Come Again… | Sunday, August 3, 2025

Good morning. You guys can have a seat. It's so good to see all of you. Pastor Mark has been saying that you have a new pastor who has come from Europe. I guess I am that. It’s so good to be back with you, back home. I've been traveling a whole bunch this last month.

I want to begin this morning by expressing my gratitude to our staff and our leaders here at the church. It’s such a blessing for me that whenever I am out of this area, whether I’m traveling somewhere in the States or overseas, I never have to worry about anything happening here at the church because we have such a great team of staff and leaders. While I was gone, Pastor Jason, Pastor Garrett, and Pastor Mark handled all the teaching. Pastor Anthony also led a worship night while I was away. We had a beach baptism this last week, and I hardly have to think about anything. It just reminds me once again that I’m thoroughly convinced that Cross Connection Church is the absolute best church. There’s no bias on my part whatsoever; I’m certain of that.

I also want to thank you for your prayers for me and for my family. The last two weeks, we were in Scandinavia. A good friend of mine, Pastor David Guzik, who has a commentary online called Enduring Word, has a wife from Sweden. They have been involved in speaking to pastors and leaders in Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden for 25 years, gathering pastors and leaders there. In 2018, he could not go because of some schedule conflicts. The pastor of Kevy Chapel in Finland, Bob Peekaro, is the one who plans this conference. He sent me a text inviting me to come, and Andrea and I went. I spoke at the conference there in 2018. When we were leaving, Andrea said, "If you ever get invited again, we’re bringing the kids."

So, when I got a text last October from Bob asking if I would come this time, I showed it to Andrea, knowing exactly what she would say. And she did say, "We’re bringing the kids." We saved up the money and went to Sweden, spending some time in Stockholm. If you ever want to feel short, even as someone who is 6'1" or 6'2", go to Sweden because there are a lot of tall people there. In fact, at the conference, I was praying one night with a guy named Jesper who is 6'10". I felt like I was saying, "Hey, how’s it going? Are you related to Goliath?"

We spent some time in Stockholm and then drove to central Sweden. About the driving, we rented a car, and we have a family of six.

That's kind of not typical in Scandinavia. We had to cram all our suitcases in the back, and our daughter Evangelene sat on Andrea's lap at certain points when we tried to fit everyone in. It was against the law, but it was fine.

We went to central Sweden, where we were part of a family camp for the pastors and leaders of the Calvary Chapel churches in that area. Pastor David and I did the bulk of the teaching through the Book of James. It was really encouraging to see what God is doing through Calvary Chapel in Scandinavia. It's a very secular society, and yet there are people coming to faith and growing in their faith. It was really neat to see.

From there, we traveled to the western part of Sweden to Gothenburg, which is actually Pastor David's wife's hometown where she grew up. We saw parts of the city with them, and then we flew home from Denmark, the capital and the home of Legos. We all love Legos, right? Thank you for your prayers; we had a great time, and it is neat to see what God is doing there in that part of the world. It is so good to be back. You can pray for us that we get back on the right time schedule. I think we have pretty much made it for the most part, except my youngest son just told me that he woke up at 4:30 this morning, which is atypical, I shall tell you.

This summer, as we have done for many years, we paused our normal studies. We have been going through the Gospel of Luke this year, but we pause in the summertime to look at something different. This year, as I've shared with you, marks the 1700th anniversary within the Christian church of an event that took place in 325 AD in what we know today as Turkey. At that time, it was in a city called Nicaea. They gathered for a council, the Nicaean Council, to discuss what the church believed regarding the nature of God—the triune nature: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

That was 1700 years ago. In fact, in August of 325 AD, which we are now in, this is when the council ended and when the council brought forth the creed known as the Nicaean Creed. We have divided this up and have been going through the text, looking at what the Scriptures say because everything in the creed is taken from the Scriptures. It encapsulates some of the basics of what we believe about God the Father. We talked about that in our early messages, and then we've talked about Christ.

Christ is Creator. We've talked about Christ as Savior. We've discussed Christ crucified as the suffering servant, and we've looked at Him as the resurrected and ascended King. Today, we're going to revisit the last statement about Christ in the Nicene Creed, which, in all honesty, could probably be a series unto itself. As I've been thinking about what we're going to explore today, I find it very challenging to do it justice in one message, though that's what I'm going to attempt. I'll just talk faster; I know none of you would be used to that.

