Jesus' mission was to seek and save the lost. It's why he came. And when He ascended into heaven, He promised He would come again. But When exactly will that happen? And why does it seem to be taking him so long?
Alastair Begg addresses these questions today on Troop for Life. As he considers how we can be prepared for the world. For Jesus' second coming. I invite you to turn with me initially. to the Gospel of Mark.
and to chapter thirteen. I'm going to read from the third verse. to the sixth and then from the thirty-second verse. to the end of the chapter. Mark chapter 13.
And verse 3. And is he, that is Jesus, sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew. asked him privately Tell us When will these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished? And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray.
Many will come in my name, saying I am He. And they will lead Many astray. And down in verse thirty-two, but concerning that day or that hour no one knows. Not even the angels in heaven. nor the sun.
But only the Father. Be on guard. Keep awake. for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work.
and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake. for you do not know when the master of the house will come In the evening, Or at midnight, or or when the rooster crows, or in the morning. Lest he Come suddenly. and find you asleep.
And what I say to you I say to all, Stay awake. That's not a reference to what is about to take place. It is a much bigger exhortation, but it does have something of an immediate application. Father, as we turn to the Bible, help us to stay awake, to stay alert. to listen not for the voice of a man, but for your voice.
through your word by your spirit. accomplishing that which you have purposed for this hour. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, in the church calendar to which we pay scant attention. Not in a dismissive way, but it's just not our pattern to follow the liturgy in that way. But in the church calendar, Christmas Day marks the end of Advent. The four Sundays that lead up to Advent are for us as Christian pilgrimages, supposed to be a time of meditation and a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus, for His Advent. And in order to sustain that notion through the month of Advent, the church calendar provides.
a prayer that is an Advent prayer. That is prayed, I think, on every occasion when the people gather. And I want to remind you of that prayer.
Some of you will be familiar with it. Ah this is the prayer that is prayed. Almighty God, Give us grace. that we may cast away the works of darkness. and put upon us the armour of light.
Now In the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. That in the last day When he shall come again, In His glorious majesty, to judge both the living and the dead. We may rise to the right. the life immortal. Through him who liveth.
And reigneth with thee. and the Holy Ghost.
Now and for ever. Amen.
The benefit of that prayer is multiple, but at least it does this for us. It reminds us that we live our lives between two advents. We live our lives between the two comings of the Lord Jesus. First he has come, as it says, in this humility. And then he will come again in glorious majesty.
The benefit that we enjoyed on Christmas Eve, those of us who were together, was that we were able to look back to the first coming of the Lord Jesus. when he came in deep humility, when his whole earthly pilgrimage is spoken of in terms of his humility.
Now, this morning, we look forward to the time when Jesus will return in glorious majesty. It is of significance that when the divines put together the liturgy of the Anglican services, they saw the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem always in light of the return of Jesus in power and in glory. And the best of our Christmas carols actually help us along those lines. They make it clear to us. I know that some will smile at this because I immediately rehearse Once in Royal David's City, but it is as clear there as any.
Once in Royal David's City stood a lowly cattle shed. Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed. And that's the beginning of the carol. But the carol doesn't end there. The carol goes on to say, He came down.
to earth from heaven. I who is God and Lord of all. and his shelter was a stable, and so on and his manger his cradle was a stall. But the day is coming when our eyes at last shall see him through his own redeeming love. when that power so meek and gentle is our Lord in heaven above.
And it doesn't even end there. It says Not in that poor lowly stable, with the angels standing by. We shall see him but in glory, set on God's right hand on high. And the importance of the Advent season, which I think it is possible for some of us to miss, is that looking back to His coming is in order to encourage us to look forward to His coming. that on Christmas Eve we sought to say to one another, here is the great reminder of the gift that God has given, a gift that we might ha hold out empty hands, hands of believing faith, to receive what He has given to us.
That opportunity he came to his own. His own did not receive it. But to as many as received him, he gave power to become the children of God. That's Christmas Eve.
Now, on this particular morning, we look forward to the reality of being received by Him. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
so that where I am, there you may be also. we receive him. And consequently, look forward to the day. when he will receive us. But what about that day?
What about this day of the Lord's return? Two questions to consider. First of all, When will Christ come? And secondly, how will Christ come? First of all, when will he come?
