[Darris McNeely] God's festivals are upon us. The annual Holy Days that God commanded mankind to keep in his name to worship and honor him. The Feast of Trumpets is coming up. The Feast of Trumpets is mentioned back in Leviticus 23. And within that chapter, we have what is called a time of the memorial of the blowing of trumpets, and Leviticus 23, "On the first day of the Sabbath month, a holy convocation and a blowing of trumpets." Whenever God told his people to blow the trumpets, they were either to come together to be on the move and on the match or to go to war because it was a time of alarm. Trumpets heralded something significant. Now, what does that mean for us today? Well, if we believe in Jesus Christ's return and His promise from His Word of His second coming, then when we turn to 1 Thessalonians 4 we read something about another blowing of trumpets in verse 16 and the announcement of Earth's most significant possibly event that we could ever imagine. Let's read it. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of an Archangel. and with the trumpet of God."

Paul writes here to the church about the sounding of the trumpet of God, not what the men of Israel were to sound. That was just a forerunner, a picture of what this particular event really does show, the trumpet of God sounding with the appearance of Jesus Christ as King of Kings, but here's what happens. "And the dead in Christ will rise first." Paul has comforted the church here with the encouragement that those who have died will rise again and he shows that it's going to happen with a sounding of a trumpet. The Feast of Trumpets points us to the absolute hope, truth, and fact of the resurrection from the dead of those who are described as the dead in Christ. The Bible even elsewhere talks about it as a first resurrection, as one that is what is called also a better resurrection. It will be a glorious time. It will be a time of reunion.

Who in the Bible would you want to sit down and talk to? Which of the saints, which of the great figures of the Bible? Abraham, Noah, David, the Apostle Paul? They'll be in that resurrection. The question for you and I to consider is will we be in that resurrection? That truth, that hope, is a fact of God's word. The Feast of Trumpets points us to that, brings us to that reality. Let's remember that and think about what it means to observe that day in anticipation, the very hope of the resurrection of the dead.

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