[The following is the manuscript of my sermon delivered on the 30th of August, 2015. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Have you ever heard the expression, “That’s a sign of the times”? It’s usually applied to an event that just occurred, something that indicates what should be expected given the times we now live in. You’ve probably heard a lot of chatter the last few months and years, and perhaps even said it yourself, that there are a lot of signs pointing to that day when Jesus will return to the earth to take His church home. Those who study the Bible fairly closely can enumerate and categorize current events into end-times prophecy.
Even casual readers of the Bible understand that some of the things happening today are clearly predicted in the Bible as leading up to Christ’s return. Many people are familiar with the warning Jesus gave as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verses 6 through 8, when He said…
Even casual readers of the Bible understand that some of the things happening today are clearly predicted in the Bible as leading up to Christ’s return. Many people are familiar with the warning Jesus gave as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verses 6 through 8, when He said…
6 “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
--Matthew 24:6-8 (NKJV)
Jesus says not yet, the end is not here just yet. Sadly, though, these occurrences are all too common, things that have happened throughout human history. So we can’t really start our countdown clock based solely on them.
The Apostle Paul echoes part of what Jesus said, and then adds to it. Listen and follow along as I read to you a glimpse of the possibly very near future and a warning, as Paul wrote and distributed in his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12, from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…
The Apostle Paul echoes part of what Jesus said, and then adds to it. Listen and follow along as I read to you a glimpse of the possibly very near future and a warning, as Paul wrote and distributed in his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12, from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…
1 When our Lord Jesus returns, we will be gathered up to meet him. So I ask you, my friends, 2 not to be easily upset or disturbed by people who claim that the Lord has already come. They may say that they heard this directly from the Holy Spirit, or from someone else, or even that they read it in one of our letters. 3 But don’t be fooled! People will rebel against God. Then before the Lord returns, the wicked one who is doomed to be destroyed will appear. 4 He will brag and oppose everything that is holy or sacred. He will even sit in God’s temple and claim to be God. 5 Don’t you remember that I told you this while I was still with you?
6 You already know what is holding this wicked one back until it is time for him to come. 7 His mysterious power is already at work, but someone is holding him back. And the wicked one won’t appear until that someone is out of the way. 8 Then he will appear, but the Lord Jesus will kill him simply by breathing on him. He will be completely destroyed by the Lord’s glorious return.
9 When the wicked one appears, Satan will pretend to work all kinds of miracles, wonders, and signs. 10 Lost people will be fooled by his evil deeds. They could be saved, but they will refuse to love the truth and accept it. 11 So God will make sure that they are fooled into believing a lie. 12 All of them will be punished, because they would rather do evil than believe the truth.
--2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (CEV)
Let us pray… Father God, we trust in You and in all You would tell us. We have faith in Your love and Your promises. Speak to us this morning, Lord, the message of Your will for each of us. Touch our hearts with Your Holy Spirit and make us completely receptive to Your word. In the blessed name of our Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.
The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, tells a parable of a theater where a variety show is taking place. Each act is more fantastic than the last, and is enthusiastically applauded by the audience. Suddenly the theater manager comes forward. He apologizes for the interruption, but announces that the theater is on fire and begs his patrons to leave in an orderly fashion. The audience thinks this is the most amusing act of the evening, and they laugh and cheer thunderously. The manager again implores them to leave the burning building, and he is again applauded vigorously. At last he can do no more. The fire raced through the whole building and the fun-loving audience with it. "And so," concluded Kierkegaard, "will our age, I sometimes think, go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators?"
Kierkegaard makes an interesting point that sometimes it can be difficult to tell what is an act and what is the truth. His little illustration, this parable of the theater and its patrons, hits a bit too close to home.
Is the great Theater Manager on stage right now, begging us to get everything in order and escape the flames just ahead? Will we heed His call before it is too late? Or will we laugh and cheer, all the way to eternal damnation in the lake of fire?
How many of you believe that the Rapture will occur, that Jesus will come in the clouds to take home to heaven all who believe in Him as the Son of God? How many believe the Rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation, when life gets really tough?
There is a lot of debate on both of those issues among Christians. But there seems to be very little debate that the end of time, and of Jesus’ return, is rapidly approaching. Many believe it will happen within our lifetimes.
Let’s start with what Jesus said as recorded by Matthew that I read earlier: You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Yep, we’ve got that one covered. We have a war raging or simmering somewhere around the globe pretty much all the time.
Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Check, almost everywhere you look in some form or another, people are fighting each other. And consider that when we read the word “nation” in our Bible, it usually refers to the people, even to an individual person. And family, way too many people in the United States and across the globe are engaged in rising up against each other, into trying to divide each other into groups, into making us hate each other.
There will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes. Again yes, somewhere, seemingly all the time. Famines caused by droughts and floods and wars. And pestilences in the form of drug-resistant viruses are on the rise and spreading. We read and hear of earthquakes and tornados and mudslides and other natural disasters on a regular basis.
So does all of that mean that Jesus is coming soon? Well… maybe. But not taken by itself. Let’s look a little more closely at what Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica.
Right off the bat, in verse 1, Paul lets us know that Jesus will definitely come back to the earth for His church. He says “when” Jesus returns, not “if”. When our Lord returns, we believers will all be gathered together with Him.
Now this is not an event that will likely go unnoticed, by either the believers who are “gathered up” nor by the non-believers who are “left behind”. We will know, without a shred of doubt, when this happens. So if this global event has not yet occurred, then we can be sure that Jesus has not yet returned.
If someone somewhere is making claims that Jesus has already come back, or worse yet that they are His next incarnation, then we have all the proof we need not to believe them, since we are still standing here and not with Him up in the clouds, as our Bible promises. Paul warns us not to be fooled, no matter what these people might say, or who they give as their source.
Paul continues in verse 3 by noting that people will rebel against God, and I guess we can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden to see just how true that statement is. But I believe that here, Paul is speaking of a very specific, very definite act of rebellion against God. I think that in this passage, Paul is referring to the one we will call the Antichrist, the same Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. This wicked one, this evil one, will come on the scene before Jesus returns and he will lead a rebellion against God, turning people away from God and over to Satan.
Verse 4 asserts he will even sit in God’s holy temple, in Jerusalem, and claim to be God himself. Has any of this happened yet? Nope. In fact, the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt first, before the Antichrist appears and before Jesus returns.
Verse 8 assures us the Antichrist will be utterly destroyed by Jesus upon His return. But until that time, once the Antichrist has been revealed and before Jesus comes back, we can see in verse 9 that Satan will use the wicked one to work all kinds of miracles and wonders and signs, mimicking the ministry of Jesus when He walked the earth as a man.
The rest of this passage, verses 10 through 12, paints a dark and foreboding picture of what will happen to the lost souls, those who fall for these tricks of Satan and his Antichrist. They will refuse to accept and love the truth of Jesus Christ, so God will harden their hearts and make sure that they are indeed fooled by the wicked one. And all of them will be punished - every last one, including Satan and his Antichrist. They will be punished because they would rather do evil than believe in the truth.
That sounds terribly harsh, doesn’t it? Would God really do that, would he make sure some people will be fooled and thus condemned to eternal punishment? Isn’t God a loving God? If He loves all of His creation, how could He condemn anyone, even the non-believers? How could He even go so far as to force the issue, there at the end just before Jesus returns?
I want to take a quick look at another passage, this time from the Old Testament, when God is dealing yet again with His chosen people, the children of Israel. Listen as I read from 2nd Book of Chronicles, chapter 36, verses 15 and 16…
The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, tells a parable of a theater where a variety show is taking place. Each act is more fantastic than the last, and is enthusiastically applauded by the audience. Suddenly the theater manager comes forward. He apologizes for the interruption, but announces that the theater is on fire and begs his patrons to leave in an orderly fashion. The audience thinks this is the most amusing act of the evening, and they laugh and cheer thunderously. The manager again implores them to leave the burning building, and he is again applauded vigorously. At last he can do no more. The fire raced through the whole building and the fun-loving audience with it. "And so," concluded Kierkegaard, "will our age, I sometimes think, go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators?"
Kierkegaard makes an interesting point that sometimes it can be difficult to tell what is an act and what is the truth. His little illustration, this parable of the theater and its patrons, hits a bit too close to home.
Is the great Theater Manager on stage right now, begging us to get everything in order and escape the flames just ahead? Will we heed His call before it is too late? Or will we laugh and cheer, all the way to eternal damnation in the lake of fire?
How many of you believe that the Rapture will occur, that Jesus will come in the clouds to take home to heaven all who believe in Him as the Son of God? How many believe the Rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation, when life gets really tough?
There is a lot of debate on both of those issues among Christians. But there seems to be very little debate that the end of time, and of Jesus’ return, is rapidly approaching. Many believe it will happen within our lifetimes.
Let’s start with what Jesus said as recorded by Matthew that I read earlier: You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Yep, we’ve got that one covered. We have a war raging or simmering somewhere around the globe pretty much all the time.
Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Check, almost everywhere you look in some form or another, people are fighting each other. And consider that when we read the word “nation” in our Bible, it usually refers to the people, even to an individual person. And family, way too many people in the United States and across the globe are engaged in rising up against each other, into trying to divide each other into groups, into making us hate each other.
There will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes. Again yes, somewhere, seemingly all the time. Famines caused by droughts and floods and wars. And pestilences in the form of drug-resistant viruses are on the rise and spreading. We read and hear of earthquakes and tornados and mudslides and other natural disasters on a regular basis.
So does all of that mean that Jesus is coming soon? Well… maybe. But not taken by itself. Let’s look a little more closely at what Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica.
Right off the bat, in verse 1, Paul lets us know that Jesus will definitely come back to the earth for His church. He says “when” Jesus returns, not “if”. When our Lord returns, we believers will all be gathered together with Him.
Now this is not an event that will likely go unnoticed, by either the believers who are “gathered up” nor by the non-believers who are “left behind”. We will know, without a shred of doubt, when this happens. So if this global event has not yet occurred, then we can be sure that Jesus has not yet returned.
If someone somewhere is making claims that Jesus has already come back, or worse yet that they are His next incarnation, then we have all the proof we need not to believe them, since we are still standing here and not with Him up in the clouds, as our Bible promises. Paul warns us not to be fooled, no matter what these people might say, or who they give as their source.
Paul continues in verse 3 by noting that people will rebel against God, and I guess we can go all the way back to the Garden of Eden to see just how true that statement is. But I believe that here, Paul is speaking of a very specific, very definite act of rebellion against God. I think that in this passage, Paul is referring to the one we will call the Antichrist, the same Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. This wicked one, this evil one, will come on the scene before Jesus returns and he will lead a rebellion against God, turning people away from God and over to Satan.
Verse 4 asserts he will even sit in God’s holy temple, in Jerusalem, and claim to be God himself. Has any of this happened yet? Nope. In fact, the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt first, before the Antichrist appears and before Jesus returns.
Verse 8 assures us the Antichrist will be utterly destroyed by Jesus upon His return. But until that time, once the Antichrist has been revealed and before Jesus comes back, we can see in verse 9 that Satan will use the wicked one to work all kinds of miracles and wonders and signs, mimicking the ministry of Jesus when He walked the earth as a man.
The rest of this passage, verses 10 through 12, paints a dark and foreboding picture of what will happen to the lost souls, those who fall for these tricks of Satan and his Antichrist. They will refuse to accept and love the truth of Jesus Christ, so God will harden their hearts and make sure that they are indeed fooled by the wicked one. And all of them will be punished - every last one, including Satan and his Antichrist. They will be punished because they would rather do evil than believe in the truth.
That sounds terribly harsh, doesn’t it? Would God really do that, would he make sure some people will be fooled and thus condemned to eternal punishment? Isn’t God a loving God? If He loves all of His creation, how could He condemn anyone, even the non-believers? How could He even go so far as to force the issue, there at the end just before Jesus returns?
I want to take a quick look at another passage, this time from the Old Testament, when God is dealing yet again with His chosen people, the children of Israel. Listen as I read from 2nd Book of Chronicles, chapter 36, verses 15 and 16…
15 The Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them over and over again by His messengers because He had compassion on His people and His dwelling place. 16 But they continued to jest regarding the messengers of God, despising His word and making fun of His prophets until the wrath of the Lord came up against His people, until there was no remedy.
--2 Chronicles 36:15-16 (MEV)
Very little has changed since those days long, long ago. God still has compassion for His people - all His people, not just the Jews. And He has sent us warnings time and time again, through His messengers and through many signs. Christian preachers issue His warnings from pulpits all across the globe. But too many people ignore His warnings. They make fun of His messengers, and persecute them. They despise His word.
And someday, just as happened in the days of the Chronicler, there will no longer be a remedy. The full wrath of the Lord God will come up against His people, His creation. Hearts will be hardened. The lost will be fooled by the wicked one – God will make sure of it. And all will be doomed to spend eternity in torment and pain in the lake of fire.
But right now there is still time. We’ve already noted that Jesus hasn’t come yet because we, His believers, have not been called up to be at His side yet. And the Temple in Jerusalem has not been rebuilt for the wicked one to sit in and claim himself to be God. So we still have a remedy. We still have a choice rather than “go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators”, as Kierkegaard put it.
We must understand the scripture, God’s holy word, and not be fooled by the schemes and tricks of Satan. We must continue to believe in Jesus as the one true begotten Son of God and follow the example He set for us. We must love God, with all our heart and soul. We must love others as we love ourselves. And we must share the Gospel with them, so that they won’t be fooled either! This is what Jesus commanded us, before He ascended into heaven to be with our Father – to make disciples throughout the entire world.
And we must do this now, while there is still time. We must help save others while there is still a remedy.
We must act now… before our Lord returns.
Amen.
Let us pray… Father in heaven, Your Son Jesus tells us that we are not supposed to know just when He will return to take His church home to be with You and Him in heaven. He also says that even though we don’t know when it might happen, we are to always be prepared for it to occur at any time. We are to have faith in You and Him, to continue carrying out His work on this earth, to keep loving and helping others just as You love and help us. In other words, we are to follow Him and His example with each step we make, with every breath we take. And then, when He does return, we will be granted safe passage home.
But Father, this waiting is really tough! All around us we see so many horrible things going on. Every day brings a new atrocity. We constantly hear of persecutions, deaths, murders, and immorality running rampant in mainstream society. Like the souls in heaven we cry out, “How much longer, Lord? How much longer will You wait before You judge the earth?!?” We strive to be strong in the face of adversity. We try our best to hold out against the lies of Satan, to resist his temptations to join the rest of the world in serving his will and purposes rather than Yours, O God. But we are weak and we fear we might fail if Jesus doesn’t come soon!
Hear us now, Father God, listen to our hearts, Lord Jesus, as we plead to you silently in the quiet of this place, as we come to You for strength and courage, as we repent of our sinful ways…
Lord God, please steady us in the great storm building all around us. Please shield us from the fires sweeping through the world, consuming too many souls. Deafen our ears to the siren call of Satan and lead us away from his temptations. Keep our faith strong, our trust sure, and help us follow the path Your Son prepared for us with His very blood. This we pray in the name of Him who gave His all for us, the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Your Son. Amen.
And someday, just as happened in the days of the Chronicler, there will no longer be a remedy. The full wrath of the Lord God will come up against His people, His creation. Hearts will be hardened. The lost will be fooled by the wicked one – God will make sure of it. And all will be doomed to spend eternity in torment and pain in the lake of fire.
But right now there is still time. We’ve already noted that Jesus hasn’t come yet because we, His believers, have not been called up to be at His side yet. And the Temple in Jerusalem has not been rebuilt for the wicked one to sit in and claim himself to be God. So we still have a remedy. We still have a choice rather than “go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators”, as Kierkegaard put it.
We must understand the scripture, God’s holy word, and not be fooled by the schemes and tricks of Satan. We must continue to believe in Jesus as the one true begotten Son of God and follow the example He set for us. We must love God, with all our heart and soul. We must love others as we love ourselves. And we must share the Gospel with them, so that they won’t be fooled either! This is what Jesus commanded us, before He ascended into heaven to be with our Father – to make disciples throughout the entire world.
And we must do this now, while there is still time. We must help save others while there is still a remedy.
We must act now… before our Lord returns.
Amen.
Let us pray… Father in heaven, Your Son Jesus tells us that we are not supposed to know just when He will return to take His church home to be with You and Him in heaven. He also says that even though we don’t know when it might happen, we are to always be prepared for it to occur at any time. We are to have faith in You and Him, to continue carrying out His work on this earth, to keep loving and helping others just as You love and help us. In other words, we are to follow Him and His example with each step we make, with every breath we take. And then, when He does return, we will be granted safe passage home.
But Father, this waiting is really tough! All around us we see so many horrible things going on. Every day brings a new atrocity. We constantly hear of persecutions, deaths, murders, and immorality running rampant in mainstream society. Like the souls in heaven we cry out, “How much longer, Lord? How much longer will You wait before You judge the earth?!?” We strive to be strong in the face of adversity. We try our best to hold out against the lies of Satan, to resist his temptations to join the rest of the world in serving his will and purposes rather than Yours, O God. But we are weak and we fear we might fail if Jesus doesn’t come soon!
Hear us now, Father God, listen to our hearts, Lord Jesus, as we plead to you silently in the quiet of this place, as we come to You for strength and courage, as we repent of our sinful ways…
Lord God, please steady us in the great storm building all around us. Please shield us from the fires sweeping through the world, consuming too many souls. Deafen our ears to the siren call of Satan and lead us away from his temptations. Keep our faith strong, our trust sure, and help us follow the path Your Son prepared for us with His very blood. This we pray in the name of Him who gave His all for us, the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Your Son. Amen.
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