Sermon Transcript

0:00:00.0

Well, so far, the year 2020 has been one for the ages, wouldn't you agree? A lot of us, including myself, have used the word "unprecedented" to describe our experience with a pathogen known as the Coronavirus and COVID-19. If a worldwide pandemic was not enough to rattle our collective cages—and it is—now we're experiencing a cultural and political bonfire, which has exploded in the streets of many of our major cities, sort of reminiscent of the civil rights struggles back in the 1960s. These are the kinds of events that trouble us. Few of us can remember a time quite nearly as stressful as this, and certainly we can't remember days that feel more uncertain like this. A pandemic, the political and social unrest. Add to that what we've come to understand as everyday wars and rumors of wars, intense weather patterns and all of that. It's raised a question in a lot of people's minds. What on earth is happening? What's going on on planet earth? And as Christians who study the Word of God and keep our ears in tune to what the scripture says, many of us are asking whether Jesus had anything to say about the times in which we're living, let along about the timing of His return.

0:01:41.5

Do those questions intrigue you at all? They certainly do me, because I always read the Bible—certain portions of it especially—by viewing it through the lens of current events. Where are we in God's overall plan of redemption? Where are we on the prophetic calendar? These are some of the questions that I have on my heart.

0:02:03.6

The good news is Jesus did answer some of those questions. He did talk about the times in which we're living today. He talked about the timing of His return. And today I'm beginning this brand-new series of messages titled "What On Earth Is Happening?" What's going on here on planet earth? We're going to be going to Matthew 24-25, a fascinating section of scripture also known as the Olivet Discourse where we can examine the prophecies of Jesus concerning the end of the age.

0:02:36.5

Now, Bible prophecy is always a fascinating subject. But it should do more than just fascinate us. Especially in these times, a study like this should also encourage us and give us hope and bring comfort to us in challenging times like this. For example, when writing to the Thessalonians about the rapture of the church…you ever heard of the rapture of the church? I believe it is the next event on God's prophetic calendar. And the apostle Paul wrote extensively about it in 1 Thessalonians 4. At the end of that section of scripture, he writes these words- "Therefore, encourage one another with these words." Bible prophecy should always be encouraging to our hearts. It should always fill us with hope and strengthen our faith. I know some people who say, "Oh, I don’t want to waste my time with Bible prophecy." I know some pastors who never touch the subject. That confuses me a little bit because 25% of the Bible, I learned a long time ago…25% of the Bible when it was written was prophetic in nature, predictive in nature. You don't want to talk about these things or wrestle with these things or preach these things or teach these things? You've just taken a knife and cut out ¼ of the Bible and said, "I’m not going to interact with it."

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Of the 25% that, when it was written, was predictive in nature, 50% at least of those prophecies have come true. And I'm not talking about general things like you'd read in a horoscope. "You're going to have a nice today." No, we're talking about specific details in the Old Testament, about the coming of Messiah and all of that, and in the New Testament and some Old Testament, going forward specific details about the end of the age. We need to study these things, especially in light of the world in which we're living today and in light of the pause brought about by a worldwide, global pandemic.

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Let me give you a little preview of where we're going. Without sensation and without straying from the text of scripture, I'm going to put the Coronavirus right in the middle of Bible prophecy, because Jesus talked about things like this 2000 years ago. And we'll talk more about that in the days to come.

0:05:08.4

Without any further delay, let's just go to Matthew 24. I want to set the context for you. I want to set the setting of where we are in the Gospels and where we are in the life of Jesus, where Matthew 24 and 25 fit in the overall story. If we go back 2000 years ago, it's Passover week. It's holy week. It's just days before Jesus goes to the cross and then, three days later, rises from the dead. Luke tells us in a parallel section of his Gospel that every night during holy week, as we call it, Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives. Now, if you've been to Jerusalem with us…you can get this picture in your mind even if not. You can kind of picture on this side over here you have the ancient city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the old city of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount. You remember seeing the picture of that gold dome, the dome of the mosque. That's the Temple Mount, the old city of Jerusalem standing out from there. Then you have a valley. It's called the Kidron Valley. Down at the lower end of the valley is the Garden of Gethsemane and then up this side, the Mount of Olives.

