The Coming of the Lord (II): The Rapture of the Church

Matthew 24

36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

40 "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.

41 "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.

We are picking up from where we left off in The Coming of the Lord (I).

The coming of the Lord - the mysterious day that Jesus described first to us in Matthew 24. He said this is a day that's going to be part of the last days, the days we’re now a part of. And in what we've learned about this already in The Coming of the Lord (I), we know this day to be a day that will come suddenly without warning, and it will come under circumstances that are similar to the days of Noah.

The days of Noah were days of intense evil, and the unbelieving world in that time was unknowingly careening into judgment, because God had determined that the evil of the world would be dealt with in a flood. But as we learned, these were also times in which the believing world was aware that judgment was coming, and because of that, they were preparing for an escape that God would provide. 

Jesus said that model sets an example for us for the circumstances that will surround the day that we're waiting for - the day called the coming of the Lord. And now that we've looked at the circumstances of that day, we're ready to move into Part 2 to take a look at the manner of this day ie. how it will unfold.

Jesus didn't give us those details in the Olivet Discourse, however. He waits to provide that detail in the discourse that He has with His disciples at the Last Supper. But even then, in Matthew's account of the Last Supper, he does not record the teaching that Jesus does on the coming of the Lord.

So we have to go out of Matthew to find that, in John's Gospel. And here's what Jesus says during the Last Supper about the coming of the Lord. Verse 2, in that chapter, He says, 

John 14:2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

John 14:4 "And you know the way where I am going."

So in these final hours before Jesus’ death, Jesus announces to these men here in John 14, that He is leaving, and one day they will follow after Him. In this passage, we see Jesus’ promise to the Church that one day He will return to claim us.

That is the moment that Jesus called the coming of the Lord back in Matthew 14. It is the day when Jesus will be reunited with all His disciples. Now let's look at this promise, starting in verse two, when Jesus says He is going to His Father's house soon to prepare a place for the Church, and when He does, He will then come back to claim us. 

To fully appreciate what He's saying here, we have to understand that Jesus is speaking euphemistically. He is comparing His return for the Church to the Jewish wedding traditions of that day.

Marriages in Jesus' day were typically arranged by the father who selected a bride for his son. And once a bride was identified, the two families would commit to that marriage by entering into a betrothal agreement.

And marriages didn't take place right away in those days, because before there could be the marriage, the groom had to prepare a home for his bride-to-be, and that involved the son working with his father to build on an extension to the father's house. 

This new room that was built would end up being the home of that groom and his bride. And it could only be the case that the wedding happened after that room was ready. Only then would the father permit the son to go claim his bride, who was busy waiting for the groom back at her own home. And they would occupy this room that the groom had built, and they would be married.

So when the father deemed that the room was prepared, that it was sufficient for this bride, the groom would claim his bride from her home and would bring her back. That was, perhaps,  typically, the first time that the groom and the bride had ever seen each other face to face. And later, after about a week at the father's house, they would make arrangements to go back to the bride's house to continue this celebration of the new marriage with her family. 

Now that was the ancient style of marriage that was common in Jesus' day. And Jesus is alluding to that tradition with the choice of language that He uses here in John 14. He's borrowing from that tradition, and He's doing so to help us understand the coming of the Lord.

Jesus is expecting us to recognize that He is the groom, and we are His bride. The father is the Father in heaven. His house is heaven, of course. And with all of those details, now we're in a better position to understand what He's saying to us here in John 14. 

In verse two, He says again that He goes away to prepare a place for us. And now, obviously, that's a reference to Jesus leaving the earth after His resurrection to enter into the presence of the Father. He is now there preparing a place for His bride, for you and for me, for the Church to join Him.

But just as obvious as it is that He is the groom and we're the bride, it's also obvious that Jesus is not currently in heaven, building additions and such. It's a euphemism again. He is preparing a place for us, spiritually speaking. 

The Bible says Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our salvation. Hebrews 9 says that Jesus mediates a better and New Covenant for us in a better tabernacle in heaven, that His blood is the atonement applied in the heavenly tabernacle to remove the wrath of God, and that He is our intercessor, seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, reconciling us to God.

