19. COMING

 

Revelation 1:7: RSV:[1] “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. even so. amen.”

 

Reference Matthew 24: 30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.”[2] 

 

A.  JESUS CAME IN POWER:

 

            I.  The Prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14, 18, 22, 27.  Daniel foresaw that in the days of the Roman Empire the “… Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven…” to receive His kingdom and to share it with the saints of the Most High, (vs. 18, 22 and 27.)

 

            The Prophecy of Zechariah 12:10: Read: “… and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced ….”  This is quoted in John 19:37 as having been fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ.  READ John 19:33-37: “And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him Whom they pierced.” 

 

            The Prophecy of Jesus: Matthew 26:64: “Jesus saith unto him, ‘Thou [the High Priest] hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, [plural, the chief priests and scribes], Hereafter shall ye, [plural], see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  These were the ones who had pierced Him. 

 

            The Prophecy of John: Revelation 1:7: “… and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him ….”  So we know that He came within the lifetime of those who pierced Him.

 

            II. WHEN?  Matthew 16:27-8: “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.  Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” So we know that He came within the lifetime of the disciples.

 

B. JESUS CAME IN JUDGMENT UPON JERUSALEM:

 

            I. Zechariah 12:2: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling (poison), unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”  Revelation 16:19b: “And Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath:” Jerusalem, as “Great Babylon” must drink the “cup of trembling/poison”.

 

            Read: Matthew 21:33-46: Parable of the vineyard.

 

            II. The Gospels:  In Matthew 23 Jesus presents the indictment against the scribes and Pharisees and pronounces the penalty.  In Matthew 24 He describes the conditions and events that will happen.

 

            Matthew 24:3 RSV: “… when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the close of the age?”  The “close of the age” refers to the age of the fleshly nation of Israel which ended in 70 AD.  This was a “sign” or example, of the end of any nation who forsakes and rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even of the whole world finally.

 

            Christ described the coming of the destruction of Jerusalem and included in it the “coming” of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, (Matthew 24:30 above).  We have the historical record of such an appearance in Josephus Wars 6.5.3.

 

“Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month of Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the accounts of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.”

 

            This also fulfilled Zechariah 14:16: “And the Lord shall be seen over them.”

 

John the Revelator foresaw Jesus’ coming as the Rider on the White Horse: READ: Revelation 19:11-21.

 

 

C.  JESUS’ COMING AS THE HOLY SPIRIT.[3]

 

            1. READ: John 14:15-29.  In this chapter we learn that:

 

a. Jesus’ bodily presence was about to leave them, (READ: vss. 2-3), but His spiritual presence would be with them for ever, (vs. 16).

 

b. (V. 18) “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.”  Jesus here identifies the Comforter as Himself.

 

            Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

 

            c. (V. 23) “If a man love me, he will keep My words: and my Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

 

d. This Comforter, Counselor, will come in Jesus’ Name, (vs.26), that is, in Jesus’ authority, character and identity.

 

e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One Unity: (vss. 11, 20, 23, 28).  The Father is greater than the Son, (vs. 28), so to have the Trinity in us is more expedient than to have the bodily presence of Jesus with us.

 

             Hebrews 13:5b: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

 

             Matthew 28:20b: “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

 

            2. EXAMPLE OF ELIJAH AND JOHN THE BAPTIST: The prophets foretold that Elijah would come back before the advent of the Messiah, (Malachi 4:5).  Jesus taught that John the Baptist was Elijah, (Matthew 11:14; 16:14; 17:10-13; Mark 6:15; 9:12-13; Luke 1:17; John 1:21, 25). 

 

            Did He mean that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah? NO!  He meant that the same spirit that came upon and filled Elijah was that which filled John the Baptist, (Luke 1:17).  In this same sense, the coming of the Holy Spirit to fill all of the believers was the same Spirit that had filled Christ when He dwelt upon earth in His fleshly body.  So, in the same sense that Elijah had returned in John the Baptist, so Christ returned in the INFILLING of the Holy Spirit in His people.

 

D. FULFILLMENT OF EXPECTATION OF SOON RETURN:[4] 

 

            1. The secular world ridicules the Church as having been a bride jilted at the altar by her lover, (as in the song Delta Dawn).  What is worse, many Christian theologians also teach that Christ has never yet fulfilled His promise of return, for example: “The apostolic generation passed away, and the consummation of the kingdom did not occur.”[5]  

            I disagree that the Church was disappointed and so had to change its theology.  I believe the promises of His coming were gloriously fulfilled in the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and His coming in judgment upon Jerusalem in 70 AD.  His ‘coming to sup and abide’ with His disciples was fulfilled repeatedly as they lived out their lives. There was no ‘jilted bride’, but a joyous and productive marriage of the Lamb and the prolific increase of offspring when the whole Roman Empire was evangelized.

 

(More Scripture references showing that the Church believed His coming would be in their lifetime: I Thessalonians 4:13-18; 5:23; James 5:7-8; I Peter 1:13; II Peter 3:4; Jude 14.)

           

 

E. IS JESUS STILL APPEARING IN MODERN TIMES?

 

            1. David Wilkerson letter about the visions of Christ in the Arabic nations.

 

            2. Terry’s email account of multiplying food.

 

            3.  The little 6-year old girl in the sandhills.

 

            4.   Billions of testimonies of answered prayer.

 

READ: Revelation 22: 12: “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

 

Revelation 22:17: “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

 

Revelation 22:20: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

 

 

 

(Some words and phrases from the King James Version that have a fuller meaning when considering their Hebrew origin as understood by the Jews at that time:

 

“Kings of the earth” = descendants from Isaac;

“earth” = same as ‘land’;

“last days” = last days of Daniel’s prophecy of the end of the nation, city and people.

“the end” = either the telos, perfection and maturity, or the eschaton, the last, extreme, uttermost, see RIC p. 25;

“the Lord’s Day” = ‘the Day of the Lord’;

“end of the world” = ‘end of the Age’;

“all the world” = sometimes the Roman world of that era.)