Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Numerous signs of the end are given to us in Scripture. We have considered some of them in the last three weeks, as we should, for “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:16-17). However, much of what we have studied we will not see in its fullness, because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will remove Christians from the earth before the onset of the onslaught (I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 15:51-57; John 14:1-3). Some dispute the reality and timing of the Rapture, but we have good Biblical reasons to believe that it will take place before the terrible time of judgment called the Tribulation.
One verse that speaks of the Lord’s return for His own is Titus 2:13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” We are expected to “discern the signs of the times,” but we are not commanded to look for them. No, we are enjoined to look for the return of Jesus Christ for Christians. Thus, the next great event in God’s redemptive history is not the Tribulation but the Rapture. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).