Elvispelvis
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The Coming of Christ
and the Judgement
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly violent. I was listening this week to a British politician complaining on a news bulletin about the steep rise in crime and violence over the past few years. I’m sure this is the same wherever you live. It is not safe to go out at night in many, many places of the world.
It reminds us of the situation in Noah’s day, some 4,500 years ago.
"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen 6:11-13).
Noah had to build a huge ark to bear witness to his contemporaries that God was going to destroy that generation by a flood, and that unless they repented and entered the ark, they would perish. They chose to ignore the warnings of Noah, and carried on life to the full instead. They scoffed at this man building a boat miles from the sea. In due time God’s judgements were poured out and they perished.
The Lord’s warning
It is none other than the Lord Jesus who warns us that at his return there will be a similar situation to that of Noah’s day. How striking are his words:
"But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt 24:37-39).
Although God promised Noah that He would never again totally destroy the earth by means of a Flood, yet Jesus’ warning indicates that there are judgements to come for the godless of the generation that sees the coming of the Lord Jesus.
The coming of Christ and the judgement in the lst century
As Bible students, it is important that we recognize that Jesus’ words concerning the days of Noah had their first fulfillment in the 1st century, in the days of the people he was addressing. The Lord instructed the 12 disciples in the preaching work they were to carry out. Like Noah, many centuries before, they were to speak of God’s judgements which would be poured out. When Jesus promised them the Comforter, he outlined the words they must speak:
"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged." (John 16:8-11)
So the apostles preached:
Of sin because the leaders had rejected and crucified the Messiah.
Of righteousness because Christ’s resurrection was God’s seal of approval on his life, and the leaders still refused to accept him as Messiah...
Of Judgement because the actions of the leaders had brought a sentence of destruction upon themselves. (Literally—the ruling power of this cosmos has been condemned.)
Josephus, the Jewish historian, bears record of the violence and lawlessness of the Jewish people in the years following the crucifixion. They were most terribly punished for their rejection of their Messiah. Within 40 years of Christ’s crucifixion, the Roman armies came and destroyed Jerusalem. The legions of Titus fulfilled the words of Jesus who spoke thus of the Temple buildings:
"See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Matt. 24:3)
As well as bringing to an end Jewish worship at the Temple, many hundreds of thousands of Jews perished. Others were taken away and sold as slaves, flooding the slave markets. The Jewish nation disappeared from the map.
To an onlooker it would appear that this was merely the work of a Roman army, tired of the rebelliousness of the Jews. Jesus, however, had made it clear that God was going to use the Romans as His instrument of punishment. In the parable of the Vineyard he summed up with the words:
"When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." (Matt 21:40-41)
He followed this with the parable of the Wedding garment, where he foretold the punishment of those who would not listen to the call.
"But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." (Mat 22:7)
In a very real way, the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem were a coming of Jesus. A coming to punish. He used the Roman armies to fulfill his will. (See also Dan 9:24-27 where they are described as the people of Messiah the prince).
Indeed, 1600 years earlier, Moses, before the Israelites had even entered the land of promise, warned that because of their future disobedience:
"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young..." (Deut. 28:49-50)
The rest of this chapter in Deuteronomy goes on to describe in graphic detail the work of the yet-to-be-founded nation of Rome in the punishments poured out upon the nation of Israel in the first century AD,
The Imminent coming of Christ and the judgement.
The lesson that this teaches us is that God uses nations to perform His punishments upon disobedient nations. It guides us as to how God will act upon our generation that sees these words of Jesus being fulfilled again, when he returns—this time to be King. This time it will be a time of Judgement for Jews and Gentiles and also believers!
· For Jews it will be a time of judgement and testing of their faith. Punishment for their present-day trust in their own strength to decide their destiny. A testing of the faith of a faithful remnant who will later enjoy the blessings of the Kingdom.
· For the Gentiles it will be a punishment for their violence, godlessness and anti-semitism.
· For the believers it will be time of the resurrection and the Judgement Seat, which is a necessary preparation for the step of immortality.
These are three different, but important areas which we will now concentrate on.
