He is Coming, Are You Ready? | Living in the Last Days - #6 | Pastor John Lindell

[Music] today we come to the last in our mini-series on living in the last days where as we've been studying Mark's Gospel we've come to chapter 13 where Jesus talks about the end times and we've been making our way taking a little bit of time with this passage of Scripture so that we can understand what the Bible clearly teaches about the end times if you've been with us and you know that when you come to mark chapter 13 it is the final week of Jesus earthly ministry fact we know the day of the week it is Wednesday afternoon early evening when mark 13 takes place Jesus has been teaching in the temple courts as they leave the temple area the disciples are remarking on the beautiful buildings in fact in Matthew's Gospel the parallel passage Matthew 24 we read this he left the temple he was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings do you see all these things he asked I tell you the truth not one stone here will be left on another everyone will be thrown down and as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives so they leave the temple area they cross they go outside the walled portion of Jerusalem go across a small valley to the Mount of Olives they the temples over here Mount of Olives is here there's a valley in between the Sun is setting in the West the disciples cannot believe what they've just heard about the temple being destroyed so they come to Jesus and they're asking essentially three questions tell us when will this happen when's the temple going to be destroyed number two what will be the sign of your coming which again is very very interesting that he came the first time they understand he's coming a second time if you were not coming a second time if they misunderstood that he could have said wait wait wait wait now came once and that's all that's happening but scriptures clear he's coming again the disciples understood even though Jesus was with him he was coming again and so they asked him when are you coming again what's the sign of your appearing and what will be the sign of the end of the age three questions people ask at times when is Jesus going to return how close are we are to the coming of the Lord what signs are left to be fulfilled and people asked you know will will there be a temple in Jerusalem or will it be this or will it be that I would suggest to you there is simply one sign that remains to be fulfilled so sign Jesus spoke about in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 14 and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony and then the end will come in other words once the gospel has gone out to the farthest reaches of the globe once every people group has had the opportunity to hear the gospel once that's been accomplished the end will come so if you can discern when that happens you'll know when the end is going to come and who of us could do that we do know this that with telecommunication with the internet with the fine missions organizations that are carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth that that day is soon so we are living in the last days following that moment there will be the rapture of the church the catching away of the church and then the seven-year period of tribulation will occur we've talked about that we've talked about the Antichrist we've talked about last week Jesus second coming and I want to give you just a couple of observations Before we jump into the tax first of all we don't know the day of is coming but we can be clear about the events of this coming a very popular thing today is for preachers to get up and act like it doesn't matter to get up and it's kind of the hip it's kind of the cool thing to say you know I you know pan-pan tribulation pre-tribulation post tribulation mid-tribulation I believe in app and tribulation all pan out or I don't think oh I don't think the Bible we can we can say that's simply not true they're not everything is clear but that doesn't mean not anything is clear and scripture gives us some repeated insights that we find in not just one book or one passage of the Bible but repeatedly that tell us some of the major aspects of the tribulation the coming of the Lord in fact what else could it mean I mean when you read Revelation chapter 1 in verse 3 I mean at the start of the revelation of Jesus Christ John Wright says blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it how could you take to heart what's written in it if you didn't understand it it'd be impossible it'd be ridiculous in other words you take it to heart because you can't understand it because there are some things that we do know take to heart what is written because the time is near the second observation would simply be this we don't know the day of is coming but we can be certain about the event of his coming and this is absolutely critical that every single believer understands according to scripture not John lindell's interpretation according to scripture he's coming again jesus said this in mark chapter 13 and verse 31 heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away and he saying that in the context of his second coming he said he is coming and he will come he said in revelation 22 behold I come quickly and he is coming quickly with that then as a backdrop let's begin reading in Mark's Gospel chapter 13 and verse 28 from the fig tree learn its lesson as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves you know the summers near so also when you see these things taking place you know that he is near at the very gates truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away but concerning the day or that hour no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father be on guard keep awake for you do not know when the time will come it is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake therefore stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning lest he come suddenly and find you asleep and what I say to you I say to all stay awake as a preacher I say stay awake well he's told us about his coming the issue now is readiness force coming are you ready for the coming of the Lord that's the theme of this message and of this passage of Scripture he begins with a very simple analogy a very simple illustration look at it in verse 28 from the fig tree learning its lesson now people have tried two different prophecy teachers have tried to say well you know the fig tree is the nation of Israel and when the when when the fig tree gets its leaves