Sometimes when we start talking about Last Things it is hard to imagine it really happening. Even though we know it is coming, to have it actually arrive will still be stunning. As my children and their spouses’ are beginning their families, it is amazing to watch the whole pregnancy experience. The baby bump stage, the kicking stage, the growing to mondo size stage, but then the moment for delivery finally arrives.

You see the evidence of it happening, evidence of the arrival, but you still are amazed when it finally happens.

Our bias toward everything continuing just as it always has is hard to break. You watch people when confronted by extraordinary events like tsunamis or earthquakes, and there is always that pause where their brain has to come to grips with the reality of what is happening. We are in just such a pause.   It is the pause between when Christ went back to heaven and when he shows up again.  But even realizing that doesn’t make the coming events more believable.

Ultimately our trust in the return of Christ is dependent on our trust of his first appearing. Is it believable that God would reveal himself to us? Is it believable that God would work a plan of saving humanity that takes thousands of years? Is it believable that a virgin conceived and delivered a boy? Is it believable that a homeless former carpenter would change the world? Is it believable that that Jesus died and rose again? Is it believable that God would pour out the Holy Spirit so we can be in relationship with Him? None of these things are probable, yet all of them have enough evidence, historical eye witness accounts, and even personal experience to corroborate their reality. They are the foundation upon which we can assert that the events that are coming, while improbable, are equally real.

Faith is a rational choice considering the overwhelming evidence of the reality of the improbable. This week we will talk about what happens when Christ comes back and his reign breaks into our future. What is coming will be amazing.

See you at Church!

Pastor Chris