The Doctrine of Imminency

Introduction: AS we continue our doctrinal discussions, tonight, we are going to look at the Doctrine of the Imminent Return of Jesus Christ.

Imminent means impending or likely to happen any moment.

I want you to understand that the Doctrine of Imminence is taught throughout the New Testament.

For instance, death is imminent. (James 4:13-16, Luke 12:19-20)

James 4:13–16 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Luke 12:19–20 “And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”

As the rich fool discovered, death is imminent, and as James says, boasting of tomorrow is sin or evil because, if you are given a tomorrow, it is the will of the Lord, so would you agree or disagree that life and death are imminent?

Salvation is imminent. (2 Cor. 6:2)

2 Corinthians 6:2 “For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Today is the day of salvation. Why? Because you do not know what tomorrow holds or if tomorrow will be a reality for you. If tomorrow is not a reality for you, would you agree that salvation is an imminent need of yours today?

In general, the entire Bible speaks of imminence, but the New Testament where doctrine is found teaches imminence as a doctrine.

The Doctrine of Imminence is based upon the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

The Apostles clearly taught that the return of Christ was imminent. I know what you are thinking. It has been two thousand years, yet Christ has not returned. Remember, with God, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. We need to get our heads out of the clouds of prophecy looking for signs to be fulfilled. We need to stop looking for who is coming on the earth and focus on the One returning to earth, and His returning could be at any moment.

Tonight, we are going to look at the Doctrine of Imminency by examining the time, the tyrant, and the triumph.

I. The Time

1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

1 Thessalonians 1:10 “and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

2 Peter 3:13 “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

I think that will be enough verses. John, Paul, and Peter express time elements that indicate that they were eagerly waiting upon the return of the Lord Jesus.

John says that even as he is writing his epistle that it is the last hour. Paul writes to the churches at Thessalonica and Philippi to wait for Jesus. Peter says that we are waiting on a new heaven and a new earth.

Now, if you notice the grammar and the language, none of the three are looking to a future event. They are looking and waiting for something that could happen imminently. Their teaching to the church is that the church is supposed to be imminently waiting for the return of Jesus.

The church needs to understand this. Take everything else out of the equation, the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, the tribulation judgments. Those things are only concerning if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and if you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, you need to be looking for Him to return at any minute.

I am telling you it is a sin for a Christian to think of Christ’s return as a future event.

What did Jesus say about it?

Matthew 24:44 “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Did you get up this morning thinking there was no way Jesus was going to return today? If you did, that it is a good sign that He is going to return today.

Did you know Peter described most Christians today?

2 Peter 3:3–4 “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.””

You have heard me say this before. A Christian should never say that Christ could return a thousand years from now. Why? Because it gives the lost that hear that a false hope, and it creates and fosters slackness in the Christian.

I shared the passages by Peter, Paul, and John. They wrote to churches to be waiting for Jesus’s return, to be looking for it. I guarantee you those three were anticipating and looking for Jesus to return, and because they were looking for His return, they worked tirelessly sharing the gospel to a lost and dying world.

Do you remember the Parable of the 10 Virgins? Were those virgins to be looking for signs of the bridegroom’s coming, or were they supposed to be ready when He came? (Matt. 25:6-13)

Matthew 25:6–13 “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Do you know what watch therefore means? It means an expectancy of the bridegroom’s return.

If you are a born-again Christian, you are to be prepared for the One who is returning. The only way to be prepared is to be watching and expecting His return.

What does John mean in 1 John 2:18 by the last hour? John wrote his epistles much later than Paul or Peter, so he had started seeing some of the falling away that Paul and Peter had written about, so in John’s language, it was getting late in the day of the last days.

You must understand that phrase last days. I think many Christians think the phrase last days refers to when Israel became a nation, but I said a couple of Wednesdays ago that you must keep the church and Israel separate. The last days for the church did not begin when Israel became a nation in 1948.

The last days began when Jesus ascended into heaven. (Acts 1:6-11)

Acts 1:6–11 “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.””

Jesus answers a question about the restoration of Israel by telling His followers that they had no need to know times or seasons that the Father had determined in His own authority. When Christ ascended, the men of Galilee continued looking into heaven. They were looking for a sign, but the angels told them, basically, to stop looking for signs and to look for Jesus.

Notice what else these angels said. In the same way you saw Him go into Heaven, He will return. What does that mean?

First, He ascended in a cloud of glory, and He will return in a cloud of glory. Pay careful attention to the verses. The men of Galilee did not see Him once He was wrapped in the cloud. Is that significant? I think it is an indication of how the Rapture will be. The Rapture will not be witnessed by those that are lost. It will be an experience for Church Age Christians, dead and alive.

Let me ask you a question. Did anyone witness the Resurrection as it happened? In the same way, no one will witness the Rapture. The people left behind will know something happened, some event, but they will not know what because they will be deceived by a lie just as many were deceived by what happened to the body of Christ.

Matthew 28:12–15 “And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.”

In much the same way, the false church will explain the disappearance of millions of Christians.

Second, the angels did not tell the men of Galilee to look for any particular sign. The men of Galilee were to be looking for Jesus to come again in the clouds, and if the men of Galilee were to be looking for Jesus, is that an indication of some distant future event or an indication of an event that could happen at any moment?

In the same way, dear friend, we are not to be looking for signs to be fulfilled. We are to be looking, and expecting the imminent return of Jesus in these last days.