So when Jesus says He goes away to prepare a place for us, He's speaking about all of that work, going into heaven to make a way for us to follow Him into that place, just like a groom goes off to build the home that He eventually will welcome His bride into. 

Nevertheless, in the meantime, as we wait, we're still in covenant with Jesus, just as in the case of the bride and the groom who are still bound by that betrothal, because marriages in that day did not begin the way ours often do - it's not with an engagement which really has no binding relationship at all.

But in that day, it was very different. People didn't get engaged, they got betrothed. And a betrothal was a far more serious form of binding. It was really a preliminary form of marriage. It was a covenant itself. And so, like all covenants, betrothal was not easily broken. In fact, if a man and a woman for some reason decided to call off the wedding after having been betrothed, they would actually have to engage in a legal divorce to end that betrothal. 

Remember the story of Mary and Joseph in the Gospels? As Joseph understands Mary is pregnant and assumes the worst about her, he goes about preparing to divorce her, even though they were just betrothed at that point. They weren't yet fully married.

So today, using that analogy again, we are betrothed to Christ as His bride, and He is our groom. We were betrothed by our faith. And as such, we entered into a covenant with Him, the New Covenant by His blood.

And that covenant – that betrothal - will not be easily broken. In fact, it can't be broken at all because Christ is faithful to His commitments. That is our assurance now that even though we have not seen our groom yet face to face, and even though the wedding, so to speak, has not yet happened - nonetheless it utimately will. 

And similarly, the fact that Jesus has gone to heaven to prepare a place for you is all that you need to know to tell you that He will return for you one day. He wouldn't have done the work of redemption, He would not have taken the form of man, condescending to be with us here on earth and then dying - in our place - a painful death on the cross, and He wouldn't then have ascended to cleanse the heavenly tabernacle with His own blood, He would not be sitting at the right hand of the Father, continually interceding for all of us, if it were not the fact that He fully intends to follow through with what He has begun.

Paul says it succinctly in Philippians 1:6.

Phil 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

That day that he's talking about in that verse - it's the day of the coming of the Lord. So like a groom claiming His bride, Jesus will come to claim us one day, most assuredly. But also like a groom claiming a bride under the circumstances of the Jewish tradition, the timing of that event, the timing of His return will always be a mystery, because in the Jewish wedding tradition, the groom could not know when he would be allowed to claim his bride, because it depended on the father.

The father alone made the determination when that room was ready and when the groom could go find his bride. He permitted his son to claim the right only after he felt the room had been adequately built. And so that betrothal period would last a while, months, maybe even a year or longer. And all that time you have the bride back at her home waiting and not knowing when she will see the groom appear. 

For this very reason, in Matthew 24:36, Jesus told us that no one can know the day or the hour of the coming of the Lord, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Because again, the Son does not know when the Father will release Him to claim His bride. And then next in verse 3 of John 14, Jesus says when He comes, He comes to receive us to Himself. 

In verse 40 and 41 of Matthew 24, we see an illustration there that Jesus gave us about the manner of this day. Jesus uses two illustrations from everyday life - about a man in a field and a woman in a mill, grinding.

He said there would be two men in the field: and then one would be taken, one would be left; Two women: one taken; one left.

The original Greek wording or words of that phrase, “two men in the field,” it should be more like, “two men in the field, one is received, and one is left,” because the Greek word there “paralambano” for “received” as it's translated, is “taken,”. But it should be “received.” It suggests to us a movement, that the person, the man or that woman was on earth for a moment and then in the next moment they've been moved away, received to Jesus as it were, away from that moment. 

Now, back to verse 3 of John 14, and here's Jesus using “paralambano” again, the same Greek word saying He will receive us to Himself.

And now we have our full picture. The reason there were two men and then just one, is because that one that was no longer there had been received by Jesus, taken away from the earth and into His presence. And then Jesus says, once that receiving has happened, that man or woman will be where Jesus was.

Now, we know from John 14 that Jesus came from heaven to do this receiving. And so that tells us that after the receiving, we, the bride, go back with Jesus into heaven. Now those directions described give us proof that what Jesus is talking about here in John 14 is not His second coming. 

