Christ Is Coming Again!

Speaker: Dennis Gruening
Date: November 19, 2000, Sunday Morning Worship Service
Main Scripture Reference: Acts 1:11

If we were to undertake a very close study of God’s Word, we might look at the book of Acts, and we might look at the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts, and we might look at that as if it’s the hub of the Bible, because everything before the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts points to the foundation of Christ’s church, and because everything after it points back to the beginning of His church. In a very real sense, that’s true. If Acts, chapter 2, is the hub of the Bible, it also true, then, that there is a central character in the Bible, and that character is Jesus Christ.

Reading the Old Testament, we see that the central theme of those books is the fact that Christ is coming. Everything in the Old Testament either talks of His coming in prophetic terms, or it foreshadows His coming in the revelation of the acts of worship under the Law of Moses.

Christ is coming! What a glorious theme that is! And, indeed, after the closing of the Old Testament books with the book of Malachi, the next four hundred or so years were ones of great anticipation on the part of the Jews. They knew, based upon what they’d read, that the Messiah was coming. And the longer time went on with no further revelation from God, the greater was their anticipation of this major event in the history of the world.

The Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all have as their theme the fact that Christ is here. The evidence presented by each of these inspired writers bears witness to the fact that the Man named Jesus was indeed the Messiah of prophecy. His sinless life, the miracles He performed, the things that He taught, His sacrifice for our sins, His death, burial and resurrection from the dead—all of these facts fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. Christ is coming…Christ is here.

When we read the first two chapters of the book of Acts, we see the beginning of the church, which Jesus promised to build, in Matthew 16, verse 18. We see how it started on the Day of Pentecost, and we read of how one might become a member of that church of Christ. Reading further in the book of Acts, we discover other things about the church, and we are privileged to witness many conversions to Christ and to His church.

Reading the remainder of the New Testament, we might notice that there’s also a major theme revealed there for us. In all of the instructions given to us by the inspired writers of the many letters to individuals and to churches, there is an underlying fact upon which all of these things are based—Christ is coming again! Throughout these epistles we read exhortations, encouragements, warnings, rebukes and instructions, all of which would be meaningless…without our understanding that Christ IS coming back some day.

The inspired writers are most interested in encouraging Christians to be faithful to Christ and to His revealed faith—His Word. And why should one be faithful? Because…Christ…is…coming…again! Christ is indeed coming again. Jesus is coming back some day. Acts 1, and verse 11, records for us the Words of God’s angels on the day in which Jesus ascended back to the Father. They said that “…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” “…this…same…Jesus…” Jesus Christ, the Messiah, will some day return in the clouds in the same manner in which a cloud received Him so that He was no longer seen by His apostles.

This same Jesus, according to the apostles’ Words on the Day of Pentecost, is at this…very…moment…sitting at the right hand of God, Acts 2, and verse 33 [“Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”]. Regarding that fact, the apostle Peter wrote that Jesus has “…gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 22. Jesus, then, is sitting at the right hand of God, and the fact that angels and authorities and powers have been made His subjects indicates to us, and to the world, that this very same Jesus is now ruling and reigning by the authority of the Father.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesian church, expanded on this when he explained what God did for us in the exercise of His mighty power, “Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His Own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 20 through 23.