The Last Days Part 1
Scripture: Matthew 24:36-44; Revelation 22:10-11; Romans 16:17-18
Introduction
I have heard for many years that we are living in the last days and I actually believe that we are. The first sermon that I ever preached was titled “Time Is Running Out” and it was based on our living in the last days. That sermon was preached 26 years ago this month and now, 26 years later, I am even more convinced that we are living in the last days. When I refer to the “last days” I am referring to Christ’s return for His church. I did not understand 26 years ago that these last days could be concluded in my life time or 100 years from now. The problem is that we do not know and based on several Scripture references that we will discuss in this series, it is crucial that we are always ready because we cannot know the exact time of Christ’s return. Also to this point is that our individual “last days” may be very different should we die before His return. This series will focus primarily on the signs that Jesus gave as recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. I will start with the reason why we must individually be in a constant state of readiness and I request that you remember this as your foundation for the remainder of the messages in this series. Turn with me to Matthew 24:36-44.
I. Be Ready - ALWAYS
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore be on alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
Also turn to Revelation 22:10-11.
And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.’ Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
Jesus made this point very clearly after He had discussed the signs of the end. He said that no man know when that day will be, only God Himself. This is key because there have been several in recent years that have “prophesied” the exact date of Christ’s return. Jesus said that He did not even know so if He did not know, how could man? Man can’t know the exact day. For this reason Jesus said that we must always be ready. To make it crystal clear for the disciples, He gave them an example of a thief breaking into someone’s home. If the homeowner knew exactly when the thief would come, that homeowner would be prepared to defend his home. He would be ready for the attack. However, if the homeowner did not know when the thief was coming, his only recourse was to always be prepared “just in case.” This way the thief could not catch him by surprise. This is a state of mind. Let me give you another example. In our present war in Iraq, those soldiers on the front line are suffering physically as well as mentally. They must be on constant alert, even while they are resting because they never know when an attack might happen. When they return home the transition back to a “normal” life can be difficult. They saw this also with the soldiers returning from Vietnam. To be on alert means you are constantly watching and preparing for the “what if”. This is the state of mind that we must operate in to be prepared for Christ’s coming – we must always be ready.
The other point that Jesus made was that there were going to be some people who will be surprised, just like in the days of Noah when the floods came. When Noah entered the ark, I am sure there were many scoffers who laughed at him and his family. However, that all changed when the rains started and it began to flood. Those caught in the flood were living their lives without being conscious of God; they were going about their lives, just living. There will be those when Christ returns who will not be watching, but just living. Christ said that some would be taken and some left. It is clear that those who are left were not prepared for His coming, meaning that they were just living their life without any expectation of Christ’s return. The example He gave was two men being in the field, one was taken and one was left. This sounds like an example of the Rapture to me. The final point that I need to make is in reference to the scripture I read from Revelation chapter 22. In those verses John was told “do not” seal up the words from the prophecy. He was told basically that those who were doing “whatever” they were doing, let them keep doing it. I believe he was being told that the people have a choice. They can choose to read the prophecy and search its meaning, or ignore it and continue to live their lives and be surprised. We do not want to be surprised. We must be on alert, ready and waiting for His return.
II. The First Sign: False Christ(s)
Now that we know to be ready, what are the signs that we should be looking for? The first sign that Jesus mentions to His disciples relates to false Christ(s) appearing trying to mislead the people. This would include those who start their own cults leading people away from Christ as well as those believing they are “following” Christ although their teachings are not consistent with Christ’s. Jesus states in Matthew 24:4-5: “…..See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”
The word “mislead” is also translated as deceive. There are almost 50 references to being deceived in the New Testament. In our study of the book of Revelation, it mentions several times of Satan and his followers trying to deceive the world and doing so with some success. Jesus told His disciples that they must not be deceived and the disciples (and Paul) continued to stress that same warning to the Church. There are many ways in which a person can be deceived, but I want to focus on how a lack of understanding of the truth can cause individuals to be led astray. Remember the words from Hosea 4:6 which say “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…..”? These words speak to what I am about to share with you. When I preached my first sermon 26 years ago, I had heard about cults but was not that familiar with them. I knew they deceived a lot of good, innocent people, but that was the extent of my understanding. This morning I want to share a few that had their start (either the leader or Church itself) in established Christian denominations. I will focus on those whose members paid the ultimate price, they lost their lives.
In November 1978, 914 Americans, followers of Jim Jones (his church was initially a part of the Disciples of Christ denomination) died in a mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. I was seventeen when this happened and could not understand how all those people were deceived by Jim Jones. Those killed included 274 children.
On April 19, 1993, the siege by the ATF Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms of the Branch Davidians compound near Waco, TX ended with an assault and subsequent firestorm that destroyed the compound and killed most of the inhabitants. The Branch Davidians were a religious sect that originated out of the Davidian Seventh Day Adventist (themselves former members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.) This group, under the leadership of David Koresh, began to see themselves as “students of the seven seals” as mentioned in Revelation chapter five. David Koresh’s group did not follow the teachings of the mainstream Branch Davidians group and he was never accepted as one of their leaders. On April 19, 1995, two years after this incident, I was sitting in a physician’s office when the news broadcasted the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal building killing 168 individuals. The individual behind the bombing was Timothy McVeigh. He stated his reason was to get back at the government for the FBI’s role in the Waco, TX incident involving the Branch Davidians (although he was not a member.)
From 1994 to 1997, the order of the Solar Temple’s members began a series of mass suicides which led to roughly 74 deaths. In some of the suicide letters, members believed that they were leaving this world of hypocrisy and oppression for a better world, some believed they would be moving on to Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star known and in the right conditions can be seen in broad daylight. Those found among the dead included a mayor, a journalist, a sales manager and a civil servant. These people were successful in their own right, yet they had been deceived.
On March 26, 1997, 39 followers of the Heaven’s Gate cult died in a mass suicide near San Diego, CA. This group was led by a man named Applewhite. He called himself “Bo” and in the mid seventies had a female partner named “Peep” (Bonnie Nettles). They left Oregon in 1975 with a group of 20 others seeking a UFO to take them to another world. The UFO never came and after “Peep” died of cancer, “Bo” changed his name to “Do” and began recruiting new members for his organization called the Heaven’s Gate. This group believed that their act was not an act of self-extermination, but exiting their human vehicles so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following the Hale-Bopp comet. Some of the male members of the cult underwent voluntary castration in preparation for the “genderless” life they believed awaited them after death.
On March 17, 2000, approximately 1000 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in what is believed to be a mass suicide in Uganda. The group had split from Roman Catholicism to emphasize apocalypticism (based on the book of Revelations when evil is destroyed.) Because they deemed the world to be corrupt and seeing themselves as a Noah’s Ark of purity, they also severely restricted their speech to avoid saying anything dishonest or sinful.
Most recently the Church of Scientology has been in the news primarily due to some of its teaching around suicide and because of one of their members, Tom Cruise. It has been reported that this group has caused a number of suicides actively or through negligence. Members are taught that if they leave the “church” they will soon “kill themselves or have serious illnesses or accidents.” It is believed that through their teachings they create suicidal people. This is based on a study of former Scientologists who had the highest rates of persistent fear, sleeplessness, suicidal and self-destructive tendencies than ex-members of other religious groups. Ex-members have also reported that the church ordered them and other members to commit “end of cycle” (suicide) in order to protect the Church.
All of these examples include good people who somewhere along the line were deceived. Many of the members of these groups (from what was reported from family members) had a sincere desire to serve God yet they were deceived. You may be thinking that it could not happen to you and I hope you’re right, but I will remind you of this: in each of these groups there were very successful, educated people who accepted what was being taught. To say with certainty that it could not happen to you would require that you fully understand God’s word for yourself. You do not take my word for it or anyone else’s unless you go to the Scriptures for yourself to see if those things are correct. We must not get so caught up in the charisma of any leader that we will accept any doctrine that comes forth from his/her mouth. Paul said in Romans 16:17-18 “Now I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
If you never study your Bible for yourself, but spend a lot of time reading a lot of “other” material that appeals to your sense of what “should be” then you can be deceived. I am not saying reading other material is wrong, but you must have a foundation of God’s word so that you can balance what you are reading with what your foundation of truth is. I spent much of this message focusing on some of the cults of the past and present, but I will close by mentioning three “doctrines” of today that are coming out of the Christian Church that are deceiving people. There are a lot of false teachings in the world from “non-Christian” organizations, but the most dangerous ones are the ones within the Church. Here are three for your reference:
• If you have heard that once you are saved your salvation is guaranteed and you can live however you want after you’re “saved” then you may want to study Hebrews 6:4-6 which says “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.”
• If you have heard it taught that your actions do not carry any consequences as long as you are sorry for what you did, you may want to study Galatians 6:7-8 which says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
• If you believe that any doctrine is okay as long as it makes you feel good about yourself then you may want to study 2 Timothy 4:3-4 which says “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
The first sign that Jesus mentioned was deception – many will be deceived in these last days. You must make sure you are not deceived – study for yourself. I will continue this message next week. May God continue to bless you.
