Exalting God

Series: Christ’s Expectations for His Church

Peter said, “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet 4:7).  A simple statement to be sure, but they’re powerful words to live by.  When it comes to the subject of Christ’s return there is a common thread throughout the New Testament summarized by Peter’s words in his first epistle.  He obviously believed that the time of Christ’s return would come about in his lifetime. 

The writer of Hebrews likewise believed the time was near: “For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay’” (Heb 10:37).  The Apostle John believed that the “last hour” would occur in his own lifetime  (1 John 2:18).  Perhaps the best known biblical confession of a firm expectation of Christ’s imminent and soon-coming return is Paul’s words to the Thessalonians:

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:15-17).

Clearly, Paul lived with a great expectation and full belief that the return of Jesus Christ was going to happen in his generation.  Of course, we trust that Paul knew of Christ’s teaching regarding the hour of his return (Mt 24:36), the fact that no one but the Father knows of its timing, and no where did Paul convey that he knew of a promised date of Christ’s return. 

Yet, through his convincing words we are forced to grapple with the faith of a man who was so enraptured by the person of Christ that he could imagine nothing better than Christ returning and consummating history as he knew it.  He tried to capture this sentiment for Titus’ sake:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Tit 2:11-13).

Paul had experienced the grace of God in a powerful, liberating way on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).  He had been taught to renounce his own ungodliness and worldly passions.  He had learned from Christ how to live a self-controlled, upright and godly life in the midst of a pagan world.  But more than anything, the grace of God had instilled within his soul a great hope; an impassioned hope of the glorious return of his God and Savior Jesus Christ.  Paul left no room for doubt; he was actively looking for Christ’s physical return.  Moreover, it seems fair to say that he was longing for it.

Personally, I’m convinced that this was at least part of Paul’s motivation for consistently calling the body of Christ to spiritual renewal.[i]  He knew that Christ would return and that he would be expecting to find his church living and serving as he had called them to. 

Having been called out of the darkness of sin and entrusted with the high calling of the apostolic ministry, Paul labored over the state of the church until his death.  He bled over the church.  He wept over the church.  He lost sleep and suffered at the hands of both Jew and Gentile alike for the sake of the body of Christ, all so that it could be found as a spotless bride when the bride-groom returned. 

Although two millennia have passed since the life and death of Paul, our desire for the return of Christ should be no less zealous than his.  Furthermore, our desire for the health and purity of the body of Christ should be no less fervent. 

We too should find ourselves contemplating just what Christ is going to find when he returns.  Will he find the church he designed or an imposter?  Will he find the vast multitude of individual groups labeled “churches” behaving properly and proclaiming the gospel faithfully?  On a more personal level, we should all ask ourselves this question: Will he find me behaving properly and proclaiming the gospel faithfully? 

This is actually the most important question for us because every church is composed of individual believers and the whole can only be as good as its parts.  Thankfully we serve an all-knowing God.  He knew that his children would face this question until his eventual return; therefore, he gave us a very clear answer.    

While exiled on the island of Patmos because of his faith, the Apostle John received a revelation from God – The revelation of Jesus Christ.  This book, the book we know as Revelation, has been studied and pondered and written about by countless men and women throughout the last two thousand years.  With its symbolic language and references it has confused many (myself included), but when taken for what it was intended to be it has also provided a great deal of encouragement to many. 

I recall one New Testament scholar summarizing the book of Revelation with these few words: In the end, God wins.  Sure, we could argue that that is an oversimplification of this weighty book, but when I try to read Revelation from a first or second century persecuted Christian perspective, the fact that God is assured the victory in the end means more to me than understanding the significance of a multi-headed dragon. 

Now I do believe that we should study Revelation intently and seek to understand all that God means to communicate through it, but I pray that we will always come back to the encouragement and hope that it was originally intended to foster.  This book was meant to convict the church of sin and challenge them to remain faithful to Christ amidst persecution, knowing that he would triumph over their enemies in the end. 

This is vital to us as believers because although our setting is quite different from our first-century counterparts, the same basic problems that plagued them still afflict us.  Their love for Christ faded over time, so too does ours.  Their tolerance for false teaching grew, so too does ours.  The seductive cultural influences which surrounded them corrupted their lives, likewise we are permeated by godlessness and it corrupts us just as it did them.  Their faith weakened, so too does ours.  Their patience and hope grew faint over the years, so too does ours.    

Being so similar, we should easily find both comfort and conviction in the words of Christ’s revelation, for his loving words of encouragement and promise along with his stern correction to the seven churches in Asia are just as important and applicable to us as it was to them.  With that in mind, we will turn our attention to his words written to these seven churches, praying that through them we will discern exactly what he expects to find upon his return. 

Through John, Christ communicated with seven distinct churches, churches that I believe to be real, but also typical of churches that have existed from the beginning.  Therefore, every believer and subsequently every church can find words of correction and comfort in his critique. 

The first on his list was the church at Ephesus.  It was a city bustling with people and very important from a political perspective.  Cultic influences permeated the people.  It boasted temples built in honor of the Roman emperors Claudius, Hadrian, and Severus.[ii]  It is likely that Priscilla and Aquila were the first missionaries to this city around A.D. 52 (Acts 18:24-28). 

Ephesus was a city who had heard the gospel and been taught well.  Paul himself proclaimed and taught the gospel to them, challenging them to abandon their old lives for newness in Christ (Acts 19-20).  Clearly, much had been entrusted to them and with his letter to them it became equally clear that Christ expected a great deal from them.

[i]Consider a sample of Paul’s words to the church: Acts 14:19-23; 16:1-5; 20:17-38; Romans 12-15; and 1 Corinthians are just a few examples of his passion for the church to behave as God originally intended.

[ii]Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation. Revised. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998.  First Edition, 1977), 66-67.