Day 359 – Revelation & the Second Coming

6 days to go!

• Merry Christmas! I hope, out of all the Christmas Days that you have enjoyed so far in your lives, that this one means more to you in a spiritual sense than any other. To know Christ, to know His mission, and to know |His sacrifice, should lead us to offer our thankful praise as we celebrate His birth all those years ago.
• On Christmas we remember Christ’s first coming. Today’s readings focus on His second coming. How is Christ pictured in Revelation 19:11-16? How does it reflect the way He came on that first coming in the quietness of the stable? What has the “Christmas nativity” donkey been replaced with?
• What sort of words do you think of when describing Christ’s reign on His return?
• The return of Christ signifies the start of the battle against Satan and his armies. How are the two beasts that we read about on day 357 going to be dealt with?
• All three passages today talk grimly about the judgement Jesus will strike the world with when He comes again. Revelation 19:22, Zechariah 14:12-15 and 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 speak in no uncertain terms about the way in which Christ will punish evil, both in the form of the satanic beings, as well as the sin that we have done in our lives. This is scary and uncomfortable stuff, so do talk to someone about it to you read through it and consider it.
• Turn to the Zechariah passage. We read here about people who were struggling to remain faithful to God in difficult situations. The warning was that there are greater trials to come, but whatever they were and however they would come, they would never be as horrific as the ones described when Christ returns to judge. The call is to pity those who will face this judgement. In the light of this stark warning, the unspoken question is this: is it better to bow, willingly, to Jesus now, or to bow when he returns?
• The opening words of Paul’s epistle in 2 Thessalonians have a similar message. It calls for believers to persevere when troubles come, and not to lose sight of the gospel message of assurance and hope. Jesus went through painful times too. Those who oppose Christ will suffer the punishment they have asked for: eternity away from Jesus (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Our response should be to want to share this danger with them. Sharing the gospel doesn’t mean scaring someone into believing something, just like I hope you’re not scared by these words now. It means explaining the reality of what the Bible promises, and the joy of knowing that God has provided us a way back to Him.

Today’s readings in Revelation mark the start of four days of readings between Revelation 19:11 and Revelation 20:15 which recalls the defeat of the devil and death. Today we saw the gathering of the heavenly army with Jesus pictured as being on a white horse (white for victory) at the front. As today’s passage in Revelation ends, we can see human corruption being thrown into the “lake of fire”. The words are scary, strong and may cause you to feel uncomfortable. This – lest we forget – is a picture of Christ putting sin to death. It *is* scary. It’s also wonderful, of course, if you know Christ and long for this day when the power of sin will be destroyed. How wonderful to be able to look forward to a time without sin.

The biblical account never at any moment suggests that Christ will be anything except victorious. These passages talk of the fulfilment of the greatest promise ever made – that Christ will return in glory to reign.

Don’t let these words slip by without marvelling at them!