LOVING HIS APPEARING
David C.Brown
2 Timothy 4: 8
Do you love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Paul speaks of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is that God has something laid up for Paul – a crown of righteousness. What a faithful man Paul was: think of his years of service; how right it was that a crown of righteousness was laid up for him. But it is not only for him – for he says, “but not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”.
There are many things to look forward to – a wedding, or a baby coming, or beginning work, or finishing work … We look forward to various things throughout different stages of life. But, whatever stage you are at, are you looking forward to the Lord’s appearing? Is that the first thing in your heart?
Firstly it is best, perhaps, to clarify the distinction between His appearing and what we speak of as the rapture. The scripture which mainly deals with the rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 15-18. It speaks of us being caught up. That is what rapture means: being caught up. Now it would surely be right to look forward to that great event when we are caught up. Believers in the Lord Jesus will be caught up to be with Him. The dead in Christ will rise, the living will be changed, and we will all be caught up. We will hear His voice! We will see His face! What a thing that is to look forward to!
But this reference in Timothy is different. After the rapture, matters will be worked out on the earth. That will be a very serious crisis, a very serious period on the earth, because judgment will have to come in. Matters will have to be dealt with on the earth. Lawlessness will break out, because the Spirit of God, who restrains now, will be taken away. While government now is subject to that constraint, you could not say that about the period after the saints have been caught up. The time will come then the Lord Jesus will set forth, and will come down in His appearing. “His appearing” simply means that He will be seen. He will be seen by those on the earth, and He will take up His rights. So this scripture refers to loving that, “his appearing”.
However, while the scripture sometimes makes the distinction between the rapture and the appearing, sometimes it simply refers to His coming, treating it all as part of one great event. So I am not going to confine myself to the appearing in what I am going to say.
Why then should we love the rapture? I desire to quicken your hearts, and the Spirit of God would quicken your hearts, to think of the time of the catching away. You are going to be caught away if you are a believer on the Lord Jesus.
If we start from the lowest level – what a relief it will be! We are in a scene where the people of God, along with men in the world, have many sorrows, and tears, and anxieties and pains. For the believer in the Lord Jesus all these are going to be finished at the rapture. That in itself – what a relief it will be! I do not think that is a small thing – but when compared to the greater things in mind we see that it is minor.
What are the two major things from the believer’s point of view? Are you looking forward to them? You are going to hear His voice. You are going to see His face. Beloved, what else is there? What greater prospect can you have before you? I heard a word by a young brother recently, speaking about this section in 1 Thessalonians, and he mentioned that we do not know what He will say. There will be an assembling shout. Have you thought about what He will say? I had not thought of that before. Are you longing to hear what He will say? In that assembling shout, will He call His assembly together with some term of endearment, as the bridegroom in the Song of Songs says, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away” (2: 10)? Think of that, all the assembly called up together.
Indeed, not only will He call together the assembly, and those belonging to the assembly, He will call together that great and glorious range of people whom the scripture refers to as “the dead in Christ”, 1 Thess 4: 16. Who is the first of these? Abel. The first man whose death is recorded, Abel, was one of the dead in Christ. Look through these great names, these great lists of names. Sometimes as you read some of the chapters in the Old Testament you say, ‘Why are all these names there?’. God enjoys them. He goes over the names of those persons, one after another, who are “the dead in Christ”. They are His; He has secured them; they are His own. Wonderful! Think of all those He has secured in that great line of faith. Go through Hebrews 11 – you begin with Abel (Enoch has been translated already), then Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, on to Rahab – a wonderful list of people. The dead in Christ, they are going to be raised at the rapture, and all the saints throughout the Old Testament. How many there will be of the house of Israel, secured by the work of Christ – the dead in Christ, who lived by faith.
And not only those of Israel. It is wonderful to think of others whom grace brought in. I mentioned Rahab. There is Job, not of the house of Israel. He is brought in, one of the dead in Christ. There are many. There is Jethro. There is Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, secured in one of the greatest conversions in the Old Testament. He was brought in. With all the dead in Christ, they will arise.
Then you think of all the saints referred to in the New Testament. I love to read the last chapter of Romans. You may say it is just a list of names – but what names! How attractive the names of those secured by Christ are! So do you love that great event when every one of them will be raised and be available? How wonderful that will be! Even up to the present time there are many. Think of this place – what it will be like on resurrection day! Think of what the sea around here will be like, when the sea will give up the saints that are in it! The dead in Christ, rising, changed, transformed – what a wonderful company it will be! It will be wonderful for the believer, and wonderful for the assembly as a united vessel.
But have you thought how wonderful that time will be to Christ, what it will be to Him when He sees, without one shade of variation, all His saints, and all His assembly assembled and gathered together? Surely you will look forward to such a time as the rapture. What a glorious fact, and what a glorious time, as a wonderful company assembles to Him.
