Lon Solomon Ministries
The Return of Christ
All right. Thanks. Hey, let's take a Bible together. Let's open it. First letter Paul wrote to Church of Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 4. And I've got so much I want to say to you, so let's get started, okay? What does the Bible say about the return of Jesus Christ? Well the Old Testament in talking about the coming of the Messiah seemed to be talking out of both sides of its mouth when it talked about the Messiah. Because in some passages like Isaiah 53 Psalm 22, Zechariah chapter 12, the Bible talked about a suffering Messiah. And yet in other passages, like Isaiah 63, Psalm 110, Zechariah 14, the Bible seemed to talk about a conquering Messiah. And the Old Testament prophets were thoroughly confused, from the ones who were writing this stuff down. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10. They, that is the Old Testament prophets, made careful search, trying to figure out what person or time the Holy Spirit was referring to when He predicted one, the sufferings of Christ, and two, the glories that were to follow. And they could not figure out how all this fit together. In fact, the rabbis, just before the time of Christ were so confused about it, that they actually postulated that there were two Messiahs, one who would come and suffer and die, and another one who would come and lead Israel in glorious triumph. Well when Jesus was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, He came to fulfill the role of the suffering Messiah who would give His life on the cross to pay for your sin and my sin. And He did fulfill this, shedding His blood on the cross, rising from the dead as proof that God had accepted His sacrifice, His payment for sin. May I stop here and say that if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ in a real and personal way, that you can never get excited about the second coming of Christ. You can never eagerly anticipate the second coming of Christ until you have first appropriated the first coming of Christ. Only when the first coming of Christ is something that we make part of our lives and take advantage of do we become excited about His return. And how do you appropriate the first coming of Christ? Well simply friends by giving up everything else you've ever trusted to pay for your sin and get you into heaven and instead placing all of your reliance on what Jesus did for you on the cross. Until you've done that, until you've appropriated His first coming, you will never be able to get excited about His second coming. I hope you've done that here. If not, you need to do it so you can get thrilled about what comes next. What comes next that Jesus talked about and the rest of the Bible talks about is the return of Jesus Christ to this earth not as a suffering Messiah but as a glorious conquering Messiah. Matthew chapter 24 verse 30, Jesus said, "Then the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all men shall see Him coming on the clouds of the sky with power and with great glory." And in Acts chapter 1 verse 11, "As the men of Galilee, the disciples were standing around, Jesus resurrected, has just lifted off and gone back to heaven, and angels suddenly are standing beside Peter and James and John and Philip and the Daniel, and He says to them, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking in the sky? This same Jesus who has gone into heaven will come back in the same way that you saw Him leave." Meaning friends that Jesus is second coming is not going to be the process of society developing into some millennial kingdom. No, no, no, no. It is going to be a literal event in which Jesus returns just the way He left. Namely, He returns bodily, He returns visibly, and He returns personally. And in fact, the return of Jesus Christ has such a prominent place in the New Testament that it's mentioned over 300 times in the New Testament. That's an average of once every 25 verses. Now, when we talk about the return of Jesus Christ, we are really lumping together in that general heading to different events. Now, they're connected, they're related, but they're separate. The first of those two events is called the rapture, the rapture of the church. The word rapture comes from a Latin word, rapturo, and the word rapture means to snatch away, to catch away. And so this is the catching away or the snatching away of the church, of every living follower of Jesus Christ when Jesus comes back in the air. And the purpose of the rapture is so that we as the followers of Jesus Christ don't go through the seven years of terrible tribulation that the Bible says comes next. Look here in 1 Thessalonians 4, where I ask you to turn, chapter 16. We're going to see the rapture described for us. Verse 16. It says, "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpets of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Now, the first thing Jesus does when He comes at the rapture is that every follower of Christ who has died, their spirits are with the Lord, but their bodies are still in the grave. The first thing He does is He raises from the grave the body of every dead follower of Jesus Christ, and He changes those bodies into glorified bodies just like the body He had after the resurrection. Philippians 3, verse 20. "Our citizenship is in heaven," Paul writes, "and from heaven we eagerly await the return of our Savior who will transform our lowly bodies and make them like His glorious body." So that's the first thing, but the best part is yet to come. The other part of the rapture is verse 17. And after that, after Jesus takes these bodies out of the grave and reconditions them, after that, we who are still alive as followers of Christ, we will be caught up in the clouds. There's our word rapture. We will be raptured up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will forever be with the Lord. Those of us who are followers of Christ, and we're still alive when Jesus comes in the air like this, Jesus levitates us, and we float up into the air to meet the Lord in the air, the Bible says, and as we are going up, Jesus changes our mortal bodies into glorified bodies on the way up. We never go through death. We're changed in a flash in an instant into glorified bodies. Man, what a rush that's going to be. Can you imagine? Alright. Now, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about this. Look what he says. He says, "We shall not all sleep. We shall not all die as followers of Christ, but some of us will be changed. That is, we will be given glorified bodies without ever passing through death. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised imperishable." Now, folks, that was verse 16 here in 1 Thessalonians. We just read it. "And then we who are still alive, we shall be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet." That's verse 17 where we are caught up and changed on the way up. This is the Rapture, and would you notice that at the Rapture the Lord Jesus never actually steps foot on earth. All of this happens with him in the air. Okay. Now there's seven years of tribulation. The Antichrist is revealed, rules here on earth, and at the end of the seven years we get the true, real second arrival of Jesus Christ here on the earth. The great tribulation ends, as you know, with a battle called the Battle of Armageddon. It's fought right in the Valley of Jehassafat, just north, the Valley of Megiddo, just north of Jerusalem. And in this valley, the Antichrist at the end of the tribulation period has assembled millions of troops to finish the job that Adolf Hitler couldn't finish. And that is the annihilation of the Jewish race once and for all. Things look hopeless. Things look completely without any hope at all. And then Zechariah 14, all nations it says shall be gathered against Jerusalem for battle, and then the Lord will go out. Ah, this is wonderful. The Lord will go out and fight against these nations. The Antichrist is put together. And on that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives will split in two from east to west. This is Jesus' second coming, not as a suffering servant. Oh no, this is his second coming and coming as conquering king and Messiah. And this time he does step foot on earth and brother, his power, his majesty are so awesome that when he touches down, he flat splits the Mount of Olives right down the middle, blows that thing right to smithereens, and he defeats the forces of the Antichrist. And now to sum up and finish, Jesus now sets up his kingdom here on earth, a 1000 year millennial reign of Christ here on the earth. Zechariah 14 continues, and the Lord will be king over all the earth. And on that day there will be only one Lord and his name shall be the only name. In those days there aren't going to be 15 lords and 15 religions and 15 people that are worshiped and followed here on earth. No, no, no. In that day there will be only one Lord on this earth and there will be only one name that people will worship and revere the name of Jesus Christ. And he will rule the world literally from Jerusalem here on the earth is what Zechariah 1412 says. Now it's during this time this kingdom that God rules here on earth, it's during this time that God will fulfill every promise to Israel. He has ever made them to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to David. We look at the nation of Israel today and we think well God's going to fulfill all those promises to Israel today. No, he's not. He's going to fulfill them in his millennial kingdom when he rules from Jerusalem and when Israel is the center of that kingdom that's when he's going to fulfill those promises. And in that millennial kingdom Romans 821 tells us the curse that was laid on the world, laid on human nature, laid on the world of creation in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, that curse is going to be lifted and the whole world as we know it, all of creation, all of nature as we know it is going to be different. Life spans for example will be extended, Isaiah 6520. He who dies at the age of 100 in this kingdom will be thought to be a mere youth. Universal righteousness, universal justice will prevail because Jesus himself is going to be ruling and friends, you can't fool the Lord ever. You understand? Universal peace will be around them. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4, they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up arms against nation nor will they train for war anymore. Now you can take that verse today and plaster it all over the United Nations building. Not going to make any difference. That is never going to happen until the return of Jesus Christ with him ruling in his kingdom, war will cease. There won't be any. And carnivorous animals will be changed. Isaiah 11-7, the cow will feed with the bear, the lion will eat straw like the ox and the wolf will lie down with the lamb and even snakes will be different. Praise God for that. All right. They will. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 8, "The infant will play near the whole of the cobra. The young child will put his hand in the vipers nest because here's how it's going to be in that kingdom. No one will harm or destroy any longer on all my holy mountain." You know what else will happen in the kingdom of God? The crocodile hunter will have to cancel his show because picking up a rattlesnake will be no big whoop. Picking up a cobra will be no big whoop will all be able to do it. It will all be different then. He will have to find a new gimmick to make a living because this was not going to work in the millennial kingdom. If you last that log, paneling those things, I'm not sure he's going to make it, but if he does, he's not going to be able to make a living like this. Things are going to be different. And this is the wonderful future that awaits this world when Jesus Christ returns. Now you say, "Law and that's wonderful, but I got a question." My question is, and we all know the question, don't we? So take a deep breath. Here we go. One, two, three. Two, one. Right. Say, "Law