Years ago, there was a Major League Baseball player, one of the best players in Major League Baseball. He had an upcoming free agency in about two years, I believe, and he was interviewed in light of the forthcoming free agency. And at the time, he responded by saying the following. He said, for me, and I've always said this, and I'm so true to this, I don't look ahead. I can't. It's not fair to myself. I've really got to sit down and look at right now. That's two years down the road. I have two whole seasons to worry about. I have to take care of those two seasons. That's what's important. And I think all of us would agree with that Major League Baseball player that for him, being two years away from free agency at that time, it was prudent to not put the cart of free agency before the horse of two successful seasons. I mean, if he got distracted by free agency that was down the road, maybe he wouldn't perform well in the present time when he had to play for the team that he was on and so on. So we get that. But yet at the same time we know that there are certain times when looking ahead to the future is a great way to be prepared in the present. And it's like that with the subject of the Second Coming of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are truths about this topic that I hope you will find immediately impactful. I know we're at the beginning of the consideration of the doctrine of Jesus' return, but already I want to move to the subject of application. Why do I want to do that so soon? Because as we consider this topic, I want you to remember that we're just not considering something that is meant to be intellectual, it's meant to be practical. As you know these things, as a consequence of knowing them, your life will be affected. So the first heading for tonight's teaching will essentially be this, The Second Coming Affects Present Living. The Second Coming Affects Present Living. And the first way that we're going to see that as we get into our study tonight is in this way. When you look at the Second Coming and you start to study it, you see that the Second Coming is a reminder of the accountability that is associated with our responsibility. in Jesus, in Luke chapter 19. He told the parable of the 10 talents. And within the parable, you might remember the departing king. He instructed his servants by saying, occupy till I come, Luke chapter 19, verse 13. You know, our situation as Christians is in a certain sense likened, it's analogous to financial managers who have been put in charge of certain resources during the course of our lives. and the time will come when the manager of those resources is going to come and he's going to inspect what we've done and we're going to render an accounting for what we have done. You can see Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30 for that. Some of you might remember that feeling in grammar school. I was thinking about this topic, and I remembered in grammar school, in those days, I couldn't remember something specific, but I remember that feeling of not having a specific assignment done. And if you ever were sitting in the classroom where you had a certain assignment that you didn't do, and the teacher hadn't gotten to it yet, you were hoping that the teacher wouldn't get to it. So you're kind of hoping that somebody's going to ask questions, and you want to see the teacher happy and excited, like, oh, he or she looks like she's having such a great time. And then maybe you add to it. I probably did at some point, though I can't remember an exact situation. Like, oh, I have another question about what you're talking about. I have another question about what you're talking about. Why? Because I wanted to put off the accountability. I wanted to try to escape it. And sometimes the teacher would forget about the homework that they assigned. But when it comes to our Lord, He's not forgetting to inspect our work and to see how our stewardship is of what He has assigned for us to do. So there's coming of stewardship. When you think of the Lord's coming, you are to think about the second coming being in part. It's not only this, but it's a reminder of the accountability associated with our responsibility. That's part of what you think about. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus talks about the parable of the unfaithful steward. And there are things that believers can learn from the unfaithful steward, even though believers are not unfaithful stewards. But that question, or that imperative to that steward, is good for us to just remember. Steward, I'll add the direct address there, give an account of your stewardship. The day is coming when you will give an account of your stewardship. The Second Coming is a reminder of that. Also, when you think about the Second Coming, one of the other things I want you to remember is that the Second Coming is something that we ought to anticipate. The Second Coming should produce an anticipation associated with our reward. You should be excited about the second coming. Like, think about Jesus rendering rewards at that time. The rewarding of God's people does not happen in heaven sometime before Jesus' second coming. The rewarding of God's people happen at the second coming, sometime after the Lord Jesus Christ returns, touches down on the Mount of Olives, makes His way to Jerusalem. It's