You know, this past Friday, two days ago, I had a root canal. Now, I wasn't planning to have a root canal. My back molar had been getting a little bit tender, and so I called up my old friend who we've known each other since elementary school, Dr. Stanley Levin.
He's an entodontist, a root canal specialist here in Washington. I called Stan up, and I told him what was going on, and he said, well, it doesn't sound all that good. He said, but why don't you come see me Friday, and we'll take a look at it.
And if you don't need a root canal, then from there, you can go on and go see your regular dentist. So I went in to see him on Friday morning, quite relaxed, I might add. And I sat down in the chair, and he said, well, let's take an x-ray. And Stan came back into the room and said, well, your tooth is cracked, and you need a root canal. He said, so let's get you all numbed up.
I said, whoa, all numbed up for what? He said, well, for your root canal. And I said, wait a minute, Stanley, you're going to do it right now? And he said, well, sure. And I said, well, how long is this going to take? And he said, well, you'll be in the chair 45 minutes, an hour. And I said, Stanley, I said, before we start this, I got to go to the bathroom.
And I got to pull myself together, Stanley. I said, I did not walk in here today prepared to have a root canal. Do you like surprises?
Because I don't. I like to know what's coming. And I like to be ready for it when it arrives, don't you? Well, hello.
Anyway, this is what we're going to talk about today. Because we're going back to our series entitled people Jesus met. And today Jesus meets some disciples who were curious about his second coming. So after giving them a little bit of basic information, Jesus then tells them that for most people, people in our world, his return is going to be a total surprise for which they will be completely unready, just like I was for that root canal. But that as followers of Christ, this should not happen.
This should not be the way that it is with us. So we want to go back 2000 years and see what Jesus said to his disciples. And then we're going to wind all that forward. And we're going to talk about, well, what difference does that make to you?
And me today. So here we go. Matthew chapter 24 is our passage. And we begin at verse three. The Bible says as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and said, Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age and the rest of Matthew chapter 24 consists of Jesus answered.
answering their question. Now let's stop here for a moment, shall we, and summarize what Matthew chapter 24 and the rest of the Bible has to say about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, when it comes to the Messiah, the Old Testament seems to be talking out of both sides of its mouth because in some passages, like Isaiah 53 Psalm 22 Zechariah 12, the Old Testament talks about a suffering. Messiah, whereas in other passages like Isaiah 63 Psalm 110 Zechariah 14, the Old Testament talks about a conquering Messiah. In fact, the rabbis in Jesus's day were so confused about how all of this fit together that they actually came up with the idea that there must be two messiahs, one who comes and suffers and dies for the sins of the world. And rises from the dead and then a second messiah who comes and leads Israel in glorious triumph.
Now, of course, we know today what the real solution to all this is. It's not two different messiahs. Rather, it is two different comings, two different appearings of the very same messiah. And when Jesus came to Bethlehem in his first coming, he came there to fulfill the role.
Of the suffering messiah who would die on the cross to pay for our sins, rise from the dead and ascend back into heaven. But the Bible says over and over again that this same messiah is coming back, not as a suffering messiah. No, that's done, but rather as a glorious conquering messiah. Listen, Matthew, chapter 24 right here. Jesus said, verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shine and the stars will fall from the heavens. And then the son of man, that is the Lord Jesus, will appear in the sky and all men shall see him coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Second Thessalonians 1 7 says the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in blazing fire along with his powerful angels. He will punish those who have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be marveled at by all who have believed. Now, it's very important we understand that when the Bible talks about the second coming of Jesus Christ, it refers to two separate but related events. Event number one in the second coming is the rapture of the church. First Thessalonians 4 16 for the Lord himself. I love that. Isn't this cool that the Lord doesn't delegate this to some angel?
How cool is this? For the Lord himself, the Bible says, will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And then Philippians 3 21. He Christ will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. At the rapture, the Bible says Jesus raises the body of every dead Christian from the grave, and he changes those bodies into glorified bodies, bodies just like the one he got after the resurrection bodies that are incorruptible bodies that are immortal. Bodies that have no sin nature bodies with no pain, no disease, no old age, no decay, no death, no root canals. Praise the Lord.
Trust me. And then Jesus unites every soul of every departed Christian with their corresponding glorified body for the rest of eternity. Hallelujah. What a great day that's going to be.
But there's more. The next verse. First Thessalonians 4 17 says, And after that, you say after what? Well, after Jesus raises the body of dead Christians, glorifies those bodies and reunites the souls of those Christians with their bodies. After that, we who are still alive as followers of Christ will be caught up. There's our word, rapture. Oh, we will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will forever be with the Lord as followers of Christ. If we're still alive, when the rapture happens, the Bible says Jesus is going to levitate us right off the earth. And as we float up to meet him in the air on the way up in an instant in the twinkling of an eye, he's going to transform these mortal bodies into glorified bodies on the way up. Man, you talk about a rush. What a rush is that going to be?
