Jesus’ Return and the Reign of God

Where In the Bible: Revelation

So far in the big story, we have seen how God made the world good but everything went wrong at the fall. As the story went on we have seen how God has worked to put things right: making promises, dwelling with his people, and ultimately sending his son to die and rise again. Jesus is now reigning in heaven, and has a redeemed people on the earth. However, the consequences of the fall are still evident, and we still see death, sin and violence in the world around us and in our own hearts. The story is not finished yet, and will not be until Jesus returns. We do not know when this will be, other than at a time that is unexpected, but we do know that at his return there will be the final judgement and the inauguration of the new creation, where God’s people will dwell with God in the perfect relationships we were created for. We should note that this part of the story (perhaps more than any other) can often be taught in ways that are unhelpful: introducing complex speculation around ideas like ‘rapture’ or ‘millennium’ in ways the Bible does not support. Please try to stick to the key elements of what the Bible teaches about this final chapter of the story, as outlined below.

Jesus Will Return (Matt. 24:42-44): The primary aspect of what the Bible teaches about the future is that Jesus will return. When Jesus teaches about this, his emphasis is that it will happen at a time that we are not expecting. He uses the parallel of a thief breaking into somebody’s house without warning, and in the preceding verses he also compared it to the days of Noah when people were just getting on with the ordinary things of life, totally unaware of what was about to happen. We should be suspicious when people tell us they can predict when the return of Jesus will be based on contemporary events, because Jesus tells us that neither the angels nor he himself knows (Matt. 24:36). The idea is that we should be ready for it at any moment rather than speculatively trying to predict when it will be. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, Paul adds a little more detail about what will happen on that day. The Thessalonians had worried that some of their fellow believers had died before the return had happened, but Paul assured them that the dead will be raised as Jesus comes back, and those who are living will also be swept up to meet him in the air.

Final Judgement (Revelation 20:11-15): Part of what it means for God to make all things right is to deal with everything that is wrong in the world. This will happen through the final judgement, with Jesus himself as judge. The idea of judgement may seem unpalatable to some believers in affluent contexts, in the same way as the words of the prophets were tricky for those in power to receive. But for those who faced oppression, injustice and persecution, the truth of a day of judgment is often a great comfort. As Revelation describes that judgement day, it depicts everybody standing before the throne, and books being opened that contain what they have done in life. It also depicts another book, called the book of life. This book is referred to at various points through the Bible’s story (Ex. 32:32-33; Ps. 69:8; Dan. 12:1; Lk. 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 21:27). The book is where the names of those who are saved have been written. Everybody will face judgment, and all sins will be dealt with. But for those who have trusted Jesus, those sins were already punished on the cross, and the names of those individuals are in the Lamb’s book. They will inherit eternal life and be part of the renewed earth, with everything made right. Those whose names are not in this book will face the punishment for their own evil, and this is described as the lake of fire, referring to the eternal judgment of hell (this is not the sermon to get into the debate around the nature of hell – eternal torment vs annihilation: suffice to say that Scripture treats it as a terrible and sobering prospect, and one that can be avoided through faith in Jesus) .

New Creation (Rev. 22:1-5): The story ends with a scene very much like the one we started with. A garden-like paradise is described, with the river flowing and the tree of life bearing fruit. There is no longer any curse, and people are dwelling in the very presence of God. this is a picture of Eden restored, where finally humans are restored to the purpose for which we were created in the first place. Where the picture diverges from the Genesis image of Eden is that the garden is now also a city. Rev. 21:10 speaks of the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, and in Rev. 21:16-17 the dimensions are given as a cube that is thousands of miles in length, width and height. The shape is a picture of the holy of holies from the temple (the only other perfect cube in Scripture), with the scale suggesting something of the vast multitude of people that will be dwelling with God in this glorious new creation. The mandate originally given to the first humans had been to fill the earth and subdue it, and now we have an earth filled with a community of people dwelling in harmony with one another, with God, and with the earth itself, who no longer endure crying or pain or death (Rev. 21:4) but instead share in the eternal joy of God.

Potential Applications:

• This section of the story includes a stark warning for those who don’t know Jesus. Offer the chance for people to repent and turn to him.
• Invite people to think on the glory that is to come and let this hope fill them with encouragement for the struggles of this life.
• Challenge people to think about how they can increasingly work to make the world around them like God’s promised future creation (‘on earth as it is in heaven’).