Today, I want to talk about the day of Christ.
Let's figure out today exactly what the Bible means when it says the day of Christ.
I would encourage you to look up every time in the New Testament that that term is used,
but let's look at two key passages right now.
First of all, 2 Thessalonians 2 in regard to the end times.
The Bible reads, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and
by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or troubled, neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalts
himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
So right there we see that the day of Christ is not at hand.
He said don't let anyone deceive you into believing that the day of Christ is at hand.
That day shall not come except X, Y, and Z come first, and he lists off the things that
have to happen first, which proves that the day of Christ is not imminent.
It cannot happen at any moment.
Now people wonder what does the day of Christ mean?
Well, if we get the context of verse 1, the Bible says, Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.
That would indicate that the day of Christ is the rapture, because in 1 Thessalonians
4, it says, We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, and it talks
about the fact that we will be caught up together with him in the clouds.
So at the rapture, Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and we are gathered together unto him.
So that would indicate that that's what the day of Christ is.
That would show that the rapture cannot happen at any moment and that the rapture has to
take place after the falling away or apostasy takes place and after the man of sin is revealed
by declaring himself to be God in the temple of God.
But let's prove further that the day of Christ really is the day that the rapture will take
place.
If we go back to Philippians 1, this is a famous verse that you've probably heard before.
In verse 6, the Bible reads, Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
So according to that scripture, when we get saved, the Lord begins to work in us.
And the Bible says that we can be confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
So ask yourself this question, when will God's work in our life be done?
When will this good work that he's begun in us, that he's going to perform until the day
of Christ, when will that end?
Well if you think about it, the Bible teaches that at the rapture we're going to be changed
in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.
And the Bible says that this corruptible will put on incorruption.
This mortal will put on immortality.
If you read Romans 7 and 8, Paul is talking about the fact that our flesh causes us to
sin and he's looking forward to that great day in Romans 8 when our body will be redeemed,
talking about the resurrection or the rapture, where our body will be changed.
And instead of having a righteous spirit and a sinful flesh, which is what we have right
now and that's why the flesh and the spirit war against one another, at the rapture our
flesh will be changed.
Our flesh will be redeemed.
Our flesh will be saved and then we will be all together redeemed, body, soul, spirit,
we will be sinless.
That's why when we get to heaven we'll never sin again.
Now we sin on this earth as believers, don't we?
We are in the flesh and when we walk in the flesh we will fulfill the lust of the flesh.
We endeavor to walk in the spirit so that we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
But at that first resurrection, at the rapture, when our body and our flesh is redeemed, we
shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and from then on we'll never sin again.
We will be perfect and blameless and spotless before him.
Praise God for that.
And so the sanctification, the work of sanctification that God is doing in our lives, he will perform
until the day of Jesus Christ.
Why?
Because it's not necessary from the day of Jesus Christ and forward because we're already
in his image at that point.
We're already conformed to the image of the Son of God.
We're already without fault before the throne of God.
We're already completely regenerated in body, soul, and spirit at that point.
So this use of the day of Christ in Philippians 1-6 makes perfect sense and matches up perfectly
with what we saw in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the day of Christ is the coming of Christ
and our gathering together unto him.
That is what takes place on the day of Christ.
Now I've talked about in the past the day of the Lord.
You say, is the day of the Lord different than the day of Christ?
Well let me say this, they both take place on the same day.
Read 1 Thessalonians 4 and then continue reading to chapter 5 verse 2.
But when the Bible talks about the day of the Lord, he's usually emphasizing the negative
aspects which are not toward us but are toward the unsaved, the wrath and judgment that's
poured out right after we are raptured.
And when he uses the term day of Christ, it's a positive mention about the fact that we
are looking for Jesus Christ to come.
See when Jesus Christ comes, we're going to be rejoicing, we're going to be thrilled,
it's going to be the happiest moment of our lives when we see Jesus Christ coming in the
clouds and we're caught up together to be with him.
The unsaved however, they will face that day as a horrible day, a day of darkness and wrath
and gloominess and punishment and judgment upon them.
So it really just depends on which side of this thing you're on, whether you look at
it as the day of Christ or the day of the Lord, but it's the same day.
And it's the day of the rapture.
It's the day of Christ coming in the clouds with the trumpet.