We Shall See Him as He Is

In the year 129 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian made an imperial visit to the city of Geras.

Geras was a city on the eastern fringe of what was then the Roman Empire. If you go to Jordan, the nation of Jordan today, which many of you have for the feast and other times, perhaps, you always go to Geras. It's next to Petra. It's the place to see in Jordan. The ruins that are there are some of the most intact ruins from the ancient world in Roman city. Quite a large expanse of ruins there. The first thing you see when you come up to the ruins of Geras today is a huge triumphal arch. It's called the Arch of Hadrian because it was built in commemoration of Hadrian's visit, the Emperor Hadrian, in 129 AD. Arches were a common feature among the major cities in the Roman Empire. If you've been to Rome, you've seen the Arch of Titus, which is a very famous arch and has the freeze of the vessels of the temple being carried out by the Roman soldiers after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So many of the cities in that period had this feature of an arch because it was a triumphal arch, but it was also ceremonial. It was also literally something that people went through to enter the city. And in Geras, you can see this. It's standing kind of off by itself in one sense, but it's quite an impressive structure. And you can imagine that as the Emperor Hadrian approached the city, through that arch exiting the city came the city elders to meet the emperor who was coming for an imperial visit. That was the custom of the time in the world in the Roman Empire. When an emperor came to visit a major city like that, the elders of the city went out a distance and escorted him back into the city. He was making his appearance. He was coming to the city, and he did not come unaccompanied. And so the city leaders would come out, meet him and his entourage, and together then they would escort the emperor back into the city through that triumphal arch. That's one of the reasons, one of the purposes that it served. It was quite a custom. In 1 Thessalonians 4, if you'll turn there, scripture that fits this day, obviously, as we all should know and we will see as we read 1 Thessalonians 4, we read the description of Jesus Christ returning to the earth at the time of the trumpet blowing, the events of this day being fulfilled. Beginning in verse 13, it says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren. Paul writes, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. A direct reference to a resurrection. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, the coming of the King, the Emperor, if you will, the coming of the Lord. That word is a very important word in the Greek. It's the word parousia, the A-R-O-U-S-I-A. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but parousia, the way I learned it down in Missouri when I was 12 years of age was parousia, but that was with that flat Midwestern accent. And when I got educated, I realized that's parousia. But if you want to say parousia, that's fine too.

But this is the word translated coming of the Lord.

Well, by no means precede those who are asleep. This is one of the most detailed descriptions of that event that we find in Scripture. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so the dead will come out of the graves. Those who are alive and remain at that time will, as he puts it here, rise in the air in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Now, when Paul wrote this, he had in mind this custom described to you of the Emperor coming to a city in that ancient world and being met and greeted by the leaders of the city and then being escorted back in. That's exactly what he had in mind when he used this word parousia as a coming and the understanding that that was going to provide.

Because he is describing the very reality that at the return of Christ, the coming of the Lord, as it says here, we sometimes say it doesn't use the word return, it uses the word coming, we will go out to meet him. People twist this into a doctrine of a rapture, that this is the perfect description of their idea of a rapture, and then they'll go off up into heaven by the rapture idea.

But that's not what the verse says. And when you really look into the meaning of why Paul used this word parousia, you understand what he meant to convey was not that the saints resurrected in Christ were then going to do a low flyover and then zip right back up to the heavens for X number of years, months. Some even try to describe it today. You hear so many different kinds of ideas. Some say he'd be up there for a few months and then come back, then others for a thousand years.

That's not what is described here. They come back then with the king to the earth, to the place to which he was coming, which is what the custom was and what Paul was referring to when he talked about the coming and the appearing of the Lord at the time of the resurrection, at the time of his return, or as we call it, the second coming of Christ. So Paul knew exactly why he used that word and what he was intending to convey, that the saints, the resurrected saints with Christ would come back to the earth as then all the other scriptures show, and that kingdom then will be established on this earth.

That happens beginning with this day. That event begins with what is pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. When Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise in what we call the first resurrection, the first of three resurrections that are described in the scriptures. That event of the resurrection is the hope of the dead, the hope of every Christian. That's why Paul brought it out at this point in time with the Thessalonians because they had had some death. He didn't want them to be ignorant or discouraged. He said at the end, in verse 18, he said, comfort one another with these words.

