1132. Why the Second Coming Matters

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today on The Daily Platform, we're beginning a study series entitled Return of the King, which is a study of the second coming of Christ. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Sam Horn.

God has a plan that he established in eternity past that is going to be fulfilled in the future. Jesus came the first time, and when he came the first time in fulfillment of God's promises, he also said and promised he's going to come the second time. And so the hope of the believer is the return of the king. And I'm so glad that we can have Dr. Horn begin our series this semester as he lays the foundation for the coming of the Lord. And so let's open our hearts to the Word of God as he comes to speak this morning. Let me ask you to take your Bible this morning to the book of Hebrews chapter 9.

And while you're turning to the book of Hebrews chapter 9, I have a question I would like to ask you. How many of you have seen the movie series, the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings? Can I see your hands? All right. How many of you have actually taken a night and you have watched all three movies at once and you actually stayed awake? A day. All right. A day. Very good. All right.

Well, I want to begin that way because I want to make a point in just a minute. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the final installment of that came out in 2003. And it is based on a story, as you well know, that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

And he actually published the stories between 1954 and 1955. The scenery and the cinematography in the movies, the trilogy, is actually stunning. The movies that make up the trilogy are familiar to you. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King. These three movies were shot over a period of time, eight years, in one of the most beautiful countries in all of the world, New Zealand.

And I can say that because my dad is from New Zealand and I was actually born in the capital city of New Zealand, the city of Auckland. And so I have a real affinity. That's one of the reasons I enjoy the movies. The making of the movies involved an immense cast.

And this may be something you're not aware of. One out of every 160 New Zealanders was cast in these movies. There was an immense amount of money that was spent making these movies. The estimated budget for the movies was between $280 and $330 million. And as you can imagine, it was a runaway box office success. It grossed over $3 billion by the time it was all said and done. The final installment, The Return of the King, grossed over a billion dollars and continues to be one of the most popular movies of all time.

And actually, in box office rankings, globally, it's number 21. And what makes this movie so compelling is more than just the cinematography and the scene. It's the compelling storyline.

I mean, you know the storyline. It's the story of a plucky hobbit named Frodo, who's the unlikely owner of a ring. And not just any ring. A ring of immense power. It's the story of a kingdom, Middle Earth, held in darkness, ruled by a dark lord who holds sway over all of the other rulers by means of a ring. And it's the story of an empty throne, the throne of Gondor, waiting to be filled by a rightful heir.

In a not so accidental way, this amazing work of literary fiction reminds us of another story. A story about another kingdom that's held in darkness. Not a kingdom that exists in the mind of a literary author, but a real kingdom. The kingdom Earth that you and I inhabit. And it's held over by a dark lord with cruel power who's the enemy of our soul. And there is an empty throne, the throne of David. There are unexpected humans on a mission that seems impossible, that are related to that throne. And there's a coming king who will defeat the dark lord, rescue the people of the Earth, and restore order, justice, and joy when he comes. There are striking similarities between the two stories. But there is one major difference.

You are probably much more familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien's story than you are with the story about the real return of the king. And the series this semester is one in which we would like to change that. We would like to bring you into the place where you actually know and understand and explore all of the details and the major storyline of the return of the real king. And that's what we want to do. So this semester, we're going to do the very best we can, those of us who are delivering these messages, to give you a clear picture of the compelling storyline of scripture that Dr. Pettit mentioned to you a few moments ago. And we're going to do that in ten sermons.

This is the first. There are nine more to come. And we're going to talk about things like, what do I really need to know about the second coming? And then what are the signs of the times? Will there be signs of the end times? We'll talk about the rapture.

That's a very big topic. I personally believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. And we're actually going to have a sermon where we lay out the argumentation from scripture in a very clear way about that.

So the question will be answered, will I be left behind? There will be a sermon on the tribulation period entitled, Saved from His Wrath. And then we'll talk about the future God has promised to the nation of Israel in a message called, A Promise is a Promise. God has made certain promises to the nation of Israel.

And just like He has been fulfilling His promises physically and literally, we believe that He will do the same for Israel. And so we'll talk about that in one of the messages that is coming. Many of you are familiar with the term dispensationalism. We're going to spend some time talking about that in a message called, God's Plan for the Ages, an overview of dispensationalism. And then we're going to spend some time talking about this wonderful period of time mentioned in scripture called, The Millennium in a message called, Peace on Earth. And then we'll end our series or we'll come to the end of our series by looking at an inescapable day that every son or daughter of Adam is going to face. And we read about this at the very end of our Bible and it's called Judgment Day. We're going to talk about the great white throne judgment. And then we're going to end with the reminder, and hopefully the joyful reminder, that the second coming is not something we should fear or about which we should have confusion.

It's something that we should long for because actually, as believers, the return of the king is our awesome hope. So we have an awesome series to look forward to this semester. And I want to encourage you to do a couple of things as you get ready for the series.

And as I've been thinking about the series and preparing my own part in it, these are things that have been helpful to me. So let me just give you a couple of very quick things that I think you should think about and then we'll jump into why the second coming matters. I want you to think about the fact that the topics that we're addressing are of great significance. The doctrine of the second coming is a foundational doctrine to the faith that you believe. Because it is the culmination, it is the completion of God's plan that He began in the Garden of Eden.

It is the climax of the work of Jesus Christ that He began at the cross, and it actually is the transformation of everything in you and everything about you. So we could hardly be talking about a more interesting and more critical topic this semester than the one we are talking about. So let me urge you to consider the importance of the topics that we're going to be addressing this semester. And then secondly, let me encourage you to determine to listen intentionally and engage personally with these topics. For some of you, this will be the first time you will hear these truths articulated in a passionate, thoughtful, clear, and sequential way.

There's actually a reason why the topics were chosen and why they are arranged in the series. And so let me encourage you to listen intentionally and engage personally with these topics. You're going to have questions.

Please ask them. And then thirdly, let me encourage you to resolve to listen charitably and graciously. Obviously, on a topic like this, there are going to be places where good Christians disagree. I've learned two things as I prepared and been reminded of as I prepared this series. One, it is incredibly important, as we just observed. And two, some of the interpretations that come with these topics are sometimes difficult and complicated. And those who are speaking in the series have committed that we are going to do our very best to be clear. We're going to be accurate and we want to be simple in the way that we present these ideas. And while you personally at times may disagree with a particular detail of information, we're going to do our very best to present the truth as we see it and understand it. And we want to do it clearly, respectfully, and graciously. But we want to present the truth as we understand it. So as you hear truth presented graciously and clearly, can I encourage you to respond that way in kind? In other words, let me say it this way.

If our series on the return of the King ends up creating contention instead of celebration in our midst, we have really missed the goal of the series or one of the goals of the series. And then finally, listen joyfully and reflectively. And let me just put it to you this way.

This series is about the coming, the arrival of the most awesome individual in human history. And he's your best friend. He is closer to you than anybody else on this planet. He's closer to you than your parents. He's closer to you than your own family, your brothers, your sisters. He's closer to you even than a husband or a wife.

He is your very best friend and you have never seen him. You've read about him. You have descriptions that are given to you in the text of scripture. You have the historical record that's in the Gospels.

You sort of can frame up ideas about what he might have looked like based on what you know about first century Judaism and what that part of the world was like. So you have some little idea in the back of your head, but you have never seen this person that has had such an incredible part of your life. And you are going to see for the very first time openly as real as you are seeing me or you or the person sitting next to you, you are going to see Jesus when he comes. Now we have ideas about when that coming is. We have ideas about the events that surround all of that. We're going to make good arguments for that. We hope that as you hear those arguments, you will be convinced.

But at the end of the day, it isn't about the arguments, it's about the person. So you are going to see Jesus when he comes. And that should ignite in you a deep joy and anticipation. And that's really what we hope to do. So as we get started in our series this morning, can I give you four simple ways to look at the series and to think about the second coming?

Here's the first. I think as we think about the series, we need to start here. We need to start by embracing the reality of the second coming. He actually is coming. And don't assume that everybody embraces that reality. And so we need to make the case for the second coming of Jesus Christ, especially because it is the bedrock truth, it is the foundational ground of the Christian faith. It is woven through the entirety of scripture. As you heard earlier, as Dr. Pettis sort of reviewed and went to the past, the Old Testament anticipates the coming of an anointed, appointed champion who was promised to our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden in Genesis 3, verse 15. And the coming and the arrival of that individual is not just a theoretical promise or just some kind of comfort that is supposed to just get the Old Testament believer to the next step, even as though it weren't really going to ever happen. The reality of the second coming is woven through the entire Old Testament.

And it's pitched this way. When this person arrives, when this anointed, appointed champion arrives, he's going to deliver us from our sins. He is going to reverse the curse and return us to our rightful place as rulers over God's creation under God, which is exactly what you see Adam and Eve set up to do in the garden before the fall.

And then he is going to defeat and destroy the ancient enemy who was the source of all of this pain and brokenness. So there is an anointed, appointed champion who's going to take us from the garden to a city that we meet at the end of the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22 that is remarkably like that garden. And the problem is we don't have a way there. It's not like we lost the map and we can't figure out how to get there.

There isn't a way back to that garden. And that's why there had to be an anointed, appointed champion who would himself be that way. He himself would be the entranceway. That's why Jesus referred to himself in his first coming when he said, this statement, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

He described himself as the door, the passageway. So this anointed, appointed champion became the focal point of the patriarchs and the prophets as they, pardon me, as they believed and they hoped and they looked for the day when this anointed Messiah would appear. The entire trajectory and the testimony of the Old Testament is one of anticipation.

They were leaning forward. They were looking into and eagerly awaiting the arrival of this anointed champion. And one day, the last of a long line of Old Testament prophets, a man named John, was baptizing in a river, the Jordan River. And as he's baptizing, he looks on the banks of the river and he sees a man walking. And he says about that man to the people around him, now that one, that man, that one is the lamb of God. He is God's lamb. And he will take away the sins of the world.

The long years of anticipation were finally over. God's champion had come. Now the curse would be broken. Sinful, guilty men would be redeemed from the penalty of the law. Evil would be defeated. God's people would be delivered and restored.

Everything would be made right. But as Jesus began to talk, particularly as he comes to the most climatic moment of his ministry, he made an unexpected announcement. And that unexpected announcement was this, when I return. On the last night of his life, he was looking at his closest friends. Those who he had promised would be with him in the kingdom.

I mean, they spent immense amounts of time together talking about the kingdom and thinking about the kingdom. And on the last night of his life, he drops a theological bomb on them. And he says it this way, do not let your heart be troubled. I'm going away, but I'm not going away, away. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And then he says it this way in John 14. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, you may be also. For the very first time in all of Revelation history, Jesus makes clear that his mission would involve two comings.

That was not anticipated by the Old Testament prophets. It's there, but it wasn't anticipated. And all of a sudden, it's like the FedEx arrow. You know what I'm talking about, about the FedEx arrow? Once you see it, you can't ever unsee it. I mean, if you look at that FedEx, look at the orange E and the X and where the bottom half of the E and the first half of the X, you can see a white arrow. Do you see that? How many of you see that white arrow? You will never unsee it. From this point forward until the second coming, every time you see a FedEx truck, you're going to look for that arrow. And you know what? Every time you see your Bible now, after Jesus made that statement, you see the second coming everywhere.

It's everywhere. And that's really the second thing we ought to talk about. It's predicted in the Gospels. Jesus ends his last words to the church in Revelation 22-20 with a reminder that he is coming soon. Every New Testament writer affirms and confirms and proclaims the second coming. It's in every Gospel, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John has an immense amount of material on the second coming. In every one of Paul's epistles, there is a reference or allusion to the second coming. The writer of Hebrews, the verse I had you open to, is all about the second coming. James has a reference in chapter five to the second coming. Jude talks about it in verses 14 and 15 of his one chapter epistle.

And of course John speaks very frankly to us about what the second coming should do as we think about it. It is all throughout the scriptures. And you can see it in the book of Hebrews chapter 9 verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. And in that verse you find the reason for the second coming.

What does that verse mean? So Christ was offered to bear the sins of many. Was once offered to bear the sin of many.

