[Gary Petty] We must live in anticipation
of the return of Jesus Christ. It must be a daily anticipation. People thought it was the end of the world.
Tens of thousands believed that Jesus was about to return. Across New England farmers
gave up their land. People actually threw away their money, thousands gathered in churches
and homes. They camped out in meadows anticipating the most dramatic event in history. As night fell the excitement and anxiety was
so intense. Believers sang hymns. They prayed, they talked with each other about what is
it going to be like in heaven. As midnight approached the feeling of expectation, well
you can imagine, it was almost unbearable. Then midnight passed. Confused and stunned
people waited through the early morning until dawn revealed that Jesus hadn’t returned. The date, October 22, 1844. The event is known
as the Great Disappointment and it contains lessons for those today who are waiting for
the return of Jesus Christ. Are you anticipating the return of Jesus Christ?
Are you looking forward to that? How do we not make the same mistakes in anticipating
the future that they made? We can learn much from the Great Disappointment.
Especially from their misunderstanding of biblical prophecy about the events that lead
up to Christ’s second coming. Today we’re going to talk about some prophetic
signs of Christ’s return and how to anticipate those events in your life right now today. Our topic today is “Are We Living in the
Time of the End?” Now to answer that question we have to actually answer another question.
The end of what? Are we living in the time of the end? The end of what? You know today we’re not going to talk about
doomsday. I’m not going to talk about the end of the world. We’ve seen the movies
where the earth is destroyed and people are just eeking out a living in the darkness.
That’s not what we’re going to talk about although we are going to talk about a few
bad events the Bible predicts. But this is a message of hope. This is a message about
the only hope we really really have. And we are going to begin with the words of Jesus
Christ in what is known as the Olivet prophecy. Jesus was with his disciples on the Mount
of Olives and they asked him a very important question. We’re picking this up in Matthew
24. He says, He’s gathered them together and they said to Him tell us, what will be
the sign of Your coming? The end of the age. Now Jesus’ disciples wanted to know about
His coming. Now he was already there. That’s a strange question except that you realize
they knew the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament, the Bible and they knew
that God had predicted that He was going to send His anointed one the Messiah to set up
God’s Kingdom on this earth. So their question is, when is the end of this age? They didn’t
ask when will the world be destroyed? In 1844 those people thought the earth was going to
be destroyed by fire. They thought Jesus was going to come, take them away, and remember
this was tens of thousands of people all across the eastern seaboard and it didn’t happen. They
thought the earth was going to be destroyed. They asked when is the end of this age? What age? You know to answer that question
we have to go clear back to the beginning. We have to go clear back to the beginning
of Genesis. Adam and Eve were created by God and lived in the perfect world. A perfect
relationship with God and a perfect relationship with each other. They had the only time in
history for a short period of time where there was the perfect marriage. That’s what they
experienced. And then Satan was allowed to come into the Garden. Now I said Satan was
allowed. Understand Satan didn’t sneak in. God didn’t somehow turn His back, was looking
at something else and suddenly Satan sneaks in. That’s not what happens. God allows
him to come in because all they’d ever known was good and God was literally going to say
there is another way and you are going to have to choose which way you want. And he
came in and he convinced them of a different way and Adam and Eve were expelled from the
Garden of Eden and they entered a new age. They entered a new time. In the New Testament the Apostle Paul says
that Satan is the “god of this age.” That’s actually a surprise for a lot of people. What
do you mean Satan is the god of this age? There’s God, God rules everything and that’s
true. God is still on His throne. God hasn’t lost control. God still has total power. God
