Anticipating Our Lord's Return

Many Discount Christ's Return To This Earth

God's word assures us that His Kingdom will arrive just as promised. Many are focused on the affairs of this current life which can blind them and us to the greatest event in human history.

Transcript

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We all know, as we look around us, that we live in what we would see biblically as the time of the end. The latter days, you see different descriptions used in the Bible, all pointing to the time of the end. The day of the Lord. And of course, that's picturing a time when Christ would return. But do people really believe that? Do people really think Jesus is going to come back?

Now, I'm pretty sure all of us believe that. But is that something that we incredibly yearn for? We know where to pray, Thy kingdom come. And of course, that involves the coming of Jesus to begin that kingdom on earth. But do we really anticipate the return of Jesus Christ to this earth and the incredible transformation that will occur? And, as Mr. McAlexander has mentioned, the assignment, the teaching that we will be permitted to do. Do we really keep that in mind as much as we should? You know, whenever we look at the conditions in the world, there's a lot of unrest, a lot of distress.

You'd have to say much dysfunction in many levels. And certainly, there's also a lack of biblical awareness, even though the Bible points to the return of Jesus Christ. The whole book of Revelation is leading up to God's intervention on earth and Jesus coming to the earth as our Redeemer, as our rescuer, as our Savior, as the one who is going to bring judgment to the earth, but who's going to then initiate the beginning of the Millennial Rule of Christ on earth.

He's going to bring the government of God to earth. And yet, I think you'd have to say, as I mentioned, with a lack of biblical awareness, most people are not thinking. They're not really thinking about the coming of Jesus Christ. That's why it's so important for us, for us to be doing our job. And as I mentioned about our offering and about your involvement in that, we're trying to do our job. See, that job is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and government of God. That's, in many ways, what's different about what we teach.

We teach about a kingdom. We teach about the rule that Christ is going to bring to the earth. We focus on that. We talk about that. We yearn for that. We certainly want to understand why that's the case. I want us to begin here in 2 Peter. I'll be reading mostly from Paul today, but I'll begin and end with what Peter has to say. Because Peter, of course, wrote two of the smaller books toward the latter part of the Bible, he had an awareness of what he experienced through his lifetime, but he also had the predictive ability, through the help of the Spirit of God, to know what's going to be in the future.

See, whenever you read about in the Bible that the people of God, they have an understanding of prophecy. That's why we understand a good deal about what's going to happen. We may not know every detail. We can kind of see the overview of what is going to happen.

As you read the book of Revelation, you have a lot of pretty graphic descriptions. And yet, we have an understanding of prophecy because we see that the outcome is the coming of Jesus Christ, the installation of the new government on earth. And here in 2 Peter, chapter 3, he said, This is now, beloved, the second letter that I'm writing to you. And in them, I'm trying to arouse your sincere intentions. I'm trying to stir you up by reminding you that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the Holy Prophets, and you should remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles.

He says, remember what we read in the Old Testament. Remember what we read and what he could say toward the latter part of his life, knowing that what the apostles had said would make up a part of the New Testament. And we have that New Testament we're somewhat familiar with. We read it every week. And yet he says, I don't want you to forget. First of all, in verse 3, he says, you must understand this, that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and indulging their own lust and saying, where is he? Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

Everything today seems like it was last week and last month and last year and last decade and the decade before. See, Peter predicts that people will not really believe that Christ is going to intervene in world affairs. And we don't want to be among those people, brethren. We want to be excited about it. We want to anticipate that coming. And of course, we want to be, as we've had mentioned several times today, we want to be prepared. We want to be preparing. Peter goes along in verse 5 by saying, they deliberately ignore the fact that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water through which the world at that time was deluged with water and perished.

He's saying, you know, if people think that life is just going to go on and there's never really going to be any solution and that Jesus isn't really going to come back, if they think that, then they're discounting the fact that there was a universal flood. There was a world that then was and then ceased. And then it started with Noah and a repopulation effort that God caused to occur on the earth that's still occurring. That's going to lead up to another big transition like that universal flood. He goes on to say by the same word of God, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the godless.

