The King is Coming - Are You Ready? 

John 14:1-4

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

When I first went up to university I think my family were quite glad to get rid of me. I was the eldest of five and the worst behaved of them all. Don’t worry, they loved me, but life in the household was a lot more peaceful without me around. I am not sure how long it was after I left that my siblings re-allocated my bedroom. Maybe as much as an hour or two. So when I came back at Christmas I was designated a corner of the dining room with a camp bed. One of those rooms in older houses which was never used for anything and smelt a bit musty. I quite liked it, on two accounts: One it was near the front door so that my comings and goings could be a little more clandestine and, two because it was the room in which my father kept his bible commentaries, which I enjoyed reading.
I know that my parents were glad to see me but their lives were full of other children and work and church and there was no great homecoming welcome. Don’t worry, I’m fine, I was so dull to other people’s sentiments I didn’t notice!

So, when our sons, Josh and Sam, disappeared off to London and Newcastle respectively, I had plans for their bedrooms. Maybe a bedsit to earn some money or space for a model railway? Six, seven years later, their rooms are still there, allocated to them, waiting. They get used a lot because we have many guests, but they are their rooms. When we know they are coming beds are made up, fresh air is circulated, towels stacked up. We (well I don’t take a great part in this) prepare a room for them.

Maybe you can think of a time when you have been to stay with someone or stayed at a special hotel and when you went into your bedroom you felt, wow, they have put some effort in here, chocolates, fruit, flowers, fragrant air, towels, dimmed lighting, turned down bed - this is a proper welcome.

In the Christmas story there is a famous line – there was no room at the inn. Despite the significance and importance of the person about to be born, there was no welcome, indeed they were turned away.

So these words of Jesus in John 14 are quite a contrast - "My family may have been turned away but I am going to make sure you are welcome at my house!"

They are familiar words but sometimes we lose the context. Jesus is chilling out with his disciples after the rather extraordinary triumphal entry into Jerusalem: remember the donkey and the palm leaves and people shouting “Hosanna? And he is trying to get the disciples to get over that and to understand that - he is about to be executed!

For the first time Jesus had gone public (as though he had finally gone onto Twitter like the Queen). Up until then he had generally avoided the limelight and skirted round trouble. This time he headed straight for the eye of the storm and allowed the crowd to believe that he was their long-awaited Messiah - the King whom the prophecies had said would come to liberate them from oppression.

But Jesus knew what was coming, a corrupt court and a tortured death. So, in between these two contrasting events, he was preparing the disciples, “My children I will be with you only a little longer …” and Simon asks, “Lord, where are you going?” (John 13:33,6). The disciples are confused and worried. One minute their enigmatic leader goes public to great adulation and the next he is predicting his departure.

Imagine the Queen coming to visit Leeds and driving up the M1 in a rented Vauxhall Astra – being feted up the Headrow and then disappearing to stay with some friends in Wakefield.

This was most unusual behaviour for a Monarch.

It was confusing for everyone. The crowds thought that their King had come and then they turned on him and had him condemned to death. The Romans were worried about some sort of insurrection but baffled by this strangely peaceful person – although not enough to arrest their brutality. The religious leaders were threatened and perplexed – just as they had been when he was born. The disciples thought they were following the Messiah and were waiting for him to take charge. They thought that the time had come and now he is saying that he was going?

Jesus knew, and we know (with the benefit of the scriptures and history) that he is the Son of God, the very incarnation of the Supreme Being, the creator of the universe taking on created form. Ultimate power. Royalty beyond our understanding and yet born into obscurity and making his grand entrance on a borrowed donkey.

Something on a much grander scale was going on here. Once again Jerusalem was the stage for a cosmic drama as the mission of God came to fulfilment in the sacrifice of Jesus to bring salvation to the world.

But the disciples couldn’t grasp all that so Jesus gathers them around him and speaks comforting and portentous words. “Don’t worry. Peace I leave with you. I have got to go away and get things ready for you. I’ll be back to get you”. Within a few days the disciples began to understand. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, when he ascended to heaven the angel came and said to the disciples, “This same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen him go.” (Acts 1:11).

As the course of history turned and the church got established, those early disciples lived with the hope and expectation that Jesus would come back at any time. Jesus’ return, the second coming of the King, was a prominent theme in their writings and teachings and prayers. And today there are some 2.4 billion of us still waiting expectantly for the King to come.

I want to ask you two questions:

1. Do you long for Jesus’ return?

2. Are you ready?

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I’ll come back to that in a minute.
Christmas is about the first coming of the King. 
The promise of Jesus that he is coming back again for a second time is called eschatology in the big books and has led to quite a lot of weird stuff.

1. People predicting when it was going to happen.
2. People saying it had happened.
3. People saying it had happened and that they were Jesus.

People have a desperate desire to know dates and times and places in the future (hence the popularity of tarot card and palm readers and of spiritualist churches). They are also terrified of the event for some reason – run to the hills!

Here are some basics on which most Christians agree:

1. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back

In Matthew 24 and elsewhere Jesus makes it very clear that no one knows the day or the hour – only the Father, God. If anyone claims to know when Jesus is coming back you know immediately that they are wrong and you can dismiss what they say. The Jehovah Witnesses have been wrongly predicting his return at least since 1914.

A recent prediction was for the 12 December 2012 which was held to by a range of New Age and Mayan believers. Cataclysmic or transformative events would occur and as such, festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in the countries that were part of the Mayan civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) A New Age interpretation held that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, marking the beginning of a new era. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world included the arrival of the next solar maximum, an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the centre of the galaxy, or Earth's collision with a planet called Nibiru.

