6th teaching - He (Jesus) will come again

[kathy_w]

"He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his
kingdom will have no end."

Jesus, after the great Easter triumph over sin, death, and the powers
of evil, ascended into heaven in the sight of his disciples, giving
them a commission and a promise - "All authority in heaven and earth
is given to me. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to obey all I have commanded you; and lo, I am
with you always, even to the end of the age." Next week we will have
the teaching on the Holy Spirit and how Jesus is with us to the end of
the age. This week we jump ahead to the end of the age when Jesus
returns in bodily form to close out history and to renew and restore
all of creation.

Jesus' second coming will not be like his first appearance among us.
It will not be a quiet coming in a stable with a few shepherds and
wise men in attendance, let in on the secret by the heavenly
messengers of God. When Jesus returns, He will not lay aside His
glory and come in humility to save us, rather He will come again in
His full glory, the glory that He had with the Father before all
creation, accompanied by the angelic host of heaven. It will be a
public event which everyone will see. You won't be able to miss it.
He will come as King "to judge the living and the dead" and to put
everything right. He has been given the authority to judge because He
is the son of Man (John 5:27), the one that Daniel, in his vision, saw
coming in the clouds and being given "an everlasting dominion, and a
kingdom which will not be destroyed." (Dan. 7:13-14) God's holiness
requires a judgment on sin and rebellion in order to establish "a new
heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (II Peter
3:13)

The good news is that all who have trusted in Christ and His finished
work for our salvation do not come into judgment but have already
passed from death into life. (John 5:24) We are already justified in
Christ, acquitted, and more than that, are adopted children of the
Father and beloved of God. In fact the Church is called the Bride of
Christ. Jesus' coming to inaugurate the kingdom or rule of God is
compared frequently in Scripture to a wedding feast, the Wedding Feast
of the Lamb. We have been betrothed by Christ, we are already His,
but we await the coming of the Bridegroom to take us to the wedding
feast and to a new life with Him. Jesus told his disciples on the
night before He was crucified, "When I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may
be also." Like a Jewish bridegroom, he is making ready a place for
His Bride, the Church, in His Father's house. And the Father decides
when all is ready for the feast to begin, so only the Father alone
knows the time of Jesus' return. The kingdom has been prepared from
the foundation of the world, a new heaven and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells. When He comes, we will not only be with Him,
but we will be like him, glorious beings, cleansed by the blood of
Jesus, without spot or blemish, by God's glorious grace made fit for
God's presence and able to enjoy fellowship with Him forever.