sometime after that, that you, by God's grace, will hear those words, well done, good and faithful steward. good and faithful servant. You're longing for that. So there should be a sense of anticipation. You don't just have the servile fear about accountability. You have anticipation because you know that your reward is coming. And in part, just hearing Jesus say, well done, good and faithful servant, is reward enough. But there's a passage I want to call your attention to. Matthew 24, verses 45 through 47. Jesus says, "...who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season." So he's a faithful servant taking care of the servants in the household, not like the unfaithful servant who's described a little bit later on. who says, my master's not coming back anytime soon, and beats the servants and so on. No, that's an unfaithful steward. This steward is a faithful one, a faithful servant. Jesus says, blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you, that he will make him ruler over all his goods. I want to call your attention to just two things in these verses right now. Verse 46, I want you to see that word blessed. Makarios in the Greek. It's a word that means happy. Not happy in a frivolous kind of worldly sense, not a happiness that is simply dependent upon present circumstances or something like that, but the happiness that is spoken of here is a kind of, if you will, divinely granted satisfaction. You might put it this way, a kind of happiness in God that comes from God's gracious bestowing of favor upon a person. So think about that. When you think about the Second Coming, blessed, happy, happy in God, happy with divine favor being graciously granted to such one. Happy is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. That's how you should think about the Second Coming. For you who love the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a day you should be looking forward to. But also, look at this, look at verse 47. Part of the reward for faithful service is more service. What a motivation to love serving the Lord Jesus in the present time. Because if you love serving the Lord Jesus Christ right now, well then you'll be excited about your reward. If you hate serving the Lord Jesus Christ right now, you have to question whether or not you're a Christian. Because that's just strange. I mean, you know, you have a taskmaster who's not like a legalistic harsh one. He's a benevolent Lord who's giving you tasks. You should be happy in the service of him. And when that day comes, by God's grace, you will be not only found as a blessed servant, doing what you should be doing, but at that day, you will become entrusted with even more responsibility. You get a glimpse of that in verse 47. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. Now we can unpack that more. If you look at the parable of the talents, Matthew 25, you could look at 25 verse 21, chapter 25 verse 23, You can look at Revelation 2, verse 26. You can look at Revelation 3, verse 21. All of those are verses that show you that part of the reward on that day is going to be being entrusted with more service. You've been faithful with a little, you'll be entrusted with more. It's exciting. As we think about the Lord's Second Coming, we should think of the Second Coming as a basis for comfort amidst our crying. The Second Coming is meant to comfort you amidst your crying. Where would you see this? You would see this in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13-18. You remember in the context that the Lord, through Paul, was speaking about those Christians who had lost loved ones, and how they ought not to weep as those who have no hope. Christians don't weep as the world weeps as those who don't have hope. That's 1 Thessalonians 4.13. And the reason being in that context is because every saint who is alive at Jesus's return will be reunited with every other saint at Jesus's return. It's this amazing reunion that's happening. You know, when you say the words goodbye, they have a sense of finality. But really, whenever you're thinking about a loved one in Christ, see you soon is more appropriate. You can say goodbye. I get that. People say your goodbyes. I understand. There's a parting. It connotes parting. But for every believer in Christ, see you soon is more appropriate because there's coming a reunion. And Paul writes there in verse 18 to comfort one another with these words. What words? that Jesus Christ is going to return. He's going to return at the sound of a trumpet with the voice of the archangel. He's going to descend from heaven. Those who are dead will rise first. Dead in Christ will rise. And then we who are alive at that moment in time will be joined together to meet them in the air. And so we shall forever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with those words. The second coming has very practical relevance for your comfort amidst crying. There's more. We could look into another practical application of the doctrine of the Second Coming in this. The Second Coming encourages a pursuit of purity. The Second Coming encourages a pursuit of purity. I want you to see this from 1 John 3, verses 1-3. And you have to love the way that John frames this here. Okay, watch this. He begins by telling believers who they are, by telling us who we are right now. Look at verse 1. Beloved, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God? Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. So the first thing I want you to see, verse 1, he tells the people of God, this is who you are right now. Right now you're the children of God. But then he goes on and he tells them what they shall be. Look at verse 2. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So right now you're a child of God. Will you still be a child of God then? Yes, of course, you'll still be a child of God then. But something hasn't been revealed as to what you shall be. What do you mean? I'm going to be some other kind of entity? No, you're going to have a glorified body, just like Jesus. That's the idea. When you see Him, you're going to be like Him. So to whatever degree, a creature can be like the glorified Son of God, who is truly man. So He has a glorified body, just like the glorified body that you're going to have. That's going to happen on that day. Paul speaks about this in Philippians chapter 3. He speaks about Jesus' coming and he says in verse 21 that when He comes, He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body. So no matter how well we are physically, our body is a lowly body. But one day it's going to be conformed to a glorious body, just like His. So okay, he tells us who we are. You are the children of God. This is who you shall be. You are going to be just like Christ. You're gonna have a glorified body just like him at his second coming. And now here's the application of how we ought to be, how we ought to live, verse three. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. The idea is, if God has so graciously called you to be conformed to the image of Christ in the future, you as a Christian are going to think this way, I want to be more like Christ now. I have this hope in Him. I'm going to be like Him when I see Him. Therefore, I want to be like Him now. Taking it a step further, you might say that believers want to pursue ironing out the wrinkles in their wedding dress. I'll be officiating a wedding in coming months for my brother-in-law. And it just reminds me that I'm sure there's a bride to be out there who doesn't care about how they look on their wedding day. I haven't met one. Brides typically care about how they look. That's why they go through what they go through to find a wedding dress, or they're gonna hire somebody to do the makeup, or they're thinking about different things as it relates to their appearance on that day because they care. Well, you might say by way of analogy, we don't have to prepare our physical aesthetic appearance for Christ's coming, but as we pursue moral purity, as we pursue godliness, it's as though you might say, so to speak, we are ironing out the wrinkles in our wedding dress for that day. when we're gonna be presented to the Lord Jesus Christ. You could look at 2 Peter 3.14. I know it's talking about the new heavens and the new earth in that context, but the application's appropriate. In light of those things, the future, pursue being without spot and blameless. 2 Peter 3.14. So, the applications could go on. We could spend the whole night tonight talking about applications for the Second Coming. Consider those four basically an appetizer of application as a reminder of the impact that the Second Coming ought to have on Christian living. Again, I've told you so many times, orthodoxy, right, sound orthodox Christian doctrine should lead to orthopraxy, sound Christian practice. If there's something wrong with our thinking, downstream it will affect our behavior. If you have a right view of the second coming, your life, as you can see from those headings, your life will be affected. Alright, now quickly I do want to touch on this. This would be the second heading for tonight. The second heading would be the mistake we must not make. The mistake that we must not make. So that would be the second heading for tonight. And I'll briefly just touch on this. I imagine that there's a Christian somewhere out there. I hope this Christian isn't in the room, but it's possible. There could be a Christian out there somewhere or in this room who would say, okay, we don't need to study this doctrine. We know about the Second Coming. We know it. Why don't we talk about things that we don't know? We understand the Second Coming and I think we could just move on to something else. If anything about that resonates with you, and I hope it doesn't, I want to remind you that there's a problem with that kind of thinking. There's a lot of problems. I want to call attention to at least one of them. It's one thing to know a theological doctrine. It's another thing to know the biblical texts that are underpinnings to that doctrine. A lot of times Christians can settle with knowing theological truths. Right? I know about the Second Coming. Okay, but what verses in Scripture would you go to prove that the Second Coming is a visible, bodily, and glorious coming? Where would you go to prove that? You want to have those things in your mind. Because you may not be meeting full preterists every day, but they're out there. And you're like, what's a full preterist? A full preterist is somebody who believes that the Second Coming has already happened. They believe a lot of things that are wrong. They believe that Satan and the Antichrist have already been thrown into the lake