…He Will Come Again | We Believe | Drew Ritchie

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father of all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, from the same flesh and blood of the Father, from whom all things were made. And we believe for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven. He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. On the third day, He rose again according to the scriptures. We believe He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to life in the world to come. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning, Hills Church family. So glad that you're here.

My name is Drew Ritchie, and I am the official minister who preaches when we lose an hour of sleep. It is great to be here with all of you, whether you're joining us online or in person at one of our four campuses in Dallas, Keller, North Richland Hills, and West Fort Worth. We are continuing our series, like you saw, called We Believe. And before we begin, I know you just heard this, but we want to reiterate, if you are planning on being a part of our Baptism Sunday, please sign up. It helps us so much in our preparation for what's going to be a really special day. With the QR code or with your app or online, we would love to know that you're planning on being there and getting baptized. All right. So I think this illustration is going to work. I hope it does. But how many of you have had a friend reach out to you and say, hey, it's our mutual friend or family member's birthday, a big birthday, or maybe anniversary or retirement party or something big. And they said, could you please send a 60-second video to me? And I'm going to get a whole bunch of videos and compile them together. I'm getting head nods. And we're going to bless that person with that big video, right? We've experienced this. Or maybe even, hey, can you send in a paragraph of writing? And then we're going to compile all these paragraphs to be one big gift to the person. Okay? So whenever that happens, for me, this is usually how it goes. Okay, I start my video. Hey, it's Drew. Happy birthday. You know? And then I start talking to the person, and then I finish the video.

And at the end, I realize I recorded like a three and a half minute video, right? And it's like, oh no, it's supposed to be 60 seconds, right? So you try it again. And what you're having to do is you're trying to say, how do I take everything that I love about this person, especially if it's someone that's really close to you, and how do I boil it down to just a 60-second video of the most important things that this person means to me? Right? It's a tough challenge. And I've been thinking about that during this whole series when we've been talking about the Nicene Creed. For those of you, whether this is your first time here, or maybe you're just jumping into this series, the Nicene Creed was where, in the fourth century, there was a lot of heresy going on about who Jesus was, lots of confusion about Jesus' relationship to God. And so this group of about a hundred, or hundreds of church leaders were commissioned to come together and say, this is what we believe about God and Jesus and the church. And I don't know if you've been around groups of ministers before, but can you imagine how hard it would have been for them to spend time and say, we've got to boil down what we believe about who God is? They literally met for months. And can you imagine the conversation? They could have made a 10,000-word document of, this is what we believe, but they knew we have to make this succinct. This was a time where most people didn't know how to read. This was a time where it wasn't just easy to type up something and print it and give it to a bunch of people. And so it needed to be succinct enough that you could tell it to your friends. It needed to be succinct enough when someone said, you know what, I think I want to follow Jesus. What do I need to know?

That someone could memorize and say, this is what we believe. We believe that God is, and so on and so forth. And I just have this mental picture of, how do we take all the good things we want to say about Jesus and boil it down into this one creed? And in that process, I just have this mental image of some of these church leaders getting to a point where they stood on the table and they said, listen, I know we may not be able to keep this or that, but we have to keep this line. Every single word of this creed was hard fought territory, that we need this in here. And so with that in mind, let's read our section of the creed for today. We believe Jesus ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. I love that for the past two weeks, we focused on who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. And now I get to be the sermon that's the pivot point to what Jesus is doing now and what he will do in the future. And the way I see this sermon, whenever I read this section, I see it in kind of three moves. So this will be the framework of the whole sermon. We see that Jesus rules now, he is returning soon and he will reign forever. And with each one, I don't wanna just like describe each of those. What I want us to do is with each of those sections,