is God. That’s not the issue. The issue is that when Adam and Eve chose Satan’s
way God says okay you can live under his rule for a while and then I’m going to fix it,
and this is the part we are going to talk about today. How God fixes that. You and I were born, you and I were born into
that evil age. It’s where we showed up. This isn’t what God expected. It’s not
what God wanted. In God’s age there’s no war. The way God designed humanity there’s
no hatred. There’s no prejudice, there’s no poverty, there’s no deceit. You and I
are living in that age and when those disciples came to Jesus what they were asking was, when
does this end? When does a better time come? They lived in a bad world where they were
under the rule of the Roman Empire. God has allowed Satan to rule but there is
coming a time when He says it’s enough and that was the plan from the beginning. When
they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden God didn’t say well I really messed this
up. Now I’ve got to think this through. I’ve got to somehow fix this. No, no. Satan’s
going to have it for a while and then I’m taking it back and you all are going to learn
there’s two ways. One way works and one way doesn’t. And that’s why this isn’t
about doomsday. This isn’t about, oh no, the destruction of humanity as the people
in 1844 thought. This is the only hope we have and as we go
through here the Olivet Prophecy what we’re going to see is that Jesus Christ said in
fact that if He doesn’t come back it is going to be the end of humanity. He doesn’t
cause doomsday. He saves us from it. This is the core of the Christian vision of life,
our world view, and our hope. Now all of you received when you came in a
Study Guide. I want you to pick up your Study Guide and turn to page 23. Now at home if
you would like a free copy of this Study Guide all you have to do is call the number on your
screen. Call it right now or you can go to beyondtoday.tv and you can download it, order
your free copy, and you can follow along too. So you have your Study Guide. Now I’m going
to show you on page 23 you see the heading of this section Jesus Christ’s Olivet Prophecy,
Where Are We Now? Now when you go through this part of the Study Guide what you are
going to see is that there are lists of things that Jesus said these things have to happen
before I return. Before I come back. I’m going to go back to Matthew 24 because
here’s where Jesus begins that list. It’s a rather long list and it goes on for many
verses. We’re going to look at just the beginning of the list. Jesus answers the question about the sign
of His coming and the end of the age. He says, “Take heed that no one would deceive you.”
He starts with be careful because people are going to tell you things different than what
I’m telling you. “For many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will
deceive many and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you’re not troubled
for all of these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. For nation will rise
against nation and kingdoms against kingdom and there will be famine and pestilences and
earthquakes in various places. And these are the beginning of sorrows.” And this is actually
the beginning of His list. It actually gets worse. The list He gives is a very important list.
Just think about it. We can go through this list and say well it’s always been like
that. There’s always been religious deception. Well let’s stop a minute because what Jesus
is talking about here isn’t just what’s always happened. When we go through the Olivet
Prophecy, and we’re going to read a verse in a minute that really brings this into focus,
what He says is this is going to be worse than any time in history and the religious
deception here has to do with people understanding Christ. This is going to be false Christianity.
It isn’t Islam, it’s not Hinduism. It is a Christianity that basically does not
recognize and follow the true Jesus Christ. There’s going to be unprecedented wars.
There’s always been wars. You think about the horror of World War 1 and World War 2.
Hundreds of millions of people dead, homeless, lost, sick, injured. What He says, this is
going to be worse than those wars. He talks about famines, there’s always been famines
but this is going to be global in scale. Disease epidemics and of course the great fear today
is things can be passed through air travel so quickly. Something like Ebola and it gets
out of control and becomes airborne could kill tens of millions. Massive earthquakes.
