04-01-12 THINGS TO COME

We are going to begin a study this morning

that we’re going to call ‟Things To Come”.

In my preliminary thinking about this study I had planned to simply walk us through

the first 3 chapters of the Book of Revelation

because of the amazing power of the messages the risen Christ

sent to His church in those chapters.

But the more I thought about it

the more I decided it would be well worth our time

to broaden this study out beyond the Book of Revelation

and into a number of other key elements

in the whole prophetic message

given to us in Scripture

about the events surrounding

the end of this world as we know it.

There is simply no denying the realization

that we live in a fascinating time in history,

a time when, as never before,

there is a strong sense that our world is moving with incredible speed

toward some sort of climactic event.

And, as Christians,

no matter how much we may debate about the particulars of the prophetic truths given to us by our Lord,

there are a number of clear, powerful, and tremendously encouraging truths

about which there is no debate,

truths given to us by our King

so that, no matter when we may live in the flow of history,

we can do so with an unshakable trust in our God.

And for that to be true,

it is essential for us to have

some Biblical handles

on where we are right now

in the whole prophetic blueprint

outlined for us in Scripture.

And, actually, the Book of Revelation itself

is not a lot of help to us in that specific area.

The book of Revelation

was recorded by the Apostle John

about 60 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is the same Disciple John

we have running around in the Gospels,

the same John who wrote the forth Gospel that bears his name

and the Epistles of First, Second, and Third John.

At the time John received this Revelation

he was the last living member

of the original group of 12 Disciples.

All of his fellow disciples

had been martyred for their Christian stand.

The Church had been growing for 6 decades.

It continued to be under

repeated waves of persecution,

both from the Roman world

and from the Jews.

John himself tells us that

when he received this revelation

he was in exile on the island of Patmos because of his preaching and teaching.

The Revelation was given to John

for two reasons.

First of all

the risen Christ had seven specific messages He wanted delivered

to seven local church fellowships.

The first 3 chapters of Revelation

contain these messages.

When we get to our study of those messages

it’s important to keep in mind

the position John held in the church world of his day.

This was the last living man

in the Body of Christ

who had been there with Jesus -

the last one who remembered what it had been like,

who knew the sound of the Lord’s voice

and the ring of His laughter

and the cry of agony as He had hung on the cross.

The false rumor had been widely spread

throughout the Christians

that Christ had told John

he would be allowed to live

until Christ returned.

It was a rumor that had grown out of a misinterpreted statement

that Jesus made to Peter

when He and Peter and John were all together on the beach

following Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus had just told Peter

that the time would could when he would be executed because of his faithfulness to Christ.

It was a glimpse into Peter’s future

given to him as a special gift by Jesus

to quite Peter’s tortured inner fear

that he would yet again deny his Lord in the future.

But Peter, in perfect Peter form,

then blurted out, “OK, then what’s going to happen to John?”

And Jesus responded with the perfect reprimand when He said,

Joh 21:22 ... "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!"

That was Jesus’ way of saying,

“Mind your own business, Peter! Don’t measure your life by looking at the guy next to you. Just keep your eyes on Me.”

But there were others there who heard that statement as well,

some of whom assumed that it was Jesus’ assurance that John would live until the Lord’s return.

But at the time of the writing of the book of Revelation there was no one else alive

who could come even close

to the stature

and the credibility

and the authority

that John possessed.

It is certainly not surprising

that he was selected

as the messenger for these 7 specific messages.

No one would question their validity.

No one would doubt John’s motives.

And so,

the first major purpose of the Revelation

was to present seven messages

to seven 1^st century churches.

And the 2^nd purpose for the Revelation

was to complete what was lacking

in the prophetic message of Scripture

by presenting a vivid picture

of the events that will take place

during the final 7 years of human history as we know it,

and then to give us a glimpse

into future creations of God and how they will affect us

in the endless eternity ahead.

And the important thing to recognize here

is that it is the COMPLETION

of the prophetic picture.

It does not waste time repeating

what has already been revealed.