The knowledge of the resurrection has been and is the central comfort of the Bible from that time to this day into our life and until the time when all these events begin to take place. To be able to explain to people, to give them an understanding of life, why we have life and what the purpose is, and to explain the meaning of the resurrection is a valuable and just a wonderful truth.

To tell someone whose child has died or someone who's lost someone accidentally or before their time that they will see them live again in a different, better time and place and use general words like that, at least to give them comfort and hope, for any of us to be able to explain that in any way, shape and form to people is a tremendous comfort. It's just as Paul meant it to be here. The resurrection is the central teaching of the Bible.

It is central to God's plan. It begins on the day of trumpets, which is in a central right to the meaning of the Holy Days. It's the centerpiece of even the entire Holy Day picture. When Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise in this resurrection. It is this event, which is the hope of the dead and is the hope of every Christian.

It answers the age-long questions that we even find in the scriptures. We go back to the book of Job. He said, if a man die, will he live again? He answered his own question. He said, I will wait until my change come. Somehow he had an inkling and understanding of the resurrection at that particular point in time.

It is the long-held central tenet of the plan of God, critical to God pushing forward with his plan once this event begins to take place. In Genesis 1.26, we're told that God created man in his own image. We understand that that image really speaks to more than just a physical form and shape. It speaks to the inner qualities of spiritual character that is the real image of God when you begin to understand the entire package and picture that God explains in the Bible.

The image of God is more than form and shape. There is a spiritual dimension, an image that is a lifetime being spent, a lifetime of experience in the physical world acting on the knowledge revealed from God, which is a prelude to eternal life. This life is a staging ground in that sense, all according to God's plan. At least at Pentecost, we talked about the first fruits, and we understand how that fits and then how this day begins to open up to the rest of the world, the knowledge of the truth and God's purpose and God's plan.

But the fact that man would live again is a truth that belies the deception that was injected by Satan when he said to the first parents, you will not die. You won't die. Do as you wish. Acquire your own knowledge. Go your own way. You're not going to die. And to all the different beliefs that that particular statement led is what this world then is all about. That great lie was injected into life. The lie that you won't die. You already have eternal life within you, or you will live on again in some other form. God intended that man would die.

That was part of the plan, but Satan confused the truth.

God intended that man would die and then live again in a different time and place with a different purpose, but Satan confused it by implying that there was something about man that would not die. Something inherent in him that would live on forever. We study the different beliefs that people have had from that of an immortal soul that you're born with, that lives on after this physical flesh decays and at death and then somehow goes back to God or goes to heaven or goes to hell according to the Christian theology.

That is all there as well.

People believe in the idea of reincarnation. It's amazing today. I've read estimates that some surveys say that 70% of the American population believe in reincarnation, that you will come back in another life, some form. You will live again as another being. Maybe there's a lesser being in some forms of the idea, but you would be surprised how many people feel that when you die, you come back. The poetry, the literature, the songs, the mythology, the ideas that have developed around that are amazing and what people think. I had read an article several months back of a current contemporary guy who thinks he is reincarnated John Adams, President John Adams. The reason and the way by which he came to that conclusion, even to the way he writes, his interest in literature, and the way he treats people, which was all the way John Adams did, led him to believe in his adult life that he was the reincarnated John Adams, the third president of the United States, or the second president of the United States. And, you know, I was when you read about some of the people think they think that they're reincarnated, somebody's reincarnated always, that usually it's somebody famous, Marie Antoinette, John Adams. So there was some peasant from India. Did you ever get that? Did you ever see anybody who's been reincarnated in a previous life? They were some, nobody. It's amazing to look at some of those stories, but it is a widely held belief. And if they don't believe in that or the immortal soul, a lot of people then believe in some new age idea that at death, your spirit, your soul, whatever, your essence just kind of melds back into the cosmos, into what is. And you get all kinds of ideas like that. In other words, it seems like it's hardwired into the human mind that death does not end at all. Something must happen. Something must survive. And those ideas are there, and they give a measure of comfort to people. I don't know how, I guess a measure, and perhaps that in itself isn't bad, even though it's a falsehood.