See, that's incredible that Peter would know and that God would inspire him to know that people, you know, people will be so wrapped up in their own efforts and their own living and their own things that they won't be mindful of what the word of God says. So all of us, we want to be focused on the real solution to man's problems and that is the coming of Jesus Christ.

The intervention in the affairs of man is the surest prophecy that exists. See, there are a lot of different prophetic statements that we read in the Old, mostly the Old Testament, yet there are some in the New that we can say are predictive of what we see certainly in Revelation of leading up to the coming of Christ.

But see, the surest of all of those prophecies is Christ coming to this earth. And we want to be preparing for that. We want to be excited about that. We want to anticipate that. And so, you know, the title of this sermon would be Anticipating. Anticipating our Lord's return. Because He's not a foreign invader. He's going to be considered a foreign invader by most, but He's not a foreign invader to the beloved children of God. He's a beloved elder brother.

He's coming back to rescue us. He's coming back to care for us and to prepare a grand design that will play out over the next thousand years here on earth and then beyond. He's going to do that. He's going to achieve that. We read 1 Corinthians 15 this morning, a part of it, and I'll read a little bit of it again.

Because it ties together, of course, Paul was writing 1 Corinthians. And he wanted them to be mindful of the fact that they were physical beings and that they could die.

But that life beyond the grave, the life of the resurrection, it is real. It is going to happen. It is in God's complete control. And we, of course, look forward to being changed. We look forward to being in a completely different body to have, instead of having a body that is pained and easily injured, Mr. McAlexander mentioned his back. I know certain ailments that many of you have. I know the ailments that I have. My wife suffers at times. But we're going to have a totally different body. And Paul, that's what Paul is really describing here in 1 Corinthians 15. But even as we read earlier, I want to begin in verse 20.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 20, it says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, and he is the first fruit of those who have died. He is the captain of our salvation. He's the one who's going to lead us into eternal life. He is the only door through which you can have eternal life. And it says in verse 21, for since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a human being, the Son of God.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. It is in and through the incredible power of God, that we can be made alive beyond the grave. But, he does say in verse 23, each to his own order.

This is up to God. God's the one who orders when he calls. He's the one who orders the resurrections. He's the one who's in complete control of that. And of course, he is interested in us embracing that. But he says each in his own order, Christ, again, the first fruit. And then what? At his coming, at the coming of the kingdom of God, at the coming of the King. We just listen to a song about the King.

He is King. He's coming. And it says, at his coming, those who belong to Christ. And so you read that as it is described in Thessalonians as, you know, those who have died in Christ. That's a description. And yet it says, those who have died, but also those who are still alive, those who are in Christ. At his coming, those who belong to Christ. And then comes the end. When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every rule and every authority and every power. See, that's, you know, describing all the human governments, not just here in the United States, but in China, in North Korea, in Australia, in Russia, in Europe, in Central and South America, here in our North American continent.

He's going to rule over all of them. He's bringing a government and kingdom that will be able to embrace the entire Earth. And of course, we yearn for that. We pray for that. And that's why I've entitled this, that we anticipate. We should be excited about the fact that that's going to happen. Not like the scoffers who say, yeah, that's not going to happen, that couldn't happen, that shouldn't happen. Well, you look around us, you think, surely it should. That is what this world needs.

Primarily, the remainder of the sermon today, I want to be reading in the book of 1 Thessalonians.

Because in this book, Paul highlights several issues that ought to be of incredible comfort and encouragement to us today. We're looking forward to Christ's return. We pray Thy kingdom come.

But if we really understand what Paul is saying here in 1 Thessalonians, we have every reason to jump for joy. We have every reason to be excited about what God is going to do when He sends Christ back to the earth. Because He's going to be allowing us to share in the development and growth even more of His family. We don't see that so much happening here in the end of this age. You've got a group of people around the world that are jaded toward anger and hatred and toward warfare and toward coveting. Nations covet each other. People covet other people's things and stuff and all kinds of things. But nations covet each other. That's why there are wars. We see that in James 4. It talks about why are there wars? Well, you decide you need something that someone else has. And so that's what we see around us. But here in this short book of 1 Thessalonians, you see Paul giving us things that should be comforting, things that should be encouraging.

