YOU ASKED FOR IT
READY OR NOT HERE HE COMES
Sunday July 2, 2006
Intro.
A. I have said many times before that I am not big into prophecy and trying to predict the end times. I know that there are some in the church in general who will feel that my attitude towards these things is both wrong and unchristian. I would say that the reason this response is invoked is because my comments are misunderstood. My attitude towards prophecy and the end times does not mean I do not care about these things or that I am not interested in them because I am. Let me share briefly with you why I have the attitude and take the position that I do in regards to this issue.
1. My first concern is this, when it comes to the issue of prophecy and end times I feel that many people are intrigued by this because it is sensational. It is something that it definitely outside the norm of everyday life. The subject of prophecy and end times is cloaked in great mystery and symbolism and most people find this very fascinating. Now I will tell you that this is not all bad. It is sort of like what we just experienced with the Da Vinci Code. That book and movie generated a lot of interested in spiritual things and for that I am glad, but now that we are almost two months past the movies release how much interest is there still in the Da Vinci Code? I would suggest to you that there is very little interest. In fact let me prove my point quite vividly. When we began the class on the Da Vinci Code here at our church the class started out with over 31 people. People who missed the first class asked me to order them a book because they said they wanted to be involved. By the end of the four week class there were only 15 people in attendance. It seems that even something like this could not hold our attention for very long.
2. Here is the problem I have with the attitude of many people towards prophecy. It seems that a great many people are fascinated with the mystery and details of second coming events but we have forgotten what these events are all about. I fear sometimes that people are more interested in trying to predict who the Anti-Christ is than they are with having a vital relationship with the risen Christ. This brings up my second concern over prophecy watching.
3. I have encountered people over the 30+ years that I have been a Christian who are so caught up in trying to determine the end of time that they are failing to live in the time God has given them. Do you remember what the angel said to the disciples in Acts one after Jesus ascended into heaven the final time? Here is what he said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” It seems that the disciples had already forgotten what Jesus had just said to them in the preceding verses. Look at Jesus’ words in Acts 1:7-9 "The Father sets those dates," he replied, "and they are not for you to know. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth I want to share with you another portion of scripture that deals with this Luke 19:11-13 While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. A nobleman living in a certain province was called away to the distant capital of the empire to be crowned king of his province. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ’Put this money to work,’ he said, ’until I come back.’ If you noticed in the first verse there the people were interested in when Jesus would restore the Kingdom of God to Jerusalem. This was what the Jews had been looking for years. The equivalent for us would be the second coming. Then in the last verse, verse 13 Jesus makes the point of telling them that they should not be standing around waiting for these things to happen but they should be busying themselves about his business before he comes.
3. I can give you my opinion and thoughts on the second coming of Christ in just two words. Now I will acknowledge that some will not care for my position and I am ready to deal with that, but here is my position on the second coming: BE READY! You can know a great deal about prophecy and the second coming but that does not mean you are ready to meet him when he comes. I will tell you this; I would rather have my hands busy and dirty when he comes than to have them clean and unoccupied when he comes. I am not saying to you today that learning about prophecy or the end times is not important for us because it is. My point is this, what difference will it make if I am successful at predicting the second coming of Jesus and yet I was so busy trying to understand the prophecies that I failed to tell those who needed to know the savior of whom those prophecies were about? Will Jesus say to me “Well done good and faithful servant, you figured out the date of my return.” Or will he say, “…’well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
B. Now that I have said all that let me add that I do not believe or promote the idea of being ignorant of prophecy. We need to have an idea of what some of the things are that Jesus talked about when it comes to his second coming. Today I am going to share with you from Matthew 24:1-14 what I see as at least seven signs of the end times.
1. Before we look at each of these signs I think we need to understand the background of what Jesus was about to say because this adds a little more weight to what I have just shared with you. Beginning in Matthew 21:23 through chapters 23 Jesus has been involved in a heated debate with the Pharisees about several different subjects. In chapter 24 we find Jesus and his disciples leaving the temple courts and as they do the disciples comment on how beautiful the temple was. Jesus then prophecies about the destruction of the temple that occurred in 70 AD. Then after they cross the Kidron Valley and walk up the Mount of Olives and the disciples ask Jesus the question that people are still asking today, when will you come again? In this instance though the disciples actually ask two questions. Look at V.3 again, Later as he was sitting on Mount Olives, his disciples approached and asked him, "Tell us, when are these things going to happen? What will be the sign of your coming,…?" Notice two very important words, “When” and “What”? I think it is significant that the first question is “When”, but do you want to know what is more significant? Jesus never answers the “When” question what he answers is the “What” question. What will the signs of the times be but he didn’t not say when. I think that is very important because it tells me that the when is not important for me but the what is. What are the things that will happen that will signal that the end is drawing near? Those are the questions I hope to help answer today.
