Once I began a sermon by asking the congregation to shout out the first thing that came to mind when they thought of the Second Coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One guy yelled, \u201cIt won’t be a secret rapture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like to think the goal in preaching the Second Coming shouldn\u2019t be to merely prove what it\u2019s not<\/em> but rather to paint a picture of what it is<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Jesus\u2019 first coming, John the Baptist called Jesus \u201cthe bridegroom,\u201d who seeks His earthly beloved (John 3:29). Not only did Jesus come to save us from<\/em> sin, but also to save us into<\/em> His love. Our redemption has a purpose. We\u2019re delivered out <\/em>of a really bad situation into<\/em> a really good one. God doesn\u2019t merely pity us, He wants<\/em> us with the passion of a pursuing lover. With this context, notice how Jesus portrayed the Second Coming:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026we like to be with those we love. That\u2019s who we are to Jesus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father\u2019s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also\u201d (John 14:1-3). Jesus is using Israel\u2019s marriage customs to depict His departure and return. First, there was the wooing phase. If a man loved a woman, he would try to draw her to himself. Then the couple would enter into courtship, getting to know one another. Then the man would propose. If she accepted, he departed to prepare a place for her and promised to return for her. So, then, Jesus didn\u2019t merely promise to return, He promised to return for His bride<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of someone whose presence you desire and enjoy\u2014your spouse, your mom or dad, your best friend. The point is simple: we like to be with those we love. That\u2019s who we are to Jesus. He longs for our presence, friendship, and love. Revelation\u2019s description of the Second Coming isn\u2019t surprising then:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet us be glad and rejoice\u2026 for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready\u201d (Revelation 19:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is returning to receive the church as His eternal bride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the beautiful truth of the Second Coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once I began a sermon by asking the congregation to shout out the first thing that came to mind when they thought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotional"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Coming_for_His_Bride.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAh8r-3vU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13510"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15512,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13510\/revisions\/15512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}