The Ethics of the Imminent Return of Christ

James 5:8b ESV

8b Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Today marks an important day, in fact, the most important day for those of us in the Christian faith. Today is Easter, the day in which we recognize the literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection of Jesus accomplished so much period. And everything that the resurrection of Jesus accomplished has eternal consequences attached to it.

For the one who is unsaved and who will remain unsaved until the day that he leaves this world, what it has accomplished is their own damnation.

The plain and simple fact is that those who are unsaved and who will remain unsaved is that the resurrection of Jesus means that they are fighting against a God Who is victorious in all ways. And if they die fighting against Him by remaining unsaved, then they will eternally lose their fight.

For the one who is saved, what the resurrection of Jesus means is that because their Savior has been victorious in all ways, that then means that He will ensure that they too are eternally victorious with Him.

But what the resurrection of Jesus means for everybody is that He is alive! Today, Jesus is alive, seated in the heavenly realms at the right hand of God the Father.

And because He is alive, what that then means for everybody is the knowledge that Jesus is not done. He still has work to do, and that that work that He still has to do will find its ultimate fulfillment when He comes to this world again.

And it is this theme, the theme that because of Jesus’ resurrection that He is not finished that we are going to be looking at today in our Easter message.

But in order for us to understand what this means for each one of us here this morning, let’s first spend a little bit of time discovering how this resurrection of Jesus came about in the first place.

Over in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verses 22 and 23, Peter declares on the day of Pentecost:

Acts 2:22-23 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Thus, we see in these two verses both the ministry of Jesus while on earth and the most awful crime committed against Him while on earth.

Jesus came to this world, bringing with Him the words of life, calling His countrymen to repent of their sins and to believe on Him for their salvation.

And Jesus was clearly not just some guy Who was a lot of talk but with nothing to back up what He said, as Peter says, Jesus was attested by God Himself, showing that what Jesus said was true in that God worked mighty works and wonders through Jesus.

Thus, there was no logical denying that Jesus was Who He proclaimed Himself to be, the Savior of those who would trust in Him.

But though that was the case, as Peter continues to say here, Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God to the hands of lawless men, who crucified Him and put Him to death.

And though it seemed as though this was the end of the road for Jesus, dying the death of a criminal, being placed in the rich man’s tomb, still three days later, Jesus, Who had been fully dead with no life left within Him whatsoever, rose from the dead by His own power in a glorified, eternal body.

And as Jesus stood there victorious, what it proved was that death could not hold Him, that though it stood utterly opposed to Him, He was its Master!

Thus, Jesus rose and is alive this very day! What that means is that the ministry of Jesus is not yet complete, He has not yet done everything that He has intended to do on earth, what it tells us is that He still has business to conduct on earth. And that in the fullness of time, He will return to conduct the business that He has yet to have carried out.

And that return, as the Scriptures declare to us, is at hand, it is imminent. And when we say that the return of Jesus is imminent, we mean that it could happen at any time.

There is nothing left that needs to happen, Jesus fully accomplished what He set out to accomplish the first time that He came, now He just needs to come back again when God the Father tells Him to come and get His Bride, His people, the Church.

Our reading for today as we continue on in this series of messages from James, chapter 5, verses 7-12 speaks concerning this.

Now, as we said last week, this series is about doctrine and ethics. Once again, this week, just like last week, we are obviously continuing to speak of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. And as we spoke last week concerning the patience that we must possess as we await that return, this week we are going to focus on how we can be ready when He does return.

So, we see at the very end of this eight verse of James 5:8, where James tells us what we’ve already said. He plainly tells us:

James 5:8c ESV

8c the coming of the Lord is at hand.

So, in view of the fact that the coming of the Lord is at hand, that it is imminent, how shall we live as we wait for that coming?

Well, one way that many people react to the realization that the Lord is coming again is by far the most popular and most practiced way concerning it. That approach is what I like to call “The Days of Noah” approach.

Now, we get this term, “The Days of Noah” from the 24thchapter of the Gospel of Matthew where we see Jesus Himself using it.

