He Will Come Again!

Confessing our Faith…

We believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried;

He descended to hell. On the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

He will come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

We believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

[Rev. E.E. Howards Pentecostal Hymnal]

When I grew up it wasn’t a question of if Jesus was coming back, but…

Is He Coming Today? Did I miss it!?

When I was kid I spent long hours in the church..sometimes several nights a week. I remember one time falling asleep on a pew and nobody realized I was there….they cut out the lights…when I woke up I was scared…not because it was dark, but because I thought I might have been left behind!!!

Christians historically have an infatuation with dating the “Last Days” often called the Rapture (this is different from what the church has understood as the Second Coming of Christ):

Now, I’m not trying to make enemies up here today…I realize how strong most deep-rooted Pentecostals feel about their end-times doctrines!!

The Rapture is a fairly modern doctrine that describes a moment when Jesus will come to take Christians out of this world, leaving a world in chaos and judgment behind.

Predicting the Day:

Millerites (believed Jesus would return in 1843)

Edgar C Whisenant - 88 Reason Jesus will Return in 1988

Harold Camping - September 6, 1944…September 29th…October 2nd…May 21, 2011…October 21, 2011 [Mercifully, he finally ran out of his own days so he couldn’t predict any more dates]

Ed Dobson - Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000

John Hagee - 4 Blood Moons (Lunar Eclipses April 2014 to September 2015)

Y2K Christian Speculation

All of these prediction were centered around the idea that Jesus was coming to take the good kids away, while he dealt with the bad kids here on earth.

Whatever it is that you have decided the Bible teaches about that, I want to draw a distinction between our mutual confession we call the return of Christ (or Parousia in Greek) and those predictions I previously mentioned.

Here’s the definition…

Second Coming of Christ (Parousia)

The Return (second coming) of Christ (parousia) is the long-held confession, from the apostles, that Jesus would in fact return to this earth in his resurrected body to establish his kingdom forevermore.

Matthew 24:30

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 25:31

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Mark 13:32

“Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–17

13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are still 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.

Hebrews 9:28

so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

The Revelation

*Traditionally, most Christians have developed their ideas on the last days from John’s book of the Revelation (Apocalypse in Greek).

Revelation 22:6–7

6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” 7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation is the translation of the Greek word “apocalypse”

Over time, Prophecy came to mean predicting things and apocalypse came to mean the final destruction of things—both in the future.

But in Scripture the word apocalypse doesn’t mean the end of the world, it means the pulling back of the veil to reveal things hidden. And a prophet was not so much a future-teller, as he was a truth-teller.

Think of Luke 24:31 “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.…”

Prophetic and Apocalyptic language in Scripture is meant to do two things….

Reveal what is real and good, hidden by the powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12).

Wake up God’s people from their Spiritual sleep caused by our worldly intoxication.

Truth: The second coming of Jesus is not so much a thing to be predicted as it is a reality to be lived into.

BTM: I don’t know if we are living in the last days…but I know you are living in yours!

So…the goal is not to predict the day, but rather to live prepared!

How are we prepared?

The aim of the Christian life is NOT to live in FEAR of the second coming…but to live in HOPEFUL EXPECTATION of it!

The Return of Christ is NOT a THREAT…It’s a PROMISE!

We are being prepared (sanctification) by daily taking the life of Jesus (the Word) into our lives.

Revelation 10:8–11 “Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” Then I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter. And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.””

Truth: Taking Jesus into your life is sweet in the beginning, but it will become bitter when He confronts your hidden sin and unrepentance.

What happens when we “eat this Word?”

When we eat the Word, the blinders of Sin fall away from our spiritual eyes.

Mom always told you to eat more carrots cause they are good for your eyes!

Becoming intoxicated with the prophets of this world (politicians, SM influencers, even popular preachers!) our spiritual vision gets blurry!

When we eat the Word, we have the courage and strength to live between the “already” and the “not yet”.

When we say are aliens in this world (1 Peter 2:12), we are not asking God to take us from this world…. We are praying God make this world once and forever more YOUR WORLD with US!

Instead of abandoning this world, we should be praying into the Kingdom!

Instead of cursing this world, we should be praying the world waked up from it’s spiritual death!

When we eat the Word, we lose a taste for the powers of this world and gain and appetite for the coming kingdom.

The more junk food we eat, the more sugar we eat, the more my body craves MORE of that. We know this…most fast food today is chemically engineered to give our body the immediate hit of satisfaction. But it really doesn’t give us the nutrients our bodies need.

That’s why our fathers and grandfathers shouted and ran and prayed in the Spirit! They were getting a taste for what is to come!

When we eat the Word, we are not only “caught up” in the clouds one day. We learn to get “caught up” in what God is already doing today.

Revelation 21:5 “Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.””

God has made his home (tabernacled) with us NOW! He is doing a NEW THING now…

Following Jesus to an INVITATION to participate NOW while we await his RETURN.