Why Does Jesus Christ Come Twice?

Have you ever wondered why did Jesus Christ have to come twice? I mean, why could God just send him, set up God's kingdom on this earth, and stop this mess? He came once, and then thousands of years, two thousand years have gone by, and we're still waiting for him to return.

Why did God do it that way? Wasn't there another way He could do it? You know, even the disciples were confused by this question. And after Jesus' resurrection, and they saw Him in His glorified state, the last question that they asked Him that's recorded in the last personal conversation He had with them was, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom of God? So this is when you're going to do it, right? Now you're going to establish God's kingdom on this earth, and you're going to take over all the nations, and the Roman Empire will disappear.

And His answer was, who basically they saw Him go up into heaven. And He said, no. So they were asking that question. Well, we don't understand. You fulfilled certain prophecies. When are you going to fulfill the rest of them? What I want to do today, and both half of it we'll cover in the sermon here, and then half of it in the Bible study this afternoon, I want to look at Christ's first and second coming and why He came twice.

This is the whole salvation history of what God is doing. This plan was put in motion the moment Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And this plan is revealed in the Holy Days. As we go through this, you can be able to see each Holy Day represented in what we're going to talk about, both in Christ's first coming and Christ's second coming. When we look at the continuity between the two, why He came the first time, and then we'll go through why He comes the second time.

And we look at the continuity in those events, the whole plan of what God is doing. It's beautiful. It's genius. It's amazing. And it's difficult. It's difficult for God. But I mean, it's difficult in that He had to go through a lot of suffering. And when He sent Christ, Christ had to go through a lot of suffering for this to happen. And there's reasons for that. I've often wondered, God, couldn't You have done this without having to sacrifice Christ?

And actually, the answer is no. The answer is no. So we're going to go through seven reasons why Christ came the first time. And it's much like a Bible study format even in the sermon. We'll take our 15-minute break, and we'll come back for the Bible study. It's been 45 minutes going through the reasons He comes back the second time. And what we do, we will see that what He started in His first coming is going to be completed in His second coming, that these things are connected together.

You and I live in this amazing time between these two events, where we have an advantage to look back at His first coming, and we're looking forward to His second coming, and we can understand how they fit together. So, seven of the reasons why Christ came the first time. The first time, Jesus came to carry out the act of redemption for humanity because of the death penalty that we've all incurred upon ourselves. Now, I want to stress, He came to carry out the act of redemption. Redemption means to buy back. It means something is lost, and a price is paid to get it back.

Now, redemption is not yet offered to all the world, and yet there had to be an act of redemption. There had to be something God did in accordance with His plan and His will, and the way He thinks it says, you are lost, I will pay penalty to buy you back. Romans 5. Some of the Scriptures we're going to go through. I'm sure, I know we covered a little bit some of these Scriptures on atonement, on if He's trumpets, you have heard, some of the Scriptures we go through, you have heard during the Feast of Tabernacles and the last great day.

Because we're looking at what God is doing and how He's doing it through Jesus Christ. So He came the first time to perform an act of redemption. He had to give something in the way that God deals with justice. Crimes have been committed, and a penalty is required, either the penalty from the people involved or a substitute. The act of redemption was a substitute penalty for our crimes. Because we use the word sin, and sometimes we almost water the meaning of the word down.

Let's use crimes, because that's what it was. Our crimes against God, and our corrupt human nature of itself cannot be saved. God has to do something, and it was this act of redemption. Romans 5 verse 12. Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Therefore, now this is a very deep theological passage. I won't go through how it's used. It's actually used to teach original sin and Catholicism, which is wrong, because what it does, it means every person, by act of conception, is condemned to hell by God.

God sees everybody so mean, so he looks at all humanity, is so worthless, that the moment you're conceived, you're condemned to hell. This is the passage that's used to prove that. I won't go through that. We understand that each value for each person is more than that, and that's why there's an idea with those who believe in original sin that most people are going to go to hell because they were born to go to hell.