and it's talking about the rebirth of the nation of Israel which happened in 1948 and so a Bible generation some say it's 40 years and some say it's it's 70 years in some say it's a hundred years and I just want to say there's nothing in this passage or any other passage that would lead to that kind of interpretation that is a stretching of the text we're not talking about the nation of Israel Jesus is simply giving us a very simple illustration he's saying from the fig tree learn a lesson what's the lesson as soon as its branches become tender and puts out its leaves you know that summer is near in other words the illustrations simple when you see the trees start to leaf out you know that Springs here and you know summer is just around the corner and in that land when the fig tree puts its leaves out at the end of May first part of June you're talking maybe 20 days till summer's here so he's saying that when you see the signs that he is mentioned coming then you know that the coming of the Lord is very very close that's simply all that he is saying with that look at it in verse 29 so also when you see these things taking place you know that he is near at the very gates truly I say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place what's he talking about what generation I would suggest he was talking about the gen raishin it sees the signs that we've just talked about in mark 13 in the preceding verses the generation that sees those signs especially the generation that sees Antichrist the generation that sees the abomination that causes desolation the people living there they can be encouraged he's coming soon now that being said I think it applies as well to us because what he does is he's applying that to his second coming but then you watch in the following verses what he does is he's talking now to his disciples so we can't just take what's left in the remaining verses and say all that that all applies to people that are alive during the tribulation know what he does is he he wraps up his discourse on the tribulation and is coming and he says listen when you see all those events and you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it not ought not to be and you see signs in the heavens and you see all of this then know this his coming is soon that having been said though he goes on and he talks to the disciples about their own readiness he says in verse 31 heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away now I'm variably when you when you talk about the end times there are some who for any number of reasons say you know I'm just I just don't know because I know when I was little they were talking about it and and everybody thought you know the end Jesus was coming back and and it had happened in my lifetime and people have a tendency to I remember my grandparents and I remember my parents and maybe you've been through that where you've lived in a certain time I remember when I've told this to you before bad remember when my my family started getting saves in the 70s so my sisters get saved my mom gets saved and that's during the time of the late great planet Earth how Lindsay's book and and I mean there's a real sense that we're right on the cusp of the end times and they're talking about in the 80s how the planets are gonna align in 1987 and there's just a lot of a lot of in the late 70s a real expectation and there were in the mid 70s those movies the thief in the night and and different movies that that really created within many segments of evangelical church this expectation and anticipation heightened I would say of the coming of the Lord and that he was coming soon and some my sisters had come home and they tell me about church and tell me about it's coming in and they would say you know man if you're not ready you're gonna be left behind and you know I'd be like yeah you know maybe but see cuz you know you maybe have talked to people they're like yeah maybe I don't know whether that's all true but you don't know what's going on in their heart because see what would happen is Sunday night I'd be home my dad my brother and I my dad he'd go to bed my brother and I were up my brother be out doing something whatever and I'd be sitting there and I'd be thinking man it's really late and so then you start thinking well maybe the lord has come and I've missed this whole thing sided way of I had a way of determining if the Lord had come or not I just called the church Sode dialed the number called the church the head usher at the church some man by the name of Merv I knew if Merv answered the phone if he hadn't gone ain't nobody going soon as I heard Merv I hung up I was like I'm good there's some people that act like they don't care but in the back of their mind they're they're thinking right but there's always been scoffers always been people who have doubted second Peter chapter three and I want to take just a moment and walk through this passage just briefly because I think it says much to our day our situation and everybody in this room concerning what people will say and how we should consider what they say first of all Peter writes you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires in other words people will ridicule them we're gonna see it in the next verse they're gonna ridicule this whole idea of the coming of the Lord and they're gonna make fun why because of their own evil desires look at it in the verse they'll come scoffing because of their own evil desires it's interesting ideas their own lustful desires their own sexual desires one of the things about a society that is given over to sensuality is that what what what that brings in the society's life and dialog is an increased doubt skepticism and animosity towards the idea of the coming of Christ we live in a very sensual society and when you have that you are going to have a lot of things but one of the things you're gonna have is the enemy is going to use the blindness that is the result of sensuality to cause people to doubt the coming of the Lord and verse 4 then Peter writes this they will say where is this coming he promised maybe you've heard somebody say that maybe you talked to somebody about our study and about the messages and and God has made it very real to you but now they're throwing cold water on the idea of Jesus coming back and they're saying oh yeah where is this coming you promised ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation come on people have always been saying that that idea of Jesus coming back that's as old as the hills and what they're appealing