Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ
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What will happen when Jesus comes again?
If you have questions or confusion about the second coming of Jesus, you are not alone.
And pastor, author, and teacher John Piper wants to offer clarity and cast a hopeful vision for what to expect at the Lord’s return.
That’s why he wrote his book: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ. To lay a foundation to talk about Jesus returning, Pastor John begins with a key passage of Scripture:
“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 4:16–18
Believers are ultimately citizens of heaven, and every part of us—including our bodies—will be resurrected and glorified when Jesus returns.
Our bodies: sown in dishonor, raised in glory…
As 1 Corinthians 15 confirms, human beings live in bodies “sown with weakness.” Whether weakness shows through disability, aging, illness, or injury, every human being experiences weakness and suffering. And these trials make the hope ahead all the more impactful.
As Pastor John puts it: “[The body] is raised in power. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. Those are simply staggeringly, precious promises for those of us who are getting weaker and older. And for people who’ve had a disability, oh my goodness. What good news we have for everybody in the world—that for the billions of years that lie before us with the Lord, everything will be new.”
How does the promise of Christ’s return provide help here and now—in the suffering, hardship, and uncertainty of life?
As Crystal points out, the Christ’s return as described in the Bible will be a dramatic cosmos-altering event. For families living with hardships related to disability, or for anyone suffering or languishing, it is important to realize that we will not have to bear our preset burdens forever.
Even when God doesn’t provide physical healing in the moment, he will keep his promise to mend all wounds and wipe away all tears in heaven.
As Pastor John says: “You know, I, I believe in divine healing. I pray for everybody that wants me to pray for them to get well. I pray for them to get well. But it is clear from history and from scripture that God ordains that not every disability is healed and therefore, we really need the resurrection of the body for good news.”
How can you cultivate a deeper affection for the Lord while longing for his return? And how can treasuring God change your life?
Pastor John describes two dimensions to valuing or evaluating things in our lives. The same, he says, goes for our valuing of Christ:
“Treasuring somebody has two dimensions. One is you see, and you make an evaluation objectively: that thing or that person is really valuable. And that’s what the doctrinal dimension of reading our Bibles and listening to preaching and studying God’s word—that’s what that does. We form an objective evaluation. That’s the truth-foundation of what happens next.
And what happens next is treasuring. So now you’ve objectively assessed the treasure and it’s Jesus… So you see the treasure and you then plead with [Jesus], ‘Now open the eyes of my heart that I might treasure the treasure—feel the value of the treasure.’”
Coming to treasure Christ—not just intellectually but also emotionally, and above everything else in life, makes a huge difference.
As Philippians 3:8 says, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
When you treasure Christ above all things, you can cope with difficulty, grief, and loss differently. Then, as John says, when you face great loss, you have not lost your supreme treasure.
“He’s always there as the massive foundation underneath all the other losses hurt. And the Bible encourages us, we grieve, but not as those who grieve without, hope… [Jesus] is the main treasure and he is an unshakable foundation. He’s present with us through it all. He’ll be there before, during, and after every other good thing that comes or goes. “
John Piper
Stay tuned through Season 5 of the Joni and Friends Ministry Podcast for more help finding encouragement and hope in the midst of disability, suffering, and struggle.
Come, Lord Jesus
Many people are curious about the second coming of Christ—what it will be like, when it will happen, and what signs will come first.
In his latest book, John Piper addresses these issues, but stresses that those who love the second coming of Christ will receive a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:6–8).
