Being Prepared for Christ's Return - Part 1 — Zac Poonen

Let's bow our heads in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to our hearts according to our need. Heavenly Father, we bow before you as we acknowledge you, Lord Jesus, as present here in our midst this evening.

You know the need of every one of us here. We pray that you will meet us according to our need. The Holy Spirit, brood over us and speak to our hearts individually. Thank you, Father, for hearing us. We believe you will be glorified.

In Jesus' name, Amen. We have to think of the day. We know a lot of believers think of the day when Christ will return. It's a very exciting thing to think of the return of Jesus Christ to this earth to establish his kingdom.

The Double Hope of Christ's Return

But we also need to think of what will happen in that day when we see him face to face. How do I know that I'm ready for his coming? It's not enough just to say I'm looking forward to it. I want to turn to 1 John 3, where it says that this is the proof that you are awaiting the coming of the Lord.

Not just knowing in our mind that Jesus is returning, but it says here in 1 John 3, verse 2, the last part, When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him just as he is. So it's a double hope that we have.

We will see him as he is. Most people have only that one hope. But here it speaks of a double hope. We'll see him as he is. We'll be like him. And here is the way we can know whether you really have this hope of Christ's coming.

Dead Faith and Living Faith

You know, just like faith can be a dead faith or a living faith, James says there's a lot of difference between dead faith and living faith. In the same way, our hope of seeing Christ can also be a dead hope or a living hope.

And the only way to know which is living and which is dead is like this. In the case of faith, James says in chapter 2 that faith without works is dead. Only if faith produces works, it's alive. That's fairly well known.

The faith which is only intellectual in the mind is a dead faith. If it produces works of repentance and obedience in our life, then it is living. In the same way, there's a dead hope and a living hope.

And I don't think most Christians have ever thought about that. Here it says that if you really have this hope as a living hope, not as an intellectual fact. I mean, let's compare it with faith. What is dead faith?

Dead faith is to know in my mind many things. The Bible is the word of God. God is a trinity. Jesus came to earth, the son of God, died for the sins of the world, rose again, ascended to heaven. If you believe in Christ, your sins can be forgiven.

You can be filled with the Holy Spirit. All these are facts. But as long as we don't experience it, it's dead. It's only when we experience the reality of it, and it produces change in our life, faith with works, then it is alive.

In fact, James says that there's as much difference between dead faith and living faith as between a dead man and a living man. You see, a dead man can have ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two ears, and every part of his body.

But the only thing he doesn't have is life. He doesn't have breath. So faith that does not produce works of obedience to God is a dead faith like that. In the same way, it speaks here of a living hope.

A dead hope is just intellectual knowledge. And there are a lot of people who study about the tribulation that's coming, and the seven years of tribulation about the Antichrist, and they argue about what is the number 666, and many other facts about the future.

And they look around in the world, and they talk about the Mark of the Beast, and so many things about various nations rising up in war, and that's all proof of the second coming. It's all there. But there is only one way that you can know your hope is not a dead hope, but a living hope.

Purifying Ourselves in Hope

And that is, it says here in verse 3, Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure. So I told you that many people, there's only one side of the hope they have, and that is that Christ will come again.

But the Bible says it's a double hope. And if you don't have the other part of that hope, it's not the real hope. That is, it's like a coin. If only one side of a coin is printed, or one side of a currency note is printed, the other side is blank, it's a counterfeit.

So if you have a hope with one side printed, Christ is coming again, and the other side, we will be like him, not there. That's a dead hope. It's a counterfeit. We need to see 1 John 3 .3 very clearly.

Two things, let me repeat. We will see him as he is, one side of the coin, the other side. We shall be like him. So if this is our hope, then it says we will purify ourselves just as he is pure. Our life's passion will be to purify ourselves.

Now the Bible speaks about God cleansing us, and we cleansing ourselves. Both are needed. That's the correct balance. God cleanses us concerning our past life. I can never cleanse away my past life. We know that all our righteousness is like filthy rags, and any amount of good works I do cannot cleanse even one sin in my past life.

God has to do it completely by himself. I don't touch that. That is through the death of Christ that my past is taken care of. But then the Bible speaks in a number of places of our cleansing ourselves.

