Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2302
“Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.” Luke 12:37,38.
I AM about to speak of the Second Coming of Christ and I felt thankful that my dear Brother’s prayer, although we had not been in consultation with one another upon the matter, was in every way so suitable to the subject upon which I am to speak. He led us in prayer to think of our coming Lord, so that I trust you are on the margin of the subject, now, and that you will not have to make any very great exertion of mind to plunge into mid-stream and be carried away with the full current of thought concerning the Second Advent of the Savior. It is a very appropriate topic when we come to the Lord’s Table, for, as that prayer reminded us, the Lord’s Supper looks backward, and is a memorial of His agony. But it also looks forward and is an anticipation of His Glory. Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth, “For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death till He comes.” By looking forward, in a right state of heart, to that Second Coming of Christ which is the joy of His Church, you will also be in a right state of heart for coming to the Communion Table. May the Holy Spirit make it to be so!
The posture at the Communion Table, as you know, according to our Lord’s example, was not that of kneeling, but that of reclining. The easiest position which you can assume is the most fitting for the Lord’s Supper, but remember that the supper was no sooner finished, than, “they sang a hymn,” and when that hymn was concluded, they went out into the Mount of Olives to the agonies of Gethsemane. It often seems to me as if now, after finding rest at the Table by feeding upon Christ, whose real Presence we have—not after a carnal sort, but after a spiritual sort—after that, we sing a hymn, as if we would go out to meet our Lord in His Second Coming, not going to the Mount of Olives to see Him in a bloody sweat, but to hear that word of the angel, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven.”
I do not think we ought to feel at all surprised if we were to go always expecting Him, not knowing at what hour the Master of the house shall come. The world does not expect Him—it goes on with its eating and drinking, its marrying and giving in marriage—but His own family should expect Him. When He will return from the wedding, I trust that He will not find the door shut against Him, but that we shall be ready to open to our Lord immediately when He knocks. That is the object of the few words that I shall have to say, tonight, to stir you up, and my own heart, also, to be always watching for Christ’s Second Coming.
I. First, THE LORD WILL COME. He that has come once is to come again. He will come a second time. The Lord will come.
He will come again, for He has promised to return. We have His own word for it. That is our first reason for expecting Him. Among the last of the words which He spoke to His servant John are these, “Surely I come quickly.” You may read it, “I am coming quickly. I am even now upon the road. I am traveling as fast as wisdom allows. I am always coming, and coming quickly.” Our Lord has promised to come and to come in Person. Some try to explain the Second Coming of Christ as though it meant the Believer dying. You may, if you like, consider that Christ comes to His saints in death. In a certain sense, He does, but that sense will never bear out the full meaning of the teaching of the Second Advent with which the Scripture is full. No, “the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archan-
gel, and with the trump of God.” He who went up to Heaven will come down from Heaven and stand, in the latter day, upon the earth. Every redeemed soul can say with Job, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Christ will as certainly be here again in Glory as He once was here in shame, for He has promised to return.
Moreover, the great scheme of redemption requires Christ’s return. It is a part of that scheme that, as He came once with a sin offering, He should come a second time without a sin offering, that, as He came once to redeem, He should come a second time to claim the inheritance which He has so dearly bought. He came once, that His heel might be bruised. He comes, again, to break the serpent’s head and, with a rod of iron, to dash His enemies in pieces, as potters’ vessels. He came, once, to wear the crown of thorns. He must come, again, to wear the diadem of universal dominion. He comes to the marriage supper. He comes to gather His saints together. He comes to glorify them with Himself on this same earth where once He and they were despised and rejected of men. Understand this, that the whole drama of redemption cannot be perfected without this last act of the coming of the King!