of fire. They believe that the resurrection has already come, despite the fact that we see from what Paul had said that such a view of like Hymenaeus and others overthrew the faith of some. It's a very serious thing. It's a heretical position to think that the resurrection has already happened. But where would you go to support the position that a full preterist position is wrong? How would you go about making that case? What I want to tell you is just knowing what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming already provides you with a basis to confront lies like those. Because they do take texts, and I would argue twist them very wrongly out of context, but if you understand how you can make the case for the Second Coming, and you don't just take it for granted by saying, I know this theological truth, therefore I don't need to know the Bible verses that support the theological truth. Don't make that mistake. If you have a theological truth in mind that's a right one, make sure you have the Bible verses in your mind that support that position. It's the Word of God that's living and active. It's the Word of God that's going to work in you to further conform you to the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the Word of God that you hide in your heart that you might not sin against Him. It's the Word of Christ that you're called to have dwell in you richly. So don't just have theological truths as good as they can be, and that's precious. You want to make sure you have the truths, the biblical texts, that are the underpinnings to that. Okay, so let's do this for tonight. We're going to go to this, getting familiar with second coming foundations. Okay, so if you're gonna have a right view of the second coming, you have to have a right view of the second coming foundations. You gotta be familiar with what those foundations are. So we'll start here. Jesus' return will be personal. It will be bodily. and it will be glorious. If you had to add one more, you'd say visible, but all of these, I think, include the fact that it will be visible. The fact that it's personal, bodily, and glorious all argue that it is going to be visible. Now, I want you to see how you could draw all these truths out from Acts chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. So let's go to that text. And then we're going to go to other places as well, but I want you to be able to see how, just from this text, you could draw out those truths. So, beginning at verse 9, this is as Jesus is ascending into heaven. Now, when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. First thing I want you to see is that this is going to be a personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why do I say that? Look at verse 11. The angels, they look like two men, but we see that often in Scriptures that angels have the appearance of men, but nonetheless they're angels. You have two angels who are in white apparel and they say, verse 11, this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven." Now there'd be those in quote-unquote liberal denominations who would deny the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and would liken it more to a kind of concept, to more of like a philosophical abstract. But no, no, no. He didn't go up as a concept. He went up personally. They saw Him. He's right there with them. And the same way that He went up in personal contact with them, He is coming back. Verse 11, this same Jesus dot, dot, dot, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. It's going to be a personal return. If you want to make the case a little bit further for that, that it's going to be a personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ, you could go to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16. Notice what the text there says. It's not an idea that's going to descend from heaven. It's not a principle or a concept. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Furthermore, Colossians 3, verse 4, When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. When Jesus Christ returns, you're not appearing with a concept or a principle, you're going to appear with a person. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will appear with Him in glory. So first thing I want you to see, and know how to make the case, that Jesus' return is going to be a personal return. Second thing I want you to see is that his return is going to be a bodily return. A bodily return. So before we get to Acts chapter 1, verses 9-11, let me just walk you through a couple of passages of Scripture. Jesus rose from the grave, and if you remember, He's speaking to his disciples in Luke chapter 24. In verse 39 he tells them, So if anybody wanted to spiritualize the Second Coming, we have to remember, how did Jesus ascend into heaven? He ascended to heaven bodily. He had flesh and bones. Now, I know it's a glorified body, I know it's a spiritual body, but it's still at the same time a physical body that is comprised of flesh and bones as well. Remember Jesus a little bit later on in the passage kind of wants to drive this home home to them because they did not believe, he's still at that point, it's like they did not believe for joy, I think one rendering of the text says, so they're kind of startled and so happy to see him and then he says, do you have anything to eat? And as a matter