The Nature of the Second Coming

Tonight we're on lesson number 14 in eschatology. We're looking at the nature, or the manner, of the second coming. Many times, people in Hollywood or politics, which is kind of like a cheap version of Hollywood, when they want to make an entrance, it's very planned and it's very orchestrated. You might recall, 10 years ago or so, when Trump decided to run for office, he came down that golden escalator. It was very theatrical. Tonight we're going to be looking at the manner in which Christ returns. It's part and parcel with His mission as the returning Judge. So we'll be looking at what the Bible says about the way that He returns, the manner or the nature of the second coming. Let's begin with Bible point number one.

The second coming is the blessed, blessed is the first blank, the blessed hope of the church. We find that in Titus 2:13. It's something that the church sets its eyes on. It's something that the church is waiting for in expectation, for our Messiah to come again. It's the blessed hope of the church.

The church eagerly awaits in anticipation Christ's triumphant return, in which He will resurrect, resurrect is the second blank, resurrect the dead for judgment. Judgment is the third blank. When He comes, He resurrects both the living, or brings before Him the living and the dead, for judgment. Where He will gather, gather is the fourth blank, gather His people to Himself. Impart His glory, glory is the fifth blank, His glory to them. Punish, punish is the sixth blank, punish the wicked. And usher in the new, new is the seventh blank, the new heavens and the earth.

So you can see a lot of things happen when Christ returns. There is the general resurrection of the just and the unjust. They are resurrected for judgment. He gathers His people to Himself. He glorifies them. He punishes the wicked, and He ushers in the new heavens and the new earth.

Christ's return will be singular, sudden, personal, physical, visible, glorious, triumphant, consummative, resurrective, adjudicative, and restorative. There's a lot of terms there, but we're going to unpack each one of those individually in the following Bible points. Christ's second coming will be the entire submission of the will of man to the will of Jesus Christ and the full consummation of His kingdom. That's what the Bible says: "that every knee should bow… and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Christ will make all things new.

Look at Titus 2:13. It's printed there on the front. "Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." One verse is a beautiful sermon in itself. We're looking forward to the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God. Christ is God, God made flesh, right? And Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah.

Flip over on the back. Let's look at this in its context. Look at Titus 2:11–14 on the back. That's reference number one. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." In other words, in light of His return, we are to live godly in this present age. That's what Paul is instructing Titus.

Flip back over on the front. Do you live in blessed hope? Hope is the blank for the application for number one. Do you live in blessed hope? Is your life characterized by hope? A lot of times, we base our hope on our circumstances, don't we? Maybe we're dealing with chronic illness. It can be hard to be hopeful when your body or your mind is in lots of pain. It can be hard to have hope in those situations. We often base our hope on our material circumstances, right? If we're struggling each month to make ends meet, to put food on the table, it can be hard to have hope.

It can be hard to have hope when we examine ourselves too closely. Because though we are called to self-examination in light of Christ's sacrifice, we're ultimately to be looking to the cross and not within ourselves, right? Because if you look within yourself, you'll find no end to sin. You'll find no end to your finitude. You'll find no end to your shortcomings. That's why we look to Christ, right? Because He has all righteousness. He has all holiness. He has all power, right? So when we live in hope, we're living in hope for His return, when He's going to put an end to this body of sin, right? Thanks be to God, who will deliver me from this body of death, is what Paul says, right? We're looking forward to that day when we're made in His image, when the curse is lifted, when evil is punished, right? And justice is done. And every knee bows and praises our Lord and our Savior. That's the hope that we live in as Christians.

Bible point number two: Christ's return is a single event. We talked about this in lesson three, when we looked at the second coming of Christ. We're going to review it here in brief. Christ's return is called the parousia, which means coming. There are three different main Greek words that are used to describe His second coming. The first one is parousia, and it means coming. The second one is apokalypsis, and it means revealing. We refer to the book of Revelation as the Apocalypse of John, right? Because it's the revealing of Jesus Christ. And the epiphaneia. Epiphaneia in Greek means appearing.