The truth does not completely set a person free from guilt or fear. I think that's one of the meanings that Christ had when he said that the truth will make you free. But perhaps for some, it can give a measure of understanding until the time when their minds are fully opened by God's Spirit. But the truth of the resurrection, which is central to the Scriptures, is central to the understanding of life and its purpose. And it is clearly revealed in the Bible as an important part of the meaning of this day, the Feast of Trumpets, as we have seen, as it will begin.

And when Paul began to talk about it, not only in Thessalonians, but in 1 Corinthians 15, in other Scriptures, the writers, Jesus Christ himself, spoke of the resurrection. They were building upon a vast number of references in the Old Testament that spoke of a clear teaching about the resurrection as well. In Daniel 12, verses 1 and 2, we could just turn there. In Daniel 12, we find what is a good representative verse from this major prophet of the Old Testament. Verse 1 of Daniel 12, where it says, At that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book, the book of life, which is another fascinating part of God's plan.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. As with other Scriptures, death is described as asleep, from which there will be an awakening, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. This presages what Jesus would talk about in John 5, where he talked about the same dual aspects of resurrection to life and a resurrection to judgment. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. And so there will be a time when those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake. In the New Testament, that resurrection is brought out very clearly, and it is central to the terms of the New Covenant and to that understanding. Christ clearly showed that man would live again through a resurrection. You mentioned John, chapter 5. Let's just turn and read that. John, the fifth chapter. In the beginning of verse 24, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me in his has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, also, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming, in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation or judgment, as Daniel 12.2 talks about. I can of my own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. And so the seed of eternal life is given to those who are called of God to salvation, to the knowledge of salvation. That Holy Spirit is that seed. We marched through those scriptures and the earlier Holy Days this year, as we do. But the idea that man would live again, again, is so central. You see in one account in Christ's ministry where a rich ruler came to him in Matthew 19 and said, what must I do to live again, to live forever? What must I do for eternal life? And Christ told him to keep the commandments. He told him how to achieve a life that is part of that future event. Live righteously according to the law. And he went through and gave him the law and told him what exactly that meant. To do so, obviously, requires repentance, which leads to obedience, which leads to baptism, which in itself is a picture of a death and a resurrection. The very act that makes us a part of the body of Christ, baptism, is a picture of that death and resurrection that Romans chapter 6 talks about. And we are given then at that time and in that place a measure of God's Holy Spirit, a down payment, if you will, for eternal life.

And that spirit is the key to living a different life today. That's what puts life within us, as we read earlier. That is the life that we have, and it is a different life.

And to the degree we really understand that is the degree we understand the Holy Spirit and its role in our life in bringing us to the point of the resurrection, how to live, how to relate to God, what dimension of this life is really real to us, to the degree we grasp it and comprehend it, it makes all the difference in the world in our life.

To have that knowledge, this life that we have is one of putting on the character of God, as Peter alluded to it. Putting it on like a garment, one piece at a time.

And you know sometimes as we put on this new man, if you want to look at it one sock at a time, maybe it takes a number of years to put on a sock. Sometimes when age and infirmity take over, getting dressed each day for that person is quite a chore, as some of you know.

My father-in-law is at that point in his life, and every day just getting up and getting dressed is a full-time job when life comes to that point. And if there's a lesson for any of us, when that comes to us, it is to recognize spiritually that putting on a spiritual sock, our garment, is a lifelong process for us. We don't get dressed up spiritually overnight from our baptism forward. It can take decades. It can literally take a whole lifetime to get dressed to put on that new man. But it is a lifetime of work, effort, cooperation, however you want to put it. And I don't know, I use the term work. Don't charge me with some theological transgression. I don't mean it that way. I think we understand that. But our life is one of putting on character, the character of God. If you want to call it holy, righteous, spiritual character, as the phrase was coined in the past, it's exactly right. We put on holy, righteous, spiritual character. We put on the life of God. We are created in the image of God.

We take on the life of Christ, the glory of God. It depends on all the different scriptures you could turn to to describe the process and explain exactly what is happening. It's a lifelong process. It's called being converted. But it is the life that we have. And when we understand it, when we fully lock in on it, we can get through it. We can deal with all of the challenges.