The second coming of Jesus follows a completely opposite set of directions and circumstances than the ones we're seeing here in John 14. Granted, at Jesus's second coming, He also comes from heaven. But that's the only similarity. 

Because after that, we're told He comes all the way to earth. And then He stays on earth in order to preside over the Kingdom which then follows. In Revelation 19, it says not only does Jesus come from heaven to stay on the earth, but it tells us that we come with Him. That is, the bride starts in heaven and ends up on earth with Him at the conclusion of the event. 

And that is a completely opposite set of circumstances from what Jesus just described here in John 14. Here He starts in heaven, but we start on earth, and when He's done, He doesn't stay on earth. He goes back to heaven. And we don't stay on earth either. We're in heaven, completely the opposite to the second coming.

Hence, the coming of the Lord is not the same thing as the second coming of Jesus. That leads us to our next passage.

And now we're going to move out of John to one of Paul's letters. The first letter that Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians, we call it. Chapter 4 is where Paul elaborates on the coming of the Lord. Verse 13. Paul says,

1Th 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

1Th 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

1Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1Th 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

How do we know that Paul is describing the same thing here that we've seen in John 14 or in Matthew 24? There are two reasons.

First, notice in verse 15 of this passag, Paul refers to the day that he's describing as the coming of the Lord. That's exactly the same term Jesus used in Matthew 24. 

Secondly, notice that all of the direction of movement that Paul describes in this passage is exactly the same as the movement that Jesus described in John 14. Paul says Jesus returns from heaven, that believers are caught up - or we could say, received up - to Jesus in the clouds, that we remain with Jesus after that (speaking of us remaining with Jesus in heaven as He departs).

So Jesus and Paul are talking about the same day. But Paul gives us three new details here, and that's the focus of why we came to this passage, beginning with the fact that this day is announced with some dramatic signals in the moment.

The first of those, Paul says, is an Archangel shouting. So what he's saying is that believers across the face of the earth, when this moment happens, will hear suddenly an angelic voice announcing that the day has come.

And then Paul says, there will be a heavenly trumpet sounding, and that links this event - this coming of the Lord event - with the Jewish feast of trumpets called Rosh Hashana. And just as it was with the shout, it’s likely that this trumpet will only be heard by the believers on the earth. This whole moment is for believers.

So believers are the ones being signaled to know that it is now starting. So, that man in the field that we talked about, or the woman at the mill that Jesus described, they will hear these things, while the other man in the field or the other woman at the mill will not. And these signals are not signs telling us that it's about to happen because Jesus told us that there are no signs for this event. Rather, these are the announcements to us that the event is now underway. 

So that's the first thing we learned. Be listening for a shout. Be ready for a trumpet. Second thing we learned is that the Lord does not return all the way to the earth. In verse 17 of that passage, Paul says that when Jesus comes for His bride, He never actually gets all the way to the ground. But instead He meets us in the clouds above the earth.

Now that explains why we keep hearing the word “received” being used in the passages - we cannot go to Him ourselves. We must be received by Him because He doesn't come down to where we are. We have to go up to where He is in the clouds out of the sight of the world.

So the world, in fact, will never know that Jesus ever came. And that fits the earlier descriptions He gave us of those two men and two women again. He described it in such a way as to suggest that from the perspective of earth, one moment everything's normal and next moment somebody is not there. And that's consistent with the idea that they see and hear nothing else, except they note the disappearance of somebody, one moment to the next minute.

Paul’s description confirms once more that we're talking about a different day than the second coming of the Lord. Because at the second coming of Jesus, He doesn't stay in the clouds. He comes all the way to the earth, and not just for a moment, but to live here.

In fact, we call this future return of Jesus the second coming, because it's much like the first coming. The first time Jesus came to earth, He came down, lived as a man on the face of the planet for a time, and likewise, in the second coming of Jesus, it's the same thing, although, of course, the circumstances will be very different. But yet He is here on the earth, living amongst us. That is the second coming. 

