Hope for the Fragile and Fragmented
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00:00:04.000 | Welcome back to the podcast on this Memorial Day here in the States,
00:00:08.000 | a day when we remember and honor soldiers who have died while serving in the armed forces.
00:00:14.000 | War has been on the forefront of many minds here in the past 15 months.
00:00:19.000 | No matter how close or far we are from the front lines, war has impacted all of us.
00:00:26.000 | Of course, Jesus said that we can expect to hear of wars and rumors of wars,
00:00:30.000 | and that nation will rise against nation, which are but the beginning of the birth pangs, Jesus said.
00:00:37.000 | In Matthew 24, verses 6 to 8, Jesus said this in the context of his return to earth
00:00:42.000 | and what we can expect before he comes again.
00:00:45.000 | Pastor John, you just published a new book, Come, Lord Jesus, Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ.
00:00:51.000 | And in it, Matthew 24, verses 6 to 8, and mentions of war make many appearances,
00:00:57.000 | especially in the second half of the book.
00:01:00.000 | This new book is very relevant for our age of wars and rumors of wars.
00:01:05.000 | And today I have another open question for you.
00:01:08.000 | With the book's release, you have done a handful of interviews with various ministries online.
00:01:14.000 | I think our listeners would be interested if, in all of those conversations,
00:01:18.000 | if anyone asked you a question that you didn't quite expect,
00:01:22.000 | or ones that maybe have opened new insights into the biblical teaching on Christ's return for you,
00:01:27.000 | any question surprise you?
00:01:30.000 | In fact, that did happen. In fact, it happened more than once.
00:01:35.000 | The one that was most provocative and caused me to see some texts in a different light
00:01:43.000 | was a question about how a healthy expectation of the second coming might actually bring stability
00:01:55.000 | to a person's mind who is feeling psychologically fragile and vulnerable and off balance,
00:02:04.000 | maybe because of personal circumstances, losses, tragedies, pain,
00:02:09.000 | or because of upheavals in society that disorient people and pull them this way and that,
00:02:17.000 | and make them feel fragmented and shaky, maybe even agitated and frenzied.
00:02:23.000 | And what was surprising to me about the question itself was that it seemed a bit counterintuitive.
00:02:33.000 | In other words, I think a lot of people would perhaps mistakenly say,
00:02:40.000 | "Well, the second coming is not a solution to that problem. It contributes to that problem."
00:02:46.000 | They would say, "Wouldn't it add to the vulnerability and shakiness and fragility of mind
00:02:53.000 | if you stir something as cataclysmic as the second coming
00:02:58.000 | into the mix of all the social and personal upheavals of our time?"
00:03:03.000 | So I had to really step back and ask, "Does the Bible"—this is the way I put the question to myself—
00:03:12.000 | "Does the Bible present the hope of the second coming in a stabilizing way or a destabilizing way?
00:03:23.000 | Is it really presented explicitly in connection to this problem?
00:03:30.000 | Or do I have to just kind of manufacture connections with this problem of instability?"
00:03:35.000 | And frankly, I was surprised. I mean, the question was, "Did anything surprise you?"
00:03:40.000 | I was surprised. So in the hope of helping folks who feel like this,
00:03:46.000 | and we all do from time to time, in the hope of helping people who feel off-balance,
00:03:52.000 | wobbly, agitated, fretful, racing mind, can't quite grab hold of peace of mind,
00:04:00.000 | in the hope of helping us, let me show you what I saw and just draw attention
00:04:06.000 | to some of these amazing explicit connections between second-coming thoughts in the Bible
00:04:13.000 | and stability of mind that we all need in these shaking times.
00:04:20.000 | So here's 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 1 and 2. Paul said, "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
00:04:28.000 | and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind."
00:04:39.000 | Now, the reason that text jumped out at me after I heard this question was that a literal translation
00:04:47.000 | is even more surprising. It says, "We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken from your mind,
00:04:56.000 | out of your mind." In other words, Paul saw that there were people in Thessalonica
00:05:04.000 | who were going out of their minds. They were no longer able to be rational or reasonable.
00:05:13.000 | You couldn't reason with them. The upheavals that were happening around them
00:05:19.000 | and were shaking them loose from their minds were causing them to lose their stability
00:05:26.000 | and a kind of hysteria or frenzy was taking control of them.
00:05:32.000 | And it had to do with a combination of social circumstances and misinformation
00:05:39.000 | about the second coming. And Paul's solution, this is amazing, I think.
