Dwight Pentecost: Maranatha

What difference does the imminent return of Christ make in our daily lives? In this powerful message, we are reminded that the hope of Jesus’ coming is not just doctrine—it is a transforming truth.

Key Themes:

• The believer as a steward, living with expectancy
• How John (1 John 3:2–3), Paul (Titus 2:11–13; 2 Timothy 4:8), James (James 5:7–8), and Peter (2 Peter 3:10–12) connect Christ’s return to godly living
• Why loving His appearing means more than studying prophecy—it means a changed life
• The early church’s greeting of “Maranatha!” as a daily reminder of Christ’s imminent return
• Motivation for holiness, righteousness, and patient endurance while we wait

The promise of Maranatha—the Lord is coming calls us to godliness, holiness, and joyful anticipation. Perhaps today!

#Maranatha #Rapture #BibleProphecy #Holiness #ChristReturn

Maranatha

Those who remodeled this auditorium have done speakers a disservice. After 52 years of use, the chairs were so uncomfortable nobody could sleep. Now they’ve made them so comfortable nobody can stay awake. That’s my challenge.

It was in August, two years ago, that the first residents moved into Swiss Tower. In the middle of September, I received a call from the president’s office: “Dr. Bailey would like to see you.” I said, “I’ll come over.” They replied, “No, he wants to come to you.”

I figured they were in the process of cutting the budget and could no longer afford the dollar-a-year salary. But when he came into my office, he was all smiles. He said, “I have a proposition to put before you that I’m begging you to accept. We would like you to move in and occupy one of the apartments in the new building.”

I was stunned, for it had been made very clear that the building was built to house students. I said, “Let me pray about it.” That was the shortest prayer meeting I ever had. Two weeks later, I moved in.

It was after chapel, shortly after I had moved in, that Dr. Bailey stopped by. As we were leaving chapel, he said, “How are things going there?” I said, “Just fine.” He said, “I’m going to stop by and check on how things are going.”

I said, “Oh, Mr. President, you have far more important things to do than to come by my apartment.” He said, “I’m coming. I promise you.”

That promise revolutionized my life. I realized that I was a custodian of that which belonged to somebody else. Since he’s the one who offered it to me, I considered that apartment his property. The one who owned the property was promising me he was coming to check how I was taking care of it.

It made radical changes in my housekeeping. First thing in the morning when I get out of bed, I carefully make the bed so it looks neat. Then I proceed to the kitchen and fix breakfast. When breakfast is over, it would be so easy, since there are only a few dishes, to leave them until after lunch. But I dare not leave dirty dishes in the sink, because the president’s coming.

And while I’m often tempted to leave those dishes in the rack to air dry, I feel—in light of his coming—I’d better wipe them and put them away. I had no use for a dust cloth before, but it became necessary, because the president’s coming. A vacuum cleaner? That was for somebody else. But now I find myself attached to it. Why? I never know when the president will come to check.

Now I’ve been there two years, and so far it hasn’t happened.
[Laughter and Applause]

I anticipated that and put every dish away from breakfast. He has sent his wife over, and I don’t know what report she brought back.

But you know, God’s purpose for us as His children is to reproduce His Son in us, to conform us to the image of Christ. From John 1:18, we discover that Christ came into the world, first of all, to reveal the Father. He spent His ministry involved in that work of revealing the Father.

This He did, as He tells us in John 8 and John 14, both by what He did and by what He said. On the eve of His crucifixion, He turned to the eleven who were with Him in the upper room and, if I may paraphrase John 17, said, “I have finished the work that the Father gave Me to do. I have finished the work of revealing the Father. Now I can turn to the work of redeeming.”

But He also said to the eleven, “For the same reason You sent Me into the world, I now in turn send you into the world.” These men were sent into the world to continue Christ’s work of revealing the Father to men.

That means we can only do it in the same way He did—by our words and by our works. God designs to produce godliness, holiness, and righteousness in our experience, so that by what we say and do we reveal the Father.

With such a task before us, there is need for motivation. It’s possible we could read passages that describe the coming judgment seat of Christ—the Bema—when a believer’s works will be examined. For that which is acceptable, there will be reward; for that which is unacceptable, there will be loss of reward. Certainly, the prospect of having our lives and ministries reviewed in that court would be motivation.

As a teenager, I was privileged to sit under the radio ministry of a prominent pastor and Bible teacher in our area, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. One evening, I was arrested by a challenge he gave: “I challenge you to read through the Epistles and mark every reference to the coming of Christ. Then notice the ‘wherefore’ or the ‘therefore’ that follows. If you do, you will find that every reference to our Lord’s coming in the Epistles is followed by an exhortation to godliness, holiness, and righteous living.”

That becomes the motive—to prompt the child of God to produce such conduct, which becomes a revelation of the character of God.

May I refer you to several passages? I’ll do this briefly, because I received a message from the chaplain’s office reminding me the closing hour is 11:15. Now, I noticed the president, the provost, and the emeritus president took all the time they wanted, but I don’t have the credentials they have! So my goal is to concede to the demands of the chaplain, and let Scripture speak for itself. That’s enough, isn’t it?

1 John 3:2–3:
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

Don’t stop there—what’s the next verse?
“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”

John spent his epistle exhorting his spiritual children to holiness, righteousness, and godliness. His motive was not the threat of loss of reward, but the fact that when He comes, we shall be like Him.

Now obviously, an individual cannot do this by himself, because he still has a fallen sin nature. But he has also been given a divine enabler—the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit’s work in the believer to reproduce the life of Christ in that individual. I simply define the Christian life as the life of Christ reproduced in the child of God by the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit.

Titus 2:11–13:
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Here we have that participle “looking.” It could be causal—living soberly, righteously, and godly because we are looking for that blessed hope. Or it could be temporal—living soberly, righteously, and godly while we are looking for that blessed hope.

James 5:7–8:
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

Waiting for Christ does not produce disappointment, discouragement, or despair—but patience and endurance.

2 Peter 3:10–12:
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night… Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.”

Again, looking produces holy living.

2 Timothy 4:8:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

Note carefully: Loving His appearing does not mean you enjoyed the Left Behind series, or that your favorite class is eschatology, or even that you’ve read Things to Come. One cannot be said to love His appearing until loving the Person who has promised to return transforms your life—just as anticipating the coming of the president transformed my housekeeping.

When Paul concludes 1 Corinthians 16:22, he uses the word Maranatha. Some debate whether it means, “The Lord comes,” “The Lord has come,” or “Come, Lord Jesus.” But early believers lived with the conscious expectation that the Lord could come imminently. Meeting in the marketplace, they didn’t say, “Good morning, did you have a good breakfast?” They greeted one another with “Maranatha!”

They lived with the transforming hope that perhaps today, before the sun sets—or perhaps tonight before the dawn—the Lord could return.

Our Lord said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Who are those whose lives are conformed to the character of Christ? Those who have an appetite for Him. And what produces that appetite? The promise: Maranatha—the Lord is coming.

Can you say it with me?
Maranatha.
Say it again: Maranatha.
He is coming.

And I love the way Wycliffe closed the Book of Revelation in his old translation: “Ye Spirit and ye spouse say, Come. Thou Maranatha.”

Father, may the Spirit of God be pleased to take this meditation on this important truth and make it a reality to us—not just a doctrine that Jesus is coming, but a reality that transforms our daily conduct because we are waiting for Him.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.