And if I were to explain “The Days of Noah” approach as simply as I possibly could, I would say that it’s like knowing that you need to get the oil changed on your car but just not ever changing it.

You know that it needs to be changed, you see the little sticker on the corner of your windshield that tells you that you’re past your service date and that you have surpassed the number of miles that you should drive until you change your oil, but you just keep on going.

You just keep on driving for months and months like this, putting thousands upon thousands of miles on your car, all the time knowing that you should have gotten your oil changed months and months ago and thousands upon thousands of miles ago.

But at this point you say, “Well, I’ve been driving it this long without getting the oil changed and it seems like everything is still running just fine, so I’m not even going to worry about changing the oil.”

Well, if you do that, if you just keep driving without ever changing your oil because you think that your car will just keep on running the way it always has, what do you think is going to happen? Your oil will turn to sludge, you will do serious harm to your engine, and you won’t be able to drive your car anymore.

And the reason why this can be compared to the days of Noah is because this is exactly how the people who lived during the time of Noah reacted when they heard from Noah that God was going to send a great flood on the earth.

The Scriptures tell us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, thus signifying that he was one who faithfully proclaimed the truth in his generation. This tells us that as Noah was building the ark, he would proclaim that God was going to send a flood upon the earth that would kill everything that breathed if they did not enter the ark with him.

But though they had the knowledge that the flood was coming, they just kept on living life as though it was business as usual.

They heard what he had said, and there may have even been some who believed what he said, but they didn’t believe it enough to prepare themselves to get on the ark, and thus they were swept away by the flood.

Well, like I said, when it comes to many, in fact, to the majority of people today and in probably every age since the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, the predominant attitude towards their knowledge of the second coming of Jesus is this “days of Noah” approach.

These have heard that the Lord is coming again, many of them may even believe that He’s coming again, but they just keep on living their lives as though He’s never coming. Or, they say, “Yeah, He may be coming, but that probably won’t be for a long time, like way after I’m dead.”

But as those who did not prepare themselves for the great flood were swept away when the rains came, so will those who take lightly the coming of the Lord be found extremely distraught when the Lord Jesus suddenly returns, as a thief in the night, knowing that they have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, knowing that the time for judgment has arrived.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Like I said, the return of the Lord is indeed imminent, it could be at any time, therefore, instead of taking the “Days of Noah” approach, we should rather take the approach that James commands we as Christians to take in our reading for today.

In our reading we’ve already seen James proclaim the truth that the coming of the Lord is at hand, but right before he speaks of the coming of the Lord, he tells us to establish our hearts in light of the fact that the coming of the Lord is at hand.

He says specifically in our reading:

James 5:8b ESV

8b Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

To establish one’s heart means to direct one’s heart towards something. And here James is speaking of the coming of the Lord, therefore establishing our hearts towards the coming of the Lord means to not only acknowledge that the Lord is coming again, but to actively live our lives in recognition of this fact.

This means believing with our entire hearts that Jesus’ work is not finished on earth, that because His work is not finished on earth, that He is coming back, and when He comes back, He will be coming back as King.

And if we believe that He is King of heaven of earth, then we won’t walk around, living out our lives as though we are answerable to no one and that nothing is ever going to change.

Rather, we will live out our lives in recognition of the fact that we are not our own, we will tread this earth recognizing that because Jesus is King of heaven and earth, that we are treading holy ground; holy ground that is not our own but is His.

And most of all, if we establish our hearts in light of the Lord’s coming, while His coming will arrive as a thief in the night, it will not surprise us for we will have already been fully convinced that when Christ said that He was coming again, that He meant what He was saying.

And therefore, for those of us who have established our hearts in light of the Lord’s coming, when the Lord does come, He will find us, His faithful, loyal subjects waiting for Him, rejoicing at His return, rejoicing that He is finally, fully claiming His throne as He establishes the new heavens and earth.

Friends, may we establish our hearts for the coming of our living Savior, our living God!

Amen?