Faith in Practice

In the previous lesson, you saw that the Lord Jesus has promised to return. Three times He assures in Revelation 22 that this will happen soon. Why has He not returned yet? There are still people to be saved! Until today, God is still patient.

The first Christians lived in constant expectation of their Lord's return. The Thessalonians are an example. Today, His coming is very near. It will take place in two stages:

• The Lord will return to take His own to Himself (His coming for the rapture). This coming of our Lord forms the blessed hope of every believing Christian.
• The Lord will return with all His own to execute judgement on the earth and establish the Millennial Kingdom. This coming is often called His appearance.

The topic Expectation is only addressed in two lessons in this course. Therefore, we limit ourselves to the first stage - His coming refered to as the rapture.

Before we start with the questions, an important topic needs to be addressed that has so far only been mentioned in passing: the church or assembly. What is meant by this?

• The assembly consists of all believers who have been redeemed through the blood of the Lord Jesus.
• It was formed at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to Earth. (Acts 2)
• When the Lord Jesus returns, He will take the assembly home and thus we will be with Him forever.
• In the New Testament, a Greek word ἐκκλησία ≡ Ekklesia is used, which means the called out one. In some Bible translations, it is translated as congregation. In the New Darby Translation, the word assembly is used.
• When the term assembly is used in the following, it always refers to all the redeemed!

Based on the questions that follow, we will delve deeper into the second coming of the Lord Jesus and contemplate what happens during His arrival!

Firstly, it is important to remember that the Lord Jesus Himself comes from heaven. He doesn't send an angel like Gabriel or Michael. No, He Himself comes Himself to take us.

This is evident from a section in the first Letter to the Thessalonians. Read the verses in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and pay particular attention to verse 16!

The encounter between the Lord Jesus and us, the assembly or congregation, will be something very familiar.

The Lord Jesus is the bridegroom and the assembly His bride. The encounter of the Bridegroom with His bride is invisible to the eyes of those who remain on earth:

... then we, the living who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will be always with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

It will be like the ascension of the Lord Jesus. How is this described in Acts 1:9?

What will the Lord Jesus then do with the assembly that He loves so much that He gave Himself for it on the cross? You can find an answer in the letter to the Ephesians! (Ephesians 5:27)