2. I need to tell you right off today that this message is going to be more clinical than is usual for me. I am going to share with you what I see are these seven signs of the end times and give you some evidence for history and current events that seem to substantiate these signs. So let’s begin with sign number one:
I. SIGN NUMBER ONE: FAKE JESUS’.
The first thing Jesus tells his disciples is that they need to be on their toes.
A. Be On Your Toes.
1. Look at V.4-5 (read). I don’t know if these verses strike you as a bit odd but they did me. Jesus is telling these disciples that had walked side by side with Jesus for three years. They had heard his words, seen his miracles and yet Jesus very explicitly tells them to “Watch Out”. What this clearly tells us is that even if we call ourselves Christians there is still the very real possibility that we can be deceived and lead away from the truth if we are not careful. Look at what Jesus went on to say in V. 24 MSG Fake Messiahs and lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere. Their impressive credentials and dazzling performances will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better. Notice that even those who ought to know better are liable to be led astray. Please notice a very important point here. Satan has no need to deceive those who are already his. The only people Satan has to try and deceive are those who belong to Christ that is why we are given the warning to be on our spiritual toes.
B. Many Fake Jesus’ Exist Today.
1. Fake Jesus’ were not a problem only for the time of Christ; we are dealing with them still today. Let me give you a few of the more notable examples. Jim Jones comes to mind. Jim Jones started out as a good man and a pastor in the Disciples Of Christ denomination which is a mainstream evangelical church, but in 1957 he met a man called Father Divine and those close to him said that from that time on he believed he was God and no one had any right to question anything he did, and hundreds didn’t right to their death. Then of course we had David Koresh of the Brach Dividians. We have Rev. Moon of the Unification church who has publicly declared himself to be Jesus Christ. Some of you will remember Marshall Applegate of the Heavens Gate cult. He was also considered the reincarnation of Christ by his followers. According to a Time Magazine article in 2001 a Psychiatric hospital in Jerusalem treats over 50 people a year who think they are Jesus Christ. It was estimated by one Christian leader that since 1900 there has been over 1,100 people who have claimed to be Christ.
2. How is it that Christians can be deceived into believing such monstrous lies? I would suggest to you that it is because it is easier to believe a lie than the truth. Far too often those who call Jesus their savior settle for a watered down faith that does little or nothing to change their lives. We think that the church demands too much of us so we look for something that will let us settle in to a more comfortable Christianity. Let me just remind you that Jesus calls us to take up a cross and a cross is never comfortable.
Trans. The first sign Jesus told us to look for is that of Fake Jesus’. The second sign Jesus told us to watch for is National Hostilities.
II. NATIONAL HOSTILITIES.
Read with me verses 6-7 (read).
A. War Is A Sad Reality Of Life.
1. I think there are very few who like war although I will admit that I sure there are some who do, but most of acknowledge that war sometimes is a necessary tool. There are times in life when evil has to be confronted and defeated. Sometimes it takes a war to accomplish this but we also have to acknowledge that there have been wars started for very selfish and evil reasons. Many of the wars our world has experienced have had little to do with defending the weak and poorest among us. Most of them have been about people who wanted to be in power and control people rather than help people. It is estimated that in the past 60 years alone there have been over 60 world conflicts that have taken the lives over around 100 million people.
2. Here is a list of ongoing conflicts as of 2005.
U.S. and UK vs. Iraq – 2003
Israel vs. Palestine authority – 1948
U.S. and Coalition Forces vs. al Qaeda and Taliban – 2001
India vs. Kashmiri separatists – 1948
India vs. Assam insurgents – 1979
Indonesia vs. Christian and Muslims in Molucca Islands – 1977
Indonesia vs. Papua separatists – 1995
Nepal vs. Maoist rebels – 1995
Philippines vs. separatists – 1971
Algeria vs. Armed Islamic group – 1991
Cote d’Ivoire vs. rebels – 2002
Democratic Republic of the Congo vs. Rwanda, Uganda, and
Indigenous rebels – 1997
Somalia vs. Rival Clans – 1991
Sudan vs. Darfur rebel groups – 2003
Uganda vs. Lord’s Resistance Army – 1986
Russia vs. Chechen separatists – 1994
Colombia vs. National Liberation Army - 1978
Colombia vs. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – 1978
Colombia vs. AUC – 1990
I think you can begin to see the magnitude of the problem we are facing. In an article entitled “Ongoing World Conflicts” the write said, “At any given time, it is a sure bet that there are anywhere from 50-100 wars going on somewhere in the world.”