This whole subject could indeed make up an entire series, and it really grips the minds of many people. We will be looking today at the section of the Nicene Creed that states He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. This whole idea about the Second Coming is what we will consider together.

As we have done many times this summer, I'm going to ask you to stand, and we will read through the entirety of the Nicene Creed together. Hopefully, we have gotten pretty good at this so far. As we consider what this text has to say for us today, we begin:

"We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day, He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son, He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets."

Holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

God, we stand together this morning, and as we rehearse those words, we recognize that millions of Christians around the world are doing the same today. These words have been recited by Christians for 1,700 years, simply and clearly stating what we affirm and believe about You. We trust in You, and as we consider this statement today, it gives us great confidence and hope, no matter what we go through in this life. This trust that we have is that You will come again.

Not only do we trust that You will come again, but this has been the prayer of Christians for centuries: "Lord, come quickly." When we pray the Lord's Prayer, You instructed us to say, "Your will be done. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I hope that all of us here this morning can truthfully say that this is our desire. We look forward to the day when we will see You and be in Your presence. The Scriptures talk about You wiping away every tear and establishing Your kingdom that will have no end, where there will be no more pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, or death. In anticipation of that, we can't help but say, "Lord, come quickly."

So God, would You instruct us? Would You teach us as we consider the Scriptures today? For we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."

Amen. You may be seated.

As I mentioned, this statement at the end of the section that deals with what we affirm about Christ brings us into the entire subject of the second coming, which is clearly associated with some very big and sometimes frightful imagery related to the end of the age. That great word that people love: the apocalypse. It seems almost typical that every single summer, you're...

Going to have some sort of apocalyptic blockbuster that's going to come out that just grips the attention of people. The end of the age, the apocalypse, the last days—there's a lot of frightful imagery connected to this. When big events happen, such as wars and rumors of wars, which seem to occur all the time, or when there are earthquakes in diverse places, our minds are immediately pulled toward the reality that there will be an end to life.

For instance, while I was gone, there was quite an earthquake in a diverse place. I didn't know about it because I didn't receive the messages, but some of you probably did. You got alerted to the potential tsunami, and when the two-foot breaker came in, I guess we survived the apocalypse.

These events remind us that life is brief. We all know this personally, and it becomes more real to us the longer we live and the more times we are confronted with the brevity of life. When you are called upon to speak at a funeral, you are faced with the reality that there will be an end to our lives individually. For the last 25 years, I have conducted dozens of funerals, and in those environments, you are confronted with the shortness of life.

The Scriptures foretell an end to all things. At the end of the age, it is identified with the word that actually means revelation—the apocalypse. We all have these thoughts in our minds. Even for those who don't believe in God, the Bible, or attend church, every single person has some sort of end-times scenario in their mind, some eschatological thought about how everything will wrap up.

The idea that He will come again, the second coming of Christ, is a distinctive mark of the Christian faith throughout church history. If you are a Christian, then you believe, as an essential aspect of your faith, that Christ will come again. This belief is based on His promise. It didn't arise from some random, obscure teaching by an unknown person within Christianity. No, the source of this idea that Jesus will come again originates with Him. He is the one who promised that He would come again.

In a wonderful passage of Scripture, I will ask you to open it, but we will also put it on the screen.

If you have your Bibles, open to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. For some of you, this might be a familiar passage, so much so that it is in your memory even though you haven't tried to memorize it because you've heard it so many times. The context of this passage is important because Jesus, when he says these words in John 14:1-3, is with his disciples just hours before he is going to be arrested, condemned, and crucified. He is preparing them for this moment.

Not only is it just before his crucifixion, but it is also during what we refer to as Passion Week, the lead-up to Good Friday and the resurrection on what we identify as Easter. During that week, Jesus went into Jerusalem at the temple and had a number of conversations with the religious leaders of the establishment. His words were pretty heavy, so much so that his disciples—Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, and Thomas—came to him as he was leaving Jerusalem at one point. They tried to soften the heavy words of judgment he was speaking, saying, "But look at the buildings of the temple. Isn't it glorious?"

He responded, "Do you not see all these buildings? Let me tell you, not one stone will be left upon another. All will be cast down." They were completely shocked by this. In this state of shock, Jesus is going to speak powerful words as he prepares them for his death and departure. He has prophesied and predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, which came to pass within 40 years of him saying it, in 70 AD under Titus, the Roman general.

