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In Part 3 we look at the biblical outline of major events leading up to and following Jesus’ physical return. Head HERE to read.

In Part 1, we learned that we don’t have to fear studying the end times and how important this topic is to our faith. Now, let’s dive into why Jesus has even promised to return in the first place and whether current world events indicate we’re living in the end times.

 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

(Acts 1:11)

Why is Jesus coming back to earth?

God wants to “end” the story where He started it. (Technically, the world doesn’t end, this age of history ends and God transitions history into a new, eternal age.)

In Genesis, the world begins with God living on the earth He made with His people in perfect relationship. The world was free of sin or suffering, full of peace and righteousness. (Genesis 1-2)

In Revelation, the book ends with Jesus coming back to rule as King, Heaven coming down to earth, and God living on earth with His people in perfect relationship, peace and righteousness. (Revelation 19-22)

The fullness of God’s promise to us in salvation was not only that He would forgive our sins and restore our friendship with Him. He promised we would have eternal life with Him and His Son and that we would be co-heirs with Him in His coming Kingdom (Romans 8:14-17 // Revelation 2:26-28).

He’s also promised us that the sin, suffering, and trial we experience personally in this life and that runs rampant in the world around us would be temporary (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). He said that He would usher in a world filled with God’s peace and righteousness–even to the point of renewing creation itself, which has been affected by the curse of sin (Romans 8:18-25 // 2 Peter 3:10-13).

To sum it up, Jesus is coming back to restore all things. (Acts 3:20-21) What sin broke at the fall of humanity in Genesis 3, Jesus will return to this earth to make right, restoring the world to the way He intended it to be.

He’s doing this work of restoration now as we partner with Him to share the gospel with others, to pray for His will to be done on earth and perform acts of service in His name. But His work of restoration will happen in fullness when He comes back. His Kingdom is experienced in part now because of His first coming and in fullness later at His second coming.

We have to understand that the heart behind Jesus’ actions as He fulfills His plan for the end times is love and restoration. The reality is, the way Jesus will go about dealing with sin at the end of this age won’t be pretty and comfortable. As we’ll study more in Part 3, it will be really intense.

If you and I don’t know His character, His motivation and promises, it could be super easy to become offended at Him or put off by His ways. We have to remember that our loving Father and gracious Savior is also a just Judge, a mighty Warrior and a righteous King. Yet, there is no contradiction in His attributes.

In everything He does, whether in salvation or in judgment, He is saving people from the sin that damages their relationship with Him, causes suffering to one another, and keeps the world from functioning the way He originally designed. He is infinitely loving and wise and His plans are perfect. We can trust Him and His leadership.

Are we living in the end times?

In Matthew 24, Jesus tells us that life will continue as normal right up to the season of His return. Jesus also tells us how to discern the season of His return, almost breaking it down into three sections.

1) The “birth pains.” Jesus compares to this time period to the labor pains of a woman about to give birth, which increase in intensity and frequency (Matthew 24:3-8). These preliminary signs proceed the 7-year tribulation–the final 7 years of this age marked by massive rebellion against God in the world and God’s final judgment of sin (Daniel 9:24-27).

2) The first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation. (Matthew 24:9-14)

3) The last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation. (Matthew 24:15-30)

Some of those signs Jesus mentions would happen during the birth pains are famines, earthquakes, plagues, wars and rumors of wars, conflict between ethnic groups, conflict between nations (Matthew 24:3-14 // Luke 21:7-19). Sounds a lot like your social media news feed doesn’t it?

2 Timothy 3-4 is another passage with a lot to say about what the last days will be like. Based on Scripture and what we see happening in the world right now, I believe we are in the birth pains phase and most Christians would agree.

Jesus said the birth pains season would precede the very end of the age, but the end would not follow immediately. We don’t know exactly how long that season of birth pains will be. Now, you might say, “every generation of human history can say that they’ve experienced some measure of what Jesus said would happen during the birth pains that precede the final time of the end.” And you would be right.

In light of this, every generation of Jesus followers should live with some sense of urgency and watchfulness regarding His return and with preparedness to meet Him because you never know if you’re going to be the generation that experiences the shift out of the birth pains phase into the events of those final 7 years of tribulation.

This is a consistent theme taught by Jesus and the apostles and a lifestyle Christians are called to throughout the New Testament (Matthew 24:42-50 // 2 Peter 3:11-14 // 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8). These birth pains events will progressively increase in intensity and scope throughout the whole world as we get closer to His return.

Remember that the Bible calls the return of Jesus our hope. His plan to come back is both intense for the world and amazing for His people. We can look forward to the day we’ll see Him with eager anticipation.

In Part 3 we look at the biblical outline of major events leading up to and following Jesus’ physical return. Head HERE to read.

Let’s Talk: Did you learn anything new about Jesus’ motivation in coming back to earth or what He said the world would be like leading up to His return? Discuss this post in the comments below.