The greeting. Peace to you in the name of Christ Jesus.
The scripture. Please open your Bible to First John chapter two. I will read from verse twenty to verse twenty-nine. Our sermon will be based on verse twenty-eight. This is the Holy Spirit-inspired infallible word of the living Lord of heaven and earth – read.
I John 2:20. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. 26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. 28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
The prayer. Christ says that if we need anything from our heavenly Father that we should ask in faith. (Jn.16:23-24) The apostle John says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that if we pray for anything that is in accord with God’s will, that God will grant it. (I Jn.5:14-15, Lk.22:42, Mt.6:9-10)
Let’s pray that God increase our faith in Him and our love of Him and thus our longing for Him – pray. (Lk.17:5-6, Mk.9:23-24, 2 Pt.3:12, Mt.13:24-37)
The doctrine. My desire is to consider the glorious truth contained in verse twenty-eight. This is the truth of Christ’s second coming or His second advent.
God tells us to abide in Christ so that we may be confident when He appears.
God’s promise. The New Testament Scriptures are filled with God’s promise that Jesus Christ will return. And God who cannot lie. We ought to build our life on God’s promise. (see WCF 32, 33 with Scripture proofs)
Job 19:25. As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. 26 “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 27 Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
John 14:1. Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Our hope. May I say Beloved, that the promised return of Jesus is where our HOPE is, the assured promised of future good. (Rom.8:23-25, 15:13, Phil.1:21-23)
The assured hope of seeing Jesus is the ballast that carries us through the storms of life.
The assured hope of seeing Jesus is the prize that aminates our every thought and action.
The thoughts of seeing Jesus quicken our steps after Jesus, even against this anti-Christ world.
He who has ears to hear let him here what the Spirit says to those in Christ. (Mt.11:15, Ezek.12:2, Mt.13:9-16, Rev.2:7, 3:22)
Let’s unpack our passage.
The existence of Christ. This truth is obviously tied to the more basic reality of Christ Jesus. You can’t have a second coming of Christ, or for that matter a first coming of Christ, if you have no Christ.
And of course I mean the Christ of the Bible. And in the context of what we have read, we see that John speaks of the Father and the Son, the First and the Second Persons of the Divine Triune Godhead. (WCF 2.1-3)
We notice in the passage that the Holy Spirit inspires John in verses 23 and 24 to put the Son before the Father and the idea is that the only way a person comes to the Father in a reconciled and approved way is through the Son as our only Mediator between God and Man – the God-Man Christ Jesus. (Jn.14:1-6, Mt.11:25-30, I Tim.2:5-6)
As John tells us in his gospel record is Christ is the Eternal Son of God come in time in the flesh to save sinners. (Jn.1:1-18)
This is the true Christ he is longing to reappear after Christ has prepared a place for us.
We say this because Christ has told us that many false Christs would be presented to us by many false teachers preaching many false gospels.
And all of them have this in common they make Christ less than fully God and fully man, and they make Christ’s work less than full atonement for the sins of His people. And thus, they replace Christ with man and man’s works for salvation. (Rom.9:30-33, 10:1-4)
Therefore, the counterfeits, the false ones, give implied evidence of the True One. (Mt.24:3-4, 23-24)
May we study the True Christ, found only in the Bible, to identify and to avoid the false Christs.
May I also say this Beloved, for the sad deceived ones that do follow a false Christ and a false gospel, their false Christ will not return. And when the True Christ does return, they will be eternally ashamed for believing the lie and rejecting the Truth. (Zech.12:10, Rev.1:7, Dan.12:2)
The main message of the Bible is about the promise of the God-Man coming the first time to save sinners from their sin and reconciling us to God, and coming the second time to gather all true Believers in Christ to live with God forever. (Jn.3:16)
Christ is. And Christ has come. This passage tells us that He will come again, to use the language of the Apostle’s Creed. (circa A.D. 300)
The belief in and the love of Christ. You see John is like Paul and like the rest of Christ’s true apostles (i.e. Judas excepted), they are true Believers in Christ. (Mt.16:15-18, Rom.5:1-2)
Unbelievers cannot wait-abide. Think of this, you cannot wait for the return of the One that you do not believe in, and may I say, really believe in. Only Believers can obey this holy exhortation.
