The Return of Christ

Luke 21:25-28

by Dennis Gunderson

Lots of mistakes have been made about prophecy. Many poor assumptions and presumptions have been made, interpreting this or that happening as fulfillment of this or that prophecy, when it was nothing of the sort. No one should gloat when others err: its just a fact: interpreting prophecy has some great difficulties and its easy to botch it and miss the point.

But when the events described in these verses come to pass, there will be no mistake about what's happening. We will have a world full of people who are surprised, but no one will be mistaken about what is taking place. When Gods omnipotent hand reaches down, to wind up the affairs of man and earth and all things in this world, and the hand that created goes into un-creation, we truly wont have ever seen anything like it. Many will react with the feeling that Life as we know it is over! which will be true in a way. But a believer will know, far more accurately, that death as we have known it is what is over! Yes, there's a generation coming who are going to cheat the undertaker; a generation for whom there will be no memorial services.

It is in that generation that the words you have just read will take place. Upon whom the ends and I mean the very ends of the ages, have come. Yes, after 3 weeks of hearing me say No, its not the end yet, its not the end of the world well, at least in our studies, it finally IS the end of the world. We reach it today. Not in reality, at least not that I know of but in today's study in the Word and probably the next 2 weeks, we get to focus on it. So that, at least in our hopes and longings and dreams, we reach the 2nd coming of our Lord.

I never begin my work in the morning, said one famous preacher, without thinking that He may interrupt my work and begin His own. I am not looking for death; I am looking for Him.
~ (G. Campbell Morgan)

Are you looking for Him? Are you waiting for Him? Biblically speaking, a mark of true faith in Christ is not just looking back to Him, with faith in what He did. But Biblical faith looks ahead to Him, with eager eyes for His arrival. Now, it is precisely because we cannot predict the moment, that becomes a reason to remain ready at all moments. I will be probing you today on that most important of all questions: how ready are you to face the biggest event coming in your future? Christ is coming. There simply is no subject more important to preach about than the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He said in Luke 12:40: You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. How much clearer could He be? You will not expect Him at the time He comes. No matter how well prepped you have been, no matter how well you have studied the signs which are supposed to precede His coming, still, apparently, men will not be expecting Him when He comes. The element of the unexpected in His return comes through again and again in the Scriptures.

Nonetheless, there are signs which He has predicted in connection with it. This morning, well be talking about these 4 verses and their 4 points:

The Signs (v 25) ~ The Terror (v 26) ~ The Coming (v 27) ~ The Encouragement (v 28)

1) The Signs v 25
The signs, as He calls them, are described in v 25:

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves.

Or, as Matthew remembers it, and records Him saying in Matt 24:29:

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Lets be sure we understand what all this means. Because years of Bible reading can have the opposite effect than its intended to have! It gets so easy, after reading this again and again, to grow numb to the words in which the Lord Jesus describes the most shattering events anyone will ever see come upon the earth! And not even know that you've become numb. Look at it as if you had never looked at it before What is being described here? Ill tell you what: changes in the world of a magnitude that you cannot even conceive of the sight of.

Have you ever seen anything all at once so puzzling, so inexplicable, and all at once so frightening, that you truly did not know how to react other than to be overcome with fear? I have known a few of those features separately, but not together. In other words, I have seen sights that were terribly frightening, such as the only time I ever saw a tornado, in Nebraska; and it was scary but it wasn't puzzling or inexplicable because I knew what I was looking at. Or I have seen sights that so puzzled me, I did not know what they were; but they didn't terrify. I just wasn't sure what I was looking at, what phenomena I was observing. But here Jesus portends events both puzzling and inexplicable, and dismaying to the point of sheer terror.

I do not think we often realize, when we read these familiar words, that the events described in that verse would have to be more dramatic than anything we have ever seen in life, or ever seen in any movie. Signs that is, an eventful mark or token of something else to come. An event which is not a complete event in itself, but which the observer can tell, has so much the marks of drama to it, that its a pointer to something to follow which is yet greater. Such as, a sign like the seas parting would seem to indicate something is about to rise out of the seas; or signs of a great approaching noise would indicate something large and powerful coming close.

