OPEN: Several years ago Johnny Carson had Billy Graham as a guest on his show. At one point there was a lull in the conversation and Johnny said, "You know what Billy, I bet if Jesus ever came back to earth, I bet we’d do him in again!"
Billy Graham leaned forward in his seat, and said,
"In the Bible we read that Jesus predicted that He would return to earth again. But the first time He came in love. The next time, He’ll come in power - and no one will DO Him in!"
Jesus is coming again!
And when He comes the 2nd time, He’ll be coming in power.
And He’ll come prepared for war
The Apostle John – in Revelation 19 - describes it this way:
“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no-one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron sceptre.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16
ILLUS: My kids are reading their way through Revelation this year. I take each of them out for a special breakfast at the restaurant of their choice (Jonathan’s is McDonalds and Naomi likes Arbys), and this past week, as Naomi was reading out of chapter 6 which talked about the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse and all the devastation they would bring, I asked Naomi what she’d read.
She made a very astute observation: “When Jesus comes – you want to be on His side.”
You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the battle when Jesus comes the 2nd time.
Because Jesus is coming again!
And when He comes, He’ll come in power. And no one will DO Him in!
It’s a repeated theme throughout the Bible: Jesus is coming again.
In Matthew 26:64 Jesus told the High Priest and Sanhedrin:
“I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Jude tells us "The Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Jude 14 & 15
And Paul tells Timothy: “I charge [you] therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom” 2 Timothy 4:1
When Jesus comes again, He’s coming in power.
He’s coming with 1000s upon 1000s of angels.
And He’s coming in judgment.
In fact, II Peter 3 tells us that when He comes “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” 2 Peter 3:10
Everything will be destroyed.
This world that we know is being “reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7
When Jesus comes again – you want to be on His side.
But there are people who don’t believe this is going to happen.
And II Peter says as much.
In verses 3 & 4 we’re told “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4
ILLUS: Several years ago, a survey was taken of some of the Bible Seminaries in America. What they found was devastating: only 3% of graduates from those seminaries believed that Jesus was coming back.
Graduates of Bible College Seminaries?
Why on earth would they reject something that’s such an obvious teaching out of Scripture?
Well, because in the Seminaries that they attended, the teachers were evil men. Those teachers had no faith in God’s Word. When they taught, they scoffed at God’s promises and destroyed the faith of their students.
The 2nd coming of Christ is one of the most basic and powerful promises in Scripture. And without that promise we have no hope in this world.
Paul declares in I Thessalonians:
“We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore encourage each other with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:14-18
Encourage one another with these words! Why?
Because there will be no resurrection from the dead if Jesus doesn’t come again.
If He doesn’t come down – we’re not going up.
The promise of our resurrection from the dead is directly tied to the 2nd Coming of Jesus. Without the promise of Christ’s return, there is no encouragement for us and there’s no hope of our own physical resurrection from the dead.
(pause)
Revelation 19 tells us that Jesus is coming prepared for war.
• He’s riding a white horse
• Coming to dispense judgment and war
• There’s a sharp sword coming from His mouth
• He’s leading the armies of heaven
• And they’re all coming - to dispense the wrath of an almighty God.
He’s coming to make war.
And every war has certain strategies.
When Jesus comes to make war there are a couple of strategies He’ll employ
His 1st strategy is patience.
Wars are lost by generals who are impatient.
A good military leader waits until the time is right.
He picks his battlefield carefully and watches to see how His enemy responds.
God is patient.
When Jesus was sent to earth the first time, God patiently waited until the time was right. Galatians 4:4 says “… when the time had fully come, God sent his Son…”
God spent hundreds of years setting the stage for Jesus’ first coming.
And II Peter tells us God is going to be just as patient setting the stage for the 2nd coming. When God promised that Jesus would come a second time, 2 Peter 3:9 tells us:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient…”
ILLUS: Now, that patience by God can be unnerving… even to Christians. I once read the story about a preacher was pacing the floor like a caged lion. One of friends asked him "What’s the trouble?".
The preacher replied: "The trouble is that I am in a hurry. But God isn’t."
If God’s patience is unnerving to God’s servants, you can imagine how hard it is on Satan.
He doesn’t know when God’s coming at him.
He doesn’t know when God’s gonna do what He’s gonna do.
In fact, Peter says: “… the day of the Lord will come like a thief." 2 Peter 3:10
Jesus has no intention of letting Satan know WHEN He’s coming.
It’s called the element of surprise.
ILLUS: Ever since I was a young man, TV evangelists and Christian writers have made a fairly good living telling us when Jesus is going to come again. They’ve got charts and graphs and a time table that makes you think they know exactly how it’s going to go down.
Ever since the church began, folks have been setting dates.
“This is the year is coming back!” they’ll say.
The first recorded prediction was 381 A.D.
Then there was 500 A.D.
Then 1000 A.D.
A friend of Martin Luther liked 1533
The great scientist Isaac Newton predicted 1715 AD.
And Jehovah Witnesses have predicted His coming several times including 1844 & 1914.
ILLUS: During my first ministry a man wrote a book “88 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming in 1988”. Guess what? Didn’t happen. So the next year, he wrote a sequel: “89 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming In 1989”.
