Essential Truths - The Return Of Jesus Christ Series

Essential Truths - Jesus Christ, His Return - February 24, 2019 Sermon for Church at the Mission

Today we come to the final message on God the Son. If you’ve been tracking with us you know that we are in the midst of a series, “Essential Truths: The Triune God”.

We looked in some depth for a month or so into God the Father, and today we wrap up our look in to God the Son.

We started, if you’ll recall, by looking at the Pre-existent Christ, or the logos, then Pastor Jan spoke on the incarnation of Jesus.

Last week Hannah Kim spoke on Jesus Christ in Redemption, and today we will bring our messages In this series on God the Son to a finale by looking into a particular promise of Jesus - that promise is that He will return one day.

Between His time on earth when He was here, taught us about God, did many miracles and then was crucified, buried and rose from the dead; between that time in history and the time coming soon when He does finally return, He has been busy.

He’s been busy on behalf of the church doing at least 2 things.

Romans 8:34 says “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us”.

“After Jesus ascended to heaven and was seated at the right hand of God the Father He returned to the glory He had before His incarnation (Jn 17:5) to carry on His role of King of kings and Lord of lords—His eternal role as the second Person of the triune God.

“While this old earth continues to be “won” for Christ, Jesus is the Advocate for Christians, meaning He is our great Defender.

This is the intercessory role He currently fulfills for those who are His (1 Jn 2:1). Jesus is always pleading our case before the Father, like a defense lawyer on our behalf.

“Jesus is interceding for us while Satan (whose name means “accuser”) is accusing us, pointing out our sins and frailties before God, just as he did with Job (Job 1:6-12).

“But the accusations fall upon deaf ears in heaven, because Jesus’ work on the cross paid our sin debt in full; so, God always sees in His children the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

“When Jesus died on the cross, His righteousness (perfect holiness) was given to us, attributed to us - imputed is the $10 theological word - to us, while our sin was imputed to Him at His death.

This is the great exchange Paul talks about in 2 Cor 5:2: “21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”.

That took away our sinful state before God, so God can accept us as blameless before Him”. https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-interceding.html

That’s a lot to say, and honestly we could do a year-long sermon series on this topic alone, but we likely won’t.

That’s one thing Jesus has been doing for us, interceding for us. That means Jesus, seated at the right hand of God, has you on His mind.

He is working for you in a great many ways here on earth - to complete the good work He has begun in your life, but also to defend you, to plead your case before the Father.

And Jesus wants us to understand that even beyond interceding for us, He is working for us. He is making a place for you in heaven, God’s home, which is our inheritance as followers of Jesus.

So another thing Jesus has been doing is making a place for you in heaven. In John 14 Jesus says:

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus is currently making a place for you in heaven.

So, this is pretty amazing actually. We could have easily spent a whole message on what Jesus is doing between His resurrection and the time that He returns. Perhaps another time.

But all this is being told to us for a few reasons: A. It’s True and B. It’s reeeeeally encouraging.

As believers in Jesus, as followers of Christ, we are, as the Bible says, the adopted children of God.

Because of that, we have a home with God. In Christ.

What does it mean that we’re adopted? Really briefly, a few verses on this: