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Sun, June 16, 202410AM • 57:09SUMMARY KEYWORDSJesus, god, Matthew, tribulation, ready, lord, Christians, talking, word, parable, faith, today, died, great, discourse, good, Greek, bible, telling, read
Good morning. Welcome if you're new here among us. My name is Gene. I serve here at C3 church as your pastor. And I heard a story. It was about a church that decided to start like a Christian singles group. So I noticed a lot of single Christians here. And so Okay, let's see if we can get them paired up with a suitable mates, right? That believes the same thing. So they decide to start this group. And so they decide that they're going to put this group they have a third floor, so that second floor, because they have a third well, they're going to put the group on the third floor, and then they decide it needs a name, right? Because we as Christians in ministry, everything needs a name, right? So we can make a t shirt, and then we can have all, right? And then there'sgot to be titles and the group leader and all these other things, right? Making things complicated. So they want to make things complicated, and they start coming up with a name, and they're like, Okay, well, it would be a good name for this club. And, alright, well, it's up high, you know it's on the third floor. Yeah, the stairs seem to go on for miles. I got it. We'll call it the Mile High Club.
That was a test. And you all pastor, alright. Welcome to Real church, real people. And yeah, Happy Father's Day, Dad. What does that mean, right? So we told you to take him to the kids area. Ask mom. We have fun. So if you're new here today, welcome, yeah, all right, indeed, we've been talking about misusing phrases, right? So that's really the crux of this whole series. And what a lot of Christian a lot of Christians, don't realize, is how we look when we do that, right? And unfortunately, you won't get the same laughter or response when someone gets up on a stage like this and totally abuses a verse or a phrase they're not like, what is he talking about? That's wrong, and that's unfortunate in Christianity. It really is, because we have this like, kind of verse of the day problem, where we go to one verse, that's it, and then we don't read the rest of the Bible at all, all out of order and everything, and we end up using these lines of Scripture, kind of like that, you know, where it's just wrong, it's not what it means at all. Right? So that's what we're looking at. We're trying to educate everybody and say, Okay, this is what these scriptures mean. These phrases really mean. So we're to pay attention to the context. There's going to be a little, a lot, well, a lot of fun for me. For others, not so much. But anyway, the verse in question. So we've been in Matthew, and what I'm trying to do for a little bit is, is stay in Matthew, because we've just been there. And then I can use other things that we've looked at as anchor points for you guys. Like, oh, remember that? Remember Jesus just said that? So we're talking about the parables Jesus uses, like, for like, well, I'll show you how it attaches now to the End Times discourse that he gives. So as a part of that discourse, we're we'll see this. We're going to go backwards and forwards a little bit, and I'll explain what Matthew 24 why. Matthew 2442 men will be working together in a field. One will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Okay, so what is the misuse that we have going on here? Well, basically, remember, and I'm trying to contextualize Jesus is in like, what's called the Olivet Discourse. He's in an End Times discourse here. And so this is a part of it here, right? So I'll show you how the parables follow, and it's all the same discourse, but he's talking about the end times. And so what people have used these verses to say will be that during these end times, during this tribulation, all this stuff, somehow we as Christians are just going to be whisked up, and that's it. And so we get to just evade any kind of suffering at all. Alright, so that's really what it is. It's popular because it kind of lets people know, ah, you may get to evade all that suffering. And so I'm going to totally ruin that for you today, so you'll see similar things in Luke. 17. Mark 13 is a shorter account of this. I'm going to again stay in Matthew, and it does give us the larger discourse. So there's more information in Matthew than in the other places. That's why we're there. You could hop over, get about the same thing, but we're just going to stay on this track. So I'm going to kind of unpack this for you in a backup, starting with, like, the original language. Now I just want to say this actually. So if you're holding a mainstream Bible translation, if you're reading from, you know, today, NLT, that's good. You know what? I mean. It's so if you've been here for a while, bracket, the Greek things when it gets a little more literal, or word for word, or I think it should be right, but they're all good. They all say the same basic thing, right? But there are like, little nuances and details for things like this. So you've got the gospel message. No matter what Bible translation you're using, they're all good. It's fine, right? So I don't want to worry anybody, but there are nuances in the Greek language that you get. It, and so not a lot of people know. But when you go to pastor, school or seminary or whatever it is, you really don't learn a lot of Greek, or as much as most pastors would lead you to believe. You know, right? But if you go to a pastor, don't do this, because it's just mean, I do it. But anyway, just open up a Greek Bible and go here, read it. And like, I can't. I'm like, Alright, so stop telling your congregation you can anyway. After my schooling, I really devoted myself to years of just really, like, trying to learn the Greek. Have a tutor. I still work with this person to this day, whenever I have, like, a question about it or anything. So I work really hard at this. And so when I read these verses, something that just is not obvious will become extremely obvious when you begin learning Greek. And so let's say you were in Matthew five. So we'll back up a little bit, and you've read the Sermon on the Mount. Right we get to Matthew six, and it's like, oh, it talks about forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer. And then if we keep reading one more verse, we see right here, if you don't forgive others, your heavenly Father won't forgive you. So forgive, forgive, forgive. So you'll learn that word afimi when you see it in the Greek text. And so you're just trained to see that now, now I know what that word means. When I see it always translated, forgiven, right? When you see that word in Greek. I get here, and all of a sudden I'm reading it, and I see that word again, like, that's weird, because now I'm like, receive or take. It's close in the Greek, so I'm seeing like to receive, to take and forgive. One will be forgiven, and the other one taken. What? So here we go. Great, tutor, help. You know, because this doesn't make any sense. Ah, well, the concept here in Greek is like to let it go. That's a concept here. So just let it go, leave it you know, and I won't sing the song, right, anyway, so right, but it's like that, right? Just let it go. Oh, okay, so it can be translated that way. But wait, hold on. But that means that that's a good thing if you're let go, Yeah, okay, alright. So now I'm going to avoid, like, being like, I have a special set of skills, right? So you're either taken, okay, whatever. So you're either taken or you're let go. I could just do a whole musical, if you guys want, but no, I'm not going to do that. Somebody said, Yeah, please. Okay, so in a comical way, you can kind of see that when you look at the text, hold on, there's something else going on here. You have someone being taken and worried, Luke, it makes it more clear where you know off to judgment being taken, which is not a good thing, and someone being left, let go, right? So now, if we just back up and we this, we do what most Christians never do, look at the surrounding context, aka what Jesus just said a second ago, right? It'll become even more clear. So I'm going to go back and forth a little bit. But Jesus again, he's talking about the end times. He's drawing from a lot of the prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Daniel and so he said a lot of that. Matthew, 2435 Heaven and Earth will disappear, but My words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows, and we'll go back there in a minute when the Son of Man returns. Jesus is speaking about Himself, just in case you don't know, it will be like it was in Noah state in those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in a field. One will be taken the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken the other left. So you two must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming. Alright. So what just happened in Noah's day? Noah was left, everybody else was swept or taken away, as Jesus saying, that's the way it'll be, which means you don't want to be swept away or taken away, right? Simple, when you just look at the context now,
this will lead so anyway, we get it from the concepts. But here's where I want to take you. I'm trying to just put this together for you. Make it kind of easy. So anyway, we get that right? So being taken away, not good, not good in the context, not good in the language. Alright? So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to hop over to First Thessalonians. That's what had me thinking for a second there. Context. I'm going to give you context. If you remember acts number, acts 17. So he has Paul has a rough time. Paul sabes and Timothy write this, Paul, when he gets to Thessaloniki, as, let's be honest, Thessalonica, he runs into a rough time. They're not accepting Him there what he wants to so this continues on. So the letter First Thessalonians is after he visits, he writes to that church, and what's happening is they're suffering persecution. They're Jewish believers who've now become Christian. Actions. So they're suffering. People are dying. There's all kinds of bad things happening. So it's just really a letter to bring them comfort during this time. And so in chapter four, he gets to the point where, oh, they're dying. Let's just kind of address this grief that you may be experiencing. That's the context. But within that