"We Shall See Him As He Is" – John 14:3 It had been some time since we preached on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rapture: the taking up of the body of Christ, of all who are to gain eternal life. It is what God has planned for a moment in history, to tell His church, wherever it is, to rise. This is not religion and it is not church: it is that the day we were converted is the day on which, if Jesus comes, He will take us up. And each one knows whether he is ready to be taken, living a life as pure as it deserves.
I. No school teaches more than the Holy Scriptures.
A. As we learn, we are graduating.
1. And God is seeing how willing we are to be led where He wants to set our lives right and guide us.
2. The rapture is the taking up of the body of Christ, of all who are to gain eternal life.
3. They will rise to the third heaven, where God dwells; and they are those who have received the Lord as Saviour.
B. To be converted is not to enter a religion.
1. It is to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, because we have been sinners.
2. A child is born in innocence; and as soon as he begins to know this earth, he begins to be corrupted.
3. People speak of uprightness, of not breaking the rules; but the Bible says that to know to do good and not do it is sin.
4. We must all come to the feet of the Lord as sinners; that is why Jesus gave His life and shed His blood.
5. We are cleansed by His blood, not because we are good people nor because one day we gave someone a piece of bread.
6. We deceive anyone by appearances; the one we truly know is ourselves. Today we are content and tomorrow no one can bear us.
II. I will come again, and receive you unto myself (John 14:3).
A. If I go and prepare a place for you.
1. When He went away, He went to prepare a place.
2. That again is what is called the rapture, the taking up.
3. It is the taking up our Lord will do for the good of those who serve Him and always seek Him.
4. The day we were converted is the day on which, if Jesus comes, He will take us up.
B. We all have a war with ourselves.
1. No one here can say I do not; if not today, tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, the day after.
2. That is what the Holy Spirit is for: to carry us and to reprove us.
3. There are things you do and afterward you say: how badly I feel, why did I say that?
4. Because there is already within you the Holy Spirit reproving you.
5. To go with the Lord we must have a taste for holiness and for seeking God.
C. He who knows the Scriptures is not deceived.
1. I have known people in the falseness of the Gospel and have been in settings you have never been in.
2. But in that time I fought for my soul, that it not be condemned.
3. If people dominate your mind by their position, you think they have the truth.
4. But when you go to the Scriptures, you know what the truth is; and the truth made us free.
5. We are not captives of the falsehoods of human beings.
III. Jesus speaks of His departure.
A. Death, resurrection and ascension.
1. He came to earth, tasted death, rose and ascended; He went up to the third heaven.
2. It is thought it was about fifty days, in which He was also where those who had departed before were.
3. Those who had been saved not by grace, but by the law; and that is still the people of God, Israel.
4. Scripture makes it clear as the bosom of Abraham, when it is said: go to my brother and pass a little water over his lips.
B. I take hold of grace.
1. And I seek God with strength, with passion and with surrender.
2. For going to heaven is not as easy as everyone says, as if it were a gift.
3. We must know how we live our life, loving God with all our strength.
4. We are not going to mock God nor trample the blood of Christ.
5. You may like the church simply for the hymns; and the preaching may sting you and may vex you.
C. He was not abandoned: it was part of a plan.
1. He ascended and was exalted at the right hand of the Father.
2. On the cross He said: Father, why hast thou forsaken me? It was not that He would be abandoned.
3. It was a plan settled in the third heaven; Jesus had to say those words.
4. And the one who gathered what Jesus spoke did so that you and I might know it.
5. Blessed be God who left us His Holy Scripture, point by point; if you do not read it, you are losing the greatest books of human existence.
IV. There is a real destiny for His own.
A. It is not improvised.
1. Christ prepares it; it is a direct promise: Jesus returns.
2. Christian hope is not only going to heaven: it is that He will return.
3. And receive you unto myself: it is personal; He does not say He will send someone, He says I.
4. It is communion, it is belonging, it is the embrace of rescue.
5. That where I am, there ye may be also: the glorious end is to be with Christ.
B. What conquest have you when you die?
1. Here you may think you have much conquest.
2. This is not a matter of liking or not liking, as one likes a plate of food.
3. It is a matter of being responsible for our own soul.
4. Now you have a body and you give it what pleases you; but where will you take that body?
5. We say to heaven; and no: not everyone goes to heaven.
C. Predestination and free will.
1. I understand that I am in that destiny. What do you understand of your life?
2. That is called predestination; that is called being chosen, for God knows who will be faithful to Him and who will not.
