Expounds on the multifaceted meaning of the "coming of the Lord Jesus" by examining five Greek words used in Scripture to describe this event. It highlights that Jesus' coming encompasses His incarnation, His entry into history, His presence with believers, His future revelation in power, and His ultimate glorious manifestation. The message contrasts the early church's fervent expectation of Christ's return with later centuries of doctrinal confusion and neglect of this truth, noting the resurgence of this hope in movements like the Brethren. Ultimately, the sermon calls believers to live expectantly, excitedly, purely, and unitedly in anticipation of Christ's imminent return.
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Thank you. This is the end of the conference. I let you into a secret. Last night was really the end of the conference, but they wanted me to feel good, so they extended it over today. But it won't be very long before some of our visitors will be wending their way northward. There's still snow in places, so don't make it too soon. It's still cold in other places and not very inviting, but it's going to happen.
And then there will be those of us who will be left here by the stuff. It's a lovely thing to realize that our numbers are growing and new folk are joining us. and becoming resident here in the park and its surroundings. But I'm thinking how well we've been supported in the Wednesday afternoon visits to the nursing home by our visitors. Which means that some of you who are resident here who haven't been in the habit of supporting the work at the nursing home will be increasingly needed.
Now maybe, in view of what I said this morning, this is going to become one of your priorities. I hope so, because we need people who are definitely committed to that work and who will be there on a regular basis to give the support to those who so constantly and faithfully give their time in taking responsibility for that work. And I haven't intended to say that at all, but the need occurs to me, and so now I've said it.
We are going to talk tonight about the coming of the Lord Jesus. Now perhaps It will be a little different from what we usually think of when we think of that expression, the coming of the Lord Jesus. What I want to do is have you sit and listen while I read to you a very well-known section of the Word of God. I think you could probably quote it. as I read it to you.
But I want the simplicity of it and its obvious meaning to grip you. The thing that is surprising is that the Church of God for many centuries lost sight of this wonderful truth. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, but ye sorrow not, even as others that have no hope. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Now doesn't that sound self-explanatory to you? Doesn't it sound very simple? and very easy to understand and it's always been right here in the book turn with me please for just a verse or two to first Timothy first Timothy chapter four and verse twelve Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Till I come. Now in view of the importance of Paul's coming to the believers that Timothy sought to shepherd, the importance of taking in, of giving out and of acting upon These are the things that are meant when it says, give attention to reading, that's taking in, and to exhortation, that's giving out, and to doctrine, give attendance to it, that is, so that you may carry it out and live it.
Now, if that was important... in the light of Paul's coming to them, how much more important must these things be in the light of the coming of the Lord Jesus, who also says, Till I come. Now the coming of the Lord Jesus, that phrase, covers a lot of area. I hope that you're ready now to return to the Scriptures in several sections. Let's turn first to Acts chapter seven.
Acts chapter seven. And I want you to notice these things. Verse fifty-one. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one?
Now the word coming there is a translation of a word that we only find here. A very simple Greek word, alusis, and it simply means to come. And I want to make reference to it in a moment or two. Now turn over again to Acts chapter thirteen this time. Acts chapter thirteen... and verse twenty-four. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, and as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am?
I am not he. But behold, there cometh one after me, Whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. John first preached before his coming. Now that's the same word in our Bible, but it's a different word in the Greek. It's the word Esodos, and it's a word that means a way in. A way in. and I want to make reference to that also in a moment or two. Now turn to First Corinthians chapter one and verse seven.
I think I'll read verse six for the sake of connection. The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now again that word coming, while it's the same in our English Bible, is again a different word. It's a Greek word that you've heard before, apocalypsis, and it's a word that means out of hiding. Out of hiding. And we'll also come back to that one in a moment.
Now turn to Second Timothy chapter four and verse eight, and I hope your wrist is not getting too tired. Second Timothy chapter four and verse eight. Now there are several scriptures that I could have pointed you to that have this same thought, but I chose this one. It reads like this, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing or his coming.
