THE BLESSED HOPE OF HIS APPEARING
The church of Jesus Christ has always lived between two mountains.
Behind us stands the mountain of Calvary where our Lord purchased redemption with His precious blood.
Before us rises the mountain of His glorious return.
The cross is not merely an event of the past, nor is the Second Coming merely a doctrine for debate. Both are living realities.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Yet the same Jesus who ascended into heaven shall so come in like manner as His disciples saw Him go into heaven (Acts 1:9-11).
The Christian life is therefore a life of looking back in gratitude and looking forward in hope.
Many prophecies concerning judgment and the end of the old covenant age found their fulfillment in the first century. Our Lord’s warnings regarding Jerusalem were not idle threats. Just as He foretold, the city fell, the temple was destroyed, and the old order passed away (Matthew 24:1-34).
But even after those events, the promise of His final appearing remains. The destruction of Jerusalem was not the ultimate hope of the church. The hope of the church has always been Christ Himself. We do not merely await events. We await a Person.
What a day that shall be when faith gives way to sight.
Today we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). We pray to One whom we cannot see with natural eyes. We love One whom we have not physically touched.
Peter reminds us that though we have not seen Him, we love Him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).
But there is coming a day when the veil shall be lifted.
The King who was mocked shall be admired.
The Savior who was rejected shall be worshiped openly by all creation.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
The certainty of His coming rests not upon our ability to chart prophecy but upon the character of God. Men break promises. Kingdoms rise and fall. The years pass like shadows across the earth.
But God’s word stands forever.
The angels declared that Jesus would return. The apostles proclaimed it. The Lord Himself promised it.
He said, “Surely I am coming quickly.” The church responds, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).
If God fulfilled every promise concerning the first coming of Christ, shall He not fulfill every promise concerning the second?
The return of Christ is not given to satisfy curiosity but to produce holiness. John writes, “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (First John 3:3).
A believer who truly expects the Lord’s return cannot comfortably settle into sin.
The expectation of seeing Christ has a cleansing influence upon the soul.
We labor because He is coming.
We forgive because He is coming.
We endure suffering because He is coming.
The trumpet of hope strengthens weary saints during long nights of affliction.
Perhaps no truth comforts the grieving heart more than this. Death is still an enemy, but it is a defeated enemy. The grave is not the last chapter for those who belong to Christ.
Paul declares that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, and thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
What comfort lies in those words. Every cemetery where believers sleep is but a field awaiting the harvest of resurrection morning.
Until that day, let us keep our lamps burning. Let us preach Christ crucified. Let us feed upon His word. Let us love His appearing.
The world may laugh at the promise of His coming, but believers know better.
The same Lord who entered Jerusalem on a donkey shall return in glory.
The same hands that were pierced for our transgressions shall rule forever.
The same voice that cried, “It is finished,” shall one day summon the dead from their graves.
Blessed indeed are those servants whom the Master finds watching when He comes (Luke 12:37).
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Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessed hope of the return of Your Son. Keep our hearts faithful while we wait, our hands diligent in Your service, and our eyes fixed upon Jesus. Amen.
BDD