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So we know from Luke's Gospel that every night during Passover week, Jesus was out in the city and, in this case, in and around the temple area with His disciples. But He returned to the Mount of Olives. And it was there…I'm going to say Monday, Tuesday, maybe Wednesday of Holy Week. I'll put it somewhere in that range. We don't know precisely which day. It wasn't Thursday because we know He was in the upper room with His disciples on that night, on the cross on Friday, in the tomb Saturday, resurrected on Sunday. So somewhere in earlier in the week He is returning to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples ask Him some questions. Questions that began earlier as He was on the Temple Mount, and now the Mount of Olives. And they ask questions about the end of the age. What are the signs to look for?

0:07:14.8

If there was any place in the Bible where I would have loved to have been, not a fly on the wall, but a locust on the olive tree, I would have loved to have been here on the Mount of Olives. If you've been to Israel, you know how majestic that view is. And the Old Testament tells us that when Jesus returns, He will come and set His feet right upon the Mount of Olives and split the earth from there. So, this is just chills running up and down my spine when I think about sitting there with His disciples. And Luke tells us just four of His disciples were there—Peter, James, John, and Andrew—having a conversation about the signs to look for and when all this would happen at the end of the age.

0:08:05.3

Jesus made some predictions 2000 years ago, and we're in the midst of that. And we can have conversation about where we are in the midst of those predictions, again, without getting sensational but with also remaining very biblical.

0:08:24.7

Now, one of the questions that it raises is simply this- why should we trust Jesus's predictions any more than anybody else's predictions? There was a guy centuries ago named Nostradamus who made some predictions, and many of them came true. Many of them didn't come true. Nostradamus is kind of a fascinating read and fascinating study. Closer to our time and in our generation, a lady named Jeane Dixon is the astrologer to the stars. Or a little bit closer to our time, the Long Island Medium. You ever heard of her? Some of these people who are making predictions about the future. What separates Jesus's predictions and Bible prophecy from Nostradamus or Jeane Dixon or the Long Island Medium or anybody who says, "I can see into the future"? Can we really see into the future? Well, here is one thing that separates Bible prophecy from all of that. It's the standard that the Bible makes for itself, and it's 100% accuracy.

0:09:27.9

You can go back into the Old Testament. If a so-called prophet of God made a prediction about the future and it didn't come 100% true, if even a smidgeon of it…if most of it was true, but just a little bit of it was not, he was deemed a false prophet and not from God. That's the very high standard the Bible sets because the God of the Bible does not lie. But the God of the Bible is a revealer of mysteries and a revealer of secrets. He doesn't tell us everything we'd like to know about the end of the age, but He gives us enough to know to be encouraged, to have hope, to find comfort during these times, and, yes, to be ready for His soon return at any moment and at any time.

0:10:19.5

But Jesus made some predictions, some of them near-term predictions during His ministry. Others were longer-term predictions that we'll get to in the weeks ahead. Let me just talk a little bit about the some of the near-term predictions to establish the case for Jesus's 100% batting record here. First of all, Jesus predicted His death and resurrection. Did you know that? We hear a lot about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but He actually predicted it in Matthew 12:40 and in response to some of the Pharisees that had challenged Him and provoked Him to show them a sign. They were sign-seekers. "Jesus, give us a sign that says You truly are who You say You are." Matthew 12:40 Jesus says, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." What an answer to their questions! He goes all the way back to the biggest fish story every told, the story of Jonah, and actually gives credibility to the story. I don't have time to validate the fact that Jonah was a real person who lived in a real time in a real place, got swallowed by a real fish, got burped up by a real fish onto a real beach. But I can establish very carefully if we had time to do that.

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But Jesus goes back to that story to say and to predict His future death and resurrection on the cross. He says, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights." The Pharisees were looking for a sign. What He was saying was, "I'll give you a sign- My own resurrection from the dead." Later, He said, "Even if a man rises from the dead, they won't believe."

