When
I was at Oxford, I had the opportunity to hear C.S. Lewis, who used to come
back from Cambridge to give lectures.
In
one of his talks, he said that a person may be about to be married, but before
the wedding takes place, Christ may come and call His responding bride
to
the Marriage Supper of the Lord. So, he said, make your first priority a
preparation for that event.
He
went on to say that one may be a scientist on the verge of a society- changing
invention, but, before he reaches his goal, Christ may come. So get ready
now
for that event. That way, instructed Lewis, you live in a constant state of
meaningful expectation. Furthermore, every time the coming of the Lord
is
mentioned in the Scriptures, it is used as a basis for the Creator to say to
His created, "Prepare to meet thy God."
More
and more it appears to me that nearly everyone expects to have a showdown of
some kind with God, somewhere, sometime.
At
the time of his death in 1983, Gordon Sinclair was the most outspoken agnostic
in Canada. I was listening to his strong disapproval of the prima donna
treatment
a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey star was getting from the press. Sinclair stormed,
"You'd think it was the second coming of Christ!" Calming down,
he
relented that he didn't know why he referred to the second coming of Christ
because he didn't believe in it. But many of his listeners, myself included,
were
not convinced.
Instinctively
man has always somehow expected, whether in dread or welcome, an ultimate
confrontation with God - a time when ".. . every knee shall bow...
and
every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father" (Rom. 14:11). If he confesses here and now, it spells salvation
forever
with Christ. If he remains impenitent, it spells eventual submission, yes, but
simultaneously a sentencing to the doom of the damned.
Two
days before Jesus' trial and crucifixion, His disciples asked Him the fateful
question. "What will be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the
world?.
. ." (Matt. 24:3). Jesus' answer was a 94 - verse resume of signs which,
when fulfilled, would constitute the signal for His return to this earth
to
set up His kingdom. The whole treatise turns on Matthew 24:44: "Therefore
be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man
cometh."
Readiness
- that's the key word; and it occurs several times in the New Testament with
regard to the Lord's coming again.
Christ
himself is ready at any moment to return. As St. Peter puts it, He ". . .
stands ready to pass judgment on the living and the dead" (1 Pet. 4:5;
NEB).
With His wondrous gift of eternal life, He is "already at the door!"
(James 5:8- 9; Phillips).
Being
the most festive event in history, the Second Coming is often compared in the
Scriptures to a marriage, our Lord having gone to prepare a place for
us
and assuring us that "the wedding is ready," or again, "All
things are now ready."
Believers
are to expect the return of Christ at any moment. In short, we are to live in a
state of perpetual readiness for His return. This was His message
in
the parable of the 10 virgins: They that were ready went.. ." (Matt. 25:
10).
St.
Paul begins his last chapter to Timothy with the "charge. . before God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing
and
his kingdom" (2 Tim. 4: 1), and concludes: "Now the prize awaits me,
the garland of righteousness which the Lord, the all-just Judge, will award me
on that
great day; and it is not for me alone, but for all who have set their hearts on
his coming appearance" (2 Tim. 4:8; NEB). Sandwiched between is
the
avowal: "I am ready."
Gwen
Beck, a school teacher in Cody, Wyoming, where I was holding a crusade, informed
me that four years earlier her life had been constant confusion. A
concerned
sister on the East Coast sent her a copy of the first edition of my book,
Re-entry.
When
Gwen read it, the warning of Jesus that we are to "be ready" for the
coming again of Christ especially touched her. Gwen said, "I simply was
not a
Christian.
This led me to confess on my knees that I was a sinner, and I asked Christ to
come into my life, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit." Jesus
did
just that, and with this new hope, Gwen's has been a life of unceasing
fellowship and service to Christ.
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is imperative. Man is so fast degenerating within
and so inevitably being dashed headlong toward destruction from without
that,
apart from the intervention of God, he simply cannot save himself.
