A message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, December 28, 2025.
We’re just a few days from the New Year, and the expectation that comes every New Year’s Eve. If you’re like me and my lovely bride, you’ll be watching New Year’s Rockin’ Eve at about five minutes before midnight (because we just can’t watch the entire show), and watch the big ball in New York’s Times Square light up while it drops during the countdown to midnight. Every year that we watch, we watch the celebration of the thousands of people as they play Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. At about 12:05, we turn off the television and go to bed. As much as we like acknowledging when the New Year is coming, once it gets here the anticipation is gone, and then it’s bedtime.
It’s like this for most of us. We look forward to upcoming events with anticipation, but once the event occurs, we may draw conclusions that lead to calling it a great experience or perhaps even a letdown. The medical term for this is Anticipatory Dopamine Theory.1 The simple definition for ADT is that when you or I look forward to an event or activity such as going shopping, planning a wedding, using social media, exercising, receiving a job promotion or attending a sporting event (unless it’s a Browns game), there is a dopamine rush that takes place before the event, and that rush subsides at its conclusion. Dopamine is a molecule in the brain that is associated with movement, attention, learning, and the brain’s pleasure and reward system.2 It’s a reminder for all of us that we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)!
It’s our nature to look forward to what is ahead. It’s how we are wired as human beings. Here are some Bible verses that encourage us to look to the future with hope and faith:
Philippians 3:13-14 ESV
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
John 14:1-3 NLT
1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Romans 8:23 NLT
And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
Believers in Jesus yearn for a very special day when we receive the promises of God and being in His presence. That special event is the return of Jesus Christ. And each one of us has a day in our future that guarantees seeing Him as follows:
1.) When we die, we will be in His presence.
2.) When Jesus calls His church (the believers) to Him (in the rapture).
3.) The Second Coming of Jesus on the Mount of Olives.
The great thing about the return of Jesus is that there will not be a letdown when it happens. We’re going to be in His glorious presence! No one is going to be in glory with Jesus saying, “Is this all there is?!” There’s no place like being in the presence of Jesus.
Let’s look at each of these three future events as to their relevance to each one of us and what they represent. It’s going to get a little personal if you are unsure about where you are relationally with Jesus.
1.) When we die, we will be in the presence of Jesus.
There is a longing, a yearning, a hope for something greater in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ, and unlike the non-believer in Jesus, there is an expectation that eternal life is the next phase after physical death.
In the following passage, Paul is providing encouraging words that accurately reflect what we encounter in our own bodies over time and up until we pass away. We want to experience what God has waiting for us. He goes into a fair amount of detail here:
2 Corinthians 5:4-8 NLT
4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
“We live by faith, not by sight” (v. 2 Cor. 5:7 NIV). Even as we anticipate spending eternity with our Lord and Savior, this is how we are to live all day and every day.
Paul readily acknowledges that these earthly bodies are temporary. They gradually break down, and every day that we live is one day closer to death. While we are alive, we still have a responsibility to fulfill our purpose for Jesus, but that doesn’t diminish the expectation that we will one day be with Christ. There is no downside here.
Philippians 1:20-25 NLT
20 For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. 21For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. 22But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. 23 I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. 24 But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.
25 Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.
According to Paul, those in Christ at death will depart from these earthly bodies and be with the Lord “clothed” in spiritual bodies (2 Corinthians 5:3 NLT).
2.) Jesus will meet us in the air in the rapture (calling out) of the Church.
The word “rapture” is not found in the Bible, but it is well explained within Scripture as an event that all believers of Jesus anticipate to the degree that many have proclaimed the words in Revelation 22:20: “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!” The word “rapture” comes from a Latin word that means “a carrying off, a transport, or a snatching away.”
There have been debates as to the timing of the rapture as to whether it occurs before or during the tribulation period, but in either case, it is the event where believers are “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air and move into eternal life with Him.3
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 NLT
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
These words are indeed encouraging. Here is another reference to the rapture from Paul with some additional information, especially since the doctrine of the rapture is not found in the Old Testament. This was a new teaching inspired by the Spirit:
1 Corinthians 15:50-55 NLT
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
This statement of “transformed bodies” is in line with what we can expect when we finally get to be with Jesus. We will have bodies just like His body:
1 John 3:2 NLT
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
I have heard a number of Bible teachers and pastors, including David Jeremiah and Les Feldick, share with their audience that it will not be long until Jesus comes back to get His church. I’m sure that they shared this because there is nothing written in Scripture that needs to take place BEFORE the event of the rapture. For our purposes, it is highly plausible that this generation will experience either death in Christ or the rapture event. We can rightly anticipate one or the other with the hope that we will be with Jesus. We don’t know the date, of course, but we do believe that the rapture of the Church (or all believers in Jesus Christ throughout the world) will happen “in the twinkling of an eye.” Be encouraged by these words.
3.) The Second Coming of Jesus (on the Mount of Olives).
It’s a little strange to refer to Jesus’s Second Coming as just that when He is going to come and get His church in mid-air during the rapture. In fact, some have tried to argue that the rapture and the Second Coming are indistinguishable. It comes down to consistencies in Scripture that reveal these are two different events. The distinct difference is provided in Old Testament and New Testament prophecy.
Zechariah 14:4 NLT
On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.
Acts 1:9-12 NLT
9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.
The key difference is the reference to the Mount of Olives. Jesus will return as a judge when He puts His feet on the ground to put forth the groundwork to assume His earthly Kingdom.4 Jesus’s Second Coming will be a welcome event as it will happen in a designated timeframe following the rapture of the Church. Before His appearance, the earth will be in tremendous turmoil. Jesus, in His own words, describes the period of tribulation:
Matthew 24:9-14, 21-22, 29-31 NLT
9 “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. 10 And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. 11 And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. 12 Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.
21 For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. 22 In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones.
29 “Immediately after the anguish of those days,
the sun will be darkened,
the moon will give no light,
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
30 And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
These passages summarize the return of Jesus, but not as a Savior. He is returning as a Judge. There will be “deep mourning” because those who do not have a relationship with Jesus will recognize that they are about to meet their demise. Those who know Jesus will be kept safe upon His return, but the majority of those left on the earth will be taken away.
Matthew 24:44 NLT
You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.
But the person who believes in Jesus does not need to be concerned about being in the midst of this coming disaster.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Romans 8:1-2 NLT
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
The clear message here is that Jesus is indeed returning, and according to Scripture, he is coming back very soon.
Don’t leave the return of Christ to chance. Perhaps this is the moment for you to make a New Year’s Resolution to start the New Year in the presence of Jesus and receive His gift of salvation.
Romans 10:9-10 NLT
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
That’s all that you need to do. He’s coming very soon indeed.
Copyright © 2025 Melvin Gaines.
1 Kaul, O. (n.d.). Understanding anticipatory dopamine theory: A simple guide. GIPS Hospital. https://www.gipshospital.com/understanding-the-anticipatory-dopamine-theory-a-laymans-guide
2 Dopamine – Wiktionary, The free dictionary. Wiktionary. (n.d.). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dopamine
3 Houdmann, S. M. (2014, September 25). What is the rapture of the church?. GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/rapture-of-the-church.html
4 Houdmann, S. M. (2006, March 22). What is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?. GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/second-coming-Jesus-Christ.html
Melvin Gaines 