Before I Leave... How the Story Ends
[powerpress] Running simultaneously to the season of Lent is the NCAA's March Madness, which seems to go hand in hand with Armageddon for some people! Year after year we await a new crowned champion and suffer heartache as our team is eliminated from the brackets. Jesus will ultimately be that crowned King that will make all other matters pale in comparison. Before Jesus left, He wanted to make it clear that He is also making a return. Based on this fact, He wanted to let us know what that return would look like and how to prepare for it. To do so, He unveiled for us an introduction to eschatological events, gave a warning of how most will fall away in these times, and showed us a preview of what to expect while we are waiting and a picture of what it looks like to live ready for His return.
Eschatological Events
Eschatology is the study of the final events in the history of the world, including the final destiny of humankind. It involves the end of the world as we know it, the Second Coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment. Jesus gave us a clear picture of what is to come.
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors 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 24:1-8 NIV)
The Jewish temple represented the place of religious worship at the time of Jesus and was destroyed according to Jesus' prediction in 70 AD. Jesus was saying that the end of human history as we know it will come and that you are to be aware of the signs of the times (i.e. - North Korea, Iran, Ukraine and what is brewing there), but not be led astray by them. Many people have followed rabbit trails trying to predict the end of the world and have fallen into ditches because of it. Either they live as if they have all the time in the world to live as they want to without thought of repercussion, or they throw off the responsibilities of today because they anticipate an imminent end. Since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the apostles' spoke of the times in which we live as the last days (Acts 2:14-24; Hebrews 1:2; James 5:3; II Peter 3).
This matters because what is to come puts everything that you think, participate in, plan for, and do today, in context. Like an NCAA athlete preparing for March Madness, it affects their diet (spiritual food), exercise routine (service), sleep habits, practice schedule (church), and the company that they keep to sharpen their skills (community groups and fellowship). How are you living in the light of His return?
How Most Will Fall in These Times
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:9-14 NIV)
Jesus is letting you know clearly that the love, for Him and others, of not some, but most, will grow cold because of the increase of wickedness in our times. This is clearly seen even today as people find themselves increasingly biblically illiterate not knowing what Jesus has said or what God expects. It is easy to get caught up in cultural mores, standards, and causes when you are not anchored in the truth and life of Jesus. Your values become those of that which surrounds you rather than the truth found in God's Word. We need to remain in God's grace through ongoing relationship with Jesus and His people to escape falling into this category.
“Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon.” ― John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God
What to Expect While You're Expecting
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. “Immediately after the distress of those days “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:15-35 NIV)
Be aware, be ready, but in Jesus you do not have to be afraid. It is good news for you and those who have loved the Lord.
Many people have an aversion to God because they don't like the fact that He describes Himself as a judge. Yet, we would not want to serve a god who allowed behaviors, largely self-serving and harmful toward others when inacted by sinful humanity, to go unchecked. That would mean anyone could do anything to you that they wanted and escape without penalty or restitution. Yet God, in His justice, requires both. He desires for the penalty to be satisfied in Jesus and the restitution to be enacted by us as proof of our repentance. There is no context for the grandeur of God's love without understanding the penalty that He took upon Himself to give us life.
Why this matters is, because over 600 times, with the use of more than 20 words, the Bible speaks about God's wrath which is described as burning against sinners.
"My thesis is that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance…My thesis will be unpopular with man in the West…But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit…Your point to them–we should not retaliate? Why not? I say–the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when it comes from God…Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword…It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land–soaked in the blood of the innocent, the idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship." - Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace
Jesus Christ showed Himself as the benevolent judge when on the cross, though innocent, He took the judgment on Himself that we all deserve so that we might go free. This is grace, and this is how we find rest for our souls as we turn from sin and turn to Him.
God is by nature a father who longs for the good of His people and His creation. Wrath is a natural result when you see those that you love harming themselves and others that you love. It is our great encouragement that He says He does not overlook the evil in the world, but instead reveals His care in saying:
I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us— yes, the many good things he has done for Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me”; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. (Isaiah 63:7-10 NIV)
God's judgments are the other side of the coin that contextualize the magnitude of His love. When you live wholeheartedly for Jesus, you must have the following true perspective:
“Son,'he said,' ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why...the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, "We were always in Hell." And both will speak truly. ― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Live Ready
“But about that day or hour no one knows, 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. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. “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. “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. Truly I tell you, 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 24:36-51 NIV)
People often ask, "Why doesn't God just end all of the suffering now? Why not just take me now?"
The answer is that He would have to destroy the unsaved. God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but He wants everyone to come to repentance. In many cases, He would have had to destroy you before you repented of your things like your sexual immorality, drunkenness, idolatry, lust, pride, self-righteousness, gossip, or slander before you came to Jesus, or would have to now because some of you have not yet come.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23 NIV)
Because no one knows the day or the hour of His coming, we need to live ready. If you had to meet Him today, would you be the unfaithful servant who was thrown out because of your selfish and maybe even wild living, or have you repented of your sin to have the Master reward you with His coming?
What does it look like to live ready?
We'll speak about this more next week, but in summary, the time in which you are awaiting Christ's return, you are to move forward in a divine tension. You are to live as if this were your last day and you are about to meet Jesus face to face. You are to balance this with preparing for the future in such a manner that Jesus may take 1000 years to return. It means being in right relationship through your devotion today and tomorrow. It means living with reckless abandon for Jesus today while allowing Him to heal and break off the weight of hurts, old wounds, and generational curses. In doing so, you will be able to make it for the long haul, bringing glory to His name through your life. It means having an urgency about winning souls, while preparing for your child's education. This means building a career that will be useful for impacting the world with the kingdom of God through your platform, giving, and influence, while seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Jesus' life was a fulfillment of hundreds of years of hundreds of prophecies given by the Spirit of God through His people. Jesus predicted His own death on the cross to make atonement for the sin of the world, offering forgiveness to those who would repent of their sin and believe the good news. He rose from death and left instruction as to how we are to live until His return. Let's repent of sin and purpose to join Him on mission now.
Second City Church- Before I Leave Sermon Series 2014