Scripture: Acts 1:1-9; 1 Peter 1:3-12
Introduction
- A lot of people are beginning to wonder if we are in the end times.
- They are looking all over for signs that Jesus is coming back soon.
- Surely, it can’t be much longer – things get weirder and more messed up every day.
- The enemy gets bolder and more confident with each new technological breakthrough.
- Think about it: can you remember when your phone was connected to a wire?
- Can you imagine going a day; a few hours; or even a few minutes without your cell?
- Our generation has seen the invention of so many things promising to improve our lives.
- Take the computer for example: has it really made our lives easier? nope
- I have made a living working with computers since the first PC and the birth of the internet.
- I have a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from VCU in 1991.
- I have watched work shift from people manually processing data to people feeding computers – either putting the data in or writing programs to process the data.
- I am here to tell you a little secret about computers – they are CONSUMERS!
- They consume resources for their own care and feeding, they must be constantly upgraded, they are obsolete as soon as they arrive.
- If you don’t believe me, which version of iPhone or whatever are you on?
- Your latest and greatest was probably the latest and greatest for maybe a month.
- Technology has moved us from doing things and participating in life to being owned by technology.
- And don’t think for a minute that the enemy doesn’t drive technology.
- Try to get your family to sit around the table and eat a meal and put down those phones.
- The good news is that technology has also made it possible to spread the Gospel faster.
- I visited a village in west Africa with my daughter when her and her husband were in the Peace Corps.
- They didn’t have plumbing or electricity in any of their primitive huts, but they had better cell coverage than we do – I could even see the cell tower in the distance.
- So where are we now as humans? I have three questions about the return of Jesus:
- Are we living in the last days?
- What is He waiting for?
- What should we do about it?
1. Are we living in the last days?
- The truth is, nobody knows when the end is coming so we don’t know how close we are.
- Even Jesus didn’t know when. He said so in Matthew 24:36-39:
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
- If you read into this dire comparison that Jesus makes to the flood, we better, at least, ACT LIKE WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS – wouldn’t you agree?
- Jesus was finishing up 40 days of time with His disciples when He gave them one final direction in Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
- After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight
- They were able to watch Him float up into the sky as high as the clouds and He was gone
- We are living in the last days, if you stop to consider that Jesus turned on the power.
- He told them two things:
- I’m giving you new power through the Holy Spirit
- Your mission is to reach everyone on earth.
- I know it’s been 2000 years since He said that, but I think that was a pivotal point in time.
- So, in a manner of speaking, these are the end times.
- The question is how long will they last?
- Perhaps that is why the enemy is accelerating his game.
- With the computer and the internet at his disposal, he is getting HIS MESSAGE out.
- What do you think his message is? Destruction, hate, perversion, distance from God, SIN
- And just as Satan helped walk Jesus to the cross, he is again helping to get the Gospel out
- You see, the same high-speed communication channel Satan is using, we can also use.
- We are racing towards the last days at a rapidly accelerating pace.
2. What is He waiting for?
- All the disciples could think to ask Jesus at the end was: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
- Jesus will restore HIS kingdom when He comes back – not the kingdom of Israel.
- Jesus said that only the Father knows when He will return and setup His kingdom
- So what is the Father waiting for to pull the trigger? What do you think?
- I believe that Jesus gives us a strong clue in Matthew 24.
- He has just described a series of 4 things that will take place:
- Many will come in His name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,”
- You will hear of wars and rumors of wars
- Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
- There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
- Jesus says: “All these things are the beginning of birth pains.”
- He then goes on to say five more things that will signal the end:
- You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death,
- You will be hated by all nations because of me.
- Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other
- Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
- Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
- And then He gives what I believe is the real clue – the TRIGGER, in verse 14:
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.
- What was the final trigger for God to bring the flood? SIN, Evil
- I believe it was COMPLETENESS – COMPLETE EVIL in Genesis 6:5-7:
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
- God concluded that the evil of mankind was so complete, that He would destroy it all.
- Again, I believe the final trigger for God in the end, will be COMPLETENESS.
- Only this time, He is giving mankind every last possible chance to be redeemed.
- God sent Jesus to save as many people from sin and destruction as He possibly could.
- And, knowing that He must die and rise from the dead, He handed off the job to us.
- I don’t think the Father is sending the Son back until we have exhausted every possible way of reaching people for Christ.
3. What should we do about it?
- The key to understanding what we should do is found in 1 Peter, beginning with salvation
- In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
- This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
- We can take comfort that if we have accepted Jesus Christ, our salvation is secure.
- What does this mean for us? It means we are safe; we are protected from the enemy.
- We are safe to do the very dangerous work spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- What do you mean dangerous preacher? Remember what Jesus said is coming:
- You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death,
- You will be hated by all nations because of me.
- Many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other
- Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
- Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
- We must be bold and fearless as we carry out the work that Jesus has given to us.
- Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.
- The prophets were shown the great work that Jesus would do, but they also speak to you.
- It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
- We have been given a great gift and much work to do in the name of Jesus Christ.
- Our job is to reach as many as we can; as fast as we can; with the Gospel.
- We are called to this place; this mission; and this ministry to do the work/
- Even angels long to look into these things.