THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST (2 Thess 1:7-10) A. We want to consider a subject that is of vital importance to Daily Disciples. 1. What is the first thought, the motivation behind your desire to follow Christ? a. Your love for Christ? Yes! But isn t also that He is coming to meet you face to face? A. Jesus was the spiritual Rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness (1 Cor 10:4). 1. The comparison is to the actual rock from which God provided them the refreshing water, which kept them alive in the wilderness (Exo 17:6). 2. But we don t usually think of that event as the actual coming of Jesus Christ, anymore than we consider the Lord s appearance to Adam or Abraham the actual coming of Christ. B. God has revealed to us the spectacular events of Jesus is coming again. B. He Came From Heaven. 1 1. For us to contemplate those matters is an extremely serious task. [To begin with, I d like for us to notice the different ways in which our Lord is said to have already COME.] I. THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST Luke 1:35 And the angel answered & said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, & the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born [coming] will be called the Son of God. John 1:14 the Word became flesh & dwelt among us Phil 2:6-7 Jesus, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, & coming in the likeness of men.
C. He Came In Judgment On Jerusalem. Matt 24:30, 34 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, & then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, & they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power & great glory 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place (see also Matt 26:64). D. He Came To Establish His Kingdom. Matt 16:28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." Mark 9:1 He said to them, Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present [come] with power. (Acts 1:8) 2. No, what we think about, as Daily Disciples of Christ, in regard to the coming of Jesus Christ, is often called His SECOND COMING (Heb 9:28)! E. He WILL Come In The Future. Matt 16:27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, & then He will reward each according to his works. Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of Me & My words in this adulterous & sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Luke 9:26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, & in His Father's, and of the holy angels. [It is THAT coming of Christ that is our main focus & motivation as Daily Disciples of our Lord Jesus.] II. WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE? 2
A. A Visible Return. Rev 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, & every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. 8 I am the Alpha & the Omega, the Beginning & the End, says the Lord, who is & who was & who is to come, the Almighty. (Acts 1:11) 1. There will be no secret whisking away of the righteous as taught in the Rapture theory. 2. When you die, the Lord takes your spirit away from your body (Jas 2:26; Ecc 12:7). Your spirit is alive & awake, but your body is at rest. 3. At the resurrection, the Lord changes everything about that body at rest; He transforms it. C. A Transforming Return. B. A Resurrection Return. 1 Thess 4:16-17 For the Lord Himself will descend [come] from heaven with A SHOUT, with the voice of an archangel, & with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive & remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. John 5:28-29 For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear HIS VOICE & come forth those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, & those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 1. Do you know what the word resurrection means? A revival from inactivity & disuse. Phil 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord J. Christ, [to come] 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, (1 Cor 15:42-43). 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; & it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed [comes], we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1. Is there any wonder that a Daily Disciple is so motivated by the Coming of the Lord? 2. The longer you serve Him the more anxious you will be to break loose from this mortal shell & live in the building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor 5:1). 3
D. A Judgment Return. Matt 25:31-34, 41 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, & all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. [King becomes Judge] 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, & He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil & his angels (John 12:48; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor 5:10; Luke 19:12-15; Jude 14-15). Trinity was the code name of the first nuclear weapons test of an atomic bomb. This test was conducted by the US Army on July 16, 1945 at the White Sands Proving Ground (missile range), near Alamogordo, NM. All human life was removed from the test site, but hundreds of people in the Tularosa Basin thought the world had come to an end. Jim Madrid was 13 years old on that day. He witnessed the blast from his mother's car. The fireball was "the biggest thing I had ever seen. It was rolling, getting fatter & bigger & taller. My mother said: The sun is coming close. The world is coming to an end. She told me to drop to my knees, but I kept looking. If it was the end of the world, I wanted to see it. I was waiting for God to come out from around the ball of fire. 4 1. Are you looking forward to a time when wrongs will be righted? When true justice prevails? 2. Since we have committed so much of the wrong ourselves, I pray that we may find mercy from God on that day those who have been Daily Disciples of Christ will find mercy (2 Tim 1:15-18). E. An Unknown Return. Matt 25:13 (ten virgins) Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. 1. The coming of the Lord will be a worldwide event with a similar effect on human beings; though it will happen much quicker & the fallout will be much more widespread & painful. 2. But a few, a very few, expect His coming, though the time is unknown so they watch. 3. Daily Disciples are always watching for the coming of Christ; they are anticipating it, just like those who waited & observed the atomic blast. F. A Destructive Return.
2 Peter 3:3-4, 10-12 scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 & saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, & the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth & the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct & godliness, 12 looking for & hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, & the elements will melt with fervent heat? G. A Happy Return. 1 Cor 15:23-24 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule & all authority & power. In the OT, the High Priest entered the most holy place annually with the blood of the sacrifice to sprinkle on the mercy seat between the cherubim, while the people anxiously awaited his return. Heb 9:27-28 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear [come] a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. John 14:3 If I go & prepare a place for you, I will come again & receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 2 Thess 1:10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints & to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed Luke 12:37-38 (faithful & evil servant) Blessed [Happy] are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself & have them sit down to eat, & will come & serve them. 38 & if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, & find them so, blessed are those servants. H. The Last Return. CLOSING A. The opening passage that was read tells us that there is something you must do in preparation for the Coming of Christ. 1. You must obey the gospel of Christ: a. Believe it (Mark 16:15-16). b. Repent (Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30). c. Confess your faith in Him (Matt 10:32; Rom 10:9-10). d. Be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your past sins (Acts 2:38; 2:47; Eph 5:23). 5