What If Jesus Came Back Tomorrow? | Ken McIntyre

In this message, Pastor Ken McIntyre unpacks Daniel’s ancient visions and shows how they point to one unshakable truth: every kingdom in this world will fade, but God’s Kingdom will never fall. Through it all, Ken reminds us that Jesus is coming again — and how we live now matters for eternity.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- So one day I'll stand before God and one day you'll stand before God and we're both gonna want to hear the same things from Jesus, right? Well done, good and faithful servant. Those words come from Jesus from a parable he tells in Matthew 25, where Jesus is talking about the end of the end, right? The end of the end. Now, when Jesus rose from the dead, when his spirit was poured out on the church in Acts two, that marks the beginning of the end of the end. So we are living in the end days, but when Jesus is talking about this in Matthew 25, he's talking about the end of the end. And what he's trying to do is he's pulling back the curtain of the future so that we can see how things end. And the reason why is twofold, number one, so that we can have, have hope and number two, so that we could be prepared. And so he tells this story, he's like, he's like the end of the end is like this. And he tells this story about a master who goes away on a journey and he entrusted wealth to three servants and he's gone for a long time, longer than the servants expected, but eventually the master returns and he settles accounts with these three servants. Now two of the servants lived wisely. And so Jesus says these words, right, that many of us know so well, well done, good and faithful servant, come share in your master's happiness. But to the one servant who is not faithful, who is not wise with the opportunity, he says something much different. He says, you wicked and lazy servant, throw the worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now many of us understand this and it's this, how we live now matters for forever, right matters for eternity. Most of us understand that. But there's this other angle that we often don't think about and it's how we think about eternity matters for our now. So let me give you an example of that. Let's say that what you really, really want, you're here today, what you really, really want is to get out of debt, okay? Financial debt, that's what you really, really want in your life. You know that it's gonna be the daily wise, disciplined decisions day after day that are gonna help you get there. If you are banking on hitting, you know that scratch ticket or your parlay right to get outta debt, you realize that's wishful thinking. That's not wisdom, right? It's the consistent faithful decisions. Okay? So imagine you did that, but you also compounded your efforts. Not only did you live faithfully, but somehow some way you were allowed to see 20 or 30 or 40 years into the future. And not only is your debt paid off, but you're living generously, you're able to bless others, you've broken generational patterns with money. You don't just have an inheritance for your kids, but for your grandkids it's like, okay, what would seeing the future do for your present? Get your hopes up, right? I wanna apply this to the end of the end to eternity. Imagine that you lived wisely, faithfully, day in and day out and, and you're also able to see somehow, some way how things shake out at the end. And what you end up seeing is imaginably better than you could ever have thought that it's exceedingly good. What would that do for you? Right? It would get your hopes up in God's grace, he has given us a vision on how things end, and it is exceedingly good for those who are faithful to Jesus Christ. And so we can get our hopes out. Now, there's typically three types of Christians when we talk about end times, okay? The first is the apathetic Christian. There are people who are like, I don't really know much about it. I don't really care much about it. I don't wanna talk about it. It's just not important to me. Then there's the fearful Christian, and they just think that God is gonna come and ruin everything for them, right? So they, they don't really want it to happen. And then there's what I call tinfoil hat Christians. These are the people who are obsessed with end times. They read every current event as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. They have their Bible in one hand and they have the left behind books open in the other, right? Like if you saw their YouTube history, you would not invite them over to your house for dinner. Um, we don't, uh, need to be afraid. We can't be apathetic. And the tinfoil hats are not necessary. The Bible is clear about some elements of the end, and what is crystal clear is that the end of the end is exceedingly good for those who are faithful to Christ Jesus. Now we're gonna talk about the end of the world by looking at the dreams of two men, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and a man named Daniel. So if you haven't been here in the past weeks, here's just the context really quick. The year is 6 0 5 bc God had raised up the empire of Babylon as a tool for justice against unfaithful Israel. There's a first wave of exiles from Israel to Babylon, and included in that is Daniel. Now Daniel was in the king service that God had given him. Uh, wisdom and the ability to interpret dreams. Dreams are weird. My youngest told me that she recently dreamed she was a hot dog and all of her friends are trying to eat her during recess, . And so I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that. It's like, okay, dreams are weird, but sometimes we see in scripture and maybe have your own stories. Sometimes dreams are a way that God communicates with us. Sometimes we're just a hotdog and it means nothing. Other times God is trying to say something to us. And so we're gonna look at two dreams, which God is trying to say something to