Lewis
Thomas, 'in his 1984 best seller, The Unforgettable Fire, laments that his
experiences both as a physician and a philosopher have assured him that
we
earthlings face "epidemic disease, meteorite collisions, volcanoes,
atmospheric shifts in the levels of carbon dioxide, earthquakes, excessive
warming
or
chilling of the earth's surface." But we will not be done in by these. We
will do it to ourselves by warfare with thermonuclear weaponry, and it will
happen.
So reasons the secular humanist.
Jesus
foresaw this with divine precision when He replied to His disciples, who had
inquired about the signs of His coming: "For then shall be great
tribulation,
such
as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall
be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh
be
saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt.
24:21-22). So our Lord Jesus Christ will come again.
Out
in front of our church, there was a sheet of ice, and my lovely wife and I were
obliged to cross it to get to our car. Kathleen, who is from Ireland
and
not born with skates on her feet as Canadians have been thought to be, was
gingerly looking down and cautiously picking every step. She thought that
I
was just ahead of her on her right; but someone had waylaid me, and I had
dropped a few paces behind.
Into
the place I should have been strode a man with a clerical black coat like mine,
also on his way to his car. Reaching out and seizing his arm, my wife,
without
looking up, implored, "Darling, let me hang on to you or I will fall on
this ice!"
Overhearing
her request, I accelerated briskly, calling from behind, "Kathleen!"
She thought at first that she was hearing stereo or something. Listening
to
our embarrassed apologies, the startled gentleman generously commiserated,
"Anyone will latch on to anything on this slippery surface!"
Recuperating
from the incident, it struck me: Anyone will latch on to anything to keep from
falling on the slippery surface which is the world today. And
that
is just what people are doing. Those who do not choose Christ and go to be with
Him when He comes again are going to be reaching out in every direction
as
conditions in the world worsen.
St.
John, in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, foresaw this: "Then the kings of
the earth, magnates and marshals, the rich and the powerful, and all men,
slave
or free, hid themselves in caves and mountain crags; and they called out to the
mountains and the crags, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of
the
One who sits on the throne and from the vengeance of the Lamb.' For the great
day of their vengeance has come, and who will be able to stand?" (Rev.
6:15-17;
NEB).
Winston
Churchill wept in the House of Commons as he reviewed "the awful unfolding
scene of the future."
Syndicated
columnist Ellen Goodman asked of thinking people, "With Armageddon around
the comer what are intelligent people to do? Wrap ourselves in mourning
sheets
and wait for the end? [We] are not talking about death, but extinction. Not
talking about our future but about any future. This, while we see that
nuclear
sword of Damocles hung over us like some apocalypse without the promise of
redemption." The last lament is what's wrong with the secularist.
Jesus
urged us that when the apocalypse approached look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28). That's our hope:
redemption!
Only
the Christian can stand up and be genuinely jubilant, for as St. Paul wrote to
the Philippians, "Of one thing I am certain: the One who started the
good
work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil.
1:6 NEB).
St.
Paul was certain of the day of Christ because the coming again of the Lord
Jesus is immutable: it is a changeless fact. Affirmed the writer to the
Hebrews,
"Wherein
God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable
things,
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation .
. ." (Heb. 6:17- 18). "This is a powerful encouragement to us,
who
have claimed his protection by grasping the hope set before us. That hope we
hold. It is like an anchor for our lives, an anchor safe and sure" (Heb.
6:18-19;
NEB).
I
realize that some people find the facts of Christ's coming again unbelievable.
We have been told by NASA that by A.D. 2000 some people will have moved
to
the moon, where they'll live in air conditioned modules growing, among other
things, tomatoes as large as watermelons. They'll be surrounded by serving
robots
who'll mine the moon as well as cook the food and make the beds. But there's a
problem .
It's
astonishing the number of people who believed that the moon landing was a
staged hoax. Why? Because the physics of space travel were beyond them. They
were
not prepared to take by faith what they couldn't understand.
