WHY I LOVE THE RED LETTER WORDS OF CHRIST - FIVE

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

November 13, 2018

The Red Letter Words are the words that Christ spoke while on earth. I love them all especially the promise of his coming.

In John 14:1-3 Jesus promised us saying: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

This is the blessed hope of all believers in all ages. The prophets wrote about it in Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14 according to 1 Corinthians 15:54-55. Paul wrote about the second coming of Christ in 1 Thessalonians 4 and what he wrote agrees with John 14:1-3 verbatim.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

In this passage, there are three things to notice.

----First, the decent of the Lord himself from heaven.

----Second, the resurrection of the dead saints.

----Third, the translation to heaven of those saints alive when he comes.

There is a four-fold agreement between John 14:1-4 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

(1) Jesus said in John 14; I will come again. 
Paul wrote; The Lord himself shall descend from heaven.

(2) Jesus said: I will receive you unto myself.
Paul said that the saints shall be; caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.

(3) Jesus said: Where I am, there ye may be also.
Paul said: So shall we ever be with the Lord.

(4) Jesus prefaced his promise to come again by saying: Let not your heart be troubled.
Paul the apostle concludes by saying: Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

There is no question, but that these two passages of scripture parallel and relate to the same event. What Jesus said about his second coming in John 14 is what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4.