first, Thessalonians, 413, and now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like other people who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again. We also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord. We are still living. When the Lord returns, will not meet him ahead of those who have died for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a Commanding Shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves and together with them, we were still alive and remain on the earth, will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage one another with these words. So you can see here, just understanding the basic context. You know, this is not trying to establish a raptured doctrine. This is the point of this, alright? So that's the first thing. So encourage one another with these words. So the context is comfort and Jesus coming back, drawing from all kinds of really cool language. And we won't have time to get into it today, but you can, you know, just the trumpet call of God. You can picture Moses on the mountain when the 10 Commandments. So it's just, he's drawing from all this stuff. But what's going on here? We meet the Lord in the air? Well, if you understand again the Greek, you know that this is an idiom, and what this kind of means like, back then, people would greet a king coming back from battle, and they would say something like, we're going to meet the king or whatever in the air. And so there's another song I'm not going to sing, but I will, believe it or not, I'm walking on air, right? So you understand, okay, good. You're old, so am I? So but you get it right? It's an idiom. Like, we have that today. We say I'm walking on air, right? So who says that? But anyway, it's in, it's in the Bible. So that's where people will also go to draw this doctrine which is completely out of context, completely ignores the original language or any understanding of it whatsoever, right? So it's another, another one of those things there. So there's no rapture the way we're taught about it really, there's a resurrection in that sense, and there's being taken up. Yes, yes, yes, but like no rapture now on that it definitely doesn't happen before a tribulation. And I want to show this to you, and you're going to see some brackets here and there, because this is where we really do need to go to the original language to see what's being said, right? So let's go back to Matthew 24 I'm probably going to mention this, but I'll say it just, just so that you know. So we're talking about the end times. And so right now it's, it's we're answering different questions as we go through one at a time. And so now, will we go through the tribulation? What does it say about that? And so again, we've backed up Jesus in this End Times discourse. Matthew 24/7 nation will go to war against nation. Things are going to be bad, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come, then you will be arrested, persecuted and killed. So literally, it says they will deliver you over to tribulation, alright? So that deliver too, by the way, it's like that taken word in there. That's what it is, right? Overdue tribulation. So think right. First, these things will happen. Now, you know, then they will deliver you over disciples. He's talking to His disciples here, so wait, what? Yeah, then, after these bad things, then you will be delivered over to tribulation. So experience bad things, then you will experience more bad things and put to death, right? You'll be hated all over the world because you're my followers. Okay? So you get that, he says to the disciple, like, I'm assuming they're Christians, right? So you will go through tribulation. Oh, okay, so now I'm going to kind of summarize what's leading up here. He just talks things are going to be bad, man, you will turn you guys, some of you guys, are going to betray one another, and many false prophets will appear. Talks about all these false teachers, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Endures. What? Tribulation? Alright. So then he talks about Dan. We're not going to get into this if you want to know more about like Daniel the prophet spoke about the sacrilegious object that causes desecration, right? So you can look at the rest of the story series. We're not ignoring this. It's just not our topic matter, right? But it's a little bit hard to understand. I explain it in that series because you have kind of, like, this generation will experience these things, and then far time, just going back and forth. But the urgency, or a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down in the house to pack. A person in the field must not even return, return to get your coat. So he's basically, like, you get out of there. It's going to be bad. Like, that's the idea Matthew 2421 for there will be greater. Anguish, literally, in Greek, tribulation, than at any time since the world began, and it will never be so great again. In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones. Wait, he said it again, right? It'll be shortened. The Tribulation will be shortened for who the elect, right? This is literally just the elect in Greek, but the chosen ones, good translation us. It'll be shortened for Christians, for Christian