Alba 2-4-2024
SEVEN THINGS WE CAN KNOW
ABOUT THE SECOND COMING
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Janine's family had a special treat for breakfast occasionally. When a hog was butchered, their mother would fry pig brains and serve it on homemade bread. In honor of that, it became a tradition at family reunions to have a breakfast of pig brains one morning . The in-laws were less likely to participate.
The family recently was reminiscing about those breakfasts and Janine's sister Beverly made this comment. “I have a vague memory of waiting in the car in Oakes to get a few things (Oakes is in North Dakota where they lived). She came back to the car totally embarrassed because she had asked the guy at the meat counter if he had any brains. He said, 'If I did I wouldn't be here.'”
Did you hear about the fellow who was talking to his next-door neighbor about a speaker he heard the night before. He told the neighbor, "That guy said something that has really stuck in my mind. He said that all of the worlds problems could be summed up in two words: ignorance and apathy. What do you think?"
The neighbor replied, "I really don’t know, and I really don’t care." Ignorance! There is a lot of that going around today. But there are some things we can know if we get them into our brains.
There are at least seven things we can know about the Second Coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ found in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. And the apostle Paul, who wrote this letter, explains these things so that we will not be ignorant about them.
Turn with me to this text as I read. “13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
“15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
When we are troubled by something, or questioning something, comfort comes when we get some answers. That's what we are given here about the Second Coming. The Christians in Thessalonica must have shared with Timothy who told Paul that they were expecting Jesus to come almost immediately. And there were some people who had died or might soon do so. The question was, “What will happen to them? What if they miss Jesus' return?”
In spite of the teaching that Paul had given them when he was with them, they had missed something. And he wanted to provide information so that they would no longer be ignorant about this situation. And we can be glad that he did because it answers questions we would have too.
1. The first thing we can know about the Second Coming is that some will die before Jesus returns. I don't think that any of us have not had family a member or friend pass away. We miss them, and we grieve. Rightly so! And Jesus has not yet come. It would be very unnatural, in fact inhuman, not to mourn when we lose someone near and dear to us. Jesus did at the graveside of his friend Lazarus.
But this scripture makes it clear that we don't have to grieve like those whose only hope is in this world. There is the most glorious hope for those of us who do believe! We have the hope of a life eternal in the heavens! That hope is built on the very fact of Jesus' resurrection from the grave.
For hope to be real, for hope to be able to bring comfort, there should be some evidence to support it. Is there any evidence that the various religions of the world can give us eternal life? None! Has Buddha defeated death? Has Mohammed defeated death? Has Joseph Smith defeated death? The answer to those questions is “No”. But Jesus HAS defeated death!
He proved it by His resurrection. While it was necessary that Jesus die on the cross for our sins, without the resurrection His death would have been in vain. The apostle Paul deals with this in I Corinthians chapter fifteen. In verse 14 he says, “if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” But he counters that a few verses later in verse 20 saying, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The phrase “firstfruits” indicates that there is more to come. “But wait, there's more!! I Corinthians 15:23 says, “But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” Those who have died have not missed it! Our hope is rooted in what has been done and promised in Jesus. Jesus defeated death for us. That should be a cause for celebration, and it should cause us to act like we are going to be going to heaven.
2. The second thing that we can know about the Second Coming is that Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout. We have been told more than once in scripture that Jesus Himself will return. In Acts 1:9-11 after Jesus had given the last instructions to the apostles it says this:
“9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'”
And in the book of Revelation 1:7 that message is repeated. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”
We are promised that when Jesus comes again, it will be evident to everyone, “every eye will see him”. And it will not be a silent coming. Jesus is coming with a shout! So what will He be shouting? I'm not sure we can know, but remember what He said at the tomb of Lazarus? He shouted, “Lazarus come forth!”
Commentaries tell us that “shout” is a military term like what ancient armies did when they charged towards their enemy in order to strike fear into their hearts. So it implies the Lord’s authority and power. Whatever it is, it describes Jesus' coming in a very open and public and loud way.
3. The third thing that we can know about the Second Coming is that we will hear the voice of the archangel (verse 16). This is likely Michael, the only archangel who is named in scripture. There is some suggestion that there are others as well. Such as Gabriel, the angel who announced to Mary that she would bear the Christ-child.
I find it interesting that the angels like to get in on a good thing. They were there proclaiming our Lord's birth in Bethlehem praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest!” It could be that the voice of the archangel will again sing praise to God as this world comes to a close.