Mere professors cannot wait-abide. And when I say that these men believe in Christ, I do not mean only notionally, with some kind of casual intellectual assent, like believing that water is wet.
Nominal faith which is name-only faith does not wait for the return of Christ. Nominal faith is not faith, it is unbelief in Christian clothes. (2 Tim3:5, Mt.23:25-27, Heb.3 and 4)
Pharisees cannot wait-abide. In addition, for these true Believers in Christ, there is no side-savior for these men. There is no trust in Christ for part of one’s salvation then trust in man or trust in works for the other part. (Gal.1:6-9)
They are not waiting for Christ to return and tell them how their good works have merited their entrance into heaven. The self-righteous are not longing for Jesus, they are too busy worshiping self and living for the world – their true heart treasure. (Rom.11:5-6, Isa.64:6, Lk.17:7-10, WCF 16.4-6)
True Believers can wait-abide. I say again, only true Believers abide in Christ and wait for Christ.
Only those whose only hope in life and death is Jesus are waiting for Jesus. (see Heidelberg Catechism #1)
True belief that waits for Christ is a trusting in Christ, a casting into Christ, a leaning upon Christ. And Christ alone.
John and Paul and Peter and James – all of the holy apostle-sent-one’s of Christ are absorbed with Jesus Christ, they adore Jesus Christ, and they live to glorify Him and to enjoy Him.
John opened this epistle in verse one speaking about Christ as the Word of Life, Christ as eternal life, and a Christ that by Spirit-wrought faith we have fellowship with. (I Jn.1:1-2)
In the passage I just read, verse 22 – Jesus the Christ, verse 23 – the Son two times, verse 24 – the Son again, verse 28 the returned of Christ mentioned in two ways, verse 29 – Christ is the Righteous One.
Listen to Paul.
I Corinthians 2:1. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (2 Cor.5:9)
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Philippians 1:21. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Like that, every true Believer in Jesus Christ professes that Christ is everything to us. As Christ-lovers the world is crucified to us and us to the world. (Gal.2:20, Gal.6:14)
We glory only in the Cross. We are captivated and compelled by Jesus. (2 Cor.5:14-15)
The abiding in Christ. Now John addresses his readership.
John says, dear children or little children, continue (meno) in Him, abide in Him, stay in Christ, remain with Christ.
This is a call to perseverance with Christ. (James 1:2-4, 12, Gal.6:9, Rom.5:3-5, Heb.12:1)
Two brief things.
What the exhortation to abide does not imply. First this is not implying that true Believers can lose their salvation in Christ; they cannot. Christ does not lose any sheep for whom He has died. (Heb.13:5, I Pt.1:5, Eph.2:1-10, Jn.6:39)
What the exhortation to abide does imply. God is sovereign in creation and also in salvation.
In salvation He ordains the ends, and He ordains the means.
God has determined to save His people in Christ – the ends.
His exhortation for us to: one – come to Christ, and two – stay with Christ, are the means.
Earlier, God warned His professing people – fear apostasy, fear falling away from Christ. Here God exhorts His people, abide with Jesus, stay with Jesus. The exhortations and the warnings are effectual for God’s elect by God’s Holy Spirit.
What the exhortation to abide does require. Two, before we address the abiding in Christ, we see the larger truth that is implied. Christ is not dead. But Christ is alive.
You cannot abide or remain with a dead Christ.
Remember this is written to professing Christians who already believe that Christ is alive. So why tell them that Christ is alive?
In part it is because of the spiritual enemies engaged against us seeking to convince us that Christ is not alive, and therefore He is not coming back. (Eph.6:10-18, 2 Pt.3:3-4)
The enemies are two-fold; outward and inward.
