Jesus' Most Outrageous Sayings - They Will See the Son of Man Coming on the Clouds - Part 12

You know, there's a wonderful devotional book by Oswald Chambers called My Utmost for His Highest. And there's a quote in there that really applies to the series that we are finishing today.

Let me read that quote to you. It says, At the bar of common sense, Jesus Christ's statements may seem mad, but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God. Now the reason I bring this up is because we've been involved in a series entitled Jesus's Most Outrageous Sayings. We've been going through the gospel accounts in the New Testament and we've been picking out twelve of the most radical things that He ever said.

Things that look mad to common people using common sense. But when we bring those to the bar of faith, as Oswald Chambers challenged us to do, we find that Jesus's statements were not mad or crazy, but that actually they were the word of God that have impact on our lives. And so today we're going to finish that series. We've already done eleven out of the twelve messages.

You can pick up any you missed on tape or CD out at our bookstore. Today we're ready to do number twelve. And if you brought your Bible today, I'd like to ask you to open with me to Matthew chapter twenty four, the first book in the New Testament, Matthew twenty four. If you did not bring your Bible and you're here in our main auditorium, reach right under the armrest next to you and you'll find a copy of the Bible. We're going to be on page seven hundred, page seven hundred in our copy of the Bible. Matthew chapter twenty four in your copy of the Bible.

And while you're turning, let me give you a little bit of background here in Matthew twenty four. Jesus is in the last week of his earthly life. He has entered Jerusalem at the triumphal entry. And he with everybody shouting Hosanna and he's been going to the temple every day, teaching and preaching to people in the courts of the temple.

And that's where we pick up the story. Matthew chapter twenty four. Look with me at verse one. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. You know, Herod the Great spent forty six years beautifying the temple grounds, building buildings everywhere. In fact, at the time of the Lord Jesus, the temple in Jerusalem was considered to be one of the most majestic edifices in the world. The rabbis from that time tell us that the gold and the white marble of the temple buildings could be seen for miles away glistening in the sun. And this is what the disciples were doing. They were impressed with how beautiful these buildings were and they pointed them out to the Lord Jesus. Verse two, Jesus asked, Do you see these things?

I tell you the truth. Not one stone here will be left on top of another. Everyone will be thrown down. And as they sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples said to him privately, Lord, tell us, when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? The rest of Matthew chapter twenty four, my friends, it represents Jesus answering this question.

And this is what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the return of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Jesus Christ. And it was in this chapter as Jesus was answering their question that he says something that was really outrageous.

I want you to see it. It's down in verse 30. At that time, Jesus says the Son of Man, meaning Jesus himself, will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn, for they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Now, you need to know that in the ancient world, in ancient mythology, it was common to represent gods and goddesses as flying around on the clouds. For example, we've got a slide for you to see where we've got a god on the cloud fighting the Cyclops. Often they were on the clouds in a chariot, such as this second slide. But we all know that that's impossible.

I mean, it might work for mythology, but in reality, people cannot ride on clouds. And yet this is the outrageous claim that Jesus makes right here in Matthew 24. He claims that this is exactly what he's going to do. And when he does it, he says, all the nations of the earth will mourn. This goes along with what the prophet Zechariah said in the Old Testament, Zechariah 1210. He said in that day, they will look on him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn over him as one mourns for an only son. Now friends, why will people mourn at the return of Christ? Well, let me let Jesus answer the question himself. He goes on to say, verse 31 of Matthew 24. And when I do this, I will send my angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather my chosen ones from the four winds verse 37. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other will be left behind.

Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other will be left behind. Why will so many people mourn when they see Jesus Christ returning? Well friends, they will mourn, because suddenly they will realize that all their friends telling them about Jesus Christ and who he was, that their friends were right. But they never accepted Christ like their friends challenged them to do.

Therefore they are not part of the chosen ones that Jesus sends his angels to get and whisk away. And therefore they are left behind, exactly as Jesus predicted here in Matthew chapter 24. So, what will be a very happy day for some people when Jesus Christ returns, will be a very sad day for some other people when Jesus Christ returns. And at this time I think it would be good for us to pause for a moment and spend a little bit of time just reviewing what the Bible says about the second coming of Jesus Christ. You know the second coming of Jesus Christ is mentioned over 300 times in the New Testament.

