VI . HIS COMING AGAIN
Acts 1: 9-12; Revelation 1: 7; John 14: 1-3;
Revelation 19: 11-21; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18;
You will understand by the scriptures we have read, my purpose is to consider the coming of the Lord; to consider it in connection with the church, with the kingdom of God, with Israel and with the world, in connection with the rights of Christ and the glory of God. I might say to begin with, there is no other hope for anyone, there is no other hope for us individually, there is no other hope for the church, or for Israel, or for the world. There is only one Person who can put the world right. I think the politicians of the world are today beginning to realise that things are getting out of hand for them, and there is only one hope and that is the coming of the Lord.
Now, first of all, in connection with the church: I think we must first consider a little what is the character of the church or assembly—Christ’s assembly. It is a heavenly company; the apostle addresses us in the epistle to the Hebrews: “Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb 3: 1); that is, we are called to heaven. We are not like Israel, they were called to an earthly country and inheritance. We have no earthly hopes, and no earthly promises, no blessing in connection with the earth, we have been called out of it, we have been called to heaven. We are of the heavenly One, i.e., we derive our being and life from the heavenly Man; the apostle says, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. Christ was altogether a heavenly Man when on earth. “The Son of man who is in heaven” (John 3: 13), and no one will go to heaven except those who are of Christ. Every believer derives his life from Christ. Well, that is what characterises the church; it is composed of heavenly people, called out from the world for heavenly blessing and glory. That being so, our hope is to go to heaven, to be with Christ where He is. That is what we are looking for.
So when the Lord went away, as we read in John 14, He comforted the hearts of His sorrowing disciples, sorrowing because they were losing Him. He was going away, and the Lord knew they would feel His absence. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe on God, believe also on me”, John 14: 1. He was not to be lost to them, He would be an object of faith to them; as the apostle Peter writes, “whom having not seen, ye love, on whom not now looking, but believing, ye exult with joy unspeakable, and filled with the glory”, 1 Pet 1: 8. It is a sad thing if Christ is lost to us, and gone out of our minds and affections. “Believe also on me. In my Father’s house there are many abodes”. The Father’s house is a very large place, there are many abodes and many families to occupy it, and I suppose ultimately the whole universe will become the Father’s house, and every family named of the Father will have an abode there. But there is a special place the Lord has prepared for His own in the present day. The church will ever have a unique position in relation to Christ and God, and will occupy a special place in the Father’s house.
The moment the Lord took His place with the Father in heaven, the place was prepared, it is His own place. “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. That is what He held out to them as their hope and prospect—“I will come again”. Nothing would satisfy the love of the Lord, but that He should have His loved ones with Him. He is looking forward to it and we await it. That is our hope, that is the immediate prospect in connection with the coming of the Lord. That is what we might speak of as the first event in connection with the Lord’s coming. This is a private event; when He appears publicly, the saints will come with Him. Therefore they must first needs go to Him—“When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him”, Col 3: 4. “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee”, Zech 14: 5. “At the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints”, 1 Thess 3: 13.
Now in the passage we read in Thessalonians, the apostle opens that out a little. The Thessalonian believers were in trouble in connection with one and another of their company that had fallen asleep. They were looking for the immediate coming of the Lord to set up His kingdom. They were wondering what would happen to those who had fallen asleep—would they miss something of the glory of that kingdom? and the apostle writes to instruct them and to show them that we do not sorrow as others that have no hope. Men of the world have no hope, they are without God and without hope, but we hope. The apostle does not say we should not sorrow, but we sorrow not, even as others who have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so “them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him”. That is when He brings Christ into the world publicly, manifesting Him in glory, He will bring with Him all that have fallen asleep, He will not lose any, and the apostle goes on to explain how the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with archangel voice, with trump of God; these are not three different persons, it is the Lord Himself in a threefold way.
Well, what will happen? He says, “the dead in Christ shall rise first”. They will have the precedence. Every sleeping saint will hear the quickening voice of the Son of God and will arise. The grave must give up its dead at His mighty voice. “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”. From the passage, 1 Corinthians 15: 22, 23, we know that all the saints from Adam downwards will have part in the first resurrection, all that are Christ’s will rise up. “The firstfruits Christ then those that are Christ’s at his coming”. You could not shut out Old Testament saints from that.
