Please be seated. Turn in your copy of the scriptures to first Corinthians 15. Today we’ll be looking at verses 24 through 28. Last week, we did read and look at verses 20 through 28, but we didn’t say a whole lot about verse 20, verses 24 to 28. So we want to think about the end. We want to think about the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we read God’s word, let’s ask for his help and blessing. Lord, your word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, and so we pray now that our diligence, our preparation, our hearts, our attention spans would be ready, willing, and able to hear and receive your holy word by your grace, for your glory, for our everlasting good. Your saints be comforted and built up in their most holy faith. And we ask that you would convince and convert sinners to salvation. This we ask in the name of Christ our Savior, amen.
1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning at verse 24, Paul says, then comes the end. when he delivers the kingdom of God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet, but when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Amen, God’s gracious word.
If you bounce around Christian circles for very long, you will inevitably get into a discussion or perhaps listen to one about end times, or as Paul put it in here in 1 Corinthians 15, the end, the coming of Jesus. You will hear or get into a discussion about when is Jesus coming?
What is the millennium? Is it a real thousand years, a literal thousand years? Uh, is it that Jesus comes before the millennium or after the millennium? Does he come before tribulation? Does he come after tribulation? How many times does he come? Is there some kind of secret rapture where he comes and takes away all the Christians living on earth? And then he comes back later for all the others who got converted during this age or that. Maybe you’ve. been a dispensationalist and you’re recovering, maybe you are a dispensationalist and you’ve got it all figured out. Maybe you’re like me and you just know Jesus is coming. But you for sure have been in one of those conversations. And today, I think is very helpful because the last days, according to St. Paul, and he’s got it on pretty good authority, I would say that Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the last days, according to St. Paul, are pretty simple.
And here’s the quick breakdown. Here’s the quick, what are those little yellow books we read in high school and we didn’t wanna read the real thing? The CliffsNotes version. Jesus came in his first coming. He was born as the little baby and he’s gonna come again. And we’re living in a time called the inner advent period where Jesus came as a child, went back to heaven after his death and resurrection. sitting in heaven, ruling and reigning, but he will come again. And the end times, according to St. Paul, are rather simple. We’re just waiting for him to come.
We don’t have to be able to read the newspaper. We don’t have to be able to read history. In fact, Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour, not even the sun. That to me clears it up. When all these people say, I know when Jesus is coming. Uh, they say, I can read the signs. I can tell you want to say to them, so, you know, more than Jesus, right? Cause that’s really what they’re saying. That’s the height of arrogance. Uh, think the way to look at it is Jesus will get a tap on the shoulder from the father. He will simply say to him, it’s time. Go get your church. Go bring your people to be in heaven with us forever. But what’s going on between the Advents? What is taking place now before that second coming?
Well, Jesus describes it rather well. The scriptures describe it rather well. What is Jesus doing during his present reign in heaven? We know that he ascended to the right hand of God the Father. He’s ruling and reigning from heaven. Well, Jesus spoke of the days of Noah. Our times are just like the days of Noah. Remember, Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
Every other family on the face of the earth was only doing evil continually. And God says in Genesis, He was sorry that he made mankind on the face of the earth because he saw their wickedness. And he determined to flood the earth, to cleanse the earth, to purge the earth. But he would save Noah and his three sons and their families through an ark.
And so for a hundred years, by faith, Noah believed that judgment was coming. By faith, Noah believed that the flood of this entire earth would sweep away all wickedness, including his own family, unless by faith he built the ark. And so for 100 years, Adam or Noah cut wood and built the ark to the specifications that God gave him. He was, according to the book of Hebrews, a preacher of righteousness, calling and compelling others to come to faith and to get in the ark with his family.
But during the days of Noah, people were unaware that a flood was coming because they did not listen. And so they were eating and they were drinking and they were marrying and they were given in marriage and they were living life as if they had everything under control, but one day the rain would come.
