For the Coming of the Lord is at Hand

James 5:7-11
September 5, 2021
Abraham Hong

Sermon Script

I would like to begin by asking you a question. The question is this. What are you waiting for these days? Perhaps you are waiting to see the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Perhaps you are waiting for a child to take the next step forward in their life. Perhaps you are waiting on what your next job will be. Perhaps you are waiting for the end of this pandemic. Perhaps you are waiting for marriage in the future. Perhaps you are waiting for fantasy football to begin. Perhaps you are waiting for the delivery of something that you bought online. What are you waiting for these days? There are so many things that people are waiting for these days.

But if we are Christians, if we are the church and the body of Christ Jesus, then we are gospel-driven and duty-bound to wait for something far greater than anything else in this world. Something that ought to be in our hearts and minds each and every day of our lives during these last days.

Dear Highland, we are waiting for the coming of the Lord.

God the Father has appointed a day, a real calendar day (this is not a metaphor), when he will judge the world in righteousness through his Son Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given. On that day, God’s mercy will be shown in full glory. God’s elect people who repent and believe in Jesus will be eternally saved. And on that day, God’s justice will also be shown in full glory. The wicked and disobedient who are against God and who do not repent and believe in Jesus will be eternally damned. On that day, the righteous will go into everlasting life and receive that fulness of joy and refreshing that comes with the presence of the Lord. And on that day, the wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ will be cast into eternal torments and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

This day is coming. The Lord will come back. We do not know when this day will come. But it will come. The Lord will come back. Do you believe this? I hope so. But if you really believe this, then your life must reflect the fact that you really believe this.

Every Christian must live as if the Lord could come back each week. Each week is a round of watching like a watchman on a watchtower. Each week is another mile in the race. Each week is another season of farming. And that is why each week we start with worship on the first day of the week. Each week is special. Each week is a hold-your-breath week. Each week is war. And there are no breaks. There are no spring breaks or holidays when it comes to waiting for the return of the Lord. Dear Highland, please do not be foolish and think that there is a minimal chance that Jesus would come this week, or a minimal chance that Jesus would bring your time on this earth to a close. Be wise, Highland. Do not forget the fact that Jesus is coming back soon.

This is the main story of your life.

And so we look forward to seeing Jesus face to face. We look forward to a time and a place in which there is no more sin and no more suffering and no more death. We look forward to this with faith and conviction and assurance because we know that Jesus died and then rose from the dead. None of this is crazy talk or myth or Christian metaphor, because Jesus actually rose from the dead. People’s lives were never the same. Look at the Bible. Look at the history of the church. Look especially at believers in Christ who suffered and even died because of their faith. They all looked forward to what you are looking forward to. The kingdom of the new heavens and new earth. And the king himself, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nothing compares to this.

Therefore, this is what gives us comfort and peace and hope and endurance as we wait and go through trials and tests and sufferings and persecutions. All of this gospel truth should affect the way that you conduct yourself on this old and fading earth.

According to today’s passage, this is what you need to do. This is how you ought to live.

First, you are to be patient and establish your hearts. Be patient until the coming of the Lord. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. This means that you are okay with having to wait. You know how everything is going to end, and you have a profound sense of comfort and assurance that the end is just a matter of time. That is patience.

Think of a farmer who has to wait for his field of food to grow. You need to be like a farmer. The farmer plants the seeds at the beginning of the season. And then throughout the entire season, the farmer takes care of his or her responsibilities. But the actual growth of the field of food and the rain that brings water for that growth is not in his or her control. And so, what is the main thing that the farmer has to do? The farmer waits. The farmer waits day after day, week after week, and month after month, until the season is over, until the early and late rains come and go. Then, at the end, the precious fruit of the earth comes in due time.

This is a beautiful and profound picture of what our Christian lives feel like. God sovereignly ordains all the times and all the seasons of your life. And you are like a farmer. You need to think and act like a farmer who is waiting for a field of food to grow. You have to take care of many things. You will have to endure days and weeks when there will be no rain, when the field of food does not look like much. But ultimately, you wait upon the Lord. You have faith and hope and love that Jesus will return in his good time. This is patience.

Dear Highland, be patient and do not lose heart. Be patient as you go through trials and sufferings in your life on this old and fading earth. And do not lose heart. The coming of the Lord is at hand. Our outer self is wasting away. But our inner self is being renewed day by day. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). The coming of the Lord is at hand.

Second, you are not to grumble against one another. This is connected to patience, and this is kind of the other side of the coin from the first command. When we lose patience, we tend to grumble and complain against other brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus does not want us to do that.

Grumbling and complaining can be dissected and analyzed in so many ways. But according to today’s passage, grumbling and complaining against one another is connected with and rooted in a failure to remember that the coming of the Lord is at hand. When we stop centering our thoughts on what is eternal and when we focus primarily on what is earthly, on what we see in front of us, on what is present day, then we are so prone to go against one another. This cannot be.

James writes that we are not to grumble against one another so that we may not be judged, and that the judge is standing at the door. The judge is Jesus Christ. When we grumble against one another, we sin against Christ and dishonor his name.

Highland, let us not grumble against one another. Such behavior does not make sense when we know that the coming of the Lord is at hand. It wound silly to grumble and complain about tiny little details on a wedding day. It would be tone deaf and out-of-touch to grumble and complain about your teammates if you’ve just won a championship game. It would be shocking to grumble and complain about a long lost brother or sister who has returned home and you argue with your father and say something like “Where’s my fattened calf?” It would be pretty hypocritical to grumble and complain about someone who repents and turns back to God and you put God on blast and say to him something like, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. It is better for me to die than to live.” It would be sad to say something like, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Grumbling and complaining in these last days doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Are you a person who likes to complain about other people? Are you a person who gets easily annoyed at others? Are you a person who is often dissatisfied with how other people are? If so, please consider the command of Christ here today. The Lord does not want us to grumble against one another at church.

Third, you are to consider the examples of suffering and patience of Job and the prophets. The book of Job and his story is very long and deep. But in short, Job went through tremendous trials and testings and sufferings and lamentations. In so many ways, Job was innocent and he was persecuted. But in so many other ways, Job was guilty and in need of repentance. But the bottom line is this: God was compassionate and merciful toward him. God disciplined him and taught him and comforted him. And ultimately, God reminded him of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But during his time of suffering and patience, Job was often confused and lost. He did not know many things about life or about God. He could not go back in time and undo things. He could not speed up time to minimize the pain in his life or get over it quickly. The book of Job is a long and deep valley of the shadow of death. If you’ve ever read it, you would know that it is a very slow and difficult read. But Job remained steadfast. He waited. And the book of Job eventually ends and resolves. And everything that the book of Job pointed forward to happened. The Redeemer came. Jesus came with compassion and mercy. God accomplished his divine purpose in Job’s life. And God accomplished his purpose in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord was compassionate and merciful toward Job. The Lord was compassionate and merciful toward the prophets of old. And the Lord is compassionate and merciful toward you in these last days.

Please remember this when you go through suffering and trial in your life. God is patient toward you. God does not grumble or complain about you. Jesus is patient toward your brothers and sisters at church. Jesus does not grumble or complain about them. The Lord shows compassion and mercy toward you. The Lord will return for you. The Lord shows compassion and mercy toward your brothers and sisters at church. The Lord will return for them too.

Highland, what are you waiting for in these last days?

Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all.

Soli Deo Gloria