Sermon Transcript — June 18, 2005
It began last Sunday, June the 12th , Pentecost, a 5.2 earthquake near Palm Springs that many of us felt in Garden Grove or on your way to Garden Grove .
Then on Wednesday, a 7.2 earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, near the Northern California town of Crescent City, caused something I had never seen before; maybe some of you have, but that was a warning of a tsunami to hit the Los Angeles area between 9 and 10 p.m. Maybe some of you were watching a television program, as we were, that was interrupted with that warning. That was followed very quickly by a 3.9 earthquake in Santa Rosa and then, on Thursday, a 4.9 earthquake near Yucaipa at the base of the San Bernardino mountains . One lady that I heard of was injured up in Lake Arrowhead when the chandelier in her home fell on her head. The only injury I heard of. And then, again, early Friday morning a 6.6 earthquake off the coast of Northern California in the Pacific Ocean again; this time, no tsunami warnings, but people were asking even on the national news, what's going on?
Is this the pre-cursor to the big one? And each of us who live in Southern California know exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about the big one, don't we?
This is not to mention the seven point-plus earthquake that occurred off the coast of South America and the one nearly that same size that occurred in the Aleutian Islands this week. The Rim of Fire, as they call it, has been very active this week.
It's kind of interesting for me to go onto Google and do a search about earthquakes and prophecy. A number of sites, probably numbering into the hundreds are asking similar type questions and even speculating that this might be the beginning of the time of the end, I was noticing. Is it? Is this the beginning of the time of the end? Is the big one coming soon? Is the end near?
One website quoted Isaiah 24:1-3 . Let's turn there.
Isaiah 24:1 "Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, distorts it surface, and scatters abroad its inhabitants.
Vs. 2 "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with the master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
Vs. 3 "The land shall be entirely emptied, and utterly plundered: and the Lord has spoken this word.
In verse 18:
Isaiah 24:18 "And it shall be, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Vs. 19 "The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly.
Vs. 20 "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it; and it will fall, and not rise again .
We all know from reading prophecy that earthquakes will occur. Earthquakes have occurred and, yes, the big one is yet to come and I don't mean the big one that will split California down the middle. I mean the big one that will announce the return of Jesus Christ.
In this malaise of speculation and prophetic prognostication, I thought it might be helpful for us to review what the prophets and, particularly, what Christ and the Apostle Paul said about prophecy and end-time events. How should we look at such events and activities? Should we be quick, like many are, to jump onto our internet page and blog and speculate about the potential prophetic implications of this renewed earthquake activity in Southern California ? Like I said, many hundreds, perhaps if I continued on with my search, I get bored with it after awhile, many thousands of websites are now featuring such speculation.
I would like to go to Amos , the Prophet Amos, chapter 5 , because there's a couple of interesting scriptures here, one in chapter 5 and one in chapter 6, I would like to share with you, where the prophet inspired by God seems to present two extremes.
There are generally two extremes with which people approach prophecy and prophetic events. There are those who witness activity, like the earthquake activity we had this week, and immediately jump onto the speculative bandwagon, the predictive bandwagon, that these are the beginning of prophetic events that will rapidly unfold and lead to the time of the end.
Well, I think we all know the time of the end is getting closer but when you've lived for awhile you realize that these earthquakes just happen in patterns, and I don't mean to minimize them, as we will discuss here in a minute. Eventually, the big one will come. We know that. Eventually Christ will return and those events that we're now studying in our Bible study will take place before His return; but I'm more concerned today with how we view these prophetic events.
God, obviously, has used prophetic events. He's used earthquakes. He's used natural disasters and catastrophes to motivate people in the past. Is that what God is trying to do? How should we view these things?
Well, we find here in Amos 5:18 , because there are some people who would say yes , you know, we're getting on with it!
Amos 5:18 "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! One part of us wants to see these events eventually lead very quickly to the fulfillment of the prophecies we understand, but there's another part of us that says no, I don't want to see people go through those incredible trials. I don't want to see the hurt. I don't want to see the pain, the agony, that people will have to go through during those very difficult days. "For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
Vs. 19 "It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him. It's going to be a very troubling time. You can't escape. We read earlier in Isaiah, you know, during a natural disaster everybody is on equal footing. It doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter how rich you are, how poor you are, how great, how insignificant you are, we're all going to be victims, are we not, during a disaster like that. "It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and bear met him; or as though he went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. He goes into the house to escape and in the house he finds disaster.
