Why Must He Come Again?

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We have just celebrated Jesus's first coming, but what about his second coming? Part of our Christian life involves looking forward to Jesus's second coming. Knowing why Jesus will come again helps us live for him now.

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Spoiler Alert: Jesus Wins

The Speaker’s Quote Book Second Coming

A shoeshine man named Sam worked in a building that put him in contact with many students of theology. Sam loved the Lord and listened intently as the young men would discuss and debate their positions. Two men especially interested Sam. These men had different opinions on the book of Revelation. Day after day, Sam listened to eloquent and often passionate discussions in defense of the various views. One day, in the middle of a debate between the two men, one jokingly looked at Sam and said, “Sam, what do you think all these things in the book of Revelation mean?” With a smile on his face, Sam looked up and said simply, “Jesus is gonna win.”

Since we have just celebrated the birth of Christ, it may seem odd to you that we would talk today about Jesus’s second coming. We have spent some time scratching our heads in wonder that Jesus came so humbly. He was born into a poor family. He had a feeding trough for a bassinet. His first visitors were a group of smelly shepherds who were looked down on by society. One of the reasons we are amazed by this is because these circumstances aren’t the way it should be. It was beautiful that Jesus came in this manner precisely because it didn’t fit the splendor his coming deserved. Jesus’s second advent is the opposite; it comes with the splendor our King deserves. Anytime we talk about these future events, we run the risk of getting bogged down on how everything will play out. There are different camps on that.

That’s your spoiler alert. Jesus is gonna win. It also might spoil any notions that we might tease out the nuances of the end times. So if you came ready to defend your pre-trib position and have a host of Left Behind books for citations, you can relax, stack up those books, and prop up your feet on them. If you have an arsenal of post-millennial talking points ready, save them for lunchtime discussion. If you’re an amillennialist, we have a free Bible for you at the end of the service. Totally kidding. More importantly, if you didn’t really get any of those terms, don’t worry, because that’s the last you’ll hear of them today. We are talking about the fact that Jesus is gonna win.

We will also talk about why that matters to us. If we’re honest, many of us will admit that most of the time it doesn’t matter to us that Jesus will return. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s more like we’ve got more pressing, day-to-day issues that command our attention. Plus, my jokes about those different end times positions really come out of cauldron of debate that has turned many Christians off to discussing the second coming of Christ.

That’s no good. Part of our Christian life involves looking forward to Jesus’ return. You might be tempted to think you can simply keep your nose down and be a good Christian without all that end times stuff, but consider the research of Paul Lee Tan. He writes,

Both the Old and the New Testaments are filled with promises of the second coming of Christ. There are 1,845 references to it in the Old Testament, and a total of seventeen Old Testament books give it prominence.

Of the 260 chapters in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming, or one out of thirty verses. Twenty-three of the twenty-seven New Testament books refer to this great event…For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are eight on Christ’s second coming.

r every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are eight on Christ’s second coming.

Let’s give our attention, then, to Jesus’ second coming today. Turn in your Bibles to . This is our main text today, but we’ll also look at some other passages later on. Please stand and follow along as I read.

Let

1 Corinthians 15:19–28 ESV

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

And this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book: Over 4,500 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 340.

Why is Jesus coming back?

The Apostle Paul wrote this passage to early Christians at Corinth at a time when their loved ones who had placed faith in Christ years ago were beginning to die. This raised the question in their minds about what exactly happens to those people. There was a fear about what comes next. Paul admits that if the answer to that question is nothing, then we Christians should be pitied. Put simply, the hardship that comes from living as a Christian is really only worth it if there is a hope beyond this life. That hope is found here in Christ’s promised return.

So what is that hope? Why must Jesus come again? The Apostle Paul provides three clear reasons in this passage. Quite helpfully, he shares what comes next in the order.

To gather his people

Jesus will come again to gather his people. Our passage says [15:23] “at his coming those who belong to Christ” will be gathered to him. This is echoed in other parts of the Bible. In , Jesus said of himself,

Matthew 24:31 ESV

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:30 ESV

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Paul clarifies more about the order in .

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 ESV

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

So there’s resurrection and then collection. This reminds us that believers of Christ truly belong to Christ. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes about the coming of Christ and reminds us,

We shall not approach this teaching theoretically or academically or as if we were trying to fit in the parts of a jigsaw puzzle and establish a theory. Let us rather approach it as we are exhorted to do by the Scriptures. It is something that should rejoice our hearts, should comfort us, should stimulate us to holy living.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Church and the Last Things (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 93.

He’s right. This isn’t a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a promise that our Savior will never leave us nor forsake us. It is a hope that all of us confidently have in him. I love those final words of . “And so we will always be with the Lord.” Then Paul adds this line in the next verse ():

1 Thessalonians 4:18 ESV

Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The truth that Jesus will gather us to himself is a reason to encourage each other. That word for encourage is a pretty common one in the New Testament - parakaleo (παρακαλέω). It literally means to call to one’s side, and it is translated in various places as comfort, urge, and exhort. That means sometimes the truth that Jesus will bring us to himself is a comforting balm to the soul, and other times we might use this truth to remind our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to keep pressing on and follow him wholeheartedly.

