Are We Living In The End Times? [Matthew 24]

Are We Living In The End Times?

Matthew 24

I wonder how many of you are waiting until we get bombed. I wonder how many of you think this war in the middle east is fulfilling prophecies from the bible. I wonder how many of you think the financial markets are two shades away from collapse. I wonder how many of you are waiting (or maybe even HOPING) for a housing collapse? How many of you are worried about governments or tech companies getting more and more powerful, taking away our freedoms and our privacy. AI Data farms sucking up all our natural water while turning us into mindless phone addicted drones. I wonder how many of you worry about the end of the world. Maybe…maybe some of you have tried to get into the end of the world stuff - revelation, prophecies - signs and secret codes. And maybe you started with the bible - but it’s all symbolic and full of bizarre imagery - you couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but someone you know sent you a link to a youtube video of a guy who talks really confidently about how he figured it all out. He hacked the prophecies, he cracked the code - and you’re not sure if you totally believe him, but it seems as good a theory as any. Or maybe you’re like me - you never really paid too much attention to it, but you pick up tidbits here and there. Maybe we don’t know why, but the nation of Israel is really important for the end of the world - Gotta protect israel because for some reason the jewish people need to be living in that area for the end of the world. Maybe you’re not totally sure what the word “rapture” means, but you’ve heard it used before - and they made a couple movies about people getting left behind, and… well, they were kind of exciting. Are we living in the end times? And if we are - how much time do we have? Are we going to be here next week?

And maybe it’s fun to laugh at - those crazy people with their conspiracy theories and their tin foil hats, but you know - I think it’s more common than we assume. I think we laugh to cover up the fact that we don’t actually have an answer. And if we force ourselves to think about it for too long - we get really uncomfortable. Nervous, even. I remember, when I was a kid - my grandparents, my Oma and Gramps - they really bought into this stuff. In the late 90’s, and early 2000’s - I was like 13 years old, and they sat me down, “they would say, “Jeremiah (that’s my real name, they never called me JJ) - Jeremiah you need to be paying attention to this. The things that are happening in the news - wars in the middle east, unease in the stock market, global economies and nations moving like tectonic plates beneath our feet - these are significant events. They were so sure that the end of the world would probably come during their lifetime. Now they both passed away years ago, but that uneasy feeling sticks around. The “I don’t know, but maybe” feeling. I don’t know if we’ll see World War III in our lifetime, but maybe. I don’t know if our economic and political systems will collapse like a house of cards, but maybe. I don’t know if computers and robots are going to take all the jobs and leave us with nothing to do except drool into our phones - but maybe.

Today is the final Sunday in our series called “Can I Ask That?” - if you’re just joining us, that’s amazing - I’m so glad you’re here, but a little bit - you missed out. You should go back and watch the last few sermons if you’ve got big questions. We took a survey as a church a few months ago and we asked, “what are YOUR biggest questions?” and we put these questions together based on your responses. This has been such a fascinating series - and I’ve learned a ton as we’ve gotten deeper into these topics. And it felt only fitting that we finish up this series with the question, “Are We Living In The End Times?” 

So if you want to grab your bibles we are going to be in Matthew, chapter 24 - where Jesus gives some clarity about the end of the world, but while you’re looking that up I want to give you a backdrop for a second. Last week we talked about anxiety, and we spent some time in John 14. And so before we get to Matthew 24, I just want to remind you of what Jesus said last week. [read John 14:2-3]. Before Jesus died, he told his disciples, “I’m going to go prepare a place for you” - we talk about that as heaven. Then I’m going to come back and get you, and bring you with me. We call that Jesus’ second coming - that’s the end of the world everybody talks about. The first time Jesus came, it was humbly as a baby in the manger, to die on the cross for our sins. The second time, he’s coming in glory and power, to destroy evil and set up heaven on earth. Now if you hear - hey, someday Jesus is coming back, what’s the first question that going to pop into your mind? When! When are you coming back Jesus? And that was exactly the disciples question, and they ask it in Matthew 24. [read Matthew 24:3]. Imagine this with me for a second. The disciples come to Jesus…privately. Hey Jesus, just between us - because we’re the disciples, so we’re extra special - tell us, when you coming back? And in the very next sentence, verse 4 Jesus responds, [read v.4]. And the disciples are all gathered around him with their little calendars and pencils - ready to mark down the date, and they pause: uh, that’s not an answer. Watch out that no one deceives you. Jesus, what are you talking about? And this is actually a teaching for us in the modern world today. When it comes to stuff about the end of the world - a Christians first instruction from Jesus is: “watch out, so that no one deceives you.” 

