“But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.”
1 Corinthians 15:23-25 NLT
There seems to be an order of events set out in Paul’s writings today.
- Christ is resurrected
- Christ returns
- “All who belong to Christ” will be resurrected
- Christ reigns for a period, humbling His enemies
- “Every ruler and authority and power” is destroyed
- The End will come
- The Kingdom is turned over ”to God the Father”.
“they will see the
Son of Man coming
on the clouds of heaven“
Now we know that Christ was resurrected on that first Easter Sunday, and there are hundreds of witnesses to that fact, so the next big event that we need to look out for is His return to this earth, His Second Coming. Jesus’ disciples asked Him about when this would be. He replied, “And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come” (Matthew 24:6-8). On that basis, the “birth pangs” that precede Christ’s return have been happening since the day He left the Mount of Olives and returned to Heaven, and have continued for the past two thousand years. As we read on in Matthew 25, a number of other signs will occur, such as the time when the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus, is preached throughout the whole world (that milestone is getting ever closer). False messiahs will appear; there will be astronomical events that occur in the heavens, “and then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).
We can turn to other Scriptures and fill in some gaps about what is to come, but all that will be academic unless we pilgrims are ready for the next step, the return of Jesus for a second time. So, what should we be doing? The Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). John pointed out that if we want to be like Jesus when He comes, then we need to pursue being like Him now. The message from the Parable of the Three Servants in Matthew 25 is all about being faithful to Him while He has been away. Matthew 25:21, “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! ’”
“Well done,
my good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful“
We must also be aware that towards the time when Jesus returns, there may be periods and occasions of suffering. Matthew 24:9-12, “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold”. These will be sober times, and we must be alert and faithful to the promise that we have in Jesus. We note that Jesus warned about deception from false prophets, and we can look back over the years to see that people have been deceived into following cults and movements based on a false premise or a skewed interpretation of the Bible. To save ourselves from such deception, we must faithfully read the Bible and become very familiar with what it contains. Every new idea or a message preached that we haven’t heard before, we must check it out, and, painful though it might be, we must walk away from anyone or any church that tries to deceive us. Society is awash with strange ideologies generated by people who are nothing more than useful idiots deceived by the devil. We must also be aware of the spirit of the age in which we live. It is a spirit of lawlessness summed up by the last verse in the Book of Judges, “ … all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25b). The Nike spirit of “if it feels good, then just do it” prevails today. We human beings can also easily deceive ourselves in an “everyone does it” culture.
But one day, all these enemies of God will be humbled, because we read in Philippians 2:10-11, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father“. They will have no other option when the Lord of lords and King of kings rules over all.
Dear Father God. We look forward to the days when Your Son Jesus returns. We too pray the words in the last chapter of Revelation, “Come Lord Jesus”. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 