JESUS IS COMING AGAIN

Sermon of the Week 200901 – January 11, 2009

The entire ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ can be summed up in three verses from the sermon Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2:22-24: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of you, even as ye also know; Him, being delivered up by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay: whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death for it was not possible that He should be holden of it.”

The first word of the actual sermon was “Jesus of Nazareth”.  What better way to begin any message from the Word of God than the name ‘Jesus.’ Jesus of Nazareth is where it all began. Nazareth is the place where the angel Gabriel announced the coming of Jesus to the virgin, Mary, in Luke the first chapter, “Behold thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and thou shall call His name Jesus. The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing that is begotten of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

The story of the ministry of Jesus began with the virgin birth and ended about three years later with the great sign of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus spoke of it as a sign in Matthew 12:39 when the Pharisees asked Jesus to show them a sign from Heaven. Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Many regard the Jonah story as a myth, but Jesus believed it to be a true story, and He compared that actual historical event to His own resurrection from the dead. Jesus would certainly not use a myth as a sign of His own bodily resurrection from the dead. The scriptural account of Jonah being swallowed by the big fish for three days and three nights is just as true as the resurrection of Jesus after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

After His ascent into Heaven, the Church was started ten days later according to promise, and continues with us even unto this day. That in brief is the story of Jesus. However, there is something missing in the Biblical story of Jesus that leaves it hanging in the rarified air of the ascension incomplete, until the Lord returns on the clouds in His triumphant return.

So it was at the close of His ministry just before He went into the Garden of Gethsemane, that Jesus gave a final testimony to prepare us for His Second Coming and the importance of being ready for that event, in two parables beginning in Matthew 24:42-51. “Watch therefore: for you know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know this if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”

Many have made predictions as to the Lord’s return, and have set dates. Jesus said, “Ye do not know the day, and you do not know the hour.” And beyond that, Paul tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5:1, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ought be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.” So listen to that again, “You don’t know the hour, you don’t know the day, you don’t know the times, and you don’t know the seasons. You don’t know.”

In the meantime, there are two events we all need to be watching for. One is the return of Jesus on the clouds at the end of all time, and the other is the day of our death, which is the end of our time. One way or the other we will all meet the Lord either at the day of our death, or His return.

There are two scriptural examples of how long or short our time on earth can be. In Genesis 27:2 there is an illustration of how little we know about the moment we will leave this world. And it came to pass that Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, and he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, “My son,” and he said unto him, “Behold, here am I.” And he said, “Behold now, I am old; I know not the day of my death.” Isaac thought he would die any day because he was blind and old and he lived at least twenty-eight more years.

Then in Luke 12:20 Jesus told of a rich man who said, “I have much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But God said, “Thou fool, this night is thy soul required of thee, and the things that thou hast prepared, who’s shall they be?” Ye know not the hour, you know not the day, you know not the season, and you know not the time; however, when every hour, day, season, or time is gone, there is always eternity.

However, in the meantime we need to anticipate that wonderful day. In 2nd Peter 3:12, the Apostle said, “We should earnestly desire the coming of the Day of God.” John records in Revelation 22 where Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly,” and He said it twice. And then He said, “Surely I come quickly” which is the same as “I come surely.” Then John prayed, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” It was Paul who said in Titus 2:11-13, “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works.”

Peter said to desire the coming of the Lord,  John said he was praying for it, and Paul said that we should be looking for it.  For those of us who are anxious for the Lord’s return, we have some assurance in Hebrews 10:37, “For yet a little while, He that cometh shall come, and will not tarry.”

I had a friend who for many years in every letter I received from him signed his name under the statement “Perhaps today”. There is an important message in the game hide ‘n seek that children used to play. One kid closed his eyes, and counted five, ten, fifteen, twenty, on up to a hundred, and then said “Coming, ready or not.” Even so come, Lord Jesus.