And for many people, this is not simply a matter of investigation, it is a matter of preoccupation. And you meet them from time to time, and they're constantly on about it. And in not in a bad way, but they're just on about it. I used to be very on about it when I worked at a at a a restaurant in Philadelphia a hundred years ago or so. I think I've told you before I worked with a waitress there.
I think her name was Jenny. And at the end of the day, I would try and witness to her and I was telling her, you know, Jenny, Jesus Christ is coming back again. And she said, Listen, Alistair, don't hit me with a second coming. I haven't even figured out his first coming. And I realized then, you know, that the first story is what it means that Jesus has come, and until we get that, it doesn't really mean very much that he will come.
Long ago, many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. The last days began with his first advent. And the last days will end With his second advent, And the Matter of the coming of Christ. is just everywhere. When Jesus came into Galilee at the start of his earthly ministry, at least in terms of his manhood as we know it.
You will remember that he came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. And seeing what? The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. No, the people who were of Jewish descent We're immediately able to make sense of that.
Because they had been tracking as a nation, as a people under God, looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises that are all the way through from Genesis right through to Malachi. And so Jesus is saying to them, here is the kingdom. I am the king. Therefore, that's part one. The kingdom progresses even today.
and has done throughout history through the preaching of the gospel. And it's only after those two things: the coming of Jesus, the proclamation of the gospel. that finally the kingdom of God will come openly and universally. Every eye will see. I have found it this week helpful to try and remind myself.
That all that God has done in these things is, if you like, one divine. decisive act on the part of God. What do I mean by that? I mean this. That instead of seeing the incarnation and the crucifixion and so on in a very compartmentalized way.
again in a way that often happens as a result of following a church calendar. We need to recognize that the incarnation The atonement, his crucifixion, The resurrection His ascension And his return All form just one. Eternal, decisive act on the part of God to accomplish his purposes. And that is then When people say, Where is the promise of his coming? Where is the promise of his coming?
They scoffed to say, Where is the promise of his coming? Because they wrestled with the fact, which is understandable.
Well, if he said he was going to come back, where in the world is he? And why is there such a long delay?
Now, if you read your Murimich Shayn this morning, you know that that was exactly what Abraham was dealing with himself. And that was the question this morning. How did Abraham keep going? being told at such an age that he was going to become the father of a child and that he would actually be the one who was the father of these nations and tribes of the world. How did he do it?
He believed the promise.
Sometimes he got shaky, but he believed the promise of God. And the answer to the scoffers' question, which you find in 2 Peter chapter 3, where is the prophets of his coming, they said to the folks of that first century. Everything is just continuing very much the same it has always been. And the answer that Peter gives is the Lord is not slow concerning his promise. What looks like a delay to us Is actually a purposeful act from eternity on the part of God, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So, in other words, the fact that Jesus has not returned now is in order that others may, as we sang this morning, have the privilege of entering into the joy of salvation. God is giving people time to repent and believe.
Well, very well, you say that's all fine and dandy, I suppose, but I think you're just circling around the issue. The question is, when will Jesus come? When will Jesus come?
Well, the way he answers that question is very straightforward. You just see what Jesus said. For example, this is what Jesus says in Matthew 24. The Son of Man is coming At an hour You do not expect.
Now, that ought to be helpful to some of the people I was talking about, the preoccupiers, who every time you're with them, they tell you, I think it might not be Tuesday, but there's a solid possibility for Thursday.
Now, we don't want to be dismissive of that, because every time we come to, we get through the Advent, which is, if you like, the beginning of the church's year. It is a reminder to us that Jesus Christ may come back before we ever celebrate his first advent again.
So don't don't misunderstand what I'm saying when I when I s I'm being vaguely humorous about these things. The Son of Man is going to come at a time that you do not expect.
Now that's why we read from we could have read from Matthew, we could have read from Luke, but we decided to read from Mark. And if you turn back to Mark chapter 13. You will see there. that We are not privy to the Father's plan about the return of Jesus. But the good news is, we're actually in very good company.
in that position. Because you will notice that there in Mark chapter thirteen. And 32, Jesus is speaking. concerning that day or that hour, No one knows.
So Look around and Say you don't know. He doesn't know. She doesn't know. How do you know? Because nobody knows.
And we're in good company. Look at what the verse goes on to say. Not even the angels. The angels, Myriad upon Myriad, who were present at his first advent. And who will have a big part to play in his second advent.