That's an average of once every 25 verses, so conspicuous a theme is the return of Christ. For example, Matthew 16 27, for the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels and then he will repay each person according to what they have done. Second Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 7, Paul says, The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his mighty angels. The Apostle John writing in the book of Revelation says, Behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. And finally Acts chapter 1 verse 11, when Jesus had ascended into heaven, the angels standing there speaking to his disciples who were watching said this. They said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has gone into heaven will come back the same way you saw him leave.

So let's summarize. The Bible declares that Jesus's second coming will be a literal event. Jesus will return bodily, he will return visibly, he will return personally, and he will return openly, not in a clandestine way, but in a way that the entire human race is able to see him when he returns. Now when we speak about the second coming of Christ, we're really talking about two phases to the same event. We're talking about two occurrences that are not identical, but together we lump them in and call them the second coming of Christ.

Let me explain to you what they are. First of all, we're talking about the rapture of the church. Paul refers to this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. He says, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Paul continues verse 17, And after that, we who are still alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will forever be with the Lord. Now notice what happens at the rapture according to the Bible. When it comes to people who have already died, who were followers of Christ, the Bible says that Jesus raises their bodies from the grave. He changes their earthly mortal bodies into glorified bodies, the kind of body He had after He was resurrected, and He reunites these people's spirits with their glorified bodies. Then it goes on to say that those of us who are followers of Christ and alive when the Lord comes in the clouds, we float up to meet the Lord in the air, and He changes our mortal bodies into glorified bodies while we're floating up on the way up.

I mean, what a rush that's gonna be, huh? This is the Lord Jesus coming on the clouds in the air, and would you notice the Lord never actually stepped foot on this earth in His coming at the rapture. It's only for followers of Christ. Everybody who's not a follower of Christ here on earth gets left behind. This is what Jesus meant when He said, One will be taken and the other will be left behind. And the purpose of the rapture is to deliver we who are followers of Christ to deliver us from the great tribulation period that is about to come on the face of the earth. Now the second event that makes up what we call the second coming of Christ is when Jesus Christ actually returns to earth for the second time, steps onto earth for the second time. This occurs seven years later at the end of the tribulation period. As you know, the tribulation period ends with a horrendous battle at the Valley of Armageddon.

The Antichrist has all of the armies of the world gathered there to finish the job that Adolf Hitler tried to finish but couldn't. And that is the complete annihilation of the Jewish race off the face of the earth. And the Lord comes and saves the Jewish people.

Zechariah 14 three. All nations shall be gathered against Jerusalem for battle. Then the Lord will go out and fight against these nations. And on that day, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will split into from the east to the west. This time, the Lord Jesus does step foot back on earth and when He does, His majesty is so awesome that He actually blows the Mount of Olives to smithereens when He touches down.

He defeats the armies of the Antichrist and now with the believers who are left to survive the tribulation period, He starts a one thousand year kingdom called the Millennial Kingdom where He rules and He reigns personally here on this earth. Now the Millennial Kingdom is going to be a very different place than the earth today. In the Millennial Kingdom, God is going to fulfill every promise that He ever made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel. In the Millennial Kingdom, Romans 8 21 tells us that God is going to lift the curse that He placed on the world in Genesis chapter three.

Things are going to be very different. Lifespans, for example, will be extended. Isaiah 65 says that during the Millennial Kingdom, he who dies at the age of 100 will be thought to be a mere youth. Universal peace will exist during the Millennial Kingdom. Isaiah chapter two verse four. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up arm against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Carnivorous animals will be different during the Millennial Kingdom.

They'll be changed. Isaiah 11 verse seven. The cow will feed with the bear. The lion will eat straw like the ox, and the wolf will lie down with the lamb. And finally, even snakes will be different in the Millennial Kingdom. Isaiah 11 verse eight.

The infant will play near the whole of the cobra, and the young child will put his hand in the viper's nest. No one will harm or destroy each other any longer. You guys, I don't know if you guys are fans of Steve Irwin. You know him as the Crocodile Hunter. Anybody fans of this guy?

