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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 7 - YES, I AM COMING SOON! (REVELATION 19:11 - 22-21)
PART 7.1 - INTRODUCTION: REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!

4. What do the Apostles of Christ Write about the Coming back of their Lord?


After his resurrection of the dead Jesus appeared his fled disciples within 40 days several times and testified them the necessity of his dead as an indispensable requirement for entering his glory (Luke 24:26-27.45-47a). When he stood finally on the Mount of Olives together with his disciples and had blessed them he was taken up and a cloud hid him from their eyes. The remaining disciples stared dumbfounded after the one who disappeared. “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Who also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11)

  • The close coming back of Christ was one of the fundamental convictions of the early church in Jerusalem. The believers sold their properties and lived in a spiritual community waiting at any time for the coming back of Jesus in glory. (Acts 2:44-47; 4:32-35). This close expectation can be seen in Paul whom Jesus appeared in his glory before Damascus. He wrote to the church in Corinth: “Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:6-8; see also Philippians 1:9-10).
  • The mindset of the whole life on the risen and returning Lord was the fundament of the churches in Minor Asia and Greece: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then you shall also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:2-4)
  • James, the brother of Jesus, took also the coming of Jesus as reason and purpose of the sanctification of the church in Jerusalem: “You also be patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws near. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned: behold, the Judge is standing before the door.” (James 5:8-9)
  • Paul wrote to the devoted churches on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea about the extensive implications of the coming back of Christ: “For our citizenship is in heaven; from which we also look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
  • Each religion or philosophy which cannot offer a valid answer for the dead and the future after the dead is worthless. However, the apostle Paul tells us what Christ had revealed him: “Behold, I show 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.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
  • The missionary of the nations comforted his church members who were tempted by doubting and agony with a detailed description of the second coming of Christ telling about the resurrection of all dead and the translation of the followers of Jesus toward their Lord and wrote: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
  • Death seems to mow and gather as a pitiless reaper all men like sheaves. But Jesus has overcome the cause and the power of death by his sinless and holy life. By his substitutionary death he pulls us into his eternal life at his coming as well as already nowadays. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet (Psalm 110:1). The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:22-26).
  • The second coming of Jesus in glory means, above all, salvation, delivery, redemption and taking home of his church. Its spiritual existence is to glorify the risen crucified. At the same time Jesus is coming as Lord and Judge, as avenger and victor over all enemies of God: “For it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that do not know God, and to them that do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus: these shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
  • We are to cherish no illusions about the way to the salvation. It is steep, thorny, narrow and dangerous. Jesus and his apostles are warning us repeatedly against the temptations of the time of the end. “Now we ask you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together to him, ... Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ... For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now restrains will do so until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8)
  • John the apostle who describes the love of God most clearly has revealed consequently the principle of the temptation of the Last Time, i.e. the lie of Antichrist. However, John does not stop at the negative but pointed the real objective out, the coming back of Christ, to the church. “Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. ... Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father: he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also. ... And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. ... Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God – and we are really the sons of God! ... Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does 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. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 2:18-3:3)
  • Peter, the speaker of the disciples of Jesus and apostle condemned to death by King Herod, responds to the doubting question due to the non-appearance of the second coming of Christ as follows: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:9-13)
  • Paul impressed upon his churches at each celebration of the Lord's supper by bread and wine to remember and to witness the two pillars of Christianity: “For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he come.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)
  • In a similar manner testifies the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that the cross of Christ, his salvation, his coming back and our waiting for him belong together indissolubly. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Hebrews 9:28)
  • Luke, the evangelist and physicist, put on record decisive parts of the speech of Jesus concerning the Last Time. Some expositors see in these words one of greatest promises of Jesus which virtually throws us in the dust: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and you yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say to you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. ... Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you do not think.” (Luke 12:35-40)
  • John, the apostle, put on record from the fare-well speech of Jesus some sentences which belong to the most precious lights of hope of the church: “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3) “And you now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing.” John 16:22-23)
  • Finally, in his high priestly prayer Jesus asked his father for us: “Father, I will that they also, whom you gave me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you gave me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24).

PRAYER: We wait for You, Son of God, and we love Your imminent arrival. Your second coming is the most important future event. You will not condemn or destroy Your faithful followers, but You will change them to Your great glory. Keep us watchful and prepared for Your imminent arrival. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. What do Christ's followers, who are watching His second coming, practically do?

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