Key Text: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also." John 14:3.
The grandest thing in the world's past history was the crucifixion
of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing has ever eclipsed
Mount Calvary where the Son of God died for the sins of men. The
most glorious thing in the future will be His Second Coming. He
is coming again. There is a New World coming. Jesus said, "...I
will come again..." John 14:3.
We can praise His name for the certainty of His coming, and we
can praise His name for the comfort of His coming. "Wherefore
comfort one another with these words." I Thessalonions 4:18.
That's what the early pioneers of Adventism did. You know, friends,
the early pioneers of Adventism believed in His return so much
that they made the doctrine of His Second Coming a part of our
name. We are Seventh-day Adventists!
In the fall of 1991 I had the joy of spending a week in Battle
Creek, Michigan. We were in a one-week training seminar instructing
lay people how to witness to win souls. During the week the pastor
took me on a tour of the city. We saw the graves of James and
Ellen White and the Kelloggs. We stood by the graves of those
early pioneers thinking of their love for the truth and how they
sacrificed to give to the financial support of the gospel. I tell
you, friends, I could hardly hold back the tears.
In early days people in Battle Creek would see those faithful
pioneers walking down the street and would say, "There goes
an Advent." Now, that's improper English. Because you see,
the word, "Advent" means coming, and you can't go and
come at the same time. What those people really meant was, "There
goes an Adventist." There goes a Christian who believes in
the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They lived as though the Lord died yesterday, rose early this
morning and is coming back this afternoon. I hope the Second Coming
of the Lord Jesus stirs your heart as much as it does mine. I
want us to have that early pioneer spirit. He is coming again!
Someone has said "that sorrow looks back, worry looks around,
but faith looks up." Paul took people who looked backward,
turned them around and refocused their attention. How? By teaching
them about the true Biblical rapture of the saints. I know of
no Bible truth that brings any more joy and comfort than the blessed
hope of our Lord's return. If you are a child of God and have
a mother, father, brother, sister or child out there in the grave,
if you have a friend resting in Jesus, you know what I mean.
In this sermon we will consider three unshakable truths: The certainty
of His coming, the comfort of His coming and the challenge of
His coming.
There are two evidences of Christ's saving work. They are the
death of Jesus and His resurrection. A little boy ready for his
baptism stated, "I did my part, and Jesus did His."
The minister was startled. "What do you mean, son" How
do you know you have been converted? How did you do your part?"
"Well," said the little fellow, "I did the sinning,
and God did the saving." I like that because we provide the
sinner, and God provides the Saviour.
We also have the assurance of God's sure Word. Christ's first
advent was real and literal. I believe His Second Coming will
also be real, personal and literal. I believe our resurrection
will be as real and literal as His sure Word. The Old Testament
ends with the Second Coming as does the New Testament, and so
earth's history will end with His coming.
I heard of a preacher who was giving a strong sermon on the Second
Coming, and a man who did not believe it rose and said, "You
can't get that out of the Bible."
The minister replied, "That's right! You can't! It's in there,
and you can't get it out.
In the Old Testament Israel had a feast called the Firstfruits.
When the harvest began to ripen, they would go out into the field
and cut some of the ripening grain. They would carry it to Jerusalem
and lay it on the altar as a token of thanksgiving. Paul refers
to that Feast of celebration of the Firstfruits in I Corinthians
15:22-23, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."
The resurrection is certain because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is the firstfruits. Now, if you want to know what the resurrection
is going to be, just look at the firstfruits, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of Him, we will soon know what life and immortality really
are! We will meet again when He comes. "For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him." I Thessalonians 4:14.
We can praise God for the hope we have found in His Word. "I
will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing
praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise
thy name for they lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast
magnified they word above all thy name." Psalm 138:1,2.
We are living in a day of so-called prophets, new agers, astrologers,
mediums, seers and fortune tellers. They are not prophetic, but
rather they are pathetic. Thank God for the more sure word of
prophecy (I Peter 1:19).
Here are five reasons why the Lord must return:
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." I
Thessalonians 4:18. The Second Coming teaching of God's Word is
not for frightening people, but to comfort the saints.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God: and
the dead in Christ shall rise first." I Thessalonians 4:16.
As we can see from this verse, Christ's coming will be literal,
visible and personal. It will be the most majestic event the world
has ever seen.
