Your Redemption Is Drawing Near

I sent out an email to you this week that I'd be preaching on the second coming of Christ.

And there's a lot of thought out there about Jesus' second coming. And so I can promise you in no way, you know, we could spend a whole year looking at all the prophecies and studying all the New Testament words that tie in with the second coming. And so there's no way that I'm going to encompass all of that information on one Sunday or maybe two Sundays. There's no way to do that. But I am going to share what the Lord placed on my heart to share with you today. If you'll notice, I entitled my sermon, Your Redemption is Drawing Near.

In Luke 21, 5 through 28, we're going to get to some of that passage. I'm not going to read all of it up front, but we'll get to some of that passage during the content of the sermon. But that's in there. Your redemption is drawing near. I like what the King James Version says. Your redemption draweth nigh. I like that language. Your redemption draweth nigh. Our focus for this sermon will actually be Luke 21, 19. Listen to what it says here. By your endurance You will gain life You hear that? By your endurance You will gain life Now, let me give you a disclaimer How many of you have ever heard Some guy get up to preach And then say I'm going to give you a disclaimer Before I preach I'm going to give you a disclaimer First thing is, I am no expert on the second coming of Christ. If you're expecting Dr. David Jeremiah up here today to give you his thoughts on the second coming of Christ, well, you're going to be sorely disappointed. I'm not an expert. And I am not dogmatic about my view on the second coming of Christ. which means I don't have closed vision or closed ears or a closed mouth about the second coming of Christ. I am open to learning, and I've always been that way when it came to this particular doctrine of the faith.

But let me say this. I am passionate that Jesus will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you hear that? I am passionate that he will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There's some scripture that really backed that up. Revelations 19, 11 through 16. Revelations 11, 15. Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17. Matthew 24, 30. Those are just some. You can go and read Daniel chapter 7 and all of it is under Revelations 20 verses 1 through 6. We could go on and on and on and specifically if I was doing a series we be looking at each of those passages all together But let me just read Revelation 19 11 through 16 You understand why I say I passionate about the second coming of Christ And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True. and in righteousness he judges and wages war. You hear that? And his eyes are a flame of fire and upon his head are many diadems and he has a name written upon him which no one knows except himself and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. That's not hard to figure out who this is, is it? And his name is called the Word of God. Just go to John chapter 1, 1 through 4, where Jesus is described as the Word. He is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed with fine linen, white and clean, were following him on a white horse, on white horses. And from his mouth came a sharp sword, so that with it he might smite the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he will tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And listen to this. and on his robe and his thigh, he has a name written.

He's talking about being tattooed there. On his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It's on his robe. It is written on his thigh. I am passionate. about Jesus coming back. And he will come back as King of King and Lord of Lords. So, if I'm going to be a person of integrity, I have to share with you the views of the second coming. The reason I want to do that is I probably polled 15 friends of mine over the last couple of months. I knew I was coming to this sermon. And I asked him, what's your view of the second coming? Now, these are devout, spiritual, supernatural, blood-bought, Holy Ghost preachers and lay people. What's your view of the second coming? and they were all over the board.

They all were all across the spectrum of theology about the second coming of Christ.

I sit back and thought, whoa.

Now they all had a consensus though. he is king of kings and he is lord of lords and he's coming back you hear that so let me just share some views of the second coming with you first there is the school of premillennialism that a big word There were two schools of thought with the premillennial view. The first was the historic premillennialist. And I'm going to give you a very short summarization. You can go look it up. there's tons of stuff to read about this view. Here's a short one. This was the view of the early church fathers. It's the earliest view of the second coming.

Christ will return and establish the millennia, which is a thousand year reign. And that's talked about in Revelations 20 verses 1 through 6. and he will rule in peace and justice and righteousness over the elect. Satan would be bound and unable to prowl the earth during the millennial reign. But at the end, Satan would be set free to wreak havoc. but the Lord will ultimately return to destroy Satan and his workers once and for all to judge the wicked and to set up his eternal kingdom the new Jerusalem and the new earth now one of the things about the historic premillennialist is that they do not separate the church from Israel's Abrahamic covenant.

