The Transition to Traveler - The Second Coming of Jesus

Will Jesus come again? What if he does? How does one prepare if it were to happen?
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/the-transition-to-traveler

anushjohn.com

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Good morning. Don't want to be a fool for you. Just another player in your game for two. You may hate me, but it ain't no lie. Don't really want to make it tough. I just want to tell you that I've had enough. It might sound crazy, but it ain't no lie. I've lived for you and me and now I really come to see that life would be much better once you're gone. I know I can't take it no more. It ain't no lie. I want to see you out that door. Baby bye, bye, bye. That was in sync from their 2000 album no Strings Attached. They're talking about how they are bidding farewell to a part of their lives.

Speaker 1 0:49

This morning we're going to look at a kind of a separation obviously not the same kind of separation, but a different kind of separation. Turn your Bibles, if you will, to Luke, chapter 18 and verses 1 through 8. Luke, chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. If you have your Bibles, please open to it. If you have a smartphone, please open it and look at the Bible app and we will read this passage. Now I'm going to read the eight verses of this passage and as I read it, I want you all to pay attention to what those eight verses say. Because one of those verses does not seem to fit the passage, okay, let me read it.

Speaker 1 1:28

Luke 18, verses 1 through 8,. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will give justice to them speedily over them. I tell you that he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? And as I read that, one of the verses jump up because it doesn't fit. It seems disjointed with the rest of the verses, and that is verse 8, in the second half of it, where it says nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth. Why does it feel disjointed? Because this passage is part of a bigger passage and this verse makes sense only if we see it in the bigger passage, and so we're going to look at the context of this passage. So we're going to look at the context of this passage, and the context is in the previous passage, which is in Luke, chapter 17, verses 22 to 37.

Speaker 1 3:18

So this is one of the reasons why I highly recommend that every person who comes to church bring your Bibles to church, so that you can see the context of a passage that is being preached about. So if you have a Bible, you can bring it to church. If not, you have a smartphone, bring it along. If you don't have a smartphone and you don't have a Bible, please ask the church and they will give you a Bible. And if that's not the case and you can't get a Bible, I will personally buy you a Bible so that you can bring it every week to church.

Speaker 1 3:44

Let me tell you the context of the story. I'm not going to read Luke 17, verses 22 to 27, but I'm going to tell you what it is about. It is about the second coming of Jesus. And Jesus says that the second coming will be so sudden that people will be taken unawares. And he gives two examples. He gives the example of Noah, where people were eating and drinking and doing their thing and the flood came and they were taken unaware. Then he gives the example of Lot and he says people were eating and drinking and doing their thing and the judgment by fire came and it took them by surprise. On one side is a judgment by water, on the other side is a judgment by fire, and the point that Jesus is making is that the coming of the Lord will be sudden and will take us unaware. And in this context is when he tells this passage on the parable.

Speaker 1 4:43

This morning, in a sermon entitled the Transition to Traveler, I want to talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ. The theological term for the second coming is the word parousia, which is a Greek word that means arrival, and so for the remainder of the sermon I will use the phrases interchangeably parousia, which means the second coming of Jesus. We will look at this parable in the context of the parousia. I've divided this sermon into three parts. In the first part, we will look at the fact of the parousia. In the second part, we will look at the delay in the parousia and in the third part, we will look at what to do during the waiting period. First, let's look at the fact of the parousia, the fact of the second coming. Obviously, jesus came 2,000 years ago, but what does the Bible say about his second coming? Apparently a lot.

Speaker 1 5:46

The prophetical genre of scripture occupies one-fifth of the Bible and of the one-fifth of the Bible, one-third of that is about the second. There are 330 prophecies about Jesus. 225 of them is about the second coming of Jesus. One in every 25 verses in the Bible talks about the second coming of Jesus. There are 46 prophets in the Old Testament. 36 of them have talked about the second coming of Jesus. For every verse about, for every time, about the first coming of Jesus. The Bible talks eight times about the second coming of Jesus. So obviously the Bible has a lot to say about the second coming of Jesus. In fact, jesus himself spoke 21 times about his own second coming. Let's read one of them In John, chapter 14, verses one to three.

Speaker 1 6:54

This is how it reads Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. Why is it that we can believe this? Why is it that we can believe this when jesus says he's gonna come back and take us home? Why is it that we can believe it? We can believe it because of the resurrection of jesus. If a person says I will die and I will rise up three days later and that comes to pass, then anything he said is believable. You see, it is because of the resurrection of Jesus that we can believe every single thing he said, and if he says he's going to come back, he is going to come back.

Speaker 1 8:01

Second, let's look at the delay in the parousia. Let me read Luke, chapter 18, verse 6 again. And the Lord said hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you he will give justice, and to them speedily. I don't know if the delay is an actual delay or an apparent delay. It's just that the parable says that there will be a delay and tells us what to do during the delay.

Speaker 1 8:45

Let's look at another verse from scripture that talks about the delay of the second coming of Jesus. In 2 Peter, chapter 3, verses 8 and 9,. This is what it says. But do not overlook this one fact beloved that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. There are two things about this verse all should reach repentance.

Speaker 1 9:26

There are two things about this verse. One is that time for God is different than human time. So when Peter says a thousand years is like one day and one day is like thousand years, he's not trying to give us a mathematical formula that connects God's time to our time. The point that he's trying to make is that God's time is different than our time. Why? Because God is outside of time. God doesn't have time, and that is why the delay may not be an actual delay from God's perspective. It may be just an apparent delay from God's perspective, but because we are in time, it may be an actual delay from our perspective, whether it's an actual delay or not, the fact is we don't know when the parousia will happen. And so in Matthew, chapter 24, verse 42, it reads Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. It could be next year, it could be next week, it could be tonight, isn't it Anytime?

Speaker 1 10:40

Waiting for the coming of the Lord is like driving without a GPS. Today, when we drive, we have a GPS. It tells us, when we get on a particular road, how many miles we are going to be on this road and how long it's going to take before we make the next turn. But back in the day, when you drove without a GPS, the directions were pretty simple. You got on this road and you stayed on this road until I don't know. You came to a house with a red roof and had two barking dogs and you took a right. After that. You see, when the house came up, that's when you knew you had to take the turn. You didn't know about it ahead of time. That's how the coming of the Lord is. You don't know. You see, when the house came up, that's when you knew you had to take the turn. You didn't know about it ahead of time. That's how the coming of the Lord is. You don't know about it way ahead of time. When it happens, it happens. And whenever it happens, we have to be ready for it.

Speaker 1 11:35

Third, let's look at active waiting. What do we do during the waiting period? I said active waiting and not passive waiting, because passive waiting means we go up on a mountaintop and we wait for Jesus to show up. That's not what we're doing. We need to be doing something. As we are waiting, the parousia is certain to happen and there seems to be an apparent delay. What do we do in the interim? We are actually in the in-between place between the coming of the kingdom of God and the consummation of the kingdom of God. We are in the in-between place between the resurrection of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus. So what do we do? What is a believer supposed to do during this time?

Speaker 1 12:28

And Luke tells us two things that we need to do in this parable. The first one is the prominence of prayer. The prominence of prayer. Let's read Luke, chapter 18, verse 1, again. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. It says that we need to pray continually. That is a stated purpose of this parable. To pray continually is a stated purpose of this parable. To pray continually. Why do we pray? Well, we pray because God answers prayers, and this parable shows us why we pray.

Speaker 1 13:13

There are two characters in this parable. One is this widow, who represents the weakest group of people, and widows at that time were the most vulnerable group of people. They were weak and vulnerable, had nobody to support them and they had the lowest status in society. And this woman represents the weakest. She had no money, she had nobody for her. That's why she kept coming back again and again to this judge, because she didn't have anybody else to come for her. She didn't have money to pay a bribe, so she just kept coming back to this judge. And the second character in the story is the judge who, on the contrary, represents the most powerful person, and yet the persistent prayer of this widow caused him to act justly. And Jesus does what is called as a lesser to greater argument when he says this parable, saying that if a wicked judge that doesn't care about people or God is able to act justly, how much more will God, who is good and kind and just act justly.