And if my guess is right, I would say that perhaps 99 of Christians, believers in the world, never understand the distinction between God cleansing us and we cleansing ourselves. They think God does everything.

Let me show you a scripture. What does it say here? He who has this hope purifies himself. He's not asking God to purify him. Of course, he needs God's help. We need God's help for everything in the Christian life.

But the responsibility is his to purify himself. And that is how we prove my hope is not a dead hope. It's a living hope. Now, if I don't do that, whatever hope I say I have is a dead hope. And that's as useless as a dead faith.

Nominal Christianity and New Birth

Nominal Christians. Most of you, or if not all of you, are born again. So you know the difference between a nominal Christian and a born-again Christian. What is the difference? Is there anything you believe in the Bible which a nominal Christian doesn't believe?

Every denomination of Christianity, whether it's Roman Catholic, or Baptist, or Methodist, or, you know, people who are not born again, all of them would believe that there's a Trinity, the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he came to die for the sins of the world.

All these denominations believe it, but they are nominal Christians. The time came, you and I were like that too, but a time came in our life when we opened our life and let the Holy Spirit make these truths real in us, then we were born again.

And you know the difference between a born-again Christian and one who is a nominal Christian is like the difference between a dead man and a living man. So that we understand. In the same way, there's a lot of difference between a dead hope and a living hope.

He who has a living hope purifies himself. Those are not my words. Everyone, verse 3, anyone who claims to have this hope as a living hope, the proof is this, he will purify himself. And when does he stop purifying himself?

When he reaches, it says in verse 3, the standard of purity of Jesus Christ. So in other words, he's constantly purifying himself until he reaches that standard. So, if you are not doing that daily, I'm sorry to say your hope is a dead hope.

You probably never knew that until today, but it's good to know it. Let me show you another verse, where also it speaks about cleansing ourselves. In 2 Corinthians, just like we read here in 1 John 3, 3, we purify ourselves, I told you, God cleanses us from the past, and in the present, we purify ourselves.

Now 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Having these promises, what are the promises? In previous verses, I will be a father to you, 2 Corinthians 6, 18, and you'll be my sons and daughters. That's a tremendous honor.

If you have these promises, now see what it says, let us cleanse ourselves. It's not God cleansing us. Just like we read in 1 John 3, 3. He who has this hope purifies himself. Let us cleanse ourselves.

Have you ever tried to understand what does that mean to cleanse yourself? And what should you cleanse yourself from? From all defilement of the flesh and the spirit, and thus perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

If your aim in life is only to go to heaven when you die, you don't need these verses. But if your aim in life is to please the Lord before you see Him face to face, then this verse is a very important verse.

Even the other one we read in 1 John 3. Because when we see Jesus face to face, let me tell you what is going to happen and what you will feel like. In that day, you will understand the depth and greatness of His love for you and how much He suffered in order to save you and me from our sin.

Knowing the Depth of Christ's Suffering

I don't think we understand it fully. I think God has given me a little revelation of what He suffered, but we don't understand it fully. For many years as a young Christian, all I knew about Christ's suffering was the physical suffering.

Every movie that I saw of Jesus, you know there are many movies about Christ, like Passion of the Christ and all. When I see it, I weep. Because you really see, look at the way they whipped Him and hammered Him and nailed Him to the cross.

I mean, He had to die for my sins, but why did He have to be whipped and beaten? God could have saved all that, but God allowed all that. And when I see all that, I weep. And I've done that from my youngest Christian age, but I found that after I wept and all that, it was passing, it was finished.

A couple of days later, I'm still living for myself, just like before, still defeated by the same old sins I was defeated by even earlier. That's how it was for many years. So I found that all that temporary moving of our heart because of seeing the physical suffering of Christ doesn't produce a lasting change in our life.

It's only temporary. And if you're honest, you'll have to say the same thing, that when you see that, you're moved temporarily. But as I meditated more, much later in my Christian life as I grew, and I said, Lord, I want to know more about what actually you suffered.

You know, God doesn't show us more than you are eager to know. If you're satisfied with your current knowledge of the Lord, that's all you'll have. God wants us to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. The Bible says eternal life, John 17, 3, is to know God and Jesus Christ.