It's part of their birth process. We see this differently. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. So let's use the first sentence, and what he says is, when Adam sinned, he now became, as the father of humanity, in a physical sense, he became a sinner.

Eve was a sinner. When they were kicked out of Eden, they were told, you're going to die. Their children would die. In fact, if you go back to Genesis, you see that all of nature was corrupted. Paul talks about that in the first chapter of Romans.

The entire nature, even the animals, not knowing why because he can't reason through it, but there's something so wrong that all of nature is groaning. He says, it's waiting for something, and it's waiting for Christ to come back and restore it. So when Adam was kicked out of Eden, and Eve were kicked out of Eden, they'd already become sinners. And once they were kicked out, they were separated from God. Do you know what happens to any beings separated from God?

They sin. Separated from God, we sin.

And so once they were...their nature became corrupted, not that they were inherently evil, but they were going to die. And their children were going to die.

And sin now is going to become part of them. And evil was going to become part of every human being because Satan was the god of this world, as Paul says. So now humanity is shoved out away from God, and we begin to go down this path where we can't save ourselves. We're under Satan's direction, and every human being becomes a sinner. And everyone dies because death entered into the human experience through Adam. So this is where we are. This is a very negative statement, isn't it?

This is what we are without God. The next statement is even more interesting. He says, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come. So he says, you know, when the Ten Commandments were given, people now had a definition of sin. In fact, in Romans 7, Paul said, I would not know what sin is except for the law. In other words, I have to have a definition of sin. So God gives a definition of sin. Now, when God was on the Mount Sinai and thundered out the Ten Commandments, humanity had now the beginning of a real definition of sin.

That doesn't mean, by the way, that those called by God before Mount Sinai didn't know what sin was. It even says, Abraham obeyed the laws of God. But humanity as a whole had no idea why they were dying. And he says, and they didn't sin like Adam did. They didn't sin directly against God, but everybody sinned. They didn't even know why they were sinning. They didn't know what they were doing was wrong. They just sinned and they died. He says, verse 15, let me go back. I want to make a comment on that first statement. For until the law of sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law, what that means is, when we went through eternal judgments, what that means is that humanity who do not know God have not yet received their eternal judgment. Eternal judgment isn't until the last great day. It is until the great white throne judgment. That's when people receive eternal judgment. So he says, they haven't received eternal judgment yet. Even though they died, they suffered from their sin physically dying, but their eternal judgment is yet to be made in the future.

He says, but the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of this one man, Jesus Christ, abound too many. Because on the say, so if by one man we all die, by one man we can all be saved. That's very, very important. This act of redemption. Jesus came the first time to perform an act of buying back humanity. Now we celebrate that at the Passover every year.

Every year we celebrate the fact that Christ was our Passover Lamb and in doing so redeemed us from what we should experience, which is eternal death, so that we can have a relationship with God and so that we can receive eternal life. Keith and Candace have obeyed God. I hate to use you as an example, but now that you're baptized, you're fair game. So they followed God all their lives. You know what's different between this Sabbath and the last Sabbath? Eternal life has been put into them. Now they can reject it. I mean all of us can reject it. But understand God was with them and they grew and they grew, but now the same thing with Patricia. We're going to do her baptism here this afternoon. God has been with her. God has been with her. He's worked with her and she struggled and had quite a journey, haven't you? But this afternoon, eternal life is going to be given to her. That's hers as long as she holds on to God. Redemption.

She has to hold on like all of us do. But redemption.

If He came the second time without the act of redemption, you know what Christ's second coming would mean? Nothing but condemnation. If there was no act of redemption and all He did was come one time to judge the world, everybody would be guilty, everybody would go to the light of fire.

So He had to come the first time. It's only His life, His sacrifice, His resurrection that performs this redemptive work. And so we have here the first reason He came.

