COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS 1Thess.4:18

The apostle tells us in 1 Thess.4:13 that he does not want us to be “ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep [have died] … those who sleep in Jesus.” v14 Paul is speaking about Christians who have died or as we say ‘have gone to be with the Lord’. Because Jesus died and rose again, those who have died in faith have gone to be with the Lord. “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” 2Cor.5:8. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the lynchpin of our faith and because Christ has been raised from the dead we look forward to the resurrection of the dead. “But Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1Cor.15:12-20

BY THE WORD OF THE LORD

In 1 Thess.4:15 Paul is emphatic, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord.” Paul is wanting us to know that the mystery he is about to unfold is a revelation brought to him by the ‘word of the Lord’. Something is going to happen at “the coming of the Lord”; and it will involve the dead in Christ and those believers on the earth who are looking for His coming. There is going to be a generation of believers [saints] who will be alive when the Lord Jesus comes. But His coming includes the coming “with Him of those who sleep in Jesus” v14. God will bring with Jesus all those Christians who have died and have been with Him in the heavenly realm. The dead in Christ are not sleeping in the graves as some erroneously teach; they are already with Christ in heaven in their spirit bodies. We have a physical body and a spiritual body and our soul is attached to [or part of] our spirit body. When a person dies it is only the physical body that dies. The soul of man which is attached to the spiritual is created for eternity. Paul makes it clear in these verses in 1Thess.4 and 1Cor.15 that the dead in Christ are with the Lord now and that there is a future resurrection of their bodies.

 

JESUS WILL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven” 1Thess.4:16; Jesus is coming down from heaven. Jesus is retained in heaven “until the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:20-21) but at His coming He will descend to this earth “coming on the clouds of heaven” Matt.27:64, Mk.14:62, Matt.24:30. The angels told the disciples “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11 “He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” v 9

 

THE SHOUT AND THE VOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL

The descent of the Lord from heaven will be announced “with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” 1Thess.4:16. In the Old Testament the people of God were told to “Shout to God with a voice of triumph” Ps.47:1. The Shout was a powerful expression of praise. In the taking of Jericho both the sound of the trumpet and a “great shout” were instrumental in bringing down the walls. “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” Ps.47:5 Some say that this is a prophetic reference to the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1:9-11. Certainly it is a reference to the shout of God! One can only wonder at the power and authority of that shout. The “voice of the archangel” is an unknown reality. In the Bible only Michael is referred to as an archangel (Jude 9). Michael is also referred to as a “prince” (Dan.10:21) and the “great prince” (Dan.12:1). So the voice of the archangel can be understood to be the voice of Michael! Michael as the archangel obviously has enormous authority and power. There are various references to angels in Revelation, eg, “The angel standing on the sea and the land ..” 10:5; “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice.”19:17 We do not know in our current experience the stature and awesomeness of God’s mighty angels but we can begin to imagine “the voice of the archangel”.

 

THE TRUMPET OF GOD

“Behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed – in a moment [Gr. ‘atomos’ from which we get the word atom; this moment is like an atomic second], in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet of God will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1Cor.15:51-52 There is another reference to the ‘trumpet’ in Matt. 24:31 which tells us that “His angels will gather together His elect from the four winds” with “the sound of a great trumpet.” The shout, the voice, and the trumpet will be heard throughout the world. We cannot imagine the awesomeness of this ‘nuclear moment’ when the Lord descends from heaven, accompanied by the spirits of all the dead in Christ and probably by many angels. Enoch prophesied “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints” Jude 14.

 

MEETING THE LORD IN THE AIR

“And the dead in Christ will rise first.” 1Thess.4:16 “The spirits of just men made perfect” Heb.12:23, are the saints already in heaven, but they are coming back to the earth with Jesus to receive their resurrection [glorified] bodies. In some indescribable way their bodies will rise out of the earth!

