What is the Second Coming About?

From the sermon series, "First Truths about the Second Coming"
A sermon preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming, Pastor
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
January 31, 1999

Text: Revelation 21:1-5

Today I begin a sermon series on the Second Coming of Christ. I want to begin by assuming you are not sure what I am talking about so let me explain. The Bible revolves around ten major events. Five are in the Old Testament. Five are in the New Testament.

The Five from the Old Testament are:
Creation (Genesis 1-11)
The Call of Abraham (Genesis 12)
The Exodus (Exodus 1 and following)
The Giving of the Law (Exodus 20)
The Prophets

The Five from the New Testament are:
The Birth of Christ (Matthew and Luke)
The Crucifixion of Christ (All four gospels)
The Resurrection of Christ (All four gospels)
The sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
at which time the church began.
Finally, the Second Coming of Christ.

Now, since nine out of the ten have already happened, it is natural to wonder when the other shoe is going to fall, when the Second Coming is going to occur.

Special times always bring keen interest in the end times. As we approach the end of this millennium it is not surprising that keen interest abounds about the final event of the ten.

You should know that similar preoccupation with the end time occurred in the year 999. In fact, at the turn of the century in 900 A.D. a council of the church proclaimed that it was the last century of human history. At the end of the year 999 people from all across Europe got ready for the end. Many donated their homes and possessions to the poor. (That seems like a more Christian thing to do than hoard up food and water for the Y2K crisis.) Many thought Jesus would return to the exact place he ascended, so they made their way to Jerusalem to the spot they thought he would come. Pope Sylvester II celebrated mass at St. Peter's in Rome on the last night of the century. The place was so crowded some died either from suffocation or from fright. At midnight, the bells tolled wildly. A thousand years later, here we are to tell about it and to watch similar panic occur.

I do not wish to play into the sensationalism that already abounds. Instead, my goal is to rescue the empowering promise of the Second Coming from the doomsday mosaic in which it has been placed. I believe Scripture places it instead in the beautiful mosaic of hope and newness.

We begin by asking, What is the Second Coming About? The first truth gives this answer. The Second Coming of Christ is a promise of newness, not a doomsday event. Great tribulation gives way to great blessing. What seems to be the ending, turns out to be the new beginning. That is why it is called in Titus 2:13, "the blessed hope."

Listen as I read from Revelation 21:1-5.

Experiences, Past and Present
I remember growing up during World War II to a steady diet of preaching about the Second Coming of Christ. The preacher was my father. He believed with every fiber of his being that the Lord was going to return any minute. Hitler was the antichrist. The armies of the antichrist were on the seven hills of Rome, just as in the book of Revelation. The message from the pulpit was, "get ready, it may happen this week." Furthermore, my father took the position that Christians were to escape the great tribulation through what is called the rapture, a time when some believe all believers are taken and all unbelievers left. I was only a boy of eight or nine at the time. I did not know that the word rapture is not found in the Bible. Nor could I have known that this view of the end of time makes the escape of Christians primary and the return of Christ secondary. The gospel I heard from the pulpit in those days was, "it will happen any day; it will happen any hour. Be ready, or you will be left behind."

One day I came home from school. For reasons I do not remember, my parents were not there. I looked everywhere. I began to run from room to room. Nobody was there. I looked in the closets. I ran outside to the garage. They were nowhere to be found. I was quite sure Jesus had come and I had been left behind. When my parents returned they found me sobbing uncontrollably on the front porch. Now after more than fifty years, I still begin to shake inside and can still feel the absolute sense of abandonment. It would be years before I discovered that one of the basic archetypal fears of humankind is the fear of being abandoned, of being left behind.

Now after fifty years, all of this is recycling again. In the name of the Lord Jesus who said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," we have turned God's new day into doomsday. The promise of Christ's new creation can be replaced by a holocaust of fear. Yet, does not the Scripture correct this by saying, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim. 1:7)

Not only have some Christians made the end of this century into a fearful anticipation, astrologers and other predictors join in. The Frenchman, Nostradamus (1503-1566), is often quoted these days. Nostradamus was both a physician and an astrologer. He prophesied: "In the year 1999 and seven months, the great King of Terror will come from the sky. He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols. Before and after, war reigns happily unrestrained." (Century X, quatrain 72) Boy, isn't that a happy note. How would you like to be married to that guy.

It reminds me of the wife who was asked if she woke up grumpy. She replied, "No, I let him sleep."

I came across a book the other day entitled, The Hopi Survival Kit. The Hopis are Native American Indians who live in the southwest, mostly in Arizona and New Mexico. The book included Hopi prophecies and included suggestions on how to survive the terrible times ahead.

You know, I feel about the Second Coming like I feel about so many wonderful things in our culture. We are letting the Second Coming keep some strange company, taking that which is precious and wonderful and making it into something it is not.