Parousia is the most frequently used term, and it denotes His royal visit, His appearing, or His coming. Most literally, parousia means presence. Presence is the first blank. This points to the fact that His coming results in His personal presence. In other words, when Christ returns, He is coming in His personal presence. He's already with us by His Spirit, is He not? Does not His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, live within you? Paul says in Romans chapter 8, if you have not the Spirit of Christ, you don't have Christ. So He's already present in us by the Spirit. The Spirit mediates the presence of both the Father and the Son to us. But when He comes, in His second coming, He will come personally, right?

Apokalypsis means revealing, means unveiling. Unveiling is the second blank. Unveiling describes the removal of what now hinders our vision of Christ. Right now, we see through a glass darkly, right? "But then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." How glorious that will be, that we will no longer live by faith, but we will see Him with our own eyes, right? We will be made holy so we can partake of and see the glorious vision of Christ, which is the very face of God. And that is the apokalypsis. That is the revealing that takes place in His second coming.

Epiphaneia, appearing, speaks of the manifestation, manifestation is the third blank, the manifestation of Christ's glory, glory is the fourth blank, with the blessings, blessings is the sixth blank, the blessings of salvation. So epiphaneia speaks of the manifestation of Christ's glory with the blessings of salvation. In other words, when Christ comes, He comes in a glorious return. And He comes not only to reveal His glory, but to share His glory with us.

1 Corinthians 15 says that "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… we shall be changed," right? We'll be transformed at His glorious appearing. Our life now, in which we often toil in our sanctification, in our struggle against sin, that will be gone, because we will be changed in an instant into a finite image of Christ, right? We will be glorified. Our salvation will be complete in that sense, in that the image of God will be fully restored in us, because it's the image of Christ being stamped upon us. So when it comes to Christ's epiphaneia, we think of a light. We think of a comic strip where a guy has an epiphany and a little light bulb comes on over his head, an idea. Well, literally, it's God's glory being placed on you, God's glory being put on you and worked in you, and you're transformed by His glory at His epiphaneia, at His appearing.

These interchangeable terms describe the day when Christ returns both with and for His saints. All three of these are used to describe His second coming. You can't take one and say it's something different. All three of these terms are used synonymously for the second coming of Christ.

2 Peter 3:14 says, "Looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless." Because we know that He is going to come, and He's going to reveal Himself, that His glory will be made manifest, personally present with us, we want to live without spot and blameless and be ready for His return, right? When you were a child and your parents had guests over to the house for dinner, what would they normally tell you to do? Go wash your face, right? Go wash your hands. Get ready for dinner. Be presentable. Take off those dirty clothes and put on something nice, because your Aunt Susie's here, right? And you want to greet the guests. That's what it means for us to go ahead and prepare, to be without spot and blameless, waiting for His return.

Flip over on the back. 2 Thessalonians 1:7 says, "and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels." Here we have the Lord Jesus being revealed to us. This is an apokalypsis, with His mighty angels. He's going to give us who are troubled rest at His second coming. 2 Thessalonians 1:10: "when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed." Here we see Christ coming not for His saints, or not coming with the saints, but coming to be admired in His saints. The saints are here at His second coming.

The reason I mention this, and we talked about this in lesson number three, is that for the first 1,840 years of the church, the return of Christ was seen as one singular event. It didn't matter your view of the millennium, whether you were premill or postmill; all the creeds say the return of Christ is singular. But in about 1830, 1840, dispensationalism came, and they tried to divide Christ's second coming into a second coming and a third coming: the rapture of the church, where Christ comes and snatches the church up so He could get on with His prophetic program for Israel. That's the reasoning behind that doctrine. And then seven years with a great tribulation, and then Christ comes, really, a third time, in judgment, at that point.

That cannot be grammatically substantiated. They taught, Scofield at least, a classic dispensationalist, taught that the parousia was Christ coming to rapture His church, and that was separate from the day of the Lord, when you have judgment, when you have the general resurrection, when you have the destruction of Christ's enemies. That would be separate from the epiphaneia or from the apokalypsis. But you can't do that grammatically. It does not allow you to do that. In fact, if you'll look here in 2 Thessalonians 2:1–2, you'll find... Sorry, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, you'll find all three of these words, used to describe the same event. "And then the lawless one will be revealed." This is where we get apokalypsis. "Whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness," that's epiphaneia, that's glory, "of His coming," the parousia. So all three of these describe the same event, and you'll find that multiple times. These three words describing Christ's return are interchangeable. You can't say, "This one only means a rapture. This one means His coming in judgment." The Bible only speaks, both grammatically and didactically, of one return of Christ.

