Posts Tagged ‘ Second Coming ’
But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3, CSB
God told the Prophets that He was coming, and He came born as the person of Jesus of Nazareth who then promised to send the Holy Spirit. After defeating the power of sin, He now empowers us to fight sin and evil by dwelling inside us until His return.
“Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”
Luke 1:31-33, CSB
God told the Prophets that He was coming to save His people, and He did in the person of Jesus of Nazareth through a willing servant. Let us be willing to carry our Lord into the world.
Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
Luke 2:11, CSB
God told the Prophets that God would come to save His people, and He came. No one expected Him to become a human, but He was born, lived, and suffered like us and for us to show His love for us and that He is worthy to be our King.
We all like to talk about the Magi who came from the east to greet the newborn king of Israel. I wonder how many of us think about this star as a prophetic fulfillment.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1–2, ESV)
We are pretty sure that these “wise men” may have been of the school of practitioners trained originally by Daniel while Israel was in exile. It makes so much sense that they would have been looking for such signs. It does make one wonder why they would think to look for a star?
I wonder if the original Hebrew audience of Matthew would have thought about a previous “wise man” who first spoke of this star.
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
and knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near:
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel (Numbers 24:15–17, ESV)
Some foreigners came to worship a king because of a star they saw rise. A foreign prophet was used by God to prophesy a star that would rise.
The prophecy was made as Israel was approaching the Promised Land. The prophecy was fulfilled when the True Israel was approaching His creation.
The first foreigner joined in trying to kill God’s people. The next foreigners helped avoid the attempt to kill the Son of God (for a time.)
This is a good reminder that Israel struggles (there is a pun here) with knowing who their Lord is, but others see Him for who He is, even of they deny Him.
Let us be wiser than all these, even the wise men from the east and especially those who see truth and deny it.
Let us receive the King of kings who has come to bring us life and peace and is coming again.
Merry Christmas and the Lord’s blessings of eternal life and wisdom on you.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”
Luke 2:9-10, CSB
God told the Prophets that He was coming to save His people, and then angels proclaimed it to shepherds when He actually came. The gospel is true and is for all people: find the joy of God and believe that He came as the person Jesus of Nazareth to take away our sins.
Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Luke 2:7, CSB
God told the Prophets God was coming to save His people, yet no one expected Him to come as a human. May we be open to see God moving in unexpected ways yet that align with Scripture, taking care to have gentleness and compassion while leading others to worship our Lord.
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”
Luke 1:46-47, CSB
God told the Prophets God was coming to save His people, and Mary also worshiped her Son. We can know Jesus is God with us and worthy of our worship, for He was born to die for our sins.
“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”
Luke 1:45, CSB
God told the prophets Jesus was coming, and He came. He said He is coming again. Let us join with Mary in believing the Word of the Lord that God is with us.
I preached again!
Once again I was in Paulden Christian Fellowship. Pastor Paul had just finished the Book of Acts, so I was allowed to give a summary, not just of Acts and not even just of the gospel, but the whole biblical story was briefly recounted, comparing and contrasting the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light.
As usual, below are my rough notes (more of an outline) and the PowerPoint.
Last week was the Scripture reading from Romans 10 about confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead saving you. Then Pastor Paul finished going through the book of Acts, discussing some people believing and some not, that some people found hope and some turned violent.
Genesis 1:1-3 – God made everything, including light
Genesis 1:26-28 – God created humanity in His image, gave them dominion over His creation
Genesis 3 – Humanity gives the power of dominion to the Serpent, pushing back God’s light.
Genesis 4 – Sin increases with two lies: 1) “I am the most important” and 2) “I do what I want.” Darkness spreads.
v. 26 – The birth of religion about 250 years after the Garden.
Genesis 6-11 – Sin increases, to the point God destroys the world by a flood. Even after, the command to fill the Earth is ignored, adding the lie “We can make God come to us.” Darkness and confusion spread.
Genesis 12-22 – Abraham is called and promised a land, descendants, and to be a blessing to the world (and the promise of “bless those who bless you …”)
Genesis 26:1-5; 27:27-29; 28:10-22 – The promise passed on to Isaac and Jacob (and the promise of “bless those who bless you …”
Genesis 48-49 – Jacob/Israel blesses his sons, including the promise seen in Genesis 3:15, 15:7-18; 22:11-18 – 49:10-45 – Through Israel, specifically Judah, will come one who blesses the world through garments washed in “blood of wine.”