And then he gets into descriptions of all the bad things that will happen between this moment and the end of the world - verse 7 he says, [read v.7-8]. He talks about persecutions and false prophets, but I want you to jump down with me for just a second down to verse 36. [read v.36]. Pop quiz - who knows when the end of the world is? (No one). ONLY God. No one else. He gives it to us again inverse 42, [read v.42-44]. In between his big list of bad things that will happen throughout history, Jesus says “don’t let anyone deceive you… no one knows…and you will not expect it.” So if you are scrolling on tiktok or find some guy on youtube who claims, “I know when the end of the world is” - you can pause the video right there, close it out, scroll right past. He’s already wrong - because Jesus said, “no one knows” In 1988, there was a man named Edgar C. Whisenant. Edgar was a former NASA engineer and bible student, who predicted the rapture would happen in September of 1988. He wrote a book called 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be In 1988. Sold 4.5 million copies of the book. Now, he didn’t make a lot of money off of them because he sold them for like $2, and gave a bunch of them away - but still, that’s a lot of copies of a book! Now, here’s the crazy part. When September 1988 passed - and nothing happened…he wrote ANOTHER book. He claimed, “oh, I forgot to calculate year zero - so I was off by one year.” So in 1989 he puts out a SECOND book called “On Borrowed Time” - sold 3 million copies of that one. Best part of the whole story - he did it TWO MORE TIMES. In 1993, he wrote “The Final Shout” and then in 1994 he had another one, but by that point he had sort of a “boy who cried wolf reputation” and nobody was listening anymore. And he wasn’t alone - apparently predicting the end of the world is big business! They even spoofed on that TV show Parks and Rec - there’s this crazy group called the “Reasonable-ists” who predict the world is going to end every couple of years. That’s why when he was teaching his disciples about the end of the world - Jesus starts with, “look a lot of crazy stuff is going to happen in your life, but don’t let anyone deceive you - no one knows when the end will come.” Jesus reassured us that he IS coming back, but over and over he directs us AWAY from obsessing over the specifics around a day and time. The question Jesus wanted to focus on was not “how long will we wait? But rather “HOW will we wait?” 

Look at what he says next, in verse 45 [read v.45-46]. So Jesus says, imagine a big house with a lot of servants. The master goes away for a while, when he comes back - what will the servants be doing? And it’s probably obvious - he’s talking about us! Jesus is the master - he’s gone away for a bit, but when he comes back - what will he catch us doing? And here’s what I want you to realize - when Jesus talked about the end of the world, he didn’t want us to worry about tomorrow, he wanted us to change how we live TODAY. Think about it this way - if today was your last day, if the master was coming home tomorrow, what would you do differently? Who would you talk to? What decisions have you been putting off? What forgiveness have you been withholding? Is there someone you could reach out to and try to find reconciliation? If today was your last chance? Is there someone you’ve been meaning to share the gospel with - someone who needs to know Jesus, and you’ve always figured, I can do it tomorrow. What Jesus is saying here is, “whatever you would do, if you knew I was coming back at lunchtime tomorrow - go and do it right now.” Some of you - maybe God has been tapping you on the shoulder for years, to take the step to get baptized. And every time you see the baptism sign go up you get that pounding in your heart, and you’re thinking, “I know God has put it on my heart to do this, to claim Jesus as my lord and savior - to show it, but.. You know, next time. Next time God, I’ll catch you next time.” For some of you maybe that is the next step for you - God has been saying, “Go all in for me. Go public for me.” And for you, you just keep telling yourself - I have more time. Jesus is saying, what if you didn’t? 