You have to actually arrive at that through what we would call a theological construction, if you have certain prepositions or presuppositions to arrive there. It's not at all unlike our... like our godly Presbyterian brothers and sisters. We love them. But they have a different view of infant baptism. They can't find a single Scripture that commands it or that instructs it. But it's a theological construct. They believe there's one covenant of grace and two administrations, and the covenant sign of Abraham's covenant was circumcision, so it must be equated with baptism, so we must baptize our babies. And you see, it's one presupposition after another, a strand of pearls, that makes that happen. But didactically, you'll find nowhere in Scripture that teaches that straight out. And you can't support that grammatically either.

Let's flip back over on the front. Application: Live a holy, holy is the blank, live a holy life in anticipation of His coming. Because He is coming, we want to live a holy life and to be ready for His appearing.

Bible point number three: Christ's return will not only be singular, but it'll be sudden, that's the first blank, and unexpected, unexpected is the second blank. Christ compared the suddenness of His coming to the judgment of the flood. We read that last week when we studied the precursors of the second coming. He said, just as in the days of Noah, they were reveling, having marriage celebrations, and then the flood came, right? Swept them away, carried them away.

Christ compared His coming to a thief, thief is the third blank, coming when you don't expect. Paul and Peter likewise compared Christ's coming to a thief in the night. Night: when you're asleep, right? Have you ever heard a noise in your house in the middle of the night? Maybe it was a book that fell off the shelf. At least that's what you hope. Or maybe it was a branch that scraped the window. But when you hear that, you're startled. You're awake and out of sleep because you think maybe someone's in the house, right? Well, that's how both Paul and Peter describe the second coming. It would catch you unawares, as if you were sleeping.

Matthew 25:13: "Watch," watch is the blank, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

Flip over on the back. Let's look at Luke 12:40 in support of the suddenness and unexpected nature of His return. Jesus says in Luke 12:40, "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Jesus is using one of His favorite titles for Himself. It's a messianic title. It comes from Daniel chapter 7, where the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days, and He's crowned. This is His ascension. He's given all authority; all nations and kingdoms are His, and He's worshiped universally. He calls Himself the Son of Man because the Son of Man will return. "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." We talked last week about the futility of date setting, trying to read the spiritual tea leaves for when He will return. Jesus says that He doesn't even know the hour, nor do the angels.

Application for number three: Commit yourself to being faithful in doing the Master's work. Work is the third blank. Because you never know when the Master is going to return. Be faithful. That's the way that you'll be prepared. Just do what you're supposed to do. Be a light. Make disciples. Spend time with your family in the Word of God. Spend time in personal prayer. Spend time in personal evangelism. Spend time in ministry. Just be faithful to be about the Master's work. And if He comes, you're not caught off guard. You're being faithful.

Bible point number four: Christ's return will be personal. So not only is it singular, not only is it sudden and unexpected, but it is personal. We already had a hint of that when we looked at the word parousia, right? Parousia describes Christ's personal presence at His coming.

This truth contradicts the claims of theological liberalism, which equates Christ's return with the mere spiritual progression of the world. In the Reformation, we had a great spiritual awakening that came from that. People read the Word of God for the first time in their own language. And through both the Reformation and the Puritans, people's faith was encouraged and the gospel spread around the world. Then we had something called the Enlightenment. And when the Enlightenment came, it was almost as if the Reformation started to fade at that point. The Enlightenment brought about what we call theological liberalism. And it resulted, in the early 19th century, in the modernist controversy, where they said Christ didn't really resurrect from the grave. It was just that people remembered Him in His goodness and His example, and that was the resurrection, right? And Christ isn't really going to return. His return is simply the spread of Christlike character around the world through churches and through individuals following the good example of this noble teacher. That's what theological liberalism and modernism teach. And Christ's personal return rejects that. Jesus is coming in the flesh. He's coming personally, right? Not spiritually.