There are a dozen current predictions for the end of the world on Wikipedia – many of them from so-called Christians.

We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. It will probably be before HS2 has been completed. It could be after we have died, or he could come back this afternoon.

2. We will know it when it happens

Several people have claimed that it has already happened, in one form or another (Jehovah’s Witnesses for example). Some characters provide us with a great deal of mirth because with the safety of hindsight we can patronise their audacity.

Some of you may remember David Icke who was a BBC television sports presenter and spokesman for the Green Party in the 1980’s. In 1990 a psychic told him that he was a healer who had been placed on Earth for a purpose, and that the spirit world was going to pass messages to him. In March 1991 he held a press conference to announce that he was a "Son of the Godhead". He has gone on to set out a worldview that combined New-Age spiritualism with a denunciation of totalitarian trends in the modern world. At the heart of his theories lies the idea that a secret group of reptilian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood (including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson and Boxcar Willie) controls humanity, and that many prominent figures are reptilian.

More recently, David Shayler, a former MI5 agent and whistleblower proclaimed himself to be the Messiah in the summer of 2007. “He has released a series of videos on YouTube claiming to be Jesus, although he has not built up any noticeable following since his claims.” (Wikipedia).

However, when Jesus returns, he won’t be trying to build up any followers on social media. Everyone will know, instantaneously. Don’t worry, you won’t miss it!

Jesus said, “All the nations of the earth will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30) Later he compares it to lightning in the sky – visible from North to South from East to West.

We will know when it happens. And everything stops.

3. Everything stops and there will be judgement

When there has been a trial in a court there is a separate event, after the case is concluded, when we hear the judgement. When the King comes next time it will be for the restoration of justice and fairness. The final occasion when wrongs will be put right.

Rather than Jesus being the victim of a corrupt judiciary he will be the judge. And at that point the trajectory of your life will become clear – are you living toward him or away from him?

We don’t know when. We will know it when it happens. Everything stops and there will be a judgement.

4. There will be a new creation.

In John 14 Jesus uses the analogy of a house. I will go and prepare a room for you in my Father’s house. There is something comforting and ordinary about that – a room in a house. And there is something very special about that – the Father’s house!

Revelation 21:1 talks about a new heaven and a new earth. Something ordinary – heaven and earth as we know it with skies and grass and music and food and drink and work. But something special – no pain or corruption or loss. No more tears, no more dying. Paradise, creation as it was meant to be.

When the King comes he will inaugurate a new kingdom with a new creation.

5. There will be new life

We have life now but it is temporary. When the King comes for the second time, he will bring new life which knows no ending, no death. Life which is full and fruitful and doesn’t have that grey shadow of death lurking behind it.

At the beginning of the book, when God creates the world he puts the tree of life at the centre of the garden. And when death came into the world through sin, God locks us out of the garden and takes away our access to the tree of life. But the book of Revelation tells us that when He comes again we will live in a new creation where the tree of life is once again at the centre and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. (Revelation 22:2,3)

When the King comes again the power of sin to bring death will be broken and we will know life: deep, eternal, rich, fulfilling, fruitful and free.

What we do know about the second coming of Jesus, Jesus coming as King?

1. We don’t know when it will be;

2. We will know when it happens;

3. Everything stops for judgement;

4. There will be a new creation;

5. We will be restored to new and eternal life.

Sounds amazing doesn’t it?

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So, back to my questions.

1. Do you long for the King to come again?

2. Are you ready?

My parents had mixed feelings about my return from university. They sort of wanted to see me and they sort of prepared. Maybe you’re a bit like that about Jesus’ coming back?
 

Do you long for the return of Jesus?

This will depend upon a number of factors:
 

It will depend on how desperate your life is

For many on this planet life is hard, there is pain and loss everywhere. Many live under the cosh of injustice or abuse. For them the King can’t soon enough. If your life is easy, if you have food and warmth and your rights are protected then maybe you find that you have forgotten what’s coming.

It will depend on how close to the people of the King you are

Are you part of a community of faith, celebrating together every Sunday and doing life together in small groups? If so you can see glimmers of the life that is to come and your face and heart is turned toward the King. If you find yourself preferring other companionship then maybe you’re less aware of the imminence of the King.
 

It will depend on your state of readiness.

If your life is full of compromise and your discipleship is weak then maybe you hope the day doesn’t come too soon. If you are facing up to the challenge of following Jesus and becoming more like him, if you are making the sacrifices and making the hard choices then you are probably looking forward to the day when the journey is finished.

Are you ready for the return of Jesus?
We experience a foretaste of his presence when his Holy Spirit comes. We see a glimmer of the light and hear an echo of the sounds of the kingdom. Are we ready for when nothing is held back and we see him in all his glory?

Some of you are expectant, longing. Others are fearful, worried, unsure. Still others are sceptical and think I am talking about strange and irrational things.

Whether or not you are longing for his return, he will be coming back as the undeniable and awe-inspiring King of the universe. We may not bow today but one day we will all bow.

Are you ready? Have you repented of your sinfulness, have you received his forgiveness and do you walk in his righteousness so that when you face the righteous judge you hear the words “He/she is in the right, welcome, there is a room prepared for you”?
 

The King is Coming

The great news of advent is that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to be born and live amongst us, to die for us and then God raised him from the dead to demonstrate that the power of death has been broken. The great news of Christmas is that the King so loves you that He lowered himself to be born as a baby so that you may be raised to citizenship of his Kingdom. And His promise is that He will come again as King and take us back to the Father’s house for new life in a new creation.

Marantha, come Lord Jesus.





David Flowers
7 December 2014