ask the question, why is it that those church leaders 1,700 years ago said this line has to be in here? That's gonna be the lens through which we look through this sermon. So let's start with our very first one. He rules now. I'll admit in my preaching career, I have not given enough attention to the ascension of Jesus. I've not given it the stage time that it deserves, but we need to know that the ascension, it's not an epilogue in the story. It is just as much a part of the divine plan as Bethlehem, as the cross, and as the empty tomb. The ascension, it's only portrayed three times in our gospels. Mark tells us at the end of his gospel, and then Luke, I think Luke is annoyed that John and Matthew haven't said anything about it, so Luke tells us twice. Luke tells us at the end of Luke and at the beginning of Acts that Jesus, he blessed his disciples and then he left them and went into heaven. This is what we're told. But even though it's only described three times, Jesus and the gospel writers constantly are referencing that he will someday go and ascend to heaven. Luke 7, verse 51 is one example.

Luke tells us, as the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. John 6, 61 through 62, aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? I wanna pause and just point out this line. Can you imagine, this is not Jesus's first time in heaven. This is a reunion for Jesus to be back in the heavenly hosts. And I don't know about you, but I love a good reunion. I love, yeah, I know that may shock some of you that I love seeing people that I haven't seen in a long time and giving them a big hug and just saying, hey, it's so good to see you, it's been so long. Can you imagine what that was like for Jesus in the heavenly hosts, with the angels and God the Father, and this time he is coming with the scars and trophies from his defeating death in the grave. Can you imagine, they're giving him a hug and they're like, let me see it, let me see it, and he's showing them his hands and his feet, and everyone's cheering and applauding, and I just, I imagine that there's maybe a parting of ways. After people have given him big hugs, there's a parting, and then you see the throne. And Jesus makes his way to the rightful place

beside the Father, and that we now know that he rules and governs his church and the whole cosmos with the full authority of the Father. He rules now. So let's ask the question, why does this need to make it in the creed? I think we could've spent the whole sermon just talking about this one point, we could've done a whole series on this one point, but let me give you just two reasons why this had to make it in. The first one is this, because his ascension is not absence, it is fullness. His ascending does not mean we get less of Jesus. It means that he actually abounds more fully than he did before. Our space, you see, is bound by time and by location. I am bound by this place that I am right now. I am in DFW, Texas, and it is March 8th, early in the morning, that this is where I am bound. I cannot be a bunch of places at once, despite what technology makes us think we can do. And God's space is not bound by place and time. So you see, Jesus's transcendence means he is no longer confined to one place and one time. In John 14, when Jesus talks about, hey, I'm going to leave y'all, his promise is I'm gonna leave, but it's gonna be better for you because my spirit is going to outpour over all the earth

on all my sons and daughters. And so the ascension of Jesus was not to our loss, but to our gain. The world now has more of God because Jesus is reigning in the heavens. Bishop Robert Barron writes this. He says, what's truly paradoxical and awe-inspiring about the ascension is that the distance is not abandonment, but rather an even more intense form. form of intimacy. The second reason why this had to make it into the creed is because he is interceding for us right now. There's lots of places we talk about this in the Bible, but probably no place that's better than in Hebrews, where the author of Hebrews says, listen, you used to have a high priest that was like this, but now you have a high priest that has ascended into heaven and his sacrifice that he has made for the people of God that happened once in history has now been taken up into eternity. Hebrews 4.14, he writes this, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, he wants you to know, our high priest, that's how he's defining him, one who is now in heaven, Jesus, the son of God. And so everything he's gonna write after that is saying, these things are good and true for us because Jesus has ascended in heaven.

Here's one of the examples, Hebrews 7, 26 through 27. Such a high priest, this one actually meets our needs. One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners. And then what do we need for this to be a real high priest who truly meets our needs? Exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priest, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day because those are in one place and in one time, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. I just want us to grasp, I know it's a little dense, but I want us to think about how cool this is, how important this is. Now that Jesus is interceding in the heavens, his atonement is outside of place and time, therefore it applies to all places and all time. Jesus is a risen man with a glorified body and he is now one with God and the Spirit in the heavens. The second person of the Trinity is now a human. I think sometimes we think that when Jesus ascended, he paused and he unzipped his human body and his Spirit levitated to be in the heavens because you know the body can't be in the heavens with God. No, his whole body is now one with God. He is the firstborn from among the dead and so we know that he has paved a way, prepared a way for us and our bodies to someday be with God, father, son, and Spirit forever.

