Phases of the Lord's Second Coming--Definite Convictions Series

            Planning a vacation with your grown-up siblings or extended family can be an interesting process. You quickly find out that even though you’re family, you probably disagree about all kinds of vacation details.

            Some people want to hit all of the tourist hotspots. The larger the crowds, the better, because crowds mean energy and liveliness. Other people want to get away from it all. They’d rather find a cabin out in Montana and spend a week with no Internet and no cell phone reception.

            Some people like to pinch every penny when they’re on vacation. It’s like a personal challenge for them to beat the system! They want to take all their own food, and they know that if everyone gets 2 ½ pieces of bread each day, they can stretch three loaves over the entire trip. Other people like to live it up when they’re on vacation. They want to see what it feels like to be Warren Buffet, so their credit card never leaves their hand.

            But despite these differences, you realize that at the end of the day, you’re still family. You can live with differences like this because they’re not the core of what really makes you a family, anyway.

            Today, as we continue through our church’s Statement of Faith, we come to an issue on which there is some disagreement within the Christian family. It’s disagreement we can live with—we don’t need to denounce other churches over this issue, but there is value to taking a clear position within our own church.

            All Christians believe that Jesus is going to return to this world someday because he said he would. There is disagreement, though, about how he will return and when he will return. The specific question is this – will the events that we call the Rapture and the Second Coming happen at the same time in one event, or will they happen at different times and thus be two separate events?

            Our church believes and teaches that the Rapture and the Second Coming will be two separate events. Thus, our Statement of Faith refers to phases (plural) of the Lord’s Second Coming. It says:

We believe in the Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent, pre-tribulation and pre-millennial, bodily coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church; and in His subsequent return to Earth with His saints to establish His Millennial kingdom. (John 14:3; Acts 1:11; 1 Thess 1:10; 1 Thess 4:13-18; 2 Thess 1:7-9; Rev 3:10; 19:11-16; Zech 14:4-11)

You see a long list of verses there, and I’d like to read just a few of them – two of the main passages on the Rapture, and one of the main passages on the Second Coming [READ John 14:1-3; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Rev 19:11-16].

Why Do We Believe That The Rapture and The Second Coming Will Be Separate Events?

            All of these passages describe Jesus returning to this earth. Why do we believe that they refer to two separate events instead of just one? I’ll focus today on just three reasons.

1. The stated purpose for Christ’s return is different in different passages

            In John 14, Jesus said that he was leaving to prepare a place for his disciples and that he would come back for them so they could all live in that place together. That is a rather different purpose from Revelation 19, which describes Jesus coming to strike down the nations and to tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God.

            Now, this point all by itself does not make a slam-dunk case for the idea of separate events. After all, one event can certainly serve several purposes. Think of a wedding, for example. A wedding serves as a time for celebration, an opportunity for spiritual dedication as a couple takes vows before the Lord, and it marks the beginning of a legal contract between a husband and wife that is acknowledged by the government. So one event can fulfill several purposes, but recognizing different purposes in different passages at least opens the door to the idea that there could be different phases to Christ’s return.

2. Christ’s return is said to be imminent, yet many events are described that must happen before Christ returns

            Passages like James 5:7-9 teach us that Christ’s return could take place at any moment [READ James 5:7-9]. This passage pictures Jesus as being ready to step into our world right now. And yet, the Book of Revelation describes seven years’ worth of events that must take place before Christ can return. How can both of these ideas be true?

            That question is a real conundrum for Christians who believe that the Rapture and Second Coming are one event. The tension is resolved, however, when we view these happenings as two separate events. In this point of view, the Rapture is imminent, with the Second Coming then taking place seven years later.

            So the Rapture could happen at any moment, wherein the Lord will descend into the skies to take us out of the world to live with him in heaven. Then, seven years later, Jesus will return to the world with all of us in tow in order to establish his kingdom of peace on this planet.

3. The Apostle Paul calls the transformation of living Christians a “mystery”

            1 Thessalonians 4 spoke of living Christians being caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord and thus being instantly transformed in that moment. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul referred to that truth as a “mystery” [READ 1 Cor 15:51-52].