3. The preacher leaps, prays, pulls and pushes; but she does it to spend herself to the last day.
4. Because I do not know which of you will be saved, nor who will keep his salvation.
5. And I come to an anxiety that presses me, and I can do nothing: it is free will, it is in the hands of whoever wills.
6. We must fight this good fight; for otherwise one lies back and there one dies.
V. The righteous depart with the Lord in peace.
A. God puts forth His mighty hand.
1. I went to a dearly loved family where there was a much loved brother, very ill, already in his eighties.
2. And that body began to be restored; for I believe the righteous always departs with the Lord in well-being, not in agony nor in torment.
3. When one departs with the Lord, he departs full of angels around him, who carry us and show us the way.
4. And there it will be said: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many.
5. To depart with the Lord would be far better: no more burden, no trouble, no weight, no pains.
6. If there is one thing we must learn in life, it is that we are going to see the Lord. That is a joy.
B. The rapture will be in the blink of an eye.
1. It will be at the level of heaven, and Jesus will come with those already there.
2. There will be no time then to repent.
3. Those who did not go will remain under the antichrist, who will have more skill, more might and more dominion.
4. He will rule and will make agreements with the nations; that would be a whole study of the Revelation.
5. Only the chosen people of God, who are not the people of grace, will be hidden and will have another way of warring.
C. Heaven is heaven because He is there.
1. In heaven is God on His throne and the Son at His right hand.
2. And the Holy Spirit, who can be in heaven and is in us alike.
3. The three of the Godhead can be in every place; but the one who dwells in you is the Holy Spirit.
4. And the one who washed you of all your sins is the Lord Jesus Christ by His blood.
5. He has come once; the second is still to come, when He comes and gathers us, if we do not depart first.
D. Preaching is a preparation.
1. That is why we are told to be children no longer and to have the fruit of the Spirit.
2. It is not that I want to come and talk: it is how you are being prepared for that day.
3. The final day will be after the Revelation is fulfilled, the seven years.
4. And all will have to be sealed with the six hundred sixty-six; and to avoid the seal, one must be beheaded.
5. Those who come up washed in blood are those who would not take the mark; the prize is that they were beheaded.
6. I read the Revelation trembling, because it is so real; and to remain here, or to be lukewarm, is worse.
VI. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord shall find watching (Luke 12:37).
A. Blessed are those servants.
1. Jesus calls them blessed: those who live as faithful, obedient and constant servants.
2. Obedience must be constant.
3. You can be constant three days and on the fourth you forgot: the first day you rise to pray, the second with effort, and the third a nod of the head.
4. I do not speak fantasy to you; I detest fantasies, I have never lived in fantasies.
B. When he cometh: it is the second coming.
1. It will be the call for the converted, for those who have been constant and love God with all their strength.
2. They will rise, they will be with Him and from there they will come to the throne of the Father.
3. Jesus is the one who stands in the clouds, and there is the call.
4. And there is a transformation: we are not going to come to the Son's side in these clothes.
5. The robes of the righteous are made; we will all be clothed at the moment of being taken up.
6. And when we come before the Master, those eyes will look at each one, and the word will be: thou hast been faithful over a few things.
C. Shall find watching.
1. He returns as Lord and will require an account; that is why He must find us watching.
2. If you grow cold — the service comes and by Monday you are in the world — if He does not find you working, you lose salvation as if it were nothing.
3. It is not only a matter of defending yourself: in heaven all the books are written.
4. The judgments were also opened for those who were saved, to tell us what we failed to gain.
5. It is not that we are cast into the lake of fire: it is that you were to do this and did not, and therefore you have no reward.
6. Let us always be ready and spiritually awake: prayer, holiness, service. For it is not much that God asks of us.
D. He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down, and will come forth and serve them.
1. Verily I say unto you: Jesus affirms it with authority; this is sure.
2. He will seat us at the table after girding Himself; which means He will be at the head.
3. It is the image of one who prepares to serve: he ties up his robe to work, as with the girdle at the washing of feet.
4. It speaks of honour and of communion: the faithful are received as guests of honour.
5. He will be the one who serves them all. It is no luxury: it is extravagance.
6. And what is so heavy to you about serving Him, when we live complaining? If it rains you complain, and if it does not rain you complain.
