|
BEHOLD, HE COMES! #3
NO JOB FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT
Not too long ago, one of our Voice of Prophecy staff
members and his wife were down the freeway in Los Angeles for a charity
benefit. They’d gotten two free passes over the Internet, and it going
to be a gala event down at the Staples Center, home of the Lakers, Clippers,
Kings and a lot of other Hollywood glitterati. So this couple enjoyed
a few minutes of watching the famous “green carpet,” as celebrities like
Pierce Brosnan and Cameron Diaz made their way through the crowd.
Then inside the hall, there was a warmup act performing for a while, with
people milling around. Then a break, while people waited. And waited.
And waited some more. And just when the main ticket was about to show
up, the place went dark and the PA announcer had a surprise: “Ladies and
gentlemen, the President of the United States.” And sure enough, out onto
the stage walked one of America’s former chief executives. He was there
to lend his name and his prestige to the cause, and for several minutes
this previous occupant of the Oval Office spoke to the stunned but very
enthusiastic crowd.
If you’ve been a fan of the popular NBC program, The West Wing, in recent
years, you know that visitors and important delegations to the White House
usually end up in some side office being “handled” by someone like chief
of staff Leo McGarry, or communications director Toby Ziegler, or press
secretary C. J. Cregg. If he’s able to do it, sometimes the twentysomething
aide Charlie Young will take down some notes and tell the farmers from
Kansas or the math-and-science competition winners from Eugene, Oregon,
“I’ll make sure President Bartlet sees this. Don’t worry; I’ll handle
it.”
But lo and behold, once in a great while, the visitors will be talking
to Josh Lyman or his assistant, Donna Moss, and all of a sudden, actor
Martin Sheen walks into the room. The President himself! Josiah Bartlet,
the leader of the free world, is shaking their hand. And he says, “Step
into my office. I want to know more about you; I want to hear about your
concerns and your problems.”
I have a friend named Terry Johnson, who, by a quirk and a bit of divine
fate, ended up in the Presidential honor guard in D.C. I say divine fate,
because Terry didn’t hardly know his right from his left and, most of
the time, ended up marching into a wall or a water fountain. But somehow
he got in. And he would blow off steam to his fellow inductees how, if
he ever actually ended up in the same room as Ronald Reagan, who was President
at the time, why, he’d have a few things to say to America’s 40th leader.
What about the deficit and tax cuts for the wealthy and the Iran/contra/Oliver
North affair? Etc. Well, one day he was working the crowd at some military
event, and all at once, unannounced, in walked Ronald Wilson Reagan, the
most powerful man in the world. The commander in chief snapped Terry a
salute and said, “How are you doing, soldier?” And our boastful friend
Terry Johnson managed to say, and I quote: “Glub glub glub. Uh . . . er
. . . more glub glub glub.” His tongue got all tied up, I think he respectfully
saluted – probably with the wrong hand – and his fiery Democrat speech
thankfully went out the window. Because it’s an exciting thing to be honored
by the presence of the Main Man.
And friend, what I love so much about the doctrine of the Second Coming
is that it is Jesus Christ Himself who returns to this world. Not a vice
president. Not a chief of staff. Not a representative or a delegation
or an appointed ambassador or a last-minute substitute or a video greeting
or an e-mail expressing regrets. There will come a day – there absolutely
WILL COME a day – when you and I will be able to look up and see this
very person who, up to now, we have only seen in pictures on cathedral
walls. It will really be Jesus: the Man with the nail scars in His hands.
A great old book from my own Adventist heritage, entitled Questions on
Doctrine, takes us to Acts 1:11, which reiterates that, on that glad morning,
we will not be meeting with the Undersecretary of the Heavenly Treasury
or the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Paradise.
“Men of Galilee,” [the angels] said, “why do you stand
here looking into the sky? THIS SAME JESUS, who has been taken from you
into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into
heaven.”