Well, I am. I think this guy is awesome, but I think he's also completely out of his mind. You know, I mean, I did drugs for years, and I hung out with people who did heroin that weren't as crazy as this guy. I mean, this crazy guy, what does he do? He wrestles alligators.

He handles cobras. He chases black bombas through the woods. They won't run one way. Now, a person in his right mind would run the other way. He runs after them, grabbing these snakes by the tail and trying to pull them back, making them upset.

That's not a smart thing to do, in my opinion. He gets down on his face and looks rattlesnakes right in the eye. The guy is out of his mind. Now, he's become very wealthy being out of his mind, but he's out of his mind. Now, you know, if Steve Irwin makes it into the Millennial Kingdom, I've got bad news for him.

They're going to cancel his show. And the reason is because everybody is going to be able to handle rattlesnakes in the Millennial Kingdom. Everybody is going to be able to pick cobras up in the Millennial Kingdom.

Things are going to be so radically different there, we can't even imagine it. And this is why, when Paul wrote to Titus, he called the return of Jesus Christ the blessed hope of the church and the blessed hope of every follower of Christ. This is why the Apostle John ends the Bible with these words, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, because the return of Jesus Christ represents the great culmination of everything that Christ came to the cross to accomplish for the human race.

Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage right now, because we want to stop and we want to ask our most important question. And so is everybody ready for that? All right, three of you. Okay, here we go. Ready? Here we go.

Now 123. Yeah, you say long so what? Say honestly, I have no desire to handle snakes. And I really don't care about Steve Irwin. And what difference does any of this make to my life? Really?

Well, let's talk about that. Down in verse 42 of this chapter where your Bible is open, I want you to look what Jesus said, because he told us something very important about his second coming. Verse 42. Therefore, Jesus said, Be ready, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this verse 43. If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been ready and would not have let his house be broken into so to you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come in an hour when you do not expect him. Now, did you get the point that the Lord Jesus is trying to make here?

I hope you did. It's pretty simple. It's be ready. Be prepared to meet the Lord when he returns. And friends being ready, being prepared to meet Jesus Christ upon his second coming is not a haphazard process.

It is not a random and arbitrary and accidental process. To be ready for the return of Christ takes deliberate planning in our lives. And it takes deliberate execution of those plans in our lives. And I want to talk to you today about how to do this. What are the plans we need to make and execute on to really be ready for the Lord Jesus's return whenever it happens, because he said, Be ready?

Well, I have three suggestions to give you. And then we're done. Number one, if you want to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, whenever it happens, then number one, make sure that you have a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Matthew Chapter seven, Jesus said, Many people will say to me on that day, what day on the day when he comes back, many people will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not in your name, drive out demons and in your name, perform many mighty miracles?

And then I will say to them, depart from me, for I never knew you. Friends notice here that when Jesus Christ returns, the central issue is not good works. It's not church membership.

It's not religious activity, even religious activity done in the name of Jesus. The real issue is whether a person knows Jesus Christ in a real intimate and personal relationship. Now, how does a person get a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

It's really simple. Number one, we have to renounce our own righteousness and our own human effort as the way we hope to pay for our sin before a holy God. Number two, we must embrace Jesus's death on the cross as our only payment for sin before God.

And number three, we must entrust our whole being to Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and our personal Savior. Now, listen, the Bible says that when Jesus comes back, there are going to be a lot of people who mourn when he comes back, because they're going to be left behind. And the reason they're left behind is because of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven, he says, I don't know you.

We don't have any relationship. Friends, I don't want you to be one of those people. I have a very hard time believing in an audience this size that every single one of us here knows Jesus Christ in a real and personal way. And I'm saying that if Jesus came right this minute, you wouldn't go. I don't care how much you've done to serve God, or how much money you put in the offering plate or how what a good person you are, you wouldn't go. Because the only people going are the people who know Christ, and he knows them in real and intimate, personal relationship.

And so I want to challenge you. I don't know when the Lord's coming. But what I can tell you is when he comes, you're not going to have time to fix this. Then Paul says in First Corinthians fix 15, that the coming of Christ at the rapture is instantaneous. It's like the twinkling of an eye, and it's over, and you're not going to have time to accept Christ then Jesus is going to be here and gone before you have time to pray a sinner's prayer.