The
fact that we can't understand the astrophysics of Christ's coming again does not
alter the fact that He is coming.
Everybody
wonders about the future, but no one knows exactly what the future holds. Alvin
Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, came out in
1985
with his Previews and Premises, assuring us that without a transformation of
our social institutions, man's future is more fragile than at any time
in
human history.
Actually,
it's the spiritual transformation of individuals by Jesus Christ that provides
hope for the future.
St.
Paul was certain of one thing: the Day of Christ! Dean W. R. Matthews of St.
Paul's Cathedral in London is right in saying that the world is living
on
a volcano, not a rock. But the Christian's hope rests, ultimately, not on
military defenses but on the coming again of Christ.
St.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:11, "For other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The superstructure the believer
builds
on
this foundation will be manifest at the coming of Christ.
The
late Chief Justice Earl Warren claimed he always read the sports section first
in his newspaper because it at least had some cheerful news. "The front
page
has nothing but man's failures," he wrote.
In
a world of gloom, man can turn to the Bible for the good news of Christ's
coming again. A university student who was a star football player came forward
in
a crusade meeting one night to commit his life to Christ, explaining, "I
got tired of playing the game without being able to see the goal posts."
Without
a
goal, life has no direction.
A
compass, wherever it is, always points north. So a believer's life should
always point in the direction of Christ's coming again.
"To
me the Second Coming is the perpetual light on the path which makes the present
bearable," reasoned G. Campbell Morgan. "I never lay my head on the
pillow
without thinking that perhaps before I awake, the final morning may have
dawned. I never begin my work without thinking that He may interrupt it
and
begin His own."
"Though
He tarry past our time," reasoned Matthew Henry, "He will not tarry
past the 'due time.' " There is a time, an exact time, on God's
blueprinted
schedule
of events when Jesus Christ is due to return.
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is Immanuel, that is, "God with us."
Both in rapture and revelation, the return of our Lord will be personal.
"If
God is so wonderful," mused the little Italian girl, "why doesn't He
show His face?" That is precisely what He did do in the person of Jesus
Christ
and
will do again at Christ's second coming.
"Look,
he is coming . . ." exulted John in Revelation 1, and "every eye will
see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will
mourn
because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
'I
am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is and who was and who is
to come, the Almighty' " (Rev. 1:7-8; NIV).
Perhaps
John was thinking of that unforgettable moment when Jesus stood before the
Sanhedrin in the house of Caiaphas, about to be condemned. Cross-examined
by
these green-eyed earthlings, our wonderful Lord burst forth in solitary
assurance: that, one day, they would ". . . see the Son of Man sitting at
the
right
hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62;
NIV).
"The
Lord himself shall descend," St. Paul assured the Thessalonians. On
ascension day, on the Mount of Olives, the disciples made the point that
"This
same
Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way
you have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1: 11; NIV).
The
theologian Bengel exegetes that the Greek present participle used here implies
that the Second Advent, as the first, will be a bodily return of Jesus
Christ.
A
little girl from the farm was with her parents riding an elevator to the top of
a high skyscraper. A Christian, she asked at the eighty sixth floor,
"Mommy,
does
Jesus know we're coming?"
One
thing among others is certain in the Bible, and that is that Jesus Christ knows
we're going up to be with Him forever - because He is personally coming
to
get us.
The
historian Massilon wrote, "In the days of primitive Christianity, it would
have been apostasy not to sigh for the return of the Lord."
Every
time the true Christian goes to the holy communion table to celebrate the
Lord's Supper, he must focus on the return of Christ to derive meaning,
"This
do in remembrance ... till He come." Every time he goes to work, he
ideally hears his Lord's words in his ears, ". .. occupy till I come"
(Luke 19:13),
for
"Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find
watching" (Luke 12:37).
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is immense: the most glorious "trip" man
will ever have taken.
St.
Paul inspired the young preacher Titus with the ecstatic aspiration,
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
God and
our
Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).
