So, is Jesus Really Coming Back or Not?
Have you guys heard about the "Great Conjunction" that’s going to happen on December 21st this year? I’m sure it’s nothing to be alarmed about, it’s just a major astrological event happening on the night of the Winter Solstice. In 2020. It’s probably nothing. Astronomers have speculated that this is the same thing that happened the year Christ was born. The Christmas Star, the Star of Bethlehem. I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. If it wasn’t 2020 we might not think anything of it, right?
I should hurry up and write a book or at least get a website up, try to cash in on this thing. The World’s Going To End December 21st! Jesus is coming back the same way He came last time! Send me $25 and I’ll tell you all about it. How you can get ready for the apocalypse just in time for Christmas.
I wouldn’t be the first. People are always trying to make money by scaring suckers and giving them false hope. Twisting Scripture, writing crazy books on the End Times, getting completely obsessed over all the things God didn’t tell us.
Seven End Time Signs Fulfilled — We Are Living in the Last Days! Left Behind series. I wish we’d all been ready. A Distant Thunder. How to hold the newspaper in one hand and the Book of Revelation in the other. Which chapter of Revelation are we in today?
So goofy. I apologize if you’re the kind of person who gets into all that stuff—I used to be that guy. I’ve noticed over the years that people are more emotionally invested and attached to their End Times theories than they are about the Gospel and living a Christian life in the here and now.
That’s one of the best things about being Lutheran, our default position is to let all those secret things that belong to the Lord continue to be His business—not makeup stuff pretending to understand mysteries.
So, maybe this is the end of the world. It’s possible. Followers of Jesus have been preparing for the end of the world since the first Good Friday. “It is finished.” In Revelation 22:20, Jesus said,
“I am coming soon.”
It could happen at any time. It could also happen in 10,000 years—it’s all the same to God. Jesus said it’s really none of our business. Anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell you a book.
This is Advent. It’s our yearly reminder to stay alert. Keep watching and waiting and remember our hope. Jesus is coming back.
We sing it almost every week: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead” and “We await our resurrection and the world to come.” That’s talking about the apocalypse. The Day of the Lord. When Jesus comes back and makes everything right.
The constant message of Advent is that Jesus is going to be here soon! Repent and believe! There is hope for you but only if you put your trust in Him.
So, maybe it will happen on December 21st when the Christmas Star shows up again. Wouldn’t that be something? I wouldn’t bet on it, though. I think the only thing we can be pretty sure about the Second Coming is that it’s going to happen when we least expect it and in a way that we would have never guessed.
That was certainly true the first time. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, The Zealots, The Herodians, The Essenes—there were as many denominations of Jews as there are Christians, and they were all pretty sure they knew exactly how the Messiah was going to show up and what it was going to be like. They were all wrong, though. No one was looking for an unwed couple having a baby in a barn—who grew up to be a homeless guy that claimed to be God and got executed by the state. No one saw that coming. They didn’t see the resurrection or the ascension or the spread of the Gospel and the church, either.
Pretty sure we’ll be just as surprised and amazed at God’s grand finale.
[WARNING: XMAS RANT] I’m going to rant for a minute about something. Every Christmas there are all these people who complain about the pagan origins of Christmas. That Jesus wasn’t really born on December 25th, they just put it on that day because that’s when the Winter Solstice happened. Christmas Trees? Pagan. Yule logs? Pagan. Mistletoe, presents, Santa Claus, everything fun about Christmas? Pagan. The whole point is to discredit the Christian faith and make Christians look like we stole all our ideas from other religions.
You’ve heard all this nonsense, right?
First, let’s talk about December 25th. It wasn’t always the date Christmas was celebrated. It used to be January 6th—still is in some of the Eastern churches. But the reason they chose December 25th is because it’s nine months after they celebrate the Annunciation, the night when Gabriel told Mary she was going to have a baby.