And now the last part for final preparation is the parable, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath set over his household to render them their food in due season? Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord tarrieth; and shall beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”

There is a difference in the faithful servant, and the evil servant. The first is the difference in the two at the return of Jesus. For the faithful servant Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

That catching up of all the redeemed to meet the Lord in the air will be a great production. Hollywood could not possibly produce such a sight. It reminds me recently of a new roof I put on my house. I told the roofers to be careful when they tore off the old shingles, not to let the nails fall on the driveway to puncture my tires. They assured me it would not happen, and showed me what looked like a golf club with a magnet plate that picked up all the nails. That is the way it will be when the Lord returns. The magnetic power of His arrival will draw all the saints, alive or dead, unto Him. In the case of the magnet, it drew up only the nails, it did not draw up sand, stones, or rubbish; only nails. When the Lord returns His magnetic power will draw only the saints unto Him. His magnetic power will have no effect on those who have rejected the saving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If they were not drawn by the magnetic power of the cross, they will not be drawn when He comes again.

What a meeting that is going to be! There have been some great meetings in days gone by. I would like to have been at that meeting when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, and what a thrill to have heard the Gettysburg Address.

I would like to have attended that great meeting when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. What a great meeting it must have been that took place on Mars Hill when Paul preached to the wise men of Athens; some of us have been there, but Paul and the Athenians were long gone. What a great meeting took place on Mount Carmel when Elijah called down fire from Heaven; four hundred prophets of Baal were slain. And then think of that great meeting that took place on the Day of Pentecost when three thousand people responded to the gospel invitation, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” But the greatest meeting of all will be on that day when all the redeemed of the ages from many tribes and tongues and nations will meet Jesus in the rarified air of the heavens. That is one meeting none of us can afford to miss.

For the evil servant there is a big difference. Paul again tells us about the resurrection in 2nd Thessalonians 1:7, “At the revelation of the Lord Jesus with the angels of His power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance on them who know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of His might.”

As for the evil servant who said, “My Lord tarrieth, and shall begin to beat his servants and eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” Many members of the Lord’s Church even now are beating each other. Jeremiah 18:18 provides a good example of a beating that was given Jeremiah by his fellow servants, “Come now, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” Then there is Psalms 64:3 where David said to the Lord “Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked…who whet their tongues like a sword.” There may be many today who whet their tongues like a barber using a razor strap to whet his razor. Then in Psalms 15:3 David refers to the upright as a person who will not backbite with the tongue nor do evil toward his neighbor.

These hypocrites, the Lord tells us, shall be cut asunder. Cutting asunder seems to be a practice used in ancient times. In the great faith chapter of Hebrew 11:37 the trials of some of the great heroes of faith are mentioned. Some were stoned and some were sawn asunder. It is thought that Isaiah was one who was slain in this manner.

All of this may seem the ultimate in brutality, but I am not over-drawing the picture when we consider it is not nearly as horrible as the punishment of those who are eternally cut asunder from the fellowship of the saints in glory, and are cast into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That statement of Jesus concerning “cut asunder, cast into the outer darkness, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of the teeth” may seem to many a contradiction to the character of the compassionate Jesus; especially when we bring to mind many of the terms of mercy and compassion that Jesus said concerning Himself.

Jesus said in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another: even as I have loved you, that ye love one another.” John 15:9, “Even as the Father has loved Me, I have loved you, abide ye in My love.” John 15:12, “This is my commandment that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.” Matthew 20:28, “Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” With these inspired words of truth before us, it appears that Jesus is the most compassionate, loving person who ever walked the face of this earth. But when the tender-hearted Christ who loved us, and died on the cross for us, gives such a warning at the end of His ministry, His words have a horror about them that is far beyond our comprehension. But until that day when the promise of His return is fulfilled, Jesus still pleads with the unbelieving as He did in Jerusalem just before He went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, to His trial, and crucifixion, in Matthew 23:37-39. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! How often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.’”

And now this final thought: It was Paul who said in 1st Corinthians 16:22 as a parting greeting, “Maranatha”. Maranatha means ‘The Lord comes’. Early Christians used to greet each other with that thought. Maranatha-the Lord is coming. I have read this poem years ago and I like to use it:

Oh there is much to make us sad in this dark world of ours

The serpents trail is oft times seen amidst the fairest flowers

But we should never yield to grief, or falling helpless lie.

We will fling our banner to the wind and Maranatha cry

What though the hosts of hell are strong, and bold in what they say

The Lord of Hosts is on our side, we are sure to win the day.

The victor of the cross and tomb is seated now on high.

We will fling our banner to the wind and Maranatha cry.