How can we “hasten” the return of the Lord when the Father has set a specific time that no one can know exactly before the appointed time occurs? (Mk 13:28-37; Acts 17:30-31) Yeshua/Jesus will come right on time – not early; not late. So what does it mean for us to “hasten” his return?
We are to hear and believe the word of God, and act according to it, for His purpose and glory. Do we believe what the Lord says? Do we believe that what is written in the whole of the Bible is the Word of YHVH God? We are taught, warned, exhorted much about sanctifying ourselves because there is a real judgment day prior to the restoration of the Kingdom of God to Israel and over the nations: this is the Day of YHVH; the day of vengeance of our God. (Is 61:2) The blessed hope for the believers is the return of the Messiah Yeshua and our resurrection/rapture to be physically with Him forever; but the Word of the LORD says that without holiness no one will see Him. Yeshua prayed for us to be sanctified by the truth, and said that the word of God the Father is truth. (Jn 17:15-19) Yeshua/Jesus is Himself the Truth; He is the Word of God in the flesh. It seems that the Holy Spirit is wanting to say something to us as individuals, and as congregations. And not to us only, but I believe to the Body of Messiah at-large. We are the corporate, collective Bride of Christ, the Lamb of God.
Love wants to be loved. The one who loves wants to be with the one he/she loves…as soon as possible. Love hastens the day; the heart longs for it, and especially as the day draws nearer and the expectation more tangible.
Here are a few verses which speak of this regarding the return of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah/Jesus Christ in glory:
Tit 2:11-15 living godly and looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
2Tim 4:7-8 finishing to the end, and receiving a crown of righteousness from the Lord given to all who have loved His appearing
Heb 9:27-28 Messiah/Christ will appear a second time for salvation to those who eagerly wait for Him
God is our Father, and Yeshua was sent by Him to die for us, and in our place, so that we could live in our holy Father’s house as His holy and righteous and pure sons and daughters. The Holy Spirit lives in the spiritually born-again believer to help us live in the fear of the Lord, whom we love, and be transformed into His image, bringing honor to our Father’s name, and to our own in His eyes.
The Apostle Peter asks the rhetorical question: “What manner of persons ought we to be in these end-times of the last days, looking for and hastening the coming day of God?” (2Pt 3:10-14, 17-18)
How many times do we ask our children or our friends what do they want to do when they grow up; or, what do you want to do after the military service, or your studies? Perhaps a better question to ask is: what kind of person do you want to be when you grow up; during, and after, your studies; when you die? This seems to be the question that Peter is asking us, and giving God’s answer to it.
Let us look at the passage that I always read when a baby is dedicated to YHVH God by the parents, especially for first-time mothers and dads: (Gen 18:17-19)
Parents, we are to teach our children what is good, and what is bad, so that they learn to judge righteously. God says that this is His Way. This means that we ourselves need to know God – His character; His heart and mind – so that we can distinguish between what is good and what is bad in His righteousness and wisdom; what is right and what is wrong; what is acceptable and what is not. It is our responsibility as fathers and mothers, especially for us who know and love our Father in Heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah. This is “home-schooling”, whether or not our children are taught at home, or go to public or private schools. Learning the truth and the way of our heavenly Father’s “school” – the “school of Messiah/Christ” – is something that must be taught, and must be learned. (Is 1:16-17; 2:1-5; Heb 5:12-14) Knowing the good, and choosing it, is not “natural”. Sin is natural. Holiness is of God. The Spirit of Christ is holy – the Holy Spirit. (Gen 18:17-19; Dt 4:7-10; 6:4-7)
As the deception in these times is growing stronger, it is not so easy to discern what is fake from what is real! Artificial Intelligence can counterfeit real people’s faces and voices, and make us believe that it is actually them. But our God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. (1Cor 14:33) Our God is not a liar, but the God of truth. Our God is not a deceiver, but the God of integrity. If we know and believe what God says, we are standing on the Rock when the enemy tries to deceive as many people as he can, including the believers. (Mt 24:24; 7:24-27)
These “works of the world” will dissolve, the apostle Peter tells us! What kind of person do we want ourselves, and our children, to be in holy conduct and godliness?! The Lord is coming!
