Introduction – Living in an Age of Astonishment
If you’ve been paying attention to the world lately, you know it’s almost dizzying.
Artificial intelligence is writing music, drafting contracts, and even driving cars.
Private rockets land themselves upright after visiting space.
A billion people can watch the same event in real time on devices thinner than a hymnbook.
Entire glaciers, once thought stable for centuries, now collapse in days.
Every morning our phones buzz with more change than our grandparents saw in a year.
It’s enough to make you whisper, “What a time to be alive!”
And it’s enough to make you wonder, “How much longer can this keep going?”
Let that question settle for a moment.
What does it stir in you—excitement, anxiety, or maybe a quiet hope that there’s something bigger and more permanent than the news cycle?
The Bible has always spoken into times like ours.
Jesus Himself told His disciples that history is not an endless loop.
It’s moving toward a grand conclusion—His own return to set all things right.
Today, I want to share the best kept secret about that return.
It’s not a secret because God hid it; it’s a secret because so many have misunderstood it.
We’ll see that Jesus’ coming will not be a quiet evacuation of a few believers while the world stumbles on in confusion.
Instead, Scripture describes an event so visible, so audible, so personal that no one will miss it.
A Personal Promise from Jesus
Let’s start where Jesus started—with a promise as intimate as a whispered prayer.
On the night before the cross, His disciples were reeling.
Their world was falling apart.
Into that confusion Jesus said words that still steady us:
> “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.”
(John 14:1–3)
Notice the weight of that phrase: I will come again.
Not I will send an angel.
Not I will send a feeling.
I—Jesus—will come.
Imagine Him looking you in the eye when He says that.
What do you hear?
What difference would it make this week if you believed, deep down, that the next big headline for planet Earth is Jesus coming for you?
A Hope Anchored in History
The disciples clung to that promise.
And after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, two angels confirmed it:
> “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”
(Acts 1:11)
This same Jesus.
Not a ghost.
Not a vague spiritual presence.
The very One who laughed with them, broke bread with them, and stretched out His scarred hands.
That means our hope is not built on myth or metaphor.
It is anchored in a real, resurrected Lord who has promised to return just as surely as He left.
Pause with me and let that sink in.
The most reliable future event in the universe is not an election, not a new technology, not even the next sunrise.
It’s the moment when the One who loves you enough to die for you comes back to bring you home.
The Coming No One Will Miss
If Jesus is coming personally, how will it happen?
Here’s where confusion often creeps in.
Some popular books and movies suggest a secret rapture—a quiet vanishing of the faithful, leaving the world to wonder why pilots disappeared from cockpits and drivers from cars.
But when you let Scripture speak for itself, a very different picture emerges.
The apostle Paul describes it like this:
> “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)
Do you hear the volume in those words—cry of command, voice of an archangel, trumpet of God?
Nothing about that sounds hidden or silent.
Think about the loudest moment you’ve ever experienced—maybe a rocket launch, a stadium after a game-winning goal, or a thunderclap that shakes the house.
Multiply that beyond imagining, and you’re still not close to the glory Paul describes.
Matthew adds another layer:
> “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
(Matthew 24:27)
Lightning you can’t miss.
Trumpets you can’t ignore.
A sky you can’t overlook.
Now ask yourself: if Jesus intended to come secretly, why would He describe His return with words that fill the senses and shake the world?
How He Comes – The Full Panorama
Scripture piles up descriptions so we won’t miss the point.
Paul says we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
John says every eye will see Him (Revelation 1:7).
Jesus Himself said that His coming will be as unmistakable as lightning flashing across the entire sky (Matthew 24:27).
Let that roll over you.
This is not a story of people vanishing silently while the world yawns.
This is heaven’s ultimate headline—visible, audible, unavoidable, and breathtakingly personal.
And that matters, because it means the gospel is not a rumor you have to chase.
The One who came once in humility will come again in glory that no government, no algorithm, and no influencer can hide or spin.
Picture that moment for a heartbeat.
What will you notice first—the sound, the light, the presence?
What part of your life do you most long for Him to find ready?