But Paul here just described something very different than that. Jesus never comes to the earth, and He certainly doesn't stay. You'll notice in verse 17, as Paul was describing this moment of us being received to Him, he says we are caught up with Jesus in the clouds, and the Greek word there for “caught up” is “harpazo.”

Now, the word “harpazo'' literally means to snatch away. It tells us not only that we are being received, but it also communicates the speed of it. Snatch away, a quick movement. Later, when the Bible was translated out of Greek and into Latin, that word “harpazo'' became “raptura” in Latin.

And that Latin translation is responsible for giving us the more common name by which this day goes today. Today we have come to calling it the rapture because the English form of the word “raptura” is rapture. 

Finally, Paul tells us that the coming of the Lord, or, the rapture, won't just be a moment for those believers who are alive here on the earth when it comes. In verse 14, Paul says, Jesus, when He comes on that day, will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. And that's a euphemistic way of saying those believers who have previously died.

The Bible tells us that when a Christian dies, the spirit of that person leaves the dead body behind and enters into the presence of Jesus in heaven immediately. They are fully conscious in that place, but yet they are in a spirit form only. They don't have a physical body in that time.

Paul says, when the day of the coming of the Lord happens ie. when the rapture happens, these bodiless believers, who have been with Jesus all this time waiting, will come down with Him to be included in this event. They leave heaven with Jesus. They come down to the clouds with Jesus. And Paul says in verse 16 that they will be the first to rise. 

Now, when the Bible uses the term “rise,” it's always a reference to a literal, physical resurrection. And that's why Paul says the coming of the Lord will be a moment of resurrection for both those believers who have died previously, as well as those believers who are still alive and remain on the earth in the moment, because every believer will need a new, resurrected, eternal body in order to live in that future eternal Kingdom.

That's what we're all waiting for. And it's only fair that those who have already died ahead of us should be first in line to get the new body on the day when Jesus is handing them out, on the day of the rapture. 

Now it's one thing for us to understand dead, bodiless spirits of believers in heaven receiving a new body – we know they're waiting for their body, and it makes sense that one day they would receive it - but it's quite another thing to consider a living person who's not yet died receiving a new body, being resurrected, so to speak.

I mean, when we say the word “resurrect” it implies that there's been a death. But Paul says in verse 17, those believers who are still alive and on the earth when this day finally comes, they too will be resurrected.

So how can you be resurrected if you haven't died yet? Well, that leads us to this passage also written by Paul, to another church in Corinth.

1Co 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

1Co 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1Co 15:53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Here Paul defends the reality of a future physical resurrection for the believer. And he's doing so because the church in Corinth had been deceived at some point into thinking that the literal, physical resurrection of the Bible wasn't true, that it wasn't going to happen for believers. We were just going to live forever in spirit form only.

And so he's been defending the reality of this future body that we're going to receive. And when he gets to verse 50, at this point, Paul begins to explain how the Lord is going to resurrect believers who have not died yet, who are still alive when the Resurrection Day comes, the same situation we were just looking at in 1 Thessalonians. 

He begins in verse 51. He acknowledges, “Look, this is a mystery. This is a moment that you hadn't heard about before.” And a mystery in the Bible is a way of saying a truth that has been hidden for at least a time and now has been revealed to us.

So it's not forever a mystery. It's been a mystery, but now we're learning it. So Paul is saying to this church, “Let me share something with you that I've learned from Jesus that you need to understand as well, and this is the mystery, that not all will die before they are resurrected.”

Or simply put, the mystery is that there is a rapture coming. 

Undoubtedly, especially here in Sg, there are many believers who doubt the teaching of the rapture. A common argument is that the Bible never mentions it and that the whole notion of it was invented in the 1800’s, and that it's not biblically true.

But of course, there is the coming of the Lord in Scripture. We've looked at it. It’s in Matthew 24. Jesus talks about it there. We see it in John 14. We're seeing Paul talk about it. I mean, the phrase “the coming of the Lord” is certainly in Scripture. But many would say that that's a reference to the second coming, not to the rapture. But as you've seen, it can't be a reference to the second coming. All the directions are the opposite of the second coming. 

