End Days - He Will Come Back(d)

Wednesday Bible Study End Times -He Will Come Back (D)

April 12, 2023

Last week I talked for a few minutes about:

Headlines: Mount of Olives becomes latest target in fight for control of Jerusalem

Do any of the headlines or news stories you see make any difference to you (not Facebook conspiracy theory stories)?

For instance:

Source: The Verge (the verge.com)

The end is nigh for gas-powered cars

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to unveil strict new standards to boost EVs — and effectively phase out the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles.

How might this contribute to the fulfillment of end time prophecy? Thoughts?

Revelation 13:11–18 (LSB) Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and he was speaking as a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13 And he does great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which were given to him to do in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, that they be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man; and his number is 666.

Jesus is coming back!

God is putting the pieces into place for His return.

Almost every week there is news that tells us to do what Jesus said in:

Luke 21:28 (LSB) “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Jesus is coming!

Maranatha!

During this time we NEED the Holy Spirit.

In our text, John 14, we see the Spirit’s ministry in these last days.

The author of the study says the Purpose: To explore the relevance of our present experience of the Holy Spirit to the process of waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus.

In this study we discover how Jesus in his farewell address to His disciples, promises an eternal home to his followers. Remarkably, in John’s Gospel the time between the farewell of Jesus in his earthly body until his Second Coming is not a time of empty waiting.

If we will one day have an eternal dwelling with God, we may immediately have a real experience of the presence of Jesus through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, called the Comforter or Advocate in John’s Gospel.

John’s special contribution to end-times living is his emphasis on the continuity between life in Christ now (through the Spirit) and the life we will have when the end fully comes.

In both cases our home with God is “something you somehow haven’t to deserve”—a matter of sheer grace.

*** Read John 14:5-15

1. What indications does Jesus give that our ultimate destiny is much more than a mere place like an unassigned hotel room (vv. 1–4)?

Question 1. Remarkably Jesus stresses the ministry of preparing heaven for us rather than merely preparing us for heaven!

The meaning of monai (“rooms,” v. 2) is not entirely clear.

Only used in John 14 (also in verse 23)

While some have translated this “mansions” or “resting places,” it appears from the context that permanent abodes are meant.

While nothing is said about the nature of the place being prepared, it is enough to know that the believer will be with Jesus.

In this passage “where” gives way to “how” and ultimately to “who.”

Even the Second Coming, which has a lesser place in the fourth Gospel in comparison to the others, is presented in these personal, Christ-centered terms:

Christ must come again to take us to our ultimate home.

2. What reason does Jesus give here for the importance of his coming back a second time after his death and resurrection?

That where He is WE will be.

He longs for and WANTS us to be with Him.

3. How is it possible for true disciples of Jesus to decide not to be troubled as they face the unknown future, even the prospect of death?

We get to decide?

How?

By choosing upon what we focus:

Psalm 43:5 (LSB) Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Wait for God, for I shall still praise Him, The salvation of my presence and my God.

**** By choosing to focus and stand upon the promises of God revealed in His Word:

Isaiah 43:1–2 (LSB) But now, thus says Yahweh, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! 2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.

Does promises made to Jacob or Israel apply to us?

Romans 2:28–29 (LSB) For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

Romans 11:11- 24 - speaks of being “grafted in.”

Jesus does not make this statement in a vacuum.

Question 3. In John 13 Peter has just heard that he will deny the Lord three times.

A great trial is imminent.

And now Jesus is speaking of his departure.

They have left everything to follow him and now he is leaving them.

So Jesus is not speaking to people who are untroubled, but rather to those racked with anxiety.

The reasons for faith offered in this chapter are not merely rational but include their experience of the Spirit, who will be given when Jesus leaves.

So great is this coming assurance that Jesus dares to say, “If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I” (Jn 14:28).

4. How does this promise of Jesus (to prepare a place for us) help you to face your life-challenges with faith rather than fear?

The future is NOT an unknown.

It is a place my loving Savior, who died on the Cross for MY sins, has prepared for me.

We KNOW (Know fully; understand, recognize) that through the Holy Spirit given to us. The Holy Spirit places a CERTAINTY within us:

1 Corinthians 2:12 (NLT) And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

1 Corinthians 2:12 (AMP) Now we have not received the spirit [that belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us] that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God.

Not “hope so” — Know fully; understand, recognize

Read John 14:8-

5 & 6. What deep need does Jesus claim to meet through his answer to Thomas’s question (vv. 5–9)? What ultimate desire does Jesus claim to satisfy through His answer to Philip’s question (vv. 8–10)?

To see the Father.

Question 5. Often the claims of Jesus to be the way (and not merely to show the way), to be the truth, and to be the life are taken to be exclusionary, and Christians are criticized for their bigoted claims.

However, it is important to note that it is Jesus who makes these claims for Himself and not merely Christians who are making statements about their religion.

In contrast to the claims of religious leaders who offer hope and blessing for the spiritually enlightened, Jesus offers relationship with Himself as an all-sufficient way that could potentially include everyone.

Philip’s question (14:8) is a veiled request for a revelation of God such as occurred occasionally in the Old Testament (Ex 24:10; 33:17; Is 6:1).

Jesus’ answer is that the Father and the Son live in such mutual interpenetration that Jesus is truly the full and final revelation of the Father.

To see Jesus is to see the Father (Jn 1:18; 12:45; 13:20).

As Leon Morris says, “Faith that there is a mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son is part of the faith whereby a man commits himself to Christ. If there is no such indwelling there can scarcely be full commitment” (Morris, Gospel, p. 645).

