6-29-08 End Times Pt. 1

I know we’re involved in a study on Spiritual Growth,

but having just finished our study of moral excellence

and not yet begun our examination of knowledge in Peter’s progressive steps of growth

I’m going to pull us out of this series for two weeks

so that I can offer some comments about the end of the world.

Does that sound like I should be standing on a street corner

with a handful of tracks

and a huge sign proclaiming, “THE END IS NEAR!” ?

Well, every decade or so there seems to be some national or world event

or series of events

that once again shoves Biblical prophecy into the spotlight,

and when that happens

I find it helpful to remind both myself and you of the basics.

About ten years ago

it was the approach of what was popularly called Y2K,

the beginning of the 21^st century that drew the prophecy gurus to the surface

and all those in the religious community who thrive on prophetic teachings

did very well indeed for a few years.

And now, another collection of national and world events

seems to be aligning in a way

that is once again driving a heightened fascination with all things prophetic.

Our current national economic situation certainly contributes to this -

oil prices gone wild,

financial institutions on hard times,

many people facing struggles because of their past extreme abuse of credit,

the U.S. dollar losing much of its value against other currencies,

concerns about crops because of severe flooding throughout the mid-west.

And then, to intensify the whole thing there is the Obama factor -

the sudden appearance of an energetic and highly charismatic young politician

who has blasted onto the national scene

in a way that makes many folks wonder who he really is

and how he has gained such remarkable influence so quickly.

And before I go any farther

I need to say that I do not do politics.

I don’t do politics

because I have way too much respect for my role as a Bible teacher

to ever want to corrupt that role

through mingling it with politics.

And if you interpret my Obama reference

as being even remotely political

you have completely misunderstood what I’m trying to say.

I mention Obama only because I have heard so many speculations recently

about the possible role of Obama

in the progressive fulfillment of Biblical prophecy

that I thought it might be time to once again cover the basics of end times events.

And I need to warn you before I say anything more

that the first step in looking forward

is to be sure we have a good grasp of our past.

Human history is not nearly as complicated

as we are sometimes led to believe.

The reason we get ourselves in trouble

in our attempts to make sense out of human history

is because we have lost sight of three 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 first one we’ll look at

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 human 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 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 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 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, 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:

First, from the shadows

our Creator continues to pay our VISA bill,

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

Second, He postpones the final consequences of our rebellion

in order to give each of us

the opportunity to return to Him.

And third, He requires just two things of those

who choose to forsake their rebellion

and return to Him -

we must bow before Him as God,

and 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 human 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!

Now, back to our time line - once Christ came on the scene,

and once He had physically offered Himself on the cross for our sins,

the human race was flooded with light.

For the first time we were able to see

just exactly what God’s plan was

and how He was going to deliver us from our sin.

And Christ’s 1^st coming

began a special phase of the Age of Faith

that Scripture calls the Last Days.

You and I right now

are living in the last days.

We have been in the last days for nearly 2000 years.

To our extremely finite minds,

a “last days” that lasts for 2000 years

may seem like an awfully long “last days”.

But from the eternal perspective of God

it’s nothing.

Peter addresses this very issue

in II Peter 3 where he says,

2 Pet. 3:3-3, 8-10 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."... But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

You see, this is the last phase

of God’s overall redemptive plan for mankind,

that brief period in time

when we have been flooded with the light of knowledge

that has come to us through Jesus Christ.

We know exactly what He’s doing,

and why He’s doing it,

and how He will accomplish it.

Which brings us, then,

to the last special period during the Age of Faith mentioned in Scripture:

The Seven Year Great Tribulation.

This brief period in human history

is so significant in all that God is doing

that He has given us a detailed picture

of the events that will lead up to it

and also of the events that will take place

during that seven year period.

Which brings us out of history

and back to Biblical prophecy.

And what I want to do with the rest of our time this morning

is to plunge right into one of the key prophetic passages in the New Testament.

It begins in Matthew 24:1 with Christ predicting the destruction of the Temple,

and runs through Matthew 25:46.

The whole prophetic message

was triggered by one of the disciples

commenting about what an impressive structure the temple building was.

Jesus responded by saying that a day was coming

when not one stone of the temple

would be left standing upon another.

As soon as the disciples could get Jesus alone

they asked Him for more information about the future

and Jesus responded with the comments we have recorded in Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

We don’t have time even to read this entire passage this morning,

much less to study it,

but I want to plug in some divisions for you

so that you can read it on your own

and better understand what’s being said and to whom,

and then we’ll return to the 5 verses

that are directed specifically to where I believe we are right now.

Jesus uses the disciples’ questions

to offer prophetic comments

to 3 specific groups of people.

And what He says here

will only make sense

if we keep in mind who it was said to.

In Matt. 24:4-44

Jesus give specific instructions to the Nation of Israel preparing them for the time of the Great Tribulation.

In 24:45-25:30

Jesus directs comments specifically to and for His Church during the church age.

