Quick judgments can blind us to fuller truth, whether in life or in reading Scripture. The return of Christ is one such theme where first impressions may give way to deeper understanding as we bring together what is taught in John, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, and the Gospel accounts. Jesus, who will return as Judge and Saviour, calls believers to trust both in His Word and in His work of redemption. True faith begins in believing His atoning death and continues as the daily trust that He strengthens us to live as His people until He comes again.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] You know, it’s amazing how we people can jump to quick assessments or judgments or opinions depending on what we see first and we come to a conclusion but then we see more information later and change our minds. That happened to me rather dramatically as I looked up and I saw Vanessa leading and she was holding her hands up. This is the first song, holding her hands up like this and I heard a really powerful voice and I said to myself, I didn’t know Vanessa had such a powerful singing voice. I think you have a sweet one but I didn’t know you had such a powerful one. But then later, because I wasn’t watching anywhere else, I looked across and saw the two girls holding microphones and realised I’d made a silly snap judgment as to where the power was coming from just at that moment anyway.

[00:00:59] And it’s like that, you know, we have lots to do with the Bible and interpreting it, that it depends on where you hear first, often you have an opinion, but later on you have to adjust a little when you realise that there are quite a number of different passages about the second coming of Christ, which you have to take into consideration if you’re going to get an overall view of what the Bible teaches. Now I’m not going to try and take us to go into a great deal today and try and solve how to know the doctrine of the second coming all in one night, but I am wanting for us to see just a few things that are more easily discerned and I’m going to leave aside the difficult parts. Where are the difficult parts? I think some of the Old Testament things written in Daniel to interpret them, you know, the

[00:01:52] 70 weeks or whatever it is in Daniel is a difficult one and I think another part is the book of Revelation itself and I’m sure that Daryl won’t mind my saying that they have had a home group that’s been going through the book of Revelation and it has been quite a strong exercise to be done to try and work out exactly what all the details are meaning. So those two parts, Daniel and Revelation, I’m not going to touch on tonight, but just make a start on something that is manageable in a message like this. And to do that, I want us to turn to John for a start. Oh, you’ve got it already. Thank you. In chapter 5 is one of the parts in the Gospel of John where it does talk about the second coming of Christ. Truly, truly, I say to you, this is Jesus, the Son can do nothing of his own accord but

[00:02:47] only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. Jesus came to be obedient to the leader of the Father and he lived it out very well. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. and greater works than these will he show him that’s father showing Jesus so that you may marvel for the father raises the dead and gives them life so also the son gives life to whom he will for the father judges no one but has and continues has given all the judgment to the son that all may honour the son just as they honour the father whoever does not honour the son does not honour the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment

[00:03:41] but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. One more hop. Good. For as the Father has life in Himself so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing of my own as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my known will but the will of him who sent me. That’s a passage from John’s Gospel about when Christ comes

[00:04:31] and if that were to be the only one that you looked at, you’d come to the conclusion that Jesus will come and there’ll be people coming to life again or being raised from the dead, some to go to be with Christ in heaven and some not. And that’s an explanation in short compass. Now, what do we do with the facts that there are other passages in the New Testament which go into a lot more details? And the one detail we saw there is that Jesus comes, there’s a loud voice and people are coming up from the dead, some this way and some that way. Another picture I think you can get somewhere from John’s Gospel is that Jesus is there and he’s almost like directing traffic that way to heaven, that way to hell. And that’s about the totality of the picture those verses would give you.

[00:05:22] Turn across, though, to 1 Thessalonians in chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians in chapter 4, and this is in the writings of Paul, and he’s going into a lot more detail. And in 1 Thessalonians, this letter of Paul in chapter 4, is one of the classical passages about the facts that when Christ does return, there’s going to be a number of things that do occur, a lot more details. And this passage is quite a famous passage, but we will be faced with a choice, and that is, do you take the John one we’ve just read and make it trim down some of the details of the Thessalonians, or do you take the Thessalonians one as the one most to follow and take it to mean that the John one was just a quick summary of the destinations that are twofold. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command

[00:06:26] and the voice of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God. That’s three loud noises, the cry of command. They were familiar back in their culture of how when they had horses that you’re leading and the whole team of horses racing in there, you know, around, there would be a person who would be calling with a cry of command, sometimes also a crack of the whip. But it was a definite demand, a cry of command. and with the sound of the trumpet of God. So it’s an echoing cry of command, that’s from Jesus and the voice of the archangel gives a reiterating call, much to the same effect, and then the sound of the trumpet of God. So there’s three cracks of a noise. Jesus’ cry, the following cry of the archangel, the trumpet of God, and then the dead in Christ will rise first. Now John didn’t tell us.