I have been on the excavated roads just below the temple mount, where those stones that once were on the temple mount were pushed down onto the ground. The ground of that road is broken and devastated. You can see it with your own eyes, the fulfillment of his words. You can understand that Jesus's disciples were troubled by everything that was going on during that week.

What does he say to them? "Let not your heart be troubled." That is a hard one. When you're going through difficulty, when you've received bad news, or when you're facing some very stressful, anxiety-producing situations, it can be challenging to heed that advice.

Situations arise where you just can't say to yourself, "Hart, don't be troubled," as if everything is okay. There has to be a reason on which to bank that faith and that peace. Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled." He continues, "You believe in God; believe also in me."

In my Father's house, we just sang this in a song just before I got up to teach, "In my Father's house are many mansions. Were it 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." Would you underline those four words in your Bibles? "I will come again" and "receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

Christians since the beginning have believed in the second coming of Christ because of His promise. So let's state it very clearly: point number one, if you're taking notes, the church has always affirmed and trusted in Christ's return. The second coming of Christ is not a novel teaching or new idea. It wasn't something that the church put together decades or centuries after Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. This comes from His statement.

The idea of the Messiah coming with glory and establishing His kingdom predates Jesus making the promise, "I will come again." If you go back 500 years before Jesus, the prophet Daniel predicts that the Son of Man will come in the clouds with great glory to bring His kingdom. If you go back 700 years before Jesus, you read in Isaiah of the increase of His government and peace; there shall be no end. He will establish His throne and His kingdom forever and ever.

So, this idea of the Messiah establishing an enduring kingdom that goes on forever and ever isn't new to Jesus, but Jesus says, "I am the one that's going to bring it. I will come again." The church has always affirmed and trusted in Christ's return. He instructed His disciples to pray to this end. In the Lord's Prayer, which we find in Luke 11 and Matthew chapter 6, we pray, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." For 2,000 years, we have been praying.

That the Lord would come. The last book of the Bible, the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, ends with the church praying, "Lord, come quickly." We've been praying for 2,000 years, "Lord, come quickly." Just as sure as we've been praying this for 2,000 years, there will come a day when Jesus will answer that prayer. The church has always affirmed and trusted in Christ's return.

Let's break that down. The church has always affirmed Christ's return. In other words, Christians state this as a fact and do so publicly, proclaiming all of these things that we have considered together in the Scriptures. Christ died on the cross 2,000 years ago. He was buried in a tomb, indicating he was dead. He rose again three days later. The tomb is empty, and his followers affirmed that they had seen him alive after his crucifixion. He ascended into heaven 40 days after his resurrection and remains there, but he will not remain there forever because he will come again one day. He will come again in glory.

Now, there are many things we could say about what it means to come in glory, but let's just say this: it's going to be awesome. From the earliest days, an individual was not accepted into the church through baptism if they could not affirm these words from what was established about 200 years before the Nicene Creed, called the Apostles' Creed. In the Apostles' Creed, if you were going to be brought into the church through baptism, you would proclaim that he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the throne of glory, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. Christians have affirmed this since the very beginning.

There are Christians I have met who may say, "Well, I'm not really sure about that, and I don't really believe in the second coming." I think you can be a Christian and not believe in the second coming, but only because you don't understand the Scriptures or you have received false teaching. The church has affirmed this since the very beginning based upon the promise of Jesus. He said, "I will come again." He taught this. The apostles believed that Jesus would come again. They believed that Jesus would come in their lifetime. They told those whom they taught that they should be ready and live in anticipation of his soon return.

Now we are 2,000 years post that time. We've been waiting a little while now. The challenge with this is that...

It's a long while for us, but for the infinite God, it's a short time. Peter says a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. So, He has been gone for a couple of days. It just seems like a long time for us. Doesn't time change as you get older? We've all experienced this. When you were a kid, Christmas in September seemed like eons away. Now, it's like you blink and you have to buy presents. Of course, Costco is already putting out Christmas decorations, I'm sure, because they start that in about July. If you really need a new Christmas tree, it's probably available on sale—a good fake one from Costco any day now.

With the Lord, time is nothing because He is outside of time. Jesus taught that He would come again. The apostles believed that Jesus would come again, and the early church accepted and prayed for the second coming. Christians throughout history have affirmed Christ's return. Not only have they affirmed Christ's return, but Christians and the church have also trusted in it.