“Then we who are alive and remain [the saints on the earth at the time of His coming] shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” v17 This is the moment when “the corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal body puts on immortality” 1Cor.15:53. We “eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself” Phil.3:20-21.

There is only one coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven to the earth: He will descend! When He comes into the earth realm which is “the air” that is when we are caught up and that is where we are caught up to: the air. We are actually caught up “in the clouds”. We have referred to His coming in the clouds above and now want to mention Heb.12:1 which refers to the people of faith from the Old Testament who are in heaven with Jesus as “so great a cloud of witnesses”. Maybe the ‘clouds of power’ that Jesus is coming on as prophesied in Daniel and by Jesus Himself in the Gospels are actually “the ten thousands of His saints”. There is no evidence in these straightforward references in 1Thess.4 and the cross references we have given that Jesus is coming two more times, firstly to take a church away somewhere and then later to come to the earth to judge the ungodly.

The apostle then says “And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” 1Thess.4:18 Whatever understanding we have of the coming of the Lord, the most important thing is to be ready to be caught up to meet Him in the air so that we can be always with the Lord.

                

PERSECUTION AND TRIBULATION

In 2 Thess. 1 & 2 there is further discussion and instruction concerning the coming of the Lord. In 1:4-5 the church is experiencing persecution and tribulations [afflictions] and the word of God promises that the persecutors of the church will be repaid by God “with tribulation” v6.  God will give “you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.” v7 The obvious reading of these verses is that the church will experience tribulation if it has not already done so [as in China where the church has experienced much tribulation over the last 55 years] and will only be delivered from that tribulation “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven”. He is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

COMING IN JUDGMENT

The coming of the Lord is firstly manifest to the saints on the earth. The dead in Christ are coming with Jesus from heaven, sent by God, and their glorious bodies are going to be resurrected from the earth and we are going to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then many teach that the church made up of the saints who are alive at His coming and the dead in Christ who come with Him are taken away into heavenly places for a period of time. However such teaching does not fit into the clear Scriptural record of 1 & 2 Thessalonians. 2Thess.1 as already shown above clearly depicts the church in times of persecution and tribulation that are only alleviated by the coming of the Lord who is coming in judgment for those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel. “These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence [lit. ‘the face’] of the Lord and from the glory of His power”. There are two categories of people facing judgment: ‘those who do not know God’. These are the ones who worship idols – gods made with human hands or ones who worship nothing but their own selfish desires and ideas. And ‘those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’: these are the ones who have heard the gospel but have failed to believe. The word ‘obey’ literally means to listen, attend to. The word of the gospel is to be listened to and attended to: that is what obedience is. Jesus has commanded the church to “preach the gospel to every creature” Mk.16:15. He then says in v16 that those who do not believe the gospel will be condemned [judged].

 

Earlier we mentioned the prophecy of Enoch in Jude 14 as referring to the dead in Christ accompanying Jesus from heaven. However when we look at this prophecy in the context of the passage, the Lord is coming with His saints “to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Jude 15 This means that the saints who are coming with Jesus to execute judgment include the dead in Christ who have received their resurrected bodies and the saints who are alive on the earth and rise to meet the Lord in the air having also received their glorified bodies. Jesus Christ is coming in judgment and His true, believing, sanctified saints who have been glorified in Him and joined together with Him in the air, come with Him to rule and reign in the earth for a thousand years.

 

GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS

When will the unbelieving and disobedient be judged? “When He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among those who believe.” 1Thess.1:10 The coming of the Lord brings about two important things: the glorification of the saints and the judgment of the wicked. His coming in judgment is on the same Day as when He is glorified in His saints. He is glorified in His saints when they receive their glorified bodies and that happens when “we see Him as He is, when He is revealed, we shall be like Him” 1Jn.3:2; when we “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

1Thess.1:10 suggests that there are two categories of people who receive the Lord back to the earth: the saints in whom Christ is glorified, and “all those who believe”, the believers. Maybe there will be multitudes of people on the earth who will happily accept the returning King but who are not numbered among the saints who have prepared themselves for the coming and have been rewarded by being “with the Lord forever” in a glorified state.

