The Certainty of His Return

It was on November the 9th and 10th of 1938 that the Nazi party carried out a very violent attack against Jews all over Nazi Germany and the attack became known as Kristallnacht. And that word Kristallnacht, German word actually means night of broken glass. And it received the name Kristallnacht because of the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish synagogues and businesses were completely destroyed. In fact, over 1400 synagogues, over 7,000 businesses, Jewish businesses were destroyed in that attack. Not to mention the 30,000 Jewish men who were arrested and sent to concentration camps. A few weeks later, the parents that were there in Nazi Germany came to the horrible realization that their children were no longer safe. And with borders closing and visas scarce, they had to come up with a plan and they devised what was known as Kindertransport, which was a rescue effort that would send their children to safety in Britain. And the decision of many parents to sign the papers, to release their kids to go to Britain felt like the tearing of their hearts in half because the parents would stay behind and they would send their kids and many of them would never see their children again. On December the 2nd, 1938,

at Liverpool Street Station there in London, volunteers gathered there on the platform of the train station, awaiting the very first trainload of children that would be coming from Germany and from Austria, traveling across Europe and then across the English Channel on boats and then again on a train that would pull into the Liverpool Street Station. Some of the kids that were traveling alone were as young as five years old. They all had little suitcases with just a ration of clothes that had been thrown into the suitcases and there were these volunteer foster parents waiting there at the train station. And the time came for the train to arrive but there was no sight of the train. Minutes turned into hours. A deep fog set in over London and over the train station and nobody really said anything. Everyone just waited in silence, waited in the cold and cold and finally a whistle pierced the night. The sound of a train whistle pierced through the fog and the train made its way in. The faces of little children pressed against the windows of that train. And then as the children came off of the train with their name pinned to their clothes or pinned to their coat,

the foster parents there in England were looking for the kids that they would take. It was a long-awaited arrival and it would represent safety for almost 10,000 children. For many of the parents, it was the last act of love that they would ever give. Today we're in part two of our series entitled Wonder. The word wonder, according to the dictionary, just simply means a cause of astonishment or admiration. And I wanna talk today for a few minutes about the wonder of His arrival, the wonder of the arrival of Jesus. God knew that the only solution for mankind, the only way to save mankind was to send His Son, Jesus, to be sacrificed for you and I. If you're thankful for that, come on, say amen. Amen. Take your Bible, if you will, or your device. I want you to go to two places, one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. We're gonna look at a verse of scripture in Isaiah 7 and then in the New Testament in 2 Peter 1. Isaiah 7, 2 Peter 1. Would you stand to honor the Word of God as we do every single week? The greatest book on the planet. Somebody say amen. Amen. And in 2 Peter, we'll start there first in chapter one,

beginning in verse 19. It says this, so we have the prophetic word made more sure. We'll talk about that in a minute. To which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. And then on Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, a familiar verse to probably many of you, it says this, the prophet writing, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and we'll call him Emmanuel. And we know that name Emmanuel means God in the flesh with us. God who laid down his royalty in heaven and came in the humblest of forms to this earth to be sacrificed for you and I. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hey, let's make some declarations together this morning before you're seated, everybody together. You ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart

that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word. And I am confident of this, that he who has begun a good working will complete it in Jesus' name. Amen, you can be seated, church. Again, the notes are on the app if you've not downloaded the Refuge app. I highly encourage you to do so and follow along there with the notes that we've provided that are also on the screen. But there are in the Bible over 300 prophecies about the coming Messiah. And God fulfilled his promise to send Jesus. And he has promised to come again. And we should be looking with hope and with anticipation for the return of Christ. Now, when Isaiah wrote his prophecy about the first coming of the Messiah, it was 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Israel was under great oppression by the Assyrians. Times were bad. Hope was waning. Things were really dark. Reminds you of America today. Reminds you of the world today. Just in the last couple of days, we were met again with the headlines

of a shooting on a university campus where two people were killed and others were wounded. And then at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia where a man opened up and killed 10 people and 11 or more that were wounded by that. So we know, we're reminded constantly that we're living in a dark time. We're living in a time where a lot of people have lost hope. We're living in a time where evil is on the rise. But I would just say to that, that the King is still on the throne. Thank you, Jesus. Isaiah talks about a coming King who would establish a government and an authority that would never end. And even though there's evil all around us, I just want you to rest assured today to know that the authority of Jesus is greater than any demonic presence in the earth. That Jesus reigns today. He's on the throne today. He's in control today. The word Advent, and this is the season of Advent, comes from the Latin word advenire, which literally means toward the coming. The Latin definition is a thing that's about to happen. It's this thing of anticipation, this thing of looking for something to come. There's a thing called an Advent wreath,