Later on in the same chapter we read, “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”, v 52. The dead here are those that have died in faith. He always puts it in that way, as if the Lord might come at any moment, as if it might have been at the time when the apostle wrote, he says “we”. It is always the present expectation for the Lord’s people. Our wisdom is to live by the day, and look for the coming of the Lord. Well we know not when it will take place, but “he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry”, Heb 10: 37. Now that is a very blessed part of the gospel as the apostle preached it, so that those who received the gospel turned to God, to serve Him, and to await His Son from heaven, our deliverer from coming wrath: they did not look for death. Now are we thus waiting God’s Son from heaven? We are never supposed to be awaiting death, though we know that if we should depart it will be to be with Christ, but we await His coming and the final victory over death—“our deliverer from the coming wrath”, 1 Thess 1: 10. We know there is a day of wrath coming, but we do not fear it, we shall never see it. Why not? Because before that day comes, the Saviour will come. We “are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief”, 1 Thess 5: 4. We are awaiting Christ as Saviour, to deliver us from the coming wrath, by taking us out of the world before the day of wrath comes. Enoch was translated that he should not see death. He knew that there was a day of wrath coming upon the world that then was, and prophesied about it, but he was translated before it came. That is the prospect of saints today. The church, like Enoch, will be translated before the day of wrath comes. The Thessalonian saints were awaiting the Lord Jesus Christ as Deliverer from the coming wrath. “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him”, 1 Thess 5: 10. Again, the Lord says to the church at Philadelphia (Rev 3: 10), “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”.
There is another passage that speaks of Him as the coming Saviour. In the end of Philippians 3 we read, “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”. In a moment He will complete the work of God; He will transform our bodies into the likeness of His body of glory. Then we shall be wholly conformed to the image of God’s Son.
There is another passage that will help us (Eph 5); the Spirit speaks there of what the church is to Christ. It says, “Christ also loved the church”. It is the special object of His love; it is the pearl of great price that He saw in its beauty before the world was, for which He gave up everything that He might possess it. He is now sanctifying and cleansing it, and awaiting the time when He will have the joy of presenting it to Himself, all glorious, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It will be like Isaac, coming out at eventide to meet Rebecca and receiving her to be his wife.
Now every true believer belongs to Christ’s assembly. He gave Himself for it. What for? That He might, having washed and cleansed it, present it to Himself a glorious church. It is the thought of the Lover there—the Lover coming. He loves the church, and He is waiting the moment of His joy when He will present it to Himself, all glorious, the suited companion for Him in glory, and to come out with Him, to be manifested with Him, in glory. Well now that is our hope, and we are looking for the day when He will be manifested. He is hidden now in the heavens, but He will not always be thus hidden in the heavens. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”, Col 3: 4. The Son of man will come in all His glory and in the glory of the Father, and ye shall appear with Him in glory; that is what He is waiting for. He will not appear in glory until the church is with Him; she will be like Him, sitting on the throne with Him, so that the apostle says, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him”, 2 Tim 2: 12. We shall be glorified together.
