Jesus Is Coming Soon
Revelation 22.7
II Peter 3.1-14
In a few weeks we will celebrate what we call Holy Week, the final week of Jesus’ life on earth before He offered Himself up for us. He rode into Jerusalem being proclaimed King, He instituted the LORD’s Supper. He was arrested, tried by an illegal trial and He died on the cross, and rose again three days later.
All of these things were prophesied. He ascended into heaven. He promised He would come back and bring all who had believed on Him to a place He would prepare for them in the interim. We are in that interim now.
All that was prophesied about Jesus has come to pass and has been fulfilled. That is one of the reasons we read these words “... that the scripture might be fulfilled...” in the Gospels. There is only one prophesy waiting fulfillment: Jesus’ Return to the earth to put an end to evil and establish His reign here forever and ever. While we look into His first coming and the events of His final days on earth we also will find that He spoke often about the end- when He would return and for us as His people to be ready for that momentous event when human history is swallowed up into eternity.
Jesus is coming again.
1. Jesus is Coming Soon
quickly, speedily (without delay), coming- the idea of having been there once and returning!
We are told people would scoff when He didn’t come back right away. The church is
called on here in Revelation and throughout the New Testament to be ready always.
So let’s, look at this seeming delay in relationship to the fact He said He was coming soon.
*Soon in that it will come at the appointed day and hour.
Acts 1.7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.”
The disciples forgot what He said about going away and in the excitement of the post resurrections appearances they were getting things out of line in God’s time line. They had thought Jesus might set up His kingdom right then and there.
This was not a new problem for Jesus. It had happened before. People even stopped following Him because He wasn’t setting up His kingdom when they thought He should.
God has a day and hour when Jesus will return.
Acts 1.11 “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."
We do not know when but it will happen at precisely the time God Almighty has chosen in His Wisdom and His Purposes.
We are told one of the reasons it hasn’t happened yet in the passage we read in
II Peter.
*Soon in God’s “time”.
II Peter 3.8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
When the Bible says do not forget it is because it is at that exact point we are likely to forget. In fact for Christians and the timing of Jesus’ Return, we are urged to remember that our timing and God’s working in it are often opposite of what we think.
For instance what takes man to accomplish in a 1,000 years God can do in a day (or less). What we think should happen now God may take a thousand years to accomplish LORD, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? It has been 2,000 years and it hasn’t fully happened yet.
Do not forget God’s timing and you will remember that Jesus is coming soon. This is similar to the three places where Paul says I would not have you be ignorant...
I Corinthians 12:1 Ignorance about spiritual gifts
Romans 11:25 Ignorance about Israel- widespread This is key to God’s timetable.
I Thessalonians 4:13 Ignorance about those who died when the LORD returns
Unfortunately there is great ignorance about these things all over today.
So it is with the LORD’s Return and the warning associated with it- many believers act like He is never coming back. Others are indifferent to it and others are setting dates. Both of these are wrong and Jesus told us they were. We ought to be serving the LORD so fully that we speed its coming and we ought to be looking and longing for Jesus to come. This is scarce today. Do not forget:
Jesus is coming soon
*Soon as the generation Jesus comes in that reads this verse will have it literally fulfilled.
Revelation was written so it could be fulfilled from the time it was written and on up to the end.
Even if He doesn’t come in my lifetime and I live a full life. For me His coming will be soon. When life is done here on earth you enter eternity! I must work while I have strength God gives me. While I have time I must remember my times are in His Hands and my life will be over soon. Jesus is coming soon. If He delays it won’t be long until I will be with Him. We have had to use this phrase recently- “living with an eternal perspective” because there are so many things that can tie us to earth. Same old things Jesus spoke about but now just more numerous:
Luke 21.34 "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.
2. Jesus’ word to us about Revelation:
Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book
keeps = to attend to carefully, take care of
to guard
to keep, one in the state in which he is
to observe
to reserve: to undergo something
Now that we are done going through it what should we do.
*Continue to read it. We are told there is a blessing in doing this in the beginning and a blessing in the end. (1.3) Both blessings are associated with His Imminent Return.
*Continue to seek to understand it.
*Think about Jesus’s Return
*Think about heaven when you think about life.
*Think about heaven when death comes to loved ones.
*Remain Childlike in your faith
*Look for the LORD to come through the sky, for the sky to be rolled back like a scroll.
Jesus is coming soon!
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