INTRODUCTION - When we begin to understand God's plan for bringing sons and daughters to glory in His Kingdom, it is clear that the focal point is what He is doing through Christ.
BENEFIT STATEMENT: But why does Christ have to come to the earth twice? Couldn't the Father have sent Him once to establish the Kingdom and save mankind from thousands of years of suffering? Why didn't Jesus establish the Kingdom on earth after His resurrection? After all, it's what Hid disciples thought He would do. The last question they asked Jesus when He ascended was, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6).
SPS: Today, let's take a look at seven reasons why Jesus came the first time and how each of these reasons also applies to His Second Coming. Understanding the continuity of these two events helps us better understand what God is doing in our lives today.
TRANSITION: Christ came the first time to imitate steps in God’s plan of salvation that He continues to carry out through His Second Coming.
I. Christ's First Coming
1. Jesus came to redeem, or buy back, mankind from the death penalty we have incurred upon ourselves. A penalty from which we could not free ourselves: Romans 5:12-21. (It was prophesied that the Messiah would have to be sacrificed as the penalty for sin: Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
2. Jesus came to become the first born elder brother in God's Kingdom through a resurrection of the dead: 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. In Romans 8:29 Christ is called "the firstborn among many brethren."
3. Christ came to defeat Satan as the earth ruler: Hebrews 2:14-18.
4. Christ came to initiate the New Covenant: Hebrews 8:6-13.
A. During the Passover ceremony Jesus had His disciples to drink from the cup of wine and told them, "this is My blood of the new covenant..." (Mat. 26:28).
B. Christ is now acting as High Priest of that covenant (Hebrews 4:14-5:4).
5. Christ came to establish the New Covenant Church: Mathew 16:13-19.
6. Christ came to leave His followers an example of how to live: 1 Peter 2:21-25.
A. God's plan involves more than sacrificing His Son for the sinful state of mankind. Once reconciled to God, through Christ, then God begins to develop us into His children by having Christ live His life in us (Romans 5:6-11; 6:1-4).
B. God saving us from a sinful state means that we must be converted to the Mind of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21).
7. Christ came to reveal the Father: Matthew 11:25-27. No one can really know the Father except through the Son and the Son except by the Father.
TRANSITION: Let's go back and look at each of these seven points and see how what was instituted by Christ's at His first coming culminates in His second coming.
II. Christ’s Second Coming
1. Christ comes to apply redemption and salvation to all humanity.
God the Father empowers Creation – Christ executes it to Create NEW Life. Dan 7:9,10,14.
NEW Life is created OF the Father BY Christ Col 1:15-19
At His second coming to resurrect the saints to eternal life:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. He establishes God’s Kingdom over all humanity.
2. Christ comes to become the first-born elder brother from humans of those who are resurrected. The saints, through the resurrection, become eternal children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ: 1 Corinthians 15:23; Hebrews 2:9-13.
3. Christ comes to remove Satan as the ruler over this earth: Revelation 20:1-3.
4. Christ comes to expand the New Covenant. Christ will call all people to the New Covenant: Isaiah 42:1-9.
5. Christ comes to judge for resurrection the saints of the New Covenant Church who were trained to serve Him.
A. Jesus had told Peter that He would "build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Mat. 16:18).
B. The "elect" called into the Church in this age will join the saints from the time before Christ's first coming at the second coming: Matthew 24:29-31.
6. Christ comes to teach all humanity how to live: Micah 4:1-2.
7. Christ comes to reveal the Father. Without the Father there can be no Kingdom, no Family for us to enter: 1 Corinthians 15:23-28.
CONCLUSION
All this Creating within God’s Plan is Empowered OF the Father and executed BY Christ. The Messiah must come twice in order to complete the current part of the Plan.
It all happens with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ with the sound of Trumpets –
Matthew 24:31 (NKJV) 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NKJV) 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
HANDOUT (Attached): OT PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST’S FIRST ADVENT AND THEIR FULFILLMENT
CLOSE: We can now see why there is a first and Second Coming of Christ in God's plan of salvation. What Christ accomplishes at His Second Coming were initiated at the first coming, mainly:
--the redemption of mankind from eternal death to eternal life;
--the establishment of Christ as the firstborn among many brethren;
--the defeat of Satan;
--the New Covenant with Christ as its Mediator and High Priest;
--the establishment of the New Testament Church, who along with
the Old Testament saints, will "marry" Christ;
--the example of Christ who will teach all people;
--the revelation of the Father as the Initiator and Finisher of the family.
You REALLY want to be there when this happens!
1 Corinthians 15:22-24 (NKJV) 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
