Why Is Jesus Coming Back? | Ken McIntyre

What is Jesus actually coming back for?

In this message, Pastor Ken walks through Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 and reminds us that His return is not meant to create fear, but hope. As we wait, we’re invited to live with anticipation, stay faithful, and remember that Jesus is coming back for His people.

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- Hey, this is Phil Kniesel, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- Lately, I've been thinking about something that would've terrified me not too long ago, and that's the idea of being a grandpa. And I know, I know my, my skin is much too soft. My head is just so full of hair. I'm too young to be entertaining such thoughts, but my oldest daughter is 14, which means it's within the realm of plausibility that in the next decade or so I could be Grandpa Ken . There's an image that, uh, I've been dwelling on that's been flashing across my mind over the past little bit, and it's, my wife and I we're sitting in our living room and we're, uh, overlooking the street and we're waiting because our, our daughter had moved away and she got married and she had a kid and the baby was just born and we haven't met the child yet, but they're coming back home for the first time. And so we're waiting with this unbearable anticipation and it just seems like every second is like a lifetime. And when the car finally comes around the corner and we see them, we're not waiting for them to come to us. We are up out of our seats, we are out the door, we are down the driveway, arms wide open, embracing them, and then we usher them back into our home. I want you to have that image in mind as we go through our text today. Hold onto that. We're in Matthew 24, which is an important text, but frankly it is a hard text to interpret. Uh, when I prepare a message, I typically, uh, when I move to my formal study of my preparation, I read thoroughly to commentaries. Uh, commentaries are scholarly resources written by academics who have spent their entire life trying to understand and interpret the Bible. And I like to read commentaries from two different theological traditions because when they converge on an idea, that convergence gives me some confidence. And so I read these two different commentaries thoroughly on Matthew 24, and they landed in two different spots. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go to my backup, my third string commentary. So I read that thoroughly and they landed in a totally new spot. So I had three people who have solid Bible interpretive methods. I mean, these people are smart. They spent their lives, they love the Bible, and they couldn't agree on the details of Matthew 24. And the primary challenge around Matthew 24 is timing. Jesus is clearly talking about the end, but the end of what exactly and harder yet when, when some believe that virtually everything Jesus talks about in Matthew 24 was already fulfilled in 70 AD Rome had marched on Jerusalem. They had raised the city leveled the temple. A million people were killed. And so scholars look at that and say, that's exactly what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24. It's already fulfilled. And then you have other people say, no, Jesus isn't talking about some localized ending with the destruction of the temple in 70 80. No, no, no. Jesus is talking about a cosmic ending. He's talking about the end of the end. And then you have people in the middle, pastor Phil and I would land here where we'd say it's clear that Jesus is talking about some things that already happened, but it's also clear that J, that Jesus is talking about some things that haven't happened yet. And Matthew 24 works on two different horizons. It almost uses the destruction of the temple in 70 AD to foreshadow what's gonna happen at the end. The challenge still within that scheme is what is near and what is far, what has happened and what hasn't happened yet. The really nice thing for me today as I teach is that virtually every scholar agrees that what we're gonna talk about today has not happened yet. Jesus is talking about a world that is waiting, that is sitting in its living room, looking outside the front window, waiting with anticipation. Our text today describes the return of Christ, also known as the second coming, the second advent. And the technical term is the perusia of Jesus, the perusia of Jesus. Now, Jesus chose to use that word himself four times in Matthew 24 alone. And the rest of the New Testament authors, every single one of them used this word. And so we have to pause and be like, why this word? Out of all the words why perusia? Now at his most basic level, Perusia meant presence or arrival. But again, it meant, meant such something much different in the first century, Greco-Roman world, which is where Jesus was speaking and talking to, it was a political term. It was the arrival, not just of anyone. It was the arrival of an emperor or a king or the Caesar onto the city. And cities would prepare for months for their arrival. They would prepare roads, they would clean buildings, they would mint new coins, all in preparation of receiving this royal visitor. And what makes this carry some theological weight in the New Testament? Is there this word perusia was deliberate and it was provocative because in the first century, the perusia of Caesar onto a city would be the most significant thing that city