The Coming of Jesus

It is awesome to be with you.

Those of you that are here in this room, if I hadn't had a chance to meet you, my name is Russ.

Welcome to Church at the Grove.

And I want to say welcome to those of you that are at home, still worshiping with us online.

Excited to have you guys with us this morning as well.

Excited about concluding this series.

I know this may sound strange coming from a pastor, but when my two older kids, and especially when my daughter turned 16, my wife and I sat them down and we watched the movie taken with them.

And it was the TV version, but we wanted, listen, the reason we wanted them to watch it, and the reason I wanted my daughter to see this, as she turned 16, as she gained some independence, as she took the car keys, and she was going to be away from us and on her own.

I wanted her to be fully aware of the reality that there are bad, evil people in this world.

And that they would do anything to take her or to harm her.

And if you don't know that, please understand we live in a world that's full of evil and that's full of just bad things and bad people.

To the point where human beings will take other human beings and sell them off as property.

And human trafficking is real.

As a matter of, if you don't know this, Atlanta is one of the major hubs in the world for human trafficking.

And so we wanted her to be aware.

She was getting ready to go on her first mission trip, traveling overseas.

And so we wanted them to be aware that evil exists, and evil is bad.

Now, if you've seen that movie, you know, and you know you you you would feel it the same way that I felt it when I saw it.

When Liam Neeson reaches those bad people, and he begins to get justice, he sets his daughter free, he gets her back, and then he exacts justice for what was done so wrong.

You know, I know you, I know you, you felt something inside of you rise up because the good was overcoming the bad.

And for those of you that maybe you're uncomfortable with the movie taken, when Simba comes home and Scar falls off that cliff, man, justice is done, right?

And he takes his rightful place as the king of his kingdom.

And so that's the reality.

We love that.

We love it when justice is done.

We love it when good overcomes bad.

When evil is defeated.

We love those things.

As a matter of fact, we love it when it happens to other people.

The reality is we don't like it if it's justice that comes home to us personally.

It doesn't feel so good when it's us, right?

It's we like it when everybody else gets what's due to them.

As a matter of fact, the reality is we all want to be graded on a curve.

And when it comes to eternity, we really want to be graded on a curve.

And so we finish this series this morning talking about Jesus the unsafe Savior.

We've referred over and over to the quote out of the Chronicles of Narnia, where C.S.

Lewis wrote, where Susan enters into Narnia and she asks the question.

She hears about Aslan, who is the Christ figure, the lion in the story, and she said, Oh, he's a lion?

Is he safe?

And Mr.

Beaver says, safe.

And nobody said he's safe, but he's good.

He's the king, I tell you.

And we're talking about all the characteristics of Jesus.

We've looked at how he has power over nature, he has power over the spiritual world.

We looked at last week how he gave his life to die, a cruel death on a cross.

He rose again.

The tomb is empty.

But this morning we're talking about how he will return.

And when he returns, when Jesus returns, he's returning as judge, jury, and executioner.

Now, this is a difficult sermon for me to preach.

This is hard for me to preach.

I love talking about grace and mercy, but let me explain something to you.

Grace and mercy mean nothing without understanding God coming as the judge and the jury and the executioner.

Grace and mercy have no significance.

Unless we understand that there's something from which we are being spared.

And so Jesus returns.

And so we're going to be in the final book of the Bible, what we call the revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 19, specifically verses 11 through 21.

Now, verses 1 through 10 are what are referred to as the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is a beautiful story.

We don't have time to dive into that, but it's when Jesus is reunited with us, the bride of Christ, those of us that are the elect, those of us that have put our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord of our life.

We've accepted what he did on our behalf.

We've repented and believed and trusted in what he did in his life and his death and his resurrection.

And so in Revelation 19, Jesus, after his resurrection, he spent 40 days teaching and preaching about the kingdom, and it says he ascended to be with his heavenly Father.

And what came about was the birth of the church.

We just sang about it.