We need the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to say we conquered death and we need the ascension for us to have a way for our bodies to be glorified and to dwell with God eternally. When Jesus talks about this, this is what he says, John 14. Hey, listen, I'm leaving, but don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house, it has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, will I come back? I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Which brings us to our second big point. He is returning soon. This is a non-negotiable Christian claim. You don't get to decide if you're keeping this or not. There will be a day when God will set the world right once and for all. 2 Timothy 4.1 says, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead? Acts 17.31, for God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice. By whom? By the man he has appointed. Well, how are we gonna know who that man is? He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

Now, sadly, if I'm being honest with you, part of why I thought about my opener, talking about what's the things that have to make it in to the encouragement video and what doesn't, if I'm being honest, part of me read this section and thought, okay, of all the things that had to make it in, did this line have to make it in? Did the line about judgment have to make it in? Because all you church leaders thousands of years ago, I don't know if you know this, but judgment has a really negative connotation right now in America and in the Western world. The idea of judging, it has terrible PR. You could really have made a lot of people happy if you had just left this line out. I would argue as I process this, I thought right now in our culture, there is probably no unforgivable sin worse than for someone to stand and view what someone is saying or doing or how they're living and to say, that doesn't seem good or healthy or that doesn't seem smart. That is the worst act of violence you could possibly do to someone in our culture today. As I've studied for this sermon, I just want you to know I am so glad this line made it in. And here's why. First, because it is very good news that Jesus is the judge. The illustration, the best illustration I can think of

is how many of you are movie fans? People like watching movies in here? Okay, not as many hands as I thought, okay. Two hands here, all right. I'll tell you, I loved watching movies growing up and then whenever I was kind of a young adult, I'd say I watched a ton of movies, way too many movies. And then I had kids and I haven't really watched very many movies since. But what I always remembered is as I paid attention to the Oscars, the Oscars is the award show for movies, I was always so confused because my determination of a really good movie was, wow, this movie has some laughs and has some sweet scenes and most importantly, this movie makes me wanna be a better person. When I left the theater, I thought, I wanna be a better man. And yet, when I watched the Oscars, all the movies that seemed to win the awards are movies that just seem really weird. You know, if I went to watch a movie that got nominated for an Oscar and I left the theater thinking, I don't understand that at all, and it was really confusing and frankly, there were some terrible things in it, that's probably gonna win Best Picture, right? How many of you have ever experienced this? It's like the whole world is like, wow, this is an amazing movie. Of course, it's not gonna win Best Picture.

And it's because the people judging those movies have a different criteria than me of what a good movie is. So let's just think about this for a second. I want you to picture in all of world history and even presently today, all over the world, men and women who are leaders of countries and places. I want you to imagine that I told you they were the ones that were gonna get to decide what is right and good and true and beautiful. How terrified would you be if that was our permanent state in life? But what if I have good news that someday, the permanent state of our lives will be judged by Jesus and his character? This is from N.T. Wright. It's a long quote, but it's worth it. The main point to notice once more is that all the future judgment is highlighted basically as good news, not bad. Why so? It is good news first because the one through whom God's justice will finally sweep the world is not a hard-hearted, arrogant, or vengeful tyrant, but rather the man of sorrows who is acquainted with grief, the Jesus who loved sinners and died for them, the Messiah who took the world's judgment upon himself on the cross. That is why it's really good news that Jesus is the judge who will come in glory. The question that I think you might be asking,

and it's a good question, is well, doesn't that mean he's gonna come and he's gonna judge me too? Yes, he will judge us too, but if you are in Christ, our verdict has already been declared. Over and over in the New Testament, over and over, it says, listen, there is one thing that defines whether or not you are going to be right when that day comes, and it is because of what Jesus Christ has done for you and me, and who you proclaim that he is. That's it. Romans 8.1, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5 comes to mind. The one who calls you, he's faithful. He will surely do it. And then the next question, the next question that is understandable to ask is go, okay, Drew, I get that, I'm great, good news, but why does there have to be a judgment at all? Couldn't we just not have any judgment? And the reason we have to have it is this, because without judgment, injustice wins. All of creation, us and all of creation have been groaning for the day when God will make things right. So let me ask you, at all of our campuses, is anybody longing for the day when God will make things right in our world?

