When Will Jesus Come Back? – Part III
Scripture Reading: Luke 17:20-32
Key Verse: Luke 17:30
“Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
In readying my devotion for today, I was struck by the way the early church looked at Jesus’s return to this earth.
In the first part of Hebrews 9: 28, we are told that Christ’s was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. In the second part, the writer turns his thoughts to Jesus’s return: “He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him.”
I was struck by the words, “eagerly waiting”. I wonder if we fit that picture?
Most of us Americans are comfortable with this life and aren’t looking forward to leaving it. As Believers, we know we have a better life after this one. If this describes you, then I want you to know that most Believers feel the same. Here is the reason for that seemingly hypocritical thinking. Our minds are too small and finite to grasp the wonders that God is preparing for us.
The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”(1 Corinthians 2:9).
I have often said that the Bible always reminds us we are God’s children, not God’s “adults”! In other words, in one sense we won’t be adults when we get to heaven. We have no problems understanding that our children just don’t have the ability to “think” or “understand” many things until they grow up. So, it is with us. When we get to heaven, then we will fully understand the deep, eternal facts of God and the afterlife.
When I pray for God’s Kingdom to come, I remind myself that I’m too small to understand how great it will be when Jesus comes after the Believers. Therefore, I trust God’s merciful understanding of my limitations.
One of the definitions of the word “eagerly” is to be “great interest and excitement about something that Is going to happen” (Oxford Dictionary). I think all Believers are, indeed, keenly interested and expectant in the second coming of Christ. Also, I want to note that our fellow Believers who are dealing with constant persecution or constant suffering truly eagerly await the coming of Christ in every sense of the word.
The bottom line is, Jesus is coming again. When we are transported either by our death or by Jesus’s return to our new home, we will be thrilled beyond description!
Father, I can pray for Jesus to come because I trust your promises of an eternal life that far exceeds this life… even so, Lord Jesus please come. All this I pray in Jesus’s Name, amen.