And we've been in this church age since.

But there is a time when Jesus will return.

And it will be a time of justice and it'll be a time of judgment.

And I'm not, listen, I'm not a scholar on the book of Revelation.

I am not a scholar on prophecy.

See, some people, they love, they just love diving in and spending a lot of time on looking at eschatology and the study of what's going to happen at the return and the end times.

I'm not a scholar.

Some of you have heard of terms like pre-millennial or a millillennial or post-millennial, and you you have certain, uh you hear people talk about very opinionated perspectives of what will happen in the end times.

And a lot of times I just say I'm pan-millennial.

Because if you love Jesus, it's all gonna pan out in the end.

And so we're not gonna dive into that, all that detail.

And I listen, if you want to have a conversation, we'll have a meal, and and I love talking theology, but let me tell you what this book is about.

This book of Revelation, it's revelation.

It was given to John when he was exiled on the island of Patmos in the mid-90s after A.D.

after the church had been birthed and he was put away.

And God gives him this revelation in a vision.

And as much as people like to talk about prophecy and eschatology, this book is all about Jesus.

Everything Jesus, nothing but Jesus, and how he will return one day.

And so let's dive in to read.

Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 through 21.

Revelation 19:11–21

Jesus will return in glory and power.

Look at what it says here.

It says, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

The one sitting on it is called faithful and true.

In righteousness he judges and makes war.

So Jesus will return in power and glory.

Now the the the heavens open up.

John can't can see what's going on.

And Jesus appears on a white horse.

Now remember a few weeks ago we we preached a message about how Jesus entered Jerusalem, not on a horse, but on what?

A little bitty donkey.

He enters into Jerusalem the week before he's crucified in humility.

Now see, generals and and and special dignitaries would enter into cities in these processions on horses.

Jesus first comes in humility on a little donkey.

He's born in humility.

He's not born in a palace, he's born in an animal stable.

And so, but in his second return, Jesus comes in power and glory, and he comes on a white horse.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of this.

He says, Oh, that you would rent the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood, and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at your presence.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

They shouted Hosanna when he came into the city of Jerusalem in humility.

It speaks in this verse that he is faithful and true.

It speaks to his character, it speaks to who he is in his nature and his attributes.

He is reliable.

God is trustworthy.

Jesus is trustworthy.

He is a keeper of his promises.

He is good to his word and he will bring judgment.

He is genuine and he is sincere in all that he does and all that he says in his word.

You can trust it.

You can believe it.

In his righteousness, he judges and makes war.

Here's the part that breaks my heart.

Here's the part that hurts my soul.

See, I love preaching the word of God.

I love, I, but when I prepare a message and I and it and it and it hits home, that you know what, there are going to be those that reject Jesus.

And the second coming will not be a time of celebration.

It will not be a glorious time.

It will be a time of justice and it will be a time of judgment.

And if we have embraced evil and rejected him, it's not going to be a pleasant experience.

When Jesus first came, he was the one that was judged.

He was the one that Pilate judged, that Herod judged, that Annas judged, that Caiaphas judged.

But in his return, he will judge all wickedness and all wicked people.

This is a Jesus that we can't control, that we can't subdue, that we can't manage.

This is a Jesus that comes after centuries of grace and mercy in this age of the church where the gospel has been preached and has been made available to people that could put their faith in him.

But now righteous action is what he brings.

Verse 12 says, His eyes are like a flame of fire.

And on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

Eyes like a flame of fire.

Here's what that's teaching us that God, that Jesus has divine insight, he has divine wisdom.

He's able to see down to the deep depths of our soul.

There is nothing that is hidden from him.

You say, well, you look at the outward actions of your life, but he looks beyond your actions.

He looks down to the depths of your heart and your soul.

There's nothing that escapes him.

There's nothing that will not be brought to light in our lives.

Charles Spurgeon said, his eyes are like a flame of fire to read us through and through and know us to our inmost soul.