And Paul told Timothy to lay hold of eternal life in 1 Timothy 6, 13 and 17. What does that mean? Timothy is about 45 years old and Paul tells him to lay hold of eternal life. Is he just being born again?

My guess is that the average Christian today does not know what it is to lay hold of eternal life. If you read that verse in 1 Timothy 6, how do you understand it? Lay hold of eternal life. You'll say, I've already got it.

Well, Timothy already had it. Why is Paul telling him to lay hold of it? That's because we think of eternal life as living forever. But Jesus defined eternal life as, John 17, 3, eternal life is to know God and to Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

So to lay hold of it is to get to know God and Jesus better and better and better. Just like the day a young lady is married to a man, he's her husband. But she doesn't know him. If they really live together happily, every year she'll get to know him better and better and better and better.

That's how we are supposed to know Jesus better and better and better and better and better. For example, if one week after marriage somebody came to this newly married couple's house and asked the lady, the wife, the husband's not at home, and he asked her, here's a particular problem concerning this situation.

What do you think your husband would do in this situation? What do you think we should do? Your husband should take a decision. Can you tell me what you think? Your husband is not here. Can you take a decision for him?

She'd say, I don't know. I've been married just one week. I don't know what decision he'll take. But if they have lived together happily and known each other their ways of life, you meet that same wife 15 years later, and this man comes and asks, what do you think your husband will do in this situation?

She'd say, I'll tell you what he'll do. Why? She has come to know him better and better and better, that she doesn't have to ring up her husband to find out what to do. She knows what he will do. That is an indication of a wife who has come to know her husband.

That is eternal life, to know Jesus like that, John 17 .3, that in the beginning when I'm converted, I don't know what is God's will. It's like I'm a new wife. What would Jesus do here? I don't know. But 15 years later, I should not say I don't know.

There are believers who, after 15, 20 years, they say, I don't know. Well, you should be knowing. Imagine a wife who is married for 15, 20 years and says, I don't know what my husband will do in this situation.

Then that's not a good marriage. And that's not a good marriage you have with Jesus Christ if after 15, 20 years you don't know what he would do. One of the things I discovered in my Christian life was that in my early days as a born-again believer, in the early years, I would get some very specific answers from God, even in my Bible reading.

Clearly, what shall I do here, Lord? And I would get an answer. And sometimes those answers were very significant answers. You see, like I remember once, many years, as long, long ago before I got married, more than 50 years ago, I had gone for a student camp way back, way up in Gujarat, from my home in Vellore.

And I was single those days. And this camp was for one week. And the day I landed in Ahmedabad, I got a telegram from my father saying the doctors have diagnosed me with cancer. Please come home immediately because they advised an immediate operation.

My father was old and I was the only child in the country, or I was the only older, mature, older one who was available. And I said, okay. But I had just arrived there for the camp, and the camp was for one week.

So I began to seek the Lord and said, what shall I do? And I sought the Lord. And it was still about the 25th of October or something. And the camp was to go on for one week. So that particular day, my Bible reading was in Deuteronomy.

And I read in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 1, verse 3, that on the first day of the 11th month, the 40th year, Moses spoke and the Lord said in verse 6, you have stayed long enough, now turn and set your journey and go.

Oh. So I said, okay. On the first day of the 11th month. So I said, okay, it's the 25th of October today. I will book my ticket back, not for tomorrow, but for the 1st of November. Now I know the first day of the 11th month in Israel was something else, but for me it was like that, 1st of November.

And the camp was to finish on the 2nd. I said they can take care of it for one day. So I sent a telegram back. Those days there were no phones and all. Telegram. I said, Dad, I'm going to come only on maybe 3rd of November because I'll start my journey from here on the 1st.

I can't come earlier. So, you see, that was on the basis of something God specifically told me, not a voice from heaven. It was just my daily reading. And when I reached home in Velor, my dad said, since you were delayed by one week, you didn't come in time, I sent the X-ray to another expert radiologist.

And that person said that was a wrong diagnosis. You don't have cancer. So you don't have to have an operation. And he never had an operation. He never had cancer in his whole life. And I said, wow, how thankful I am that for a small thing like that, I didn't just immediately rush back, but I prayed and said, Lord, what do you want me to do?

