THE Lord’s coming is the hope of the Church and of each individual believer.
“I Jesus... am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come” (Rev. 22).
To David the promise of a son—the Christ— was given; of a son who should be also the Son of God, “I will be His Father, and He shall be My Son” (1 Chron. 17:11-1411And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. 13I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: 14But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore. (1 Chronicles 17:11‑14)). David’s son is David’s offspring, but being also the Son of God, He is the one from whom David drew his being and his blessings: “The Root and the Offspring of David.” The One who should accomplish all the promises made to David, whether as regards the house or the kingdom.
The Lord announced to Peter (Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)) His intention of building His Church—God’s house. In the Book of Revelation, the throne is seen in heaven (4, 5, &c.), and the kingdom is on the point of being established on earth (11:15, &c.).
But before the kingdom is set up in power over the earth, the Lord will take His own to be with Himself, to bear His image and to come with Him in His glory (John 14:2, 32In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2‑3); Col. 3:44When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4); Jude 14, 1514And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 14‑15); Rev. 3:10-1110Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (Revelation 3:10‑11)).
The “day of the Lord,” the power of the kingdom, will be inaugurated by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:1, 21For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. (Malachi 4:1‑2)).
Before the day breaks in its glory, the bright and morning star is seen shining in its solitary brilliancy. Thus is the Lord the Hope of the Church, thus are suitable affections formed in the Bride by the Spirit. “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.”
When Jesus was on the eve of leaving the disciples to go to the Father, by the way of the cross, He told them of His earnest desire and intention to have them with Himself in the Father’s house (John 14:1-31Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1‑3)). In His prayer to the Father, breathed in the hearing of those whom the Father had given to Him, He says, “Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory that Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)). Think, beloved, of the place in the Lord’s heart, occupied by His disciples, that He should say to the Father, “I will,” respecting those whom the Father had given Him.
On that same evening, He said to His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14). He presents Himself to them during the time of His absence, as an object of their faith like tie invisible God. Then He adds, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you.”
The Father’s house, not the earth, will be the place of eternal blessing for believers. None but the Son could reveal the Father’s house, His own dwelling-place; none but the Son could prepare a place therein for any one. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, ye may be also.”
“I will come,” says the Lord—not, I will send an angel to fetch you— “and receive you unto Myself.” “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven” (1 Thess. 4:1616For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thessalonians 4:16)). “Thus shall we ever be with the Lord,” is the revelation on this subject “by the word of the Lord” to Paul (1 Thess. 4).
All this shows the place in the Lord’s affection occupied by His beloved, and thus are the hearts of believers formed to wait for their beloved Lord, and to say, “Amen, come, Lord Jesus.”
The Thessalonians (only converted a few weeks), when some of them died, feared that their dead companions would be deprived of the blessings to be introduced by the Lord at His coming to reign. The fourth chapter of the first epistle (vers. 13 to 18) is a special message to them “by the word of the Lord,” to set their hearts at rest respecting their departed brothers and sisters, and to reveal to them that which the Lord had made known to His disciples in John 14:1-71Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. (John 14:1‑7), and what the Lord had prayed the Father in John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24), “To be with Himself forever.”
These Thessalonians had been converted to God from idols “to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1:9, 10). They waited for their Lord, but they had yet to learn that at the Lord’s coming God would bring with Jesus those put to sleep in Jesus: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” even so, with Him, God will bring “them which sleep in Jesus” (4:14). But if they too come with Jesus, is it not evident that they must first be raised from the dead and go to Him (vs. 16).
The state of departed souls, however blessed, is not, dear brethren, the full and final blessing God has in store for His saints. Even as Jesus died and rose again, so must the bodies of believers know His power and bear His image. The body (as well as the soul) must share adoption and redemption (Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)). “Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who will change our vile (or mortal) body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20, 2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21)). “When He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)). It is this hope which produces practical holiness in the waiting saint: “And every one that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (vs. 3). Read also Romans 8:1111But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11); 1 Corinthians 15.
“Fashioned like to His glorious body,” “like Him” in the body, as well as conformed to Him in the soul, to Him who is ever the only-begotten of the Father, alone in His divine glory and sonship, and yet the “First-born among many brethren.”
The whole Church, composed of sleeping and of living saints, will obey the Lord’s command, the trumpet sound, and meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)), being caught up together by His power, in the twinkling of an eye.
Christ will present the Church, the Bride, unto Himself, a glorious Church (Eph. 5:25-27, 3225Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25‑27)
32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:32)).
To be with Him, to behold the glory of the One whom the Father loves (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)), is the recompense which appeals to the affections of those who love the Lord, and which shows at the same time how the Lord Jesus counts on the love of His own, knowing that our supreme joy, beloved, will be to be with Him, to behold His glory, the expression of the Father’s love.
What then is the effect produced on those who thus wait for Him? “Every one that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:33And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)). According as this hope burns brightly in our hearts, beloved brethren, so are we exercised, so do we purify ourselves as He is pure. The hope produces this effect. How is it with us practically? Are we occupied with Him? Are we waiting for Him? Are our hearts filled with Him as we journey to meet Him; the ear, the heart ever listening to His voice by the Holy Spirit and expecting His coming?
May the hearts of all His redeemed be awakened to wait for Him, that none may be ashamed at His coming, but that His satisfaction respecting His own may be complete at His coming!
F. M. H.