I have been preaching on a series of messages called Apocalypse and today I have a very special message that will bless and warm your heart.
Today’s message is: The Second Return of Jesus
In the first word of the series I told you that a quarter of the Bible is to do with prophecies about Jesus’ return.
Many churches today no longer speak of Jesus’ return, but this is a biblical promise that the church cannot fail to teach and wait on.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. ”
2 Peter 3: 10-12 NIV
““ Men of Galilee, ”they said,“ why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. ””
Acts 1:11 NIV
Why am I preaching about eschatology (study of the end times)? Because we need to have a basic understanding of it, because our understanding of the future will determine our present!
Your understanding of what to expect in the future determines how you live now!
Eschatology does not aim at answering our “curiosities”, but rather at awakening us to our responsibilities!
We need to know to know how we are going to respond to the Lord, because the end of everything affects our present.
Again I repeat: almost all scholars of the word of God believe that we will have a rapture, a great tribulation, the return of Jesus and the millennium. However, the sequence and the chronology of these events differ accordng to different scholars.
What is important: you have to be prepared like the 5 virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom and had oil in their lamps and went to the wedding of the Lamb. (Matthew 25: 1 to13)
In order for you to understand the second coming of Jesus, we need to have an understanding of the rapture I spoke of last week.
It is impossible to teach about the Second Coming of Jesus and not talk about the Rapture.
There is some confusion among Christians about the rapture. They either skip the rapture or they don’t believe in the Rapture.
There is a big difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus and they are not the same events in the Bible.
The Rapture is when we meet the Lord in the air.
At the Second Coming the Church that was already raptured returns with the Lord.
They are two totally different things.
In the Rapture, believers will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air. The meeting point for us – Christians, with Jesus is not when He returns to Earth, but Where is our meeting with Him? In the air!
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ”
(1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17 NIV)
All true Christians will take part in the rapture, it’s doesn’t matter if you are alive or dead – The dead in Christ will rise first, after that , we who still alive we’ll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air !
“And so we will be with the Lord forever.” What does that mean?
The minute we find Jesus in the air, wherever Jesus goes after that, we will be with Him.
Do you understand?
If he is in heaven, we are with him, if he returns to earth, we are with him.
Anywhere He is, from that moment of the rapture and onwards we shall always be with the Lord.
In the Second Coming, the believers will return with the Lord as Zachariah says:
“Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones (saints) with him.”
Zechariah 14: 5b NIV
When Jesus returns to earth Zachariah says that His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. ( Zachariah 14: 4 )
The Bible also says, He is not coming alone. He’s coming with all the saints.
““ Look, he is coming with the clouds, ”and“ every eye will see him, even those who pierced him ”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. ”
Revelation 1: 7 NIV
“The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.”
Revelation 19:14 NIV
When Jesus makes His way back to earth, we will follow Him on white horses. We will be seeing his back, not His face.
If you are a believer and you are watching me right now, would you say you want to see Jesus’ face when He comes back to earth?
If so, this can only mean one things, that the rapture already happened and you were left behind.
The believers, in the second coming of Jesus to earth, should not see Jesus ’face!
They should see Jesus’ back because they are going to ride on horses after Him.
The rapture of the Church has to happen before the tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus to earth happens after the tribulation.
The Bible is very clear about it.
The tribulation is a future seven-year period when God will complete his discipline of Israel and final judgment upon the unbelieving citizens of the world.
The rapture will happen before the tribulation. How do I know that?
Because 1 Thess 5:9-10
“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 NIV
Whether you are dead in Christ or you’re still alive, you will all be living with Him when He comes to takes us to be with Him.
The wrath of God is not meant for us, those who love Him.
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you FROM the hour of trial which SHALL come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Revelation 3:10
The seven years of tribulation will begin with a trial and this is something that we are not destined for. Jesus said I will keep you from the hour of trial what will come upon the whole world.
