The second coming of Jesus isn’t the epilogue, the appendix, or the afterword to the sad story of human sin and suffering in this fallen world. Instead, the Second Coming is the grand climax, the great hope of the Christian’s faith. Without it, what? The story of humanity just goes on and on, one miserable scene after another, one tragedy after another, until it all ends only in death. Apart from the hope that Christ’s return offers us, life is, as William Shakespeare wrote, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” And yet, we have this hope because the Word of God confirms it for us, over and over. We have this hope because Jesus ransomed us with His life (Mark 10:45), and Jesus is indeed coming back to get what He paid for. The stars in the heavens don’t speak to us of the Second Coming. The birds chirping in the trees don’t herald it. In and of themselves, these things might point to something good, something hopeful, about reality itself. But they don’t teach us that one day, when Jesus returns, “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52, NKJV). They don’t teach us that one day we will look up and “see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62, NKJV). No, we know these things because they have been told to us in the Word of God, and we trust in what the Word promises us.
Discussion Questions:
Think about what it would mean if the second coming of Jesus really were nothing more than what some believe it is: the full expression of Christian principles in the lives of Christ’s followers. However wonderful a display that would be, in the end, why does it leave us without any hope?
Why is the currently popular idea that the universe arose from nothing such a silly idea? Why would people promote such a notion, and why do some believe it? Why is belief in an eternally existing God, who created all things, so much more logical and rational an explanation for the universe?
Share with your class the things you put on a list of what you find so important in this life that you would sacrifice the hope of eternity in order to keep them now. What can you learn from one another about what’s on the lists? If people have nothing on their lists, how can we make sure then that nothing in our lives is truly keeping us from salvation, as will be the case with many people?
