Longing for the Warrior King The salvation Jesus brings is multifaceted. Jesus saves us from the spiritual powers of sin, Satan, and eternal death through His crucifixion. He saves us from the deterioration of our bodies and minds through His resurrection, giving us healing in this life and raising us with a body like His in the life to come. And Jesus saves His people from persecution. Like healing, sometimes He brings this about in this life, and sometimes He calls His own to follow Him all the way to death. But His final rescue is sure, and His people can cry out, "Lord Jesus, save me!" because
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
While we can see this holistic salvation now, at the time of Jesus' first appearing, those languishing under Roman oppression were not so sure. John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus' public ministry, sent messengers from prison to ask,
Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another? — Luke 7:19
John had pronounced in Jesus the coming of "the salvation of God" that would include wrath, fire, and an axe laid to the root (Luke 3:4–9). Now John was in prison, decidedly unrescued, and wondered whether he had identified the wrong one as Messiah. From James and John requesting to sit on thrones flanking Jesus "in your glory" (Mark 10:37) to Peter rebuking Jesus' insinuation of crucifixion and slashing his sword at the soldiers arresting his Master, this question of Jesus' relationship to the Roman and Jewish power structures of His day sits tensely in the backdrop of all the gospel narratives.
We anticipate Jesus' second coming in a similar way to how John the Baptist and others anticipated his first. He will return not as the sacrificial lamb or the suffering servant but as the Warrior King. We share their ancient hope of rescue: His real promise to deal with the real aggressors who harm us. While we will focus on the immediate context of persecution for the faith, I believe the imagery of deliverance could help you who have suffered abuse, discrimination, or harassment. These are tragically prevalent in our day, and if they are part of your story, I pray you will find hope in beholding this aspect of Jesus. |
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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 |
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 |
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The Thlipsis of the Thessalonians The apostle Paul ministered under constant persecution, receiving the same dogged aggression from Jewish religious leaders that he once carried out against Jesus' followers. This was not hidden in the fine print of his conversion. Days after Paul's blinding Damascus road encounter, Jesus sent word to him by a messenger:
I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name. — Acts 9:16
Paul spoke openly of this expectation of persecution for Jesus' sake wherever he shared the gospel. One of the places where new converts faced fierce, immediate opposition was in Thessalonica. Indeed, because of public outcry Paul was able to proclaim the news about Jesus for only three weeks before he was forced out of the city (Acts 17:1–9). Not long after, he wrote to the brand-new church about the persecution they continued to face.
In both of his letters, Paul speaks often about their "afflictions" (thlipsis in the Greek) because of their allegiance to Christ. When they first believed, the Thessalonians "received the word in much affliction" (1 Thessalonians 1:6). After his expulsion from the city, Paul sent Timothy back to exhort the new, persecuted believers "that no one be moved by these afflictions" (1 Thessalonians 3:3). He rejoiced upon learning from Timothy that "you are standing fast in the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 3:8).
Whatever time passed between Paul's first and second letters to the Thessalonians, the afflictions did not abate. The young church had persevered so admirably that Paul wrote,
We ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. — 2 Thess. 1:4
Apparently, the church misunderstood Paul's teaching on Jesus' return — a confusion complicated by a letter, falsely attributed to Paul, teaching that "the day of the Lord has come" (2:2). So Paul merges the issues of their afflictions and the day of the Lord to explain exactly what will happen when their Savior appears. He holds out to them the hope of rescue. |
The Warrior King We do not know the precise nature of the Thessalonians' persecution. Acts 17:5 records an attack on the house of Jason during Paul's ministry in Thessalonica that sounds similar to what our sister in India endured — physical beating and the destruction of property by an angry mob. Their experience of thlipsis likely also included social and economic ostracization and an unwillingness of the government to protect them from acts of aggression.
The larger story of these afflictions is the story of powerlessness. Abuse survivors have tasted it. Victims of workplace discrimination know it. Anyone who has been on the wrong end of the misuse of power has felt helplessness to stop what is being done or to find justice when the aggressor is protected. Having no voice, no recourse, no traction with your account of what happened is one of the most horrific and dehumanizing experiences in this fallen world.