and I've preached on it. the wreath before and we've actually had the wreath in our services and lit the candles. But the first time that the Advent wreath ever appeared was in Germany in 19, or pardon me, in 1839. It was a Lutheran minister who was ministering to children at a mission and he wanted to create some way for them to understand that Jesus was coming again and so he took a wagon wheel and he attached some candles to it, three purple candles, a pink candle, and then right in the middle, a white candle that would represent Jesus and that white candle would be lit on Christmas Day to represent a Jesus coming into the darkness of the world and he used that as a teaching tool for these children there and it became known as the Advent wreath and those candles all symbolize something very important about the coming of Jesus Christ into the darkness. The first purple candle is what's known as the prophet's candle and it represents hope. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle that represents peace. The third candle is the angel's candle. It represents love and then the fourth candle, the pink candle, is the shepherd's candle. It represents joy and today we're just gonna talk for a few minutes about that first candle, the purple candle that is known as the prophet's candle that represents hope for you and I

because one thing I constantly wanna challenge you in as your pastor is that you never lose hope, that you never buy into the lies of the enemy or you never believe the press more than you believe the word of God because listen, no matter how dark things get, we have hope, church. Come on, we have hope that Jesus is coming again. We have hope that he's still on the throne. We have hope that he's in control. We read this out of 2 Peter chapter one, verse 19. Let me read this portion again. So we have the prophetic word made more sure. The prophetic word made more sure. Some prophecies in the Bible are partially fulfilled and then over time they become clear. Why, how? Because even though they're only partially fulfilled over time, we see them become fulfilled. We have the confidence that the rest is going to happen as well. Here's what's amazing. There are 1,800 references in the Old Testament to the coming of the Messiah. 17 Old Testament books that give prominence to the theme of his return. Of the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are more than 300 references to the Lord's return. One out of every 30 verses. 23 of the 27 New Testament books refer to the great event of his coming.

For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are eight on Christ's second coming. I just want to remind you that Jesus came the first time and he fulfilled prophecy, but I want to remind you, Jesus is coming again. And no man knows the hour, no man knows the time that he's going to return, but he is coming again. And prophecy will be fulfilled. Can I just blow your mind for a moment? There are 353 verses in the Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled through this man, Jesus. 353, we say, great. What's so mind-blowing about that? Well, let me tell you. Because a guy by the name of Peter Stoner, who was the chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena College, who was very passionate about biblical prophecy, took 600 students from the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and he studied the fulfillment of the prophecies in Scripture about Jesus. And he just took eight. He took eight specific prophecies about Jesus and these students, together with their professor, came up with an extremely conservative probability for each of those eight being fulfilled and then consider the likelihood of one person fulfilling all eight. Here's the conclusion. Now, this is where it gets mind-blowing.

The conclusion and the prospect that anybody would satisfy all eight prophecies was one in 10 to the 17th power, which is one to 10 with 17 zeros. I don't even know what that number is. Let's just say a gazillion. Because we don't even know, we know it's like beyond our comprehension. That's the probability of one person fulfilling just those eight, and remember there's 353 all fulfilled in Jesus, they just took eight. And so the probability of one person fulfilling all eight of those prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th power. Now let me try to give you some context on that. If you took silver dollars, and you took one to 10, one times 10 to the 17th power, or a gazillion silver dollars, and you spread them across the state of Texas, and we all know how big Texas is, it would cover the entire state of Texas two feet deep, those silver dollars. That's a lot of silver dollars. That's how many that number represents. And if you took a Sharpie, and you put a big black dot on one of those silver dollars, and then you mixed up the whole batch of a gazillion silver dollars all over the state of Texas, and you blindfolded a person, and you said you can walk in any direction,

and you can go as far as you wanna go, and we want you to pick up the one that has the black Sharpie dot on it, the likelihood of that person doing that is the same as the likelihood of one person fulfilling eight of those prophecies. And yet Jesus fulfilled 353 of the prophecies. So when Peter says we have the prophetic word, made more sure, how do we know it's made more sure? Because 353 prophecies in the Old Testament that were all fulfilled by one man by the name of Jesus. That proves the authenticity of prophecy. In verse 20 and 21, Peter says, but know this, first of all, that no prophecy of a scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Let's look at that word interpretation in the Greek. He says, but know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. That word in the Greek is epilepsis, and it literally, it's only found one time in the entire Bible, that word, and it literally means to loosen or to unravel or to untie interpretation knots. In other words, Peter is saying, know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture

is a matter of one's own ability to untie prophetic knots. It's not up to one person's ability to unravel the complexity of the prophecies of scripture. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit. These prophecies are not the opinions of men. They're not the predictions of men. The men were just instruments in the hands of God. They were not the ones writing these words, but the scripture is clear that the pneuma of the Holy Spirit moved them along. It's like the wind of the Holy Spirit was carrying them, moving them. Like when it says there that they were moved by the Holy Spirit, in the word picture there in the original language is that of sailboats that are being carried across a body of water by wind. And what Peter is saying is that these men were not just writing their own stuff. No, the pneuma of the Holy Spirit, the wind of the Holy Spirit was blowing inside of them and moving them to write the words of prophecy. That's how supernatural the word of God is. That's how reliable scripture is. It's not just any book. Oh, let me say that again. This is not just any book. It's the only book authored by God himself. It's supernatural, it's inspired, it's holy,

it's dependable. And God's word untangles and unravels the mess of humanity and the mess of this world. And our hope is in him. Our hope is in the word of God. Listen, if you've anchored. your life, if you've anchored your belief system to anything other than the Word of God and the man Jesus, you're in trouble. You are in jeopardy of being destroyed. You're in jeopardy of being carried away by every false doctrine that comes along. And there's a lot of them nowadays, trust me. There's a lot of people that have become TikTok and Instagram famous. They're saying things about scripture that are just absolutely untrue. Things that are just an abomination of the Word of God and yet they're getting thousands and millions of clicks and followers because they're saying things that tickle the ears of what we want to hear. Because many of us don't like how the Word of God confronts us. We don't like what the Word of God says. But let me just tell you now more than ever, I can't plead with you enough. I can't challenge you enough that you need to anchor your life to the unchanging truth of the Word of God. You need to anchor your life to the man Jesus.

And it doesn't just mean that you say, I believe the Word of God. No, it means that you are in the Word of God. You study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed but rightly divides the Word of truth. Like, you study scripture, you're in the Word of God. You're feeding your soul on a regular basis and you're developing with Jesus an intimate relationship. That's what it means to anchor your life to him. It's not just about saying, oh, you know, I believe in God, oh, I love God. You know, there's so many people that, you know. I don't know if I should or not. That are professing their devotion to Jesus and then dropping the F-bomb like crazy on Instagram and TikTok and something just doesn't match up. Something doesn't match up and I'm like, you know, it's more than us just confessing that with our mouth, oh, I love Jesus. Oh, he's everything to me and whatever. No, no, it's a pure devotion to Jesus. It's a devotion to his Word. I know I sound like an old man. I sound like an old-fashioned person when I say stuff like that. And you Gen Zers and Gen Alphas, you know, you can say, oh, you're just an old man. That's okay, I own it. But I love you enough to tell you the truth.

You're just, you've got some role models that aren't great role models for you. And for some of you, it might do you well to find some old man and model your life after him or find what you would call an old lady that knows how to pray, knows how to get into the presence of God and that you model your life after them. My, my, my. Listen, when we think about his first arrival as Emmanuel, God in the flesh who came to this earth as a baby, born in the humblest of circumstances, and we're gonna talk next week about the wonder of his love, it should stir astonishment and admiration in us. And when we think about his second coming, when he returns for his bride, when the trumpets will sound, listen, those people on December the 2nd, 1938, standing on a train platform in London, waiting for the first load of children that would come so that their lives would be spared. They heard a train whistle pierce the darkness and it gave them hope that those kids were gonna be saved. We're awaiting not a train whistle, we're awaiting the sound of a trumpet that signifies the return of Jesus. Listen, when I was growing up, I just remember as a child and as a young person hearing a lot more messages about the coming of Jesus, a lot more sermons about the return of Christ,

movies that were made about the return of Jesus, and it just seems like over time we don't hear as much about it, but it in no way, it in no way dilutes us. the truth of the fact that Jesus is coming again. He's coming for a bride, he's coming for a people who are longing, pining for his return, like awaiting his return, thinking about it. Thinking about the fact that Jesus is coming back. He's coming back for a bride. Thinking about the fact there's gonna be the sound of a trumpet one day, and the Bible says the dead in Christ will arise, and that his feet are gonna touch the Mount of Olives, where I stood just a few weeks ago, and when his feet touch the Mount of Olives, that mountain is gonna be split from east to west. And all of a sudden, he's gonna make his grand entrance through the east gate of Jerusalem, even though Muslims, hundreds of years ago, bricked it up in the hopes that they could keep him out. And then they planted a cemetery right in front of the eastern gate, the massive Muslim cemetery, hoping that Jesus would somehow be prevented from coming in through the east gate. And let me just tell you, nothing is gonna stop his return. Nothing's gonna stop him from coming back one day. And that should stir wonder in us. It should make us long for his appearing.

