Why Jesus Must Return to Earth, Part 2

Selected Scriptures

Two thousand years ago, a man lived on earth illegally and with no cause He was executed by Jews and Romans.  They put Him on a cross, which was the common form of execution for criminals, but three days later He rose from the dead.  And over 500 different people saw Him alive after His death and resurrection.  Some people talked with Him.  Some people even ate with Him.  And 40 days later while they were on the mountains of the east of Jerusalem, He was talking with them and all of a sudden He ascended in their full view straight back into the clouds.  And they saw Him physically, literally ascend from the earth.

Immediately, two angels stood by them in white apparel.  And said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven.  This same Jesus who is taken up from you shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven."  The promise of the angels was that Jesus would return.  Now that's not a new promise, Jesus Himself said He was coming back over and over again.

And we who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, we who are what the world has called Christians for it is a name that was given us by the pagans in the city of Antioch originally, but we who are called Christians believe Jesus is coming and we are waiting for Him to return.  We have always been waiting for Him.  We don't know when He's coming.  It's in an hour that we really have no way to know, but we believe He's coming back.

This is what Christians call the blessed hope.  Now some people think we're fools.  Some people think it's all pie in the sky and the idea that Jesus would return visibly to earth is kind of scoffed at.  But that's predictable.  In 2 Peter 3:3, Peter says, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of His coming for sense the Father's fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

Peter says, there will always be scoffers and there will be a whole lot of them in the end times and they will be saying oh come on, everything's always gone along smoothly.  Where is the promise of His coming, nothing's ever changed since the very beginning of creation.  Such mockers have always been around, but their hay day says the Bible will be at the time of the coming of Jesus Christ.

Now I want to show you a parable if I may to begin with tonight.  Turn in your Bibles to Luke Chapter 12, this will form our introduction.  By the time our series is completed, we will have gone from the why Jesus must return to earth, through the how He will return, to the final consummation in the eternal state.  But as we come to Luke 12:41-48, we find a parable that speaks to this issue of scoffing at the second coming of Christ.

Luke 12 beginning verse 41, "Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speaskest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?  And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give him his portion of food in due season?"

And here we find a house owner.  And he has a steward as so many did in those days.  A steward was one who didn't own anything, but he managed the affairs for the house owner.  And he was to manage them with care, that was his duty.  Verse 43 then says, "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He comes shall find so doing." 

The picture here is of an owner of a house going away.  And when he goes away he puts the servant in charge.  "And blessed is the servant who does what he should and is found doing it when his lord returns to the house.  Of a truth," verse 44 says, "I say unto you, he will make ruler over all that he has."  The promise then is of the house owner who goes away, puts the servant in charge and when he comes back if the man's been faithful, he is fully rewarded.

And there you have the promise in a parable form that Jesus is coming back to reward those who have served Him faithfully.  What a promise that is.  In 2 Timothy 4:8 we read this, "Hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord shall...the Lord the righteous judge shall give me that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing."  In other words, those who live as if Jesus was coming in the next moment will be rewarded with a crown of righteousness.

Now contrast with the faithful servant, verse 45 of Luke 12.  "But and if that servant say in his heart, my lord delayeth his coming," he's not going to be here for a long time, maybe he'll never come back.  "And to begin to beat them menservants and maidservants and eat and drink and be drunk, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers."

Now Jesus said then there are some people who when the Lord goes away are going to be unfaithful with the obligation of the trust committed to them.  This is the one who doesn't live in the light of the return.  Who scoffs and said oh my Lord delays His coming.  Maybe He'll never come.  Unfaithful, he throws off the robe of stewardship and he begins to misuse everything.  He badly treats the fellow servants.  He pushes them around according to his own whims and wishes.  He indulges himself in the food and drink of the master and even gets drunk wastefully taking that which is not his.  Despising the others, not supplying as he should.

And notice in verse 46 that the Lord comes back at a time and a day when he's not looking and an hour when he's not aware and cuts him in half.  Interesting note there, that was not an uncommon kind of death in that day for someone who was deserving of death.  If you read in Hebrews 11, I think it's verse 37, you'll find that one of the Old Testament prophets was also saw and a sunder.

And so he would be cut in half and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers.  Now you'll notice that there's a suddenness to the return of the Lord here.  And here our Lord Jesus Christ is beginning to talk about the fact that He is going to be coming back and He's going to evaluate what men have done in His absence.

Verse 47, "And that servant who knew his lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.  For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask the more."