To say it a little differently, the Christian's ultimate confidence and hope is in the resurrecting and returning Christ. When I originally wrote this point, I said the Christian's ultimate confidence and hope is in the resurrection and return of Christ, which is true. However, I wanted to express it this way because we don't only have confidence and hope in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead; we have confidence and hope that in His return, He will resurrect us. He is not just the resurrected Christ; He is the resurrecting Christ. He raises us to newness of life, and this gives us great confidence and hope. It provides us with great comfort.

This is exactly what Paul says when he discusses these things in 1 Thessalonians. This reality is meant to be a comfort to us. Look at it with me if you will. We'll put it on the screen, or you can open to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul says, "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren." I want to stop right there. Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica. He says, "This is something I want you to know." It's one of Paul's earliest letters. Galatians is first, and 1 Thessalonians is thought to be among the first things he wrote early in his ministry. He emphasizes that this is an important thing for you as a follower of Jesus to know.

I don't want you to be agnostic without knowledge of this truth. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

One of the amazing things about being a Christian is that in death, even though there is sorrow and grief, there is a palpable and distinct difference between the person who believes in and knows Christ and those who do not at the deathbed. There is always grief and sorrow in death, but it's not without hope for the Christian. Paul says, "I don't want you to sorrow as those who have no hope when someone has died."

How do we have hope in the grief and sorrow of death? Well, verse 14 states that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who sleep or die in Jesus. Paul emphasizes that this is not something he came up with; he says, "This is the teaching of Christ."

We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus, we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, what is the conclusion of all this truth? Comfort one another with these words. Our ultimate confidence and hope is in the resurrecting and returning Christ. The reality of Christ's return is a reliable source of hope for us, no matter the circumstances we go through.

I was having a conversation in a group text with a few friends of mine, who are also pastors, a couple of weeks ago on this very issue. We were discussing the reality that every single person, whether they go to church and believe in God or not, even if they are more of a naturalistic evolutionist or atheist, has an eschatology. Eschatology means the study of the last things or the end. Everyone has an eschatology. Even your friend who is skeptical about the Bible has an end-time scenario. Maybe their end-time scenario is a major event.

An earthquake, or maybe it's like an asteroid strike, or it's thermonuclear war, or it's AI. That's a big one right now. People are saying AI is going to take over and kill us all. You've probably heard the news; it's coming like next week.

If you go down the list, there's global warming. Greta, I was just in her country. We're all worried about the end of the world. Everybody has an eschatology, and it affects the way they think and live. They will do things based upon that and have great fears based upon that.

As I was having this conversation with my friends in a group text, I said, "You know, it is interesting how much the view that I have on the second coming has shaped my perspective." I have said at this church for years that we want everything we do to be done with joy because we have an optimistic vision of the future.

Here’s our optimistic vision of the future: one day, Christ will rule and reign from His kingdom here upon the earth, and there will be no more death, sorrow, sickness, tears, or war. Does anybody not want that? Now, between now and when that happens, there may be some shakeups. But even when people start to talk about things like nuclear war or prognosticate about the dangers of AI, I find that I still have peace.

Why? Because my ultimate hope and confidence is that Christ will one day rule and reign. I have peace in the midst of all of these things. For the Christian who has confident hope in the imminent return of Christ, that He will come and could come at any time, point number three, if you're taking notes, is that the second coming fills us with joy, peace, and abounding hope despite present circumstances.

Let me voice something that I think all of you know. In this life, you could go through some pretty devastating things. Maybe you already have. Between now and when you stand in the Lord's presence, where there is fullness of joy and at His right hand, pleasures forevermore, you might receive a diagnosis of cancer. You might receive the news that your very close loved one has died tragically in an accident. You might find out that everything you worked so hard for is devastated in a moment because of a market collapse.

You might, although probably unlikely, endure persecution and suffering at the hands of others because of your faith. Certainly, people throughout Christian history have faced such trials.

Even today, people are experiencing challenges, though it's less likely here. You might go through those things, but even in the midst of that, we have this peace, hope, and joy in believing. Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. I'm going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

Now, of course, the challenge is that we have been waiting for His soon return, as I said, for 2,000 years now. We have not been alive for 2,000 years, but as I look out through the room, I see increasing gray heads and some heads that don't have hair. Some of you have been waiting for a while for these things, and some of you are quite a bit younger, so you'll be waiting for these things for a while until the Lord returns.

