Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!” As a child these words were etched in my mind every time I would eagerly watch The Adventures of Superman.
Eyes glued to the television, I watched Superman battle crooked businessmen and politicians, take on injustices and inequalities by fighting and standing for social justice, and use X-ray vision to see through walls, doors, and buildings. And Superman always came to the rescue of people in trouble. Superman was my hero. He was stronger than anybody; He could do no wrong. Yet Superman wasn’t real. Superman was an actor on television.
The reality of our universal drama, however, yearns for superpower. Humanity had sinned, and God was faced with a dilemma to either excuse sin or destroy it all and start over. He chose to send the real Super-Man, Jesus Christ, to save His people from sin (Matthew 1:21). In His earthly ministry Jesus restored sight to the blind, defeated demon possession, calmed boisterous sea waters, raised the dead, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and sacrificed His life on Calvary, enabling us to obtain eternal salvation (John 3:15; Acts 4:12).
Jesus, He’s the real Super-Man!
Fast-forward nearly 2,000 years to our day, and God’s people are once again distressed and distraught. They need rescue and redemption from this sinful world. The solution once again is Jesus.
Jesus has promised that He is coming back, but this time He’s coming to get His people. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
While the promise of Christ’s coming is sure, the date of His coming is unsure.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36). However, Jesus detailed signs, including wars, famines, earthquakes, natural disasters, and massive religious deception that foretells His coming is soon (Matthew 24:6-12). Because these events have already taken place, it is incumbent upon us to be ready for His imminent return.
And when Jesus does return, what a glorious day that will be! Every living eye will see Him (Revelation 1:7), and He will return in the clouds of heaven with the angelic hosts (Acts 1:9-11). There will be a union with Jesus, and a reunion of loved ones who died in Jesus, along with the righteous who are alive at His second coming!
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, KJV).
May we be encouraged in knowing that “troubles don’t last always,” and Jesus, the real Super-Man, is soon to come. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
