The Second Coming of Christ
Rev. 22: 12-21
Did
you know that Christ is coming to our church tomorrow?
That’s what Jesus is asserting in
Revelation 22
He didn’t say it just once or even
twice …
He said it three times which
is significant.
“Behold, I am coming
quickly”
“I am
coming quickly.”
Think about the other three
time sayings of Jesus
He told Peter that Peter
would deny Jesus three
times, and he did
and then when Jesus invited
the disciples back into
ministry he
invited them 3 times with the words
“Do you love me
more than these…
feed my sheep.”
Whenever Jesus repeats
something three times
It is significant and worth
remembering
And worth
understanding.
The
early church believed that Jesus was coming back soon,
If not tomorrow then the next day or
the day after.
They believed it because
Jesus told them so:
In Luke he said:
“But truly I tell you,
there are some standing here
Who will not taste
death before they see
The
kingdom of God”
In John Jesus says:
“If it is my
will that John remain until I come,
what is
that to you? Follow me!”
To the Sanhedrin in Matthew
he said:
“You will see
the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of
Power
and coming in the clouds of
heaven.”
Jesus returned in power and glory
Then they would be free from
the Jewish
suspicion and the
Roman persecution.
The second coming of Christ was life
giving hope
In a world of despair and death.
When Jesus didn’t
return in a generation
Then the church thought less and less
Of the second coming until
today
It is almost a
secondary doctrine.
Mainline
denominations have either joined the liberal camp
and dismissed the story as myth or essentially
turned over
The whole Second coming of
Christ
Or “Parousia of Christ” as it is called
to the fundamentalist
branches
Of
the Christian family tree
And that’s dangerous because
they have picked up
The story of Jesus
second coming and retold it
In order
to scare people into Christianity
When
the original story was told
To
encourage early Christians
To
have hope in the gospel
Even
and especially when faced
With
adversity and animosity.
It’s
time for the second coming Christ to be reclaimed by
the center of the Christian faith
as a doctrine of Hope and a
recognition
of our dependence on God.
So
what would you do, who would you be if you knew
With certainty that Jesus was coming
back tomorrow.
Think
about the preparation you make when a son or daughter
Comes home after a time away in the
service or
A job or college far away.
We
clear our calendar, we clean the house,
We get plenty of food in the
refrigerator
And it is the favorite food
of the guest of honor.
We contact people we know they would
like to see,
We wear a shirt that means
something to them
Play their favorite
music,
Plan their
favorite activities
And we do all this for a son or
daughter who is
Simply coming home for a
holiday or summer.
What
then would we do for the savior of the world
The Son of God who was raised from the
dead
And is coming back again.
One
would imagine that we would pull out all the stops
If we really believed he was coming.
But when I posed this
question to some men
At breakfast in
light of the Romans 13 passage
“You
know what time it is, how it is now
the moment for you to wake from sleep.
For salvation is nearer to us now
Than when we became believers; the night
Is far gone, the day is near.”
If Jesus was coming back
tomorrow.
I should live every
day as if he is coming back.
Bingo-
That’s the answer Martin Luther gave
When
asked the same question.
We
live every day as if Christ were
coming back
that day or tomorrow,
because
he is.
Rather
than speculate about exactly when tomorrow is
We are called as disciples of Christ
to live each day
Knowing that while tomorrow
for God may be
An eternity for us
that it is tomorrow.
And
Christ is coming back quickly,
And that gives us hope to live for
today and tomorrow.
We
took a trip to Greensburg this week.
We worked on clearing stuff out of a
Methodist Church
And clearing debris from a
family’s home.
If we knew without a shadow of a doubt
that Christ was coming back
tomorrow
It might have saved
us a lot of sorting
and raking, shoveling & hauling of debris
But we do know and it didn’t save us
from the work.
In fact we were there working
because
Jesus is coming back again
quickly.
That’s why we don’t give up
on Greensburg,
Mississippi or Lousiana.
That’s why we don’t give up
on the homeless in
Wichita or violence
in schools
That’s why weare
participating in an interfaith trip
With Christians and Jews and
Muslims this winter
To Israel and to
Jordan.
That’s
why we invest in the future because Christ is coming
We know that we can’t solve poverty,
violence, tragedy,
Using our own resources,
if we had to rely on our own resources
then we would give up,
sit on a couch and relax;
But
the promise Jesus made that he will come again quickly
Inspires us and empowers us when we
are tempted
To give up or give in or.
It
gives us life.
Notice in Revelation 22 the section
where Jesus says
“See, I am coming soon; my
reward is with me,
to repay according to
everyone’s work.
I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last,
the beginning and the end.”
The same someone who we
recognize as Jesus
This is
not some Jesus on steroids whose
Nature
and personality and essence
Has
been changed .
But
rather the Jesus who is the same
Yesterday,
today & tomorrow.
In
chapter 19 of Revelation it speaks of
the second coming of Christ as:
“A rider on a white horse coming down out of
heaven”
Rode
into Jeerusalem on a donkey but
Just
because Jesus in on a white horse instead of
A
donkey doesn’t mean he is different.
The
text goes on to say:
“The
rider is called Faithful and True…
His
name is called The Word of God…
His
name is inscribed
King
of Kings, Lord of Lords”
This
is the same Jesus who “emptied himself, taking the form of of a slave, being born in human likeness and being found in
human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even
death on the cross.”
This is the same Jesus who God exalted so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
This
is the Jesus who is coming again.
This is the Jesus who gives us hope in
the face of death
And the disasters of the
world.
This
is the Jesus who’s coming again inspires us to live for God