The word "shout" means that He will command just as
He did when he said, "Lazarus, come forth.!" John 11:43.
The seas will give up their dead. The desert will give up dead
saints. The battlefield will give up its dead. Every cemetery
will look like a plowed field.
The "trump" of God is like a trumpet used to rally the
troops to battle and to sound an alarm. Trumpets in Israel had
a purpose--for worship or for warfare. In heaven saints are taken
to worship at God's throne. They will also prepare for war at
the close of the thousand years.
John Phillips has reminded us that the caterpillar is a picture
of the resurrection. That little grub feeds upon a leaf and lives
in a world that is very circumscribed. Every now and then it lifts
its head up and looks into the blue sky, but then it goes back
to the world it knows, the earth-bound world.
One day, something very much like a death takes place in the life
of that caterpillar. He makes a shroud for himself, a miniature
coffin, and crawls inside. Wrapped in that shroud, as it were,
he dies to the world he has known. He sleeps, oblivious to all
that's going on around him.
Then one day the resurrection call comes. He bursts that
coffin asunder and comes out--not as a caterpillar, but as a glorious,
shimmering butterfly, bright as the sun, fair as the morn. He
wings his way up into the blue sky. Is that the same creature?
Yes, but he has undergone a metamorphosis, a change of form.
The Bible says, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" (I Cor.
15:51,52). The Bible also says, "(He) shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body"
(Phil. 3:21). I agree with the psalmist when he says, "I
shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Ps.
17:15).
What are we going to be like in the resurrection? We're going
to be like the Lord Jesus. I can't explain it to you, but I know
I'll like it, and so will you! "Then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
I Thessalonians 4:17.
We call this glorious event the true Biblical rapture of the saints.
The word "rapture" is not found in Holy Scripture nor
is the word "trinity" nor the word "missions."
Not even the words "millennium" or "sovereignty,"
but they are all good Bible doctrines taught in the Word of God.
Rapture means to catch away. All God's people, the living
and the dead, are caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.
The Latin word "rapto" means rapture.
Suppose you were to take small pieces of copper, lead, zinc, iron,
platinum, gold and silver and scatter these minerals all over
a field. Then, if you were to take an electromagnet and swing
it all over the field, the machine would pick up only the iron.
Why? Because it picks up substances of the same nature as itself.
It is made of iron and it picks up iron. The Lord Jesus will gather
those to Himself who have His nature. We are partakers of the
divine nature (II Peter 1:4). If you are heaven born, then you
will be heaven bound.
How marvelous will be our reunion with Christ and with each other.
"Isn't it wonderful? We will be caught up together, together!
Those Thessalonian believers were worrying about their loved ones
who had died in Jesus. Paul put those fears to rest forever. There
is going to be a reunion, a glorious homecoming in the sky someday.
"The former pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis
Tennessee, Dr. Robert G. Lee, was a gifted preacher. One of the
most moving stories he told was of being a little farm boy. That
farm was so poor, he said, 'We couldn't even raise an umbrella
on it, much less the mortgage.'
"Then he said, 'One day when everybody had gone to town,
I was on the front porch with my mother. She was sitting on a
rocking chair knitting. I was down on the floor of that porch
with my face in my hands and my heels up in the air. I looked
at those worn hands of my mother's and I asked her, 'Mother, what
was the happiest day you have ever known in your life?'
"I thought perhaps she would say it was that day when my
daddy, who was a six-footer with dark eyes, spoke to her of his
love. But she didn't mention that.
"Or I thought perhaps it would be that time when down by
the garden gate, he asked her to be his wife on a moonlit night.
But she didn't say that was the happiest day.
"I thought perhaps she might say it was that day when on
the corner of the farm, they took one another to be husband and
wife and lived that way for 50 years until God called him home.
But that wasn't it.
"She said, 'Son, you've asked a hard question. But in the
war between the states, times were hard and bitter. All the men
went off to war. My daddy, your granddaddy, went off to war. We
didn't have much on the farm. We got our salt from scraping the
smokehouse floor. We got our tea from sassafras, our coffee from
parched corn.
"'As a little girls, I went out and worked with the women
in the fields just to try and keep things together. Those were
hard days. Then the news came that your granddaddy, my daddy,
Bennett, had been killed in the war. I watched my mama. I wondered
what she would say or do. She didn't seem to say much. She didn't
seem to cry.
