The Lord Himself Will Descend

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 

I Thessalonians 4:16 

Because we have been meditating at the close of the year upon the subject of the return of Christ, we want to take the opportunity to dwell upon some of the particulars of it. Our text for today makes two truths evident. The first truth is that the return of Christ will be Personal. Our text declares, ‘for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven.’ This agrees with every other statement we find scattered throughout Scripture relating to the subject. On the night before Christ went to the cross He told His disciples ‘I will come again.’ On the Mount of Olives in Acts 1, the angels told the disciples, ‘This same Jesus…will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’ John describes the Personal return of Christ vividly in Revelation, saying, that He comes upon a white horse with a multitude of His saints at His Back. This leads us to understand the second truth from our text. The return of Christ is public. It is ‘with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.’ This is what the Scripture clearly declares, therefore this is what we must certainly believe. No matter how dark the intervening days may be since His Ascension, He will return Personally and Publicly. Until then our cry is, ‘And Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight.’ 

Our Gracious God and Our Savior, 
we look forward to that day when we shall see You Face to face. 
We praise You, that You always keep Your Divine Appointments, 
and that in keeping this appointment, You will not fail. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning