All of Jesus' examples that he uses make basically the same point. You are to live in a state of readiness with every part of your life like he might return today, because it might be today. Welcome to the Summit Life podcast. If you're listening today and wondering what your next step of faith might be, let me encourage you, it doesn't have to be complicated. Start by receiving, open God's word, come back to Jesus, and let the gospel steady your heart and remind you of what's true.
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Today, as we look forward to Easter, Pastor JD helps us understand yet another challenging statement as he concludes our teaching series titled The Difficult Sayings of Jesus. Today's message is titled, But concerning that day, no one knows, not even the Son. These are the statements. that we've been looking at that put the real Jesus front and center for us. As I've explained to you, nobody that ever met Jesus in the Gospels really had an ambivalent reaction toward him.
You either loved him intensely or you hated him extremely. You either fell at his feet in worship or you called out for his crucifixion. And I told you that the irony today is that many people are bored with Jesus. They find him somewhat irrelevant, kind of sentimental, the precious moments Jesus that I like to call him. But that just shows you they've never really listened to him or taken what he says seriously.
Nobody in the Gospels, not one person was ever bored with Jesus. Many thought he was a fraud, they thought he was phony, they wanted him killed, they wanted him removed. That all happened, but nobody who ever met Jesus was bored with him. People who take Jesus seriously today end up being kind of divisive people. That's not just because they're jerks, although I've told you sometimes they are jerks, and that's not excusing that, but sometimes it's just how extreme Jesus' demands are in our lives.
You cannot take him seriously and not devote your entire life to him. And so that makes people around people who take Jesus seriously very uncomfortable, and that's why it causes a lot of problems. These difficult sayings that we're looking at are what bring Jesus face to face with us, the real Jesus. And so our next saying that we are going to be looking at comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter 13.
So if you have a Bible at all of our campuses, I would invite you to take it out now, open it to Mark, chapter 13. We're going to begin around verse 32. Verse 32, give you the context in Mark chapter 13, Jesus is prophesying about the end of the world. We're not going to take time to read it all, but he's going to tell us that at the end of the world, there's going to be all these ominous things that happen. The sun's darkened, the moon's turned to blood, not the S-U-N, but the S-O-N returns with clouds and great glory.
And then, in the middle of this prophecy about the end of the time when he comes back, he says this. Verse 32, but concerning that day or that hour No one knows. Not even the angels in heaven. Not even the sun. But only the Father.
And you're like, he doesn't know when he's coming back? Is he the Son of God? How could the Son of God not know something, especially something important, like his own schedule for returning? And it's made a lot of people say, well, maybe this isn't really God. Maybe Jesus isn't really God.
Maybe that's something we just kind of made up about him because how could God not know something?
Well, first, great question. You have to realize that this is not the only time that Jesus is described like this with intellectual limitations. Luke 2:52, for example, says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. How does Jesus increase in wisdom? How does the all-knowing God get wiser?
What was it that He didn't know that He then learned? Hebrews says that he had to learn obedience, which means he had to be trained to do certain things like eat his vegetables just because mom and dad said so. It appears that Jesus had to learn some things on earth just like you and I learned them. You see, most of us have this misconception of Jesus at three years old as like this toddler savant who's hanging out in the nursery lecturing the other three-year-olds about the Christological implications of Leviticus 13 and prophesying about the end of the world. That's not true.
When Jesus was three years old, he was thinking three-year-old thoughts. That kid took my goldfish. That's my toy. When do we have another fruit snack? That's what Jesus was thinking about in the nursery.
You say, well, wait a minute, though. If he's God, though, how could that be? All right, since you asked, let's do a little theology lesson. Little quick theology lesson. You ready?
From the very beginning, Christians have believed that the incarnate Jesus, incarnate means in the flesh, in incarnal like carnivore, in the flesh Jesus was both fully God and fully man. That means he was 100% man and 100% God. He didn't 50% man and 50% God with God parts and human parts. It was 100% of each one. The Council of Chalcedon, one of the early church councils for you history geeks, said it like this: okay?
And I'm going to read it in English, not Latin. Jesus was perfect in Godhead. Which means 100% and also perfect 100% in manhood. He was truly or fully God or and truly man. One person acknowledged in two natures, inconfusibly, which is kind of a confusing word, unchangeably, indivisibly, with liberty and just, no, I'm kidding, inseparably.
The distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved. You're like, well, a dog, of course, you didn't know that. In other words, here's what that says: that he was fully God did not take away from him being fully man. and that he was fully man did not take away from him being fully God. You see, in order for Jesus to save us, he had to fully be both.
If he had not been fully man, he would not have been able to die in our place as a substitute for our sin. Had he not been fully God, he would not have been able to overcome the temptations and the powers of sin to go into the grave and to overcome death and give eternal life to all who call upon his name.
So he was fully both. And because he was both, during his life, we see occasional flashes of either nature coming out. For example, because he was the son of man, he could become hungry. But because he was the son of God, he could multiply loaves and fishes and feed 5,000. Because he was the son of man, he could get thirsty.
But because he was the son of God, he could turn water into wine. Because he was the son of man, he grew weary. Because he was the son of God, he could raise the dead. As the son of man, he counted his birthdays, but as the son of God, he said, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Because he was the son of man, he did not know the day or the hour of his return, but because he was the return of the return Because he was the Son of God, he assures us in that same passage that he will return with the clouds in power and great glory.
You see, while Jesus was on earth, he listened to this, voluntarily emptied himself of some of his access to his divine powers. That in Greek, they call that, here's your nerd word, kenosis. Kenosis means literally empty-ing. He emptied himself of access to some of his divine powers. He didn't cease to be God.
He just meant that he did not play the God card all throughout his life and access all the divine powers that he actually had. That's what's going on here in this statement that he doesn't know the day or the hour. He's not playing on his omniscience. But see, the apostles didn't record that verse because it fit their theory about who they wanted Jesus to be. They wrote this down because he actually said it.
And even if it messed with some of their theories and created some problems for their doctrines, they wrote it in there. Right?
So the reason that he didn't know was not because he ceased to be God or he wasn't God or they made up the fact that he was God. The reason he didn't know is because, as the Savior, who was fully God and fully man, he sometimes limited himself to some of his divine powers.
Okay? All right, done with that one. Guys, ready to go home? All right, here what Jesus says next. It's really difficult too.
So let's keep reading. Verse 33. Be on guard, I tell you, and keep awake. For you do not know when the time of his return will come. See, it's like a man who goes on a journey when he leaves home.
He puts his servants in charge, each with his work assignment, and then he commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Because, you know, when he gets home, he needs somebody to open the garage door if the burglars come and wants to make sure the doorkeeper keeps him away. Therefore, you should stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning. Lest he comes suddenly and finds you asleep and What I say to you, I say to all, stay awake. Be ready.
Because I could return, he says, at any moment. Here is why that's difficult. Did Jesus actually think? That the end of the world was close. It sure sounds like it, doesn't it?
Sounds like he thinks it's close, but that was 2,000 years ago. And still he has not yet returned.
So there are many who have concluded that Jesus was wrong here. Ah, well, Jesus was just a product of his time. Everybody in those days believed the end of the world was close, so Jesus got swept up in that line of thinking, but he was wrong. In fact, they'll point out that Jesus, in the same passage, if you go a couple verses up ahead there, verse 30. Jesus says, truly I say to you, listen to this, this generation.
My 40 years will not pass away until all these things take place.
Well, that generation did pass away, did it not? And the end did not come?
So clearly they say Jesus was wrong. C.S. Lewis fought this. But brace yourself. C.S.
Lewis was. Wrong. Yes, those words actually just came out of my mouth. C.S. Lewis was wrong.
I feel weird saying it. It's important for you to know that sometimes I think C.S. Lewis was wrong. I feel like the end of the world's happening right now. All right, was Jesus wrong when he said that?
Here's why I don't think so. You see, the bigger context of what Jesus is talking about in verse 30 when he says this generation will not pass away, the bigger context is the destruction of the Jewish temple. If you go back all the way at verse 2, you'll see that's what he's talking about. All right, so to him, to Jesus, that destruction of the temple would be a milestone in the commencement of the last days. The temple would be destroyed, the Messiah would be killed, and then God would, verse 27, begin to gather in the Gentiles from the four corners of the world.
All that took place by 70 AD. That's when the temple was destroyed.
