The Second Coming - Part 1:
"A loud command, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God"
1 Thessalonians 4v15-18
7th January 2022
A few weeks ago, we studied:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve
like the rest of men, who have no hope.
We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with
Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Jesus is coming back! Paul goes on to describe that amazing day when Jesus will return:
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left
till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Those Christians who die before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ won't miss out in any way. They won't be at the back of the queue, so to speak. We'll all be together on that glorious day. Paul explains:
1 Thessalonians 4:16
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
We don't know exactly what it'll be like, but Jesus will appear in the sky once again at the end of history. Jesus's return will be the fulfilment of prophecy. Immediately after Jesus ascended into heaven on the clouds, as Acts 1:10-11 tells us:
Acts 1:10-11
… suddenly two men dressed in white [presumably angels] stood beside them.
"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same
Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have
seen him go into heaven."
There'll be a loud command, which will fulfil another prophecy. Jesus said:
John 5:28-29
… a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice [that is,
Jesus's voice]
and come out – those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have
done what is evil will rise to be condemned."
We don't know what this loud command will be. Perhaps it's Jesus calling something like "Advance!", "Let's go!", "This is it!" But actually, it reminds me of John 11, at the graveside of Lazarus:
John 11:43-44
… Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth
round his face.
I think this loud command might be something like "Let the dead arise!" Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb and gave him new physical life, and He's given us new and eternal spiritual life. And He will come again to give the dead new bodies, and then to judge us all, and then to create a new heaven and a new earth – new life indeed! I call the Second Coming of Jesus "the end of history" but, really it's just the end of the history we live in. The new heaven and the new earth with have their own new history. At the beginning of that recreation of the universe, it's worth shouting.
And we'll hear the voice of the archangel. We don't know which archangel will speak, or what he'll say. The only person the Bible calls an archangel is Michael. Perhaps he's the only one, but we don't know, and we don't know if it'll be him who speaks, or what he'll say. But I look forward to hearing it!
And we'll hear the trumpet call of God. It may or may not be an archangel that blows the trumpet, although we know that the seven angels of Revelation 8-11 blew trumpets. Some people think the angel Gabriel will blow this last trumpet, but I don't know where they get that idea from. The Bible never calls Gabriel an archangel.
Of course, it's natural for us to think of a trumpet heralding a coming king. But it also reminds us of the time Moses led the people of Israelites to Mount Sinai:
Exodus 19:16-17
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over
the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.
Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot
of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke
billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently,
and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God
answered him. 20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the
top of the mountain. So Moses went up...
Doesn't that sound like a prefiguring of the Second Coming? The trumpet at Mt Sinai signalled the giving of the Law. The trumpet at the end of history will signal the second coming of the Jesus the Messiah, who paid for our transgressions against the Law.
The trumpet also reminds us of:
Leviticus 25:8-10
‘"Count off seven sabbaths of years – seven times seven years – so that the seven sabbaths
of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere
on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout
your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all
its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to his family
property and each to his own clan.
The second coming of our Lord Jesus is the ultimate Day of Atonement, in the ultimate Year of Jubilee. So it'll be heralded by the trumpet.
According to the Law of Jubilee, any land sold by an Israelite should be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee. Any Israelite whose debts had grown so large that he had to sell himself into slavery would be released in the Year of Jubilee.
So the Day of Atonement in the Year of Jubilee is also a foreshadowing of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. There's much that could be said about this, but for today, Christ will return for those who are His, those for whom He has already made atonement once for all on the cross. And on that day, the perfect Jubilee, we will experience the total freedom that comes from knowing that all our debts are forgiven, when Jesus says to all who are His:
Matthew 25:34
… "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world."
Part 2 next week.