When we come down to this feast here, the Feast of Trumpets, this is a day which is a time of spiritual awakening. It's a time of trumpets.

Trumpets is a signal of war. And Mr. O'Ree got up and gave us that blast on the shofar this morning to jolt us awake or to get us ready to call us to assembly, which was the purpose of that shofar as it was used anciently in the scriptures, to call people to assemblies, to call people to war, to announce something significant. As the trumpet is blown on the Feast of Trumpets into the future, as we saw this morning, it will sound an alarm of war.

A great time of calamity that will bring to the close the age of man.

We looked in the future for that. We don't know when that trumpet will sound at that point.

I tend to think that the scriptures that talk about it coming as a thief in the night, coming suddenly, are truer all the time. And, you know, as we watch, as we seek to understand, which is important to do, it's necessary that we don't get too unbalanced in that. Quite frankly, I think most of us, as we make our traverse through this life, come to realize that that watching and that understanding, and that awakening, if you will, has more to do, perhaps, for us, so many of us with our own spiritual life than anything else. And so, when we come to this day on the day of trumpets, to understand it as a time of spiritual awakening is really important. The dead, as we've seen, will awake to a trumpet blast.

Sometimes, I think of myself and look around in the church, and I realize it's time for the dead in the church to wake up, too. And for the dead to awaken within God's church, and understand the times, or understand ourselves and our life, and to awaken. Maybe that's the most important thing for us. The kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of our Christ when this day takes place. But for us to awaken to the reality of our life and what this day means is probably the most important for us to focus on. Because it is, and it will mark, the time of the resurrection. For the majority of us in this room, the resurrection that we should be focused on.

There was a time when I was young and I began to understand about the holy days. I don't know if any of you were ever like this. Maybe I was the only one. I started to learn about the second resurrection and I thought, oh man, that's the one I wanted. Why did I have to find out about this stuff? No! I wanted the second resurrection because that way then I could live all the way I wanted to. And then, wake up in the second resurrection and get the good stuff too. Plus, an extra hundred years or whatever. Maybe I was 16, 17 when I started to really kind of got that much figured out and started thinking that way. I can't remember how long I thought that way, but I will admit, and I'm probably the only one in this room that was like that. I'm sure nobody else ever thought like that in this room at all. Why could I just be like my neighbors, my good friends at home, my high school, and I've waited. But for the majority of us, it's the first resurrection that we're focused in on and we are concerned about and rightly should be. The Bible says it's a better resurrection. Not my intent to go through all of that today as to why, but that's the one we're focused on. The second resurrection is for another group of people. And so for us today, this is where we focus on what this day really means. 1 Corinthians 15.

I can just turn again there. I know it was read this morning, but let's look at it. Just a portion of it. Verse 51. 1 Corinthians 15. He says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, the mystery will be revealed. The mystery will be no more. And it's even still a mystery.

There are elements of mystery about it for us all, even today. I think we've got it sorted out in terms of this resurrection, the one that's a thousand years later, and then the one that's beyond that, called the third resurrection. I think we've got that sorted out pretty good scripturally. So that part's not a mystery, and we know what and who and where it all fits.

But this particular one, and there are certain aspects of it that perhaps there's still just a bit of a mystery that are the unknown. And it's in that unknown that we might speculate and explore just a little bit from a basis of Scripture to help us understand something about our lives today.

And why it's important for us to focus not just on the resurrection, but to prelude in everything leading up to it, the life that we live today. In 1 John chapter 2, if we read something about this event, 1 John chapter 2, and beginning in verse 28, John writes, Now little children abide in him, that when he appears, there's that word parousia again, appear.

Parousia can be translated coming or appear, as it is used.

That when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before he met his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. In chapter 3 verse 1, the thought continues, And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.

A little bit of the mystery, if you will. A little bit of the unknown. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Fascinating Scripture to think about. We know that when he's revealed, when he is revealed, when Christ returns, when Christ comes, when Christ appears, when that trumpet sounds, when he is revealed, which is the way it is used here, Christ will be, you know, it's like a curtain drawn back on a stage, and it's revealed what's behind that curtain. You see everything. There's a revealing. When he's revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The two work together. We will see him as he is because we'll be like him. And if you follow really what I've been leading up to, we won't see him as he is unless we're like him before the event.