Some of you grew up during the fervor of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the mid-1970s, there was a book released that radically transformed American Protestantism and thinking about the world. It was called The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. Some of you still have it on your bookshelf somewhere, underlined with all kinds of notes. That book changed a lot of people's thoughts, and they became very focused on these things. However, things didn't work out the way they thought they would because much of what we think we know or state as truth surrounding the second coming is educated guesses and speculation. A lot of it we will find out when we are in the presence of the Lord. We may have been wrong about those things.

Some of you have family members or friends who were once fervent in their faith, but the Lord didn't come in the way they thought He would or at the time they expected. They had the "88 Reasons Why Jesus Would Come in 1988." I read that book. It's kind of interesting. I was only eight years old when it was supposed to happen in 1988, but I read it a few years ago, and it's fascinating. It didn't happen. There have been plenty of people who said it would happen on a specific date, and it didn't.

Here's one thing I know: those people who tell you they know when the date is, they don't. Not even Jesus knows; the Father knows. But we know this: He will come again. The question that weighs upon us, and it seems obvious, is when. Okay, be honest. Have any of you ever...

Have you ever wondered when the Lord is going to return? Raise your hand if you have. Don't feel ashamed to raise your hand; you're in good company. You realize that Jesus's earliest followers—let's put names to them: Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Thomas—had that same question.

In Acts chapter 1, we see Jesus preparing his disciples because, in just a few moments, He is going to ascend from their presence. He is preparing them for His departure. He says, "But wait here in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high, because you are going to receive the Holy Spirit. John truly baptized you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

How do the followers respond when He says this to them? In Acts 1:6, it states, "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'" I think Jesus probably facepalmed a lot. He had just told them, "I'm sending you on a mission to go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all nations. You're going to receive power. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you." And they say, "Okay, that's great. Are you now going to start your kingdom?" No, this is not what we're talking about.

They wanted to know when, just like many Christians today want to know when. In Matthew chapter 24, when Jesus is talking to His disciples about how not one stone will be left upon another and that everything is going to be cast down, what is their question? "When shall these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?" They wanted to know.

The hard part is that Jesus's answers to their questions frustrate us. They ask, "Will you now restore your kingdom?" in Acts 1:6, and He responds in verse 7, "It's not for you to know." Come on, why not? He continues, "It's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put under His own authority."

But then He redirects their focus to the mission. This is key. You see, my inclination, and yours as well, is to get distracted by the end times, the timing, the signs, the blood moons, and all the different things.

That is our flesh, and Jesus has to constantly refocus my attention on the mission. You shall receive power (Acts 1:8). We'll talk a lot about this next week. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

When Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew chapter 24, "Not one stone's going to be left upon another. It's all going to be cast down," his disciples come to him and ask, "Okay, when will these things be? What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" What does he say to them? He says, "Take heed that no one deceives you. There are going to be many who come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will deceive many. You're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. But see that you're not troubled. Why? The end is not yet. All these things are just signs of the times that we live in, in this broken, chaotic world. But they are not the sign of the coming."

For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, like we heard about this last week in various places. These are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Many will be offended, betray one another, and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many because lawlessness abounds. The love of many will grow cold. We are certainly seeing this in our day.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved. What does he do? He refocuses on the mission: this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. Essentially, Jesus says, "Don't be deceived. Don't be discouraged. Don't be distracted. Keep the focus on the mission, which is to preach the gospel, the good news of the kingdom."

After speaking at length about what the second coming is going to look like in Matthew chapter 24 and Matthew chapter 25, which is called the Olivet Discourse, Jesus teaches about his second coming. He wraps the teaching up with three parables. Jesus loved to talk in stories, and these three parables had three applications or points. The first was the parable of the wise servant, who, when his master...

Returned after a long time, Jesus says in the story that when his master returned, he found the servant doing what he had left him to do. The first story is about the wise servant. The second is about the five wise virgins. There were ten in total: five wise and five unwise, who were ready and watching. The last story is about the talents, where Jesus talks about a master who gave five talents to one servant, two talents to another, and one talent to another. They worked while the master was gone, and when he returned, he squared accounts with them.