It didn’t sell nearly as well as his first book.
Now I appreciate the fervor of these folks.
They agree with John when he wrote: “Come Lord Jesus” Revelation 22:20.
But whenever someone tells you they’ve got the 2nd Coming all figured out, just smile. And don’t buy their books. You’ve got better use for your money than that.
If it were as easy to understand as these preachers tell us Satan would have had it all figured out a long time ago. But when Jesus comes again… it will be like a thief in the night.
It will be as much a surprise to Satan the 2nd time as it was the 1st time Jesus came to earth.
So Jesus’ first strategy is patience.
And His second strategy involves us.
Jesus calls for us to prepare the way for His coming.
Look with me to 2 Peter 3:11-12
“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and SPEED ITS COMING. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”
Hmmm. Speed its coming?
How could we do that?
ILLUS: About 15 yrs ago, I got a flyer in the mail from an “evangelist” who was bragged that he had started a riot in Jerusalem because he’d laid a stones to mark the location of a new temple. He bragged it was his hope that he might start a war that would herald in Jesus’ 2nd Coming.
The guy was an idiot.
But now, where would he get such a silly idea?
He got it from a number of “theologians” who believe that the Temple has to be rebuilt, and sacrifices need to be offered to God on the altar, before Christ can come again.
Apparently there’s a “Temple Institute” that operates a small museum in Jerusalem. They have carefully reproduced the robes the Old Testament priests would have worn along with the trumpets, harps, and lyres the Levites would have played in worship. The goal of the institute is not only to restore the Temple itself but to reinstate the priestly castes, clerical rule, and animal sacrifice that characterized the nation of Israel.
Now, I can tell you – that’s not how we’re going to “speed” Christ’s 2nd coming.
If these folks would just think for a minute, they’d realize how foolish this idea is. The Temple was destroyed in 70 AD in fulfillment of prophecy.
It was destroyed – partly as a judgment against the Jews.
But the major reason God permitted it to be leveled was so there would be no more animal sacrifices.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament were principally focused on forgiveness of sins. But God doesn’t need to those sacrifices anymore.
Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
He was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
The temple, the altar, and the earthly priesthood are no longer necessary because Jesus fulfilled the need they were designed meet.
The belief of many “theologians” – that a New Temple will herald in Christ’s 2nd coming - is based upon a misinterpretation of a few Bible texts.
But a new Temple will not be part of God’s plan in His 2nd coming. In fact, this is not what Peter tells us will speed Christ’s coming anyway.
But if rebuilding the Temple won’t hasten Christ’s coming, then what will?
II Peter 3:11 & 12 tells us: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming...”
God doesn’t need an earthly temple rebuilt because He already has a Temple. What Temple does God inhabit now?
That’s right - you and I are His temple
1 Corinthians 3:17 tells us “… God’s temple is sacred, and YOU are that temple.”
Peter’s telling us that God wants His Temple (of believers) to live holy and godly lives.
It is our holiness and godliness that lays the groundwork that God’s ultimate strategy.
And what is that strategy?
We spoke earlier about the fact that God is patient, but we didn’t focus on why He is patient: “... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
God’s ultimate strategy is to save as many in this world as He can.
And we are the troops He uses to get that done.
Our holiness and godliness will be seen in how we treat the guy bagging our groceries down at the supermarket. In how we treat the teller at the bank. Or the person who cuts us off in traffic. Or in how we treat one another. John 13:35 tells us that’s how people will know we are His disciples. It’s by that kind of holiness and godliness that God intends of us to make our faith so attractive to the people around us that they want what we have.
Now I don’t know how that will work in helping speed His coming, but when we do our job right that will be the result.
CLOSE:
So we know that Jesus is coming again
AND we know that when He comes, we want to be on His side.
We want to be ready!
But if we don’t know when that 2nd Coming will occur, how will we know when to be ready?
ILLUS: Charles Swindoll once told of working in a machine shop alongside a fellow named George. George’s job was to sweep and clean out the shavings underneath the lathes and machines. Swindoll says George was born again, and he loved the teaching of Scripture on prophecy.
“I remember hearing him sing hymns as he worked. Many of them had to do with the coming of Christ, such as "In the Sweet By and By" and "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder."
Late one Friday afternoon about 10 minutes to quitting time when we were all weary, I looked at George and said, "George, are you ready?"
He said "Uh-huh."
But he was all dirty. He was just obviously not ready. I said, "Aren’t you ready to go home?"
He said, "Yeah, I’m ready."
I said "Look at you! Man, you’re not ready. You’ve gotta go clean up."
"No," he said, "let me show you something."
So he unzipped his coveralls and underneath were the neatest, cleanest clothes you can imagine. He had them all ready. All he did when the whistle blew was just unzip and step out of that coverall, walk up, and punch his clock and he was gone.
He said, "You see, I stay ready to keep from gettin’ ready - just like I’m ready for Jesus!"
So, are you ready for Christ’s coming?
Have you believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?
Have you accepted the fact that you are a sinner and that you need to turn away from those sins?
Have you confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
Have you been buried in the waters of Christian baptism and risen up a new creature?
And, have you determined to live your life for Him, doing you level best to live a holy and godly life that will please Him and make those around you want Him as much as you do?
