“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Paul taught that we should be encouraging each other with the promise of Jesus’ return. Importantly, he didn’t suggest we encourage each other with theories and minute details or timetable of Jesus’ return. Just that He’s coming back and we’re going to be with Him forever. This is a comfort and encouragement to those who have lost loved ones as well as anyone who’s “getting up there in age”. It’s also encouraging perspective for those who are facing trials and disappointments.

Whether He returns in our lifetime or not, Jesus’ return is promised… it’s going to happen. Probably not the way we’re expecting (after all, Jesus’ first coming to earth was unlike what even the most learned of that day expected). But He’s coming back. This encourages us to keep going, to hope in times of tribulation, to run the race when perseverance is needed (Heb 12:1).

It also encourages us to be ready for Jesus who is coming back. I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable of the ten young ladies (Matt 25:1ff), five of whom were ready with an extra measure of oil and five who had either not expected so long a wait or had not cared whether they had their lamps burning at all.

We will be caught up to be with him, or, if we die before he comes, we will be raised up from the dead to meet him in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. If we had even an inkling of what that means (and the Bible gives us more than an inkling), we’d be totally encouraged.

At different times in Christian history there has been a lot of focus on the teaching of the Jesus’ return. Sometimes the teachings have been taken to excess. Others have taught conjecture as fact. Despite Jesus’ clearly words that no one will know the exact time and date of His return (Acts 1:7) it is not uncommon for some teachers to actually give dates and times.

The unhappy consequence of this kind of wrong teaching is that many Christians, with a desire to separate themselves from such irresponsible teachers, avoid the topic of Jesus’ return altogether. As a result they don’t follow Paul’s teaching “to encourage each other with these words.” But when we ignore the reality that Jesus may return at any moment, we can lose a sense of anticipation, hope, urgency and most especially eternal perspective. His return can’t encourage us because we’ve become fixated on the here-and-now—which isn’t very encouraging much of the time.

The point of teaching the return of Jesus is to encourage us. Whatever we’re going through, Jesus has a plan to return… He may implement that plan any moment. That’s encouraging.