[00:07:24] the dead in Christ rising first. It just pictured those that are going to go be with the Lord, that would be the dead in Christ and then also the ones that are not. He was just telling us that the two sets do get to be raised. But you could have thought from reading John that it all happened at one time, both the dead in Christ and the dead are not in Christ all happening in one whoop. But this one says the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, that’s we who are in Christ, I presume, who are left, because all this is happening and we’re still alive. Say, for example, you’re on your way home tonight and suddenly there’s a mighty happening and you go flying through the roof or out the door. I don’t know how the Lord would do it if you’re driving home. And you go upwards.

[00:08:19] Are there going to be a lot of people who are not Christians, all the cars around, and they’re having their roofs wrecked by them being whipped up or perhaps they get whipped out the window. I don’t know how that would work. Is that all going to happen all over the world, all at once? This is saying no. This is saying there’s an order. The other was a summary statement of where the two destinations are people go to, but it doesn’t actually affirm that it’s all happening in the one whoop. And this is telling us that there’s the word first, the dead in Christ rise first. Then we who are alive and who are left, to explain that, that’s because they’re Christians who’ve died and gone to be with the Lord already, but we who are alive and still driving home,

[00:09:10] will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So the people who’ve died back in time who are Christians, they will come out of their graves and we who are walking around or driving home are going to get whipped up and caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now that’s a much, much more detailed description of how it’s going to happen. And generally speaking, people who give their time to study the Bible and try and interpret it make a decision to say it’s actually going to be a simple thing and this is some poetic elaboration in Thessalonians. Or they say, no, what’s in John is just a summary of where the destinations will be but this is the more detail that will happen. And you have to decide. And depending on how you treat the Bible

[00:10:08] and how you think it ought to be interpreted so you make that decision. And you’ll find enough Christians who go to church, you’ll be able to find some who take just a simple view because they prefer it all much simpler than complicated. Or they prefer John’s Gospel to be the one they’ve read. You know, I like John’s Gospel. Well, I would take it over anything else, frankly, except the details here I believe to be Scripture too and I can only accommodate the other by believing this first. Now that’s how I do. Then we who are alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so will we always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. It was a joy of my first trip over to the United States

[00:10:59] to do study after finishing one place in Dallas. I went on up to Chicago. And we’re at Wheaton College, where I went into and did my second Master’s. I did it because I didn’t have any money to pay for food. So I booked myself in for a student and eventually finished a Master’s, second Master’s. But they had this in the accommodation that the college had given to the Master’s program. And on the ground floor, there was also given by the Billy Graham Association the Museum of Evangelism. And it was a way that you could see all sorts of exhibits of evangelism back across the years of history. There was an old-fashioned thingamy bobs that gives you a sound of Billy Sunday preaching. Not Billy Graham, but Billy Sunday. And there was exhibits of all sorts of things to do with evangelism.

[00:11:52] But there also was what they called in this museum part where you went for a walk through the Gospel. By walking through the gospel, you stepped in through the first door and they had something to show of the gospel presents first of Jesus meeting the disciples, etc. And as you walk on through, they’ve done some physical thing that you’d have dramatized. You’d be a part of the drama you’re walking through of what the gospels teach. But a part of it was a set of stairs you had to go up and it was rather darkened and mysterious. and at the top there was a doorway which I opened and pulled and stepped out and suddenly it gave you the feeling you’d stepped out into the skies. It wasn’t, it was just an appearance they made you feel and there was a lot of light everywhere

