Explanation of the Text 1 Thess 4:17 The Two Stages of our Meeting with the Lord in the Air.

1Th 4:17  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 so we shall ever be with the Lord. 
1Th 4:18  Therefore comfort one another with these words. 

The Two Stages of the Parousia.
The People of Christ will go forth to meet Christ in these two stages: - 
1. The dead in Christ shall rise first; and now in v.17
2. All the Living Believers; all will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air.

" Christ descends, the believing dead shall arise and the living Christians are snatched upwards with them into the "clouds" and "into the air" to meet Christ."

Taken up together : Future tense  of ἁρπάζω
harpazō Thayer Definition:
1) to seize, carry off by force
2) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly
3) to snatch out or away

Latin (raptiemur) from which we get rapture

Compare 2Co 12:2  I know a Christian man who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows--was caught up (this man of whom I am speaking) even to the highest Heaven. 

2Co 12:3  And I know that this man-- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know; 

2Co 12:4  God knows--was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable things which no human being is permitted to repeat. 

God took Paul into the third Heaven.

Compare :Act 8:39  But no sooner had they come up out of the water than the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again. With a glad heart he resumed his journey; 

Act 8:40  but Philip found himself at Ashdod. 

The Spirit of God snatches Philip from the Gaza Road and he was found at Azotus.

God will gather the saints like he did to Philip or like he did to Enoch in Genesis 5:24  And Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him. 

לקח lâqach BDB Definition:

1) to take, get, fetch, lay hold of, seize, receive, acquire, buy, bring, marry, take a wife, snatch, take away

caught up together with them in the clouds, 

Could mean clouds or heavenly armies.

Act 1:9  When He had said this, and while they were looking at Him, He was carried up, and a cloud closing beneath Him hid Him from their sight. 

Act 1:10  But, while they stood intently gazing into the sky as He went, suddenly there were two men in white garments standing by them, 

Act 1:11  who said, "Galilaeans, why stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven will come in just the same way as you have seen Him going into Heaven." 

Compare 1Co 15:51  I tell you a truth hitherto kept secret: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 

1Co 15:52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sounding of the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incapable of decay, and *we* shall be changed. 

Going out to meet the Lord in the air on His arrival will be such a great honour.

cp. Palm Sunday; Joh 12:12  The next day a great crowd of those who had come to the Festival, hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 

Joh 12:13  took branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, shouting as they went, "God save him! BLESSINGS ON HIM WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD --even on the King of Israel!" 

and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Mat 25:34  "Then the King will say to those at His right, "'Come, my Father's blessed ones, receive your inheritance of the Kingdom which has been divinely intended for you ever since the creation of the world. 

Our Final Home is with the Lord forever.