This truth contradicts the claims of theological liberalism, which equates Christ's return with the mere spiritual progression of the world. This likewise contradicts the preterist view of the second coming, that the second coming already, already is the third blank, took place in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Next week we're going to be looking at various millennial views, and then following that, we're also going to be looking at different interpretive grids for the book of Revelation, and one that we'll look at is called the preterist view. And there's full preterism and partial preterism. What full preterism teaches is that Christ returned already, in judgment of Jerusalem in AD 70. It wasn't a personal return in the sense of a bodily, visible presence, but a spiritual return in judgment. And there's one sense in which that's right, that it was Christ's judgment, just as His coming at Pentecost was a coming, but it wasn't a personal coming, right? Christ is coming personally, right?

And this Bible point teaches against preterists, because what hope do you have? If Christ already came in AD 70, what hope is there of the resurrection? What hope is there of evil being judged? What hope is there of being rescued by Christ, and being glorified, and being changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye? It goes by the wayside if Christ has already returned personally. He hasn't. And you can look at these reference verses: Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:15–16; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–10, tongue twister there; Titus 2:13. This is refuted by these passages that speak of Christ's return being yet future, right? Being yet present, yet to come.

Acts 1:11 says, "This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come," right? That was at His ascension. The angel said that. Just as He ascended to heaven, He also will personally come.

Flip over on the back. What does Jesus say in John 14:3? He promises, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I," that means personally, "I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." This is a personal return.

The application for number four: Express, express is the blank, express gratitude and praise to Christ for His promised return. Just as He promised, "I go to prepare a place for you… I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Express gratitude. Praise Him every day that He is coming back for you. What a glorious time that will be.

Bible point number five: Christ's return will not only be singular, sudden and unexpected, and personal; it'll also be physical and bodily. Christ's return will be a physical, physical is the first blank for number five, a physical and bodily return, Acts 1:11, Acts 3:20–21, Hebrews 9:28, Revelation 1:7.

Some theologians have tried to relegate Christ's coming to the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost, Pentecost is the second blank, thus denying His physical coming. This is also refuted by Scripture's abundant testimonies that His return is still future. Future is the third blank. All these verses were written after Pentecost.

Let's flip over on the back. I want you to read Acts 1:9–11. This is the ascension of Christ. "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud," this is that Shekinah glory cloud, "received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'" They saw Him bodily, physically ascend to heaven. They said He's going to so come back in like manner, bodily, physically.

Flip back over on the front. Application for number five: Christ isn't slow in His promise, but is long-suffering. Long-suffering is the blank. We get that from 2 Peter 3:9–10. We may think it seems like a long time since He came and promised His return, but we know that He's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to saving faith. That's what Peter promises, and that's the reason for His delay. But He will physically come.

Bible point number six: Christ's return will be a visible and public return. There'll be a visible and public return. Visible is the first blank; public is the second blank. Matthew 24:30, Matthew 26:64, Luke 21:27, Acts 1:11, Colossians 3:4, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 9:25, and Revelation 1:7. You can look these up in your own time.

These verses refute those who say that Christ returned secretly, returned is the third blank. Jehovah's Witnesses, if you've ever shared Christ with them, you know that they say that Christ already returned in 1914, I think it was. It was a secret return. That was part of the Fulbright movement. So they said it was a secret return. Or they refute those who say that Christ's future return, or rapture, as the classic dispensationalists call it, will be in secret. Secret is the fourth blank.

There's all types of dispensationalism, but classic dispensationalism teaches that Christ's rapture will be a secret rapture. And if you've seen some of the movies, such as, we talked about A Thief in the Night, a lady wakes up and her husband's gone, and his clothes are left behind, and all of her neighbors are gone, because secretly they were taken away in the middle of the night.

But look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which, ironically, is the one that classic dispensationalism uses in support of their view of the second coming. It says, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God." Can you imagine what the shout of heaven must sound like? Can you imagine what the voice of an archangel must sound like? You're not sleeping through that. With the trumpet of God. Think about the trumpet of God that sounded on Sinai, that got louder and louder and louder, to where the children of Israel couldn't bear it, and they pleaded with Moses, "Tell God to stop it. You speak to Him. We can't bear it any longer," right? "And the dead in Christ will rise first." If that threefold alarm doesn't get you, all of a sudden all the graves are open, and the dead are coming out of the grave. There's no way His return can be secret, right? It is public. It is visible.

