And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (1 John 2:28)
Throughout the history of this country, there have been many history making events that have produced bold headlines in our newspapers. The bombing of Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of the Second World War, the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and more recently the death of both Mother Theresa and Lady Diana, as well as the scandalous revelations concerning our own President are all headline making stories that have impacted millions of people. None of us lives in isolation and certain events shape us all.
There is one event, however, which will impact everyone on this planet. No, I’m not talking about the coming of the Second Ice Age. And I am not talking about some gigantic meteor striking the earth. I am talking about the single future event towards which all history moves. I’m talking about the Second Coming of Christ. That event will be more than a headline making event, it will be both the most joyous and the most traumatic event in history.
One real question that you must answer is: Are you ready for His return? Indeed, this is the question everyone should be asking. When I look at the current state of the world, I wonder just how much longer our civilization can exist. Many of us are concerned about the continual slide into moral corruption. Add to that the increase in violence and the systematic exclusion of God from all public life and it seems to me that we are certainly setting ourselves up for impending judgement. Now, I do not want to be a prophet of doom, but it does seem to me that the time is drawing near. It reminds me of the old farmer who heard his grandfather clock chime at midnight — thirteen times. He punched his wife and said, "Get up, honey, it’s later than its ever been." It may indeed be later than we think.
Our text today directs our attention to the Second Coming of Christ. And it gives us a prescription that will enable us to be ready when He does come. In fact, we can be more than ready, we can be confident.
The first thing we must be aware of is the certainty of His coming. One thing is for sure – He will come! This is what the Bible clearly teaches. This is one of the fundamentals of our faith. The Bible predicted His first coming and it predicts His second as well. Jesus Himself said in John 14:3: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." And ever since Jesus ascended into the clouds after His resurrection, we have been looking for His return.
Now there have certainly been many doubters over the years. There have even been many scoffers who cynically mock Christians who believe in a certain and sure return of Christ. The apostle Peter speaks of these people in one of his letters. In 2 Peter 3:3-4 we read: "First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this "coming" he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’"
Of course, one of the marks of our age is that people think that all this talk about Jesus’ return is really puff. There are many prideful people who scoff at those things we hold to be holy and those doctrines we hold to be true. This is the prideful thinking that Peter points out. He describes the situation that exalts the intellect and reason. Because of man’s reliance upon reason alone, he dismisses all of this talk about the supernatural. He scoffs at the concept of all history, as we know it, coming to an end. He scoffs at the thought of the God of the Universe intervening in the course of human events. The apostle Peter calls them "scoffers."
We have always had these pseudo-intellectuals who think they have a corner on the truth and dismiss, with a wave of the hand, any reference to God or to the supernatural. You see, when the intellect is exalted, man sets himself up as the center of all things. He sees his own feeble powers of reason to be the final test of true reality, but he does so to his own destruction. That is because he is scoffing at the Second Coming. People are saying, "You Christians just think Jesus is coming back. He hasn’t returned in two thousand years. Why should He return now? I think it’s all just a myth." This is certainly how Peter describes what they are saying. He says that they are saying, "everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."
This is really the modern scientific doctrine of Uniformitarianism. This scientific doctrine says that things have proceeded in the same way, and have been acted on by the same physical principles, from the beginning of time. It is a closed-system model of the universe which does not have room for divine intervention in the space-time continuum. It is the result of the prideful thinking of man without God. It has no room for a Creation, for supernatural or miraculous occurrences, or for a Second Coming and judgment which brings history, as we know it, to a close.
So, if Christ is coming again, many would ask, "When?" The simple answer to the question of when He will come is that no one knows. Jesus Himself said that no one knew. We like to speculate because we are so caught up in time. But God is not caught up in time. Look a little further in 2 Peter 3:8: "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
What does it mean that "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day"? Some people have taken that to mean that one day equals a thousand years. But from the context I don’t see how they can prove that. I believe that what he is saying here is that time, as we know it, is not of first consideration to God. You see, God transcends time. He does not live in time. He lives outside of time. He looks down upon time, as it were, and sees the beginning and the end together. His timing transcends human timetables. That is why I am very hesitant to put very much stock in any human timetable for Jesus’ return. While He must return sometime, the Scripture plainly teaches that He shall come at a day and hour which no man knows.
So, the next question is: Why has He waited so long? Look again at 2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone is perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Why has Jesus waited so long? Why has He delayed His coming? It is because of His redemptive love. The Lord Jesus Christ has delayed His coming because His desires for every individual to come to a place of repentance and faith in Him. Jesus does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. What has held Jesus back is His love. Thank God He didn’t return thirty-one years ago because I wouldn’t have been a Christian. Some of you sitting here today weren’t Christians twenty years ago, or fifteen, or ten, or even five. Some of you weren’t Christians last year. Thank God He didn’t come then. Because of His delay, you have had the privilege to come into the Kingdom, and now, your eternal destiny is secure. Your home is heaven, and whenever He comes, He comes to take you there. I’m thankful, aren’t you, that Jesus didn’t come before we became Christians. Thank God He has delayed because of His redemptive love.