Does anybody wake up and think, I cannot wait for God to make this right? Anybody longing for an end to genocide, an end to school shootings, an end to abuse, to human trafficking, to pornography, to racism, to corruption, to violence? Anybody ready for that to be gone? We are indebted to the men and the women who serve as police officers, lawyers, social activists, military personnel, school teachers, counselors, and the list goes on, who tirelessly work to make a difference in this world with these kinds of problems. And yet, if we're being honest, we constantly feel this question of, are we doing two steps forward, one step back? Or are we doing one step forward, two steps back? Or are we doing one step forward, two steps back? Or are we doing one step forward, one step back? We feel that. If we're being honest, injustice too often goes completely unanswered. Evil often escapes without any consequence. And sadly, sometimes evil escapes not without consequence, but being celebrated by people in the world. Victims too often never see any kind of restoration for the hurt that was done to them. But the Christian faith declares, there is a day that is coming. And on that day, Jesus will come in glory

to judge the living and the dead. In Ephesians one, verses nine through 10, I'm sure I've read this before, but I'm so glad I'm getting to read it again through the lens of this sermon. But in Ephesians one, nine through 10, it says this, God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. His good pleasure was for us to know his will, and which he purposed that will in Christ. And that will is gonna be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment, when we get to this day. What is God's will? His will is to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth. As Jesus prayed, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, under Christ. Everything in heaven and on earth, someday God is going to unify, he's going to reconcile, he's gonna bring it all together. And the only things that are gonna stay in that new heavens and the new earth are things that fall under the authority of Jesus. If it doesn't look like Jesus, it's not gonna be there. If it doesn't resemble the character of Jesus, it will not be in the new heavens and the new earth because all of that's gonna be aligned under the authority of Jesus. We need that world that scripture calls

the new heavens and the new earth, where 2 Peter 3 says, where righteousness dwells. We need it to exist. And for it to exist, everything that is not righteous must be dealt with by a righteous, good, true judge. Death and decay will have no place. They will be overcome and God will be all in all. And so I wanna encourage you, next time you hear a sermon or read a passage talking about the judgment that's coming, the day of the Lord that's coming, do not be afraid. Do not fear his coming. Not only that, long for it. Long for his coming because it is a great day when God will come and make everything right. And for those who are in Christ, it will be one of the best days we've ever experienced. Our third big idea is that he will reign forever. You see, the pagan view of history, the way most of humanity has thought of history since the beginning, is that history is just one big cycle. Everything is a flat circle. Everything is birth, life, decay, and death. Everything is spring, summer, fall, winter, just over and over. And time and history isn't going anywhere. Or maybe a more recent pagan view of history is that time is going somewhere and it's just a train headed for a cliff. It's just gonna fall off at some point.

But the Judeo-Christian view of history is that history has a clear beginning and that history has an end. And that that end is not a dead end. It is something that none of us can possibly grasp. It is a new creation. It is a wholeness that we can't possibly fathom. And I think the reason why this line, his kingdom will never end, had to make it end is because if all people through all time have experienced this same thing that happens in human history, they see over and over that kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. And most of the time the next kingdom is worse than the one that was before. That's what it seems like through a lot of human history. And typically the poor and the lowly and the marginal are trampled on in the process. The people at the top of the empire often think we've made it. We have built this perfect utopian way to be humans while thousands and millions of people underneath are being trampled, right? And God's people throughout the Bible have been longing for a day when there will be a kingdom where God will come establish his kingdom and he will wipe out those evil empires. We see it with the Babylonians. We see it with the Assyrians. We see it with the Roman Empire,