I'm going to mention three of these. The first one is simply the fact... See, Paul was writing... I won't go through the first one yet. Again, it's not number one yet. Pat.

We're going to... There's three. And see, she's always telling me I messed up on my numbers. And I know A, B, C. No. One, two, three.

Paul was writing this book of 1 Thessalonians to a congregation that he was close to. He loved them. They were kind of a young congregation. They needed more help than he could even provide them. And that's why we see him writing to them. It may have been one of the earliest letters. I think... I don't remember all of the... kind of the sequence. I think it's certainly one of the earlier ones. And here in 1 Thessalonians... Let's go back to Acts first, because this is kind of the... It's kind of how it is that the church in Thessalonica came into existence.

Acts 17, verse 1, after Paul and Silas had passed through, and Phyphillis and Apollyonna, they came to Thessalonica. So they had been over in Turkey, and they were moving up into Greece. Actually, there was a message come up here. Paul felt that that was what God wanted him to do. He saw a vision and felt that he needed to go and needed to preach the gospel there. And so he did go up to Philippi, and he went to several other cities, and later he would come to Thessalonica. And when he was there, he came to the synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went in as his... was his custom in verse 2, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and for him to rise from the dead, saying, this is the Messiah Jesus whom I'm proclaiming to you. And so this was actually the work that Paul continued to do. He wanted to preach about who Jesus Christ was, but he would also preach about the fact that Jesus was not just a Savior, not just a Messiah that they may have heard about, but he had actually come and that he is the King of the Kingdom of God. I will show you that here in a second. It says in verse 4, some of them were persuaded, and they joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplace, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. You know, whatever you see in the streets of the United States of America, an uproar. You know, there's a reason why that kind of mob rule occurs. In this case, Satan was obviously stirring up the Jews against the proclaiming of the Gospel. In our world today, you know, people just don't know any better. They don't know that that's simply playing into Satan's hands.

But it says, while they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring him out to the assembly, they attacked Jason's house. Verse 6, when they could not find them, they dragged Jason. And some believers before the city officials shouting, These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here as well. That was a description of the Church of God. At that time, in their world, in their setting, they knew of a group of people who were turning the world upside down. See, that's, in essence, what you could say that the Gospel of the Kingdom is about.

But he goes on to say, verse 7, Jason, these people are turning the world upside down, have come here, and Jason is entertaining them as guests. They're all acting contrary to the decree of the Emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus. So was Paul preaching the Kingdom of God? Sure. He was showing who Jesus was. He was the Son of God. He was the Son of Man. He was the Savior. He was the Redeemer. You need to believe that He came and that He wants us to believe Him. But He's also the King of the Kingdom. They had to proclaim that. And the people in the city officials were disturbed when they heard this. And after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go. This is kind of the least biblical record you have of Paul working there at Thessalonica. And the group that he would eventually work with had this kind of base. And so, after a few years, Paul had not been able to go back to teach them or to work with them again. And so, he sometimes would send others. He sent Timothy. He would send others, Titus, at times to go and kind of see how things were going. But he had a sincere love for these people. He really loved the congregation there, as he did the others. But some of them he was able to be closer to physically, and he wasn't always able to go back there.

But let's look at 1 Thessalonians and see exactly what it was that he wanted them to be mindful of. What is it that he wanted them to have a very clear understanding of? He had come there and he had preached about Jesus Christ. He had come there and preached about the kingdom of God. He had come there and he realized that God had drawn some of the people in the city to be a part of the congregation of the church.

