Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"Longing for His Appearing"
August 6, 2006 - PM Service

LONGING FOR HIS APPEARING
TEXT: 2 TIM. 4:8
INTRO:
Last Sunday evening I chuckled as Cody East shared his experiences with the Second Coming of Christ as a child. I found all he said to be familiar! I lived in a fear of not being taken with Christ when He returns.

I was not old enough of informed enough to know that people had differing interpretations of how Jesus would return. I just knew that when He comes back you want to be ready. Now that the fear is gone the truth remains that when He comes back I want to be ready!

The current event of Israel's conflict with Lebanon is a mover to my wanting to share with you the longing for Jesus' return. This week I also received in the mail a flyer about a prophecy seminar hosted in Baton Rouge next week. I went online and could not find a clear answer as to whom is the sponsor for this. Many today are seizing the moment to build their cult or religion.

In response, let's take a few minutes to look at Israel itself and then look at our Lord's appearing.

I. FOUR IDEAS ABOUT ISRAEL (ROM. 11:26)
It is clear that God chose the Jews as a people group for His purpose of redemption in Jesus Christ. From Abraham's call God has been unfolding His plan for His own glory. Rom 9:4-5. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
In this all nations are indebted to God through Israel for the Word of God and the Messiah. But has God finished with Israel as a tool. Is the need for them as a chosen people group over? Some believe it is while others do not. Those who do see Israel as having yet a further role in God's redemptive plan point to OT prophecies that seem to indicate that Israel's restoration extends beyond a return from Babylonian exile. They point to events as a sign of this - the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that pledged support for a national home for the Jewish people group; the 1948 establishment of the geopolitical nation of Israel; and, the capture of Jerusalem by the Israelis in the June 1967 Six-Day War;

Of great significance in this whole discussion is Rom. 11:26 whereby Apostle Paul wrote that "all Israel will be saved. This has produced four ideas about Israel.
1. The whole Jewish people group will be saved in the end. While understanding Paul's words "all Israel" as meaning a nation is consistent with chapters 9-11, it is not consistent with the overall argument of Paul's that Israel has been judged as a nation because she has not sought Him on the basis of grace.
2. Paul is writing of all within Israel who do believe. While the Jewish people group as a group rejected Jesus as the Messiah, some individuals within the people group will be and are being saved as a remnant.
3. The words "all Israel" is the wholeness of the one people of God whether Jewish or Gentile. The term Israel takes on a broader meaning than the Jewish people group and refers to all of the true people of God who now walk in faith in Jesus Christ.
4. The fourth idea asks the question, "Is Paul thinking of the future at all?" Paul is expressing his hopes as an evangelist that the Gospel will bear fruit as a witness to everyone including the Jewish people group.
5. To fully expand these ideas, you would need at least a four volume set of books each dedicated to one of the views. And in the end one would still have to decide which is a proper view of the Jewish people group. Which ever idea one chooses, to make the modern day geopolitical state of Israel the same as the Biblical references of Israel is questionable.
6. Of these ideas, I find it most helpful and Biblically sound to understand "all Israel being saved" as meaning that while Israel as a people group rejected Christ, individuals within that group still come to faith in Christ (idea #2). Furthermore, those who come to salvation will do so the same way everyone else comes to salvation - through faith in Jesus Christ (a variation of idea #3). If God has a place for Israel it will be under the same terms with which He has a place for every other people group.
(Know the Truth, pgs. 320-322, Bruce Milne, IVP Books, 1998)
The divisive questions always surface, "Is it right or wrong to support modern day Israel as a geopolitical nation? Is one favored by God when they do so and cursed by God if they do not do so?" I remember being feed a very steady diet of the belief that as long as America stood by and for Israel, America or any other nation would be especially favored by God and would be kept save and sovereign. But is that right or wrong? The answer depends upon one's sympathies toward two understandings of theology. If one is dispensational (Dispensationalism is a theological system that teaches biblical history is best understood in light of a number of successive economies or administrations under God, which it calls "dispensations") one likely holds that support of Israel is imperative because Israel and the Church are two very different entities. If one is covenantal (a system that believes God has dealt with man on the basis of three covenants but the result in relation to our topic is that the privileges and promises to Israel have been transferred to the Church) then the question is either mute or indifferent.
My personal understanding which you are free to consider and reject (!) is that Israel does have a special place in the heart of God as do all people groups and that their full attainment of that place will only come through faith in Jesus Christ. Support of geopolitical Israel is not an essential Christian doctrine. But the desire to see Jewish people come to faith in Jesus Christ is essentially Christian. Yet, it is personally appropriate to be respectful of those once chosen by God as Apostle Paul still showed deference to the high priest and recognized his authority.
II. LONGING FOR HIS APPEARING (2 TIM. 4:8)
Being distracted too long, let's go to the theme at hand - longing for His appearing.
1. A longing is something to which we all can relate. When a child we long to grow up and do as we want. When grown up we long to be a child and do as we want! Apostle Paul could have written of longing as a lust-like craving for something or someone. Or he could have written of deep personal affection or attachment to someone, like a friend, a companion, or a spouse. Instead, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote of longing as a deliberate act of asserting one's will as a matter of principle, duty, or propriety. This is the divine-like love popularly called by the Greek word agape.
2. His appearing is the object of our willful, asserted longing. Jesus appeared when He the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is of this appearing that Apostle John writes 1 John 1:1-2. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. His appearing is also the coming to meet His saints in the air (not New Orleans' Saints!). Apostle Paul writes of this specifically in 4:1 and here in 4:8. This appearing is further shown to us in the letter to Titus 2:13, while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the simplest words the appearing of Jesus Christ is His shining forth, not only what has happened by His presence and power in a saving light but His illustrious return from Heaven to earth.