[00:12:41] but it was giving some physical way to understand this passage of being caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. That was a part of the presentation of this museum of the gospel. or this museum of evangelism, but the outworking of physical way of presenting the gospel. It is something that’s believed by many, many Christians to take the Thessalonians verse and use it to interpret John rather than the other way around. Now, other passages which have a similar difficulty because of the information which at first look you might take one view, then when you look more carefully you might change it for another, is a passage that’s found in all, well not all, in the three gospels, we’ve had a look at what John has to say about the second coming, but the other three gospels which are closer together

[00:13:36] in terms of their descriptions, that’s Matthew, Mark and Luke, and there’s a part of them that’s being called the little apocalypse. It’s a little bit like the book of Revelation, but it’s in the three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, And it happens because the disciples arrive at Jerusalem where there’s this beautiful temple building that’s being built in their past history of the nation. And they’re with Jesus and they see all the building and they want to point it out to Jesus, look at this beautiful building. And he answers and says, you see all these things? They’re going to get all these stones thrown down one day and there won’t be left one upon another. that won’t be thrown down. Well, the disciples were really absolutely stunned by any prediction by their Lord

[00:14:28] that the building that they revered so much was not going to survive a certain event in history. And they’re very curious about what he meant by saying it and whether it was really true. Well, he takes them outside of Jerusalem and he leads them through the little Kidron Valley and up to, what is it called, the Mount, but it’s not that high, the Mount of Olives. And they’re sitting down up there at a spot where they can look across the valley and see the city of Jerusalem, which is at the top of a hill, the other side of this valley. And they can see the building of which Jesus had spoken. And so we find in Matthew’s Gospel, in chapter, I believe that it is 24, verse 23, we find in Matthew’s Gospel the start of a conversation that the disciples make asking Jesus a bit more information, please. Then if it…

[00:15:23] Look at that. I’ve given you the wrong verse, though it is the right chapter. Matthew 24 and probably verse 3, sorry. Try verse 3. We’re going to be working you hard back there. Same chapter. All right, here we are. Good. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. Now, just what I was saying was that they’d arrive at Jerusalem, they’d seen the temple, they’d marvel at the beauty of it all and said so to Jesus, but he’d made some rather sharp statements about the future. So they follow him out and go to the top of the Mount of Olives where they’re sitting on that spot on rocks and boulders where they can look across the grown valley and see the building of which Jesus and they had been talking. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately,

[00:16:20] there’s a crowd that followed as well, and they came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So they’re asking quite a question. Just recently, Callum, my oldest son, came to me and said that he had to do a sermon on Matthew 24 and wanted to hear how I’d approach it. And what I told them is probably what I’m doing now. Gave me the idea of another message. Not that I haven’t had one on this before, but Callum, I said to him, well, go first to when the disciples ask Jesus more questions. Because what you’ll discover is that there are some differences between the accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke as to exactly what and what you can get out of them, slightly different, it varies in the little differences,

[00:17:17] depending on what question Jesus is answering. And my explanation is that Jesus didn’t go up there, a bit of a journey up, you know, make your legs tired, get sitting up there and just talk for five minutes. I think his style would be that he would have talked for several hours. He didn’t waste the journey and they’re asking a very important question. So, but when they ask the question, when they’ve gone back and eventually written their Gospels, depending on how they heard, how they understood what Jesus said, because how they remembered of the question didn’t stay the same in each mind. Some of them had an interest one way and others another interest. And so you’ll find that Matthew’s record of this little apocalypse, this sermon given by Jesus about the second coming, differs slightly in the details,

[00:18:13] depending on how the disciple remembers the question they asked. And they’ve taken from all the things, I think Jesus probably spoke for hours, knowing Jesus, or for a long time. And they’ve taken of some of the things he said, the answers to their questions. And so what I told Callum is, show how the questions differ slightly, and they do when you look them up. And you’ll see that what follows in those particular Gospels is an answer to the question that the disciple remembered and they were curious about. And so you can explain the differences. And so instead of putting Matthew to be different from Mark, different from Luke, and you’ll meet some people whose theological training tells them that, you know, these are all just men’s ideas and maybe Jesus didn’t say too much anyway. I believe the Bible.

