Transcript
A (0:00)
Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back soon. I can feel it in my bones. The day is coming close to the world and they gotta know Jesus is coming back soon. He's coming back soon.
B (0:23)
Come on. He's coming back soon. If you got a Bible, go to Matthew 24. Jesus is coming back soon. How many y' all can feel it? You know, I like, as a kid, I always anticipated Jesus coming back, maybe because I was a pastor's kid and my dad preached on end times. Like, every six months, he'd preach on end times. And how many all grew up in church hearing about the end times and the Rapture and all of it? How many all grew up with, like, watching the movies left behind, reading the books? Okay, so my dad, he wasn't really a movie guy, but he loved end times movies. And so for our family movie nights, oftentimes if it was his choice, he was gonna pick, like, Mark of the Beast, the Omega Code, Left Behind, Revelation, Tribulation. There was a whole genre of end times movies in the 90s. How many all Ever watched some of those movies from the 90s, 80s, early 2000s? And I'm talking, like, the old left behind movies. I'm not talking about Nicolas Cage Left behind or Kirk Cameron. I'm talking about, like, back in the 90s, there were some movies and y', all, it would stir up all kinds of emotions. And so today I want to just, first off, say as we go into this series, you do not have to be afraid. You do not. You do not have to live in anxiety or panic. God has not given us a spirit of fear. So if you are feeling afraid today, we're going to address it, we're going to deal with it. But I also want to just prepare our hearts. Today is an introduction to this series. We're going to continue for the next five to six weeks on several different topics. Jesus had a lot to say about the end times. And then not only does he say a lot in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but then he gives us an entire book about the end times. In the book of Revelation and then even in the Old Testament, you have prophets like Daniel, who spoke about end times and literally described things we're seeing in the last, even in the last week, things that we're seeing. And so today is just the beginning of it. I want to title the message, how does it end? How does this end? If you're taking notes, note takers are history makers, world changers, culture shapers. How does this end? And when I was younger, that Was the question I asked every time I was watching a movie is, how does this end? If I was reading a book, I was tempted to skip to the last chapter to find out, how is this story going to end? Is my favorite character going to get killed off? Right. Is something bad going to happen to the people that I love in this movie, in this story? I got very invested in the movies and the stories I watched. And I was always asking that question, how does this end? And, you know, the disciples asked that same question in Matthew 24, verse 1. As Jesus is walking away from the temple and he's going on his way, his disciples come up to him and they call his attention to the magnificent and massive buildings of the Temple. Now, your translation may say something different than this. This is the amplified version. But the disciples, they were impressed with what Herod had built in his lifetime and what the Romans had built and what the Jewish people had built. And there was all kinds of magnificent architecture. The temple complex was incredible. And the disciples thought Jesus would be impressed, too. But watch what Jesus says in the next verse. He says in verse two, do you see all of these buildings? Do you see all of this architecture? Do you see all these magnificent things that man has built? I assure you and most solemnly say to you, not one stone here will be left on another which will not be torn down. What was Jesus saying? He was prophesying, this is all going to be destroyed. Everything made by man is going to eventually come to nothing. In fact, this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. like, literally 35 years after Jesus prophesied this. He prophesied it 33. So 37 years later, this all happens. A Roman governor named Titus comes into Jerusalem, takes over, literally. A man named Josephus writes about this, and he says almost a million Jews were killed during this time. The temple was destroyed. Everything came, like, burned to the ground. And the disciples knew this was coming. Jesus said, this is going to happen. It's eventually everything you're impressed by here in Jerusalem. And Jesus would leave that temple and never come back to it again. Again. Jesus left that temple that day, and that was. This was Holy Week. So he's in Jerusalem. He just finished preaching a great sermon about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, the Pharisees. And he had. If you read Matthew 23, he calls out these religious leaders, he says, listen, they burden you with so many rules that they themselves don't even fully follow. And Jesus said, woe to these scribes and Pharisees. Woe to people who put Their trust in man made rules and laws. Jesus wasn't trying to abolish the law. He came to fulfill the law. He came to fulfill what the prophets had said. And he said, this temple, everything you're impressed with these buildings, it's about to be destroyed. It's about to come to nothing. Don't put your trust in what man has built. Put your trust in what God has said. And so then the disciples asked this question. Go to the next verse, verse three, they said. While Jesus is seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples come to him privately. They said, timothy, tell us when. Everybody say when. So they're asking these questions, when will the end times be? When is the destruction of the temple? And not only when, but what. In other words, what are we supposed to expect? What are the signs of the end times? What and how will this all. What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to you? What's going to happen to the church? What's going to happen? When is this Antichrist coming? How's it all going to play out? And Jesus answers this question. The longest response to any question in the Bible that Jesus answers is right here for the next two chapters. He talks about end times. He gives several different teachings that we're going to outline during this series. And it's not all about the Antichrist or the seven years of tribulation, or the mark of the beast, or 666 on the forehead. It's not all about that. A lot of it has to do with nothing. How are the end times going to play out? But how are you going to live your life in light of the end times? See, we're so focused on the when and the where and the what and how it's all going to happen and what this one world order is going to look like. And we see, you know, everything in the world going on. The wars and the rumors of wars. And even in the last three days, a ceasefire, an ending of the war between Israel and Hamas. Can we thank God that there is coming an end to the war? Hostages are going to be released this week. We're praying in Jesus name. No more innocent lives would be killed in Israel. And I'm praying for revival in Israel, that Jewish and Arab people would come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that