I’ve read recently about an inscription on the Dome of the Capitol building in Washington. It’s placed where few can see it. It’s a line from the poet Tennyson:
One far-off divine event to which all history moves.
That ’one far-off divine event’ is the one we pray for every time we say ’Thy Kingdom come’, as we pray for the coming of the day, not when the Church will conquer the world, but when all worldly empires give place to the Kingdom of God. And that will be ushered in by the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. That return, that second coming is a subject we think very little about, but it’s a core Christian belief; it’s the ’blessed hope’ (as Scripture puts it) of every believer; it’s part of the ’Mystery of Faith’ we proclaim week-by-week in the Communion Prayer:
Christ HAS died
Christ IS risen
Christ WILL come again.
Many of us, I trust, thank God daily that Christ has died, has died for their sins, that Christ is risen. Yet how often do we thank God that Christ will come back again.
I want say emphatically this morning that JESUS IS COMING BACK- literally and physically. When Jesus told his disciples as recorded in John 14 that he would return, many spiritualise that away, or maybe regard it as a promise of his resurrection, or even the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Of the truth of his return, the Scriptures leave us in no doubt. Every New Testament book except Galatians and the very short 2nd and 3rd letters of John mention it; as does one in 27 New Testament verses, and often in a way that leaves us in little doubt that his return will be physical, visible and unmistakable. Take Jesus’ own words in Matthew 24:30-31 At that time the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
I want us to look into this subject this morning, seeing how we would react to it and would make three particular points:
* Jesus is coming; and coming soon!
* His coming will bring a separation (look at v40 in this morning’s Gospel)
* We should watch and be ready (look at v42)
So, firstly, Jesus is coming back soon.
I know there may be some here this morning who will feel a very hearty scepticism about that statement, and it is certainly a statement to take with some caution. Jesus said that only his Father knew the day and the hour of his return (a knowledge he did not share while in human flesh) and clearly warns us against date-setting. There have been many people who have made themselves look very foolish by naming the day and have caused many people considerable upset..
But- the Bible does give us very clear indications of various signs that will indicate that we live in the End Times. That many are very sceptical of this should cause us little surprise. Jesus says in our Gospel reading:
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the
days before the flood people were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up
to the day that Noah entered the Ark.
The point here is not a statement about eating, drinking or marriage. No: Rather that although Noah had given warning of a coming flood, most people took no notice. They just carried on in pre-occupation with the everyday things of life as though nothing else mattered. "Things have always been the same, things always will be the same"
But, the Scriptures do give us these signs of when the End Times are upon us. Jesus mentions some of them in the early part of Matthew 24, as he replies to his disciples’ question in v4 Tell us when all this will happen (that was the Fall of Jerusalem) and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?
One could speak (from Matthew 24) of many falling away from faith. One could speak of false prophets (and these abound today), of increasing wickedness (and things are worse than when most of us were children). One could speak about the world-wide preaching of the Gospel- and radio and TV have taken the Gospels to the far corners of the world. I would rather focus on the words of Jesus in verses 32 and 34:
Now learn the lesson of the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come
out, you know that summer is near...I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have happened.
Now in the Bible, the fig tree was one of the symbols of the Jewish nation. Days earlier, Jesus had cursed a fig tree- symbolic of the judgment to fall on the nation in AD 70. Now he is saying there would be a time of restoration. I won’t bother you with all the Bible verses now, but that restoration began in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded
I’m reminded at this point of the preacher who, when asked by King Frederick of Prussia to prove in one word that the Bible is true, answered
"The Jew, your Majesty, the Jew"
Great empires have risen and fallen, and no longer exist. The Jews have been a nation for nearly 4,000 years; a nation exiled world-wide in AD 135 still exists and 1850 years later returned to its historical homeland. What other nation has any comparable historical survival?
In a parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus said that after its overthrow Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. That, I suggest, happened in 1967: the fig tree flowered and the generation which saw that is the last. Jesus is coming back in this generation.
