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Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
John 13:19

#churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #salvation #SecondComingofChrist #SignsOfTheTimes

https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/the-rapture-second-coming-and-the-millennium/the-facts-of-the-second-coming/
Transcript
00:00All right, morning everyone. Praise the Lord.
00:10We're going to talk today about the second coming of Jesus.
00:15I just walked past the synagogue down the road and there was an Orthodox Jewish man coming out
00:21and I said to him, we're in the end of days, the war is here, Jesus is coming.
00:28To my surprise, he said, thank you and walked off.
00:33But we are in the end of days, Jesus is coming and the war is here.
00:38It's a very hard time and we're going to look at some of the things which the Bible says
00:43are going to happen before the second coming of Jesus.
00:46If you were here last week, I said that the scriptures in Matthew 24 speak about a period
00:53which Jesus described as the beginning of sorrows.
00:56There will be wars, earthquakes, famines, all these things increasing.
01:02I believe we are in that period, the beginning of sorrows period right now.
01:06This war in Iran, Iraq, Iran and Israel is just another sign of it.
01:12Where it's going to go, we don't know.
01:14America joined in last night, if you didn't hear the news, and bombed Iran's nuclear facilities.
01:19How that's going to explode remains to be seen.
01:22But certainly we're living in very perilous times, it's all on the edge, and we don't
01:26know where it's all going to go.
01:27Only God does.
01:29But the Bible does say, we have this time which he calls the beginning of sorrows period.
01:33Time of wars, famines, earthquakes.
01:35And I believe that these things have been building up over the last several years.
01:41At some point that's going to tip over into a period which Jesus called the great tribulation.
01:46He said, then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world
01:49until now, known where ever shall be.
01:52It says also that if God didn't cut short those days, no flesh would survive.
01:55In other words, it could bring life to an end on the earth.
01:59And I think we can see that we do have that possibility in our time.
02:03We can see that that is something which, because of human sin, foolishness, lack of care of the
02:10environment, development of weapons of destruction, putting all our energy into bombs and missiles
02:16when we should be putting it into agriculture and medicine and helping people.
02:20We see that the world is in a very perilous and dangerous state, and there are very dangerous
02:24and perilous powers who are in control of nations, particularly Iran, Russia.
02:30And Israel itself is in a very perilous situation, and we can see that there is a possibility of
02:36missiles, well, it's already happening, missiles hitting Israel, and great destruction coming
02:41to Israel, to the Middle East, and Iran.
02:45And it could drive you to kind of despair.
02:48Or you could just bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening, which is what
02:51actually most people do.
02:54But if you do know what's happening, and you want to have a hopeful conclusion, then, well,
03:01stick around, we're going to tell you what the hopeful conclusion is, because the only hopeful
03:05conclusion you'll find is in this book, and the only hopeful conclusion is the second coming
03:11of Jesus.
03:12So we're going to look a little bit tonight, this morning, at the subject of the second
03:15coming.
03:16I'm going to tell you some of the mechanics, some of the arguments which people have about
03:21the timing, and we're going to come to one or two conclusions, hopefully.
03:26Okay, first of all, the principle, the second coming of Jesus, will be entirely different
03:31from his first coming.
03:32When he came the first time, he humbled himself, he took upon the form of a servant, and he
03:37laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world.
03:41In Philippians, we read, 2 Philippians, verse 5,
03:48Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did
03:53not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the
03:57form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men.
04:00And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the
04:05point of death, even the death of the cross.
04:09Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that
04:12at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and of
04:16those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
04:21of God the Father.
04:22So Jesus came in human form, he humbled himself, he took upon himself the form of a servant,
04:28laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world, died on the cross, rose from
04:33the dead, ascended to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to the church with the task to spread
04:38the gospel message into all the world.
04:41That's the time we're living in now.
04:42We look back to Jesus coming the first time to redeem us through his blood, shed for us on
04:48the cross, and we share the good news that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, and
04:53in him we can have forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
04:57He also promised that I would come again.
04:58He said you're going to come again a second time.
05:01And it's clear from the scriptures in the Bible that when Jesus comes a second time, he's
05:04going to come in an entirely different form, with a different agenda.
05:08And we see in Matthew 24, verse 30, he says, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear
05:16in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, they will see the Son of Man coming
05:21on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
05:25So this time he doesn't humble himself, he doesn't take upon the form of a servant, he
05:28comes this time with power and great glory.
