It all goes back to that first couple.
Genesis 3: 17-19
17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
A world in Rebellion:
Not only did man endure the curse of the Garden but also the ground was cursed. The curse of man’s sin changed everything. Violence increased, we see the interpersonal relationships between man and other men change.
It spirals out of control until the Flood.
The Jews always had an understanding that one day God would come and set things straight. The most common belief of Jesus time is that this time of the peaceful reign of Jehovah would come in the reign of the Messiah. The Messiah would come and conquer all of Israel’s enemies. It would be during this time that God would set up his kingdom and reign.
No one ever imagined that the Messiah would die and be resurrected.
Through the work of Jesus all of these expectations were changed. No one have imagined that there would be an intermediate time between the revealing of the Messiah and the final consummation of the age but that is exactly what Jesus ushered in.
Jesus died, was resurrected and then ascended back to Heaven.
Acts 1: 11
10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."
The belief that Jesus would return in Glory one day to vindicate His followers was a long held belief of the church.
One of the oldest phrases found in our Bible can be found in I Corinthians 16 which is the Aramaic term ‘Maranatha’. This term was the Aramaic term for “Come Lord Jesus” and specifically referred to this idea of Jesus returning.
I would like to look at two main passages that relate to the second coming of Christ and then look at the final hope.
I. COMING OF THE LORD:
1 Thessalonians 4: 15-17
5 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Paul is pulling together 3 themes in this passage:
This is not impossible for the Apostle Paul because in the very next chapter Paul will pull together the metaphor of a thief coming in the night, a woman in labor, and a drunken person to make his point.
In this passage Paul is pulling in three main themes:
1) Moses coming from Mount Sinai with the Torah or the Law of Moses.
In Exodus chp 19 and 20 as well as later in chp 32 we see many of the same elements that we see in this passage of I Thessalonians. Trumpet, shouts, clouds are all present. They would bring to mind that visitation of God at Mt. Sinai.
2) Daniel 7
Daniel 7: 13-14
13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and {men of every} language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
This passage shows that there will be a time of vindication in which the Messiah would be exalted in the clouds.
Later in this same chapter it tells us that the saints will also be vindicated in glory.
This is a reference to two things and they are the ascension of Jesus after His resurrection but also the return in the clouds with the final vindication of his people.
3) The third theme that Paul is pulling together in this passage of 1 Thessalonians 4 is one of Royal Presence and it best understood in the Roman world of his time.
A city like Philippi would be familiar with this analogy. Philippi was established as a Roman Colony after Augustus Caesar defeated Mark Antony there. It was settled by former Roman soldiers and citizens had special privileges such as exemption from taxes and the ability to own property.
This idea of citizenship was in mind by Paul when he wrote in:
Philippians 3: 20-21
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Paul wanted the Philippian brethren to understand that they were citizens of Heaven. Earth would be like the outpost of these citizens. The residents of Philippi saw themselves as Romans and exported Roman customs to this area. They lived in Philippi but they were Romans. Paul is telling Christians the same thing. We may live in our city, state, or country but we are citizens of Heaven where God is the true and just ruler.
This theme comes out in the passage in 1 Thessalonians 4. We see the idea of a royal visit. Many times a Roman Emperor would visit a region and all of the citizens were allowed to meet the Emperor before he got to the city gates. They would go into the country side and form a victory procession for the Emperor. They would come into the city with the emperor in great ‘glory’. In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells us that we will meet him in the air. We will be glorified with Christ for all to see.
REVEALING OF THE LORD
In Colossians Paul uses the word Revealed for the coming of Christ.
Colossians 3: 1-4
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Paul tells us that we are to live different because one day our Savior will be revealed and we will also be vindicated in glory.
II. DAY OF THE LORD
2 Peter 3: 10 - 13
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
According to Peter there will be a day of reckoning when the heavens and the earth will be destroyed with fire. This purging takes place because the Earth itself must be vindicated and transformed.
Just like our bodies will die and decay and will also be put back right again the earth will have the same fate.
This passage in 2 Peter reminds us of the passage in Romans 8. Just as physical death something that must be conquered the curse put on this earth will also have to be overturned.
There will be purging of this creation just like when we see Christ. This very creation will be purged of evil and we forget about being told that we will witness a New Creation. Your labor is not in vain. It is not a throw away – it will be revealed in its fullness by in the New Heavens and the New Earth. All that toil done in Christ will come to fruition.
Romans 8 tells us the Creation awaits in anticipation groaning in travail awaiting the revelation of this time.
Romans 8: 18-23
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
Just as our bodies died and decayed, this earth will go through some type of death to be recreated just like us. That is the vision that John gives us in Revelation 21
The Judgment scene is not one of condemnation for the Christian but is a grand scene of vindication. The scene where the Kingdom is handed over to the God the Father and we will reign with Christ in His New Creation.
Isaiah 55: 12-13
12 "For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap {their} hands. 13 "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the LORD, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off."
Isaiah speaks of a time that the curse of the Garden will be reversed. There will no longer be the thorn bush but the cypress. No more nettle but the myrtle will grow. The message of Isaiah is simple and that is the Servant will bring about a renewed Creation that no longer suffers.
And the grandest passage of all of these is found at the end of our Bible.
Revelation 21:1-5
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
The new Heaven and Earth are revealed. We see the new Jerusalem descend from Heaven. The marriage of Heaven and Earth is finally realized. This is what God has wanted all along. There is a renewed Creation with a renewed, resurrected humanity.
Heaven is not an ending to our story but just a beginning. We are living now in the moment of the Resurrection of Christ and the long anticipated return.
We can say that we have Jesus in the teaching of the word, the Lord’s Table, Baptism, and the Church itself but there is more to come.
Communication theorists tell us that for true communication to occur a face to face encounter is much better. The written letter is good to some extent but seeing someone face to face is so much more meaningful.
For us, the Biblical sequence is very simple.
There will be a time that we may have to face death, going home to be with the Lord, Paradise, the Bosom of Abraham.
Later there will be a final vindication of believers in which we will get new resurrected bodies. In some way the soul will be reunited with a new body.
At this time the earth will be judged, purged, and recreated. A new heavens and new earth will be brought about. It is in this New Jerusalem that we will experience our risen Lord face to face for eternity. The work at that point has just begun.
Sequence of events for believers:
Death and going of our spiritual part to be with Christ in a temporary conscious arrangement to await the general resurrection.
Resurrection day comes – Judgment or Vindication day. God puts the world to rights and part of that putting to rights is destruction of death and we receive our resurrected bodies. At that time we are transformed through Christ the world as we know it is transformed in what the Bible describes as a consuming fire and then a glorious site appears in the New Heavens and New Earth with the Heavenly Jerusalem descending from Heaven in which all the word an toil of our Life in Christ finds it ultimate fulfillment. Not a place of boredom with harps but a place where all work will find its truest fulfillment in Christ. Our life continues not ends just in a more perfect condition.
We will find our true humanity
Humanity has advanced. – we begin with a Garden at Eden and end with a City, a New Jerusalem.
We need to ask our selves. – are we thinking Biblically and Christianly when it comes to our final destination.
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