When Will We See Jesus?: Part 2
Sunday's lesson referred to the Millerites and how they eagerly waited (albeit in vain) for the Advent on October 22, 1844. What they and we since have discovered is that Jesus was not coming back the next day, either, nor the next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade, the next century! And here we are today, some 164 years later, still in this world. How do we grapple with this problem in our own minds?
One way is to focus on the veracity and certainty of the event. In other words, regardless of the when of the event, we can come to grips with the fact of it, not by logic, but by considering Who made the promise in the first place. It came from Jesus Himself, an authentic, historical figure, whose probity and credibility has stood the test of the centuries. We see this very Person addressing a group of followers, worried and apprehensive about His impending departure. Do not be troubled, He says to them. Trust Me (John 14:1). "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me" (vs. 3, NIV).
Review the following passages. How do they help put the issue before us in perspective? (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 40:8, Gal. 4:4; see also Dan. 9:24-27).
The promise of the First Advent was given way back in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15); and the world was to wait thousands of years for its fulfillment. But as God's great cosmic clock struck the Divinely prescribed hour, mystic beings announced to startled shepherds on a hillside in Bethlehem: "'Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you" (Luke 2:11, NIV). The promise did not fail; for it was anchored on the unshakable Word of the living God. And so it will be with the second coming of Jesus.
What good was Christ's first coming if we do not have the assurance of the Second Coming? How should the certainty of the First Coming, and what Christ did for us at it, make us absolutely certain about the reality of the Second Coming, regardless of whenever it happens?
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