Lesson 13
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*September 22 - 28 |
Behold, He Comes! |
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THE PROMISE OF ALL PROMISES. When Christ returns in the clouds of heaven, all that is earthly and human-made, and thus temporal and meaningless, will be swept away under the power of God revealed with a might and majesty never before seen in the human realm. At the Second Advent, in mocking defiance of all human logic, reason, and science, in an act that exposes all the world's wisdom in all its parochialness, prejudices, and limits, the Lord will appear, and the same Voice that first spoke light and life into existence will do so again. Then, through the power of His Word, whether in soft-pillowed caskets or in the churning bellies of fish and squid, the redeemed dead will rise and be reconstructed in bodies far surpassing anything humankind possessed since the Fall.
This is God's ultimate promise, the promise of the second advent of Christ. Without it, all His other promises fade away.
No wonder, then, that the Second Coming is so worthy of our study.
THE WEEK AT A GLANCE: What surety do we have that Christ will indeed return? Do we have any rational and logical reasons to believe in such an event that in many ways transcends logic and reason? How will He return? What is our only protection against false claims that Christ has returned? What happens at the Second Advent?
MEMORY TEXT: "And behold. I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work" (Revelation 22:12, NKJV).
*(Please study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 29).
I magine a child is kidnapped; the desperate parents pay the 3-million-dollar ransom. They drop the money off at the required location—and then decide not to get the child. How ridiculous! Look at the parallel. Christ, with His life, paid the ransom for our souls. "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28; see also 1 Tim. 2:6). Why would Christ pay such a price for us—and then not come and get what cost so much? Ridiculous! The surety of the first coming is our guarantee of the Second Coming. One could even, perhaps, argue that the main purpose of the first coming was the Second Coming.
Without the promise of the Second Coming and all that this promise entails,
what good would the first coming do? What did Christ's death on the
cross do for us if, ultimately, He doesn't return to take us to heaven?
Some might argue that Jesus at His first coming gave us a wonderful example of how to live. That's true. Some might argue that at His first coming Jesus taught us how to love and serve others. That's also true. Aren't, then, these examples enough?
No.
Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi all gave us good examples as well. Yet our situation as human beings is far too desperate for a mere example to help us where we really need the most help. Sure, we need Christ as an example, but we need Him even more as a Savior.
Read
Romans
3:9-19. What do these verses tell us about why we need more than
just a good example?
A large number of verses in the Bible refers to the second advent of Christ. The New Testament alone mentions the Second Coming hundreds of times. Clearly, the apostles were animated by the thought of Christ's eventual return. It's no wonder, either, considering just how crucial to our faith His return is.
Dwell upon what Christ did for us on the cross. Why does dwelling
on what happened at the Cross strengthen our faith and hope regarding the
Second Coming?
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"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and
a little child shall lead them"
(Isa.
11:6).
From the earliest days of the church the promise of Christ's return has, perhaps more than anything else, sustained the hearts of His faithful followers, especially during times of duress. Whatever their frightful struggles, whatever their inconsolable sorrows, they had the hope of Christ's return and all the wonderful promises the Second Advent contains.
How do we know' about this promise, that of Christ's return? The wind in the trees doesn't whisper to us the promise of the Second Coming. The stars at night don't herald the long-awaited Advent. The songs of the birds outside our morning windows don't express it (in fact, without that promise, those birds are really singing our funeral dirges). We know of the promise of the Second Coming only because God's Word tells us. Our confidence in that promise is directly related to our confidence in His Word. How crucial then that we allow nothing to undermine our trust in the authority and inspiration of the Scriptures. Once that authority is weakened or lost, our hope in Christ and His return will be weakened or lost, as well. The Word gives us the promise. Take away the Word and you take away the promise.
Look at these verses: What do they each promise?
Isa. 25:8 ________________________________________________________________________
John 14:1-4 ______________________________________________________________________
1 Cor. 15:50-55 ___________________________________________________________________
1
Thess. 4:14-18
______________________________________________________________
Without the promises of the Bible regarding the second coming of Christ, what hope would we have? We live, we suffer, we bleed, we die—all for what? Nothing . . . that is, unless Christ returns in the clouds, bestows immortality upon His saints, and they live with Him for eternity.
How do you respond to those who say that all this talk about heaven and
eternity is just human-made inventions, something to give us a little comfort
here? What reasons do we have to believe that these promises are, in
fact, real?
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"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear"
(1
Pet. 3:15).
We have to take the Second Coming in the same way we have to take the first coming—on faith. Faith, of course, is "the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1); after all, if they were seen, who'd need faith to believe them?
Yet just because we are asked to believe in things "not seen" doesn't mean we have to believe blindly; on the contrary, God has given us reasons, good reasons, to trust in Him and in the promises that for now are "not seen." And one of those good reasons comes from Daniel 2.
Review again
Daniel
2. What are the six main kingdoms depicted in the chapter?
Think about what God has given us in Daniel 2. Babylon came and went, as predicted. Media-Persia came and went, as predicted. Greece came and went, as predicted. Pagan Rome came and went, as predicted. Next there's the divided and unequal nations of modern Europe, coming out of Rome, as predicted. Finally there's the last kingdom, the one God establishes after the Second Coming: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44).
Daniel, writing more than five centuries before Christ, was right on the first five kingdoms. His perfect record on those gives us plenty of reasons to trust him on the last kingdom, the only one, from our vantage point in time, that hasn't come yet. And that's the kingdom that Christ will establish at His return. Considering what is written in the text and what has happened in world history, trusting in the promise of the final kingdom would seem to be the only logical and reasonable thing to do.
| Helene is a new believer, having come out of the secular world. Her
faith sometimes wavers, even to the point of despair. What other prophecies
in the Bible could you share with her that could help build her faith?
What other prophecies that have been clearly and unmistakably fulfilled
could help her trust in the ones not yet fulfilled, like the Second Coming?
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T n April 1982 a full-page advertisement in major newspapers around the world (New York, London, Rome, Jerusalem, Kuwait) included the headline "The Christ Is Now Here." The ad said not only that the Christ had returned but that He was living in some great city and would soon reveal Himself to the world.
Of course, that's not the only time the world has heard that Jesus has returned. Christian history is filled with those claiming to be the returned Christ. If that weren't bad enough—in almost all cases, many people believed them!
In Matthew 24:23 Jesus warned—centuries before the 1982 ad—that there would be false christs. How accurate He was! Read the next few verses. What do they teach about the manner of Christ's return?
Matt. 24:24-31 ___________________________________________________________________
Acts 1:11 ________________________________________________________________________
1 Thess. 4:16, 17 __________________________________________________________________
Rev. 1:7 ________________________________________________________________________
Rev.
19:20, 21
_________________________________________________________________
Given these texts, it's hard to understand how people could allow themselves to be deceived by the many pretenders who have arisen claiming in one way or another to be Christ. At Christ's return the dead will be raised, every eye will see Him, and the wicked will be destroyed. This is not a subtle event, to say the least.
Our only safety is a firm reliance on what the Bible says. In the Word we will find the protection we need from the many delusions that will sweep away millions, including many who claim to be Christians.
| Some believe that when Jesus returns He will immediately set up an
earthly millennium (a thousand-year period) in which He will rule the world
from Jerusalem. How can the verses we looked at, and others, help show
just how wrong and dangerous that perspective
is? |
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned
up"
(2
Pet. 3:10).
When Jesus does return, He's not coming back on a repair mission. He's not going to patch, plug, or paint over what's here. He isn't coming to revamp, remodel, or renovate. The earth is far too gone, far too damaged, to be salvaged. Instead, it needs to be done totally over. It's like a car demolished in a bad wreck. You don't even try to fix it. It's totaled.
Daniel
2:35, talking about the kingdom that Christ will establish, says of the
earthly kingdoms that precede it: "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass,
the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the
chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that
no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a
great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Notice it says that "no place"
was left for them. What does that mean?
What does that tell us about the nature of the kingdom that God will
eventually establish after Christ returns? (See also
Isa.
65:17;
66:22;
2
Pet. 3:13;
Rev.
21:1.)