He came once, he's coming again, hallelujah. Hey, there's hope in that today. No matter what happens with the economy, or with politics, or mass shootings, no matter what happens in your family, or your job, or no matter what happens with gas prices, or the cost of groceries, no matter what happens with the cost of utilities, or anything else that's going on, you have hope that Jesus is coming again. He's coming again. Let me tell you one more story. It happened in 1970, April of 1970. Three astronauts by the name of Jim Lovell, and Jack Swigert, and Fred Hayes were on their way to the moon in Apollo 13. And some of you have seen the movie. Some of you were alive when this happened, including myself. And an oxygen tank exploded on their rocket, and it crippled their spacecraft. And all of a sudden, they were all on the moon. And there in Houston, all of these engineers were scrambling, and they were trying to figure out how in the world could they save these astronauts? It literally became a life and death struggle. They're working around the clock, trying to improvise, trying to figure out what to do. And families were gathered around radios

and around televisions, at their workplaces, in their dens, in their kitchens. They're all waiting for some good news, hoping, hoping that somehow these three men would miraculously be saved. And they kept listening for updates, and they were very sporadic. You would hear things like oxygen tank failure, and power conservation, critical CO2 levels. And every message just made the waiting seem longer and longer. And then as that capsule went around the moon and started making its way back towards the earth, it was a final test, and they just weren't sure if the heat shield on the bottom of that capsule, they weren't sure if it had been damaged in the explosion. And they couldn't tell, and no way of knowing. And if it had been damaged, as that capsule tried to re-enter earth's atmosphere, it would be completely burned up, and there would be no way of saving those astronauts. So they just weren't sure what was gonna happen. And there's a period of time, it normally lasts about three minutes, when they're entering into earth's atmosphere, that there's the radio communication between the spacecraft and Houston is cut off. And again, it's a blackout period of communication. It usually lasts about three minutes. And so that happened, and all of a sudden,

the radios went silent, and everybody is waiting there in Houston. Everybody around the world is literally watching, waiting to see what's gonna happen. And then the three-minute mark hits, and there's still nothing. No sound, no radio communication whatsoever. Four minutes, nothing. Five minutes, nothing. A lot of people began to assume the worst. And then all of a sudden, the radio crackles to life, and they hear Jack Swigert's voice come across the radio. Cheers erupted in mission control families, where people were hugging, and I don't know if they high-fived back in 1970. That probably came after that sometime. But people were celebrating and clapping, so much relief. And listen, maybe for you it feels like there's just been radio silence for a long time and you maybe have heard about the return of Christ. Maybe you grew up in an era where there was more talk about it and maybe you don't hear as much about it or maybe even in your own heart, you used to think about it. You used to anticipate the return of Jesus and maybe you just don't think about it as much as you used to and maybe for you, hope has begun to wane. Maybe for you, you have even begun to question,

is he really coming back? I remember as a kid hearing that his return could be any day. I remember hearing talk about the rapture. I remember hearing talk about the return of Jesus and that, I mean, you felt like it literally was gonna be any day and now here I am decades later and it still hasn't happened. Let me tell you something, I'm not one bit discouraged by the fact that I believed as a child that it was gonna happen and now it hadn't happened. I'm more encouraged than ever to know that over the course of time, even though maybe there's been some silence, maybe we don't hear as much talk about it, over the course of time, more and more prophecies have been fulfilled and there has been a stage set for the beautiful return of Jesus who's coming back for a bride who's ready, who's anticipating his return. He promised one time that he was coming and it was fulfilled and he's promised a second time that he's coming and I promise you, based on the authority of the Word of God, Jesus is coming back for his bride. My question for you, are you ready? Are you anticipating his return? Bow your heads and close your eyes. Would you, Father, thank you that you came once

and thank you that you're coming again and I just thank you that your Word is true, God. We have no reason whatsoever to question the authenticity or the accuracy of your Word. Thank you that you care for humanity and that you would sacrifice your son, Jesus, to die on a cross for us so that we could be saved. The greatest act of love anybody's ever known. Much like those parents in Nazi Germany who signed papers allowing their children to go to England knowing that they may never see them again. Thank you, God, that you were willing to send your son to the nation and I thank you that he's coming again for us. We have hope, we can look forward to the return of Jesus. Lord, I pray today that any person that's here, any person watching online that would have any reason to question whether or not they're ready, today would be the day. Today would be the day that they reconnect with you, that they repent, that they give their life to you again or maybe for the first time if they've never done so. Maybe all they've known is religion but today would be the day that they step into relationship with you and they would invite you to come into their heart. God, I pray that there would be humility and repentance in this place. I pray, oh God, that we would be a bride who longs for the appearing of our bridegroom.

We would long for you to come and take us away. Let us be ready every day. Let us be looking every day for the return of Jesus knowing that according to scripture, we're closer than we've ever been before. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.