Flip over on the back. Revelation 1:7: "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen." So His return will be something that everybody witnesses, and they know that it is doomsday, the day of judgment, so they will mourn.

Flip back over on the front. Application: "All the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen." Amen is the blank. We say, "Come, Lord Jesus." We say amen to His return, because when He returns, the oppressed will be oppressed no longer, right? Evil will cease. Rebellion will cease, because God in Christ Jesus will see that it has ended.

Bible point number seven: Christ's return will be glorious. Glorious is the blank for number seven. Christ's second coming will be like His first coming in that it will be personal, bodily, and visible. That's the way He came, right? In His incarnation, He was not a spirit, right? As some of the first-century Gnostics claimed, that Christ was an apparition. But no, the incarnation tells us that He took on flesh. He took on flesh so that He could bear our sins. His humanity was added to His deity, right? Without mixture and without in any way changing His deity, but it was added to Him so He could pay our price, right? And when He was resurrected, He was resurrected as the God-man. When He ascended in this bodily form, humanity reached the apex throne of the universe, the very throne of God: glorified humanity in Jesus Christ, right? So He's called the firstfruits of the resurrection, right? And so we reign with Him right now, right? And it gives us tremendous hope that when He comes back, we will be with Him, in the same way that He is.

Christ's return will be glorious. The second coming will be like His first coming in that it'll be personal, bodily, and visible. His second coming will differ in that it'll be unspeakably more glorious. Even in His resurrection, for the 40 days that He walked the earth after His resurrection, He wasn't yet glorified, right? It was begun, but He wasn't yet glorified. When you read the book of Revelation, chapter 1, you see a picture of a glorified Christ, right? He looks a lot like the Ancient of Days from Daniel 7, of course: hair of white, right? He has fire for His eyes, a sword coming out of His mouth, right? He is in glorious splendor. That is Christ's actual presence right now. And when He returns, He's going to return in that glory.

"The Son of Man will come in His glory," Matthew 25:31. He comes riding on the clouds, clouds is the third blank, "the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Find that in Matthew 24:30. That's in the Olivet Discourse. In a couple of weeks, we're going to go through that verse by verse.

Christ is revealed as Lord from heaven with the mighty angelic army. Army is the fourth blank. So He's coming on the clouds, and He's coming with an army of angels. He's the Lord of hosts. Just as at His incarnation, you had the angels, an angelic host, crying out to the shepherds, "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people," right? And they were announcing the birth of Christ. When He returns, He will be returning with an angelic army, right? But this time, they will not be declaring peace, okay?

The archangels are His royal heralds. Find that in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. The shout of an archangel accompanies His return. What does a herald do? "Here comes the king. Get ready," right?

Christ returns with His saints as His royal company, 1 Thessalonians 3:13. He's bringing all His saints who are in heaven, in what we call the intermediate state. These are the souls of those who have departed, who are with Christ. They come with Him at His return, and they will receive a glorified body along with us, right? Because the resurrection happens at His return. Christ returns with His saints as His royal company. Company, is that the blank?

Christ comes to be glorified in His saints on earth. There will be saints here on earth, of course, and He will come to be glorified in them, according to 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Christ comes to be glorified as God and Savior. So this is a glorious spectacle.

Perhaps you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies. Remember when they're in battle and they look up, and here comes Gandalf riding with his big army, right, to the rescue? That's a picture of the glorious Christ, but just a faint picture of Christ in His glory. When Christ comes, it'll be glorious. It'll be in power. It'll be with His angels. It'll be in the full manifestation of His glory. Daniel 7:14 says, "Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom," speaking of the Son of Man. He's been given all glory in His ascension.

Flip over on the back. Matthew 25:31: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory," this is Jesus using, again, this term from Daniel 7, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory." He comes to reign, right? And what a glorious picture that is: the glorious King on His throne, the throne of judgment.

Flip back over on the front. Application: Let Christ be glorified, glorified is the blank for the application for number seven, glorified in you, 2 Thessalonians 1:12. Paul doesn't eat things. He says Christ is coming to be glorified in you. So glorify Him now with your lives, right? That's your purpose. What is your purpose in life? It's not to get rich. It's not to have lots of friends. It's not to have lots of toys. It's not even to be a good mom and dad, ultimately. Your purpose in life is to glorify God. We were created for His glory. He's going to glorify Himself when He comes, so let's glorify Him now with every aspect of our lives.