Speaker 1 14:28

A Christian's life should be characterized by persistent, continual prayer. This is an area that I struggle with. I can read the Bible for eight hours straight, but if you ask me to pray for 30 minutes, it's the hardest thing for me to do. About two months ago, I was asked to preach in a church in New Jersey on the topic of prayer, and as I was preparing this topic of prayer, I came to the realization that I, for a while now, I've stopped having regular, systematic prayer every single day. I mean, I'm not talking about family prayer or prayer when there's a need, or prayer when you're walking to the car, or prayer when you're down in the dumps. I'm not talking of that. I'm talking of systematic prayer every single day, and I realized that I don't do it. And so, after the sermon in this church in New Jersey I'm not sure if anybody else got touched by the sermon, but I certainly did I came back home and I decided I need to pray, so I started by putting the clock at a certain time.

Speaker 1 15:42

I said, okay, I'm going to pray for half an hour, and I went to my notes app on my phone and I started writing down prayer requests. From 7 to 7.30 was my prayer time, so I would pray, and each time I prayed something I would check off the box. I made it like a checklist. I checked off the box and the next day, when I prayed, I unchecked the box. Then the following day I prayed, I would check off the box to make sure that I went down the list. And as I kept praying, there was more and more and more to pray about. So much to pray about. So I had to increase the time from half an hour so now I do an hour every day, but the same thing. It's from, let's say, seven to eight o'clock. I tell my kids well, I've got to pray, and so I go down this checklist and pray for each thing on that checklist.

Speaker 1 16:29

Some prayers are answered, some prayers are not answered, and you could tell me stories about how your prayer got answered, and I could tell you stories about how my prayer got answered. But I have more stories to tell you of how my prayer didn't get answered, isn't it Not? Every prayer is answered, just like if you're a good father, you're not going to answer every request of your kid. God doesn't answer every prayer, but the hope of the second coming of Jesus is that, when he comes, every prayer that has been in the will of God will be answered, and that is the hope we have In light of the second coming of Jesus. The second thing that we need to work on is the fortification of faith. The fortification of faith. Let me read Luke, chapter 18, verse 8 again. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?

Speaker 1 17:29

Now, if you read the Greek sentence, there's a word before faith, which is the Greek definite article, which in English, it's the word the. And because there is a definite article in front of the word faith, it doesn't mean faithfulness, it means the faith, the Christian faith. So let me ask you a question how are we doing in our Christian faith? How are we doing in our Christian faith If the coming of Jesus is certain and can happen at any time? How are we doing in our Christian faith? And to evaluate that, I want to ask you three questions. The first how is our trust? How is our trust in God? There are multiple meanings for the word faith, but one of them is the word trust. How is our faith, how is our trust in God when things go wrong, like it always does for everybody at some time. How much do we trust God?

Speaker 1 18:37

Let's say that you're driving to your parents' house, which is three hours away, on a Christmas day, you're taking your family and going to your parents' house and you have a little three-year-old, and this drive is, let's say, about three, four hours, and you put your three-year-old in the car seat and you're driving and there are many things your three-year-old will be doing at the back. Maybe he'll be crying, which is a very common thing. Or maybe he'll be kicking the back of your seat, which is a very common thing. Maybe he's talking to himself, or maybe he's singing, or maybe he's making a mess, which is a very common thing. You know, many times after a trip you turn back and the whole place looks like a zoo and we just want to survive the drive. Let's say that your kid may be looking outside the window, you know silently, which never happens. But let's say that they're looking outside the window and quietly sitting there. But there's one thing that they will almost never do. Okay, there's one thing that they won't do, and that is they won't be gripping the sides of their car seat wondering if they will make it home, isn't it? I mean, unless you're a terrible driver and you took them in an accident before. But usually they're not sitting there gripping the sides of their car seat wondering if the driver is going to take it home.