So it's that deep down in your heart, it's beyond just your your actions.

And whenever we feel kind of good about ourselves, we need to be reminded that we still struggle.

And we still have sin issues, and we have a flesh that will lead us astray.

I've shared this before.

I shared this at the first service.

I said, the reality that that hits home to me.

As a pastor, I am good.

Listen, I am good at coming across as a pastor and a good Christian should.

I mean, I'm I'm a professional.

But what scares me is that he knows my deepest and darkest thoughts and secrets.

To the point that if you knew everything that went through my mind, you probably wouldn't come back to church next week.

Because I'm just like you, I'm just like anybody else.

The same struggles that every human being has, Jesus drills down to the deepest dark parts of us.

His eyes are like flames, flames of fire.

He says there's many diadems, which is another word for crowns, and it's many diadems.

What does he mean by many diadems?

Isn't Jesus just one crown enough?

No, there he is the King of kings, he's the Lord of lords, he is sovereign and in control over all nations, all people.

As a matter of fact, we know that we are to bring our crowns and lay them at his feet, but it says he is wearing many crowns.

He is sovereign ruler over all the earth.

And so it says that there is a name that no one knows but himself.

What does that mean?

It means that he has a character that is beyond us.

There are things that we will never completely understand about the character of Jesus.

Even when we get to heaven, we'll spend eternity uncovering new truths and new aspects and new attributes to his character.

That's the worship for eternity.

In theology, we we study what are called communicable attributes, attributes of Jesus that we can know and understand in our humanity, but there are what we call incommunicable attributes, things that are beyond us because he is other than us.

He is beyond us.

And I love it that I have a God that is bigger than I can even think of.

Because it means that in a season like we're in right now, that he is still in control and he is still good, and we can trust him.

And so, verse 13, it says, He is clothed in a robe dipped with blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

A robe dipped in blood.

Now let me tell you what that does not mean.

That does not refer to the blood that Jesus shed when he died on the cross.

No, that's not the blood he's talking about here.

The blood he's talking about here, this is difficult, but it's the blood of the judgment.

It's the blood of the wicked people that are facing the judgment.

The blood of the wicked nations, the blood of those that have rejected Jesus, that rejected the goodness of God.

It's when he brings judgment, he comes in a robe that is dipped in blood.

It's a blood from battle, and it says, He is called the word of God.

Now, what that means is he is the living word of God.

It refers back to John 1, where the gospel of John, the same writer of Revelation, it says in John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the word.

John 1:1

The word is logos, and it's the it's it's the fact that he is equal with his heavenly father, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

Verses 14, uh verse 14 in that same chapter, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so he says this word of truth, and it says the armies, verse 14, the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

What is he referring to, the armies of heaven?

It's you and me, those of us that have put our faith in Jesus Christ.

He's called us to be with Jesus.

We've been reunited at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

That's verses 1 through 10 of the same chapter.

And now he's coming, he's returning, bringing judgment, and he brings us, the bride of Christ, those of us that have put our faith in Jesus, we're behind him on our own white horses.

You think, man, I'd love to be a part of that.

And let me tell you that you won't even have to fight the battle because Jesus will win the battle instantaneously.

And a snap of a finger.

Revelation 17, 14 says, they will make war on the land, and the land will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and king of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

So if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and your identity is in Jesus, then you are promised to be on a white horse behind Jesus when he returns in power and glory.

How cool is that.

Most generals are not found at the front of the battle.

Matter of fact, they're not even on the battlefield, they're in some office making decisions.

Our Savior is the general that leads us.

And it says in verse 15, From His mouth come, comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

It's the shortest war that we could ever see.

Matter of fact, the shortest war in history is known as the Anglo-Zanzibar War.

And it happened on August 27th, 1896, between Great Britain and the Zanzibar Sultanate.

And they say that it lasted 38 to 45 minutes, the shortest war ever recorded in history.

And this war will be shorter than that.

It's over in an instant.

