The Second Coming of Christ - Part B

So He came the first time as Savior. He's not coming the second time as Savior.

He's coming the second time as Judge. He came to save, and He still invites you to be saved, but He will come the second time not as the Lamb, but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, one who is in authority. What do you have when He returns to judge the world?

It's far from what He looked like when He died on the cross. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will help you live with a bold faith as you follow Jesus wherever He leads you. What stands between you and a more fruitful walk with Jesus? Find out how four prominent women in the Bible faced their struggles in a new teaching series from Lenya Heitzig called Queens of the Bible. Here's Lenya on the Queen of Sheba. Hearing is the first step toward spiritual blessing.

Right now, hearing is a step toward blessing because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Hear more from Lenya as she explores the faith and the failings of four different queens in scripture. The Queens of the Bible collection of teachings is our way of saying thank you when you give $35 or more today to support this Bible teaching ministry.

Look, the cost of following Christ is to go wherever He leads. Get your copy of these unique teachings when you call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwiscip.com slash offer. Right now, we're in Revelation 19 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching.

Listen to this. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. That's His second coming. 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. So Isaiah the prophet, Daniel the prophet, other prophets all the way back have predicted this event. Jesus Himself articulated this event. Also, some of the greatest songs of the church have been about the second coming.

You guys know the name Charles and John Wesley. If you know, go ahead and raise your hand again. This is church. You can raise your hand up. God bless you. I see that hand.

No, I'm just kidding. Okay, so John and Charles Wesley were these great preacher revivalists. John Wesley was like the preacher guy.

Charles Wesley wrote songs. You know how many songs Charles Wesley wrote? 6,500. Some say up to 8,000, but let's just let's be conservative.

Let's be skimpy here, shall we? 6,500 songs. Man, I've written like six.

6,500 he wrote. The majority of Charles Wesley's hymns focus on the second coming of Christ. It is one of the great themes of hymnology through the ages. Here's one everybody knows, not by Wesley but by Isaac Watts, because we sing it every Christmas not knowing it has nothing to do with Bethlehem. It has everything to do with the second coming.

Just read the lyrics. Here it is. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. It's all about Jesus coming to establish His kingdom, because this is the great hope and this is the day where Jesus comes in glory.

So let's move on. We've seen two things about the second coming of Christ. It's preceded by a supper.

It's predicted by the scripture. Third, it's punctuated by a slaughter. This is where the story goes a little bit dark.

I mean it gets a little bit somber. Verse 11, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. When Jesus came to earth the first time, He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, donkey.

Right? A little bit of Shrek there. But when He comes the second time, He comes on a white horse. That's very emblematic of conquering like ancient rulers did. And He who sat on Him was called faithful and true.

And in righteousness He judges and literally wages war. His eyes were like a flame of fire. On His head were many crowns. When conquerors would conquer in those days, they would often take the crown of the conquered king and put it on their head to show, new sheriff in town, I'm in charge. He had many crowns. On His name, a name written, He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. We know that's Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations, and He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Boy, this is a very different Jesus than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is the warrior Jesus. This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is giant Jesus, mighty and riled, right?

This is very different. When we think of Jesus, we often think of Jesus looking with such compassionate eyes or tear-filled eyes as He looked over Jerusalem. Verse 12 shows us one whose eyes are like a flame of fire. We picture Jesus in our minds wearing His own crown of thorns in sacrifice and humiliation.

Once again in verse 12, on His head here were many crowns. We typically picture Jesus in His suffering covered with His own blood. You'll notice here in verse 13, He has a robe dipped in blood.

It's not His own. It is the blood of His enemies. Isaiah 63, which is a corollary to Revelation 19, spells that out clearly.

He comes to wage war. By the way, speaking of psalms before I kind of explain what this is, what's going on here, speaking of hymns of the church songs, another great second coming song was written during the Civil War by Julia Ward Howe. She was grieved by the inhumanity in her own country. And she wanted to think about the day when Jesus will come back and set all things straight. And so her hope was the second coming.

So she wrote a song called Battle Hymn of the Republic, and the lyrics are Revelation 19. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible, swift sword. His truth is marching on. That is Revelation 19.

Those lyrics are heard thinking past the Civil War on into the coming of Jesus. Now, what is happening here? A war. He's waging war. He's coming to a battle. This is the end of the tribulation, a very particular battle. You could call it the mother of all battles. It is the Battle of Armageddon, previewed already, even though we haven't read it in this series, in Revelation chapter 16.

It's spelled out. They'll gather together in a valley of Megiddo, or Armageddon, called in the tongue Armageddon. That's Revelation 16, verses 15 and 16. So it is the final showdown of the Antichrist and his armies. And they converge in Israel, marching toward Jerusalem, in the Valley of Armageddon, we are told.