And God would speak to me specifically. But as time went on, as I've grown in the Christian life, I find that God does not speak to me specifically like that now. Now when I want some guidance in something and I look in my daily reading, I don't find anything.

In fact, the next year after that, in 1968, when I was seeking God, in the same year, actually, in 67, when I was seeking God about marriage, and there was this proposal for Annie, who's now my wife, God spoke to me specifically from the word of God and showed me that Annie was to be my wife.

I'm not going to show you that verse. It's not important. I've shown it to my wife. Her name was there. And I said, Lord, this is amazing. But now, over the years, I find many times I'm seeking the Lord about something and I read my daily portion, there's nothing there.

And so as I grew, I found less and less of this spectacular guidance. So I began to think, now I know the answer, but I began to think, what does this mean? Does it mean that God's not speaking to me?

Does it mean I'm backslidden or I don't hear God? Because I do hear God very clearly when I ask the Lord, what is the message I have to speak to your people? Very clearly, in my heart. But I don't seem to get clear guidance.

And then I got the answer one day from the Lord. The Lord said, when you're young, I have to tell you every little thing, every little step. That's because you're like a little child. You tell your children, brush your teeth, change your clothes, take a shower, go to bed, do your homework.

But when you become 25 years old, you don't tell them, your son, brush your teeth, go to bed, take a shower. No, you don't tell 25-year-olds things like that. And so the Lord says, you're grown up. Why don't you tell your 25-year-old to brush his teeth and take a shower?

Because he's doing it, he knows it himself. What to do? He doesn't need to consult dad and mom. Or be careful when you cross the street. 25-year-old doesn't need that. And so I was encouraged to know that when we grow spiritually, God doesn't have to speak so spectacularly.

When God speaks like that to you, it's very often because you're still a child. So I'm not impressed by all these so-called prophets who say, God said this to me and God said that to me. Yeah, God spoke to me like that when I was two years old.

But I'm more than 50 in the Lord now. And he doesn't tell me to brush my teeth and take a shower now. I know what to do. And I know. So if you're experiencing something like that in your life, don't get discouraged.

It just means you're growing up. I mean, if you're still doing the wrong things, for example, you have to tell a child, don't put that mud in your mouth. It doesn't know. Now you say, God doesn't tell me all that now.

But you still put mud in your mouth at the age of 25. Then there's something wrong. What do I mean by putting mud in your mouth? Watching pornography. Do any of you watch it? You love to look at dirty pictures?

It's exactly the same as a little two-year-old, not a little two-year-old, six-month-old putting mud in its mouth. No difference. But you're not six months old. You've been a believer for so long.

God doesn't speak to you because you're a retarded 25-year-old. So as I grew in the Christian life, one other thing I wanted to know more was, Lord Jesus, show me more of how much you really suffered.

Not just the whipping and the thorns. That all really moves my heart. But two days later, I'm behaving just the same. I don't seem to take it seriously. So as I meditated on it, the Lord began to show me what he really suffered on the cross.

And that, I discovered, was the cup which he prayed in Gethsemane, Oh, Father, take it away from me. That was not the whipping. No. He wasn't afraid of the whipping or the thorns or the nails. I'm sure Jesus would be willing to suffer that a thousand times for me.

He loves me, or for you. But there was something else which was much worse than that. Much worse than whipping and thorns on his head and nails. That's what I want to know. And, you know, I've had this passion.

When I find something in Scripture that I don't know, and it's written there, I want to know it. You know, in science, all the great discoveries were made by people who asked questions. Like Isaac Newton, a great scientist, three, four hundred years ago, he saw an apple fall to the ground.

And he says, why does the apple fall to the ground? Most people don't even ask that question. Apples were falling to the ground for five thousand years and nobody bothered about it. But Isaac Newton said, I've got to find out why this apple is falling to the ground.

And he discovered the law of gravity. Today we all know it. And discovered how gravity works in the universe. Not just apples falling to the ground, but the moon pulling the tides in the sea, etc. So no discovery would ever have been made, even in science, if people didn't want to say, why does that happen?

And so when you read the Scriptures, if you don't want to go in and say, why is it like that? Not only you will remain ignorant of the Scriptures, but you'll be ignorant of God. You won't know Jesus Christ.

