When Jesus Returns
Notes
Transcript
What are the first things we do when we first become Christians?
We tell everyone around us all about Christ. We get baptized, we buy a Bible and there’s one other thing that about 95% of new Christians do. They read Revelation to find all the answers about Jesus’ Return!!
Then they spend the rest of their lives, in some cases every waking moment, trying to figure it all out.
If that describes you, then this is the day you’ve been waiting for. Your pastor, highly intelligent and highly educated is going to explain it all to you.
Well, maybe if you were in another church, I’m not really very intelligent nor am I highly educated. But, we’re going to attempt to take a look at the end times today.
Last week I ended with a little teaser about what happens when Jesus returns. Are you ready to jump in over our heads and dive a little deeper?
Good!! Let’s start with how we know Jesus is coming back.
How Do We Know Jesus is Coming Back?
How Do We Know Jesus is Coming Back?
I mean seriously. Look around us. Why would Jesus even want to return to this place? The only answer I have for that is because He loves us that much and tells us He will return.
Jesus told His disciples He is coming back in Jn 14:1-3
1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.
Jesus had just finished telling His disiples He’s about to leave them. They were heartbroken and couldn’t understand why Jesus was leaving.
Jesus tells them not to despair, don’t be upset, because He’s coming back for them. He says I must leave to prepare a place for you in the many rooms of My Father’s house.
Then He will return and take all with Him where they will eternally be in His presence. And after Jesus was resurrected and ascended, Paul tells us that Jesus will return.
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.
You want to talk about an entrance!! One could only wish they could have that kind of entrance. Highly visible descending from heaven, very loud with a shout of the archangel’s voice, among fanfare of the trumpet of God.
And if you manage to miss that, the dead in Christ will come out of their graves and rise up and those in Christ will get caught up in the midst of the dead rising and all will meet Jesus in the air.
It will be impossible to miss and it will have to be, because we don’t know exactly when He will return.
No One Knows When Jesus Will Return
No One Knows When Jesus Will Return
We see that in Matt 24:44.
44 This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
In fact Mark 13:32 tells us even Jesus doesn’t know that time.
32 “Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father.
Nobody knows the date and time when Jesus will make His grand entrance upon His return. However, Christians are to hope and look forward to His return. We should all be praying “Come Lord Jesus!”
And this is where it gets complicated, because the Bible gives all these signs we will see before Jesus returns.
Look at Mark 13:10
10 And it is necessary that the gospel be preached to all nations.
The Gospel will be preached to all nations. With some nations having disappeared and new nations popping up all the time how is that even possible? Because Jesus means all people groups not necessarily nations by name.
Mark 13:19-20 tells us:
19 For those will be days of tribulation, the kind that hasn’t been from the beginning of creation ,which God created, until now and never will be again. 20 If the Lord had not cut those days short, no one would be saved. But he cut those days short for the sake of the elect, whom he chose.
There are going to be very bad times. A tribulation.
And Mark 13:24-25 says,
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; 25 the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Catastrophic event in the universe are going to happen. And 2 Thess 2:1-4 says,
1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.
Before Jesus returns there will be lawless rebellion against God by a single man who exalts himself and proclaims himself to be God. And Paul tells us in Rom 11:25-26
25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
Israel, the Jewish people, will turn to Jesus Christ. We have all these signs and so many more that I didn’t cover nor do I have time to cover. And we can get caught up in watching for these signs and keeping a tally.
We see this happening or that happening and we make a check mark in the box next to whatever sign we think has just happened. Which prophecy has been fulfilled.
But Luke 21:28 says,
28 But when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is near.”
We aren’t supposed to keep score of which signs have happened. Instead we’re supposed to keep our heads up and be excited that we are one day closer to our redemption.
It’s interesting how some believe Jesus could come back at any moment, while also watching out for signs that must happen before He returns. Can anyone explain to me exactly how that works?
If His return is imminent then all of those signs must have already happened. If those signs haven’t already happened His return can’t be imminent until those signs happen.
Both can’t be true at the same time.
Some say the sign haven’t taken place yet, so Jesus can’t return yet.
But Jesus tells us we must always be watching for His return in Mark 13:33-37.
33 “Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming. 34 “It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his servants, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert.
35 Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. 36 Otherwise, when he comes suddenly he might find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!”