Just
when it appears that the world is going up in smoke and man has reached his
perigee, Jesus said, look to the apogee: "At that time they will see the
Son
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27; NIV).
Queen
Victoria left us a beautiful portrayal of the apogee. She was barely 18 when
she ascended the throne of the British empire upon which the sun never
set.
Officially attending Handel's The Messiah for the first time, she was
instructed: "The point at which the 'Hallelujah Chorus' is sung, the
entire
audience
will rise, as has been the custom since the days of George the First. But you
are the queen. You alone remain seated."
When
the glorious chorus was reached, all stood with military punctuality. Her
Majesty alone remained seated. But when that thrilling, transcendent passage
"King
of kings and Lord of lords" was reached, the queen rose and bowed, and not
a member of the grand audience missed the significance.
Oh,
what a day! "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory," rejoiced St. Paul (Col. 3:4; NIV).
St.
Peter exulted, "And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the
crown of glory that will never fade away" (1 Pet. 5:4; NIV).
"Eternal
Glory to the Heroes" was Izvestia's prepared headline for the reentry of
the Soyuz II trio. But glory was turned into gloom when the hatch door
was
opened and the cosmonauts were found strapped in their seats without any signs
of life. This tragedy is in direct contrast to the coming of Christ,
when
death will be turned to life and gloom to glory.
"To
him who is able to keep you from falling," pronounced St. Jude in his
benediction, is the One who on the day of His coming will "present you
before
his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 24; NIV).
The
second coming of Jesus Christ is indeed the perpetual light on the path of the
believer, which makes the present delightful. If Jesus Christ is not
coming
again, we should close our Bibles and our churches.
If
we believe that He is indeed coming, the accusation of being cruel for
remaining silent is not a strong enough indictment. We ought to study about His
coming,
sing about it, preach it, talk about it, write about it, and spread the
precious word of hope everywhere.
Said
our Lord, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in
his
Father's glory with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38; NIV).
Eddie
Fisher remarked on a radio program that during the course of the day he had
discussed everything from ingrown toenails to the second coming of Jesus
Christ.
If ingrown toenails might be thought of as the low point of his conversation,
certainly the high point was the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is imminent. No prophetic event or events await
fulfillment prior to His coming for His church. All of the New Testament
writers
exhort us to be "watching for," "waiting for,"
"looking for ... .. praying for," "hastening unto," and
"expecting at any moment" the return of
Christ.
As
Martin Luther said, "Christ deigned that the day of His coming should be
hid from us, that being in suspense, we might be, as it were, on the
watch."
The
signs to which reference has been made refer primarily to Christ's coming to
this earth to setup His kingdom. But His "appearing" to His own in
the
air
to withdraw His church is referred to comparably often and always in the sense
of its occurring at any moment. We are to be looking for that blessed
hope,
for he will not appear to everyone: ". . . unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28).
St.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that "God hath not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thess. 5:9). He defined
Christians
as those who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even
Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:9- 10).
I
feel sure that Paul was here referring to what would happen on earth to those
who did not turn to Christ and so would be left to endure the consequent
apocalyptic
judgments. This same idea is to be found in the Revelation of Jesus Christ,
where our Lord assures, "Because thou hast kept the word of my
patience,
I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all
the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3: 10).
To
the Philippians, St. Paul admonished, "Let your magnanimity be manifest to
all" for "the Lord is at hand" (Phil. 1:13). To the Corinthians,
"So that
ye
come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who
shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day
of
our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 1:7-8).
To
Timothy, Paul admonished, "In the sight of God, who gives life to
everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate
made the
good
confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. 6:13-14;NIV).
The
church father Cyril wrote 1,640 years ago, "Look thou for the Son of God
to judge the quick and dead. Venture not to declare when, nor on the other
hand
slumber, for He saith, 'Watch.' We are looking for Christ."
Adjudged
the historian Gibbon, "As long as this error was permitted in the church,
it was productive of most salutary effects on the practice of Christians."
