In the beginning God created everything. God created humans in His image so that we could know Him in a meaningful relationship. But man decided to disobey God and so sin entered our hearts and sin’s curse came upon the earth. Wonderfully, God had a plan.
God the Son came to earth over 2,000 years ago. He came to restore those who believe in Him into a right relationship with a Holy God. He died for our sins. He rose from the grave and ascended into Heaven. And from the heavens He has promised to come again.
When He comes again He will gather all those who believe in Him to Himself, punish all who have not believed in Him and restore all the earth from the effects of sin’s curse.
JESUS WILL RETURN
He will return as He left. It will be real and visible. Acts 1:9-11 says, “…This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
He will return in a time of great trials, unbelief, and wickedness. Read 2 Timothy 3:1-4: “1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” The follower of Jesus must remain faithful in a faithless time.
We should always be prepared for Jesus to return at any time. Matthew 24:42-44 tells us that, “… you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
JESUS WILL RETURN FOR HIS FOLLOWERS
Jesus is now preparing a place for us. John 14:1-3 says “… Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Jesus will gather His followers to Himself. A great encouragement is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
JESUS WILL RETURN AS JUDGE AND KING
Read 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10:
“5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”
The return of Christ will mean great comfort and blessing for those who believe in him and will bring great judgment on all who do not.
JESUS WILL RETURN TO COMPLETE OUR SALVATION.
He will give us glorified bodies and make us like Him. 1 John 3:2 says “… we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
He will bring glory and freedom from sin to all the earth. Read Romans 8:18-21:
“18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
His coming means joy for us and should be eagerly awaited. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…”
PERSONAL APPLICATION
What emotions do you feel the most when you think of Christ returning, and why?
Read 2 Peter 3:11-12:
“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 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”
How do you think you should prepare yourself for Christ’s return?”
Grace
ANSWERS:
- same way, 2. expect, 3. prepare, 4. come again, 5. like him, 6. eagerly
