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I hope you understand this truth:  Jesus is coming back. 

Now.  Plenty of people are scouring the Bible to find obscure verses about when, and how exactly, and all that jazz, but I think the reason we don’t know is part of the point…it’s not about finding out how or when He’s coming back (and, to be clear, even Jesus Himself doesn’t know, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  Matt. 24:36), what really matters is that we live like He is coming back.  That we believe that reality and that it colors how we live our lives. 

Do you believe He’s coming back?  Does your life show it? 

Not only should we be living with the understanding of the reality that He’s on his way back, but also with a correct understanding of what it will be like when He does.  Read Rev. 19:11-21…Jesus is going to kick some butt!  This is not going to be any caricature of a Birkenstock wearing, hippy Jesus coming back to share granola with us, this is Jesus coming in His full glory to judge the world.  This is a big deal! 

When He comes back, Jesus will bring judgment.   He’s going to judge the wicked.  And, trust me, there are times when you hear about or experience how evil this world is, and you want to yell, “Hurry up!”  I mean, what is He waiting for?  This place is a mess! But look at 2 Peter 3:9-10: “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment”

In His grace, God is patient with us.  It hit me, had He came back 16 years ago, I’d not have been saved.  Nor would anyone He’s used me to save in the time I’ve been a Pastor.  God was gracious in giving you time to be saved as well.  How can He use us in the time we have left to bring more people to know Him?

It can be pretty sobering to read Matt. 25:31-46 as well.   Jesus is The Son of Man who will judge and separate the “Sheep” (those who follow Jesus) and the “Goats” (those who did not follow Jesus).  I cannot imagine what it would be like to be chosen as a “Sheep”…it is all out of grace.  I mean, do I (or any of us) really deserve to be considered “Sheep”?  I can’t even begin to fathom the gratitude we’ll feel!  And then, what would it feel like to be chosen as a “Goat”? Even more so, I cannot even begin to imagine the horror!

Truthfully, I hope no one is a “goat”, you know?  Even for the worst of the worst, hell is an unimaginably terrifying place.  Revelation 20:14 describes it as a “lake of fire”, Jesus in Mark 9:45 calls it the “fire that will never be quenched”.  Hell is real and awful and forever.  We cannot allow people to think of it as any less dangerous than it is!  To do so would be irresponsible!

Which is why I find it so frustrating that people refer to it as “Separation from God” without explaining what they mean... you’re eternally separated from God, yes, but the neglect to include the part where you’re in a literal “lake of fire” where you will burn with demons for eternity!  Tell it like it is!  It needs to be terrifying because it is a terrifying reality!

I have heard speakers talking to youth when I was a youth pastor who called hell “eternal separation from God”, and I just though, “Huh…that doesn’t sound scary at all.  In fact, if I were still a wayward youth, I’d think, ‘You mean I’m away from God and can do whatever I want in a guiltless vacuum?  Alright!”  

Hell is real.  Jesus coming back to separate the “Sheep” from the “Goats” is real.  We cannot sugar coat it or shy away from the truth!

Do we live like this is real?  Are we grateful for the grace shown to us in that we would be considered a “Sheep”? 

That said, Jesus will judge the Christians too.  I was really hit by this.  For one, I’ve been reading up on grace a lot, and thus, mostly just was hit by the concept that we’ll stand before Jesus and He will say (totally undeserved)“ 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'”  Matt. 25:21  (from the Parable of the Talents).  Somehow, I had missed the whole part where we get judged by our deeds as well!

Look at 2 Cor. 5:9-10 “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Again, how are we living this life?  Do we live with “Fire Insurance”, just glad we’ll get into Heaven, or are we living with the reality that we’ll one day stand before the Lord of the Universe, the One who shed His blood for us, completely undeserved, and that we’ll have to account for what we did with that grace He bestowed upon us? 

Do we live like Jesus is coming back?


Finally, Jesus will bring “Shalom”.  “Shalom” is the Hebrew word to describe how God created the world to be in perfect and harmonious beauty.  This went away after Adam and Eve blew it (Gee, thanks for blowing that one, guys).

When Shalom is here…Jesus will judge, and then rule as King over all the Elect (Me and, hopefully, you as well).  There will be no wars.  People will beat their weapons into farm tools.  We’ll sing to God in joy.  Animals won’t eat each other.  We’ll all eat good food always.  We’ll all praise God, every nation and people together… in fact, read if for yourself here in Isaiah 11:1-9 and 65:17-25.  How crazy!  Just as mind blowingly real as the concept of a literal hell is, even more so is the concept of what it will be like when Jesus returns to bring “Shalom”!

Jesus says in John 14:1-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going."

This is kind of goofy, but fun to think about…Jesus, for one, was a carpenter, so I imagine He knows what He’s doing when it comes to building things.  Also, God created the world as we know it in 6 days, and He’s been gone and working on this place for a while now, so…I just think, “This new place He’s been working on?  It’s going to be awesome.”  
My prayer is that we’ll see each other there!  My other prayer is that we’ll live our lives, now, on this earth, as though we are living for the next.