Which type of encouragement do you most need now? Is it the comfort that reminds you of our future hope, or is it the urging to keep your focus on Christ?

And as you look around you at your fellow Christ followers, which sort of encouragement do they most need? If we talk about it, we will be about it. So let’s encourage one another with these words.

To conquer his enemies

Jesus will also return to conquer his enemies. What enemies are those? They are those who have aligned themselves against Jesus. That includes Satan, the beast and false prophet, demonic forces, and those people who followed them. This is all described in , but it reminds me of , where we are told,

Ephesians 6:12 NIV

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:11 ESV

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Ephesians 6:10 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Those are the enemies. And there is one, final enemy who will be defeated: death. Think about that. We walk in this fallen world where we know death isn’t how it’s supposed to be, yet we’ve come to accept it as a normal part of life. But Paul singles out death and reminds us that it is the enemy of our Lord, who promised he came to bring us life. Jesus will conquer death! God warned man of this enemy, death, back in when he gave Adam the command to not eat of the forbidden tree. If he ate of it, the enemy death would haunt and hound us relentlessly. It would take our health, our loved ones, our vitality. You could say death was the first enemy to attack and the last to be conquered. Jesus will conquer death, along with all other enemies. tells us,

Philippians 2:13 ESV

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Philippians 2:14 ESV

Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

Philippians 2:10–11 NIV

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

To deliver the kingdom

Jesus will return for one other reason, to deliver the kingdom to God the Father. We read in ,

1 Corinthians 15:24 ESV

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

Jesus will gather his people, defeat his enemies, and then hand the kingdom over to the Father. Jesus made clear his goal to do the will of the Father, and these end times events are the outworking of God’s sovereign plan. Verse 28 says (),

1 Corinthians 15:28 ESV

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

“That God may be all in all.” The end result is that God, the great I AM, is all in all. We often look at a broken world and wonder why God doesn’t put an end to suffering or how he is sovereign when so much seems to run counter to his will. It is an expression of our hearts that long for God to be all in all over his creation. It is the knowledge that what we see now lacks the ultimate unity and harmony that we would expect from a universe created by our awesome God. All in all means we will one day look around at the world and see nothing but God’s fingerprint in all of it and his divine superintendence over all of it. All in all answers the longing of our souls, where God’s glory is seen at every turn.

How can we be ready for his return?

Sometimes Karen and I have watched those HGTV shows in which one set of buyers is choosing which home they will purchase. This is often a second home for them, and they don’t always want to have to furnish the home. That’s where I learned the term, “turn-key ready.” It means that a home is so furnished - with beds, dishes, couches, linens, and lounge chairs - that the owner needs only the key to move in. Everything else is ready.

Shouldn’t we want God’s kingdom to be turn-key ready for him? The more we are about his business, the more we further his kingdom. This correlates to our own personal readiness. Jesus gave the warning in ,

Matthew 24:44 ESV

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

C. S. Lewis writes,

The Speaker’s Quote Book Second Coming

The royal parents of Princess Victoria felt that she should be told early in life that someday she might become the queen of England. So they instructed her governess, who was a countess, to make this known to her. She in turn inserted in the girl’s history textbook a listing of the Hanoverian kings. At the end of the column she had written the name “Victoria.” The governess watched closely as the princess studied her lesson. When Victoria read down the page and came to her own name, she looked up and said, “Can it really be that I may become the queen of England?” The countess replied, “Yes, in all possibility you will.” After a pause, the princess said thoughtfully, “Then I will be good.” From then on she began to apply herself with all her ability, realizing that someday she would sit on the throne.

It seems to me impossible to retain in any recognizable form our belief in the divinity to Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation while abandoning, or even persistently neglecting, the promised and threatened return of Christ.

—C. S. Lewis

Don’t miss this: Jesus’s return will bring either joy or dread. Which do you want to experience at his coming? We’ve all experienced safe levels of dread before. Have you ever gotten together with someone over Christmas and realized you forgot to give that person a gift, and that person had one for you? Maybe as a student you completely forgot about a test and were filled with dread on test day. one day, when I was around 8 years old, my parents repeatedly told me to clean up my room because company was coming. I thought I had plenty of time, but I remember dashing up to my room as the family walked in the door and frantically trying to put my disaster room in order with a distinct sense of dread in my gut. I had a handful of odd toys in my arms as the kids came into my over-cluttered room. Those are safe levels of dread. John tells us what a high dose looks like:

Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker’s Quote Book: Over 4,500 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997), 342.

1 John 2:28 NIV

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

Many believers will be filled with dread. They will be ashamed that they allowed other things in life to choke out their life in Christ. A day will come when we face our daily decisions - what we should have done compared with what we did do, what we should have valued compared with what we did value.

How can we be confident and unashamed at his coming? How can we be ready for Jesus’s return?

Here are three, brief ways.