            Paul uses that word “mystery” a few times in his writings, and when he does, he uses it to refer to truths that had not previously been revealed to mankind. In other words, he’s saying, “I’m going to let you in on a secret,” or “I’m going to tell you something you’ve never heard before.”

            That’s significant for this discussion because Christ’s coming to defeat his enemies and establish his kingdom was clearly foretold in the Old Testament. What we read about in Revelation 19 had already been clearly predicted in passages like Zechariah 14.

            The point is that Paul could not have referred to the Second Coming as a mystery since it had already been revealed. So, when he talks about living believers being instantly transformed and meeting the Lord in the air, he must be referring to a different event than what had already been foretold in the Old Testament.

Monday Matters

            So what difference does it make for you in your daily life to know that there will be two phases to Christ’s return – the Rapture and then the Second Coming? It means that you can live with this confidence and assurance:

God has not destined you to taste his wrath.

            Why will Jesus rapture us out of this world seven years prior to his Second Coming? Because the period of time between those two events will be a time of anguish unlike anything this world has yet seen. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that it will be a time of great trouble and tribulation, and that if God did not limit that period to just a few years, no one at all would survive it.

            But God will take us out of the world prior to that time in order to spare us from it. God has a history of protecting his people in moments when he expresses his appropriate anger toward sin. He did it for Noah and his family when he flooded the earth; he did it for Lot when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; he did it for the children of Israel when the plagues ravaged Egypt but left them unscathed. Apparently, he is going to do it for us before he sends judgments upon the world for our rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

            So God has not destined you to taste his wrath. I think that truth should also influence the way that we interpret the normal sufferings of life that we face here in a fallen world. When we face hard, painful times, it is very common for us to wonder, “Is God angry at me? Is that why this is happening? Am I facing his anger for something?”

            This truth about the Rapture should remind us of the glorious deliverance and salvation that we have through Jesus Christ. We are saved from the wrath of God through him, so when we face the trials of life, we don’t need to jump to the conclusion that God is angry with us. Since you are God’s child, his fundamental outlook toward you is one of acceptance and love and mercy. The gaze that looks down on you from heaven is always tender and compassionate, never angry and stern.

            We are saved from the wrath of God, both now and in the future when God will express his wrath toward mankind in the Tribulation. And so we look forward with great anticipation to the moment when Jesus will come to take his children out of the world to be with him in the place that he is preparing. And we will rejoice greatly on the day when we come back from heaven with him to enjoy the kingdom of peace that he will establish in this world.

A Government of the People--Fourth of July Sermon

As you all know, tomorrow we celebrate the birthday of our nation—July 4, 1776, the day that the Declaration of Independence was signed by the members of the Continental Congress. On that day, our nation declared its freedom from Great Britain, and freedom has been the main characteristic of our nation ever since. We have not always been perfect in our expression of it or in applying it to all people within our country, but freedom has been the driving force behind our nation since its earliest days.

One of the rights that we have enjoyed in our freedom is the right to participate in our own government. We get to vote to select our own elected officials; we can even campaign to become an elected official if we want. Sometimes we also get to vote on amendments to our constitution, or new taxes, or other points of law. It is a tremendous privilege to be involved in our own government in these ways, and we should not take it for granted.

But today I want to talk about another government in which we have the opportunity to participate—that is, the government that Jesus will set up in this world after He returns. The future kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world is a major theme of Scripture, yet you may not know that you and I, as children of God, have the opportunity to serve in the government that Jesus will establish.

I. The Reality of the Kingdom

But before we get much further into this matter, we need to pause for a moment and remind ourselves of a truth from Scripture that rarely receives the attention it deserves. The Bible tells us that there is a glorious future in store for this world, because after Jesus returns to the earth, He will set up a kingdom on this planet that will be characterized by peace and godliness. Jesus will bind Satan to prevent him from doing anything in this world during the duration of this kingdom, and He will remove the curse that God placed upon the earth after the Fall of Man way back in Genesis 3.

This is an amazing truth of Scripture and it gives us so much to look forward to, but we don’t always talk about this future kingdom very much, perhaps because we’re a little hesitant to talk confidently about the Bible’s predictions of the future. When we read the portions of the Bible that tell us about the future—like the Book of Revelation—they seem very difficult for us to understand, so we may feel hesitant to talk confidently about what will happen in the future. But while the details in these predictions may not always be clear, it is not hard to get the basic outline of what God says will happen in the future, so we don’t need to ignore what the Bible teaches on this subject.

