Titus 2:13 ...looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (NKJ)
When you eat out at a fine restaurant, the waiter will ask you, when you are done if you want to keep your fork. Why? Because you will need it if you want to eat dessert.
A woman passed away from a terminal disease and left particular instructions the funeral director on how she was to be presented in the casket; what she would wear, what flowers there would be, what songs were to be sung. But she had an unusual request, one that was different from any other requests that the funeral director had ever heard.
The woman was to be presented, in the casket, with her hands folded holding a fork. The funeral director knew why, and her pastor knew why, but no one else did.
When the pastor presented his message at the woman's funeral, he reminded them of the womans's fondness for desserts after a good meal--she always kept her fork for the good sweet treat to come. He also then reminded those present that she had enjoyed a good life, a life that was exemplary as a Christian. Then he told people what was up with the fork: she held on to her fork as a reminder that for the Christian in the next life, just like dessert following a meal, the best is yet to come.
In the past two weeks we have discussed the Rapture of the Church. It is an event when Jesus comes for his church, removes them from the earth to meet Him in the air along with the resurrected saints that have been "asleep in Christ".
We have learned that the church, a group of people that are called by God to salvation, are swept up "in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor 15). There will be no warning, though we do see the signs of the times; it will happen quickly. Those that do not believe will be left behind on planet Earth to face a time of evil, pain and despair like no other time ever seen in the history of mankind.
Last week, we studied the differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming. J. Vernon McGee in his book "J. Vernon McGee On Prophecy noted that there are three specific areas of difference: Action, Attitude and Anticipation.
The first area, Action, shows Christ meeting his Church in the air (including those who had died in Christ) at the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4) and at the Second Coming He will set foot on the Mount of Olives and split it in two (Zech 14).
The second area, Attitude, shows the attitude of Jesus Christ as one of mercy toward His Church, and one of wrath toward the unsaved masses in the Tribulation period. As Christians we have a "blessed hope" not a "blasted hope", and have the assurance that Jesus will not "beat up the Bride" (the church) by allowing her to suffer in the Tribulation period!
Titus 2:13 ...looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (NKJ)
An-ti-ci-pa-tion!
There's an old song from the 1970's by Carly Simon called "Anticipation", and to be honest I can't remember the lyrics! But I do remember when that song was cut down and used as the theme song for Heinz Ketchup. I remember the long wait for the ketchup to flow down on to that burger--yum!
There is a difference between the blessed hope--looking forward to being swept up to the air to meet with Jesus Christ, then going to heaven to be with Him--and that of the Tribulation Saints and the unsaved masses in Revelation.
What Is It That We Are Anticipating?
There are two different categories of people in this world today--the saved and the unsaved. There is no middle ground--you either are saved or you aren't. You either will spend eternity with Christ or separated from Him and all that's good. Again, there is no middle ground.
What is anticipated depends upon the perspective from where you stand, either saved or unsaved. If you are saved, you are anticipating what I spoke of yesterday--The Best Is Yet To Come.
The Saved Know They Have A Blessed Hope
We have a hope--what is that hope? As we see in the key Scripture for today, that hope--expectation--is that we will be raptured into the air, removed from the wrath which is to come. Again, it is not a "blasted hope".
The Saved Will Have A Body Like Jesus
I Jn 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (NKJ)
Don't we all sometimes just wish that we had a slimmer waist, more hair or less gray hair, a smaller nose or ears or different colored eyes? For us guys we wanted to look like Mr. Universe when we were in high school. For some of the girls, they wanted to either look like a movie star or sing like a rock star.
But here's something even better to look forward to, something that is just plain awesome--our bodies will be like Jesus Christ's. We will have a body just like Jesus--a resurrection body. I'll be speaking more about that next week.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJ)
The Saved Know They Will See The Death of Death!
As we see in the key scripture today, your wages--your paycheck--for sin is death.
Death is one of the most feared things we have to face in life. As we discussed in a devotional last week, it seems that there are many takes on the "afterlife".it would appear that people want to believe in something that appeals to them. Some believe in the "do over" of reincarnation, annihilationism--the idea that you just no longer exist, the idea that you become a "part of nature". All are "nice and happy" ways to be in denial that death is horrible and that everyone has to answer for their lives.