Be wise

The first is to be wise. Jesus says (),

Matthew 24:45–46 NIV

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

Wisdom involves planning. It means something as central to our lives as our faith should not be an afterthought to our day-to-day living. This is a matter of priority. Ask yourself,

Ask yourself,

What level of priority would the past two weeks show you’ve placed on your walk with Christ?

We know from Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of being ashamed at his coming can give us the wisdom to reorient our lives around the things of God.

Jesus includes the word faithful in his description, because our faith is not a private belief. It is instead a lived out expectation. In other words, we cannot be described as faithful if we do not live out that faithfulness.

It has been said, “Plan as though Christ were not coming for ten years. Live as though He were coming in ten seconds.” That’s how we should live and plan.

Be working

In addition to being wise, we should be working. We should be about the Father’s business, actively working to build God’s kingdom. Francis of Assisi, hoeing in his garden, was once asked, “What would you do if you knew Christ were coming back today?” He answered, “I would keep right on hoeing.” That is Francis’s way of saying, “My life is in order, and I am doing exactly what God has called me to do.”

These passages we’ve been looking at all have one surprising theme in common. They urge believers to wake up and sober up from a drunken stupor. You can find it in , , and . This has less to do with actual alcohol and more to do with the reality that some have gorged themselves on the values of the day that cannot even think clearly about the things of God. They are ineffective for God after taking in so much that isn’t true.

Do you remember in grade school when the teacher would leave the room for a few minutes? She would make sure to warn the class of her return and tell them exactly what they were to be doing. Eventually, she would come back, and what would she find? Some students were discovered to be doing the classwork assigned, but many were found out of their seats, throwing wads of paper, pretending to surf on the desks or any other number of things they shouldn’t have been doing. Every single one of them thought they’d somehow have enough time to be back in their seats. Those who truly expected the teacher’s imminent return were the ones doing their assigned work. The others didn’t really expect the return.

The more imminent you believe Jesus’ return to be, the more likely you’ll be about his business.

Be watching

To help keep the sense that Jesus could return at any time, we are told to be watching. In , Jesus says,

Matthew 25:13 ESV

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Do we literally watch the sky? Well, you could. The Bible seems to indicate that’s where the action will begin. Maybe each day you pray, “Lord, will it be today that you return?” Maybe you leave a reminder somewhere that says, “It could be today.”

There’s a story from a missionary in Japan, taught missionary children in the third grade. One day she was teaching about Jesus’ return, and the same day another class had a drama of a Bible event for which a man was dressed in Bible clothes. A third-grader walked out of class, saw the man dressed in Bible attire, and ran back into the classroom and yelled to the class, “Here he is now!”

That comes from being watchful.

The Speaker’s Quote Book Second Coming

One day, while visiting a home for mentally handicapped children operated by a Christian friend, Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute, noticed the tiny handprints of children covering the window. Stowell remarked about them to his friend.

“Oh, those,” he replied. “The children here love Jesus, and they are so eager for Him to return that they lean against the windows as they look up to the sky.”

There’s another story that describes this sort of eager anticipation. One day, while visiting a home for mentally handicapped children operated by a Christian friend, Joseph Stowell, president of Moody Bible Institute, noticed the tiny handprints of children covering the window. Stowell remarked about them to his friend.

“Oh, those,” he replied. “The children here love Jesus, and they are so eager for Him to return that they lean against the windows as they look up to the sky.”

Let’s eagerly expect the return of Christ.

It could be today

We know why Jesus will return, and we know how we can be ready. We also know we need to encourage each other with these words. We need to comfort and spur each other on toward this great task. We know that if we do these things we will be filled with joy rather than shame. This is what we are called to do.

One day a traveler in Switzerland discovered a beautiful but secluded estate on the shores of a tranquil lake. Knocking at the garden gate, he was met by an aged caretaker who cordially asked him to come in. The guardian seemed glad to see another person and eagerly showed him around the garden. “How long have you been here?” the tourist asked. “A very long time,” he replied. “And how often has your master returned?” “Four times.” “When was he here last?” “Many years ago. I am almost always alone—it’s very seldom that even a stranger visits me.” “Yet you have the garden in such perfect order,” said the traveler, “and everything is flourishing as if you were expecting your master tomorrow.” “No, sir,” exclaimed the caretaker, “I have it fixed as if he were coming today!”

Do you have things fixed as if Jesus were coming today? If you have never placed your faith in Christ for salvation, that is your first step. Confess your sin to him and trust in his work on the cross to forgive it, committing your life to follow him.

If you have done that, have you been at work in God’s kingdom? Are you in a group of believers who talk about the things of God as they study his Word together? Maybe you’ve neglected some of these things because you are disconnected. We’re about to start a new year with a 2020 vision to walk more by faith and not by sight. Kick it off with by recommitting to do just that. I would encourage you to make it public, because we all need that encouragement. Come pray with me or come kneel at the front or in your seat in prayer. You might decide that you don’t want 2019 to finish out without becoming a member of a church. I’m at the front to pray with you about that, too.

We are going to sing one final song together, and I encourage you to respond as God leads. Let’s stand.

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