Because it was part of God's plan to redeem us. Now, you know what this means to us today? Because every one of the points we're going to go through has an application to today. It means that you and I understand and view and relate to Jesus Christ as Savior. God sent Him as Savior.

That's one of the things we'll say in the baptism ceremony. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? And so we see Him as Savior. That's the first reason He came. Second reason, Jesus came to die and be resurrected. And this is a very important reason here. It's mentioned a couple of times in the Scripture and we can zip through it and miss it and it is so important. He came and to be resurrected. Okay, He just didn't come to die. His resurrection is very important because by being a human being, coming, you know, leaving heaven, coming to be a human being, dying and be resurrected, He becomes the firstborn among many brethren. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

I don't know why. I'm just perspiring up here. I could qualify as a Baptist minister up here.

I'm not taking anything negative against Baptist ministers. I'm just saying. I just remember watching on television who perspired on.

1 Corinthians 12, 20. I'm sorry. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, 20.

I was talking, turned to 12 and stopped and looked down and, wait a minute, that's not where I'm supposed to be. Verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15. This is the resurrection chapter. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Now, He goes back to this typical Pauline thought. He goes back to, and you know why we all died? Well, because Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden and death became part of human experience and Satan got ahold of us and we're all a mess. That's what Paul thinks here. But God's given us a way out. He says, For since by one man death came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order. Christ the firstfruits afterward those who are called Christ at His coming. Those who were called Christ's. In fact, in Romans 8, Paul says that he is the firstborn among brethren. In fact, he says the firstborn among many brethren. One of the reasons Jesus Christ came was so that he could have brothers and sisters. Now wrapping your mind around that is tough.

He's the one through the Father made all things, right?

He says the Father made all things through the Word, through Christ. He made all things through Him. All things exist through Him. He came to become a brother, the firstborn among many brothers.

So he came to become a firstborn among brothers to create children for the Father.

So now we see him as brother. So we see him as brother. In fact, there's a whole passage in Hebrews 2 about how he wants to call us brethren. He wants that kind of relationship with us. As this elder brother, the superior, of course, he's God, but this relationship has brother.

So now we see him as Savior. We see him as brother. Now, a third reason he came is in Hebrews 2, another very commonly read passage. Sorry, there's no new, wonderful, hidden knowledge today. It's all basic knowledge. Hebrews 2.14.

Once again, we're in the middle of a thought here, but he's dealing with this idea that we are becoming children of God. And he's talking about the work of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 14, "...inasmuch then, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood," that's us, that's human beings, "...we have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise," this is Christ, "...shared in the same, he became like us," why? "...that through death he might destroy him, who had the power of death," that is the devil, "...and to release those who through the fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage." Satan is the god of this world. That's why there's so much evil. The evil in the world you and I live in is not God's fault. Now he allows it. It's not like Satan sees control, and God's like, oh my, oh my, I can't stop this evil. He allows it because he can stop it any time. But he was going to defeat Satan through Christ, and Christ came as a human being to defeat Satan. There's a number of places where Jesus talks about that. He came to defeat Satan.

I don't know. Satan must have thought that when the Roman soldier killed him, he had won. I don't know how he thinks. He must have thought he was winning.

And when Jesus is resurrected, he wins. Which the entire Old Testament predicts a Messiah who would come and be crucified and then would die and then would reign on earth.

And of course, Satan had to know the word, right? Who was with God and was God. As John says, he had to know him. In fact, all things were created by the word.

And somehow he must have thought he won.

He was defeated by that first coming and by that death and resurrection.

Now we're going to show how in his second coming, all those things are complete because Satan's still in charge right now, isn't he? He said, well, how was he defeated? This is what the disciples were asking when they said, okay, you're going to set the kingdom now, right?

Boy, Satan's going to get it now. Now remember, they didn't have the book of Revelation yet.

When they asked him that question, they had nothing of what we call the New Testament. Not one book was written yet. So when they're looking at the Old Testament, it's like, boom, it's going to happen. And he said no. And he went away. And they carried on.