To be cont'd..........................................................
and the Judgement
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly violent. I was listening this week to a British politician complaining on a news bulletin about the steep rise in crime and violence over the past few years. I’m sure this is the same wherever you live. It is not safe to go out at night in many, many places of the world.
It reminds us of the situation in Noah’s day, some 4,500 years ago.
"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen 6:11-13).
Noah had to build a huge ark to bear witness to his contemporaries that God was going to destroy that generation by a flood, and that unless they repented and entered the ark, they would perish. They chose to ignore the warnings of Noah, and carried on life to the full instead. They scoffed at this man building a boat miles from the sea. In due time God’s judgements were poured out and they perished.
The Lord’s warning
It is none other than the Lord Jesus who warns us that at his return there will be a similar situation to that of Noah’s day. How striking are his words:
"But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt 24:37-39).
Although God promised Noah that He would never again totally destroy the earth by means of a Flood, yet Jesus’ warning indicates that there are judgements to come for the godless of the generation that sees the coming of the Lord Jesus.
The coming of Christ and the judgement in the lst century
As Bible students, it is important that we recognize that Jesus’ words concerning the days of Noah had their first fulfillment in the 1st century, in the days of the people he was addressing. The Lord instructed the 12 disciples in the preaching work they were to carry out. Like Noah, many centuries before, they were to speak of God’s judgements which would be poured out. When Jesus promised them the Comforter, he outlined the words they must speak:
"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgement, because the prince of this world is judged." (John 16:8-11)
So the apostles preached:
Of sin because the leaders had rejected and crucified the Messiah.
Of righteousness because Christ’s resurrection was God’s seal of approval on his life, and the leaders still refused to accept him as Messiah...
Of Judgement because the actions of the leaders had brought a sentence of destruction upon themselves. (Literally—the ruling power of this cosmos has been condemned.)
Josephus, the Jewish historian, bears record of the violence and lawlessness of the Jewish people in the years following the crucifixion. They were most terribly punished for their rejection of their Messiah. Within 40 years of Christ’s crucifixion, the Roman armies came and destroyed Jerusalem. The legions of Titus fulfilled the words of Jesus who spoke thus of the Temple buildings:
"See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Matt. 24:3)
As well as bringing to an end Jewish worship at the Temple, many hundreds of thousands of Jews perished. Others were taken away and sold as slaves, flooding the slave markets. The Jewish nation disappeared from the map.
To an onlooker it would appear that this was merely the work of a Roman army, tired of the rebelliousness of the Jews. Jesus, however, had made it clear that God was going to use the Romans as His instrument of punishment. In the parable of the Vineyard he summed up with the words:
"When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." (Matt 21:40-41)
He followed this with the parable of the Wedding garment, where he foretold the punishment of those who would not listen to the call.
"But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." (Mat 22:7)
In a very real way, the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem were a coming of Jesus. A coming to punish. He used the Roman armies to fulfill his will. (See also Dan 9:24-27 where they are described as the people of Messiah the prince).
Indeed, 1600 years earlier, Moses, before the Israelites had even entered the land of promise, warned that because of their future disobedience:
"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young..." (Deut. 28:49-50)
The rest of this chapter in Deuteronomy goes on to describe in graphic detail the work of the yet-to-be-founded nation of Rome in the punishments poured out upon the nation of Israel in the first century AD,
The Imminent coming of Christ and the judgement.
The lesson that this teaches us is that God uses nations to perform His punishments upon disobedient nations. It guides us as to how God will act upon our generation that sees these words of Jesus being fulfilled again, when he returns—this time to be King. This time it will be a time of Judgement for Jews and Gentiles and also believers!
· For Jews it will be a time of judgement and testing of their faith. Punishment for their present-day trust in their own strength to decide their destiny. A testing of the faith of a faithful remnant who will later enjoy the blessings of the Kingdom.
· For the Gentiles it will be a punishment for their violence, godlessness and anti-semitism.
· For the believers it will be time of the resurrection and the Judgement Seat, which is a necessary preparation for the step of immortality.
These are three different, but important areas which we will now concentrate on.
To be cont'd..........................................................
And that is not the thinking of the saved ones when Christ comes again, huh?