The Return of Christ

We're looking at the biblical timeline of the end times, and we've already noted that the Lord Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament in many places, at least 16 that we noted speak of two basic time periods.

There is this present age and there is the age to come. And everything from eternity past to the future, I shouldn't say eternity past, from creation all the way to all eternity falls into those two time segments, this age and the age to come.

Now, for the last several weeks, we've been looking then at the little dividing line. What separates this present age from the age to come? And we've noted that it's a whole complex of events that happen at the same time, that happen simultaneously.

And it includes the return of Christ, the universal resurrection, the universal judgment, the new heavens and the new earth. All of these things happening one upon the other make up this great, this momentous event that the New Testament speaks of.

So we've been looking at different ones of these things that divide this age from the age to come. And today we're going to be looking at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We've looked at resurrection last week and we looked at universal judgment the last two weeks before that. Now, we come then to the return of Christ itself.

We haven't been able to avoid this return of Christ in our study. We've already bumped into it as we've been studying the dividing line.

When we studied the judgment, the day of judgment, what did we find? We find that the New Testament makes plain that all men, righteous and unrighteous, will be judged at the same judgment.

And when was that judgment? At the return of Christ. Matthew 16, 27, for the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels.

And then, then when he comes, he will reward each person according to what he has done. And then the righteous will go away into eternal life and the wicked will go away into eternal punishments.

And so we've already bumped into the return of Christ when we studied the judgment day. Judgment day is return of Christ day. And then last week we looked at what the Bible had to say about the resurrection of the dead.

And again, we found that the New Testament and the Bible speaks of one physical resurrection of the dead. That all who have died, be they righteous or unrighteous, will be raised from the dead at the same time to appear at the judgment of Christ and to receive their eternal sentence, which is at once carried out.

Jesus' words in John 5 were a specimen of what we saw last week. A time is coming. A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear the voice and come, hear his voice and come out.

Those who have done good will rise to live and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. John 5, 28 and 29. When is this? At the return of Christ.

As Jesus himself taught throughout John 6, at the last day. Whereas 1 Thessalonians 4 taught us, at the coming of the Lord, the dead are raised.

Now, if these three are found together, the return of Christ, the resurrection of all, the judgment of all, then we would expect to be bumping into them as we tried to study any one of those.

And that's exactly what we found as we've tried to study the resurrection. We've bumped into passages about judgment and about the return of Christ. And so it is with studying judgment.

These things happen together. And so it's to be expected that we would find them spoken of together in our New Testaments. So the teaching of Christ and his apostles is that the return of Christ will bring this present age to an end.

That's why the dividing line is there. It brings this present age to an end and it begins then the age to come, the eternal age to come. Turn to Matthew 24 and verse 3.

And here in the question of the disciples, we see the dividing line of the two ages. Matthew 24 and verse 3.

They're leaving the temple, Jesus and his disciples, and the disciples are calling his attention to its buildings. Jesus says in verse 2, do you see all these things? I tell you the truth.

Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. And as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.

Tell us, they said, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

His coming indeed marks the end of this age. Now, that's our topic then for this morning, the return of Christ. And what we want to look at is we want to examine the most popular view in American evangelicalism, the dispensational premillennial view of Christ's coming.

And again, the reason you remember on our chart that we handed out, kind of the pinkish chart, it's the last view of the scheme of the end times.

And the reason we are focusing more of our examination upon the dispensational premillennial view is because, as we saw, 95% of us grew up with that scheme as our understanding of the end times.

And it is, in America presently, the most popular view, been highly popularized in recent Christian literature. And one of the distinctive features of the dispensational premillennial view of the return of Christ is its secret rapture theory.

That's something that only the fourth view of the end times has. Dispensational premillennialism teaches not one, but two second comings, or at least two stages to the second coming of Christ.

And that's what we want to look at. Between those two comings, according to their view, is seven years of intense tribulation on the earth.

So the first second coming, or the first phase of the second coming, is right in the center, where you have the arrow coming down and the arrow coming up. That's the secret rapture, where Christ comes secretly for His church.

It's not seen by the world. He doesn't actually come all the way down to the earth. He simply comes in the air and He snatches up. He gathers to Himself His church, whether they're dead or still living.

He gathers them up into the air and they go back into heaven for seven years. So that's the secret rapture theory. It's called the pre-tribulational rapture because it happens before this tribulation time.

Now there are some who hold to mid-trib and post-trib, but by and far the greater majority of premillennialists of the dispensational stripe hold to a pre-tribulational rapture that this happens before this tremendous, troublesome time that comes upon the earth.