Read John 14:16–27

7. What fresh meaning does Jesus now bring to the statement “I will come to you” (14:18)?

Question 7. This question has led many scholars to argue that for John’s audience, now discouraged that Christ has not come back soon after his ascension, the real hope is their present experience of the Holy Spirit.

This is the Second Coming.

And in a limited sense this view is partly correct.

As “another” paraclete (meaning comforter or legal friend), the Holy Spirit is, as it were, another Jesus to the disciples. In John’s Gospel the Spirit is closely linked with the work of Jesus—making Jesus present and interpreting his words.

The Spirit is the presence of Jesus when Jesus is absent.

C. K. Barrett says, “The Spirit’s work is to bear witness to Christ [and] to make operative what Christ had already effected.

The Spirit is thus the eschatological continuum in which the work of Christ, initiated in his ministry and awaiting its termination at his return, is wrought out” (quoted in Gary M. Burge, The Anointed Community: The Holy Spirit in the Johannine Tradition [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1987], pp. 83–84).

The coming of the Holy Spirit continues and completes the ministry of Jesus.

This is expressed in the five sayings of the Spirit in John:

(1) “he lives with you and will be in you” (14:16–17);

(2) he “will teach you all things” (14:26);

(3) “he will testify about me” (15:26);

(4) “he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (16:7–11);

and (5) “he will guide you into all truth” (16:13–15).

But to the question “Is the paraclete in fact Jesus returned?” we must answer no, even if only John’s Gospel were considered. Jesus’ use of the words going and coming have a double reference: to the coming of the eschatological Spirit, and to his final coming in glory.

8. What new dimension of the meaning of “home” does Jesus now explore (v. 23)?

Question 8. This is the only use of monē (“room”) other than verse 2.

And here it is reinterpreted to point not to a heavenly dwelling but to a present indwelling of the Father and the Son in the believer through the Spirit (v. 17).

As Gary Burge shows, Judas’s question in verse 22 points to the expectation of a personal, visible return of Christ in the clouds so that every eye will see him.

“But John 14 presents a new definition. Jesus’ personal indwelling along with the Father (vv. 23–24) will be Judas’s own personal epiphany” (Anointed Community, p. 144).

9. In what ways will the presence of the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, be an appearance of Christ?

Question 9. John’s special contribution to living in the end times is this double “coming” of Jesus, first in the Spirit, who is in a real sense Jesus come back. Indeed, while the disciples might have been satisfied with fellowship with Jesus alone, it would not be possible to have a permanent indwelling of Jesus without the coming of the Spirit (Jn 20:22). From our postascension perspective one cannot be a Christian without an encounter with the dynamic Spirit.

Why will the coming of the Spirit not be the complete Second Coming of Jesus?

Question 9. But the second meaning of “coming” points to Christ’s final coming that is suggested when Jesus speaks of “my Father’s house” (14:2) and promises to take the disciples to be with him (14:3). Having the Spirit is even better than having Jesus in the flesh. And having Christ come again visibly and finally in history is best of all!

10. How does your present experience of the Spirit affect your time of waiting for Jesus to come back?

He comforts me and gives me an awareness of Jesus’ presence WITH me in difficult times.

11. What prerequisites must be met to be “at home” with God?

John 16:8–11 (LSB) “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

Fire Bible:

(1) The Spirit’s work of convicting operates in three areas.

(a) Sin. The Holy Spirit will expose sin and unbelief in order to awaken in an individual a consciousness of guilt and a need for forgiveness. Conviction also makes clear the tragic results of rejecting Christ and persisting in sin (i.e., going our own way apart from God). After experiencing the Spirit’s conviction, each person must make a choice about Christ. The hope is that this leads to true repentance and a turning to Jesus as Savior and Lord—the Forgiver of one’s sins and the Leader of one’s life (Ac 2:37–38).

(b) Righteousness. The Spirit convinces the spirit of a person that Jesus is the Son of God who came and showed the right way to God. He reveals that a right relationship with God does not depend on our own good works or efforts, but on Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. If we accept his forgiveness and turn over the rule of our lives to him, his Spirit will empower us to do what is right by God’s standards and to overcome the ungodly ways and temptations of the world (Ac 3:12–16; 7:51–60; 17:31; 1Pe 3:18).

Ephesians 2:8–10 (LSB) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

(c) Judgment. The Spirit convinces people of Satan’s defeat, which Christ secured and guaranteed by his death on the cross for our sin (12:31; 16:11). The Spirit also makes people aware of God’s present judgment of the world (Ro 1:18–32) and the future judgment of the entire human race, including each individual’s personal accountability to God (Mt 16:27; Ac 17:31; 24:25; Ro 14:10; 1Co 6:2; 2Co 5:10; Jude 1:14).

Unbelievers: Revelation 20:11–15 (LSB) Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sits upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 Then I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Believers 2 Corinthians 5:10 (LSB) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Thank the Father, Son and Spirit for making a home in you.

Now or Later

The passage as a whole provides multiple reasons for believing in Jesus:

(1) To believe in Jesus is the same as to believe in God (v. 1), that is, faith in Jesus is not something additional to believing in God since there is no other way to God than through Jesus (v. 6).

(2) The words of Jesus are not his own but are the true words of God (v. 6).

(3) The works that Jesus does are signs that point to God who is working through him. The “greater works” that will be accomplished by disciples when Jesus leaves are most probably centered in the mighty works of conversion that will be accomplished through the Spirit.

The coming of the Holy Ghost was not merely to supply the absence of the Son but to complete His presence.

Bishop Gore[1]

Stevens, R. P. (2004). End Times: 13 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders (pp. 68–70). IVP Connect: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press.