All right. Now, this is the rapture. And notice that at the rapture, the Lord Jesus never actually steps foot on earth.
It all happens in the air. And the purpose of the rapture is to deliver us as Christians from the great seven year tribulation period that follows. And this brings us to event number two that makes up the broad heading of the second coming of Christ.
And that is the actual second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back to this earth. The Bible says that the seven year tribulation period will end with a horrible battle at a place called Armageddon, just north of Jerusalem. And the Antichrist, the Bible says, has gathered here millions of troops to finish the job that Adolf Hitler couldn't, that is to completely annihilate the Jewish people off the face of the globe. Zechariah 14 to all nations shall be gathered against Jerusalem for battle.
And just when it looks completely hopeless, verse three, then the Lord will go out and fight against these nations. And in that day, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives first time that he has touched this earth physically since he left. And look at this, the Mount of Olives will split into from east to west.
Jesus comes back with so much glory and so much majesty and so much power that he literally blows the Mount of Olives to smithereens when he touches down. Now, the Bible says after that, Jesus defeats the Antichrist and his forces, and then the Lord Jesus sets up his 1000 year millennial kingdom here on this earth, Zechariah 14, 9. In that day, the Lord will be king over all the earth. Hallelujah.
Won't that be a great day? And on that day, the Lord will be one and his name one. And it's during the millennial kingdom that God does a whole bunch of stuff.
Here's just a little bit of what he does. Number one, he fulfills all of the promises he made to Israel, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David. Number two, he lifts the curse. God does that.
He put on creation back in Genesis three when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit. Number three, universal peace and justice prevail. Why? Because the Lord Jesus is ruling as king of the earth and he sees to it.
That's why. Number four, human life spans will last into the hundreds of years during the millennial kingdom. And number five, even poisonous snakes will be nice. Praise God. Now, this is what the second coming of Christ brings to we who know and love the Lord, which explains why the apostle John ends the Bible with these words, Revelation 22 20. He says, Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And we say amen to that.
Yeah. Now, there's one other thing I want to say about this, and that is we also need to remember that the return of the Lord Jesus is not going to be a happy day for everybody. Second Thessalonians one seven.
We read it a moment ago. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in blazing fire along with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and who have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and will be shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. The point, friends, is that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a very happy day for some people, but it's going to be a very bad day for some other people. Now, that is the fastest course in eschatology, the study of last things you will ever get. But we covered all the high points, and that brings us to the end of Matthew 24 and the end of Jesus's discussion of his return. And, you know, I got to tell you, when I put a sermon together, I always say for the very end, the one point that I want to drive home and leave with everybody, the cogent point.
Any good speaker does that. So what is it at the very end of his little speech that the Lord Jesus puts there that above everything else he wants to drive home and leave with his listeners? Well, look, verse 37, Jesus says, For the coming of the Son of man will be just like the days of Noah, for in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not realize what was about to happen to them until the flood came and swept them all away. This, Jesus says, is how it will be at the coming of the Son of man, verse 42. Therefore, be ready, he says to his disciples, because you do not know what day your Lord will come.
Folks, what's the key point that Jesus leaves with his disciples and that he leaves with us? Well, it's this number one, that his return is going to come as a big surprise to an awful lot of people. Therefore, number two, an awful lot of people are going to be totally unready and unprepared for his return. But as followers of Christ, since we know he's returning, we need to be ready at all times. His return should not catch us unprepared.
That's his point. Okay, now that's as far as we're going to go in Matthew 24 today, because now we want to ask our most important question. And all you at Loudon and Prince William and in the Edge and on the Internet campus, are you ready?
I heard that, thank you. Okay. Tysons, are we ready? All right, let's do it. Now 123. Oh, yes.
You say, Lon, so what? I mean, this is great. And if the Lord Jesus comes back today, that would be wonderful. But if he doesn't, I got to go to work tomorrow. I got to go to school tomorrow.
I got I got I got to drive carpool tomorrow. So what difference does this make to me if he doesn't come back tonight? Well, let's talk about that. You know, I want to ask a question for us to think about today. And the question is this based on what Jesus said at the end of Matthew 24. What is the most important thing that he wants us to understand about his second coming? Well, let's go back and read it again.
Here we go. Verse 42. Therefore, Jesus said, What's the next two words?
Say them out loud. Be ready, because you do not know what day your Lord will come verse 43. But understand this. If the owner of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have what? Say it been ready and would not have let his house be broken into next verse.
So to you must what? Be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not think he will be ready. Be ready. Be ready.
