The End Of Time
Scott R Bayles, preacher
I’m sure several people here this morning have seen the bumper stickers, "In case of rapture this car will be unmanned," or some else like that. While such statements are intended to be funny to some, there are confusing to others. Many people have read the "Left Behind" series of books by Mark Haynes which are based on this doctrine of the "rapture."
What’s interesting is that the word "rapture" does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It’s not listed in "Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words." It does not appear in the "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia," or the "Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible."
The idea of a "rapture" is a result of a misunderstanding of Biblical teaching concerning the "end times." And while the rapture is not the answer, many people throughout the ages have asked: what will happen at the end of time? I think that most thoughtful people understand that this world is not eternal. There is, in fact, a day coming in which God will destroy the universe and all that is in it. The Bible refers to that day in various terms: the "day of judgment" (Mat. 12:36), "Christ’s [second] coming" (1 Cor. 15:23), the "great and terrible day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5).
It is important for every Christian ? every person ? to understand that this world is not eternal. It will, one day, come to an end. And so many people have wondered: what will that day be like? What can we expect at the end of time? In the days of the Old Testament, God would often speak through His prophets. And during the days of the Babylonian captivity came a man sent by God, whose name was Daniel.
Even before the first coming of Jesus, Daniel was warning the world to prepare for the Second Coming! Let me invite you to read with me...
Daniel 12:1-3 ~ "Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. (2) Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (3) Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever."
What an amazing scripture! Even 600 hundred years before Jesus was born in Jerusalem, Daniel was urging the people of Israel to prepare for the end of time ? the end of the universe.
Many passages of Old Testament scripture hint toward the final day of judgment, but few present it with such clarity. What can we expect at the end of days? Well, first of all we can expect a?
I. RESURRECTION:
12:2 ~ those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake?
The Day of Judgment will be the most profound day in the history of the universe. You’ll notice, in verse one, that Michael the Archangel will be there, which is exactly what Paul said in 1 Thess. 4:16, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."
Michael is the only archangel ever mentioned in the Bible, so the voice of Michael will signal the Second Coming and the end of the universe. And at the sound of the "trumpet of God" the dead will arise!
Some have taught that people living in the Old Testament era did not know about the resurrection of the dead, but that is not correct. In the Patriarchal Age, Job said, "Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:26). Job knew that there would be a resurrection from the dead!
When our Lord arrived at the funeral of His good friend Lazarus, Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." (25) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies" (John 11:24-25).
Some Christians have misunderstood this teaching, however, and it has caused them to become very worried about the resurrection body. A couple of months ago, a woman wrote to Gospel Minutes saying that she thought it was wrong to be cremated. Like many other people she was probably afraid of cremation because she thought that she would not have a body at resurrection. Other people have been afraid to donate organs, because they think that the resurrection body will then be missing parts.
We must understand that the resurrection is not "reconstruction;" the Lord doesn’t put back together the body that has turned to dust. The resurrection body is a new and glorious body. The resurrection is an essential part of the gospel message and a key doctrine of the Christian faith. We must realize that death is not an end, but a beginning.
Jesus echoed the words of Daniel in John 5:28: "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, (29) and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
Many Americans are so caught up in the details of this life that they forget this life is very, very temporary and that there is a life to come. Daniel goes on to describe what else we can expect on the day of judgment -- and that is, for some, they can expect?
II. RETRIBUTION:
Dan. 12:2 ~ Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake? to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
For those who chose to reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they will be raised to "everlasting disgrace and contempt." Hell is described in many different terms in the Bible, but the most common term is FIRE.
The apostle John wrote about hell: "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).
We think back to 9/11, and we remember the inferno that was once the World Trade Towers. If you saw the footage of that day, you know that many men and women jumped 100 stories to their deaths -- because that was more bearable than to die by fire.
Our Lord Jesus, on several occasions, referred to "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in hell (Matt. 25:26ff). Today, it seems, however, that the only popular way to use "hell" in a sentence is as a curse word.