us. So the first comes in Daniel chapter two, starting in verse one says this, in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, I've had a dream that troubles me and I wanna know what it means. Then the astrologers answered the king, may the kingly forever tell your servants a dream and we will interpret it. The king replied to the astrologers, this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut, cut into pe. That's not funny. It cut, cut into pieces and your household, I dunno why I left that and your household turned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you'll receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me. Now, I don't want to speak ill of those that God has put in places of national leadership, but Nebuchadnezzar clearly needs Jesus, right? Um, everybody does, but he really does. And you know that there's some people in your family, there's some people that you work with. I mean they all need Jesus. But there are some people who like really need Jesus. Nebuchadnezzar is one of those, one of those guys. So Nebuchadnezzar suspects that the astrologers are going to pull a fast one on him, try to trick him, and so he doesn't trust them. And I don't blame Nebuchadnezzar. I don't trust astrologers either. Uh, I was born in May, my sign is a Taurus. You know what that means? Nothing. means nothing. If you are involved in horoscopes, if you are involved in astrology, I don't, I don't blame you for trying to find guidance in your life because life is really hard. Maybe that's why you're here today. And I think it's wise to search for help outside of ourselves. But the stars are not there to bring you guidance. The stars are there to bring God glory. And just to reveal maybe the foolishness of the idea is that looking to the stars for guidance, it's like asking a squirrel for directions. You're looking to God's creation. When there's a creator right there, the creation can never fulfill the role that the creator is meant to fulfill in your life. You can go right to the creator. You don't have to go to his creation. Now, for those who follow Jesus, astrology is not just foolishness, it's detestable in the eyes of God. And it's something that you immediately need to stop. You immediately need to repent of. And you can no longer search for the stars and look for meaning, but search for your savior. That's where you need to look. So Nebuchadnezzar is absolutely right here to be suspicious, but he's asking for something that is totally impossible. He doesn't just want his dream interpreted, which is difficult enough, he wants it to tell him what he dreamt in the first place. So imagine you're just like minding your own business and someone comes up to you and says, I had this crazy dream. And so you're like, oh, tell me. And they say, no, you tell me what I dreamt, right? And if you don't, I'm gonna burn your house down. Like that's the insanity that's happening here. But that's what Nebuchadnezzar is asking, and the Wiseman can't do it. And so he orders that they all be executed, including Daniel. Daniel doesn't panic, Daniel prays. And by God's grace, God reveals both the dream and its meaning to Daniel. And this is what he tells King Nebuchadnezzar. Continuing on in verse 31, in chapter two says, your majesty looked and there before you stood a large statue in enormous dazzling statue. Awesome in appearance, the head of the statue is made of pure gold, it's chest and arms of silver. It's belly and bro, uh, and thighs of bronze. Anyone wants some belly and bro and thighs of bronze in this place. Um, and its feet of iron, partly of iron and partly of baked clay While you're watching, a rock was cut out but not by human hands. Hold on to that. It struck the statue on the feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broke into pieces and became like chaff on the threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. So we got this enormous statue in four parts made of four different metals. And we got this rock that starts small, then grows to fill the entire earth. It's strange. But Daniel interprets this dream a little later and he says, the gold head of the statue was Nebuchadnezzar himself glorious and powerful. The the silver chest represented a kingdom of the come after Nebuchadnezzar that was strong but not as strong as Nebuchadnezzar. The bronze belly. Bronze thighs that represented another third kingdom that would come, that's still lesser than the first two. And lastly, the fourth kingdom would be made out of iron in clay. Strong in some ways fragile in others. Now, Christian interpreters have always believed this two reference Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. So that's the meaning of the statue. But what's with the rock? Well, Daniel tells us in verse 44, he says, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdom kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it itself will endure forever. And he says this, this is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut on the mountain, but not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future? Not what might, what will God is directing history to a predictable and glorious end. And the king of Babylon cannot do anything about it. So imagine being Nebuchadnezzar hearing this. You've seen his temper. There is never a man like him who's never existed. And he knew it with that much wealth, with that much power, with that big of an army. And Daniel says, yeah, your head is glorious, but your feet are made of clay. What you've built is astonishing, but it's temporary. It's temporary. So what is this rock that smashes not only the Babylon empire, but every empire and grows to fill the entire earth? Daniel says, it's the kingdom of God. Fast forward to Daniel seven. And Daniel has a vision, a dream of his own. And it's almost identical to Nebuchadnezzar. But there is one detail that we don't get in Nebuchadnezzar that is really essential