The Second Coming. Mark 13:24-27.
“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,” and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. “And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
Dear Ambassadors of the Risen Lord,
Finally, Jesus reveals to the disciples that he indeed will come in the clouds, just as the prophet Daniel had predicted (Daniel 7:13-14).
Cataclysms (v. 24-25). The Second Coming will be preceded by cosmic catastrophes. How the sun will be darkened and the moon fail to shine is not clear, but one possibility has been demonstrated in volcanic eruptions. The volcanic dust that clouds the sky after such eruptions can shield the sun’s light and practically black the moon out. As for stars falling from the sky, these will most probably be meteorites. One has to keep in mind that in the language of that time, anybody shining light in the sky, with the exception of the sun and the moon, was a star.
Coming (v. 26). The Second Coming will be with the display of power and majesty that the people of the time had been waiting for. The time split is important in understanding the flow of events. The people of Jesus’ time had not understood this, so they failed to appreciate the evidence in the signs, miracles, and character of Jesus. We can be so fixated on a facet of the truth that it blinds us to the whole picture. Maybe because they were oppressed and wanted to be free, Jesus’ contemporaries wanted the coming in the clouds to be theirs to experience and in that fixation, they completely missed the Messiah of Isaiah chapter 53. That should be a wake-up call for us. We must honestly interrogate our expectations, lest we fail to see the full picture of God’s revelation to us.
Convention (v. 27).When Jesus comes the second time, it will be to fulfill his promise to his disciples, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. He will send his angels to gather his elect – the elect is those God has chosen and who have responded to the call by believing in Jesus and receiving him (John 1:13). The Kingdom is coming and the citizens of the Kingdom have responded to the call. Have you?
Your Loving Pastor Chris.