11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
Now, all of this has an impact on how we live now. But let’s turn now to the future. Paul directs us to the future and he speaks of the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is clearly a future event. It hasn’t happened yet. Does anybody think it’s happened already? No. Well, obviously, it hasn’t.
And, in some ways, it’s more difficult to speak from our point of view with certainty about an event which has not yet happened. But, from God’s point of view, both these events are equally certain. As far as God’s point of view is concerned, they both happened and they’re written here in the scriptures. If God says something has happened it has happened. If God says something will happen, it will happen. It’s as simple as that. God doesn’t lie.
The scriptures are full of prophecies speaking about Jesus coming again a second time and so these events are equally certain.
As I said, the word ‘epiphany’ is applied to both of them. We have the English word ‘epiphany’ which means something being made visible, literal.
That means that this coming again of Jesus is going to contain something which is going to be visible and literal.
It’s going to be an invasion if you like of our time and space from God’s eternal time into our time.
If you look at some of the passages about the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth you see that they emphasize the physicality of it.
Matthew 24 says,
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:30-31
So, Matthew says here that all the tribes of the earth are going to see Jesus coming with power and great glory. Now, if they’re going to see something, it’s going to be visible. Does that make sense? I can see you. You can see me. Therefore, you exist and I exist and you’ve come to this church to hear me speak.
We can’t see Jesus at this present time. But there’s coming a time here when everybody on the earth is going to see Jesus coming in power and great glory. It’s going to be a sign. I believe what it says here. It implies in the Book of Matthew that there’ll be a great darkness which will come suddenly, the sun and the moon the stars won’t give their light. Then, suddenly, there’ll be a sign of the glorious light, what we call the Shekinah glory of God as this light appears.
Jesus will appear with 10s of thousands of angels and, I believe, all the saints who’ve been previously raptured coming back with Him. That will be quite a sign.
It also says in the Book of Revelation, in chapter 1 verse 7:
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. Revelation 1:7
And a question arises: ‘Why are they going to mourn?‘ They’re mourning because, if, at that point, they’re still unsaved and not knowing Jesus, at that time, it’ll be the end for them, and they will know they will only face the wrath and the judgment of God. Revelation chapter 6 verse 15 says,
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17
Therefore, in one way, the message of the Second Coming is good news to those who believe in Jesus, but it is bad news to those who don’t. The message now to those who don’t believe in Jesus and if you’re listening to this message and you don’t believe in the Lord then, now is the day to repent and believe the Gospel before it’s too late, so that Jesus will greet you as Saviour and not as judge.
As I have explained, we have difficulty believing this. We have difficulty believing that something like this can happen. Does anybody find it difficult to believe it could happen? Or perhaps you’re more spiritual and you think: “Oh yeah! Of course it’s going to happen!”.
But in actual fact conceiving it is the issue. Okay, you can believe it but can you conceive of it really happening?