So, by 70 AD, in that generation, the temple was destroyed, the Messiah was killed, and God had already begun to gather in the Gentiles from the four corners of the world into his kingdom.
So, that's why I don't think he was wrong about that. But it's also clear that not all of it has been completed yet. For example, you see verse 26, he has not yet come with the clouds and power and great glory. He's risen with power and glory, so that it's begun, but he hasn't yet come with power and glory.
So here's the question. Is there another reason, even if Jesus didn't come in that generation, is there another reason why he might have told them to be ready like it could happen at any minute? The answer is. Yes. Because Jesus wants us to live in a constant state of readiness.
as if he could return tonight. In Matthew's account of Jesus' words here, He records that Jesus goes on, after he says this, to give a number of parables. To kind of illustrate it, he says his return will be like a thief in the night. Here's the problem with a thief: they never schedule when they're coming. Right?
You can't be like, should I lock the door tonight, turn on the alarm? I don't know. Let me check my schedule. Yep, no thieves tonight, so we can leave the doors open. But tomorrow, I got two: one at 2:30, one at 3, so we better lock the door.
Unfortunately, thieves don't work that way. They show up when you're least expecting them. In fact, they want you to not expect them because then they come in and rob your house. And what Jesus says is, that's how the return of the Son of Man will be. In that moment, you actually think it's least likely, that is when he comes.
Jesus then uses the example of Noah. Remember the Old Testament story of Noah? God told the world through Russell Crow that he would send a flood. Right. And then he waited.
This is the part about he forgets, he waited 120 years before he sent it. What do you think that was like? I mean for the first three or four months people might have been scared. Maybe this will actually happen. After two years, they're kind of like, oh, this is nothing.
After 10 years, They've gotten really skeptical. After 30 years, nobody even remembers it. Do you remember what was happening 30 years ago? Beginning the 1980s, Def Leppard, Van Halem were just getting popular. If some old crazy country preacher had been out saying that the end of the world was going to come, you wouldn't even remember it.
After 120 years, Nobody remembers anything. It was so far out of their mind.
So Jesus said they partied, they got drunk, and then. It came. And only the Gladiator and Hermione Granger were saved. Jesus then tells a story of the master who gave three of his servants large sums of money. To invest, two of them, Jesus says, invested it and made a good return.
One of them evidently thought the master wasn't going to return that quickly, so he buried his money. And Jesus said, the moment that he didn't realize it, this master returns and says to this servant, where is the return of my money I gave you to invest? And when the servant had nothing to bring forward, he cast the servant into outer darkness. All of Jesus' examples that he uses make basically the same point. You are to live in a state of readiness with every part of your life like he might return today, because it might be today.
Since I beat up on C.S. Lewis a moment ago, let me take a minute to make up with him, okay? This is for you, Clive Staples. Here's a quote of his. Precisely because we cannot predict the moment.
We must be ready at all times. The soldier does not know at what time the enemy may attack. Or at what time an officer might inspect his post, so he must be awake at all times. Listen, it's not that we should always be running around in fear that the end might happen at any moment. We should instead, listen, be like an 80-year-old man who needs, on the one hand, not to be always thinking about his approaching death.
But at 80, he should always be taking it into account. It would be criminally foolish not to have made his will and so on by the time you're 80 years old. Listen to this.
Now what death is to each person the second coming is to the whole human race. In other words, you got somebody in here that's 80 years old? By the way, C.S. Lewis never made it to 80, he died in his late 50s.
So if you're in your late 50s, be prepared, all right? What does it mean for him to say? That we ought to live like we're 80 years old. Because that's what he's saying. An 80-year-old person, they shouldn't walk around every day thinking, I'm probably gonna die today.
But it would be criminally foolish by that point in your life not to have made preparation for what's going to be left behind.
Well, in the same way, he says the whole human race ought to live like it's 80 years old. Let me give you four things that would change in your life. If you believe that his return was imminent. Four things that an 80-year-old person, metaphorically speaking, how they would view their lives. Here is number one.
Spiritual alertness. Spiritual alertness. How would you live differently if you knew Jesus were coming back tonight? The church that I grew up in talked about the return of Jesus. A lot.