to is the argument of uniformity that is simply to say it hasn't happened so it won't happen it's never happened they can't believe in judgment because they've never seen judgment they think there's never been a judgment which is certainly very short-sighted on the person on the part of anybody who holds to that there have been cataclysms and there have been judgments and there have been there have been things that have happened on the earth that science will continue to discover but even now science is aware of for example verse 5 but they deliberately overlook this fact what they're saying is there can't be a second coming all these ideas of this Cataclysm of these events of the tribulation I don't buy all that that could never happen and what they're saying is I can't believe in cataclysmic events because cataclysmic events have never happened that's not true the Bible's clear that they have look at it in verse 5 but they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago what's what's he talking about here this is the first cataclysmic event in the history of the world the creation account day - the atmosphere is formed day 3 the earth is formed and the oceans are formed I mean in one 24-hour period boom it's formed day four you have the orbit the planets the Cataclysm of creating our solar system creating the galaxies creating all of that I mean in 72 hours Daria's cataclysm that is unbelievable now I realize as I as I tell you that I believe in a literal six-day creation there's some of your left remember how naive how uneducated listen I'm just going to tell you you've got to think this through before you jettison a creation account you've got to think of the ramifications of this time accomplishes nothing I mean you don't have to have time for God to act miraculously and if you say the creation account is not true then where you at on the flood account you said well I'm not sure that's true either then do you what I mean where do you land on the Tower of Babel you said I'm not sure that's true so so you basically pick it up in Genesis chapter 12 and you say well you know I think I can sign on at that point here's the problem with that thinking what you've done is you've turned the whole doctrine of soteriology salvation on its head because if you have evolution you have to ask yourself where did death come from and the Bible's clear that through one man's disobedience sin entered the world and through sin death occurred therefore death came to all men before there was sin there was no death so instantly you've got a problem because the whole New Testament is based on the idea of sin entering the world through one man that the sinfulness of men is is is sin entered the world through one man therefore all sinned and take it a step further the analogy is through one man sin entered the world so also through one man righteousness so if you say I'm not sure I believe in Adam I'm not sure I believe I believe in evolution I believe in theistic evolution that it all took a long long and that God needed all kinds of eons to make it happen you totally deny Romans five and the whole your whole doctrine of salvation completely falls apart you have to think this through a little bit that the idea of the you say so you believe it I believe it I believe in I believe in six literal days you say but what about all the age well hey listen we understand the Bible's clear that things were created with that with age you say how did you get that Adam Adam was created as a man he wasn't created as an embryo he wasn't created as an amoeba that transformed he wasn't created as a baby he was created as a man he was created with age so if Adam is created with age then why is it so hard to believe that God created create creation with age and you can go on and on and on people say well the light that light traveling and how about when he created the light he created the light in between the the source of light and the place where light arrives he creates it with the appearance of age you know at some point you either say I believe it or I don't at some point you may be in or you're out but once you start tearing the first few pages out of Genesis just keep going where do you stop because if you can't sign on before chapter 12 then really can you sign on anything in Romans if you can't sign on Romans you've taken the Gospel according to Paul and you've thrown it in a I mean the whole thing your whole faith falls apart and honestly I realize that there'll be people who'll say well mr. uneducated pulpit mr. mr. basic simpleton I get what people say but I'm just telling you I believe the Bible to be true and I'm not troubled by the fact that my God is big enough to do a six-day literal creation he set up the world on that whole deal and here again let me just say this and I didn't mean to get into all this but you can tell it's just like come on people say well you know the word job in the Hebrew a day it can it can mean a lot of different things primarily in Scripture yon refers to a day as we understand a day but in the event that you want to give young the Hebrew word for day a bigger meaning or a broader meaning than that scripture is very very clear and very very narrow in its interpretation of a day I mean here's what you have God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness he called night now listen to this and there was evening and there was morning.the first day in other words what he's saying is what kind of day was it was it an age was it an epic epic was it an era it was a day as you and I understand a day this for what it's worth now and if you believe differently I'm not going to argue with people over it but I do think your whole doctrine of salvation would have to be very very suspect and how you would ever find or prove the salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ through one man when you've eradicated the first half of the first part of Genesis I question how you can even wind up with a saving faith in Jesus Christ theologically I'm not doubting your salvation I'm just saying I don't know how your soteriology is able to hold together given the rest of the Bible okay and just feel so good and I say this again because I really want you I really want you I want you to hang on to your faith you know there's some things God tells us enough to know to trust him but it doesn't answer everything and he is a God who who is capable of out of nothing creating everything that is and if he can do that then he can create the world the universe and everything that we