Dwight
L. Moody, like Luther and Wesley, preached constantly that Christ's coming was
imminent, declaring, "Nowhere am I told to watch for the millennium
but
for the coming of the Lord."
Since
Christ's coming is imminent, each of us must at all times be at our best. Our
coming Lord is the expectation of every watching Christian, the wave
of
welcome which will greet the faithful with "Well done, good and faithful
servant ... enter into the joy of your master" (Matt. 25:21;RSV).
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is immediate. There will be no countdown for the
coming down of our Lord to take us home. One Greek scholar calculates
that
the familiar "in the twinkling of an eye" of I Corinthians 15:52,
which is read at nearly every Christian burial service, refers, as close as one
can
humanly conceive, to no time at all. That leaves no opportunity for the thief
to repent or the prodigal to come home.
Jesus
did not say that His coming would be a clap of thunder, but as lightning . .
." (Matt. 24:27). We can with some accuracy time thunder bursts by the
lightning
flash because sound travels 86,000 miles per second. But lightning comes
without a precursor.
Declared
our Lord in His revelation to John, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that
fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will
I
make a pillar in the Temple of my God (Rev. 3:11-12).
George
Washington had a cook who was as prompt as the first U.S. president was
truthful. "Gentlemen," said Washington to his guests, "I have a
cook who
never
asks whether the company has come, but whether the hour has come!"
".
. . A time is coming," said Jesus to His disciples, when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God: and those who hear will live" (John
5:25;NIV).
All
of His disciples of that time fell into that category. Others, Jesus said
later, will tarry till I come. . ." (John 21:22). These could include you.
A
United States senator reasons, "The hands of the clock are moving on
toward midnight of the brief day left to us."
"Whom
the gods would destroy," goes an ancient Greek proverb, "they first
make mad." "If other planets are inhabited, they must be using this
earth as a
lunatic
asylum," mused George Bernard Shaw.
I
do not believe that a compassionate Jesus will permit the pressures of an age,
for which our minds were not designed, to continue to build up until there
is
mass insanity. Instead He invites, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand" (Matt. 4:17).
Some
years ago I received a letter from Paul Shields. He had been converted through
the reading of my first edition of Re-entry.
He
wrote: I was born the son of missionary parents while they were serving the
Lord in Nigeria, While a teenager in Toronto, I rebelled. I began to smoke
tobacco
- then pot - to drink heavily, and after many violent confrontations with my
parents, I moved out. I became a drug addict, got married, had a kid,
and
moved to the West coast. My life turned from bad to worse.
In
Vancouver my drug addiction became chronic: soft drugs, hard drugs - and hard
liquor. Finally, out of work, no money, heavily in debt, and my wife planning
to
separate from me, I was at the bottom. I knew it. I couldn't help myself at
all.
Disenchanted
by my addiction, one Sunday night I remembered a book that had been put in my
hand by some goody-two-shoes. It was Re-entry. I pulled it out
and
started to read. I couldn't put it down. The more I read, the more paralyzed
with terror I became. Soon I fell under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
There
I was alone at 3 a.m., crying my eyes out. I knew what I had to do. I had to
give my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to give me the peace
and
security I so desperately needed. I was instantly delivered and have been ever
since. My wife came to know the Lord. My life has been turned around.
I
first met Paul in Toronto at the Central Baptist Seminary, from which he
graduated and was later ordained into the ministry to serve as a Baptist
pastor.
When
does one become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? When that person is born
again!
Wrote
St. Paul to the Philippians, "We are citizens of heaven, and from heaven
we expect our deliverer to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transfigure
the
body belonging to our humble state, and give it a form like that of his own
resplendent body, by the very power which enables him to make all things
subject
to himself' (Phil. 3:20-21; NEB).
For
this reason, as the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians: "Therefore we are
always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are
away
from the Lord.... We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the
body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:6,8; NIV).
