He Has Risen and He Will Return!

This Easter, many will hear that Jesus died for our sins, and that He has risen.  But how many will shout with joy that He is coming again?

What would you do if the Lord were to return tomorrow to rapture His church?  Would you be ready to stand before Him at the Judgment seat of Christ?  Would you hear Him say, "well done, good and faithful servant?"  Would He would put you in charge of many things in His Millennial Kingdom? 

Christ Jesus IS coming.  I feel compelled to say it again and again because the Word of God boldly proclaims it!  Yet the world has practically shut up the message of Christ's return and His visible Kingdom. 

A.W. Pink sums it up so eloquently in his wonderful book The Redeemer's Return:

"...this Age began with a ringing testimony to the truth of our Lord's Return.  Each of the apostles, of whose writings we have any inspired record, taught their converts to look for their Saviour's appearing.  Alas! that this testimony was not maintained.  Alas! that this Blessed Hope should ever have become dim.  Alas! that it should, for more than a thousand years, have been almost totally lost to the Lord's people.  Yet so it was.  The immediate successors of the apostles turned their attention to other things: as it was with the Pharisees in the days of our Lord, so these tithed anise and mint but omitted the weightier matters. 

Instead of expounding the Prophetic Scriptures and setting before the Church its one great Hope, the early 'Church fathers,' for the most part, spent their time in wrangling among themselves.  Even before the apostles themselves had left the earth, false teachers crept in and began to devour the flock, and within three centuries the whole professing Church had become paganized.  Then followed the Dark Ages—aptly named, for the lamp of Prophecy had ceased to shine and the prospect of the speedy return of the Morning Star had completely disappeared.  As our Lord Himself had foretold, the virgins all slumbered and slept: no longer were His people looking for the Coming of the Bridegroom.

...There are still great numbers of the Lord's people who know next to nothing about this precious theme.  Notwithsanding the fact that the Second Coming of Christ occupies a prominent place in the Holy Scriptures, notwithstanding the fact that this subject is a most practical one having, as it does, some bearing on every phase of our present and future life, and notwithstanding that it is calculated to awaken a deep interest in "things to come" and lead to definite heart-searching, nevertheless, the vast majority of our pulpits entirely ignore the subject and in consequence great numbers of our church-members are in almost total ignorance concerning those things which God's Word declares will shortly come to pass."

This Easter, I pray that you have ears to hear that He is coming!  Christ's return is our blessed hope, in fact our only hope in this dark and sinful world.  May this knowledge fill you with great anticipation and much joy.