There is something clarifying about the end of the world. It shows us what our real priorities are. What we actually care about. Think about the planes that hit the twin towers. The people on those planes, the people in the tower, some of them had a sense of what was happening. Some of them got messages out. Last minute phone calls. Voicemails. One last chance to reach your loved ones. And when you have only minutes left - all the fights, all the petty complaints and things that held us back when we thought we had lots of time - they all just evaporate. None of those phone calls were messages of anger or revenge - they were messages of love. The end of the world tends to rearrange your priorities, and you find out what’s actually important. Jesus is saying, “maybe that’s how you should live ALL of your life.” 

But he’s not done, [read v.46-49]. Urgency rearranges your priorities - but a lack of urgency destroys that. Jesus says, the servant who was working the whole time - the one the master finds working when he returns - big reward. But the lazy servant who thinks, “I’ve got plenty of time’ immediately turns and starts causing problems. Beating the other servants, drinking, ruining everything! Think about it like this, when you were a kid, if you were left home alone for a couple hours while mom was running errands - why would you want to know when she was coming back? You obsess over the exact time of her return - so you can make it look like you’re busy! She’s coming back at 4pm, I can goof off until 3:45pm, then turn off the cartoons, throw my snacks in the trash, dirty clothes in the closet and have just enough time to get over to the kitchen table so we can pretend we were doing homework the whole time! But then one time mom skips the grocery store and gets home twenty minutes early - catches you with your hand stuck in a pringle can, dirty clothes everywhere and some show you were NOT allowed to watch on the TV. Oh hi mom, I didn’t think you were coming home yet. Losing a sense of urgency, losing the sense that God could come back at any time - leads to evil. Or, for some of us, if you grew up in the church - maybe you were like me. I grew up knowing that Jesus was going to come back someday, but sometimes I would almost WISH Jesus was going to be delayed. Was anybody else like this? maybe this was just me - I’d get really excited about an upcoming vacation, or getting my license, or going to college - and I would sort of worry. “Oh man, I hope Jesus doesn’t come back yet - I’ve got this super fun thing I really want to do.” A lot of us have the mentality of this lazy servant, “my master won’t be back for a while” - and so I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to worry about my health or fitness, the environment, figuring out good budgeting - I’ve got loads of time to get around to that. I can put off the growth that God has for me, I can repent tomorrow, I can forgive later - I’ve got plenty of time to clean up my life before He gets home. When Jesus gave us a sense of urgency when speaking about the end of the world - that’s not meant to scare us, it’s meant to inspire us! Jesus doesn’t tell us what tomorrow will bring, so we will act as if today is all we have. 

And I think some people say, “well no - we need to know about the end of the world. What if bad things are coming, we should be prepared!” I think a lot of people spend time on the end of the world stuff because we want to try and avoid bad things that are out of our control. If I know it’s coming, If I have the details - then maybe bad things won’t come! But let me save you some time on that - and this is actually good news - I guarantee bad things are coming. Bad things are always coming. Jesus didn’t sugar-coat that - nation against nation, war, persecution - he says, “yep, it’s all coming - you should probably live prepared.” We don’t have to stress about whether bad things might happen, whether calamity MIGHT come - we KNOW it will come. Sometimes bad things happen because you did something dumb, that’s called consequences. But other times, there are things out of our control that cause problems in our world. But the good news part is that that is always been the way the world is. Until Jesus comes and brings heaven to earth - there’s always bad things coming. There were bad things that happened 5 years ago. There were bad things that happened 15 years ago. There were bad things that happened in 1988, when that guy wrote his first book. There were bad things that happened in the 60’s, in the 1600’s, and even back in Jesus’ day when the temple was torn down. Until Jesus comes back, there will always be bad things coming tomorrow. We don’t have to be afraid of that, because we should expect it. We spend all this time preoccupied with avoiding trouble that we forget our job is not to avoid it - but to prepare for it. To cling to the one who will get us through it. The promise of this life was never - avoiding bad things. The promise of God in this life is - no matter what comes, good or bad, God will be with you.

