The city of Jerusalem is right behind me,

and we are on top of one of the most

important mountains on planet Earth.

This is the place

were so many things happened.

This is the place where Jewish people from

Galilee used to encamp right here

every festival, as they made it to Jerusalem

from the east, making their way up

from the eastern part from Jericho as their

last major stop and right here for the first time,

they would be able to see right

where the dome of the rock is standing today

was the temple, the great temple.

Whether it's the first temple built

by Solomon, roughly 1,000 B.C.

and destroyed in 586 B.C., or it's

the second temple that was rebuilt

by those who returned back

from Babylon, but it had to go through

three different phases. One

when they built it, another one when the

Hasmoneans restored it in the second

Century B.C., and, of course, the time

that Herod the Great gave a great

facelift to this mountain and created

something adorned with marble and gold.

And they say that he who did not see

Jerusalem in those days knows not what

beauty is. And some others said that if

ten cubits of beauty were given to the world

in those days, nine were taken by Jerusalem

at the time. Jerusalem was amazing.

Jerusalem was definitely the center

of the world's attention even then, not

to mention now. But the message

that we want to talk about from

the top of the Mount of Olives right

here as we look at the Temple Mount,

as we know that the City of David

is right down below,

this is a contested place today.

This is a place where UNESCO

is actually saying it's not even having

any Jewish heritage, where we know

that not only that it has, if there is any

heritage to this place, it is Jewish.

We know that we found remains that's

going back to more than 3,000 years ago.

And just recently we found a 2,700-year-old

piece of scroll that is sort of like an invoice

for someone who was shipping wine

to Jerusalem. And so all I'm trying to say,

there is no doubt we're standing and looking

at a place that God himself said in Second

Chronicles 6:6, this is where I am going

to put my name

upon this place.

Not only that, he said also, I'm going to give

it to David to rule over my people Israel.

So, God says I will be here, and God says

it is meant to be for David to rule over

my people Israel. And we all know

that somebody has to come from

the house of David.

Somebody has to be from the line of Judah

or from the line of Judah, from the tribe

of Judah, and he will restore once again

the fallen tabernacle of David right here.

Now the topic of the rapture of the church

is often something that either is being

controversial, which means people don't

exactly know how to take it and they have

so many different opinions about it, or often

being completely neglected by thousands

of thousands of churches all around the world.

It's something that I believe is the

work of the enemy. To neglect most likely

the most important thing that can be promised

to the believers in Jesus is definitely to steal

from them their only hope, their blessed hope.

The main hope for every believer. And the title

of the message is the mystery of the rapture.

And it's not for nothing. It is a mystery.

In fact, I want you to know that mystery

is not secret. Secret is secret, and mystery

is a mystery. And when the Bible wants

to talk about mystery, the Bible talks

about mystery. When the Bible wants

to say secret, the Bible says secret.

Mystery and secret are two different

things. Mystery is something that is not

hidden but transformed from shadow

to substance, something that at a certain

point we saw it, but we didn't understand

and then in light of new revelations, now

we understand what it was all about.

Yet secret is something that is hidden

and that we cannot see nor feel.

So, when God reveals secrets,

it's something we never heard of.

When God reveals a mystery,

we are going to say, “Aha!”

"Now I understand it." And it's interesting

because for the entire Bible we find

thirty-three times the word mystery, and we find

it once in the Old Testament in the Book

of Daniel. The mystery that we're talking

about that dream that Nebuchadnezzar

had and that mystery eventually was solved

by God, the God of Israel, who revealed

the true meaning of that dream to Daniel,

for him to share with the king.

And that mystery was all about things

that existed and will come to pass

and then Daniel just interpreted it.

He received an understanding

of something that existed.

Thus, it's a mystery.

Yet we find that word mystery also

in Romans and Corinthians and Ephesians

and Colossians and Second Thessalonians

and First Timothy and in the Book of Revelation.

And in the Book of Daniel, the mystery

was all about the true God.

The mystery revealed who the real God is.

When all the other people tried to give

their own interpretation, it is the Lord God

of Israel that gave the true one.