One thing that is very important for us to remember about the future kingdom of Jesus Christ is that it will be a literal, physical kingdom on this earth—just as real as the United States exists as a nation today. Sometimes people talk about the kingdom only as some kind of spiritual thing, or we talk about the church today as “the kingdom.” But we must realize that the future kingdom of Jesus Christ will be a literal, physical kingdom, and Jesus will reign from Jerusalem as king over the entire world.

Let me read just a few of the passages that predict this future kingdom. In Daniel 7, we find one prediction that became the source for the title “Son of Man,” which Jesus used for himself many different times. In Dan. 7:13–14, Daniel speaks of a vision that he had in a dream [READ Dan. 7:13–14].

Next, let me just summarize Zechariah 14 for you. That chapter describes a climactic battle in which many different nations will come against Jerusalem to destroy the Jewish people. But during that battle, the Lord will come to earth and defeat these armies. He will then set up a kingdom over all the earth, and all of the people in His kingdom will come to Jerusalem year after year to worship Him.

Finally, let me read from Revelation 20. Revelation 19 describes the return of Christ and the battle that I just mentioned to you from Zechariah 14, and then in Rev. 20:1–4 it says [READ vv. 1–4].

So this is the glorious future that will come to pass in this world—Jesus will return and set up a kingdom for a thousand years. There will be days of tribulation and hardship between now and then, as the Bible says, but we can look forward to Christ’s kingdom with great anticipation. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior will live with Him in this kingdom, and what’s more, the Bible tells us that we actually have the opportunity to serve under Him in His government.

II. The Reign of the Saints in the Kingdom

a. The Reality of the Reign

Let me read a few verses that talk about this reality. First, Jesus mentions this possibility a couple of times as promises to the apostles. In Matt. 19:27–28, Peter said to Jesus, “‘See we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Then on another occasion, Jesus made the same point again. In Luke 22:28–30 He says, “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you a kingdom, as my Father assigned to me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Now those statements were both made to the twelve apostles, but Paul shows us that the privilege of reigning with Jesus in His kingdom is open to everyone in the church. In Romans 8:16–17, Paul writes, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Notice that Paul says we can be “fellow heirs with Christ,” which means that we can share in the authority that Christ will receive from God during His kingdom.

Then, in 1 Cor. 6:1–2, Paul writes, “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” Notice the thought—the saints will have a position of authority to judge the world. Then in 2 Tim. 2:11–12, Paul states, “This saying is trustworthy, for: ‘if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.’”

Finally, we find a clear promise in Revelation 2:26–27 where Jesus says, “The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.”

What an amazing thought—that Jesus will share His authority with us in His kingdom; that He will allow us to serve in His government! So one of us may be the governor of Kansas someday during Jesus’ kingdom! I don’t know exactly how all of that will play out, but in some way, we can share in a part of Christ’s authority.

b. The Condition for the Reign

Now you may have noticed that several of those verses I just read had conditions attached to them. Jesus told the disciples that they would rule because they had left everything to follow Him and had been with Him through trials. Paul wrote that we would be fellow heirs with Christ provided that we suffer with Him and if we endure in serving Him. And in Revelation, Jesus said He would give authority to the one who keeps His works until the end.

These conditions tell us that serving in Jesus’ government is not a guarantee for all Christians. We will all live in the kingdom to be sure, but ruling in the kingdom is a reward for obedience to Christ in this life. Think of when a new president is elected in our country. Usually the president rewards his most loyal supporters with some kind of role in his government. Apparently, Jesus will do a similar thing when He sets up His government in this world.

I believe this truth is described well in a parable that Jesus told in Luke 19:11–27. Why don’t you turn there with me? This parable gives us an idea of how Christ will set up His kingdom after He returns. Let’s read through it, and I’ll offer some explanation as we go.

[READ v. 11]

Here we find the reason that Jesus told this parable—His followers thought He was getting ready to set up the kingdom immediately, but as Jesus would teach them through this parable, there was going to be some time yet before He set up the kingdom, and the way that they lived during that time would have important consequences.

