Christ Memorial Church

Like A Tree

Week 66

 

One of our more powerful hymns is The Church’s One Foundation.  Stanza one reminds us what the church is built on:

The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.  She is his new creation by water and the word.  From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.  And with his blood he bought her and for her life he died.

We are the church of Jesus Christ – chosen by God from the foundation of the world; called by God to be His people; formed by God to reflect His likeness; kept by God through life and death; and longing for God to finish what He started.

Perhaps most significantly of all, we are God’s people of hope. 

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we once again learn why every Christmas can be the best ever.  Throughout this season of Advent, we have learned that Christmas gives us the best love, the best name, and the best leader in the world.  This morning we will learn that God gives us the best hope in the world.

Today we also conclude our Like a Tree journey.  We have traveled through all sixty-six books of the Bible.  I hope this has blessed you.  I hope you are more like a tree planted by streams of water today than you were sixty-six weeks ago.  And I hope you have a few of our memory verses tucked away in your heart.

Our final memory verse is found in Revelation 22:20 where we read, “The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!”

Do you hear Jesus’ promise?  Do you hear the church’s response?  For 2000 years Jesus’ promise and the church’s prayer have danced together.  Jesus says, “Surely I am coming soon” and gives His bride the promise of the ages.  And the church responds with a prayer, “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.”

Promise and prayer and prayer and promise forms the rhythm of our relationship to Jesus Christ.  The great English pastor and commentator on the Bible, Matthew Henry, said this about Revelation 22:20:  “We should never be satisfied until we find such a spirit breathing in us.”

Is Jesus’ promise filling your heart with hope?  Do you share in the church’s prayer for Jesus to come?

Our world is desperate for hope.  The horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding across our earth today – the red horse of war, the black horse of starvation, and the pale green horse of Death and Hades.  Everywhere we look we see war and poverty and violence and death.  Is there hope?  Is there someone we can turn to?

Oh yes, there is hope for this sin-weary and cursed world.  This hope is not found in human ability or power.  This hope is not located in great ideas or new inventions.  This hope, the world’s only hope, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus says in the final book of the Bible, “Surely I am coming soon.”  Jesus’ return is the world’s only hope.  We will not create utopia on earth.  Paradise will not emerge from new legislation and laws.  Even our best efforts at peace last temporarily.  Hope can only be found in Jesus, the Son of God.

What does hope look like?  What does hope sound like?  What does hope taste like?  How much does hope weigh?  Do I have hope?  Let me try to help you understand not only where hope is found, but what Christian hope can do for your life. 

Until Jesus Christ comes, let this prayer of hope – “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus” – fill your heart with more of Jesus.  That’s what this prayer will do as you pray it often.  That’s what this prayer is really about.  We want Jesus to return.  We long for His second coming, so we say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  And the more” we find such a spirit breathing in us”, the more of Jesus we will experience in our life and the more profound our hope will be.

Until Jesus comes, then, let this prayer of hope give you more of Jesus’ promise in your heart.  Jesus says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

At some point in your life, someone broke a promise to you.  Maybe your dad or mom broke a promise.  Maybe a teacher or coach or pastor or friend broke a promise you expected them to keep.  This world is filled with broken promises because all humans are sinful.  We can’t help ourselves.  We are liars by nature and liars by nurture.

But Jesus Christ is different.  He is the ultimate promise keeper.  He hasn’t once broken a promise He made.  And when He says He will return soon, He intends to keep His promise.

Christ promises to come back and create a new heaven and earth.  He promises to wipe away every tear from our eyes.  He tells us that when He comes there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.  I can hardly wait!

The more you think of this promise, the more hope you will have.  And the more you ask Christ to fulfill His promise, the deeper and sweeter your communion with Christ will be.  Sure, Christ’s promises are going to be fulfilled, but until then, they are meant to enrich our relationship with Him and strengthen our hope.  “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!”

Until Jesus comes, let this prayer of hope give you more of Jesus’ purpose in your heart.  “Amen.  Come Lord Jesus” the church cries out.  But where is Jesus?  We have been saying this prayer for 2000 years, and Jesus still hasn’t come, or has He? 

Several years ago after worship one morning, a man suggested to me that Jesus had already come.  I asked him to explain.  “Isn’t it possible,” he asked, “that Jesus has already returned?  Don’t you think that all the good in the world is because He is here in spirit?  Do we really have to wait for Him to come?” 

I told him that he had some good questions, and yes, there is some truth in what he said.  “But,” I went on to say, “the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ will come back in the same way He left earth – bodily and visibly – and everyone on earth will see Him the moment He returns” (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7).