our brothers and sisters across the world would put their faith in Jesus Christ. This is an hour that God is waking up the church. And as we're seeing all of this play out, even in the last week, someone sent me A video of, like, just the rise of AI and the rise of cryptocurrency and the rise of like, no one's using cash dollars that much anymore. People are all. And this preparation for the world to all use one currency and for the world to prepare for this, it's all preparing for what Jesus predicted 2,000 years ago. Every prophecy in the Bible literally is going to be fulfilled. Not one word from God will fall to the ground. You know, there's 2,500 prophecies in the Bible and 2,000 of them have already been fulfilled. We got 500 left to go. And they are going to be fulfilled rapidly as we begin to see things unfold. And you go, well, I just don't know if it's going to happen in our lifetime. Paul, like the early church thought it was going to happen in their lifetime. I would rather live with the anticipation Jesus is coming back, then live as if he's not coming back. Well, you know, I don't know if we want to live with that anticipation. Living with that anticipation leads to a more fruitful life. See, I'm looking at a clock on this TV screen and it's counting down. And no matter what I do, no matter what I say, that clock keeps counting down. And as I'm watching that clock count down, it causes me to focus in, lock in. I can't waste a second on this stage because I have a timer. And the more I am focused on the timer and all of us will face death. News flash, all of us one day will end. We are not immortal. Our bodies will go into the grave. You will die. You're like, man, thanks. I came to church to hear that I'm gonna die. Yep. But you know what? That also should stir us to live a more fruitful life, a more focused life. And when I'm not living, like Jesus might come back in my lifetime, I start living lazy. I start living lukewarm. I start living complacent. I start not caring about my actions and my words and my thoughts because I'm like, well, it's not happening. But when I lean into this thought, Jesus is coming back soon. It changes the way I live. How you approach end times really has a huge effect on how you live your life. That's a good thing to write down. How you approach end times has a lot to do with how you're going to live the rest of your life. And I think there's three approaches to the end times. I think there's three different approaches to Bible prophecy, eschatology which, the word eschatology just means the study of end times in the Bible. Eschatology, Bible prophecy, all of these things we're going to be talking about. There's three different approaches going into this, and I think the first approach is fear. I'm gonna give you three approaches that I personally have lived out and walked through. This one crippled me. Fear paralyzes you. Fear can own you, control you. And fear can stir up a lot of selfishness. Fear can start to stir up a lot of. Like I told you guys, I used to watch those movies like Left Behind, Mark of the Beast, Omega Code. And it stirred up a lot of fear to the point where I'd be outside and if there was thunder in the clouds, I'd fall to my knees and go, oh, God, please don't do the Rapture yet. And I thought I could stop it, but I'd be mowing the lawn, there would be like sounds of thunder. And I thought Jesus was coming back. I was paranoid. And it wasn't that my parents were trying to stir up fear. They weren't. They wanted me to be ready. And so we were watching a lot of Revelation movies and Left behind movies and the End Times movies, and it stirred up this feeling. I remember one time coming home and I saw clothes on the floor. And I go, it happened. Mom went on the Rapture. Dad went on the Rapture. I was really surprised. My brother John went on the Rapture. I'm just kidding. I love you, John. I was like, surely I'm gonna go before John. No, I'm kidding. He's more holy than me. Okay. But back then, back then, I was like, see, fear can stir up even self righteousness. You're like, I'm better than these guys. I'm gonna make it. They're not like, one's gonna be walking, one will be left behind, one will be here. I remember walking through the house and I fell to my knees. I started strategizing what I was gonna do in the last days. Cause I was like, I got seven years during the Antichrist, and. And we'll get into this in a few weeks. You're like, what's he talking about? Seven years? All right? But I start strategizing. And then all of a sudden, my mom walks around the hallway. She's like, what are you doing on the floor? I was like, you're here. She's like, where'd you think I went? I was like, is dad here? She was like, yeah. And I said, is Sarah, Ruthie and John here? She was like, yes. So I said the Rapture didn't happen. She was like, no. I was like, praise God. I thought I missed it. Fear can lead to a constant paranoia of. Of missing it. And fear also leads to this sense of I have to get saved every week, that my salvation is, like, constantly leaving every week I have to get saved again. I remember on December 31, 1999, our youth group went to. We were on a field trip right before Y2K. How many all remember Y2K? Anyone that was born before, like, you know what I'm talking about. Y2K. It means year 2000. But Y2K was a big deal. And my dad was doing an end time series leading up to Y2K, and he didn't say, listen. The Bible says in Matthew 24, verse 36, no one knows the day or the hour, although we've had so many predictions about the day. Two weeks ago, people said Jesus was coming back. I didn't even know this trend. How many all heard the trend, that two weeks ago he was coming back. And, you know, like, people were like, man, it's going to happen on that specific day in September. And here we are. It didn't happen. No one knows the day or the hour. Jesus said, no one knows the day or the hour. Not even the angels in heaven. Not even Jesus himself. Only the Father knows. If anyone ever tries to put a date on you saying it's happened on this date, just remind them. Matthew 24, verse 36. No one knows. All right? But I remember Y2K was coming. Everybody thought it was gonna happen on January 1st, year 2000. And my dad was telling us, you know, he was like, look, computers are going to crash. Internet's going to shut down. Airplanes might fall out of the sky. And I was like, oh, my goodness. I remember just being so afraid. And I also was praying that before the Rapture, I would get to be married and have children. And I was like, that's not going to happen because I was 14. So I thought, at least let me have a girlfriend. At least let me hold hands with a girl. Y', all, can we just laugh for a second? The end times fear stirred up a lot of ridiculous, like, wishes and desires for kids and teenagers, I think maybe even adults. I don't know. I wasn't an adult back then, but I was a teenager. And that night our youth group went to go see the Prince of Egypt at the AMC movie theaters, 41st and Yale. We drive up there, we're on a bus, big bus. Our youth Group gets out. I see Ashley McAuliffe back then. And I was like, I'm gonna sit by Ashley. And tonight, before the Rapture, I am holding her hand, y'.