We are going to be taken, to be with Him, before His wrath is sent down. At the very end when He comes back to establish His kingdom we come back with Him.
In the rapture, believers are taken from the earth by God as an act of deliverance!
This is why our days are likened in the scriptures to be like the days of Noah! ( Matthew 24:7 )
In Noah’s time people were eating, drinking, having fun and doing as they wanted. They were not expecting the flood, but Noah and his family knew what was going to happen and they got ready!
We know how much we need to prepare ourselves, in fact that’s what we are doing right now!
I’m teaching you to get ready! We are studying this to ready ourselves.
We are in a sense, building our own ark.
While the world is ridiculing and mocking us for what we do.
Noah was taken up through the waters that rose and the people stayed and the waters came and they all perished. Then after the flood Noah returned and reigned on earth.
So the rapture will be the same: The church will be raptured, the world will face the great tribulation here on this earth and then we return with Jesus to reign with Him.
In the rapture the believers are taken from earth by God as an act of deliverance.
In John 14:3 Jesus said:
I’m going o prepare a place for you and I’m coming to take you, so you will come to be with me. Because I’m going to deal with this world and you are not destined to that dealing.
In the second coming, when Jesus comes, people are going to go through a great judgment.
Jesus is not coming as a loving man , turning the other cheek, riding a donkey or crying.
No, Jesus will come as a man of war. King of Kings and Lord of Lords to bring judgment over all evil.
The first time Jesus came He came not to condemn but to save.
But the second coming is completely different. The world will see and experience the wrath of the Lamb, Jesus will consume all of His enemies and He will sit there and reign from Jerusalem.
The Jews completely ignore the part that Jesus had to first come and die for their sins. They don’t accept or recognise Jesus as their messiah and Saviour and as result they will have to face the great tribulation.
When all of us are taken out of here , the world is going to fall into such horrific , diabolic, satanic practices and that’s why Jesus comes to judge and destroy them.
Jesus has to come back and put an end to all of it.
How must we live now that we know all this?
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
2 Peter 3:10-12 NIV
We must live a life consecrated to God, waiting with joy for his return and hastening his return!
We must live in two different ways at the same time.
We must live each day as if Jesus is going to return today.
We must work and make plans as if Jesus was going to return in 50 years.
For many Christians have said: Jesus is coming soon, we don’t need to work, we don’t need to preach the gospel, we don’t need to study, we don’t need to make plans, because He’s coming!
We do need to live each day waiting for Jesus to return. However, we need to work and make plans as if Jesus would only return in 50 years.
Why should we live this way? Because we don’t know the day or the hour!
“Then they gathered around him and asked him,” Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? ” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. ” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. ””
Acts 1: 6-11 NIV
After resurrecting, Jesus remains with his disciples for 40 days and teaches them things concerning the kingdom of God.
When Jesus ascended Angels said: Just as you saw him go up you will see he come back.
Jesus’ return is a promise of his own. Jesus’ return is an indisputable fact in the Word of God.
The disciples asked Jesus, is it at this time that he is going to restore the kingdom of Israel? For the Jews had a promise of a physical and literal kingdom.
Jesus answers them, the date, the calendar, the day is not up to you!
What is important is the mission you have ahead of you and what you really need to know is:
You will receive power from the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses!
What you have to focus on is the mission that I am giving you. You need to proclaim the gospel, you have a mission to fulfil, go and make disciples!
After he ascends to heaven, God sends 2 angels and says: Just as you saw him ascend, he will return.
Beloved, we have a clear promise that needs to warm our hearts! Our Lord Jesus will return!
However, many Christians are fighting over things that are not important. Many Christians are constantly trying to find out when the Lord will come.
Many false prophets and even Christians have already tried to predict the date for Jesus’ return and failed.
The Lord Jesus himself said:
““ But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ”
Matthew 24:36 NIV
Jesus is saying: this date is a surprise and you don’t need to know!
