By way of introducing this study of matters related to the return of our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, please look at Acts 3:21, 24.
“Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. . . . Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.”
These words indicate that the return of Christ in glory was ever kept before the hearts and minds of God’s people throughout the ages.
The reason for this is simple! It is the glorious truth which, whatever our circumstances, will cheer us and fill us with joyful hope!
Reminder
These words serve as a reminder to all preachers that they too should keep this subject ever before their people. Failure to do so is to rob God’s flock of the greatest of comforts!
By keeping this wonderful event before us we will act as Peter exhorts us. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,” 2 Peter 3:11.
I believe that the tide of carelessness and worldliness that has come in upon the professing people of God is due to a ‘forgetting’ of this truth as a result of the failure of God’s servants to keep it before Christians!
We all know the confusion that follows our forgetting of an event when it comes upon us when we are unprepared! All too many of God’s people will be ‘sleeping’ when the cry goes up, “Behold the bridegroom cometh,” (Matthew 25:6).
It is my task today to highlight the purpose of Christ in His return to this world.
That purpose is so multifaceted that no one message could deal with it. Indeed, I think that to fully set down the purpose of Christ’s return in its fulness is beyond the capability of any preacher! But we will seek to highlight some aspects of the purpose of Christ in His return.
I. HE WILL RETURN IN ORDER TO FULFIL HIS PROMISES.
Oftentimes, references to the return of Christ take the form of a promise. This is but a means of assuring us of the certainty of that event.
1. He will fulfil His promise to His Father. In eternity a ‘Covenant of Redemption’ was made between the three Persons of the Trinity. In that Covenant, Christ undertook to fulfil certain duties in order to redeem His elect, given Him by His Father. In John 10:18, Christ refers to His death on the cross as something commanded of the Father. “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
This “commandment” or “charge” was what Christ undertook to accomplish, in obedience to His Father’s will, in order to save His people.
This helps us understand that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was not seeking to ‘back out of His undertaking’, When He prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” Matthew 26:39. I believe that He was not praying about Calvary’s cross but the attempt the devil was making to kill Him in the Garden and thus frustrate His atoning death! Paul makes this clear in Hebrews 5:7.
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” He was saved from death by His “strong crying and tears” in prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Christ fulfilled His part in the Covenant of Redemption at the cross and thereby “finished” His undertaking to redeem His people.
Harvest
He will return again to enjoy the full harvest of His death. They sing in heaven: “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” Revelation 5:9.
He will return to claim His blood-bought people and “so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
2. He will fulfil His promise to His redeemed. Do we not all rest on those glorious words in John 14:2-3? “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 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.”
That is a promise “written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope,” Romans 15:4.
Christ is God and cannot therefore lie. The promises that are bound up in His work of love for His people are ‘yea’ (2 Corinthians 1:20). The word ‘yea’ means ‘assuredly so’.
Dear Christian, you can rest with utter assurance and confidence upon the promise of Christ’s return to “receive you” unto Himself, that where He is eternally, there we “may be also”!
3. He will fulfil His promise to His nation, Israel. A very long time ago, the Lord uttered these words to Israel. “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD,” Exodus 6:7-8.
In this declaration the Lord makes Israel His ‘people’ and also promises to give them the land of Israel as ‘an heritage’ as He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!
In Genesis 13:14-15, we have the promise the Lord made to Abram, while his name was not yet changed to Abraham.“And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.”
That land was to be an ‘everlasting, perpetual possession’, as the Hebrew word “ever” implies.
Israel’s terrible sin in rejecting the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, some two thousand years ago, has been followed by a dreadful harvest of trouble. That trouble will intensify in the last three and half years of this age, just before the Saviour returns in what He termed ‘the great tribulation’, Matthew 24:21.
But, as Isaiah the prophet told Israel long ago, “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever,” Isaiah 59:20-21.
See Ezekiel 11:7-11, 21 — the “I will” of JUDGMENT. Verses 16-20 — the “I will” of RECOVERY. As the first was fulfilled so too will the second!
Paul
Paul refers to this promise when explaining God’s eternal purpose for His ancient people, Israel.
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” Romans 11:25-29.
There is no changing of His mind with God. Christ will come again and keep His promises to Israel, praise the Lord!
II. HE IS COMING TO SUBDUE HIS ENEMIES
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” 1 Corinthians 15:24-26.
