Jr. Tree of Life
09/27/2020
The Rapture – Part 1
Meeting Jesus in the Clouds
Eternity Past, Age of Gentiles, Age of Israel, Hypostatic Union, Church Age, Tribulation, Millennium, Eternal Future
Before you begin this Bible study, If you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, John 3:16 tells us: “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ Simply have faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and you will have eternal life and be saved. If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior; then 1 John 1:9 tells us; “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Simply privately tell God the Father your sins to be filled with God the Holy Spirit and He will teach you Bible truth. (Rebound)
Promise Memory Verse
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Hey kids, did you ever wonder what the future will be like? Will there be flying cars or roller blades with rockets on them that will take you to the moon for the day? Will you have a time machine in your room that helps you figure out your history homework by taking you back in time?
Will you have a drone that cleans up your room, and brings you a snack? It’s fun to imagine isn’t it.
One of the most exciting things that we have today is Bible Doctrine
because it tells us what the future is going to be like. How about if we learn about one of the things that is going to happen in the future in our lesson today?
Have you all ever heard of the rapture? Well our memory verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 it tells us all about it. One day during at the end of the Church Age, which is the period of time that we live in right now, Jesus will come down from Heaven and stand among the clouds. He will shout and every person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior will hear a trumpet and a voice from an archangel!
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (I Corinthians 15:52)
Wow, in a split second, this special group of people will get to go to Heaven without dying first and their bodies will go with them but will instantly change into resurrection bodies just like Jesus has! You will go up, up, up to meet Jesus whether you are swimming in the lake, in the middle of eating breakfast or even if you had been sound asleep.
Just before Jesus comes for you, He will make sure that all of the the bodies of all of the Church Age believers who have already died, will be changed, and given a new resurrection body just like He has.
There are only two other people that we know of that have gone to Heaven without dying first. One was Elijah, who lived during the Age of Israel and the other person was Enoch.
Enoch lived to be 365 years old and was taken up to heaven without dying first. He lived during the Age of the Gentiles. During the Age of the Gentiles, people lived a very long time, way longer than we do now.
“By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5
Today, many people try and guess what the future will be like, but they really have no idea. Some think that the whole world will be destroyed by “global warming.” This is simply not true because God already wrote the future for us in the Bible way before the words “global warming” ever existed and that future means that God has big plans for you well after the Rapture.
Right now, your life may seem like it will never get back to normal. You may have to do social distancing and wear masks at school. Some of you may have to stay home from school and do on line learning and that may be really hard especially with math. You may find out that your favorite sport has been cancelled, or that you can’t go to sleep over’s at your friend’s house right now because of the virus, Covid-19.
What God is looking for is for you to be an invisible hero and keep on learning Bible Doctrine, rebounding, and using the faith-rest drill … no matter what happens to you; He has very special plans for your future!