As you read the scriptures you will find that the Spirit and the bride say, “Come”. Have you ever considered what that time will be for the Spirit of God? The Spirit of God, having completed the dignity of that assembly for Christ, having completed the vessels under the hand of God, will be able to render up the product of His service. He has his part at the time of transformation. Our bodies are transformed “on account of his Spirit which dwells in you”, Rom 8: 11. As you are one of those who are indwelt by the Spirit, have you ever thought that God has that inroad into you for the time of the transformation? The Spirit of God helps you here. The Spirit of God gives help in response to God, but He is there and God will transform you on account of – and by – His Spirit which dwells in you. Wonderful transformation – do you look forward to that?
Then, what it will mean to the Father too, when He sees Christ satisfied in having the assembly presented in its fulness and glory. Wonderful! Are you looking forward to that? Is that the first thing before you?
I speak of these things because the rapture is the first thing, and we are often told that we are to look for no event before the rapture. We do not look for changes in the world; we do not look for changes in government: your view is entirely on Christ. Your view is entirely on Him, and the movement will come at the Father’s time. That time is in the Father’s calendar. He knows that time, when everything will be ready, and finished, and we will be caught up with Christ, with everything of this scene past forever for the believer.
Well, of course, one of the interesting features that follows is that there is what is referred to at the judgment seat of Christ. The believer in the Lord Jesus will have no fear as the judgment seat of Christ. There will no remorse at the judgment seat of Christ. Everything has been completed, everything has been righteously satisfied, and everything has been settled by the work of the Lord Jesus. But still, matters will have to be gone over with Him – as the hymn expresses it:
With Him look back on all the way (Hymn 299)
You will see what was there, what was happening. You will see His hand in it, and see His care in it. You will see His blessing in what you thought was the time of your greatest sorrow. You will look back upon it, and see what failures diverted you – but He had His hand upon you in them. Each one of us can say, Look at these failures of mine! They might depress you – but at the judgment seat of Christ they will not depress you because you will see what the answer to them all was, in the work of Christ. You will see how God has secured things for His own pleasure.
But matters are not to be left to that time. For ourselves, and for our localities – do not leave them till then. You may be settled in your conviction that Christ is your Saviour – then matters are settled for eternity. But if there are matters of divergence in your life do not leave them till the judgment seat of Christ to resolve. Be ready. Be ready for the time when the Lord Jesus comes. Be ready for it – let that be the desire of each one, a judgment of ourselves before the Lord.
We have spoken of the rapture – but to go on now to the actual appearing. The reference here is to those who, “love his appearing”. How was the Lord last seen on the earth? The resurrection was a secret matter. Believers knew about it – believers saw the empty tomb, and they saw Him risen. They saw Him going into heaven as was caught up. The world did not see Christ ascending. No unbelievers saw Christ ascending. The rapture will be a secret matter too. The world will not see you ascending. How conscious the world will be of what has happened we do not know.
These are secret things. But what was the last that the world saw of Christ? The last official transaction that the world had was when there was a request from a believer to take the Lord’s body from the cross. That is still the world’s real view of Christ – a request – and, what happened next? In the last acts of an unbeliever in relation to Jesus, Pilate called the centurion, and when he knew from the centurion that Jesus was dead he granted the body to Joseph. What must it have meant to the centurion, for he was one who had just confessed, “Truly this man was Son of God” (Mark 15: 39), that Jesus was to be taken to be buried? We do not know that an unbeliever saw Him buried; we know that the world saw Him on the cross. He is crucified still as far as this world is concerned.
He is going to appear. The appearing is the next time when the world will see Christ. He went out, so far as they were concerned, not in the glory of resurrection, but in rejection. He went out in shame. He went out with a crown of thorns on His head. He went out in weakness. That is what it meant to them, that a Man should be crucified. He is going to come. He is going to come in power. He is going to come in total vindication. Publicly persons might take the view that He was a wrongdoer being crucified. Somebody passing might have concluded that it was a worthless wrongdoer who was hanging on the cross. They would view Him as a criminal who was not worthy even of a more respectable execution. That is the world’s view of Christ – that Man is going to come, and it will be fully acknowledged by everyone in this scene that He was right and righteous.
Now, how does that affect your heart? Do you love His appearing because His interest, and His honour, are so important to you that you love the fact that He is going to come, and be publicly declared as righteous, and publicly acknowledged in this scene? It is a wonderful fact.
God is always righteous in His dealing. But sometimes matters wait. There are persons in the scriptures who were put to death and there was no acknowledgement that they were righteous persons – think of Urijah, or Naboth, for example. These persons were righteous, and God is going publicly to acknowledge these persons as well. He is going to notify the world that persons that the world cast out were righteous persons. They were persons whom He approves of, whatever the world’s view may be. The believer can wait. We know that our natural feelings arise when something seems unfair, and the flesh rises in us. We can wait. The believer can wait because the vindication, the acknowledgement of righteousness, is from God. He will set that out. But firstly, and the matter that is predominantly before us in loving Christ’s appearing, it is that your heart, and your desire, is that Christ should be honoured, and that He should have His right place in this scene.