Bible point number eight: Christ's return will be triumphant, triumphant is the blank for number eight, and victorious. Christ will tribulate. Tribulate: this is an exact word from the Bible here. Tribulate, which means to afflict. He will tribulate those who are tribulating the church when He comes, 2 Thessalonians 1:6. There are some who teach that the church will... It's a health-and-wealth kind of a gospel. The church will avoid tribulation. All is hunky-dory when you're with Christ. That's not what Jesus says. If they afflicted Me, if they persecuted Me, they're going to persecute you, right? And the church is depicted as being in tribulation when Christ returns. We'll read this in just a moment, in 2 Thessalonians 1:6.

Christ will give His tribulated church rest, rest is the third blank, when He appears with His mighty angels. He gives us triumph over our enemies by giving us rest. The battle's done. We can rest. In flaming fire, Christ brings vengeance, vengeance is the fourth blank, on those who rebel against God, 2 Thessalonians 1:8. The wicked are punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of His power, power is the fifth blank, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. It's going verse by verse through 2 Thessalonians 1.

Christ consumes His enemies with the breath, breath is the blank, of His mouth, and destroys them with the holy brightness of His coming, 2 Thessalonians 2:8. At that day, Christ will destroy all of those enemies, even death, 1 Corinthians 15:24–26, Revelation 19:11–16, and Revelation 20:9–15.

Flip over on the back. Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:6–10, this beautiful passage here. "Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you," those who tribulate you, "and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed."

We're going to be glorying and reveling in His victory, right? Just as the children of Israel would have rejoiced in David when he slew Goliath, right? And they would sing songs: "Saul has slain," what? "His hundreds," is it? "And David his thousands," or tens of thousands, right? Yeah, exactly. We're going to glory in the triumphant and victorious return of Christ in that day. Romans 8:31 says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Nobody can, right? We can walk with confidence, knowing that the worst enemies of the church, even in this present age, are defeated foes. Their defeat is certain. When Christ comes, they will be vanquished.

Application: "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear." Fear is the blank, Psalm 118:6. "What can man do to me?" is what the psalmist says in Psalm 118:6. The Lord is on your side. Don't fear. What can man do to you, right? Christ is victorious.

Bible point number nine: Christ's return will be consummative. You want to sound smart? Consummative is the way we say it in Texas. Christ's coming marks the end, end is the first blank, of this age and the arrival of the age to come. We had a whole lesson on this a few weeks ago, when we talked about this age and the age to come. Christ constantly uses those terms. So does Paul; so does Peter. Speaking of when He comes, He brings a new age; a new epoch arrives when He returns.

This age, that phrase this age, is always temporal and perishing. When the Bible talks about this age, the age that we live in, even in these last days, it's temporal. It's temporary, and it is perishing. Everything in this world is perishing, is it not? The age to come is eternal, eternal is the third blank, and perfect. When He comes, everything will be perfected. Evil will be vanquished. It will be destroyed. You will be glorified. Death will be defeated. There will be no more death. There will be no glorified saints living among unglorified saints and rebels. No, when Christ comes, it's a new age. He makes all things new.

When Christ returns, this age ends. When He returns, His angels are sent to harvest, harvest is the fourth blank, men. When He returns, His angels are sent to harvest men. That marks the end of this age. In other words, He culls all men. They're brought before Him. When He returns, the wicked will be destroyed, Matthew 13:40. When He returns, the righteous are gathered, gathered is the next blank, to Him, Matthew 13:43–49. The tares are burnt up, and the grain is gathered into His storehouse. When He returns, the world and all its works will be burned up, 2 Peter 3:10. So His return is the end of this temporal age, the end of this sinful age, the end of death, the end of the wicked, and the beginning of the new creation.

Flip over on the back. Let's look at this in Matthew 13:36–43. "Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.' He answered and said to them: 'He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age.'" So when He returns, it's the end of this age. It's the beginning of a new age. "'And the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!'"