Okay, so why did they pick March 25 to be the date of the Annunciation? It’s all based on the Gospel of Luke.
John the Baptist’s father was Zechariah. He was a priest of the class of Abijah, as it says in Luke 1:5, so he was in the 8th class of priests, each class took their turn according to a very well established rotation. The 8th class would have been during the second week of the Jewish month of Tishri—which was between the 22nd and the 30th of September. Zechariah’s wife got pregnant about the same time that he served in the Temple, this is why the church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist on June 24.
So what does that have to do with Jesus? Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was Zechariah’s wife, when Elizabeth was six months pregnant. So, if she got pregnant in September, then Mary got pregnant in March, and Jesus would have been born in December.
If the early Christians were just making up a date in order to take over some pagan festival like Saturnalia or the Feast of the birth of Sol Invictus—they would have had to have gone back and rewritten Luke’s Gospel and jack with the rotation details of the Jewish Temple priest schedule. Wasn’t going to happen.
But what about all that other stuff?
Well, Christmas wasn’t originally celebrated with Christmas Trees, mistletoe, gifts, or Santa Claus, elves, and gnomes. As Christianity spread throughout the world, there were lots of cultural flavors that were picked up and became part of how different people did their Christmas festivities.
Here’s the real question: is it okay to bring pagan things into Christian worship? To bless pagan things, sanctify them, and call them Christian from now on?
I certainly hope so. Since I used to be a pagan. You were too. It’s kinda the whole point of the Gospel.
Christmas is about the redemption of the whole world. All nations. All people. All those things that were added to Christmas traditions from cultures where the Gospel went and brought the light and life of Christ—as long as those things aren’t sinful—they’re part of the redemption of the world. They’re like trophies, souvenirs, reminders of what God has done for us. It’s okay to enjoy those things but not if we put them at the center, we don’t want to make them into idols. That’s all paganism is, worshiping the things of creation instead of the Creator.
Okay, that’s my rant. Feel free to celebrate Christmas on December 25th, and the twelve days leading up to January 5th, or any other time you want to deck the halls—with Christmas Trees, snowman cookies, brightly wrapped presents, Santa Clause, mistletoe, and Jingle Bells. And whatever else makes your heart merry and thankful for Jesus, whatever helps you celebrate the reason Jesus came into the world to begin with. To redeem the whole world because God loved it so much that He gave His only begotten Son.
Let’s get back to that surprising and amazing grand finale. He came in a completely unexpected way the first time, and it’s a pretty safe bet it’s going to be even more of a shock when He comes again.
The world might try to ruin Christmas and discredit our faith about when Jesus came the first time but that ain’t nothing compared to how it mocks us for believing He’s coming back. I mean, it’s been 2,000 years. Nations rise and nations fall. Technology has advanced beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Kinda seems like wishful thinking that Jesus is really going to return. Superstition. Santa and The Great Pumpkin. If it hasn’t happened by now, it’s not going to happen.
The message of Jesus, the Gospel, it sounds like nonsense to the world. That’s okay.
When Jesus came the first time, His own people rejected Him. They didn’t believe Him. They mutinied and killed Him.
The constant message of Advent is to believe anyway. To repent and believe. There’s hope for everyone, but only in Jesus.
Today we’re going to look at the traditional reading for the third Sunday in Advent. It’s from the book of 1st Thessalonians. A letter that St Paul wrote to a church he planted in the city of Thessalonica.
The Christians there had a lot of questions about when Jesus comes back. They were all about the fact that Christ came to earth to save people and was going to come back again. But they had some concerns, too.
They knew when Jesus comes back that the dead will be brought back to life—they’d be raised from the dead just like He was. But they were worried they were going to miss out if they were still alive. It was a good question, how could they be raised from the dead if they hadn’t died yet.