1. This is subjugation indeed! Christ will trample His enemies under His feet in complete victory. How this ‘image’ painted by Paul, differs from the perception of the Saviour as put forth by ‘liberals and modernists’. They have no belief in the true and glorious character of the Saviour but rather have presented a ‘Santa Claus’ type image of the Saviour.
2. What the false prophets teach is far removed from God’s revelation of Himself. “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward,” Deuteronomy 10:17.
Today’s false prophets of christendom would have us believe that the God of the Old Testament is ‘dead’ and in His place we have the ‘milk-and-water’, insipid ‘Christ’ they preach. Their ‘Christ’ does not require obedience to the commandments of the Old Testament era. Nor does ‘He’ require observance of the condemning of that condemned in times of the Old Testament, such as sodomy and its ilk!
But we have news for these deceivers; the Lord has said: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God,” Isaiah 44:6.
“For I am the LORD, I change not,” Malachi 3:6.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines,” Hebrews 13:8-9.
“This same Jesus . . . shall so come,” (Acts 1:11) and trample under His feet all who have opposed Him and His people.
3. An example of this is given to us in His treatment of the armies of Antichrist, gathered against Him, on the day of His return. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Revelation 6:12-17.
“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh,” Revelation 19:19-21.
He will utterly defeat His primary enemy, the devil. First, by casting him into the bottomless pit for one thousand years while He restores the earth to something of its pre-fall glory.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season,” Revelation 20:1-3.
And then, casting him into the lake of fire and brimstone for all eternity, following his last but utterly futile attempt at rebellion.
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Revelation 20:7-10.
Eternal damnation is the harvest the enemies of Christ will reap.
How far removed are the actions of Christ in this day of His triumph from the ‘Christ’ set froth by the deceivers in the pulpits of ecumenism!
4. Oh friends, be sure that you are not yet in your sins and an enemy of Christ. Though born as an enemy, you may know the experience of the converted sinners of Ephesus who were wonderfully changed by the grace and mercy of the Lord.
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,” Ephesians 2:11-13.
It is recorded that “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast,” Ephesians 2:8-9.
Their deliverance and pardon may be yours too today!
III. HE IS COMING TO MANIFEST HIS GLORY BEFORE ALL NATIONS
All will honour Him on that day!
“I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear,” Isaiah 45:23.
“For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God,” Romans 14:11.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, ” Philippians 2:9-11.
1. It is the day the saints of God have longed for. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” Matthew 24:30.
“For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.
The Christian is a ‘waiting’ person!
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint,” Isaiah 40:31. We have been enabled to wait by the blessed promises of God. The waiting began way back in the days of Adam! Christ’s glorious second coming has been long expected.
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” Jude 14-15.
2. It is the day the Millennial Kingdom of Christ begins. He will establish His rule and reign on earth for one thousand years immediately upon His return.
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.
Evidence of His earthly reign is seen in many Scriptures.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” Isaiah 2:2-4.
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious,” Isaiah 11:1-10.
“Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south . . . And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited . . . And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts,” Zechariah 14:3-4, 8-11, 16-21.
Denial
Let whoever will deny the literal meaning of these words but they are endorsed by the revelation given to John the apostle.
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years,” Revelation 20:4-6.
To deny the Millennial Reign of Christ is to deny that time when the glories of the Saviour will be manifested before the nations of the earth!
3. It will be a day when the testimony of the saints regarding their Saviour will be authenticated! The testimony of the Christian regarding Christ has ever been:
“My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever,” Psalm 45:1-2.
“For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?” Psalm 89:6.
“Yea, he is altogether lovely,” Song of Solomon 5:16.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this,” Isaiah 9:6-7.
Queen of Sheba
Were it possible, sinners will say on that day what the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon and his kingdom.
“And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice,” 1 Kings 10:6-9.
Dear Christian, never be ashamed of the Saviour but always speak well of Him, knowing that, at best, you will always come short of exalting Him as He ought to be!
4. It is a day when we will join the heavenly host in praising and glorifying the Lord Jesus. “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,” Revelation 4:8-11.
How Christ is seen by the saints in glory NOW, will be revealed to all creation. We will one day see Him as those in heaven do now and will be able to sing and rejoice with them.
These are but some of the things the Saviour will one day accomplish by His glorious coming.
Live for that day, dear Christian.