See, that's exactly what God has done here. Any one of us seated here, not because of our incredible love for God, but because of the mercy of God that he drew us to Jesus Christ. And he set us. He placed us in the Church of God. That's what he says here. That's the first point. He emphasized to the church their very secure calling and election from God. That's what he was telling them. See, we have to understand that. We have to realize that if we're going to be, as we heard this morning, the children of God. God's the one who's creating this family. We're the ones who are willingly participating in that. Here in chapter 1, verse 1, Paul sovietnes and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and in Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 4, for we know, brethren, beloved of God, what did God say about Jesus? What did he tell him? With a voice. Even as he was baptized, and I think again, same thing he said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Here Paul is addressing the congregation there. You know, brethren, beloved of God, that God has appointed you. He has chosen you. And brought you to be able to relate to him, to share in his glory, to share in his kingdom.

If we drop down to chapter 2, verse 3, he says, our appeal, what he and the others had taught and preached, our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the Gospel, he says, we came preaching Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. That's what you were beginning to embrace. That's what you were beginning to follow. Just as you have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the Gospel, even so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts. He wanted to remind them God is the one who drew you into the church. He's the one who has given you a special calling and an election. In chapter 2, verse 11, as you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children. He says, we nurtured you, we cared for you, we provided for you, we loved you. As we know, or as you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God who called you, who calls you into his own kingdom and into his own glory. We've covered some of this today already. This is just clear verification of what Paul taught them and what he recorded for all of us in the pages of the Bible.

Jump over to chapter 4, verse 1, he says, finally, brethren, we ask and we urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you learn from us how you ought to live and please God, as in fact you are doing, you should do so more and more. He said, you should have learned the way of God. You should have understood that God has called and drawn you and that you are growing in understanding what that means to be the children of God. In verse 7 and 8, he actually mentioned several instructions that he gave them, but in verse 7 he says, God did not call us to impurity but to holiness. John did not call us to just stay the way we were, to be impure. He wants us to be purified. And in verse 8, therefore, whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God who also gives his spirit to us. And so, you know, you have numerous statements throughout this book as he was writing. He wasn't able to go. He wasn't able to be there. He wasn't able, or as he puts it, Satan kept him. You know, he wasn't able to always travel where he wanted. He found that Satan would put obstacles in his way. And here in chapter 5, verse 9, he says, God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. So that whether we're awake or whether we are asleep, whether we have died, we may live with him. He says again, God's involvement in your life is so important you never want to forget that you can be absolutely secure whenever you cry out to God, your Heavenly Father, for help. We can be very secure in that calling and in that election from God. Even in verse 23, he says, May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 24, the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this. He will do what he says. So that's the first point that I make about how Paul encouraged them. He encouraged them by telling them, look, God's the one who's drawn you to understand his truth. God's the one who's given you that calling and that security. And so, since he's faithful, he can be fully relied upon and fully trusted to help you in anything, anything that he allows you to go through. Secondly, we see, as he talked to this congregation in a very concerned way, a very loving way, he explained to them how well you're doing, how that you are an incredible example of living by faith and living with brotherly love. Can we say the same thing? I think I could say the same thing to all of you. You're an example of living by faith and growing in brotherly love. Chapter 1, verse 6.

And you, as you were chosen by God and given the Holy Spirit, verse 6, chapter 1, verse 6, you became imitators of us and of the Lord. For in spite of persecution, you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. So then you became an example to all the brethren in Macedonia and in Achaia. These are the two major regions in Greece. Thessalonica was in Macedonia, I believe, but Corinth was down in Achaia and Athens and other cities around there. So this is talking about the whole area of what we would today call Greece. He says you're an example. You are an incredible example.

The word of God is sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. These people of these regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. See, here he was being very commending of them. He says you have been an incredible example. An example of brotherly love, an example of service to one another. In chapter 3, verse 1, he says, Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we decided to be left alone in Athens and we sent Timothy. This is what I was saying. Paul wasn't able to go, but he said, well, I'll stay back here in Athens and I would like to go up the coast, but I can't. And so I'm going to send Timothy, our brother and co-worker, for God in proclaiming the gospel of Christ to strengthen and to encourage you for the sake of your faith. See, that's what Paul was impressed with. He was impressed that they were living by faith. They were living examples of faith, of stability, of consistency, of determination in the face of difficulties. That's what he was excited to see. In chapter 4, verse 9, now concerning love of the brethren, you don't need to have anyone right to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. And indeed you do love all the brethren throughout Macedonia, and we urge you, brethren, to do that more and more.