So here, if you were tempted to say, Ah, he's just talking to four disciples, because I looked at the other accounts and counted, right, yeah, but he's saying everybody, right? So His Chosen Ones, they'll go through it, alright? So this is the idea they will not be raptured out of that. That is not in the text. It says the exact opposite over and over again, as we can see also, if you keep reading again, if you want, like kind of a full treatment of the book of Revelation, you can go back to the rest of the story series, and I do it there, but let's just dip in and we'll see what's going on. So you remember that we talked about the martyrs in Revelation that refrain. We'll look at it again. Revelation seven. So we're going to do, unlike what most people do, we're going to look at the whole chapter. But if you go back to six, you see, like the six seals broken. So that's all part of this. And so all this bad stuff happens, right? There's a great earthquake, the sun and the moon, you comedark and stars fall from the stock sky. You know, just no one can avoid it. The kings of the world are hiding. You know, regular people are hiding. Everybody's hiding from it. It's terrible. And then you go to Revelation seven, one. Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of Earth, holding back the four winds, so they did not blow on the Earth or the sea or even any tree. And I get a picture of like being in the eye of a storm. I got an opportunity to do that. It's crazy, right? So it's really nuts. And I saw another angel coming up from the east carrying the Seal of the Living God, and He shouted to those four angels who had been given power to harm land and sea, wait, don't harm the land of the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of His servants. And it's got just an interesting nugget. And I heard, and I heard how many were marked of the seal of God, 144,000 it goes through the tribes of Israel, Judah, Reuben, Gad,Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi,Issachar, Zebulun,Joseph and Benjamin. Yes, a practice anyway. So 12,000 from each tribe, 144,000 but wait, that's what he heard. After this, I saw a vast crowd, and this is too great to count, really important. Lot of people ignore this, from every nation, every tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands, and they were shouting with a great roar. Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne and from the lamb of the lamb and all the angel is standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne, their faces of the ground, and worship God. And they sang, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the 24 elders asked me, this is John. He's prophesying here. Who are these clothed in white? Where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you're the one who knows. And he said to me, these are the ones who died in the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white, huh? So this is really a good chapter to read. The whole things. There's so many different doctrines that come out of this. If you just read the whole chapter, you never would have came with this. But what we see here is this multi ethnic army. And who are they? Well, these are the ones who died where in the tribulation, right? So, so, yes, you have the 12 tribes in Israel, but this is us being like grafted in, and everybody's there, and it's this huge, huge group of people, right? But they die in the tribulation. Now, again, think about the refrain we looked at last week in light of this Revelation 13 and Revelation 14. Again, 1412, this means that God's holy people must endure persecution, patiently obeying His commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this down. Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on? What
are you blessed who die on earth now? And yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work, for their good deeds will follow them. Then, if we keep reading, we get to see how they're blessed. 19, Jesus comes back, so he brings the Justice right he comes back. That's your revenge, right there. Then revelation 20 we see Satan bound for 1000 years. Revelation 24 then I saw thrones and people sitting on them had been given authority to judge. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded, the martyrs for their testimony about Jesus and proclaiming the Word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or hands. Symbolism there, go back and watch that message, if you don't know what that means, they all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for 1000 years. This is the first resurrection. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until 1000years it ended. Blessed and holy are those who share in the. First resurrection for them, the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him for 1000 years. That's how they're rewarded. Hey, I got an idea, after church today, let's go get beheaded. No, nobody's signing up for that mission trip, right? So, but anyway, that's what happens. That's the reward. So what did what did it say? It described them before they died in the tribulation, right? And furthermore, they got their heads cut off, right? They die, right? So they're martyrs. Okay? So I think I made that redundantly clear. I could keep going, and I always save a little in my back pocket for when someone's like, I'm like, Okay, so anyway, if it's not clear from the text, where does this come from, right? So it's so clear, like, just crystal clear when you just all we had to do today was read Matthew 24 I could have done that and dropped the mic. Like, why didn't he just do that? Or, it's Father's Day. We have dinner for our lunch, but, but I want to really educate you on this, right? Show you this is how ridiculous the teaching is, right? So first problem, we talked about it already, right? The verse of the day. Problem, people are just, if we're being really honest, as Christians, they're not, for the most part, reading their Bibles. They're just, they're not going to sit there and go, Oh, let me look, you know, and see and read Matthew 24 and 25 you know what? That's two whole chapters of the Bible. I have sitcoms to watch, right? Shows to binge watch, so it's a it's a problem, you know? But with that being said, here's the thing, if you're a mile high and you're on an airplane and people suddenly start disappearing, maybe I'm wrong, but then Nick Cage is the pilot, right? And you're watching a bad movie. That's totally wrong, right? Orthogon, you forgot your parachute. So this is an example, and you know, it is funny, but it's not like of how popular culture has infected our Christianity. It's not and in fact, I'll go a step further if you know me well, I don't like Christian movies. I don't like them because I find myself critiquing, and almost all of them fail at one point or another. I'm like, that's not what it says off like, I don't want to. It's annoying, right? It's not true. And so with the problem, you know, as well, we're saying something about the Word of God. That's not true. If that isn't a problem, I don't know if you're a Christian, that's got to be a problem for you, right? It needs to be a very big problem. You know, I've given analogies all the time where it's like, you know, imagine someone twisted your words to say something completely different in your story, you might be a little upset, right? Well, this is God we're talking about, and when we do that, you see what silly nonsense can happen. And so when you give Christians and like the idea that nothing bad is ever going to happen to them, what happens when something bad does happen to them, what did it say those who endure will be saved, so we'll look at that more like we're supposed to be preparing ourselves to be ready for this so we don't fall away, so that we do endure when this happens. That's what's wrong with the teaching. It's not innocent. It can cause many to fall away, many to fall away. And the Bible says there is a problem. And so you know, if you know me, like even the most popularly Christian shows that there's one that's won't even mention it, doesn't deserve it. But, like, you're like, I'm going to change it, but, but anyway, you know it's like, I mean, they'll do a whole episode, and there's some dude on there who has three lines in the Bible, but now he's got 30 and then you're drawing all kinds of crazy doctrine from it, and that that happens. Oh, well, this means that, no, it doesn't, no, it doesn't, right? So don't make Jesus out to be someone he's not. That's the problem. So where did it come from? Well, along with that line of thinking, you know, you have the thing called the prosperity gospel, which teaches a lot of things just wrong. They're, they're just absolutely not true. It's not what Jesus said, right? So what do you have, like, you know, at the Industrial Revolution, having see, you know, you got to look at history. And so some of these things were easier to believe, right? Because let's, you were born of this, and you stayed of this, and you died of this, you know, like, within five miles of your home, you know? It's that kind of thing, right? It's just this pretty simple life. But all of a sudden we start to in culture and society, get this idea, whoa, you know, we can be born of nothing and then become something great by what making money, right? And so that's what our world, our society, tells us, if you You're great, you'll make money, you know. And so it's all this value on stuff. You have the industrial revolution happening. So in the mid 1800s this is where this becomes popular. Was this idea in church at all in the beginning? Yes, but not in this construction of the idea, not this way, and not for this purpose, right? So it becomes popular in the mid 1800s and of course, it's an easy way, right to put but. It's in seats. Said that as nicely as I could, right? You know. So you make everybody feel really good no matter what they're doing. You leave out all this stuff. Did you see what Jesus said? Nope, we don't. We're not going to preach on that at all, right? Because that's terrible, right? You know. And that's it. Well, that's great, you know, affirm your sin, right? That that's what a lot of places are doing, right? But the Bible doesn't do that at all, right? It makes us bad. It feels bad, as we should when we do something wrong, right? So what we want to do is take away all that we don't but that's what they do. So let's take away all that suffering. Let's not