“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)
For every human being living on earth at the time of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah it will be either their best dream come true or their worst nightmare depending on how they have responded to the salvation only found in and through the Lord Jesus the Messiah. He who Himself said, “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) As we are also told in God’s Word, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
The hope of every believer in every age has been the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. (Titus 2:13) When the apostle John was an old man and ‘doing time’ (a prisoner) on the island of Patmos, a Roman Penal Colony, the Lord Jesus revealed to Him a vision or an unveiling of the future. All of the apostles were now dead and the wider Body of the Messiah was being persecuted and scattered throughout the Roman Empire and even beyond its borders needed a fresh revelation from the Lord.
This unveiling of God’s Word would encourage His people in their daily struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil and to enable them to stand fast in the face of severe persecution as they were enabled to do by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 4:12-14) The Book of Revelation was what the faithful believers needed to hear in the time of John. Revelation Chapter 1:7, in a nutshell, sets the whole direction for the Book of Revelation. Let’s now look briefly at this text.
Firstly, we read the word “Behold.”
This word is a dramatic term basically saying “Look at this!” It is not speaking about a casual glance but something so important that we need to fix our eyes unwaveringly upon it and not look to the right or to the left of it. We are living in a troubled world, a time of tribulation being unleashed more than at any other time in history. (Matthew 24:21-22) There is fear, anxiety, apprehension and uncertainty gripping the hearts of untold millions around the world at what is coming in the future and governments around the world not knowing the way out. (Luke 21:25-26)
The persecution of the faithful Body of the Messiah and the hostility against Israel is increasing in frequency and intensity every day. At this time the Lord Jesus wants us as His Body or Assembly to be looking up with expectant faith to behold His Second Coming in the clouds. (Luke 21:28) To behold is to stop and to take notice. It is to sit up and to pay attention, to stop and observe this awesome end-time event that will see the close of this present age and the dawning of the Messianic age to come when peace justice and righteousness will prevail under the reign of the Prince of Peace our Lord Jesus.
In fact, the whole world is heading for the very brink of annihilation especially when you consider the nuclear arsenal and with rogue nations such as Iran now rapidly developing nuclear capability. At the end of this age and for the sake of His elect and for the survival of this planet God will cut the time of Great tribulation short and send the Lord Jesus back to earth. (Matthew 24:21-22)
We need to ask ourselves, what are we beholding today? What is it that our eyes are fixed on? This world has many allurements and we can easily become attached to this world and to the things of this world and lose sight of the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming again to rescue Israel, rapture and resurrect the saints and to judge the whole world in righteousness and in justice by the man God has appointed. As we read. “For He (God) has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31)
This will be an appointment every person living on earth at that time will have to keep. There will be no exceptions. On that day everyone who is unsaved and living on earth will be faced with a resurrected Lord Jesus with whom they will have to deal.
Secondly, we read, “He is coming with the clouds.”
When the Lord Jesus spoke about his Second Coming He said He would come in the clouds. (Mark 14:62) His coming would be open for all to see. It would not be a secret coming but an event where the sky itself will be rolled back like a scroll revealing the glories of His heavenly kingdom and His Second Coming with great splendour and glory and accompanied by His powerful angels. (2 Thessalonians 1:7) In giving His letter to John the Lord Jesus did not want us to lose sight of His return.
The whole message of the Book of Revelation is to bring to faithful believers comfort and certainty of the complete victory and sovereignty of the Lord Jesus over Satan sin and the world and to give us a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. As the apostle Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed Messiah, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus the Anointed Messiah from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)
Thirdly, we read, “…and every eye will see Him.”
No one living on earth will miss the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. There is no place in the New Testament that teaches a pre-tribulation secret rapture where the Lord Jesus comes for his saints secretly and whisks them away to heaven and then comes again seven years later with His faithful Assembly for all to see.
There is only one Second Coming clearly taught in the Bible but this is not the subject of this post. His Second Coming will be as the lightning flashes from the east to the west. (Matthew 24:27) Some have suggested that the television networks will capture this event. However, the earth will be on the very verge of self- destruction and every naked eye will see His return in great power and glory!