I could almost say at this point they were a little obsessed. We had posters with dragons on them and timelines and politicians written over certain of the dragons. I think Jimmy Carter made a cameo in there somewhere that I remember. Anyone else, by the way, you grew up in a church with the posters and the films and all that kind of stuff?
Okay. It was sort of something we knew that there were three ways you could get a lot of people into church. One, talk about sex. That still works. Number two, talk about the end times.
And then, if you really wanted to pack the church out, speculate on whether there would be sex in the end times, you know, rapture sex or whatever. And that was what would really bring them out. But we talked about it all the time. The end times, we had our bumper stickers, you know, in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned. I started to feel bad for people who would go another year dismayed that Jesus had not come back yet.
You know, and I'd be like, cheer up. It's not the end of the world. You know, or. You know, there's always tomorrow, which actually wouldn't be true if your rapture prediction would have actually happened. When I was 14 years old, this happened frequently, but I remember one specific instance where I'd gotten in a lot of trouble at school.
And I knew it was bad enough that when I got home, my parents were gonna go Old Testament on me. And so I remember saying to Jesus, like, I apologize to him. I knew that he was patient and forgiving, and I'm like, Could you just bring the rapture like between now and when I get home? Because I know I'm good with you. And so, but I'm not really so with my parents.
I was always obsessing about whether or not I'd gotten left. Anytime my parents, you know, weren't where they had this recurring nightmare that the rapture happened and I stayed behind. Anyone else, you know what I'm talking about? I had this one, I remember very vividly at eight years old. At eight years old, the rapture happens and Jesus comes back, and we all start going up into heaven.
And I don't. Know what theology I had as an eight-year-old, but in my dream, I got all the way up to the top of my house, and then Jesus just said, nope, not enough faith, and dropped me. And I was like, oh, and I got up and I seriously, I ran to my parents' bedroom and I felt the bed. I'm like, oh, they're still here. You know, I didn't get even now, even now.
The other night, my wife and I were laying in bed talking about the second coming of Jesus. And she starts saying, you know, it's dark. She's like, oh, wouldn't it be awesome that one day you and I might just drift off to sleep together and then we awake side by side as we're soaring through the clouds. And while she's talking, I just slowly slip out of bed, silently laying on the ground, perfectly still. She's like, Know what I mean, JD?
Jenny, Jenny, So When you believe this, it's great for practical jokes. I know that it's really easy for us to make fun of all that now. I realize that, but there is one thing, one thing that my church had. Listen. One thing they had that I think we're missing.
And that is the earnest expectation of his return. A lot of people think of this doctrine as superstitious, non-essential. I mean, really, this is kind of the uneducated, embarrassing uncle of Christian theology. You never hear a lot of people, they just don't want to talk about it. That's why a lot of your most famous Bible teachers, you never hear them talk about this because it's like the cousin Eddie of Christian theology.
But listen to this. Of the 260 chapters in the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second coming of Christ. One out of every 13 verses in your New Testament talks about the second coming.
Furthermore, almost every command in the New Testament at some point is tied to the second coming. In other words, you should do this because this is about to happen. For example, 1 John, if you really understand that Jesus is coming back and you have that hope in you, then you will purify yourself just like he is pure. If you understand that the Lord is at hand, you'll become a gracious and forgiving person. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ's first coming, there are eight that look forward to his second.
We got a whole holiday. where we celebrate the first coming, but hardly anything ever gets said about his second. Charles Stevens, he was one of my first pastors. Used to say this, how can we call this doctrine non-essential? It's in every chapter of the Bible.
Every command is tied to it. It keeps everything in the Christian life in balance. What if you knew Jesus was coming back today? Would it not make you ask a question with some urgency? Am I ready?
Am I living today in a way that I would be happy to see him tonight? You probably quit punting certain questions, and you probably quit punting certain assignments. At the church I grew up in, we used to end just about every service. You know how we end, we stand you up and say you are set. We used to end every service thereby we'd stand up and the pastor would say Maranatha, which means in Greek, the Lord is coming.
And then he would save, and it might be today. Honestly, I think we could use a little bit more of that kind of thinking. It might be. Today. This might be your last chance to hear the gospel and respond.
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The second thing in your life that will change if you believe his return is imminent. Number two, mission urgency. Mission urgency. If you know the world has an end and it could be soon. Wouldn't that make you rearrange your priorities?