The Second Coming is not about fear, not about doomsday, not about being left behind. The Second Coming is the promise, that after the great tribulation, our Lord will make all things new. The end is not the end, but God's new beginning.

Explanation
Part of the problem may be a misunderstanding of the language that is used in prophecy. It is full of images that are bold, wild, unrelated to the real world we live in. Sometimes they are fearful. The name given this type of story telling is apocalyptic. Such language was used long before Jesus was born as is found frequently in the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezekiel. John, the writer of Revelation in the New Testament, was familiar with these images and used them to describe the final events.

The Bible speaks of a great tribulation that will occur before the end. Then the Lord will return and will create all things new. The order of things is this: great tribulation, Second Coming, new creation.

Consider how often this happens in the believer's life already. The consistency of redemption is amazing: tribulation, breakthrough, new creation. At the Second Coming, our Lord will do perfectly what, because of all of the junk in our world and in our lives, is happening imperfectly now.

To show how this works, take some vivid, almost grotesque imagery, from Revelation 5. It is a powerful but it is also wonderful. It is a description of Jesus but it is given in apocalyptic language. But, if you can get behind these images to what they really mean, then you bump into some marvelous and wonderful truths.

Catch this picture of Jesus. He is pictured as the Lamb following John the Baptist, who said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The Lamb (Jesus) is described as having seven horns and seven eyes, and from the seven eyes come the seven spirits of God. Furthermore, the twenty-four elders are holding golden bowls which burn incense and the incense is the prayers of the saints. Wow. This is bold stuff. Sounds like a religious version of the X Files doesn't it? But hang with me because this is really a wonderful picture of the work of Christ, now and in the endtimes.

If you drew a literal picture of this description you would draw a lamb on a throne with seven horns, seven eyes, and seven spirits coming out of those eyes. That would be unlike any other picture you ever saw of Jesus. But suppose none of this was supposed to be taken literally but was to communicate on a kind of deeply spiritual level what Jesus is all about. Let me try.

Lets begin with the image of the lamb. Lambs were the great symbol of sacrifice. When Jesus is called the Lamb, it means that through his sacrifice pardon, forgiveness can be ours.

Turn now to the word seven. Seven is not to be thought of as a number, seven as compared to six, for example. Seven is a symbol for that which is perfect. It stands for something that has been put together just right, and is doing the right things for the right people at the right time. When the image says the Lamb has seven eyes, it means the Lord doesn't miss a thing. It means that from eternity, the Lord has perfect vision. You may take this as a threat. I take it as a great comfort. It means everybody gets noticed. Nobody gets abandoned. Nobody gets lost in the shuffle.

The image of the horn is intriguing. Horn is not something you blow, or beep people with at traffic lights. A horn in the Old Testament was an animal's horn. They were placed on the altar of sacrifice in the tent or temple of worship. Anyone who held on to these horns was protected and safe. In 2 Kings 2, Joab, a warrior of Solomon's from King David's regime, is caught planning the overthrow of Solomon. Solomon vows to get him. Upon hearing this, Joab runs for the tent of worship and grabs hold of the horns on the altar of sacrifice. Anyone who held onto the horns was to be safe.

Look at it like this. A horn is something you hold onto, like a saddle horn for you horse riders. If you have ever watched a novice learn how to ride a horse, you notice how often they grab for the saddle horn. Like we grab for things when life tries to buck us off.

To say the lamb has seven horns is to say that wherever you are, whoever you are, when you turn to Jesus, you are going to find something to hold onto during the up and down times of life.

Notice the strange image of the eyes of the Lamb sending forth the seven spirits of God. What could that mean? John is being consistent here. He uses imagery rather than call God's spirit the Holy Spirit. It is a vivid image really. It means that when the Savior with his seven eyes sees a need, he sends out the seven spirits of God to influence and fill that need. Even more exciting, the Spirit is sent out to give spiritual gifts to believers everywhere. These gifts are different from one person to another, but they are given to help build one another up.

Linking it all Together
Now, lets link all of this together. See, the Second Coming is not an isolated event, a thing unto itself. It is linked to the consistency of God. Now redemption may be but a trickle. Then it will be a flood. But it is the same water of life, the same Christ, the same Spirit. We can begin to trust in the goodness of the Second Coming when we can begin to experience the goodness of God in the land of the living.

So, what is the Second Coming about?
What seems to be doomsday is really new creation day.
What seems to be final call turns out to be first call
What seems to be the triumph of death and evil is really the introduction of new life and new hope.
What sounds like the postlude is really the prelude.
What sounds like the benediction, is really the invocation.
Our Lord always turns what seems to be a final exit, into an eternal entrance.

Let me close by returning to the image of the lamb in Revelation 5. Its graphic images proclaim: That with Jesus, we can really believe we are forgiven; That wherever we turn, Jesus gives us something to hold onto; That wherever we are, the Lord's eyes notice us and love us; That whoever we are, we can be empowered and gifted by the Spirit.

If I were you, I would want a Savior like this.

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