00:05:46.000 | For a lot of people, it would seem amazing. Paul's solution to their frenzy was to teach the truth
00:05:54.000 | about the second coming rather than neglect the second coming. He didn't say, "Wow, you folks
00:06:02.000 | are thinking way too much about the second coming. You need to stop thinking about it
00:06:09.000 | and get a grip on reality, like where you live now, go to work." What he did, in fact,
00:06:19.000 | was the opposite. He spent a whole chapter dealing with that instability
00:06:26.000 | by teaching on the second coming. And so that's what I take away. Paul believed
00:06:32.000 | that a right understanding of the second coming would not add to the frenzy
00:06:39.000 | or the instability of life. In fact, it would be part of the remedy.
00:06:45.000 | So that's my first text. Second one is from Jesus, and I think it's where Paul got
00:06:53.000 | his thinking on this because the language is so similar. I've got a whole section
00:06:59.000 | in the book on the similar language between Matthew 24 and the Thessalonian epistles,
00:07:04.000 | which I think is just huge with implication for how they understood Matthew 24.
00:07:09.000 | Jesus said in Matthew 24, 5 and 6, "Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,'
00:07:19.000 | and they will lead many astray, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars."
00:07:27.000 | And then he says, "See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place,
00:07:35.000 | but the end is not yet." So Jesus recognizes that the world is going to be a destabilizing,
00:07:44.000 | alarming, anxiety-producing place, false Christs, wars. The next two verses talk about famines,
00:07:54.000 | earthquakes, endless difficulties as the end draws near, and he realizes that it is natural
00:08:02.000 | for people to look around and be alarmed, frightened, uncertain, off balance.
00:08:08.000 | So what's his solution? His solution is to give true instruction about the second coming.
00:08:17.000 | Most of the chapter is for that purpose. So one remedy to our instability and anxiety
00:08:25.000 | is not ignorance or disregard of the second coming, but solid biblical knowledge
00:08:35.000 | about the second coming so we can be expectant and hopeful, but not be alarmed or fretful.
00:08:45.000 | Here's another example of the connection between the second coming and the stability of our minds.
00:08:52.000 | Philippians 4, 5 to 7, "The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything,
00:09:01.000 | but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God,
00:09:06.000 | and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
00:09:17.000 | Now most of us, most of the time, make the connection between the guarding of the hearts
00:09:23.000 | and the guarding of the minds with prayer. Let your requests be made known to God,
00:09:31.000 | and He'll guard you. But the preceding verse says, "The Lord is at hand. Don't be anxious.
00:09:39.000 | The peace of God will guard your minds." So there's a connection.
00:09:44.000 | There's a connection between a right grasp of the nearness of the Lord and Christian heart and mind
00:09:55.000 | being guarded from anxiety and instability in fretting about the world.
00:10:04.000 | Here it is again in 1 Peter 4, 12, "Beloved, do not be surprised."
00:10:11.000 | In other words, don't be alarmed and thrown off balance and anxious.
00:10:16.000 | Don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you,
00:10:23.000 | but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.
00:10:34.000 | In other words, a right perception, a right anticipation of the glory of Christ appearing
00:10:42.000 | and our joy in that day is a stabilizing force to keep us from being surprised, alarmed,
00:10:53.000 | thrown off balance at the end time stresses and sufferings that are coming.
00:10:59.000 | Let me give you one more example. 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, 2-5,
00:11:04.000 | "You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
00:11:12.000 | While people are saying, 'There's peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them
00:11:20.000 | as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.
00:11:25.000 | But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief,
00:11:36.000 | for you are children of light, children of the day.
00:11:41.000 | We're not of the night or of darkness."
00:11:46.000 | That's just great.
00:11:48.000 | In other words, Paul's remedy to fretfulness and alarm and instability in the last days
00:11:56.000 | is right and true and balanced teaching about the second coming
00:12:02.000 | and who we are in Christ as we eagerly wait for Him.
00:12:08.000 | So, Tony, I had seen all those texts.
00:12:11.000 | I had seen them all, but I had not seen them in the light of that particular question
00:12:19.000 | of contemporary frenzy or instability.
00:12:24.000 | This is, I think, a really good example of how we keep on learning and growing
00:12:32.000 | and how the Bible is an inexhaustible reservoir of help for every kind of human problem.
00:12:41.000 | Amen. Proven on this podcast week after week after week.
00:12:46.000 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:47.000 | And this concludes a little four-part series on Pastor John's new book, Come, Lord Jesus.
00:12:51.000 | Be sure to get a copy. I'm holding one right now.
00:12:53.000 | It turned out beautifully.
00:12:55.000 | And, of course, you can download the whole digital book online at desiringgod.org.
00:13:00.000 | And our other recent episodes on the book include APJ's 1941, 1942, 1944,
00:13:06.000 | and concludes with this one, 1945.
00:13:09.000 | Thank you for joining us today.
00:13:11.000 | Ask a question of your own.
00:13:12.000 | Find all those episodes in our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at askpastorjohn.com.
00:13:18.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you next time.
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