Like severely? I've heard it described like this, if you were on the Titanic. And you knew that the boat was sinking, would you take time to rearrange the deck chairs?
So that it looked prettier and you had a more comfortable place to sit? Of course not. Isn't that what a lot of us are doing? You really look at your life. We devoted ourselves, we consumed ourselves with vacations and hobbies and possessions and bucket lists, and YOLO.
Hashtag YOLO. You only live once, you better get it all in right now. Listen, you guys know I'm not a guy who believes that God never wants you to have things you enjoy. I'm not a guy who believes that every Christian ought to be in full-time ministry like me. I think God is glorified through secular jobs.
I think that's what He created many of you to do. I don't believe that hobbies are bad and that we shouldn't have times where we unplug and just devote ourselves to something we really enjoy. But I also know that life is painfully short. And when the master returns, I want to have invested my talents and resources, my treasure, my time. I want to have invested it fully for his kingdom.
And not be found sitting on that resource buried in the ground and say, well, I just didn't really think you were coming back that quickly, so I didn't invest what you gave me for your kingdom. And see, that's gonna happen. I fear to many of you. I think Jesus will look at you and say, I gave you unbelievable opportunity. I gave you flexibility and mobility, and you were the richest nation on earth, and you.
You bought new cars. You bought new houses. You filled up your time with, eternally speaking, what have to be regarded as silly hobbies. And you knew, at least you said you knew, that I was coming back. Why didn't you invest what I gave you, your time, your treasures, and your talent?
Why didn't you invest it for my kingdom? Listen, nothing wrong with a little RR, nothing wrong with a little rest and relaxation, nothing wrong with hobbies or nice things. But listen, many of you work.
So that you can have nicer things and go on vacation. That's like the end game. And that is why you want to retire early. I just want to work hard now so I can have longer to go on vacation. Listen to this.
A disciple of Jesus takes occasional vacations.
so that he can work more for Jesus' kingdom. And you gotta see, some of you are exactly flipped. You're working so that you can have more nice stuff and take better vacations on earth. A disciple of Jesus takes vacations and has nice stuff so that they can live more for the kingdom they know that is coming, that is eternal. In one of those parables that Jesus told.
But I referred to a mendigo, and honestly, this scares me a little bit. He describes a guy who failed to invest the talent, the resources that God had given him. And Jesus said that when he returned, he cast that servant into outer darkness, which means he wasn't saved. He was not really a disciple. Are you a disciple of Jesus?
Here's the way to answer that. Are you investing your time, your talent, and your treasures for the kingdom of God? College students, as you think about your future. Are you thinking about your career in terms of how it can be most greatly used for Jesus' kingdom? I'm not saying you all become like me by any means, but are you thinking about it in light of the kingdom?
Those of you who are working, what's your end game in your job? Is it just so you can retire wealthy and enjoy nice stuff for your few years on earth? Or are you saying, God, I'll take a few vacations so that I can work more diligently for your kingdom? Number three, here's the third thing that will change in you when you believe that his return is imminent. Hope in suffering.
Hope and suffering. Let me direct your attention back to the text for a minute. Mark 13, verse 26. Then they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds and power. In great power and glory.
Let me point out a little something to you. We always talk about Jesus coming back to earth through the clouds. That's actually a misquotation of this verse. Notice it doesn't say he comes through the clouds. He comes with the clouds.
Why is that distinction important? Because the clouds to Jewish people were a symbol of heaven.
So, what he's saying is: I'm gonna bring heaven back to earth. And I am going to restore paradise as I intended it because our sin brought curse, our sin brought sickness and pain and death. And one day he says, my return guarantees that I'm going to set everything right again and that all the pain you're going through now is just temporary. You see, I can endure just about anything. If I know it's temporary.
If I know it's not going to last that long.
So that means when I'm in pain. I can look up and say. It might be today. He's coming. It might be tonight.
And he will come with the clouds. And when he comes, he will wipe every tear from every eye. There will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more crying. Because he will restore the world the way that God created it to be. In this situation, he's just temporary.
It'll be like, as Lewis says, a bad night in a cheap hotel. You can lift your eyes because the return of Christ is imminent. And it's not going to last forever, and it could be tonight. If your life just has not turned out like you always hoped it would be, You thought at one point life was going to be different. You were going to obtain certain things and get to certain places, but it's just not working out like that.
