Living In Light Of His Return

One night many years ago, when we lived in central Illinois, Beth had a meeting at church. As our daughters and I watched her get ready, we noticed she was leaving with two delicious desserts. When we couldn’t get her to give us some beforehand, we pleaded with her to bring some home after the meeting. She promised she would.

As the night went on, the girls repeatedly asked me, “Dad, when’s mom coming home?” After sunset, the questions crescendoed. I told them I wasn’t sure of the exact time, but I knew she was going to come. At about 8:30, the troops became very restless, so we went outside to wait for her. No one had shoes on, and some of us were in our pajamas (you can tell I was in charge that night).

At first, we sat on the front porch eagerly watching the street for signs of her coming. Then, the girls started doing cartwheels in the grass. Eventually, one of them got out her pogo stick and we all tried jumping on it. The girls laughed hard when I attempted to hop around. The later it got, the more distracted we became. We were so focused on having fun, they stopped asking about mom.

Megan (our youngest) was tired so I put her to bed (I did this so I could eat her portion of the dessert). About 9:20, Beth rolled into the driveway. She was startled to see us outside in our pajamas and we were delighted to finally get our dessert.

The second coming of Jesus is a bit like this. We know He’s coming but we don’t know when. While many of us are filled with eager expectation, several of us are distracted by diversions, and some of us have fallen asleep.

I pray God will shake us out of our spiritual slumber since the coming of Christ will be sudden and unexpected. After hearing all these great messages last night and today, here’s a closing charge: The closeness of Christ’s coming should cause us to walk closely with Him today.

I want to direct us to 1 John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming.” I see four forceful imperatives from this verse.

1. An urgent appeal to be alert. In context, this text urges believers to be alert for antichrists during the end times. Let’s consider the first two words: “And now…” While the word “and” connects us to what came before, the word “now” emphatically calls us to the present, to the here and now. That’s why in most of our translations this verse introduces a new paragraph. The Apostle John is saying something like this: “At this critical and crucial time, here’s what you need to do right now.”

That’s why we called this conference, “Living Now in Light of Forever.” We’ve learned a lot of details, but we want to make sure this affects our discipleship because the aim of prophecy is always pastoral and practical. While we want to know the “when” and “what” questions, in Luke 18:8 Jesus focuses on “who” we need to be and “how” we should live in light of His return: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

Prophecy is not designed to satisfy our curiosity but to sanctify our character. Ultimately, the question is not when Jesus will return but what will we do before He gets here. A focus on the future must fortify our faith today.

To say it another way, let’s focus on being faithful and let God handle the end of the world! How many of you like the Andy Griffith show? Recently, I saw a meme of Opie talking to Andy while they’re both sitting on a log. Opie has a serious look on his face and asks, “Pa, when is Jesus coming back?” Sheriff Andy thinks for a moment and answers, “I don’t rightly know Opie. Ya see, we’re not on the planning committee. We’re on the welcoming committee.”

The closeness of Christ’s coming should cause us to walk closely with Him today.

2. An affectionate call to abide. Notice how tenderly John addresses His readers by calling them, “little children.” This is a term of pastoral and parental affection addressing believers of every stage and age. Some translations use, “My dear children.”

With earnest tenderness, we’re urged to “abide in Him.” This is one of the Apostle John’s favorite terms, used some 24 times in this book. “Abide” is an old English word which means, “to remain” or “stay.” A few translations use the word “continue.” Abiding in Jesus is not meant to be passive, but to be an active purifying of our lives as we pursue holiness. It’s the idea of constantly remaining in a deep and intimate relationship with God or as one commentator says, “to be permanently at home with the Lord and for the Lord to be at home with you.”