You won't be able to lay hold of eternal life. And then you won't purify yourself either. So I began to seek the Lord and I said, Lord, is that cup, Lord, which you were trying to avoid? I know it's not the cross, it's not the nails.

Then the Lord showed me. There was one sentence, Jesus cried out on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I've heard that from childhood. It's not something new. But there was certain, as I hungered and thirsted, I began to realize the truth.

That as I began to seek God, because he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Hebrews 11, 6 says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So the Lord showed me a couple of things just in that verse.

First of all, that was the only time in his life that he ever called the Father God. He never spoke to his Father as God. He was God. But when he spoke to his Father, he always said, Father, Father, Father.

That's how he prayed. Every single time, all through his life, for 33 and a half years, he never looked up and said, God. He always said, Father. But once in his life, he said, My God, my God. Only for a short time.

And then at the end of the cross, again he switched back to Father. Father, I commend my spirit into your hand. That was the last word, and he was gone. So always it was Father, Father, Father, and at the end it was Father.

But in between, there was this period where he said, My God, my God. That's the first thing I discovered there. Do you know the reason? I'm sure you've read that, you've heard that for years. But the tragedy with so many Christians is that they study their chemistry books with intensity.

They study mathematics with intensity. They want to know how to solve this problem and why does this happen like this. They go to the physics laboratory and the chemistry laboratory and search and find out why does this happen.

And they learn such a lot. When they come to the Bible, they just read it. They don't ask themselves why. I want to teach all of you to study the Bible in a different way. When you see something there which is different from what normally happens, you say, Why is it like that?

And the Lord showed me that that was the one time in his life when he was standing before his father as a judge. The father was a judge at that time. Till then he was Father, Father, but now because he was bearing sin in his body on the cross, he was standing before the judge of the universe who was punishing him for sin.

My sin, your sin. Punishing him. He was not standing before the father, he was standing before the judge of the universe. And what was the punishment the judge of the universe gave him for my sin and your sin?

You're forsaken. So then I began to try to understand what does it mean to be forsaken? I was just meditating on one sentence, that's all. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It never happened throughout his life.

He never called him God before and he was never forsaken before. This is the only time he was forsaken. And as I meditated on it, I discovered that that is what hell is. Hell is not a geographical place.

You know, a lake of fire. I mean, God uses all these pictures of a lake of fire. But it's a picture language. It's not real fire. It's a picture. Like Jesus said, there's going to be mansions in heaven.

Not real mansions. And what are you going to do with a ten bedroom mansion in heaven? What do you do with it? I don't want it. Here on earth, God is using pictures to show what is valuable. So, you see, for example, I'll show you, I'll prove to you why there's no real fire in hell.

Do you remember the story where Jesus said about a rich man and Lazarus, his beggar, sitting at his door? And both of them died. And Lazarus went up to paradise, to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man, it says, went to hell.

And what did the rich man say, do you remember? I'm thirsty in my tongue. Please send Lazarus to give me a little water. Do you think now when you hear that, when you read that, do you think, does this rich man have a tongue?

His tongue is in his body that was buried on the earth. It's his soul. The soul doesn't have a tongue. His body was buried on the earth and his tongue is there. And he's saying in hell, I want some water.

Have you thought of that? It's picture language to show you that the same intensity with which a body will burn in the fire and cry out in thirst, that is what the soul faces to a much greater degree when he's in hell, forsaken by God.

It's worse than your body being burnt in the fire. And I saw that is what Jesus suffered on the cross, forsaken by God. And then I realized that what I had believed all my life, that Jesus' physical death was the punishment for my sin, was not really true.

Because physical death is not the punishment for sin. I mean, you know, you have sinned. How is God going to punish you for your sin? Is it physical death? Just think of it. If it is physical death, then the moment you die, you say, Lord, I paid the price.

I can go to heaven. Everybody who dies physical death, they'll all go to heaven. If physical death is the punishment for sin, everybody who dies has to go to heaven because he's died. He's paid the price.

And if that is what Jesus did on the cross, then I say, Lord, you don't have to die. I can die myself. You don't have to die in my place at all. So then I realized something. You know, as you meditate on scripture, the Lord begins to show you more and more of himself.