We will be like him because of a lifetime of living spiritually, being led by the Spirit, letting Christ's life be within us, that image being formed and shaped within us. When that happens through a lifetime, then when this event takes place, whether we're alive and remain part of that group or we're the dead in Christ, as 1 Thessalonians talked about, we will be changed, as 1 Corinthians 15.52 talks about. We will be changed in a twinkling of an eye, which means poetic language for just like that. And this verse tells us we'll see him as he is because we'll be like him. We'll be like him. And then we will see him as he is. You know something?

We can't see God now, can we? We can't see God now. You know why? He's Spirit. We're physical.

There's also something that we're told in 2 Timothy 6 that God lives in something called the unapproachable light. The unapproachable light. I don't know necessarily what that is, but when I read Revelation 1 and the image of Jesus there in Revelation 1 that John had, John used the best words that the Spirit could reveal to him and put it into the Greek of the time or the Aramaic. And then it's been translated into our English to give us some types of an understanding of eyes blazing like the sun and a sword coming out of his mouth. What's that all about? I don't know. If anybody's figured that one out, let me know what it means to have a sword coming out of your mouth. I just don't want to be in the way of that sword. Because Revelation 19 tells us that with that he's going to smite the nations. Feet like burnished brass. We haven't seen that. We only see it through the revelation that God gave to John that it's recorded there.

We'll see that it's an unapproachable light. And we don't see Christ as he is.

You know, Moses wanted to see God when he was on the Mount. And God said, you know, let's push off to the side and cover you over and I'll pass by. And you can just... And he only just saw the backside, a glimpse of his backside. He didn't see the full image of God as God was and appeared in that particular time. He saw a burning bush on another occasion.

But no man has seen God. We can't see the spiritual.

When we're changed to the glory that we're... the resurrected body, then we will see clearly.

You know, Paul used another term. He said, today we see through a glass darkly.

Exactly. Exactly. A dark glass.

Foster grants.

Can't see through that. When we think of Christ's coming, as we picture on this day, and we haven't read Revelation 19 where the heavens are unfurled and he appears on a white horse. We've read the other scriptures. But when we think about Christ's coming, we are dealing with a cosmic event far beyond anything our minds can imagine.

And Hollywood has some pretty good special effects these days. Spectacular computer-aided generated scenes. But nothing, I don't think that they can even come up with now, and in the foreseeable future, can begin to do justice to what the scriptures describe as the key event of all time. The heavens rolling back as a scroll and Christ appearing on a white horse and intervening in human history. Even the language of the Bible is really not enough to give us a full understanding of it. I mean, you... we read over these English words and phrases and we try to grasp it and think about it sometimes. And the language doesn't do it justice. You can study into the Greek behind it and gain another dimension of understanding at times. But to really lock in on this event and what it really will be is something else altogether.

And in a sense, it's not so much the language as it is understand what is being conveyed to us as the children of God through these scriptures. We've already talked about the perusia or the coming of a king. As I described about a Roman emperor like Hadrian going to the city of Gerasch and being met by the elders and then being escorted into the city from a distance.

That word perusia, as I've already also mentioned, means and is translated appearing various times in the New Testament. And as it is used, and as we see it brought out here, it is describing again God appearing. You read the Gospels. The resurrected Christ appeared on a number of occasions to the disciples and you read some of the stories there and he just appeared. They turned around and he was there.

The door had been locked or they didn't hear it slam. He was just there.

Which is, you know, you can really, you can again imagine some interesting things.

But the appearing of God in a miraculous manner in the presence of God here, as these words are used, are talking about God coming or appearing in a miraculous way through a supernatural and powerful presence. The word and the meaning is used as we can even understand it from other episodes in the Bible. You remember the time of Hezekiah when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem and it looked like it was curtains? 180,000 Assyrians around the walls of Jerusalem. And in one night the Assyrian army was killed. So God moved through the angel lord, moved through the camp.

That is another example of the presence, the supernatural presence and action of God. In that case, slaying the Assyrian army. But it's another episode or example of the appearance of God in this spiritual way and His power being made manifest within the spiritual or in the physical world.