to Daniel's dream. And that's the who. Who is going to rule this eternal kingdom? So Daniel seven says this, it says, in my vision at night I looked and there before me was one, like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Now there's a little bit of cryptic language in here. There's this idea of the ancient of days, which is unique to the book of Daniel. You're not gonna find it anywhere else. It's a poetic way to describe God, the Father and his eternal existence. Now the Son of man approaches this ancient of days and we hear that the son of man receives all authority and power over nations and people. So it's like, who is this son of man figure? It's the same figure that we learned from the rock of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And it's impossible. It's impossible to interpret this as anyone other than Jesus Christ. The rock who is made without human hands refers to Jesus's divine origin, his virgin birth conceived of the Holy Spirit, not by human effort. This is his first coming, what we call the incarnation. Jesus came and he was a babe. He was, he was small like, like a little rock. And just like in in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, this rock grew to fill the whole earth. The kingdom of God is expanding. Even as we speak, 2 billion people on earth right now claim that Jesus is Lord. And we find out that one day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord filling the entire earth. Now, Jesus refers to himself as a son of man, which is a dead giveaway about 80 times in the New Testament. It was his favorite self-titled. So when it comes to the end of the end of the world, we have some clarity on some things. We know the what, right? We know the what the kingdom of God will endure forever. And we know the who. It's Jesus Christ who will be king. But what about the how? Right? The how, how is this all going to shake out? Now, the Bible here reveals some things and conceals others. Proverbs 25 2 says this, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search a matter out, meaning God in his otherness, in his majesty, chooses for some things to remain known only to him. Yet he allows us in a noble pursuit to try to understand some of those things. And one thing that God has chosen to clearly reveal to us is that Jesus Christ is coming back again. He didn't come just once. He is coming again, the eternal kingdom of God is going to be established through the return of Jesus Christ. That's the how. Now, some of us want all the details they want know. No, no, no, I know that, but I don't wanna like, like all the intricacies. Okay? Okay, not today, but later on this year, we're going through Matthew 24, which will give you some of those goodies and that's gonna be useful. But today what I want you to cherish in your heart is this macro understanding of how it's going to happen. Jesus Christ is coming back. Every single New Testament author writes of Jesus's second coming 25 outta the 27 books in the New Testament, speak of this with the only exceptions being Philemon. And third John. This idea is central to the Christian faith. And his first coming, Jesus came to save the world. And his second coming, he's coming to judge the world. At his first coming, the world barely noticed him. And his second coming, every eye will see. At his first coming, it was as a baby. At his second coming as as the eternal king, his first coming, he came to rescue people. In his second coming, it will be to rule his people. Now the ancient of days is directing history to a particular, um, predictable and glorious end. Jesus Christ will eternally reign over the heavens and the earth. The very beginning of the message today, I said that God peels back kind of the curtain of the future for two reasons. The first being so that you can have hope. So you can have hope. I'm gonna read you one passage in the last book of the Bible that describes this eternal kingdom and what it's gonna be like. It's just a snippet, but it, but maybe it will get your hope up, says this. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven. And the first earth had passed away. There was no longer any sea. Uh, the sea in the Bible is, uh, a description of and is meant to understand wickedness and chaos and evil. We lead in revolution that, that the beasts are the ones that come outta the sea. So it's really just saying, there's no more evil If you love surfing, okay, don't worry. You'll be okay in heaven. Verse two, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and their God speaking to the closeness, the presence, the face-to-face ness of us. And God, verse four, and this is, this is a picture. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be, there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. And the one who is sitting on the throne, Jesus Christ says, I am making everything new. Every kingdom that has ever existed, including this one that we're in right now, has been marked by tears, by pain, and by death. And you know that because maybe your life is marked by those things. When Jesus reigns, everything that is wrong will be made right permanently. There will never be another funeral because death is wiped away. There'll never be another cancer diagnosis because sickness is wiped away. There'll never be tears shed over the loss of a loved one, the loss of a child, the loss of a parent, never. Because tears will be wiped away. The future is exceedingly good for those who remain faithful to Jesus Christ. And so you can get your hopes up. But when, right? When is Jesus coming to establish his eternal kingdom? At the end of the end of the Bible, we're told the second last verse, we're told, when Jesus is coming and he simply says this, he goes, I am coming soon. Our kids are now at the age where I can leave them home alone and and go out. And they'll always ask, well, when are you coming home? And I can answer them in two different ways.

