Is Jesus coming back?

At the church where I serve, we have been spending our time together looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church. And as we go through this statement, our hope and prayer is to accomplish four specific things. First, our hope and my prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a clear and straightforward manner. Second, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church by spending our time together focused on a few passages that best capture what we believe as a church. Third, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain why what we believe as a church matters. And fourth, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a way that reveals how relevant what we believe is to our day to day lives as followers of Jesus.

This week, I would like for us to look at the ninth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This ninth statement addresses what we believe as a church about Jesus return. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is Jesus coming back to earth? And if Jesus is coming back to earth, how is He coming back? And why is He coming back? And when is He coming back?” So let’s look at this ninth statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

Now to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement, we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this statement mean. So, I would like for us to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here. First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase “We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When we say that we believe in the personal, bodily return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will return visibly to earth, in person to set up His kingdom.

In other words, Jesus will not return to earth as a spirit. Instead Jesus will personally and bodily return to earth. Jesus Christ clearly claimed that He would personally and bodily return to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense in a section of a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 Thessalonians.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, we see the Apostle Paul addressing the concerns that the members of the church at Thessalonica had when it came to what would happen to those who died before Jesus returned to earth. You see, the members of the church at Thessalonica were concerned that those who died before Jesus returned to earth would not be with Jesus after He returned to earth. The members of the church at Thessalonica were concerned that they would never see those who died before Jesus returned to earth because they had died before Jesus returned to earth. We see Paul’s response to their concerns recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

Here we see the Apostle Paul comfort the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that just as Jesus died and rose again from death, followers of Jesus who died before Jesus returned to earth would be raised from the dead to be with Jesus. Paul encouraged the members of the church at Thessalonica by explaining that Jesus Himself proclaimed that He would physically and bodily return to earth and that all who believed trusted, and followed Him, whether physically alive or dead at the time of His return, would be caught up alive to meet Him in the air as He returned to earth to establish the kingdom of God in its fullest sense.

Now that leads us to next church mumbo jumbo talk word in this section of the doctrinal statement which, states that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, When we say that we believe in the premillenial return of Jesus Christ, we are saying that Jesus will visibly return and begin to establish the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense at the end of the Great Tribulation, at which time Jesus will rule and reign over the earth for a period of a thousand years.

The “Great Tribulation” refers to the seven year period prior to Jesus return that was predicted and proclaimed by the prophet Daniel in a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament in the Bible called the book of Daniel. In Daniel 9:24-27, the prophet Daniel predicted and proclaimed a seven year period of great tribulation and trouble here on earth.

During this period of time, the Antichrist, who is a world leader that unites those in the world who are opposed to God and the kingdom of God to oppose God and persecute the people of God, will appear. During this period, God will exercise His wrath or right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity who oppose God, who will still yet refuse to come to relationship with Him. This period concludes at the battle of Armageddon where the forces of Satan and the Antichrist are defeated at the Hands of Jesus as He returns to earth.

After defeating the forces of Satan and the Antichrist, Jesus will rule and reign here on earth for a thousand years. Now this time in which Jesus will rule and reign over the earth is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the millennial kingdom. As a church, we do not believe that Jesus will return to earth after the church ushers in the kingdom of Heaven, which is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the postmillennialism. And we do not believe that there will be no millennial kingdom, which is referred to as amillennialism.

Instead, we believe that Jesus will return back to earth personally and physically to usher in the beginning to the kingdom of Heaven with a thousand year reign and rule here on earth. Now a natural question that arises here, and that has been asked throughout history is “Well Dave that all sounds great, but if Jesus is returning to earth, then when is Jesus returning to earth?” That’s a great question, which we see asked and answered by Jesus in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the book of Matthew. Tomorrow, we will see Jesus begin to answer those questions...