Then look at 2 Peter 3:10. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." This world is under a curse, right? And all of our works are falling short, right? They're all evil. They're marked by wickedness. But He brings about a new heavens and a new earth.

Flip back over on the front. Matthew 6:20, Jesus says, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." In context, Jesus says, Don't lay up treasures where rust is going to corrode, where moths are going to eat them up, where thieves are going to break in and steal. No, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, because there moths can't eat them up. There rust cannot corrode them. There thieves can't break in and steal them.

Application for number nine: Your inheritance is "incorruptible and undefiled and… does not fade away." Unfading is the third blank. 2 Peter 1:4. When Christ comes, He brings His blessings, the inheritance, God with us, right? New heavens and new earth. It'll be unfading. It'll be glorious. It'll be apart from sin, apart from rebellion, apart from the curse. What a glorious day that will be.

Bible point number ten: Christ's return will be resurrective. At Christ's return, He will resurrect, resurrect is the first blank, all men. He will resurrect all men. It's what we call the general resurrection. Both, both is the second blank, both the wicked and the just. Find that in John 5, Acts 24, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 20. We'll look at that in a minute. Scripture never speaks of a separation of judgment between the righteous and the unrighteous by any period of time. It takes place at the same time.

This general... That skipped over one. I'm sorry. Okay, yep. This general resurrection is for all men. All men is the next blank. At the same, same is a blank, at the same time. It takes place on that last day, day. You'll find in John, we read this when we looked at the lesson on the resurrection, John 6:39, John 6:40, John 6:44, John 6:54, Jesus keeps saying, "And I will raise him up at the last day," right? On the day of the Lord is the general resurrection. That's when He raises all men, both evil and righteous.

Flip over on the back. Let's look at this. John 5:28–29. Jesus says, "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." All who are in the graves, that's universal, 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."

Paul says the same thing in Acts 24:15. "I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."

Flip back over on the front. Application for number ten: "Therefore comfort," comfort is the blank, "one another with these words." That's 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The context there is that when Christ returns, the dead in Christ will rise first, right? And they'll join us. We will forever be with the Lord, right? It says, "Comfort one another with these words." That's the whole point of that passage in 1 Thessalonians 4: that we have comfort that those who have gone before us in the faith, who have died, like my mother and my father and my grandparents, are in heaven. And I'm looking forward to seeing them in the resurrection, right? All men will be resurrected at Christ's return.

Bible point number eleven: Christ's return will be adjudicative. When Christ returns, He will judge, judge is the first blank, the world. You find that in the Old Testament, Daniel 12:1–3. You find that in the New Testament: Matthew 13:36–43, Matthew 13:47–50, Matthew 16:27, Matthew 25:31. Those are all Jesus' words. Acts 17:31, and 2 Timothy 4:1 and verse 8.

This universal judgment is for all, all is the second blank, all men, at the same, same is the third blank, the same time, and it takes place on that last day, the day of His return, the day of the Lord. Christ will separate the sheep from the goats. Christ will reward each according to their works. Works is the blank for number eleven, the last blank.

2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." There's no getting out of that. You can't get a doctor's note and try to skip that, right? We must all appear before His judicial bar.

Flip over on the back. Look at Daniel 12:2–3, which talks about this universal judgment of all men. "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. 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." What a glorious picture that is.

Look at Jesus' words, Matthew 16:27: "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works." He comes in the glory of His Father with His angels, and He judges everyone.

Matthew 25:31–32: "When the Son of Man comes in His glory," here again we see His apokalypsis, His epiphaneia, His parousia; all three of these can be used of His coming in glory, "and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats." So He gathers everyone in front of Him, and judgment takes place.

That'd be an impossible, insurmountable task for any mere man, right? We can't know everyone's history. Think of a normal case. They have weeks of preparation, and they have discovery, right? And they have continuances, because sometimes new evidence is presented. There's nothing that can be presented to Christ that He doesn't already know, right? He's the omniscient God. He knows every single one of us, every action that we've ever done, every thought before we think it, every word before it even leaves our lips. And He will judge perfectly at that last judgment. It says, "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats."

