A. Once there was a minister waiting in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend.
1. The gas station attendant worked quickly, but there were many cars in line ahead of him.
2. Finally, the attendant motioned him toward the vacant pump.
3. The young attendant recognized the minister and said, “Sorry for the delay, Pastor. It seems as if everyone waits until the very last minute to get ready for a long trip.”
3. The minister chuckled and said, “I know what you mean. The same is true in my business.”
B. Why is it that so many people fail to get prepared for their eternal future?
1. The reason that some people don’t prepare is because they don’t think there is an eternal future.
2. The reason that others aren’t preparing just yet is because they assume they have a long time before their departure.
3. They think that death won’t come calling for a long time.
4. Or they think that Jesus’ second coming is a long way off.
C. I want to encourage all of us not to delay our preparations for eternity.
1. Assuming that we have a long time to prepare is not a good assumption.
2. Death can come suddenly or much sooner than we expect.
3. And the second coming is going to come suddenly and when we least expect it.
4. I am not saying these things to try to scare anyone, rather I am just trying to ground us in reality – this is the truth.
5. None of us know the future and none of us have control over the future.
6. All we can do is to prepare ourselves in the present.
D. Today’s sermon begins a new series that I am calling “Eternal Questions…Biblical Answers.”
1. I want us to wrestle with the questions that we have about death and eternity.
2. I want to help us to explore the biblical answers that God has given us about these things.
3. Is there life after death?
4. Is there a heaven and a hell?
5. Is there a second chance after death?
6. What will eternal life be like?
7. How can I be ready and at peace about these questions?
E. To begin the series, I want to start by exploring the promise of the second coming of Christ.
1. One of the resources I will be using during this series is a book written two decades ago by Max Lucado called “When Christ Comes.”
2. Jesus first came into our world to provide a path of salvation through His death and resurrection.
3. While Jesus was here during that first coming, He repeatedly promised that He would return a second time.
4. That day many years ago, while the disciples watched Jesus ascend up into the heavens, suddenly two angels stood beside them and said: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)
F. So, let’s try to imagine what that day might be like.
1. I want you to imagine that you are driving home in your car one day.
2. Your thoughts wander to the game you want to see or the meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you’ve ever heard fills the air.
a. The sound is coming from high above you.
b. What is it, you think? A trumpet? A choir? A choir of trumpets?
c. You don’t know, but you want to know.
3. So, you pull over, get out of your car, and look up.
a. As you do, you see you aren’t the only curious one.
b. The roadside has become a parking lot.
c. Car doors are open and people are staring at the sky.
d. Shoppers are racing out of the stores.
e. The little league baseball game across the street has come to a halt, and the players and parents are searching the clouds.
4. What they see, and what you see, has never been seen before.
a. As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere have parted.
b. A brilliant light is spilling onto the earth and from whence came the light a river of color begins to tumble.
c. Riding on the flow of the river of color is an endless fleet of angels.
d. Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting, “Holy, holy, holy.”
5. Suddenly, the heavens are quiet – all is quiet.
a. The angels turn and you follow their gaze and suddenly there He is - There is Jesus.
b. You see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King and He is atop a great white stallion.
c. He opens his mouth and His thunderous voice declares: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
6. The angels bow their heads and you instantly know that nothing else matters.
a. Forget the stock markets and the school reports.
b. Forget the sales meetings and the football games.
c. Forget the trade wars and the culture wars.
d. All that had mattered before, matters no more, for Christ has come…
G. I wonder how that scenario makes you feel?
1. Wouldn’t it be interesting to sit in a circle and listen to people’s reactions?
2. If you were to summarize your emotions and thoughts regarding the return of Christ in one word, what word would you use?
3. Let me suggest a few possible words.
H. Maybe your word would be discomfort.
1. We’ve been told that when Christ returns the books will be opened and the names will be read.
2. Scripture says that each person will have to give an account to God. (Mt. 12:36-37; Rom. 14:12)
3. We know that God is holy, and we know that we are not.
4. How could the thought of His return bring anything but discomfort?
I. Perhaps discomfort is not your word of choice - maybe denial is a more accurate word.
1. Maybe it’s by denial that you deal with the discomfort?
2. Ambiguity is not a pleasant state - we tend to prefer answers and explanations, and the end of time seems to be short on both.
3. Consequently, maybe you opt not to think about it.
4. Why consider what you can’t explain or understand.
5. Maybe you say to yourself: “If he comes, fine. If not, fine. But I’m going to bed, I have to work tomorrow.”
J. Let’s try another word - how about disappointment?
1. This one may surprise you, unless you’ve felt it, and then you can relate.
2. You might wonder: who would feel disappointment at the thought of Christ’s coming?
3. A mother-to-be might be disappointed because she wants to hold her baby.
4. An engaged couple might be disappointed because they want to be married (I remember being worried that Jesus would return before my wedding to Diana).
5. A soldier stationed overseas might be disappointed because he wants to go home before he goes to his eternal home.
K. In addition to these responses to the thought of Christ’s return, there are other possibilities.
1. Some might be obsessed - these are the folks with the charts and codes and you-better-believe-it prophesies.
2. And then there are those who panic - they sell everything and head to the hills to await Christ’s return.
L. Regardless of all these reactions, what is it that God wants us to feel?
1. I believe that God wants us to feel calm and peace about the return of Christ.
2. All of us who are parents are well acquainted with the many assorted questions of our children.
a. “Why can’t we have a puppy?” and “Why do I have to eat my peas?”
b. “Why do I have to go to bed?” and “Can I have another drink before I go to bed?”
c. “Where do babies come from?”
