The road you’ve been traveling has grown weary. It has been long and difficult, and you are longing for the end, when you can lay down the heavy load. You look up ahead to see if there is any sign that the destination is any closer. Not only your eyes, but your ears have perked up to listen for any indication. This scenario can be used both literally with a physical trek we might take, and can also sometimes refer to our life’s journey, and our desire for heaven, when we can lay life’s burdens down. The Apostle Paul’s life was not an easy one, by any means. Though he worked diligently and with much zeal at the task the Lord commissioned him to undertake, he did have a deep longing to be in heaven with the Lord. In our Scripture today, which closes out the chapter in I Corinthians on the resurrection, Paul describes that moment when all believers will be brought to heaven. Let’s take a look at this passage that describes that glorious moment.
Previously Paul had answered the question that some had asked about what our bodies will be like in heaven. As our passage opens today, he touches one more time on that, by teaching us that our earthly, flesh and blood bodies, will not be in heaven (vs. 50). People cannot live in God’s presence, in His glory, the way they are. We have to be changed.
Paul then reveals a mystery he received from God (vs. 51). In the New Testament the word “mystery” refers to truths hidden in the past, but have now been revealed in the New Testament. The rapture of the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament. Now that mystery is referred to in the New Testament in several passages. Jesus speaks of it in John 14:1-3. And Paul teaches it both in I Thessalonians 4:13-18, and here in verses 51 and 52.
“Sleep” is another word in Scripture that has a slightly different meaning than we typically use the word today. In the Bible, the word “sleep” frequently refers to death. Paul tells us here that not every believer will experience death, but that everyone will be changed from their physical bodies, both those who have died and those who will be alive, when the trumpet will sound on the day of Resurrection of believers (vs. 51-52). As is stated here, some of us will be alive on the day when the Lord calls His believers to be with Him, they will not be “asleep” or have died. That moment will happen suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, and we will be changed, receiving our resurrection, incorruptible and immortal bodies (vs. 53).
This describes a sudden transformation of believers, both those who have previously died, and those who are still alive at that day. An angelic trumpet, a trumpet of heaven, will sound to herald the end of the Church era here on earth, when all believers will be taken to heaven. The dead will be taken up first, with the living following immediately behind (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). This trumpet call is not the last trumpet of the Book of Revelation. It is the same trumpet that Paul talked about in the passage in I Thessalonians. It signals the end of the present Church age. The dead will be raised incorruptible, and the living will be caught up with Jesus in the air, and will be changed from their physical bodies.
Presently, though, we still experience the death of family, of loved ones, and friends. As Paul teaches us, we need to view death through the lens of Jesus’s resurrection. Death brings sorrow, but it does not need to bring despair (vs. 54-57). The tomb could not hold Jesus. Since He is in all Christians, those who die before the sounding of that trumpet will not remain long in their graves. The quote that Paul gives here taunts death, as if it were a bee whose sting was removed. That sting was sin, which was exposed by the Law of God, but was conquered by Jesus in His death.
We frequently acknowledge that Jesus died for us. We need to remember that He also rose for us. Because of that, we know that we have victory over death (vs. 57). The hope of the resurrection makes all of our work for the Lord worth it (vs. 58). No work done in His Name is wasted in light of our eternal glory and reward. As we work for the Lord, let us keep our eyes on the goal of an eternity with the Savior, in bodies that never grow weary or sick. Let us also keep our ears tuned in, listening for that trumpet call that will signal our Savior coming for us!
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