Last Days – A Biblical Understanding
Is Jesus coming soon? There are plenty of people who think so.
The world is becoming more evil.
There are more wars taking place.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes are on the increase.
Famines and floods have been occurring.
Christians are being persecuted all over the world.
It’s what the Bible says is going to happen.
Well that is what some people are saying … but is it true? Is that what the Bible really says? Can we pinpoint the return of Jesus on the basis of these events? Does the Bible even encourage us to do this? To set dates and times? That is the issue we are going to talk about this morning.
Now the key passage in this whole discussion is in Matthew 24:36-39
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:36-39.
You don’t have to have a degree in theology to understand what it happening here. It is all pretty clear.
How many know the time? Just one … God the Father. He has the plan in mind. When the time for Jesus to come back is here the Father will tap the Son on the shoulder and say – it is now.
Gather the angels and head back to earth.
Show yourself in Your fullness and Your glory.
Jesus will come … and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Some will do it with rejoicing – having put their faith in the Son of God earlier.
Some will do it with trepidation – realising all too late that they have rejected the only path to eternal life.
We know some of the things that will happen when Jesus comes back. But only the Father knows the time. It is pretty clear that anything else is just going to be a wild guess.
What is also clear is that life at the time will be reasonably ordinary. In the days of Noah when the flood came, people were going on with their ordinary lives - eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. The normal events of the day were taking place, and the then the judgement came. That is how it is going to be when Jesus comes back – somewhat ordinary. In fact, when it does happen, people are going to be very surprised. A little further on in Matthew 24 we read these words in verses 42-44
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.
Matthew 24:42-44
Again it seems pretty clear. If we are going to try and pinpoint the time when Jesus is coming back we are always going to be off the mark. People have been trying to predict the return of Christ for centuries – and then each date comes and goes – and we are still here.
This is the passage which sets the foundation. Any discussion that has anything to do with the return of Jesus has to start with these two criteria:-
1) Only the Father knows the time.
2) When it happens it will be unexpected.
It seems simple enough. So why is it that we still have so many people …
- good solid Christian people.
- people who are world renowned scholars.
- people who are not from the lunatic fringe.
Why is it that people still try and have a guess … or look for the signs of the times?
I think there are two reasons.
The first reason can be seen by having a closer look at a few verses earlier in Matthew 24.
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Matthew 24:6-8
These are often called the “signs of the times”. War, famines, earthquakes, conflict, genocide civil unrest, floods, disasters …
People try and guess when Jesus will come because they are confused about the purpose of the “signs of the times”.
When a catastrophe occurs there is the temptation to think – Jesus can’t be far away. But look at the context that Jesus wanted us to have:-
these are the beginning of birth pains.
When birth pains start the result is inevitable – a baby will be born.
That’s what these catastrophes do … they remind us of the inevitable. Jesus will return. That is a fact.
When an earthquake happens – we see the devastation and loss of life. We grieve and maybe we even have questions. We don’t always understand, but we know one thing is certain. These things remind us that Jesus will return. One day these events won’t happen. One day we will be in a better place. In the middle of sadness that truth gives us a light of hope. That is what this passage is doing – it is giving us hope. It isn’t there to encourage us to think that Jesus is coming back right now.
With respect to earthquakes Charles F. Richter – the man who invented the Richter Scale which measures the strength of earthquakes – helps us to have a context. He said in 1969:-
One notes with amusement that certain religious groups have picked an unfortunate time to insist the number of earthquakes is increasing. In part they are mislead by the increasing number of small earthquakes that are being recorded by newer and better equipment. It is worth noting that the number of great earthquakes (that is earthquakes 8.0 and over on the Richter Scale) from 1896-1906 was larger than any other decade since.
Signs of the times are just that. They are signs and reminders of the earth that we live on now. War, famines, earthquakes, conflict, genocide civil unrest, floods, disasters … and whatever else you want to name have always been a fact of life. In response to those events the Bible encourages us to think, “One day – and how I long for that day – one day we won’t have to put up with this anymore”. And so we can have hope in every age, no matter how long it takes for Jesus to come back. It is only when we confuse their purpose that we go on the wrong path.
The other main reason why people still keep trying to guess is found in the passage we read earlier.
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.
Matthew 24:42-44
People try and guess when Jesus will come because they are confused about what it means to “keep watch”.
The thought process goes something like this:- If Jesus is calling us to watch then there must be an event to watch for; and Jesus is helping us discern the timing of that event.
Unfortunately that is not what Jesus meant. A better way to think about what Jesus is saying is to think about a small town which has a wall around it and which has watchman keeping an eye on what is happening.
These watchman don’t know exactly when an enemy is preparing an attack. All they know is that, at some point, an attack will occur. So they keep watch knowing that their vigilance will help them to be prepared and have an advantage. If they don’t keep watch they will be caught out.
Our call to keep watch is the same. We know that Jesus will come back. So, in the meantime, we keep ourselves in a state of preparedness. It is not so much watching for Jesus – but watching our own lives and situations. Here are a few Scripture verses which emphasise that point.
You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:7-8
The day of the Lord will come like a thief … what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
2 Peter 3:10-12
And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.
1 John 2:28
All of these passages relate to the return of Jesus. The main issue here is how to act as we wait in anticipation.
So there we have some teaching on the return of Jesus. The main points are these:-
Only the Father knows the time.
Life will be quite ordinary when it happens.
Don’t get confused about the purpose of the “signs of the times”
Don’t get confused about what it means to watch.
That is the teaching – but what does that mean for us?
Forgetting these basics makes good Christians look stupid.
Over the centuries all sorts of people have made the claim that they know when Jesus is returning. A current contender is a man called Ronald Weinland. He has been a pastor for 25 year in a denomination called the Church of God. He has prophesied that Jesus will return on 27th May 2012. According to the schedule by now – April 2011 – the world should be falling apart.
Now this man Ronald denies the doctrine of the Trinity and many other core Biblical truths – so he could not be called a Bible-believing Christian. But what he says and does is very instructive.
God is going to reveal who His true minister is, through whom He is working to proclaim His truth to the world as a final end-time witness, and He will begin to reveal who all the false religious leaders are. (pg.86)
In other words, if you predict that Jesus is returning … and Jesus doesn’t return, then you are a false prophet. The process for Jesus coming is not upon us. This man, like so many others, is going to be wrong. In the process Christianity is made to look stupid. That is the last thing we need.
What that means for us is that we always have to remember the proper context in these discussions.
Know that Jesus is coming back.
Use that knowledge to spur you on to spread the message of hope and forgiveness.
People don’t need to know the date. What they need is to be ready when it happens.
Which is really the most important application we take from these passage.
We need to make sure that as many people as possible are ready.
Let’s again read some verses from Matthew 24.
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 24:45-51
Jesus is the Master. When He comes back what sort of servants is He going to find? Well there will only be two sorts:-
Those who are doing the will of the Master – and who are rewarded.
Those who are living life their own way – and who are punished.
That’s it … that’s how it has always been.
We don’t have the luxury of sitting around trying to figure out an answer to a question that only the Father knows the answer to.
We need to make sure that we are ready – knowing that Jesus will come.
We need to make sure that those who, at the moment ate not-yet-believers, are also ready – knowing that Jesus will come.
That’s what we do when we hear about the earthquakes, floods, famines and wars. That’s what we do as we watch and be prepared.
And when the time comes and we see Jesus face to face – we won’t care what day it is. For we will know that this is the beginning of our eternity with Him.
Prayer