So that's phase one of Christ's second coming, Christ coming in the air for His church. And then after that seven years, what they identify as seven years of great tribulation, then there is the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, where the arrow comes all the way down to where Christ comes all the way to this earth.

And this is not secret. It's very open, visible, glorious. And this coming is not to bring good to the church. It's not to reward the saints, but this is to bring judgment upon the world and to set up Christ's a thousand-year reign on the earth then that issues out of Jerusalem.

So that briefly is the two-stage scheme of Christ's second coming that we want to look at.

Sam Waldron, in his book, The End Times Made Simple, introduces this subject in this way. Suppose you suddenly had no Bible, and you had to judge what the teachings of the Bible were from the shelves of Christian bookstores.

Now, from the many shelves of books containing manuals on the pre-tribulational rapture, and from the many popular novels sensationalizing this theory, such as Left Behind, you would conclude that prominent among the teachings of the Bible was the pre-tribulational rapture.

You would certainly be surprised when, upon recovering your Bible, you searched and discovered that there was not one text supporting the pre-tribulation rapture theory in all the Bible.

You would even be more surprised to find many texts that seem to strongly contradict it. Well, there's no problem discerning where he's coming to in this issue, is there?

He doesn't believe that the pre-tribulational rapture theory is born out in Scripture. You say, then, why would Bible-believing Christians believe it or teach it?

Well, their belief is more of a deduction, an inference, based on other things that they believe. Just to state them quickly this morning, we'll look more in depth in the weeks to come, they believe in the strict separation between the church and Israel.

Those two must never be blurred. God has purposes for one that do not overlap with the other, and therefore, before God can begin to work again with Israel, he set them on the side for a while, and now he's working with the church.

Before he can take up his plan with Israel, he's got to get the church out of the way. Well, the secret rapture theory does that. It gets the church out of the way, and then the prophetic clock for Israel starts ticking again, and God begins to work again with Israel.

So, it's based upon their absolute separation and distinction between Israel and the church. A second thing that they believe that causes them to come to this view of a secret rapture is that the return of Christ is to happen at any moment without any prophecies needing to be fulfilled before it happens.

And yet, as the Bible teaches, there is this period of the Antichrist and this period of great tribulation and persecution and trouble on the earth that happens before Christ returns.

And we'll see that. That's clear, and they would see that as well. As 2 Thessalonians 2.1 says, that there must be this falling away, this great apostasy in the coming of the man of lawlessness before the coming of Christ.

Well, if that's to happen before the coming of Christ, then obviously Christ won't come until that happens. But that's prophecy to be fulfilled before Christ comes. So, their view of the return of Christ is that it happens, it could happen without any prophecy needing to be fulfilled.

So, that means there must be a previous coming, that he could come at any time now and snatch away his church. So, again, it has to do with their other belief on the any moment return of Christ without any prophecies needing to be fulfilled before it happens.

One, the imminence argument. And then, thirdly, because of their belief that the church will not go through the great tribulation coming upon the earth.

Well, if Christ returns after the great tribulation, again, as we'll see the Bible teaches, and they would agree with that, then they must get the church out of the way before that tribulation.

So, you've got the church getting out of the way before the tribulation because they don't believe the church goes through the tribulation. And then they've got the coming of Christ all the way to the earth after the tribulation.

So, again, just that to say, and we'll seek to demonstrate that more clearly next week and the following week, that this secret rapture theory is not so much taught by explicit verses in the Bible as it is deduced from other beliefs about what is going to happen at the end of the age.

Well, what does the Bible... That leaves them then to separate all these texts that have to do with the coming of Christ. Some of them, they'll say, refer to His secret rapture.

Others refer to His glorious return seven years later. Some of them refer to that time when He's coming to reward the church at His rapture. Others, if they have to do with judging the world, well, that must be over here His glorious return.

Some have even tried to distinguish between the day of Christ, as if that refers to the rapture, and the day of the Lord, referring to the glorious appearing. Christ coming for His saints in the rapture.

Christ coming with His saints in the return seven years later. But, again, we don't have time to compare that terminology, but we would find that it is used interchangeably.

The day of Christ refers to the same event as the day of the Lord. These things are not speaking of separate comings of Christ. Christ coming for His saints happens in the same time as His coming with the saints.

The teaching of the New Testament is that there is only one second coming of Christ and that it is anything but secret. Now, that's what we want to look at this morning.

