Cornerstone Church February 24, 2013
“Expectant Living – The King is Coming”
Titus 2:11-14
“There is a story about a farmer who had a very close relationship with his dog, and when the old man died they took his body, put it in a coffin, and put it on the train. According to the story that I was told, this dog ran toward the train every single day when it came to the station. The dog was always hoping that the train that took his master away would eventually bring him back. We as God’s children should live each day with the same anticipation [expectantly looking for the LORD to return].”
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pg. 33, “The King is Coming: Preparing to Meet Jesus”
“When [George Ladd] was a freshman in college, he fell in love with a girl who three and a half years later became his wife. He knew the wedding day was more than three years away. There were intervals when they could not be together for months at a time and there were indeed lonely hours; but they both knew that the day would come when they would be together as man and wife and when their love would find its full realization in the formation of a home. If anyone suggests that this affection, even though it would not be brought to its normal fruition for more than three years did not exercise a continual and deep influence upon my life, [they] do not know what love is. During those years I had no serious interest in any other. I had given my love to one, there was no room for another.”
Dr. George Eldon Ladd, pg. 146, “The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture”
It has been said:
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Many of you here this morning can relate to missing someone that you deeply love:
* Miss someone taken by death:
* Your spouse
* A parent (father or mother)
* A Grandparent
* A child
* A sibling (brother or sister)
* Aunt or Uncle
* Niece or Nephew
* Miss the relationship of a wayward child who has gone their own way
* Miss a boyfriend, girl friend or fiancé
* Miss a spouse away on business or deployed by the military
* Miss a child away a college
* Miss a loved ones serving on a Missionary Field
* Miss a friend that has moved away or no longer connected to you
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:9-11 NIV
While the Disciples missed Jesus He had given them work to perform faithfully and passionately until He returned. It is called the Great Commission.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:19-20 NIV
They were not called to stay on the Mount of Olives looking up into the sky!
Doing God’s will is to flow out of a heart of love for God.
He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’’” Luke 10:27 NIV
He clearly means – All of us (mind, body, soul)
Because we love God we love what He loves!
God loves lost people!
For the past several weeks Pastor Jim has been teaching from the Book of Genesis.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Gen. 1:1 NIV
Before anything existed! God was!
Before time existed! God was!
Before people existed! God was!
A Good God created a beautiful and bountiful world and placed Adam and Eve in the midst of it to tend and care for the Garden of Eden.
Not only is there a beginning there is also an end. Eventually time on earth ends, eternity future begins (which has no end).
Eternity Future is where all is heading.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Rev. 22:13 NIV
Here is the final destination for those who have trusted Christ as their Savior:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Rev. 21:1-4 NIV
We live in the middle!
In the here and now we experience: sin, sickness, suffering, tears, groaning, trials, injustice and wickedness.
In the middle the same two problems plague all on planet earth:
* We are all sinners!
* We are all going to die
Praise the LORD! Jesus came to redeem us out of the brokenness in our lives and world, which are a result of the fall and the curse on the world.
In the middle we Christians can grow:
* Weary
* Discouraged
* Disillusioned
* Distracted
This is increasing more rapidly as morality went from a slide or decline to right off the cliff!
Christians in the early church faced even more difficulties that we do in our day and age and yet their testimony to the lost world was riveting and inviting.
* They were persecuted
* They were martyred
* They were marginalized
* In most situations they were not allowed to vote nor had the right to protest.
But they had JESUS!
They put their hope in Jesus and held on to Him with all of their heart, soul, strength and mind hoping in His future Kingdom and His future return!
I’m not saying that so we will become even more discouraged!
Wow, what a message that was! Pastor Rick called us a bunch of spiritual wimps!
Nor I am not saying we should hope and pray for persecution.
I am saying that we need to learn from their example and apply the same teachings from the word of God to our own lives!
We need to live with the same constant expectancy
that the King is Coming Again!