Presumably, are living, as it were, in readiness all the time. For when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, And archangels will be dispatched. And suddenly, that which has been planned from all of eternity will come to fruition. But right now, the angels don't know.
Furthermore, The sun doesn't know. Jesus doesn't know. The one who is coming. Who is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, he himself does not know. That he has, as Calvin has put it, submitted to this ignorance.
on our account. No one knows. Only The father And then Jesus uses a picture there in verse thirty four, which you can find again the parables that Jesus tells concerning his coming are in a sense just precede here in these couple of verses by Mark. I think he assumes that we will be familiar with them in Luke and also in Matthew. And the picture is very clear.
The person leaves home, he puts his service in charge, and so on. And what is Jesus doing?
Well, he's saying, This is a picture of me, I'm leaving. We know that because we've been studying John 17. And in fact, Jesus has said, I am no longer in the world. He says it proleptically. There's that word again.
He means it is as good as done because I am leaving. But Father, they are staying. Jesus knew how he would leave and he knew when he would leave. And he knows how he will return. But he doesn't know.
When he will. Return.
Now, if we find ourselves perplexed by this, let's just be honest that the disciples themselves were perplexed by this. When you get to the apostles, even after the resurrection of Jesus and in the prospect of the ascension of Jesus. What do you find? You find that they are still not clear in their minds. They asked Jesus, Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
They still can't get it. And Jesus says to him, listen, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons that the Father has purposed. But you will receive the Holy Spirit. He will fall upon you. And you will now go out and do exactly what you're supposed to do to take the message of the gospel to the nations.
And in fact, when you take those parables, you realize that Jesus is making sure that no one is in any doubt about what it means to be engaged in these things. His first advent should in some measure Be filling the children of God in prospect of a second advent. And the way in which that will become apparent. Is not our ability to articulate times and seasons, but it's two things. One Moral purity.
He who has this hope within him purifies himself even as Christ is pure. You gotta meet your girlfriend off the train? Make sure you've Prepared yourself. Use your deorberant. Splash something.
Comb your hair at least. You wouldn't want to meet her in that wretched state, would you? Or vice versa? Morally pure. and zealous in evangelism.
Personally, increasingly sanctified. and personally increasingly involved in saying to people, you know that Jesus has come once and Jesus is coming again, and here is Jesus. Who is the faithful and wise servant? The servant doing What he was asked To do And he's doing it when his master returns. When is he coming?
We are ignorant. in relationship to that answer. Ignorance in relationship to proximity. in no way diminishes the certainty of his promise. And in fact, if you go through Mark chapter 13 on your own, as I have done, you just see, you say, now, what is the sort of overarching perspective that Jesus wants his disciples to get in relationship to this.
I just point it out to you as we go through. And in verse five, Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray. Be careful who you listen to. In verse 9, be on your guard. In verse twenty-one And then, if anyone says to you, Look, here's the Christ, or look, there he is.
Do not believe it. That's pretty straightforward. That's from the lips of Jesus. Verse 23. But be on guard.
I've told you all things beforehand. Verse thirty three. Be on guard. Verse thirty-five Stay awake. Verse thirty-seven And what I say to you, I say to all Stay awake.
You don't want to be asleep. You don't want to be one of the five foolish virgins? who thought they could cruise. Let the oil run down. Than go and borrow from somebody else.
And then bang on the door for entry. only to discover that there was no entry. This is serious. It was a private conversation Between Andrew and James and the others at the beginning. Jesus has conversed with them, and then he says, And what I say to you, that is to the four of you.
I see to all Jesus is not late. in fulfilling his promise. He is lovingly patient. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We'll hear more about the Second Advent tomorrow.
In the meantime, Alastair is here with an important message. Thank you, Bob. And as we close in on the final days of the year, I wish I could share with you the many letters sent to Truth for Life.
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You can call us today at 888-588-688. seven eight eight four. And when you give a gift today to help Truth for Life close out this year with the resources needed to continue the ministry into twenty twenty six, one of the ways we want to say thank you is by inviting you to request the new hymnal from songwriters Keith and Kristen Getty. It's called the Sing hymnal. I'm Bob Lapine.
We're glad you joined us today. When Jesus returns, it won't be like the first time. He won't come like a baby in a manger. And it won't be to seek and save the lost.
So how will Christ come, and for what purpose? That's our focus tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Yeah. Where the Learning is for Living.
