Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

The Blessed Hope: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Summary: “Jesus is coming again!” You hear Christians say that often. It speaks of a hope for the world far beyond anything our imaginations can fathom.


Titus 2:13
  ...while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

•• The “Blessed Hope” of the Church! - the second coming of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul calls that future coming of Christ His “glorious appearing”.

•• Life can be stressful - finances, health, relationships, etc. But through it all there is an overriding hope. Jesus is coming again for you!

Hebrews 9:28  ...so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

•• 2,000 years ago Jesus came to earth and died for our sins. Out in front of us is the promised Second Coming of Christ to this earth.

•• The second time He'll “bring salvation” in its fullness. Let's look at some of the specifics of His return.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10  God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

•• His coming from heaven the second time will be “in blazing fire”. This will be quite different from His first coming to earth, when He was born in humble circumstances and his bed was a livestock feeding trough in Bethlehem.

•• At this future coming the resurrected, glorified, all-powerful Christ “will punish those who have rejected Him. It will then be clear to all how eternally catastrophic was the decision in the lives of many to reject Jesus.

•• But what about us who have chosen to serve Him? He's coming to “be glorified and “marveled at” among us. “This includes you!” if you have received Him personally in your life as your Savior.

Philippians 3:20-21  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

•• You should be “eagerly” awaiting His coming. This great truth, this “blessed hope”, should motivate you to an eager anticipation of the consummation of this Church Age with the dramatic end-time events spoken of in Scripture and culminating in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

•• He will transform your lowly body (KJV: vile body) to be “like His glorious body”. Think of that! At His coming, Jesus will transform our lowly, mortal, earthly bodies into glorious bodies “like His”!

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18  According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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 each other with these words.

•• You may be among those “who are still alive ... [at] the coming of the Lord.” What will happen?
1) It will be the “Lord [Jesus] Himself”.

2) He will come down from heaven.

3) With a loud command (“a shout”, KJV).

4) With the voice of the archangel.

5) With the trumpet call of God.

6) First the dead in Christ will rise.

7) Then the living believers will be caught up together with them.

8) We will meet the Lord in the air.

9) And “we will be with the Lord forever.”
•• The second coming of Jesus is not a “secret” one, as some maintain. To the contrary, our Scripture text above makes it very clear that the living believers on earth at the end will not be caught up to the Lord before the “dead in Christ” are raised, but will be caught up together with the resurrected believers to meet the Lord in the air. And the Lord is coming, not quietly and secretly, but very openly - with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the sounding of the last trumpet.

1 Corinthians 15:22-23, 51-53, 58  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.... [51] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality... [58] Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

•• Here Paul gives us further insights on Jesus' second coming:
• He's coming for “those who belong to Him”, not for everyone.

• At His coming the faithful will “be changed”.

• How fast? “In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye”.

• When? “At the last trumpet”. If you expect believers to be caught up to meet the Lord before the final trumpet in the Revelation, then your end-time chronology is off time-wise.

• [52] The dead are raised, the living believers are changed.

Imperishable! Immortal! No more death, no more sickness, no corruption or weakness.
•• In light of these dramatic events out in front of us, “Let nothing move you ... your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Titus 2:11-13  For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

•• What is the “blessed hope”? - It is the “glorious appearing” of Jesus Christ at His second advent. In light of it, how then should we live?
• Saying “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions.

• Living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.
•• Our hope for the future should determine how we live in the present.

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Check out our related sermon: "Ready or Not, Jesus Is Coming Again"

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©2013, 2015, James H. Feeney.
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.