Vs. 20 "Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, and no brightness in it? As I said, we're torn, should we get excited about end-time events and should we wish them to come rapidly, should we pray "thy kingdom come soon , knowing that there will be catastrophic events that will precede that?
In Amos , chapter 6 , beginning in verse 3 , there is another woe, there's another warning given to people who ignore such events.
Amos 6:3 "Woe to you that put far off the day of doom and who cause the seat of violence to come near;
Vs. 4 "Who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs of the flock, and calves in the midst of the stall;
Vs. 5 "Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, and invent for yourselves musical instruments, like David;
Vs. 6 "Who drink wine from bowls and anoint yourselves with the best anointments: but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
These are the two extremes that we find in the world today. We tend to find people who are Jeremiads and doomsdayers. People who prognosticate and speculate about end-time events on one side, hoping that their predictions will, perhaps, usher in these end-time events and fulfill prophecy. And yet, on the other hand, we have the warning from the prophet whom God inspired. It says, "Woe to you , if you take it lightly and you don't look seriously at events that happen in the world. There are these two extremes.
How do we find the proper balance in viewing these events?
I thought it was interesting, one of the geologists I saw on, I think it was CNN or Fox, being interviewed said, you know, in the early nineties, we've had a lull for about seven or eight years in earthquake activity in Southern California. In the eighties, we had a lot of earthquake activity and he says it seems now that we are returning back to the activity levels that we had in the eighties. Because we've had this long lull, people are kind of getting a little excited, asking the question, is the big one coming? But, this geologist said we're returning back to more of a normal cycle. You know, we live in Southern California . It's like many people who live in parts of South America , you learn to live with earthquakes. It's like people who live in Oklahoma learn to live with tornadoes. It's one of those hazards of living in a beautiful place like we live in. It is subject to earthquakes here.
But, what kind of balance should we have when we look at prophetic events? I'd like to go back to Matthew 24 and notice how Christ approaches His disciples, because I think it's very interesting. Matthew 24 and I don't want to read the whole chapter, but I would like to focus on verse 21 and 22 because we know that hard times are coming.
Matthew 24:21 "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. There's a time coming in the future, perhaps in our future, that is not very pleasant. It is the time of the Great Tribulation.
Vs. 22 "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved: but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Christ will intervene in the affairs of man in the events of the time of the end and save the world because of the called out ones, the disciples of Christ .
Notice in verse 32.
Matthew 24:32 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree; when its branch is already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near:
Vs. 33 "So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near , and at the door. He told His disciples, He says you'll be able to tell because a lot of these events that are prophesied, and we were talking about that earlier in the Bible, the Pastor's Study, the Bible study, when we talked about the seals of Revelation when they begin to be peeled open and these events happen more and more frequently; we should be alarmed, we should be aware, we should know that events are coming down the pipe. It's going to happen someday! It may not be this week, but eventually it will happen and we should be aware. We should be looking, as Christ said.
Let's go forward to the parallel chapter to this one in Mark 13 . This is the Olivet prophecy recorded for us by Mark. I'd like to set this up a little bit to share with you the mentality of the disciples.
The disciples lived in a culture that was prophecy addicted because they could read the 70 Weeks' Prophecy, they understood it, pretty much, and there was a high expectation level for the Messiah to come around the time He did. It was so high, in fact, that when news of these monarchs from the East who came to recognize this new King that had been born, Herod got so alarmed that he killed, you may remember, all the male children in a certain region. There was common knowledge of the soon arrival of the Messiah. There was a very high anticipation level. People were keyed into prophecies. They had the benefit of having the Old Testament in scrolls and, in many cases, they poured over them. There was a lot of speculation. Every time a new Jewish leader came forward, whether it was from the Maccabean family, or wherever it was from, people got excited . Maybe he's the Messiah! Maybe he's the Messiah over there! Maybe this one is the guy!