would experience. And the New Testament writers say, see that and say, no, no, no, no. Listen, that perusia of Caesar, that's just a shadow of the real perusia that is to come the arrival of Caesar it, it might reshape a city, but the arrival of King Jesus reshapes everything. And right now the church is waiting for the perusia, the arrival of the Royal King Jesus. And we are left waiting. And the Christian life is about waiting Well for Jesus to return. That's what we're doing. We are waiting. Well, it's like how do you wait? Well, well, you prepare like ancient citizens like they would, they would clean buildings and repair roads and mint coins. We prepare well as well. What we need to do is we need to forgive others who have hurt us. We need to reconcile with those that we have hurt. We need to be faithful to our spouse. We need to teach our kids God's word. We need to serve one another in love. We need to give sacrificially. We need to persevere. Living a humble and faithful and loving life. That's how we prepare for the arrival of king Jesus, the king of the universe. And for some this waiting is absolutely unbearable. I was driving in today bright and early and I was thinking about today and I was just overwhelmed with this longing for Jesus. And the spirit is brought to my mind the words of of Jesus In Revelation 22, the very la second last verse in the, in the Bible, Jesus says, yes, I'm coming soon. And John says, come Lord Jesus. And I was just praying that this morning, some of you years longing for the return of Jesus. Some of us are like, I'm okay if he waits a little while. I'm not married yet, maybe after my honeymoon. Some of us don't really know why he's coming back in the first place. So we're gonna talk about that today. Now we need some context for Matthew 24. Jesus, uh, was just in the temple prior to this, and he had just laid into the Pharisees. He did not hold back. The Pharisees were the religious teachers of the Jewish people. And this was Jesus' last public teaching because after this, he was crucified. This is what Jesus says. He says, the teachers of the religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don't follow their example for they don't practice what they teach. Everything they do is for show what sorrow awaits you. Teachers of religious law and Pharisees, hypocrites, if you cross land and see to make one convert, then you turn that person into twice the child of hell that you are yourselves. What sorrow awaits you? Teachers of religious law and ne pharisees, hypocrites, if you're careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy and full of greed and self indulgence. What sorrow awaits you, teachers of the religious law and Pharisees, hypocrites, if you're like whitewashed, tombs beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity, outwardly you look like righteous people. But inwardly, your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. Snakes, sons of vipers. How will you escape the judgment of hell? Not so meek is he. No one talked to the Pharisees like this. Everyone who is listening would've had their jaws on the floor. I wanna encourage you sometime today, go to YouTube and search up the chosen the seven woes, because they reenact this and it's so powerful. But that's the immediate context of Matthew 24. Jesus had just deeply and rightly insulted the Pharisees. And as he leaves that encounter, he looks at the temple and all the surrounding buildings and he says, do you see all of these buildings? I tell you the truth, they'll be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another. This would've been earth shattering for a Jewish person to hear because the temple wasn't just like a building. Oh, I'll just build another one. No, no. It was the epicenter of their existence. It was where heaven met earth. It's where God's presence dwelt. It was the theological, the social, the national and spiritual heart of Judaism. You cannot overstate how important the temple was to a first century Jewish person. And so when Jesus says it's gonna be demolished, not one stone will be left on top of another. A Jewish person would've heard a few things simultaneously. Number one, that God is leaving because the destruction of the temple meant that God's presence would depart because this happened to them before. In Ezekiel is the most traumatic moment in ancient Israel's history. They also would've heard that the old uh, order is ending the entire sacrificial system, the the priesthood, the rhythm of of Jewish life. All of it revolved around the temple. No temple, no system life as they knew it was drastically about to change. And they also would've heard judgment language. The Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah, Micah, and Ezekiel, they all invoked the destruction of the temple as a signal of God's judgment on an unfaithful generation. And Jesus steps in and he says, yeah, it's this one. And because of that, the disciples, they rightly ask this question like, well, when, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And so that's the driving question that Jesus answers in Matthew 24. So over the past couple weeks, pastor Phil has talked about the signs of the end of the age. Last week he talked about the tribulation, which is the unprecedented time of distress right before the end. But through it all, the consistent thread is that Jesus is preparing his people to remain faithful and to endure, to have grit