I'll Be Back

Some actors are famous, and their movies are so successful that sequels often follow, with the same leading actors. One of those well-known actors hinted the film’s story you were watching was not over by saying, “I’ll be back.” And he did return, sequel after sequel.

Redemption’s story did not end with Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. God’s Word says He will return: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). But Peter writes in his second epistle that lust-filled scoffers will come in time’s final days, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (v. 4). They mocked the delay of Jesus’ return, not understanding that God isn’t lax or forgetful but “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).

Jesus is coming back first for believers: “For the Lord, Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The dead in Christ will rise first (yes, from the grave), then the Lord will take up us who are alive (who believed and trusted in Jesus) to meet them and Him in the air to forever be with the Lord (v.17). What a promise! The Lord’s return will come like a thief in the night, and only our heavenly Father knows that day.

Jesus will not come back repeatedly. Make peace with God before He returns; you want to be ready for His appearance. Those who rejected Jesus will face God’s wrath and judgment and be separated forever from the One who loves everyone deeply.