CHRISTMAS WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING
THE BEST IS YET TO COME ….
“…when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels…. When He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe…(2 Thess. 1:7, 10)”
Christmas is not the end of the story! It’s not yet finished, for the Jesus who came the first time is coming again, and Christmas is not complete without the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The incarnation without the coronation would be like east without west, like an engagement without a marriage.
You may have thought this was a good Christmas for you—but, friend, the best is yet to come! The Heavenly Father has so much more in store for us when Jesus comes again. We get all wrapped up in the little baby in the manger, then we then go beyond the birth of the baby, saying, “Yes, He came to die for our sins” (thank God He did that), but I want to remind you that the First Coming of Jesus and the Second Coming are linked together. The Christmas Story in Luke 1 and 2 speaks not only of the Jesus who redeemed, but the Jesus who reigned. Not only the Jesus who came the first time, but the Jesus who is coming the second time to sit upon the throne of His father David in Jerusalem, to rule over the house of Jacob forever and ever.Imagine what your life would be like without the Resurrection, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. The most glorious fact of the past is that Jesus came the first time. The most glorious fact of the future is that this Jesus is coming again. The one sure hope of this jittery old world is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
– Adrian Rogers
ADDED COMMENT:
– Yes, Adrian Rogers was right. Christmas was only the beginning. The best is still yet to come. Today, what every believer is looking forward to with great anticipation is Christ coming for his saints (believers) at the Rapture, meeting Him in the air and taking us home to be with Him in heaven. “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess.4:17).” Then, after the Rapture we have the seven-year tribulation period where God’s wrath is poured out on the unbelieving inhabitants of earth – the seven seal, seven trumpet, and seven bowl judgements of Revelation 6 through 16. When the tribulation on earth has been completed, at the Second Coming (Rev.11-16), Jesus will return with His saints from heaven and establish His kingdom and reign on earth for 1000 years and we will reign with Him. “…. but they (believers) shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Rev: 20:6).” Wow – the best is yet to come!
Thank God, He has not left us in the dark concerning the general time of Christ’s return. Look, Christ was emphatic in teaching about His return. Jesus emphasized prophecy and the undertaking of it in His teachings. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy (Rev. 1:3),” referring to the testimony and revelation of Jesus Christ and His Second Coming. He emphasized its importance in understanding His life and ministry.
In Matthew 16:3, Jesus emphasized how important it was to understand the significance of the times we live in. Do you remember, Jesus rebuking the religious leaders of His time (calling them hypocrites) for their failure to recognize His first coming. He said they knew how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but they didn’t know how to recognize the signs of the times (Matthew 16:2-3) that they lived in. Jesus expected the religious leaders of His day to recognize the signs of His first coming. In the same way today, Jesus expects us to recognize the signs of His Second Coming. To discern the times is an important command of Christ.
We are living in one of the most strategic and important times in the course of human history as well as in Bible prophecy. Signs unique to our generation converging for the very first time ever. Signs that could not have been fulfilled in any other generation, until now. God revealing the future not to scare us, but to prepare us. Yes, the Bible has much to say about the end times in this the church age. Prophetically, we are living in a time like no other generation before us where the Bible is coming to life and playing out right before our eyes. The Bible speaks more about this period of time than about any other period in human history. People should feel honored, privileged, and blessed to be living in such a time.
The book of Daniel gives us the timeframe for the end times. The Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 gives us a thumbnail sketch of the sequence of the end times, and the book of Revelation gives us the details. All three references are essential to an understanding of the end times. As God’s plan of the ages continues to unfold in history, the clarity of our understanding of biblical revelation will become sharper and more distinct.
Seeing prophecy fulfilled in our time verifies the Bible as God’s absolute word. Prophecy is God’s signature on world history, and on the future of the world. Over 100 direct prophecies of Christ first coming were literally fulfilled. Fulfilled prophecy is evidence that the Bible can be trusted. What I find intriguing and captivating today are the hundreds of unfulfilled prophecies concerning Christ and His Second Coming. The very same prophets who so accurately portrayed the first coming of Christ, also portrayed clearly His Second Coming and the conditions of the end times. What’s really exciting is that we get to witness these events in our time with our own eyes. Understanding prophecy gives us an eternal perspective on God’s plan for the ages and the fate of mankind.
I find this so exciting because I can see the groundwork being laid out and what’s happening, as we speak, right before our own eyes – God setting the stage for Christ’s Second Coming as well as for all the other end time events to take place as prophesied in Scripture. We as believers yearn and long for Christ to come back and take us to heaven.
Oscar