The results of Christ's return, which ultimately lead to a whole new existence, a whole new world (after the millennium), should tell us something about the nature of the world we are in now. And what it says is that the sin that has infected it is so bad, so deadly, there will be no place for it in Christ's kingdom. There will be no traces of it, no hints; not the slightest tolerance will be given it. It will be eradicated. When God saves us, when we are ultimately redeemed and brought into His eternal kingdom, all bonds to the sinful past, all links, will be forever gone, demolished, eradicated forever, except that Jesus will bear the scars of His passion throughout eternity. (See The Great Controversy, p. 674.)
| Given the finality and intensity of what happens when Christ returns,
what does that tell us about how we should view the world now? In other
words, where should our affections, desires, treasures, and hope be ultimately
centered?
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FURTHER STUDY: Read the chapter
"God's People
Delivered" in The Great Controversy, pp. 635-652, or "Christ's
Return" in Last Day Events, pp. 271-282. Contemplate the inexpressible
joy of that hour of deliverance and the wondrous journey to heaven that follows.
Read
Revelation
21 and 22 for an inspirational view of the glory that awaits the redeemed
and resolve anew to number among them.
Oh, how glorious it will be to see Him and be welcomed as His redeemed ones! Long have we waited, but our hope is not to grow dim. If we can but see the King in His beauty we shall be forever blessed. I feel as if I must cry aloud, 'Homeward bound!' . . .
"In that day the redeemed will shine forth in the glory of the Father and the Son. The angels, touching their golden harps, will welcome the King and His trophies of victory-those who have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. A song of triumph will peal forth, filling all heaven. Christ has conquered. He enters the heavenly courts, accompanied by His redeemed ones, the witnesses that His mission of suffering and sacrifice has not been in vain."—Last Day Events, pp. 280, 281.
"Christ's work of redemption in His first advent, His work since in heaven and in earth, His own claim to kingship, require a return to earth to complete and establish. His life and teachings would be meaningless without it. His agony and death on the cross would be in vain unless He comes again to gather the sinners saved by grace. His resurrection in glorious power over the grave has gained little unless it is again exercised on behalf of those who sleep. All this necessitates a return. He will return and finish the work of the restoration of the lost kingdom. The first advent makes certain the second."—Fundamentals of Bible Doctrine, Alonzo J. Wearner, (Takoma Park: Review and Herald, 1935), p. 158.
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SUMMARY: What Christ did for us at His
first coming is our surety of what He will do for us at His second coming.
Though we have to take the Second Advent on faith, the Lord has given us
good—even logical—reasons to believe it. Nevertheless, several
false christs have arisen and deceived many but only because people are not
firmly grounded in what the Bible says about the manner and results of the
Second
Advent.
J. H. Zachary
Russell and Kanni Dhas fasted and prayed for the people of Keel Kudi, India. They asked God to help them win 100 persons to Jesus. They visited village homes, praying with those who were willing and fasting and praying for the ill. Within a few weeks the couple was studying the Bible with 200 persons-fully two-thirds of the village population.
The local religious leader stirred up the villagers against the Dhas. "Drive them out of town," he told the people. An angry mob surrounded the missionaries' home and demanded that they "Leave this town, or we will burn your house down! You are not welcome here."
Russell Dhas stepped outside his house and waited for the mob to quiet down. Then he said, "It is not our purpose to make enemies here. If you do not want us, we will leave." His quiet manner disarmed the crowd, and they dispersed. Russell and Kanni, with help from their new friends, moved to a neighboring village.
But the Lord blessed their work, even after they left the village. The Adventist pastor in that district visited the 200 people in Keel Kudi who had studied the Bible with Russell and Kanni. To his surprise he found them keeping the Sabbath. They had also set aside their tithe and gave it to him. In fact, 130 of the 200 people were ready for baptism. Seventy others requested Bible studies.
The mission voted to build a chapel in Keel Kudi. But the villagers who did not become Adventists resisted the new church until they learned that the building would also serve as a community center, where classes in family life, agriculture, and literacy would be offered.
Even after Russell and Kanni left Keel Kudi, God stayed behind, and today some 200 persons worship on Sabbath. Today this dedicated couple is working in a village of 2,000. Their goal is to see hundreds more come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
J. H. Zachary is coordinator of international evangelism for The Quiet Hour and a special consultant for the General Conference Ministerial Association.
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