see but they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God that's talking about the creation then he goes on and he mentions the flood in verse 6 look at it and by these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed and the flood again is something that is referenced not figuratively but is referenced by Jesus and is referenced by Peter and is referenced by Jude it is a part of New Testament theology it is referenced as an actual event to cataclysms when the flood happened all kinds of scientific speculation about how that happened the fact is it did happened and much of the fossil record is simply dependent upon a massive worldwide flood so for those who say well but all of this and all of that sediment here and there and everywhere if you add a cataclysm like the flood it would reconfigure the globe and you would have evidence of that and you can see that when you travel and you look at the different strata laid down by a flood the earth was radically devastated radically changed and so Peter is simply saying listen you don't you if you don't believe in Cataclysm you're forgetting the two that start the book of Genesis the creation of the world itself and the flood now bursae people say why doesn't God come I mean what's the deal he said he's coming he said he's coming soon but he hasn't come yet so I don't get it could you please explain that to me Peter says I'm glad to do not forget this one thing dear friends with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day two thousand years seem like a long time to us but when you are an ever-present ever existing eternal God who lives outside of time time only applies to created beings it has no referent being to God outside of his relationship to us but God exists outside of time that's why he can see the end in the beginning because he's there simultaneously because he exists outside of it time the continuum of time he could see just like the beginning and the end he could see it all at once he could be at any part of it because he exists outside of time so 2,000 years is nothing to him back bringing back up verse 8 it says this a thousand years is like a day so when Jesus says I'm coming soon hey I'll be there in a couple days that's fast that's quick that's not much time certainly in the scope of eternity it is absolutely nothing verse 9 the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness he's not late he goes on to write this he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance why hasn't he come because he wants people to be saved because he don't want anybody to perish back when the book little booklet was written maybe eight reasons why the rapture will take place in 1988 when it didn't happen bob hoskins with life publishers wrote a little booklet entitled unfinished 2.7 billion reasons why the rapture didn't take place in 1988 I mean if he hasn't come today it's because he's waiting for people to come to know him he hasn't come today it's because in his heart as a just God he knows judgment must come and yet in his heart as a loving God he wants no one to be there and so he continually reaches out to people with kindness that they might turn and be saved that explains the entire delay but he is never late he is always on time and continually loving and reaching out to people he's reaching out some here today who are listening to this message in this room who are listening at the North Campus who are listening at the West Campus who are watching online he's reaching out to you he's waited to come because he loves you because he wants you to know him but he is going to come numbers 32 by concerning that day or that hour no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father now watch as he's he's switching gears here he's gone from talking about the generation that sees the the Cataclysm of the tribulation they're going to see the return of Christ but remember there's the rapture that's going to happen remember that his coming is going to be swift it's going to be soon and so now he's giving the apostles some very important instruction that you find repeated in in Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel Paul references it in first Thessalonians and in second Thessalonians he says be on your guard keep awake for you he's talking to the disciples now and he's talking to us for you do not know where that time will come I want you to notice he says be on guard keep awake he says be on guard once he says keep awake or stay awake four times in other words wake up stay awake keep watching be alert now when are we most apt to fall asleep you say during the nine o'clock message after daylight savings time wrong turn to the person next and say wake out stay awake no night and that's the context here look at in verse 35 I want you to notice this therefore stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows you say when's that that's usually around 3:30 4 o'clock or in the morning when the Sun rises all the times that people might fall asleep he's saying stay awake listen I I think there's a couple of ways to understand this that on the one hand there are times in life when life gets dark when you go through some of you going through a depression life's dark Jesus is saying stay awake keep believing keep watching keep hoping keep anticipating some of you going through a trial of darkness that involves physical sickness or maybe financial difficulty or whatever it is or the loss of of a person who you love dearly and it seems very dark and and you're saying why doesn't he come and where is his coming and is this really true remember John the Baptist when he's in prison it's a dark time in his life and he sent some of his disciples to Jesus and and he says this are you the one who is to come and John had already said behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world but now a dark time has happened in his life he's in prison and he's wondering if Jesus really is the Messiah if he really is who John thought he was it's a dark time darkness can have that tendency to cause people to become discouraged Jesus says don't give up stay awake be on guard verse 34 it is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake so Jesus is the one who laughed and he's put us in places the apostles they're the foundation of the church and he commands the doorkeeper to stay awake therefore stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at the midnight or or when the rooster crows or in the morning stay awake lest he come suddenly and find you asleep what I say to you I