God said that He chose Abraham, and knew him, so that Abraham would command his children and his household – his servants and slaves included, and his wife – to walk in righteousness and justice. God worked in Abraham’s life so that Abraham would have no doubts about who the true God is, and how He worked in his life. Look at what is happening in Israel today, with half of the country claiming that their side is just, and what they want justifies the means; and the other half saying the same thing for themselves. Where is the righteousness? Where is the justice? Which side is “right”, and which side is “wrong”? Does the Word of God tell us? In the Tenach, David writes in two psalms: Ps 14:1-4; Ps 53:1-4 [1-5 Heb]; and in the NT, Paul quotes from them in Rom 3:9-12: There is no one righteous, none who does good: only God; and He is neither left nor right. Yeshua is not in anybody’s camp, but outside of them all!
Yeshua rebuked the Sadducees (“left”), the Pharisees (“right”), and the Scribes (“center”). As a group or a religious-political party, they did not know or fear the LORD, and did not know the Scriptures properly. Each sought to be justified in themselves, telling God: “Don’t worry; we’ll take care of this ourselves. We know what is needed. We know what is good and right for our people and our country. We can fix the world!” This, as we possibly head towards civil war nationally, and even within families! They were all hypocrites! (Mt 22:15-45; 23:1-39) He was speaking truth to their hearts: He loved them, and wanted them to come to Him so that they might be saved, but they did not want to. Not yet, even until today!
We need to guard our hearts from taking a side that seems good in our eyes, but is not the righteousness of God, which is the only righteousness that will bring peace and unity in a person, in a country, in a church/congregation, and in the world-at-large. We are “Hebrews” in this world, passing through on our way to the City of God. We are ambassadors of Messiah in the world, conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of representing His Kingdom, which is not of this world. Our message to whomsoever that we meet along our way in following our Good Shepherd is: “Repent, and believe the gospel, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And, because that is true, we need to sanctify ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, so that our hope is assured, and that we are not hypocrites in the eyes of the Lord, or in those who do not yet believe.
When John the Baptizer, and the Messiah Himself – Yeshua, the Son of David – proclaim to all, “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”, they are not speaking to the Jewish people only, and not only to individuals to repent and let God be their King and Ruler in their lives (“the Kingdom of God is within you”); but that the Kingdom of God/Heaven will come to the whole Earth, when Israel as a full remnant nation from all its tribes repents, and looks upon Him whom we pierced, blessing Yeshua/Jesus, who comes in the name of the Father, to save them.
The Holy Spirit reminds us through the Scriptures of this truth and hope every time we pray: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”. And as often as we take the Lord’s Supper, we are to remember His death until He comes. And the last prayer of the Bible is, “Come, Lord Jesus!” So we see that this is not a casual, or secondary, thing with God; but is His heart for the Creation that He has made, and for the people that He loves.
Our sanctification has much to do with our sexuality and our approach to wealth. It has to do with the way we talk; the way we look; the taste that we have for the things that God does not like, and our taste for the things that He does like; the things that we look at with our eyes; the things that we imagine; our battle against sin and unrighteousness in our own life first, before judging others for what we think of them. God loved us as we were when He saved us; but He has called us to sanctify ourselves, and to let His Word in the Bible and the Holy Spirit within us help us know what that means and to ask for His help and power and love for Him. The Lord will have a pure and spotless Bride, nothing less! The price for our redemption and salvation should motivate us in much love to please Him with much thanksgiving and love for suffering and dying such a horrible death on the cross because of our sins, so that all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ God will forgive.
