The Advent III
The Advent III, the Second Coming of Christ
As I have said these last two week I want to discuss the Advent. And more specifically what Advent really is, according to the Bible. I have made my focus the 3 aspects of Advent,
The one we generally recognize this time of year, the First Coming of Jesus, which we discussed week before last,
the one we think very little of in way of taking a time of year to be thankful for it and that’s the Advent, or coming of Christ to indwell our eternal Souls which we discussed last week and now I want to discuss the one we argue over but spend little time being thankful for and that’s the promised second coming of Jesus. It’s this Advent we will discuss this morning. And, just maybe, as I have said maybe now our Christmas will have a much deeper and spiritual meaning for us.
There are 6 ways to describe how Jesus will return to us a second time and so lets understand them this evening together.
1) He will come as Prophesied John 14:1-3 (ESV) "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
After announcing Judas’s betrayal (13:21), His own imminent departure (13:33), and Peter’s denial (13:38), Jesus told His disciples not to be troubled, but to trust Him. believe … believe: The simple but profound solution to all of our problems is believing. Lets face it, we do what we do because we believe what we believe. Our actions are nothing more than the product of our deepest convictions. The “key” is what we believe—the object of our faith.
The position of the belief in the Advent of Jesus is basic to our action and properly positioning this belief in our mind begins by thinking properly about God. The entire fourteenth chapter is input from Christ, the master counselor, about what God is like. He does not say anything more about Peter’s forthcoming denial. Rather, He gives him truth to believe about God the Father (There are twenty-three references to God in ch. 14), God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The ascension and the result of it, Jesus explains, are what is going to keep Peter, and you and I today, trusting as we go through Satan’s sifting process.
(14:2) Mansions refers to dwelling places. Everybody has a longing for a permanent, secure place. It’s the yearning for this basic need that is so embedded in our souls that drives us as humans on this earth, but it is the security of this basic promise by Jesus that secures us as Christians, See, such places have already been set aside for all of God’s children. Jesus has gone ahead to prepare our place. Peter never got over the wonder of his unfading, reserved, and heavenly home (Peter 1:3-4 (ESV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ) . The Lord is telling us that though we are troubled now, we will have rest and refreshment later.
14:3, 4 I will come again and receive you: Peter may have failed Jesus, but Christ will not fail to return for Peter and for everyone else who has believed in Him. Why, because He loves us just the way we are, but, and another very big but, He, Jesus, loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
2) He will come as God 1 Thes. 4:16 - For the Lord he will descend from heaven
How, with the “voice of an archangel” and the “trumpet of God” emphasizing the divine authority behind Paul’s description of Jesus’ return. The images and pictures Paul uses for the end time overlap with those of other Jews of his time and what Paul describe especially matches Jesus’ picture of the end time (trumpet, clouds, angels, times and seasons, sudden destruction).
Jewish readers familiar with the OT recognized the importance of trumpets for gathering the assembly, sometimes to battle. Gentile readers probably knew the Roman use of trumpets to gather troops or to send signals in battle. Most relevant, Jewish tradition, as emphasized in a daily synagogue prayer, portrayed the gathering of Israel in the end time as accompanied by the sounding of a trumpet. The question,…..is are we ready this very second for the sounding of the trumpet?
3) He will come as a thief Thes. 5:2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
In contrast to the certainty of Christ’s coming, Paul now deals with the uncertainty of the timing of the coming day of the Lord. This period is the subject of considerable prophecy. In fact as I said last week, the Book of Joel as a whole is an exposition of the day of the Lord, describing it as a terrible time of judgment. In the OT, the phrase the day of the Lord is used for any period where God intervenes in judgment on the earth. There were “days of the Lord” predicted in the OT that have already been fulfilled (Amos 5:18). Here, Paul uses the expression to refer to Christ’s return and the coming judgment. thief in the night: The day of the Lord will come when no one expects it. But, make no mistake, contrary to popular thought, popular books, and now popular movies, when the trumpet sounds, the world will see God and it will be judged and > it will know the Day of our Lord, for it will see the emergence of the man of sin, Satan, and the removal of the restrainer of sin, Gods Holy Spirit, in fact these two major events will make evident that the day of the Lord has come.
4) At a time unknown Matthew 24:36 "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
No one knows: In spite of such clear statements by Jesus and by Paul, there are still multitudes that follow those who, in disobedience to Christ’s word, still set dates for the coming of the Lord. The fact is that there are no prophesied events that have yet to take place before our Lord’s second coming outside of Gods Word. It is imminent; that is, it can happen at any time. So we ought not to be looking for signs of a sign-less event. The sign will be, hear me so you can watch for it, when you see the Lord himself descending from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
5) He will come as Judge Matthew 25:31-33 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
This is to be expected, since Matthew emphasizes the coming of the kingdom and thus the judgment that accompanies it. In the previous two parables, Jesus had been speaking of the judgment on those Israelites who were unprepared for the coming of the Messiah. In the last parable of this discourse, Jesus focuses His attention on all the nations of the earth. When the Son of Man comes in His glory recalls the words of Daniel the prophet and anticipates the future reign of Christ in Revelation. Nations here means Gentiles. Sheep and goats were clean animals according to the Levitical law; however, their natures are very different. Shepherds regularly herded their sheep and goats together, but there came a point when the two had to be separated.
In Matthew 25:41-46 the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world has always been God’s goal for humans. Here three groups are referred to sheep, goats, and my brethren. These “brethren” are believers in Jesus Christ. The Everlasting and eternal are used to describe both torment and life, indicating that one will last as long as the other. Our God is Everlasting and eternal, His judgment is Everlasting and eternal, and His mercy is Everlasting and eternal.
6) He will come as our source of government Rev. 22:3-5 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
No more curse means that the affliction of sin, especially on the human race and creation (from Gen. 3), will be erased. As God had fellowship with Adam and Eve before their fall into sin now the Lord will again be with His servants eternally. In turn, His servants will worshipfully serve Him. The believer’s hope today is to see the Lord face to face something neither Moses nor any other human was previously allowed to do. The name … on their foreheads is both in contrast to the mark of the beast and in fulfillment of the promise to the faithful believers at Philadelphia. No night … no lamp fulfills Christ’s proclamation of Himself as “the light of the world”. The eternal inhabitants of the New Jerusalem shall reign forever with the Lord.
The Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, His second coming means the physical fulfillment of what has spiritually already happened to all of us as Christians, if, you have had your manger, rebirth into a new life, delivered from darkness into the light, and you have acknowledge the Advent of Christ Jesus into you soul, where he rules your life, and thirdly you have accepted Jesus as the Source of government in your life you now understand the Advent.
Our only concern then is the Advent of Christ, the second coming, not when, but that we are ready for it, You surly have heard the commercial the past few years especially at Christmas that Capital One runs, “What’s in you wallet” or American Express, “Don’t leave home without it”. Well the question for the world today is not what’s in your wallet, but, it’s Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, What’s in your heart? And it’s Jesus Christ, don’t get caught without Him.
When Jesus is the Lord of our life and the King of our Kingdom we can then shout Hallelujah, which means….Praise God. Hallelujah,….. for He is coming again.