[READ vv. 12–14]

Now apparently, Jesus was using an actual event from history as the background for His parable. A very similar event had taken place just a few decades before Jesus’ spoke this words when one of Herod the Great’s sons—named Herod Archelaus—had gone to Rome to seek approval to rule over a portion of Israel. Some of the people who lived in that area followed Herod Archelaus to protest his rule over them. But, for our study today, the important thing to note is that the master gave his servants a task to accomplish while he was away.

[READ vv. 15–19]

The first two servants that we encounter had both faithfully served their master while he was away—the first one had more to show for his efforts, but they were both faithful. As a result, they were both rewarded accordingly with positions of authority and leadership in their master’s new kingdom. They were given the right to rule over a number of cities as the representatives of their master.

[READ vv. 20–23]

Now we can see that Jesus did not intend for the master in this parable to be an exact description of Himself. Remember—He was using an actual historical event to make a comparison about what His kingdom will be like when He establishes it. Notice what happens to the unfaithful servant…

[READ vv. 24–26]

This unfaithful servant had been given the same amount of money as the two faithful servants, which means that he had the same opportunity to serve the Master as they did. That money represented an opportunity to have authority over a small part of the Master’s possessions, but he did nothing with his opportunity. As a result, in his master’s new kingdom, he would not be given the opportunity to have authority over any portion of his master’s territory. That’s the meaning of v. 26—those who have been faithful in their opportunities to serve will receive more and greater opportunities to serve, but those who have not been faithful will have their opportunities to serve taken away from them.

Now please notice that this unfaithful servant was not thrown out of the kingdom or beaten or executed or anything like that. He simply lost the opportunity to reign over a portion of his master’s kingdom. And when we remember that this parable was meant to describe what Jesus’ kingdom will be like, this should be a very sobering lesson for us. If you and I are not faithful to serve Jesus today, we will lose opportunities to serve Him in His kingdom! What a terrible loss! This is very much like what Moses experienced when he was not allowed to go into the Promised Land—because he was unfaithful in something that God asked him to do, he lost the opportunity to lead Israel into the Promised Land.

Now we may be tempted to think, “What’s the big deal? I’m still saved; I’ll still live in the kingdom even if I’m not reigning with Jesus.” My friends, how dare we cheapen something that Jesus considers to be a precious reward! How dare we take it so lightly! The Lord Jesus holds out to us the opportunity to play a role in His government over this world; if we treat that as an insignificant opportunity, we do so to our own loss.

As Paul wrote in Romans 8:16–17, we are children of God, and as such we have an inheritance from Him—we have a place in His Son’s kingdom and in the new heavens and the new earth following that. But we also have the possibility of being rewarded with a greater inheritance—the opportunity to share in Christ’s authority over this world. How sad it will be if our opportunities to serve the Lord in His kingdom are taken from us because we are unfaithful to Him in this life. So let us strive to be faithful, that we might receive greater opportunities for faithfulness in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

"Follow With Care"--Philippians 3:17-21

How many of you heard your mother say something like this when you were a child: “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” We have probably all vowed that we will NEVER use lines like that with our kids, but I bet that many of us have found words just like that coming out of our mouths. I’m not sure how effective clichés like that really are any more, but we know of course that our moms were just trying to tell us to be careful about imitating other people or following someone else’s lead.

Perhaps some of you have heard of a little rodent called a lemming. Lemmings are often used as an illustration of the dangers of following the wrong leader, and for good reason. Like a lot of creatures, lemmings reproduce quickly, and so every few years they find themselves at a point where there current habitat can’t feed all of them anymore. So one day, some of the lemmings head out in search of a new home, and as they leave, they quickly attract many other lemmings to follow them. Now their typical behavior when they migrate like this is to set out in one direction and just keep going in that direction until they find a suitable place. Well, as you can imagine, sometimes that works out okay, and sometimes it doesn’t, because these little creatures don’t stop when they run into danger. Sometimes their path leads them to the edge of a cliff, and rather than head in a new direction they just run right off the cliff, and many—if not most—of them die. Sometimes their path leads them to the ocean, and instead of turning around they swim out into the ocean, and they just keep swimming until they eventually become exhausted and drown.