The time to do that is now. Paul said the day of salvation is now. And I want to challenge you friends, it would be so sad to think you sat in this church for weeks or months or years, and the Lord Jesus leaves you behind. He's not gonna take you because you come to McLean Bible Church. He'll take you with him because you know Christ. And that's what I hope you'll do.

Number two. Once we've done this, the second way to be ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus is to be serious about living a God honoring lifestyle to be serious about obeying Jesus Christ in every area of our life. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 10. For we as followers of Christ must all stand before the judgment bar of Christ, that each one may receive what is due us for the things we've done while we were in our bodies, whether good or bad. Friends, when the Lord Jesus grabs us at the rapture, and when he whisks us away to heaven, the Bible tells us that we are going to have a performance review that covers our entire Christian life when we get there. Now, if you did some rotten things like I did before you came to Christ, don't worry about those things. They went under the blood of Christ when you came to Christ. And those things are not going to be here at this review.

They're gone. But what is going to be reviewed here is everything you and I have done since coming to Christ, how obedient we were, how faithful we were, how we lived in terms of what the Bible tells us to do. And we're going to be evaluated not in terms of whether we go to heaven or hell, friends, we're already in heaven, we're going to be evaluated for rewards or lack thereof that God has given out. And I don't know about you, but I'm telling you, this is a terrifying thought to me, that I'm going to stand there with the Lord Jesus and He's going to hit the replay button and put my whole life on display. And I'm going to stand there and watch it with Him.

And you know what, when we do that, Him and me together, folks, there's going to be no secrets. There's going to be no spin doctoring. You're not going to spin doctor the Lord Jesus. Come on now.

You've been in Washington too long if you think that. There's not going to be any sleight of hand. It's just going to all be out in the open for the Lord Jesus and me to watch again. I don't know about you, but that scares me to death. And in light of this, God has some advice for us in the Bible, how we should live down here so that we'll be ready when He comes to go through this kind of performance review.

Here's what He says. Titus chapter two, verse 12. While we await the blessed hope, that is the glorious appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, Paul says we should say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. And instead, we should seek to live self controlled, upright and godly lives.

Now friends, nobody can be perfect doing this. But with the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, we can be serious about doing this. We can have a zeal to try to do this. We can have a passion about doing this. And let me tell you, this is something that takes deliberate planning, it's not going to happen by accident. And it not only takes deliberate planning, but it takes deliberate execution, if you and I are going to actually live this way.

Number three, and finally, is if you want to be ready, and I want to be ready for the return of Christ, then we need to have a do it now attitude when it comes to serving God. You know, if I were to list my 10 greatest regrets in life, one of them up near the top of the list would be that I never got my mom to Israel with me. Now, you know, when I started going to Israel in the late 1980s, and taking tours, my mom, my dad was was gone, but my mom was still alive, and her health was good. And I kept saying, I should take my mom to Israel, I should take my mom to Israel. And you know, I never did.

I put it off from one year to the next year. And finally, she developed cancer and became an invalid in a wheelchair. And then I really wanted to take her I remember calling her up and say, Mom, I really want you to go. And she said, I can't, I can't even walk.

How can I go to Israel, I can't walk. And she passed away, and never went. And you know, as sad as it was, I still learned a very important lesson from that whole experience, I learned that it's easy for us to assume that the opportunities before us today are going to be here forever. So if we put them off, we can always go back and get them later. Friends, that is not true.

Not true at all. That's why David wrote in Psalm 39, verse four, show me Oh, Lord, how fleeting my life is. It's why Paul said in Ephesians chapter five, verse 16, that in light of the fleetingness of life, that we are to redeem the time we are to make the most out of every opportunity. And so therefore, if you and I want to really be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, here's the point, whatever you and I are planning to do for God, my advice to us is do it now. While we have the opportunity, if you're planning to speak to somebody about their need for Jesus Christ, my advice to you is do it now. If you're planning to pray for somebody, my advice to you is do it now. If you're planning to start having personal quiet time every day with the Lord in your life, my advice to you is do it now. If you're planning to start leading your family and personal devotions every night, my advice to you is do it now. If you've been planning to teach Sunday school or work with teenagers or lead a small group or start a Bible study at work or give more liberally to the Lord or go on a short-term mission strip, whatever it is, my advice to you is do it now. Because you never know when Jesus Christ is coming back, friends, and the opportunity won't be there anymore.