Now again this word says, is a word in the Greek that I think you've heard of from time to time. It's the word epiphania, and it actually means a shining force. Finally, and aren't you grateful? Second Peter, please. Second Peter, chapter one and verse sixteen. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
Now remember that Peter is writing this. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. But he says, We made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord. Now, let me just go over these five things with you. These words which have different meanings that our English Bible sort of hides away from us. And yet they all have to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Now there are four things that I want to talk about tonight concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus. And this is the first of them. The reminder of the details. We can say Jesus came. It will be very true. We can say Jesus is come. That's just as true. And we can say Jesus is going to come. And that also is exactly true as are the others. The Lord Jesus came to the earth and to the cross to redeem us.
He came to the earth to redeem. The Lord Jesus Christ is come into the heart to reside. The Lord Jesus is going to come into the air to receive. And we were reading about that in First Thessalonians chapter four. Now the details of the coming of the Lord Jesus must include the incarnation and they must take us all the way through until that day when his enemies will be his footstool.
Now these five Greek words cover that whole area and I'm not going to take very much time to deal with them. You'll remember the first word that I read to you meant simply to come. And what we have here is the thought of an arrival on this scene. We read this morning. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's the thought of the word Eleusis. Simply to come. He arrived on this scene.
Now the next word, that word that means a way in, is impressing upon us that the Lord not only came, but he made an entrance. Now I'm not talking about the birth in Bethlehem. you will notice that it is referred to in connection with John's preaching concerning his coming. Now what kind of an entrance was it? Well what we have here is the one who appeared on this scene stepping deliberately into history.
John was his forerunner And he told the people, There cometh one after me whose shoes latchet. I'm not worthy to unloose. And here the Greek word brings the thought before us. He appeared on this scene. But he also stepped out into history. And we know that eventually history came to revolve around him. That's why we talk about B.C. and AD now the third word is a word parousia which I didn't point out to you but it was I didn't mention the word to you but it was in second Peter chapter one and verse sixteen and the meaning of that word parousia is being with And so the progression continues.
The one who appeared on this scene was the one who stepped into history and eventually accomplishing his work was the one who accompanied with his own. A companionship in time. Now that word is used a number of times and not always in connection with the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul uses it of himself, because it means simply a presence, a being with. He uses it of his colleagues.
It may surprise you to know that he also uses it of the man of sin, because he is going to have a presence, going to be present in a coming day. The scripture that we read, you'll remember, was in Peter's epistle, and it spoke of being eyewitnesses of His Majesty. And of course Peter was referring to the Transfiguration. And here he is telling us that the Lord Jesus was with them.
and is with us a presence, a parosia. And then there's that word Apocalypse. You know that that's the word from which we get our title for the book of the Revelation, the Apocalypse. That which means out of hiding. Sometimes it's translated coming, Sometimes it's translated appearing. Sometimes it's translated a manifestation. But the thought here is this. The one who appeared in time and stepped out into history, who became the company of his own, is the one who is going to be revealed in power, and that's what we were singing about.
when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time for his own shall be no more. A revelation in power. The last word from which the church calendar gets its word epiphany, that which means a shining forth. And by the way, That word is used of the Lord Jesus coming at the first Advent. It is used of His coming at His second Advent, both the first stage and the second stage.
Wherever the Lord Jesus comes, He shines. Even in Matthew twenty-four, you remember that chapter. that deals with the future. Verse twenty seven uses the word and it means cometh and shineth. Can I go over those five things again? He appeared in time. He stepped out into history. He made it possible for him to company with his own. He's to be revealed in power and eternally manifested in in glory now all of that is involved in the phrase the coming of the Lord Jesus just a reminder of the details now I want to talk about a retreat from the truth the early believers they they believed They wrote, undoubtedly they sang about the coming of the Lord Jesus for
his own. They sang about the coming of the Lord Jesus in the air. They talked about, in fact, they used to greet each other with one word, Maranatha, and that means the Lord cometh. It was their constant and continual upbearing and joy. And, oh, how excited those early Christians were at the thought of the coming back of the Lord Jesus to render heavens and sound the trumpet and cause the dead in Christ to rise first. And we which are alive and remain to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
You know, that's the next event on God's calendar. I hope you're ready for it. Because it could happen tonight. It could be that there will be no trip to Cyprus gardens tomorrow. Instead, a trip to glory tonight, for Jesus could come this very night. But do you know what happened? If you read in the letters to the churches in the book of the Revelation, chapters two and three, you'll find that the very first church, the church at Ephesus, which, and in these seven churches we have a panorama of church history, we find they are condemned because they had lost their first love.