I can say, I'm coming home at 7: 20:23

30 PM or I can say, I won't be long. I'm coming soon. I'll be home soon.

If they know I'm coming home at 7: 20:31

30 PM okay, you know where I'm going, this is, what do you think they'll do? They'll fight. They'll watch things they shouldn't. They'll eat things that they shouldn't. They won't clean. But then about five minutes before I come home, they'll try to make it all right. But if they know that I'm coming home soon, then what? They'll be prepared for any time that I return. At the beginning of the message, I said, God pulls back the future for two reasons. One, so that we can have hope, but also set so that we can be prepared. Jesus says this, you also must be ready because the son of man referring directly to Daniel seven, the son of man will come at an hour. When you do not expect him, the master will return, the master will settle accounts. Will you be found prepared? Will you be found faithful Today, I wanna give you three ways that you can prepare yourself for the soon coming return of our king Jesus. Number one, the first way that you prepare for his soon coming return is you have to get right with Jesus. You have to get right with Jesus When he comes, you'll either be ruled by him or overruled by him. One day every knee will bow. And so it's either today in worship or later in judgment. But you can enter God's kingdom by faith today and one day you will see it by sight. And I, I struggled, I hesitated to try to communicate the urgency of this because of fear of man. If I'm gonna be honest, I didn't want to seem manipulative at all. But even today, this morning as I was thinking about this, I'm like, no, I fear God. And so I need, my job is to tell you the truth. Jesus is coming soon. You have to get right with him. You have to repent of your sins. You have to follow his ways because if you don't, the future is not exceedingly good for you. You'll be thrown out where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's the vision Jesus gives us. So there's an urgency to this. So I have to tell you the truth, you have to get right with Jesus. Second thing is you have to make it right with others. You do not want unforgiveness lingering in your heart. When King Jesus returns, this is what he says in Matthew six. He says, for if you forgive other people, when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins. Some of us are carrying around deep hurts and deep unforgiveness. You do not want that on your ledger sheet when Jesus returns the way that you prepare for his return. Yeah, you gotta get right with Jesus, but make it right with others as well. And the last way that you prepare yourself for the return of Jesus is you build something that lasts. You build something that lasts. That's what the apostle Paul says to the Corinthians talking about the second coming. He says, their work or our work will be shown for what it is because the day referring to um, the second coming the day will bring it to light. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. Whatever we build apart from Christ will be just like Nebuchadnezzar statue. Doesn't matter how glorious it is. And he built a glorious kingdom, but it didn't survive. Whatever is built for and on Christ will endure. And so again, really quickly to close today, here is three things that you can do that will last. Three things you can build that will last. Number one, we build our own faith. Don't waste your best energy on things that won't make its way past the grave. So build yourself up in the Lord. One of the ways that the Bible describes again this return of Jesus is this idea of a bride waiting for her bride groom in the Bible, the church us, the followers of Jesus are described as the bride for all your dudes like, I don't like that. It's like, I don't care. Get over it. This is what the Bible says, okay, that we are the bride of Christ and Christ is the bride groom. Now, in first century Judaism, when two people were in love and they wanted to get married, the groom would have to negotiate a bride price with the bride's father. This is what it was going to cost the groom in order to redeem the bride from her previous family. Sometimes it would cost everything that the groom had, but once the price was set, the groom would go away and prepare a home that they can live in together. But she wouldn't know when he was going to return and he didn't know when he was gonna return. Jesus says, I don't even know when I'm gonna return. So she would wait every day longingly out the window. Is he coming today? Is he coming today? There's a longing, anticipation and excitement for the return of the bridegroom. That's the picture that the Bible gives us of you and Jesus. Jesus paid the price to redeem you from your old family. Bible says that we are once sons and daughters of this world of the enemy, but he has paid the ultimate price to redeem you to himself. And now he is off preparing a place for you. In one day he'll return. And here's why I'm saying this because one quick and honest way to see where your faith is at is asking this question, am I longing for the return of Jesus Christ? If the answer is yes, it's like you're on track. If the answer is no, it's not that important to me, then I would suggest something is off. Now, if you're new to faith, and this is like the first time you heard, just kind of plug your ears, okay? Like I'm not talking