when the world starts to shake. So today we arrive at a part in Jesus' teaching where he moves from tribulation to a topic of triumph. So he says this starting in verse 29, immediately after the distress of those days, that being the tribulation he just talked about, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. It's a strange sort of apocalyptic literature to us or or language to us, but to the original audience, they would've known immediately what Jesus was referring to. These are words from Isaiah chapter 13 and 34. And when Isaiah says that the sun's gonna be darkened and the star's gonna fall, he's not talking about the Milky Way is collapsing. What he's saying in particular is Babylon in chapter 13 and Edem in Isaiah chapter 34, they are falling and a new order is being established. And so Jesus uses the same language signaling to people who would've understand exactly what he's talking about, that their way of life was ending. And he continues and says This, then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. Then all the peoples of earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other. The key image here is the son of man, which is a strange term, but again, we have to remember that the Bible is written in history. That their stories and their language and their culture is not our stories, not our language, not our culture. But again, this wouldn't have been vague or cryptic to the disciples. They would've known. He's referring to Daniel, Daniel seven. He reads this. This is Daniel saying, uh, speaking. He says, in my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one, like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. So when Jesus calls himself the son of man, he isn't being mysterious. He's making the most explosive claim imaginable to a Jewish person. He's saying, I'm the one that Daniel saw. I'm him. I am the one who is gonna have authority over all nations. I am the one who, whose worship will come forth from every language and every tribe and every nation. I am the one who's gonna receive an eternal kingdom that will not be shaken. He makes that claim. And then the Bible describes the son of man coming on the clouds. I don't know if you've ever played Mario Brothers, but when you're, why is that funny? Because I dunno if you've ever played Mario Brothers, but there's this bad guy who rides on clouds and he throws spies at you and you can't touch them or else they hurt you. But in some, in some versions of the game, you can actually jump and bop them and then they and you, you replace them and then you get to ride on the clouds and you get a zip around and it's a lot of fun. That is not what the Bible is saying, okay, that's the vision I get. But that is not the, that's not the right visual. Acts one gives us the right visual. It says this, he Jesus was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. This is talking about the ascension of Jesus. We have the crucifixion of Jesus. We have the burial of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus. And then we have the ascension. That's a really big movement in a theological terms, the ascension of Jesus. So cloud hid from from the site, they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going. When suddenly two men dressed in a white in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who's been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you have seen him go into heaven. So the clouds in scripture almost always refer to the vehicle of God's presence. And really Acts one is just reiterating what Jesus already said in Matthew 24, that he's coming back on the clouds. And Jesus said that when he comes back, verse 30, all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the son of man coming on the clouds. I thought the perusia of Jesus, the return the second come. I thought that was a joyful event. Why does Jesus say they're gonna mourn? Wasn't, isn't it supposed to be happy? It's a yes for some, but for others not at all. The Greek word that Jesus chooses to use here for mourn is is called capto capto. It's to wail and to beat one's chest. It's someone who had just received devastating news they can't do anything about. So it's not sadness. It's like utter anguish. Every person who dismissed Jesus, who ignored him, who opposed him will see undeniably and inescapably that they were wrong, that they rejected him. And standing in front of him will, will suddenly in front of them will be the full display of God's glory and they'll beat their chest because they know their destruction is unavoidable. The Apostle John, he picks up the sane language in Revelation. He says, look, he Jesus is coming with the clouds. Every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. There's an aspect to the return of Christ that that just thought to weigh heavy on you.'cause this is heartbreaking that God will give people exactly what they want. That if they didn't want Jesus here now, that he won't give himself to them later in eternity and the heart of Jesus and the perceived slowness of his return. It's an act of patience and it's an act of love. Second Peter says this, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. The promise to come back is perusia as some understand slowness. Instead, he's patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. It's what he wants. But not everyone will come to repentance and that stubborn, unrepentant heart, it's gonna turn to