3. But these questions all pale in comparison with the question most disliked by moms and dads.
a. It is the question posed every 10 minutes by the five-year-old in a car on a road trip: “How much farther?”
b. Give us the dilemmas of geometry and sexuality, just don’t make a parent answer the question, “How much farther?”, right?
4. How do you speak of time and distance to someone who doesn’t understand time and distance?
a. The novice parent assumes the facts will suffice, so they answer, “250 miles.”
b. But what do miles mean to a pre-K kid? You might as well have spoken Greek!
c. So the child comes back with the question, “What is 250 miles?”
d. At this point you are tempted to come back with an explanation that one mile equals 5280 feet, so 250 miles equals one million, 320 thousand feet.
e. But we all know that the world of a youngster is delightfully free of mile markers and alarm clocks.
f. We can speak of minutes and miles, but a child has no hooks for those hats.
5. So, what do you do? Most of us parents get creative.
a. If your child likes to watch the 30 minute show called “PAW Patrol”, then maybe you say about as long as it takes to watch “PAW Patrol” five times.
b. That kind of answer helps for a few minutes, but sooner or later they ask again.
6. Finally, we parents say something like: “Just trust me. Why don’t you just enjoy the trip and don’t worry about the details. I’ll make sure we get there.”
a. “I’ll do the taking, you do the trusting.”
M. Just prior to Jesus’ crucifixion, He told his disciples that He would be leaving them.
1. “Where I am going you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” (Jn 13:36)
2. Such a statement was bound to stir some questions and so Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now?” (vs. 37)
3. See if Jesus’ reply doesn’t reflect the tenderness of a parent to a child: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 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. 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. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (Jn 14:1-4).
4. If we reduce that paragraph to a sentence and it might read: “You do the trusting and I’ll do the taking.”
5. When it comes to the second coming of Christ, God doesn’t want us worrying and fretting, He wants us to be trusting.
N. Unlike the mind of God, our earthly minds are ill-equipped to handle thoughts of eternity.
1. When it comes to a world with no boundaries of space and time, we don’t have the hooks for those hats.
2. Consequently, our Lord takes the posture of a parent, “You do the trusting and I’ll do the taking.”
3. All of His words can be reduced to two: Trust me.
4. So, we shouldn’t be troubled by the return of Christ and we shouldn’t be anxious about things we cannot comprehend.
5. Issues like the millennium and the Antichrist are intended to challenge and stretch us, but not overwhelm us and certainly not to divide us.
6. For the Christian, the return of Christ is not a riddle to be solved or a code to be broken, but rather a day to be anticipated – a day to look forward to and welcome.
7. Jesus wants us to trust Him.
8. He doesn’t want us to be troubled, so He reassures us with these truths.
O. First, Jesus declares that there is ample space for everyone.
1. He said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” (14:2)
2. Why does he refer to “many rooms”?
3. Because we may worry that there may not be room for us.
4. There have been so many occasions in our lives when we have been told: “We don’t have room for you here.”
a. Maybe it was in the workplace - we wish we could hire you or we have to let you go, because we don’t have place for you in our company.
b. Maybe it was in sports - There is no place for you on this team.
c. Maybe it was from a bully - We don’t have room for you in our group.
d. Maybe it was from someone you love - I don’t have room for you in my heart.
5. Jesus makes the delightful promise to us, “There is room for everyone at my Father’s house.”
6. When we make room for Him in our hearts, then He makes room for us in His house.
P. Second, Not only is there space for everyone, there is a special place for you.
1. Jesus said, “I am going there to prepare a place for you.”
2. The place Jesus prepares for each one of us will fit us perfectly.
3. He knows exactly what we need, and we shouldn’t worry about getting board or weary with the things He has prepared for us.
4. He is preparing the perfect place for us.
Q. Jesus gives one final commitment that should give us reassurance: “And I’m not kidding.”
1. In verse 3, Jesus said, “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
2. We don’t know when He will come for us.
3. We don’t know how He will come for us.
4. But we know He will come for us.
5. We know this for sure because He is trustworthy – He keeps His promises.
6. He will do the taking and it’s up to us to do the trusting.
R. It’s really a very simple scenario: The Lord has gone away for a while, but He will return, and until then, He wants His children to be at peace.
1. Over the years of my ministry, I have had to take several extended work trips that took me away from my family.
2. Three times I went to Africa for multiple weeks.
3. At the time of each trip, I gave my wife and kids a kiss and a hug, and as I left I promised to return.
4. Did I want to leave my wife and daughters? No, not really, but there was work to be done in Africa.
5. While I was away from them, did I want them to feel discomfort? No.
6. Did I want them dreading my return? Of course not.
7. What about denial?
a. Would I have been pleased to hear that they had removed my picture from the wall and my plate from the table? No way!
8. How about disappointment?
a. Would I want to hear them say, “Oh, I hope Daddy doesn’t come before Saturday night - I really want to go to that slumber party.”
b. Am I such a fuddy-duddy dad that my coming spoils everyone’s fun? I hope not!
S. But even if I am a fuddy duddy dad, we know that God isn’t. Right?
1. If God has His way with us, thoughts of His return won’t disappoint His children.
2. He, too, is away from His family and He, too, has promised to return.
3. We don’t understand all the intricacies of God’s tasks, but our job is to trust Him.
a. Soon - His work will be done.
b. Soon - the final chapter of history will be written.
c. Soon - He will appear in the sky and time will be no more.
4. Are you ready? He wants us to be ready.
5. Being ready is not really that hard - all it takes is faith and obedience.
a. It starts with believing in Jesus, repenting, and being buried with Christ in baptism.
b. It continues with daily trusting Christ as we live our lives in accordance with His will.
6. Are you ready? If not, then let us help you get ready, today.
Resources:
When Christ Comes, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 1999.
