To Encourage You

2 Thessalonians 1:10 “. . . when He comes on that day . . . to be marveled at among all who have believed”

The other day I heard a question asked to someone on a TV show that went something like this: “If you were able to meet anyone who had ever lived in history, who would it be?”  The person who was asked this was an athlete, and his answer was “Michael Jordan.”  I’m sure this was because Michael Jordan was such an amazing athlete, one whom many athletes aspire to be like in one way or another.  But this morning as I read the verse above, my thoughts turned to Jesus, truly the most amazing person who ever lived.  This verse speaks about the second coming of the Savior, and it says that those who have believed on Him will marvel at Him when He comes.  And then I looked back at some of the things that the Bible says about His first coming.  This same word “marvel,” which is sometimes translated “wonder,” is used over and over again to describe Him.

It began at His birth. We are told that after the shepherds visited the manger and spread the news about Jesus’ birth and all that they had experienced, “all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them” (Luke 2:18).  Then when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to be dedicated to God, Simon took Him in his arms and spoke of how this was the One Who was born for the salvation, light, and glory of the world.  Then His parents “marveled at what was said about Him” (Luke 2:33).  In Luke 4 we are told that as Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth and spoke in the synagogue there, “all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth.” In Matthew 8 we are given the account of Jesus speaking to the roaring wind and tumultuous waves in a storm on the Sea of Galilee.  He told them to hold their peace – and they did!  It says that the disciples who were with him “marveled, saying ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?’”  In Matthew 9 we are given the account of a paralytic who was brought to Jesus. Jesus said to him “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  Immediately he did just that, and “when the crowds saw it, they were afraid (literally – ‘they marveled”) and they glorified God who had given such authority to men.”  In Matthew 15 we are told that “great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered (marveled), when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.” Then in Matthew 22, as the Pharisees plotted to deceive Jesus with trick questions regarding whether one should pay taxes to Caesar, He answered them wisely by showing them a coin, asking them whose inscription was on it, and then saying these words, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” To this answer we are told that even these wicked men “marveled.”  In John 7, as Jesus taught in the temple, it says “the Jews marveled, saying, ‘How is that this man has learning, when He has never studied.’”  Over and over again, as Jesus did miracles, taught, and lived a perfect life, we are told how those who saw and heard Him marveled at the Son of God. 

So have you ever asked yourself, wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have seen Jesus with our own eyes and heard Him with our own ears?  Yet, as we read in the verse from 2 Thessalonians 1 above, that is exactly what will happen for each and every believer. We will see Him when He returns, and we will marvel at Him, not just at that moment, but for all eternity.  We will dwell in His very presence, listen to the gracious and wise words that come from His mouth, and marvel at the glorious King of kings and Lord of lords. 

So, if you want to see Him, if you want to actually look on His face and hear His voice, if you want to have Him reveal Himself to you in all the wonders of Who He is for all eternity, there is a way, but there is only one way. Jesus told His disciples all about it in this exchange: “’Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:1-6).  And all of this is possible because of the marvel of Jesus’ condescension, incarnation, sacrificial death, and marvelous resurrection.

What a marvelous wonder that the very Son of God came to be despised and rejected of men and to give His life as a ransom for many.  But you can be sure that when He comes the second time it will be marvelously different – for at His second coming He will appear in all His awesome power and glory, the King of kings and Lord of lords – marvelous beyond description to all those who have believed but a terror to all those who have not.