Albert N. Martin

The theme of today’s message will be the second coming of Jesus Christ. Rather than concern ourselves with setting dates or attempting to decipher all of the visions found in the book of the Revelation as some have attempted to do, my purpose will be an intensely practical one. If you are a Christian, the imminent return of your Lord should be a source of powerful consolation as well as a motive to greater love and obedience to Christ. If you are not a Christian then the consideration of the Lord’s return should rouse you to seek mercy from the Lord.

The text on which this message is based is found in second Thessalonians chapter one, verses six through eight.

Now, in the first place, consider with me the nature of the event anticipated. When the Apostle uses the language in verse 10, “When he shall come,” to what is he referring? What is the nature of that coming referred to in verse 10? Well, in this particular passage, the Apostle describes the return of the Lord in a very powerful and suggestive phrase given to us in verse 7, “The revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice the language, “And to you that are afflicted, rest at the revelation of the Lord Jesus.” That phrase, “The revelation of the Lord Jesus,” is technical language which refers to nothing less than His glorious, powerful coming at the consummation of the age. The key word, the regulating word in that phrase is the word translated in the 1901 edition, “Revelation.” It is a word which literally means “an unveiling” or “an uncovering.” It’s a picture that would be familiar at least to some of us by virtue of what we’ve read or seen, though perhaps we’ve not personally experienced.

An artist pours his soul as well as his energy into the composition of a great work of art. Perhaps it’s a painting or a statue. Then, a day is fixed in which there will be an unveiling. That which has been the product of his genius in the cloistered seclusion of his own workshop, will, at the appointed day of unveiling, be open to the view of all men and women who care to look upon it.

So, the day comes when great crowds gather and all they see is an easel or some form that is hidden beneath the shroud. Now, all the expression of his artistry, all, as it were, the imprints of his own artistic taste and the energy of his own artistic soul, as well as the energy of his hands and the skill on his entire humanity as a painter, is there upon the canvas; but you cannot see it. It is veiled, and what happens at the appointed hour when due acknowledgements have been given and the dedication has been announced? Someone, then, pulls away the shroud, and that great work of art, there all the time, is now unveiled. It is uncovered, and in the uncovering, what it really is in itself is now manifest unto all. That’s precisely the idea of this word. The coming of our Lord is described with this language. The revelation, the unveiling, the uncovering of our Lord Jesus.

Now, what is the fundamental significance of that word in conjunction with the entire phrase? The nature, you see, of the coming of Christ is bound up in great measure in an understanding of that phrase. It is to be the revelation of Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus. Simply, it points to the fact that at His first coming His own, essential glory was, for the most part, veiled. “He who came came [in the language of Scripture] as truly God and as truly man.” He took to Himself as the eternal Word, a true humanity. He lost nothing; He took something He never had before. But the Godhead was essentially veiled in that humanity.

Listen to this message (25 minutes):