See, isn't this what God certainly wants of all of us? In chapter 5, verse 8, it says, but since we belong to the day, we're not the children of the night, since we belong to the day, let us be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. See, we have hope. We have hope because God is faithful. We can trust the living God. He is going to be with us. If we want him to be with us, he is going to be with us. Now, is he going to prevent every imaginable difficulty from coming to us? No, he doesn't say that. He says, I want you to continue to live by faith and grow in Godly love as my children.

So not only did he emphasize to them the incredible calling and election they had from God, but that they were actually doing quite well. They were a good example of faith and love. But then what's the third thing that he pointed to? And he points to this in each one of the chapters here. There are five of them in 1 Thessalonians. He kind of concludes the chapters as they're divided for us by pointing out that all of us are waiting. We're waiting. We're not trying to say impatiently wait. We're not trying to sleepily awake. We're told to awake, being awake and being vigilant and being diligent and overcoming. But he says you're awaiting the coming of Jesus Christ. Now, did Jesus come in the lifetime of any of the people he directly wrote this to? No. They all died. They all died in faith. And yet this is written for us.

Here in chapter 1, you see at the end of this chapter Paul's admonition about how much hope we have that Jesus is going to come back. That he is going to return to the earth, that he is going to establish his kingdom, and that that outcome is already assured.

Here in chapter 1, starting in verse 8, he says, For the word of the Lord is sounded forth from you, not only in Macedon and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of these regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and that you are waiting for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

He said, you know, you're waiting. You're waiting. Your focus is on the king and the kingdom that is coming. And so he was pointing them to the return of Jesus Christ. Of the reality, of the actual fact of its occurrence, of the incredible blessing that will be. But he says, right now you're waiting. You don't control when it comes. You are living a Christian life. You are making good on your calling, but you're also anticipating desiring that coming. In chapter 2, you actually see him talking about the brethren in an incredibly positive way. Verse 17, he says, as for us brethren, when for a short time we were made orphans by being separated from you in person, not in heart, we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face. Again, this is his talking to them and saying, we really wanted to see you, but I couldn't. It wasn't possible. For we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, wanted to again and again. But Satan blocked our way. For he says in verse 19, what is our hope? What is our joy? What is our crown of boasting? Paul was saying, what makes me excited? What causes me to have joy? What causes me to have a crown of boasting? What am I pleased to talk about and to share and to encourage? What is our hope and joy? Crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

He answers that question by, he says, isn't it you? Isn't it you as the children of God? Yes, you are our glory and our joy. See, that was the way Paul looked at them and certainly that's the way that God looked at them. But of course he pointed them to the coming of Jesus Christ. That's going to happen when Christ returns. If we live out our lifetime and we die in this age and we still look forward to the return of Jesus, if we are continuing to live up to that time, we want to anticipate that kingdom and the coming of Christ because God says, you know, that is his joy, that is his glory, that his children have been prepared.

Chapter 3, verse 11. Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father when? At the coming of our Lord Jesus with all the saints. See, that's what he wanted them to be reminded of. You know, Christ is coming back. The kingdom of God is sure. You have nothing, nothing to fear in this life. In chapter 4, this section is one that we often read because it deals with dying and what really the solution to dying is, which is a resurrection. And here in verse 13, he says, we don't want you. Chapter 4, verse 13, we don't want you, brethren, to be uninformed about those who have died so that you may not grieve as others who do not have any hope. He was telling them, you have hope. You have hope beyond the grave. You have hope because God is faithful and he is going to cause all to rise from the graves, again, according to his purpose and plan for them.

