Christ is Coming--What He Wants When He Arrives

"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:27).

     The date is Thursday, the ninth day of August.  It's a surprisingly cool summer evening in a Chicago that has had one of the most scorching summers in recent memory.  The sky is cloudy and overcast as a light rain falls during the sun's descent.  My started at at 5:00 a.m. and frankly, I'm a little fatigued right now.  I began my day with prayer, about 90 minutes of Bible reading and study before I ran a few errands to return home to get some yard work done that I had been putting off.  I'm sitting right now in a Christian men's class at my church (the Apostolic Church of God) with but a single event burning more brightly right now than it normally does, and one that had, I must admit, somewhat lost its luster amid the day's busyness.  Just as parents get "too busy" to spend quality time with their children, and as working-too-much husbands neglect their wives and homes, I allowed the greatest event that will occur in every Christian's life to be momentarily forgotten: the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     I understand that not everyone believes that Jesus Christ existed, much less that He's going to someday return in glory.  However the most astonishing thing about the issue of belief in this crucial event is that some Christians don't even believe that Christ will return despite all of the Scripture that vividly describes that Day, complete with all of the various and irrefutable signs that will occur prior to His coming; but even in those of us who do believe He will return, is it not our actions that so often say otherwise?  With our tongues we say all of the right things, we regularly attend church services and volunteer our energies and talents and gifts to the church, but in the areas that really count, we blatantly deny the great seriousness of that awesome Day of joy, disregarding that it's also one of reckoning as well.

     Christ assured His disciples that He would one day return for His own and would do so solely at a time of the Father's choosing (John 14:2, Matthew 24:36), but is the Lord returning to this world of sin to claim a people who have just given up on life, who have vainly sold their possessions, quit their jobs, withdrawn from society to congregate on hills waiting in white robes holding hands chanting and humming--?  

     A thousand times, no!  

     Christ rightfully expects to return to His people who have been relentlessly diligent in doing His will, who've dedicated their lives to uncompromised holiness and tireless service to God and man; His own who have been the salt and light of this world who have without apology or shame warred against the corruption of this age with the only weapon able to prevail against the kingdom of darkness: the Word of God.  Those who call themselves Christian should be striving in every waking moment that at the fine brass-colored feet of Jesus to be able to offer two priceless things: faithfulness and obedience.

     We must, especially in this very late hour in human history, understand that this planet and everything and everyone on it falls under the jurisdiction of the rule of God and He will have all things function according to His perfect will.  He has for a time allowed rebellious man to go his own way, and we have all experienced the painfully harsh embedded consequences of sin.  But God, who is rich in mercy (Eph. 2:4), planned before the creation of the universe to reserve an inumerable multitude of sinners purchased from the grip of sin and death and Satan to overcome the aforemention cruel slavemasters in both this life and the one to come (Rev. 7:9, 13-14).  It would be these, a small minority in comparison to the members of mankind that would be lost, that would be called and chosen to believe on Jesus Christ as Savior, submit to Him as Lord, having the Holy Spirit living within them.  To walk in faithfulness and obedience (expected by Christ) requires the abiding of the Holy Spirit.  By the will of the Father Christ saved the Church forever making the Christian a citizen of the Kingdom of God, and most certainly God could have and can take anyone saved immediately to Heaven, skipping whatever years of remaining trouble-filled life--but He doesn't.  God bestows on His own the Holy Spirit because following salvation and justification a great work must begin, one that must go on until that pre-determined time in God's mind to take His servant home.

     We must understand that the service Christ demands is of an urgency so great that He will hold His own sternly responsible for it being undone with piercing words of rebuke and chastisement--there are precious, eternal souls teetering on the cusp of the never-extinguishing fire of hell!  The same hell that Christ, in perfect, unquestioning obedience to His Father's will left Heaven to save you from if you are born again.  Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ gives one a general idea of what Christ endured as the price of our deliverance from the due penalty for our sin.  I say "general" because the Bible says that Jesus Christ was so horribly beaten and scourged that he no longer even looked like a man.  Just had to make that crystal clear.  So if anyone thinks even for one thousandth of a second that God will have allowed that type of brutality to His dear, perfect Son, who never hurt or hated anyone, who had only such a profound love for His Father that He would lay down His own life for those that the Father loved and for those bought by His own blood to half-heartedly serve Him and not share the greatest, most urgent message ever with the lost and not be strongly disciplined, then I have only pity on that person.

     Christ expects His people to be faithful stewards of the resources, talents, gifts, and Truth that He has given.  He expects His people to be obedient to the commands He has issued in the only two sources of His will: the inerrant, infallible, inspired and complete Holy Bible, and by His Holy Spirit.  

     And both will always, always, always agree with one another.

     In Matthew 24:45-51, Christ tells a parable about the faithful and wise servants.  It is in this parable that Christ describes the thinking and mannerisms of the unwise servant.  His degree of faithfulnes was based on his thinking that "My master is delaying his coming" and therefore he lost the connection between the truth of his master's arrival and his faithfulness in managing his master's resources.  It should be noted that the unwise servant never denied or forgot that his master was coming, but he failed to allow the truth of his coming to govern his actions.  This thinking is shamefully pervasive in American churches today.  So many Christians have taken their eyes off of the imminent coming of Christ and by default have done what the unwise servant did by eating and drinking with drunkards and treating his fellows with cruelty.  (One of the main reasons for man's inhumanity toward man is because of covetousness; the American nation and church are so burdened and enslaved by materialism that it has become the idolatry of this present hour.)

     I am a Christian.  I am glad to be a Christian.  I regularly pray for the strength--for the guts--to be able to hold to my confession of Christ as Lord even in the face of death and torture.  Scripture plainly says that love for Him is simply shown by obedience to His commands (Deut 6:4-6, 11:1; Ps 119:97: Eccl 12:13; Matt 7:21, 22:37; Mark 12:30; John 14:15, 21, 23, 24, 15:10).  It is the greatest act of hatred of Christ to disobey Him.  This truth is staggering, especially because if we're honest with ourselves we often willingly violate the commands of Christ.

     Christ already owns and governs the universe from the right hand of the Father so if you think about it, there's absolutely nothing we can offer Him that He doesn't completely own.  Therefore, what can we offer Him other than faithfulness in "micro-managing" the things He entrusts into our care and our obedience to Scripture and His Spirit?

     He expects faithfulness and obedience in every area of our lives, not just when we show up for worship or in the more obvious moments of life.  He demands faithfulness in our time and energy and resources in those moments where no one is watching; in those moments where temptation entices to advance Self, or to steal, or to harbor hate in our heart toward others.  Many sins are very convenient to commit like fornication, adultery, covetousness, drunkenness, and pornography but those are the times when we must show the greatest amount of faithfulness.

     The return of Christ for His own is most assuredly the most joyously anticipated event that will ever occur for Christians but we must remember that from His judgment throne Christ with demand a full accounting for our faithfulness (with His gifts) and for our obedience (to His commands).  

     If we maintain the proper perspective of that Day then its imminent approach and subsequent full, scouring examination by the Lord will give supernatural sobriety to our lives and spur us on to hear Christ's words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord" (Matt 25:21).