It is sudden and unexpected, yes, but it is not secret. It is public. It is universally visible. It is glorious.

Now, let's turn to the scriptures that are before us. Acts 1, 9. And right away, you remember, the context is the ascension of Christ. And the disciples have this last resurrection appearance of Christ.

We're studying in the Gospel of John the resurrection appearances of Christ. Christ appears to them again. This is the last time He appears to them. And after He gives them the Great Commission in verse 8, He said this.

After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same manner, in the same way that you have seen Him go into heaven.

If you'd been there that day, you would have seen Him go into heaven. If your unconverted neighbor had been there that day, he'd have seen Him go into heaven. And so it is with the return of Christ.

When He returns, He will come back bodily, visibly, in the same way that they saw Him go. There will be no secret to it.

Now, His first coming was veiled, wasn't it? Most of the world didn't even know when Jesus came the first time. But not so His second coming. That is to be a glorious event in which all see Him coming.

Revelation 1-7 spells this out even clearer for us. Revelation 1-7 Speaking of Him who loved us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father to Him be glory and power forever and ever.

Amen. Verse 7 Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him.

So shall it be. Amen. Look at the universalistic statements. Every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him.

All the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. Now many will wish they couldn't see Him. Many will wish they could hide their eyes and He go away like children often do.

Many will wish that the rocks would fall upon them to hide them from the face of Him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But they will not be able to hide themselves from the splendor of His coming.

Matthew 24. Matthew 24. The coming of Christ is anything but secret. 24, 30 and 31.

Again, the disciples have asked as we saw earlier in verse 3 tell us when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.

Verse 30. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn. That's very similar to what we saw in Revelation 1.7.

They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call.

Underline that in your mind if not your Bible with a loud trumpet call. And they will gather His elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.

This is obviously not something hidden, is it? Verse 26 and 27 underscore the same thing. If anybody tells you there He is out in the desert don't go out or here He is in the inner room don't believe it for as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Somebody tells you ever tells you Christ has returned come here and I'll show you He's in this room. Don't believe Him for a minute. He's out in some secluded place in the wilderness come on I'll show you let's go see it.

Don't believe it. Why not? Jesus says because when I come it will be like lightning that's seen from the east to the west from one end of the earth to the other. You'll know it. You won't have to have anybody say come here let me tell you Jesus has come back.

All will know it such as the glory and the visibility and the noise of His coming the loud trumpet call and it's universally visible.

Now so far the dispensational premillennialists would agree with this. They would simply say John all those passages you've shared we believe and we do believe that the glorious return of Christ will be a very visible loud event known by all.

Those verses simply have to do with the second stage of His coming when He does come after He's first raptured the church seven years earlier. Well let's look at the classic dispensational text for the rapture then.

First Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 15 through 17. This is the classic text quoted for the secret rapture of the church.

First Thessalonians remember last week we saw the context why is Paul writing these words? Well because some Christians were afraid that their believing loved ones would miss out on the coming of Christ.

And so Paul's writing to tell them oh no they're not going to miss out at all. First Thess 4 15 According to the Lord's own word we tell you that we who are still alive who are left till the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep or died.

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God 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 the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Now they must claim this text for a secret rapture. Why so? Because what does this coming do? It gathers the church unto Christ.

Dead and alive church members saints are gathered to Christ to be with Him forever. That by their very definition of this secret rapture or is the secret rapture.

It's when He gathers the church not when He comes to judge the world. So they must see this text as holding to the rapture the pre-tribulation rapture and indeed they do.

But the noises of His coming seem to shatter the secrecy. There's a loud command of the Lord or a shout.

There's the voice of the archangel and there's the trumpet call of God. Now Sam Waldron in his book says these sounds of Christ coming in 1 Thessalonians 4 seem more calculated to wake the dead than to encourage secrecy and he's right.

Trumpets are not something that are used to keep things secret. They're rather used to loudly announce the arrival of the king and that's what we have here.

The king is coming and the blast of the trumpet and the shout the voice of the archangel. Do you remember what we just saw in Matthew 24?

That the Son of Man will be seen by all coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory and he'll 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.

Here's a text that is also speaking of gathering the elect the saints the church to himself and speaking of a loud trumpet call but it's also speaks of a time of judgment upon all who are upon the earth and that's why the nations of the earth are mourning.

So if 1 Thessalonians 4 sounds a lot like the same return of Christ in Matthew 24 it's because it is the same return.

