Jesus Foretold His Second Coming

Study of Luke 17:22-37

And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back.

Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. [Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”] And answering they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”
— Luke 17:22-37

Triggered by the Pharisees' question when the Kingdom of God will come (verse 20), Jesus told them they are looking the wrong way because their eyes are completely looking in the future and they are not seeing the present presence of the kingdom in their midst through the Person of Jesus. They are looking for signs of the second coming while they fail to notice the King in front of them. The second coming is no benefit to them if they ignore the first coming, they are missing the time of their visitation (Luke 19:44).  Before they look for the coming of the glorious kingdom they should repent and receive their King first to secure their place in the kingdom when it is established.

The disciples, on the other hand, are already part of the kingdom. Their place inside is guaranteed when it is established in the future (John 14:2). They have received and trusted in their King. It is they who are born again and will see the kingdom (John 3:3). It is they who are blessed for being poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20). It is they to whom it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10) so Jesus is going to reveal more truths to them about the future kingdom.

And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them.

The days will come that Jesus will be taken away from them and the disciples will mourn and miss Him  (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:20; Luke 5:35). Because of the disciples' longing for Jesus' return, they might fall prey to false messiahs so Jesus warned them not to go after them. When Jesus comes back, they need no one to announce it. Unlike Jesus' silent first coming that is known and witnessed only by a few people, His return will be universally observed with cosmic signs.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
— Revelation 1:7

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
— Matthew 24:30

“I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
“The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
— Joel 2:30-31

It will not be a slow progressive process of appearing like sunrise for His appearing will be swift and visible as lightning. But to set their expectations, the kingdom will not appear in the immediate future. Before they get excited with His glorious return He reminded the disciples that first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation as He predicted before.

“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”
— Luke 9:22

“Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”
— Luke 9:44

Jesus must first fulfill His priestly office of sacrificing Himself to atone for the sins of His people before He fulfill His kingly office. Otherwise there will be no humans in His kingdom as none will be worthy to enter. He must make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, before He can bring in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). For that to be fulfilled, the Messiah must be cut off or die (Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:8), be humiliated as the suffering servant (Isaiah 53; Hebrews 2:9) and exalted in His resurrection and ascension (Phil. 2:8-9; Acts 2:33; 1 Peter 1:21) having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet Hebrews 10:12-13). Jesus is currently in His throne in heaven at the Father's right hand. But on His return, “when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. (Matthew 25:31). 

Jesus, as the heir of David, as the second Adam, will sit on the throne of man, God's mediatorial kingdom on earth through the Davidic throne at Jerusalem, in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and the kingdom mandate to Adam. Then at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:10). Right now every knee might be bowing willingly in heaven and unwillingly in hades but certainly not every knee on earth, the battleground of the rebellion. But time will come when “The kingdom of the world 'will' become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Messiah will crush the rebellion on earth with its leader, Satan, imprisoned in the abyss (Rev. 20:2-3) And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one (Zechariah 14:9). So in all three places simultaneously, before the merging of heaven and earth in the New Creation, everyone, men and angels, will submit to Christ's Lordship whether they like it or not for a thousand years. 

And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
— Isaiah 9:6-7

Just like the days of Noah and Lot, Jesus' second coming is a period of judgment. People will go about their daily business of celebration, romance, commerce, agriculture, infrastructure and other usual human activity without regard to God. The present time between Jesus' first and second coming, the last days, is described by Peter as a time when people mock at the idea of God's judgment (2 Peter 3:3-7).

Some people believe the universe is the same since the beginning and will just continue the way things are as always. They will deliberately forget and ignore God's judgment in the past when He destroyed the earth through a global flood in the days of Noah and rained fire and brimstone on Sodom. So people will be caught unprepared when God's wrath is poured on earth. It will happen quickly without warning to get prepared that Jesus said there's even no time to salvage any belongings at home but people should waste no time to flee.

He used Lot's wife as an example case of someone attached to life in this world that she looked back at Sodom even when strictly warned not to do so. As a result she turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). Her physical body got out to safety but her heart is still left in Sodom which caused her to perish. In the same way, when Jesus comes to judge, people will be dispatched to our eternal destinies. Those who are caught unprepared, who haven't repented and trusted in the Savior, will be taken away in judgment. Those who are left will enter the Messiah's millennial kingdom. Jesus used a rapture-like snatching away into judgment illustration to demonstrate how believers and unbelievers who are related to one another in the flesh will be separated from each other eternally when judgment comes. Being together in one bed with a believing spouse or working together with a believer is no guarantee of safety. One must personally repent of his sins and trust in Jesus to be rescued from God's wrath.

The disciples asked where they will be taken to. And Jesus replied cryptically "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered". Probably a reference to Armageddon or Mount Megiddo, the place where Satan gathers his army for the final battle before Jesus establishes His kingdom.

for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
— Revelation 16:14

And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
— Revelation 16:16

An angel will summon flesh-eating birds to feast on the dead bodies of God's enemies when He slaughters them all.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.”
— Revelation 19:17-18

And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.
— Revelation 19:21

Not that all unbelievers will die in the same place but the main force of the rebellion will be gathered and crushed at the place called Armageddon. A terrifying end awaits those who wouldn't be part of God's kingdom. God demonstrates His judgment upon the earth like the global flood, Sodom's destruction, and the judgment that is to come upon the whole earth to assure us of the reality that there is a greater judgment, one that is eternal, the second death. Those who don't fear the first death ought to fear the second death, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14) where they will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night.”— Revelation 14:10-11

All people must be prepared for Christ's second coming for the day of the Lord will come like a thief. We shouldn't speculate it will not happen in our lifetime or we still have plenty of time left. We don't know when we will die and no one knows when Christ will come back. It can happen anytime. God's people must be busy doing kingdom work.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
— 2 Peter 3:9

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
— Titus 2:11-14