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.)
In Revelation 20:4-6, “the first resurrection” refers to the resurrection at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom as compared to the one that occurs at the end of that thousand-year period (see verses 11-15). As we studied last week, the actual first was that of Jesus (I Corinthians 15:20), followed almost immediately by “many” of the “saints” (Matthew 27:52-53) in fulfillment of the typology of the Old Testament Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-14). Another resurrection occurs prior to the Tribulation, at the Rapture of the Church. The Biblical teaching is clear: “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” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). We do not know when this “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) of the Church will happen. In fact, we are warned against date-setting, for “of that day and hour knoweth no man” (Matthew 24:36a). We do know, though, that this day will occur. The timing is in God’s hands, as are we. There is no better place to be.