There is but one second coming of Christ and there is a trumpet blaring in both passages and one trumpet sounding at the coming of the Lord.

It's a noisy public visible glorious event. 417 speaks of believers dead and alive being caught up together with them in the clouds clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever.

It's the understanding of their view that when this church is caught up that they then go back into heaven. They go with the Lord back into heaven for this period of tribulation seven years before they actually come back to the earth.

And again it would show that their teaching is not that Christ comes all the way down to the earth but rather he comes in the air he snatches up the church and takes them back into heaven. Now the very word that is used here for meet where it says to meet the Lord in the air would argue the very opposite.

Not that they go up and meet the Lord to go back into heaven but they meet the Lord to come with him triumphantly in judgment upon the world.

F.F. Bruce talks about this word apentesis meeting. When a dignitary paid an official visit or parousia coming to a city in Hellenistic times the action of the leading citizens in going out to meet him and escorting him on the final stage of his journey was called the apentesis the meeting.

They went out to meet him to then carry him on and escort him all the way on the last mile the last stage of his journey.

Well that would rather fit the word here for meeting. The saints are caught up to meet the Lord and to escort him on his way to come with him. He is coming with his holy saints.

He's coming with us when he comes again so that it's both his coming for the saints and with the saints is at the same coming.

the same verb is used of the apostle Paul in Acts 28 15 when he was on his way to Rome and some brothers came out from Rome to meet him at the forum and then went with him the rest of the way to Rome.

That just by way of interest with regard to the word meeting. But I want us to see that Christ coming for his saints and Christ coming with his saints are not two different comings but one and the same second coming.

Now if you had to pick two letters in the New Testament that speak more about the second coming of Christ than any others what books would you choose? Nobody looking at your papers.

Anybody want to guess? First and second what? I hear a bunch of S's that must be Thessalonians. That's right. Of no two books could it be said that the coming of Christ is more full in those pages.

Let's just turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and notice his comments on the return of Christ to these Thessalonian believers. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 He's telling about their conversion and when the gospel came to them how it came with power and saved them.

Your faith has been known everywhere. Verse 8 the end of 8. Therefore we don't need to say anything about it. Verse 9 For they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us.

They tell how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.

So he would say you are waiting for his son from heaven. You've been saved and turned away from your idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven.

And that's the report that we're hearing pouring in all over the world about you Thessalonians. You're waiting for the son of God from heaven. The next thing he has to say about this coming of Christ is chapter 2 and verse 19.

For what is our hope Paul writes our joy or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. Is it not you? Indeed you are our glory and joy.

Paul is saying when I get to heaven and you are there with me my children in the faith you will be my glory and joy in that day when our Lord Jesus comes.

Chapter 3 and verse 13 may he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones or all his saints.

In verse chapter 14 or 4 we just read from that section that talked about the Lord's return with a loud command with a voice of the archangel the trumpet call of God that's the return he's been talking about that's the return of Christ that he's waiting for they're waiting for will be his glory to have them with him when Christ comes and then we come to chapter 5 and you remember there are no chapter divisions in the letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he's just going on in his letter and he goes right on talking about the Lord's coming now he's talking about it's it's the manner of its coming of his coming and the time of his coming chapter 5 now brothers about times and dates with regard to this coming we don't need to write to you why not for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night while people are saying peace and safety destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape

Paul is saying about this second coming about this return of Christ that I've been writing to you about in some ways it's going to resemble a thief in the night in other ways it's going to resemble a pregnant woman in labor pains!

In what way is Christ coming compared to a pregnant woman experiencing labor pains and then who of you would like to speak about a thief in the night who has experience with that bean rob not thieving obviously something about Christ coming that will resemble a thief in the night what is his teaching here why is he using these two images what is the imagery of the thief that's perhaps the easiest alright it's unexpected unannounced sudden surprise alright so he's about this coming of the Lord that we've been talking about let me tell you it's going to be sudden it's going to be unexpected it'll be surprising like a thief!

in what way will it be like the labor pains of a woman who's pregnant might alright again there might be the idea of inevitability and the idea of of unexpected is it going to be two weeks early is it going to be a week late we don't know we know basically that it's nine months there might be another thing suffering before joy there you go you can't get up once the labor pains come there's no turning back right Aaron once Christ comes it's over it's too late to repent then there's not going be any escape from the judgment and destruction that's coming once he comes he's coming and once you see him you'll not escape Paul is just teaching two further things the manner of

