Great Day

Great Day

So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great Day of judgment. And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment. (Jude 5-7)

My dad, as part of his responsibilities at work, traveled quite a bit. Sometimes to Australia. Sometimes to Corcoran. And mom would use his coming home as both comfort and caution. In fact, she could do both with the same phrase. For instance, with soft assurance, "Your dad will be home soon," or with clenched teeth, "Your dad will be home soon." But whether it was assurances or warnings, mom made it clear: dad's coming would be a big deal. And it was. Dad's return changed everything.

The return of Christ will do likewise. Jude had a name for this event: "the great Day." (Jude 6) The great Day will be a normal day. People will drink coffee, endure traffic jams, laugh at jokes, and talk about the weather. “The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah's. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing – until the flood hit and swept everything away. (Matt. 24:37-39)

The tourists on Thailand's coast come to mind. They spent the morning of December 26, 2004, applying suntan lotion and throwing beach balls, completely unaware that a tsunami-stirred wave was moving toward them at the speed of a jetliner. Christ's coming will be equally unexpected. Most people will be oblivious, playing on the beach. His shout, however, will get our attention. "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout." (1 Thess. 4:16) Before we see angels, hear trumpets, or embrace our grandparents, we will be engulfed by Jesus' voice. John heard the voice of God and compared it to "the sound of many waters." (Revelation 1:15) Maybe you've stood at the base of a waterfall so loud and full of fury that you had to shout to be heard. Or maybe you've heard the roar of a lion. When the king of the beasts opens his mouth, every head in the jungle lifts up. The King of kings will prompt the same response: "The Lord will roar from on high." (Jeremiah 25:30)

Lazarus heard such a roar. His body was entombed and his soul was in paradise when Jesus shouted into both places: "[Jesus] cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who had died came out." (John 11:43-44) Expect the same shout and shaking of the corpses on the great Day. "The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. . . . All who are . . . in their graves will hear his voice. Then they will come out." (John 5:25, 28-29) The shout of God will trigger the "voice of an archangel . . . with the trumpet of God." (1 Thess. 4:16) The archangel is the commanding officer. He will dispatch armies of angels to their greatest mission: to gather the children of God into one great assemblage.

Envision these silvered messengers spilling out of the heavens into the atmosphere. You could more quickly count the winter snowflakes than you will be able to number these hosts. Jude announced that "the Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of holy angels to judge everyone." (verses 14-15) The population of God's armies was too high for John to count. He saw "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." (Rev. 5:11) They minister to the saved and battle the devil. They keep you safe and clear your path. "He has put his angels in charge of you to watch over you wherever you go." (Psalm 91:11) And on the great Day, they will escort you into the skies, where you will meet God. "He'll dispatch the angels; they will pull in the chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole." (Mark 13:27) Whether you’re in Corcoran or paradise, if you're a follower of Jesus, you can count on an angelic chaperone into the greatest gathering in history.

We assume the demons will gather the rebellious. We aren't told. We are told, however, that the saved and lost alike will witness the assembly. "All the nations will be gathered before him." (Matthew 25:32) The Population Reference Bureau estimates that a little over 107 billion people have been born since the dawn of the human race. Every single one of them will stand in the great assembly of souls. He who made us will convene us. "The LORD, who scattered his people, will gather them." (Jeremiah 31:10) "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." (Isaiah 52:10) At some point in this grand collection, our spirits will be reunited with our new bodies: “It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” (1 Cor. 15:52-53)

Paradise will give up her souls. The earth will give up her dead, and the sky will stage a reunion of spirit and flesh. As our souls reenter our bodies, a massive sound will erupt around us: "On that day heaven will pass away with a roaring sound. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed. The earth and everything that people have done on it will be exposed." (2 Peter 3:10) Jesus called this "the re-creation of the world." (Matt. 19:28) God will purge every square inch that sin has contaminated, polluted, degraded or defiled. But we may not even notice the reconstruction, for an even greater sight will appear before us: "the Son of Man coming on the clouds in the sky with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:30) Note the preposition on. Subtle distinction. Great declaration. Every person, saint and sinner alike, will see Jesus. "All the nations will be gathered before him." (Matt. 25:32)

By this point we will have seen a lot: the flurry of angels, the ascension of the bodies, the great gathering of the nations. We will have heard a lot, too: the shout of God and the angel, the trumpet blast, and the purging explosion. But every sight and sound will seem a remote memory compared to what will happen next: "He will be King and sit on his great throne." (Matthew 25:31) This is the direction in which all of history is focused. This is the moment toward which God's plot is moving. The details, characters, antagonists, heroes, and subplots all arc in this direction. God's story carries us toward a coronation for which all creation groans: “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels – everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. . . . He was supreme in the beginning and – leading the resurrection parade – he is supreme in the end.” (Col. 1:16, 18)

God's creation will return to its beginning: a one-king kingdom. Our earth is plagued by multiple competing monarchs, each one of us climbing ladders and claiming thrones. But we will gladly remove our crowns when Christ comes back for us. During one of the crusades, Philippe Auguste, king of France, gathered his noble knights and men to call them to be strong in battle. He placed his crown on a table with the inscription "To the most worthy." He pledged the crown as the prize to be given to the bravest fighter. They went to battle and returned victorious and encircled the table on which the crown had been placed. One of the nobles stepped forward, took the crown, and put it on the head of the king, saying, "Thou, O King, art the most worthy."

On the great Day you'll hear billions of voices make the identical claim about Jesus Christ. "Every knee will bow to the name of Jesus – everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." (Phil. 2:10-11) Multitudes of people will bow low like a field of windblown wheat, each one saying, "Thou, O King, art the most worthy." There will be one monumental difference, however. Some people will continue the confession they began on earth. They will crown Christ again. Gladly. Others will crown him for the first time. They will do so sadly. They denied Christ on earth, so he will deny them in heaven. But the saved will live with God forever. "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: 'Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God.'" (Rev. 21:3) The narrator makes the same point four times in four consecutive phrases. The announcement comes with the energy of a six-year-old declaring the arrival of his dad from a long trip. "Dad's home! He's here! Mom, he's back!" One statement won't suffice. This is big news worthy of repetition. We shall finally see God face-to-face. "They will see his face." (Rev. 22:4) Let that sink in. You will see the face of God.

You will look into the eyes of the One who has always seen; you will behold the mouth that commands history. And if there is anything more amazing than the moment you see his face, it's the moment he touches yours. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes." (Rev. 21:4) God will touch your tears. Not flex his muscles or show off his power. Lesser kings would strut their stallions or give a victory speech. Not God. He prefers to rub a thumb across your cheek as if to say, "There, there . . . no more tears." Isn't that what a father does?

There was a lot I didn’t understand about my dad’s time away. The responsibilities of his job, his daily activities, the reason he needed to go. I was too young to comprehend all the details. But I knew this much: he would come home. By the same token, who can understand what God is doing? These days on earth can seem so difficult: marred by conflict, saddened by separation. We fight, pollute, discriminate, and kill. Societies suffer from innumerable fiefdoms, and small would-be dynasties. “What is this world coming to?” we wonder. God's answer: A great Day. And he, the Author of it all, will close the book on this life and open the book to the next, and begin to read to us from his unending story.

Grace,

Randy