"The Coming of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) — Episode Eight of Season Two of the Blessed Hope Podcast Is Up

Episode Synopsis:

The greatest event in all of human history was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The most hoped for event in humanity’s future is Jesus Christ’s return when he will raise the dead, judge the world, and bring about the new creation.  Since the moment Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and the attending angels told his disciples that he would return in the same manner in which he departed, his people have longed for Jesus to return.  Our greatest hope is to be that generation still living when the Lord returns so that we need never taste death.  Along with the first Christians we cry out, “Maranatha!  The Lord come!” 

Like many of us, the Thessalonians had questions about details of the Lord’s return–what it means and when it will happen.  When they first heard Paul’s teaching and preaching they gladly accepted this wonderful truth that Jesus’s resurrection and ascension guaranteed our Lord’s bodily return at the end of the age.  But some of them wondered, “what happens to those who die before our Lord comes back?”  Do they miss out on the benefits of the resurrection?  Others were asking “how soon will the Lord return?”  They took Paul to be saying the Lord would return very soon.    Do the signs of Jesus’ return of which Paul had spoken, give Christians the tantalizing clues from which we can figure out when the Lord will return?

Paul addresses these questions in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11.  We’ll talk about all of this in the next three episodes of the Blessed Hope Podcast as we consider Paul’s answers to the questions about Christ’s second advent put to him by the Thessalonians.

Show Notes:

This is the first of three episodes which cover 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 and Paul’s teaching on Christ’s second advent

Links:

Events Associated with Christ's Second Advent (chart--scroll down)

Leon Morris's Article on Christ's Second Coming for the Baker Bible Dictionary

Nicolas Batzig on the Rapture and the Return of Christ

Scott Clark on the Rapture

Cornelis Venema on Eschatological Hope and Fulfillment

Bibliography for Season Two of the Blessed Hope Podcast, “When the Lord Jesus Is Revealed from Heaven: Paul’s Thessalonian Letters”

A History of the City of Thessalonica Important background to our series

F. F. Bruce's "Paul: The Apostle of the Heart Set Free" The Life and Times of Paul—Still the best biographical study of Paul

G, K, Beale, 1-2 Thessalonians (IVP NT Commentary) The best all around commentary on the Thessalonians letters (strong on eschatology)

F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Word) One of the better technical commentaries—Bruce is especially strong on background, setting, and historical matters

Gene Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Pillar) A very good scholarly evangelical commentary

John Calvin, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Crossway Classics) Calvin’s insights into this letter are still worth consideration

Music:

(Shutterstock): Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op 92m, second movement, Allegretto (A minor)