And then the writing team on this scholarly book adds:
“At the ascension the angels declared to the astonished
world, ‘This same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner.’ The word
‘same’ is not in the Greek text, but ‘this’ is.” Meaning, THIS same Jesus.
They continue: “The Greek word is houtos, a demonstrative word here used
to stress the fact that He who returns will be the ACTUAL Jesus who ascended
and not another. This might well be rendered, ‘But Jesus Himself shall
come.’”
We had a little Internet fiction on Monday about maybe
a “cloned” Jesus, who could fulfill this Second Coming. Friend, that’s
not going to be it at all. It will be the original Jesus, the legitimate
King of kings and Lord of lords. I will see Him and you will see Him.
Now, for a moment let’s go back to the equally fictional stories on The
West Wing. Why is it sometimes President Bartlet instead of some flunky?
It might be because a particular issue or cause is important enough to
the President that he cancels some other thing and walks into the room.
“I care about this,” he says. “How can I help?” And the redeeming of this
world, the ending of sin and war and terrorism and death is important
enough to Jesus’ universe that He makes this trip Himself. He doesn’t
staff it out to anyone else.
It could also be that President Bartlet or Bush or whoever comes to some
event at the Staples Center, or surprises you by knocking on your door
some night, is there simply because he’s finished his other many agendas
and now has time to do the thing he’s longed for most. He’s met with the
Foreign Relations Committee and the Department of Agriculture and the
head of the EPA, and the championship high school marching band from Simi
Valley, California – that’s a little hometown plug – and now is able to
indulge himself in what he really wants to do. All wars and rumors of
war are at long last over so he doesn’t have to sit around discussing
with Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice and Hans Blix any longer. And the
Bible paints a picture of a Redeemer and High Priest in heaven who finally
says: “It is finished!” Satan has had quite enough time to show the colossal
and catastrophic heartache of his proposed government. God has a people
in this world, a vast multitude of loyal friends – the “Body of Christ”
– and the watching universe decides that the business-as-usual agenda
of sin and cemeteries is over. “It is finished!” And so Jesus, with nothing
else to do, really, can make a trip He’s always had His heart set on.
We quoted a wonderful line from this ministry’s founder back on Monday,
if you were here with us. Jesus is coming, Pastor Richards preached more
than half a century ago, “To do many things that He alone can do.” And
really, only Jesus can rescue. If it were a job for angels, well, He’s
had enough angels all along. But a mission of redemption needs a Redeemer
at the helm; don’t you agree? To claim the trophies of Calvary really
should involve the Lamb of Calvary. So there are some assignments that
only the Alpha and Omega should take on, some ribbons only the Righteous
King should cut, some parties and festivities that can really only be
kicked off properly by the bridegroom who is footing the bill.
We’ve given you choice nuggets before of a wonderful book entitled Searching
For a God to Love, by Chris Blake. Here’s what he writes about the Second
Coming of Christ:
“His first coming brought hope to a dying world. In
the future, ‘Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who
are eagerly waiting for him.’” That’s Hebrews 9:28. Then Chris adds: “The
Second Coming is not principally a great event; it’s a great Friend coming
back for us.”
I can guarantee you that when the fictional President
Bartlet is all tied up with busywork in the Oval Office, but any one of
four ladies – wife Abby, or daughters Liz, Ellie, or Zoe – come to the
West Wing, President Bartlet doesn’t send C. J. Cregg out to see what
they need. He comes himself. If a childhood friend is waiting for help,
the President doesn’t pick up a phone, he comes to the rescue with his
entire military machine behind him. And when we see the clouds ablaze
with heavenly glory, it will be Jesus Himself, coming to pick up His friends
and take them home to be with Him. In John 15:15 He looks around at a
ragtag bunch of guys, men who messed up a lot and had spotty resumés,
and warmly tells them: “I have called you friends.”
That is why He’s coming. For His friends. Lord, I want to be in that number.
|