0:12:15.9

Jesus also predicted His death and resurrection in Matthew 16, where, following Peter's great confession of Christ where he said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God," and Jesus said, "Way to go, Peter." Matthew writes, "From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life." Now, this begs the question, why were the disciples ever surprised by these events? But you read the Gospel accounts, and this kind of caught them off guard. But the Bible tells us, and the Gospels tell us, that Jesus often—not just once, not just twice, but often—said to the disciples, "No, this is what's going to happen. The Son of Man is going to be served up by these religious leaders. And He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

0:13:24.9

You know, it's one thing for Jesus to predict His own death. I suppose anybody could do that and create uproar, and just enough of an uproar that somebody might be likely to take you out, right? But Jesus didn’t stop with His own death. He predicted His death and His resurrection. Who does that? Joe Namath predicted that the AFL would win the Super Bowl years ago. What a ridiculous prediction, but they did. This is even more so. Jesus predicted His death and His resurrection.

0:14:02.3

Secondly, Jesus also predicted that His disciples would abandon Him. On the night before He was crucified, Jesus said to His disciples…now we're in the upper room. He says, "This is very night you will all fall away on account of Me, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'" He draws from an Old Testament passage there. Later, after Jesus was arrested, Matthew records some disappointing words. It says, "Then all the disciples deserted him and fled." They probably didn't think that was going to happen. They were probably sitting there with their jaws dropped down to their plate there in the upper room. "No, we're not all going to betray You, Jesus." But they did. Jesus predicted it. Sure, it's a near-term prediction, but, nonetheless.

0:14:51.8

Another prediction Jesus made was Peter's denial. This and the prediction about the disciples were, again, near-term prophecies, we might call them. But nonetheless, they came true in remarkable detail. You remember how Peter responded with strong emotions to Jesus's suggestion that they would all fall away from Him. And Peter even said in Matthew 26, "Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will." We love Peter for his boasting and his bombastic nature. "I'll never depart, Jesus. Even if one has to die with You, I will never disown You." And I never want to be too hard on Peter. Peter is that guy who has his life written about and all of his failures written about in the Gospel accounts, and I wouldn't want to be that person for everybody to read for centuries and generations to come. But I do want to say to Peter, "Cock-a-doodle-doo." It happened just like Jesus predicted it would happen.

0:16:06.7

Next, Jesus also predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Now I'm back to Matthew 24 to the Olivet Discourse. And, again, picture Jerusalem teeming with people. It's Passover time. People from all around the region have come to Jerusalem, tens of thousands of people. Jesus and His disciples are now there. It's great to hang out in the temple area. That's where everything was happening. And the temple was this magnificent, magnificent structure. It says Jesus left the temple and was going away, Matthew 24:1, "when His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the temple. But He answered them, 'You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.'" This is where the disciples must have thought that Jesus slipped an ear, because this structure was massive. It was magnificent. And He was predicting that the temple itself would become a pile of rubble. Who makes a prediction like that?

0:17:22.9

The temple was one of the most magnificent structures in the world at that time. Imagine six football fields lying side by side and you have some sense of the grandness of the Temple Mount and the greatness and what a breathtaking worship complex it was. You may remember in the Old Testament that is was Solomon who originally built the temple. David wanted to, but the Lord said, "No, you've been a man of bloodshed. Your son Solomon with build it." David raised the money for it; Solomon built it. Then the Babylonians came and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, including the temple, and it became a pile of ruins. And the Babylonians hauled the young Hebrews off to captivity for 70 years. You remember that? And then they came back, and a guy named Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple. But it wasn't as big and as grand and as glorious as Solomon's temple. The people kind of made notice of that.

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And then come around the time of Christ a guy named Herod the Great…by the way, he called himself that, Herod the Great. You would roll your eyes if I called myself "Ron the Great." Herod the Great. Just so full of himself. But Herod was a builder, and it was his way of putting his thumbprint all across the ancient world. You go to Israel today, and we go and visit Herodian sites and Herodian buildings. He expanded the Temple Mount to this (0:19:00.0) massive six football fields across structure. And Jesus and His disciples…again, it's holy week—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…they're in this bustling city of Jerusalem. They're near the Temple Mount, and the disciples can't resist saying, "Jesus, this is just an incredible place, is it not?" He says, "Yeah, one day it's going to be a pile of rubble."