"Now
we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building
from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile
we
groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are
clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we
groan
and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with
our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up
by
life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the
Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor. 5: 1 5; NIV).
Ours
is a world that groans, as St. Paul wrote to the Romans - groans for the
redemption of the physical order, groans for freedom, groans for wholeness.
David
Lawrence expressed in U.S. News & World Report, "A climax of some kind
seems to be approaching the world over." God's climax is the coming of
Jesus
Christ.
Omar
Bradley, the late American military general, observed incisively: "We know
more about war than about peace, more about killing than about living. This
is
our twentieth century's claim to progress. Knowledge of science outstrips
capacity for control. We have too many men of science; too few men of God
....
The world has
achieved
brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience - a world of nuclear giants
and ethical infants." Will the world get ethically and spiritually
better?
Yes, but not until it gets worse, and Christ comes. "The facts," says
Intelligence Digest, "show that the forces in the world struggle are
grouping
themselves
for a decisive show- down." Man simply cannot better himself Before his
death, elder statesman Konrad Adenauer remarked, "Security and quiet
have
disappeared from the lives of men." The only answer is emigration to be
with Christ for those who entrust themselves to Him.
When
the tyrannies of the Old World in Europe grew too great, the freedom lovers
immigrated to a New World of freedom and challenge. Ruptured by a world
of
escalating pressures, one of these days Christians are going to be raptured to
the glories of heaven. The Quest for Immortality What is eternally gratifying
is
that the coming again of Jesus Christ brings immortality. Jesus Christ came
"to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel." When
someone
repents
of sin and receives Christ as Savior and Lord, Jesus says, "And I give
unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish . . ." (John 10:28).
Jesus
Christ gives us "eternal life" with a body of immortality. "Lay
hold on eternal life," exhorted St. Paul (I Tim. 6:19). Pop songs reveal
how people
yearn
for a life and a relationship which will last. "Love Me a Million
Years," sings one; and another, "Forever and a Day"; and another
"From Here to
Eternity."
Arthur Clark, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, said to Walter Cronkite on CBS
that he craves to live another 20 years, and then he might be
able
to go on living forever.
"The
moon-walk goal is really a quest to live forever," observed that peerless
science fiction writer Ray Bradbury on the same CBS program, adding, "This
has
been the quest of religion, politics, and science - to escape death." We
are living in a sad world.
"If
I were God," ruminated Goethe, "this world of sin and suffering would
break my heart!" Jesus said to His disciples that, previous to His coming,
there
would
be "the beginning of sorrows" that would then sharply increase. I saw
the actual headline, "The Beginning of Sorrows," in a paper recently.
The World
Health
Organization says that in our world there are 11 million lepers; 50 million
people with onchocerciasis; 190 million with filariasis; and 200 million
with
schistosomiasis.
We
have already identified Jesus' forecast of famines as a harbinger of His return
to earth. Annually, 62 million earthlings, deprived of food, wither away
in
famines and die from starvation. Who cares? Jesus does!
And
He's coming back surely and suddenly, sometime, to feed sumptuously and clothe
lavishly those who otherwise would have perished in hunger. Meanwhile,
the
highest motivation for us to live selflessly is the anticipation of Jesus
Christ's coming again.
The
president of the Lutheran Church in America noted the obscenity of Time
magazine having on one page pathetic, tragic pictures of starving people in
Ethiopia,
and alongside it an advertisement: "For the woman who has everything,
think of gold this Christmas" (1984).
In
Pope John Paul II's Christmas homily, he picked up on St. John's ancient
exhortation to the Laodiceans to prepare for Christ's coming again. The pope
drew
the contrast, "Are there not people rich in material goods, power, fame,
and yet who are tragically poor? Poor by reason of the great emptiness of
the
human heart which has not opened itself to God. And are there not poor people who
are materially disadvantaged, persecuted, oppressed, discriminated
against
who are rich? Rich with that inner wealth that flows directly from the heart of
the God-Man Jesus Christ."