It is not the Antichrist that I am concerned about; it is the return of Jesus for which I am hoping and looking.

We are to be looking for the imminent return of Christ because we are in the last days. Christ could have returned for His church at any point from the time He ascended until now. Remember, the church and Israel are separate in the Bible. The 70-week prophecy deals with Israel and not the church. The last seven years on planet earth begins when the Antichrist and Israel confirm a covenant, but that has nothing to do with the church, and we are to be expecting and looking forward to that return because it could happen any moment.

II. The Tyrant

Every person on this planet knows of the coming Antichrist. He is coming. Remember this however.

The prefix “anti” means instead of or against.

There is one coming who will offer people a choice, a choice that leads to eternal damnation, a choice to choose him instead of Christ, and in choosing him instead of Christ, you will reveal that you are totally against Christ.

The Bible describes him as a beast, a man of sin, a deceiver, a liar, and many other things, and I could spend hours telling you about him, but I want to focus on what John says.

1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

1 John 2:22 “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”

John says to his readers that you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. His readers knew what Paul, John, and Peter had said about the coming man of sin, but I want you to pay attention to what John adds.

John says that even when he was writing that there had been many antichrists, and then, in verse 22, he explains it even further. Anyone that denies that Jesus is the Christ is what? antichrist.

If you deny Jesus is the Christ, you are both against Christ and choosing something or someone instead of Christ. For those who believe the Antichrist must be in power before Jesus returns is missing a keep piece on information. The world has been and will continue to be full of antichrists who are waiting for the Antichrist to come, but as a Christian, I am not waiting on Satan’s Spawn. I waiting on the King of Kings.

III. The Triumph

Why is it important to know and understand that Christ could return any moment? Why is the Doctrine of Imminent Return important?

1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

Titus 2:12–14 “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

The imminent return of Christ is important for three reasons.

First, if we live in the expectancy of that imminent return, we will not be ashamed at His coming.

Do you want to be like Lot or Noah? Would you say Lot was ashamed when the Lord came? Absolutely, he was. He had not lived his life the way God expected, and as a result, he did not have very much confidence when judgment came.

There are some people, maybe some here, who want to dismiss the imminent return of Christ because they do not have the confidence in their lifestyle. They are not living for Jesus, so they dismiss His imminent return.

Second, if we live in the expectancy of the imminent return, certain attitudes will be evident in our lives.

Paul writes to Titus that if we are looking for the blessed hope of the return of Jesus Christ, we will deny the world and live righteously, soberly, and godly. In other words, we will be living lives that will reap great rewards in Heaven. Too many Christians live their lives like they are not going to face Jesus in judgment, but they will face in Him in judgment, not for sins but for those things done in service to Christ.

If you are looking for the blessed hope of Christ’s return, you are going to go about the business of the kingdom of heaven, and you will not have time for worldliness, but if you deny the imminent return, you open yourself to all kinds of ungodly lusts.

Third, if we live in the expectancy of the imminent return, we can comfort one another with that truth.

I think that is a missing element in many churches. No matter how bad things get in this world, Jesus could come at any moment, and that news should lighten every dark room.

Friend, I am telling you that Jesus’s return is imminent. It will be imminent until He comes back. Men of Galilee, why are you gazing into Heaven? Listen to me dear friend. We grandma the imminent return of Christ. Have you ever heard this?

“Jesus is coming like a thief in the night.” Did you know that is a half-truth? Do you know what the Bible really says?

1 Thessalonians 5:1–4 “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”

Paul once again says that signs of Jesus’s return are not important. He says you have no need to know, and he closes his thought by saying, “Brothers, you are not in darkness, and the return of Jesus should not overtake you as a thief.”

If you knew a thief was coming to your house, would you be prepared, or would say that the thief was not coming tonight? You would be on the lookout until he came. Guess what? We are to be that diligent about the return of Christ in the same way because He could return any moment. If you are saved and prepared for the imminent return of Christ, He will not overtake take you like a thief because you will be expecting Him.

Are you expecting Jesus tonight? Why or why not? Are you saved? Are you living your like you know Jesus could return tonight? You are going to face Jesus one of these days in judgment either saved or condemned. If you are saved and appear before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ, is one of your works that burns up is you denying the imminent return of Christ?

Let me share this with you. In every chapter of the Book of First Thessalonians, Christ’s return is mentioned, and every time it is mentioned it is mentioned by using action verbs that are in the present tense. There are no mentions of signs in First Thessalonians. The book just reinforces the idea of the imminent return of Christ.

If you embrace and expect Christ to return at any minute, your life will be changed by that expectation, and you will become a better witness for Christ. Do you believe that? Let me show you what Paul wrote.

1 Thessalonians 1:6–10 “And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

These believers in Thessalonica came to Jesus in the face of severe persecution. (read Acts 17) They came to Jesus to be delivered from the coming wrath of God, and they became examples to all the world, and the example that the world saw was a group of believers who were motivated by the imminent return of Christ to do His will and to share the gospel because they did not want to see anyone facing the wrath of God.

Dear friend, that is why the Doctrine of the Imminent Return of Jesus is so important. If you expect Christ to come at any minute, the Apostle John writes that you will have boldness in the Day of Judgment because your actions as a Christian will be motivated by that expectant return, and you will do those things in the Gospel for which you will be rewarded, and I do not know about you, but I do not want to suffer loss in Heaven.