Every Sunday in most churches around Hutchinson, Christians confess either the Apostles or Nicene Creed, which affirms the Scriptural certainty that Christ “will come again to judge the living and the dead.” And in Mark 13:3-13, Jesus gives us details about His Second Coming. In this passage, two absolute truths about His promised return emerge. First, Jesus is warning all who reject Him as Savior that they will face an inescapable judgement. If a person rejects Jesus’ payment for sin, and lives life ignoring the Savior, and in unbelief does not receive Christ’s payment for sin by faith, then every person which insists on existing apart from God will stand before the Lord condemned for their own sin.
But there is a second truth, which Jesus gives in Mark 13. On the Last Day, Jesus said that when you see the signs of his return — the wars and rumors of wars, the false teachers, and the signs in the earth like famines and earthquakes, then don’t worry. Why? Because (verse 7) “these signs must take place.” And (verse 13) the “one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Because Christ was victorious over death and the grave on Easter, and because Jesus rescues from sin all who trust Him in a living faith, then we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) through the Savior who loved us.
The message of the Gospel is the “good news” that Jesus’ mission was to rescue all sinners (you and me and everyone) from the judgment of sin and its resulting penalty of eternal death. On the cross, Jesus took upon Himself the world’s sin, and paid for it completely, so that all who believe in Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) When the Savior appears on the Last Day, the world’s drama of sin and death will be over, and the Author of Life will come on stage for the concluding scene. And for all Christians who love and follow Jesus, we will be received into heaven.
In our world today, there are a lot of signs which indicate that the end of the world is close at hand. Nations are engaged in war on just about every continent. Everyone is talking about climate change with the resulting famine and calamity, which that brings. We have political conflict and racial conflict and social conflict on just about every issue before us. In the Christian faith, false teachers blog and broadcast their wacky ideas in every communication venue.
But Jesus said to believers that when we see the signs of the times, “stand up, lift up your heads, because your redemption (salvation) is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28) In other words, don’t worry about all these indicators of the Last Day. For these signs mean that for all Christians, your Savior is about to arrive and take you home to heaven.
