THE COMING OF THE LORD

A.J.E.Welch

1 Thessalonians 4: 15-18; Philippians 3:20, 21; Revelation 22: 17.

The coming of the Lord, our glorious lover, has often been referred to as the great hope of the church; and I reflect sometimes on the need to get back to this great matter for the assembly, that our immediate hope is the coming of the Lord Himself. No company in our time could rightly claim to be the church, though seeking in love for Christ to maintain fully church character, church features, and church hopes. I have an impression that the hope of the Lord's coming has been in some respects dimmed. The Lord would re-awaken it by some presentation of Himself, by some touch of His unique love upon us. He, the Lord Jesus, is coming for us. He is coming, too, to take up His rights, to resolve everything, to leave no question in the universe unsettled. It is this same Jesus whom we love that will do that. I want to be very simple about this because it is a very simple yet holy matter. Are we ready for the Lord Jesus to come and receive us so that we may be as the word is, "always with the Lord"? Have we any expectations here that would stand athwart our hearts longing for His coming immediately? I would say very simply, after what the Lord has graciously given us, that I would like to be at the Supper again, but I would not want to allow even that to hamper the expectancy of His coming. Think of the glory of His Person who for us has already accomplished all that needed to be accomplished, to the point that the very next thing for us is to go to be with Him. Note the point that may have been observed as we read, the emphatic "we" of 1 Thess 4: 15; alongside of that, we have the emphatic "our" of Phil 3: 20. That is, we can rightly regard ourselves, company-wise, as part of the great throng that is in the expectancy of His coming. Such are not claiming to be anything, not claiming ecclesiastical status of any kind, but just expectant that the Lord will soon come.

These verses in Thessalonians are one of the remarkable parentheses of Scripture. Sometimes a three-day meeting is a notable parenthesis in our lives and experiences, presenting something which as of God is complete in itself, and which is intended to have a peculiar and powerful bearing upon us. The Spirit seems to inject something to mark off His own authority, His own way of asserting divine truths. We have several of these parentheses which may seem in a sense to interrupt the unfolding of ordered teaching, but which reflect the rights of the Spirit to bring in something peculiarly precious and pungent in its immediate bearing upon us. What an assembly this was! How quickly these persons whom the apostle is addressing had taken on the precious truth! He had been there three Lord's days. How remarkably things had come into formative evidence in Thessalonica! May we be continually prayerful that this quickness of answer to what the Spirit asserts may be characteristic of us; it should not take long for things to take root downwards and bear fruit upwards. We long that something may bear fruit upward from these days together, that this may be quick and fresh and full, and that God may have something to take account of which really reflects the devoted and unfailing character of the service of Christ and of the Spirit amongst His own. So verse 15 refers to "we, the living, who remain"; there will be such who will remain until the coming of the Lord. It is a wonderful point to think over that it is not merely a question of what He will raise from the dead; there will be persons living who remain. What does that mean? That the testimony is going on to the very moment when He comes. Are we ready for that, to carry forward the testimony to the coming of the glorious Person Who is its subject? The testimony which began at Pentecost in the Spirit is to be sustained in the power of the same Spirit until He comes. What else is before us? Have we any other object? Much loved young people, have you any other objective? Is something standing between you and Christ as to His coming? Are you putting off the day when you really come into fulness of relationship with Jesus? Are you just going on with things in a certain sameness and putting off the wonderful character of real, intimate, strong, personal and assembly relations with Christ? Are there any formal Christians in this hall? Is this glorious matter, to any of us, merely profession? Forgive the bluntness of the questions; because His coming is so near we ask plain questions. Is anything for you deferring the coming of the Lord? Do you want it to be delayed an hour, or a day, or a month, or ten years? Would you defer it, young brother, young sister, longed-after and prayed for by many? Or will you come into what this hope characteristically is?

He is presented here as Lord. Is He dominating the situation in your life? Are His interests your prime interests, because they are His? These points all come home to us when we realise how close His coming is. Are there any unsettled questions, any matters that have been in your mind some time and have not been resolved? Is He not able to resolve them? He is perfectly able to resolve them - but am I reluctant to have them resolved? The Lord would have everything resolved in view of His coming. Exactly what will happen is so plainly presented; it is not just a general reference to the fact that He will come, but the sequence of events is remarkably disclosed to us, clearly and specifically. "The Lord Himself, with an assembling shout ... shall descend from heaven"; it is the shout of final victory. What a shout that will be! Oh, to hear that voice! Does it not thrill your hearts to think of it? It is an assembling shout, not a dispersing shout, or a deafening shout, but an assembling shout, to bring all together finally with no possibility any more of being anything but together. What kind of bearing does this have upon us now? The Lord is going to assemble us with this shout. Are we ready to relate ourselves to one another rightly, and fully, and immediately? Will this assembling shout, when it comes, need to break down some barrier between someone and myself, in relation to Christ? All these matters arise. How will the Lord find me when He comes? Am I out at elbows with my brethren? All these points come to mind as we think of the assembling shout. The Lord would have it so that there is no barrier of resistance to be broken down in this final assembling. If the coming of the Lord is the immediate hope of the church, as has often been said, this would leave nothing unresolved, unsettled or just unclear. The enemy is trying to hinder the Lord's glorious course amongst His own by introducing matters which seem to be unresolvable; but He will show us, as we really cherish His mind, that no matter is unresolvable. I might stand in the way of a matter being resolved, but the Lord is just bringing in the voice of power by way of appeal, to set things immediately right in view of His coming.

