Romans 8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Just as the firstfruits of a harvest are a pledge of the full crop to come, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our full adoption as God’s children, when our bodies are redeemed. The metaphor also suggests that the Holy Spirit is the foretaste of the life to come (see Eph. 1:14).  We groan because although our souls are saved, our bodies are still subject to pain and sin. However, thank God we have the “however”, Amen? However, we look forward with hope to our resurrection bodies which will be free from physical frailty and indwelling sin.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

God made known to Paul that the dead would be raised up by instantaneous transformation at the last trumpet. Trumpets were used to call God’s people together (Num. 10:1-10) and at royal coronations in presenting kings to Israel (1 Kings 1:34). Moreover, this transformation will happen to the living as well as to the dead.

[A little side note], if you will, besides the love chapter (13) 1 Corinthians 15 and 16 are some of Paul’s greatest writings. 1-Corinthians 15 because it shows us the means and importance of the resurrection. Other things I feel led to mention, speaking of Paul’s greatest writings, Romans 3 because it gives us the gospel and explains what really happened on the Cross. Romans 8 gives us the scope of our salvation. 1 Corinthians 13 because it gives an awesome description of love, the heart of the Christian life. All matters of Christian practical living and ethical issues: division in the church, immorality in the church, questionable gray areas i.e., eating idol meat, proper worship, and spiritual gifts.

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

Here we have Trumpets again, shouts and trumpets heralding the arrival of visiting monarchs in NT times. Heavenly equivalents proclaim the return of Jesus. The words “caught up together with them” are the chief biblical source of the doctrine of the rapture—the catching away to heaven of those, dead or living, who have trusted in Christ and await His return. The exact word “rapture” does not occur in scripture: it was formed from a word in the Latin translation of the Bible, which, for this phrase, reads simul rapiemur cum illis. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 gives the additional information that a great rebellion by humankind against God’s authority and the emergence of the Man of Sin will precede the return of the Lord.

We believe by faith that Jesus is returning to usher in the fullness of His kingdom and glory for all eternity. We should comfort those who have lost believing loved ones with the hope that those who have died in Christ will rise first.

The walk of faith is expectant and hopeful. By faith, we pray and expect to see God move through His church today with signs, wonders, and miracles. By faith, we embrace biblical preaching with the expectant hope that through His Word, God will change us increasingly into His image. By faith, we expectantly look forward to the return of our Lord Jesus, in whom all our hope is placed.

Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

The prerequisite to godly living is the grace of God. It teaches Christians discipleship and affords them the blessed hope of the Coming of Christ.

The fact that Christ is returning is meant to be a primary motivating force in the life of every believer, causing us to strive after holiness and righteousness in our lives. Jesus is coming, be ready.

Burden for Souls

A Passionate Desire to Share the Gospel and Save the Lost

“The best sermon is preached by the minister who has a sermon to preach and not by the man who has to preach a sermon,” declared a church leader. The deep earnestness that marks out the effective preacher is nothing less than a passion or burden for the lost. This preacher seeks to rescue the perishing not because duty demands it, but because a real sense of urgency burns within his heart. He can do nothing else. “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,” testified Peter and John (Acts 4:20).

In his book Power in Preaching, W. E. Sangster declares, “Some preaching fails in power because it fails in passion”. The sermon may be well prepared and well delivered, but it is a performance rather than real preaching. Preaching must be real if it is to be anything. The preacher must be in it heart and soul, feeling the emotions that he or she wishes to portray in the sermon. Artificial passion is as distasteful in preaching as it would be in love. Pretense of any kind is a form of hypocrisy that robs the ministry of its credibility. People can detect it more easily than we often realize.

A real passion for souls is a glow from within; the counterfeit is a shine applied to the outside. The glow comes from a heart that is burning with love for God and for the people. In India, Henry Martyn prayed, “Here let me burn out for God.” Every person entering the preaching ministry must be spiritually on fire for God if that one is to do anything of enduring worth. This passion arises from the awareness of the consequences of sin and the confidence of salvation

The Consequences of Sin

If anything will give a man or woman a burden for the lost, the knowledge of the consequences of sin will. “The wages of sin is death,” Paul wrote (Romans 6:23). These wages will surely be paid unless a person receives God’s gift of life in Christ. For those who have not entered into a saving relationship with Jesus, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Hell is a dreadful reality.

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said that he would like to dangle every one of his preachers over hell for twenty-four hours and then send them out as the greatest evangelists of the day. Could a man or woman look into a lost eternity and not feel such a stirring in his or her soul that nothing would distract him or her from seeking to turn the sinners from that awful fate? How could such a person remain indifferent to the sinner’s fate? It was said of John Wesley, “All who perish are his parish.” Like him, you know what sin is and you know what sin does. This knowledge should compel you to exert every effort to reach the sinner for Christ before it is too late.

The Confidence of Salvation

William Booth once reminisced, “I was made a red-hot Salvationist by an infidel lecturer. That lecturer said, ‘If I believed what some of you Christians believe, I would never rest day or night from telling men about it.’” Not only are we aware of the reality of hell, but we also know the saving power of Jesus. He “rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). We know that “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11).

The enthusiasm with which people recommend effective products, remedies, and recipes to their friends should be far surpassed by our praise of our Savior. Our confidence, our blessed hope, rests upon our personal experience. What He has done for us in forgiving us and making us part of that new creation, we know He can do for all. Speaking of Jesus, John affirmed, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Sir Henry Holland, the honored missionary doctor, was once asked the meaning of his motto: “Not only . . . but also.” He told how as a young medical student in Edinburgh, Scotland, the above Scripture verse had burned into his soul at a missionary rally. He then realized that Christ had died for the whole world, not just the chosen few as he had previously imagined. That was what sent him to India’s northwest frontier. In the same way, you, too, can work confident that your Savior is also the Savior of the world.

The person with a burden for the lost, the person with a burning love for the Lord, the person who thinks no price is too high to pay to turn one person back from a Christless eternity: that person is the preacher. “Preach the Word,” wrote Paul. “Press forward with this whether it is convenient or not” (2 Timothy 4:2). Personal convenience is irrelevant to the person with a passion for souls.