Again we read (1 John 3: 2), “We know that if it is manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. All that shows what place the church has in the heart of Christ. Again we read (Titus 2: 13), “awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. The “blessed hope” is the immediate prospect of His coming at any moment to claim His own. The next thing is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. There are no signs to be looked for, no events to take place, it may take place at any moment. There are many things that have to transpire, many scriptures to be fulfilled, before the Lord comes forth publicly, but His coming for the church might take place at any moment. It was ever the present hope of the saints. He is the bright Morning Star, the harbinger of the coming day. Only people who are awake in the early morning, the watchers during the night, see the morning star. It is the glad sign that the day is about to break. So the Lord presents Himself in that way, where He says, “I am … the bright and morning star”, Rev 22: 16. It is night now, and if we are watchers (the danger is of settling down and going to sleep, seeking our home and rest in this present world), then we shall see the “bright and morning star”. That is our immediate hope, that is what will be to us the ushering in of the coming day. But the Lord also says, “I am the root and offspring of David”. He is the hope of Israel. David was the one who God raised up to deliver His people from their enemies and to establish the kingdom, so that the people might in peace enjoy the blessings of the kingdom. Then Solomon came in to complete that figure as the one who built the house of God so that He might dwell among His people. All the human efforts to restore Israel to Palestine will not further God’s kingdom, though it will prepare the way for antichrist. There is no hope for Israel but the coming of Him who is “the root and offspring of David”. This involves the thought of His divine glory—He is the root of David and He is the offspring of David, the One in whom all the promises and prophetic scriptures will be fulfilled. Hence every hope of Israel centres in Christ. After the church is gone, God will then begin a new work in connection with Israel. There will be a remnant converted from among the Jews, and they will be the witness in that day; the messengers to the nations of the coming King. They will be the subjects of Satan’s great hostility; they will be looking for the coming of the Messiah to deliver them from their enemies and to establish His people in the promised earthly blessing. He will be their hope, as it is written, “all Israel shall be saved”, Rom 11: 26. Not only the two tribes, but the whole nation of Israel, and every word of God and every promise made to the Fathers, will be fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the world, the coming of the Lord will be a day of judgment.
In the gospel of Matthew the Lord says, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”, chap 24: 37. The world went on as if no evil were about to overtake it until the day of the flood came and swept them all away. Man had filled the earth with evil, God could no longer bear with it, and He cleared the whole world that then was, by the waters of the flood. There will not be a flood again, but there will be a day of judgment. It will be like it was in the days of Noah. The world will be filled with iniquity and sin, and God will bear with it no longer, and the whole system will be swept away to make room for another world. With that there will be the binding of Satan, the prince of this world. Satan is the present ruler of this world, and he it is who controls the nations of the earth at the present time. When the Lord comes, Satan will be bound and shut up in the bottomless pit; he will be imprisoned during the thousand years when Christ will reign. So that the world and its prince all go together.
Then, as we read, the Lord will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and kingdom, the living at the beginning of the kingdom, and the dead at the end of His reign. In Matthew 25 it is the judgment of the living; in Revelation 20, it is the judgment of the wicked dead. Then having purged out of His kingdom all things which offend, having subdued all enemies, the Lord will establish the kingdom of God and will reign for a thousand years. After that there will be new heavens and earth, 2 Pet 3: 13.
What marks the present world is that man has taken possession of the earth in utter disregard of the rights of God. But “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof”, Ps 24: 1. He is “the Lord of all the earth”, Josh 3: 11. But the different nations have taken possession of it and are fighting against one another to possess it with utter disregard of the rights of God. That is what marks the present period. The rights of Christ also, who is the appointed Heir of all things, have been disowned. They said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill Him and let us seize on His inheritance”, Matt 21: 38. Well, that cannot go on for ever. The time will come when the rightful heir will come into possession, Revelation 19. He will come forth as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 19: 16), the One in the place of supreme authority and power and using that authority and power to establish the rights of God on the earth and the will of God, so that the will of God will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. He will put down all evil, and establish peace, life and blessing for the people of God14. Under His rule, the earth will become like the garden of Eden and men will enjoy permanent peace and blessing, so that the whole earth will be filled with God’s praise, Psalm 150. What a day that will be! What a change of conditions when the glory of God will fill the whole earth. It will be God’s complete triumph over evil. Every thought and word of God will be fulfilled, and the result will issue in ceaseless praise and blessing to God. He was before all evil, and He will be at the end of it, as He saith, “I am the first and the last”, Rev 1: 17.
Well, that is what we are waiting for—the day when Christ will have His rights, when creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and all the groaning and suffering will be exchanged for joy and praise.
The Lord grant that all that is connected with the interests and glory of the Lord may have a very living place in our affections, and that we may be as those that are really awaiting the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and ready to welcome Him at any moment, ready to say, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”, Rev 22: 20.