B. Jesus Speaks Of Two Kinds Of War.
1. Jesus said that Kingdom would rise against Kingdom. These are the kinds of wars that most of us think of when we think of war. Wars like World War I and World War II. The Korean War, the Vietnam War. I would suggest to you today that the wars that are growing in very increasing numbers are not these wars but the other wars Jesus spoke of, Nation against Nation. The Greek word that is used here is “ethnos” which is where we get our English word “ethnic”. Some of the wars I listed a few minutes ago are Nation against Nation, they are ethnic wars not wars involving two different world powers. We are becoming familiar with the term “ethnic cleansing”. This is just another expression of the wars Jesus spoke of. We see this happening in Iraq; we see it in the Sudan, in Nigeria and the former Soviet Union.
2. Jesus spoke of the rumors of war. I do not think it is much of a stretch to say that things we are dealing with like those in Iran and North Korea are very much rumors of war. The threat of nuclear war cannot be overstated. I am not a doom and gloom preacher but I think we have to face the realities of our world. Dr. Helen Caldicott of Harvard University described in detail the destruction that one 20-megaton bomb would create if dropped on a major city like Denver. One-millionth of a second after detonation, the bomb would be burning a skyscraper-sized hole in the ground with a blowtorch heat that would soar to 150 million degrees Fahrenheit – approximately the temperature of the center of the sun. Denver would not be just molten lava, much of it would be vaporized and ascend in a mammoth mushroom. Because of the ever widening concentric circles of devastation, worldwide, the death toll would be one billion people from that one bomb alone.
Trans. Jesus said Fake Jesus’ and world conflicts would signal his coming. He also said there would be a sign of natural disasters.
III. NATURAL DISASTERS.
Read v. 7-8.
A. This Is Not An Issue Of Global Warming.
1. There is plenty of debate about this whole issue of global warming but that was not the purpose of Jesus’ words. I believe we are to care for and manage this world that God gave us but we are not to love it because it is not our real home, it is our temporary residence. We should be concerned for taking care of our environment as best we can but Jesus clearly taught that one of the signs of his return would be world wide natural disasters.
2. We are of course right now entering into our yearly hurricane season. (show Photo). We are all very familiar with the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina last summer. If you believe some of the people then this year could be worse.
3. We are all so well fed that the thought of missing a single meal for us seems like great suffering but did you know that this year it is estimated that 4 Million people will die world wide due to starvation? (show photos)
4. Jesus also spoke of earthquakes of which people in this region would have understood well. March 27th, 1964. Alaska was devastated by a massive earthquake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale. In the 30 years since the great Alaska quake, there have been as many major earthquakes as in the entire previous 2000 years of world history! (show graph) (Show other quake photos) Seismologists continue to predict “The Big One” for California. They say that the next big quake could be 50 times greater than the 1994 quake that hit here.
5. We could go on but I think the picture is all to clear.
Trans. Let’s look at sign number four.
IV. The Persecution of Christians.
Look at V. 9 (read).
A. Persecution Is No Longer A Foreign Issue.
1. Did you know that more Christians have died for their faith in the 20th century and all the other centuries combined? Usually when we think of persecution of Christians we think of what Nero did or some of the things that happened to the early disciples, but the persecution of Christians is growing at a rate never witnessed before. You can look for yourself by just doing a search on the web under persecution of Christians.
2. I am not sure if the day will come when we will die in America for our faith but you can be persecuted for your faith without being put to death and this kind of persecution of Christians in America is rapidly growing. On November 23, 2004 Pastor Randy Steele from the Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon Ill. When the phone rang it was the FBI, they wanted to see him personally. Apparently someone in his congregation reported him for speaking out against Abortion and the FBI wanted to see the files of his sermons to see if there was anything that needed their action. Here is another incident, "A straight-A student, Escobar was complimented regularly by the DCFS (department of Children and Family Services) for her work. But she came under scrutiny for sharing her faith with co-workers during lunch breaks and after-hours, and for changing into a shirt with a religious message – ’Found’ – after signing out for the day.... Escobar was directed to stop sharing her faith, even during breaks and after work hours. Also, the university ordered her to sign a document admitting she had ’an inability to separate her religious beliefs from her role’ as an intern. She refused to sign the document, arguing she couldn’t agree to such a sweeping prohibition that included her religious practice during non-working hours." Of course we know that the words, “Under God” in our pledge of allegiance are under attack and it wasn’t that long ago that we were told that we could not pray in Jesus name for City Invocations. "
Trans. I wish I didn’t but I will need to hurry through these next signs. The fifth sign Jesus spoke of was the sign of decaying faith.
V. A DECAYING FAITH.
Look with me at V.10 (read).
A. Those Who Stand For Nothing Will Fall For Anything.
1. It seems that today the so called “Christian Church” cannot agree on some of the very basic truths and principles of the Bible. In an article in USA today on 7/5/2005 read “United Church of Christ backs Gay marriage”. Here is a quote from the article “On this July 4th the General Synod of the United Church of Christ has acted courageously to declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming civil rights of same gender couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages by the state, and encouraging local churches to celebrate and bless those marriages. Said Rev. John Thomas president of the United Church of Christ.
