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Leadership & Life
'I'll Be Back!' - Jesus Christ
Mal Fletcher
Check it out, there were always three fundamentals of the apostles' preaching: the cross, the resurrection and the second coming (see Acts 1:6-13).
If you try to sit on a two-legged stool, you're on the way to a very sore behind. If you try to preach just a two-legged Good News, you're not giving people something they can really be secure on!
Without the preaching of the cross, Christian faith is just empty triumphalism -- positive thinking techniques that tell people to visualize nice things and all the bogey men in their hearts and minds will disappear (poof!). Without the resurrection, we're just into morbid asceticism -- of the kind that almost drove Martin Luther mad before he discovered faith! And if we leave out the second coming of Jesus, it's all just a lot of impractical, pie-in-sky spirituality.
The cross reminds us of the cost involved in following the Master. The resurrection shows us the power he has given us to live his kind of life. And the second coming reminds us that we have a great hope. Jesus' return will be a physical one and it will have real-world effects.
The signs of Jesus return are all around us and reading the prophetic writings of the Bible is often like reading tomorrow's newspaper today. But signs are just that -- they are only signs, they point the way to something or someone much more deserving of our attention than they are. In these days, more than ever, our eyes should be on the Savior, and not just the signs.
Why is Jesus coming back?
1. To Establish his Kingdom
We all love democracy -- who in their right mind would rather live under tyrrany? But democracy is the best we can do without God. Ultimately, there is only One who is really qualified to rule the affairs of human kind; the One for whom the world was made. One day, the government shall rightfully be 'upon his shoulders' -- a great hope not just for the church, but for the world.
2. To Be reunited with his people
Jesus will bring his people, those who have placed their 'life or death' faith in him, into the full inheritance he died to give them (cf. John 14:2-3). If we're followers of Jesus, we shouldn't invest too much time or energy in what have here. Remember 'E.T'? He never quite settled down on earth, he was always restless and wanting to 'call home'. What kept him going was the drive to get to his real home, because he knew he didn't belong here.
Christian, you are a stranger in this land, a pilgrim passing through. Whenever we try too hard to fit in, we cause ourselves pain and frustration. Better to just accept the fact: this world is not our home, so we shouldn't invest too much buying new furniture!
Why should we be aware of his return?
Why does the Holy Spirit spend so much time in the Bible telling us about the second coming of Christ? Was it so that we could make a good living out of selling hyped-up, paranoid books about the end of the world? Was it to encourage us to go live in the mountains and store cans of baked beans to see us through the coming nightmare?
Not at all. In fact, if you study the New Testament, you'll find that on many occasions it teaches us about Jesus' return in the context of how we live here and now. The question is often asked: 'If you know Jesus is coming -- at a time when you least expect him -- how should you be living in this world?'
Teaching on the second coming was not given to make escape artists out of us; it is meant to change the way we conduct our lives in even the smallest details. We just don't know when the master of the house will return, so we should be on our best behaviour in hopeful anticipation.
You see, if you really believe in the second coming of Christ, your life will change. Of all people in your neighborhood, you will be a person of:
Peace
No matter what you face, no matter what storms threaten to sink your boat, you can live in peace if you know Christ is returning. He has left us not just any peace, but the same kind of peace of mind he enjoyed (cf. Jn 14:27-28). What kind of peace was that?
Peace that slept through storms. Peace that obtained the promises of God, even when that meant raising the dead back to life. Peace that expects the miraculous and the unusual. Peace that speaks to spiritual oppositions and expects it to back down. Peace that silences the devil's temptations. Peace that looks forward in hope when others look back in fear -- even seeing past a cross to a resurrection!
Watchfulness
Many people right now spend all their spare time sky-gazing, scanning the firmament for UFO's, ETI's and the like. Christians sometimes make light of this -- while they themselves scan the magazines to work out who might be the antichrist!
The Bible tells us to be 'watchful' (cf. Matt. 24:42,45-46), but that has nothing to do with sky-gazing or antichrist-hunting. Jesus clearly warned us not to get tangled up in worrying about the date of his return -- whether it might be near or remote (cf. Matt 24:2). The angels even asked the disciples straight out, 'why do you stand gawking at the sky?' (Acts 1:11).
Being watchful means fulfilling your call. Jesus will find you doing something when he returns -- but what will that something be? Being watchful means applying yourself fully to your call, knowing that only what you do in his strength, in obedience to his will, can ever last into eternity. (cf. 1 Cor 3:11-13 'For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.')
Boldness
After the miraculous events of Pentecost, the apostles never once asked God for power -- they knew they had that now. What they asked for continually was boldness, and it was a prayer God answered time an again.
Study the book of Acts: what was it that marked them out as being like Jesus? Their sheer boldness, their refusal to believe that they could not do the works Jesus had done!
Where does that kind of boldness come from? It comes when we obey, when we do what we know the Father would be doing (Acts 4:30). As long as the disciples of Jesus did what they knew he would be doing, they could be bold.
It comes when we face opposition full-on. In Acts 4:29, the apostles looked for boldness because their enemies were making angry threats against their preaching. They did not run from the fray -- they sought God for strength to stand their ground.
And boldness comes when we remember who wins in the end! In Acts 4:19, Peter was more concerned about obeying God than obeying the dictates of men, because he knew who would ultimately justify, defend and reward him.
Holiness
In the hit movie Apollo 13, a story made all the more poignant because it is true, the main character, played by Tom Hanks, has dreamt all his life of walking on the moon. Finally, he gets his big chance when he's appointed leader of an Apollo mission.
As they make their way toward the moon, there is a sudden explosion and warning alarms start sounding. For several days, NASA experts work frantically to find a way to repair the damage and bring their astronauts safely back to earth. Hanks looks out the window at the moon which he knows his feet will never touch and says, 'Gentlemen, we have just lost the moon.'
A multi-million dollar mission was aborted. The world held its breath for a week. And a man lost his life-long dream. Why? What caused the problem in the first place? Was it a collision with a meteorite? Or a stellar explosion sending shock waves into space? Or some terrestrial terrorist activity?
None of the above. It all came down to one small valve that began to leak. The whole mission came undone because of one small, seemingly insignificant piece of machinery.
That's what sin does to a human heart, life and destiny. Sin always starts small and seemingly insignificant, in the far corners of our lives we expect nobody to be watching. It always starts with just a slow 'leak'. But sin is above all deceptive. In the end, what starts as a small sin takes us further than wanted to go, keeps us longer than we wanted to stay and invariably costs us more than we wanted to pay.
'Holy' doesn't mean boring, dull or overbearing. It means 'set apart' or 'different'. Living a holy life means simply recognizing that I am not my own, that I am 'bought with a price.'
Knowing that Jesus is returning, to reward those faithful to him, we should live exemplary lives. None of us will never make a mistake -- but we need to keep our eyes open to willful sin in our lives. In the words of Paul: 'The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.' (Rom 13:12); 'Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.' (Eph 5:15-16)
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