III. LIVING WITH A LONGING.
Longing for Jesus Christ's appearing is far different than the dreaded fear of the scolding parent coming home to spank us, it is far different than an obsession with fitting current events into a Bible grid of our own making.
1. Living with longing has waiting as a theme. Several passages remind us that longing involves waiting. Rom 8:23
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

1 Thess 1:9-10
They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead-Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Heb 9:28
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him
Wait is not a positive word in the everyday American vocabulary. But we must be reminded that longing for a better world, dreaming of a better time, is not what we long for -- we wait for Him, His return -- not the lifting of all burdens, the erasure of all pains and diseases, nor the life free of cares. But longing for His appearing makes my waiting more active for there is a person attached to it and I don't get as easily sidetracked.
2. Living with longing for His appearing is being occupied until He comes, not pre-occupied. If I could pick one word to put American Christians in as positive of a light as possible I think the word would be "pre-occupied." That explains why the return of Christ is less a willful assertive affection from us and why evangelism is a negligence. Why are vibrant prayer lives less common? Why must we be enticed to attend to the Word of God? Why a lack of generosity? Because we are pre-occupied. Jesus warned even diagnosed the tendency of our hearts when we said of our weak responsiveness to the truth of God in Mark 4:18-19, Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Our longing for His appearing is being dulled by our pre-occupation with houses, lands, retirement plans, exceptional opportunities for children, worries, and just "things." So as we wait we instead live occupied with the duties to which he has called us - worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, and fellowship.
3. Living with a longing for His appearing is as being engaged in our culture. Hebrews 9:28 tells us that when Jesus returns He will bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. But do we not have salvation now? Yes and no. What we have now are the partial effects of a future fullness. During an engagement period a man and a woman get to know one another in a now/not yet way. The now of engagement has a sense of dedication, even ownership to one another, a sense of belonging to one another. It is a time of preparation for what is to come which a wise couple will use to learn to communicate, manage their finances, establish common goals and dreams, etc. It is a period of setting up for the mingling of finances, property, and family. Time together increases within boundaries and barriers. The not yet of engagement is the consummation of the marriage in physical intimacy. The full joint ownership of properties and responsibilities is not yet. A depth of knowledge that can only come over time is part of the not yet of engagement.
4. So we are today as the Bride of Christ waiting, even longing for His appearing. We long for our physical bodies to be transformed not for the ease of movement of arthritic joints; we long for our minds to be unencumbered with cares, worries, and concerns not so we can have peace; we long for a place whose builder is God not so we can compare the square footage of the houses; but because we long for Him! If I want Heaven because I do not want Hell, then it is not Him I long for!

CONCL:
Longing for His appearing I willfully assert my affections for Jesus Christ, to long for His appearing is to yearn for freedom from the constraints of time and space so I can gain in fellowship with Him and in the knowledge of Him.

Our communion tonight is about His appearing. 1 Cor 11:26
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

I am not asking that we do anything tonight other than grow in a longing for His appearing. Until He comes - we long with waiting, with occupation like a young bridegroom.