One day the doors of the ark would be closed. And Jesus says, we are living in those times. No one knows the day or the hour. No one knows when the mercy of God comes to an end. No one knows when the doors of the ark will be closed. And so our Savior, warns us we are called, we are compelled to go out into the world and preach the gospel, preach salvation through faith in Jesus. He is the arc of safety. We’re to call people into his church. But what is Jesus doing in the meantime? That’s what the world is doing, just busy, busy, busy, ignoring. the call to avoid the flood and judgment. But what is Jesus doing? Well, our passage tells us four or five things.
It tells us, one, that all things are in subjection or under the rule of Jesus. Psalm 8, Psalm 110 tell us that God put everything under Jesus’ rule. Jesus rules and reigns in heaven over all things. Not only is Jesus the creator, but he is the king of creation. And so everything around us that we see, every authority that we view, every power that is around us, all of them are under subjection to Jesus.
And that ought to comfort us. There is someone in charge. There is someone in control. Remember, when we talk about the devil, we always say that he is the Lord’s devil. He is God’s devil. God has him on a chain and he can only go so far as God allows. And so when we see evil in the world, when we see power in the world, we remember with great comfort that Jesus is ruling and reigning over all those things. The scripture tells us that the hearts of Kings are in the hands of God.
Remember how the Lord ruled over Pharaoh. And he showed him his dominance over creation. He showed his dominance through the plagues. Or how about King Cyrus, a wicked pagan king? But God moved in his heart as the king of Persia to let Israel return to the promised land after their exile from by the Babylonians.
And we, I’m sure, can find examples in our own lives and history where God in charge through his son, the Lord Jesus. So that’s one of the things that Jesus is busy doing. The second thing that we have to understand this passage makes clear. There is one thing that is not under Jesus, and that is God the father. In fact, verse 27 says when it says all things are put in subjection, To Jesus, it is plain that he is accepted, referring to God the Father. It is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. Jesus rules and reigns all things because God the Father has given him that rule.
And so that’s the second thing we learn from our passage. Third thing is Jesus must reign until all his enemies are under his feet. Last week, we looked at the validity of the resurrection, the truthfulness of the resurrection, and how the last enemy for Jesus to defeat is death. And so when we think of Jesus, reigning until all his enemies are under his feet.
Those are all principalities, all authorities, all rules, all kings, all dictators, whatever, whoever. But it’s also death. And so the king of kings and the lord of lords must reign until all things are under his feet. Fourth thing to consider, Jesus rules over everything. Notice Paul’s comprehensive statement. He rules over every rule. He governs over every authority. He is in charge of every power.
There is nothing that Jesus doesn’t rule over. If there was something he didn’t rule over, he would not be king. If there was something not under his authority, he would not be sovereign. If there was something missing in his portfolio of kingdom rule, then he would cease to be God, really. And so Jesus has an absolute rule over everything. When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, we see him prove it.
He goes about from village to village, place to place, and he sees people that are demon possessed. And he cast out demons in the name of God. We see people with palsies and blindness and lameness and and other illnesses. We even see people like Lazarus. Who are dead and in their graves and Jesus, by the same power of his voice that called everything that we see into existence at creation, he calls the dead out of the graves. He calls the sickness. He calls the leprosy and other things to go away. He even tells people your sins are forgiven. And so the Lord Jesus has shown us in his earthly ministry, his rule and reign over all things. And we know with great confidence that’s what he’s doing now in heaven.
The next thing to consider the last enemy is death. You may fear death. You may be afraid of death. You may have death staring at you, but you should know that it is defeated by God. It is defeated by Jesus. It will not hold you. You will go to your grave. You will rest in the grave. But at the last day, at the end, when Jesus returns, you will be raised to everlasting life and death will not hold you.
For the next thing, our passage teaches us that Jesus reigns not only until he has put all these things under his feet, but he reigns until his last enemy is destroyed. Remember when John, as an old man, the old apostle, was on the Isle of Patmos, he was a prisoner being persecuted because of Christ. Jesus, the risen and exalted Jesus, appears to him in Revelation 1, verse 8. Jesus says so clearly to John, behold, I hold the keys to death and to Hades. And then you get to the very end of the book of Revelation and we again see that Jesus holds the keys to death and to the grave. And so that last enemy is death and that will be destroyed as well.
Here’s a confidence we should have. Jesus reigns and rules over all things and All the boogeymans that keep us awake at night, we’ll just put them that way. They are under the rule of Jesus and one day they will be no more. They may antagonize us now, but one day they will be no more. The last thing our passage tells us is that when the last enemy is destroyed, when all things are under Jesus’ feet, except God the Father, what does our passage say in verse 28? Uh, it says God or Jesus will return the kingdom to the father and Jesus himself will be subject to the father’s rule.
And the goal of all this is that God may be all in all. Uh, this is a wonderful thing, but what of the coming of Jesus? I think we thought for a minute about the days of Noah, what people are doing now. We thought for a moment about what Jesus is doing in heaven, but what about the coming of Jesus?
You know, we’re pretty interested in royal stuff. You stand in the grocery store line, you look at those headlines on those tabloids, and you want to know what, you know, Harry and Meghan are up to, maybe. They weren’t out there welcome, I suppose. But we really want to know what the other royals are doing.
Well, we should really want to know about the royal king, Jesus, and what he will be doing one day. Our great king, our savior, Jesus, will come with all the pomp and all the circumstance of the eternal royalty that he holds. And his coming will be quick. It will be like lightning.
Several weeks ago, maybe around the 4th of July, the Blue Angels, those fighter jets that fly in formation and do all kinds of tricks and things, they flew very low over a beach in Alabama. And you saw the tailwind of one of those jets that pulled all the umbrellas and beach things off the ground, and they were flying through the air. And I think most people were amazed. It was pretty awesome, pretty exciting.
And they performed some maneuver called the sneak, where this one jet will just fly really slow, and everybody’s looking at it because they see it and they hear it. And then all of a sudden, another jet will come at mach speed or something and just zip right over. And I was thinking about that when that hit the news. That must be what the coming of Jesus is like. It’s surprising. It’s all inspiring. It’s quick. It’s sudden. It’s unexpected. He comes out of nowhere.
Just well, not just like one of those jets because his coming will be much more glorious. But at the coming of Jesus, he will come like lightning. He will come with fire all around him with a shout of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet, both of war and the trumpet of Jubilee. and he will come with all his holy angels to gather all his beloved saints.
And the dead in Christ will rise, and those who are living will be caught with Jesus in the air, and we will be with our God forever and ever. That’s what Paul is speaking of here when he speaks of the resurrection, but he speaks of the coming of Jesus and the end. The dead will obey the voice of God. The dead will hear and will rise. And so all the promises of God come true for believers. Remember what Jesus told his doubting and fearful disciples.
He says, I’m going away, but I’m going to prepare a place for you. Let not your hearts be troubled. In my father’s house are many mansions, many rooms. I’m gonna go and prepare a place. And if I go, I’m gonna come again and take you to be with me where I am. I will be there forever.
When you get to the end of the book of Revelation, chapter 21, it says, behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. And God says, I will be your God and you will be my people. When Jesus comes in glory, he will destroy all his and all our enemies. He’ll raise the dead. He’ll judge the wicked and the righteous. He’ll make a new creation and he will reign over it.
But how should we think of these things? How should we live in light of these truths? Well, we should Have a strong faith. We should believe in what we cannot see that God is preparing a heaven for us. And Jesus has gone there to make it ready and he will return. Our faith is in what we cannot see, but we have assurance in the things that we hope for. We believe the promises of God are true. We embrace them.