And I saw that the punishment for my sin is spiritual death, not physical death. Physical death everybody has. And what is spiritual death? It is to be cut off from God, forsaken completely. Something like you cut off the wire that brings electricity to this bulb.

It's dark immediately. That's how it is to be cut off from God. From the life of God, you're cut off permanently. That is eternal hell. And it's a million times worse than being burnt in the fire. A million times worse than worms and all eating you.

No, no, no. That's nothing compared to being forsaken by God. That's all picture language to show you how terrible it is to be forsaken by God. Because if you just hear the word forsaken by God, you don't realize how bad it is.

And so Jesus uses the picture of fire and worms and all types of things to show you how terrible it is. So that is what Jesus suffered on the cross, forsaken by God. That's what he experienced. So the next question that came to my mind was, as I meditated on it, but Lord, the punishment for my sin is not being forsaken by God for three hours.

No, because that's all he was forsaken on the cross. Punishment for my sin is forsaken by God for eternity. Not for a thousand million, ten million years, but eternal forsaken by God is the punishment for my sin.

Lord, were you forsaken like that? And I discovered he was. And I discovered that, you know, human beings have to have eternity to experience eternal hell. But because Jesus was infinite, we are finite.

Jesus is infinite. An infinite being can experience the eternity of hell in one second. It's a simple mathematical equation. Infinity into one second is equal to a finite being into eternity. So I understood something there.

What Jesus experienced on the cross was what I would experience, and not I. All the billions of people together would experience for all eternity. If you can try and understand that, it's very difficult to understand.

To all eternity, the equivalent of being burnt and eaten by worms, and whatever picture you get of being forsaken by God and living with all the demons, and forever and ever and ever and ever, Jesus suffered that.

It really opened my eyes to what the death on the cross was. And I said, Lord, it's amazing that you love me so much, and that that's what you were agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, I don't want to be forsaken by you.

I mean, I've been with you in fellowship for all eternity. I don't want to be forsaken. I don't mind the whipping and the cross and the nails and all that, but to be forsaken by God, I don't want it. And I was meditating on it in relation to myself, and I felt the Father would have said to Jesus, Well, if you're not forsaken, Zach will go to hell.

And then Jesus says, Zach will go to hell. Okay, then I'll go to the cross. You know, when I got that revelation, I'll tell you honestly, I wept, and I wept, and I wept. Because for the first time in my life, I understood what it meant when it says, Jesus died for my sins.

Till then, this is 16, 20 years after I'm born again, and all those 16, 20 years, all I thought of was the thorns and the cross and the nails and the spear piercing and the humiliation and all that. I saw that was nothing compared to what He really experienced.

What is the result? It moved me so tremendously. I mean, if you just weep, it's nothing. I think I wept more then than in any movie of the cross that I saw, because now I saw the reality of it. It moved me so much.

Loving Christ by Seeing His Sacrifice

You know, it says, We love Him because He first loved us in 1 John 4. It brought such a spontaneous response of love in my heart to the Lord. And I said, Lord, never again will I live for anything else but for this.

This is the greatest truth in the universe, that Jesus loved me and loved humanity enough to die for them. Most people haven't understood even 1 of it. Even a lot of Christians haven't understood 1 of it.

That this is what He suffered for my sin. This is what He suffered for my getting angry with my wife, my lusting in the mind for all the bitterness and complaining and grumbling and not forgiving others and name it.

Every type of sin, this is what He suffered. I said, Lord, I want to finish with sin in my life. It brought into me such a hatred for sin, which was the first step to a life of victory. And that's how God led me to a victorious life.

It began with His revealing His love for me in such a deep way. And the fulfillment of that verse, We love Him because He first loved us. So I was saying that when Christ comes again, and we see Him face to face, the thing that will hit us more than anything else, and I will only explain a little bit to you.

I believe that in that day I will see much more of what He suffered and the depth of His love. Not the physical suffering, but the spiritual. And you will be so moved by it. And you'll say, Lord, I never knew that You loved me so much.

And then you will look at your life. I never knew, Lord, that You suffered so much because of my sin. And then you look at your life on earth, and you'll see how casually you took sin. So many sins. You were so casual.