It's the Battle of Armageddon.

Fought and won by Jesus with his spirit.

Spoken word.

He wins the battle.

Look at what it says in verse 16.

It says, on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I had somebody after the first service said, Hey man, you and I today, we're going.

We're getting that tattooed on our thighs.

I said, Man, let's go.

After I asked my wife.

So Jesus will judge all that reject him.

He's the king of kings and the lord of lords.

Verse 17, then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice.

He called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come gather for the great supper of God.

And this is a moment of the divine judgment as it concludes, where all the wicked have vultures and birds that come and eat the flesh of the carcasses.

That's not a pleasant thought, but that's exactly what that is referring to.

See, there's two there's two meals, there's two feasts that are mentioned in Revelation 19.

Verses 1 through 10 is what's called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And it's when the bride of Christ is reunited with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

He calls us up.

And it says that we are invited to this beautiful feast where we'll be reunited with Him.

There'll be no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering.

We'll be in His presence forever and ever.

This feast that will last a thousand years, and there's nothing like it.

But then there's a second feast that's mentioned in this chapter, and it's this feast right here.

It's called the Great Supper of God.

And it will be when the birds and the vultures come and eat of the carcasses of those that have rejected God.

And judgment comes.

You know that there's four suppers that are mentioned in all the Bible?

There's four suppers that are mentioned in Scripture.

The first one is called the Supper of Salvation.

And some of you are familiar with it.

Some of you have been a part of this supper meal.

Jesus explains it in a parable in Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

And he said, This man gives this great banquet.

And he prepares the banquet and he sets his servants to invite people to come.

Hey, the banquet is ready for you to enjoy.

Please come.

Invite all the people to come.

Anyone who can, come.

And the servants go out into the streets and out into the community, and people begin to make excuses.

They say, Well, we've got property to take care of.

We've got a husband or we've got a wife or we've got a family that we've got to tend to.

We've got activities that we're responsible for, and I've got a job.

And they give all of these excuses.

And the servant comes back and he says to the to the to the king, to the banquet, prepare.

They give all these excuses, and the master of the house is angry, and he says to the servant, he says, go quickly to the streets.

You gather the lame, you gather those that are poor and crippled and the blind, and you invite them to come.

And the servant says, Hey, we we have we've gone and we've we've we we we've invited all of them to come to the great this great meal, and and we still have room.

And then he says, You go out into the highways and the hedges and you compel them all to come, whoever can to come to the supper of salvation.

And that's the invitation to Jesus.

That's the invitation that many of us have responded to.

And if you haven't, I hope you will this morning is to understand that Jesus came and he lived and he died and he rose for you.

And the salvation he offers is free.

It comes only by grace, and you simply have to receive it.

The second supper of the four is the Lord's Supper.

That's what we celebrated last week.

It's called communion.

It's when we take the bread or or or or the element that represents the body of Jesus, and we eat of it, remembering that his body was broken for us.

It's when we take the juice or the wine and we drink it, and it represents the blood of Jesus that was spilled for us, and we drink it to remember what he did for us.

And then the third is the marriage supper of the Lamb.

That's the one that I mentioned in the first part of the chapter, verses 1 through 10.

It's the reuniting of the body of Jesus, the body of Christ, those of us that are that are the saints with Jesus in eternity.

And the fourth is the supper of the great God.

And it's the it's the passage we're looking at right here.

It's when the birds and the vultures eat the flesh of those that are facing the judgment of God.

Those that have rejected Jesus and his grace and his mercy.

If you reject the first supper, the second supper will mean nothing to you.

Then you will not be present at the third supper, but you will be present at the fourth supper.

See, based on what this says, everybody gets to attend at least one of these suppers.

But some will eat and others will be eaten.

Verse 18 it says, To eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

Here's what he's saying: Nobody will escape the judgment of God.

Nobody escapes it.

It doesn't matter what your rank is, it doesn't matter how much money you make, it doesn't matter where you were born or how you grew up or whether your daddy was a preacher or a deacon.

