As believers, the suspense of [Jesus’] first coming is over. We do not need anymore to find out who He is. Now we need to eagerly wait for His appearance. We’re no longer in suspense of someone or something. We are anticipating the appearance of someone we already know personally. The point is this, if you don’t know Jesus personally, you will always remain in suspense. Jesus came to give us peace that surpasses all understanding. How come half of us are frantic? We are so obsessed with when and what. Guys, first of all, He’s coming in an hour you don’t know. Let’s start with that. Second, He’s coming to people who are waiting for Him and who are ready. When you’re ready, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing and where you’re at. You’re ready. Can you imagine if Jesus would’ve told us, “I’m coming on May 21st, 2023”? Half of you will be in Vegas until then. Now that we know the day, don’t worry. A week before, we’ll be on our knees.
Are you eagerly awaiting His return? “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8, “Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption…”
Of what? “…Our body.” We’ve been redeemed already, but our body – look at our body. Look at this.
Look at yourself. You have to think 50,000 times before you eat the donut. We have a saying in Hebrew, “Is it butt-worthy?” I’m sorry, that’s Hebrew. Romans 8:25, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
First Corinthians 1:7, “So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 5:5, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”
Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Eagerly wait.
It’s not suspense anymore.
We know who He is.
We have peace in our hearts.
We are workers of righteousness. We’re not sitting in front of YouTube, asking “When is it? Who said the date? Oh yeah, this is the date. It matches the stars. It matches the sun. We see this….”
No, all of them are like that all the time. “Oh yeah, it’s coming. Oh, I’m selling all my stocks. I’m going up the mountain. I’m changing my clothes.” I mean, it’s like, what happened to you? And then when you sell the world all of these theories about blood moons and data and nothing happens, everybody looks at you as false. You did the wrong service.
The church is not waiting for the physical return of Jesus to Earth, but rather the physical departure of the church from Earth into Heaven.
Of the ten times we find the English word “eagerly” in the New Testament, six of those times it is in relationship to the return of Christ. In all six, it is paired with the word “wait” or “waiting”, and it is only the Greek word, translated as “wait”, that is in the manuscripts. The word is paired in English translations with “eagerly” because the Greek word for “wait” means “to expect fully.”
Think about what all this means to our outlook and priorities in life. If you “expect fully” that Jesus could come for the church today, your life will be lived accordingly and your attitude will be impacted by that belief greatly. If you “expect fully” that today you could receive a new body when Christ appears, the aches and pains of life will not be so consuming.
Imagine if we lived every day fully expecting the rapture – which we should – and not just that it was someday, but imagine if we fully expected it every day. How would that impact our interactions with other people? Who would we be desperate to try and share the Lord with? What relationship would we seek to repair or restore? What activity would there be that we might need to repent of, or wrong that we need to make right? Eagerly waiting for the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, is far different than simply knowing it will happen someday.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
The Hebrew word translated “wait” means essentially the same as the Greek word translated “wait,” – “to eagerly expect.” In this context, it means that those who eagerly expect God to be faithful to His word will renew their strength, which will allow them to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint.
For most of us, waiting is low on the list of things we enjoy doing, especially when we are waiting for something we desperately need or wish to change. Waiting for the rapture of the church sure seems like it is taking a long time, some days.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
If the Lord doesn’t meet us in the air today, there are reasons beyond our understanding for it.
However, that means tomorrow it is even more likely He will come, and thus we should fully expect it more and more with each passing day. One day we will awaken and it will be “that day.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Today just could be “the day”, and we should fully expect it to be possible. Doing so will make everything about today different.
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