Category: Columns
His Name is Called the Word of God
This is the 17th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
In the previous column, we examined key features of the returning Christ that John reveals in Revelation 19:11-16. Now, we complete our review.
7. His name is called the Word of God.
In his Gospel account, John tells us of the person and work of Jesus as the Incarnate Word (John 1:1-18). He is eternal, divine, distinct from the Father and yet equal with him. He is the creator of everything. He added sinless humanity to his deity in the Incarnation and thus pitched his tent with sinful and fallen people. Though rejected by his own, he is the true source of light and life. And to those who trust in him, he grants the right to be God’s adopted children. He is God revealed in human flesh.
And now, in Revelation 19, the Word of God again appears – not to create, suffer, or die, but to gloriously claim the prize he won through his sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross. He comes for us – the redeemed he has purchased with his own blood. He reverses the curse that Adam’s sin wrought on mankind and his environment. He judges the wicked, casts them out, purges the physical realm of sin and its stain, and creates new heavens and a new earth. Put simply, the Word restores Eden.
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King of kings and Lord of lords
This is the 16th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
John’s vision of the returning Christ in Revelation 19:11-16 reveals marvelous truths about the Lord’s conquest of sin and his restoration of righteousness. John captures many details that show how Christ’s glorious return sets in motion his final battle with sin, thus paving the way for a restored Eden. We examine a few of these features in this column and the next one.
1. Jesus rides a white horse from heaven.
This is in stark contrast to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, in which the Son of Man rides a borrowed donkey. A horse is used for war; a donkey, for peace. A horse is a symbol of conquest; a donkey, a vehicle of humility.
Jesus comes humbly the first time as the Suffering Servant, but he rides with the clouds of heaven victoriously as the conquering king in his return to earth. This illustrates that Jesus has won complete victory over Satan, sin, and death. The pristine Garden of Eden is about to be restored as the last Adam regains what the first Adam lost – dominion over the earth, and immortality.
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Coming on the clouds of heaven
This is the 15th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
Today, Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand in heaven, where he serves as our mediator and intercessor. This exalted position illustrates his power as creator, sustainer, and redeemer.
But one day, at the Father’s command, Jesus rises from his place in the throne room of heaven and returns to earth. The one who possesses all authority in heaven and on earth comes to finish the work of redemption as he raises the dead, judges all people, casts the evil one into hell, purges the cosmos of sin and its stain, and creates new heavens and a new earth.
Just as Yahweh rides a cherubim-propelled chariot-throne across the skies in Ezekiel’s day, Jesus rides the clouds of heaven as he returns to earth to set things right. Truly, the Son of Man returns in power.
Let’s briefly survey two relevant New Testament passages.
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“The Same Way” of Christ’s Return
This is the 14th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
In the last column, we explored several defining attributes of “this same Jesus” (Acts 1:11). Now, let’s consider what the angels may have meant when they told the apostles Jesus is returning “the same way” they witnessed his departure.
First, Jesus himself is coming.
When Jesus returns, he’s not sending a prophet, apostle, angel, cherub, hologram, selfie, MailChimp marketing blast, or any other substitute. He’s coming himself. Further, Jesus isn’t appearing as a theophany – a flame in a desert thorn bush, a pillar of cloud and fire, a rider on a blazing chariot-throne, or a voice in a whirlwind. He’s coming as the same resurrected Son of Man who ascended physically into heaven in the presence of his apostles (Acts 1:9).
The return of Jesus always is portrayed in personal terms. Jesus tells his disciples, “I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).
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This Same Jesus
This is the 13th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
Reading Acts 1, it’s hard to imagine the apostles’ thoughts as they gaze upward, watching Jesus ascend from the Mount of Olives and then vanish from view. Jesus had come unassumingly, born to a teenage mother in a Middle Eastern village. He lived his life humbly, refusing to be crowned king on numerous occasions, hiding his identity as Messiah until just the right moment, and then surrendering his life on a Roman cross.
Jesus’ resurrection three days later proved his messianic claims and sealed his identity as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). He culled dozens of disciples until there were only twelve close followers – one of them a betrayer, as Jesus well knew. And he sought to prepare them for just this moment, when he returned to the Father and passed the gospel torch to his newly commissioned apostles.
But now he’s gone, his glorified body rising into the air, enveloped in a heavenly cloud, to assume his place at the Father’s right hand. The apostles still have questions, doubts, and apprehensions. They aren’t ready to be left alone. And that’s how it must have felt – left alone – with Jesus bidding them farewell.
They know it isn’t quite like that. Jesus had assured them he would always be with them (Matt. 28:20). And he promised to send the Holy Spirit – another counselor, comforter, and advocate just like him. But would they really see him again? If so, how soon? And how would they carry on an earth-bound ministry with Jesus in heaven?
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