Friday Night Message: What Does It Mean To Watch? - INTRO

June 2, 2023

Good evening brethren, 

This evening I would like to take you back in time 52 years ago.  As an entering student at AC Pasadena in 1971, I had observed that most students there had a keener interest in watching the daily news than I did.  Many of them had subscriptions to magazines such as Time, Newsweek or US News and World Report.  And there was a correspondingly high level of interest in the study of prophecy and trying to connect or merge the two (that is, world news and Biblical prophecy) together.

I had not grown up in the church of God.  I had attended only two Sabbath services before going to AC, and was still in the process of familiarizing myself with all of the church’s doctrines, beliefs and practices.

I soon became aware of the major reason WHY there was such a keen interest in keeping track of national and global events and trends.  The older students would quote a verse in the gospel of Luke:

Luke 21:36 – “Watch and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man”.

That scripture is a direct instruction of Jesus Christ to His disciples, so we had better follow it.  

But does this verse really instruct us to spend a lot of time following the news reports?  Did Jesus tell His disciples to have a deep understanding of everything that was happening in the world at that time?  Or was it something more basic than that? … and something of even greater significance?

What is the Biblical meaning of this word watch?  What did Jesus really want His disciples to do when He told them to watch?  Peter and Paul also urge the early NT Christians to watch.  What did they mean by this?

I Thes. 5:6 – Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

I Pet. 4:7 – But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

Does this word watch, when it appears in Scripture, have a significantly different or expanded meaning for us today, because we have ready access to the news media?  Indeed, communications and technology are certainly very different and much more advanced than two millennia ago.

Tonight’s message is just a brief introduction to the subject that we will be addressing over the next few weeks.  The title of this series is “What Does It Mean To Watch?”

Have a peaceful Sabbath,

Fred