and my question is, so what?" I mean, I think this is wonderful. I think this is great. This is fabulous. When the Lord comes back, it's going to be a perfect world, but you know what? The perfect world is not here yet. There are still man-eaters that live in the jungle and man-eaters that live right here in Washington. You understand what I'm saying? And so I go out and I face those people every single day. This is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful church talk for what difference does it make for me tomorrow when I go back into the real world? Well, I want to answer that question for you, and I want you to flip over a couple of pages to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Just a couple of pages back in the New Testament page 843, 2 Timothy chapter 3, and I want to let the Bible answer that question for you and me. Look right here, 2 Timothy chapter 3, and in verse 1, Paul begins talking about what things are going to be like in the last days. You say, "Well, how did he know?" Because he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, friends. And God knows what was going to happen 2,000 years from the day Paul wrote this, not a problem. Look at this, verse 1. "But mark this," Paul says. "There will be terrible times in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Verse 13, "An evil man and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving, and being deceived." You say, "Well, long, that sounds just right." I mean, that's a perfect description I think of our world. And as a follower of Jesus Christ, I got to tell you something. This gets discouraging. This gets disheartening. I mean, after a while, I feel like throwing my hands up and just going, "What's the use? There's too much of it going on. What difference can I make? I mean, what's a Christian to do?" Well, I'm happy to report to you that Paul answers that question next. What's a Christian to do? Look at verse 14, "But as for you, Timothy, you continue." What a wonderful word. "Timothy, in the middle of all of this, here's what I want you to do, son. Continue. Continue in the things you have learned, and in the things that you know to be true, Timothy, continue. And where is Timothy supposed to get? The motivation to continue in the face of all of this unrighteousness and all of this ungodliness in society." Well, look at chapter 4, verse 1. It says, "Timothy, I give you a charge, and the charge is in view of the charge to continue is in the view of Jesus Christ appearing to judge the living and the dead, and in view of His kingdom." In other words, Paul says to Timothy, "Timothy, I want you to take your eyes off the world around you. I want you to take your eyes off the people around you and what they're doing. I want you to get your eyes off their sliminess. I want you to get your eyes off their greasiness. I want you to get your eyes off of all of the manipulation and the unrighteous behavior going on, and I want you to put your eyes, Timothy, on Jesus, and on the return of Jesus, and on what He's going to do when He comes back, He's going to judge the living and the dead. He's going to right every wrong. He's going to set up His kingdom, and that's your motivation, Timothy. You're not looking at what people are doing, because if you do that, Timothy, you're going to be one disheartened character. You get your eyes on Jesus and His return, and you'll be able to continue, son. You'll be able to continue, no matter what happens around you. I don't know what your favorite movie is, but I got a top 10 list, and one of my top 10 favorite movies is Robin Hood. I love Robin Hood, and I don't like the new ones. The new ones are terrible. I like the old original with Errol Flynn. I mean, there will never be another Robin Hood, but Errol Flynn. I mean, that's just the way it is. And you know the story of Robin Hood. Robin Hood, rather. You know, King Richard is gone, all fighting crusades, and there's a lot of evil, nasty, slimy, greasy stuff going on in England, and Prince John, and a sheriff of not in Hammer doing this. And what does Robin Hood do? Robin Hood does what Paul tells Timothy. He continues, continues, continues to do what's right, stand up for what's right. And I mean, if you want an example of continuing, friends, I mean, Robin Hood is as good as gets. And you know the motivation that prompted him to continue? It's very simple. He believed King Richard was coming back. Yes, he did. And he believed when Richard came back, Richard was going to reward him for continuing, and Richard was going to make right all the things that were wrong. And that's where he got his motivation. And man, at the end of the movie, Richard shows up, you know, you remember the movie? Y'all asleep, y'all with me? All right. You look a little, you look a little all right. But Richard has his white cape on. You need to see this movie. This is a great movie. Richard has his cape on, and he announces to Robin Hood that King Richard's back in the country. Robin Hood denotes him, and Robin Hood goes, "We got to find him. We got to deliver him. He's in great danger." And he opens this white thing, and there are all these gold lions on him, and Robin Hood falls on his knees, and everybody around him falls on their knees. And I start crying, and my kids are like, "What is wrong with you? You know the dialogue. You could save the lions." Well, I know, but this is touching. I mean, this is a great movie here. This will yank your heart out. And so, and then he makes for you, let's Robin Hood marry. You know what's her name? Yeah, whatever. And so, they get married, and everything's good. Everything's good. Okay. Well, what God really is trying to say to us, friends, is God wants you to be Robin Hood. God wants you to continue, and continue, and continue in the confidence that he's coming back. And when the king comes back, he's going to do two things. One, he's going to reward every person that continued, and two, he's going to make everything right that went wrong. Now, what are the