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This is the last message on Christ’s person in the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.
In the Old Testament there are prophecies of four matters related to Christ’s coming back. The first is that He will come as the Son of Man on the cloud. Concerning this, Daniel 7:13 says, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 26:64 and Revelation 14:14.
In Matthew 26:64 the Lord Jesus said to the high priest, “Henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The Lord was the Son of Man on earth before His crucifixion, He is now the Son of Man in the heavens at the right hand of God after His resurrection (Acts 7:56), and He will still be the Son of Man even at His coming back on the clouds. To accomplish God’s purpose and to establish the kingdom of the heavens, it was necessary for the Lord to be a man. Without man, God’s purpose cannot be carried out and the kingdom of the heavens cannot be constituted on earth.
Revelation 14:14 says, “I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud One sitting like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.” This is a vision of Christ’s coming as the Son of Man to reap God’s harvest. He came as the Son of Man to sow the seed, and He will come again as the Son of Man to reap what He has sown. As the Son of Man, He is qualified to execute God’s judgment on everyone (John 5:27). Therefore, at His coming back on the cloud, the Lord Jesus will still be the Son of Man.
In Revelation 14:14 we see that Christ is sitting on the cloud. This means that he is no longer hidden, that His coming is now public. Prior to this, Christ’s coming will be hidden, but now it will be open and visible. In Revelation 10:1 Christ is clothed with the cloud, but in 14:14 He is on the cloud. This corresponds to 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and indicates that Christ’s coming back is now made public.
When Christ comes back, He will set His feet upon the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14:4 prophesies of this: “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” Because the Lord Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, He will also return to the Mount of Olives. When the Lord Jesus stands with His feet on the Mount of Olives, the mountain will be cleft, and a highway will be opened for the besieged Jewish people to escape.
Concerning Christ’s setting His feet upon the Mount of Olives, Acts 1:10-12 says, “As they were looking intently into heaven as He went, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, who also said, Men, Galileans, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.” As the disciples were looking intently into heaven, two men in white clothing, who were actually angels, stood beside them and asked the disciples why they were standing looking into heaven. Then they went on to say that the very Jesus who was taken up from them into heaven would come in the same way as they had seen Him going into heaven. This indicates that just as the Lord Jesus ascended physically, He will also come back physically. Christ ascended into heaven by way of a cloud, visible to human sight, and He will come back on the cloud (Matt. 24:30). Furthermore, He ascended from the top of Mount Olivet (Acts 1:12), and He will come back to the same mount. We definitely believe that in His coming back the Lord Jesus will set His feet on Mount Olivet.
Zechariah 14:5b says, “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” This is a prophecy of Christ’s coming with His saints. Some Bible teachers interpret the saints in this verse as being the angels, as holy ones. Actually, the saints in Zechariah 14:5 denote the Old Testament saints and New Testament saints who will come back with Christ as the Son of Man.
The fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 14:5 is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:14: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also those who are asleep will God, through Jesus, bring together with Him.” Another verse, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” These saints are the believers in Christ, including the Old Testament saints (Dan. 7:18, 21-22, 25, 27).
When the Lord Jesus comes back, He will come with the kingdom He received of the Father. In Daniel 7:14 we have the prophecy concerning this: “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Luke 19:12 and 15a. In verse 12 the Lord, in a parable, says, “A certain man of noble birth went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.” Verse 15a says that “he came back, having received the kingdom.” The certain man of noble birth signifies the Savior with the highest status, the status of the God-man. The word “went” signifies the Savior’s going to heaven after His death and resurrection (Luke 24:51; 1 Pet. 3:22), and “return” signifies the Savior’s coming back with the kingdom (Rev. 11:15; 2 Tim. 4:1). The kingdom which the Lord will bring with Him at His second coming is the eternal kingdom that God will set up on earth (Dan. 2:44) and which is received from the Ancient of Days and belongs to the Ancient of Days, that is, to God. The kingdom which Christ will establish on earth will be the kingdom of God, the kingdom that is from ancient times, even from eternity.
In Zechariah 12:10-14 we have a prophecy of Christ as the coming Messiah seen by those who pierced Him and wailed over by all the tribes of Israel. Verse 10 says, “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” According to this prophecy, the Lord Jesus will pour out His Spirit upon the Jewish people. Then all of the house of Judah will repent and mourn, weeping because of their rebellion against Christ. They will realize that He was the One whom they crucified and pierced on the cross. They will repent and receive Him as their Savior.
As the fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10-14, Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, those also who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail over Him.” The word “land” in this verse refers to the Holy Land. All the tribes of the Holy Land will see Christ in the open aspect of His coming back. Revelation 1:7 surely is a reference to Zechariah 12:10-14. The “tribes” mentioned in Revelation 1:7 are the tribes of those who pierced the Lord Jesus. According to the context of Zechariah 12, the tribes are not all the nations of the earth but the twelve tribes in the Holy Land. Based upon this, we may say that the tribes in Revelation 1:7 are the twelve tribes in the Holy Land. When Christ appears with power and glory to be seen by all in the Holy Land, the twelve tribes will behold Him and weep. In repentance the Jews will wail over Him, the One whom they pierced.