I heard a Bible teacher say once

that because God placed Revelation

at the very end of the Biblical record

it is reasonable that He assumes

we will have read and understood

what has come before.

I think it is a valid observation.

Beginning with Revelation 4:1

following the delivery of the specific messages to the 7 churches,

we are suddenly dropped into human history at a point just seven years

before the end of this world as we know it,

and through the eyes of John

we are allowed to witness the wrath of God

being poured out on a world

determined to war against our Creator at any cost.

And even though we will be studying only a portion of the book of Revelation,

I want to make a statement here

that I believe is crucial

to developing a healthy relationship

with the book as a whole.

In fact this statement will help explain

why we won’t go much beyond the opening chapters of the book.

The book of Revelation was written

TO all believers throughout history,

but there is a sense in which it is also written especially FOR those people,

and especially those believers

who actually live through those last 7 years.

There are statements and descriptions

within the book

that we cannot understand

until we see them taking place.

This should not surprise us.

In fact, it is the pattern of much of Biblical prophecy.

I’ll give you an example.

I’m going to read you a prophetic passage

about the promised Messiah

written by David a thousand years

before Christ was born.

Ps. 22:13 They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and a roaring lion.

Ps. 22:14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.

Ps. 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death.

Ps. 22:16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.

Ps. 22:17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;

Ps. 22:18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

Now, what in the world

would Old Testament scholars before Christ have done with that?

That passage gives a vivid,

accurate,

detailed description of death by crucifixion.

The hands and feet are pierced.

The bones are out of joint,

the tongue cleaves to the mouth.

That form of execution

was not even created for hundreds of years.

It even goes on to describe

exactly what would happen to Christ’s clothes.

That passage was written

so that those who stood at the foot of that cross,

and those who would look back on that event

would say, “Well of course,

it’s perfectly clear.”

In the same way

we run into things in Revelation

that will be as puzzling to us

as was that description of crucifixion before crucifixion existed.

And yet,

the major theme of the book

is crystal clear to us.

It shows us

that God holds the history of the human race

securely in His hands,

that His ultimate triumph over evil

will be absolute,

and that His people can face the future

without fear no matter when they may live on this earth.

But for our purposes in this series we’re moving into on prophecy in the weeks ahead

mostly what I want to do is to lay the background

that may help us better understand

how the human race gets to that point that we will encounter

during those final seven years.

History is not nearly as complicated

as we are sometimes lead to believe.

The reason we get ourselves in trouble

in our attempts to make sense

out of history

is because we have lost sight of 3 crucial ingredients.

First, we have forgotten where we came from,

second, we have forgotten why we are here,

and third, we have forgotten what our central mission is while we are here.

We are a little like a man who has gone shopping in a huge city mall

to buy Christmas presents

for his wife,

his son,

and his daughter.

He makes several purchases,

has his arms full of packages,

and, in the crunch of the crowd around him,

he slips and bumps his head,

and instantly forgets who he is.

He has no memory of his family,

his occupation,

his home,

or any detail of his past.

He’s suddenly standing in the middle of this mass of people,

with his arms full of packages,

and no idea why he’s there,

or what he’s doing,

or even where he should go.

Until he can once again regain

a memory of his past - who he is and where he came from,

his present and his future

will make no sense at all.

That’s where we are as a human race.

We are standing in a massive flow of humanity,

we know we’re here,

but we don’t know why,

or what it means,

or what we should do about it.

If our study of things to come

is to make any sense to us

we need to start by remembering

where we came from

and how we got here.

And to help us get things back into perspective

I want us to spend a few minutes

looking at the following time-line.

Every series on prophecy has a time-line,

and we’ll probably have several

before our series is over,

but the one we have this morning

is going to mostly take us BACK

rather than FORWARD.

You see,

I want us to understand

exactly where we are in the flow of history,

and especially what makes this particular period unique.

We live in a remarkable little bubble of time,

a bubble in which

it actually seems reasonable

and logical

and, to most of the world,

even highly desirable

to hold the whole concept of God

at arms length,

to be tolerant of all world religions,

to be devout,

and sincere,

and compassionate,

and accepting of all life-styles,

and all deities,

and all approaches to the spirit-world.

Now looks at this!

Here we are - created beings,

created by God for friendship with Him.

Then, after a brief period of innocence,

we rebelled against Him.

What would you do

if you were the Creator

and shortly after bringing your creation into being

they suddenly turned around

and shook their tiny fists in your face

and said, ‟Forget YOU, God. We’ve got a nice world here,

we’ll do this on our own now.”?

I think probably there would be

a bunch of dead little creations laying around.

Do you know what we are?

We are the 16 year old son

who has decided he’s not going to live at home any more,

and he’s taken dad’s credit card

and dad’s car

and headed out across country telling himself,

“I can make it on my own, now!”

The fact that he’s living off of dad’s VISA

and driving dad’s car

somehow never enters into his thinking.

And the amazing thing

is that God not only hasn’t canceled our credit card,

He actually keeps paying the bill.

He continues to hold this incredible world in His hands,

keeping it producing its beauty

and its bounty

until it has served his purposes

in our lives.

You see, just like that man in the mall fell,

causing him to forget who he was and where he came from,

we, too, had our fall - a moral fall that caused us to CHOOSE to forget

who we were

and where we came from.

We chose to forget,

because to remember brought with it

accountability for our sin,

and submission to our God,

and those things didn’t fit in

with our plans.

But the one thing I want us to see this morning with this time line

is what we are going to call

THE AGE OF FAITH.

The Age of Faith

began with the Fall,

and will continue up to the second coming of Christ.

This is that remarkable little bubble of history I was talking about.

It is a period in which

man has said, “Creator God, we will not have You to rule over us.”

And God, rather than ending His rebellious creation,

stepped back out of sight,

and kept paying our credit card bills

in order to allow those of us who choose to

to return to Him.

Now look at this -

before the Age of Faith began

God was right there,

visible in the Garden of Eden.

And when the Age of Faith ends

God will once again be right there,

in the Person of Jesus Christ,

ruling as visible,

all-powerful King of this world for a thousand years.

But right now

He has stepped back into the shadows,

allowed humanity to continue our mad dash across country in Dad’s car,

using Dad’s credit card,

and extended the most amazing invitation to all of us.

John says it better than I ever could.

In the Gospel of John chapter 1:10-13

John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

John 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

John 1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The ground-rules for this age of faith are simple.

1. From the shadows

our Creator continues to pay our VISA bill,

and He continues to actively reveal Himself to every human being.

2. He postpones the final consequences of our rebellion

in order to give each of us

the opportunity to return to Him.

3. He requires just two things of those

who choose to forsake their rebellion

and return to Him.

We must bow before Him as God.

We must choose to trust Him...

the AGE OF FAITH.

I’ve mentioned it before,

but this is the only period in all of eternity when faith can be exercised.

It will take no faith to submit

to an all powerful Jesus Christ

physically present on this earth.

It will certainly take no faith

to follow our King in the new world to come.

But right now, and throughout this entire phase of history, this is the only act in town.

When Abraham was confronted

with the reality of his Creator,

God asked just one thing from him -

“Will you trust Me?”

When Moses stood before the burning bush,

listening to his Creator call him

to lead the nation of Israel

out of Egypt,

God asked just one thing from him -

“Will you trust Me?”

And right now, for each of us,

the question is still the same.

It’s true, through the work of Christ,

we have far more knowledge

and understanding upon which

to base our decision,

but the basic question has not changed.

Will we trust Him?

Will we trust Him with our sin,

Will we trust him with the consequences of our rebellion against Him?

Will we trust Him each day

with our life,

our future,

our past,

our purpose and direction?

Each time it is a choice.

Welcome to the Age of Faith!

We are out of time

and we haven’t finished with our time-line,

but we’ll come back to it

the next time we’re in this study.