But then as we move in Romans 11,

there is the mystery

about Israel and God's

plan for Israel,

plan for Israel, which means Israel

which means Israel

has been there. They are going through things,

but there is a mystery about their role

even in the future, that God in Romans 11,

in light of Jesus and in light of New Testament,

is indeed revealing to all people.

So, that's Romans 11.

So, that's Romans 11. In Colossians chapter 2,

In Colossians chapter 2,

the mystery of

  the true Messiah.

Colossians 2:2 talks about behold I tell you

a mystery about Christ, and if that's not enough

in Ephesians 5 verses 31 and 32, the mystery

of the relationship the between the church

and Christ. It is a mystery. It's a mystery

just like a husband and a wife.

It's a mystery because we've heard about

it before when God described his relationship

with Israel while in the desert.

Remember we read about it in Jeremiah

chapter 2, and now we see that that same

mystery is also between the church and Christ.

A husband and a wife. It is a mystery.

I think it's even a mystery to married

couples still. And then in First Corinthians

15:51, the mystery of the soon rapture.

The Bible says behold I tell you a mystery

about how we are going to change.

In Ephesians 3 verse 6 and Colossians 1:26,

the mystery of the Gentile heirs

of the kingdom, how a Gentile can be an heir

of the kingdom. It's a mystery, which none

could understand before, but now in light

of the New Testament, in light of Christ,

we understand. God never meant only Israel

to be the heirs. He had also kept a remnant

that did not worship the Baal even from among

the heathens.

And then Second Thessalonians 2:7,

the mystery of lawlessness, which is already at work.

This is something different and that's

when we teach about the antichrist and the spirit

of the antichrist. So, we see that there

are several mysteries, even in mystery Babylon

in Revelation. But I would like to dwell

with all of you this morning from the top

of the Mount of Olives on First Corinthians 15

verses 51 and 52. "Behold I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep," which is the Bible way

to say not all of us will die. And this

is the way to tell the believer

because nonbelievers will die.

Believers just fall asleep. We fall asleep,

and then we wake up and we are

somewhere else. Almost as if we fell asleep

in the living room, and the father takes us

and puts us in bed, and we wake up and we're

in bed where we need to be in our room.

A room that belongs to us, and we wake up

and here we are. We just fall asleep, that's all.

So not all of us will sleep, but we shall

all be changed.

Just like Paul says in First

Thessalonians 4, that "Behold, the dead in Christ

will rise first, and we that are alive will be caught

up in the air." We can clearly see that Paul

talks to the Corinthians and tells them

the same exact thing.

And he says, "In a moment,

in a 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." Isn't that interesting that

on one hand, he speaks of a sudden event.

On the other hand, he speaks of a process.

The sudden event that takes less than a second,

twinkling of an eye. It's our bodies changing

and leaving this place. Within a twinkling

of an eye, we're going to be gone.

It's not something that the world is going

to sit and watch and look at all of us like

Mary Poppins going all the way up there.

No. The world will just understand

that we're gone. We will be gone instantly.

However, he said at the last trumpet,

which means that there has been a process

that had begun already, yet nobody pays

attention if it's not the believers.

We need to pay attention.

We need to look for that which I believe

God is trying to get the attention

of the world with, the trumpets.

And I've always said that Israel

and the church are the two trumpets

that God has been using ever since 1948.

This is the first time in history of Israel

is a nation back in the land and the church

coexisting. All before that, Israel was dispersed

all around the world. They were not a nation

back in their land, or when they were

in the land before the church did not exist.

So, you see in the Book of Isaiah, God

says about Israel you're my witnesses.

In the Book of Acts, you talk about the church,

you are my witnesses. These are the two

witnesses. These are the two silver trumpets,

I believe, that Moses was commanded to make

to direct the movement of the camp and to direct

the attention of the people. And God, ever since

1948, is trying to get the attention of the whole

world that he's about to do something big.

And it's a set of blowing of the trumpet.

It's not one because we know that at the last

trumpet, which means they started already

blowing. They started already sounding

their voice. And it's interesting because