This was Paul’s answer:
“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” [1 Thessalonians 4:13-18]
That’s one of the coolest Advent Scriptures in the whole Bible. But it’s not about what people think it’s about. People think this is about The Rapture. And by “Rapture” people mean some kind of secret return of Jesus where He just takes the Christians—before His real return that happens 3 to seven years later. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. You might even believe it.
Like I said, people tend to be very emotionally attached to their End Times ideas.
But this is St Paul answering the Christians about what’s going to happen to them if they’re still alive when Jesus comes back. This is a description of the resurrection of the living. It’s the same thing Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15:52 where he says,
“It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.”
This isn’t supposed to scare us, it’s supposed to encourage us. “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Not scare the bejeebers out of people that they might get left behind.
And we’re not supposed to get all wrapped up in the details of how and when and whatever, either. Jesus is coming back, don’t obsess over the details.
Chapter 5 starts with these words,
“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” [1 Thessalonians 5:1-2]
So, it’s going to be a surprise. That’s what we know. But it’s not something that followers of Jesus are supposed to be afraid of. He goes on to say, we don’t know when it’s going to happen but for Christians, it’s not going to be like a robber coming into our house while we’re asleep—because we’re already awake. Because we’re people of the light, not darkness. He’s telling us all this to illustrate an important spiritual point: Jesus woke you up when you first believed in Him—so stay awake!
That’s the message of Advent. Stay awake! Make a fresh pot of coffee and prepare the way for the LORD. Do you know how to do that? What it means to live as a Christian who has their eyes open, living in anticipation of Christ’s return?
Paul tells us how to do this at the end of the letter, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]
Rejoice always. To rejoice is to take delight in something. It’s about perspective. It has nothing to do with pretending you’re happy when you’re not. Faking a smile when you’re crushed inside. Rejoicing in this context is looking at everything from the perspective that Christ has given you a new life, given you purpose and meaning and direction, and no matter what you might be facing today, it’s going somewhere good. We have His promise that He’s coming back to make things right. This thing has a happy ending. Rejoice knowing that, no matter what. That’s also why you can give thanks in all circumstances because God has something good in mind for you. But you’re not going to be able to do this on your own, if you’re focused on yourself and your problems and the way the world looks now. That’s why you need to pray without ceasing. That’s how you stay awake.
Verse 19,
"‘Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.’” [1 Thessalonians 5:19-22]
Don’t get so caught up in all that End Times speculation or anything else that you forget what God saved you to do in the here and now. Worship God. Love people. In this life.
Here’s the blessing, take these words to heart—these words are like Red Bull, they should wake you up and give you wings, May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
This is God’s Word, God speaking—and God creates reality when He speaks. Receive these words and be transformed. May you be made holy, sanctified, through and through. You are forgiven. You are holy. You are right with God because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. God is holy and He has made you holy by His Son and the Power of His Spirit. May you keep His name holy in everything you say and do. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept holy and blameless until the day when Jesus does finally come back. God is faithful. Trust in Him. He will do it. Did you hear that? Are you awake?
Verse 25,
“Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.” [1 Thessalonians 5:25-27]
A reminder that we need to pray for each other, and for our leaders. Also a reminder to kiss each other. Kiss everyone. Hang mistletoe everywhere. Just remember to keep six feet apart and wear a mask while you’re doing it. “Greet each other with a holy kiss” is one of those verses that makes for good inside jokes for Bible nerds. Paul isn’t being strange here. The holy kiss was a typical greeting in their culture. It sounds weird to us but it’s not anything strange. It’s pretty much the same thing as when we might say “give everyone a hug for me.” Like all the letters in the New Testament, this was supposed to be read out loud in a worship service. Like we just did.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” [1 Thessalonians 5:28]
There is no greater blessing in the whole world than this. May you receive the free gift of life and light and love from the Lord Jesus Christ. The One who is on His way to make everything right. This is Advent. Keep watching and waiting and remember our hope. Jesus is coming back. May that day be soon. The God of peace will make you holy and keep you blameless until the end.