going to be a bit true. To seize by force. To seize by force. Actually, Dr. Kenneth Weiss translates rapture that way. A dear friend of mine named Rusty Goodman, a great singer and songwriter, used to say to me, he always called me Squirrel. He said, Squirrel, I got to tell you, there's some people that I know, some Christians, that as far as I'm concerned, it will take God. Only God can get them away from this planet. Their roots are so deep, to seize away by force. Thirdly, to claim for oneself. Fourthly, to move to a new place. They're pretty self-explanatory. And an interesting one that I found was to rescue from danger. There's some truth to that, isn't there? Well, take them all and put them all together, whatever you want to call it, it will be the rapture of the church. And finally, as our time is gone, we have the reunion in verses seventeen and eighteen. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, that's the dead in Christ, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Death is an awful separator, but the Lord Jesus is an awesome reconciler. And it will be a glorious reunion because we're going to be fashioned anew. Whatever it is that plagues you today, be it physical or emotional, spiritual, whatever it might be, it will gloriously be gone when we are fashioned anew in that new place. It'll be an everlasting reunion. Tonight, sometime, we're going to have to shake hands or give a hug and say goodbye. And Lord willing, we'll see each other again next Sunday. But then next Sunday, we'll have to say goodbye. Now I got to really make it bad for you until the following Wednesday night, and I'll be back. Like a bad penny, I show up. But then after that, it'll be goodbye for a while. And let's be frank, for some of us, it might be goodbye. It might be goodbye. But it will be an everlasting reunion where the word goodbye will not be in the eternal vocabulary. And I'm kind of happy about that. Yes, it will be a time of reckoning. There will be the Bima, the place of reward and review. There will also be perhaps some loss of reward as our life has gone over, either things that we have or things that we have not done. That's all part and parcel of the bema. But the Lord is going to reunite broken families, broken friendships. It all came from the curse, but then we will know, and we will be known, because we will be like him, and we'll see him forever. It will be a glorious reunion. If today your heart is heavy, and you've come through a Christmas season. I had to meet a man this last year who, in one car accident, lost his wife and all five children. He's thirty six years old. What, what do you say to someone like that? What do you say when you meet them? I, I was at a, I was, I'm at a loss to describe it now, as much as I was at a loss, I didn't know. All you can do is just hold somebody like that, give him a hug. I thought a lot about him over the Christmas holidays from Thanksgiving on, and I prayed a lot for him, and I just asked that God would give him an enormous flooding peace, that there will be a reunion that will be forever. Let the doctrine of his return, the rapture, comfort the brokenhearted and challenge us and encourage us today for his glory. Father, we give thanks today for our Lord Jesus Christ. What a hope is ours. We think of the words that the hymn writer left us with such a blessed hope in view. We would more holy be, more like our risen glorious Lord, whose face we soon shall see. This is our prayer, as we give thanks for all of the hope, even the blessed and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Tonight we're going to be looking, Lord willing, at the city in which we're going to live forever. Be good to see you again.