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LOOKING FORWARD TO THE APPEARING OF CHRIST. “What Are You Looking Forward to?”. Most People Do not Look Forward to the Lord’s Return. Just as in the days of Noah, the world today mocks the Lord’s coming of Judgment (2 Peter 3:3-4). 2 Peter 3:3-4 (NASB).
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Most People Do not Look Forward to the Lord’s Return. • Just as in the days of Noah, the world today mocks the Lord’s coming of Judgment (2 Peter 3:3-4).
2 Peter 3:3-4 (NASB) 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."
The World Today Mocks the Lord’s Coming.
People carry on their daily lives without so much as a thought about the coming Judgment (e.g., Mat. 24:37-39)
Too many brethren today are “entangled in the affairs of everyday life”to such a degree that the Lord’s coming is NOT their #1 heart’s desire (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
For the Christian, the Lord’s Appearing Should Be a Greatly Anticipated Event!
Philippians 3:20-21 (NASB) 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
Do You LOVE His Appearing? 2 Timothy 4:7-8 (NASB) 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation (2 Thes. 1:6-8).
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 (NASB) 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God andto those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation (2 Thes. 1:6-8). • By faith, we will continue to imagine, contemplate, and meditate on it often (1 Thes. 4:16-18).
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NASB) 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation (2 Thes. 1:6-10). • By faith, we will continue to imagine, contemplate, and meditate on it often (1 Thes. 4:16-18). • We will talk about it (1 Thes. 4:18; 5:1-11; Acts 17:30-31).
We Will Talk About It! • What is the main topic of discussion between Christians time and again? • We have a responsibility to “comfort one another” with words of His return (1 Thes 4:18) • We have a DUTY to exhort one another to be the kind of people we ought to be when He arrives…
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 (NASB) 1 Now as to the times and the epochs (seasons), brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 (NASB) 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:7-8 (NASB) 7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 (NASB) 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. 11Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
We Will Talk About It! Acts 17:30-31 (NASB) 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. "
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will WATCH for it, knowing it could occur at anytime on any day. • There are no signs to look for (1 Thes. 5:2 cf. Mat. 24:15-22). • Yet, we can and must watch for the event of His coming! (Luke 12:35-40)
Luke 12:37-38 (NKJV) 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Luke 12:39-40 (NKJV) 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
We must be watchful each day, knowing that each day is potentially THE DAY of the Lord’s coming!
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will not procrastinate, but instead make haste to obey the Lord now, while we still have a chance, before Christ returns.
2 Peter 3:8-9 (NASB) 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
We should never delay to reform, repent, or change our ways for God. (James 4:14, 17; Heb. 9:27; Eph. 5:16)
No longer will we be filled with good intentions that never are fulfilled, but instead we will act on those intentions to do goodright now!
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will prepare for it by holy and godly living and we will purify ourselves of sins.
2 Peter 3:10-12 (NASB) 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
2 Peter 3:13-14 (NASB) 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
Let Us not Be Caught Unprepared! • If our hope is truly fixed on Christ, we will purify ourselves of sin.
1 John 3:2-3 (NASB) 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. – cf. 1:9
If We Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ, What Will Our Conduct Be? • We will not be “lukewarm” in our service to God, but “zealous for good deeds.”.
Revelation 3:16 (NKJV) So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Titus 2:13-14 (NASB) 13 Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Only Those Who Look Forward to the Appearing of Christ Will Be Saved!
Hebrews 9:28 (NKJV) “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”