0:19:22.8

And we know, in fact, that is actually happened in 70 A.D. when the Roman governor Titus bludgeoned the city of Jerusalem. It was about 40 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How did Jesus know this was going to happen? Luke records in a parallel passage to Matthew 24 and 25. Luke 21 says, "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies you will know that it's desolation is near. Then let (0:20:00.0) those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those in the city get out and let those in the country not enter the city, for this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it would be," Jesus says, "in those days for the pregnant women and nursing mothers. There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." This was a prophecy some 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem that we know now by history in 70 A.D. And it was God's times of judgement against the nation of Israel for rejecting her Messiah.

0:20:50.2

A small band of Jews did in fact flee to the mountains. By 72 A.D. the Romans made their way to a Jewish outpost called Masada. We go and visit Masada. It's another one of Herod's building projects down near the Dead Sea high atop a mountain range. It was his place to retreat in case he needed a safe place to run to. By 72 A.D. 967 Jewish rebels…and that's what the Romans called them, rebels…had fled to safety to Masada. And the Romans came after them. And by the time the siege was over, all but two women and five children had committed suicide before the Romans came over the wall.

0:21:44.7

When I visit Masada years ago…and every time we go to Israel, we visit that part of the Holy Land. I remember asking one of our Jewish guides about Masada. He said that Israel has never been the same since that time in 70, 72 A.D. until she became a modern nation in 1948. And he said that today the Israeli military takes their new recruits to Masada. And on the last day of their training they shout, "Masada will never fall again." It's a powerful…it's their Alamo. It's a powerful time in Jewish history. But Jesus predicted it would happen, and 40 years later it did.

0:22:35.6

I'm just building a case for Jesus's 100% batting record when it comes to both near-term and far-term predictions, not to mention all the prophecies He Himself fulfilled from the Old Testament concerning the coming of Messiah. The final one, of course, is Jesus predicted His second coming, and He predicted the end of the age. And that's what Matthew 24 and 25 are all about. We'll get into the details about that in weeks to come. But you can have confidence that what Jesus says about the end of the age is going to happen. Yes, we're 2000 years removed from it. And there are some people that say, "When is all this going to happen?" Remember Peter. He says, "Well, to the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day." Seems like a long time for us, but God is on His own timetable. And His promises and His predictions and His prophecies are always yes and amen.

0:23:40.6

Before we get to the details in the weeks to come, I just want to pause in the time that we have remaining and just ask this question. In light of where we are on God's prophetic timetable, in light of the present circumstances that we find ourselves in now 6, 7 months into this coronavirus, not to mention the political and social unrest in our streets, here's the question. How shall we live as believers in Jesus Christ? And are we living in the last days? That's a question people pose to me from time to time. Pastor, are we living in the last days?

0:24:20.1

Hold your place here in Matthew 24 and go with me to Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1:1, the writer of Hebrews says, "Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things through whom also He created the world." What powerful verses those are. Why would the writer of Hebrews say that "in these last days He has spoken to us"? This was written 2000 years ago. That's because the term last days is a technical term. Really, in the New Testament we can trace it all through the New Testament. It really means from the time of Jesus's first coming to the time of His second coming. So, are we living in the last days? You bet we are. But are we living in the final days of the last days? That's a whole other question, right? Nobody knows the day or the hour, Jesus said, of His return. And anybody who tried to pinpoint a date and a time, that's just garbage. Jesus said, "Even I don't know. The angels don't know. Only the Father knows."

0:25:47.8

So, we're not going to get overly sensational. We're going to be very biblical about this. But, yes, we're living in the last days, and we're 2000 years closer to the end of the age. And it seems as though things are picking up steam?