kinds of things God wants us to continue in while we're waiting for him to come back? There are three I want to share with you in closing. Number one, God wants us, number one, as followers of Christ to continue in laying up treasure in heaven. Matthew chapter six, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven." I was at the gym the other day, and I was riding the bicycles, and right behind us were the treadmills. And it was this guy. I see him all the time at the gym. He's in there all the time doing a treadmill, and he's talking to a buddy that was on the treadmill next to him. And he said to his buddy, he said, "Do you know I have lost $100,000 in the stock market since March?" And I thought to myself, "Wow, a rich gym rat." So anyway, he and his friend said to him, "A $100,000 you lost in the stock market." He said, "I guess you're getting out of the market." Right? And the guy goes, "No, no, no, I'm not getting out of the market." He said, "I've been putting more money in." He said, "The market is the only future I have." And you know, I thought, "That's tragic. Is that tragic that the stock market is the only future somebody's got? That his portfolio here on earth is the only hope this guy has?" It really bothered me. I thought I was really sad about that. And because I thought I was sitting on the cycle in front of him, man, I'm sure glad that I got a future that goes way beyond the stock market. I got a future that goes all the way into the streets of heaven. And you know what, friends? So do you if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and we as followers of Jesus Christ ought to be just as intent on laying up a heavenly portfolio as this guy was about laying up an earthly portfolio. I mean, I have guys in the gym who have between sets go all walk and look at the television to see what the stock markets do it. I wish we had as followers of Jesus Christ, that kind of intensity about what kind of treasure we were laying up in heaven. He said, "Well, Lon, how do you lay up treasure in heaven?" It's real simple. Every time you and I use our talents, our gifts, our energy, our time, our resources, our money, whatever to advance the kingdom of God and to advance the work of Jesus Christ instead of using those things to advance our own kingdom, we have transferred those funds into our heavenly bank account. And God says, "Hey, I want to tell you something, I'm coming back. There really is a heaven. This is not a hoax. You really have a heavenly bank account. And if you're wise, you'll continue laying up funds in there while you're waiting for me to come back." Number two, where to continue not only in laying up treasure in heaven, but continue number two in personal holiness. You see, friends, it says here right in 2 Timothy 4 that if Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, guess what? That includes you. You're going to be one of those two things when He comes back. You're either going to be one of the living or one of the dead. And either way, He's coming back to judge your life and my life. And that's why Titus chapter 2 says, "We are to say no to ungodliness and to evil passions and we are to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age while we await the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Now, I don't know how it is at your house, but at our house it's very different when people knock on our door and show up unexpected for a visit versus when we know somebody's coming over as a guest. When somebody just shows up and knocks on the door and they're there for a visit, we spend a lot of time, my wife does, kind of apologizing that, you know, the housing picked up, maybe this isn't done in the kitchens a little bit dirty. But hey, when we know somebody's coming, we go through the house and we clean up. And I say we because I help. Now, I don't help because I want to help, but I've been married 26 years and I know what hills are we're dying on. And that's not one of them. So I go through and we pick up dust balls behind the door and we wipe the toilet real quick and we may wash the dishes and we make the beds because we got company coming and hey, we don't want to be embarrassed when company shows up, right? Friends, Jesus has told you he's coming to your place. This is not a secret. He's not going to show up unexpected. This is not going to be somebody that you weren't warned ahead of time was coming. You know he's coming. And so if you're wise and I'm wise, we'll keep our house presentable. We'll keep our house neat and tidy and clean. So whenever he shows up, hey, what does the Bible say? So that we shall not be ashamed at his coming. Hey, he is coming. And there is one day he's going to knock on your door and be there. You don't want to have a house you got to apologize for, huh? So you got advanced warning, keep the house clean, keep it presentable. Say, Lon, how do I do that? Well, if I live in a life that has moral integrity, by living a life that practices sexual purity, by living a life that's when we're honest and our dealings with other people, where we practice Christ-like behavior and all that we do, where we have purity in our motives and fidelity to our families and we're faithful on our jobs, this is how we keep a house clean so that when the Lord comes, we're not ashamed and embarrassed to have him knock on our door and arrive at our place. Friends, he is coming and I guarantee you, he is going to arrive on your doorstep one day. And when he does, you want your house presentable. So keep it that way. Number three, and finally, we're to continue laying up treasure, we're to continue in personal holiness and finally, we are to continue in hope, to continue in optimism, no matter what happens to us on this earth. My grandfather, we call him Papa, my grandfather came from a very wealthy family in Portsmouth, Virginia. His family had own movie theaters all over Portsmouth and Norfolk. And when his father, my great grandfather, was elderly and sick, my grandfather's brother, only sibling, got the great