The Bible ends with Jesus’ promise to return and John,
the inspired author of the book of Revelation, saying “Amen” (It is true) “Even
so come Lord Jesus!” The exciting, compelling, overwhelming message that
is, in its totality, “The Scripture” ends on the highest of notes. Believers
are promised, by the Lord Himself that He will return; not just “sometime” but
“quickly.” His return should always be viewed as imminent. We have
John’s anxious, expectant response as “Yes!” Indeed Lord “Come back quickly!”
John genuinely longed to see his Lord again.
Fast-Forward to the year 2017. The majority of people are busy seeking
pleasure and satisfaction in the things of earth. Their pursuits are,
most often, self-honoring and God-denying. Paul gave a blunt and ominous
description of the last days as he wrote to Timothy. He said “But know
this, that in the last days perilous times will come; for men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without
self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Tim. 3:1-4)
The pursuit of the things of earth is by no means limited to merely
unbelievers. It is profoundly true of those who claim to be followers of
Christ. Life is more comfortable now than it has ever been.
Subconsciously it almost seems as though many have moved beyond their “felt
need” for Heaven. In his book The Real Heaven, author Chip Ingram
illustrates this idea as he poses the question “If you were given the choice of
going to Heaven today or waiting ten years, how many of you would choose
waiting the ten years?” (Chip Ingram; The Real Heaven; 62)
The “earthly” mindset, which is so prevalent, takes many different forms.
But, make no mistake, it affects our marriages, how we parent, how we work, how
we witness, how we interact with others, and how we worship. Further, it
affects what we do in our free time, how we talk and what we talk about.
Repeatedly we are told in the New Testament this world is not our home.
Paul wrote to the Philippian church that “Our citizenship is in Heaven . . . “
(3:20). Why then do so many believers live in such a way so as to bear
testimony to the on-looking world that even they as Christians do not
really believe Heaven is actually better than this broken world?
Many these days, are so contented with their lives here on
earth they only see Heaven as some sort of back-up plan or “Plan B” since they
know they cannot do what they really want – live forever here in this
world. This is largely a result and a sign of our wealth and
comfort. In days and centuries past this was not the case. People lived
hard, and often painful, lives. The comfort and relief they longed for
was not realistically attainable in this life and they knew it would only come
in the next. You see this reflected in the writings of saints of the
past. You see it reflected in the hymns once widely sung by the
church. It is particularly clear in some of the old negro spirituals
where the oppressed longed for relief from the oppressor only in the coming of
their Lord and they longed for His return with great anticipation.
There are a lot of believers who have grown so contented with this world and
their lives on earth that they have only a minor interest in Heaven or the
Lord’s return. One prominent voice of the “Prosperity Gospel” movement
said, while seated on a piece of furniture resembling a throne, that “Even if
Christianity were not true, it is a very good life.” What an amazing
statement! What a minimalizing of the life to come! This person’s
statement may be true for them, as one who is lavishly wealthy, but I wonder
how First-Century Christians being martyred would have felt about this
statement. What about those enslaved in American prior to the Civil
War? What about those living through the Bubonic Plague or “Black Death”
of 1340s and 1350s Europe which killed an estimated 25 million people? Do
you think they longed for more of this earth or rather for Heaven? What
about nearly all the generations of Christians in the past prior to the late 20th
and early 21st Century where wealth is flowing; how might they have
longed for Heaven much more than we do today? Even the poorest among us
have multiple luxuries that kings and queens of the past never knew. We
have trouble longing for Heaven because, to a large extent, we have erected a
pseudo-heaven here on this earth, mainly in our minds that keeps us from
longing for the real Heaven.
