Christ is coming back to accomplish two goals. For some, His Second Coming will be wonderful, but others will see it as terrible. In this sermon, Pastor David explains the twofold purpose of Christ’s glorious return. When Christ returns it will cause both celebration and devastation as He brings both wrath and rescue. When Christ comes back He will give vengeance to unbelievers and deliverance to believers.

When Jesus came the first time it was to be despised and rejected. When He comes a second time it will be to be glorified and admired. He came the first time to bear the penalty of sin as the Substitute. He will come a second time to bring the penalty of sin as the Judge.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might,10 when He comes on that Day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Christ’s first coming was private, in humility and weakness, but His second coming will be outstandingly public, in glory and power. In this sermon, Pastor David looks forward to how Christ will return.

1 Thessalonians 4:14–18 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people wondered when the Messiah would come, and now Christians are curious when He will come again. In this sermon, Pastor David examines Jesus’ answer to the question of when He will come and what we need to do to get ready.