Christ coming and he's speaking about the timing of it I don't need to write you about times because he's coming unexpectedly but all of that concerning this one coming of the Lord and you notice destruction is here spoken of while the world is saying everything is fine peace and safety sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they'll not escape that sounds more like the second coming stage of Christ coming in the pre-mail dispensational format because it's coming not to reward the saints he's coming to judge the world and yet this is the same coming of what he's just been talking about in chapter four when Christ will come and give the shout and the trumpet and the saints will be caught up to be with them in other words what I'm saying these are the one coming of the Lord that he's been writing to these Thessalonians about I've heard about it that you've been saved from idols and you're waiting for the coming of the

Lord this is the coming this is it and it will be both glorious joy and blessing for the church the saved and it will be terrible destruction for those who are not in Christ for those in Christ glory for those out of Christ sudden destruction I don't believe that the Thessalonians in a million years reading their letter from Paul would have ever come up with the fact that you know we're waiting for Christ to come but when he comes there's going to be two stages to his coming he's coming first for us the church and then there's going to be a period before he comes the second time to judge the world I don't believe that just reading first Thessalonians or even second Thessalonians both letters together this church would ever come up with that secret rapture theory he goes right on in the second letter writing about this coming of

Christ there's not a hint anywhere about two different comings of Christ here that has to be imported completely from outside beliefs here in chapter one verses six to ten Paul says you see they're persevering in tribulation and trials and all this verse five all this is evidence that God's judgment is right and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering God is just he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well this will happen when when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled!

among all those who have believed! you Thessalonians now there's no separation here and talk about two different comings at one and the same coming relief will come to those who are distressed the church and trouble will come to those troublemakers who are persecuting the church all in the same coming they will be shut out from the presence of the Lord destroyed punished with everlasting destruction on the day he comes to be glorified you will be glorified in that day you holy people and you will marvel at him and this includes you some of those those those in Thessalonica they will be the ones who are glorified in that day but both are happening at the same coming destruction of the world blessing for the church and he goes right on talking about it again as he goes on into chapter two concerning the coming of our

Lord Jesus if there's two different stages to it there would be you have to ask at every point which one is he talking about here but you never get that sense of well I need to know now is this coming for me as a Christian or is coming for the world in judgment he's coming he's going to judge the whole world and there's blessing for me in Christ and there's punishment for those who are out of Christ concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and our being gathered to him we ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy report or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed the man doomed to destruction he will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that's called God or is worshipped so that he sets himself up in

God's temple proclaiming himself to be God Christ will not come until this man of lawlessness this antichrist has come and brings this great tribulation and distress upon the Christians he's talking about the return of Christ when he will gather his saints unto himself and when he will destroy his enemies well chapter three just deals with the practical application growing out of this belief some had said well if the Lord is coming at any moment then let's not work let's quit and just smooch off of live off of somebody else chapter three deals with that error of the second coming of Christ but again I say this twin these twin letters of first and second Thessalonians have no hint whatsoever of two stages to the coming of

Christ rather he comes and there is bliss for the believer and there is inestimable loss for the unbelieving the late Dr.

R. V. Bingham a Bible scholar once held the common doctrine of the secret appearing of our Lord and of the secret rapture of the church but his wife was his undoing she asked him where in the Bible is this taught brothers you ever been undone by a question from your wife this guy was guy was when he went to his Bible he saw that he had no text to point or to and say see here's where the secret rapture is taught in scripture so this honorable Bible scholar abandoned that view for the single return of Christ at the end of the age that ends this present age and begins is that the secret rapture theory is not so much taught in any specific passages of the Bible as it is deduced and inferred from other beliefs and other ideas held to we'll look at those ideas next week

I was hoping to end on a more practical rather than a polemic note and I leave you with those texts! We'll return to them at another time but the New Testament teaches that our attitude toward the glorious return of Jesus Christ reveals our heart and lets us know how we stand before God these are the verses that point us to that reality that the true believer the one who is right with his God has this badge upon him that he's longing for yea he's groaning for yea he's praying for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ because it's a glorious happy day for him it's the blessed hope the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ may the Lord make us hunger and long for that return and the glory that will come to him in that day and the glory that will come to us as we are glorified with him and we marvel at him in his coming obviously the importance is to be in to be ready to meet him to be able to look up with confidence and not be ashamed before him it is coming how can any man do such only if we're in

Christ and his righteousness covers us can we look up no shame confidence he's coming and his coming means my salvation let's rejoice in the gospel of Christ then today and what it's purchased!

for us in that final day Amen