The minimalizing of the longing for
Heaven has more far-reaching implications than simply how we feel about
Heaven. It also drags down our view of “resurrection.” Resurrection
is really not that precious to one who longs to keep on living in what Paul
called “This body of death” (Rom. 7:24). In writing to the Corinthian
church about the promise of resurrection he laments how sickening the notion
that our only hope would be in this life. He says “If in this life only
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Cor. 15:19)
If we fail to long for the Lord’s return there are only a couple of reasons
why. Perhaps we do not really believe He is going to return. This
would certainly characterize unbelievers. But there is a second reason
that I believe is very common among believers; that is many believers
have grown content with the luxury of this life. They leave their
comfortable churches in their comfortable cars and travel to comfortable homes
and rest in comfortable chairs until time to go to their comfortable
beds. Quite frankly it is not as easy to long for the Lord’s return while
lying in your lazy-boy in front of your big-screen television or lying on your
800 dollar mattress as it is out clearing a field with an ax, plowing all day
with a mule, experiencing the death of your wife in childbirth, seeing a friend
die from a simple infection, or knowing first-hand the horrors of war.
The second coming of Christ is heavily tied to his first coming. When a
church partakes of the Lord’s Supper, for instance, there are three 3 things
that are in view; the past, the present, and the future. We “remember”
the shed blood of Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross. We
consider in the present our lives as believers and “examine ourselves” in light
of His work on our behalf. Finally, we think about His coming
again. In partaking of the Supper, we are said to be “Proclaiming the
Lord’s death until He comes.” Much like baptism, the other ordinance of
the church, we are making a statement to the world that we follow Christ and we
are anxiously awaiting His return. One of the strongest statements
Christians can make in this highly flawed and decaying world is that this place
is not our home. We anxiously wait to be made perfect in Christ.
There is no salvation in the temporal things of the earth, only in the eternal
work of Christ on the cross and through His glorious resurrection.
Many believers hinder their true witness when they get hung up on highly
temporal and earthly things such as election results, battles with each other
over music styles in churches, and trying to right all wrongs by even
well-intentioned use of social media.
Everything in this world will leave a Christian hungry and thirsty and wanting
more. If you find satisfaction in this world to the point you secretly
wish the second coming be delayed, you have a very serious problem in your
relationship with Christ. The glories of Heaven are so much better and
higher. No true believer would secretly long to stay in a broken,
sin-saturated, Godless world where Satan is running wild. A true believer
longs to escape the presence of sin and the brokenness it leaves in its wake
and to be with Christ. Paul gave the only potential defense one could
possibly have for desiring to stay on earth just a little longer when he talked
about it being needful for “you.” In his heart and in his mind he wanted
out of here and to be with the Lord, but he also knew that the Lord had more
work for him to do for the kingdom. Kingdom minded individuals long for
the kingdom and earthly minded individuals also long for their kingdom on
earth. But that kingdom, whether they know it or not is the one Satan
promised Jesus when he tempted Him by offering Him all authority over the
kingdoms of this world (Luke 4:5-7). Satan certainly did not have the
kingdoms of this world to give away and he still does not.
In the first of the Beatitudes (Mat. 5:3) Jesus proclaimed that the “poor in
spirit” were the ones “blessed” to see the kingdom of Heaven. It is those
who would come as a beggar longing for something from Jesus. Augustus
Toplady wrote “In my hand no price I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.”
(second stanza of “Rock of Ages”). No beggar ever became content in this
world or with begging as an enterprise. A beggar longs for a place of
comfort and security, imagined but never realized, in this life. Just
like the beggar Lazarus who died and went to the comfort of “Abraham’s
bosom.” He had begged outside the gate of a certain rich man who “faired
sumptuously.” The rich man died and was tormented in the flames of Hades
(Luke 16:19-31). I ask you, does the average American more resemble the
beggar Lazarus or the rich man? How about the average Christian?
Most Christians, I dare say, “fair sumptuously,” even well beyond anything even
remotely conceived of in the wildest imagination of this rich man of which Jesus
spoke.
It may be hard for us to long for Jesus’ return in our cozy, plush,
surroundings but eternal consequences are at stake. If you are not more
like the beggar Lazarus and less like the rich man, you desperately need to
take a long hard look at your life. Lazarus would have had no problem
whatsoever shouting out “Amen!” when Jesus said “Surely I am coming
quickly.” But the rich man would have said, I want to go to Heaven
someday, but I am just not quite ready yet.
In Christ
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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