“The Servant’s Return”
Mark 13:1-37
“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” – Mark 13:26
“Then they will see thOne of the keys to understanding the Bible is to see two comings of Christ. We’ve examined the First Coming and zeroed in on its fulfillment when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey [Mark 11]. Many of the Old Testament prophecies on Messiah were fulfilled that day; Zech 9:9; Ps 118:26; and Dan 9:25-26 are three that we looked at. The Bible also describes a Second Coming and that will be our topic this morning.e Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” – Mark 13:26
The way the narrative unfolds in Mark’s Gospel is that between Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem and the events leading to the Cross is the Olivet Discourse, which is the record leading to Jesus’ Return. It is called the Olivet Discourse because the teaching took place on the Mount of Olives.
Here’s the chronology. The church will be raptured [1 Thes 4:16-17, 1 Cor 15:51-53]; the seven-year Tribulation [i.e., Daniel’s seventieth seven in Dan 9, and described in Rev 6-19]; and then Jesus returns to establish His Millennial Kingdom upon the earth [Rev 20].
It will be a time when Israel will finally worship Jesus as Messiah. The lion will lay together with the calf and an infant will play by the cobra’s nest [Isa 11:6-8]. There will be true peace because the Prince of Peace will rule from the Throne in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Imagine perfect peace and perfect justice upon this earth. It will indeed be a “redeemed” physical earth.
But to inherit that Physical Kingdom at His Second Coming you must receive the Spiritual Kingdom by way of His First Coming. And that comes by receiving Jesus as your personal Lord so that the Kingdom of God can come into your life by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is what it means to be “born again” of the Spirit. And that is what readies you for His Return.
There are two comings of Christ, and we need to see and distinguish the two in Scripture, which is what the Olivet Discourse in Mark’s Gospel does.
