When Christ Comes Again

Every first day of the month the SCDF will carry out a test of their island-wide civil defence alarm system. And so last Monday, 1 July, at 12.00pm sharp, you might have heard a loud chiming sound in the air. As the loud speakers are installed in various high-rise buildings the loud siren sounds like coming from high above the sky. In times of security threat, when people hear the alarm they will have to turn on the radio and wait for directions or run to the nearest Civil Defence Shelter. The alarm is to prepare and to alert Singaporeans to take shelter from any impending air-raid attack upon the nation.

The Word of God tells us that the time will come one day when there will be a loud sound from heaven above and the whole wide world will be alerted. This will be a loud shout by the archangel of God, and it will be accompanied with a loud blast from the trumpet of God (1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52). It will signal the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ will be returning to this earth some time. The time will be certain and it will be real soon. Before the Lord Jesus left this world to go back to heaven He told His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them in heaven, and that He will come again to bring them to be with Him (Jn 14:3).

On the day when the Lord ascended to heaven, the disciples were gazing up to the sky watching Him disappearing in the clouds, but two angels appeared and told them that the Lord will come back in like manner (Acts 1:11).

Dear friends, the Lord Jesus is certain to come back to this earth. But this second coming will not be like the first when He came quietly as a baby born of the virgin Mary in a humble stable, and witnessed only by some poor shepherds in Israel.

This second coming will be in all of God’s glory with a loud shout from heaven and the loud blowing of the trumpet, and all men in the whole world will witness Him appearing in the sky and descending from heaven.

But, dear friends, when the Lord comes again what will happen to both you and me? Will we be taken up to be with the Lord in the air? Or will we remain here on earth and to suffer the wrath of God that will come upon this sin-filled world?

The Word of God tells us that the world will go through a very terrible and difficult time – a time of 7 years of Great Tribulation, in which it will be ruled by the Anti-Christ – an evil dictator who will make all to suffer under his wicked rule.

Now, will you remain in this world to suffer in the Great Tribulation? Or will you be snatched up in the air to be with the Lord forever, and be spared from a horrible time here on earth? It depends on whether you are a believer or not!

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The Bible tells us that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be caught up into the air to be with the Lord forever when He comes again. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 tells us: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Do you believe that Jesus died and rose again?

The Bible tells us “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10:9). 

Dear friends, do you want to be saved? Do you want to be caught up into the sky to be with the Lord Jesus forever when He returns? Or would you rather remain here in this world which will be ruled and tormented by an evil dictator?

The signs pointing to the day when the Lord Jesus comes again are unfolding before our eyes each day as we hear the news and read the papers (hurricane, tornadoes, bird flu, mad cow disease, food crisis, energy crisis, financial turmoil, one world currency, one world government, one world religion, wars, unrest in the Middle East and all over the world, Jews returning to Israel, widespread terrorism, etc.) Yes, the day will come when the world will be an extremely difficult place to live in. But if you are a believer, you will be spared. The Lord Jesus will come and lift you up into heaven and you will be spared, for this world is not the home of believers who have obeyed the gospel of Christ. We are just passing through. Christians are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb 11:13).

Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you confessed your sins before Him? Have you asked Him to forgive you of all your sins? Have you asked Him to save you? Have you prayed to the Lord Jesus to come into your heart and take control over your life? If you have not done so, please do it right now, where you are, and the Lord will save you. The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13).

Do not delay any longer because the Lord Jesus Christ is about to come back very soon. And when He comes, only believers will be taken up into heaven with Him. But unbelievers will be left here to suffer in this world of sin, misery, turmoil, wickedness and destruction.

Now for those of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we rejoice in that we will be caught up in the clouds and we will be with the Lord forever. But not only this, for even our loved ones who have died before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will also be caught up into heaven. In fact the Bible tells us that they – the dead in Christ – will be the first to be caught up to meet with the Lord in the air, and then following them, those believers who are alive, will then be caught up together with them (1 Thess 4:15- 17).

What does this mean? It means that the dead in Christ will be living again. They will be resurrected from their graves and come out alive to meet up with other living Christians and the true and living God in the sky. This is wonderful news, isn’t it? It is most comforting especially for those who have already lost their loved ones who died as Christians. In the eyes of the Lord they are just sleeping. And the day will come soon when the Lord Jesus will wake them up out of their sleep (Jn 11:11). If you are also a Christian, you will see them together with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.

Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (died), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”

Paul, like the Lord Jesus, referred to those who died in Christ to be just asleep. Like one who is asleep, he will be awakened again. And so he encourages those who have loved ones who have died, that they need not be sorrowful like those who are without hope.

This is the blessed hope of being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though he is dead, yet he shall live again in glory with God in heaven. And so Christians are encouraged to be always “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

But not so for those who are without hope. Who are those who are without hope? The Bible says those who are without Christ have no hope (Eph 2:12). Do you have hope – the hope of eternal life, a heavenly hope to be with God in heaven forever and ever, the blessed hope of the coming rapture and resurrection?

To have a hope of eternal life in heaven with God your Creator, you must confess your sins, repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Believe on and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Invite Him to come into your life today as your Lord and Saviour and He will dwell in your heart. He will never leave nor forsake you.

If you have already done that, if you have Christ in your life, when you die, and though your body be eaten up by worms, the day when the Lord Jesus Christ appears in the clouds, you will be caught up from your grave, and be lifted up to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in the air (Job 19:26-27). You will be resurrected. You will be given a new, spiritual, incorruptible and glorious body. Yes, it will be a body that will never get sick, nor feel or suffer from pain, nor die again. You will live for eternity with the Lord and all His other saints.

The Apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

The Lord Jesus Christ will come again soon. When He returns, where will you be? What will happen to you? Will you be caught up into the air together with all children of obedience in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or will you be left here in this world which will go through a time of great tribulation and wrathful judgment of God? The Bible tells us that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to this earth, He will come again as a Judge to judge the world.

But if you are in Christ, that is if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, if you have confessed your sins before the Lord, and repented from them all, if you have received the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in His way of righteousness, if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then you will be caught up together with all other believers, and shall be forever be with the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory. – Pastor