Speaker 1 19:56

You see, we have been saved by God, who is the creator and has given his life for us and has promised to take us home. And yet many times we are sitting in the back seat, holding on to a car seat with our whitened knuckles and our tears and wondering if God will take us home. How much do we trust God? If we can trust God to take us from hell to heaven, why don't we trust God to take us through life? If we are new believers, I understand we've not had the time to experience God. We've not seen the hand of God work in our lives. But what if we are older believers? We've seen the hand of God work, we've seen God answer prayers, we've seen God show up at times when we thought nobody would ever show up, and yet when problems arise, we don't trust him. Many times God has handled our hundred pound problems and he's handled our thousand pound problems, and he's handled our ten thousand and hundred thousand pound problems. And yet when the next one pound problem or the one pound situation shows up, we don't trust him. One-pound situation shows up, we don't trust him.

Speaker 1 21:32

Second, how strong is our relationship with God? How strong is our relationship with God? Luke, chapter 21, verse 36, reads but stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to stand before the Son of man. It says. To stay awake. We talked about the prominence of prayer and one of the best ways to evaluate the strength of a relationship is to see the amount of quality interactions that exist within the relationship. One of the best ways to evaluate the strength of a relationship is to see the amount of quality interactions within that relationship. If the only interaction you have with your child is you yelling at them or they yelling at you, that's not a quality interaction. That's an yelling at you, that's not a quality interaction. That's an interaction, but it's not a quality interaction.

Speaker 1 22:30

As a parent, you know I see some teenagers here. As a parent of a teenager, what you want is you want your child to come and spend time with you, right? If the only time they come and sit with you and talk with you is when they want something, or if the only time they come and sit and talk with you is because you have asked them to get out of their room and come down, then there's a problem, isn't it? We want our children to come down willingly and sit and just have a conversation. That is not because of a need and not because it is forced, and yet we do the same with God. When was the last time we sat in the presence of God? Just to sit in the presence of God, without a need? But many times when we come to God is because we have this huge list of things that we are asking God for, or because he has brought us to our knees, and now we are pleading God about it, and now we are pleading God about it.

Speaker 1 23:50

One of the ways in the past that I've spent time with God is by fasting, and one of the things about fasting is when you're fasting and praying, there's nothing else to do. You're gonna fast and pray. You've blocked off this time, and so what I do is I block off. Let's say I'm fasting in the afternoon, I block off four to six hours, and let's say from 12 pm to four or five or six pm. Or if I'm fasting for dinner, I block off from four pm to eight or four to ten, and at that time I have four to six hours of spending time with God. I read my Bible extensively, then I read a Christian book, I listen to some worship songs, spend some time worshiping God. I go down my list of prayer requests, uncheck and check the boxes as needed, and then I do that on repeat.

Speaker 1 24:44

Let me ask you a question Are we at the point where spending time in the presence of God is a joy we look forward to or a chore that we just need to check off our list? If not, we have a long way to grow spiritually, isn't it? We have a long way to grow spiritually, isn't it? Third, how are we using our resources? How are we using our resources if the second coming of jesus is certain and imminent, what are we doing with the time, the money and the effort? We have, our resources, we have.

Speaker 1 25:29

Romans, chapter 14, verse 12, says so. Then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. God is going to ask you about what you had and what you did with it. If God is just, he will not judge somebody in this age the same as he would judge somebody from 100 years ago. Right, because we have more time now. We have more energy now. If you lived 100 years ago and to make food you had to go cut down trees and get the wood and come home, build a fire and make food. It took way more time. What do we do with the extra time that we have now? I think we spend it on ourselves. Let's say that in the past past you used to walk back from work and it took you two hours to walk back from work. But now you have a car you drive back from work. You've saved two hours of your life every day. What do you do with the two extra hours? I think that we spend it on ourselves. And that's true with the extra money we have, that's true with the energy we have, that's true with the time we have. How many times in the last week have we thought about the second coming of Jesus? If we haven't thought about the second coming of Jesus in the last week, then we are not orienting our lives to the second coming.