But since, in verse 14, we believe, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, see how many times does he reference the return of Jesus Christ? How many times does he point them to that goal? He wants them to be focused on the coming and the return of Jesus. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and left until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with the cry of command and with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. And yet, as we realize, not only from this description but from other writing and Revelation and in Zechariah, that where Christ is going to go is the Mount of Olives, is going to be to Zion, is going to be where the headquarters of the whole earth will be set up in Jerusalem. So that's where we're going to be with the Lord. But he says in verse 18, Therefore encourage and comfort one another with these words because God rules over life and death. He rules over that. He has that authority and that power. And yet we often read this knowing that it is at that time when Christ returns that a resurrection to life will occur, a resurrection to eternal life. We want to be changed if we're still alive. We want, if we've died, to rise in glory, to rise with a spirit body that is really incredible as you see the description. And yet we'd also be given some responsibility, and we've described that in different ways today. Rulership, kingship, priesthood, being teacher. Ultimately what it is, is in following the righteous ways of the king, we will be servants forever. Servants of God, see whatever king, whatever righteous king, whatever holy priest, whatever godly teacher we might be, it's always going to be under the supervision of Jesus Christ. We will be his servants. We will probably be able to be realigned without notice. He'll probably be able to do whatever he wants to do. He can assign and reassign whatever he needs to do. However it is, the family of God is going to be expanding at that time. And throughout a thousand years of the righteous rule of Jesus Christ, that is an incredible honor to be invited to be a part of what God is doing.

And so as I said, we often read this section, and yet it's one that I think is in many ways so very encouraging. It says to encourage or comfort one another with these words, and it puts a focus on our lives that are not so directly on all the difficulties that we struggle with today. The things that bother us, the things that we have to overcome, the things that we have to conquer, whatever those are. And again, as we've said, they all vary. They're similar, but they vary from person to person. And yet if we fill our minds with the Word of God, if we anticipate the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, then we will be a part of that ruling kingdom that will be established on earth. And here, in the last couple of verses, in chapter 5, this whole section here starting in verse 12, is His appeal to this church. Verse 12, we appeal to you, brethren, to respect those who labor among you, have charge over you and the Lord, and admonish you. Esteen them highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. We urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers. Encourage the faint-hearted to help the weak, to be patient with all of them. See that none of you repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another. Rejoice always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God and Jesus Christ for you. Don't quench the Spirit. Don't despise the word of prophets. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. That, of course, is the whole sermon in itself. You know, 20 different topics that Paul throws in here right at the end, as far as what it is, that he knew that the people then needed to do and what he tells us today. That's what we need to do, but verse 23, note, May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who calls you as faithful, and he will do it. What kind of message did Paul give to the church that he so loved? He said, Be grateful for your calling. Continue to do the work of being living by faith, growing in brotherly love, caring for one another, and by all means, know that you are awaiting the most glorious return of Jesus Christ that will change your lives. That's what he encouraged them to do, and that's what I think we all should be encouraged today. As we read earlier, Peter said, some will be scoffers, some will say, you know, that couldn't happen, some will say not only that that couldn't happen, but they'll claim all other kinds of things, because there are going to be a lot of deceptive things. I'm sure that'll happen up until the time of Christ's return, but what he wants us to focus on is his glorious intervention in world affairs. Let's take a look at 2 Peter again. 2 Peter. In this place, not chapter 3, but chapter 2.

Is God really aware of you?

Is he aware of your life? Is he aware of your actions? Is he aware of your needs? Does he care? Is he interested? Well, I think you can see from what Paul said to the Thessalonians. Sure. You know, Paul cared, and God cares, and wants them to be focused on the return.

Here in 2 Peter, chapter 2, Peter again also warns, he says, false prophets will arise among the people just as there will be false prophets among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions and even deny the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

And then in verse 4, he describes some amazing events. He says, what God, what the great God is able to do is incredible. He not only is the Creator, he not only is the one who has all power and the one who has all awareness, he knows everything, he is all loving, he is all merciful, and he is everywhere. You know, those are different descriptions of God in somewhat simple terms. But that's the way God is. But it says in verse 4, For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, or Tartaroo, and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until a judgment, and so here he's making several statements here. If God was able to do that, he clearly rules over the spirit world. He clearly rules over the angels who sinned. He can contain them, as the word Tartaroo, that is translated here, hell, he can contain them in whatever way he wants. And so it says that God did not spare the angels who sinned. And in verse 5, if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, who was a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and so if God is ruling over the angelic realm, they are not trying to outwit God. Lucifer is not going to outwit God. And if he was able to flood the world and yet rescue Noah and his family, and start over with eight, and in verse 6, and if by turning the cities of Sodom Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless, for that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Lot lived among a great deal of perversion and corruption and distress and lawlessness that God condemned, and yet God rescued Lot, and he rescued Noah out of the corrupt world that he lived in.