Look at Acts 17:31. "Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." God raised Christ from the dead because He was perfect. He was holy. The grave could not hold Him. His justification is our justification, for believers, right? The evidence that Christ is holy is that He rose from the dead, right? "The wages of sin is death," but He never sinned, right? So He will be the standard by which He judges, the standard of all righteousness. And God has appointed a day on which we will be judged by Him. That day is His return.

2 Timothy 4:1: "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." So we see time and time again there is one universal judgment, and that is at His return.

Application: Strive. Strive is the blank. Strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. Because He's coming, strive. Strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and man. Try to keep short accounts. When you sin, confess it, right? Confess it to the Lord. When you sin against your brethren, confess it to them, right?

Man, I can tell you something. Now, as a father, and now a grandfather of four, almost five: they need to hear your humanity. They need to hear you say, "I've goofed up. I've sinned." Because your kids look to you, and if you're carrying about a spirit of pride, "I never sin. I'm perfect," then they know that that's fake, right? Keep short accounts. Confess your sin, not only to God, but before man as well.

Bible point number twelve: Christ's return will be restorative. When Christ comes, there will be the restoration, restoration of all things, Acts 3:20–21. This is the perfect, perfect is the second blank, the perfect restoration of the state of all things that existed before, before is the third blank, before the fall of man. Isn't it beautiful in Revelation, what you see? You see the tree of life, right? And where is the tree of life first seen? In the garden, right? Before the Fall. And then, of course, cherubim were placed there to guard the entrance, right? But no more in the new heavens and in the new earth. What a glorious day that will be, right?

So it will be the perfect restoration of all things, and it will be even better than the original creation. We've mentioned before, the reality of the new covenant is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." We're forever indwelt with His Holy Spirit, even in heaven. We're one with our Lord. In the garden, God would walk alongside men in the cool of the day, right? When the new heaven and the new earth come, we'll be with Him, Christ in us and we in Christ, through His Holy Spirit, forever sealed by His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit is a down payment, right? The seal of our inheritance.

When Christ comes, Christ will create new, new is the fourth blank, new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness dwells. It will be characterized by righteousness. No unrighteousness, no darkness. There's no night there, right? No evil can enter in the new heavens and the new earth. When Christ comes, all of creation will be redeemed from the curse, curse, Romans 8:20–21.

And I forgot, right above there, I skipped over it: When Christ comes, His people will be made glorious, glorious. Not only will the new heavens and new earth be created new, but we will be created new in His glory, and all of creation will be redeemed from the curse, Romans 8:20–21. When Christ comes, His people will be gloriously transformed, putting on immortality and incorruption, 1 Corinthians 15.

Death, sorrow, pain, tears, and all former things will be gone. Gone is the last blank. When Christ makes all things new. Revelation 21:5 says, "Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'"

Flip it over on the back. Look at Acts 3:19–21. Such a beautiful promise. This is spoken by Peter. He says, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

When you read in the Old Testament, you read pictures of a new heaven and a new earth, seen darkly, but pictures there. You'll find that in Isaiah 11 and Isaiah 65. You'll find that in Zechariah 14. These are passages that speak of the lion lying down with the lamb, right? These are passages that foretell the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. Those things, death and immortality, were brought to light through the gospel, which the New Testament tells us. We know now in its fullness. And when Christ comes, how glorious that will be. Since the very beginning, the prophets have spoken about the times of the restoration of all things, and all things will be restored.

Look at Romans 8:18–19. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." We will be glorified in the new heavens and the new earth. "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God." It's pictured as if all of creation is like a theater, and it's looking at us, looking at mankind, to see the redemption that Christ has provided for mankind. God did not promise He would redeem the angels, right? He didn't die for the angels. But all of creation is under a curse; it's waiting for it to be lifted. And it wants to, as Jesus said at the triumphal entry, the rocks would cry out, right? In praise and wonderment to their Creator, when they see His glory in us.

2 Peter 3:13: "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." We believe in His promise; we look for it.

Application for number twelve: God's promises are true and faithful. God has promised He'll make all things new. We sometimes wonder how that can be, because all we know in this life is decay. All we know is sinfulness, and all we seem to experience is evil. If you turn on the news when you get home tonight, you'll hear about robberies, you'll hear about muggings, you'll hear about murders, you'll hear about wars, right? When Christ comes, all things will be restored.