The good news that Jesus has for us this morning is God, our Father, is the author of tomorrow. Whatever else happens - God is the one writing the story. Are we living in the end times? Yes. No. It doesn’t matter. Because it’s not about how long we wait, it’s about HOW we wait. It might be that the end of the world doesn’t come for another thousand years. It might be that the end of the world comes before I finish this sentence. [pause]. But regardless of the day or time - God our Father is the author of tomorrow. And if he is the author, we can trust that the story will have a good ending. Jesus is coming back, we don’t know when - so we should live every single day as if it was the last chance we get to love God and love our neighbor. 

2 Peter, chapter 3 verse 9 has this to say, [read v.8-9]. This is the character of our God - he is patient with the end of the world, because he wants everyone to repent. But watch this, the very next verse. Verse 10 and 11, [read v.10-11]. Every time Jesus talked about the end of the world, he would tie that back to living a good life today. Whether the end of the world is a thousand years off, or ten minutes away - our to do list is the same: love God, love your neighbor - follow Jesus, tell everyone about him.

And so to finish up this morning I have a challenge for you. This week I want you to wait for the end of the world - and the challenge is to find ways to wait well. Become a doomsday prepper for Jesus. If you don’t know what a prepper is - there are people who prepare for the end of the world by building bunkers and stocking up canned fruit and ammo, running survival drills and have go bags in locations that are off the power grid. [put a picture of a prepper on the screen]. But a Christian doomsday prepper doesn’t build a bomb shelter, he builds a prayer closet, get really good at praying, he doesn’t stock up on canned food, he stocks up on the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, self-control). A Christian doomsday prepper doesn’t need to run drills for running and hiding, they need to run drills to practice with the bible, to run and seek refuge under the shelter of God’s grace.  They get ready for food shortages and rationing things out - we fast to draw ourselves closer to God. While we wait for the end of the world, become a Christian doomsday prepper. Find ways in your daily life to draw closer to God as we figure out how to wait well for his return.

The second part of waiting well has to do with how we love others. Earlier I asked the question - what would you do if you had only one day left? What phone call would you make - what forgiveness could you offer - what decision would you finally get around to? But then it occurred to me. Jesus knew. Jesus knew when his last day was. And he washed feet. If you don’t know the story - it’s this amazing moment of humility when Jesus puts on the clothing of a servant, kneels down and washes the feet of his disciples when they were arguing over who is the most important. That’s how he spent his last day before death. It is a symptom of a selfish society that when we think about the end of the world or the last day before we die - our thoughts first go to our own stuff. Jesus thought about others. If the master was coming back tomorrow - he would be really proud of you if he found you loving your neighbor. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, sharing God’s love in practical and personal ways - serving others however you can. First - become a Christian doomsday prepper - find ways in your daily life to grow closer to God. The second way to wait well is to let the master catch you loving your neighbor. Wash feet. Serve others. Tell them about Jesus. 

Years ago there was a south pole expedition led by the British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. At one point he left a few men on Elephant Island, an ice covered place near Antarctica. He told his men to be ready for his return, but when he tried to go back, huge icebergs blocked the way. They kept trying, and one day a narrow avenue in the ice opened up and Shackleton was able to get through. The boat barely could make it through, and the icebergs were closing the gap -but Shackleton found his men ready and waiting - they jumped aboard and as soon as the ship cleared the island, the ice crashed together behind them. They collapsed on the deck of the ship and Sir Ernest said, “It was fortunate you were all packed and ready to go.” And his men replied, “we never gave up hope. Whenever the sea was clear of ice, we rolled up our sleeping bags and reminded each other, “The boss may come today.” 2 Peter 3:14 says, [read v.14] Let’s pray.