Behold! Jesus Is Coming!

Behold! Jesus Is Coming! (1:7)

(Temple 02/03/2019) A technique used in novels and movies is to open with a scene near the end of the story and then flashback to the events leading up to that scene. The book of the Revelation likewise gives us a scene of the end in the first chapter right after the opening greeting. The book reveals this climactic event near the end and then the flashback of certain events leading up to that point.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Behold, He cometh! Jesus is coming back! Here in the first chapter and through the last chapter, this book declares that Jesus is coming with clouds and every eye shall see Him. Jesus is the theme of the book of the Revelation, just as Jesus is the theme of the whole Bible. God intended for the believer to read this book with this image of Jesus’ return foremost in the mind.

Jesus is coming back! Every orthodox creed and catechism affirms that Jesus is coming back! Our own 2000 Baptist Faith and Message declares:

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

And the authors of our Faith and Message back that declaration up with many passages of Scripture.

Believers have anticipated His return ever since He ascended with the promise to come back in like manner. The seven blessings of this book are tied to faith in His return. Some are blessings in anticipation of His coming; others are blessings at His coming; and the rest are blessings after His coming. ​ is a blessing for those who hear, read, and keep what is written for His return is at hand. ​ is a blessing to those who die before His return. is a blessing to those who watch for His coming. is a blessing of fellowship with Him upon His coming. ​ is a blessing of resurrection at His coming. is a blessing like the first for keeping the sayings of this book until His return. is a blessing for obedience to Christ’s commandments.

Behold! Look! See! Jesus is coming! This verse has two main points we should remember long after our study of this book.

See His All-Powerful Coming!

After His resurrection, Jesus said that all power and authority has been given Him. When He returns, the world will see how invincible and almighty that power is! He has power over all natural forces of this Creation.

Jesus began this Creation with the Father and the Spirit. All Creation is subject to His power. The clouds are subject to His power. Gravity is subject to His power. No natural law, not even gravity and the laws of physics, has power over its Creator.

He is coming with clouds! He is not dependent on some type of aircraft. However, those clouds accompany a heavenly host! He is not coming with some great mechanical weapons. He needs none of those. He brings the heavenly hosts so they can see His glory and righteous victory over the forces of evil. He will merely speak the Word and all weapons of Man are useless, gone, or turned upon each other.

What happens at His coming? The Bible tells us. Fast forward to the back of the Book, we find this vision of His coming. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Jesus is coming in all-power and glory to subdue His enemies. He described His coming in Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. When He returns in His omnipotent power and incomparable glory, the trumpet will sound, He will defeat His enemies and He will gather His people from all over the world.

The Apostles described His coming. The Holy Spirit wrote through the Apostle Paul this description: Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. The dead in Christ today have a body suitable for heaven, a body not made with hands. They will return with Christ and an eternal glorified body for heaven and earth will be raised up for them while the living will be changed at that time into glorified bodies. John wrote in Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. Not everyone understands this book the same way, but every believer knows that Jesus is coming back, His enemies will be destroyed, and believers will be changed to be like Him.

We studied last Sunday night. Isaiah saw the Lord coming (the Branch) and the peace and rest that would follow His establishment upon the earth. Christians anticipate the return of Christ because He will change the earth by destroying His enemies, including death, and because we will receive glorified bodies that will never perish, never suffer, never grow old nor wear out. Jesus is bringing change, everlasting, righteous, peaceful, glorious change!

His return is the object of our diligence. We watch for His return. We anticipate His return. We long for His return. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! If you are a follower of Christ, His return will be the most spectacular event you could ever experience. Considering all the spectacular events and changes Christ has already accomplished and will accomplish in the future throughout eternity, that says a lot! Imagine your faith ending in sight, all that you knew was true despite a world of doubt surrounding you literally coming to light, and that first glimpse of the eternal state. Wow! Exciting just doesn’t capture that event well enough.

I wasn’t there that night 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born. I missed the angel and heavenly host announcement that a Savior had been born. I wasn’t there on the mount when Jesus transfigured in such glory that His disciples passed out. I wasn’t there when He rose from the grave and ascended back to the Father. But praise God, I will see His glorious return!

See His All-Dreadful Coming!

Jesus’ coming will be all-powerful for the believer, but it will all-dreadful for the unbeliever. This event will be the unbeliever’s worst nightmare, except it will be real. Unbelievers have a fantasy about developing a utopia without God where everyone is happy and content. Such an ideal is impossible because of sin, unbelief, and death. The return of Jesus disintegrates that delusion, pummels that pipe-dream, vaporizes that vision. Behold! He comes! Jesus is real! He is really God! He is really all-powerful and He is really all-dreadful to the unbeliever! He is coming to earth to establish the beauty and glory of heaven upon this earth, ridding the world of sin, death, and unbelief.