I think you can see how this illustrates the fact that we need to be careful about whom we choose to follow! Perhaps the people that we follow and imitate in our lives aren’t going to lead us off a cliff anytime soon, but could they be leading us into some sinful ways of thinking? Could they be pointing us toward the wrong goals for life? Those whom we choose to follow could be leading us down paths that a spiritual dangerous, so the lesson that we need to grab hold of today is this:

Make sure the people you choose to follow are leading you in the right direction!

And how do we know what the right direction is? From the Bible, of course. But we can also see it in the lives of people who are living out biblical principles in their lives. That’s what the apostle Paul is going to encourage us to look for in our study of Philippians today. Would you turn with me please to Philippians 3:17–21? Let’s read this together [READ vv. 17–21]. In this passage, Paul sets up a contrast between two groups of people—the kind that we should follow, and the kind that we should not follow. Let’s first see what he says about the kind of people that we should not follow.

I. Reject the example of those who seek only to satisfy their personal desires

Paul begins and ends this passage by talking about the people we should follow and the kind of mindset that they possess. But in the middle—in vv. 18–19—he describes the example that we should reject and the kind of people who set that example.

In v. 18, we see that Paul has tremendous compassion for these people; he says that he weeps over them. But nevertheless, Paul tells it like it is—he says that they are “enemies of the cross of Christ.” Notice that Paul doesn’t just say “enemies of Christ.” He focuses on the cross—they are enemies of the cross of Christ. From what Paul says about them in v. 19, it seems that these individuals are enemies of what the cross represents. As we saw in chapter 2, the cross of Christ represents humility. The fact that Jesus was willing to die in such a painful and humiliating way demonstrated his tremendous humility. The cross also represents self-denial, as we can see from Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:14—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” These individuals however were advocating a very different lifestyle, and thus they were opposed to what the cross represents.

Because of this, Paul notes in v. 19 that they had a terrible end to look forward to. He states that their “end is destruction.” They may appear to have enviable lives now, but their ultimate end is utter loss and ruin. This is all because of their idolatry, which Paul describes next. The next three phrases describe their overall mindset—Paul writes, “whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

Their minds were set on achieving earthly goals and satisfying their own earthly desires, and so they sought to indulge their physical desires and cravings, and they “gloried in” or took pride in doing things that they actually should have been ashamed of. And as I think of people in our own society today who would fit this description, my mind goes directly to celebrities—actors and actresses, rappers and rock stars, reality show stars, even sports stars.

Now certainly not everyone in those industries would fit Paul’s description in v. 19, but the vast majority of them are living examples of what Paul said here. When you look at the lifestyle that characterizes most celebrities—the drug use and alcoholism, the immorality and infidelity, the repeated cycle of divorce—it is clear that they are living simply to satisfy their own fleshly desires. And if we are going to take Paul’s warning to heart, we must make sure that we don’t follow their example.

But the reality is that we are probably already mimicking their behavior in ways that we don’t even realize. Friends, if we think we can watch TV for hours each week, and watch movies for hours each week, and listen to secular music for hours each week, and yet somehow emerge with our behavior unaffected by those things, we are simply being naïve. Consider a few things with me—think first of all about the slang words that you use, or the popular phrases that you use. Where did you learn those words? Maybe you learned them from a friend, but where did he get them? At some point down the line they more than likely came from a movie or a TV show. Lines from movies and TV have a way of entering our cultural vocabulary, and often times we end up using those lines without even realizing it.

How about your idea of what romance looks like? Do you think it comes from the Bible? Let me ask you—have you ever actually read the Bible with that question in mind? If the answer is no, then are you sure that your idea of romance comes from the Bible? Or does your idea of romance actually come from Twilight, or Sleepless in Seattle, or Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Gone With the Wind?

How about your attitude toward something like homosexuality? I imagine that we would all say it’s a sin, but do you really feel that it’s a behavior that destroys people’s lives, or is it something to laugh about with our favorite characters on Modern Family, or something to sweep under the rug about as we’re being entertained by Ellen DeGeneres?