mourning. It's just like it's to pray for your family. Pray for your friends and your coworkers and your neighbors who don't know Jesus. Be uh, be passionate about those who and their spiritual life who are gonna stand before Christ one day. Listen, it is sometimes hard to wrap your mind around why some people respond to Jesus's love and others people don't. I don't really understand why some people are soft towards the gospel and other soil just isn't good for that. I don't really know, but God knows. God knows. What I know is that God could change a life in an instant. What I know is that God hears and answers our prayer. What I know is that God uses you and uses me to bring others to him. And so I beg you to renew your passion for the lost. If you don't hear anything else this morning, that would be that, that you would renew your passion for the loss. That is ultimately how we wait. Well, for Jesus, renew your passion. Who, who are going to beat their chest in anguish? If Jesus was to return today, renew your passion for them. Do whatever takes to be part of what God is doing here on earth now to draw others unto him. Give, serve, contribute to your local church, God's primary vehicle for his work on earth. Pray and fast. Do whatever it takes. Get desperate before the Lord for those in your life who do not know Jesus.'cause one day cop to one day, if they are not right with Jesus, they'll be beating their chest in anguish and he'll be mournful when they, when he returns. But for us who are saved, it'll be a moment of joy. Verse 31 says this, he will send his angels. Jesus will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other. So why is Jesus coming back? It's not just a cosmic power display, although it will be. It's not just a settling of accounts, although it will be that as well. Jesus says, the first thing that he does is he sends his angels to every corner of the earth, to every na uh, nation and language and tribe to every generation who lived and died in faith. And he gathers them to himself. No one's left out. No one slips through the cracks. Why is Jesus coming back? Other biblical texts give us more information on the return of Jesus. They talk about how he's gonna address every injustice. He's gonna make everything right. But Jesus, what he says in Matthew 24, the reason he's coming back is for you. And he's coming back for me. He's coming back for his church. There's this really interesting passage in one Thessalonians, uh, where Paul uses the particular word to describe how we are going to react when we see the son of man coming on clouds in English. It's like a throwaway word. It almost means nothing. It just seems like, okay, fine, but it, but in Greek it's really interesting. I wanna read it to you. It says this, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with the loud command, with the voice of the ark angel and with the trumpet call of God. That sounds very similar to what Jesus says in Matthew 24. And the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet. That's the word, okay? Bold. Underline that to meet the Lord in the air. And this is the best part. And so we will be with the Lord forever. The reason that Jesus is coming back is so that you and I will be with him forever. The absolute best moments of your life, the ones filled with the greatest joy, the greatest peace is when Jesus himself feels close. The worst moments in your life is where you're wondering where he is, where he don't sense his presence. When Jesus returns, you'll be with him forever unmediated in his presence. That's the promise. That's what we have to look forward to. Now, this Greek word meat is entasis. It's a very specific and technical term in the ancient world. See, when the king or the emperor or a royal dignitary was approaching a city that they had been preparing for all that time, when they come, the citizens would not stay behind the city gates just waiting for the king to come to them. What would happen is they'd get off of their living room chair that they'd been staring out the window and they'd run out to meet the king. They'd run out to meet the emperor and they'd celebrate and they would usher him back to their city. That is how we are going to greet the Lord. When he comes, we're gonna say, finally, I've been waiting. We'll go out to meet him and we'll usher him back. That's the word. One day Jesus will return and like an anxious grandparent who's just sitting there waiting, waiting feels like forever in a moment that that waiting will turn to joy. That waiting will turn to joy. So what do we do while we wait? The night before, um, Jesus was crucified, he gathered his disciples onto himself and he took bread and he said, this is my body which is broken for you. Then he took a glass of wine and he said, this is the blood of New covenant. And then he says something after that that we don't often stay with for a bit. And I don't think the disciples themselves quite understood what Jesus was saying. But this is what Jesus said. He said, I tell you the truth. I will not drink from the fruit of the vine, meaning this, this wine. I'm not gonna drink a cup of wine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. At that last meal, Jesus was saying, this isn't actually the last meal, guys. I'm coming back and I'm gonna drink it again with you. But not just you, but every single person who joined themselves to me through faith throughout all of history, I'm gonna drink