Well you say these things have always happened. I thought this was going to be a message of
hope and it’s just all this gloom and doom and bad things and Jesus said before I come
you’re going to have to see these things happen. You know in 1844 if they really would have
understood the Olivet Prophecy they would have never made the mistake of thinking that
Jesus was going to come back. That was called the Adventist movement. It wasn’t just one
church there were churches or people from all different kind of churches and denominations
thinking Jesus is coming back. But He wasn’t and I can tell you when we look at these things
right now at the level and scale that He’s talking about, it’s not going to happen
tomorrow either. But it could happen quickly. It could happen quickly. Remember Jesus is predicting is a time when
these things happen on a massive scale. Now that’s a little frightening I admit. But
you know being frightened doesn’t keep it from happening. What we have to do is zero
in on what happens afterwards. Back in Matthew 24 if we go on in just a few
more verses because He goes on and the list gets pretty long of things that are going
to happen and then He says this in Matthew 24. He says after these things get worse and
worse and worse and worse. For then there will be great tribulation such as has not
been since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be. So no matter
what we can come up with that’s happened in history, the Bubonic Plague, the great
wars of time that wiped out entire populations. He says that’s not what this is. This is
worse than that. Then He makes this incredibly profound statement. ”And unless those days
should be shortened no flesh should be saved but for the elect’s sake those days will
be shortened.” He predicts a time of such global collapse
that if He doesn’t come back when He does nobody survives. There’s the hope. He doesn’t
bring doomsday, He stops it. He stops it from happening. Remember those once again in 1844. They anticipated so much that Jesus Christ
was coming back. They wanted Him to come back so much. But they missed all this. Now we
have this. We have this. So we have to continue to anticipate the return of Jesus Christ even
though we’re waiting. Now remember the disciples asked when is the
new age. When is the end of this age? Jesus Christ isn’t coming to destroy the
earth or humanity. He’s coming back to save it. The believers in the Great Disappointment
once again thought that He was coming back to absolutely destroy this earth with fire
and that wasn’t the plan at all. It’s not the plan now. When Jesus Christ returns
He comes to bring a new age and this is where we can go to the Old Testament. The Old Testament
is filled with prophecies about the Messiah. That God is going to send His anointed One,
His appointed One, His Messiah, His Christ, the One that we know in the New Testament
as the Son of God Jesus, is coming to establish the new age. It’s amazing when you go through the Old
Testament and you read all those verses what it is predicted to be like. I’m going to
read just one. I’m going to read just one simple passage. This is in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah actually contains many prophecies about this time when the Messiah rules. When Christ
rules on earth. When He comes back and what does He do? In Isaiah 2 it says “Now it
shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be
established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all
nations shall flow to it.” In the imagery of Hebrew poetry a mountain can represent
a kingdom. A little hill is the smaller nations. He will come to the kingdom that is being
ruled on earth by God’s Messiah, by God’s Christ. “And many people shall come and
say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth
the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’” The earth won’t be depopulated as some people
believe. They will come from all over into this new age. This time of great hope for
all humanity. Then the next verse is one that is one of
the most quoted verses from the book of Isaiah. “He shall judge between the nations, And
rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into
pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war
anymore.” In the New Testament the Apostle John gives
us the revelations that was given to him in the book we call Revelation and he tells us
how this is going to last 1000 years. Jesus Christ is coming back and he is going to fulfill
what He told His disciples of His coming of the end of the age to initiate this new age.
This is the hope! This is the hope of Christians. This is our dream. This is to be our focal
point. This is to be our purpose. But how do we not make the same mistake they
did? How do we not make the same mistake where we get so caught up in our dream, that we
get so caught up in that, that in this world we just make up a date and we wait and then
we’re disappointed? Pick up your Study Aids again because on page
44 this section here is something that we’re going to cover a little bit here but I want
all of you to make sure that you go home and read this. Once again for those who are watching the
program if you want your free copy of this Study Aid just call the number on your screen
right now, just give a call right now, or go to beyondtoday.tv and you can download
it and you can order it. We want you to have a copy of this too. But you’ll notice on page 44 the title Preparing
For The End Time. This doesn’t mean go become preppers, you know save up gold and ammunition
and food. By the way none of that’s going to help you in the tribulation. A time so
horrible that only Christ can save us. This is about spiritually preparing for that time
so that we are prepared for the time afterwards. We must live in anticipation of the return
of Jesus Christ. It must be a daily anticipation. There is a beautiful story in the New Testament
about Simeon. It’s one of the bridges between the Old and New Testament. Simeon was a man
who God had revealed to that he was going to be able to see the Messiah. That’s quite
a promise, isn’t it? Now Simeon it says was devout. This was a man of great faith.
