“The Parousia Protocols”
Acts 1:1-11
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Intro: Usually when you hear a message about the second coming of our Lord the focus is on the signs and sounds that will precede His return. I’m not going to spend any time debating whether He is coming again or when it might happen; the Scriptures declare that He is and that is our assurance of coming. This morning I want to share what the Word of God has to say about what will happen at His return. The return of the Lord will set in motion the last series of events in human history. It will have a ripple effect just like a stone thrown into a pond would create a series of ripples leading away from where the stone entered the water.
I. The Resurrection
In Acts 23:6 we read: "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question."
Paul expressed a hope that has sustained man through the ages of time - that there is to be a resurrection from the dead. Job, from the agony of a decaying body, could cry, "If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to work of thine hands" (Job 14:14-15). As his condition worsened his hope but deepened: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25-26).
When David was compassed by the wicked, lurking secretly as greedy lions of prey, his hope of a resurrection defied the temporal threat. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness" (Psalm 17:15).
In the New Testament Jesus held forth this hope in unmistakable terms: ". . . The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 3:25). Again, "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more: but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). Such a hope sustained Martha in the tragic loss of her brother: "Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24); and Paul could affirm amidst increased persecution and imminent martyrdom, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1-2).
The case for A GENERAL RESURRECTION OF BOTH RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED
While some would separate the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked by a thousand-year period, and others would say, ". . . There is no resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor. 15:12); nevertheless, the Scriptures affirm a general and simultaneous resurrection of both. Jesus taught, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28-29).
Further proof of a general rather than a separate resurrection of the just and unjust is seen from the fact that both classes will be raised and judged at Christ's second coming. The Christian dead will be raised to be with the Lord: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:15-17).
www.thebible.net
II. The Reckoning
At this same coming the wicked will be raised to everlasting shame and contempt: "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day" (2 Thess. 1:7-10).
As Jesus portrays the judgment scene at his second coming, let it be observed that all are present. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. 25:31-32).
UNBELIEVERS AT THE SECOND COMING
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Victorian preacher, said in a sermon entitled ‘Secret sins’ preached in 1857: "When Christ comes a second time, there will be a marvellous change in the way men talk. Me thinks I see him; there he sits upon his throne. Now, Caiaphas, come and condemn him now! Judas! Come and kiss him now! What do you stick at man? Are you afraid of him? Now, Barabbas, go! See whether they prefer you to Christ now. Swearer, now is your time; you have been a bold man; curse him to his face now. Drunkard, stagger up to him now! Infidel, tell him to his face that there is no Christ now that the world is lit with lightning and the earth is shaken with thunder. Tell God there is no God now; now laugh at the Bible, now scoff at the minister. Why, men, what is the matter with you? Why can’t you do it? Ah! There you are: you have fled to the hills and to the rocks. ‘Rocks hide us! Mountains fall on us! Hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne.’ ‘Ah! Where are now your boasts, your vaunting, and your glories? Alas! Alas! For you in that dread day of wonders!’
(C. H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit 1857, Pilgrim Publishers, 1975, p. 80. From a sermon by Matthew Kratz, The Signs of Divine Judgment, 7/24/2010)
III. The Reunion
Recently Sis Judy and I attended our 52 high school reunion. It was a wonderful time as we renewed old acquaintance with our friends and classmates from so long ago. Everything was great but it was bittersweet because there were several of our closest friends who were not able to attend and even worse there were 67 of our classmates who had already passed away. The reunion that I’m speaking of is sweet, not bittersweet. There will no tears, no sadness, no sorrow, no death, no dying, no more separation.
“…the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" …
*Dr. R.G. Lee was the much loved pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis from 1927-1960. One day when R.G was a little boy, he asked his mother what was the happiest day of her life. Her name was Elizabeth. And she thought back to the time of the Civil War when she was a little girl.
*Elizabeth’s dad had fought for the South. And while he was away, her mom had to do all the work in the fields. One day a letter came saying that her father had been killed in battle. Elizabeth’s mother didn’t cry much during the day. But the children could hear her sobbing at night in their small house.
*About four months later it was summer and they were all sitting on the front porch shelling beans. A man came down the road and Elizabeth’s mother watched him for a while. Then she said, “Elizabeth honey, that man coming yonder walks like your father.”
*The man kept coming down the road, but the children thought, “It can’t be him.” Then as he came to the break in the fence, he turned in. Her mother jumped up and cried, “Children, it is your father!”
*Elizabeth’s mother ran all the way across the field and kissed and cried and held him for the longest time. And many years later, Elizabeth told her son, “It was the happiest hour I ever knew.”
*That’s just a taste, just a hint of the joy-filled future in store for all who have received Jesus as Savior and Lord.
(Adapted from “Illustration Digest” by Jon H. Allen, May-June-July 1994, p. 9) - (Personal note from Jon Allen: R.G. Lee, long time pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis Tennessee, and my father were friends. He visited in our home and ate at our table many times. In 1965, I heard him preach in Fort Worth, Texas. This is from that sermon.)
A man by the name of Glenn Dorsey wrote a poem entitled: Together Again
Together again, over yonder
God’s promise the way it will be
Never again to know parting
Together again, you and me.
Together again, up in heaven
Removed from life’s sorrow and care
No worry about a tomorrow
Together again, over there.
Together again, glad reunion
Happy meeting in heaven above.
Once more I’ll be standing beside you
Together again in God’s love.
Together again, I’ll be waiting
For the day you walk through heaven’s door
Holding hands in the midst of God’s glory
Together again—evermore.
Glenn Dorsey
February 16, 2006
The last thing I want to share is the truth about:
IV. The Revelation
What will be the greatest blessing of all when the Lord returns? Without a doubt our resurrected glorified body’s will be a blessing and the reunion with all the saints will be a blessing but I believe that the greatest blessing of all will be our first glimpse of our Savior’s face. Paul writes… 1 Corinthians 13:12
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Think of what Bartimaeus saw when he received his sight! Think of the wonders of seeing for the first time a crowd of human beings just like himself, the walls and palm-tree groves of Jericho, the sky, so blue above him, and the hills of Moab in the distance. But that was not the first thing that he saw.
The first thing that he saw was the face of Jesus, the face of the one who had healed him. And for you and me, too, that will be the greatest of all sights. When we awake from the dream men call life, when we put off the image of the earthy and break the bonds of time and mortality, when the scales of time and sense have fallen from our eyes and the garment of corruption has been put off, when this mortality has been put on immortality and this corruption has put on incorruption, when we awaken in the everlasting morning, that will be the sight that will stir us and hold us.
Oh, there will be many wonderful sights there—the sea of glass mingled with fire; the great white throne; the river of the water of life; and the tree of life, that yielded her fruit every season; and those marvelous twelve gates, every gate a pearl; and those marvelous foundations of the walls, garnished with all manner of precious stones; and the faces of the patriarchs and the prophets, the apostles and the martyrs; and the faces of those we have loved long since and lost awhile. But most wonderful of all will be that face into which Bartimaeus looked that morning outside the gate of Jericho, after his eyes had been opened—the face of him who loved us and redeemed us, and washed us in his own precious blood.
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Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me?
Only faintly now, I see Him,
With the darkling veil between,
But a blessed day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.
What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.
Face to face! O blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.
Refrain
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!
Carrie Ellis Breck - 1898
Conclusion: Let’s review what we know…
1. The Resurrection
2. The Reckoning
3. The Reunion
4. The Revelation