say to all stay awake what does that mean stay awake well I think part of it could be don't get in a situation where you allow the discouragement of your present to cause you to doubt the reality of his coming but I think beyond that it can also it can also certainly in Scripture darkness is most often associated with evil with sin don't get involved in sin don't find yourself in a situation where you're giving in to sin because it's in the dark it's in darkness men love darkness because their deeds are evil they do evil deeds in the dark at night this is the idea that Paul has in first Thessalonians chapter 5 having talked about the rapture this is what he follows that talk of the rapture about he says for you're all children of the light children of the day we are not of the night or of the darkness so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober in other words let us have a spiritual awareness regarding the day and the time in which we live and the working of the Lord and let us make sure that we have a love for the Lord don't fall asleep spiritually is the idea don't just spiritually snooze your way through life for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night in other words these when he's talking about sleep there there's a metaphor there yes you sleep at night but what he's also saying is that when people are spiritually snoozing they're going to find themselves engaging in sinful activity if you find yourself in a place where there is sinful activity that has that has a place in your life on a regular basis it's because you're spiritually asleep wake up that's what he's saying she says but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation in other words we're in our heart were covering our heart with the faith that he's coming back and we're living out of a love deep from within our heart and we have the for a helmet the hope of our salvation in other words we're covering our thoughts with the thought that he's coming soon that he died for me he saved me that he just didn't save me from hell he saved me for heaven that he has a purpose and then I would say this certainly being awake not only has to do with not giving you into discouragement and not getting caught up in sin but it has to do with an attitude of the Chu and I are ready for the coming of the Lord the Chu ready for the rapture of the church that you're living life ready it's interesting in Matthew's Gospel Jesus follows up this discourse with the parable of 10 bridesmaids the picture is Matthew chapter 25 the picture is one of of a groom who's coming and the bridesmaids are are waiting for the groom and in that day it's a picture of a Jewish wedding and the groom is coming and the bridesmaids are waiting in and and to welcome him in and the celebration is going to begin but it's night and and as they're waiting their lamps five of them have oil for their lamps five of them don't so the five that have oil they're by the door they're ready they're waiting they know the groom is coming at any time even though it's the middle of the night but the five we don't have enough oil they run away to try to find oil they asked if I have it to give it and they said well we don't have enough we can't in other words I can't give my spiritual life to you and you can't give yours to anybody else you can't get your spiritual life from somebody else you can only get it from Christ so what happens is they leave while they're gone they're not ready the groom comes they go into the house with the five and the five who ran to get oil they come back and they're like now we're ready now we're ready and here's the way Jesus closes the parable out Matthew 25 but he answered truly I say to you this is the groom speaking to the bridesmaids outside the door I do not know you I don't know you watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour you know those bridesmaids are similar to people who like to hang out with saved people they're just not saved themself and they think that somehow having an affiliation with people who are saved we'll get them in the door of heaven and it won't truth be told there are some watching this there some at the North Campus at the West Campus or at this campus and you're not really sure where you're at spiritually but you know the people around you got it together and you think that's enough and if something doesn't change on your part in terms of being right with Christ you won't be ready and when the rapture comes and you're left it will be as if Jesus is saying I didn't know you I didn't know you and his word again is watch bathroom verse 12 through 13 watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour watch as we wrap this up I just want to leave you with three three things to consider the first one is this the question concerning the accuracy of God's Word shouldn't be is his word true the question should be why would people doubt it this book is true it is true I'm just telling you the longer I teach it the more I study it the more I'm amazed by its truth its insight its accuracy its true question isn't isn't concerning the accuracy of God's Word the question is why would people doubt God's Word second the question concerning the timing of the second coming shouldn't be why hasn't it happened yet but who isn't ready yet who do you know is not ready who isn't ready that's why we have missions Sunday that's why we're planting churches in the US and overseas and Myanmar and and then Ukraine and and in so many other places it's because there are people who are not yet ready they haven't yet heard this gospel will be preached to the whole world as a testimony then the end will come number three the question concerning the certainty of the second coming shouldn't be is it going to happen but it should be are you ready when it does happen are you ready when he comes he's coming soon he said he's coming soon he says it in the Gospels and just in case you would miss it somewhere somehow Jesus himself says in the last chapter of the Bible Revelation chapter 22 and verse 12 behold I am coming soon behold I am coming soon are you ready you

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Keywords: James river church, John Lindell, living in the last days, end times, end of the world, revelations, biblical end times, what does the Bible say about the end of the world, return of Jesus, sermon, preaching, christianity, apocalypse

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Length: 44min 50sec (2690 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 19 2017