[00:19:05] And this belief in the Scriptures has come to me from other ways than just intellectually, this is what I’ve assumed. I believe the Scriptures are true. Later at the end I’ll give you one reason for that. But for the moment, just the fact that if you believe that the Scriptures are true, then you believe that there is an explanation that explains the differences, the little differences between Matthew, Mark and Luke when Jesus is reported answering their questions sitting up in the Mount of Olives. But here in Matthew, what they ask is, tell us, when will these things be? Now these things will be the destruction of Jerusalem and how Jesus has said, not one stone will be left standing upon another, but all shall be cast down. That was a pretty big thing for him to have said

[00:19:56] and it’s still ringing in the mind of Matthew who’s very much a Jewish man wanting to think of the future of Israel. And so you’ll find that in the little apocalypse, in Matthew’s version of it, that there’s a major emphasis on the destruction of Jerusalem which happened in the year 80-70. Matthew still has the same things that the others have, but the difference between the three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, is in where the emphasis is in Jesus’ recorded answer to their question. And that emphasis matches how they framed each of the questions slightly differently. And so Matthew is rather interested in the destruction of Jerusalem and that’s why, as you go through it there, that is where the emphasis lies. Tell us when these things will be, is what the question is.

[00:20:51] But it’s not as though Matthew leaves out about the end of the age because he goes on to say, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So he hasn’t left out having that. And that occurs, those mentions are also there in Matthew’s version of the response of Jesus to the question asked on the top of the man of olives. Let’s turn now then to Mark. And I think it is Mark 13 verse 3. And what we’re doing is looking at the question each of the different disciples actually asked, probably as they were talking across the time. If they were there for over an hour, then they all had a chance to try and get their question in and want Jesus to answer it. And so they reported according to how they remember the question asked. And as he sat on the man of olives opposite the temple,

[00:21:39] Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, ooh, is it possible to go another verse? I am working the poor old workers. And yeah, tell us when will these things be. And when will these, and all these things, when all these things are about to be accomplished? So it’s a more general question. Well, you’ve told us of some happenings to come. But what will be a sign that’s going to trigger it off or let us know it’s about to happen? And you’ll find that Mark has both the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ. But he doesn’t distinguish him that much and he doesn’t emphasise one more than the other. He’s probably a middle of the road representative as far as these three Gospels are concerned in an answer given to the question. If we go across to Luke in chapter 21, verse 7.

[00:22:40] I’m hoping I’ve done better at dictating the place. But Luke’s Gospel, chapter 21, verse 7. And they asked him, Teacher, when will these things be and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? That is the same as Mark, but a bit more pointed. When are we going to be on the edge? What will be the sign? He wants to have a sign. What signal is there in the events happening when these things are about to take place? I have not taken us through Matthew, Mark and Luke to see how the differing answers, they all can have the same general ideas that Jesus is going to return and that he’s going to do some things and set things in order. But they don’t have all the details quite explained the same way. And the reason is, I told Callum, is because the questions the disciples remembered asking

[00:23:38] were slightly different, which is how he then framed his message to give about what is called the Little Apocalypse. The Little Apocalypse, the word apocalypse is the same words used of the Book of Revelation and it’s about the second coming and a lot of dramatic events. And the Little Apocalypse is Jesus giving some talk about his coming again and what he’s going to do when he arrives and that’s why it has that name. I hope that I’ve given you a way that you could understand the scriptures. And if you look and see, don’t do as I did because when I first looked up and I saw Vanessa going like this, I thought, gee, when did she get such a strong voice? You were really commanding, you know, and it was your singing, I thought. And as only later I looked across and saw the two girls

[00:24:30] and they were singing with microphones. So I had to change my opinion. And I hope when you study the scriptures you don’t mind having a view for a start and generally what they tell us in Sunday school is how. It’s like in Sunday school. I shouldn’t say Sunday school because I don’t know exactly how they would say it down there but I know in my background in Sunday school, how do I become a Christian? Will you ask Jesus into your heart is what people would say. And so I heard the gospel to be if you ask Jesus to come into your life you’ll be a christian there’s a truth in that i’m not knocking that idea but it’s a very small snippet of the information that’s true about how to become a christian there’s actually a big

