JESUS IS COMING
Revelations 22:12-13 NKJV
12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
There has always been a great deal of speculation about when Jesus is coming to earth. For many believers, Jesus will come back to catch away His church, and we who are still here will be changed and will go to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). I fully believe this will happen. I fully do not know when it will happen.
Over the years, people have speculated and even profited from predicting when Jesus is coming. The challenge is that we don't have an accurate feel for God's timing. A very popular book came out in 1988 listing 88 reasons Jesus was coming in 1988. But 1988 came and went, and so the author made a correction and wrote another book about Jesus coming in 1989. He missed that one too and no one was looking for the third book.
What is challenging about our verses today is that Jesus said He was coming quickly.
our quickly is often quite different from God's quickly. Because God transcends time, we are on the outside looking in when it comes to the fulfillment of prophecies. We see through a glass darkly.
However, here is what we do know. Jesus is coming. He is coming back, and we are closer now than when these verses were written. Israel being formed again as a nation in 1948 is a definitive marker of end-time events. So, could Jesus come back in my lifetime? Absolutely. But that is speculation on my part, not a prediction.
Jesus has rewards for His followers based on their works. We, meaning me, have not emphasized this enough. There is a reward system. We are all loved the same, but we will not be rewarded the same. What we do on earth for the Lord is not forgotten, and He will reward us.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In all honesty, I cannot speak to all that means except that He is it, and there is not nor will ever be any other. That may clear up nothing, but we can all grasp the concept that Jesus is exalted and has existed before time with God and will exist forever and ever as King. We are not looking for anyone else. He fulfills all!
APPLICATION
So, we live our lives expecting Jesus to return. We are to live insulated from the world, not isolated from the world. We keep one hand on this earth and one hand on the eternal, knowing that He is coming again. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!