THE HOPE OF HIS COMING

As Christians we love to sing about the second coming of Jesus Christ; it’s one of the tenets of our Christian faith. We believe Christ when He said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3. While not every song concerning His coming is Biblically accurate (our Hymn Books would be quite slim if we excluded every Biblically inaccurate song) we are encouraged by the authors who gave us such songs as, “We Shall Behold Him,” “What If It Were Today,” “Is It The Crowning Day?,” “The King Is Coming,” and “Jesus Is Coming Again” by the late John W. Peterson, to name a very few.

Of course, any discussion about His return must include the reality that Christ’s coming is really ‘two’ comings. First, He will come for His Church. This is what we know as the ‘rapture’ or ‘the rapture of the church.’ This will take place prior to the Tribulation Period. At this coming we ‘meet the Lord in the air.’ Then there is His ‘Second Coming’ which will take place following the Tribulation Period. At that coming He will actually set foot on earth (Zechariah 14:4-6) to set up His kingdom where He will rule the world from His throne in Jerusalem. This fulfills what was said to His disciples in Acts 1:11, “‘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.’”

But, it is the rapture I would like to think about briefly today.

In I Thessalonians 4:13-18 we read, “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

As we look at verse 13 we see that those who do not have the hope of Christ’s return have no hope at all. Psalm 90:10 says, “The length of our days is seventy years – or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” It really doesn’t matter if you live to be 70 or 107; life (with all of its pressures and problems) passes quickly. Then what? Then, according to Hebrews 9:27, we face the judgment of God. But those who “fall asleep” (die) apart from having Christ as their Savior are void of the hope of anything good concerning their future. In Luke 16 we have the story (story, not parable) of the rich man and Lazarus. After both men had died Lazarus found himself in paradise and the unnamed rich man found himself in the torment of hell. Lazarus was not in paradise because he was a poor beggar, nor was the rich man in hell for being an unsympathetic millionaire. Verse 31 of Luke 16 makes it very clear that each man was where he was based upon his willingness to listen to what the Scripture says about life and death. Far better it is to trust Christ as your own personal Lord and Savoir and upon death, “be with the Lord forever.” For those of us who do have such hope; we know that death is not the end but rather the beginning of all things wonderful. We have the real hope of being “caught up in the rapture.” There is nothing that prevents the Lord Jesus Christ from returning for His church – though we know not the day or hour. But, should we pass from this life before that day, we rest assured with Paul that, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” II Corinthians 5:8. Or, as he said in Philippians 1:23, “I desire to depart and be with Christ…” Psalm 116:15 reminds us, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” So, we say with the Apostle John, “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20. How wonderful it is to live with real hope for life beyond this world’s offering.