And here we are, all these generations later, all those who believe in God, who accept Jesus Christ, who follow Him, what are we doing? We're waiting.

We're waiting for that second coming. And Satan is defeated, but he's still there.

We'll talk about how that gets wrapped up in the second coming and the Bible study. The fourth reason. Now, each one of these is a sermon in itself. So I'm just picking a scripture or two to deal with each of these to establish the premise of what we're talking about, because there are obvious statements in the Bible.

Christ came to initiate the New Covenant, which was prophesied in the Old Testament, and through that to make disciples. He came to initiate the New Covenant and make disciples. Now remember, disciples are followers and imitators of their teacher.

You know, I mentioned Jesus coming to defeat Satan. I said he was our Savior, and he's our brother. He's now our champion. He's our champion who defeats Satan. But now he comes to make disciples, to establish a New Covenant where God's Spirit can be poured out, and there are disciples. Hebrews 8.

Verse 6. Speaking once again, the context here is the work of Jesus Christ as the high priest, he says, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, and as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. So there's a New Covenant. The Old Testament prophesies about it. In fact, this passage here is going to quote an entire passage in Jeremiah to make its point.

So under the Old Covenant God's Spirit was not poured out to everyone. Some had it.

You see a few people in the Old Testament with God's Spirit. Most people did not.

That's why when the Spirit was poured out in Acts 2, Peter said, oh, the prophecy is being fulfilled. Holy Spirit is beginning to be poured out. Lots of people are getting it at one time, 120.

This was the great problem with the first covenant.

The Holy Spirit poured out in the New Covenant makes us disciples of Jesus Christ. We are imitators of His life. We are participants in that covenant.

And that's why at the Passover what do we do? We read the Scripture that says, Jesus said to His disciples, take this wine. It is the New Covenant. This represents my blood, the New Covenant. He had to come to establish the New Covenant. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, clear back in Deuteronomy there were prophecies about a new covenant.

Well, when was the New Covenant going to be established? Christ came and established it. He established it first with the people of Israel, but there's all kinds of prophecies, especially, and we'll talk about one in a minute, a little bit, especially in Isaiah where He said, this covenant is for everybody. It's not just for Israel, it's for the whole world.

So He came and He started a new covenant with disciples. Read the New Testament and you will find that the disciples of Jesus Christ weren't just Jews.

There were people from all over the world, all over the known world at that time, all over the Roman Empire. There were people who became disciples of Jesus Christ.

Read the book of Acts. They come from Rome. There's Italians. There's Ethiopians. There's all kinds of people from the Arab countries. There's all kinds of Greeks. I mean, Greece itself became a center point of Christian churches. What is now Turkey, Asia Minor, as people came in, both Jew and Gentile, into this new covenant to become disciples of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ now becomes both our high priest and our master.

In the baptism ceremony, we talk about Jesus Christ as high priest and master and king and savior.

He came to start this process.

And this was part of the plan from the very beginning. Fifth reason, in establishing this new covenant, He also came to establish what we call the church.

He told His disciples, and it's recorded in Matthew, that He was going to create a church.

And of course, the Greek word is very interesting because it's an assembly of people called out to assemble. So if we're disciples, we're called out to assemble together as disciples of Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 1, which tells us something else now. This fifth point, which will also be important in His second coming.

First Corinthians 1. I'm sorry, let's go to Colossians. I may have to cut a few things out here. Colossians.

Colossians 1.

Verse 15.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. We always talked about how He became the firstborn. It was through a resurrection. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they're thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. That's a very interesting word in Greek. It means all things are sustained, showing once again His divinity.

Now, verse 18. And He is the head of the body of the church. It was the beginning and the firstborn from the dead that in all things He may have preeminence. He's the firstborn from the dead. He has brethren. We've already talked about that. He is the head of the church.