0:26:05.9

So how do we live? I've titled this message "Last Days Living." Let me just give you three encouragements this morning. Number one, stay calm. Stay calm. I know ever since we heard about this worldwide pandemic and now the political and social unrest in our major cities and across the political spectrum, it's created a lot of anxiety and a lot of fearmongering. In some respects, we've been told by some of our leaders in our country, "Just go home, crawl under the bed, and wring your hands in worry. We'll tell you when to come out." And there's just a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety that people are feeling today. The uncertainty of our days is weighing heavily on a lot of people. I'd just encourage you to stay calm.

0:26:52.4

Those aren't my words. I'm going to take you now from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night of holy week…let's just land in the middle of the upper room discourse, John 13-17, that intimate time that Jesus spent with His disciples on the night before He was crucified. Right in the middle of that conversation and that teaching Jesus said these words in John 14. "Let not your heart be troubled." I don't think the disciples really had a clue. Even though Jesus had been telling them and preparing them, they really didn't have a clue as to what was coming just in a few hours. Even the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. "Let not your heart be troubled." No, those weren't words spoken first by Sean Hannity. I understand he loves to finish out his nightly monologue with these words, but these are the words of Jesus. "Let not your heart be troubled." He goes on to say, "You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions," the old translation says. "Many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you." I love how He's a straight shooter that way. He says, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for, I will come again and received you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also."

0:28:16.2

I don't have time to go into all the imagery here, but He's using wedding language. In the ancient culture, especially the Galilean region, the groom would go back to his father's house during the betrothal period and build on rooms to his father's house. And the bride would wait for his return. Might be up to a year. The groom doesn't know the day or the hour that he returns. That's his father's choice. The bride and the bridesmaids, they don't know the day or the hour. They just need to be ready. But Jesus is using wedding language here. He is our heavenly groom. And He says, "I'm going to prepare a place for you."

0:28:59.9

The second coming of Jesus Christ is really a two-stage even as I understand it best in Bible prophecy, starting with something we know as the rapture of the church. This is where Jesus alludes to it. The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, opens up that doctrine even further in his letter to the Thessalonians. The apostle Paul refers to it some in 1 Corinthians 15. He says it will happen in the twinkling of an eye. As fast as your eye blinks our heavenly Groom will return. He says, "I will come and take you to where I was." Where is Jesus right now? He's in heaven. The first stage of His second coming is the rapture, followed by 7 years of the worst of times on earth known as the tribulation period. You can read the details of that in Revelation 6-19…strap on your seatbelts when you do…culminating in the battle of Armageddon and what we call the second coming of Jesus Christ—really phase 2 of His second coming where His feet will literally touch down on the Mount of Olives. That's a fascinating study, this 24 and 25 of Matthew. They're right there while Jesus is talking about all that- the first time He comes, and we're caught up in the air with him.

0:30:20.4

What I'm simply saying is stay calm. God's got it all under control. Take a deep breath. Be still and know that He is God. And understand in a very practical sense regarding the virus and all that this too will pass. I know that sounds cliché, but my 91-year-old mother-in-law put some things in perspective for us in the Jones family. Don't tell her I told you her age. She doesn't want anybody to know that. But she was born in 1929, the year of the stock market crash. And you talk about an unsettling time followed by world wars and all of that. But she says during her teenage years…now we'd be in the 1940s, I guess—she developed rheumatic fever. That was the coronavirus of her time. And you back up a little bit before that, and you bump into the pandemic of all pandemics, the Spanish flu of 1918 that took lives of, some estimate, 50 million people worldwide. But she went through rheumatic fever. She could not go to school for one year. Those children that did not have rheumatic fever got to go to in-person education. She had to stay at home for a year and receive tutoring. My point is simply this. This too will pass. It passed for her. She went on to live a long and productive life. She doesn’t use the world unprecedented. She says, "Oh, here we go again." I guess if you live long enough, you'll experience more global pandemics.

0:32:08.4

If I understand what Jesus says about the general signs of the time, from the time of His coming to the end of the age, that will increase like the birth pangs of a mother, He says, increasing with frequency and intensity as we get closer and closer to the end of the age. In Luke's Gospel, a parallel passage, Jesus mentions pestilences, viruses. This too will pass, but it won't be the last one. I can almost guarantee you that. There will be more, and they'll come with greater intensity and frequency if we understand and believe the words of Jesus. But stay calm. Stay calm. This is not a time for Christians to hide underneath the bed and wring our hands in worry. It's a time to place our trust in the living God.