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-- (NKJ)
Adam sinned and brought the curse of death not only upon himself but upon EVERYTHING. People, plants, animals even the very fabric of the universe itself began to decay, and has been doing just that ever since the fall. Everything is winding down.
Not only is the death spoken of above a physical death, but it is also "second death", spoken of in Revelation 21:8:
Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." NKJV
Second death is Hell. Hell is not a place that is just unpleasant, it is HELL. It is a place where Satan and all of his cohorts will live along with each person that rejected Christ. Can you imagine living next to the likes of Hitler, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and mass murders forever? Hell is fire, brimstone, misery, torment, guilt, regret, hatred. Nothing good exists in Hell, because God is the fountainhead of all that is good and God will not be there. In short, Hell's worst quality is the absence of God.
Rev 21:3-4
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (NKJ)
In the passage above, we KNOW that death will itself die. The "former things"--tears, death, sorrow, crying and pain--will all "pass away" or DIE. Just think--we will face death only once at the most, and not at all if we are taken at the Rapture of the Church. We anticipate an existence of eternal life with God!
The Saved Anticipate An Incorruptible Inheritance
1 Pet 1:3-5
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (NKJ)
Life is a let down at many points. If you look just a few years back at what happened to many 401k plans when the stock market dipped very low, you understand. If you had a pension or a 401k then you may have lost a lot of money. Sometimes people expect, right or wrong, to obtain a nice inheritance sum at a will reading only to find out that either someone else would receive the money or that there was really no money there to start with.
However, we never have to be concerned about being short changed in heaven. Our inheritance--heaven and eternal reward--are reserved for you if you placed your trust in Jesus Christ. This promise is as good as God Himself.
People may fail you, your house might depreciate and be worthless, your job may be gone tomorrow but God's promises never, ever fail.
The Saved Anticipate Seeing Lost Love Ones Again
1Thes 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. (NKJ)
We will again see those that have passed away in Jesus Christ before us. I know, and have that hope that when I go to heaven if I die that I will see our two sons Kirk and Kyle again and also my grandparents and other great Christians in the air should I be raptured before I die--and I do expect that to happen!
J. Vernon McGee relates this great story in his book, J. Vernon McGee On Prophecy: "The early believers called their cemetery where they buried their loved ones the "koimeterion". We get our word cemetery from this Greek word koimeterion, but it didn't mean that then. A koimeterion was an inn where people came and spent the night. It was a koimeterion in Bethlehem that didn't have room for Mary and Joseph the night Jesus was born. So, you see, the thought of the folk in the early church was, "We are just putting our loved ones up for the night—until the day breaks." Are you anticipating the "daybreak"?
As mentioned the first day, we keep our fork after dinner to enjoy the dessert--the best part of the meal in my estimation! For the Christian, we may have tough times, and good times, but indeed the best is yet to come.
II Th 1:6-10
6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you,
7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
8 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.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
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. (NKJ)
The Unsaved At The Second Coming
The unsaved will have a different anticipation of sorts, the knowledge that rejecting Jesus will only anger Him and that anger will one day be vented on them. They will, in the last half of the tribulation period especially, actually curse at God with each different plague that will come down upon them. The true hardness of the human heart will then be shown, but instead of turning to Jesus Christ look what happens:
Rev 6:15-17
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
The great majority of those in that day know the Jesus is coming and will still not turn toward Him. They would rather have the mountains and rocks fall on them. This word for rock, petra, means "a projecting rock, cliff." (Spiros Zodiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament). In other words, they would rather have the mountains and the rocky protruding cliffs fall upon them than to face the wrath to come. See, they also know that Jesus is coming, and they know that they will have to "pay the piper".
Hell is rarely spoken of in many churches today. Why? It is an unpopular, unpleasant teaching. No one wants to talk about Hell, most people want to talk about the warm fuzzies, about how you can have a great nice life now, about how you can be all you can be. Truth is, we as Christians need to talk about the horrors of Hell and the horrors of the Great Tribulation as a reminder that many face that fate; that we won't have to; and that we should pray to and witness to the lost souls that we know so that should the Lord open their eyes, they will never see it.