The years passed by and even the hope of the coming back of the Lord Jesus dimmed. This coming was the church's early hope. but it was followed by the church's later confusion. When we lose our first love, then we begin to let go of truth. And that's exactly what the church did as it moved into the late second century and third century and on. And do you know what the result of that was?
the church's long deprivation for centuries they lost sight of the return of the Lord Jesus to the air to catch away his own and then with them eventually to return and to reign a glorious reign for a thousand years it all got lost in the shuffle It was so very, very muddled for many, many centuries. There was a man named Ribira, and in the sixteenth century he just seemed to catch a glimpse of this and wrote about it in a very primitive form, but there it was.
And a little later on a man named Lacuna, also seemed to get a glimpse of this truth and to recognize what it was, something of what it was about. The church had come to look upon all of the book of the Revelation as simply symbolic. Everything was spiritualized. The millennium was lost sight of. The glorious promise to the Jew was discounted and poo-pooed, and there are those who do it today.
But there came for the church a new realization. Now this may be news to some of you, but I think you ought to know this. Something over a hundred and fifty years ago, the Spirit of God began to move on the continent of Europe. In several centers at the same time, men of God began to ask themselves questions about the practices of the established churches to which they belong.
Their consciences began to burden them. They could find nowhere in the Word of God that babies were baptized. They could find nowhere in the Word of God that baptism was done by sprinkling. They looked in vain in the word of God for so many things. And since there were some of Europe's finest scholars among them, and some of England's lords and ladies, incidentally, people began to sit up and listen.
When a man can speak and teach in nine languages fluently, When a man has been respected for his theological orations, literally, and that man suddenly becomes disturbed and begins to back off, people notice. Now, that's exactly what began to happen just something over a hundred and fifty years ago. And they discovered... that the early believers used to break bread once a week, not three days in a row all the year, as did the Church of Scotland, and not long periods apart.
And so these men began to share their exercises, and then they would come out. from their established churches at given time, and they would sit together around a simple feast with bread and wine to remember the Lord Jesus, and then they would go back to their churches and back to their church activities. It was a movement of the Spirit of God, and it took place in several different parts at the same time. Now I'm actually talking to you about the beginning of what you might refer to as the brethren movement.
Now I don't like that expression unless the B is a small B. I do believe that that movement began in order that two things might become emphasized. I know it was of the Spirit of God. because it happened in so many places at the same time. And then God so miraculously brought men together to find out little groups were doing it here, little groups were doing it there, little groups were doing it somewhere else. What an exciting thing it was for them to discover that. There was a need to emphasize the importance of fresh of the Lord's Supper.
And there was a need to rediscover the truth of the rapture. And if for no other reason, I believe God raised up that movement. I hope you never read its history. Or if you do, I hope you'll forgive these early men. so learned, and so exercised, and so very, very gifted in ministry, when as the years went by, division created havoc in their ranks, and some became very, very exclusive.
You know that's the reason why people come to the park sometimes with great suspicion in their mind. They say these people are Plymouth Brethren. Don't you ever use that expression here. The only Plymouth Brethren are in Plymouth and the Brethren is a small b. We are a non-denominational group and if you want to call us Brethren we're happy. as long as the bee is a small bee, and as long as you include yourself. If you're in our park with the palms family, you belong to the brethren, not with a capital B.
God had a purpose in raising them up, make no mistake about it. And it was because of his concern about the truth of the return of the Lord Jesus and of the rapture. But don't imagine for a moment that that makes them particularly special or makes you a second-class citizen. You know, we are so happy when believers come among us and sit down and break bread with us. and realize they are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, if you will.
I hope that nobody ever gives you the impression like the exclusives used to do. Oh, they are not one of us. If anybody ever says that to you, you just say to them, I didn't know that they were not saved. That'll shock them. As a congregation together tonight we are a family and it doesn't matter what ticket a man may put upon himself, what label he may carry. The fact is that when God looks down upon the Church of God in Keystone Heights, he looks at the believers in every one of the congregations.
And he loves every one of them as much as he loves the other. And he expects us to believe what we sing so often in our communion services. We thank thee we are one with every saint that loves thy name. And God forgive us if we ever give you the impression that you don't belong. You do belong. And our congregation is simply a non-denominational group. Now, I don't ever expect to talk about the brethren again, but I'm doing it because I do believe at least we owe them a debt to this extent.