With that taste of powerlessness in your mouth, consider the hope you would feel when you beheld this vision of Jesus:
God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. — 2 Thessalonians 1:6–8
Let's use our sanctified imagination to develop this portrait of Jesus' appearing as Warrior King. I'm going to suggest a thought experiment that will be immediately applicable for some and something to file away for others. If you are facing affliction, my guess is that the person or group that is making you miserable looms large over your life, haunting your thoughts. I wish there were a way to erase their image from the canvas of your mind. I'm not sure there is. But there is a way to paint something around that image that will put the terrible afflictions you face now into a larger context.
Paul says that Jesus will come "with His mighty angels." This is not the first reference connecting Jesus with an army of angels. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus commanded Peter to put his sword away because, had Jesus needed military backup, He could call on His Father and "He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels" (Matthew 26:53). A Roman legion consisted of six thousand soldiers. Whether Jesus meant exactly 72,000 angels or simply an innumerable host, the point is that they serve to fight at His command. Of course, He doesn't need them, being God the Son, almighty and eternal. But the optics give a stunning visual for those overwhelmed by persecution.
So on the canvas of your mind, where you see the menacing face of the one antagonizing you, imagine behind them the risen Christ. Surrounding Him are thousands of angels. If you're trying to mentally populate the space, imagine a line of thirty-six angel warriors on either side of Jesus, backfilled a thousand warriors deep, as far as your eye can see.
But don't forget the fire. Jesus is portrayed "in flaming fire," a common theme in most visions of the risen Jesus and a symbol of judgment and purification throughout the Bible. So, however you were envisioning Jesus before on your mental canvas, this one is not cuddling a lamb or smiling serenely toward Heaven. This Jesus is on the move, forward marching, sword in hand, blazing with the fiery judgment of God, coming to bring relief to you and to inflict vengeance on those who torment you.
Help is on the way.
Excerpted with permission from Bright Hope for Tomorrow by Chris David, copyright Chris Davis. * |
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Are you longing for our Warrior King? His rescue is sure. It may not come the way we expect it nor in the timing we anticipate, but help is on the way!
~ Devotionals Daily |
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Bright Hope for Tomorrow: How Anticipating Jesus' Return Gives Strength for Today |
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Hope is fuel. For Jesus' disciples, the hope of seeing their risen Lord again, face to face, powered their endurance through persecution, their patience in discipling new believers, and their courage to renounce injustice and sinful passions.
But have we set aside that fuel because the topic of Jesus' return is mired in confusion and controversy? Many Christians have lost or overlooked the importance of the Lord's appearing, resulting in a sluggish, ineffective faith.
What if there is a way to recapture spiritual momentum? What if we could tap into the apostles' longing to simply be in the presence of the resurrected Christ without getting entangled in date-setting or disagreements about the Millennium? And what if this fresh hope could drive our daily responses to temptation, affliction, discouragement, and life in a broken world?
In Bright Hope for Tomorrow, pastor Chris Davis points the way forward. Exploring the return of Jesus on the terms of the New Testament letters, this book looks at portraits of Jesus' appearing, rhythms necessary to maintain expectancy (including gathering, fasting, and resting), and the practical transformation such anticipation effects.
Bright Hope for Tomorrow is not the next new thing. Rather, it is a recovery of what has been lost by end-times studies that have veered into peripheral concerns. Join this return to the gospel center: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. |
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"Some years ago the church was awash in controversial books about the second coming. Each had an axe to grind for one of the theories about the nature of the millennium and about the exact order of last things. I was not sad to see those books fade away. But that left us without guides for how to use the doctrine of the second coming practically in our lives and hearts and practices. Chris Davis fills this gap wonderfully with the best practical pastoral book on the doctrine of the second coming written in years. Recommended!"
~ TIM KELLER, Redeemer City to City |
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