What matters is what you did when you heard about Jesus, how you responded to the message of the gospel.

There is no discrimination.

It's the same for every person on the planet.

And Jesus will defeat the enemies that oppose him.

In verse 19, it says, I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army, and the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.

Those two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulphur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

Here's what he's reminding us is that in the end Jesus triumphs, that Satan, all the enemies of Jesus, the anti-Christ, the beast, the false prophets, all that are rejecting Jesus, will be thrown into the lake of fire and suffer horribly what we call eternal damnation.

And it's not referring to what some people call annihilation, the doctrine of annihilation, which means you die and it's over.

No, it is an eternal torment that will last forever.

And so the question for us, are you ready?

Are you ready for the return of Jesus?

Are you going to be a part of that great army that's behind him on your white horse?

Or are you going to be a part of that group that will suffer eternal punishment and the justice of God?

See, listen, I would tell people I am not a hellfire and brimstone preacher.

And it breaks my heart to preach and to think about those that would spend eternity separated from the presence of God.

But here's the question: if this is real, what are you going to do with it?

There's a decision that has to be made.

There is no straddling the fence.

You say yes to Jesus.

Or you say yes to an eternity separated from God.

Thank you, Jesus, that He did not consider me beyond salvation, beyond His reach of grace and mercy.

That in spite of my sin, in spite of my wickedness, in spite of my horrible deeds in my life, and what I think in my mind and heart, he has called me into a relationship with him, and that I get to be a part of the great supper of the Lamb.

And I don't have to stand and be a part of the supper of the great God.

So are you ready?

If you reject the first supper, the second supper means nothing to you.

Then you will not be present at the third supper, but you will be present at the fourth supper.

Everybody will eat at least one of these suppers.

Some will eat and others will be eaten.

Which category do you fall into?

Would you pray with me?

Would you just bow your heads and spend a moment in prayer?

Heavenly Father, would you speak to our hearts?

Would you speak to us?

Speak to those that need you to do a work in their heart.

Would you draw people to yourself?

Would you make what we have studied and preached and taught this morning a reality in our hearts?

Let me give you an opportunity, those of you that maybe have never responded to the grace of God.

Let me give you an opportunity to respond.

The Bible says that when Jesus came, he says to repent and believe the good news.

And it's this understanding that we admit that we need Jesus as a Savior.

We admit that we need forgiveness.

We admit that we're on the wrong side of eternity and we believe and we trust in what this book says and what this message says about Jesus and how he came and he lived and he died and he rose again to provide for us a salvation, an eternal hope, an eternal joy.

And so if you have never received that, you can believe and trust in Jesus right now this morning.

You confess him as your Lord and your Savior.

There's not a magical prayer, there's not something you have to repeat.

It's just you being honest with God and saying, God, would you save me?

I know I need it.

And right now I'm trusting in you.

And if you've never put your faith in Jesus, if that's you this morning, I want you to slip your hand up.

And I want to know that this morning you are putting your faith in Jesus for the first time.

Would you raise your hand?

For the first time this morning, Russ, I'm putting my faith, my trust in you.

Now for the rest of us that are believers for those, for us, those of us that are the church, here's the question.

If this is real, then we need to make sure that we take as many people with us as we can.

The reality of eternal justice, eternal judgment means that we need to be willing to share with a classmate, with a neighbor, with a work associate.

We need to share with somebody in our family that hasn't put their faith in Jesus yet.

We need to be on mission with Jesus, getting the gospel and the word of hope and joy out to as many people as we can.

If this is real.

So, Father, would you do a work in us?

Would you help us understand the reality of this truth?

That you will return in power and glory.

And Father, we've got a limited amount of time to share the hope that we have in Jesus.

Because we know that your coming could be at any moment.

So, Father, would you work?

It's in Jesus' name.

I pray.

Would you join with me and stand as we close this time?

Let's live.