Following Judah's Lion

Jesus Did Not Come Back

BUT HE WILL

Jn.14:1-3 - Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Do not fear nor fret, my brethren, Jesus has given us His Word, and one word from the mouth of the Lion of Judah is worth more than all the words of all mankind. The words and predictions of men will always fail since they are built upon the sinking sand of self righteous conjecture, but the Word of the Living Christ stands sure and fast. Jesus will return again to this world. Not for the sake of mountains and streams, but because He has an everlasting covenant with a remnant of believing sinners who have been redeemed by His blood and kept by His power. And who indeed can fathom the depth of His beautiful power or the strength of His eternal love?

Who can know, in fact who can imagine the splendor of the eternal glory of the Risen Christ? To stand before the Lord of all Lords and be enveloped by His glorious presence is beyond all mental ascent and all internal imagery. Human words cannot touch the hem of His eternal garment, and conjecture will one day appear a pitiful looking glass when all creation falls before His throne. We will have to be changed just to live.

The prophet Isaiah saw a limited vision of the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died. Even a finite vision revealed his own sin and purified his heart. But what will be the experience when we have been made unto His image, and when we stand before Him Who purchased our very souls, and how shall we shout and weep and sing and praise His Holy Name? Eternity itself will permeate our beings and the thought of never ending life will render us consumed with awe and everlasting joy. Purified and sinless, we can only imagine the emotion.

But with what words can we even dare to tip toe into the sight of His glory? The shining of His face, the brilliance of His throne, the indescribable magnificence of His very being, and in the midst of the colossal revelation of His eternal Lordship are those scars which adorn His hands and provide the everlasting landmarks of His suffering accomplishment upon that bloody tree. As if we could forget, dear Lord, you have carried those wounds into your throne room and wear them as a crimson badge of redemption. We will fall before Him with grateful worship!

Carnal men make spurious predictions that only draw attention to themselves. They openly disobey the teachings of the One they claim to know, and they elicit a pirate’s treasure of funds from deceived souls. Calmly and without tears they speak prophetic narratives concerning the return of the King of Kings. But anyone who understands the implications of such a divine visit must be undone completely. Even those of us who are redeemed and look for the Christ as our Lord should quake within and be broken before such an awesome coming reality. This is no eschatological chart or mathematical computation, THIS is the glory of the Creator God coming with a colossal entourage of angels and His resurrected saints. This approaching event deserves more than just billboards and television spots. This coming entrance deserves a sacrificial allegiance and surrendered obedience that amazes and confounds and hopefully awakens the souls of a lost and dying world!

Matt.25:5-6 - While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
The world and the church are enamored with calculations and time zones and end time predictions, but both are uninterested in the One who will come in clouds of glory. The predictions of an obscure old man hold our curiosity for a moment, but after the predictions are revealed as a lie we all return to our earthly lives and place the second coming once again in the innocuous safety of our doctrinal shelves. But make no mistake, Jesus promised He would come again!

What does that, what should that mean to us who bear His name? Our predictions concerning His coming are not bound by one day or hour. He may come at any and all times. And what shall we compare with that event? What earthly thrill or exhilaration can dare stand with His glorious return? The stars themselves must bow before Him who spoke them into existence. Bethlehem’s straw is now a celestial brilliance that accompanies the Risen and Reigning Christ! Paul and Peter and Moses and Abraham and Mary herself are now His redeemed subjects who ride solely upon the wings of His eternal glory.

While we reject the incoherent ramblings of an old man, let us allow the Holy Spirit to reinvigorate an atmosphere of expectancy, permeated with a spirit of obedient sacrifice and uncommon worship. The Creator Christ is coming, and although He has clearly warned us against setting dates, He has also clearly commanded us to be ready. Have we not had enough of this present world? Does not the aroma of this fallen atmosphere create a stench in our spiritual nostrils? Have we not yet had our fill of water that does not quench, and food that does not fill, and things that do not satisfy, and religion that does not save?

Oh Lord Jesus, we have become accustomed to living outside the excitement of your coming and the glory of your gracious presence. We speak of your coming with such ambivalence and emotional dearth. Forgive us for our assimilated lives and help us to see once again the glory of your Person and the eternal grace that draws You back again to receive us. Revive your church, dear Lord, so that the Crucified and Risen Christ might receive the reward of His sufferings with the entire universe as a witness.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.