to you. But for other people who've been following Jesus for some time, if you're saying, nah, I don't really care that much. I'm not really excited about it. In fact I'm, I'm afraid about it, something is off. And my suggestion would be that you are focused on what is temporary first and not what is eternal? Build something that lasts. Build your faith. Secondly, build your family's faith. You can build that that last build your family's f faith. Many of us are wonderful at providing for the physical needs of our family. And I wanna honor you for that. Now, just speaking maybe just kind of to the men in this room, man to man, if you've given that freedom, I would say that um, you do a wonderful job of this. And that is a God-honoring thing. The Bible says that those who do not provide for their family are worse off than an unbeliever and have denied the faith. Meaning there is something innate and important and God built into us to provide for our family's physical needs. But understand, your family also has spiritual needs. Are you putting bread on the table but not leading them into a closer relationship with the soon coming King? Understand it's not one or the other. You have to do both. And so lead your family's men into greater relationship with Jesus Christ because he is coming soon. Don't build a kingdom for yourself that isn't going to make it past the grave. Build something that lasts. Build your family's faith. Lastly, build others' faith. Listen, when Jesus returns, I don't want him to see me empty handed, just me, Lord, Lord, no. I always be like, look at all these people I'm bringing. And then Jesus would be like, you goof. You're not bringing them. I saved them. I already knew they were coming. I got a room for them. I'm like, I know, but I'm just excited, right? That's what I want. Bible says this, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. His son understands slowness. Instead, he's patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Jesus is returning soon, but he's patient. He's waiting. He's waiting for your friends at work who are lost. He's waiting for your kids who have walked away from the faith. He's waiting for people and your family who are staring at the stars, but they need to stare at a savior. He's waiting and he's waiting because he has room for them in his eternal kingdom. How do you prepare for the soon coming King? You build your faith, build your family's faith, and you build other people's faith. And if you do that, when the master returns, you'll hear those words. You long to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray. We bless your name, Jesus, who is the king now. And when you return, everyone will see it. And God, I pray that in this place you would inject hope into every person's heart. This world needs hope. They need you. And Lord, we ourselves, even though we are your people, we can sometimes become so discouraged, so hopeless, the internal dialogue that we have, the stress that we carry, the outside external forces, whether it's from the news or our phone screens. Lord, there we, we just are hopeless sometimes. But God, as we look to the future that you have so graciously peeled back from us, I pray that we would have hope, Lord. And it's not to mask or to cover or blanket over the pain or suffering we're experiencing now, but for those in this place who have this pain, have this season, they're walking through, that is really difficult. God, I pray in the midst of that, that you would inject hope into their life. And that even Lord, they'd be able to look up from their own pain and see the future that you have given us that is exceedingly good for those who remain faithful to Jesus Christ, bring hope in this place today. Lord, I pray that you, when you return, that you would find us prepared, that we would be building things that last, not just temporary things, Lord, but eternal things, our own faith, our family's faith, and those around us. Lord, you have a purpose for our lives. And it's not just to build things that won't last, but to build things that do last. So convict us, Lord, draw us into your presence. Help us to understand what it is you desire for our life. Let it burrow deep into our hearts that we would live lives focused on eternity, because you are coming soon. And so, God, we pray collectively come, Lord Jesus, come, come soon, we pray. Amen. Today, as I talked about getting right with Jesus, if that's you, if you just realize I need to get right with Jesus, it's, it's, yeah, you do. It's urgent. And so we wanna help you do that by putting your faith in Jesus. And so there's a few ways to do that. Firstly is we're gonna have some, um, of our team who would love to just pray with you, hear your name, and hear your story, and pray with you today, and lead you towards a relationship with Jesus. Uh, we also have that tap feature on the back of our chairs that you can tap as a next step to learn a little bit more of what it means to follow Jesus. Um, at the very end of Revelation, revelation 22, it's describing this invitation that God gives each and every one of us. It says, the spirit and the bride say, come meaning God's spirit and the church and us for all of you saying, come, you're invited into a relationship with God. Have eternal life that starts now and lasts for don't wait until he returns. Begin now. Thank you for being in church today, and we'll see you next week.