Recently (1991) U.S. News and World Report devoted it’s march cover story to the subject, "Hell’s Sober Comeback." According to that article: "by most accounts, hell has all but disappeared from the pulpits preaching of mainline Protestantism."
According to a Gallop Poll, appearing in that same issue, while 78% of Americans believe they have an excellent or good chance of going to heaven, only 4% of Americans believe they have a change of going to Hell! One rather famous denominational preacher has said, "Hell is just too negative. Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer oriented. Churches today need to be appealing rather than demanding."
And yet, Hell is a real place that many people will experience first hand. They will find out about the "weeping and gnashing of teeth." They will understand why people jumped from a hundred stories high to avoid dying in the flames -- because, for those in hell, there will be no escape.
In Dante’s Inferno, he imagined that hell would have sign above the entry way. And in his book that sign reads: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Truly those who will enter that place will abandon all hope.
It is time for us to begin preaching the reality of hell. If people can ignore what the Bible teaches concerning hell, then they can also discount what is say about sin -- and wickedness becomes an accepted way of life.
Charles Spurgeon once said, "As the Lord lives, sinner, you stand on a single plank over the mouth of hell, and that plank is rotten. You hang over the pit by a single rope, and the strands of that rope are breaking!"
Thanks to the grace of God, however, there is another choice that we can make. At the Judgment Day, the faithful few -- those who have obey Jesus Christ -- can expect a...
III. REWARD:
12:3 ~ Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
These people, Daniel says, will be raised to "everlasting life." We can go to that place that our Lord has been preparing since the first century -- a place that the Apostle John describes in these words in: (1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. (2) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, (4) and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away" (Rev. 21:1-4).
It is a place that our minds really cannot imagine. It contains "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him" (2 Cor. 2:9). Heaven will be so much more than we can even imagine!
Someone once said, "There is no more comparison to be made between heaven and earth than there is between a piece of rusty iron and refined gold." To people who are trapped in pain, in economic chaos, in hatred and fear -- to these, heaven offers a promise of a time, far longer and more substantial than this time on earth, of health and wholeness and pleasure and peace. If we do not believe that, then as the apostle Paul noted, there is not much reason for being a Christian in the first place.
The closest we can come to heaven on earth is the cross, because the cross is the only way to heaven. The way to God was opened, not by the life of Jesus or the example of Jesus, not even by the teaching of Jesus, but by the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
Jesus brought the doctrine of resurrection out of the shadows and into the light. Through His own redemptive death and resurrection Jesus declared once and for all that death is real, that there is life after death, and that through His blood we can all one day be raised to live an eternal life!
Conclusion:
As we consider the end of time and the end of the universe, we know that there will be a...
Resurrection: when the trumpet sounds and the dead shall arise
Retribution: when the wicked are cast into the pit of eternal darkness and everlasting punishment
Reward: when faithful Christians hear the voice our Lord calling to us, "Welcome, good and faithful servant... enter in to the joy of your Master."
Seventeenth Century British minister, William Secker, has been quoted for saying, "That which makes hell so full of horror, is that it is below all hopes; that which makes heaven so full of splendor, is that it is above all fears."
Several weeks ago, there was a semi-truck driving down I-90, which had a bumper sticker on it that read: "Life is a journey, not a destination." And, you know, there was a very smart man driving that truck.
Life is not a destination. It is a journey, in which we are given the opportunity to prepare for the next life. And for Christians, heaven is more than just a destination, is a motivation -- and it changes everything!
Invitation:
Each one of us will one day come face to face with our God on the Day of Judgment. And the truth is that we will have chosen our own destiny! We have it within our grasp this morning to choose heaven: we are still alive with all of our minds in good working order. We can choose between two alternatives that Daniel and Christ have given us this morning.
We can make heaven! By the grace of God, it is achievable. It can be reached by every person here today. Which is why we offer the invitation...