"If
there is a God, why doesn't He show up?" snaps the agnostic. He has
already: 2,000 years ago in His incarnation. And He will show up again. Jesus
Christ
is
coming and as His Revelation previews, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with I them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself
shall be with them, and be their God" (Rev. 21:3). "And God shall
wipe every tear from their eyes; there shall be an end to death, and to
mourning
and
crying and pain; for the old order has passed away" (Rev. 21:4; NEB).
The
coming again of Jesus Christ is implicational. "Behold, I am coming
soon!" stressed our Lord in the final chapter of the Bible. "My
reward is with me,
and
I will give to everyone according to what he has done" (Rev. 22:12;NIV).
Throughout
the New Testament, it is clearly taught that when Christ appears for His
church, the first item on the agenda will be the review of believers'
works.
Thereupon prizes, crowns, and rewards will be distributed, and status in the
life hereafter confer-red according to our faithfulness.
"For
we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ," St. Paul apprised
the Corinthians, "that each one may receive what is due him for the things
done
while in the body, whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10;NIV). On this basis,
he admonished: "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait
till
the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will
expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his
praise
from God" (I Cor. 4:5;NIV).
It
is understandable then that St. Paul should bring to a climax that chapter
devoted to the coming again of Christ, I Corinthians 15, with "Therefore,
my
dear brothers, stand firm. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor.
15:58;NIV).
Similarly,
I Thessalonians, which St. Paul devoted to the denouement events, is brought to
a climax with the aspiration, "May God himself, the God of peace,
sanctify
you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:23;NIV).
St.
Peter shared the same ultimate concern: "Since everything will be
destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live
holy
and
godly lives as you look forward to the day of God. . ." (2 Pet.
3:11-12;NIV).
Added
the aged St. John: "And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when
he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (1
John
2:28;NIV). Going on to give a vivid account of the coming again of Christ, St.
John sums up, "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself,
just
as he is pure" (I John 3:3;NIV).
A
very vigorous controversy in American government for many years has been how
much of the GNP should be spent on exploration of space. Currently the estimate
is
I percent.
Frank
Borman, currently president of Eastern Airlines, is a potent protagonist of the
concept that an escalated emphasis on space exploration will assist
rather
than diminish the solution of the problems of poverty and pollution here on
earth.
For
example, the Discovery and Challenger spaceships were able to monitor the
movement of the Sahara southward into the central Africa greenbelt, which
thereby
escalated famine in places like Niger and Chad; solutions could then be
prescribed. They were also able to spot mineral distribution and wealth
deep
in the earth by the highly sophisticated equipment aboard.
If
man could invent equipment to discover treasure on (and under) the earth from
the heavens, how much more can Jesus' exhortation to lay up treasures in
heaven
be realized by faithful believers on earth!
Asked
what the greatest thought that ever crossed his mind was, Daniel Webster
replied, "My accountability to the Almighty God."
"There
is no such incentive to evangelism," reckoned D. L. Moody, "as the
pre-millennial coming of our Lord. Emphasize what God hath emphasized."
In
the Presbyterian Confession of 1967, it is pointed out that "the life,
death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ have set the pattern
for
Church missions."
Think
of what a congregation like the Peoples Church of Toronto does to evangelize
the world. In addition to the hundreds of workers who have gone forth
from
the congregation through the years, a million and a half dollars are being
given annually for foreign missions to get the gospel out to the ends of
the
earth. What rewards will be forthcoming at Christ's return to those who pray,
give, or go forth to evangelize the world! Christ is coming. What an
incentive
to evangelize!
Finally,
the coming again of Jesus Christ is impending. Whether the Scriptures are
referring to the appearance of Christ for His church or His coming to
earth
to set up His kingdom, reference to His return always has attached to it the
urgent exhortation to be ready.
