Watching and Waiting
JCC 11.10.09 am
Is today the day that the Lord will come?
Illustrations: (Hide and seek game)
Are you ready or not?
Have you ever been on a blind date? Not knowing if they’ll turn up, but hoping in expectation of the meeting
Or husbands, what’s it like to wait for your wife to be ready?
Or you’re expecting a delivery, and it doesn’t arrive. How do you feel?
John 14:1-2
I will come again
The doctrine of the return has always been part of the Christian message
But look at the bible, history and current events for yourself, then you decide
A new interest in prophecies; Daniel, revelation
Many teachers, pastors, and bible students have taught that in their generation the Second Coming of Christ is near
Many have given times and dates
No one knows, but the Father, not even Jesus
Matthew 24:36 Jesus says "… of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”
Acts 1:6-7 The disciples asked Jesus after He was resurrected: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
Around the year 1000 predictions of the coming of Christ filled the air. It was so well received that the people didn’t even plant their crops, buildings lay decaying, and people were left starving.
In the 1500’s Martin Luther wrote, “We have reached the time of the white horse of the Apocalypse. This world won’t last any longer… then another 100 years.
Christopher Columbus was also a student of biblical prophecy. He wrote a volume called “The Book of Prophecies,” in, which he predicted that the world would end in 1556. He wrote, “there is no doubt that the world must end in one hundred fifty five years.
Some modern day ‘prophets’ like Edgar Whisenant, a retired NASA engineer, sold 4.3 million copies of his book saying why Christ would come on 31st December 1988; it came and went. The next year he sold 30,000 copies of another book he wrote saying why Christ would come on 31st December 1989 came and went and no Messiah
Many details have been added
Don’t add or take away from scripture, study the bible what it says about it
The OT prophets told that Jesus would come the first time – and He did. We can be 5 times more sure that He will come the second time because the Second Coming is predicted 5 times as often as the First
1st coming was a sin offering the second
2nd time will be without a sin offering
Daniel 12:4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
What book?
Clue: Daniel 12:1 "At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. (The Jews) And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time; (clear reference to The Great Tribulation) but at that time your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book.
The Tribulation Saints of Jewish descent that come to a saving knowledge of Christ during the Great Tribulation and the book that Daniel refers to is the “Book of Life.”
The 1st hint or sign of the Second Coming: Dan 12:4b “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."
Someone said they believe it’s a clear reference to the ability of mankind to travel to any spot on the globe in a relatively short time. In the Hebrew “run to and fro” means "to pass through a land.“ Not until the 20th century has mankind been able nor has he succeeded in traveling to or passing through every piece of land on the earth
"Knowledge increase:” Beginning with the telegraph, telephones, radio, televisions, computers, and now the Internet, we have practically anything in a matter of seconds
Jesus Himself warned us to look out for signs that He said would come to pass just before His Second Coming and the "end of the world"
Matthew 24:3 “As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?"
Matt 24:5 “For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.”
One Christian leader claims that since 1900, over 1,100 people have claimed to be Christ. (unknown source)
There will be the appearance of one final Anti-Christ mentioned in 1 John 2:18. With breakthrough advancement in media, more than any other time in history, the message of the AC will be on a worldwide scale. He will be widely accepted as the one with the answers
Matt 24:11-12 Jesus added “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold.”
How many people do you know, who claim to love the Lord, show coldness in their love?
John 13:35 Jesus says: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." If we do not love one another-by this I mean agape love that seeks someone else’s highest good, then it is time to re-examine our faith
Love for others, including our enemies is the surest indication that we are true disciples of Jesus. Let us not allow our love to grow cold
Matthew 24:6-8 Jesus gives us another clue: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs
Historians all agree that the 20th century was unparalleled in the scale of its human misery created by other humans. No period has witnessed the escalation of wars, as has the 20th Century. The Red Cross has estimated that over 100 million people have been killed in wars since the 20th Century began. This is not including genocide of Russians opposed to Stalin, the Jews exterminated during the Holocaust, Idi Amin’s or Pol Pot’s, or Mao Tse Tung’s Evil and bloodthirsty regimes. Up until 1914, war had never been universal, but in both World War 1 & 2, total war was waged.
Since World War II, there have been numerous major wars & hundreds of rebellions & revolutions. The death toll in conflicts since the end of World War II has topped 23 million.
On March 27th, 1964 Alaska was devastated by a massive earthquake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale. In the 30 years since the great Alaska quake, there have been as many major earthquakes as in the entire previous 2000 years of world history!
There have been 21 earthquakes of major strength between the years 1000 and 1800. But between 1800 and 1900 there were 18 major earthquakes. In the next 50 years, between 1900 and 1950, there were 33 major quakes, and between 1950 and 1991 there were 93 major earthquakes, almost tripling the number of the previous half century, and claiming the lives of 1.3 million people around the world. This dramatic increase of severe quakes has led many scientists to predict that we are entering a new period of great seismic disturbances
The HIV virus, which causes AIDS, has currently infected at least 13 to 14 million people around the globe. In 1993 AIDS became the leading cause of death of U.S. males between the ages of 20 and 45. Harvard University scientists estimate that there are over 25 million people worldwide who have full-blown AIDS, and an additional 100 million people will be infected with the HIV virus. However, AIDS is not the only modern plague to afflict mankind. Virtually unheard of among our ancestors, over 100 different kinds of cancer now kill over 5 million people every year. The depletion of the ozone layer, which blocks much of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, is thought to be responsible for a dramatic rise in melanoma, a deadly skin cancer.
The world recession, resulting in poverty and homelessness, has devastated the health care systems of many countries and diseases once thought banished by modern science have made an alarming comeback. Epidemics of typhoid, diphtheria, and even the Black Death, have afflicted areas of India and the former Soviet Union. Deadly new strains of Malaria, Tuberculosis and Cholera are becoming resistant to all known antibiotics and are killing millions of people.
The most underrated health epidemic, known as the Spanish Influenza pandemic because it grew to worldwide proportions, is believed to have been born in early March 1918 after soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas burned tons of manure. Two days later the first soldiers reported feeling sick. Forty-eight soldiers died at Fort Riley with a listed cause of pneumonia. But the virus behind the sickness followed troop movements to Europe and more became infected and the sickness grew more deadly in the process. Worldwide, the epidemic killed 20 to 40 million people.
Now we have pandemics like swine flu because of travel
How then should we respond?
Matt. 24:6 “see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”
All of these clues do not suggest that the end of the world has come
The ‘birth pangs’ contractions to open the cervix for the ‘arrival’ get more intense with the closeness of the birth
Women do not normally have one pain then deliver
Illustration: Relate to my pregnancies
Comfort one another with these words
Encourage each other
In these days of uncertainty how many of you have been looking to the sky
Only you can answer that…
1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people says ‘All is well; everything is peaceful and secure, then disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is about to be born. And there will be no escape But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.
If you’re ready, then have you forgiven those that have wronged you?
Are you putting off today what you hope you can do tomorrow?
Are you sure there will be a tomorrow?
Rev16:15 I will come unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for Me, who keep their robes ready so they will not need to walk naked and ashamed.”
Do you anticipate His return and are you ready?
When the Father has finished his countdown, Jesus will be unveiled in the heavenlies saying, ‘Ready or not … Here I come’