not to mention the Galactic Empire. I mean, come on, God, what are you gonna do about Emperor Palpatine, right? And he will come and he will establish his reign, right? And the question that all the people would be asking is this, okay, God, that's great. We want you to establish your kingdom, but when is it gonna be time for that kingdom just to fall off and it be replaced by a bad kingdom again? You can see how they would imagine this because every good king seems to be replaced by a bad one throughout history. Daniel 7 is our best example in the Bible of this idea. In Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision where he sees these empires rise and fall over and over and every time, the empire is depicted as this horrifying, terrifying beast. Did I say horrifying, terrifying? Beast, and it has these claws and it just devours God's people every time. And the question is, what are we gonna do about these beasts that keep rising up? Like the ancient of days, the father comes and he holds a courtroom scene. And he sides with the people who are being trampled and he casts down those evil beasts into the abyss. And this is the line that comes next. Arguably one of the lines in scripture that our gospel writers lean on the most when they're trying to connect Jesus to the Old Testament.

Daniel 7, in my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. This line had to make it into the creed because people in the Bible times and people today are wondering, God are you ever gonna establish your kingdom and will it someday fade away? You ask people all over the world today, I could list tons of countries, ask people in Ukraine, ask people in Syria, Iran, Venezuela, ask people who are going through political upheaval and they're wondering like who's gonna be in charge at the end of this and how long is that gonna last? And we know because we believe it that when Jesus comes in glory to judge and to establish his kingdom, we never have to worry if it's ever gonna fail someday. It will be a world without end. And so to conclude, let me take you back to that council in Nicaea. Let's go back there. Let's go back to imagining these hundreds of church leaders talking about what exactly

are we gonna say this has to make it in to the creed and why? And I do believe the primary reason why all of this got in here is because this was received by them. They did not sit around and try and invent something. They didn't think, okay, let's see, what would be a good line here? Oh, born of the Virgin Mary, that's a good line. Let's put that, no. They are articulating what they heard and was passed down from the apostles, things that they were willing to stake their life on. These are true things. But I also have this hope. I have this hope that at some point, one of those church leaders stood up on a table and said, listen, y'all, my life is in a tough place. What my family and what this world is going through is in a broken, difficult place. And I need these lines to be in this creed because without these lines, my hope would be less. And the gospel tells me that I can go through this time and I can have hope because God is the one that's ruling right now. Despite what it looks like, God is on the throne. I know that I can make it through because I know one day a good judge will come and set this right. I am able to endure because I know that when he does that, the kingdom that he establishes, it's not gonna be like any of these other kingdoms

that rise and fall and rage against each other. It will be one that is an everlasting dominion, one that I've already seen break through into this world already, and it will be revealed fully someday. I have hope because I know those things are true. I have hope because I believe that truth. I want to believe that that's part of why one of those people stood up and said, we have to keep this. And all of us are invited to enter into that kingdom and live for that kingdom today and forever. I want to invite everyone in this room and all of our campuses, if you would, please stand. We've done this every week. I want to invite you to repeat these words or say these words with me. Don't repeat after me, that'd be terrible. Say these words with me and please don't say them if you don't believe them. We believe he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end, amen. Let's pray. Father God, what a blessing it is to get to be here. God, thank you for each and every person that's here in all of our campuses and online and the way that they bless mine and Catherine and our family's life.

God, it's impossible to fathom how good news it is that you are on the throne. Thank you for that. Thank you for being a good judge. Thank you for coming again someday. We long for that day when you will set the world right. God, we thank you that that kingdom will never end and we thank you that you've made a way. It would be impossible for us to be a part of it without your son. Thank you for making a way for us. And God, I pray that each and every person that hears the sound of my voice would know that there is one thing that allows us to be a part of that kingdom. And it's your son's death and resurrection on the cross and that if we would just proclaim that he is Lord and have a relationship with him, we get to be a part of it. It's in your son's name we pray, amen.