0:33:03.7

Secondly, stay on mission. Stay calm but stay on mission. This is last days living. And I'm saying come on, church. Stay on mission. Now let's go to the mountaintop Jesus took His disciples after the resurrection. He said, "Meet me on the mountaintop." He had some vision to cast for them. No greater place to go than to a mountaintop to cast vision. When we go to Israel, I usually go to this great commission passage in Matthew 28 when we visit Mount Arbel on the northeastern edge of the Sea of Galilee. It's kind of the Lookout Mountain of Galilee. You know, Lookout Mountain in Tennessee on a clear day you can see seven states. Well, that's Mount Arbel. The vistas are beautiful. We don't know if that's the mountain to which Jesus took His disciples, but it's as good as any mountain in the region. And it's there on that mountain following His resurrection that Jesus said these words in Matthew 28. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded yhou." And then He says, "Behold, I am with you always,"—and I love this—"to the end of the age." He'll never leave us. He will never forsake us. He punctuates the great commissioning that He gave to us with an encouragement. "I'm never going to leave you." He knows better than anybody just how difficult it's going to get. How challenging it will be. How distressing it will be. But He says, "I'm always with you, even to the end of the age."

0:34:53.2

I was in Richmond earlier this week. I was invited to speak at the annual board retreat for the Family Foundation of Virginia. It's the state organization for Focus on the Family. And they wanted me to bring some encouraging words. It was kind of a retreat setting. And during one of the Q&A's in between the talks, somebody in the group had said something to the effect that, "I just think people in the church today just don't know what to do." Keep in mind, the Family Foundation of Virginia is out there dealing with legislations and the political and cultural issues of our day. And I understand what they're talking about. People like you and me look around, and we see our culture going to heck in a handbasket, right? And we just don't know what to do. I heard that, and the pastor in me couldn't help but come out. I said, "Listen, I understand where you guys work and serve every day, but to say that we in the church don't know what to do is not acceptable. What's the one thing Jesus told us to do?" And collectively all their heads went down, and they mumbled, "Go make disciples." I said, "Exactly." We should never say in the church, "We don't know what to do."

0:36:26.2

With all due respect, Family Foundation of Virginia and others who serve in that area, Jesus is not going to ask you how many pieces of legislation you influenced in a conservative direction. He's going to ask you, "How many disciples did you make?" That's the one thing He told us to do. And, friends, the message of the gospel hasn't changed. The mission of the church hasn't changed. And, no, this is not a time for us to run home, crawl under our bed, and ring our hands in worry. It's a time for the church to be the church. It's time to get back on mission and stay on mission. We've been saying since this time that nobody could predict came upon us and paused life in so many different ways, as a church we need to stay on mission. We need to minister in the moment. And for us here at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church, we need to reach forward to what lies ahead. We've got a mission to accomplish. To glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ who go and make disciples. And we decided as a church even before we got into all this mess by the virus that we had a plan. We need to finish that, folks. The message hasn't changed. The mission hasn't changed. The intensity of the hour has. This is not a time to take three steps back as a church and say, "Well, you know…" Come on, church. Stay calm. Stay on mission.

0:38:04.2

Thirdly, stay alert. I'm going to take you back to Matthew 24. After saying to His disciples regarding the end of the age and the second coming of the Son of Man, He says, "The angels don't know. I don't know. Only the Father knows." And then He says in verse 44, "Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Again, the language around that two-stage second coming, the rapture is He's coming in the twinkling of an eye. There's not a sign given to watch for the rapture. The signs are all for the second stage, the second coming where He comes like a thief in the night. He says, "You've got to be ready."

0:39:02.0

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells two stories, two parables. One is the parable of the 10 virgins or the maidens. And there is one theme to it, one question. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready for the midnight hour of the thief who is coming in the night? Don’t be asleep. Be alert. Be sober. Be awake. And Jesus says in chapter 25 and verse 13 at the end of that story, "Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." He picks up on that wedding analogy. He says, "Our heavenly groom is coming back. You don't know the day or the hour that He's coming." A lot of cultural implications there.

