Let me be straight to you up front. As sure as I have a voice that you can hear or a face that you can see, you can write it down in the book of your heart – Jesus saves! He is the only way to our salvation. If you believe in Him you shall have eternal life. There is a heaven. There is a hell. You want to go to heaven. You do not want to go to hell. But some of you may end up there if you do not repent and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savoir. No asbestos suit will save you. No earthly riches wills save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you. Amen?
Yes, people get ready. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. The “second” coming of Jesus Christ is the contrast to his first coming in the virgin birth. Through the incarnation Jesus arrives as a helpless, crying, baby; that needs to be fed, changed and entertained. In Christ’s return he comes as a glorious, powerful, authoritative judge over the entire world. And we do not know exactly when that will be, but we know we are closer now than ever before. Every day we get a little bit closer to that blessed day when He shall return and set things right.
This is truly an astounding thought. The same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem is coming again. The same Jesus who grew up in Nazareth is coming again. The same Jesus who turned the water into wine is coming again. The same Jesus who walked on water is coming again. The same Jesus who healed the nobleman’s son is coming again. The same Jesus who raised Lazarus is coming again. The same Jesus who wept over Jerusalem is coming again. The same Jesus who was betrayed by Judas is coming again. The same Jesus who was whipped, beaten, scourged, mocked, and condemned to death is coming again. The same Jesus who died on Mount Calvary is coming again. The same Jesus who rose from the dead on Easter Sunday morning is coming again. The same Jesus who ascended into heaven is coming again.
That’s what we mean when we say that Jesus is coming again. The actual, historical figure who lived 2000 years ago on the other side of the world is returning to the earth one more time.
Kind of blows your mind to think about it, doesn’t it?
Now I must tell you that there is a lot of information out there of an end times nature, and a lot of it is not scriptural, or is just partly scriptural. So beware what you read and here – test it with the Bible before you swallow it hook, line and sinker. Today, apocalyptic imagery is everywhere: in … corner bookstores, where the prophecies of Nostradamus, The Bible Code, and an array of American Indian and New Age books are hot sellers; and in theaters, where movies like Contact and The Seventh Sign of the last decade, and Knowing and 2012 of this past year draw viewers with their apocalyptic themes. Huge disasters like tsunami of a few years back and Haiti and Chile in the past few month make people pause and think.. And on television, glimmerings of Armageddon flicker across the screen – in fictional tv shows and in news footage on the news programs.
None of this should surprise us since Christians have always believed in the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus himself declared, “I will come back” (John 14:3). And when Christ ascended into heaven, the angels promised the disciples that “this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Belief in the Second Coming has always been considered one of the fundamental truths of our faith. Even though we have often argued about the details surrounding his return, Christians of every denomination have agreed on this fact: Jesus Christ is coming again. By that we mean that Jesus himself ("this same Jesus") is coming back to the earth. Physically, visibly, bodily, personally.
Let me prove it to you that this has been a long time Christian belief – stand and recite with me the beliefs of our Christian faith as written in the Apostle’s Creed – no. 8 in your hymnal. The Apostle's Creed clearly states the Christian beleif that "From heaven Jesus will come again to judge the quick (the living) and the dead."
Yes, He is Coming Again! Here’s an interesting corollary to that truth. Because Christians have always believed in the Second Coming, there have always been Christians who believed that Jesus would come back in their own lifetime. It’s clear that the earliest Christians expected Christ to return to the earth in just a few years. That’s why the Apostle Paul could say in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 that “the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Paul clearly believed that Jesus would return in his own lifetime. He never expected to have his head chopped off in Rome; he fervently thought that he would live to see the Second Coming.
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