And so our job in this life. while there’s pain and hardships and persecutions and all the rest, is to have our faith strengthened by the word, by the Holy Spirit. But we should also walk in reverence or fear. We should tremble at the threatenings of God, just as in the days of Noah. We should remember there is a judgment coming. There is a holy God who will Call men and women of all stripes into account. We want to be found in Jesus We want to have a faith in him resting in him alone for our salvation So that we can face that judgment seat with confidence and with the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins But we ought to live in a holy reverence a holy fear Because he is coming We also ought to be interested in We ought to take an interest in the second coming, not so much that we get into all the last day’s madness, because that’s exactly what it is, but we ought to have an interest in the second coming of Jesus, the return.
We should read those parables that speak of the bridegroom coming, and we should have our lamps filled with oil. We should keep our wicks trimmed. We should be using the talent that the master left in charge of us. We should be using it to make his interest and to make him gain. We should be watchful and we should be ready. We should live with one eye on the sky, believing that his return could be at any moment. But we also ought to live fruitful lives. We ought to be obedient to the Lord and doing good works along the way.
You know, there’s some people that say, oh, Jesus is coming, let’s sell all our property. Jesus is coming. Let’s give everything away. Jesus is coming. There’s no point in doing anything except sitting and watching. But God calls us to our lives. He calls us to our vocations.
And so we ought to be faithful in our everyday living until he comes. We ought to think to ourselves, if what I’m doing, if the way I’m living, And Jesus returns at that moment, would he be pleased with what my life looks like? We also ought to be strengthened up. We ought to live a life that is, it’s steeled up for the difficulties that we face. What does Paul say about the life that is to come compared to this life? We may go through hardships, aches and pains in this life, but they are nothing compared to the excellencies and beauties of heaven.
And so we may suffer. Jesus may tarry and his return to us may seem delayed. It may not even come in our lifetime, but we press on. We press on in faith. We press on in fear and reverence. We press on bearing fruit. And we press on in strength, knowing that this is not all there is. But we also press on with great joy, with great fervor, knowing that he is coming. And that is our everyday waking joy.
What did Paul say when life was hard for him? He would pray, come Lord Jesus. How does the book of Revelation end when it speaks of hardships and persecutions and end time tribulation? Well, it gives that prayer, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. We pray every Sunday in the Lord’s prayer, thy kingdom come. We looked at the Heidelberg catechism. What do we mean when we pray that prayer?
Well, until Jesus comes, we want all his enemies under his feet until Jesus comes. We want every last enemy destroyed, even death. And until he comes, we want to see the church built up. We want to see people brought into the church. We want to see the church maintained. We want to see the church growing and the gospel increasing in this world.
But until then, we we have one foot in the next life, one foot in this life. One of the things that dawned on C.S. Lewis when he became a Christian and read the Bible more and more is this. He realized that we were not meant for this world. We were meant we were made for another. And so if our lives are not looking forward to the next, we ought to reorient ourselves to that greater world that we were built for, made for. A life before God, a life without sin, a life full of glory and full of grace. And so why all of this of Jesus’ rule? Why all of this of God’s reign? Why all of this? It’s for the glory of God. Paul simply says that God may be all in all.
I don’t know about you, but life seems to be about the moment very often. We don’t think about eternity very much. And so today is a good day to challenge yourself, to think more of the next life than you do of this one. Sure, this one needs planning and you’ve got to think about some things, but we ought to also look for the world to come.
Let’s go to God now and ask for his help. Lord, we ask that you would help us. Put our thoughts on that world that we are made for, that new heavens, that new earth, that life. In your presence, uninterrupted and glorious forever. But indeed, you’ve put us here and there are things to be busy with, but help us not to be so enamored with this world. We forget what the one that we are made for and redeemed for.
And we pray with the saints of old, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come make all things new, take away all pain and hardship and sorrow, make all things new and be with your people, we pray in the name of Jesus, amen. We want to respond to God’s goodness, his promises and sing, rejoice, the Lord is king.