Exodus 19:5-6 – God’s treasured possession, “a kingdom of priests”
They failed. Miserably.
Yet, this is the people blessed by a pagan prophet in Numbers 23-24 (including 24:9 – “Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”) that God will give Israel the Promised Land, and one will come with Dominion.
God uses a disobedient people to show how much we all fail as humans, and even with direct revelation from God can we all fall.
It was often non-Israelites that were used: Rahab the Jericho prostitute; Ruth the Moabite (great-great grandmother and great grandmother of David); Uriah the Hittite; foreign kings who obeyed God better than Israel; Nineveh, despite Jonah; three astrologers visiting a baby born the King of the Jews.
Still, an ancient call on Israel stood: Isaiah 42:5-9; 49:6-8 – Called to be light, but Ezekiel 5:5-6
John 1:1-18 – The light comes into this dark world.
Yet, the secret of Jesus coming was hidden in plain sight in these Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:7-16.
Acts 1:8-11 – The Church is gifted the power of God by the Holy Spirit to spread His light into this dark world.
In Acts 2 we see the reversal of the Tower of Babel and Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness when 3,000 are saved at the preaching of the gospel in language all can understand.
The light begins to spread from Jerusalem to Judeah to Samaria and even out to the Gentiles, yet …
Acts 28:24-28 – Whether Israelite or Gentile, many will not hear, but more Gentiles will listen.
Acts is a reminder that the Holy Spirit-filled Church fights against the darkness of sin, ignorance, and rejection of God.
In Matthew 5-7 and John 15-16, Jesus warned that if we abide in Him and His Word, the world will hate us as it hated Him, yet His death and resurrection have shown that He is more powerful.
Evil has spread, and it was easy for it to spread.
People like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), Saul of Tarsus (pre-conversion) and Simon Magus (Acts 8), various religious adherents and Christianity-adjacent groups (like the sons of Sceva and Artemis worshipers in Acts 19), and many others show how Truth can be, is, and will be twisted for selfish, controlling, and deceptive purposes.
Remember it was the most religious who caused the most problems in the time of Acts, but the irreligious can be just as unreceptive and violent. (Look at the past few months.)
We know Christ can return at any time, and this is our hope!
We know that death came because of Adam’s sin, and we await that time Jesus finally does away with death.
Until then, we persevere and join with our Lord weeping about the pain of death and sin (John 11:35), and we offer the hope of Christ’s return and complete defeat over death.
We know sin has affected everything in this world, causing pain, sadness, and separation; hatred, distrust, and violence.
Christ took all of that on Himself on the cross and overcame it all that wonderful Sunday morning, so we point people to the hope of the cross and Christ’s return, showing that the Holy Spirit changes us, one by one, to overcome the pain, sadness, hatred, distrust, and violent separation in our own lives.
So, we do not despair when the world is crazy, wicked, and violent. We know God has a plan. He warned in Matthew 24, echoed by Paul in the letters to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, that as the Kingdom of God progresses, there will be a time before His return that will only get worse, with many falling away from the faith, with many false prophets, apostles, and anointed ones arising, and with lawlessness growing as the accepted norm.
People denying the importance of Israel, even saying the promise of those who bless Israel being blessed was not about modern Israel. (Then why is national Israel back in the land?)
People declaring evil as good and good as evil, even making laws to that effect, and even from those who call themselves Christian.
People preferring violence and violent religions as peaceful religions, all the while denouncing Christianity as violent.
People in churches separating over issues that do not affect salvation.
Doing these spreads the light against the darkness.
This is the beginning. Christ has already redeemed us, but we await our final redemption when He returns.
By His wounds we are healed, but we watch out for where the dark deceptions of the Evil One creep in trying to keep the wounds open.
Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.
Matthew 24:42, CSB
We find joy, strength, and confidence in knowing that our risen Lord is coming back to us one day, and this keeps us aware of our walk with Him and the need to reach this world.
a simple man of God 