Did everybody get that? This is the point that the Lord Jesus wants you and me to take home from this discussion about his second coming. This is the number one most important thing he wants us to understand about his return. Now, friends, listen, being ready for the Lord Jesus's return and staying ready for the Lord Jesus's return is not an accidental process. It takes deliberate planning and it takes deliberate execution to get ready and stay ready for the return of Christ. And so how do we do that? Well, the Bible tells us four things that we need to do, four ways we need to get ready and stay ready for the return of Christ. And let me give them to you and then we're done.
Number one. Want to be ready and stay ready for the return of Christ? Number one, the first way we do it is by making sure we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Matthew, Chapter seven, verse twenty two. Jesus said, Many will say to me on that day. What day?
On the day when he comes back. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many mighty miracles? And then I will tell them plainly, Jesus says, depart from me for you never went to church. Is that what that says? No, no. Depart from me because you didn't keep the Ten Commandments. Is that what that says?
No, depart from me for I never knew you. Friends, the central issue for being ready when the Lord Jesus Christ returns is not good works or church membership or religious activity or keeping the Ten Commandments or anything like that. It's all about whether we know Jesus Christ, whether we have a genuine personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
And how do you get one of them? Oh, three simple steps. Number one, first, we must renounce all of our self help remedies to pay for our sin before God. Number two, we must embrace Jesus's death on the cross as our only payment for sin. And number three, we must surrender our whole being to Jesus Christ as our personal savior and Lord. And if you've not done this, then may I say to you, you are not ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't worry about it because in about 10 minutes we're going to give you a chance to fix this.
So just hold on. We're coming back. Number two, once we've done this, once we know Christ, there are three other ways to get ready and stay ready. Way number two is by being serious about personal holiness. Titus chapter two, verse 12. Paul says, denying ungodliness and worldly passions, we should live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age.
Why? Since we are waiting for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. And John the apostle says, first John three, verse two. Dear friends, we are now the children of God and we know that when he appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope. What hope? Well, the hope of the Lord coming back and the hope of seeing him as he is and being like him.
Every person with that hope purifies himself or herself so that we may be unashamed before him at his coming. You know, when my boys were younger and we were, of course, they were living at home, whenever we had guests who suddenly announced that they were coming over, my wife would get us all together and we would set out on a cleanup mission frantically through our house. You know what a cleanup mission is? That's one of these where you run in the bathroom, grab some tissue and do the quick wipe of the bowl and somebody grabs the vacuum cleaner and starts vacuuming the floors and somebody puts all the dishes out of the sink and up into the cupboard and, you know, pick up all the dust balls behind the doors.
Now, my wife's here today and sweetheart, you never had dust balls. So I love you. But, you know, just in case there were any who just in case there were any we pick them up. You know what I'm saying? Why? Why did we do this?
This frantic, frenetic thing that we did? Well, very simple. It's because my wife, Brenda, would have been embarrassed. She would have been ashamed to have somebody walk in her house and find it dirty. Now, friends, what the Bible is telling us is that as followers of Christ, we need to be the very same way. We need to have the same attitude that we don't want the Lord Jesus Christ to walk into our house and find it dirty. And since we have no idea exactly when he's showing up, it means that we need to try and keep our house clean at all times.
And you say, how do you do that? Well, we do it by living lives of moral integrity and sexual purity. We do it by being faithful to our spouse and faithful to our family and being people of full disclosure and honesty and just living authentic godly lives every day.
Now, listen, friends, none of us can do this perfectly, but we can all be serious about doing the best job we can. Number three, how do we get ready for the return of Christ as followers of Jesus? Number three, by continuing to lay up treasure in heaven. Jesus said, Matthew 6 verse 19, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You say, Well, Lon, how do we lay up treasure in heaven? Simply, we lay up treasure in heaven by using our earthly resources, our time, our energy, our money, our skills, our talents to serve Christ and advance the kingdom of God here on earth.
Every time we do that, we're transferring that energy, that money, that skill use into heavenly treasure. And I tell you, this is something we need to take seriously. Years ago, we had a guy gentleman who came here to McLean Bible Church, and I'll never forget Campus Crusade decided that they were coming to Washington to a big outreach that year. And so this gentleman, he put his house on the market and sold his house. This was these were in the days where you could sell your house when you wanted to sell your house.
You remember those days? Yeah. Okay. Sorry for depressing you. But anyway, he put his house on the market, sold his house, he moved into an apartment, and he gave every single dime of the equity in his home to Campus Crusade to use for this outreach in Washington, DC. And I couldn't believe it.
When I heard about never heard anybody doing something like this. I'm not necessarily suggesting that you and I should do this exact same thing. But hey, here we've got a guy who took seriously what the Lord Jesus said that, hey, I'm coming back. And when I do to get you, there's only one kind of treasure you're going to be able to take with you. And that's the treasure you laid up in heaven while you were still on earth.