There was a high anticipation level of prophetic fulfillment, not unlike today, the time of the end. There's a high level of what I would call prophetic expectation, and sometimes that can blend into or meld into what I call prophetic addiction where people kind of sit and scope the horizon, look at the horizon for any little blip on the screen and we go, that's it, that's it ! That must be it! Did you feel that tremor? This is it! This is the beginning. This is it. That's kind of like one extreme and the other is, well, we've had these forever and the geologist says that this is back to the routine, you know, of the eighties. Yawn , well, I'm just going to keep on going about my business.
Somewhere in between those two extremes that Amos talked about, it's got to be the balance. How do we balance these things out, and I thought it might be helpful to look at the words of Christ in the Olivet prophecy, because when I studied it from this vantage point it gave me a different perspective.
In Mark 13 and verse 4 , His disciples came to Him and said:
Mark 13:4 "Tell us , when will all these things be? And what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled? They wanted to know! Hey! We gotta' know! Tell us ! When? Lot of people today want to know. I'll be honest. I want to know. When? That's a very curious and logical question. I want to know. Can you tell us? So, they had at their disposal the One who knew . Think about this for a minute. Here's the only One that I've ever known of, in the entire universe, who knew. You know, people sometimes people come to me and they go, you're the minister, I want to know when is it going to happen? You know, when is the Great Tribulation going to occur, when is the big one going to hit? When is Christ going to return?
And you know what I say? I wish I knew. I don't. There's only One who did and that was Christ, so you can understand these men are sitting around at the feet of Christ taking in what He's got to say and they go, tell us! When ?
And you would think in the next verse Christ would say, 2550 to 2554 years from now. Don't mark that date! I just picked a number right off the top of my head! But He didn't! What did He say in verse 5?
Mark 13:5 "Jesus answering them began to say, ' Take heed that no one deceives you .'
Now, if I were sitting there and I had asked this question and I was sitting on the edge of my stump, or wherever they were sitting, edge of my rock, and I was anticipating an answer from the guy who knew , and He said, 'Take heed that no man deceive you , ' I'd go, wha-a-a-? This is not the answer I want and yet He's saying, ' Take heed that no man deceive you ;
Vs. 6 "' For many will come in my name, saying, "I am the Messiah; I am He; 'and will deceive many.' That's no answer!
Well, one thing I want us to understand, as we explore some of the words of Christ, is that He never gave a direct answer . He gave the parable of the fig tree. How helpful is that? I mean, honestly, how helpful was it? Not too helpful. He talks about "no man deceiving you . Okay, He gives this warning.
And then we drop down to verse 14 . He talks about the abomination of desolation and if I'm sitting there, one of these 12 disciples, I'm going, okay, now we're getting into it! I know about the abomination of desolation! Daniel talks about that! I've read that before. Okay, now when ? See, that's what they wanted to know. Tell us when , in verse 4, so I want to know.
And then He says, and "those who are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains . Okay. Then we drop down to verse 24 .
Vs. 24 "But in those days, after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light , oh, this is getting better! But I know that! I've read Joel 2. I've got that scroll. I know that. And then we go down to verse 26 .
Vs. 26 "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory .
Vs. 27 "And then he will send his angels and gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven .
And then He gives the parable of the fig tree. He never answered the question they asked. He only fed them back familiar information that they knew about, that they were aware of, that they had read about, that they had heard speculated upon, by the hours , in the coffee shop, the local Starbuck's in Jerusalem . They knew about all those things. After three and one-half years of having opportunities to ask Him this question, which I am sure they did more than we find recorded here in the Gospels, when ? Remember, they were prophecy addicted in their culture.
Let's go to Acts, chapter 1 .
Acts 1:6 "Therefore when they had come together, they asked him, saying, here's Christ, He's just been resurrected from the dead, He's now with them, He's teaching them, and guess what one of the first questions they ask is? Verse 6. "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? Hey, you've kinda' avoided the question for the last three and one-half years. Are you going to do it now ? When ? Is this it ? Is now the time?
And then, once again, in verse 7 , He gives them that very direct answer.
Vs. 7 "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his own authority .
Vs. 8 "But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem , in all of Judea, and Samaria , and to the end of the earth.
And once again, I'm sitting on the stump, very anxious, I'm excited, I'm with the glorified Messiah. He can go through walls. He's spiritual, and yet He has the capacity to sit down and eat a meal with me, and talk, and I've asked Him. Now tell me, when, and He gives us an answer, but it is, once again, indirect with a warning.
