Tuesday, August 8, 2017

The Assurred Promise of Christ's Return


The Word Revelation in the Greek is apocalypsis.  Yes apocalypse. Some of you didn’t know you knew Greek. Apocalypsis is a word that almost uses a double negative. it comes from a compound word “apo” which means “away from” and “clypsos” as in eclipse or hiding or veiling something.
You know a solar eclipse like the one coming on Aug. 21 is the hiding of the sun or when the moon comes between the earth and the sun. A lunar eclipse is when the moon is hidden and the earth comes between the sun and the moon and the moon is obscured. Apo calypsos means an unveiling. A Revealing of Christ. The book of Revelation is singular. It is not revelations. It is singularly set on revealing or unveiling one thing: Jesus Christ.

It may surprise you to know that the word “Revelation” or apocalypses is only used once in the entire book of Revelation. Only once. But it is frequently used in the new Testament. Jesus promised in all four gospels not only that he would rise again, but he also promised that he would COME AGAIN.

The first time Jesus came, He came as a Lamb, but when He comes again he will come as a lion. How many of you have heard about the Lion and the lamb? Did you know that the bible never says that the lion will lay down with the lamb in the end times? It doesn’t! Some of you are writing that down now to see if what I am saying is true but the Bible never says the lion will lay down with a lamb but rather the lamb will dwell down with the wolf and the leopard will lie with a baby goat.

So where do we get the lion and the lamb? We get it from Revelation chapter 5 where Jesus is referred to not only the Lamb that was slain, but also the Lion of Judah. And only as the Lamb of God was Jesus worthy to take the scroll from the right hand of God and only as the Lion of Judah will the Root of DAVID be worthy to open the seven seals of the scroll of God.

There are 125 prophecies of Christ coming the first time in the Old Testament? From Genesis 3:15, where God said from the seed of a woman, meaning the Virgin  Birth, to Malachi 3:1 which prophesied that Jesus would both be preceded by a messenger, John the Baptist, at the beginning of this ministry and also come gloriously into the temple as He did on Palm Sunday at the end of his earthly ministry.
Would you care to take a guess about how many times the Bible predicts that Jesus will come a Second Time? The late Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series, lists 329 distinct prophecies of Christ’s second coming, from Genesis to Revelation. But if you think about it, the entire book of Revelation, all 404 verses in the 22 chapters, all point to the Second coming. nearly triple the amount.

The final words of Jesus in the Bible are found in Rev. 22: 20-21, in which Jesus says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”