2. Jesus is coming back soon, and HIS COMING WILL CAUSE A SEPARATION.
Jesus himself speaks of two men in a field; one taken, one left; of two women grinding corn. This surely refers to the time when:
The Lord 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 shall rise first.
After that, we who still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-17)
A separation. What does this mean? The meaning is made clear in Hebrews 9:28 where we read:
Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear the
second time to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
To those who are waiting for him; those who are His. For such his coming will be a day of great rejoicing. As Paul put it in Romans 13 our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The great struggle will be over as we welcome the One who died to take away our sin.
When Christ shall come, with shouts of acclamation, to take me home,
what joy shall fill my heart.
Then shall I bow in humble adoration and there proclaim
"My God, how great Thou art!"
The separation, then, will be between those who wait for him and, to say the obvious, those who don’t. For them the words of Hebrews 9:27 will so terribly apply: It is appointed to man
die once, and then the judgment.
If you have never admitted Christ as the bearer-away of your sin and if you thus do not wait for him; if you are not putting your trust in him, then his return will indeed be a terrible day. Indeed C S Lewis puts it very clearly in his book Mere Christianity:
When the author walks on the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade all right
but what is the use of saying you are on his side when you see the whole natural
universe melting away like some dream and something else- something else it never
entered your head to conceive- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some
of us and so terrible to others, that none of us will have any choice left. For this time
it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming it will strike wither
irresistible love or irresistible terror into every creature. It will be too late then to
choose your side. There’s no use saying you choose to lie down when it has
become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be
the time when we discover which side we’ve really chosen, whether we realised
it before or not.
That is what the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will mean- a separation, or maybe as Lewis so potently put it, a revelation of which path we’ve chosen.
3. WE SHOULD WATCH AND PRAY.
Jesus’ coming will be like a thief in the night. He bids us be ready and prepared for his coming. Paul tells us to put aside the deeds of darkness and in Romans 13:13 he lists them for us: orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, debauchery, dissensions, jealousy. Human nature doesn’t change. It’s the same in the 20th century as in the first. Paul tells us to put these things on one side. By the nature of the society in which we live they will press in on us from every side. These are the stuff of the world, the things the world delights in; things which are very seductive. Paul says on the contrary clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the things of the sinful nature.
Jesus warned us about a falling away in the days before his return. So long as we live in this world there will be a danger of falling away, and whilst I don’t believe any true believer will not be saved, does not Jesus warn us that many will claim to have worked in his Name and he will have to tell them to depart: he never knew them. True faith will never fail, true faith will wait in trust for the Lord’s return.
But- it is possible to be seduced from a seeming faith by the world. Peter in his 2nd letter speaks of the dog returning to its own vomit. It’s possible to be so taken up with the activity of the world, and no less so in these days of frantic activity, that we become like those in the days of Noah- we’re so busy, so taken up with the things of this life, with its activity, its values, its pleasures that we cease to wait on the Lord. The possibility of his return, the possibility of judgment become trivial matters when there’s so much that’s more immediate, so much more pressing, and, to be honest, so much more pleasing. In Matthew 25 we find the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Do we keep a ready supply of oil, of the indwelling Holy Spirit, that we are at any time ready for the Lord’s return? Or are we neglectful? Or maybe we’re so full of religious busy-ness which cloaks a veneer of worldly values and corruption.
2,500 years ago the prophet Zechariah said that Jerusalem would be a cup that sends surrounding people reeling. He went on to speak of a siege and a war against Jerusalem, and after that he says in 14:4 on that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.
It would be a unique day and then (v9) the Lord will be King over all the earth. As we hear the news of the Middle East, how long can these events be delayed? Saddam Hussein’s main interest is Israel and is Jerusalem. That, and not Kuwait, was what the Gulf War was about. If conflict comes to the Middle East, how long until a pan-Arab alliance attacks Jerusalem? Then everybody else will be joining in.
I didn’t quite finish the quote from C S Lewis. He ends thus:
Now, today, this is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that
chance. It will not last for ever.
-If you have chosen, if you are Christ’s: What about your friends, family and neighbours who aren’t?
-If you are not, if your faith is falling, now, today, this is your moment, your chance to choose.