Here, were talking about the largest, most stable objects we know of the sun the moon the stars changing! Undergoing grandiose change! Ceasing to be what they are even falling! The sun going dark certainly means all creation is changing. The moon giving no light that cant happen naturally. It has to mean the most supernatural intervention possible is occurring. Stars falling from the sky? There isn't anything larger in the universe to come falling! You know that when this happens, big as it is, that even bigger changes are about to follow in life as we know it!

We cannot even think in terms of stars falling to the ground meaning that they will hit the earth, like meteorites crashing into the ground, for the planet could not survive one star falling to earth! but when He combines it with saying the powers of the heavens will be shaken, clearly, this is the sights and sounds of creation coming entirely unglued. Col 1:17 tells us that in Him all things hold together, and He who holds it all together possesses the authority and prerogative to decide and determine when it shall all come apart.

Its what OT prophets called the day of the Lord. We hear of how someone who has been snubbed will have his day he's going to have his day. With that meaning in mind, there is a day of the Lord coming THE day of the Lord.

Perhaps the clearest Biblical description of what Jesus speaks of here is in Rev 6:12-17, where the Apostle John is having a prophetic vision, seeing ahead of time, the very day and events Jesus speaks of in Luke 21. These verses in Rev 6 refer to the breaking of the 6th seal of God dishing out His dealings with the earth. Now, there is a great deal of debate between the different views on the Lords return, about what those first 5 seals signify. But there cant be a whole lot of question about the 6th one, because of what comes with it:

And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?

It is Christ coming, without a doubt. For this is no mere description of just a specific moment of Gods wrath in human history, some lesser occasion of His judgment, some localized wrath of God. The people know, this is the great day of Their wrath the wrath of the One on the throne, and the wrath of the Lamb. They wish to be hidden from their presence, knowing that are being ushered into His presence. This is the end.

Striking signs in the universe and among all created things have occurred before. There have obviously been great shakings and tumults in the earth, and though more rarely, sometimes striking signs in the skies but Jesus is describing something of an exceptional degree. He speaks of what are not merely natural disasters, but disasters of a positively UN-natural kind unnatural in their kind, unnatural in their scope. Things that just don't ordinarily happen even in the worst of storms or the wildest and woolliest of times.

Some say this is symbolic. But to me, the most natural explanation of the men being perplexed and fainting from fear is, these astonishing phenomena are actually occurring! And its not as though this is the only place we read that the whole creation will unravel and come apart we do read that elsewhere. So this makes sense as Jesus summary of that, and it makes every bit of sense that men are afraid as its occurring.

For, what we will be seeing is, the fulfilling of 2 Peter 3:10-13:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

There are parallels in that language to what Jesus said. Peter was both remembering what His Lord had prophesied and adding prophecy to it himself. To anyone who believes that there's a created beginning to this world, it is anything but foolish to believe that there is an end coming to it as well. An end when the world order and things as we know them, are simply not kept together any longer in the same familiar manner that we are used to. When its all melted down and re-made.

And when God makes a new creation, only those who have been already made a new creation in Christ, are being fitted for it. But for others there will be, understandably:

2) The Terror v 26

men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

People really like stability. Even those who speak of enjoying change have their limits! They would not enjoy feeling the earth move under their feet. They would not enjoy seeing the skies falling apart or huge changes in the sun, upon which we depend rather intimately. People will be understandably filled with fear fainting from fear and expectation, horrid anticipation. For they will see some of the strangest things ever happening, but they will not understand what it all means nor what is to follow.

If we do live in the very final days, then we are going to see multitudes of persons completely unglued and overwhelmed by what they see and we don't know if what they are going to see will last hours, or days, or weeks, or months. There is no description of how lengthy a time period this will be. We just know that it will be a very fearful time.

The man whose heart is attached to everything of this world ought to shake in his boots at the sights and sounds. Think of it: if you live for worldly business, just to make your profits (which is perfectly fine as A goal, so long as its not THE goal or the ONLY goal of your life), then what will you do when worldly business is suddenly halted by the interruption of God and the precious things of this world are made worthless in a moment?

If you live for health and life, what will you do when graves are opening all around you and people you thought were dead and gone are rising to meet Christ in the air? What will you do when the Jesus who you neglected to seek, arrives to seek you? And is dominating the sky in some mind-blowing visual image? The Bible tells us what those persons will do: it says they will call upon rocks to fall upon them, just to hide us from God! But the rocks wont do that, because they too will be obeying Gods command, not yours, and they will sooner pave a way to your door than hide you.