Even as we talk about it, the Spirit may already be nudging you toward a conversation you need to have or a change you’ve delayed.
Clearing the Fog – Common Misunderstandings
But someone might say, “Doesn’t the Bible mention people being taken and others left behind?”
Yes—Jesus spoke of two people in a field, one taken and the other left (Luke 17:34–36).
But read the context carefully: the “taking” He speaks of is the final gathering of the saved, and the “left” are left for judgment—just as in Noah’s day the flood “took” the wicked and left the righteous safe.
It’s not a secret evacuation; it’s the ultimate rescue operation when Christ appears.
Others wonder, “Isn’t there supposed to be a seven-year period of tribulation with another chance to repent?”
That idea grew out of later theories, not the text itself.
Over and over the New Testament joins resurrection, trumpet, and gathering into one climactic appearing (1 Thessalonians 4; 1 Corinthians 15).
There’s no hint of a hidden phase followed by a second, public phase.
Remember Jesus’ own warning:
“If they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out.
If they say, ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:26-27).
Why such strong words?
Because Jesus knew counterfeits would flourish wherever truth was fuzzy.
Clarity is protection.
Knowing how He comes keeps you from falling for who pretends to come.
And there’s a deeper reason to clear the fog: our picture of His coming shapes the way we live.
If you believe He might appear quietly and give the world a do-over, urgency evaporates.
But if you believe His return will light the skies and end history in a single stroke, it sharpens the way you love, forgive, and bear witness today.
Living in the Light of His Return
So what does all this mean on an ordinary Tuesday morning?
It means holiness with hope.
Grace teaches us, as Titus 2:11-13 says, to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Holiness isn’t grim.
It’s the joy of aligning your life with the One who is coming back for you.
It’s saying each day, “Lord, help me live the kind of life I’ll be glad to hand You when You arrive.”
It also means mission with urgency.
If His coming will be public and global, then our witness can be open and gracious too.
You don’t have to be a preacher to live this out.
Every kindness at work, every prayer over a neighbor, every time you speak Jesus’ name in love becomes part of His worldwide welcome.
And it means comfort with ballast.
Paul closed his great paragraph on the Second Coming with, “Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).
Life holds grief, but not finality.
Every funeral for a believer is really a rehearsal dinner for resurrection morning.
Pause with me again and think of someone you’ve lost—a parent, a friend, maybe a spouse.
The same Jesus who promises to return promises to bring them with Him.
That’s not wishful thinking.
That’s the surest hope the universe has ever known.
A Gentle, Clear Invitation
Perhaps as you listen, something inside you is stirring.
Maybe you’ve carried anxiety about being “left behind.”
Maybe you’ve drifted and wonder if it’s too late.
Hear Jesus’ words again: “I will come again and receive you to Myself.”
That promise is as personal today as it was in the upper room.
Or maybe you’ve simply grown tired—tired of waiting, tired of headlines, tired of trying.
Let the certainty of His coming breathe courage into you.
The same Christ who conquered the grave will not forget your address.
Friend, the best kept secret of the rapture is that there is no secret.
Jesus is not sneaking His people out of trouble.
He is coming in glory to end trouble forever.
So live awake.
Live forgiven.
Live with eyes wide open to the One who is on His way.
Conclusion and Appeal
Let’s gather it all up.
The world is breathtaking—AI that thinks, rockets that land, networks that never sleep.
But all our invention is only the backdrop for the greatest event yet:
the literal, visible, earth-shaking, heart-steadying return of Jesus Christ.
He has promised, “I will come again and receive you to Myself.”
Every eye will see Him.
Every ear will hear the trumpet.
Every heart will know that love has finally come to stay.
So when you wake tomorrow, remember:
the next great movement in human history is not political, technological, or economic.
It is personal.
It is Jesus.
And He is on His way—openly, gloriously, unmistakably.
Let’s pray together:
> Lord Jesus, thank You that our hope is not a rumor but a rendezvous.
Thank You that Your return will be as certain as the love that took You to the cross.
Wake us, steady us, and send us to live today in the light of that sure tomorrow.
Amen.