“Where is the promise of His coming?” then, we might wonder.  Well, the Bible teaches “that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day” (1 Peter 3:8).  So it’s really only been about two days since He ascended into heaven!  You know I’m kidding.  Seriously, Christ says He’s coming soon in order to keep us alert and awake.  He wants every generation of the church to be watchful and steadfast, ready at any moment for His return.  He wants us sharing the gospel, bettering our “world” and living for God’s glory.  Plus, in light of eternity, a couple of thousand years isn’t that long.

In between the first and second comings of Jesus we are to let His purpose fill our hearts.   The fact that Jesus is coming soon ought to inspire us to give everything we have to extend the kingdom and God and His righteousness.  There isn’t a moment to lose.  Time is ticking.  Earth will soon undergo cataclysmic changes.  People are perishing and in need of the gospel.  Sin is marching onward and only the gospel can slow it down.

All of you recall the excitement and preparation that went into the President’s visit to Holland recently.  What an honor to have the President of the United States come to Holland and break ground for a new ion lithium battery plant.  And what an honor for our friend and mayor, Kurt Dykstra, to greet and spend some time with our President.

But before the President’s arrival, there was a lot going on behind the scenes.  The Secret Service scanned the area for days.  Planes flew back and forth throughout the week preceding his arrival, checking out whatever it is they check out.  Radio and television coverage filled the airwaves with news of the impending visit.  And newspapers and community conversations were filled with anticipation.  What happened?  Preparations were made and Holland rolled out the “red carpet” if you will.  Then the President arrived and Holland was ready.

Friends, are you ready for the return of Jesus Christ?  Are you busy preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ?  Are you even now rolling out the red carpet to welcome Him back to earth?  Wouldn’t you think that more of us would be talking about His return than we are?  Are we so caught up in our own little worlds that we are forgetting that the greatest event in human history is about to occur?  Will Christ find you spiritually sleeping or will you be alert and awake?  Will Christ find you using your talents for His glory or shamefully wasting them on your own pleasures?  Remember Lot’s wife!  Remember the five virgins who did not have enough oil in their lamps!  The Bible tells us that when the bridegroom came the door was shut and no one could then enter.  Time was up.  Every opportunity to trust Christ will be over, once He comes.  There will be no second chances.

Until Jesus comes, let this prayer of hope give you more of Jesus’ purity in your heart.  “’Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.”

This promise and prayer is meant to purify the church.  Jesus’ “bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure – for the fine linen is the righteousness deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8).

As you long for Jesus to return, your desires become purified.  Not instantly or overnight, but slowly and surely Christ sanctifies the hearts of those who look to Him and seek Him.  This is a beautiful thing to behold in someone’s life.  After worship recently, a young man told me he was once a friend of drugs but is now a friend of Jesus.  Only Jesus Christ can set your heart free from evil desires and practices.

Listen to these powerful words:  “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

Do you hear what God’s Word is saying?  Hope, true Biblical hope, purifies hearts and lives.  Jesus tells us to be busy with His work and not the work of sin when He comes.  Peter says, “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish” (1 Peter 3:14).  Is your conscience at peace?  Is your soul at peace?  Peace flows from a pure heart.  And longing for Jesus to come will have a purifying effect on your life.

Until Jesus comes, let this prayer give you more of Jesus’ power in your heart.  “Come, Lord Jesus!”  Jesus came once and He will come again.  In the meantime, there is what I call “mini-comings” of Jesus all the time.  The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church on the day of Pentecost.  Since that time, Jesus comes in the person of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin, regenerate their souls, comfort them in times of sorrow, provide guidance, answer their prayers, and build His church. 

These “mini-comings” if you will, are but a prelude to His ultimate coming on the day of the Lord.  And until He comes visibly or until He comes to call you home after 70 or 80 years, you can discover fresh power for living by hoping in His return.  For as the prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus” begins to fill your heart with expectation and longing, Christ releases power into your soul.  This spiritual strength enables you to persevere through hard times, wait patiently through tears, find comfort in sorrow, and make Christ known to an unbelieving and perishing world.

Do you want fresh power in your Christian life?  Then hope in Jesus!

Of course, the promise, the purpose, the purity, and the power of Christ in your heart are another way of saying that Christ himself will dwell in your heart richly.

Do you know Jesus Christ?  Have you confessed Him as your Lord and Savior?  Why not now?  Why not here?  Why not today?  Hope in the Lord!

Thank you and God bless you.

Until we meet again, either on earth or in heaven,

Pastor Mike