Sermon Tone Analysis

*7 Characteristics of the Coming King, Part 2*

*Luke 17:23-25*

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We come this morning to this wonderful seventeenth chapter of Luke's gospel.

Luke chapter 17 and our theme is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

We're dealing with verses 22 through verse 37...Luke 17:22 through 27.

This is a prolonged presentation of our Lord's Second Coming that comes from His own lips.

You might say this is Jesus on His Second Coming.

We are hearing it straight from the Lord Himself.

It is not a presentation of the chronology of His Second Coming, or the sequential events.

There will be a more sequential, chronological presentation by our Lord in the twenty-first chapter of the gospel of Luke.

But here we have not a chronological treatment of His coming but a description of it.

This is to help us with the nature of that event.

And in one particular aspect, and that is that it will be a judgment.

While we as believers look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ because it will bring Him glory, and because He will establish His Kingdom on earth and He will bind Satan and righteousness and truth and peace will prevail over the earth as He reigns spiritually and physically in Jerusalem over the world, and that's all positive, and that Kingdom will be launched only with those who are the Savior's own by faith, we look forward to that.

We look forward to the Kingdom aspects of Christ's return.

We long for that day when we will reign with Him and enjoy the fullness of all the blessings and promises originally given to the patriarchs and to David and even to the prophets in the New Covenant.

But that's not all that occurs in the Second Coming of Christ.

It's not just the Kingdom and glory and blessing and prosperity and righteousness and peace prevailing in the earth, before that happens there will be the most horrific consummate complete devastating judgment the world has ever, or will ever know.

And so as our Lord talks about Second Coming in this particular text, it is a focus on the judgment.

It is looking at the nature of His return as a judgment event.

This is all precipitated by the fact that Jesus talked about the Kingdom all the time.

He preached about the Kingdom all the time.

And in a mocking, scoffing way, the Pharisees say to Him in the query that is certainly in their minds if not on their lips, verse 20, "When is the Kingdom of God coming?"

You keep talking about it.

I think it's a sarcastic, scornful, mocking approach because they had already rejected Him as their King and their Messiah and He was much an unlikely King, He didn't appear to be the King they had anticipated by all their understanding of Old Testament prophecy.

There was no splendor.

There was no glory.

There was...there were no signs in earth and signs in heaven of massive proportions and He attacked their religion rather than confirming it, for all those reasons and others they had rejected Him as King.

And now I think in a mocking way, they ask, "When is that Kingdom you keep talking about going to come?"

And He answers them, "It's not coming with signs to be observed.

The first phase of this Kingdom is not external, it's not universal, it's not physical, rather...verse 21...He says the Kingdom of God is within you.

The first phase of His Kingdom is spiritual, personal, internal.

And if you're not a part of that Kingdom, you will never be a part of that external, worldwide, physical Kingdom.

We talked about the internal, personal Kingdom, verses 20 and 21, and now we're talking about the external, visible, manifest, earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He launches, in a sense, that first Kingdom in His first coming.

He launches that second aspect in His Second Coming.

It is crucial then to any understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus to major on the Second Coming.

In fact, one could argue that it is the most important of all doctrines because it is the consummation of all doctrines.

Every other doctrine, every other element in redemptive history ends up with the glorification of Christ in His Kingdom which is earthly and then in its final phase eternal.

It cannot be minimized.

Because it is important, it is laid out for us clearly.

It is not obscure in Scripture.

It is not hard to find.

It is all over the place, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and with amazing specificity.

Our contemporary evangelical world has become comfortable with the fact that there are all kinds of views of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as if it is an absolute possibility to understand the reality of it.

In fact, books are written which share the multiple views and the multiple perspectives of almost every aspect of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, as if God had not spoken clearly on the matter.

So it's important for us to get a good biblical sound solid look at this massively significant event...the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And to start with something that is very clear and very straightforward and unmistakable, let me read a verse from Acts 1 and it's verse 11.

Just listen to this.

Jesus had ascended into heaven.

