Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: 1 Thessalonians 4
The Greatest Resurrection

The Greatest Resurrection

By |

The Greatest Resurrection

‘…and the dead in Christ shall rise first….

I Thessalonians 4:16b

We have been meditating for the past days on the resurrections which Christ effected during His earthly ministry. We come now to consider what will be His Greatest Resurrection. He will accomplish that resurrection at His Second Coming. We find the summary of this in the context of our text for today.  ‘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 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.’ Christ is going to return as He promised, physically, visibly, and well-announced. When He does, several things are going to happen in rapid succession. We are going to dwell upon one of those things today. This first of these is, ‘the dead in Christ will rise first.’ The Scripture does not really explain the reason for this particular order. The implications of it are clear, all those who have died in Christ, are the first whom He raises from the dead at His Coming. This is Christ’s greatest act of resurrection. It encompasses a massive portion of humanity. Added together with all those who are living at the time of Christ’s return, this amounts to ‘a great multitude which no man can number.’ It is a blessed and encouraging prospect to be a member of that congregation. Christ Alone can include us. He does so by drawing us unto Himself by Free and Sovereign Grace. Today, let us dwell upon that Grace and the effect it has had upon us.

Our Glorious Living Christ,
we rejoice that You will yet raise Your people from the dead.
We look forward to that day when the faith shall be sight,
and we shall behold You Face to face, our Ever-Living Lord.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Always…With The Lord’

‘Always…With The Lord’

By |

 

‘Always…With The Lord’

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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.

I Thessalonians 4:17

After our emphasis last week upon the First Advent of Christ, and our emphasis this week upon His Second Advent, we want to close the year with words of hope and encouragement which tie these two Advents together and help us, to look forward to the future. When Christ came the first time, He came to accomplish all that was necessary for our Redemption from the perspective of fulfilling the Law in precept and in penalty. Because He did so successfully, God, His Father raised Him from the dead. For all these years, the Ascended Christ has ever lived to make intercession for all of His Blood-bought people. Also, as of now, ‘He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.’ As we said yesterday, when Christ returns, ‘the dead in Christ will rise first.’ To that statement the Apostle Paul adds our text for today, ‘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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.’ Here was the desire of the first disciples who said, ‘Master, where do you dwell?’ It is the desire of every child of God, bought with the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, to be with Christ. This is the beginning of the blessed eternity for which we so long have waited. This is our longing and our expectation. We have long desired it and prayed earnestly for it. For us, heaven is the hope, not of streets of gold and gates of pearl, but the glorious state, that ‘we shall always be with the Lord.’

High King of Heaven,
we look forward to the hour when we shall ascend to the very throne of God.
We praise You, that we shall spend all our eternity,
in the light of Your Presence, in God’s Eternal Day.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
‘And The Dead In Christ Will Rise’

‘And The Dead In Christ Will Rise’

By |

‘And The Dead In Christ Will Rise’

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

I Thessalonians 4:16

An attendant circumstance to the Return of Christ is the resurrection of the dead. As the logical follow-on from our discussion from yesterday, we want to concentrate upon the last line of the verse, ‘and the dead in Christ will rise first.’ The Apostle Paul, writing in First Corinthians, spends an entire chapter expounding the truth of the resurrection of the dead. He first goes to great lengths to prove that Christ Himself rose from the dead. He spends the chapter explaining and proclaiming the resurrection of the dead. Beginning in the fifty-first verse he explains in great detail how this resurrection looks, ‘Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Here is the clear description of the saints’ expectation. For this reason we do not fear death. As one old divine put it, there is the death of death in the Death of Christ. Because Christ has Himself risen from the dead He guarantees the resurrection of all who are dead in him at His Return. This emboldens every child of God who is able, by faith, to grasp the truth of it. This makes the death bed a life bridge, and the arrival of Death as the advent of a Royal Escort. For us, death is but a brief rest for the body until the new one arrives. This is why, at the graveside we ‘sorrow not as others who have no hope.’ One of the soul thrilling results of the Return of Christ is that ‘the dead in Christ will rise first.’

Our Glorious Savior, and Our Living Lord,
we rejoice that You have risen from the dead.
We praise You, that because You are the Lord of Life,
we shall be raised by You, at Your coming.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
‘The Lord Himself Will Descend’

‘The Lord Himself Will Descend’

By |

‘The Lord Himself Will Descend’

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

I Thessalonians 4:16

Because we have been meditating at the close of the year upon the subject of the return of Christ, we want to take the opportunity to dwell upon some of the particulars of it. Our text for today makes two truths evident. The first truth is that the return of Christ will be Personal. Our text declares, ‘for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven.’ This agrees with every other statement we find scattered throughout Scripture relating to the subject. On the night before Christ went to the cross He told His disciples ‘I will come again.’ On the Mount of Olives in Acts 1, the angels told the disciples, ‘This same Jesus…will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’ John describes the Personal return of Christ vividly in Revelation, saying, that He comes upon a white horse with a multitude of His saints at His Back. This leads us to understand the second truth from our text. The return of Christ is public. It is ‘with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.’ This is what the Scripture clearly declares, therefore this is what we must certainly believe. No matter how dark the intervening days may be since His Ascension, He will return Personally and Publicly. Until then our cry is, ‘And Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight.’

Our Gracious God and Our Savior,
we look forward to that day when we shall see You Face to face.
We praise You, that You always keep Your Divine Appointments,
and that in keeping this appointment, You will not fail.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Meta