By the way, Napoleon Bonaparte said the Valley of Armageddon, in all of his military experience, was the most natural battleground in the world that he had ever seen. Many historic battles, biblical battles, were fought there. Deborah and Barak fought Sisera in the Valley of Armageddon. Gideon fought the Midianites in the Valley of Armageddon.

Sennacherib fought against Hezekiah. I'm guessing that's around 2 Kings 18. That's a biblical battle. Also, King Pharaoh Neko of Egypt fought against and killed King Josiah in this battle. That's around 2 Kings 23, right around there.

But it's back there in the Bible somewhere. So that place has seen lots of battle activity, even in more modern times, and we'll see another battle in future times. The long and short of it is hostilities against the nation of Israel will reach fever pitch during this period of time, and they will march all the armies of the Antichrist against Jerusalem. That's when Jesus shows up, not to fight a battle, to interrupt a battle.

Like they're marching, okay, we're going to do this, man. And then Jesus comes back. I know it's called the Battle of Armageddon.

Let's get that out of our minds. It's really not the Battle of Armageddon. It's the beat down at Armageddon. It's a wipeout. It's not like Jesus' side gets hurt a little bit. No, he's just going to wipe it out.

Stop it. Now, I want you to see how somber this is. I want you to make a contrast. Look at verse 7, where it talks about the marriage of the Lamb, and verse 9, the marriage supper of the Lamb. There's that one supper. That's a good supper. Let me show you another supper. It's not a good supper. Verse 17, Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying, To all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for supper of the great God. What is that angel referring to? He's inviting vultures to come and have supper, the bodies of slain soldiers at the Battle of Armageddon.

Wow. I like the first supper better. I want to go to supper.

I don't want to be supper. Some even think that Jesus was referring to this when he said in Matthew 24, Wherever the carcass is, the vultures will be gathered together. So this is Jesus coming back at the end of the tribulation during this battle known as the Battle of Armageddon. I'm going to give you a very quick rundown of events.

I want to move through this quick because we don't have time to get deep into it. We did it a little bit last week. First, on the calendar of events that we're looking for, it could happen at any moment, the rapture of the church. At some point, Jesus, who is right now seated at the right hand of the Father, is going to stand up and he's going to come and he's going to come into the atmosphere. We looked at that in depth last week.

He's going to take all of the saints with him in the air. After that, I believe in heaven takes place what's called the judgment seat of Christ. It sounds ominous, but it's where you and I get rewards. It's the Greek word bema seat.

It's where they would get rewards for running a race in antiquity. And so you and I will be, 2 Corinthians 5, evaluated by Jesus Christ for the work that we have done in the body. 2 Corinthians 5, it's a direct quote from there. We're going to be evaluated for our faithfulness to him while on the earth. That's the judgment seat of Christ. So rapture of the church, judgment seat. Then I believe on the earth, right at the beginning or just prior to the tribulation, is a very specific battle the Bible speaks about.

Not Armageddon. A battle mentioned, prophesied in great detail in Ezekiel chapter 38. Ever heard of the battle of Gog and Magog?

Most of you have, the battle of Gog and Magog. These are ancient terms for rulers and for regions, and we can identify what those regions are. The war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 is, I believe, a post-rapture power grab led by Russia. And not only Russia, but it will be in partnership with Turkey and Iran. They're all identified in that text. So you have three nations, Russia, Turkey, and Iran, with the support of Libya, Ethiopia, and Sudan. They will attack Israel from the northern border, Ezekiel 38 says. The area of Syria, they'll come in from Syria down into Israel, and it says they want to get something precious that Israel has.

Does not disclose what it is. But here's what's interesting about that, is that for the first time in history, those three nations are in partnership. Russia, Iran, and Turkey are in partnership, and I don't know if you know this or not, but all three have military assets right now in Syria.

They're there, right now. Moreover, recently, Israel has discovered that they're in possession of, they just sort of found this out the last few years, massive oil and natural gas reserves. And they are planning to build an undersea pipeline to sell oil to Europe, which happens to be Russia's number one customer. Also, if you follow the news, you know that recently, Iran has ramped up its nuclear enrichment to a level of 20%, which experts say, ooh, that's frightening nuclear war stuff.

Twenty percent. And just yesterday, did you see that they fired, Iran fired a missile in the Indian Ocean, very close to an American ship. So things are heating up, and it's lining up. So rapture of the church, year in heaven, judgment seat of Christ.

On the earth, battle of Gog and Magog. Then the tribulation starts. Tribulation lasts seven years, it's the 70th week of Daniel. In the middle of the seven-year period, it's called the abomination of desolation by Jesus and by Daniel. This ruler, Antichrist, makes an agreement, a pact, a covenant, with many people. He breaks it, including Israel, he breaks it in the middle of that seven-year period, it's called the abomination of desolation.

The last three and a half years are the worst. That is the great tribulation. Jesus said, unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.

