The Notes

This coming Wednesday night, June 17, 2026, we continue our new Bible study series on Heaven.  This week looks in detail at the Great Tribulation, God's plan for His wrath to be poured out on the earth, and the dark times that are ahead.  But we also will look at the wedding for believers that will follow those events.  Join us as we separate truth from myth, give clarity to the book of Revelation, and answer common questions about the end times.  It's the destination of all Christians, so we ought to know about where we are headed and what to expect.  Join us for in-person worship and some mid-week encouragement for the soul at 6:00 p.m.

If you can't join us in person, you can always participate through our Facebook page - we go "live" at 6:00 p.m., and you will have a front row seat.  If you can't join us live, there are 3 ways to watch the message later - on Facebook, on YouTube, or here on our website. (the "Past & Future Messages" page).  Messages are posted the following day so you can watch a replay of any message anytime!  

If you want to keep some notes from a message, you can download the notes for a specific message from the "Past and Future Messages" page of our website.  There are many ways to be spiritually fed and encouraged.

This past Wednesday night, June 10, 2026, we continued our new Bible study series on Heaven.  In this second week of our study, we looked at the concepts of the rapture, our heavenly bodies, and the second coming of Jesus. 

Why do a study on heaven and end times?  Because we ought to know more about what God has planned, what our future will be, and the events God has said will happen before we live with Him in our final eternal home.  God wanted us to know about these things; that's why Jesus spoke of them, and why He allowed John to see heaven and write about it in Revelation.  And knowledge of these events will be important in our decisions to talk with our friends and loved ones about choosing Jesus; if we don't, these events will be their destiny.

Picking up from last week, we shared that when we die, we immediately go to be with Jesus . . . at least our spirits do.  

Our spirits go to heaven (what Jesus referred to as “Paradise”), and our bodies are buried.  2 Corinthians 5:8 says “to be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord.”  And Acts 7:59 – “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”  Also consider Luke 23:46 - Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.”  Jesus gave up His spirit to God the Father, but his body would be buried.  

In Heaven right now are the spirits of our loved ones.  They wait for us; they wait for the passage of events and time that will bring us to them.  Some long to already be in heaven.  Paul wrote in

2 Corinthians 5:2 – “We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.”

When do we get heavenly bodies?  Well Jesus made it clear - that ay and hour is unknown.  The exact process is unknown, but the Bible indicates it will happen at the rapture.

The word "Rapture" is used in the Bible, although not in the way we expect.  Six times it describes a state of intense joy or emotion, which is the usual meaning of the word.  But rapture also means to be carried away by intense emotion, and one day Jesus will carry His children away to heaven because of His intense love for us.  This is in the Bible, indeed, but it’s there by description, not by the English term, rapture.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul talks about the rapture of the church, the believers in Jesus Christ.  The Latin word for rapture is "rapturo."  Rapturo translates into Greek as Harpazo which means “caught up” in English.  That's the word Paul used when he wrote:  “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Since our spirits are already with the Lord, the rapture is the raising of our bodies, including those who died before Jesus, to be with the Lord and receive a heavenly body.  We can think of the Rapture as a transformation process.  

Paul said, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.  We will be changed to be like Jesus.  1 Corinthians 15:49 – “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man.”  That heavenly man is Jesus.  We’ll have the same glorified body as Jesus.  Philipians 3:20-21 confirms this – “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Paul wrote at length about this in 1 Corinthians15.  Paul said in verses 42-44 - "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

So we will be transformed to have a body like Jesus after He was resurrected.  Jesus’ new heavenly body was different, but it could be touched, he could eat, and He could seemingly pass through walls and doors to just materialize before the disciples!

Here is what we know about the new body we will receive.  It will be incarnate (“in the flesh”), and it will be identifiable, meaning we will be recognized just as people recognized Jesus.  The body will be indestructible and immortal, meaning that our heavenly body will last forever.  It won't wear out and we will never die again.  And finally, it will be illuminated and shine because it will be reflecting the glory and radiance of Jesus and God.

We will be transformed with this heavenly body during the rapture; this belief comes from the Bible's words that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him.  1 John 3:2 - “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”  So the Rapture is about receiving new bodies when Jesus raises the old ones. 

Some people question if the rapture is different than the Second Coming of Christ.  The Bible indicates those are two separate events.  In the Rapture, we’ll be “caught up” with Jesus; in the Second Coming, Christ will come down to Earth.  The rapture is Jesus coming part of the way to earth, but scripture says we will be caught up with Him in the air.  At the second coming, He will establish His new kingdom. 

In the rapture, Jesus comes back for the Church; in the Second Coming, Jesus comes to the Earth with His church (Rev. 19:14). 

The Rapture looks more like God`s rescue plan for the Church; but the Second Coming is not a rescue, it is the coronation of the new King of Kings.

Paul writes of the rapture as the time that Jesus "rescues us from the coming wrath.” – 1 Thess. 1:10.

In the Rapture, Jesus comes to take the church out of harm’s way, in the Second Coming, He returns to destroy evil and establish His Millennial Kingdom.

Paul wrote about the coming rapture as a comforting doctrine, and encouraging theology; he didn't put it in terms of a warning about something awful to come.  That suggests that we will not have to live in the darkest, most difficult time of life to come - the great "tribulation."  Paul wants us to know that the rapture is a rescue operation before the tribulation and the Second Coming involves Jesus coming back to judge a Christ-rejecting world, after the tribulation.  

 When will this happen?  We are not given a date, but a general time is suggested.  Here is Jesus said about it in Matthew 24:36-42.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." 

Noah's rescue was right before the flood, so our rescue is right before the dark days of the tribulation.  This view is supported by the prophecy of Daniel 12:1-2 – “…There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

This time of distress - the tribulation - will be ushered in when the AntiChrist begins his reign and deception.  (See Matt. 24:15).  That event has not yet happened, but perhaps it is closer than we think.  That also means that the Second Coming of Jesus is an event that may happen sooner, too.  It will happen after the 7 year period of tribulation.  And on that day, every knee will bow and proclaim Jesus as Lord.  (Romans 14:11).  We know how the story ends - we know that God wins.  That is what God wants us to know.  And because He loves us, He wants us with Him in heaven as we watch Jesus defeat the enemy.  More on that in the coming weeks.