Jesus = Soon Coming King
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Intro:
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Throughout this month we have focused on Jesus. When we think Jesus, we should think, Salvation, Healing, and Spirit Baptism. Today, we will see how [Jesus =Soon Coming King].
People by nature are creatures of habit. I am no exception. I always knew I had quirks, but this became apparent when I married Bekah. There were some advantages to waiting until I was twenty-three to marry.
I was established, I had my own home, and I had a little life-experience. However, the problem with being on my own for five years before I married was I developed certain habits that were hard to break.
What seemed perfectly normal to me, seemed abnormal to Bekah. I learned I have a specific way of doing things, that make perfect sense to me. I will give a few examples:
Bekah, would you turn on the fan and get me my blanket.
Bekah, the cups always go on the left of the dishwasher and the bowls always go on the right.
Bekah, when you are playing the piano, you need to play the chord this way. Why, because that is the way I was taught and that is the way it is supposed to be done!
Bekah, did you put my briefcase in the car already? I always do that at the very last so I make sure I do not leave it home!
These are few of the idiosyncrasies, which is a fancy word for, the odd things I do that I have always done! The fact is, we all have unique habits and traits.
We probably haven’t thought about them too much, while other people have probably wondered, why in the world do they do that? Thankfully, Bekah has normalized me and my odd traits have become minimal, but some things do not change.
There is one other person who does things the same way. He never changes. He promised in:
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
The fact is, God is a creature of habit! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When we learn something new about God, it is not new to Him, He has always been this way and He will always be this way!
We have studied this throughout this series. The New Testament blessings of salvation, healing, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, while revealed in the New Testament, originated with God before time began!
Though salvation came with Jesus, God designed the plan of salvation the moment humanity fell into sin.
Though Jesus purchased our healing on the cross. God determined to heal His people the moment sickness entered humanity.
Though the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a gift that every believer should desire and there is no record of Old Testament saints speaking in tongues, God decided that He would pour out His Spirit and use tongues as the initial physical evidence even before languages were confused at Babel.
If this is God’s track record, the God’s decision to return to earth did not come AFTER Jesus came to die for our sins, it was part of His design when humanity sinned!
We must ALWAYS remember, God is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the first and the last. He is the beginning and the end.
13 Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”
God does not work like people. Our nature is to get through one problem or task before we tackle the next one. However, God sees the whole picture.
It is not as though mankind sinned and God scrambled around to create a remedy. He didn’t through the cross together last minute. And it is not as thought He thought, now that Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, maybe You should go back and get Our people.
No, God’s plan to return to this earth has been His plan from the beginning. Satan thought He could ruin God’s creation. Since that day, He began the process of restoring what Satan tried destroy.
We believe that Jesus is coming again! We believe that He walked on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, and we anticipate the day when He will do this again!
As a creature of habit, as One who never changes, Jesus will return again, it has been a part of God’s plan from the beginning. I have three points today, [The Pattern of His Coming], [The People of His Coming], and [The Promise of His Coming].
Let’s begin
1. The Pattern of His Coming
1. The Pattern of His Coming
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Normally when we discuss the coming of the Lord, we look to the New Testament, especially the book of the Revelation. But let’s go back to the beginning.
In , we read genealogy of Adam’s family. At first glance, this chapter serves to show the generations from Adam to the Noah and the flood.
The pattern goes, so and so began so and so, they were this old when they had children and this old when they died. As we read these ancient obituaries, we see that the consequences of sin truly is death.
But in the seventh generation from Adam, there is a man named Enoch. Little is said of him in this chapter, EXCEPT, he was father to the oldest man who ever lived. And he walked with God and then God took him.
What does it mean to say God took him? It means that Enoch did not die. Now wait, God promised that because of sin, everyone HAD to die, right?
Yes, but Enoch became an exception. The reason for his departure before death? He walked with God. He stood out as a rose among thorns. The world was wicked while he lived and it got progressively worse.
Sin was so rampant that Enoch’s great-great grandson Noah was selected to build an ark, because God planned to flood the earth. What did Enoch do that separated him from his contemporaries?
Hebrews 11:5
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
He had a testimony of faith. His lifestyle, his actions, and his words pleased God. Though there are only four verses dedicated to him in the Old Testament, his life and legacy lived on for thousands of years.
When Jude, the brother of Jesus, wrote his brief letter to the churches, he included something that set Enoch apart.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Jude 14-15
Enoch was a prophet and he had a strong message. The Lord will come again with His saints. How could Enoch promise that the Lord would come with His saints?
To be a saint is to be forgiven of sins and to live for Jesus. How could ancient people have the promise of the return of the Lord, when Jesus would not come the first time for thousands of years?
God revealed to Enoch His pattern. He will return for those who live a righteous, holy, just, and set apart of life! These attributes describe Enoch, and as he declared this message, suddenly, Enoch was gone.
God came for him and he left this earth without dying! God established the pattern of His coming!
2. The People of His Coming
2. The People of His Coming
1 And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
If we fast forward more than a thousand years, we find another man who was similar to Enoch. He was a prophet. He declared God’s word with supernatural power. Let’s look at a few of his miracles:
He provided for the widow of a Gentile nation, even raising her son from the dead.