Many times in all honesty, the reason we have so many problems in the church and conflict with internally in the church is because we forget this.

Jesus Christ is the head of this church. He's the head of the church.

We all need to be committed to Him as the head of the church. So He came to create a church. And this church actually has, and as we have to... This is an enormous concept. You and I have been called into the body of Christ.

You know, it's not just us. It's people that are called by God.

He's working with people we don't even know about. He calls people into His body.

And He calls them for a purpose that is not just for salvation. You and I have a part to play in the Second Coming with Jesus Christ. You and I... I'm going to repeat that. You and I have a part to play in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So this period between the First and Second Coming is to do all these things. There's a lot of things that God is doing between the First and Second Coming of Jesus Christ. A lot of things He's doing to carry out this plan of salvation.

And those called in this time period have a part to play in that Second Coming. A sixth point. I did the seven here.

Christ came to give His followers an example of how to live. Now, I've heard whole sermons on this. Well, I've heard whole sermons on each one of these points. I've given sermons on each one of these points. He came as an example. He showed us how to live. He didn't just show us, you know, through His death to be redeemed. He showed us how to live, how to become God, you know, like God.

How to become...as Paul said, we have to be Christ-like. We have to follow that example. That's what disciples do. But if He said, Be My disciple, and didn't show us anything, we wouldn't know anything. So now we become disciples, and in that His example becomes very important. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. Peter understood this. Peter spent all that time with him. And let's start in verse 21. He's talking about suffering here, but I want to get to the point of why he's making this. You know, Paul's saying something here, and he's going to support it with a very important statement. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps. Even in His suffering, we learn about suffering. Everything in His life is to be an example for us.

This is a relationship that we need with Christ now. When we go before God and pray, and we bring all of our cares and our worries and what we're upset about, many times His answer is, study what I did through my Son.

I left you an example. This is how you handle this. This is what you do. Much of what we have in whole sections of the New Testament are the apostles expounding, this is how Christ did it, so this is what we should do. In fact, what leads Peter to make this statement is in a couple of verses before he says, okay, so somebody treats you wrong. So something bad happens to you. Someone says something mean to you. Someone does something that hurts your feelings. Maybe someone abuses you in some way. He says, take it patiently, for this is commendable to God. And you know, my action to that is, what are you talking about? If someone is misusing me, don't I punch them in the nose?

And his response, I mean, it's almost like Peter could hear everybody saying that, and his response is, no, do what Jesus did, because that's the example he set. So he's using him as the example of how to deal with this kind of conflict that he's talking about with people in the church here. He goes on, he says, I'm going to read the rest of this, verse 22 says, who committed no sin, nor deceit was found in his mouth, but when he was reviled, did not revile and return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him, who judges righteously, who himself, it goes back to this concept, it goes back to what our point number one was, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. We died to sins, so we live this way. We follow him. He set the example by whose stripes you were healed. For if you were like sheep going astray, but it now have returned to our shepherd and overseer of your souls. So he's our example.

That example is to present yourself, as Paul said in Romans 12, as a living sacrifice.

That's an oxymoron. You know, it's like sweet and sour sauce.

It's either sweet or sour, right? But it's not. It's both. Because you know what you do with the sacrifice? Anybody. What do you do with the sacrifice? In the Old Testament. You kill it.

So I'm a living sacrifice as an oxymoron. I'm living and dying at the same time.

I am living... this is what Paul's making his point in Romans 12. He says, you live by dying for God. You live by giving up yourself. By sacrificing yourself, you live. You learn to live. You receive eternal life.

And isn't that Christ's example? A living sacrifice. Now he didn't have to receive salvation. He didn't sin. He didn't have to receive eternal life. He had it before he came. He simply set it aside and picked it up afterwards. But you and I become living sacrifices to follow his example.

And the seventh point is in Matthew 11.

These are big concepts. And sometimes I'll take a sermon and I'll go through 10 verses, and we'll just spend the whole time on 10 verses. Because you're tearing something apart. Then there's these sermons where we have to get the big concepts and put them in place.