Moreover, when someone says to you that the rapture is not a biblical concept, they fail to appreciate the nature of this mystery. That is, they fail to appreciate that we're talking about the resurrection of the Church. And unless somebody is paying attention, they're going to miss the truth of mysteries like this one.

That's the whole nature of a mystery. It's a bit of a test… I mean, that’s the most fundamental aspect of our Christian faith. Truly, the Bible calls our resurrection the hope of our faith. The central hope of the Christian faith, for some, remains a bit of a mystery because they fail to see it. And if a Christian should tell you that the rapture doesn't exist, they're making the same mistake this church in Corinth did.

Now even as Christians agree that there is a future day for us of resurrection, of a new physical body, they fail to appreciate that the coming of the Lord, the “rapture”, is the Bible's moment for that outcome, for the day that we will be resurrected. 

And it's not just that some of us get resurrected or that each of us gets resurrected in our own day. No, the Bible is clear. All believers in the Church, all are resurrected, all at the same time, whether they have died previously, or whether they're still alive. And that's why it must be that at least some in the Church will experience this day from the point of still being alive - because we can't leave anyone out, and God is not waiting for the last believer to die before He brings this event about. 

Let's talk about resurrection more for a moment so that we can understand this day a little better, as Paul explains it here in 1 Corinthians 15. Simply put, resurrection is the process of a dead person coming to life - their body coming to life - again. Now some get this a little backward. They think that resurrection is a spirit coming back to life or a spirit going up to heaven. That is not resurrection. Resurrection is that dead body coming back to life, the spirit being reunited with a physical body. That's resurrection.  

Of course, the best example we have of this in Scripture, obviously, is Jesus and His own resurrection. Think about how that went. When He died, Jesus’ Spirit left His body. His body remained lifeless in the tomb, while His Spirit, we're told, descended into Sheol. And then three days later, we're told Jesus’ Spirit was returned to His body, His physical body, and that's what prompted His physical body to stand up out of the tomb and walk away. That's resurrection. Jesus’s Spirit never ceased to be alive. It never ceased to be conscious. Only His physical body ceased to be animated, ceased to have life.

And when believers die today, it's similar, not exactly the same, of course, but our spirit leaves behind a lifeless body. Also, we enter into the presence of Jesus in heaven, still conscious, still very much alive in the spirit. But heaven is not our permanent home. 

The place of God's dwelling in the heavenly is not the place we spend eternity according to the Bible. We're destined to live in a physical body on a physical earth. That's how God made us. And that is our future destiny in the Kingdom.

So one day we must be resurrected. One day our spirit must be reunited with a physical body, a new physical body, and that's where things differ for us compared to Jesus. We don't come back to the same body because it is corrupt and filled with sin. It cannot suit us in the future. 

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said that the perishable must put on the imperishable. The corrupt must put on the incorruptible. We must become like Jesus in all respects in order to live with Him. So in the day that resurrection comes for us, we don't have our spirit finding our old body, wherever it is, and reuniting with it. No, the good news is, we get a brand new body that is eternal, sinless, glorified and will never die again.

And what Paul is revealing here in 1 Corinthians 15 is a mystery for how God intends to bring about that process for the Church on the day of the coming of the Lord, and in particular, how it will transpire for those who are still alive when this moment comes. 

As Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, not all believers will be required to sleep. And again, that's a euphemism. It refers to death. Not all believers will experience physical death, because when the moment comes, whoever is still remaining on the earth at that moment, if you will, they win the lottery.

They’re the believers who get to skip the step of death and go immediately into the new body. Paul describes that very specifically. He says that we will be changed, speaking about those believers who are alive in the moment, we will be changed.

The Greek word that he's using there for the word “changed” is “allasso,” and “allasso” in Greek, most literally translated means “in exchange,” in exchange of something. So we would ask the question here, “What's being exchanged?” 

Obviously, Christians who are alive on that day are exchanging their current corrupt dying body for the new, eternal one that God is giving them in that moment. So they will be resurrected without first passing through death. And what a blessing it will be for them. 