The outward enemies are Satan and the worldling servants of Satan. They tell Christians, stop believing in Jesus, He is dead, He is not alive, He is a failure, go your own way, follow me.
That is what the apostle Paul is addressing in I Corinthians 15.
See the men of Athens mock the crucified, risen, and returning Christ as nonsense. (Acts 17)
And Beloved, our own flesh betrays us. We who believe that Christ is risen and reigning and returning are tempted to doubt and to disbelieve, because we are weak, and because of our sin, and because we listen to the devil’s children too much, and because we fail to abide with Christ enough.
Bad religious company corrupts good religion. Lack of good religious company starves good religion. (I Cor.15:33, 2 Cor.6:14-18)
Beloved, Jesus is Eternal Life in the flesh, now glorified flesh.
Listen to what this apostle John saw and heard while he was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos for his testimony that Christ lives, and eternal life is only in Christ.
Revelation 1:12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Beloved, we believe in a living Christ. We trust in a living Christ.
What abiding with Christ is. Abiding with Christ is part of our communion with Jesus Christ. (I Jn.2:24, 27, 28)
Here is a summary of that fellowship with Jesus we enjoy.
WCF 26.1. All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by His Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with Him in His graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory. (1 John 1:3; Eph. 3:16-19; John 1:6; Eph. 2:5,6; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 6:5,6; 2 Tim. 2:12)
You see you cannot have friendship or communion with a dead Christ.
Also, in order to have actual friendship-communion with Jesus that means that Christ is alive, but also that Christ is accessible, and that Christ is near, and that He is relational.
Even though Jesus is at the right hand of Glory, because He is omnipresent God, we can still speak to Him and He speaks to us. (I Jn.4:13)
Christ is always with us. Christ never leaves us alone. (Mt.28:18-20, Heb.13:5-8, Isa.41:10) Christ always abides with us, as do the Father and the Spirit.
Listen to Jesus.
John 14:23. Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. (see John 14:16-17, the Spirit abides in the Believer)
How we abide with Christ. The apostle John in his gospel account records the words of Christ on how we abide with Jesus, we just read one instance in John 14:23-24. Let me read another instance – John 15.
John 15:7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (2 Jn.1:9, I Jn.2:24)
We actively wait for Christ. Now the connection between the exhortation to abide in Christ and the promise of the return of Christ concerns how we are to spend our time waiting for Christ.
Beloved, this is a divine call to actively wait for Jesus Christ.
Believe that He is coming back. Think about His coming back – daily. Then daily actively live for Christ – in the knowledge of and in the anticipation of His return.
If we are not pro-actively following Jesus Christ daily, then we are not sowing to the Spirit but rather sowing to the flesh. Sowing to the flesh is death, sowing to the Spirit is life. (Gal.6:7-11, Romans 8:7-17)
You see Beloved, we all spend our time on something and for someone. Is it for Christ? Or is it for self? (Mt.6:24-26)
We meditate on His word. The remaining with Jesus is the remaining with His word. Let the word of God abide in you, live upon the Holy Scriptures. Hold on to what God has given you in His word. (I Jn.1:1-5, 2:7, Rev.3:11)
God tells us,
I Chronicles 16:11. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.
The Psalmist tells us to hide God’s word in our heart. (Ps.119:11)
Jesus tells us to live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Mt.4:4)
Oh Beloved, many Christians live day by day never opening the word of God.
Beloved, we abide with Christ by abiding with His word.
We obey His word. The Bible also uses another phrase that is connected with spending our time in life by abiding with Christ – we occupy till He comes. (Lk.19:13)
This is being busy seeking the kingdom of God. (Mt.6:33-34) This is being busy about the King’s business. This is being busy using the gospel talents to live worthy of the gospel of Christ. (Mt.25:13-36)
This means we take what we learn from God’s word and then we carry out our duty to God and Man. (James 1:22-25, Rom.2:13, Mt.7:20-29, James 2:14-26)
We must live intentionally for Christ. Passive or neutral Christianity does not abide in Christ and it does not wait for Christ. Unintentional passive Christian living is not Christian.