In the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies Christ is the One coming in the name of Jehovah and blessed by repentant Israel. This is prophesied in Psalm 118:26: “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.” The One coming in the name of the Lord is Christ as the coming Messiah. This verse will have a double fulfillment: at the Lord’s first coming and at His coming back. Our emphasis here is on the second fulfillment. This prophecy was first fulfilled when Christ entered the gates of Jerusalem and the people laid their garments before Him and shouted, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 21:9). But following that, in Matthew 22, the Jewish people rejected Him. Then the Lord said to them, “You shall by no means see Me henceforth until you say, Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:39). This will be at the Lord’s second coming, when the remnant of Israel will turn to believe in Him and be saved (Rom. 11:23, 26). Israel will not see Him again until His second coming. According to Zechariah 12, the remnant of Israel will repent when Christ comes back. Then they will say to Him, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Nearly two thousand years have passed, and Israel still has not seen the Lord Jesus. Although He has left the nation of Israel, individual Jews may still come to Him and be saved. When the Jews are persecuted by their enemies at the end of this age, they will cry out to their God. Then Christ will descend and place His feet on the Mount of Olives, which will be cleft like the waters of the Red Sea. This will enable the Jews to escape from persecution. At that time they will repent to the Lord and call upon Him, and the nation will be saved. This salvation will be not only for individuals but for the entire nation.
Christ will also be the stone falling on the Gentile kingdoms and scattering them as chaff. This is prophesied in Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45. Verses 34 and 35 say, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” These verses indicate that when Christ comes the second time, He will be a stone cut without hands falling from the heavens upon the great image. The great image signifies the worldly powers from Babylon down to the ten kingdoms of the restored Roman Empire, which will exist at the time of Christ’s coming back. Christ will be the smiting stone that will scatter all the broken nations as chaff. Then He will become a great mountain — the kingdom of God on earth.
In Matthew 21:44 the Lord, referring to the stone in Daniel 2, says that “on whomever it falls, it shall scatter him as chaff.” Those on whom the stone falls will be the nations which Christ will smite at His coming back. To the believers, Christ is the foundation stone, the building stone, in whom they trust (Isa. 28:16); to the unbelieving Jews, He is the stumbling stone (Isa. 8:14; Rom. 9:33); and to the nations, He will be the smiting stone. We, the believers, experience Christ as the building stone. But the Jews who reject Him and are stumbled by Him will experience Him as the stumbling stone and be broken to pieces. Eventually, the unbelieving Gentiles who fight against God will know Christ as the smiting stone, for He will smite them and scatter them like chaff driven by the wind.
Zechariah 14:9 says, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” This prophecy concerning Christ as the coming King setting up His kingdom over all the earth is fulfilled in Matthew 25:31-34 and 1 Corinthians 15:25. When the Lord comes back, He will save Israel and will smite the Gentile nations and judge them. Then He will set up His kingdom on earth for a thousand years, for the millennium. In the millennium there will be three realms: the realm of the earth, where the blessing of God’s creation, as mentioned in Genesis 1:28-30, will take place; the realm of the nation of Israel, from Canaan, from the Nile to the Euphrates, in which the saved Jews will rule over the whole earth (Isa. 60:10-12; Zech. 14:16-18); and the heavenly and spiritual realm (1 Cor. 15:50-52), which will be the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, where the overcoming believers will enjoy the kingdom reward (Matt. 5:20; 7:21).
Speaking of Christ’s kingdom, 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet.” This will be the Lord’s reign in the millennium, the last age of the old creation. The longer Christ reigns, the more enemies are put under His feet. Eventually, at the end of the millennium every enemy will have been put under the feet of Christ. The word “until” in 1 Corinthians 15:25 indicates this and points to the end of the thousand years. That will be the time when every enemy has been put under Christ’s feet.
Romans 15:8 says, “I say that Christ has become a servant of the circumcision for the truthfulness of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers.” The expression “the circumcision” refers to the Jews, God’s covenanted people. “Truthfulness” denotes genuineness, sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, and faithfulness as a divine virtue. Romans 15:8 indicates that Christ served the Jews by fulfilling God’s promises to their forefathers, and this He did for the truthfulness of God. In order to prove that God is truthful and for the sake of maintaining God’s truthfulness, Christ was a Servant to the Jewish people, the circumcision, to fulfill the promises made by God to their forefathers.
We have considered Christ’s person in the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. These prophecies are concerned with Christ from eternity past until the time of the kingdom. The fact that these prophecies are fulfilled in the New Testament is a strong proof that whatever the New Testament reveals is fully of God. Only God can write such a book.