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Titus 2:11-14 ESV
OUTLINE:
GOD’S GRACE REDEEMED US – Titus 2:11, 14a
GOD’S GRACE REFORMED US – Titus 2:12, 14b
Negatively – Saying No to Ungodliness and Worldly passions
Positively – Saying Yes to Living Self-controlled lives
GOD’S GRACE REWARDS US – Titus 2:13
This outline was taken and adapted from Dr. Warren Wiersbe as found in his Bible Exposition Commentary
GOD’S GRACE REDEEMED US
Titus 2:11, 14a
These verses teach us how to live in the middle (here and now).
Paul looks back and has believers:
* Remember the Cross!
* Remember the first Advent of Christ – the Incarnation
For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people,
Titus 2:11 ESV
Appeared is from our word epiphany!
Appeared = “to become visible or to make an appearance”
Out of the darkness, the LORD Jesus Christ, appeared!
Imagine a pitch-black room with room-darkening blinds. Or standing in the middle of a cave without any light.
Then strike a simple match! Suddenly you could see in the room. Now think about the blackness of space and suddenly a super nova explodes before you with brilliant light!
Into our dark world of hopelessness and sin the LORD Jesus exploded with the brilliance of the entire universe!
Matt. 4:16 NIV “…the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
John 3:19 NIV This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
“…who gave himself for us to redeem us
from all lawlessness”
Titus 14a ESV
Redeem = “paying a price”
WHAT WAS THE PRICE HE PAID?
His life!
His Blood!
1 Pet. 2:24 NIV He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
Eph. 1:7 NIV In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Jesus by His Grace paid it all:
* To purchase our eternal salvation!
* In order for us to daily have forgiveness of sins!
* To supply the needed daily grace to overcome: trials, temptations and testings!
* For every prayer answered!
So our hope and our faith are increased as we look back to what Jesus did on the Cross.
GOD’S GRACE REWARDS US
Titus 2:13
“…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Paul also points the saints to look forward to the Second Coming of Christ
Is this “Hope Floats?”
Is this “Hope against Hope?”
Is this “Hope for the Best?”
Is this a Hail Mary pass in a football game?
No! This is an expectant hope! A certain hope!
the appearing of the glory of our
great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
He is the Blessed Hope!
Just as the LORD Jesus Christ fulfilled so many Old Testament Prophecies at His First Advent with 100% precision, so we can also place our hope and trust in His second coming! It is certain!
109 Major Prophecies exist about Christ’s First Coming. The Biblical records date back from 700 to 1500 years before Christ’s incarnation and they were completed 400 years before the birth of Christ.
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF ALL THIS SIMPLY COMING TO PASS?
Do the math!
Dr. Tim LaHaye worked the odds of 20 of the 109 prophecies being fulfilled in one man and here is what he found. The odds were 1 in 1 quadrillion, one hundred and twenty-five trillion.
1 in 1,125,000,000,000,000
Before Jesus came the first time it was all prophecy!
Before Jesus returns again it is all prophecy until it becomes reality!
Biblical Christianity holds to a personal, physical and literal
return of the LORD Jesus Christ to planet earth!
Christians can discuss and differ amongst us in love related to the nuances of End Time Events:
* The Rapture (whether it will happen or not and if so whether it is pre/mid/post
* The Millennium (pre-mill / post-mill / a-mill)
Glorified Jesus is Coming Again!
But attacks against Jesus’ Second Coming continue to rise!
Dr. John Piper writes: “We are prepared to hear Carl Sagan (the astronomer from Cornell) put the second coming of Christ in the same category with the cow that jumped over the moon. We understand that he has simply ruled out the meaningfulness of all religious language. It is not scientific. And so it is not real.”
Dr. John Piper – Sermon “Our Hope the Appearing of Jesus Christ”
But many of the attacks since the 1950’s are coming from within the halls of Seminaries throughout the world.
Dr. John Piper says, “It attacks Christianity at its very center”
“The center of Christianity is the coming of the Son of God into the world as a real man to destroy the works of the devil and create a new people for His own glory. The very heart of our faith is that he did this by obeying the law of God, dying for the sins of His people, rising victorious over death, ascending to God’s right hand with all His enemies under His feet. The second coming of Christ is the completion of His saving work. If you take it away, the whole fabric of His saving work unravels.”