He proclaimed God’s judgment on Israel for their habitual sin and idol worship. He then challenged the false prophets, calling down fire from heaven.
He predicted his time on earth was drawing to a close.
He has another similarity with Enoch, sharing this distinction as the only two men in the Old Testament who went to heaven without dying.
11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.
His story mirrors Enoch. We know nothing of Elijah’s background and we know nothing of Enoch’s background. However, after a lifetime of faithfulness to God, the Lord determined it was time to take Him from this earth!
Elijah depicts the type of person who will go with Jesus when He returns for us! Elijah was not remembered by his past, only by what He did for God.
Likewise, when we come to Christ, our past is erased and we start fresh when we begin our walk with Jesus. When He returns, He will come for people who have been made new.
He will come for those who are living a righteous and holy life. He will come for those who will take a stand for Him, refusing to compromise to sin under the guise of cultural changes.
He will come for those who are working for Him. He will come for those who are looking for His appearing. Notice, Elijah told those close to him, It is about time for me to leave.
And when Jesus comes, He will come for those who are not tied down to earth, but who are eagerly ready for Him to come again!
Through Enoch we see a pattern established. God will come again with His saints! Therefore we must live a life of faith and walk close to God.
comes for those who are walking with Him
Through Elijah we see the type of people Jesus will come and remove from this earth. He will come for people who are a committed to Him and His cause!
But these are two people who experienced something supernatural. Could it be that their story is not to be repeated?
3. The Promise of His Coming
3. The Promise of His Coming
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
As I mentioned earlier, nothing catches God by surprise and nothing to God is new. When Jesus came the first time, His followers could not believe it, it was an answer to prayer.
Though it took them a little while to realize who Jesus was and what He would do, when it became apparent that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they could not wait to see what the future would hold.
Imagine how they felt in . The conversation took place on the Thursday evening before Jesus’ death on Friday. They could tell something was different. No longer is Jesus speaking of the present, His focus is on the future.
Now he drops the bombshell, I am leaving and while I am gone, I will go and prepare a place for you. If I had been there, I might have spoke up like Thomas, “What do you mean you are leaving, you just got here?”
But as people, we muddle through one situation to the next. We are incapable of seeing the total picture of God’s plan. If we knew it all we would not have faith.
Instead, we have to trust God that He knows the way. That was His answer to Thomas, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Think about that, this conversation took place before Jesus finished His the major task of His first coming!
It took a little while for His followers to understand what He meant. Around fifty days to be exact. It was not until the resurrection, the ascension, and the day of Pentecost that it full sunk in that Jesus would come again.
But once they figured it out, the promise of His come was thread throughout the New Testament. They wanted to live a righteous and holy life, putting their faith into action.
When Jesus returned, they wanted to be found faithful. For they remembered the promises of Jesus about His coming:
44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Therefore, they became people of the Way. Everything they did was for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus.
They knew His pattern, He promised to come with His saints.
They knew He would come for people who were living for Him and working for Him,
and they held on His promise to come again!
Did they have hard times, sure. Were they troubled, absolutely. Did Satan try to stop them through temptation, division, and attacks? Yes.
But nothing was going to stop them because they knew Jesus as Soon Coming King. They could not be detoured, stopped, or distracted, they had a singular goal in mind!
They wanted people to know Jesus as Savior, Healer, Spirit Baptizer, so they would be ready to meet Him as Soon-Coming King!
Close:
Former president of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary once proposed, “The greatest danger facing the Assemblies of God is not church government or modern trends, but the greatest danger facing the Assemblies of God is if we lose sight of the second coming.”
The fact that Jesus is coming again is non-negotiable. I shared this a few Sunday nights back, but I know not everyone was able to be there:
It is promised all throughout Scripture that Jesus will return! For every promise of Jesus’ first coming, there are eight promises for His second coming.
There are 1845 references to the Second Coming, including 318 in the New Testament. His return is emphasized in seventeen books of the Old Testament and seven out of every ten chapters in the New Testament.
Jesus Himself referred to His coming twenty-one times! The fact is this Jesus WILL come again.
Whether we believe it or not, Jesus will come again. But, if we will keep His coming at the forefront of our minds, great things will happen.
When we believe Jesus is coming, we will want to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.
When we believe Jesus is coming again, We will not try to see what we can get away with and still make it to heaven, instead, we will determine, when Jesus comes again I want Him to be pleased with my life!
When we believe Jesus is coming again we will want to see our family members meet Jesus as Savior. We will tell people about the Lord and His saving grace.
When we believe Jesus is coming again, we will pray for heaven on earth, trusting God to heal those who need something from God.
When we believe Jesus is coming again we will want to be empowered with the Holy Spirit so that we can be an effective witness and so we can walk closer to the Lord!
When we believe Jesus is coming again, we will want to pray in tongues, building ourselves up on our most holy faith.
When we believe Jesus is coming again, it will revolutionize our lives and make us want to be more like the Lord.
And one day we will be like Enoch and Elijah, we will walk this on this earth and our path will turn to a street of Gold...