By Andy Coticchio
“Jesus is coming soon!”
Some people might give you a funny look or a snide comment. Others may warmly smile, nod with a “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” Others might say, “When?” It is a great question, and the truth is, I don’t know when Jesus is coming. I feel He is close (and He sure is needed), surely closer and more needed today than any other day gone past. In the verse this blog is named from (Revelation 22:20), Jesus states He is coming quickly. Not fast, but suddenly. But we need remember the following:
No one knows the hour of His return: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 speaks of the Lord descending with a shout and His Church being caught up alive to meet the Lord in the air. There is a suddenness, an unexpectedness to the Rapture of His Church, a sense of needing to be prepared for it at any time. In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11 Paul talks of the Day of the Lord coming in like a thief.
I believe this day is the period of time beginning with His Judgment on the Nations culminating in the completion of His Millennial Kingdom rule. In 1 Thessalonians 5:4, Paul states it will not overtake His Church as we are all sons of the light not darkness. I believe at the commencement of the Day of the Lord, His Church—His Remnant Church, will have been already translated to heaven. The mention in the Olivet Discourse of not knowing the day nor the time (Matthew 24:36, 25:13) is the Lord speaking to the nation of Israel as to their unpreparedness for His soon judgment upon them.
However, it is clear from all these verses that the timing of end times events are not ours to know. Anyone claiming to have figured it all out is wasting their time and yours, if you let them.
His Church has always expected Him soon: read the New Testament. The early church had a sense of urgency and immediacy of His soon return. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul comforts those he is writing to that the Day of the Lord had not come already; that in effect, they had not missed the Rapture of His Church. Sounds like people were expecting it soon, quite soon as a matter of fact, and many had thought it had passed.
God’s sense of time is not ours: God is eternal, so time has a different meaning to Him than it does to us. God invented time, so he knows it and controls it like we never will. Psalm 90:4 states a thousand years in God’s sight are like a day when passed. 2 Peter 3:8 states one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day with the Lord. God’s timing is not ours, and He will come as He wills. We should just be faithful and obedient to the tasks He has placed before us.
It has to be this way: The sense of urgency and immediacy is necessary. If those early Christians thought it was at least 2,000 years before His return, how urgently do you think they would have preached Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? (1 Corinthians 2:2). How worked up do you get about things you know are not to happen for months, years or possibly decades? You might just be trying to get through the weekend, and are not really worried about next week yet.
I know Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 not to worry about tomorrow, it will worry about itself, that sufficient for today is its own troubles. But the trouble for an unbelieving world is Jesus may come very soon! See how God set it up? Knowing how lazy we can be, God designed the perfect plan to keep obedient, faithful Christians on their toes every day, day in and day out. Jesus is coming soon. We need to be faithful to His command and spread the gospel, today, and every day until His Soon Return. Do it today, and not worry about tomorrow.
There is great comfort to be had. Jesus is coming soon, absolutely. God is sovereign and in control, definitely. And as it is laid out in John 10:28-29 no one can snatch from His Hand those He has grasped as His own – His Remnant Church. Those of us that He has (I include myself and I hope you as well), are with Him through eternity.
Today is part of that eternity, so we are now grasped by Him while here in our daily lives. While the waiting may get downright unpleasant, the story ends really, really well for those who have trusted in Christ alone for their salvation. I don’t know when, but, Jesus is coming soon!
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