As the darkness becomes darker in this world that is more and more openly rebelling against all that represents the one true and holy God – YHVH – we are called to be lights that lead the lost home to the God who created them, and sent His beloved Son Yeshua to bring them back to the Father through faith and thanksgiving for Him. We are called to be salt that preserves the truth of God’s covenants with Israel, and the New Covenant that gives God the “legal right” to forgive us all for our sins against Him and against all others. Sometimes our conversation needs to be seasoned with salt – with grace — which can sting, but it can also help wounds heal more quickly. We are called to be a fragrance of Messiah/Christ in the world that people “smell” Jesus/Yeshua in us, whether they like the smell, or whether it is a stench to them. (2Cor 2:14-17) One of the seven spirits which characterize the Messiah is the smell/scent of the fear of YHVH in persons, a sweet smelling aroma to God as a living sacrifice. (Is 11:3a in Heb; Rom 12:1-2; Lev 2 bloodless grain offering)
When we walk in the way of Yeshua, then we know that we will suffer and be persecuted for trusting in God to obey Him among others who prefer to live like “the pagans/heathen/Gentiles”; like those who do not want to be holy because YHVH our Creator and Redeemer is holy. (Mt 5:10-12) When Joshua Ben-Nun told his Israeli people that he and his house would follow YHVH, the people all said that they would, too. But Joshua didn’t say, “Wonderful! Praise God!”; but, rather, that they could not, because YHVH is holy! (Josh 24:1-28) The Israelis asked for a king like the Gentiles have to judge them. (1Sam 8:1-9) The Israelis wanted to be judged by sinners like themselves, rather than walk in the holy and righteous ways of the God who specially chose them to be His people for His glory, and for theirs! Yeshua knew that He would suffer in many ways in this world, both among His own Jewish people and family, and also by the Gentile rulers over them. But He so loved God His Father, and knew that all of the glory depended on His sacrificial death for everyone else’s sins – and on the Passover, the appointed time! — that He was obedient unto death on the cross!
He also knew that He came to send fire on the earth in God’s righteous judgments against sin and sinners, and He “saw and hastened that Day” by His faithful obedience to accomplish what was necessary for that: His own crucifixion to take upon Himself the wrath of God against sin and unrepenatant sinners, so that all who truly repent and believe in His Name can escape God’s wrath to come: “that Day; the Day of YHVH/the LORD/the Day of vengeance of our God”. (Lk 12:42-56)
Yeshua did not pray asking His Father to give Him a few more days to think about it, or emotionally prepare Himself for what He knew was coming. NO! He knew God’s plan and purpose, and His part in it. He simply expressed the human reality of “an alternative” to the excruciating pain, and to being forsaken and separated from God in tasting death for everyone. He overcame the world in demonstrating the divine reality of knowing that for this He came: “not My will, Father, but Yours!”; and was obedient to death on the cross, hastening the Day, rather than asking for it to be put off until He “felt” that He was ready for what was necessary toward that outcome. Jesus took the fall, loving and thinking of His God His Father above all.
So we — as we teach and disciple ourselves and our children, and our children’s children, and our congregations — are called and chosen to walk in the way of the Lord, in the way of the cross. The more we offer ourselves as living sacrifices for Him and His Kingdom, the more we will grow in the expectation of His coming; the more that the Holy Spirit and the Word of God will strengthen us in our walk by faith in the power of the Spirit of Messiah with that Day on the horizon.
The Father has set the day and the hour of that Day that no one can know in advance, but it is His plan and His time table to complete the number of all those who will be saved up till that time, and for the salvation of “all Israel” when they see Him whom they pierced. He will even send out angels to preach the everlasting gospel, offering salvation and hastening the Day of YHVH/the LORD! (Rev 14:6-7) Because we love Him who has first loved us, we grow in expectation of seeing Him face-to-face and being with Him physically. We “hasten” the day, crying out the last prayer of the whole Bible while we continue to the work that our Lord has given each of His servants to do until the end.
God has promised in these last days to “yet once more shake not only the Earth, but also the heavens”, indicating that He is going to shake and get rid of all things made that are not from Him; only what is of Him will remain. (Heb 12:25-29) Yeshua/Jesus died on the cross to everything that this world makes important. He looked to the joy and the glory of the Kingdom of God to come, a Kingdom that is not at all of this world! We are called to live in this world as He did: this world is passing away, and God’s everlasting Kingdom is coming to forever replace it. Is that our blessed hope, or are we still looking for something “satisfying” in this world that causes us, like Lot’s wife, to keep hanging on to it; or, perhaps, to judge the Everlasting God for deciding to judge unto destruction what He has heard and seen that has gone beyond what He is willing to endure in His presence any longer? We are strangers in this world, on our way to Mt Zion, and are commissioned to bring others along with us, to those who hear the gospel and repent from their unbelief to belief in it. Yeshua is “the address” for all that is good and wonderful!
We want to be more like the holy and loving Son of God: willing to give up our lives for His sake in loving Him and others, that they might also inherit God’s Kingdom and eternal life with us. God help us! Even so, come, Lord Yeshua/Jesus! Amen!