So that... I mean, you could study all these yourselves.

You can get a deep study on each one of these points.

Put it together with the puzzle. And as we go through the Bible study, you can really see how they fit together and how you use prophetic messages all through the Scripture to put them together. In Matthew 11 verse 25, interesting prayer by Jesus Christ.

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Now what he's talking about here is his message. And most people weren't understanding his message.

And it wasn't because they were stupid. It wasn't because he didn't know the Bible, by the way. Most of the people he reached in his lifetime, except for a few Samaritans, were Jews or proselytes. Gentiles would become Jews. And he says, they're not understanding this. And yet they're learned. They know the Scripture.

They know your way, but they're not understanding. He says, because you have to do something with them, and in doing that they understand. So there's these little babies you've given me. You haven't given me the smart ones, the really good ones that you've given me the babies. Always remember that. God called you, and God called me, because we were the babies of humanity.

He says, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight, all things having delivered to me, Jesus says, by my Father, that no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does any one know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. He says, Come to me, all you labored and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He said, I will reveal to you the Father. There's other places where he said, I'm going to reveal to you the Father. You're going to understand God the Father better by knowing me. How many times you see where one of his disciples would say, okay, tell us more about the Father? And he said, okay, just look at me, learn from me, and every time you learn something from me, you'll understand the Father more. That's why I'm here. Well, show us the Father. He said, but I've showed you me. If I show you me, you're learning what the Father's like through me.

Over and over again, he had that discussion with the disciples.

He came to reveal to us the Father. In Christ, what we see is God in human form. We understand. We can relate now. He relates to us. We can relate better to Him. He's always related to us. He just, we don't get it. I understand God has no problem relating to us. He made us.

He doesn't relate to our sin, but I mean He relates to us as human beings.

Jesus Christ, by coming and being who He is as a human being and then returning to the Father, what He did is He says, look, I'm showing you the Father now. You can understand the greatness of God a little bit by understanding Me. He revealed the Father. You and I have a much deeper understanding or can have a much deeper understanding of God the Father by studying the teachings of Jesus Christ. This is why He said, don't pray to Me. It's not wrong to pray to Christ once in a while, but He said, basically, when you pray, you go to the Father, but you do it in My name. It's like He's the door. In fact, He calls Himself the door. You want to know the Father? Here, I'll open the door for you. I will show you who He is, but you've got to come by Me to get there. And that's why He said, but you must pray in My name.

We can't just end every prayer with, in Jesus' name.

Now, He said, if you want the Father to really hear your prayers, you do it in My name. So He came to reveal the Father. Now, everything I just said is what He told His disciples. We only know that because He said that. He taught it to us.

So when we look at why Jesus came the first time, we begin to see this list of things, of reasons of why He came.

He came to carry out this act of redemption so that humanity can have a chance to know God. We know that He came to die and be resurrected as the firstborn among many brethren.

You know how many brethren are in heaven with Jesus right now? How many brethren are in heaven with Jesus right now? Anybody? Zero.

Something yet has to be done. First coming wasn't enough in this plan. Jesus came to die and be resurrected to be the firstborn. Three, He came to defeat Satan, but Satan's still around. He hasn't completed that either. Four, Jesus came to initiate the New Covenant, make disciples.

He said He would make it with the whole world. He hasn't made that with the whole world yet. Jesus came to establish the New Testament church, or I mean the New Covenant church. Number six was Jesus came to be resurrected. Number six was Jesus came to leave His followers an example of how to live, through His teachings that are recorded. So the men and women who saw Him, and they recorded what they saw, what He taught, and how it was interpreted then through the New Testament, and we are to follow that.

And then number seven, Christ came to reveal the Father, to actually reveal the true God to everyone so people could understand. But none of that has been completed.

It's only partly done.

And that's why there's two colleagues.