Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
God’s Word teaches us that Jesus is coming again (I Thessalonians 4:16-17), keeping us from the time of the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10) and from His righteous wrath (I Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). Only when the Spirit-indwelt Church is raptured from this world (II Thessalonians 2:1-12) will the Antichrist rise to international power and the Tribulation period unfold. We should also note that Christians are exhorted to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13); I Thessalonians 5:6 adds, “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” This doctrine of imminency – that is, that Jesus could return to rapture the Church at any moment – necessitates that the Rapture occur before the Tribulation, for the Tribulation has specific time parameters delineated by Scripture. Because the Jewish calendar is lunar, each month contains only 30 days. Half of the Tribulation is 1,260 days (Revelation 11:2-3). Thus, the Tribulation is a little less than seven years long. Anyone with a knowledge of and a trust in God’s Word could thus determine the exact date of the Rapture if it were contemporaneous with Jesus’ Second Coming (Zechariah 14:1-11; Revelation 19:11-21). As we have seen this week from Scripture, the two events are clearly different. We are not looking for the judgment of the Tribulation period; we are looking for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who will meet us in the clouds on our way to heaven.