05:31And his coming will be visible to all people at the end of days when the second coming to
05:37the earth comes.
05:39Revelation 19 describes it in a bit more detail.
05:42Revelation 19, verse 11, says, now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.
05:48He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
05:53His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
05:56He had a name written that no one knew except himself.
06:00He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
06:04And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
06:10Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he
06:16himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
06:18He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he has on his
06:23robe and in his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
06:27You can see from this passage a very different coming, coming this time as King of Kings and
06:34Lord of Lords with all the power of God at his disposal, coming this time to judge the
06:38nations, and then to rule them with a rod of iron.
06:43So when Jesus comes a second time, he's coming not to be judged by the nations, which is what
06:47happened at the cross.
06:48He's coming now to judge the nations in the light of what they've done to the first coming
06:53message of the gospel.
06:54And when he comes again, he's coming with all power of God, and he's going to rule and
06:58extend his power over the nations, and there'll be a time for, according to the book of Revelation,
07:03a thousand years, when Jesus is going to rule in person on the earth, a time we call the
07:07millennium.
07:08That time the God of this world, who is Satan, will be cast out, unable to deceive the nations
07:13anymore, and Jesus will be in control.
07:16It says in the book of Isaiah, the government will be upon his shoulder.
07:20If you're a bit miffed about the government today, well, there's a time coming when the
07:24government's going to be perfect because of me on the shoulder of Jesus Christ, Son of
07:28God, God Almighty.
07:30The Bible says that's going to happen.
07:32Go out there in the world and tell people that, they'll say, well, you're joking.
07:35If you believe the Bible, we're not joking.
07:38It's going to happen because God's word is yea and amen.
07:41His promises are always fulfilled in his time and in his purpose.
07:46So he comes as king of kings, lord of lords.
07:50He comes to judge the world, to bring an end to the reign of the wicked, and to set up
07:54the messianic kingdom, the thousand year reign of the Messiah.
07:59And if you think about the second coming of Christ is divine intervention on steroids.
08:04There have been huge interventions that have happened in the past.
08:07The exodus, the flood, the life and ministry of Jesus, his resurrection itself.
08:14But this one is going to be absolutely major.
08:18He's going to boot out the devil and his kingdom, and he's going to bring in the kingdom of God
08:24with Jesus reigning in his place.
08:28It's very important that prior to this event, we are ready for it to happen by accepting Jesus
08:33Christ as Savior.
08:35And I guess by the fact you're nodding your heads, you agree with that.
08:38Maybe there are a lot of people, well there are a lot of people out there who disagree with it.
08:42So we have the job to actually take the message to them and encourage them to make this step
08:46of faith and to believe in Jesus before it's too late.
08:50Very important to grasp this because one of the key things to understand about the second coming
08:54is that it's associated with the separation of the saved, the children of God,
08:59and the unsaved who are described in the Bible as children of wrath.
09:03It's associated, therefore, with the judgment of God, separation of the saved from the
09:08unsaved, from the born-again believers who are the children of God, and those who are
09:14not children of God who will be subject to God's wrath.
09:19And also the Bible says very clearly that in the last final period, which is a seven-year
09:24period we call the Great Tribulation, there will be a time of unparalleled trouble on the
09:29face of the earth caused by the activity of Satan and the Antichrist and those who are
09:33against Jesus Christ.
09:36All of which can be very troubling.
09:39So we come back to the promise of Jesus in John chapter 14, where he says,
09:44let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.
09:49My Father's house and many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to
09:54prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
09:58you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
10:03So Jesus promises he's going to come again, he's going to come and take those people who
10:08are his to himself, he's going to prepare a place for us, and he's going to come again
10:13and receive us to himself, that where he is, therefore where I am, you may be also.
10:20So we'll be with the Lord.
10:22So there's a great prospect for the believer that we're going to be with the Lord.
10:25And Jesus said, I'm going to come again.
10:26Jesus promised it.
10:27Does Jesus keep his word?
10:29Yes.
10:30So whatever you see happening in the world, whatever kind of propaganda you see from the
10:35media, from everything else, you can be sure that if Jesus says, I'm going to come again,
10:40he's going to come again.
10:42Simple as that.