So what I am trying to say, friends, is that we may be imitating celebrities and the Hollywood mindset in ways that we don’t even realize because its influence can be so subtle. And the best way to counteract its influence is to saturate our minds with Scripture and minimize our exposure to entertainment like TV and movies.

You can really think of it like a balanced diet for your mind. The Bible is the meat and grains and the fruits and vegetables that you should take in at every meal, and entertainment is like dessert—we should take it in only in small portions and less frequently than everything else.

I do think it is helpful for us to be aware of what the entertainment industry is producing, but I think a quote that Warren Wiersbe once applied to TV is very helpful here. He says, “True, we ought to [be familiar with it]; but only as chemists handle poisons—to discover their qualities, not to infect their blood with them.”*

So, we must make sure that we don’t follow the example of those who seek only to satisfy their personal desires. And in our passage, Paul points toward a better example for us to follow.

II. Follow the example of those who live as citizens of heaven in the here and now

In v. 17, Paul called the Philippians to follow his example, which he had just spelled out for them in vv. 2–16: namely, his example of placing everything on his list of values below the ongoing pursuit of gaining an intimate knowledge of Christ. At the end of v. 17 he also mentions others who are walking according to the same pattern. Undoubtedly he had Timothy and Epaphroditus in mind here, but there were probably others in the Philippian church as well who already followed Paul’s example.

Then down in vv. 20–21, he describes why his example is the correct one for us to have. At the end of v. 19 he tells us not to have our minds set on earthly goals and values and priorities, but why not? Well, he tells us in vv. 20–21 [READ vv. 20–21].

We are not to focus our minds on earthly things because our citizenship, our homeland is somewhere else! It’s like when you’re on vacation. When you go on vacation, you don’t have the same concern for the area that you’re visiting as you do for your hometown. You’re not thinking about putting down roots there because you know you’re only there for a short time. You don’t find yourself thinking, “Maybe I should go to the city council meeting here tonight and find out about the local zoning proposals!” No! You’re on vacation! You’re just passing through, so you don’t focus on settling in and making a life for yourself.

That’s the kind of mindset that we’re supposed to have about this world, because it is no longer our home. Our true home is in heaven, so that’s where we should center our lives; that’s where we should invest; that’s where we should put down roots! The old spiritual says it well:

“This world is not my home
I’m just a-passin’ through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me
From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.”

Paul also goes on to remind us why we should be so eager for our temporary stay in this world to be over—we are awaiting the return of Jesus, who will make us fit to enter our homeland! In v. 20, Paul refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as “savior,” which is significant for more reasons than you might think. The Greek word here is soter, and its actually a title that many of the Roman emperors had adopted for themselves. They sometimes referred to themselves as the “Savior of the World” or the “Savior of Humanity.”

But we who have our citizenship in heaven know who the real Savior of the World is—the Lord Jesus Christ! Our highest allegiance is to Him, not to any petty rulers in this world who might put themselves in His place. And when He returns, He is going to complete the work of salvation that He has started in us by transforming our bodies to make them fit for our homeland.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that you are still living in a body that is under the curse of sin. We still have to live not only with daily aches and pains, but also with diseases that are much more severe and deadly. But someday, Jesus is going to return to “transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory.” As the apostle John put it in 1 John 3:2, “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” We have that time to look forward to that is described in Revelation 21:4, where God “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.”

That is our destiny! That is where our lives are headed—we are headed home! So that’s why we should focus our lives upon our homeland; that’s why we should live with heavenly priorities rather than earthly priorities. Just as it makes no sense to adopt a California lifestyle if you live in Kansas, it likewise makes no sense to adopt a worldly lifestyle if your real home is in heaven! So we must make sure that we follow the example of those who have this mindset, and not just follow them from afar, but develop a relationship with them and learn from them. It would benefit every one of us to cultivate a relationship with someone who is more mature in the faith than we are, so that is my challenge for you today. Find someone who is more mature as a Christian than you are and get to know them. Invite them over; take them out to eat; ask them for their advice and guidance and prayers. We will always be imitating someone, so let’s make sure we’re following the right example!


* Warren W. Wiersbe, Preaching & Teaching with Imagination, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Books, 2002.) pg. 75.