What's really interesting is when you look at Mark 13 . We had that warning in verses 5 and 6, and then we heard some of the obvious things that we already knew, and then in verses 21 through 23 He gives another warning about false prophets, and in verses 33 through 37 He gives a third warning about false teachers and false prophets in that chapter.
And, again, here in Acts 1 , the disciples were still preoccupied with prophecy addiction .
I would like to ask you a simple question. What has decimated the church as we know it? Not martyrdom. Not catastrophic prophetic events - except one - deception. Think about it. What we were most disappointed in, perhaps, in Christ's explanation, is what has decimated the church; the three warnings that He gave in Mark 13 .
Let's go to an interesting section of scripture in John , chapter 21 , it's back just a page in my Bible, John 21. I would like to begin reading in verse 14 .
John 21:14 "This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after he was raised from the dead .
Vs. 15 "And when they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon, 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?' probably gesturing towards the other disciples. "He said to him, ' Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Feed my lambs.'
Vs. 16 "And he said to him again a second time, 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Lord, you know that I love you.' He said to him, 'Tend my sheep.'
Vs. 17 "And He said to him a third time, 'Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?' And Peter was grieved because he asked him now three times, 'Do you love me?' And he said to him, 'Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.' And Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep.'
The direct discussion that Christ has with His disciples is first of all a warning of deception and secondarily it's an admonition to feed the flock and feed the sheep of God. In other words, we spend most of our time and energy focusing on the work of God and on doing the work of God and on spiritually guarding ourselves . Those are the two loud messages I get, rather than the obvious, which would be, if we were addicted to prophecy , to feed our speculation.
Christ did not feed the speculative desires of His disciples. In fact, He said something entirely different. Basically, what I heard Him saying is look, guys, get out there and start working, the wall is built a brick at a time. Stop hoping that Christ is going to return before you have to have your diddle-work done. Stop hoping that Christ will come back to intervene in your credit card debt. Stop hoping in these prophetic events to start coming to pass and get busy , get to work, do the work.
Verse 18 of John 21 "Most assuredly, I say to you, ' When you were younger, you girded yourself, and walked where you wished: but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and carry you where do not wish.'
Vs. 19 "And this he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, 'Follow me.'
Peter got the message. The message to Peter was, Peter, you're not going to see the Son of Man returning in the clouds. Peter, you're probably not going to see prophetic events that I talked about in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21 come to pass. You're going to die . You're going to die a martyr's death. I want you to get out there and work , feed the flock , feed the sheep , feed my lambs .
What was Christ saying to Peter? Get your head out of prophecy addiction and let's get to work, is what He was saying. And you're going to work, Peter, until you die, and you're going to die a martyr's death.
Now, he's one of the few disciples who was able to understand and know what kind of a death he was going to die. Most martyrs don't know that when they commit themselves to God. It just happens in the course of them doing the work of God. Peter knew . Peter was told.
We read in verse 20 that Peter didn't like the answer.
Vs. 20 "Peter, turning around, realizing he was the locus of attention, "saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following; whom also had leaned on his breast at the supper, and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays you?' He's talking about John, the writer of the book. Peter looks at John and says:
Vs. 21 "'But Lord, what about him?' What about John?
Vs. 22 "And Jesus said to him, 'If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me .' "'You follow me.'
And as a sidelight, it's interesting that John lived the longest of all the apostles, and because of that, verse 23 happened.
Vs. 23 "Then this saying went out among the brethren, that this disciple would not die: yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die; but, if that he remain till I come, what is that to you?
And the whole New Testament church, up until the time of the death of the Apostle John, watched John , because the rumor was going around, as long as John's alive , as long as John is alive, then we got hope that Christ is going to come in our lifetimes. It came from this discussion.
But what was the message that Christ was trying to get across? It was just the opposite. You don't have to get out there and speculate or prognosticate about prophetic events. You don't have to waste all of your energy, or too much of your energy on that, again, we're trying to achieve this balance, but the important message that I find Christ giving His disciples is: let's get busy . Let's get busy doing the work of God and, while you're doing it, make sure you're spiritually prepared and grounded so you're not deceived. Those are the two big messages I hear. Christ does not feed, you know, this prophecy addiction attitude by saying, "Come in, guys, let me tell you, let me give you the formula so you can go home and figure out when it's going to be.