"'I wondered why she didn't speak, but my bedroom was close
to hers. At night, I would hear my mama as she put her face in
the pillow and cry her heart out through the night. The next day,
she would wipe her tears and go about her business.
"'Son, one day I was sitting on the porch by my mother, very
much like we're doing today. She had a bowl of beans in her hands.
She was snapping and stringing those beans. The farmhouse was
by the old river road, and my mother looked up and saw a man walking
down the old river road. My mother said, 'Elizabeth, that man
sure does walk like your daddy used to walk.'
"'I said to my mama, 'Now mama, daddy's dead. I wish we could
bring him back, but we can't and there's no need for you to disturb
yourself like this.'
"'But after a while, she jumped up, threw those beans in
the air, and said, 'That's your daddy! That's your daddy!' She
gathered up her skirt, ran across the yard and down the old river
road, and fell into the arm--not arms--but the arm of her husband.
One of his arms had been severed and the sleeve was pinned up.
He took that other arm and put it around her and they kissed and
hugged and laughed and wept and kissed and hugged.
"' I ran across the yard as fast as my childish feet could
carry me, and I got my daddy by the knees and ran my hand up that
empty sleeve and felt that funny little arm. I declare, I believe
the happiest day of my life was when my daddy came home from the
war.'
"Then Dr. Lee said this. 'My mother's happiest hour is but
a small joy compared to seeing the face of Jesus and His pierced
hands which opened the gates of grace till we shall stand at the
gates of glory.' What a homecoming that will be! Together we are
going to meet the Lord, and we will sing and dance and shout!"
(As told by Dr. Adrian Roger, current pastor of the Bellevue Baptist
Church)
The third great truth is found in I Thessalonians 4:17 where it
says, "...to meet the Lord..."
In my army days we would all look and act our best when the general
came. We would dress up and go out to meet him. We are going out
to meet a King, a returning Ambassador and Dignitary.
What a challenge! Are you ready for the rapture? Can you say, "Lord Jesus, I have loved and served you. I have witnessed for you, and I have been faithful." When He returns, I don't want Him to find His tithe in my bank account, beer in my refrigerator or whiskey in my cabinet. I don't want Him to find me with hatred in my heart or a lukewarm spirit. "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he
cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Mark 8:38. "As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone
and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on him shall not
be ashamed." Romans 9:33.
"The fact that Jesus is coming back soon, and that we'll
be going out to meet Him, should be a challenge to all of us as
His people. We can rely on the certainty of Jesus' coming. We
can rest in the comfort of His coming. Jesus is coming back for
His own!
"Robert Murray McCheyne, the godly Presbyterian preacher,
used to ask people: 'Do you think Jesus Christ will return today?'
Most of them would replay, 'No, not today.' Then McCheyne would
say, 'Then, my friend, you had better be ready; for He is coming
at such an hour as ye think not' (Luke 12:40).
"Death is a fact of life. The only way we can escape death
is to be alive when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Death is not
an accident; it is an appointment: 'It is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this the judgment' (Heb. 9:27). If you should
die today, where would your soul go?
"I once saw a quaint inscription on a gravestone in an old British cemetery not far from Windsor Castle. It read:
'Pause, my friend, as you walk by;
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you will be.
Prepare, my friend, to follow me!'
"I head about a visitor who read that epitaph and added these
lines:
'To follow you is not my intent,
Until I know which way you went!'
"We Christians have wonderful assurance and hope because
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His promised return. Do
you have that hope today? Which way are you going?" (By Warren
W. Wiersbe)
A young terminally ill cancer patient was attending a ballgame
at the Ranger Stadium on June 14, 1994. His greatest dream was
to meet Will Clark, the first baseman for the Texas Rangers. The
meeting was arranged, and they visited together discussing baseball.
Will Clark told the young man he would try to hit a homerun for
him. That night Will did hit a homerun and sent two men home.
As Will went around the bases, he looked up into the stands at
third base and acknowledged the young man with a salute. After
the game, the young men told his mother that he could die now
because he had met his hero.
Friends, all of God's children have a Saviour in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our Hero. We have met Him, and if we go to the grave
before we meet Him in the air, it will be all right. He won't
forget us for He has promised, "I will come again!"