And even if He doesn't come back, you don't know when you're leaving, and the opportunity may not be there. I think churches are full of people with great intentions but really bad execution. Remember what I said. To be ready for the return of Christ, it takes more than good intentions and more than good planning.

It takes execution. I talked to you last week about George Whitefield, the great leader of the Great Awakening here in the United States of America from 1730 to 1770. George Whitefield rode tens of thousands of miles on horseback through the rain, through the thunder, through the lightning, through the hail.

He preached in the open air to thousands upon thousands of colonists and led what many people think is as much as 50% of the population of the colonies to personal faith in Jesus Christ. You know, he had some friends who thought he was just overdoing it a little bit. He had some friends who kept admonishing him that he needed to slow down because if he didn't slow down, he was going to burn out. And I love what George Whitefield said, and I quote, he said, I'd rather burn out than rust out, end of quote. And you know, my friends, I think George Whitefield was ready for the return of Christ whenever it happened. If it had happened during his lifetime, I believe he could have said, Lord, I'm ready, because I'm out here doing what I know I should be doing. And I'm not just sitting at home thinking about it and saying one day I will, I'm out here doing it. And I want to challenge you. I think in this church and in churches around the world, we've got people rusting out.

I mean, their hearts are right. They're saying one day, Lord, I'm going to do this for you. One day, Lord, I'm going to do that for you. One day, Lord, I'm going to do this for you over there. But there's no execution. And I'm here to challenge you, friends, don't rust out.

What a miserable way to live. Don't rust out, burn out for the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when He comes, as the Apostle John said, we will not be ashamed to meet Him, because we're out there serving Christ with our lives and burning up for the Lord Jesus. That's how you want Jesus to find you when He comes, friends, not sitting on the couch eating Oreos and saying one of these days, Lord, I'm going to do something for you.

Well, let's summarize. If you want to be ready for the return of Christ, what does that mean in your life and my life? Number one, it means that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through personal faith in what He did for us on the cross. Number two, it means that we have a seriousness about living a God honoring lifestyle, that there's a zeal about personal holiness in our life. So that when the Lord Jesus returns, whatever we're doing, we're not going to be ashamed to have Him find us doing it at that moment. And number three, we need to have a do it now attitude when it comes to serving Jesus Christ. Friends, we ought to be burning out and not rusting out when the Lord Jesus finds us.

And so I want to challenge you today, where are some areas in your life where you need to do not only some deliberate planning, my friends, but where as a follower of Christ, you need to do some deliberate execution, maybe some changes in your behavior pattern, because you're not really being zealous for personal holiness in those areas, maybe some changes in your serving Christ patterns, because you got great intentions, but you're not really doing all that much. Well, I can't answer that question for you. I can only answer it for myself. But I can tell you the question is not whether Jesus is coming back.

He is. The question is whether you and I will be ready when He comes. And I hope you will. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we look forward to the day when we'll hear a trumpet that will just sound from nowhere. And all of a sudden we look up and there's the Lord Jesus in the clouds. Father, I pray that that would be a day where where we are happy, not a day where we mourn a day where we are happy because number one, we know you personally and and we're on our way to meet you and and a day also where we're happy because we're not ashamed to meet you Lord. Our lifestyle and our service for Christ is where it ought to be. And so, Father, help us be ready at any moment. So whenever you come, we can say, Lord Jesus, it's great to see you and not shrink back in shame because of what you find is doing at that moment in time. Lord Jesus, we echo the words of the great Apostle John who said, Even so, come quickly. Maranatha, Lord Jesus. And we look forward to that day, the blessed hope of every follower of Christ and of the church at large.

Lord, thank you. You're coming back for us. Grant that we might be ready to meet you when you come. And we pray this in Jesus name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.