You can go read that in Romans 11, 1-32 and Romans 4, 11-13. They did not proclaim a rapture of the elect prior to Jesus establishing the thousand year reign nor say much about a seven year period of tribulation. You know, I ask myself the question, why?

Simply, it's easy to answer. The early church expected martyrdom, persecution, and tribulation. You cannot read the book of Acts and not see that there. They expected tribulation and persecution and martyrdom. They expected it. the rapture simply was not a part of their prophetic understanding and framework at that moment Paul begins to bring that forward in his writings in Thessalonians another school of thought on the premillennialist or the dispensational premillennialism now let me say to you I am not a dispensationalist I don't go there because it segments different times in history for example they would literally say that when the last apostle died the supernatural ceased and all we have is the go by is a written word and I'm going to tell you the word and the spirit cannot be separated I am not a dispensationalist. But in agreeing across the lines, they pretty well agreed with the historic premillennialists except for the rapture of the elect before the seven tribulation thus providing an escape for the believers at hand

If you listen to Dr. David Jeremiah, John MacArthur, all these guys say that the church, the elect, will be raptured prior to the tribulation period. and yet even during this awful time this tribulation period the gospel is being spread there is during this darkest hour the light being made visible and people are still coming to Christ even though it meant a bloody assault on their lives dispensationalists saw a division between Israel and the church this time division was actually a division between Israel's one-sided commitment to the Mosaic law which we call today legalism over against the church's posture of salvation by grace through faith now guys while my personal views might very well line up with premillennialism I'm not a dispensationalist Abraham was saved by faith not by adherence to the Mosaic law do you see that I'm a child of Abraham there is continuity between the old and new covenants of revelation.

Go read Hebrews 11 when it lists all those who were made righteous by faith. It wasn't just adherence to the Mosaic law. They were righteous by faith. There's the all millennial view which means no millennial. Really, that's a misnomer. They did believe in a millennial. The thousand-year rule and reign of Christ was not a literal thousand years to them. They understood it as symbolic and figuratively. It was the span between Christ's first coming and his second coming in which he will reign at the right hand of the Father.

Amos see the rise and dominance of evil. They see the physical deception and literal persecution of Christians by the Antichrist. They see the total devastation of the Antichrist, the devil, and his demons at the second return of Christ when he returns to the earth to establish his eternal kingdom.

The thousand year reign is just a figurative label. It's not a literal label. Emil's foundational scripture for their position is 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 28. Let me read it to you. But now Christ has been raised from the dead. the first fruits of those who fall asleep. For since by man came death, by a man also came the resurrection from the dead. Amen. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits,

after those who are Christ at his coming. You hear that? At his coming. Then comes the end. When he delivers up the kingdom of God, the kingdom to God and Father, when he has abolished the rule and the authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. the last enemy that will be abolished is death for he has put all things in subjection under his feet but when he says all things are put in subjection it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him and when all things are subjected to him then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who has subjected all things to him that God may be all in all.

Basically, what it's saying is it's just a figurative in that when he comes back, he's going to set up his eternal kingdom.

They kind of sidestep Daniel. amillennialists are not very well accepted today on their view but it's a view and these are good brothers in Christ the third view is postmillennial view a view of great optimism in the church postmills stress the power of the gospel in the present we do that don't we Christ reigns from his throne in heaven to fulfill the spreading of the gospel to all mankind you see where the reign is coming from it's not on earth it's from the throne many will come to Christ and he will become the ruler and reigning king of their hearts thus propelling them through the power of the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses I don't disagree with that at all. Post mills believe the church would have great influence across the world that they would be modern day peacemakers and miracle workers.

