Zech 13:8-14:9, What do ya’ know: Jesus is Coming Again! (3)

3)    What do we know about the Second Coming?

a)    When will it happen?  Immediately after the tribulation (Mt. 24:29-31.)  Christ’s return is “imminent,” meaning it could happen at any time.  There are no dates set as to when the Rapture will take place.  Thus, as Jesus told His disciples, when they asked when He would establish His earthly kingdom (Ac. 1:6-7) Jesus said that it was not for them to know the time. 

b)    What purposes are accomplished by the Second Coming?  As we have noted from Dan. 9, Christ will bring in righteousness when He, the Most Holy, is anointed King.  This is the completion of what the Bible calls “the mystery of God.”  Psalm 2:6-9 tells us that even before the world began God promised to give His Son the nations as an inheritance.  Christ is now sitting at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the time when the Father says it is time for His return to rule over all (Psalm 110 and many other passages).

c)    What events surround the Second Coming?  (Zech. 13:8-14:9).

i)      13:8-9: Israel is refined by the tribulation.

ii)   14:1-3: There is a great battle, involving the nations that have gathered in Armageddon (the Valley of Jezreel in Israel; Rev. 16:12-16).

iii)            14:4-8: Christ will return.  He will come to the Mt. of Olives.

iv) 14:9: Then Christ will reign from Zion (cf. Ps. 2:6-9).

d)    What are some of the signs that will precede the Second Coming?

i)      Jesus, teaching His disciples on the Mt. of Olives (Matt. 24-25), referred to various things that would characterize life between His ascension and His return: false Christs, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution of believers, division among nations, false prophets, no love and the universal preaching of the gospel (24:4-14).

ii)   Elsewhere Jesus referred to the time of the end being like the days of Noah before the flood and the days of Lot before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed (Lk. 17:26-30).

iii)            In Rev. 6-19 there are three series of seven judgments each from God that culminate in the return of Christ.  These involving the breaking of seven seals to reveal the contents of a scroll, the sounding of seven angels, each blowing a trumpet that announces a judgment, and then seven angels, each pouring out bowls of God’s wrath on the earth. 

In Scripture there are numerous references to the “day of the LORD.”  This prophetic “day” is like a Jewish day, beginning with the darkness (time of judgment), the dawning (the Second Coming), and the daytime (the blessings of Jesus’ Messianic reign).  Be assured: Christ is coming again!  As always, the just shall live by faith.  Faith in Christ is the only preparation for that day (Heb. 10:37-38).