Grace For Your Day November 20

One of the oldest Christian documents is known as The Apostle’s Creed. It received that title because it was believed to have been composed by the 12 apostles some time in the First Century and faithfully passed down to the church throughout the ages. Here is what it says:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
And born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended to the grave.
The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended to heaven
And is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

The last phrase is what I want to draw your attention to because it reminds us that, ever since its earliest days, the church has acknowledged that Jesus will return. He has already come once. In His grace and mercy, Jesus entered this world 2,000 years ago to be crucified for our sins and save us from them. However, that is not the end of the story because He also wants to come back again in order to “judge the living and the dead” which is something that is talked about in great detail in the last book of the Bible. Revelation 19:11-16 says:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

This passage makes it clear that Jesus will return to the earth in a frightening way because He will not come back to redeem but to rule. He will not return to forgive but to fight. He will not show up to make friends but to judge and make war. As He does, He will destroy all of His enemies in order to make the whole earth acknowledge Him as their king which will shock some people because they have never looked at Jesus this way before.

They have never seen Jesus as a king because they only look at Him as a gentle Savior. However, the Bible says that He is both and, one day, He is going to prove it. The question is: Are you ready for that?

Martin Luther once said that he lived for two days: today and the day when Jesus returns. He made his ambition to go through life as if “Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back again tonight.” I believe that is a good perspective to have because the Lord does not want us to go through life in a spiritual fog. He wants us to “be on the alert, for you do not know the day when your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42) which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about “The Second Coming of Christ” so we can prepare ourselves for that event because the Lord gave us this prophecy in order to call us to action. He showed it to the Apostle John so it would light a fire under us and help us to live our lives with purpose and resolve because we know that this world is on a timetable.

It will not go on the way it is forever. A time is coming when the Lord will bring about a great day of reckoning and we want to be ready for it. We do not want to be found sitting on the wrong side of Jesus when He returns. We want to do everything we can to live as His faithful servants now in light of that future event.

Please join us as we talk about that this weekend. The service will begin at 9:30 on Sunday morning and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

 - Jeremy Cagle