The Sun Will Rise...

As Christians, the cross of our Lord Jesus is rightfully the most considered aspect of our faith. So much has been written on the work of the cross, the beauty of the cross, and the wisdom of the cross. However, I’ve been realizing that I have severely neglected “the other side of the coin” when it comes to preaching and teaching about the cross. Not only does the work of Christ on the cross redeem us to God, but the cross demands a response from us as it beckons our flesh into its revulsion and contempt. His cross is an invitation for us into our cross – into the “fellowship of His sufferings”, that we may be “conformed to His death”, so that we may “attain to the resurrection from the dead”. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Paul was not just speaking of some ethereal, spiritual “dark night” or “soul suffering”. He was speaking of real trial, struggle, persecution, and derision in his life. So often Paul found Himself shipwrecked, beaten, hungry, in need, and severely persecuted. But what kept him there was his vision of the worth of his Lord (Philippians 3:8), his hope in the coming resurrection of his body (Philippians 4:21; 1 Thess. 4:14-18), and his confidence in God’s plan to restore all things (Romans 8:19-25; Acts 3:21).

The disciples and close friends of Jesus were consumed with a prevailing, singular yearning such that their lives were lived as ones who had been exiled. Their freedom from the entanglements of this life and this age enabled them to love their brothers, sisters, and neighbors with reckless abandon. So often in their writings to one another, we see this common yearning – an eager expectation for their Bridegroom, King, and Judge to return to the earth.

This “eager expectation” pervades the New Testament and defines what it means to belong to Christ. “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” (Hebrews 9:28 RSV). “You are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). “Deny ungodliness and worldly desires . . . looking [eagerly] for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 21).

Do we anxiously and eagerly long for the return of Jesus, or are we content with rhetoric without heart reality?

Hope is an extremely potent emotion. It gives us courage to face difficult circumstances, assuring us that they will come to an end. Hope fills our hearts with eager anticipation and expectation for peace, happiness, joy, and well-being. President Barack Obama used “hope” as one of his main campaign slogans in 2008. Not only is “hope” a big buzzword in secular society, but it’s increasingly becoming a catchphrase among Christians in the West.

The word “hope” also filled the conversations, letters, and daydreams of the first century church after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. As 21st century believers in that same resurrected and ascended Lord, do we share the same hope as the early church?

The New Testament boldly declares the singular hope that every believer should cling to - the return of Jesus to the earth to raise us from the dead, establish His government from Jerusalem, restore the earth to the pristine perfection as seen in the beginning before the fall of man, and reveal YHWH, the God of Israel, as the one true God who alone is worthy of all worship.

The biblical definition of hope is stunning in that it is wholly focused on and anchored in the age to come. Any amount of favor, grace, and power that the Lord gives us today is never meant to be an end unto itself for this day, but is always to be strengthened in perseverance and hope for that Day.

It’s clear that the Lord is stirring His church in ways like He never has before. When the top leaders in the missions movement like Loren Cunningham (founder of Youth with a Mission) and Mark Anderson say things like “the Great Commission will probably be completed in 10 years”, when extravagance of devotion to Jesus is becoming increasingly common among young adults all across the world, and when prayer rooms are springing up across the earth without any coordinated effort by one group or organization, our hearts should be alerted that there is truly something bigger going on. I, along with many others across the world believe that the day of the LORD, the day of Jesus’ return, is drawing nearer. But what if we're wrong and it’s still hundreds of years away? How then should we live?

I believe that every generation, no matter how close they are in history to the Lord’s return, should live with urgency and expectation of that great day of the LORD. From the earliest days of history when the gospel in its “budding” form was preached to Eve (Gen. 3:15), men lived in expectancy of the Day of the promised Messiah or “Seed” to crush the head of Satan and restore the conditions of unhindered communion in God’s paradise, the garden in Eden. Through the days of Enoch (Jude 14-15, Heb. 11:5) to his grandson Lamech and then his son Noah, that great Day of judgment and restoration was the great anticipation of those calling upon the name of the LORD. Noah was in fact named after this expectation of a Deliverer to restore that which was lost at the fall of man:

Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
(Genesis 5:28-29 NKJV)