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THROUGH THE BIBLE WITH LES FELDICK
LESSON 2 * PART 3 * BOOK 40
PHILIPPIANS 3:17 – 4:23
Now let’s go back to the Book of Philippians for just a little bit. We’re going to be jumping around again in this lesson, but we’ll start with verse 21 of chapter 3. Did I spend the whole half hour in verse 20? I didn’t intend to do that, as I thought sure I’d finish the whole Book of Philippians today, and we may yet be able to do that. Now verse 21 is another loaded verse that has so much in it that you have to use so much to enhance what the apostle is talking about. At the end of verse 20 we’re looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ to come for us.

Philippians 3:21

“Who shall change our vile body, (this old body of corruption) that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

In other words, He’s going to be able to take this body and make something of it. Now that’s a real hope isn’t it? Now let’s just look at a few verses that enhance that concept, so come back to I Corinthians chapter 15. When I teach the Rapture of the Church I always try to use I Corinthians 15:51-58 along with I Thessalonians 4:13-18, but here we just want you to see what Paul was talking about in Philippians when he says, “That when the Lord comes he will change our vile body, this body of sin and disease into a new body.”

I Corinthians 15:51a

“Behold I shew you a mystery; (a secret that had never been revealed before. This secret had been kept in the mind of God until He reveals it to this apostle.) We shall not all sleep…”

We’re not all going to die. There’s going to be a group of believers living who will not go through death. I think Enoch in the Book of Genesis chapter 5 is probably a pretty good illustration of that in the Old Testament. Enoch walked with God just before the judgment of the flood, but we find that he was translated, and escaped that judgment. So I tie that in with the Rapture of the Church. We’ll be here one moment and be gone in a split second and shortly after that the horrors of the Tribulation will fall. So Paul here is showing us a secret. Something that has never been revealed before. The Lord Jesus never mentions this during His earthly ministry. Peter knew nothing of it, but this is a revelation that was given only to this apostle in this Age of Grace. So we remember we shall not die.

I Corinthians 15:51b

“…but we shall all be changed.”

Regardless whether the believer has died or is alive at the Rapture we’re all going to be changed. We’re going to have a body fashioned after Christ’s resurrected body, and we’ll look at a few of those verses in a moment. Now verse 52. For those of us who are alive and remain this body change won’t take long to accomplish.

I Corinthians 15:52a

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:”

Now trump here is singular and I’ve started to emphasize that because I’ve had several that have tried to drum the trumpets of Revelation down my throat as being the call of the Church. Well there’s no correlation or anything that even comes close to fitting this trumpet of God that Paul speaks of and the trumpets in Revelation. Number one, this is the trumpet of God, it’s singular. Revelation has seven trumpets that are given to seven angels, not to announce His coming and the resurrection, but rather they’re to announce plagues, and the wrath of God. So I can’t see any correlation whatsoever. This is the trumpet of God and it shall sound. Now finishing verse 52.

I Corinthians 15:52b

“…for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead (the dead in Christ. Only for the Church Age. Not the Old Testament believer, as they’ll have their own resurrection, but the Church Age believers) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

So we’re all going to be raised incorruptible, and have the same kind of body that Christ has. Every Church Age believer, whether we’re weak, carnal, or spiritual, whether we’ve accomplished a lot, little or nothing. We’re all going to be changed. And now verse 53, and here’s the reason.

I Corinthians 15:53-54a

“For this corruptible (this body of flesh) must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54. So when this corruptible, (this body that is prone to go back to the dust of the earth) shall have put on incorruption,…”

Do you know what that means? That body is going to last for eternity! Now I was reading again the other night that astronomers are finding more and more with the explosion of technology, and even though I don’t agree with their timing yet it certainly sets my mind spinning.

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