Notice in verse 52, Paul says this exchange is instantaneous. It happens in a brief moment. The word that Paul uses that's translated “moment” for us, “atomos” in Greek, we get words like “atom” from that Greek word. And “atomos” in Greek, means something so small that it cannot be divided any further.

So the exchange of the old body for the new body that happens on the rapture, it comes so quickly, in a moment that is so brief, so instantaneous, that moment of time could not be divided any further.

One moment we're in the field or in the mill and then instantly we're in the clouds with Jesus in a new body. I mean, if you blink, you miss it. If you are still on the earth, if you're one of those left behind, it's as if we don't know what happened. One moment you're standing there with your buddy, next minute you're wondering where he went.

But above the world, unnoticed in the clouds, there will be a celebration unlike anything that creation has ever known. The eternal bride has been united with her groom, and an uncountable number of saints are rejoicing together. We'll be rejoicing that we’re with Jesus, that we're all together, all brothers and sisters from all time, not merely those you knew in this life, but all those going back to Pentecost, and we'll be marveling at our new bodies that we’re suddenly occupying, free from disease, free from pain and most of all, free from sin and death.

That's all very different from the other events that Jesus described in Matthew 24 going back to the beginning of the chapter where He announced that the end of the age would be a signal to us over centuries of time with signs that build slowly into ever increasing cataclysmic events.

That's nothing like what we're seeing here. Or the signs of Jesus' second coming where you can mark the date of His second coming on a calendar once the tribulation begins - because it will be exactly seven years later. And, of course, the whole of tribulation is nothing but a series of unbelievable and destructive signs telling you that the second coming is around the corner.

No, this moment is nothing like that. This moment happens in an instant. It happens with no warning, with no signs. And until Paul explained it to us here, it was a complete mystery that it was even in the plan. 

And in Matthew 24, Jesus told us that this day having no association with signs means it can happen at any time. Now, we know because of where we are in history that it's going to be a part of the last days and a part of the end times - because the signs of our time tell us we're already in that period now.

And of course the rapture hasn't happened yet. So by definition it will happen as part of the last days.

But that's never been said in Scripture explicitly.

It was literally the case that it could happen in the first century or the second century or any century. 

Now, in hindsight, we see why it hasn't happened yet. But there was never any way a believer looking forward in time could have said on any given day, “Well, today is the day the rapture can't happen.” There are no signs. There are no preceding requirements, no prerequisites. It could happen at any point. 

So the same must be true for us now, every moment of every day of your life, you are just an atomos, an instant away from finding yourself celebrating in the clouds with Jesus. And that day will be so sudden, it will not only interrupt your plans for that day, but for the rest of your life. In fact, it will be so sudden, it will interrupt your very thoughts in the moment. 

One moment you will be worrying about something… perhaps you’re fearing some calamity or you'll be weighed down by some worldly desire, and then in a flash, it'll all be behind you, and you will be facing Jesus and on your way to heaven.

And suddenly, as you marvel at your new body, you're going to feel this endless strength and boundless joy, you’re completely free of evil thought and of sinful desires, and you’re experiencing this overwhelming love for God and with God moving in and through you, untainted by selfishness and deceit, and you're going to behold the One that Scripture calls beautiful, in His full glory, just as a bride looks upon her groom on her wedding day. 

And in that moment, I wonder, what are we going to be saying to ourselves as we reflect on the life that we just left behind…Jesus tells us elsewhere in the Gospels not to indulge in fear, not to worry, not to store things up on this earth. He wasn't just giving you some advice about maintaining a positive attitude because your attitude makes no difference in your eternal future whatsoever. Having a positive attitude does not change your resurrection day. The day of the Lord comes for all Christians in the same way. You can be fearful and sad and grumpy, and you're going to be resurrected just the same as all of the peaceful, joyful, contented Christians around you.

The reason Jesus counseled us to resist giving in to feelings of worry or sadness or insecurity is because it's a waste of time. Fundamentally, those things are evidence that we've taken our focus off of our eternal future, and we've fixed it on a lost and dying world that we're destined to see fading in our rear view mirror one day soon, perhaps in the next instant.