And we can again latch on to that and understand it in regard to God's presence at the time of His coming, His revealing, which is a miraculous saving presence. Now, going back to 1 Thessalonians, when Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wanted to convey this critical truth of the coming of Christ and the resurrection, an event that brings change and will allow us, as we've seen, to see God as He is, because we will be like Him. He used precisely the word, the parousia, and He conveyed exactly what He wanted to convey in the minds of His peers and should be evident for us. Suppose they wanted to say that the Jesus they worship was near in spirit but absent in body.

But one day would be present in body and the entire world would know that presence, which is really what Paul was trying to say. One day the world will see that presence and that will be a transforming power that is going to transform the world.

That's what he was saying, and that's why he used that word, parousia, to describe the appearance of God, because one day Christ is going to appear in the power of the universe as the ruling Lord, with all the attendant consequences, which means the judgment upon the nations, the overthrow of the nations, and other scriptures in Revelation talk about.

The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, Revelation chapter 10 describes.

That's what will take place beginning with this day when Christ appears as the ruling Lord of the universe, which He really is. He will bring judgment upon the nations, and a radical transformation will occur on this earth. This is the power of the inspired scriptures.

This is the power that is described. When you read what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4, when you read what John writes here in 1 John 3, and so many others that we could turn to, you would begin to grasp what they were saying when they used the words they did, because then you can understand why the emperors, like Nero or Domitian later in the first century, got so upset with the early Christians that they would put them to death, use them as torches in their garden, and kill them and martyr them.

Because their message was that Christ was Lord, not just of a world to come, but He was their Lord now. And the emperors, the Caesars, were just pretenders.

And this is what Paul preached. That's why it was said in Thessalonica that those who have turned the world upside down have come here. Their message was a message of the world to come and of a king to come, but it was also a message that that king was now Lord in their lives today, and superseded the lordship of the Caesar. That's why some of the Caesars for a period of time kind of slipped gently at night. Not too deep. As they grasped what the meaning of this group of people, called Christians, really meant in its purest teaching. As they grasped that, it meant their overthrow if they took it out to that degree, which some of them must have understood. And it's why they acted the way they did. There's no other texts from that period of time, the first or the second century. There's no other texts besides the ones that we find here in the New Testament written by Paul and by John that form the Gospels, that form the epistles of Paul, the general epistles. These are the scriptures that teach that central truth. The other so-called Gospels, Gnostic and otherwise, that never made it in, didn't have a prior of a chance of making it into the canon of the Scripture, didn't preach that. They preached some other esoteric idea of reincarnation or going back to the mother's ship or something like that. No Roman emperor in the first or second century lost any sleep because people were reading the Gospel of Thomas or Judas.

They didn't lose any sleep. But they did lose sleep when people read the words of Paul and John and the writers of the Bible, when they grasped the power of the message and what it meant to them. That's why people were martyred during that early period. That's the power of these words, truths, scriptures that we read, particularly on this subject of the resurrection, on the coming of the Lord. That's why we should wake up.

That's why we should keep fanning ourselves and try to grasp it. Because 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 16-17 is a statement, a strong statement of the ruler coming to the earth, which is his, being escorted in by his servants, the elect, if you will, rising from the dead, from the earth, to meet him in the air, and escort him back to his rightful claim. And he will bring the blessings, far more greater blessings than any emperor ever brought to an outpost of the Roman Empire. That's the perusia, the coming of the King of Kings. And it fills out what is said in 1 Corinthians 15, those resurrection chapters, where we have described the appearance of Christ, that the resurrection of the dead, the time when his present rule in the minds and the hearts of the elect will become apparent in the world by the resurrection and the transforming of the living saints. Let me repeat that. The effect of God ruling in the hearts and the minds of the elect will then become apparent in the world by the resurrection and the transforming of those saints.

Turn over to Philippians chapter 3, if you will. Philippians the third chapter.

Verse 20. Paul describes our citizenship, which he says is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is there. It's with that coming King, just as the citizens of Jerash had their citizenship with the Caesar. Our citizenship is with Christ, which is in heaven here, with our Savior. Verse 21. Who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Therefore, my beloved and long-for brethren, my joy and crown, stand fast, and the Lord my beloved. This speaks of the transformation of our bodies within the context of our present citizenship, which is in heaven. They will be transformed. As I said, we'll go out to meet him and escort him back to his rightful domain.

