“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. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet (i.e. escort) the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” I Thessalonians 4:16 (NASB)
A key word in this verse is “meet”. It is only used in three places in the NT. It means escort. It is the word used in Acts 28:15 when the church heard about Paul, Luke and company coming and went out to intercept and escort them. It is also used in Matthew 25:1-6 when the virgins go out to meet (escort) the arriving bridegroom. Get this picture: Christ is returning with all resurrected saints, the living saints arise to meet them and Him in the air as He descends to reclaim all of creation by new creation and set up His everlasting kingdom. (He comes FOR us and WITH us faster than you can bat your eye (1 Corinthians 15:52). We are going to be with Him. All His redeemed ones in heaven and those on earth are going to join Him in one grand entourage, the likes of which the cosmos has never seen. The King is coming. We are going to escort Him. We are coming with Him! Wow! “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20)
