Following Judah's Lion

Let Him Who Has Ears...

Lift up your eyes and incline your ears. Feel the hour and breathe in the atmosphere that tingles with prophetic anticipation. Do not just let it excite, but let it incite you as well. For over 34 years I have heard and have preached that Jesus was going to return. There were prophetic charts and books like the “Late Great Planet Earth” and many bumper stickers that heralded His coming again. Time lines and dates and signs were prevalent, and of course there were the misguided date setters.

There are many, many signs that Jesus is coming again soon, but perhaps the greatest and most revealing sign is that the church does not expect Him, and in many ways does not even want Him to come. We have all heard the Left Behind series, and for the older among us we watched the “Distant Thunder” and the “Thief in the Night” type films. Who can forget Larry Norman’s haunting song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”? Eschatology has become an art form with all the media accoutrements but without the soul searching power that should accompany such unsettling realities.

Most believers would much rather listen to a sermon on “Biblical Finances” than “Behold He Comes”, and even if they listen to a message on His return it provokes no more substantive change than does a message on Solomon’s Temple. We have heard it all before and our wayward and narcissistic hearts thirst for something new and beneficial to our earthly existence. Can you imagine that! We have become bored with the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ!! And there is a vast ocean of difference between believing something doctrinally and embracing something as a passionate and demonstrative core of your very being.

The question is this: If the return of Jesus Christ cannot stir the church then what can? But at the same time the situation mirrors Christ’s own words that when “you least expect it” He will come like a thief in the night. How much more can the church “least expect it”? We are fast asleep with only the things of this world to awaken our desires. But how often do believers even muse about the eminent coming of the King, much less be filled with daily anticipation? And even though the prophetic narrative of His coming is ominous and filled with foreboding, where is the fear of God at all? Surely there will come a time of great glory and rest for those who know Him, but before that time God will come with certain judgment.

But I reach out and exhort each of you, and most of all myself, let us stir up ourselves and look for His coming in a way that authenticates our stated belief. I confess that the evil one even uses the condition of the church to create self righteousness and false contentment within the hearts of those who see and grieve over the current state of western Christianity. But we must never let that take root in our spirits since we ourselves stand wholly and completely by His immeasurable grace. But our journey, our duty, and our passion is Him.

He is coming, and He is coming soon. What is literal and what is metaphoric is immaterial when compared with the fact of His coming. If it is not literal celestial horses then it will be something far greater and beyond our understanding. But Jesus Himself promised us that He would return, and that like the faithful and watchful virgins we should keep our lamps lit and like the master of the house we must be awake when he comes.

You will not hear about the coming of Jesus in the next presidential race, and in fact you will hear precious little about it in church except the occasional and perfunctory reference that contains the excitement that is equivalent to announcing the local college football win. But it is an amazing and astounding and profoundly ethereal event that is from another world and kingdom. And although the world and much of the church ignore it and continue to run to and fro, it is precisely this event that will change the course of eternity and set in stone the eternal destiny of every person conceived in the womb.

Does that not excite and enthrall you? Have we not yet realized the shallowness and emptiness of the things of this world? Let the Spirit identify those things of this world from which we draw contentment and satisfaction, and let us repent and set our affections of things above. It cannot be fathomed or spoken by the lips of men what awaits those who love His appearing. How will we wish we had been more attentive to Him and His coming when indeed He arrives. Just the brush of millions of angels will immobilize us, but nothing can compare to the brilliance of His Person.

Oh Lord Jesus, we have gotten so caught up with Martha’s kitchen that we have forgotten what it is like to sit in Mary’s place and learn and worship at your very feet. We have allowed the creation to obscure the Creator, and we have become embroiled in fights that are not of Your kingdom. Our desires have been tethered to things and positions rather that more and more of You. Your coming seems like some religious myth while the things of this world seem like the reality, when in fact it is just the reverse.

We beseech You, O Lord, to awaken in us the spirit of Christ that revives and remakes our entire lives from the inside out. We desire you, we need you, and without You we are dead. Come soon, Lord Jesus, and ascend into the throne where only You can reign. We bow to You and Your eternal sacrifice and willingly and passionately confess that Jesus is Lord. Amen.