On things unseen this week we've been reflecting together on the return of the Lord Jesus.

And we've been deliberately trying to focus our attention not on the details, the chronology

and the geography, but on the Lord Jesus himself.

And actually aspects of his return that aren't obscure or controversial.

Because there is much about Christ's return that's still mysterious to us.

The great biblical scholar Girhardt's voice was surely right when he wrote that there

are prophecies about Christ's return in Scripture whose best and clearest exegesis will actually

be only their fulfillment. Only then will everything be clear to us.

So it's wise to be modest in our statements and to focus on the main things.

And as the Westminster Confession reminds us the main things about our salvation are usually

fairly clearly stated in Scripture often in several places. And it's important for

us to have that in mind as we've seen.

Jesus prayed before his crucifixion that all of his people would in the future be with

him to see his glory. I think you can understand why he wanted that, even from a human point

of view. After all his closest friends the apostles had been and would be with him through

the days of his suffering and see him in the depth of his humiliation. And they would

come to taste suffering for Jesus themselves. So of course he wanted them to see him in his

glory and in his triumph. And Jesus wants the same for us too. Because there's a sense in which

most of us, probably all of us, have actually seen and experienced Jesus being humiliated by others

and we've been humiliated with him. And that's one of the things that makes us long to see him

as he really is on that day. And if we ask the question, well then how will Jesus come?

The central answer is he'll come gloriously. And there are three New Testament words that express

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