But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. So that'll be the tribulation period. At the end of all that, this event happens, second coming. So rapture of the church, judgment seat of Christ, war of Gog and Magog, tribulation period, second coming of Jesus to the earth. After the second coming, the kingdom lasts a thousand years.

You know how I know that? Chapter 20 of Revelation says like five times, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years, thousand years. So I figure it's a thousand years. So all that the prophets spoke about would happen during that time, happened for a thousand years, followed by the disintegration of heaven and earth. Everything created gets uncreated. God makes a new heaven and a new earth, and that's called the eternal state.

That's a happily ever after moment forever and ever. That's sort of a quick rundown. So second coming, preceded by a supper, predicted by the scripture, punctuated by a slaughter. The fourth and best aspect, it's performed by a savior.

All of this is under the management and control of somebody who passionately loves you and came the first time to make sure you would never have to be bird supper, but would invite you to his supper. So just notice some of the names once again, because he is the focal point. He is called the Lamb in verse 9. He is called the Word of God in verse 13. He is called Faithful and True in verse 11.

And then in verse 16, that great title he has on his robe and on his thigh, a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So he came the first time as savior. He's not coming the second time as savior.

He's coming the second time as judge. He came to save, and he still invites you to be saved, but he will come the second time not as the Lamb, but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, one who is in authority. Now the second coming will be a public event, which means everybody's going to see it, unlike the rapture, select group sees it. There's no judgment associated with the rapture, massive judgment associated with the second coming. And when he comes, everybody sees it, Revelation chapter 1, and every eye shall see him. Jesus said, Matthew 24, as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Now when Jesus comes to the earth, he's coming to a particular place. And where do you think that is? I think it's like Española or Santa Fe or... No, no, maybe Los Angeles.

How about New York? New York, Rome? Where is he coming? Jerusalem, but to a very particular geographical spot in Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, the Mount of Olives. Remember when Jesus left?

He left earth. He ascended in heaven from the Mount of Olives. Acts chapter 1, you know the scene, Jesus ascends into heaven from the Mount of Olives, the disciples are standing there, hands are in their robes, they're looking up.

Wow, that's heavy duty, that's cool. And they've got their heads cocked up and an angel says, Hey, you men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? For this same Jesus who left will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.

Okay, there you have it. His second coming is going to be like his ascension. What was his ascension like? Well, he went into heaven physically, he went into heaven visibly, and he went into heaven from the Mount of Olives. So I'm guessing he's coming back physically, visibly, every eye will see him, into the Mount of Olives, which is not only what the angel said, that's what was predicted by the prophets.

The prophet Zechariah, who gives lots of end time predictions, talks about a great battle in the end times, and God will fight for his people in that battle. Immediately after that it says this, And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. Now when that happens, something will happen to the Mount of Olives. It says, And the Mount of Olives shall split in two.

Right out of the book of Zechariah the prophet. The Mount of Olives will split in two. What's interesting about that is in 1964 a geologist discovered a fault line in Jerusalem that runs right through, guess, the Mount of Olives. So we have a mountain in Jerusalem called the Mount of Olives that is waiting for a very particular footprint.

And when that footprint touches, it will split in two. And every eye will see him. Now people will ask, Well if he's coming to Jerusalem, how can every eye see him? Well you could have asked that question a hundred years ago, and it would be hard to answer that.

I don't know. But now we have satellite television. Well you see stuff all over the world, everybody at one time can see it. Moreover, here's just a thought, Erwin Lutzer writes, Perhaps the return of Jesus Christ is an event that takes place over a period of twenty-four to forty-eight hours, where he will appear in the sky and be seen by all as the world turns on its axis. Then as the rotation continues, Christ is continually seen as coming closer to the earth, until eventually he disappears for the rest of the world as he lands on the Mount of Olives.

Interesting thought, fun to throw in, that's no extra charge. I don't know, but the purpose of prophecy, two weeks ago, last week, this week, the purpose of prophecy is not to scare you. It's to engender faith in you. It's to get your heart and head around the idea that Jesus is in control of the future. Remember what he said to his disciples?

He goes, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen in advance, so when it comes to pass, you remember that I said it to you and you'll believe. So prophecy as you study it causes you to have faith. And Paul the Apostle, his last words before he died are recorded in 2 Timothy. And he said to Timothy, finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have loved his appearing. Does that describe you? Do you love his appearing? Are you looking forward for the return of Christ for you personally?

Do you like the kids with the fingerprints on the windows? Lean into that. Look up. Jesus said when these things begin to happen, lift up your head because your redemption draws near.

That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the Series 2020. Now, we want to tell you about a unique opportunity to take your knowledge of Scripture to a new level. If you're ready to study God's Word beyond going to church and personal Bible study, you're ready for Calvary College. Take your learning and your life's purpose to the next level with an education in Biblical studies.

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