He says if God is able to do all that, if he's able to achieve those things that we can easily read about in the Old Testament and how it was that God did, well then the Lord, in verse no, knows how to rescue the godly from trials. He knows how to do that. And he knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and he knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until a day of judgment. And then he describes even their corruption here. And see, that could easily describe much of what we see in the world today. But see, Peter actually points out that we really have, even though we know from the predictions of the Bible what God is going to allow to happen here in the end of the age leading up to Christ's return, he says in verse 9, God knows how to rescue the godly from trials. He doesn't say that he takes away the trials. He says he knows how to rescue us through those trials, and he is able to do that.

So what are we to do today? Cleo referenced Matthew 24, and I want to go back to that, because as we appreciate our calling and as we grow in love and faith toward God, we live by faith, as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ. We desire that, we pray for that, we yearn for that. In the meantime, he has a job to do.

The Church has a mission. The people who make up the body of Christ have a responsibility to proclaim the kingdom of God to the world. That's why we proclaim on the Beyond Today program and in the Beyond Today magazine the world beyond today. That's why we're doing that. We're talking about the kingdom and government of God. Here in Matthew 24, it says in verse 45, Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other servants their allowance of food in proper time? Blessed is the servant whom his master will find at work. At work, doing the job that the Church has been commissioned to do to proclaim the kingdom of God to the world. We can't make people believe it, but we can proclaim it, and that's what we're doing. We're involved in that job. We're involved in that process. And so he says in verse 47, Truly, I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all of his possessions. He's going to give us opportunity. He's going to give us responsibility. He's not forcing us to do anything. We have to want to do it. We have to choose to allow God to mold and shape us with his divine nature. So that we are a child of God.

And so he says, he will put that one in charge, but he says, if a wicked servant says to himself, My master is delayed, I don't think he's going to come back. See, that's something that could happen to any of us. Over the next few months or weeks, maybe years, how much longer will it be before Christ intervenes? We don't know. It doesn't matter. It's going to happen. Whether we're still alive or not, it's still going to happen. And so if we conclude, my master is delayed and begin to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with drunkards, and the master of the slave will come in a day that he doesn't expect in an hour when he's not prepared and will cut him in pieces. Clearly, this is written as a warning to us, but I want to focus on the positive aspects of it, because we have such a wonderful message. We have a message that is a message of peace, a message of hope, a message of encouragement, a message of love.

And that's what proclaiming the gospel to the world is all about. It does involve prophetic understanding. It does involve recognizing the need of the Holy Spirit to give us a divine nature. It does involve all of these things we read about, and we have to put them together. And yet Paul was very concerned about the church there in Thessalonica, and he encouraged them to never take your eyes off the gold. Always know that Jesus Christ is coming back. So, brethren, we need to be about our Father's business. That's what God has brought us into the Church of God for. That's giving us direction. That gives us purpose. And as faithful and wise servants who will be found doing that work when he returns, then we can be very confident. Very confident that His rewards, His blessings, His encouragement for us is going to be incredibly... It will be beyond our understanding today. We can read about it. We can comprehend some of it. And yet I'm sure there's even more to it than we yet know. So, brethren, keep up the good work. Christ is coming back. And as we focus on that, then we too can be called faithful and wise servants when He returns.

Joe Dobson pastors the United Church of God congregations in the Kansas City and Topeka, KS and Columbia and St. Joseph, MO areas. Joe and his wife Pat are empty-nesters living in Olathe, KS. They have two sons, two daughters-in-law and four wonderful grandchildren.