How dreadful is His coming for unbelievers? Here is what the powerful wicked of that day say in And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? They acknowledge God is real, Jesus is the Lamb of God, the great day of God’s wrath is against them, and that they are powerless against the Lord. Overwhelming panic seizes the nations of the world. Our text says that they will mourn—not a repentant wailing, but screams of dread at His coming. Their world is ending.

Here is the rest of that earlier passage in And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Before the marriage feast of the Lamb is the birds’ feast on the wicked. I say that more for intensity than unfeeling. I want to see the lost saved before it is too late, and sometimes it takes intensity to get through to unbelievers. They have said no so many times just as Pharaoh did, and they are under the wrath of God even as I speak. They just don’t see it because their hearts are hardened to the gospel, just as Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn against the Word of the Lord. Sometimes you have to shake people to wake them up to reality!

Think again about this passage in Revelation. Is there anything that the devil, the beast, and the wicked of this world can call a victory in this battle? Would you call an eternity in the lake of fire burning with brimstone any kind of victory? Even CNN would have a hard time calling that a victory for the wicked!

Those who crucified Jesus will see His return. The Gentiles who actually drove the nails in His hands and feet and pierced His side will see His return. The Jews who falsely accused Him of blasphemy will see His return. The Old Testament prophesies His return this way: And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. What a terrible tragedy to be devoutly religious but lost! What an unbearable shock to realize at His Coming that Jesus really is the Messiah and you have rejected Him! Now He comes in judgment and it is too late! And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

God Wins!

Satan and the heathen of this world will be powerless against Christ. Let’s just look briefly at some other examples of God versus evil. The Flood was unstoppable by wicked men. They didn’t cause the Flood by poor stewardship of the earth. They brought disaster on themselves by their sin. Their hearts were on evil continually. This disaster was so great, no one could have prepared for it outside of faith and strength in the Lord. No structure of wicked men could have withstood the wrath of God in such a cataclysm. The Lord destroyed the wicked and they were absolutely unable to do anything about it. God wins!

Another example is the Lord versus Pharaoh of Egypt. The Lord sent plague after plague, yet what could Pharaoh do about them? Nothing but resist with a hardened heart! The arrows of his army were useless. His chariots were useless. His gods that he wanted to be real and powerful could do nothing. Eventually his own advisors warned him that he was resisting God, yet he could not relent. The tenth plague was the Death Angel over the land of Egypt. The firstborn in every house that did not have the Passover lamb’s blood on the door frame died. Did anyone get a shot at the Death Angel? Not a chance. God wins!

So, Pharaoh expelled the children of Israel from the land. Then, in the stubbornness so characteristic of God-haters today, he gathered his army against the Lord’s people to capture them and most likely unleash his wrath on them. His hate filled him with such rage that he drove his chariot and led his army through a parted sea! Folks, that was crazy, but a rage-filled heathen world is just as crazy! Once Pharaoh and his army got well into the sea, God dropped the sea on them and drowned them. God wins!

The Lord led Gideon and three hundred men against a multitude of Midianites. The enemy was so numerous they were described as grasshoppers—a plague that filled the valley. But when Gideon’s company broke pitchers and sounded trumpets that host of Midianites panicked and began slaying each other with their swords. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled. And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath. The enemies of God turned on each other or fled. God wins!

When David had sinned by taking a census of fighting men, the Lord sent an angel over the land. So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite. And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house. David, the giant slayer, David, the subject of songs about his mighty victories against ten thousand, was helpless against one angel of the Lord. God wins!

When a Syrian army came against Jerusalem and besieged it, the Lord caused a panic and the army left everything they had and fled the country! For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. God wins!

When an Assyrian army came against Jerusalem and besieged it, the Lord sent an angel and wiped out 185,000 overnight. Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. This army had no defense against a death angel nor an offense against a death angel! God wins!

And I could go into examples of God versus other individuals such as Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Herod Agrippa, and Korah, who defied Moses, but the result is always the same—God wins! Lucifer, who thought in his pride that he would ascend above the heights of the clouds found himself on the ground licking dust. Ultimately, he will descend even farther as he is cast into the lake of fire. Satan loses. God wins! You can rebel against God. You can defy God and side with this fallen world. But you’ll lose. You’ll lose big-time! God has always won, God is always winning, and God will always win! The wicked think they are winning sometimes, but that is God allowing them to show their true contempt for Him, for Christ, and for the life He gives. He will judge them in wrath and they face everlasting punishment.

Behold, Jesus is coming in power and glory! He is coming triumphantly! He is coming in absolute victory! Are you ready for His return?