 

There is much further teaching on the coming of the Lord. We have not time or even a clear understanding of 2Thess. 2 which speaks of the revealing of the man of sin “the son of perdition”, to teach on those verses now.  But what we can say is that “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming”. Again it is the coming of the Lord that finally deals with the lawless one. As we have shown in this study there is only one coming of the Lord and it is time for the church to get ready for the coming. This includes toughening up and coming to know the depths of His grace to enable us to stand in times of persecution and tribulation, declaring the word of the Lord and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  

 

Paul Galligan

 

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LOCAL NEWS 

During the month we have welcomed home Jean and Bruce Manning from their ministry trip to Myanmar and India – report following.

Paul spent a week in Perth hosted by Pastors Rob and Marilyn Waite of Rapha Sanctuary. They introduced Paul to another church as well and to some ministry leaders, one of whom is clearly an apostle. It was an amazing time of being received by the ministers and saints into their hearts. They received the word and were changed by the grace of God. A large door has opened in Perth for the apostolic revelation. Many of the saints that Paul met there already know the reality of walking in sonship but it was the reality of the restoration of apostles and the fuller apostolic nature of the church that they have now received.

Here at SHILOH we have had some marvellous times in the presence of the Lord. He has blessed us with His presence in times of worship; He has exhorted and encouraged us through many different ones sharing the word and ministering through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

MINISTRY REPORT FROM MYANMAR AND INDIA - Preparing the church for the return of Jesus Christ.

Bruce and Jean Manning have recently returned from a 2 week visit to Myanmar followed by 3 weeks of ministry in India and bring an encouraging report of “the fruit in the field”. The purpose of the trip was to move in obedience to the Lord’s gifting of Eph 4:11 “for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ” (v.12) “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v13-16). In both nations we were joined on team by men and women whom we disciple through email from Toowoomba. These folk worked alongside of us, gaining further experience to minister the word and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jean taught in 4 Bible schools in Myanmar. These schools equip young people as well as mature believers to be able to minister the truth of Scripture both in evangelistic situations and in their local fellowships. In these schools we saw a working together of leaders to share their giftings.

House church meetings are very powerful and effective in promoting the gospel and in bringing the saints to maturity.  We ministered in house churches in the evenings and saw signs of the kingdom. God was releasing understanding upon the word and conviction to obey.

We revisited many of the orphanages that we have been relating to over a long period of time and were impressed with the development in the facilities and also with the care given to the children.

In a couple of areas where we have established relationships we saw the people involved overcoming great difficulties in their circumstances and fruitful ministries emerging.

 

India

Much of the ministry in India was in the north east amongst Nepalese born people who are permanent residents of India, and some folk from Bhutan and Manipur as well as to the local community. Again God released revelation upon His word. In Jaigon, Siliguri and Darjeeling, leaders and pastors attended the meetings. 

One young pastor who was part of our team returned to his area 2 days ahead of us to prepare to receive us there, and before we arrived he assembled the elders of his fellowship and spoke to them of the things he had heard in the previous 4 days in our midst. That fellowship moved in one accord to put true scriptural practice in place when we arrived – a fulfilment of 2 Tim.2:2

In every place truth was brought to replace man’s rituals and traditional practices. There was recognition that there needs to be “the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb.12:27) in preparation for living in the kingdom.

 

Ministry in Kanpur, east of Delhi, was exciting and challenging. The pastor had stepped into apostolic ministry in obedience to the Lord after a visit there in 2003. Since that time he has taken the gospel to 50 village communities and raised a team of disciples to minister in these villages.  Praise the Lord!

He and his wife very excitedly introduced us to babies born as answers to prayer from previous visits and shared other answers to prayer with us. For 3 days Jean taught the disciples and in the evenings we ministered to a large body consisting of disciples, mature and new believers, and their unsaved friends and neighbours. The Lord healed many and cast out a demon which manifested in a young woman. This same woman returned with her mother who received Jesus as her Saviour and Lord 2 nights later. A 14 year old boy who was paralysed from the waist down also received Jesus and joyfully joined in the worship in subsequent meetings.