Only the Father knows the date, as in the Galilean wedding, the son goes to the Father’s house to get a house ready for his bride and the Father tells the hour that the Son can return to pick up his bride (If you have not heard the word: The Wedding of the Lamb, which was the first word in the series, please listen, as it is a key word to understand about Jesus’ return.)
Jesus said that his coming will be like that of a thief, He will come by unannounced and He does not want this date to be known.
Why don’t we know the date? So that you and I can live in the eminence of His return, in the expectation of His return. God wants us to be prepared and ready at all times.
Each generation must live in anticipation of this coming and understand that we have a mission!
We have to be a church that lives in expectation, looking at Heaven, waiting for His return, but at the same time, we have to look at the fields that are ready to harvest and work, we must reach the lost and make disciples.
We need to understand that a mission has been presented to us.
In the book of Matthew 21: 33-45 Jesus tells parable of the kingdom in which the Lord expected to receive the fruits but did not receive!
What is Jesus talking about?
Jesus compares the vineyard to the Kingdom, and who owns the vineyard? God Himself.
Who is the first group of farmers? This first group of farmers is the nation of Israel.
Who is the second group of farmers?
“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ”
John 1: 11-12
The Gentiles, who entered into God’s plan and purpose by forming another group, which is the church.
Jesus said: This second group (Gentiles) will deliver the fruits in due time. (Matthew 21:41)
The church was born with a mission and a prophetic statement from Jesus that we would deliver the fruits.
Now, we need to align our lives with Jesus’ return!
We don’t need to know the date, God knows, he’s omniscient.
Apostle Peter said
“You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. ”
2 Peter 3: 10-12 NIV
He said that we must not only wait for the coming of our Lord, but “hasten” the coming of the day of Jesus’ return.
Does this mean that Jesus’ coming can be hastened? Yes!
Jesus said that his coming would be like Noah’s day.
The flood only came and manifested when Noah finished his mission.
What was the mission that God gave Noah? Build the Ark.
We need to understand that Jesus compares His coming with Noah, so Jesus’ return will only happen when we finish our mission.
We, as a church, should have less of a focus on dates and knowing when it will happen, and should instead understand and focus on our mission.
This way we are going to hasten the coming of the Lord’s day.
The important thing is not to be discussing eschatology, the important thing is to prepare the church and fulfil its mission.
We need to stop discussing who is right or wrong and focus on our mission!
We all have to be prepared for the Rapture or prepared for the great tribulation, but much more importantly is the fulfilment of our mission before the Rapture and the great tribulation.
Our mission is the most relevant fact.
In Acts 1: 8 Jesus said: The day and the hour is not the most important, but you are receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to be my witness. Go and make disciples, baptise those disciples and teach them all things.
We have to be prepared for the Lord’s return, but we also have a mission to fulfil and this is the most important fact.
The church has been given a mission, and you and I, as part of the church need to be responsible for this mission and so we can hasten the day of the Lord’s coming.
To live waiting for the coming of Jesus is not to stand still, waiting without working.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. ”
II Timothy 4: 7-8
Apostle Paul, at the end of his life said: I have fought the good fight, I have completed my mission and I will receive my crown, not only me, but everyone who loves the Lord’s coming.
Everyone who loves the coming of the Lord will receive the crown of righteousness!
Are you waiting and loving the coming of the Lord?
Waiting for the Lord’s return is compared to waiting for a very special visit to your home.
You don’t expect a visit sitting around doing nothing. You clean the house, you organise the room, you prepare good food for your visitors while eagerly awaiting the arrival of your guest.
Prepare your home for Jesus’ return. Repent from your sins, forgive those who have offended you. Confess and forsake your sins. Fix your life with God.
Wait for this day with joy, love the coming of the Lord, declare each day: Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
Do as Apostle Paul, who loved the Lord’s return but fought the good fight, finished the race, fulfilling the mission that God entrusted to him.
We have to live as if Jesus was going to return tonight, but we must work to fulfil our mission before His arrival.
May the Lord bless and keep you