Ready or Not, Jesus is Coming Again

I prerecorded my Sunday April 19 message. You can watch it here: https://tinyurl.com/y9begj7h or you can read the edited text below.

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Ready or Not, He’s Coming Again

By Rich Maffeo

Jesus is going to return to earth. We know He will because He SAID He will. And no one should forget that unchangeable promise lest we become inattentive to that truth and slowly drift from it. 

Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, He ascended back to His Father. Before He left, He left instructions for His disciples, specifically to be His witnesses, His ambassadors to the entire world, telling them of the gospel message – the good news message – of repentance and the forgiveness of sins; and to also warn men and women of judgment and of Christ’s eventual return to earth. We call it His ‘second coming.’ 

Luke records it this way: (Acts 1:6-11) “So when [the disciples] had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 

Jesus told them – and us by extension – “You shall be my witnesses, to proclaim the message of the gospel, the good news of repentance, of forgiveness, of the final judgment – and His return to earth. Luke continues his record in verse nine of Acts chapter one: 

“And after [Jesus] said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” 

The gospel message is a most important message you and I can ever hear and tell others about because there are people who believe their sins are not so bad as to deserve judgement and damnation in the Lake of Fire. Oh! Someone needs to warn them to ask God to show them the depth of their sins. They’ll fall on their faces in dreadful horror and shame. 

And there is a group of people who do not believe God would ever forgive their sins. They think of them as too grievous, too sinister, to terrible to forgive. Oh! Someone needs to tell them of the immeasurable love and mercy of God.

Listen! God does not make us jump through fiery hoops to be forgiven. He doesn’t want us to flagellate ourselves or climb stone steps on our knees to be forgiven. No, no, no. God only seeks a broken heart, a contrite heart, a penitent heart – and He draws that person to Himself with abundant forgiveness through the blood of Jesus. 

Some will tell you you’re okay and I’m okay. But that’s not what God tells us – and who are we going to believe? God tells us without Christ you are not okay, and neither am I. God tells us without Christ we are dead in our sins. 

The apostle Paul used the word from which we get ‘Necrotic’ to describe our condition when he wrote: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:1) 

The length and breadth of Scripture pronounce it again and again, we are not diamonds covered with mud. We are not tarnished gold. God calls us necrotic. Dead in our sins. And our slowly putrefying souls are made alive only through God’s grace and the sacrificial atoning blood of Jesus. 

Now, directly related to the gospel of forgiveness, is the good news of Jesus’ return. When you have time, turn to the first few verses of John 14. And look again at what the angels said to the disciples as they watched Jesus ascend to heaven: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” 

But some will say that happened 2,000 years ago and He still has not returned. Did Jesus mean what He said? 

The apostle Peter has something worthwhile to say about that: “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-10) 

Now drop down to verse eight: “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” 

We’ll return to this text shortly, but first, in any discussion of the second coming of Christ, the subject of the Rapture of the church often comes up. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, let me quickly explain. 

Simply defined, the doctrine of the rapture states that at some time before Jesus returns to earth, He will suddenly snatch all of His followers out of this world – shielding them, if you will, from the world-wide devastation that will accompany the final seven years of world-wide tribulation – especially the last 3.5 years of that period. It’s widely taught by those who believe in the Rapture, that multiple millions of Christians – not those who call themselves Christians – but true and obedient followers of Christ – multiple millions of Christians will suddenly vanish off the face of the earth. 

‘Suddenly’ – as in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’ St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) 

So, whatever they are doing, wherever they are, when Jesus sounds that trumpet, they will just vanish. The apostle talks about the ‘snatching away’ in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica 4:16-17  “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up (the Greek word here is: harpazo, to snatch away, be caught up) . . . [we] will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” 

Not every Christian or theologian believes in the rapture. Many say the doctrine is false, that its origins only date back to the 19th century. But, others say the doctrine is clearly taught not only in Scripture, but even in early church history. They cite texts written by Church Fathers such as Irenaeus (d. 202), St. Ephraim the Syrian (d. 373), St. Cyprian (d. 258), and early church commentator Victorinus (d. 310). If you have access to the internet, I encourage you to search for the phrase, “What the early church believed about the rapture.” 

Some correctly argue the word ‘rapture’ doesn’t appear in our English Bibles. But the apostles didn’t write in English. They wrote in Greek. 

As I mentioned a moment ago, the Greek word harpazo means to suddenly snatch or catch something away. For example, Philip is suddenly harpazo’d from the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:39; The apostle Paul tells us he was harpazo’d to the Third Heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2; Paul also tells us the Bride of Christ will be harpazo’d from the Earth to meet Jesus in the clouds (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17); And we read in Revelation 12:5, Jesus is harpazo’d to His throne in heaven. 

For more than 1000 years, the Latin Vulgate was the official version of the Bible for much of Christendom until 1611 when King James I commissioned the English translation. When St. Jerome translated the Greek scriptures into Latin and he came to a verse such as 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which reads: “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord,” he translated the Greek word harpazo (har pah zo) into the Latin rapiemur (ray pee mah). 

The verb rapiemur is from the root verb rapio (ray pee oh). We get English words such as rapt  – as in someone pays rapt attention to something – and we get the word ‘rapture.’ 

So, while the word ‘rapture’ does not appear in English translations, it DOES appear in the Latin New Testament – which of course predate the King James Bible by at least a full millennium. 

Whether Christians will be suddenly be snatched away before the Great Tribulation might make for a fascinating discussion over coffee – that is not the crux of my message. What IS the crux is this: The timing of the second coming of Jesus is unknown. But it WILL happen. We know that because He promised it. 

Likewise, the timing of our death – yours and mine – is unknown. But it will happen. God tells us, for example, in Hebrews 9:27-28 – “And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” 

Rapture or not, any of us can die before the sun rises tomorrow morning. And then what? 

On the Day of Pentecost, when the crowd of religious priests and laity asked Peter what they needed to do to be saved, Peter proclaimed to them what I am now proclaiming to everyone who hears my voice: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself . . ..” (Acts 2:36-39) 

Remember what Peter wrote: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) 

Please, if you have never come to Jesus for salvation, please, won't you come now. Repent of your sins. Turn your life and your lifestyle over to Jesus. And if you have come to Him in the past, won't you come again, now? Keep your relationship with Him vibrant and active and growing ever closer to our infinite God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Solomon wrote words that ought to remain in the hearts of everyone throughout our lives: “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is [this]: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”  (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)