In the previous verses we saw that if there are people pretending to be Christ during the great tribulation, they are deceivers. The Messiah is not in the land, He is outside. The wait is on for His appearance and when He comes it will be abundantly clear that it is Him and no one else.
27 For just as the lightning goes out from the east and appears to the west, so will the presence of the Son of Man be.
lightning bolt
Here are a number of things that are important. The coming of the Lord is compared to a flash of lightning. As suddenly and quickly as lightning comes, so will He appear. And it will be clear that this is not a false Christ, as there were seducers in the previous period who claimed to be the Christ.
spiritual body
Here the resurrected Christ appears with a resurrection body. Of the angel of God who is at the sepulcher on the day of the resurrection, we read: and his appearance was like lightning, and his garment white as snow (Matt.28:3). The glory of a spiritual body is evident from the light it radiates and when the Lord appears this will be visible.
from the east
It also says “as the flash of lightning goes out from the east.” The Lord will come from the east. For He will set His feet on the Mount of Olives, which is east of Jerusalem. Earlier in this series we have referred several times to Zechariah 14, which describes the time of the end of the great tribulation and where the armies of the nations will be gathered to Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14
1 Behold! the day of Yahweh is coming, and your spoil will be divided among you.
2 And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle. And the city shall be conquered, and the houses shall be plundered, and the women shall be violated. And half of the city will go out into deportation, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
called upon the name of YAHWEH
Zechariah 13:9, but also many other prophecies, show that the portion of the people that are left will call on the name of YAHWEH. In their extremity and in their distress (Jer.30:7). Then the Lord will appear.
Zechariah 14
3 Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as He fought before in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives, which is over the face of Jerusalem on the east side.
And the Mount of Olives will be split in the middle eastward and westward,
into an extremely large ravine. And one half of the mountain will turn toward the north, and the other half toward the south.
all the saints with Him
The Lord will come in glory from the east. Zechariah 14:5 also mentions that He will appear, and all the saints with Him. It is usually explained that the Lord appears with a host of angels, but angels are not called saints anywhere in the Hebrew Bible.
They are believers who are referred to by Paul as saints (e.g. Rom.1:7; 1 Cor.1:2; Eph.1:1).
The Head, Christ Jesus, will appear there with His body, the ecclesia. After all, Paul says when he spoke about the moment of the snatching: away and so shall we always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17).
Colossians 3
4 When Christ is revealed, who is our life, then you too
be revealed together with Him in glory.