You're not in the marital status. You're not in the career status. I love what a friend of mine says. The promise of the second coming shows us that the good old days. are always ahead of us.
Never behind us.
Some of you, if you're honest, you look back and you think those were the good old days. I had so many dreams and it hadn't turned out. The good old days, if the second coming is true, if the return is imminent, the good old days are right ahead of you. Gives you hope. Number four.
gives you power to forgive. Tim Keller says, Believing in the return of Jesus gives you the power to forgive. You know, over the years I've counseled a number of people who or had difficulty forgiving somebody because of something they did you know to them And believe it or not, this idea of the imminent return of Christ. I've seen this actually help people tremendously. Why?
What happens when somebody really hurts you? The first thing you want to do is you want to jump up on the judgment seat, right? And you want to make sure they get what they deserve. And you're willing to be God's instrument to be used in that, like God here, my send me. Even if you know you shouldn't do that, you're cheering God along as you know.
Oh, give it to him, God. Yeah, stick it to him. Oh, a little harder, God. I don't think it was hard enough. You know, you want to start cheering for God.
Here's a problem. Listen. You were not created for that judgment seat. You're not big enough for it. And when you try to sit on the judgment seat, it works a little bit like that ring in the Lord of the Rings.
It destroys you. It feels so good going on. It feels so good to get vengeance, but it corrupts and destroys your soul because you weren't made with the capacity to give judgment. You ever seen bitterness really destroy somebody? You probably have.
Maybe it's destroyed you. What happens is you see this person unable to forgive somebody else. Maybe what they did was really bad. But what happens is they have so much hate in their heart for that person that they begin to color everything that person does so that nothing they can do is ever good. Because everything you see that person through is the lens of hate.
And then, if it's really bad, they'll start to project their hate of that person on every person who's like them.
So you got a guy who's been hurt by his wife and he hates all women. You have a person who's been treated badly by somebody of another race, and so they hate everybody from that race. That's happening in your soul because you weren't created for the judgment seat. The doctrine of the second coming helps us stay off of it because we know he's coming back and he'll bring justice.
So I can endure injustice for the time being. I can live in a world where Evil is not always paid back because I know the real judge is coming, his return is soon, and he's going to set things right. Those four things. Those four things are what change in you when you begin to understand the imminence of Jesus' return. You say, well, what's his return going to be like?
When's it going to happen? Unfortunately That's a bigger question than I have time for. Yeah, I would need, you know, probably. I already heard several people like, you should do a whole series on that, maybe, okay? Jesus, please come back before I have to do that series.
Basically, real quick, here's four positions that people generally gravitate toward. Um just real quick, give you um one's called pre-tribulational. The tribulation is that seven-year period. You know this, the seven-year period where the Antichrist does battle with Kirk Cameron for seven years. And then these people believe that God will rapture out believers right before that takes place.
The second position of they call it post-treb, post-tribulational, which believes that we'll go through the tribulation and then Jesus will come back afterwards.
So it's after the tribulation. One of the problems people sometimes point out with that is it doesn't feel like it's that imminent because how you know if we're in the tribulation, I feel like I would know it. Then there's the post-millennial and amillennial positions, which they don't really believe there's going to be a tribulation at all. They think that's all kind of metaphor. And so like, well, Jesus can return whenever.
The problem is, there's a lot of things in the book of Revelation that don't really seem to fit well with this model. And then there's my favorite position that I call the pan-tribulationist position, which means I really have no idea, but I know it will all pan out in the end.
Okay. So like, how many of you are there? You're like, that's where I am right now. All right, good. One thing that I think we cannot dispute.
One thing you should not dispute. We ought to be expecting his return today. That is the consistent teaching that ought to be true no matter how you parse that last stuff. Charles Spurgeon said it this way: the hour of his appearing is not revealed. In order that we may always stand on tiptoe.
Expecting the return to be today. Which leads me to the last question I'm going to ask you. Do you yearn? for his return. Are you on tiptoe?
Because see, you're supposed to be. And it actually, listen. The degree to which you yearn for his return is like a thermometer in your heart that will tell you your spiritual temperature. I don't mean to be all judgmental and condemning, but for many of you, you never think about it. And that tells you a little bit about where your heart has made its home.
