Opener:
Good morning everyone! It is so nice to see every here this morning. We are excited to be back from vacation and I trust that you have had a blessed couple of weeks. We are excited to start a new series about end time events. These next couple of weeks will be really exciting.
The subject of the end times is a fascinating subject and really one that can go a lot of different directions. We are going to attempt to tackle some of the major questions surrounding this event . Also, I would like to preface this message with the fact that people have many different views on the end times. There are some that may not totally agree with the views presented in the next couple of weeks and I understand that.
While the when and how Jesus comes back may be in debate, the fact of the matter remains that He is coming back. Hallelujah! We can have a peace and joy just knowing that fact.
I shared a number of weeks ago on a Sunday night service about some of this material and it was one of our best bible studies. So I am really excited this morning to be talking about these end time events. Now if you have your bible, turn with me to the book of Matthew 24 and we are starting in verse three :
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 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. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
I. Birth pains of the end times
A. End times birth pains
a. I can remember when my wife was about to give birth to our son.
b. It was no doubt a really exciting time and a nerve racking time. Fellow parents can relate, I am sure.
c. At the time, we were both working full time jobs until the end to her pregnancy when she started to slow down a bit at her work. At the same time, we had many discussion about what the next steps should be.
d. Do we both go back to full time work and send our child to child care? Do we have Charity stay at home and care for the baby? Does she work part time? Etc. A lot went into the decision no doubt.
e. At the end of the day, we decided that Charity would be a home making engineer and that she would home school our child.
f. This obviously was a big commitment on our part and one that we have been able to do until this day although it looks a different now.
g. Driving Charity to the hospital she was in pain, and I was nervous, she got up to her room and the OBYN doctor was a little frustrad because she was on vacation and told charity to go in while she was gone and charity had waited and so she was surprised that the baby was not delievered already. After all that Charity then had a c-section and healthy baby boy was delivered coming in at 7 lbs 8 ounces and 22 inches.
h. That little boy is now 14 and comes in over 200 lbs and close to 6ft tall! His feet could fit in my hand an now his feet are bigger than mine.
B. Signs of the end
a. That was the birth of our son, Jesus was talking about a little different kind of birth in the book of Matthew. This birth would be that of the end times. Jesus said this in Matthew 24. Let’s revisit that “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
b. Jesus is being very clear here and was saying that these are signs of the beginning of the end times and they are not the end times.
c. So many just jump to the conclusion that we are living in the end times. Jesus was saying that these signs are the beginning of the end.
d. Like I said earlier, Jesus is coming back!!! As a believer, as a church, we should not fear that day, rather, be excited about those prospects.
e. Look around, the world is not getting better morally, environmentally, socially, it is eroding slowly, but surely.
C. People claiming to be the Christ
a. The next thing that we are warned about and we have seen an increase over the last number of years, are people claiming to be the Messiah.
b. So I did a bit of research on this, and went as far back as the 17th and 18th century and found people back then claiming to be the Messiah. Then in the 19th century there were even more which brings us to the 20th century where there were even more yet.
c. Starting with the likes of John Hugh Smuth Pigott who worked to recruit 50 young female followers to supplement his groups aging population of the Agapemonite community.
d. Then there was Krishna Venta born in 1911 and passed away in 1958 by a suicide bomber of a former disgruntled follower. He was from San Francisco and founded WKFL(Wisdom, Knowledge, faith and love).
e. You may have heard of our next one Jim Jones who founded the Peoples temple. He ordered a mass suicide of his followers on November 18, 1978.
f. There were many more not worth mentioning and then when you look at the 21st century we have had many including Mehmen Ali Agca the Turkish assassin who shot Pope John Paul II.
g. There is Alan John Miller who is a former Jehovah
Witness elder and current leader of the Divine truth movement.
h. There is actor Ezra miller who identifies as a non binary and refers to themselves as Jesus to the Native Americans and the list goes on.
D. Nation against nation
a. So as we can see, many have claimed to be the Messiah. Then Jesus warned us in verse seven of Matthew: 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
b. While war is nothing new to mankind. There has always been war, even in the garden of Eden where everything was perfect and peaceful, the devil was laying in the wings concocting a plan to get Adam and Eve to stubble.
c. While there has always been war, we have seen conflict to continue to rise on a larger scale.
d. Currently in 2023, there are at least 27 live conflicts. Of all those conflicts, we are seeing them worsening in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Myanmar, and those in Ethiopia. Globally, conflict and violence are on the rise according to the United Nations. Global Citizen reports that there are over 3.2 billion people currently live in a conflict affected area. That to me is a crazy statistic.
e. Not only have we seen this nation to nation conflict, we have seen conflict arise from within nations.
f. Recently, the United States has experienced this in the George Floyd protest where 1-2 billion dollars worth of damages occurred. By the way, this was the highest recorded civil disorder damages.
E. Famines and pestilence
a. Jesus goes on to say there will be famines. Here in America we are spoiled no doubt. That may change in the coming years though.
b. I found a troubling statistic on the World Health Organization website which stated that “As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021- 46 million people more from a year earlier and 150 million than from 2019. So it has progressively gotten worse.
c. This is such a dramatic number and everyone in this room should be concerned about and as a church we are.
d. Many of you take the time to volunteer at Ruby’s Pantry the ministry that we do every month at our church, we have been able to help those struggling and in many cases be a lifeline for them. Thank you for doing your part!
e. Pestilences many times we think of this as some kind of bug or something, but this actually deals with different kinds of diseases.
f. We have seen that, have we not the last couple of years? There are so many scary things out there such as the necrotizing fasciitis which is a flesh eating bacteria, you have heard of MRSA which mutates and offers resistance to modern day penicillin. Malaria which infects 300-500 million people killing about 1 million people annually, the Spanish flu, Covid-19 and the list goes which on.
g. Millions and millions of people’s lives are affected because of the increase in pestilences.
F. Knowledge will increase
a. Not only did Mathew talk about the beginning of the end times. The prophet Daniel talked about it in Daniel 12:4 NKJV - 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.”
b. When you look at the garden of Eden and how simple life was and look at today when mankind has developed so many things.
c. Just look at the transportation field. We went from horse and buggy to now we have jumbo jet airplanes such as the Airbus A380-800 which can carry up to 853 passengers.
d. We have invented automobiles that can run on electricity and hydrogen.
e. We have developed computers in unbelievable ways. From the first electromechanical computer machine in 1938 to now we have smart phones and super computers to the invention of AI which has made leaps and bounds over the last number of years.
f. Today, we have talking robots that use AI technology, we use AI to chat back and forth with, we use AI to answer robo calls, we use AI to write letters for us. This technology is being developed more and more as we speak everyday. This is scary folks!
G. Never experienced
a. The world have never experienced this type of progress in just a few generations.
b. This truly is a sign of these end time. We see society in general worshipping all this human knowledge.
c. With all this increase of knowledge, it has become more important over the wisdom of God, which in my humble opinion is detrimental to our society.
d. In the eyes of our world, It is no longer wrong to embrace lifestyles that are contrary to the Word of God, it is no longer wrong to abort a unwanted baby, it is no longer wrong to have relationships outside of marriage. You get the picture.
II. The Woke church
A. Movement
a. There has also been a movement that has been growing in popularity and we have seen it touch many different parts of our lives.
b. We have seen corporations that have taken this movement to the next level. We have seen our government take this movement to another level as well.
c. This is a movement that involves politics and social justice, one that has also creped into certain church denominations.
d. We have recently seen major church splits that have occurred in large part because some have had an agenda and have pushed that agenda.
B. Biblical warning
a. There is a clear danger here for the church and to remain pure and to follow the Scriptures regardless of what society accepts or does not accept at the time.
b. This has obviously changed significantly even from just a couple years ago.
c. The bible give us some insight into the a church that buys into the worlds system and is found in the book of Revelation 17:1-2 NKJV- 17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
C. Whose side are you on?
a. The question then should be asked, Where do you fit in all of this? Whose side are you on?
b. It is not popular to not follow the worlds trends, you may receive backlash from your friends as a result.
c. On the outside, and to those participating in this agenda it is beautifully wrapped, but on the inside it is full of immorality and humanism at the core.
d. The spiritually dead church no doubt will thrive during the first half of the tribulation but that power wont last long and they will be God vomit in the end.
e. In my humble opinion, the believer and churches should pursue the Lord and allow the Scriptures be their guidepost in all the decisions that they make.
III. Keep an eye on Israel
A. The super sign
a. As we continue on our journey in Matthew 24 let’s take a look at verse 32 NKJV32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
b. This prophecy from Jesus really is speaking about how Israel will play a major part of the end time events.
c. There are some Christian in the United States that have taken the approach that God is done with Israel and we in the United States have replaced them.
d. Let me say, I do not agree with that stance. Truly, Israel will play a key part in the end times and so we need to keep our eye on them.
B. A second time
a. So looking at the verse from that perspective, it really takes us back to when Jesus originally predicted that the temple in Israel would be destroyed and we know through history that occurred in 70AD.
b. As a result of this temple being destroyed, the Jewish people were scattered around the world.
c. And for almost 2,000 years that held true as the Jewish people were living in all different countries.
d. This was challenging on many levels the Israelites.
C. A miracle
a. Then a Miracle happened on May 14th of 1948, David Ben Gurion the head of the Jewish agency proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel.
b. On that same day, Harry Truman, the United States president, recognized Israel as a nation.
c. While it took 2,000 years for this even to happen, it did!
d. You could say, that Israel was born a second time. How amazing is that!
D. God will restore Israel
a. The prophets of old also predicted Israel would be a nation once again.
b. In fact, Jeremiah the prophet wrote these words 600 years before Jesus was even born.
c. The bible says in Jeremiah 31:38-40 NKJV 38 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”
d. Here God uses specific geographical markers that the city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt. The tower Hannel is on the northeast corner of the city and the other sites are on the west side of Jerusalem.
e. So we know from history that Israel became a nation in 1948 and then in 1967 Israel regained control of Jerusalem which was a key cog to this prophecy.
E. What is a generation
a. If you like me, you are probably wondering, So when is all this going to happen?
b. Let’s look again at Jesus words in Matthew 24: 34 NKJV - 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
c. So how long is a generation? The clearest verse that may give us some insight is found in Psalm 90:10 NKJV10 The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
d. So one could surmise that a generation is between 70 and 80 years.
e. So let’s do some math here: May of 2023 less May of 1948 would put us right at 75 years.
f. So that puts us very close church. So buckle up!
Closing:
As we wrap up our time here this morning, I know that I covered a lot of territory and it kind a feels that we just scratched the surface. Nonetheless, we are living in some exciting times. I would say Biblical times! So be ready church, while I do not know what is all around the corner , I do know one thing. Jesus is coming back! Hallelujah! He is coming back for His bride. So I have to ask you a question, Are you a part of that bride? Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If not, I want to invite you to pray with me a prayer to do just that. Letting Jesus known that we are His and He is ours! Amen.