Much of what will no doubt make men fear, and will make you fear if you have not served Christ, is what you fear you do know about this day what you were warned of. For, in one of those day of the Lord prophesies, in Isa 13:6-11 just selectively reading bits of it, it tells us:

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty and therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man's heart will melt. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. He will exterminate sinners thus, I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

The end of all things will be the end of evildoing; the end of arrogance; the final muzzling and silencing of all proud arrogance that resists God. It will shut them all up. But next:

3) The Coming v 27

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

OT prophecy often spoke of God as coming in a cloud; it appears to be a way of highlighting both power and mystery at the same time coming like a storm; coming suddenly to appear from behind a concealing object.

And, to add one of the most heart-seizing statements of it, Matt 24:27:

For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

It is so tempting to ask and want to know, When? When will this be? But do not lose touch with this truth: No man knows the day or the hour. It is a day that remains hidden, so that every day we stay watchful. The Puritan William Gurnall said:

Christ has told us He will come, but not when, so that we might never put off our clothes and never put out our candle.

So, rather than say when, v 27 only gives us a then then they will see the Son of Man coming then we will see the sight of all sights in history. All men on the face of the earth will see Christ returning. You wont even miss it if you're dead. If you are alive when He comes you'll see it, and if you're dead, did you know that you're going to be raised to see it? Yes you are. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now and then, some foolish persons asks the question, How will men who live on all sides of the globe be able to simultaneously see the Lord Jesus arriving in the skies? The world is round. I don't need an answer to that. I don't even need to think about it. I cant explain things that happen in my own house so I sure don't need to understand that. But in case your mind is of a curious nature, at least consider that, it could be contained in the fact that, the whole universe is getting overhauled? And changed from something and changed into something that we cannot presently comprehend within our present spatial understandings and definitions.

Remember, there are signs in sun, moon and stars, and upheaval on the planet. All bets are off as regards the usual way things work. Engineering rules wont apply any longer. When you're talking about the day God re-makes the world, its not going to be a good time to be fussing about, How come I can see things dimensionally in ways I couldn't before? There wont be any more complaints about the creation exhibit at the zoo, either, I assure you. The Son of Man is coming.

And that bears some comment: make sure you understand Who is coming: it is not the Father. It is not the Holy Spirit. Or just some general vision of God. Do not picture an artists rendering of God coming down to earth. Its not going to look like anything you've ever seen. You see how you listen to the radio and form an image of a host and then when you see him or her, they look nothing like you expected all the more that will be true on this day! It is the 2nd coming of Jesus. It is the return and appearance of the One Whom the world crucified and rejected. Coming back to not be rejected by anyone this time, make no mistake.

He calls Himself here the Son of Man, which was Jesus favorite name for Himself: because, above all names, this was the name which described Him as the Redeemer Who had come once already as God in flesh. He's not just the Son of God; He's the Son of Man the one you rejected because you thought Him nothing more than a man. The one many didn't pay attention to because they said He was merely a man. Hell be coming.

Even the book of Zechariah that we've been preaching through on Sunday nights has a prophecy of this, Zech 14:4-9:

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. And you will flee. and then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! And it will come about in that day that there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.

Now, that sounds like a rather unique and different day, doesn't it? Once again, just like Rev 6, just like Isa 13, just like 2 Pet 3, it speaks of the sun and moon and stars and the usual lights, being altered. Zechariah says, it wont be like day; but it wont be like night either; and in the evening there will be plenty of light. And Gods holy ones will be with Him, either meaning angels with Him coming or believers who have died, or maybe both angels and believers from the past. All ending with the Lord being king over all the earth, the only king, the only one with power anymore.

Coming is arguably the key word here, as it is in many places He was always known as the Coming One, said so often, it became a name. And now that He has come, but will be coming again, its a name that has ever-greater meaning. Mark and Luke, notice, just say that we all will see the Son of Man coming; Matthew said we will see the sign of the Son of Man appearing in the sky, which probably means that, the very appearance of Jesus Himself is the sign. The very appearing of the Lord Jesus in the skies on clouds is the final great sign from the point of view of the earth.