Do you yearn for his return? When I was in college, I heard a true story of a teacher who taught kids with special needs. And so she taught them about the return of Jesus. And she said that after she taught them about the return of Jesus, whenever her kids, her special needs kids, would hear a commotion or a loud voice, they'd all jump up and say, He's coming back! And they'd all run to the window and they'd look out the window to see if Jesus was coming back.
The Christian band New Song actually turned that story into a song. And she just can't keep them in their seats. They're all at the windows, straining to see. Its fingertips and noses pressed to the window panes, longing eyes, expectant hearts for him to come again. All they know is that they love him so.
And if he said, he's coming. He's coming. All they know is that they love him so, and he said he's coming, and he's coming for them.
So the first thing you know, they're out of their seats, back at the windows, straining to see. You yearn for his return like that? Again, let's be honest. Most of us don't. And I'll give you two reasons why that's true.
Reason number one. Is that we are so at home in this world. We've spent so much of our lives Trying to make life good here. The second coming is good news for people whose lives are filled with bad news, and we spend our entire life trying to create good news for us here. Right?
C.S. Lewis, again, still making up, says. Wealth has a way of knitting a man's heart to this world. Wealth has a way of knitting a man's heart to this world. We don't find ourselves longing for his return because we have so much invested here.
You see, the fact that you don't long for his return ought to be a thermometer that says. you might ought to be careful as to what kingdom you've actually leveraged your life for. That's reason number one. Reason number two. The thought of Jesus' return for most of us.
This mixed with a little fear. Maybe a lot of fear. Because you know you're not ready to stand before him. The idea of standing before the judge of all the earth. For many of you, if right now we heard the voice, From the eastern sky, he shouted, and Jesus is coming back.
Yours would not be running to him to embrace the open arms of God your Father. It's fear because when the judge shows up, there is. You're not ready to give an account. I see this with my kids. When my kids think that I'm Happy with them?
Oh, they love to be close. I come home, they run out, they jump in my lap. Oh, Daddy, read this to me. Oh, dad, look at this. Oh, dad, look what I pulled out of my nose.
Just, I mean, whatever it is. You know, they're like, Dad, look. Would my kids think I'm mad at them? Whether they just think I'm in a bad mood or whether they, you know, actually have done something I mean, they avoid me. They're like, oh, back.
Like, don't talk to dad. Many of you that your heart doesn't long to see Jesus because you Fear. His anger. It's kind of a well-founded fear. Because one day you will give an account for everything in your life, every single thing.
Maybe you know that you haven't kept the Ten Commandments. Maybe you don't even believe in the Ten Commandments. Here's one thing I know about you: even if you don't believe in the Ten Commandments. The human heart understands that it's guilty. And so even people who aren't religious are terrified at the thought of standing before the judge.
So, can I tell you the last great piece of good news from this passage? It's probably the best part. If you go back through Mark 13 and read this account of the last, the end. You'll notice that when Jesus describes the judgment day, he starts using these odd phrases. On that day, the sun will be darkened and the moon will be turned to blood.
When you get over to Mark 15, two chapters later, which is the story of Jesus' crucifixion. You read the darkness came down. utter darkness that settled over the whole land. He says, on that day the earth will be shaken. Then you get to the story of the crucifixion.
It says that when Jesus died, the earth shook and the rocks split open. You see, when you read... The account of the judgment day in Mark 13, and then you get to the story of the crucifixion in Mark 15, you're supposed to say, What's happening at the crucifixion? It almost looks like Judgment Day. It was.
Jesus on the cross was the ultimate judgment day. He was judged in our place.
So that for those of us who receive him, all we have to look forward to is reunion with our Father, never fear over facing the judge. Jesus faced the judge so I would not have to. He received condemnation so that I could receive only commendation. Not because I deserve only commendation, but because there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, because Jesus took it all in our place. At the first coming, Jesus did not come to bring judgment, he came to bear it.
This is the gospel. After living the life we couldn't live ourselves, Jesus died the death we deserved. We can live without fear. Thank you, Jesus. Pastor J.D.
Greer concludes our challenging study called The Difficult Sayings of Jesus here on the Summit Life podcast. Have a great Easter weekend of worship with your local church and we'll see you again next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