of fact, they did. So what did they bring him? Some broiled fish, and according to New King James, in the King James text, some honeycomb. And what did he do? He ate it right there in front of them, showing them that he was physical, not just ethereal or spiritual. He had a body. Furthermore, if you look at Philippians 3, verses 20-21, Paul writes, There's a second coming passage, waiting for Jesus to come from heaven. who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body. It's a bodily second coming. It's not some spiritual coming. It's a physical, bodily coming. So therefore, when you go back to Acts 1, verses 9-11, you know, leading up into this text, for 40 days, Jesus showed himself alive to his disciples by many infallible proofs. Acts 1, I believe it's verse 3. And you know that he had shown that he was alive to them, in like what you saw in Luke 24, verse 39. Okay, now let's go here. Let's go to verse 11 once again. This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into Heaven. He ascended with a glorified body, and He's going to descend with a glorified body. Okay, and what about His coming? It'll be personal, bodily, and it will be a glorious coming. A glorious coming. There's a lot that we could say about this. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorious and I'll take you to Acts chapter 1 verses 9 through 11 so you can see that. But before we get there, Titus chapter 2 verse 13, Paul writes, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. The word that's used here for appearing, epiphaneia, is the Greek word. It connotes the idea that this is going to be something seen and manifested. So anybody who would say that, no, the second coming was a kind of spiritual coming, This is an appearing. It's a manifested scene kind of thing. And how is it described? As being a glorious appearing. Oh, just think about this. There's so many texts that you could just put alongside of this to get a glimpse of the glory at that moment. We'll start compiling some of them. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, we're told, and then the lawless one will be revealed, that's the man of lawlessness, the little horn of Daniel 7, the Antichrist, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. So what does the glory entail? In part, what the glory entails is the brightness of His coming. Like lightning that will fill up the sky from the east to the west, the sky is going to be filled with brightness. That's going to be awesome when the Lord Jesus returns. He will appear with a glorious body. So His glorious appearing includes a glorious body. Philippians chapter 3 verse 20, He will come in His glory. So you think about what the disciples got a glimpse of, Matthew, the apostles, Matthew, not Matthew, James, John, and Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration. Well, He's coming in His glory. What they got a glimpse of, the world will see and every believer will see, because every believer will be with Him at that moment. And then, of course, the Jewish people who are going to be there mourning and then having the spirit of supplication and grace poured out on them in that moment in Jerusalem. But everyone is going to see His glory. You're like, I missed it at the Mount of Transfiguration. Don't worry, you're going to have plenty of opportunity to see it. He will come also in His Father's glory, in the glory of His Father. Matthew 16, verse 27. He will come with the holy angels. Think about this. Luke chapter 2, verse 9. When Jesus was born and His birth is heralded by the angels to the shepherds, we're told that the glory of the Lord shone round about them, the shepherds. So you think about the angels having the glory of God emanating from them as they left the presence of God to go to announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds and then all of a sudden the sky is filled with glory and the shepherds are surrounded by glory. Imagine that on a scale exponential. The sky filled with the brightness of Christ and all the holy angels with him. And just even think about that. Think about what happens in the presence of angels in the Scripture. Right? Men, even godly men, are tempted to worship such ones. They fall down in fear. What is it going to be like when the glorious Son of God comes in His glory, in His Father's glory, and with the glory that is going to be emanating from the holy angels as a result of having been in the presence of God? His glory will be so bright every eye will see Him. Think about that. Revelation chapter 1 verse 7, every eye will see Him. What else makes His appearing glorious? Well, He's going to come with the voice of an archangel, the shout of an archangel. He's going to come with the sound of a trumpet. He's going to come, and there's going to be the resurrection of the righteous. Think of how glorious that's going to be. And you have all of these glorified bodies that are going to be granted to saints, and they're all meeting the glorious Son of God, who has the glory of His Father emanating in the sky. You have holy angels, glorified saints, the glory of Christ filling up the sky. Just imagine. Imagine if it's pitch black, all of a sudden now it's so bright, with a brightness that you can't even imagine. Think of what Saul of Tarsus saw in Acts chapter 9. And now just exponentially multiply that. on a