Today, Friday January 07
“This Same Jesus…. Will So Come…” Acts 1:9-11 “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 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."
Just before we start going through the Book of Revelation, chapter by chapter, I want to remind you that I approach the events in the book from a literalist point of view. In Acts 1:11 the angels proclaimed to the disciples that “this same Jesus… will so come in like manner…”. Jesus was in real physical body, at this time, after His resurrection. When He appeared to His disciples during the forty days afterwards, He ate with them, He walked with them and He would say things like, “Touch me, handle me, I’m real, a spirit does not have flesh and bones…”. (Luke 24:39)
Acts 1 also tells us that during those forty days, Jesus spent much of the time talking about His coming Kingdom. Acts 1:3, “To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” This even led the disciples to ask when that would happen. Jesus reply was that it was in the Father’s hand and they should be focused on being witnesses to the whole world, telling them about His first coming, His death, His burial and His resurrection!
I believe that Jesus will come back first, in the air, in a literal body, for His church. Then seven years later after the tribulation, He will come back for His second coming, literally to the earth, to set up His Kingdom to rule and reign a thousand years.
The first phase of His coming will be like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). It will happen suddenly and without warning and it is imminent, meaning it could happen at any time! Even first century believers, like Paul, Peter and other writers of the New Testament were looking for Christ to return two-thousand years ago. In Matthew 24:44, where Jesus was talking about end time signs and events He said: “Therefore you should be ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man will come.”
After the Tribulation, and after Christ’s literally one-thousand year reign on earth, and Satan is sent to his final doom in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10), the next thing on God’s agenda is the “Great White Throne Judgment”. Revelation 20:11-15: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” We will discuss this more when we go through our study on the Book of Revelation.
After this “Great White Throne Judgment” I believe that we will then enter eternity. This is when “God will wipe away every tear from every eye, and there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying and no more pain” (Revelation 21:4-5). “And time shall be no more”, which means we will live in an ever present now! Like our eternal God, there will be no past and there will be no future. That’s eternity!!!!!
So no matter how bad it appears now, the future for the believer in Jesus Christ is glorious!!!! I’m looking forward to it! How about you?
God bless!