Wonderful things will happen because of that, really as part of that. When He comes not only will the universe wonder at Christ in His glory personally, but He will be “wondered at in all that have believed” (2 Thess 1: 10), not just by those who have believed. There will be those persons who come out in glory. There will be a display of glory in persons who are Christ’s, those coming with Him, and the world will wonder. The world will wonder at these persons because Christ is in them. No only are they with Him, but they are formed by Him, and are displaying Him. Indeed, in the world to come there will be a special display of Christ in His saints. There will be a special display of it in the assembly, as coming out from God, and having the glory of God. All this depends on the appearing.
What a difference it will make to the world too. Men are concerned rightly about the condition of the earth. They see resources running out, they are concerned about climate chaos, about all that happens in this scene. There are creatures which God created which appear to be becoming extinct. Men are concerned about that, and the believer has sympathy with that concern. The creatures are God’s creatures, the earth is God’s earth. God loved the world – He loved a scene which He created which was according to His pleasure. It was set for Man. But what happened? We sang that:
All creation, travails, groans
All that affects men, but it is:
‘till Thou shalt come (Hymn 291)
The appearing is going to have a wonderful effect upon the earth. What will it be like to have an earth where there is corn growing upon the tops of the mountains, where there is abundance of resource? Men are concerned now that there might be wars because of lack of water in some regions. There will be abundance of resource, there will be a fulness of supply. I love to think of the world to come, and the perfect administration that will flow because Christ has come in and He is in control. Men in their administration try their best. Sometimes they are tangled up in matters that are corrupt; but very often it is simply man’s weakness, man’s failures since sin has come in.
We have the exclamation of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29. That is related in its fulness to the appearing, when Christ comes, when everything that is evil is judged, and the whole scene is in perfection according to God’s mind. Now man, of course, will still be on the earth, and man will still be in the flesh. Under the ways of God the flesh will still exist through the thousand years of Christ’s public reign. So that sin will occur again – there will be a rebellion at the end of the thousand years, just before God sets out everything according to Himself in a new heaven and a new earth, eternally.
But still, how wonderful to think of the inauguration of the millennium, a scene of perfection and glory. Do you love His appearing because you look forward to this scene where everything on earth will be in perfection and glory according to God. Do you love the appearing because evil will be judged? Does evil affect you? I speak for myself – very often things in the world that should affect me do not affect me as they should; I am insensitive to them. The Lord would awaken sensitivities to what a scene this is. Think of what it was to the Lord Jesus as a Man here, walking through this scene, and sin affecting His spirit, sin affecting relationships among men. We look forward to that time, His appearing, when all will be set right. Nothing else is going to secure it. Men’s efforts will not secure it. His appearing will secure it: a scene where evil has been judged, and, for that time, cast out.
Things will be ordered at His appearing. Think of the way in which now there is disorder and warfare – all that will be removed at His appearing. What a beautiful scene this earth will be. Do you love His appearing because of that? As you look through the Old Testament you get many references to the world to come. God has plans for the world to come. Things are going to be set up in a way that suits Him. Israel at the moment are rejecters of Christ. There will be a time, after the church has been raptured, when there will be those of Israel, a remnant of Israel, who will cling to Christ. They will take their place here, they will be rejected, they will be despised, and they will be persecuted because of it. At His appearing they will be set up, and given the place that they should have – God’s focus on earth. They will be in their proper place then. Do you love His appearing because of that?
Have you thought of the beauty of everything being in focus? Think of areas of turmoil now. What is Iraq is now associated with what is Assyria in the Old Testament, and Assyria is one of the nations that God is going to set up in relation to Israel. He is going to give it a place, and “Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria”, Isa 19: 24. Many other nations will be in place according to Him. Do you love His appearing because everything is going to be in order, because you are interested in His people Israel, in His thoughts and desires for His people? I trust that we will all be awakened in interest in these things, things that are in the future.
We have our own lives, many things we are looking forward to. Have you been captivated by Christ, so that your interests have become His, and so that your desires are for what glorified Him, your desires are for what will see Him publicly vindicated – so that you are one of those who love His appearing? I desire that everyone should be quickened in love for His appearing. And what a reward, “The crown of righteousness is laid up for me … but not only for me, but … all those who love his appearing”. Yet even that is for His glory – the twenty-four elders in Revelation “cast their crowns before the throne”, Rev 4: 10. Everything is to be for His glory. He will secure it. It will be a public matter. As we increase in love for His appearing it will affect us in the service of God, and it will affect us in our lives. This is what is before us. May it be increasingly so, for His Name’s sake.
PETERHEAD
25 March 2006