Let's go to I Thessalonians 5 . See what the Apostle Paul said because, you see, the Apostle Paul came from this same prophecy addictive culture of the first century Judean community.
I don't know if you've noticed it, but Paul does not talk a great deal about prophecy. What does Paul primarily talk about? In his 14 letters, what do we find recorded about what he wrote? There are two big themes in all of Paul's letters. Let's get to work doing the work and beware of false prophets : two big themes in all 14 of his letters. Not a whole lot is said about prophecy. This is about as close as we're going to get to Paul speculating about prophecy. I think at the beginning of his ministry, Paul felt Christ was going to come in his lifetime, but even by the time you get to the second letter to the Corinthians, he realizes, well, it could very well be that Christ won't come in our lifetime.
Let's notice, here, in I Thessalonians , chapter 5 , verse 1 .
I Thessalonians 5:1 "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. And, I think that I could probably say the same thing to this crowd. You're not ignorant. We all have an understanding of prophecy, a basic understanding. We all know that events are moving along . You see, the Day of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ is not getting further away from any of us, it's getting closer, day by day. There are serious issues that we have to fight against and face, outside the walls of our homes and our church.
Vs. 2 "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. It's unpredictable. Nobody knows. There have been a lot of prophets, a lot of prognosticators, a lot of self-appointed prophets who tried to guess, who tried to come up with a formula, who have spent a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of wasted time and energy trying to figure it out .
Paul says, look, we need to leave that to God. "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
Vs. 3 "When they say, 'Peace and safety;' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman; and they shall not escape.
Paul discusses prophecy; a little, it's not much. Let's drop down to verse 4 , continuing on.
Vs. 4 "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief.
Vs. 5 "You are all sons of the light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Vs. 6 "Therefore let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch and be sober. He's talking about spiritually watchful.
Vs. 7 "For those that sleep sleep at night; and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
Vs. 8 "But let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and the helmet of the hope of salvation.
Vs. 9 "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Vs. 10 "Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Vs. 11 "Therefore comfort each other, and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Vs. 12 "And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
Vs. 13 "And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
What's the message coming from Paul? Let's live up to our opportunity. Let's live up to our obligation, spiritually. Let's do the work ! Let's let the Spirit work through us and in us. He doesn't go on and on and prognosticate about who the man of sin might be or when the day of the Lord might arrive, he gets right back to the basics, just like Christ did.
Vs. 14 "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. This is common, standard, everyday, Christian living.
Vs. 15 "See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone; but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.
Vs. 16 "Rejoice always .
Vs. 17 "Pray without ceasing.
Vs. 18 "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Vs. 19 "Do not quench the spirit.
Vs. 20 "Do not despise inspired speaking.
Vs. 21 Test all things; hold fast to what is good.
Vs. 22 "And abstain from every form of evil .
What did the prophet call for us to do? He called for us to have a balanced approach toward end-time events. What did Christ ask us to do? What did He ask of His disciples? He said, let's work and do the work of God. Let's follow the lead of God's Holy Spirit and let's be spiritually prepared to defend ourselves against the onslaught of the deceivers; that was His main message in the context of being asked about prophetic events.
What is Paul's main message, when he even touches and begins to talk about end-time events and the day of the Lord? It goes back to the basics. The point is, if we spiritually prepare ourselves, if we lean upon God's Spirit, if we practice everyday Christianity among ourselves, in our family, in our community, prophetic events will take care of themselves, and in the process, God will take care of us.
We don't have to spend a lot of extra energy and effort, twisting and turning, and prognosticating and predicting and speculating about end-time events. I just don't see it in the words of Christ and in the words of the Apostle Paul. I see that we should take a more balanced approach to these things. We should pray that God's kingdom would come and then we should work as though we have a 100 more years, and we should pray as though it will happen tomorrow.
Let's make sure we view prophecy in a balanced way, not a preoccupation with prophecy addiction , not ignoring or avoiding prophetic trends, not being distracted with the cares of this life, as Paul warned us.
As Christ admonished us, let's be about doing the work of God, developing and building ourselves spiritually, so we can ward off the deceivers that Christ warned us about. Focus on spiritual development. Building our relationship with God and with others. These are the most important issues with which we should be concerning ourselves, not prophecy addiction .