Set your hope fully on Christ's Coming

Introduction

In life there are a lot of things that we hope for. We might hope for the weather to be good. That can mean different things for different people. Some people like it hot and others like it not so hot. One might hope for rain while another hopes for sunshine.

We might hope that we have a good day at work. It can mean a day that is busy or a day that is uneventful. We might hope that our families are healthy and prosperous.

Peter had an eternal perspective about what we should hope for.

1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Last week, we looked at preparing our minds for action. We have the choice on what thoughts we are going to dwell on. Nobody can make you think any thought. We have the choice and the right to take every thought captive and each thought has to submit to Jesus Christ. We don’t have to accept thoughts that try to bombard us that are sent on an assignment from the devil to ruin our day.

There were two sisters from Holland that lived during the Second World War. Because of their actions to hide Jews that were to be sent to concentration camps, they ended up in one themselves, Ravensbrook. Corrie and Betsie had a choice to make, were they going to become bitter with the mistreatment that was hurled at them or would they make the best of every day.

Instead of creating a lobby group to tell the guards of their mistreatment, they started a Bible Study to minister to those going to the same kinds of sufferings that they were going through. It’s like the old saying,

“If life gives you a lemon, you need to make lemonade.”

Setting your hope...

Today, I want us to look at setting or fixing our hope.

set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Peter’s goal here is to get us to focus on what really matters.

According to the Strong’s Concordance - Set your hope means to: ἐλπίσατε (elpisate) - To hope, hope for, expect, trust. From elpis; to expect or confide.

Romans 8:22–25 (NIV)

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

As Christians, we have hope that this is not all there is. We have hope that one day we will see Jesus face to face. What hope do we have if we die and that’s it? What hope can we give to our family, friends, and neighbours if there is no God? What makes life worth living?

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 (NIV)

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Do you look forward to the day that you will see Jesus face to face? Do you long for that day when you will know as you are fully known by God?

Set your hope fully on the grace...

set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

When we look at the word grace can refer to gift or unmerited favour.

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As people who believe in Jesus Christ, we begin to walk in this gift of eternal life when we decide to believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, but when we see Jesus, we will fully experience it.

1 Peter 1:3–7 (NIV)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

We have hope in the things we can’t see with our eyes.

John 20:29 (NIV)

Then Jesus told him (Thomas), “Because you have seen me, you h ave believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We look through eyes of faith that what God has promised in His word, He will do. Just as a farmer plants his/her crop through eyes of faith, we too look through eyes of faith believing that Jesus will come again. Just as it’s out of the farmer’s control to make the crop grow, they continue to put a crop in believing that it will produce.

It takes great faith to be a farmer.

In this same way, we look through eyes of faith that Jesus will come again.

Hebrews 10:22–25 (NIV)

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,

not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

When Christ is revealed

The word revelation comes from the Greek word, apocalupsis, which means: An unveiling, uncovering, revealing, revelation. (Strong’s)

Often if we hear the word Apocalypse, we think of the end of the world, Armageddon, the final great battle, but we get this from what is written in the book of Revelation. It really means uncovering of future events.

I want to take a few minutes and talk about the Second Coming. Often as Christians we use words or terminology that doesn’t necessarily mean much to somebody that hasn’t been raised in the church.

Before Jesus died on the cross, He told His disciples that He would go to His Father and that one day He would come again. We call this the second coming.

The writer of the book of Hebrews said,

Hebrews 9:27–28 (ESV)

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

I’m not going to go into too great of detail this morning about when or how things are going to happen. My focus this morning is strictly about Jesus’ promise that He is coming back. While doing this, we’ll look at a few of the signs of His coming.

Signs of Jesus’ Coming

Matthew 24:3–14 (ESV)

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.

For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Jesus used labor pains as an example of how things are going to be as His coming gets closer. For anybody who has experienced childbirth knows that as the baby gets closer to coming the contractions get closer.

As we look at the list: People will say that they are the Christ, famines and earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars, false prophets, many will fall away and will hate each other, wickedness or lawlessness will increase. It’s not as though these haven’t taken place over the course of history, it’s that we will see an increase in these and I believe that it will be greater as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ nears. I’m sure that you’ve noticed weather that can be alarming, but Jesus said, it’s just the beginning of birth pains, but we as believers need to be paying attention to these. Jesus also said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

There has never been a time in history where we have had the ability to tell others about Jesus Christ like today. We have access to the internet, to TV, to radio, we have vehicles that can drive and even fly into remote places.

Does this mean that we need to curl up in our beds and just wait for Jesus’ coming, by no means! We need to be about our Father’s business.

I’m not going to go into great depth, but Jesus said that there will be times of Great Tribulation like have never been experienced before. There will be many that will be deceived, but Christians aren’t to listen to any voice. We need to pay attention to this even now, but every one who speaks needs to line up with the word of God. Some believe that the church will be taken up before the Tribulation, and others don’t. What matters is this, as long as we are here, we need to test all things and hold on to what is good. Jesus said that even miracles and healings will take place. This will be enough evidence for many, but as I said last week, the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. He will try to fool even the strongest believers in Christ if that’s possible.

Second Coming

Matthew 24:29–31 (ESV)

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

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.

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.

At this point, Jesus will come as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will wage war with the sword coming out of His mouth. The same God that spoke the worlds into existence will judge those who have raised their fist and shook it at God and waged war against Him. (Revelation 19:11-21)

When will this happen?

Matthew 24:36–39 (ESV)

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,

and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Illustration: James O. Davis

Dwight Eisenhower meets a teenager with cancer

I’d like to close with a story,

In 1955, President David Eisenhower (Also known as Dwight) was in Denver, Colorado, for a few days of business. In the Saturday morning newspaper, one of the president’s aids read a letter to the editor from a teenaged boy with cancer, named Paul Hailey, who expressed his dream of someday, somehow, someway meeting the President of the United States. After showing the article to the president, Mr. Eisenhower told the aide to have his car ready for a visit to the boy’s home early on Sunday morning.

At 6:30 on Sunday morning, the president walked to the door of the Hailey’s home and knocked. A sleepy eyed, unshaven David Hailey was shocked at the president’s visit and interest in meeting his son. After meeting and talking with Paul, Mr. Eisenhower took the boy outside to the limousine to meet his wife before their departure.

The next day, newspaper reporters asked David Hailey what he thought about the president’s visit to his home. The father said he was not too happy because he was not prepared. They then asked the son his opinion of the visit. Paul, the son, said he was ecstatic because he had longed for the day he might personally get to meet the President of the United States.

Are you prepared should Jesus return today? We are not looking for a visit from the President of the United States. We are looking for the return of the King of Kings for His bride, the Church!

Even so, Come quickly Lord Jesus!