That's why the church, in a couple of occasions in 1 Corinthians 16 and 22, at the end of the book of Revelation, they offered this prayer that we sometimes just gloss over because it doesn't fit our language. It says, O Lord, come. You'll read it in 1 Corinthians 16 and 22, and again at the end of Revelation, O Lord, come. O Lord, come. That's what they wanted. They wanted him to come in the fullness of all these scriptures. I think they understood as well that he came in the power of the Holy Spirit as they were given that at baptism, but their whole lives were lived with that prayer on their lips. O Lord, come. And they lived their lives with that thought.

A life that is a far more tangible and realistic life than what we see now or understand. It is a life that is led by the Spirit of God. A life that is a whole lifetime spent taking on the identity and the image of Christ. Where the scripture that says Christ in us, the hope of glory, becomes a reality. So much so that we fully understand why when He appears, we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him. And to the degree we are like Him is because we will be there.

And to the degree we are like Him today, we have a deeper understanding and a deeper walk and relationship with Him. And when He appears, we'll know it. We will understand it because we will have been living that life now. Colossians 3, just a few pages forward. Colossians chapter 3.

We live today the way Paul describes it in verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ, and he's speaking of raised out of the watery grave of baptism, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life? You notice who is is in italics, which means it wasn't there. If you want to just take it out, it's just when Christ, our life appears. Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. This is a little different word translated appearance here. Here it speaks of a life that we already have. We already have this life, and it's appearing in a far more tangible and realistic manner than what we now see or understand because we spent a lifetime taking on the identity and the image of Christ.

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

And when that event occurs, we will see Him as He is, which could lead you to some little bit of speculation about God and heaven and where God is and whatever and all of this.

I don't want to get too far out with us here this afternoon, but sometimes from a basis of Scripture and what we see, it's sometimes, I think, helpful for us to think about these things. When we talk about Christ returning, heaven's unfurling and Christ appearing on a white horse. Sometimes, and I've had this idea in the past, I think of a blip of light way out in the furthest part of the universe, starting to move toward earth. And we track it or we see it, and it gets bigger and bigger. The world doesn't know what it is, and we kind of track it because we're going to watch, right? When we think about the return of Christ, kind of like what people do on Christmas Eve when they track Santa Claus over Siberia, Northern Europe. I don't necessarily think like that anymore. I hope you don't either, in terms of the appearance of Christ. I know you don't think about Santa Claus and how he's coming. I'm not worried about you there. The coming of Christ and the appearance of Christ, I tend to personally, and this is MacNeely 101, the 1.1, or whatever you want to call it. When it happens, just like that. And that appearing, that parousia, maybe unlike anything we have ever imagined. I can read Revelation 19, and I can wrap my minds around that language that John has led to use, and think about what that does. It's talking about a literal event in language that was the best he had translated down to us today to the best we have. But the space that God inhabits, I tend to personally think of being a little bit closer than the farthest reaches of the galaxies today. And though it is a completely different than what he and I inhabit, it is perhaps not that far away. And if, as the scripture says, Christ dwells in us, in our hearts, and he lives his life within us, then God is a part of our life by his Spirit. And as we develop and grow, put on the new man, and all of those scriptures that we talk about through all the other holy day meanings and sermons about overcoming and whatever else, to really understand what that means, rather, should bring us to a closer relationship with God, and helping us to lead up to this time of the resurrection with a far different thought than perhaps we've had in the past. Christ is not that far away. We shouldn't think of Christ like some extraterrestrial spaceman, some ET that's way out there, in terms of our thinking.

God's space, perhaps, is just as near as our relationship with him through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the more we wrap our minds around that reality, the more electric and exciting becomes every day, and especially a day like today. God's world is far different from ours, but it does intersect in our world, not the least of which happens in the inner spiritual life of a Christian.

Because if God's Spirit has been placed within us, as we know we should have, but we are His. Without it, we're not His, so we have that dimension. And how that joins with our other spirit is perhaps one of the greatest bits of revelation we've had in our age.

And it should electrify our life.