Oh,
the drama and import of Jesus' words! "Even thus shall it be in the day
when the Son of man is revealed.... Two women shall be grinding together; the
one
shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one
shall be taken, and the other left" (Luke 17:30,35-36).
"Watch
ye therefore," warned our Lord, "for ye know not when the master of
the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the
morning:
Lest
coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all,
Watch" (Mark 13:35-37.
Christian,
never let the realization fully escape your consciousness that at any moment
Christ may come again. Be always, and do always, those things that
would
please your Lord were He to come this minute.
In
Joel's ancient prophecy we read, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision" (Joel
3:14).
In
the light of the Lord's coming, Joel gave us that gospel promise which has been
quoted wherever heralds of salvation have gone. "And it shall come to
pass,
that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. .
." (Joel 2:32). To be rightly related to Jesus Christ is to be ready for
His,
coming again.
As
Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon, he declared, "One small step for
man; one giant leap for mankind!" The Chinese have an old proverb:
"The journey
of
a thousand miles begins with the first step."
Certainly
the journey to heaven begins with one step: the step of faith that puts our
foot down on the promise of the Word of Christ that He will take to
His
celestial and eternal home all who on this earth place their firm belief in Him
as Savior and Lord. Only that person can join in the final aspiration
of
Scripture, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
There
is one teaching that is more important than the preaching of the second coming
of Christ. It is the preaching of the Christ of the second coming.
The
two are inseparable, of course.
From
ancient times, the proclamation of the former has turned millions of people to
seek the latter. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his first epistle,
at
the end of the fifteenth chapter, that magnificent account of the second coming
of Jesus Christ!
But
the magnificent account of that passage is matched by the first four verses,
which express in essence and comprehension the clear plan of salvation,
"Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved,
if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that
Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor.
15:1-4).
That,
my friend, is the good news, the gospel, God's plan for you to be forever
saved, to be ready to go when Christ comes again.
On
September 5, 1953, during a month-long crusade in Britain, I preached a message
on the second coming of Christ. I was recently informed that in the Packed
crowd
in the large tent that night was Constable Baird, his gracious wife, and his
three sons - Trevor, 19; Neville, 14; and Clifford, 8.
At
the end of the address and in response to the invitation of Jesus to do so,
many people came forward and gave their lives to Christ. Among those confessing
Christ
were Constable and Mrs. Baird and a very decisive and determined Clifford. He
was forever changed.
On
the way home that night, the father asked Neville and Trevor, "Should the
Lord come again tonight, would you go to be with Him?" They didn't think
they
would.
After a grave spiritual struggle, 14-year-old Neville made his response on
September 22, and about a week later, Trevor did so.
They
were completely changed by giving their lives to Christ. Today Clifford is a
psychologist and university instructor living a life of enthusiastic service
for
Christ, as is his brother Neville and their families in Wheaton, Illinois.
Trevor
served for a dozen years as minister of one of Canada's great churches, where
it was my privilege to preach.. He asked me to speak there on the second
coming
of Christ, which I did. That night his son Stephen, 19, came forward to
surrender his life to Jesus. Trevor exclaimed, "That's three generations
of
my family - my parents, the three of us brothers, and now my son - all coming
to the Lord through your preaching the message of the second coming of
Christ."
Friend,
before you put this book down, ask yourself, "Am I a total believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord? If Jesus were to come
this
moment, is my life entirely His?"
If
you have the slightest doubt, pray this prayer to Christ, who actually is on
the doorstep of your life, "Lord Jesus Christ, come into my life in all
Your
fullness, cleanse me by Your shed blood from all of my sins, and fill me with
Your Holy Spirit. Help me to read Your Word each day. And help me always
to
be ready for Your coming again by daily prayer and the determination to share
my faith with others in the worship and fellowship of Your church. I thank
You,
Lord Jesus Christ."
Editor's
note: Questions regarding specific source references should be directed to John
Wesley White, P.O. Box 120, Markham, Ontario UP 7R5.