The Second Coming of Christ

Romans 15:5-6 “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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The Second Coming of Christ

Ps M A Varughese

22nd January 2012

The second coming of Christ is a glorious event, and one that we must learn about so that we are prepared when it happens. In knowing how the end will come, on what basis we are going to be judged, we can make changes in our lives today, to ensure that we run this race in the best way that we can.

When our Lord Jesus first came to the earth, it was declared by the angel Gabriel to an individual (Mary the mother of our Lord). The second coming of our Lord was foretold by two angels to the band of disciples that had gathered at the time of His ascension (Acts 1). They were told by the angels that our Lord would return in the same way that He was taken up.

When our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit down to the believers on earth. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse and prepare the Church to be the spotless bride of Christ. Though there were many saints in the Old Testament, like Abel whose offering was more than excellent, our Lord was looking for a bride, someone like Himself, someone with the same spirit as His. Mankind has fallen short of this ideal, but the Holy Spirit was sent to equip the Church to become more like Christ. The Holy Spirit was sent to remind us of all that our Lord Jesus taught us and also to lead us into every righteousness – not some, but every righteousness.

And when the bride is ready, our Lord will come again. Here are some facts about the second coming of our Lord.

He will come as a thief. No one knows when this will happen. Our Lord’s second coming is a secret. Thieves don’t come to steal objects of no value. Instead they come to steal everything that is valuable within the house. Our Lord Jesus will return to take away righteous, precious and the best things in the earth – the Church, His bride.
Our Lord will come down, not to the earth but in midair, with 3 things – a loud command or cry, a trumpet blast and the voice of the archangel. And the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
- Great shout – the last time the Lord shouted, was at the tomb of Lazarus, when He commanded the dead man Lazarus to come out of the tomb. And again, He will shout in a loud voice only this time He will shout for all the saints who are dead in Christ, to rise up again. Only those who are dead in Christ will rise. The Bible records that it is not those who had heard about Christ, but those who had spent their lives living for Christ and finally were in Christ even in their death – those who had lived their lives, without compromise, knowing that it is better to die than to live in compromise. Those are the saints that will rise up.
- There will be a trumpet blast. In Numbers 10:1, God instructed Moses to make 2 trumpets of beaten silver. One trumpet signaled that everyone should gather at the Tabernacle. There is no salvation without suffering, in our lives we maybe beaten as we are being saved. The second trumpet blast was for the people to start moving from the camp. When our Saviour blows the trumpet, we will start moving from our abode to our eternal home.
- When Moses died, he was not given an earthly burial – he received a heavenly burial. When Moses’ body was being lifted to heaven, there arose a dispute between the archangel and the devil (Jude 1:9) and the archangel, Michael rebuked the devil. The devil roams about in the sky and he is not likely to allow the dead in Christ to rise up without a fight. The voice of the archangel will be raised up to rebuke the devil as the dead in Christ are gathered together.

In Mathew 25, our Lord Jesus talks about a parable of 10 virgins who were preparing to welcome the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Each of the 10 had a lamp and at the beginning of the parable, all 10 lamps were lit. The oil in the lamp that was lit is an indication of our worship, our ministry – all 10 virgins were ministering for God. They had the same purpose, the same kind of lamps and the same light. The bridegroom was delayed and the virgins went to sleep. Sometime later, they all were suddenly awakened with a shout that the bridegroom had arrived. 5 of them were able to light their lamps while the remaining 5 could not as they did not have enough oil in their lamps. Whenever you place oil in an earthen vessel, the oil is absorbed by the earthen vessel. If we have the oil in us, it will keep changing us into God’s image. The oil is a symbol of baptism of the Holy Spirit and the deposit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The 5 virgins who were prepared were taken into the wedding feast, but the 5 that were not were locked outside. All 10 were actively involved in ministry and worship but only 5 were allowed in. The term ‘rapture’ denotes a gardener who selects the best flower from his garden and plucks it by force. Our God does the same when the rapture takes place. Our Lord Jesus will judge us. The judgment seat of Christ is called the Bema court (Greek word) where God will grade us, based on what we have done for Him. We will receive crowns based on the work we have done, in comparison to our talents, capacity, ability, population around us etc.

The majority will not inherit heaven. Only who have lived our lives according to God’s Word will do so. Let us make every effort to do our Father’s will, not by what is being done by the majority, but by what our God wants us to do.