Now the premillennialists are much more pessimistic because they see evil prohibiting that from happening. Post mills believed they would walk in the authority of Christ Take dominion over the earth and the heavenly realm Post mills believed they would lead people away from deception of worldliness To the authenticity and reality of the world to come The post mills foundational scripture are Isaiah 2, 1-4 Listen to this the word which Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about in the last days. The mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations would stream to it and many people will come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways that we may walk in his paths For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many people and they will hammer their swords in the plowshares and their spears in the pronging hooks. Nations will not lift sword against nation and never again will they learn more. Now we've all heard that as being a part of the eternal kingdom coming. That the lambs will lie down with the lions. That the creation will be set in a place of peaceful righteousness. It's important to note that the post mills do not deny there will be tears in the kingdom until Jesus returns.

But they trust that the tares will be dealt with in the final judgment. Matthew 13, 30. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, that's the second coming, isn't it? In the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather the tares and bind them in bundles and burn them up. But gather the wheat into my barn, my kingdom. So, here's my conclusion on all these views.

And I say this jokingly, but I say it kind of in a serious way too.

When we studied this in seminary and we were looking at all the different views.

I remember one of the professors saying to us,

and he was saying this not in a theological, critical view, but kind of haphazardly in a joking view. He said, well, he said, I'm a panmillennialist. And I thought, a panmillennialist, what is that? and he said it's all going to pan out in the end it's all going to pan out in the end I kind of created my my own idea I'm an all millennialist for a believer it is all going to be okay you hear what I'm saying I don't care what view you take I do think one is more correct than the other I'm a historic premillennialist and I do think that I can show through Daniel that there is a pre-rapture of the church prior to the seven year tribulation but that has nothing to do with dispensationalism. It's scriptural to me. You hear what I'm saying? So if people say, well, what's your preacher? You can say, well, he's a historic premillennialist that believes in the rapture of the church prior to tribulation. But I also think during that thousand year reign that there'll be peace and righteousness unbelievable on this earth and that people will be coming to Christ right and left and that Satan will be bound.

Right now at least in my estimation he not bound He prowling like a roaring lion I don think the thousand reign has started That's my personal opinion. But I think it's coming. And I think it's closer now than it's ever been. I think the rapture of the church is closer than it's ever been.

I'm not a pessimist though. You guys might say, well what did John Wesley think about all this? Well you can go read all the scholars that interpreted John Wesley and they argue over him being a premillennialist and a postmillennialist. You know why Wesley was a man of love who stressed,

let's do it right here on earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Let's usher in the kingdom right here. You know, Wesley was probably a premillennialist. But he had postmillennial ideas in his preaching also. So, I got 10 minutes.

I'm going to go through these real quick. so if you're a panmillennialist it's all going to pan out you're an all millennialist it's all going to work out hear these words verse 28 your redemption draw us nigh do you hear that your redemption draweth nigh it says but when these things begin to take place straighten up I love that straighten up lift up your heads are you looking up because your redemption is drawing near now These words are being said to the disciples.

And they still progress to us today. Your redemption draweth near what things? Number one, the destruction of the temple.

Verse 6 says, As for these things which you are looking at, The day will come in which there will not be one stone upon another which will not be torn down. Verse 20. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that their desolation is at hand. Verse 24. and they will fall by the edge of the sword and they will be led captive into all the nations and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. We could spend a whole week looking at what that means, the time of the Gentiles fulfilled.

Secondly, deception of the false prophets. Verse 8, see to it that you be not misled. For many will come in my name saying I am he and the time is at hand Do not go after them Guys there false prophets out there today

And they'll take you away into a place you don't want to be.

Declaration of war and disturbances. Oh, we don't have to talk about that, do we? We see it on the news every day, don't we? verses 9 and 10. I'm not going to read that to you. You can go read it. Devastation of catastrophic events. Verse 11 and verse 25. We see catastrophic events in a greater degree today than we ever have before. Now, was there catastrophic events all through history? Yes. But the increasing of these events is amazing. definable persecution now I want you to hear that verse 12 but before all the things all the things they will lay hands on you and persecute you delivering you to the synagogues and prisons before you bring you before kings and governors for my name's sake if you drop over to Matthew 24 9 which is also the Olivet Discourse in Matthew's Gospel. It's a little bit more detailed. It says then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name and at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. that's why the church believed in martyrdom they knew it was coming you know we're so distant from that in Jesus day when those guys decided to follow Jesus they knew without a shadow of a doubt that it meant their very life remember what Paul said for me to live is Christ to die is gain Paul knew he knew that martyrdom was expected determined evangelization verse Matthew 24 14 says in this gospel the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all nations and then the end will come I think that's why there's delay of the second coming. Not everybody's heard the gospel.

