Dearest Family,
I really want to encourage you, so here goes! The Lord is coming soon and will come down from heaven and we will be with the Lord forever. I also want to encourage you to know that the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. The reason He died for us is so that we may live together with Him when He comes. I really hope you felt built up by that because that’s what Paul said the outcome should be (1Thessalonians 4:18; 5;10). What is interesting is that Paul prefaces his teaching about our going and His coming (titles of my last two messages during Lent) with the words: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). These convictions are the fruit of the resurrection, which is why I have been arguing the last two messages that this is such an important part of the Easter message. You will need to listen to the message to get all the content. I gave three main points so was really encouraged when someone told me afterwards they got the four points! Someone else told me that they wanted my notes as I was going too quickly. Actually, they confessed that their mind was not as absorptive as it used to be.
Fundamental to a Christian’s hope in a hopeless culture is the truth about the next Advent, the second coming of Christ. Just read the ways it is described throughout the NT. It is “our joyous hope” (Rom.5:2; 12:12); a non-disappointing hope (Rom.5:5); "our comforting hope" (Rom.15:4); “a righteous hope” (Gal.5:5); “our glorious hope” (Col.1:27); "our good hope" (2 Thess.2:16). It is “our hope” (1 Tim.1:1); it is “our blessed hope” (Tit.2:13); "our eternal hope" (Tit.3:7); "our assured hope" (Hebr.6:11); "our sure and steadfast hope” (Hebr.6:19); "our better hope” (Hebr.7:19); "our living hope” (1 Pet.1:3); "our gracious hope” (1 Pet.1:13); "our defensible hope" (1 Pet.3:15) Just a study of all those adjectives will tell you all the fruits you can experience in your present life as you anticipate that future coming: joy, confidence, righteousness, glory, goodness, assurance, steadfastness, grace, protection and on and on.
Let’s make the foundational point. It is impossible to be a Christian without a conviction and passion for this hope. Why? Well, you have to understand the nature of our salvation. The scriptures say that “in hope we are saved” (Romans 8:24). From the moment, we were saved it was unto this hope. This is not an additive, and not just something for the keen types. Future hope is what our salvation is all about. How is it that it so easily slips off the radar? How can anyone live a Christian life without being aware of this future, and being aware of this future, not be changed from glory to glory?
If you like, we are experiencing Salvation Part One. Now Part One is glorious enough, and it is hard to believe that there is even more, but there is so much more. By faith we have indeed been justified, we enjoy the forgiveness of our sins, and revel in the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the evidence of all his fruits and gifts and transforming works. We have already obtained so much but there is also much that is yet to be attained. There are two particular areas of incompletion.
The first has to do with our continuing tendency to sin, and our longing to be free of our sin in every possible way.
The second has to do with the nature of our physical bodies. Paul says we groan in these tabernacles, and of course, some groan more than others!
So, there are two things we long for, and these two things will be realized when our salvation is complete. When we see him we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We will experience the glorious liberty of the children of God and with the freedom we have longed for, render God our perfect service. Our mortal bodies will be quickened by his spirit, we will be raised a spiritual body: in other words, our bodies will be the perfect match for our spirits.
This hope for God’s future, for the fulfillment of all that we were created to be and know and experience forever, came with the very reception of the Holy Spirit when we were first saved. Hope came. This is why we are always longing, always believing, rightly, that there is more than we have tasted, always experiencing more, as the Lord draws us deeper into the experience of His kingdom come, and His kingdom coming. From the moment we were saved, this promise of fulfillment was secured for us, and in fact, so sure is it, that we actually live as if it has already been obtained. So, despite the limitations of our tendency to April 4, 2017 sin, the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that prepares us in holiness for here, is preparing us but for what is to come, and this is our daily victorious experience; and despite the limitations of mortality, the power of God is at work to transform us, to heal our bodies and deliver us, as the kingdom of God comes to us now, expressing the nature of God’s eternal love and power towards us. Our healings and deliverances are incredible expressions of this hope, and it is interesting the way that all such encounters with God deepen the longing for that which is to come. This is so important in that our hope protects us from ever making our miracle or deliverance a stopping place, as if that’s all there is to it. Jesus came, but Jesus comes now, even as surely as He will come again. On the basis of the first advent, Jesus came, Jesus comes to us now because of his finished work, by the power of the Holy Spirit that he left for us; and that same Spirit fuels our hope for that which is still to come – Jesus will come again.
Romans 8:23-25 is an important passage. “We ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved.” Here there are no less than five affirmations that we are hoping for in the fullness of our coming salvation, which Paul tells the Romans is nearer now than when we first believed.
First fruits: this is what Paul describes to the Ephesians as the down payment, the first installment that is the guarantor of what is to come, the foretaste of future glory.
We groan inwardly: the presence of the Spirit is a reminder of incompletion, as we long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (2 Corinthians 5:2-4)
Wait for adoption as sons / redemption of our bodies: we are going to be fully revealed as His children and our bodies are going to be like His glorious body.
In this hope we were saved: saved in hope of complete freedom
We wait patiently: the Christian posture is one of waiting. Patience is an organic intrinsic necessity. It goes with the territory. Aren’t you relieved it is a fruit of the Spirit? That is built into our backbone as it were. We are by definition “waiters”. We live between the times.
This expectation of the second coming, absolutely dominated the vista for the early Christian community.
Jesus Himself spoke of it: Mark 8:38 “when he comes in his Father’s glory with his angels”; Mark 13:26 “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”; Matthew 25:31-32: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne, and he will separate them from one another”; John 14:1-4 “I will come back and take you with me.”
His disciples were promised that “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Apostolic preaching continually made the point: Acts 3:19-21 “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything.” Acts 17:31 “He has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed.”
References in the epistles are numerous. Paul reminded the Philippians that “our conversation is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20 NAS; compare1 Corinthians 15: 51-54; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 2:19, 4:13-18; 1 Timothy 6:14). Christ “will appear a second time… to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28 NRSV).
Revelation begins and ends with a reference to Christ's return. “Behold, he cometh with clouds” (Rev. 1:7). “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).
The substance of the hope which will be realized in the future is described in so many different ways. Christians will “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21 NRSV); realize their hope of “righteousness” (Galatians 5:5); be “transformed into his likeness” (2 Corinthians 3: 12-18 REB; compare1 John 3: 1-3); acquire possession of the inheritance (Ephesians 1:14), and experience the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15:21, 1 Corinthians 15: 15-25) Well, that’s the introduction and now you need to go listen to the message! This hope effects three things for us: it is cleansing, it is comforting and it is committing. Do you have this hope in you? Are you cleansed by it? Are you comforted by it? Are you committed by it? Are you free of fear about your eternal destiny and destination?
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our savior – be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. (Jude 24-25). May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom.15:13).
Eschatologically yours,
Stuart