UNTIL

Is Jesus fixnta' come?!

Briefly I wish to look at the unfolding of end time events, pertaining to the return of Jesus, through the eyes of the Apostle Peter as found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles in the sermon he preached on the Day of Pentecost.

"My fellow Jews, I realize that neither you nor your leaders realize the grave mistake you made. But in spite of what you’ve done, God has fulfilled what he foretold through the prophets long ago about the sufferings of his Anointed One. And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord’s presence. And he will send you Jesus, the Messiah, the appointed one. For he must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things has taken place, fulfilling everything that God said long ago through his holy prophets." Acts 3:17-21 TPT

There is alot in these few verses I'd like to write about but I want to focus on the last verse. So, let's get to it, ...Jesus has fulfilled the words of the prophets in dying, arising to new life, and ascending to the Father. Heaven has received Him and He must remain there, UNTIL!!

Until what, one might ask? And the answer to this question is the heart of the issue; and I believe answers the looming question, "Is Jesus coming soon?" or to ask it another way "When is Jesus coming back?"

According to Peter, Jesus is to "remain in heaven until the restoration of all things has taken place." With this understanding many questions arise, one being "What might the restoration of all things look like?"

Peter, said in our passage that the restoration of all things would be "...fulfilling everything that God said long ago through his holy prophets." So, based on this idea we understand that all the prophets of old wrote about this time of restoration. Maybe, I can try to explore this idea in future posts?

But notice from our passage some of the aspects of restoration.

"And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord’s presence."

Restoration brings refreshing times to individuals from the presence of the Lord!! I will close with a verse from one of the prophets that I believe encapsulates the heart of what must take place before the return of Jesus.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea." -Habakkuk 2:14 NKJV

FOW

-James