“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelations 1:7-8
When we meditate on the coming of the Lord we are three things I would encourage the reader to consider. One is the nature of is coming, another is the reason for his coming, lastly we should think about the necessity of his coming. The nature of Christ coming is glorious and omnipresent. This is a Jesus that somehow fills the sky. Some have conjectured that we will all see him because of mass media. The same logic is used around the judgments later in this book around nuclear weapons. God does not need television or the internet to reveal himself to mankind and he does not need nuclear weapons to destroy portions of the earth. He is God all by himself and capable of accomplishing what he desires outside of human agency. However it is neither, glory or judgment that our savior is revealing, it is pierced hands and feet. Despite his glory and strength he purposes to remind us of his suffering. This suffering produces a mourning population.
I would like to suggest that there will be two types of mourners on that great day. There will be those that cry out in repentance for the lack of gratitude and acknowledgement of the savior, the second group will be those who despise his coming because it creates accountability for the unrighteousness that they so dearly love.
What is the reason for the coming of the savior? We know that it is not discontent with heaven. Heaven is our savior’s natural home. John 17:5 indicates his desire to be there when Jesus cries out, “now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” The reason for his coming is that God might unite himself with mankind. His coming is associated with the resurrection of the righteous. There is debate about the timing of this resurrection but no one argues the promise of the resurrection who is a believing Christian. Paul the Apostle excitedly writes about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15: 51-55,
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The coming of the Lord is the consummation of the bringing together the family of God. The scriptures describe this family as a bride being prepared for its groom. I am filled with joy as I think about fellowship with men and women of old, from ancient times who served God obediently in their generations. I look forward to living in a land in that is Governed by the Lord himself, where justice and mercy are witnessed in every decision that is made by him. These are but a few of the reasons for his coming and they are marvelous to think about.
Finally I would like you to think about the necessity of his coming. One of those great resurrected saints Robert Robinson 1735- 1790 wrote “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love” If that is true of saints that love God how much truer for those that reject his love and goodness, Matthew 24:22 records the words of Jesus, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” 2 Timothy 3 describes the nature of the last days. “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
The necessity of Jesus return is that we who believe do not come to imitate those who do not. It is so those who have the strength to endure temptation and awful persecution do not have to do so in vain. The necessity of Christ return is for the salvation of the human race that God himself has chosen to identify with permanently through his only son, the God man Jesus Christ. He also make all who believe God’s sons and daughters as well.
John 1: 12-13 connect the Son of God with the sons and daughters of God for Jesus is “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
His coming is Glorious, His coming is has purpose and reason in the mind of God, His coming is necessary. Amen
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