You can say it this way. In his first coming, the one that you read about in the gospels, you could say that he was coming as a suffering servant. He came to deliver men from the penalty of sin. He came as our sin sacrifice. So that's what he did in the first coming. What is he actually going to do in the second coming?

And the writer of Hebrews says it this way. He is not coming to deal with sin. He had dealt with that in his first coming. He is coming now to deliver those who have been forgiven from all the affliction that is going on around them.

You could say it this way. When Jesus returns, he will consummate the salvation of his people. Listen to John. John says this, or I'm sorry, Paul says this in Philippians chapter 3. For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what's going to happen when he comes. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. That's going to happen when King Jesus returns. He will be glorified in and by his people. Paul says to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1-10, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. When Jesus comes, you are going to be incredibly wowed.

It will be a jaw-dropping moment. And then he's coming to exact and require just vengeance on those who have defied him, who have rejected the gracious offer of the gospel, who have persecuted people like you for your belief in the gospel. Some of you are going to endure persecution in the years to come as you go out and you live redemptively in the world around you.

You're going to suffer for that. Some of you are going to suffer and you're going to be denied promotions because of your beliefs in the gospel. Some of you may lose an opportunity economically because of your faith and your passion and your faithfulness to Jesus Christ. And when people actually find out that you literally believe in the second coming, they're actually going to wonder about your own intelligence. And Jesus says, now when I come back, I'm going to set all of that right. Listen to how he says it, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 9. He is coming to defeat the ancient enemy of his people and of God.

Romans 16, 20, Paul said, and the very God of peace shall brew Satan under your feet shortly. And notice that he will come to receive and rule over the kingdom promised to him by his father. And that's precisely what he talks about in Matthew 25, one of the greatest chapters on the second coming, when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And then listen to the final part of that verse, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, come inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations of the world.

It's not just the coming of our king in glory, it's also our glorification so that we inherit the kingdom that our older brother is preparing for us and has been from before the foundations of the world. So how should we react to the second coming? Well there's some who deny it, you can read about that in 2 Peter 3.

They scoff and they mock about the length of time. If he hadn't come in 35 years in the time of Peter, then how in the world do you think he's going to come? Why are you still holding onto that belief? And way more than 35 years have passed. We are 2,000 plus years from his first coming. And so there are people who deny and defiantly scoff at the second coming. And then there are those that sensationalize the second coming. For example in Matthew 24 we have a statement about only God knowing, only the Father knowing the time of the coming. And there have been immense efforts to figure out when that time is. In 1988 there was a guy named Edgar Weizenand and he wrote a book called 88 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming in 1988.

He issued a revision in 1989 called 89 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming in 1989. So there have always been sensationalized approaches to this and then frankly there are people who marginalize it. And it may be that some of us actually do that. Because we know about it, we have it in our head. It's a theological thing, we study in doctrines. We sit in our Bible doctrines class and there's a whole section on eschatology and part of that is the second coming and so we write our notes and we pass our quiz and then we just go the rest of our life and we kind of know it's out there but we never think about it. So how should we respond?

And that's what this series is intended to do. By the time you get to the end of the semester, here's what I'm hoping will happen in my heart and here's what I'm hoping will happen in yours. One, you will think about the second coming of Jesus a lot. That it will always be on your mind. And that when you actually think about it, you long for it.

That it's actually something you anticipate. It's something that you're waiting for as you go through the busyness of life and you complete the assignment that God is giving you in whatever stage of life you're in. That the second coming is never far away in the back of your mind.

It's always on your mind and it's always in your heart. You long for it and then finally because you think about it and you long for it, you talk to God about it. You pray faithfully and fervently that the King would return, that Jesus would come and this is exactly how John felt when he ended the most amazing revelation in the Bible about the second coming, the old book of Revelation. And at the end of that book, he says this as he reminds us that the one who testified about these things said, surely I come quickly.

And here's what John says, even so, come Lord Jesus. And I hope that by the end of the semester, we will be thinking and longing and praying that the Lord would come. Father, thank you for your word. May it impact us. May it inform us. But most of all, Lord, may this truth satisfy us. May it create deep joy and abiding satisfaction in us as we pray today for your coming. And we pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.