Speaker 1 27:17

In the summer of 2002, I was still living in India. At that time, I was in a South Indian city called Bangalore. I had finished my professional studies, I had a practice. We were partners. My friend and I were partners in a practice. We had plans to buy a second practice. I was a pastor of a church, I was teaching at a Bible school, I was settled, I was doing great. And then I met a young lady, a young, smart, pretty lady, who happened to be from the US and she had just started her professional studies and so, and for very other reasons variety of other reasons it made sense for me to move to the US. So when the decision was made for me to move from India to the US, overnight, I went from being a settler to a traveler. It took me a year after that decision was made to come to the US, and for a year I was a traveler, still in India. What do you think I did with the plan for the second practice? You think I bought it? No, why? Because I'm not a settler, I'm a traveler. Now I'm not going to buy a second practice. What did I do with my existing practice? I found a way to slowly sell it. Why? Because I'm not a settler, I'm a traveler. There is a difference between a settler and a traveler. What we do during this waiting period will show us whether we are settlers or travelers.

Speaker 1 29:05

In 1962, country singer Jim Rees wrote these words this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't seem at home in this world anymore. And I can't seem at home in this world anymore. We all were once settlers, and then we met Jesus and we became travelers. But I suspect that we still live as settlers and we've not made the transition to travelers. John MacArthur, in his book what Heaven Is, writes these words Self-indulgent Christianity is a kind of Christianity that's lost its heavenly perspective.

Speaker 1 29:59

The church today doesn't hope for heaven. They don't want to go to heaven until they have had all that earth could possibly deliver them. And when that's exhausted and they're finally too old to enjoy it or too sick to enjoy it, then they'll be glad that heaven is there to receive them. But please, god, don't send me to heaven yet. I haven't been to Hawaii. I haven't gotten my new car. I want to go to the Bahamas. I want't been to Hawaii. I haven't gotten my new car. I want to go to the Bahamas. I want to get a raise. I want to buy a new house. God, please, no, not heaven. Is it possible that the church has become a group of settlers again? We need to transition to becoming travelers again.

Speaker 1 30:54

One of my favorite verses in scripture is in Revelation, chapter one, in verse five to seven, and it talks about the Jesus who will be coming again and it says Jesus Christ, the, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. Ladies and gentlemen, jesus is coming and he is coming soon. My prayer is that our Christian faith will be the strongest it will ever be when he comes.

Speaker 1 31:54

I'm going to give the opportunity for two groups of people to respond to the sermon. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, I'm going to ask you to stand up and we will pray together into your life. I'm going to ask you to stand up and we will pray together. If there's anyone here who wants to change at least one thing in light of the second coming of Jesus, I'm going to ask you to stand up and we will pray together. It may be that you want to pray more. It may be that you want to trust God more. It may be that you want to spend time in his presence more and look forward to it. Or it may be that you want to change something in the use of the resources you have. There's one thing or more that you want to change, you can stand up and we'll pray together. There's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life? You can pray this prayer after me. The prayer is not a magical prayer, but if it's a prayer that you mean and it comes from the bottom of your heart, god will answer it. You can pray something like this Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I cannot save myself.

Speaker 1 33:23

Thank you that you came 2,000 years ago.

Speaker 1 33:28

Thank you for your life. Thank you for your death and thank you for your resurrection. Thank you that you promised you would rise again and you did. Thank you for the hope of eternal life. I ask you to come into my life and make me complete. Help me to live a life worthy. I ask you to come into my life and make me complete. Help me to live a life worthy of the calling. Thank you that you delayed your coming so that I could be part of the family as well. Heavenly Father, I pray for the rest of us who are standing up. We have come to know you at various times in our journey and we've experienced your goodness, we've experienced your kindness, we've experienced your favor and yet, many times, we don't trust you. Thank you for the reminder that you are coming again soon. I pray that, whatever we have decided to change, I pray that you would help us to make that change, help us to be constantly aware that you are coming soon and help us to reorient our lives to it. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen. You.