Dr. John Piper – Sermon “Our Hope the Appearing of Jesus Christ”
Evangelical Free Church of America Statement of Faith point 9:
“We believe in the personal, bodily and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.”
Dr. Arnold T. Olson delivered a message in the 70’s at the Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy with leading Evangelicals on “The Second Coming of Christ”
Dr. James M. Boice, Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia had these observations:
In the New Testament:
* One verse in 25 deals with the Lord’s Return
* The Lord’s Return is mentioned 318 times in 260 Chapters
* Much of the OT Prophecy also deals with the Second Coming (Rule of the KING)
* In the NT only these books do not contain The Second Coming (Galatians, 2 and 3 John and Philemon)
Mark 8:38 NIV If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
GOD’S GRACE REFORMED US
Titus 2:12, 14b
“…training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives
in the present age”
Titus 2:12 ESV
Negatively – to renounce: Ungodliness and Worldly passions
Positively – to live: Self-controlled, Upright, Godly Lives
“and to purify for himself a people for his own possession
who are zealous for good works.”
Titus 2:14b ESV
Key Point: When Christians look back to the Cross and remember what Jesus did on the Cross to accomplish eternal salvation for those who believe and then look forward to His return (The Second Coming) it gives us the ability by the power of the Holy Spirit to live passionate, zealous and pure lives in this world as we will live in the Kingdom!
“Pessimism is out of place in the presence of the promises of God. As the saying goes, ‘We cannot talk about standing on the Rock of Ages and then act as if we were clinging to our last piece of Driftwood.”
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pg 26, “Where Do We Go From Here?”
Dr. Lutzer shares these “Five Unshakable Pillars”
* God still Reigns
* The Church is still precious
Chosen Race
Royal Priesthood
Holy Nation
* Our mission is still clear
Reach the lost
Disciple the saved
Show compassion to the hurting, hungry and homeless
* Our Focus is Still Heaven
* God Still Answers Prayer!
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, “Where Do We Go From Here?”
One of the greatest activities we need to be zealous about if we want to see the Second Coming of Christ is world evangelism (locally and globally).
Matt. 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
We do not need prophecy charts
We do not need to scan the newspapers daily trying to decipher some code
We need to be faithful and passionate about what God has told us to do – reach the lost!
“During the terrible Boxer Rebellion in China at the turn of the previous century (the leaders were so nicknamed because they practiced gymnastics and calisthenics), the ‘boxers” captured a mission station, then placed a flat cross on the ground. They gave instruction that those who trampled on the cross as they came out of the building would be set free; those who walked around the cross, honoring it, would be executed. The first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were released. But the eighth student, a young girl, knelt beside the cross and prayed for strength. Then slowly walked around the cross to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the more than ninety other students followed her to death. Did they win?”
Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pg 50, “Where Do We Go From Here?”
Ultimately – Yes!
Here are three important questions John Piper penned:
* Does your mind return frequently to the truth of Christ’s appearing?
* When your mind turns to the truth of His appearing, does your heart want it – is there an eagerness to see Him?
* Do you pray for His coming? Maranatha, praised the early church! Come, Lord Jesus
Dr. John Piper – Sermon “Our Hope the Appearing of Jesus Christ”
Living passionately and powerful in light of what Christ has done for you and because He is sovereign over all and Coming Again – (Physically and Personally)
Heb. 9:28 NIV so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
On Wednesday, Dr. Howard G. Hendricks went to be with Jesus at 88 years old
* A boy reached for Christ
* Married faithfully for 66 years
* 10 Children / Grandchildren
* Taught over 10,000 seminary students
* Chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys
* 23 Books
“You’re looking at a completely fulfilled human being. If I died today having produced some of the people God has given me the privilege of shaping, it will have been worth showing up on the planet.”
—Prof Hendricks to the Dallas Morning News, 2003
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2Tim. 4:8 NIV
Are you ready?
Are you longing for His Return?
the appearing of the glory of our
great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
He is the Blessed Hope!
MARANATHA – COME, LORD JESUS