But we also see in Scripture that His coming will happen suddenly. Again, in 2 Peter 3:10 we read: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." There is also another description of the Second Coming in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3: "For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant women, and they will not escape."
I want you to know that I personally believe that it is later than it’s ever been. He will certainly come again. He will come suddenly. And then it will be too late. After He comes, we will all stand before Him. And there are sure and certain consequences of His coming. There will be a time of judgment. And all people, believers and unbelievers, will stand before Him.
If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there should be only one priority in your life. You must come to know Him. Those who do not know Him will suffer the ultimate eternal consequence of Hell. If you do not know Him, come to know Him today, before you leave this place.
If you are a believer, however, then the consequences of His coming impact you as well. There will be a judgment for Christians. In 2 Corinthians 2:10 we read: "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." And we also see this judgment describes in 1 Corinthinans, where Paul speaks of our being judged based on how we have built on the foundation which is Jesus Christ Himself. In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 we read: "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
In our text in 1 John today we see that there are really two possibilities for the Christian at the time of Christ’s coming. One is confidence. The other is shame. John tells us that he wants us to have confidence and be unashamed when Jesus returns. Confidence or shame – these are really the only two possibilities for us.
What would make you ashamed at the coming of Christ? There are certainly actions which we have taken that would make us ashamed. There are sins we have committed, times of deliberate disobedience to God. There are things we have done to hurt people. There are words we have spoken that have been unkind. What can you add to this list? What are some of the things that make you ashamed to stand before Christ?
There are also certainly attitudes we have had that will make us ashamed. We’ve all had attitudes of unforgiveness, covetousness, lust, selfishness, pride, and prejudice. When we stand before Christ, will our attitudes make us ashamed?
How about what we have failed to do? These are the things that we could have and should have done in obedience to Christ. You might call them missed opportunities. Will our failure to step out in faith and in obedience to Christ and teach a Sunday School class, or work in the children’s ministry, or serve in some other ministry make us ashamed to stand before Christ? There is much which can make us ashamed at His coming.
What would make us confident? Well, what makes you confident in doing anything? We are generally confident when we think we know what we are doing, when we believe that we will succeed, and when we believe we have the power to accomplish the task. When you look at someone just learning a new task, they appear tentative and seem to lack confidence. They’re not familiar with what they are doing yet. But when they become familiar with the job, then they do it with ease, and with confidence. And when they have had success, that builds confidence. And when they believe that the resources will be there – emotional, physical, and financial – this also builds confidence.
We will either be confident or ashamed when Jesus returns. And how we live now will determine what happens then.
This is the challenge of His coming. The challenge of His coming is that we must prepare for that coming now. But how do we do this? Well, John gives us a prescription that, if followed, will enable us to possess this confidence at His coming and not be ashamed.
This prescription is contained in three words at the very beginning of our text. John says "continue in Him." Another word for continue is abide. We are to continue or abide in Christ. This is a theme John returns to over and over in his writings. He understands clearly that Christ is the source of life for every Christian. If Christians are to live their lives for Christ successfully, they must abide in Him. They must stay plugged into the source of their power – Jesus Christ. They must live their lives in constant and continual relationship to Him. This is what it means to be a Christian.
In the text we quoted earlier in 2 Peter we find an interesting verse. In 2 Peter 3:11, Peter asks a probing question: "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" This is precisely the question we need to be asking ourselves today. What kind of people should we be in light of the Second Coming of Christ? How should we live our lives? Peter goes on to answer that question in the latter part of verse 11 and the first part of verse 12: "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming."
And how do we live these holy and godly lives? We live them by abiding in Christ. We live them by allowing Jesus Christ to live His life in us and through us. We live them by living what is called the exchanged life. We find it in Galatians 2:20. There Paul says: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." This is the exchanged life.
The exchanged life means that I give Christ my life and He gives me His. And now I live by faith. That means that I live by a daily dependence upon Him to lead me. I live by a daily dependence upon His Word. I live by surrender. I live by obedience. I live by trust in the sovereignty of God. I believe that God will direct my life in the right way and I follow His divine leadership. He is my ultimate priority, not the things of this world. I willingly and intentionally give myself to Him to be His servant. He becomes my Lord. And by doing that He lives His life in me and through me in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. This is what is means to abide in Christ.
So what will it be at His coming? How will you fair? Will you be confident or will you be ashamed? The decisions you make today may determine that outcome. I don’t know about you, but I want to be confident!
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