I wonder at times how long this is going to take? Will there be something about Him, visibly coming, all day long? Will He appear as a sudden flash? Or will He gradually appear at a distance and get closer all through the day? We don't know, but He is coming. But finally for today:

4) The Encouragement v 28

But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

The very events which cause such great alarm and distress to most of mankind, will bring followers of Christ what they have always waited for finally, freedom and deliverance from the world.

So He says Straighten up and lift up your heads by straighten up, not meaning, start behaving (you kids straighten up!), but don't be hung down in discouragement this is a time to be encouraged!

And as we sang last week, Lift up your heads! like the captive feels when he knows his liberators have reached the prison and they are coming to unlock my cell and set me free! So we will all be instantaneously freed from our life sentence in the body as Paul said, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? Christ is coming to do that. He seems to say that the moment of great encouragement that its over, is when its really in fact over. And you see Him coming.

What does He mean, your redemption is drawing near? In Christ, don't we already have redemption? Well, its like this: redemption means release on payment of a price. There is a sense in which, that was accomplished at the cross Heb 9:12 teaches that clearly. But there is also a sense in which the full unfolding of it is still future and it is this of which Jesus speaks. He uses it in the sense of which Rom 8:23 speaks.

You might compare our stages of redemption in Christ to, a slave learning that a kind owner has purchased him from a cruel owner, and has paid the price for him already; yet knowing that a day is coming, in a month, when the new master is coming to pick me up and take possession. They are both redemption; but they are stages of redemption.

So, when our bodies are raised again and soul and body are once more united, then we will see that our redemption is truly complete! Believers are redeemed already from the guilt and power of sin, and thus Eph 1:14 speaks of it that way. But from all the humbling consequences of sin, we will not be completely redeemed until the Lord Jesus comes again, and calls us from our graves at the last, and perfects His people.

Well, it all brings to mind the verses I read from Peter earlier this time, turn to them, if you didn't before:

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God

What sort of persons ought you to be? Peter assumes that we know something about the what, from other Scriptures. To fill out your understanding of that what, one of the best places to turn is Titus 2:11-14 I think it contains, in seed form, the best consolidation of what were to be, that you'll find anywhere:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Paul adds, v 15:

These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

And I plan to. Would you have such things said to you with anything less than authority?

In light of His coming, what sort of people ought you to be? In light of the fact that the end of this world is coming, and He plans to destroy it all? And rule it all?

~ You ought to be people who deny ungodliness and worldly desires (or, lusts). You'd be crazy to live for those things when you know that the next thing which could happen is the arrival of the Holy Son of God who hates those things and Who suffered and died to deliver His people from those things!

~ You ought to be people who live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age. Not who look forward to living sensibly, righteously and godly in some other coming age! You wont get a chance to if you wont in this present age! No, to live for it now.

~ You ought to be looking for His appearing as your happiest (blessed) hope!

~ You ought to be zealous about good deeds, as people who have been purchased for that.

But its always a bad sign in the life of any church, when the people start getting hung up on discussing eschatology instead of living prepared for the coming of Christ. We have centuries of proof that it is quite possible to take great interest in discussing last things and not even be looking for the appearing of Christ. Is it possible for a man to speak of what a wonderful person his wife is and ignore her nonetheless? Sure. Is it possible for a man to claim that all he wants is quality time with her after he gets home from work, but get so hung up on details that he's always somewhere on the route driving home and never actually gets to her? Sure it is. Some seem to talk about the last days like that, as though it was so gripping to just talk about the timing of the coming of Jesus but never relish that its the coming of Jesus!

And it is not difficult to discern what we ought to be doing as we wait. Our God remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is still the God who calls for love for Himself and love for neighbor as His great commandments; He is still the God who wants you to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. So no matter how near our Lords return is, or how far off it yet is, what He requires of us remains so much the same.

Spurgeon once said:

If I knew that our Lord would come this evening, I should preach just as I mean to preach; and if I knew He would come during this sermon, I would go on preaching until He did.

And if you would honor our coming Lord, then that's how you ought to live. Go on: doing what He has called you to do. That's an honorable way to wait. Do the duty which is before you. For, as Augustine said:

He who loves the coming of the Lord
is not he who affirms it is far off,
nor is it he who says it is near.
It is he who, whether it be far or near,
awaits it with sincere faith, steadfast hope, and fervent love.