Mr. Kiebik spoke this morning about what we do should reflect what we believe.

And as Matthew 25 shows, Christ seems to ask us more about what we did rather than what we believe. What we believe is important. What we do should flow from what we believe. Because we believe in God, we believe in His law, we keep the Sabbath, we keep this Holy Day, it should lead us to those good works that reflect all of the inherent belief of the truth that is wrapped up in what we do. Christ in us will produce good. It will flow from us because of what we believe. And we will reflect Jesus Christ and provide caring, compassionate deeds for the job at hand. And deal with our own wrath and anger and malice that is described here in the other verses of Colossians 3, where we're told in verse 5 to put to death all of these things. And I won't read through the entire list of what these subsequent verses show, but all the things that you and I spend a lifetime trying to put off and to put to death. Because they don't reflect God's Spirit, those works. We want we endeavor to put on more of the works of God's Spirit, of love, compassion, mercy, speaking truth, gentleness, and all that that is there. We spend a lifetime doing that. And that is what this day should awaken us to the reality of that because it is that type of life as God's Spirit produces within us that will be transformed in the resurrection, that will survive this physical life. And will be what God downloads, if you want to use that term, into a new hardware for us at the resurrection, which is a whole other sermon in itself. But we should focus more on those good things. I wrote an article, a column this week, for my regular biweekly World News and Prophecy e-letter.

And I described the death of a man last Sunday, a man by the name of Norman Borlaug, a name that probably doesn't mean unless you read my column or saw it in the paper. And even if you saw it, you may not have known who Norman Borlaug was. I first heard of Norman Borlaug through Plain Truth and the World Tomorrow telecast, because we used to use his name at a time when we were talking about things like the population bomb and millions dying in Asia and India because of a lack of food. In 1968, 1969, some of you were around at that time, you will remember. We used to talk about Norman Borlaug. Norman Borlaug was a genetic scientist who spent his lifetime learning how to produce wheat and corn, rice, and other grains that could grow in the tropics as well as northern climates and produce greater yields. He was a father of what is called the Green Revolution. He died at age 95.

The articles I began reading about him earlier this summer in another book that I was reading about famine, world famine and world food shortage. I didn't realize the man was still alive. He was 95, still teaching, still working to provide food for hungry people. The articles that came in the wake of his death this week talked about the fact that the man saved millions of lives because of his research and what he and his team that he led developed in agricultural research in the Green Revolution. It cut short the population bomb that Paul Ehrlich described in his 1968 book of the same title. Millions did not die in India and Asia and other parts of the world because of food shortages. Environmentalists say that the work of the Green Revolution, which added more pesticides, genetically modified food, is in itself a curse upon the earth.

I've read all of that and I'm aware of all of that. Then I looked as I stood back in a retrospective on this man's life and I realized this man literally by his actions and his lifetime work saved millions of lives. A people who did not die, who lived to adulthood, who raised children, who themselves are now adults, and they did not die. And I had to conclude those are extra and additional sons of God in the family of God in the time to come. And it's a good thing that millions did not die because of that. We put that out on the line Thursday night. By noon yesterday, my inbox, Aaron Booth was sending me feedback. I knew it would be a mixed bag.

The Wall Street Journal had labeled Norman Burlaug, perhaps he was the man of the 20th century.

And I quoted that. Somebody from California wrote back and said, that totally disagreed with me because of the environmental aspect and said that he was the worst man of the 20th century. And others wrote back and appreciated the column. I knew it would get a rise out of exactly who it got a rise out of. As Norman Burlaug said, you know, the poor dying of the world in these countries, they don't have the luxury of debating environmentalism. That's good enough for me. I don't care to get into the argument or the debate with anybody. It is what it is. And I know the scriptures that talk about famine and what they ultimately will show. But for a time, one man spent his life and some good things happened. It's an example.

More of the examples that we should follow, take note of, and bring that into our own life to prepare ourselves for a life to come when spiritually as well as physically the works of the family of God will feed the world. We will see God as He is because we will be like Him, the scripture says. And we will be like Him because we have lived a lifetime with His Holy Spirit in us, developing that character. God speed the day when that event comes and we will see God and Christ as they are. Oh, Lord, come.