grandfather to rewrite the will and write my grandfather completely out of the inheritance. And my grandfather didn't know anything about that until his father died. And then when they were reading the will, he suddenly discovered, you know what he was left? He was left one dollar, no lie, one dollar and his brother got every movie theater, all the bank accounts became a very wealthy man. Do you know they lived 20 miles apart and never spoke to each other the rest of their lives? And my grandfather became a very bitter man. He became a very cynical man. I mean, it was really tragic. What happened? Now friends, that just didn't happen to my grandfather. Folks here today, we've had things similar to that happen, maybe not with an inheritance, but we've had people at school, people in our office. We've had people in our family or people in the political world. We've watched as they've done slimy things, greasy things, unrighteous things, ungodly things, and gotten away with it, it seems. And you know that, that is hard to deal with. That is hard to reckon with. It's easy to lose hope. It's easy to become cynical and bitter like my grandfather. It's easy to begin taking a very jaded view of the world when we're treated like this. And it seems like people get away with this a few times. But hey, I'm here to tell you, God wants us to continue in hope because of what He says right here in 2 Timothy 4. When He comes back, He's going to judge the living and the dead. Friends, every chicken that has ever flown is coming home to roost when Jesus returns. Everybody, whoever thinks they got away with anything, they got a surprise coming when Jesus comes back because they didn't get away with anything. And you know what? If we would get our eyes off of what people do to us and get our eyes on the living God who's coming back to make everything right, hey, all it's a question of is when. And you say, yeah, Lon, I know, but I want it done now, now, now, now. Well, I'm sorry. God may not do it now, now, now for you. But the confidence we have is you know what? Just kick the can on down the road, friend, because when Jesus comes back, everything that's ever been done, you're discouraged about, you're just heartened about, you're upset about it that was unrighteous, sleazy, slimy, and greasy. Hey, guess what? Jesus is going to make them all right. He's going to settle up every account. And you know what? If you go to work and somebody tries to pull something like this or you go down on Capitol Hill, somebody tries to pull this or in your school, somebody tries to pull this, just smile at them. Just smile at them because they don't realize it. But when Jesus comes back, they're going to wish they never even thought about doing what they did. They never thought about trying to pull what they pulled. Hey, you know what? Followers of Jesus Christ who live godly lives. We're always going to have the last laugh, friends. That's the way Jesus is going to make it. So if you're a little discouraged today, because you see slimy stuff going on around you, don't be, don't be. If you're a little cynical today, because you see greasy stuff going on. Hey, friends, there's been greasy stuff going on in the world since it started. And God is bigger than all that. He's going to settle the account when he comes back. Do what Timothy was told to do. Get your eyes off people and get your eyes on Jesus and his return. And you can deal with anything anybody does to you. Believe me, it won't bother you because you know there's a day of reckoning coming. And as long as you're on the right side of that day, you're fine and you can deal with it. Hey, first Corinthians 15 58. Therefore my brothers, be steadfast, be immovable, be always abounding in the service of the Lord. Why? Because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And how do I know that? I know that because I don't have a dead savior in a grave somewhere. I got a living savior coming back as a conquering king going to set everything right, going to reward every Robin Hood that continued on for him until he came back. And so I know my labor in vain in the Lord. And because of that, I can be what steadfast, immovable, always abounding. I can continue, friends, continue in the service of the Lord, because I know what's going to happen in the future. And friends, that's what Jesus wants for you. Get your eyes on him and you can deal with the things of this world. I have a little poster that I put into a frame that I have on my office wall. And here's what it says. It says work for the Lord. The wages may not be great, but the retirement benefits are out of this world. Is that great? I love that. The retirement benefits are out of this world. And if you are Robin Hood, you continue on for the Lord. You remain steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of God. Friends, you got some retirement benefits coming that you're just going to stand back and go, wow. Trust me, you continue and God will reward you. Let's pray. For Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about real life, because you know Father is hard sometimes to keep going when we see all the slimy, greasy stuff going on around us, particularly here in Washington. And it looks like people get away with this stuff. Lord, thank you for reminding us today that what we need to do as followers of Christ is continue. Continue on laying up treasure in heaven, living lives of personal holiness, being optimistic and hopeful because we know you're on the throne. And one day you're coming back to make everything right. So God, motivate us today. Lift us up today, Lord. Give us the strength and the encouragement we need today to take our eyes off of the things around us and put them on you and to go out and continue for the Lord Jesus to be steadfast, immovable and abounding in the work of the Lord. Father, thanks for talking to us today. Change our life and change the way we live this week because we were here today and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [BLANK_AUDIO]