[00:25:16] business about repentance that’s also needed and there’s a big business about putting your trust and belief in jesus as the savior you have to have been told about how he died for you and by his death he’s paid the price for your sin that’s how he can forgive you is because he’s paid, the justice has already been executed in him. And there’s nothing stronger, greater, more important than the message of how Christ died for our sins. The Gospel isn’t only just come to him and ask him into your heart. It is how he came to us in the world, took on humanity, lived perfectly and obeyed all the laws, at least the ones the Bible asks, not the ones the Pharisees necessarily thought. But anyway, Jesus lived a perfect life and then as a guiltless sacrifice, gave himself on the cross for our sins

[00:26:17] and has dealt with our sin. And because of how he died, he made atonement for the sin of the whole world, the Bible teaches. So the God who kicks human beings out of the Garden of Eden because of sin now is able to come and search them down and seek to bring them back and tell us stories like Jesus won about the shepherd looking for the lost lamb. That’s Jesus looking for you. Jesus wanting you to know him and he’s asking of you to understand that he has paid the price for your sinful position and you just come and believe him. There’s a verse in the Bible that says, if you do not believe him, how shall you be established? And that’s never been more true than in the message of the Bible. If you don’t believe the message, how shall you be established as right with God? But by simple faith,

[00:27:16] Jesus thank you for what you’ve done I believe you’ve catered for me and you can forgive me because you paid the price and then you let the past go into the past because he’s dealt with it and then you are free to learn how to live by faith I had a number of Bible verses I didn’t give the sermon this morning I was planning on but the verses included one it talks about this faith, that we’re saved by faith, and it grounds it in the verse from Habakkuk I used in the morning, the just shall live by faith. But the just live by faith is talking not only about how coming to Christ and putting faith in his atonement, but by having been forgiven, you then having the struggle of trying to please God and finding your sinful nature still giving you a problem, But by faith you learn how to walk.

[00:28:18] And you walk with him knowing you go on being forgiven. And you walk with him trusting him for the strength to live the Christian life that you haven’t got of yourself. And so the whole business of salvation is both in terms of the coming for forgiveness, of believing Jesus for it, and secondly of stepping out to live to be a Christian and seeking to be obedient as a Christian. And that was this morning’s message, basically, I was trying to give. And it’s a wonderful thing to be able to have a Bible that you can put together. Don’t ever think, because some people will… When I listen in to people who doubt the Bible, I always get staggered at some of the silly things they have trouble with because the language is slightly different in one gospel from the other.

[00:29:10] But if I want to know whether to believe the Bible, the thing that I do is go and look how Jesus treated the Old Testament Bible he had and how he believed it, even though he didn’t… Well, even though it was written by Moses or other people like that, Jesus believed that there was a supernatural aspect that made it believable. And he often quoted it, quoted it as something that you could trust in. If the Bible’s good enough to believe in for Jesus, and he’s the one that died and rose again, he’s the one who paid for my sins, then it’s good enough for me. And so we not only need the faith to come and get forgiven because he’s affected the atonement, but we need faith to seek to live out what it is as a person who’s a Christian who’s trying to let the Spirit sanctify you along the way.

[00:30:07] Being sanctified is a gradual process. And sometimes we realise that we’ve got lots of areas that need to be sanctified, but they’re areas where you need to trust Jesus with faith. And that’s why there’s all these verses I was ready to quote this morning where it says the just shall live by faith, but it also says about our salvation is from faith to faith. What’s that about? Well, from faith in coming to Jesus to faith in living for him. You need the faith in both places. Don’t just come and get forgiven and then think you’ve got to do it yourself. No, trust in his power, call on him for his help. From faith to faith. That’s the Christian life that works. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for tonight, and I thank you for about the little apocalypse,

[00:31:02] this part of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that tell us of the second coming of Christ. And Lord, sometimes we get stumbled by not being able to understand all the facts that we begin seeing in the Scriptures. Please help us to go on treating the Scriptures with faith, taking them from faith to faith, as it were. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.