[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This is Part A of the first sermon in the Easter 1993 camp series on hastening the Lord's return.]
The sermon opens with a vision: standing on the Jezreel plain at golden dawn, a panoramic scene of Armageddon stretches below with vast armies encamped in tents as far as the eye can see. This Easter 1993 camp carries the theme of hastening the Lord's coming — a message almost never heard in today's church. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world presents a deceptive appearance of peace, yet Matthew 24 shows that history alternates between wars and the peaceful days-of-Noah eating and drinking; neither extreme on its own signals the end. In the former Yugoslavia and southern Russia, the conflict between Christians and Muslims is already beginning to surface, a pattern with deep prophetic significance.
Paul ends 1 Corinthians with a startling word: if anyone does not love the return of the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema — condemned. This is a serious charge to level against someone who may genuinely love the Lord but has not grasped why his return should be their deepest longing. The issue cuts to the heart of what salvation actually means. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ will appear a second time — not to deal with sin, but for salvation — and this tells us something crucial: our salvation is not yet complete.
Romans 8:22-23 teaches that we now have the first installment of salvation, which is the redemption of the spirit. But the whole creation groans and we ourselves groan inwardly as we eagerly await the redemption of our bodies. Full salvation encompasses the spirit, the body, and the whole creation — until the Lord returns, we have only a partial down payment on what has been promised. This is why anyone who truly understands salvation must long for his return.
Some Christians hold a Calvinist or fatalistic view that everything is already fixed and that our choices cannot alter God's plans. But this leads to paralysis: it is like standing outside a McDonald's restaurant unable to decide whether to go in and eat, going back and forth without being able to choose. It is like a man who walked back and forth to the typewriter shop eight or nine times, going all the way there and turning around again, over and over, without being able to commit to the purchase. That kind of paralysis is not what the Spirit wants to produce in the life of a believer.
A Welsh friend is a case in point. He felt called to attend Bible college and applied for a place, but found himself unable to post the application letter. He walked repeatedly to the red letterbox near his home and each time could not bring himself to drop the envelope in. When he finally consulted his pastor about what he should do, the result was not the encouragement he needed but rather advice that reinforced his hesitation.
# Hasten the Lord's Return (Camp Sermon 1, Part B) — Dynamic Christianity, the Welsh Friend's Letter Box, and Full Salvation of Body and Spirit
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This is Part B of the first sermon in the Easter 1993 camp series on hastening the Lord's return.]
The Welsh friend's story ends sadly precisely because he received advice that confirmed his hesitation rather than challenged it. His pastor told him to keep his comfortable job and not pursue the calling he sensed — and the result was that he drifted away from the Lord entirely and has since stopped attending church. This illustrates the damage done when those in leadership encourage passivity rather than active faith.
The contrast is seen in Acts 16:6-7, where the Spirit of God forbids Paul to go into Asia and then redirects him away from Bithynia as well. The crucial thing to notice is that Paul was already moving — he was pressing forward and the Spirit redirected him on the way. You cannot steer a car that does not move. The Spirit can only guide someone who is actively engaged in pursuit of God's will, not someone sitting still waiting for a perfect sign before taking any step. A dynamic Christianity is essential to the Christian life.
Philippians 3:20-21 shows us the goal that drives this movement: our citizenship is already in heaven, and from there we await the Saviour who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. That transformation of the body is not a secondary matter in the Bible's teaching on salvation — it is central to what salvation means. The redemption that is coming is not only for the spirit but for the body and for the whole creation. We currently have only the first installment, the redemption of the spirit, while the full inheritance awaits the Lord's return.
This is why the desire to hasten his return is not merely an emotional sentiment but arises from a proper understanding of the gospel. A Christian who does not long for his return either does not understand what salvation is, or has grown so comfortable in partial salvation that full redemption no longer seems urgent. Without his return, our salvation remains incomplete, and we and all creation continue to groan for what has been promised but not yet received. The next sessions of this camp will address the specific things we can do to hasten his coming.
# Hasten the Lord's Return (Camp Sermon 1, Part C) — The Korean False Prophet, Time Calculations, and Three Ways to Hasten His Coming
[Note: This is a bilingual sermon. The pastor speaks in English and the content is then rendered in Chinese by a translator. Both languages are preserved as delivered. This is Part C of the first sermon in the Easter 1993 camp series on hastening the Lord's return.]
The Korean church that set a specific date for the Lord's return in 1992 is a warning about the danger of overconfidence in prophetic speculation. While date-setting is unwarranted, it is not wrong to reflect on the patterns of history that may indicate we are drawing near to the end. Two calculations are worth considering — not as certainties but as pointers. The first is the 7,000-year cycle: if Adam was created around 4004 BC, then 6,000 years of human history bring us to approximately 1996 AD, with the final 1,000-year millennium completing the perfect number of 7,000 years — suggesting the Lord's return could be around 1995 or 1996. The second is the 40-year generation cycle: Israel was established in 1948, but 1988 passed without incident; Jerusalem was taken in 1967, and 40 years from that point brings us to 2007.
Both calculations could be correct, and the reason they do not contradict each other is precisely what this camp is about: whether the Lord comes earlier or later depends in part on our response to him. God gave the Promised Land to Israel, but Israel still had to fight for every inch of it — the gift did not eliminate human responsibility. The Lord's return has a certain timing, but that timing can be influenced by the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of his people.
It is easier to shape something early than after time has hardened it — strike while the metal is hot. A Christian of 20 or 30 years who has settled into fixed patterns of life is very difficult to change. The younger we are, the more our whole-hearted response can influence the Lord's plans. Transformation must begin now, before habits become immovable.
Three things can hasten the Lord's return. The first is prayer: the Lord's Prayer teaches us to pray "Your kingdom come," which is itself a prayer to hasten his return. The second is repentance. The rabbinic sources — G.F. Moore's Judaism and E.E. Urbach's The Sages — record the teaching that if all Israel were to repent for a single day, the son of David would come immediately. This is not merely rabbinical speculation: Acts 3:19-21 connects repentance directly with the Father's sending of Jesus back to earth, and 2 Peter 3:9 ties the delay of his coming to the need for all to come to repentance. The third is doing God's will — beginning with repentance and extending outward to the preaching of the gospel to all.