- [Narrator] The second coming of Christ.
Paul tells us nine things about the second coming of Christ.
Number one, Jesus will be revealed.
It is a revelation, an unveiling of Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:7:
"When the Lord Jesus is revealed."
1 Peter 1:13 also tells us,
"Therefore, preparing your minds for action,
and being sober minded, set your hope
fully on the grace that will be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Number two, Jesus will descend.
Verse 10a: "The revelation will happen by His coming.
When He comes on that day, this will not be a revelation
by vision, or dream, or aspiration.
It will be a revelation by event, by coming.
Jesus is a divine human being with a glorified body.
He can move through space.
And as He ascended, He will descend.
Acts 1:11 also lets us know,
"Which also said ye Men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into Heaven?
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."
Number three, Jesus will return with mighty angels.
Verse 7b: "He comes with powerful angels."
When the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven
with His mighty angels, they will come with Him
for the glory of His majesty and for the task
of gathering the elect.
Matthew 24:31: "And He shall send His angels
with a great sound of a trumpet.
And they shall gather together His elect
from the four winds,
from one end of Heaven to the other."
2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 says,
"Now we beseech you brethren
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and by our gathering together onto Him
that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter
as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand."
Number four, Jesus will come in flaming fire.
Verse 8a: "He comes in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Jesus had said, when the son of man comes in His glory
and all the angels with Him, He will say
to those on his left, depart from me into the eternal fire.
Matthew 25:41: "Then shall He say also onto them
on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed
into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and His angels.
Matthew 25:31: "When the son of man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,
then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory."
Number five, Jesus will enact justice.
2 Thessalonians 1:8b, "And flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Every injustice that has ever been committed
in the history of the world receives its just judgment.
The second coming is an act of judgment and justice.
Number six, Jesus will judge those who do not know Him.
2 Thessalonians 1:8 "And flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul specifies two groups of humans who will be
the objects of this vengeance.
On those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
One is those who do not know God,
and the other is those who do not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus.
It's true that all people do know God,
but the suppress this knowledge.
Romans 1:21: "Because that when they knew God
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imginations
and their foolish heart was darkened."
Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed
from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
So, it may be said knowing Him, they do not know Him.
So, whether people have heard and rejected the gospel,
or have never heard and suppressed what they know,
it will be day of reckoning.
Number seven, Jesus will banish those who reject him.
2 Thessalonians 1:9: "Who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power?"
In verse nine, vengeance is described in three ways.
Number one, they will be punished
with everlasting destruction.
The consequence of rejecting God and the gospel
is eternal ruin.
Number two, this ruin will cover a removal
from the presence, the face of the Lord.
Number three, vengeance will include separation
from the glory of His might,
not to be in the light of the Lord's countenance
is to be in the darkness of His displeasure.
And if you are in darkness, away from God's good pleasure,
the power of God is not glorious but terrifying.
Number eight, Jesus' Saints will marvel at Him.
The ultimate purpose or goal of the second coming
is in 2 Thessalonians 1:10.
"When He shall come to be glorified in His Saints,
and to be admired in all them that believe
because our testimony among you was believed in that day,
he comes on that day to be glorified in His Saints
and to be marveled at among all who have believed."
Consider three things on this point.
Number one, this is Christ's purpose, Christ's aim,
Christ's design in coming.
His aim is that He be glorified and marveled at.
Christ aims for the exaltation of Christ,
as all things were created by Christ and for Christ.
Colossians 1:16:
"For by Him were all things created that were in Heaven
and that are in Earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers."
All things were created by Him and for Him,
so all things end by Christ and for Christ.
And that is the ultimate purpose of Christ in all things,
the glorification of Christ.
Number two, note that it does that say
that the goal is the glory of Christ.
It says the aim is the glorification of Christ,
marveling at Christ.
That means the primary aim of all creation exists
most essentially in the Christ exalting acts
of the hearts of the redeemed.
We will certainly have new bodies,
a new Heaven, a new Earth.
However, they are not the essence
of the final end of creation.
The essence is the experience of the heart
of the bride of Christ, ravished by her husband,
glorifying, marveling.
Number three, what God is mainly about in dealing
with His people in this age is making you worthy
of this calling.
2 Thessalonians 1:11:
"Wherefore also we pray always for you
that our God would count you worthy of this calling.
To what end?
To the end of fitness, to glorify Christ,
and marvel at Christ when He comes."
And as he says it in Verse 12,
"That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified
in you and you in Him."
And how does He do it?
How does He make us worthy or fit
to glorify and marvel at Christ?
2 Thessalonians 1:5: "Which is a manifest token
of the righteous judgments of God,
that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God
for which He also suffer."
By suffering, God redirects our marveling at the world
and puts it on Christ.
This is a righteous judgment and comes to a climax
in our final, all-satisfying marvel at Christ
in His coming, and then forever.