2. I was saddened the other day to read this quote from someone in the Christian community that I have long respected, a man named Tony Campolo. In an interview he did with someone named Shane Claiborne for the 2006 National Pastor’s Conference he was quoted as saying this, “An evangelical is someone who believes the doctrines of the Apostles Creed. That outlines exactly what we believe in detail. Secondly, an evangelical has a very high view of scripture though not necessarily inerrancy.” He went in that interview to say this, “Catholicism would say that at the moment of death every person is confronted in that split moment with Christ and is given the opportunity to say “yes” of “no”. To say otherwise is to say God has got to be a pretty unfair Deity, to condemn three quarters of the human race to hell without them ever having a chance.”
3. Read little joke about “What Kind Of Church”.
4. The apostle Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto Salvation…” Are you ashamed of the gospel? Are you afraid to tell someone that you go to church? Are you afraid to respectfully but boldly say that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life? Jesus said that in these last days you will be hated for your faith? Are you willing to stand for your faith no matter the cost?
Trans. Jesus said that there will also be Overwhelming Wickedness in the last days.
VI. OVERWHELMING WICKEDNESS.
Read V.12.
A. Just When It Seems That Things Can’t Get Any Worse.
1. I know it may seem impossible but the Bible predicts that things will get worse in our society than they are now. The wickedness and evil that is present now will increase. The fact that most of us feel that things can’t get any worse is a testament to this reality. It really was not all that long ago that homosexuals were content to stay in the closet now they have their own cable TV channel and want American to applaud and celebrate same sex marriages.
2. Abortion is another are where we are seeing increased wickedness. I remember back in the late 80’s when I was pretty heavily involved in the antiabortion movement. I read a piece of literature where one doctor said the day would come when we would have about three days after a child’s birth to decide whether or not to keep the child. I remember feeling that this could never happen but look how far we have come since abortion was legalized in 1973. Now we can not only abort our children up the last month of pregnancy but we are condoning partial birth abortion which allows the child to come almost fully out of the womb before we stick a needle in its neck and suck it life out. How far of a leap will it be from there to allowing the child to be fully born and then saying we deicide we don’t want it. It’s not the sex we desired, it has some deformity, I have decided it will be too much for me to take care of it. Oh I know you say it can’t happen but let me remind you that these are the top reasons for abortion today.
3. Look at what is happening with murder today. It is not enough that we shot someone but now we dismember their bodies or torture them until they die. I even saw a news segment the other night about a web site where you can bid on actual murder memorabilia. You can but items from serial killers like Jeffery Dalmer.
4. Could go on but I am sure you get the point, wickedness is on the rise.
Tran. Now I am fully aware that the signs Jesus told us would point to his return have so far been very bleak. I am grateful that Jesus didn’t say that everything would be terrible before his return. In V.14 Jesus tells us that one of the signs of his return bears good news. The last sign I would point you to is the sign that Lives will be changed.
VII. LIVES WILL BE CHANGED.
A. The Good News Will Spread.
1. Jesus tells us that in spite of all these terrible things that will be happening in the world. Despite the persecution, the natural disasters, the wars, and diseases people are still going to be open to the good news about Jesus. Even though it will be easy and very tempting to give in to despair and hopelessness in the midst of all these things we can still take courage that there will still be a hunger for Jesus. I have heard some Christian leaders whom I highly respect talk about there sense that we may be looking at a new spiritual awakening in our country today. Yes there are some awful things going on in this great land of our but we need to remember what Jesus said and if we believe his words then we also need to realize that we could be entering into a time of real spiritual awakening. ** This goes back to what I said at the very beginning of this message. I do not want my hands being idle when Jesus returns. I don’t’ want to hold my head in my hands and be moaning and groaning about how bad things are. I want to realize that this is my time to strike while the iron is hot.
Trans. Let me tell you one more thing these words say to me.
B. The Church Is NOT DEAD!
1. What did Jesus say to Peter? He said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it! Well it sure seems like all hell is breaking loose but guess what? It will not hurt those who Jesus said in V.13 will stand faithful to the end.
LIFE APPLICATION:
A. What does all of this mean to us? Well the Bible answers this question quite clearly. Look at what 2 Peter 3:11, 14 MSG says, Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace.
1. The Bible tells us that Jesus will come as a thief in the night. When we least expect his return is when he will come. This is why I continue to say that my attitude towards the second coming is to BE READY! It does not matter to me whether Jesus returns today or 100 years from now. What matters is that I am ready to receive him or be received by him. So my question to you today is very simple. ARE YOU READY TO MEET JESUS? If you cannot answer that with a confident “yes” or “no” then I urge you today to get your heart right with God because today could be the day.
