Sermon Tone Analysis

Behold! Jesus Is Coming! (1:7)

(Temple 02/03/2019) A technique used in novels and movies is to open with a scene near the end of the story and then flashback to the events leading up to that scene.

The book of the Revelation likewise gives us a scene of the end in the first chapter right after the opening greeting.

The book reveals this climactic event near the end and then the flashback of certain events leading up to that point.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

Even so, Amen.

Behold, He cometh!

Jesus is coming back!

Here in the first chapter and through the last chapter, this book declares that Jesus is coming with clouds and every eye shall see Him.

Jesus is the theme of the book of the Revelation, just as Jesus is the theme of the whole Bible.

God intended for the believer to read this book with this image of Jesus’ return foremost in the mind.

Jesus is coming back!

Every orthodox creed and catechism affirms that Jesus is coming back!

Our own 2000 Baptist Faith and Message declares:

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.

According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.

The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.

The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

And the authors of our Faith and Message back that declaration up with many passages of Scripture.

Believers have anticipated His return ever since He ascended with the promise to come back in like manner.

The seven blessings of this book are tied to faith in His return.

Some are blessings in anticipation of His coming; others are blessings at His coming; and the rest are blessings after His coming.

​ is a blessing for those who hear, read, and keep what is written for His return is at hand.

​ is a blessing to those who die before His return. is a blessing to those who watch for His coming. is a blessing of fellowship with Him upon His coming.

​ is a blessing of resurrection at His coming. is a blessing like the first for keeping the sayings of this book until His return. is a blessing for obedience to Christ’s commandments.

Behold!

Look! See! Jesus is coming!

This verse has two main points we should remember long after our study of this book.

See His All-Powerful Coming!

After His resurrection, Jesus said that all power and authority has been given Him.

When He returns, the world will see how invincible and almighty that power is!

He has power over all natural forces of this Creation.

Jesus began this Creation with the Father and the Spirit.

All Creation is subject to His power.

The clouds are subject to His power.

Gravity is subject to His power.

No natural law, not even gravity and the laws of physics, has power over its Creator.

He is coming with clouds!

He is not dependent on some type of aircraft.

However, those clouds accompany a heavenly host!

He is not coming with some great mechanical weapons.

He needs none of those.

He brings the heavenly hosts so they can see His glory and righteous victory over the forces of evil.

He will merely speak the Word and all weapons of Man are useless, gone, or turned upon each other.

What happens at His coming?

The Bible tells us.

Fast forward to the back of the Book, we find this vision of His coming.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Jesus is coming in all-power and glory to subdue His enemies.

He described His coming in Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

When He returns in His omnipotent power and incomparable glory, the trumpet will sound, He will defeat His enemies and He will gather His people from all over the world.

The Apostles described His coming.

The Holy Spirit wrote through the Apostle Paul this description: Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The dead in Christ today have a body suitable for heaven, a body not made with hands.

They will return with Christ and an eternal glorified body for heaven and earth will be raised up for them while the living will be changed at that time into glorified bodies.

John wrote in Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Not everyone understands this book the same way, but every believer knows that Jesus is coming back, His enemies will be destroyed, and believers will be changed to be like Him.

We studied last Sunday night.

Isaiah saw the Lord coming (the Branch) and the peace and rest that would follow His establishment upon the earth.

Christians anticipate the return of Christ because He will change the earth by destroying His enemies, including death, and because we will receive glorified bodies that will never perish, never suffer, never grow old nor wear out.

Jesus is bringing change, everlasting, righteous, peaceful, glorious change!

His return is the object of our diligence.

We watch for His return.

We anticipate His return.

We long for His return.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

If you are a follower of Christ, His return will be the most spectacular event you could ever experience.

Considering all the spectacular events and changes Christ has already accomplished and will accomplish in the future throughout eternity, that says a lot! Imagine your faith ending in sight, all that you knew was true despite a world of doubt surrounding you literally coming to light, and that first glimpse of the eternal state.

Wow! Exciting just doesn’t capture that event well enough.

I wasn’t there that night 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born.

I missed the angel and heavenly host announcement that a Savior had been born.

I wasn’t there on the mount when Jesus transfigured in such glory that His disciples passed out.

I wasn’t there when He rose from the grave and ascended back to the Father.

But praise God, I will see His glorious return!

See His All-Dreadful Coming!

Jesus’ coming will be all-powerful for the believer, but it will all-dreadful for the unbeliever.

This event will be the unbeliever’s worst nightmare, except it will be real.

Unbelievers have a fantasy about developing a utopia without God where everyone is happy and content.

Such an ideal is impossible because of sin, unbelief, and death.

The return of Jesus disintegrates that delusion, pummels that pipe-dream, vaporizes that vision.

Behold!

He comes!

Jesus is real!

He is really God!

He is really all-powerful and He is really all-dreadful to the unbeliever!

He is coming to earth to establish the beauty and glory of heaven upon this earth, ridding the world of sin, death, and unbelief.

How dreadful is His coming for unbelievers?

Here is what the powerful wicked of that day say in And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

They acknowledge God is real, Jesus is the Lamb of God, the great day of God’s wrath is against them, and that they are powerless against the Lord.

Overwhelming panic seizes the nations of the world.

Our text says that they will mourn—not a repentant wailing, but screams of dread at His coming.

Their world is ending.