I want to share with you today about “the Blessed Hope” and the Comfort” with which we are to encourage one another who are afraid of what they are seeing happening in the world, or who are enduring suffering and hardship. What I am referring to is the greatest event in every Christians life: the moment Jesus returns and takes us home to heaven to be with him and our loved ones who believed but died.
Jesus told his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I am going to heaven to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-4) – This is our blessed hope – the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. – All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John3:3)
There will come a day that is coming soon, a day when Christ will descend from Heaven and raise the dead and those still alive who have put their faith in Jesus and lived according to his commandments. “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ to rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together to be with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18) – This event, is commonly referred to as the “Rapture.” It can happen at any time. No one knows when. That is why we are warned to live “self-controlled, upright and godly lives, while we wait for our blessed hope—the appearing and the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:11-14)”
“For His coming will be like the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day our Lord will come. So, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:37-51)
When this event occurs, it will usher in the Tribulation, which will last for 7 years, until Jesus comes again. This will be a time of worldwide suffering, famine, and natural disasters. “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26) — It is a time when God will judge the earth’s inhabitants who have and lived unrepentant, wicked lives, and rejected his free gift of salvation through the suffering and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:23) — This terrible time is referred to as “the hour of trial that is going come upon the earth to test the inhabitants ” (Revelation 3:10)
“But at the end of this time when the Messiah shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then Jesus shall sit upon his throne of glory. And all the nations shall be gathered before him. And he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and place the sheep at his right hand, and the goats at his left. — “Then the King, shall say to those at his right, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, into the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you visited me.’ – But the wicked will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous will receive everlasting life.” (Matthew 24:31-46)
Lastly, when Jesus was asked by his disciples when all this will happen, the rapture and then this “great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” (Matthew 24:21), Jesus answered with this clue: “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (Mattew 24:32-34) – The fig tree represents the land of Isreal. Soon after Jesus’ death on the cross, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. Jews were banished from Isreal and scattered among the gentile nations. But in 1948 Isreal became a nation again. And that land has been transformed into a green garden. The generation that was alive at that time will not all die before the rapture, the Tribulation, and Jesus’ second coming again. – Therefore, “Do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (Romans 13:11-14)
Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus, come!