What's that saying?  That's saying that even in judgment there are degrees.  Even in hell, there are degrees.  "But for an individual," look at it, in verse 47, "that knows the lord's will and doesn't prepare and doesn't take care of it, he gets the severe judgment."  Now you may scoff my friend at the second coming of Jesus and you may think it's pie in the sky that Jesus is said to come physically, literally to this earth, but may I say tonight that from this hour on, you have been warned.  You have heard the truth.  You no longer find yourself in the category of 48 who doesn't know, but you are in the category of 47 who knows what the Lord has promised to do, it's up to you whether or not you obey.

From this night on, you stand responsible before God and your conscience.  Now Jesus said in that parable that He was going to come back.  He is obviously the house owner.  And men are obviously those to whom the stewardship is committed.  This present age will end with the return of Jesus Christ.  We've used a little overhead just to give you a kind of an overall picture and this follows the little chart that you have.  Although it's somewhat different.  The chart includes all of the varying scriptures that you can refer to through the series.

But you will notice as we look at it that the church age, just a brief look, the church age concludes with the rapture.  The rapture concludes the church age.  From that point on, all of this period here is involved in the second coming of Christ.  It includes all of this period.  The Tribulation for seven years and the thousand year kingdom before the great white throne is set up. 

This age, the church age, as we know it ends then with the rapture and then begins on earth the horrible Tribulation and we'll get into that in detail.  Now how do we know that Jesus is really going to return?  What is the evidence to indicate that He is going to return?  How do we know this isn't just pie in the sky?  What causes us to be sure of a literal, physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, I believe there are at least nine reasons.  And last week, I gave you the first three and this week we'll endeavor to give you the last six and see how far we get.  First of all, and just by way of brief review, we stated last week that the first reason Jesus must return is the promise of God demands it.  We saw that throughout the Old Testament, God continually promised a deliverer, didn't He?

He continuously promised a redeemer, a Messiah, a Savior, a king who would deliver me, who would forgive their sin, who would bring justice out of injustice, who would make right out of wrong, who would reverse the curse, who would change everything.  God repeatedly made this promise.  According to one writer we saw there are at least 333 prophecies in the Old Testament telling about this deliverer.  Now Jesus is that deliverer, but the first time He came, He only fulfilled 109 of those prophecies.  Which means there are yet 224 prophecies of what the deliverer would do when He came and those 224 prophecies have never been fulfilled.

Now, if they have yet to be fulfilled then He must return, do you see?  God promised this is what Messiah would do.  He only did one-third of what God said He would do on earth, so He has to come back and do the rest on earth or God comes out a liar, right?  Or God's word is suspect.  If Jesus doesn't return, God's word is unfulfilled.  God's predictions don't happen.  God is a liar.

And so I say the first reason that Jesus must return is the promise of God demands it.  And listen, the first time Jesus came, He came physically and literally to earth and believe me, the second time He will also come physically and literally to earth.  That is the promise of God.  And Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man that He should lie."  If God said Jesus is coming, believe it.  Jesus is coming.

And if He only fulfilled a third of the prophecies the first time and God said He'll be back, He'll be back.  God cannot lie.  Now listen to this little thought.  If God, this is for your brain to mull over, if God gave out the information that wasn't true, then God would be destroying the very thing He was trying to establish, His own trustworthiness, right?

God wants man to believe in Him, true?  Now if God rattled off 224 prophecies that didn't come to pass, the God is foolishly undermining just exactly what He's trying to accomplish.  Why do you think God gave prophecies in the Old Testament?  To vindicate Himself.  God said such and such would happen, we see it happen.  We say oh you can trust God.  God said Israel be scattered and they'd be gathered and placed in the land.  You say yeah, and I see it in my day.  Boy that makes me believe God.

God said the Messiah would come and they would cast lots for His garment and the Messiah would come and He would be crucified and the Messiah would come and not a bone of His body would be broken and He would rise from the dead and it all came to pass.  And when know that we say God is true.  God is right.  What God says happens?  God says in the end times there will be certain features coming to pass prophetically and we look around and we see them and we say wow, you can trust God.  But if God rattled off 224 prophecies that never happened, then God's word is suspect, right?  And He can't be trusted. 

In Genesis 18, there's an interesting little encounter between Abraham and God that maybe points this up for us.  Abraham was God's friend incidentally.  And Abraham walked with God by faith.  Paul even makes that point clearly in the New Testament.  And God was always revealing to Abraham what He was going to do.  God would say now Abraham, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that and then Abraham would see it happen and say Oh God you did do it.  Your word is valid.