it with them too. It's gonna be a very large table. It's gonna be a very big feast. Every time we take communion, we are holding the same promise, but two ends of that promise. We are looking back at the cross and everything that Jesus accomplished, the start of our salvation, but we also are looking forward to when our salvation is complete. And we are with him forever. When he returns in the same vein, Paul says this, he says, for whenever you eat this bread, whenever you drink this cup, you number one proclaim the Lord's death. You look back until he comes looking forward. So what do we do while we wait for the return of Jesus? One really good option is that we take communion together as a church. When we take communion, we're holding onto two ends of that promise that what God started in us, he's going to finish. And so we remember what he did, and like an anxious grandparent, we look forward to what he is going to do in our lives. The same Jesus who broke bread with his disciples that night is the same Jesus who is preparing a feast for you and me right now. The same Jesus who has his hands nailed and pierced on that cross is the same Jesus whose hands are preparing a place for us right now. So that is who we're waiting for and that is what we're waiting for. We're gonna enter into a moment of communion. And at our campuses right now, I wanna invite the campus pastors up to lead in that context. You can prepare your cups now Again, one Corinthians 11, whenever you eat this bread, whenever you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death looking back until he comes. And so let's remember as we take this bread, the love and the power of the cross, that on it, Jesus took my sin and your sin so that we may be made right with God. Let's partake together. And as we take this cup, would we rekindle our longing for Jesus' return? Come Lord Jesus, God, one day we'll be drinking it with him in the new kingdom. But for now, we wait. Let's shrink together.- Thank you Lord.- Lemme pray for you. Come Lord Jesus. Come.- Come.- Lord, we want to be with you forever. Lord, we see in part now, but one day we will know you fully. As you are unmediated, the veil will be removed. And so we long for your return, your perusia. But Lord, while we wait, let us prepare. Well, Lord, if there is any sin in our heart that is unrepented, that we would come before you, Lord, if there's any unforgiveness that we've extended to somebody else, Lord, that in our hearts right now, we would give that to you. And forgive Lord, if we need to reconcile with anyone.'cause we have hurt them, Lord, that we would do that. We would be brave and godly and take that first step, Lord. Ultimately, your heart in Matthew 28 19 was to go into the world and make disciples of Jesus. That is how we prepare best. So God, I pray that you would impress upon each person here a name, a face, Lord, a new passion to share the love of God with them. Lord, in a simple way, Lord, would you help them make an impact? Your word says in Matthew five 16 that we're to let our light shine, that others may see our good deeds and glorify the Father in heaven, that they would see our lives and somehow make a connection. And Lord, we know that's not us. But in Colossians, you say, well, we hide ourselves in you. And so when people see us, that they would see the love of God. So to help us live a life that prepares well for your return, Lord, when you return, it's going to be joy for us And mourning for others. God, I pray that, that mourning, that anguish, that people will sense, Lord, that you would imprint that onto our hearts, Lord, that we would have a deep love for people.'cause you are not slow in your promise, but you want everyone to repent. You want everyone to come into a life giving grace filled relationship with you. Would we want what you want? Thank you Jesus. We pray this all in your wonderful name, Lord. And for those in the room here today who are making a decision or leaning towards this idea of, of, I wanna, I wanna serve Jesus. I don't want to be outside. I don't want to be beating my chest, but there's something about the Lord that I'm just drawn to. Or maybe there's, there's a, there's this desire in your heart to get right with God. I just wanna pray with you in this moment. If that's you. Jesus, I thank you for your love. Holy Spirit. I thank that you have been having a conversation with my friends here today since the day that they were born. And right now, Lord, you are doing something in their heart and life. I pray that you would make the love of God so real to them. I pray that the depths of their sin would be noticed, Lord. And they would give that to you, that they would be overwhelmed with shame, Lord, but instead they'd be free as they place it to the feet of Jesus. Lord, your word says that we come to you all who are weary and you will give us rest. And so I ask for those who have been striving, Lord, to come to the feet of Jesus right now and through faith, join themselves to you and stop striving. We pray this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Amen. If you prayed that with me today, uh, I wanna ask you, uh, let us know. We'd love to for you to indicate that there's a tap disc on the front of your seat that you can do, or we're gonna have some people up to the front who would love to hear your story. Thank you so much for being in church today. Live our lives well as we wait. We'll see you next week.