The Second Coming
Since Jesus Christ will return,
we are always to be ready for that great event.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz:
Chapter 1, [verse 7] verses 3 and 4,
where a blessing is promised
to those of us who read:
Blessed is the one who reads...
Thankfully we have the document
that we can read.
...blessed are those who hear...
And there are many of course
who heard this before they could read it
because it was probably read from a manuscript.
They didn't have Bibles like we do
where they could turn to them.
But also blessed are those who:
...keep what is written in it...
Those who obey.
Those who respond to what's
in this book.
There's a blessing here:
...because the time is near! ...
And John of course believed that.
Paul believed that.
The apostle Peter believed that.
The New Testament writers believed that.
And they did not understand
there was going to be another 2000 years at least
before Jesus Christ returned.
But God wants us to live in the light of
the fact that he could return.
His iminency. That he could return.
And so John is writing
and here he identifies himself.
He says "John.:
Similar to what Paul did
when he wrote his letters,
where he would use his own name.
This was unusual for John.
He didn't do that when he wrote the Gospels.
He didn't do that when he
wrote his Epistles.
But here he identifies himself,
obviously under the inspiration,
direction of the Holy Spirit:
...John: To the seven churches
in the province of Asia.
Grace and peace to you
from the One who is, who was,
and who is coming;
from the seven spirits before His throne.
Now the document is really written
to seven literal churches.
And they're called the seven churches of Asia.
Now you'll notice Ephesus, and then
Smyrna, and Pergamum as you go up the coast
going north off the Aegean Sea.
And then you circle back
to Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
And you'll notice the spacing
basically geographically because
most of these churches were
approximately 30 to 40 miles from each other.
So you don't have a huge land mass here.
But you have these churches
that are located throughout Asia.
And we'll talk just a little bit more about that
and how they came into existence.
And so here we have going on
in this verse, in verse 7:
Look! He is coming with the clouds...
That's the theme.
...He is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see Him,
including those who pierced Him.
And all the families of the earth
will mourn over Him.
This is certain. Amen.
He is coming.
And that's the theme that runs through
the book of Revelation.
Now the message is both to
believers and unbelievers.
In the book of Revelation.
The message to believers:
Paul really summarizes this
beautifully in Titus 2.
When he wrote to Titus who was
on the island of Crete,
establishing churches. And he says:
For the grace of God has appeared,
with salvation for all people, instructing us to [what?]
deny godlessness [and] worldly lusts
and [positively] to live in a sensible,
righteous, and godly way
in the present age...
In which we all live today, right?
...in the present age, while we wait
for the blessed hope and the appearing
of the glory of our great God
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
That's in essence the message of Revelation
to all of us who are believers.
But it's also a message to unbelievers.
And Peter really underscored that
in 2nd Peter chapter 3, when he said this:
Dear friends, don't let this one thing escape you:
with the Lord one day is like 1,000 years...
That's why he hasn't come yet.
...one day is like 1,000 years,
[and] 1,000 years like one day.
The Lord does not delay His promise,
as some understand delay, but is [what?]...
Why hasn't he come back?
There were those who were saying,
he hasn't come back,
therefore he's not coming back. And he says:
You don't understand:
Because a thousand years is like a day,
a day is like a thousand years.
But the reason he hasn't come back
is for all of you who don't know Jesus:
...[he's] patient with you,
not wanting any to perish,
but all to come to repentance.
So the book of Revelation
is a message to believers
to live holy, godly lives while we
wait for his coming.
For unbelievers to receive the gift
and be ready for his coming.
So they do not face eternal separation from God
because they have not received
the gift of eternal life.
Reflection and Response question
relates to the second coming:
Though we're urged to understand prophecy...
And we are because so much
of the Bible is prophecy.
And in this letter, or in this book,
the Lord said through the Spirit:
Blessed are those who study this prophecy.
So we're urged to understand prophecy
and the book of Revelation particularly.
Because much of the book
of Revelation is prophecy. The question is:
How has this glorious message
regarding Jesus Christ's return
been misapplied and even abused
over the centuries?
Well I think one way in which it's abused
is that people have become obsessed with it.
And that's the one thing that they
think about all the time.
Which is not wrong because we are
to live in the light of the fact that
he could return at any time.
But there is an obsession.
And God doesn't want us to be obsessed.
Because we can be so heavenly-minded,
we're no earthly good, as it were, somebody said.
God has left us here for a purpose.
And it's not just to sit and wait for his coming.
Though we're to do that.
We're to be busy about our Father's business.
And there are some that have abused that.
Even in the New Testament
some were abusing it.
The Thessalonians had to be exhorted
by the apostle Paul.
If you don't work, you don't eat.
Some of them were sitting around
waiting for the Lord to come back.
So [they just didn't]--they weren't responsible
for meeting their needs. They were lazy.
They were using the Lord's coming
as an excuse not to be diligent.
And so it has been abused in that way.
I think another way in which it's been abused
is becoming too dogmatic.
By making statements we ought not to make.
By setting dates.
Some even set dates,
which is certainly a violation of the will of God
[be]cause no one knows the day or the hour.
We're certainly to watch for the signs.
We're certainly to know that it's coming
just like the first coming.
There were signs. There were prophecies.
The wise men of the east saw the star
that was promised that was over Bethlehem.
That's all in the Old Testament.
We're to be aware of all of this.
But at the same time, we're not to be dogmatic
in terms of making statements
that really are embarrassing.
For example, there's a lot in the
book of Revelation about the antichrist.
And over the years there have been
many pontifications regarding
who the antichrist is.
And it seems that we ought to learn a lesson
that we've been wrong so many times.
And that's embarrassing.
And the other thing that that does
is that we cry "wolf" [quote]--
and I'm using that in a positive way--
so frequently that people just tune us out.
And so when we talk about the fact
that Jesus Christ could come
at any moment, they'll say:
I've heard that before.
So they just kind of tune it out.
So I think we have to be
very, very careful about that
in relationship to teaching prophecy.
Though we're to focus on it, understand it,
and we'll be blessed if we do.
So the first Principle has to do
with the second coming.