I believe that under God they placed the breaking of bread service in its proper place and resurrected again the truth. of the rapture. I ought to finish. My time has gone. Let me very quickly add two other points. One was a reaction to the promise. Now if it is true that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again, if it is really true that it could happen tonight, then I ought to be very expectant. I really should. In fact, the word that says, lift your heads in our Bible is actually crane your necks, crane your necks.
Jesus is coming and it could be at any moment. And I should be expecting him. Just imagine what a difference that would make to my life. The scripture says, he that hath his hope in him purifies himself, even as the Lord himself is pure. I really believe that if in some way the Lord Jesus conveyed to us the fact that he was coming tonight at midnight, some of us would hurry home to write some letters and to put some quarrels right and to really clean up our affairs so we wouldn't be ashamed at his coming.
We ought to be expectant because he could come tonight. And more than that, I ought to be excited. It ought to be a thrilling thing to me to realize that the Jesus of the world is turning its back on, the Jesus whose name the world is taking in cursing and in vain, the Lord Jesus who saved us is coming back maybe tonight. That should be very exciting to us. It ought to give our life a constant Verve, whatever that word means, it really ought not only to keep us on our toes looking for him, but it ought to keep us craning our necks with excitement, expecting him to come and hoping that this is going to be the minute.
We've been exhorted to crane our necks. And I believe God expects us to be excited at the thought. And I know that God expects me to be exercised. If the Lord Jesus should come back tonight, isn't there some unsaved person that you've been saying to yourself? Now, I am really going to try to influence that person. And then as little by little I influence them, I'm praying the day will come that I'll hear them confess the Lord Jesus. You better get a move on. The Lord Jesus may come back tonight.
So make sure that they know what it's all about. Maybe they'll get saved and get excited with you. The fourth thing I wanted to talk about was a readiness for the day. In the first place it demands purity and that starts with the way we think. So a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character and reap a destiny. And it all begins with our thinking. As he thinketh in his heart so is he. It demonstrates reality.
It's the unfaithful that says, My Lord delayeth His coming. It determines our activity. If Jesus could come today or in the very near future, then he better find me busy. I'd better get busy for him because my opportunity is swiftly disappearing. And you know what? His same coming develops unity. We can't afford to fight and we can't afford to separate ourselves from one another. These are the days when the pressures around us should push us closer and closer and closer together.
There's never been a time when we needed each other more than we need each other now. There's never been a time when we could be more help to each other. than this time in which we live. Jesus is coming and he could come tonight. Then let's make sure as we expect, we expect together. Let's make sure that as we get excited, we get excited together. I don't know how many of you when you raised your hand at the end of that hymn felt a little charismatic. I don't know whether you hesitate to do it.
Some of you may not even have done it. But you see those folk at the nursing home and their faces light up. Why, we had one girl there, and she was little more than a girl, and she was very, very crippled. She couldn't close her mouth, and she drooled. She had a bib on her all the time. When she wanted to communicate, she had to point to a word. Her tray was covered in words. But you know, when we would sing that hymn, she would do this and her face would beam. My, I never saw a bigger smile. Isn't that right, those of you who go to the nursing home? It sure is. But we've lost, and the family's moved away and taken her with them, and we sure miss that girl.
She was looking for Jesus to come back. She didn't have much else to live for. You know, our problem is, we get mixed up with so much else We lose our excitement and our expectation. She had nothing. And so she hung on to that truth and her eyes lit up whenever we spoke of Jesus coming. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we looked into each other's faces every time we met and said, like those early believers, Maranatha, the Lord's coming and it could be today. If you're not saved, you know you'll be left behind, don't you?
We don't want that to happen. If you're not sure whether you're born again, you stay behind and have a little chat with us because we wouldn't want the Lord Jesus to come back, take us away and leave you behind. Because then there would be no hope for you. Let's pray, shall we? Our Father, how we thank thee for the clarity of thy word, how we thank thee for the truth of thy book, how we thank thee for the hope that fills its pages. We turn page after page, and we are reminded of the return, the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Oh, God forbid, that we should ever just get used to the thought, get casual with regard to the truth. but grant the rather that we might live expectantly and excitedly, looking for the Lord Jesus and saying, perhaps,