This was a man of great obedience to God. This was a man who lived every day of his
life in service to God and the reason why we know from the story is because I am waiting
for the Messiah. I’m waiting for Him. Now he lived his everyday life, he had friends,
he had family. In other words he didn’t become a hermit. He lived a very fruitful
happy life. But what was his anticipation? That there is something greater than me that
I’m part of and the story is just fascinating because there is this point where he walks
into the temple and there is Mary and Joseph walking into the temple bringing Jesus in
as a baby and he runs up and takes Jesus out of their hands and says this is it, this is
it! He tells everybody this is the Messiah, all my life I’ve waited. Then he says, I
can die in peace now. Because I know what God’s going to do now. I know how everything
works out. I know the story because I’ve anticipated this moment. That is how he lived
his life. That’s how we are to live our lives. We’re anticipating a moment where
God says I have an appointment with you. We have an appointment with Jesus Christ. When
He returns we are to be there for Him. He told His disciples about that. You’ll
read about this in your Study Aid. It’s in Mark. Jesus says, He tells this to His
disciples. This message is just as important to us because we are His disciples being prepared
for Him just like Simeon was and anticipating that moment when we are prepared for Him. We know about Jesus first coming to die for
our sins and without that really this doesn’t mean anything. But God says I want you to
be prepared for His second coming, for Him. To serve Him. Jesus said, “But of that day and hour,”
He’s talking about His return, “no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor
the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time
is.” People in 1844 didn’t read this. “It is like a man going to a far country,
who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded
the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the
house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest,
coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.” Of course we know here that He is talking
about Himself. I’m leaving, I’m coming back and you have to do the work I’ve given
you to do and the work He has given all of us is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, be
prepared and when He returns to serve Him. That’s what this life is all about and you
have to anticipate that, you have to want it. You have to want it with the same intensity
that Simeon wanted it. That’s how he lived every day. Jesus finishes with, “And what
I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” Watch. Christians who are anticipating Christ’s
return will live in daily preparation for His return. They will be living by His standards,
His values, His teachings, His laws, the laws of the age to come. And what this means is,
and let’s face it, Christians who are anticipating Christ’s return will be out of step with
the values and standards of the present age and there’s where we have to understand
we will never fit in. You can never fit it. If you fit in you won’t be part of the new
age. In fact listen to this very carefully. When we find ourselves in comfortable compliance
with society then there is something wrong with our Christianity. I’m going to repeat
that. When we find ourselves in comfortable compliance with society, we just fit in, there’s
something wrong with our Christianity. I’m not saying that we don’t enjoy life. We
do. I’m not saying that somehow we have to be unhappy. That’s not what I’m talking
about. But when our values and standards are just like everybody else around us? This is
what? The evil age. You and I live in the dark ages. So if we are just like the dark
ages we won’t understand the age of light when it comes. Today’s message is very simple. The age
we live in is evil, transitory and it will end. Understand that. It’s evil, it’s
transitory and it will end. Jesus Christ is returning to establish a new
age. He’s coming back though and He has people who are to anticipate that and live
for it. Christians must resist fitting into this present age by anticipating Christ’s
coming because we want to be part of it. It’s who we are because that’s who God
says we are. This all comes down to who are we? Who are you? Are we who we are, we think
we are, a self made people or do we become who God says we are. The children of God. If nothing else I hope you will get on your
knees after this program and ask God to fill your life with the anticipation of Jesus Christ.
Not just the knowledge but the anticipation. The motivation, the reality of it. So that
you live it. I also hope that you will get your free copy
of our Study Aid and I truly hope that you get out your Bible and discover God’s vision
of Christ’s reign on this earth. [Narrator] Please call for the free literature
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