worldwide level. It is going to be epic. When He comes, He will sit on, no surprise, the throne of His glory. Matthew 25, verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. It is a glorious appearing. So it will be a personal appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, a personal coming. It will be a bodily coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will be a glorious second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, I want you to see a glimpse of that even in the text. Even here in Acts chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. Because remember, I told you that in this one passage you could show somebody it's personal, it's bodily, it's glorious. Well, where do you get the glory here? I think you can argue that you get the glory from verse 9. Verse 9, we're told, Now, in both the Old Testament and New Testament alike, clouds, the appearance of clouds, are often associated with the revealed, manifested glory of God, known, often referred to as the Shekinah glory. So you might remember in Exodus chapter 40, verse 34, we're told, "...then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." In 1 Kings 8-10-11 we're told, "...and it came to pass..." Context here is the building and the dedication of Solomon's temple. "...and it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud. For the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh." So clouds were often a kind of visible representation of the presence of God, of the glory of God. We see this in the New Testament. Think of the Mount of Transfiguration. You could reference Luke 9, verse 33. You start there. Peter didn't realize what he was saying, we're told in the text, right? And he wanted to make three tents. One for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. He thought it was good for them to be there. We would think it was good for us to be there if we were there as well. Peter says what he says. Text says he didn't realize what he was saying. And then we're told this in verse 34 and onward, while he was saying this, while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them. And they were fearful as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son. Some manuscripts say my son, the chosen one. Hear him. Verse 36 says, "...when the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone, but they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things that they had seen." So although there might be somebody out there who might say, they might look at, you know, verse 9 and say, maybe that's just like a cloud, like a, you know, a cumulus cloud, that he just happened to go behind that cloud and they couldn't see him anymore. I think that was a glory cloud. And I think the idea is He was taken up in glory. So even there you get the idea that it's a glorious return because He's gonna return in the same way. Look at verse 11, this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. So I hope you're a little bit more excited about that moment. I was thinking about, I think for me, part of the way this will affect me going forward, I think there's a bunch of ways. I even told Lauren, I said, this has so excited me to live for the Lord's coming more, thinking about what we've considered already tonight. But I think it also changed the way I sing some lines of songs. You think about that line from the hymn, living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away. Rising He justified freely forever. One day He's coming. A glorious day. Glorious day. Now you got a little bit more of a glimpse of the glory. He's coming in His glory, His Father's glory. Saints with glorified bodies are going to meet Him in the air. He's coming in the glory that of the holy angels who are reflecting the glory of God. He's coming with the voice of an archangel. He's coming with the sound of a trumpet. This is going to be an amazingly glorious moment. He's going to fill up the sky with His glory. So how do you react as you wait to see such a day? Well, we had applications at the front end, but I'll give you a few more at the back end right here. You watch for him. You're like a watchman waiting, looking for that moment. You stay dressed and ready. You keep your lamps lit. You don't live like a spiritual sluggard. You stay alert. You stay sober-minded. You gird up the loins of your mind, to use language from 1 Peter 1, verse 13, and you set your hope fully upon the grace to be revealed at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you fan the flames of loving His appearing. Remember the Apostle Paul, as he waited to go home to be with the Lord, he knew that there was a crown that awaited him. But not only him, all who loved His appearing. Praise God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we simply ask that You would help us to be, by Your grace, excited about that moment when Your Son appears from heaven, when our lowly bodies are transformed into a glorious body like His. Oh, how we long for that moment. Help us to be dressed and ready with our lamps lit. Help us in the present time to set our hope fully upon the glory and the grace to be revealed at that moment. And Father, I pray, help us find comfort in the midst of our tribulations in the present and loving the appearing of Christ that is coming in the future. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.