I will come back 03/05/2021

I feel that we have lost the thrill of this. We have made it very complicated and confusing. We have got bogged down in all sorts of theological debate and the simple truth has become lost.

In the verse in John's Gospel Chapter 14 Jesus promises to come back to this earth. He was leaving them and the Holy Spirit would come at Pentecost and they would experience a new spiritual reality that they had never experienced before while they enjoyed the presence of the Saviour, the Son of God in Galilee and Judea. There were new experiences awaiting them. But this is not what Jesus was referring to. He was speaking about a time when He would come back to this earth and they would be able to join Him - that you also may be where I am. The last Day Share spoke about the bliss of the divine presence in the Father's house. He wanted them to experience this in all its fullness.

The truth of the second coming is taught by Paul and the New Testament ends with the book of the Revelation - a very complicated book with many passages which are difficult to understand. But read the description of the holy city in Revelation 21. This is the bliss that lies ahead of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no temple - because the presence of God is there in all His glory. It is not restricted to one building- we enjoy the glory of God everywhere in the eternal bliss. There is no need of the sun or the moon - for the Light of the World in all His glory provides full illumination. There is no impurity there - no sin or defilement because the work of Jesus on the cross has removed all sin associated with this sinful earth.

The last chapter of the book of Revelation speaks about the soon return of the Lord - "behold, I am coming soon." This is what might cause us to be puzzled. It was 2,000 years ago that Jesus promised His disciples that he was coming back and he has not returned yet. The first century Christians were expecting the Lord to return at any time. Some even stopped working because there was no need - Jesus was coming imminently. God uses a different time frame. We operate on a life expectancy of 70 or 80 or 90 years and we have divided our life into smaller portions called years, months, weeks and days etc. God is eternal and does not operate according to our timescale. A millennium is only a day according to God's eternal calendar so it is only a couple of days since Jesus told His disciples that He was coming back for them.

By the way, it is much nearer now than it has ever been before. It may be that Jesus will return this year or this month or even today. Let us get into the mood of expecting the second coming of the Messiah. Jesus is coming soon.