Divine power is suggested in the archangel's voice. The actual creature conditions will be dealt with; the Lord is able to deal with the actual physical conditions and overcome everything that might stand in His way. That brings divine majesty into the matter. "The dead in Christ shall rise first ..."; the order of things stated. Nothing is going to stand in the way. This is a divine decree. There is very great comfort in this scripture for all of us who have lost some we have loved. It is a majestic touch, that the dead in Christ shall rise first. Not a single one will be lost sight of. There will be myriads, but not a single one will be missing!

"Caught up together" is a word to be noted - an Ephesian word . We are not speaking of something abstract but something actual in the created order of things. It is for us to encourage one another with these words. We do not encourage one another with thoughts of our own, with things that might be exaggerated, but with gloriously stated scriptural thoughts as to what is actually about to happen. It is what we expect, what we long after, to go to be with Jesus. Do you want something else? Is there something in the present moment that exceeds this? He will gather all those He cherishes in view of God reaching His end, His rest, His cherished portion in what He has secured. The point in this first scripture is a wonderfully simple statement of what is about to actually happen, and this would encourage us. The Lord is going to do things meticulously according to the divine plan, in victory, peculiarly so in relation to the assembling shout. The idea of assembling has reference to what answers to the heart of Christ.

In Philippians, this love letter, "our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens". That is to say, our associations of life relate to what is up there. It carries us back to what was spoken of yesterday, that our names are on record up there. Do I want any name on record down here? The point is that "our commonwealth has", not 'will have', its existence up there. Our associations of life relate to a heavenly Christ. Am I going to join an association, as men speak? What a word this is (v.20)! Am I looking for advantage somewhere else? Do you, true believer, want your commonwealth anywhere else? It has its existence in the heavens. We have a remarkable link with the heavenly order in the gift of the Spirit, in the presence of the Spirit in the assembly. I trust we have found some experience of that in being together in the past two days. The link with what is up there is in the service and presence of the Spirit here, a prime matter with us at the present time. God's glorious Son is up there. Think of His receiving up! What a welcome He received there. Will He receive a welcome in your heart as He comes, in the Spirit, tomorrow? These matters are to nourish our spiritual constitution as to Christ and the assembly, as to the glorious divine economy, as to the inheritance God has accorded us, as to what may be known while we remain here in limited circumstances until the Lord Jesus comes. Our commonwealth is up there.

We were speaking this morning of frailties and the Lord's gracious priestly service as to frailty. This is a condition in which frailty cannot come, what is incorruptible. The Scriptures speak of life and incorruptibility being brought to light through the glad tidings. Can we get our minds away by the Spirit, dear brethren, from what is subject to failure and subject to contamination and defilement, to these things that never fail? Think of Christ where He is. No stain shall ever touch that glorious Person where He is. Think of the assembly as a divine concept, which nothing can contaminate. In the assembly the service of the love of Christ is sustained constantly, in the washing of water by the word, that there may be an answer to Himself amongst us. He would keep things as love would have them to be, in incorruption.

The Lord is able to subdue all things to Himself. He has that power now. Let us realise what power in the hands of Christ means; it extends to our whole condition being changed. What a wonderful reference this is to His condition, and then to what our condition will be! Are we thinking deeply enough of this divine reality, to get some impression of what is about to take place, even to the point of our whole condition being changed? Our individuality will remain; Paul will be Paul, and John will be John, and Peter will be Peter. The individuality will go through. The personality according to God is going to find its place there. Think of what will be there in myriads of saints, in a condition that befits the sphere and circumstances in which they will be. We may well think of 1 Cor 15: 52 - the change that is going to take place. The One who changed Paul on the road to Damascus is the One who is going to change us finally. It is fitting that I ask myself, am I a subdued person as under Christ? Am I a person of unsubdued will? These are searching questions, but they fit the quality and character of this scripture. Is there anything unsubdued in me? Am I going to wait until this moment to come into real submission to Jesus? The Lord would affect us an d bring us into the current of this love letter, as it is called, which Paul wrote to the Philippian saints.

Revelation 22 is at a very interesting juncture where the Lord has dealt with everything, when all the powers that have stood against Him have been brought down; all the fruits of love's labours are depicted for us in the city which came down, in John's view, for the glory of God . We have final conditions here. Think of One who is able to resolve every moral matter, the absolute ability of the Lord to resolve every moral matter in the universe. His blood has been shed; blood and water have flowed from His side. It is most strengthening to our hearts, in the midst of testing conditions, to reflect that the Lord is going to bring it all into termination in a way which is absolutely right. It is majesty, it is dignity, as He comes into things. It is to keep us on the right level in our outlook. May we realise the power in the assembly that is able to secure everything for the pleasure of the blessed God! Shall we not say "Amen; come, Lord Jesus" (v 20). His coming here is a very wide thought: He has terminated everything that needs to be terminated, and has brought in everything that relates to the divine pleasure eternally. Shall we not say, as living in the scene of His suffering and humiliation, "Come, Lord Jesus"?

But here it is the Spirit and the bride who say, Come. This wonderful passage was used when the matter of the Spirit and our relations to Him was so distinctly before us. How faithful this service has been! Think of how we have known the movements of the Spirit in the short time some of us have lived in the course of this glorious testimony. The Spirit now directs our affections towards that Person, our glorious lover right through. He is seen in this book in judicial garb and activity, but He is the same glorious lover, the lover of the assembly; His love is a unique love, and He would awaken in our hearts, in respect of the whole moral course, this cry, "Come"! He is the One who is able and will effect all.

CALGARY

1 April 1972