The disciples who remain in these nations are faithful. 

RMA materials in local languages

Before we left Myanmar, we were distributing some of the teaching materials that we use translated into the Burmese language and some of our manuals are in the process of being translated. In India we were presented with 2 manuals translated into Nepali.  The newsletter regularly goes out in Hindi and now into Nepali.  These translations so bless the pastors and leaders.

 

There will be that fulfilment of Scripture that “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” a glorious church will arise, built by the Lord Jesus Christ, ready to reign on this earth.

Bruce and Jean Manning

CALENDAR

SHILOH INTERNATIONAL APOSTOLIC SCHOOL OF MINISTRY

April 12^th to June 17^th

this school is open to all.

You are welcome to enrol for the whole school and be trained in ministry or to visit the school for a day or a few days at any time.

Guest ministers coming to the School:

Prophet Christine Wren – May 1^st – 3^rd

Ps. Jim Hosie & team, Healing ministry – May 10^th – 13^th

Rev. Daniel Shayesteh, ex-Muslim radical – May 22^nd – 24^th

 

We are now expecting up to 18 International ministers. We are still waiting for visas to be granted; there are 13 applications currently in Embassies [Pretoria, Nairobi, Islamabad, New Dehli] 5 International delegates are arriving over the weekend, from Saturday morning to Tuesday morning.

During the three month school churches in the regions are invited to have teams come to minister to you. Such a team will be local saints bringing international ministers to your region. Now is the time to book a date so that we can adequately plan.

 

EASTER APOSTOLIC/PROPHETIC CONVENTION – April 13^th to 15^th

At SHILOH Centre, 19 Russell St. Toowoomba

               Pastor Pat Morgan, well known singer and minister of the word

               Samuel January, a prophetic minister from South Africa, who has ministered

                                          internationally including in the Brisbane area in recent years

               Apostle Paul Galligan, Paul has recently ministered in Kenya & in Perth, WA

Sessions: Thurs. 7.30pm – Pastor Pat Morgan

                        Fri. 9am – apostle Paul Galligan;  11am – prophet Samuel January

                              2pm – Paul Galligan;           7.30pm – Samuel January

                       Sat. 9am – Paul Galligan;               11am – Samuel January

                              2pm – Rev Jan Beier;                3pm – Rev Ros Fraser

                                                     7.30pm – Paul Galligan

 

JUNE 10th  TO 12th APOSTOLIC/PROPHETIC CONFERENCE

at SHILOH as a highlight for the International Delegates at the School.

Leading ministers who will be in the school will be ministering.

 

SHILOH mid-year Apostolic Training School – June 19^th to July 1^st

This two-week school will include the International Delegates.

The school will be conducted as a ‘pattern’ training school to

demonstrate to international leaders how to conduct short-term training.

FRIDAY NIGHT AT SHILOH 2006

TERM TWO

Ministry training, worship, outreach and fellowship

An exciting way to be trained and involved in ministry

 

Time: 7pm to 9pm each night.

April

Friday 21^st “Ministering in the Holy Spirit”                 

Friday 28^th “Participating in Worship” – learning to flow in the anointing; entering into God’s presence

 

May

Friday 5^th   “ Casting out devils” Mark 16:17

          12^th  “Gospel outreach Night” – Street witnessing in small groups

         19^th   “Prayer and Intercession” – learning how to do it

          26^th   “Prophetic ministry” – being activated in prophecy

 

June

Friday 2^nd  “Ministering the Lord’s Table”

          9^th   “Fellowship Meal” – invite your friends: this meal is in the context of a Conference weekend, saints will be here from out of town

          16^th “Graduation Dinner” – For the students graduating from the International School

 

Ph. 46130633     email: rma@revivalministries.org.au

 

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