He was standing there in one moment talking with His disciples and after He had completed what He had to say, He began to go up, just ascending into heaven by His divine power.

He went up and as He went up, they gazed intently, staring with a fixed gaze at this phenomenal occurrence and He disappeared in the clouds.

That is the ascension of Jesus described for us there in Acts 1.

While they were in that startled stunned condition of gazing at Jesus leaving, two angels appear.

And this is what the angels said, "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."

That is unmistakable, unambiguous, crystal clear.

He went up physically, bodily, literally, visibly and disappeared behind the clouds.

That is precisely the way He will come back...through the clouds visibly, physically, bodily, literally coming down and placing His feet on the Mount of Olives.

This is not mystical and there's no secret meaning to this.

It is a promise of the literal, physical, bodily, visible return of Jesus Christ to earth.

And this is the great culminating moment in God's redemptive history.

It must happen.

It cannot be set aside.

Let me just give you a few things that demand the Second Coming of Christ.

And I want...I want to secure your foundation before we look at our text.

First of all, the promise of God demands that Jesus Christ return...the promise of God demands that Jesus Christ return.

In the Old Testament God made a number of promises that there would come a Messiah who would set up an everlasting Kingdom.

In 2 Samuel 7 this Messiah, this King was to be in the line of the great King David and He was to come and establish His Kingdom and build a house and establish a throne that would last forever, 2 Samuel chapter 7.  In Psalm 2 God actually speaks.

In fact, He speaks out of anger, verse 6 of Psalm 2, "As for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.

I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord, He said to me...writes the psalmist...Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee, ask of Me and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance."

God says I will establish My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.

God says to His own Son, "You are My Son, today I have begotten You.

Ask Me and I will give you the nations as Your inheritance, the very ends of the earth as Your possession."

The first time Jesus came, that did not happen...that did not happen.

Of the three hundred plus messianic prophecies related to the coming of Jesus Christ, about a third of them were fulfilled in the first coming.

That leaves two thirds...about two hundred plus...that have not been fulfilled.

That necessitates a second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ by the very promise of God.

The integrity of God, the credibility of God, the truthfulness of God demands that Jesus Christ return and fulfill those prophecies.

Secondly, the teaching of Jesus demands that He return...the teaching of Jesus Himself.

If you were to jump ahead a little and look at Luke 21, you would hear the words of our Lord as He speaks of His own Second Coming, verse 25 of Luke 21, "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars and upon the earth dismay among nations and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world, for the powers of the heaven will be shaken and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near."

Here Jesus discloses His own Second Coming.

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You have a parallel passage to that in Mark 13.

You have a parallel passage to that in Matthew chapter 24.

In Luke 17 Jesus Himself is speaking here about the days of the revealing of the Son of Man, verse 30.

In John 14 He said, "If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am there you may be also."

The trustworthiness of God demands the Second Coming and the trustworthiness of Jesus demands the Second Coming.

Thirdly, the word of the Spirit demands the Second Coming.

The Spirit is the author of Scripture, all prophecies of the Second Coming are written down by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who is then the divine member of the Trinity assigned the responsibility to inspire the writers to write and the Spirit then has spoken in the Word and every prophecy calling for the Second Coming is a prophecy that has come by means of the Spirit to us in the written Word.

And therefore, the Spirit who says He will come, being trustworthy, necessitates that coming.

In Revelation chapter 3 and in verse 11, you don't need to turn to it, I'll just mention it to you.

Jesus says, Revelation 3:11, "I am coming quickly.

Hold fast what you have in order that no one take your crown."

On this occasion He's speaking about His coming which is a plus for those who believe, for those who believe to hold on to their crowns so that when He's here they receive a full reward.

Two verses later, our Lord Himself says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

When He writes a letter to the church, it is a letter that comes by way of the Spirit.

So listen to what the Spirit says about the Lord coming quickly.

The promise of God, the teaching of Jesus, the Word of the Spirit demands the Second Coming.

God's plan for the church demands a Second Coming.

It cannot be over for the church.