The return of Jesus Christ
By Pastor Steve Maile
Before the return of Christ every person in the whole world will have the opportunity to repent. No-one will go to hell because God sent them there, nor they will get there by mistake. Each one has to make the decision to follow Christ. In His infinite love God has left the decision to follow Him to us, as we read in Romans 10:9 NKJV, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” See what it says, if you confess and believe you are saved, but if you don’t you won’t be saved.
I Thessalonians 5:9 NKJV
“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
1- Four things that will happen in the Church before the Lord’s return.
A- Persecution
Matthew 24:9 NKJV
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
B- Apostasy
II Thessalonians 2:3 NKJV
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,”
C- The Gospel must be preached.
Matthew 24:14 NKJV
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Many only preach half of the Gospel, but thank God we have the full Gospel.
D- Judgement at the House of God
1 Peter 4:17 NKJV
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
The Judgement in the House of God has already began, and let’s not forget that the second coming of Christ is all about judgement. The first coming was to bring redemption to mankind, the second coming is to give to those who have rejected salvation, exactly what they want, a Christ-less eternity, which means they chose hell and punishment together with the devil and his demons.
Psalms 96:13 NKJV
“For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.”
The second coming of Christ is going to be public, every eye will see it. As we are told in Revelation 1:7 NKJV, “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.”
2- Christ taking His bride with Him
But before Christ comes back to execute judgement, He would have taken up with Him His people. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NKJV “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. 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.”
This is what we call the rapture. Many believe that this will happen before the seven years of tribulation mentioned in Revelation, others believe it could happen in the middle of the tribulation, yet others believe it will happen at the end of the seven years. Let’s look at these two Scriptures and see what the Lord is saying to us:
II Peter 2:4-9 NKJV
“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,”
Matthew 24:37-42 NLT
““When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realise what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. “Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.”
The judgement to Sodom and Gomorrah and the earth at the time of Noah happened but Noah and Lot and their families were saved, except we know what happened to Lot’s wife when she disobeyed the command of the angel to not look back. (Genesis 19:26) The Lord looks after His own.
3- Get busy sharing the Gospel
The Second Coming of Jesus should excite every believer, it should excite them to the point of preaching the Gospel to everyone. The sharing of the Gospel is the duty of every believer not just for the few. We must get busy doing the works of righteousness, which is leading others to Christ in every way we can. These works of righteousness is the white linen in which we will be dressed in for the Marriage of the Lamb. See Revelation 19:8 NKJV, “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
In Matthew 24:3-44 and Luke 17 Jesus Himself teaches about His second coming, you need to read these passages and understand the things that will take place before Christ comes back again to execute judgement to all the earth and no-one who was left behind will be able to escape it. Every single prophesy about the Messiah in the Old Testament has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus, over 400 prophesies, except the ones about His second coming. Conservatively, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies in His earthly ministry. We are right now living in the time where prophecies of the End time are being fulfilled, there is not much time left.
II Peter 3:10-14 NKJV
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless”