The Coming Of The End

INTRO.- ILL.- A girl said, “My mother and I returned to my parents’ house late one evening to find my father, my college-age brother, Steven, and my ten-year-old sister fast asleep.

“Mom had forgotten her house keys, so we knocked loudly, first at the back door and then the front and side doors. We yelled my father’s name over and over, with no answer. The car horn aroused the neighbors but no one at our house. We drove into town and phoned home, finally waking Steven.

“When we got back, he let us in. Dad was in bed, snoring, with the television on. Mom quietly switched it off. Dad woke right up. "’Don’t turn that off,’ he said. ‘I’m watching it!’"

Several applications could be made but here’s mine. Dad’s asleep while the worlds show rushes on. And dad may be asleep in regard to everything else that’s going on, including the Lord.

What about us? Are we asleep?

Rom. 13:11-12 “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

Paul was saying that the grand finale of salvation is almost here. The time is closer than it’s ever been. We need to wake up.

ILL- In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin’s boss is catching him sitting at his desk staring out the window. “Why aren’t you working Calvin?” Without much thought Calvin confessed to his boss, “Because I didn’t see you coming.”

In many ways we are asleep and we don’t see what’s coming. Consequently, we are not working. We are not working for the Lord. We are only busily involved with life’s pursuits.

Matt. 24:3 “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

The end. Those words don’t sound good unless it’s “the end” to a bad movie or the end to something bad that has happened to us in life. Then there is the end of the world when the Lord is going to put His foot down, so to speak, and call everything to a halt.

ILL.- Some time ago a man was staying in a cottage in the Swiss Alps. Early one morning he heard what sounded like an earthquake. Hurriedly he got out of bed and ran to the front desk and asked if there was something wrong, if the mountains were breaking up? He was scared. The man at the front desk explained, “Sir, we are on the west side of the mountain. As the sun comes up in the east, and the snow and ice expand as they begin to warm. The expansion causes a large crashing noise. It’s not the end of the world, it’s just the beginning of a new day.”

What some consider to be the end of the world may only be the start of something better for us who are in Christ.

PROP.- What’s going to happen before the end? Jesus talks about several things that we need to be aware of.

1- There will be worldwide chaos

2- There will be hatred of people

3- There will be false leaders

4- There will be much wickedness

5- There will be much preaching

1- THERE WILL BE WORLD-WIDE CHAOS

Matt. 24:6-8 “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

There will be worldwide chaos in the form of wars, famines, earthquakes, etc. before the end of the world. And, of course, they’ve been happening for a long time but some seem to be increasing.

ILL.- A doctor, an architect, and a lawyer were arguing over who had the oldest profession. The doctor said, "Well the first operation was performed on Adam, so the medical profession is the oldest." "No," said the architect, "Architectural planning and design was needed to create the earth and the universe out of chaos, so I represent the oldest profession."

"Where do you think the chaos came from?" asked the lawyer.

Brothers and sisters, even though many people like to blame lawyers for many chaotic problems in our society, it’s just not true. Wars are started by people, not particularly by lawyers.

James 4:1-2 “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”