VII. Our conversation is in heaven (Philippians 3:20-21).
A. I am a citizen of heaven.
1. There are great privileges depending on one's citizenship when moving from country to country.
2. To have a citizenship where there is care for its citizens is a benefit for one's life.
3. Our Lord Jesus Christ watches day and night over the colony of heaven, for our colony is heaven.
4. Heaven watches how we move on the earth, and the angels are constantly in that walking.
5. Our loyalty is to the Lord in heaven; to be keepers of God is a loyalty to the Lord in heaven.
B. From whence also we look for the Saviour.
1. We are not only citizens of heaven: from heaven we look eagerly for the Saviour.
2. There is nothing to fear: there is much to do, much to live and much to believe.
3. We must come out of the shell, out of that notion that we are absolute.
4. The great thing in our life is that we are fighting for the kingdom of heaven.
5. We do not live by the mind and the values of the world, but with another identity; here we are pilgrims.
6. We do not look only for improvement: we look for a person, the great I AM, Jesus, who saves and rules.
C. The citizenship of the flesh expires.
1. To be here and live in the flesh and in the pleasures of the flesh has no citizenship.
2. You were converted, you made profession of faith, you were fighting; and it expires.
3. And what was important ceases to be important, because no one defends that citizenship any more.
4. As you seek God, so stand the years of your citizenship.
5. Life is no game; this is the worst place to tread if we are not going to love the Lord.
6. And what do you do to make Him leave? You throw Him out; He does not go because He wants to, but where He is not wanted He does not stay.
D. Who shall change our vile body.
1. There is nothing vile or evil in the human body itself: the evil lies in the bad uses made of it.
2. But it is a body subject to it all: wrinkles, scars, sufferings, sicknesses, death; that awaits every body alike.
3. What one boasts of today, in a few years falls to the floor.
4. This body, while on the earth, is still preparing for the day of its rising.
5. Take care with the church of Christ: to meddle with her is to meddle with God and with the blood of Christ.
6. Much can be lost; it might be said that it were better not to have been born, because it is touching the Holy Spirit.
E. Fashioned like unto his glorious body.
1. The Lord will transfigure it into a body of glory; we do not know the whole meaning of this.
2. It will no longer be subject to decay nor to death, nor to the limits of time, nor to natural barriers.
3. It will be a real body, but perfectly fitted to the conditions of heaven.
4. It will be like the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus; which does not mean we shall all look alike.
5. Jesus was clearly recognizable after His resurrection, and each one will have his own physical identity for eternity.
6. And like the Lord Jesus we shall be forever free from sin; but here on earth we must always be fighting, for it is not necessary to sin.
VIII. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear (Colossians 3:4).
A. Christ, who is our life.
1. It does not say only that Christ helps you, but that Christ is your life; that is why you will rise.
2. And if Christ is your life, then He lives in you, and not your own.
3. So long as you do not deny yourself, you will go on doing much harm on the earth; for one must deny himself.
4. When you deny yourself, then it will be Christ who works in you: your source, your meaning and your identity.
5. Who are you in Him? For you to be in Him, He must be in you.
6. You choose the messages you like; and at those you dislike you go off into thought, for if you listened everything within would burst out.
B. Then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
1. It speaks of His appearing, of that coming in glory, of the day Christ will be seen and publicly acknowledged.
2. The believer will not be left hidden nor forgotten: God will show who are truly His.
3. We can keep up appearances; but God will always let it be seen who are His.
4. When the time of struggle and frailty ends, there come honour, restoration and fulness with the Lord.
5. You have nothing great to give Him; the only thing I have is my love toward Him.
IX. We shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).
A. Now are we the sons of God.
1. It is already a present reality; we shall not be sons someday: we already are, by grace.
2. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be: we do not yet see the fulness of what God will do in us.
3. There is a not yet.
B. When he shall appear, we shall be like him.
1. It speaks of the coming of Christ, of His appearing in glory.
2. We shall be transformed, without sin, without corruption, with glorified life.
3. For we shall see him as he is: that is the vision of Christ, the climax, the decisive moment.
4. To see Him as He is implies full transformation.
5. Your present may have struggle, but your destiny is wholly settled: to see Christ and be made like Him in eternity.
X. Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away (1 Peter 5:4).
A. The work of an elder.
1. It involves an enormous expense of physical and emotional strength.
2. He must exhort, counsel, rebuke, admonish, teach, discipline and warn.
3. At times it can be a thankless task.
4. But to the faithful elder a special reward is promised: when the chief Shepherd appears, he shall receive the incorruptible crown.
B. Do not waste time.
1. If God called you young, blessed are you; if He called you from your mother's womb, life will go better for you.
2. Do not touch what this earth offers, for it will be your ruin; to whom much was given, much will be required.
3. If parents do not grow in wisdom and do not teach their children, the failure will not be the children's only: it will be the father's too.
4. In our hands is all that we must fight for; I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
5. The failure is yours and it is in your hands; your victory is the one you have not wanted to carry. And he that hath an ear, let him hear.
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
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