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I. The secret coming
II. The judgment seat of Christ
III. The open coming
IV. A warning
The church has existed on the earth for nearly two thousand years. Christ now lives in millions of believers as the life-giving Spirit. At the same time, He is in the heavens as the Head over all things to the church. There Christ is administrating all the events in heaven and on earth for the building up of His Body. When the time is right, this Christ who is on the throne will begin His return to the earth. At the end of Revelation He says, "Yes, I come quickly" (22:20). The Lord's incarnation was His first coming. But this verse is about His second coming. Christ's second coming will begin the final stage of God's economy. It is a very important part of Christ's work.
The subject of Christ's second coming has confused Christians for hundreds of years. It is very complicated and has many events related to it. It would take us many lessons to explain properly all its details and events. However, there are two major aspects of the Lord's return that we must be very clear about: one aspect is His secret coming; the other is His open, or public coming.
The day and the hour of the Lord's return no one knows, "but the Father only" (Matt. 24:36). At the proper time, Christ will begin to descend from the throne. This descent is hidden and secret. Revelation 3:3 and 16:15 both tell us that Christ will come as a thief and that we should be watchful. No thief comes openly or announces his coming. Revelation 10:1 says that Christ will be "clothed with a cloud." This means He will be wrapped up or concealed in a cloud. But some time before He leaves the throne, some overcomers will be raptured (taken up) to the throne. These overcomers are the believers on the earth who have kept themselves from the defilement (pollution) of worldly things. The Lord is their first and best love. These overcomers are called the "firstfruit" (Rev. 14:4). In any kind of harvest there is always some fruit that ripens first. That is the choicest fruit.
The rapture of the firstfruit signals the start of the "great tribulation" (Matt. 24:21-22). The great tribulation will be a three and a half year period of great suffering and persecution. Those days will be more terrible than anyone can imagine. The majority of Christians who are alive at that time will have to go through all or part of this great tribulation. These are the Christians who did not fully give themselves to be separated from the world in order to be filled up with Christ. The great suffering of this time will help mature these saints, just as the hot sun helps to ripen a crop. But being saved out of the great tribulation will be a great reward for the raptured overcomers. In Revelation 3:10 the Lord says, "Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth."
Before the end of the great tribulation, Christ will have descended to a place in the air to set up His judgment seat. All the living Christians who still remain on the earth will be raptured to the air. This is what we call the general harvest. All the dead Christians will also be raised to meet the Lord. Second Corinthians 5:10 says that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive either reward or punishment for the things we have practiced during our life.
We will be judged in two areas: maturity in life and faithfulness in service (Matt. 25:1-30). To be mature in life means that the Christ who came into us has fully grown up till every part of our soul is filled with Him. That means our thoughts, our love, and our choices are filled with Christ. We have denied ourselves and taken the cross that Christ as the life-giving Spirit might fill these parts.
To be faithful in service means to be faithful in outward works. These include preaching the gospel for others to be saved, serving in the church, and functioning in the church meetings. To meet the Lord, we must be proper and balanced in these two areas --life essentially and service economically.
Those believers who are found to be mature and faithful will receive a great reward. With the overcomers, they will participate in the wedding and wedding feast of Christ the Lamb. Christ will be the groom and the saints will be the Bride. This will all take place in the air before Christ's open coming. "Blessed are they who are invited to the marriage dinner of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9). Matthew 25:10 says, "The bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut." What a tremendously joyful time that will be! This enjoyment will continue through the millennial kingdom where the saints will rule as co-kings with Christ over all the nations (Rev. 2:26; 20:4).
Those who are neither mature nor faithful will receive a punishment. They will not be eternally lost, but they will be disciplined for a thousand years. During this time these believers will mature to be proper sons of God (Heb. 12:5-10). Although the result will be maturity, the process will not be by grace. The Bible describes that time as the "outer darkness" where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, suffering ruin, being burned by fire, and being beaten with many stripes (Matt. 22:13; Heb. 10:39; 1 Cor. 3:15; Luke 12:45-48).
After the wedding, from that place in the air, Christ will openly descend to the earth, no longer as a thief but rather with power and great glory. He will be seen by all the tribes of the holy land (Rev. 1:7; Matt. 24:27, 30). In His secret coming to the air He will be clothed with the cloud, but in His open coming to the earth He will be on the cloud (Rev. 14:14). When Christ comes openly, He will come with the overcoming saints to fight against Antichrist and his armies which will be gathered against Israel at a place in the Middle East called Armageddon. There the Lord will exterminate the evil worldly forces and will save Israel. Satan will be bound and the thousand-year kingdom will begin.
Many Christians today are taught that when the Lord returns, all the believers will be instantly raptured to live "happily ever after" with the Lord. This is not what the Bible teaches. Such teachings have "drugged" the Christians, causing them to live loosely and carelessly. Many indulge in worldly and fleshly pleasures. In light of the truth we have seen from the Word of God, we must be warned against this kind of living.
You may be curious about all the details of the Lord's return, but the most important thing is to pick up the principle of His second coming as a warning. The principle is that we must be mature so that we may escape the coming great tribulation and receive a reward rather than a punishment at the judgment seat of Christ. This requires us to daily turn our hearts to the Lord to love Him, to be filled with Him, and to serve Him. When you are tempted by the worldly things, remember the principle. When you would prefer staying in bed rather than getting up a few minutes early to enjoy Christ in the Word, remember the principle. We all need to pray, "Lord, have mercy on me that I would be a part of the firstfruit, and that I would be an overcomer."
In Revelation 22:12 and 20 the Lord Jesus gave us a warning, saying, "Yes, I come quickly." Our loving response should be, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" Our desire should be to love the Lord supremely. We should be sober and watchful for His second coming. By His mercy we may escape the coming hour of trial to meet Him as one of His precious overcomers. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
