The Day After!
The Resurrection has happened, now we are waiting for His return!
For thousands of years the prophets told the literal actions of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself, told what He was going to do. And to our astonishment, Jesus fulfilled to the letter everything in His first coming He said He would. Matthew 16:21 “From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” Jesus declared what would happen to Him, witnesses wrote these statements down. Mark 10:34 “and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” Jesus understood that this sounded strange or even downright crazy, and yet He persisted and wanting to make sure the disciples understood what was to happen. His words were literal, Luke 18:31-33 “Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 “For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 “They will scourge [Him] and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
Thus, what was declared through the ages came to pass, what was specifically fortold was revealed to be specifically done to the letter. Jesus kept the promises made by His representatives and even Himself.
If Christ, was so obedient to following the words of the prophets and what He Himself declared, why do we stop there? Many believers have no issue looking at His first coming as something literal but fail to recognize His words regarding His next action. For Jesus Himself, has given us something we should be looking forward to.
John 14:1-3 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
Jesus is coming back for you and I! We are going to His Father’s home. He has promised to take us to Heaven. Some might equate this to when Jesus returns to earth, but that is not so. This is a promise to take us to Heaven to His Father’s home. It is strange how simple this is, and yet so many born again believers fail to grasp the simplicity of this one statement of Jesus Christ. I did an experiment earlier, I asked a six year old where God lived, they pointed up in the sky and said “God lives in Heaven.” Sometimes, the simplicity of God’s promises can be hard for us to swallow because we believe it needs to be rocket science, when instead, it is as simple as opening up your ears and listening to our Messiah.
There is nothing secret about this coming. I am just taking the simplicity of God’s Word seriously as we should do with His first coming actions. This statement is missed even though Jesus has been laying statement after statement regarding this promise. Matthew 26:29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Did you catch it? Jesus was not going to drink of this fruit until what? Until He would drink it new with us in whose kingdom? His Father’s! We have here another promise of us in God the Father’s Heavenly Kingdom with Jesus.
This event would be coined later on by Paul and translated into Latin and later into English. In the modern tongue we call it, THE RAPTURE!
You see, if we are so keen as to take God’s Word seriously with His first coming, we need to do the same with His words regarding what He says is coming next. Simply put, Jesus has made a promise, this promise is to take us to His Father’s Kingdom, and there we are to have communion with Him. This is to happen in Heaven. For those who believe this is a “secret rapture” I still have not found anything secret to it. In fact, Jesus was very upfront about it by talking about the event several times. So the day after Resurrection Sunday, we need to take a moment and reflect on Jesus’ promises of what He would do coming up. Let us be found diligent to be expecting it at any moment. The other disciples would expound on this promise as guided by the Holy Spirit, just like the prophets of old were with the first coming. Let us be like the wise men, or Simeon and Anna, and be expecting our Savior at any moment and being about the work He wants us to be doing. Now is not the time to be idle, but eagerly about what Jesus wants us doing.
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming,
JL