These are the three stories that Jesus tells after discussing the future events of his second coming. What is the point of these three stories? The point is that we need to be faithful in our waiting, watching, and working. He says in Matthew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." In Matthew 24:46, Jesus says, "Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find him so doing."

Point number four: the second coming should stir us to faithful waiting, watching, and working, so that when He returns, we might hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things. I will make you ruler over many things." Though we don't know exactly when Jesus will come, we know that He will come, and we know what we ought to be doing in the meantime. Jesus says in Luke chapter 19, "Do business until I come." The King James Version says, "Occupy till I come."

We need to be about the Lord's business. Like the bumper sticker says, "Jesus is coming. Look busy." But don't just look busy; actually be doing the work. What work? Waiting, watching, and working. We are called to be witnesses of the Lord. We are called to preach the gospel to every creature. We are appointed to be ambassadors, representatives of His kingdom.

Point number five: when Christ returns, He will confer blessings and rewards on those who have been faithful. The Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 5:4, states that...

When the chief Shepherd shall appear, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. We believe in the second coming and proclaim it when we partake of communion. We proclaim His death until He comes. We wait for it, but we don't wait passively. Every New Testament writer calls our minds to this reality of the second coming and stirs us to engage.

Let me give you an example. In James 5:7, it says, "Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."

The Apostle Paul wrote many letters in the New Testament, and many of them point to this second coming and how we should respond. I particularly like Romans 13:11, which states, "And do this knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of your sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts."

How about Peter? In 1 Peter 4, it says, "The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers." In 2 Peter 3, we read, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all of these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?"

In 2 Peter 3:14, it says, "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless."

James, Peter, and Paul all emphasize this message. In 1 John 2, John writes, "And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him."

At His coming, Jude verse 17 states, "But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." They told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

You, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. The message of the New Testament writers is consistent and clear. They believed in and taught that Christ would come again. In light of His second coming, we should be ready and waiting for His soon return.

There has been an interesting shift in Christianity over the last 25 years. There is a move towards reformed Christianity in American Protestantism known as the new Calvinism shift. With this, there has been a shift in eschatological positions from the historic position of the church regarding the second coming. Initially, there was a shift towards what is called an amillennial view, followed by a progressive shift towards a post-millennial view.

There are a number of prominent speakers who advocate for this post-millennial view, and you can find them all over YouTube. This represents a departure from the historic view on how Christ will return and what that means for the church. It is a departure from the anticipation of the soon and imminent return of Jesus.

It's not that they don't believe in the second coming; rather, they believe that we, the church, need to establish the kingdom and the rule of God here on earth through efforts like Christian nationalism. This is a departure from the historic view of the church as it relates to the coming of Christ. They assert that the second coming will occur, but it is not soon or imminent; it is very far out, and we have a lot of work to do between now and then.

While I won't argue that we have a lot of work to do, I believe it is clearly the teaching of the apostles that Christ could come at any moment, and we should be ready for that and looking forward to His coming. This is why we say He will come again.

And why will He come? He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. He is coming as a king to rule over His everlasting kingdom, and He is coming as a judge to judge in righteousness those who have done unrighteousness.

Do not judge by the seeing of the eyes. As Isaiah says in Isaiah 11, "Nor the hearing of the ears, but he will decide with righteousness for the poor and equity for the meek." Therefore, for centuries, the church has said, "Lord, come quickly." Though He has tarried, we are waiting and watching. May He find us so working when He comes.

Here's one thing that is absolutely certain: Jesus Christ will come in your lifetime for you. Maybe He will come for all of us. So we say, "Lord, come quickly," but today you are one day closer to seeing Him face to face. I pray that you and I will hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank You for Your Word. It is living and powerful, and it is challenging. Lord, sometimes it cuts deep and affects us at that soul level because You want to do a work by Your Spirit, by Your Word, and by Your grace to transform us more and more into the likeness of Your children. Would You do that work?

God, help us to take seriously the exhortations that we just read from Jude, Peter, James, John, and Paul. Let us be more diligent to make our call and election sure as we see the day approaching.

God, would You shine through us as bright lights to this world? We are ambassadors wherever You have called us to be, whether it's a school campus, a construction site, an office building, or some political office. Wherever we are, help us to recognize that we are there by Your divine decree to be a light shining in a dark place.

Empower us by Your grace to be so. For we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." Amen.