Jesus seems to be saying He could return at any moment without warning. The view that the signs haven’t happened yet seems to contradict what Jesus is telling His followers in this passage.
Others have the view that Jesu could return at any moment. Therre are three different ways in which they deal with signs.
One way is that they say there will be two different returns of Christ. A secret return and a public return. The secret return is where Jesus comes and takes all who believe away with Him. Then the public return is His final judgment.
I don’t know how Jesus coming and taking all who believe with Him isn’t a public return. Do they not think others won’t notice the disappearance of millions of people?
Another way is to say the signs have already happened during the early years of the Church. So Jesus can return at any moment. It seems unlikely that all the signs have happened, but it is still possible.
The fact is we don’t know for certain which signs have or haven’t been fulfilled. So we should always be ready for His return at any time.
So what’s going to happen when Jesus returns?
What Happens When Jesus Returns
What Happens When Jesus Returns
Well we have hit another area where we have multiple views or disagreements. Most of the views and/or disagreements are centered around one passage of Scripture Rev 20:1-6.
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.
4 Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
It’s how people perceive and interpret the 1000 years that seems to cause all the disagreement. This is known as the Millennium. How people think about the Millennium tend to fall into three camps.
The fact is there are valid arguments that arise from all three of these camps. And the foundational salvation issue that Christ will return someday is agreed upon by all three camps.
We have the Amillennial Camp. This camp believes that we are currently in the Millennium with the present church age. When it ends Jesus will return.
They say the Millennium is a figure of speech for a long time, meaning from the Pentecost until Jesus returns. The Amillennials say those who died are reigning with Jesus in the spiritual sense.
They don’t believe there is a literal 1000 year reign. They simply believe Jesus returns, there’s judgment, and those who believe live forever in the new heaven and the new earth.
Then we have the Postmillennial camp. This camp believe the Millennium will come gradually and Jesus will return after the Millennium. As the church grows society is more and more influenced by the church.
Gradually the entire world will come around, believe, and the Millennium will begin. Jesus doesn’t Physically reign on earth for the 1000 years, but will reign through the influence of His people.
At the end of the Millennium Jesus will return, the resurrection will happen, believers go to heaven, unbelievers face eternal judgment in hell. And the new heaven and new earth will begin where Jesus reigns forever.
And lastly we have the Premillennial camp. This camp believes that Jesus will suddenly return before the Millennium. Before Jesus comes back there will be a great Tribulation then Jesus will return and phyically reign for 1000 years.
All believers will be raised and reign with Him. During this time Satan and his minions are bound up and have no influence on earth. After the Millennial the final judgment takes place.
Believers will continue to reign forever and those who rejected Jesus will be cast into the lake of fire. The new heaven and new earth begin and last forever.
But there’s a variation in this camp. What I just described is the post-tribulation variant. There’s also the pre-tribulation variation.
Pre-Tribulation believes Jesus will actually return twice. The secret return discussed earlier called the rapture. Then seven years later Jesus makes a public return and brings all Christians to reign with Him for 1000 years.
During the seven years there will be a great tribulation where Gentiles will quit coming to faith but Jews will trust Jesus.
Are you confused yet?
I know you’re wondering which camp I’m in. Well I’m in my own camp. I find myself in the pre-post-a-millennial camp. I wonder how the Bible can tell us how we’re supposed to be ready at any moment for Jesus to return. Yet we are supposed to watch for signs that haven’t happened before Jesus can return.
I think it’s somewhere in the middle of all of it. I’m told to be prepared for Jesus to return at any moment. I do that by continually seeking Him every day and being faithful every day.
This all lies in the future where we don’t have history to guide our understanding. We have various opinions that all have some validity and all have some views that just don’t add up right.
We don’t know and won’t know when Jesus will return nor what that future looks like exactly. Rev 10:4
4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down!”
There are still things we haven’t been told and aren’t for us to know right now. However, we must keep our fellowship with all Christians no matter which of these camps they reside.
Because we all agree on the fundamental salvation truth.
7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 They came up across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Jesus wins!! Jesus will defeat Satan and throw him into the lake of fire. There will be a final judgment. Those on the left are thrown into the fire with Satan. Those on the right will reign with Jesus forever.
We all agree that all who trust in Jesus will have eternal life in the Triune God’s presence. And that’s what we should be looking forward to and excited that we are one day closer to His return.