We seek His face. Implied in abiding with Christ in friendship is speaking with Christ in prayer.
God says,
I Thessalonians 5:16. Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (WLC 178-180)
Martin Luther says that to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
Matthew Henry says that the Bible is the letter of God that He sends to us, and that prayer is the letter that we send to Him.
We abide with Christ and express our longing for His return by praying to God in Christ.
The benefits of abiding with Christ. Now the given reason or the benefits for abiding in Jesus in this way is so that when Jesus returns, we will not be ashamed to see Him.
The idea is that if we live in sin as a professing Christian and He returns finding us living in sin, then we would be embarrassed to be found living so unworthily of His name. (Heb.10:37-39, Mt.25:26-30)
But the opposite is also true, as we strive to live for Him, we will rejoice to present to Him the fruits of the gospel in our lives that He has wrought. (I Cor.4:7, I Cor.3:6-11, see WCF 18.1-3)
Living upon the word of God, living praying to God, assures us that we belong to God, that we have passed from death to life, that we are recipients of His saving love in Christ. (Eph.5:10-12)
Listen to Paul.
2 Corinthians 5:9. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (Phil.3:1-14)
The return of Christ. Now we will spend the rest of our time on the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The text uses two words to speak of Christ’s return.
I John 2:28. Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
His appearing, φανερόω, pha-ne-roh-owe. (His first appearing – I Jn.1:2)
His coming, παρουσία, parousia.
I John 3:2. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.(see also 1Jn. 3:21)
The last day. Beloved, the Bible says that Christ will return on the Last Day of human history.
There is a last day beloved. All things will not continue as they have. Things are moving to the end of time as we know it.
The sudden day. The Bible tells us that the return of Christ will be sudden, it will happen in the blink of an eye. For most it will occur like a thief in the night. (Mt.24:26-31, I Thess.5:1-3)
The unprepared day. The Bible tells us that the better part of humanity will be unprepared for Christ’s coming, they will be all absorbed with earthly things. (Mt.24:36-44)
The visible day. The Bible tells us that Christ will return on the clouds of the sky, with great glory. The days of His humiliation are gone. And all the world will see this glorious kingly Christ. (Rev.1:7) It will not be Christ meek and mild at the Second Advent.
The fearful day. There will be great signs and wonders in the heavenlies, the stars and the sun and the moon will grow dark, there will be great earthquakes. The earth will convulse with joy that the day of its liberation has come. (Lk.21:25-28, Rom.8:22-24)
The judgment day. This day is called the Day of Judgement.
The trial day. God will raise all the dead, and those still alive will be gathered before Judge Christ. (Jn.5:28-29, I Thess.4:16-17)
Hebrews 9:27. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
The joyful day. For those apart from Christ, not abiding in Christ, not longing for Christ – His return is unspeakably horrible. They will be found naked in their sins before a holy God. (Mt.22:12, Rev.6:15-17)
But for those that love Christ and long for His appearing – His return is unimaginably joyful. (Isa.51:11, 35:10)
No more tears, no more sorrow, no more sin, no more Satan. (Rev.21:1-4, Isa.33:24)
Only holy angels and holy people and the immediate presence of our Holy God – unending holy pleasures forever more. (Ps.16:11)
Let me close with these words,
I Corinthians 15:51. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (Jn.14:1-3)
I Thessalonians 4:16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The prayed day. When we as God’s children, the Lambs of Christ, hear of His glorious return and of our gathering together to forever be with the Lord, what is the prayer of every Believing heart?
Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly. (I Cor.16:22, Rev.22:20, Acts 7:55, Lk.21:28, Rom.13:11)
Amen
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