Hey, this guy took it seriously. And, folks, we do, too. I'm convinced that when the Lord Jesus comes back for us, the one regret that every one of us is going to have is that we have so much treasure piled up here on earth and so little of it transferred and laid up in heaven.
Don't be like that. You know he's coming. You know he's going to take you to heaven.
So get the treasure there while you're here. Number four and finally, want to be ready for the return of the Lord? Then fourth, we do this by constantly telling people about their need for Jesus Christ. Second Peter three three says in the last days, scoffers will say, Where is this coming that he promised? Peter says the Lord is not slow about keeping his promises.
Some people regard slowness, but he is patient towards us, not wanting anyone to perish, but wanting everyone to come to repentance. Hey, friends, Jesus is coming back. That is no joke. And when he does, people outside of Christ are going to hell for all of eternity.
That is no joke either. And the implication of these verses in Second Peter is that the Lord Jesus might have come back already, except that he loves lost people so much that he's giving them more time to repent and turn to Christ. Now, if Jesus loves lost people that much, shouldn't you and I love them enough that we're willing to step outside of our comfort zone and share the one thing with them that will help when Christ comes back for them to have a happy day instead of a bad day?
Well, the answer that was not a rhetorical question. The answer is yes. Yes, absolutely.
Yes, we should be sharing. Let me conclude by saying that I know the new Robin Hood movie is out. I haven't seen it. And it stars, of course, Russell Crowe as Robin Hood and Oscar Isaac as Prince John. I got to tell you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Russell Crowe will never be Robin Hood. Errol Flynn is Robin Hood.
I'm sorry. And Claude Reigns is Prince John, world without end. Amen. It will never be different. In fact, I just watched the movie last night.
I devoted and turned it on last night and watched it. And but it doesn't matter whether you like Russell Crowe, whether you like Errol Flynn. The point is the story is the same. You know, the story that Robin Hood kept opposing Prince John and he kept doing what was right and he kept defending the English people because he believed with all of his heart that King Richard was coming back.
And when King Richard came back, that King Richard was going to reward everyone who had remained faithful while he was gone. And I love the end where King Richard opens up his robe and Robin Hood and everybody fall down on their knees. And I weep every time.
Last night, like a baby. This is I know the lines. I know every word they're going to say. And I keep saying to myself, why does this touch you so deeply? And it's because, friends, when that happens, that moment, I really believe that's a lot what it's going to be like when the Lord Jesus comes back.
Unexpectedly, we're going to fall on our knees at his feet and he's going to say, bless you for staying faithful. Let me show you what I've got. Well, I don't know if you think that, but that's what I think. And that's why I cry. So don't ever go see Robin Hood with me. You'll be embarrassed. That's all I got to say.
All right. Now, the point I'm trying to make here is that I guess we could sum up this whole message by simply saying that Jesus is looking for a bunch of Robin Hoods. He's looking for men and women who are so convinced with all of their heart, number one, that Jesus is coming back. And number two, that when he does, he's going to reward the people who have remained faithful. That number three, they maintain a ready status at every single moment, expecting and looking forward to the return of Christ.
And how do we maintain that ready status? Well, number one, by making sure we have a genuine personal relationship with Christ. Number two, by being serious about personal holiness. Number three, by continuing to lay up treasure in heaven.
And number four, by constantly telling people about their need for Jesus Christ. Now, look here. I said a moment ago, if you haven't done number one, if you're not sure you've got a personal relationship with Christ, we're going to give you a chance to fix it right here today. And we are. So let's bow our heads together right now. And if you're here today and you are not able to say with a hundred percent certainty that if the Lord Jesus came back, he would say, well, now I know you and you know me, then we can fix it with a short prayer doing the very things we talked about that are involved in coming to Christ. So I'm going to pray out loud. I want you to pray silently one phrase at a time right behind me. And let's get it done. Here we go. You pray silently.
I'm out loud. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I want you to say that you know me when you come back. I want that personal relationship with you. And so today I renounce every self-help remedy that I've ever trusted to earn my righteousness before you. And instead, I embrace the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross for me as my one and only payment for sin. Come into my life today. Forgive my sins.
Connect me to you in personal relationship. I surrender my life to you today as my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus name, I pray. And Father, I want to pray for the folks who prayed that prayer that you would confirm in their heart right as they sit here today that a great transaction has taken place in the heavens and that now they belong to you and you belong to them.
They know you and the relationship has been established. And for those of us who already know you, Father, I pray you would encourage our hearts today and help us to stay ready for the return of Christ at any moment, any day. And Lord, we pray with the Apostle John, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We pray these things in Christ's name. And everybody said, Amen. Amen.