4. The fourth thing that we can know about the Second Coming is that we will hear the trumpet of God (verse 16). The sound of trumpets can be very uplifting. Listen to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and your toes start tapping. But in Scripture it’s often quite different. When people heard trumpets they seldom thought of toe tapping.
Trumpets were used to call people together, to move the tribes from one place to another, to sound an alarm in an emergency, and to celebrate days of the sacred feasts. Whenever the people were to be alerted, the trumpets were blown. Trumpet blasts meant something of great significance was about to happen and they’d better be ready for a major event.
The prophet Joel makes a prediction in Joel 2:1 saying, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand”
And I Corinthians 15:31-32 says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Remember even Jesus Himself said, in Matthew 24:31, “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” So when you hear the trumpet, you had better be ready!
5. The fifth thing we can know about the Second Coming is that the dead in Christ will rise first when the Lord returns. Notice: the promise here is to those who are “in Christ”.
When we face the reality of death, we need to know that through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, fear of the grave and punishment for our sins has been removed. We need to believe. We need to repent. We need to confess our faith. We need to obey in baptism. We need to live the life! Then we will have the assurance that we are in Christ.
When it says in verse fifteen, “that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep,” the point is that Christians who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will have no advantage over those who have died. The dead in Christ get to go first!
Any worry that the Thessalonians had about some of their people missing the return of Jesus is no longer an issue. And not only that. I Corinthians chapter fifteen tells us we will have new bodies. And Revelation 21 says that there will be no tears, no sorrow, no death and no more pain. We can rejoice that our loved ones who were in Christ get there first.
I read a story that said in 1833 there was a great meteor shower in the northeast part of the United States. An old man ran down to the local cemetery, because he thought it was the coming of the Lord.
Someone asked him why did he come to the cemetery? He said, “I want to see my dead friend in the grave go up in his new body. You see, in his earlier years, a tree fell on him causing him to lose his arm. I want to see him with his new arm.” Well he might not have had it all correct, but one thing he was right about, Christians will have new bodies that no longer hurt. And they will rise first!
6. The sixth thing we can know about the Second Coming is that Christians who are alive when Jesus returns will, with the dead in Christ, rise to join the Lord on that day (verse 17). In other words, we are not left out! We get to go too!
For those who are in Christ, if Jesus returns in their lifetime, they will experience something that only occurred two times before in history. And that is to leave this world without dying. Scripture only tells us of Enoch and Elijah being caught up to heaven without a physical death. But when Jesus returns, those who are Christians will, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (I Corinthians 15:52), be transformed into bodies fit for heaven.
What kind of bodies will they be? The best answer to that question is found in I John 3:2. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
And Philippians 3:20-21 says, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” When will this occur? We shall be changed at the time when He comes again.
We often sing, “I'll Fly Away”. On that day it will appear to be true. We will go together with our loved ones through the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
7. The seventh thing we can know about the Second Coming is that after all of this occurs, we will be with the Lord forever. When thinking about heaven, one thing often on our minds is the reunion we will have with our loved ones who have already died. Families, who loved the Lord while on this earth, will be able to share good things together for eternity.
But there is something even better than that. We will be in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! But we will not be intimidated by His presence. Besides His royal position, He is also the friend of sinners. He will welcome us, not because we are special, but because we have yielded to Him, and have been covered by His shed blood so that our sins have been washed away. And we get to spend eternity with Him!
When will all of this happen? That is one thing we do not know. Oh, there have been many who have declared a date they believe it will happen. So far they have all been wrong. There is a reason for that. Jesus said we will not know the day nor the hour. In spite of that some have said, “Well I may not know the day or the hour, but I know the year!” How foolish people are! Trust God to do it in His time.
Today we sang, “Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand; But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.”
There are things of which we are ignorant. But we can be comforted by what we do know about the Second Coming of Jesus, and leave the rest to Him.
The main thing is: Be ready.
CLOSE:
Have you ever been in a hot air balloon? If you would like to do so, Columbus, Kansas has an annual Columbus Day Festival and Hot Air Balloon Regatta. The next one is scheduled for October 11-13, 2024.
They fill those balloons with hot air which allows them to rise high in the sky. At first they are tied to some weighty object to hold them on the ground. And only when the pilot feels that it is ready do so, they cut the ties that keep it in place so that it can soar up to the heavens.
When Jesus returns, we will be able to do that without a balloon. But if we want to rise to meet Him, we will need to do the same thing they do with the balloons – get rid of the weights that hold us down.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
The closer we get to the coming of Jesus, we should be getting rid of our sins, and getting ready to meet Him.
Because we are no longer ignorant. We know He is coming again.