There ought to be a burning, propelling desire in our hearts that everybody hear the gospel. You know, I've moved from Ravenwood to Oakmont. And there are two different housing additions. And Kim and I get up and walk around through Oakmont. We do our hourly walk every day. And I'm going to tell you,

there is spiritual poverty in Oakmont like you wouldn't believe.

There's big houses, Porsches, and Lexus, and Mercedes, and devastation sitting in those houses. It's unbelievable to me. You know, those people are not being evangelized.

Detrimental paranoia. Verse 25.

6 man fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world for the powers of heavens will be shaken detrimental paranoia i remember when we were when i was pastoring in level land my daughter Cassie the youth director taught on the second coming and Cassie came in and at that time by no means had a walk with the Lord and she said he taught on the second coming I don't like that I said why do you not like that well I want to live a little bit before all that takes place. You hear what I'm saying?

She had to deal with Jesus because he was talking about him coming back. She didn't want to deal with that. She did not want to deal with that.

She was scared out of her boots when we pursued that conversation a little more. She was scared to death.

Lastly, divine rescue.

Verse 27.

And when and then they will see and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with the power and great glory. they will see the son of man coming in power and great glory divine rescue divine rescue I'm going to stop right there we finish this next week we going to talk about the ascension question

The kingdom not yet, and yet coming,

and our response to that kingdom. We'll finish it up next week. So, here's how I want to finish today.

Do you see the signs of the times?

I gave you a whole list of things.

Can you check those off?

Could they check off the destruction of the temple in 70 AD?

And there's not been any other animal sacrifices. Since then,

they witnessed the destruction of the temple.

And the work of the temple in Jerusalem's communities ceased to be what it had been. You can check that off.

When he comes back, to establish his eternal kingdom. Where's he coming to?

He's going to set his foot right down on that place.

Jesus said, you'll see this temple destroyed, but it will raise up in three days.

Now, do you hear what that's saying? when he sets his foot, the temple has been restored.

The temple is present.

Jesus is the temple.

Now, he's going to build a kingdom, but he is the temple What interesting to me is the correlation where it says and you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You mean I house the temple within me? that's exactly what that scripture means you are the temple of the Holy Spirit you are the dwelling of God the disciples watched him ascend and the angel said he's coming back in the clouds he went up that way he's coming back the way he left and he will establish the temple but you guys go preach the word because the temple is still in men's hearts we all have to ask that question am I allowing the temple to be filled my temple to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day is the Holy Spirit filling you so that you might become the salt of the earth the light of the world the witness of the gospel this is serious stuff it's serious stuff listen to the Lord this week and ask him to say do an evaluation of your heart what's in your temple what's controlling your life what things are in the temple that need to be delivered cast out of your temple

That's why they couldn't pin Wesley down because he wanted to talk about the transformation of the heart all the time.

Hallelujah.

Let's bow together in prayer.

Lord, I thank you that Jesus is the temple of God.

That when he died on that cross the very veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom so that we might enter into the holy of holies. That the holy one might enter into us, into our hearts. That the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, might be poured out across us into our hearts in order that we might be the people of God. and display and demonstrate the temple and its work on this earth.

The true meaning of the temple. The resurrected glorified Christ living in us.

Lord, maybe some of us need to say, Lord, just like you cleansed the earthly temple, maybe you need to cleanse my spiritual temple my inward temple Lord as we walk through this week help us walk in your love and grace in Jesus name I pray Amen