And in 25:31-46 He offers comments about His return and its impact on the Gentile (non-Jewish) nations.

And we also need to keep in mind

that what we want

and what our Lord knew we needed

were two very different things.

What we want is a date and a time so that

we can decide whether we should

put our dividend into a CD for our child’s college expenses several years down the line,

or whether we should use it

for that Caribbean cruise

as one last fling before the Lord’s return.

But what Jesus wanted to offer us

was not dates and times,

but rather ATTITUDES -

attitudes that would equip His people

to face the future

with wisdom,

confidence,

and effectiveness

in every generation

from the day He departed

until the day He once again sets foot on the Mount of Olives.

Now, just to get our prophetic feet wet,

lets start with Matthew 24:4-8.

In response to the disciples’ request

for more information about when the end of the world would come Jesus said:

Matt. 24:4-8 “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

In this passage

Jesus sets up an analogy between

the events surrounding His return

and a pregnant woman

beginning the process of labor

in preparation for child birth.

And He gives us 5 specific indicators

that He tells us will serve as what He calls, merely the beginning of birth pangs...

Those 5 are:

False Christs,

wars and rumors of wars,

increased tension between nations,

famines,

and earthquakes.

Now, there have always been false religious leaders in the world,

there have always been wars,

there have always been tensions between nations,

and there have always been periodic famines and earthquakes.

But the key here

is in Jesus’ comparison to birth pangs.

Those of you who have been through this birth thing first hand

know that once birth pangs begin

they continue to increase in frequency and intensity

until they finally culminate in a strength and duration sufficient to bring about the birth of the baby.

Now, we are not going to get into

a major side-track here,

but let’s just take one item on that birth-pang list

and use it as an illustration

of what’s going on around us.

We’ll take earthquakes.

During the 1000 years between 800 A.D.

and 1800 A.D.

there were a total of 16 known earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.0 or greater.

That’s an average of one every 62.5 years.

During the next 100 years,

between 1800 and 1900 there were 15 quakes of 6.0 or greater,

or an average of one every 7 years.

During the next 82 years,

between 1900 and 1982 there were 48 earthquakes of 6.0 or higher,

or an average of one quake ever 2 years.

During the next 10 years, between 1982 and 1992 there were 15 earthquakes of 6.0 or higher,

or an average of one ever 8 months.

During the next 15 years, from 1992 through 2007

there were 2409 earthquakes of 6.0 or higher,

or an average of well over 13 every month,

and in the first 5 months of this year

there have already been 82 earthquakes of 6.0 or higher

or an average of 16.4 every month!

If we took the time,

and did the research,

we would find strikingly similar patterns

with all five signs

that Jesus offered as what He called,

merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Now, when a woman feels “merely the beginning of birth pangs”

what does she do?

I remember when Sandee felt the beginning of birth pangs with Joni.

We called the doctor.

We said, ‟They’ve started! They’ve started! We’re coming to the hospital NOW!”

He said, ‟NO! Not yet.

This is just the beginning.

When the contractions get X minutes apart, then call me again, and head to the hospital.”

You see, with these signs,

Jesus is saying, ‟When you see them dramatically increasing - stay alert,

and watch carefully what’s happening.”

And for this morning

let me wrap this up with two final statements:

#1. We have clearly entered the birth-pangs phase of the Last Days.

The reason Christ gave these signs

was to alert us to where we are

in the over-all prophetic program.

Given the signs He selected

even the most casual reader can recognize there is a dramatic increase in intensity and frequency.

#2. No one knows how long birth pangs will continue until they culminate in the birth.

It could be another 30 seconds,

or another 30 minutes,

or another 30 days,

or another 30 months,

or another 30 years.

Almost exactly 40 years ago

I sat awestruck in a crowd of college students as Hal Lindsey

carefully outlined the Biblical requirements that had to be fulfilled

before Christ returned.

He talked about these birth pangs,

and a number of other pieces to the prophetic puzzle.

He then shifted his attention to the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1947,

and quoted Jesus’ statement in Matt. 24:34

in which the Lord says,

Matt. 24:34 “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

He then explained to us that a Biblical generation was 30 years in length

and concluded by strongly implying that

1947 plus 30 years put the outside limits of the return of Christ at 1977.

1977 was the first year of Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

Those were not exceptionally good years in our nation’s history,

but I guarantee you, they were NOT the great tribulation.

All I’m saying is this -

we want dates,

our Lord wants ATTITUDES.

He wants us alert

He wants us aware

He wants us prepared

and He wants us at peace.

Now, just so you know where we’re going next week,

there is a major transition between Matt. 24:8 and Matt. 24:9.

Matthew 24:9 takes the nation of Israel right into the great tribulation of the last 7 years preceding the return of Christ.

There are 2 major missing pieces

that must fit in between those two verses.

One of them involves the church,

and the other involves the Nation of Israel.

We’ll look at those two pieces next week.