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The apostle Paul picks up on this idea in his letter to the Thessalonians 2000 years ago. 1 Thessalonians 5, after He talks about the day of the Lord, a technical term in scripture that always refers to the end of the age, He then says, "For you are all children of 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." Anytime you read the Bible around matters of the end of the age and the day of the Lord and Bible prophecy, there is always a strong encouragement to stay alert, to stay sober, to stay awake. Don't fall asleep. In the military they call it combat readiness. You ever heard that term? I'm so thankful for people in our government and military who keep our fighting forces combat ready. Military readiness is defined as "the ability of military forces to fight and to meet the demands"—listen to this—"of assigned missions with little or no warning." Combat readiness has to do with ships and airplanes and technology and weapons systems and troops. And they stand combat ready because at any time they could be deployed. At any time, they need to be ready. Combat readiness also applies to the family. Is the family personally ready for a deployment that could happen at any time?

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Well, the analogy with the Christian life is the same. We are called upon not to be sleepy and slumbery, but to be alert and sober and vigilant and watchful and combat ready. You say, "Combat, Pastor? What are you talking about here?" If you've got the idea that the church is the Carnival Cruise Line and we're all here for a little bit of partying on the lido deck, no, this is a battleship. And part of getting combat ready is waking up every day in Ephesians 6 and taking upon yourself the armor of God. And if I could change the analogy to sports a little bit, I played a little bit of baseball in high school. I played shortstop. And I was never taught to kind of stand there like this, you know, as a shortstop. No, the pitcher started his windup, and they taught you to be in the ready position. Get your glove out there and always assume that the ball is going to get hit to you. You don't know where it's going to go. You hope that the pitcher strikes him out. You got nine players out there in a ready position, assuming the ball is going to get hit to them.

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Do you live your Christian life that way, assuming Jesus Christ is coming today? You don't know the day. You don't know the hour. It's going to come in the twinkling of an eye, phase one of His second coming called the rapture. Be alert. Be alert.

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What on earth is happening, right? It's the question we're all asking. Stay calm. Stay on mission. Stay alert. In the weeks to come we'll spend some time getting into the details of the signs and what to watch for. But here is your assignment over the next several weeks. I'm going to do the best job that I can from the pages of God's Word to provide a readiness briefing. Your job is to show up. Don't sleep in on Sunday. Don't schedule something else during this sacred time. Let's not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the habit of some is, "but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching," the Bible says. There is a readiness briefing scheduled every Sunday right here in the church, and you're scheduled to be here. It'll help you get ready. Hopefully, it'll also encourage you and fill your heart with hope and comfort you during some distressing times and help us as a church to get ready for our groom's return. We are the bride of Christ, right? We'll be reminded of our mission. We'll stay calm. We'll stay on mission. We'll stay alert. We'll learn what to look for so when you scroll those newsfeeds and watch the nightly news broadcast, your heart won't twist in all configurations of panic and anxiety. You'll say, "Yeah, that's kind of what Jesus said would happen."

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"Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Don't you want Him to come? I do. But every day the Father delays. And there will be a day when He turns to His Son and says, "Go," and in the twinkling of an eye it'll start. In the meantime, we wait in faith. And every day that He doesn't come the world will scoff and say, "It's been a couple thousand years." But the day will come. And the question is, are we ready? Are we ready for that? And are you ready? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? That's the first step of spiritual readiness is to know that you're in the faith. The Bible says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Translated loosely, we all have a virus. We're born with it. It's called sin, and it's terminal. The Bible goes on to say in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." There is no escaping it. But then it turns, and it says, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." You want to escape the virus that brings physical and eternal death to any one of us? You place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. His shed blood from the cross has all the antibodies necessary to defeat this virus in you and me. And the fact that He rose triumphantly from the grave puts Him in a category like nobody else. He's worthy of your trust. That's the first step in getting spiritually ready for the day of Christ's return. The second is, sleepy church, wake up. Let's stay calm, let's stay on mission, and let's stay alert.

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