There
are some verses that are used a lot to provide comfort at funerals that speak
of the future of the believer in the presence of God--and that is a very comforting
truth. I believe the primary point
Jesus is making in these verses, however, concern His return to take the body
of believers home to the presence of the God the Father.
John 14:1–3 “Let not your heart be
troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many
mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Jesus is
speaking of a time that He will “come again” and “receive” believers into His
presence.
We know that absent from the body is present with
the Lord...
2 Corinthians 5:6–8 “Therefore we are always confident, knowing
that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we
walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present with the Lord.”
...but this “receiving” is of the believers with their immortal bodies that
are fit for heaven.
Paul explains a bit more in
his letter to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 15:51–53 “Behold, I
shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
In these
verses Paul declares that he is revealing a “mystery,” a truth that had been
basically hidden until this time of revelation.
He explains that there is a time coming when all men of faith—both dead
and alive—will receive their incorruptible bodies that are fit for heaven and
eternity. He declares that this
transformation will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Later, in his letter to the Thessalonians, he
reveals even more.
1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 “For this we
say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the
Lord shall not prevent them which 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 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.”
In these
verses we learn that this transformation will involve the Lord descending from
heaven and all people of faith--both dead and alive--meeting the Lord in the clouds to remain in His presence
forevermore.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 “For God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
him.”
We know
that this transformation precedes His return to earth to reign as King of kings
because scripture declares that we will return with Him at that time.
Colossians 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then
shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
COME
LORD JESUS!
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