29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and in His earthly ministry, He pointed to His second coming and the signs surrounding it. He also taught on the eternal home that we will have with Him forever. He has shown us the way to heaven - through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We are promised that we will have eternal life by believing in Him. Heaven is promised to the believer who accepts Christ and receives salvation, and our faith can be built as we see how He fulfilled the Scriptures about His birth, as well as His death. We can have certainty about eternity, as well.
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We know about where Jesus was born because the Bible has recorded specific details about His birth. But hundreds of years before that occasion, another of those Old Testament Scriptures announcing Christ's First Advent, announced the city where Jesus was to be born. God used the occasion of a census, bringing Joseph to his ancestral home, in order to fulfill that prophecy, which is found in Micah chapter 5, which says:
2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."
3 Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.
4 And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth;
5a And this One shall be peace...
It's Day 22 of the Faith Radio Advent Guide, featuring another stop on "The Timeline to Transformation." And, because we know that Jesus fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy about His first Advent, we can have certainty about what's to come, including His second Advent, His second coming.
I think it can be important to reflect on eternity as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. He came from eternity past and will usher us into eternity future. There is a stirring reminder of this that was brought home by a teenager in Texas recently.
Her name is Shelby Houston, and her father, police officer Richard Houston, recently lost his life in a shooting in the line of duty. Faithwire reported on what she said at her father's funeral. She expressed compassion for the man who had shot her father, saying:
There has been anger, sadness, grief, and confusion — and part of me wishes I could despise the man who did this to my father — but I can’t get any part of my heart to hate him. All that I can find is myself hoping and praying for this man to truly know Jesus. I thought this might change if the man continued to live, but when I heard the news that he was in stable condition, part of me was relieved.
She added:
My prayer is that, someday down the road, I’d get to spend some time with the man who shot my father — not to scream at him, not to yell at him, not to scold him, simply to tell him about Jesus.
The article goes on to say:
Later in her eulogy, Shelby said she has been thinking about what it must be like to be united with Jesus in heaven, reflecting, ”I can imagine it’s a much better place than here.”She also pointed to the time to which she is looking forward, when she will be reunited with her father: "In my deepest wound, I saw the glory of Jesus, and it has astounded me...You’re my hero, daddy, and I’m so proud to call you my father. I love you most, and I’ll see you someday soon.”
”I’m resting in the obedience of my dad to the Lord,” she said. “In Isaiah 6:8, it says, ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’’ And I don’t think my father ever knew that his ‘Yes’ to the Lord would ever end up being like this, but, as I look out to you all today, this is just a picture of the faithfulness of Jesus.”
“I know my dad is looking down today with the biggest smile on his face, in the arms of Jesus,” the teenager continued, fighting back tears. “I know as he entered the gates of heaven, he was greeted with: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ What a moment that was.”
The Israelites of old looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, and the prophecies pointed to certain attributes of and events surrounding our Savior's coming to earth. The Messiah has come, and He fulfilled what was written about Him. And, we can look into the future knowing that He will come again. Our future with Christ in heaven has been secured, and we can see that what is prophesied in the Scriptures has continued to come to pass, setting up a last days scenario, in which the Church will be taken from this earth. We also know that those who have known Christ and have passed away are already with Him, waiting on our arrival.
Jesus came through Bethlehem, and He now resides at the right hand of God the Father. We know that we will be with Him someday. Those who die "in Christ" will be in heaven with Him - and every human being should ask that question, "am I in Christ?" If He is our Lord, if we have called on His name, confessed His Lordship, and believed on Him, then we can be certain of where our home will be when we leave this world. Bethlehem was Jesus' home temporarily; planet earth is our temporary home, as well, but we can be certain, based on the authority of God's Word, where we will be spending eternity.
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