In that day the heavenly constellations will be shaken. There will be a massive earthquake unlike anything that has ever occurred. The sun will be turned black as sackcloth. The moon will be turned to blood red. Even the stars will fall from heaven and the sky rolled back as a scroll to reveal the Rider on the White Horse accompanied by the armies of heaven. (Revelation 19:11-16)
The kings of the earth, the political leaders, the commanders and generals of those armies that have opposed God and His people and people of every level and walk of society, will seek to hide in caves and behind the rocks on the mountains calling on the rocks to fall on them, so awesome will the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus be! They will cry out to the mountains and the rocks to fall on them to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lord Jesus, the lamb who was slain but now lives and reigns in resurrected power and splendour for all to see! For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand! (Revelation 6:12-17)
Today we see global rulers and their empires dominating the world of man but when our Lord Jesus comes back all of the kingdoms of this world and their leaders that have set their faces against the Lord and spurned His laws and commandments will be swept away in His wrath upon all sin, all rebellion, all unrighteousness, all injustice, all heresy and hypocrisy. Sinners unsaved and unrepentant will never stand in the congregation of the great redeemed assembly of believers. (Psalm 1:5) (Revelation 22:15)
Fourthly, we read, “…even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”
When the Lord Jesus comes back the surviving remnant in Israel will be saved and recognise He who was pierced for their sin and rebellion and repent with bitter tears yet rejoicing in the one who redeemed His people from sin as their perfect Passover Lamb sacrificed for their sin and rebellion. (Zechariah 12:10-14) In that day they will see that fountain opened to the House of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. (Zechariah 13:1) Every Jewish man, woman and child still on earth will be saved! (Romans 11:26-27) What a day that will be for the surviving remnant of the Israelites!
As for the unsaved they too will mourn but their mourning will be one of regret and despondency because they have been confronted with the one who died for them a cruel death but they rejected Him in this life. Weeping and grinding of teeth, abject terror and being confronted with the righteous and just wrath of the Lord Jesus whom they have refused to acknowledge as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the only one by which they could have been saved, will be their lot. Every unsaved person living on earth will be faced with the wrath of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
And so John writes, “So it will be. Amen!”
The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus the Messiah is a definite certainty and on that day those who did not receive the salvation only found in Him alone “will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” (1 Peter 4:5) We are also told in God’s Word, “to flee from the wrath to come.” (Matthew 3:7) As Jeremiah the prophet cries out, “Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.” (Jeremiah 51:6)
There is only one place of refuge from the coming wrath of God upon a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world and that is through a heartfelt repentance, being a willingness to turn away from everything that displeases the Lord and to confess all known sin and to run by faith to the Lord Jesus and to trust in His redeeming blood that can justify, cleanse, sanctify and protect in the day of His wrath. God will always justify those who repent towards God and put their faith in the Lord Jesus to save them only on the basis of the shed blood of the Messiah by which acquittal for sin is possible in God’s Law Court. (Romans 3:21-26) (Romans 5:9) (Ephesians 1:7) (1 John 1:7-9)
Possibly you are reading this post and you have never been born again and made new all over again deep down on the inside by the supernatural work of the blessed Holy Spirit which you must experience if you are to enter into the Kingdom of God and be saved from the lake of fire. (John 3:3) (2 Corinthians 5:17)
You see God is more willing to save you than you are willing to be saved. Are you willing? You cannot save yourself or ever be good enough to earn this so great a salvation because all of us have sinned, fallen short of God’s laws and commandments and are by nature and by birth great sinners and rebels in his sight. (Psalm 51:5) (Romans 3:23) (Ephesians 2:3)
This salvation is a free gift from God to you and can become yours personally when you come to God without reservation falling on your face before Him seeking His pardon and cleansing and the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life that pleases God. (1 John 1:7-9) (Ephesians 1:7:2:8-10) (John 1:12-13) Will you now flee from the wrath to come? Time is running out! What must you do? Well Isaiah the prophet tells us what we need to do.
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7) Salvation is not obtained by human effort but through a heartfelt confession and repentance for sin accompanied by surrender and submission and a willingness to abide and rest in the salvation the Lord Jesus has provided. We come by faith and not by sight. (Romans 10:9-13) (2 Corinthians 5:7) Faith and a willingness to be faithful please God and brings with them His reward and that in abundance! (Hebrews 11:6) (John 10:10) As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,“In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” (Isaiah 13:15)
There was a story told of a Red Indian who did not speak English well and who had no Christian background at all. All he possessed in life was a rifle and a horse. Now he came to a gospel meeting. When the invitation was given to receive salvation he went forward. He said to the evangelist “Indian give Horse” and then went his way but did not have peace deep down on the inside. So the next night he returned and went forward again at the invitation and said to the evangelist “Indian give rifle” and then went his way but still did not have peace deep down on the inside. So he returned again for the third night and when the invitation was given he went forward for the third time. He had nothing left to offer and said to the evangelist, “Indian offer himself” and immediately he had the peace of God that transcends all human understanding deep down on the inside and went his way filled with righteousness joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)
The Lord Jesus is coming again and all of us must be ready to meet Him when He comes back. And so John writes; “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