Now God was about to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, right?  I mean wipe them out totally.  And now He didn't want Abraham's faith shattered.  So He said to Abraham, "Abraham, I am going to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah."  And God was in effect saying "Now Abraham if I do it you'll learn to trust my word won't you?  So God told him, in verse 17, let's look at it.  God gives the rationale for telling Abraham.  "And the Lord shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?  Should I hide it from him?"  No, I want to tell him what I'm going to do.

God didn't want a confused Abraham.  God wanted him solid in faith and one of the greatest...and I think this in my own personal life, one of the greatest things that establishes my faith in God is fulfilled prophecy, isn't it yours?  It's powerful, and so he used this even with Abraham telling him what He was going to do.  He then did it.  And Abraham's faith would grow instead of Abraham being confused by strange circumstances.  He knew they were going to happen and he was trusting God all the more.

Now in verse 20, "And the Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, I'll go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it."  I'm going to go down and look and see if it's as bad as it sounds.  And if not I'll know.  So He's going to go down and judge them.

Well, if you read on down from 21, 22, clear on down you'll find out what happened.  God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know what happened?  Abraham's faith became stronger.  Now if Abraham hadn't have known Abraham could have been a little bit shaken, because that was the town where Lot was.  And maybe Abraham wouldn't have understood so God gave him the plan and then brought it to pass and instead of Abraham being confused, he was strong in faith.

He said God has done it again, kept His word.  You see for God to promise to do that and then not to do it, would have been to destroy the very thing He was trying to accomplish by promising it in the beginning.  Do you see?  You and I don't need to know what He's going to do.  Other than the fact that when He tells us and then does it, it secures our faith.  You got that point?

And so for God to tell us and then not do it is to destroy what He sets out to do in the first place.  Say, if somebody comes to me and says MacArthur, I don't trust you.  I doubt your word.  You can't keep a promise.  And I say all right, I promise such and such and such.  And the guy says well I'll meet you Tuesday at three o'clock on such and such a corner.  All right, I will be there, you can believe my word and I'll prove to you once and for all that I'm worthy of your trust.  Tuesday at three o'clock the guy waits there.  Wednesday at three o'clock he's still there and I haven't come yet.

You think he's going to trust me?  The very thing that I wanted to use to get his trust, destroyed his trust, right?  God would never make prophecies that couldn't come true.  He'd be undermining the very thing the prophecies were given to do in the first place.  You got it?  And so God has made predictions and God brings them to pass.  And strengthening faith is the result.

All right, point number two, we said that Jesus must return to earth because God's promise demands it.  Number two the statements of Jesus demand it.  Jesus kept saying He was coming in direct statements in John 14, He said He was coming.  "To receive us unto himself."  In parables in Matthew 24, Matthew 25, and we just read one in Luke 19 didn't we?  We Jesus says, "I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming." 

And in Revelation six times He shouted pass the clouds "Behold I come quickly."  He's coming believe me.  He kept saying it.  And He is the same one who said I am the way, the truth, and the life and if He is the truth, He cannot lie, right?  You know, Jesus went further than just saying it.  Jesus...did you know that Jesus gave a demonstration of the second coming?  I want to show it to you.  It's Luke 9.  And this was very vivid.  In fact, it just...it stayed in Peter's mind all his life.

Luke 9, just to show you that Jesus really meant what He said about coming again, verse 22.  Jesus is talking with His disciples and He's going to tell them that He's going to have to die.  In verse 22 He says, "The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day."

Now, this is like a bomb that's unloaded on the disciples.  Just fantastically shocking.  And it's at this point, of course, that the little interlude of Peter occurs where Peter says "Not so Lord," and he has to say "get thee behind me Satan."  But anyway, He announces His death.  And then in verse 26, but He says something I want to tell you.  "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words of Him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He shall come in His own glory and in the Father's and the holy angels."

Now there Jesus says, yes, I'm going to die.  Yes, I'm going to rise again, and then I'm going to what?  Come back.  He says he's going to come right in verse 26, "when He shall come in His own glory."  Jesus says I'm coming.  Now Jesus then gives them a fantastic illustration of the second coming.  Absolutely mind shattering.

Verse 28, "It came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took Peter, John, and James and went into a mountain to pray.  And as He prayed, His appearance...the appearance of His countenance or His face was altered.  And His raiment was white and glistening."  He just like somebody had turned on a light bulb, a fantastic light bulb inside of Him, he became translucent.  Right in front of their eyes.  What it was was the glory of God just beaming through Him.

"And behold there talked with him two men, Moses and Elijah," all of a sudden landed there.  And of course, Peter was just completely flipped out by this point.  And we'll see what happens, literally he was.  "Who appeared in glory and spoke of His deceased, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."  There'