mention hell, the amount of times Jesus mentions it, right? We're not going to talk about that. Just make em feel good. That's it. And it's a business now, and we got a business, and that's really what it is. But here's the funny thing, this is where I do laugh at a lot of conservative churches, right? So they'll get up there the Word of God, the Word of God. You know, they're very conservative in all these ways, shapes and forms. They're like they're they'll preach against that prosperity gospel. And don't let them tell you this, that. And the other thing about the prosperity gospel, it's wrong and but today we're going to preach on the rapture, which is prosperity doctrine. So even conservative churches that think they're conservative, they're not, they're preaching prosperity doctrine. And again, that's how powerful and pervasive these movies, this Christian culture is it has totally infected the Word of God. It's terrible. So there's another thing just kind of like, almost like a sidebar. But it's important to hear on this. It's all it's attached to this. It's very common, and that is this idea that we'll somehow know when this is going to happen. So what's that called? End Times prophecy. So now I didn't read this to you, but I just, I'll talk about it in a minute. The this whole dialog, this Olivet Discourse, is what it's called, because it happens on the Mount of Olives. So what happens is the disciples see the buildings, and they go, what great, large just like that. Made that noise. Look at these large buildings, like the temple, all this stuff, right? And there's these blocks that weigh like a million pounds, a gigantic block, and they're marveling at it. And Jesus says, now, now one of these stones will be left, right? So what he's thought, He's predicting the destruction of the temple in 70 ad. So that's what I mean. Some are happening like their generation, some are later. So that's where that starts off. Then they go to the Mount of Olives and the disciples. So you have Simon, Peter and Andrew and James and John there for and they ask him, like, when will essentially, when will these things happen? Will they actually ask what? What is a sign going to be? But the crux of the question is, when? So this whole thing is a response to that question within it, I'm going to give you a couple of things that he says. And remember, remember the because that's what people do. They forget the why is Jesus saying this? There was a question. The question is, when? Right? That's the question. And so when you read the verses, this is the answer. So this is the answer Jesus gives within the dialog, Matthew, 2435 Heaven and Earth will disappear, but My words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even angels in heaven or the Son himself, talking about himself, only the Father knows. Again, if we keep reading Matthew 2442 so you too must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming, and if we hop to Acts, this question comes up again, right acts one six is before Jesus ascends to heaven. So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, Lord, Has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom? He replied, The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. So I want you to think about what Jesus just said. Sounds kind of like a command, doesn't it? It's not for you to know. No, right? So that's it, alright, so you don't go. But no, the Lord just told you it's not for you to know.
Okay, right? So you think people would go, Yes, Lord Jesus, that's it. No. So why do so many people calling themselves Christians say they know things like, I think it's Luke 646, why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord, but you don't do what I say, right? So maybe the reason is because they're like those false prophets and teachers that Jesus just warned about in this same dialog. Many will come saying they know, right? So it has been said that all end times prophecy outside the Bible has one thing in common, they're all wrong, and there's a reason why, because if it's not for us to know, how would we just kind of go over the Lord's head here on this one and know we don't right? So we shouldn't be trying to faithlessly game the system here. We shouldn't be dismissing Jesus and saying we know. Thing that is not for us to know to the kind of like, if he's not our Lord, right? He's not our Savior, right? So it negates a command from him, watch out lot of false prophets out there, or arrogantly say we know something that Jesus doesn't even know. That's great lord, but I know. Okay, faith is not knowing and just being ready. I mean, that's faith. And that brings me to the next point here in this dialog. So we're going to look a little more at the dialog, and I hope you see something. So while Jesus is teaching is in part about the end times, it is mostly about being ready at all times. That's what this is really about. And I'll show you why. So again, we see that Matt now we're going to put it together. And maybe if you have a Bible, you've noticed something from Matthew 24 through Matthew 25 Jesus has not stopped talking. There just happens to be a number in there that someone put there, like 1200 years later, it's not there. Jesus is still talking so, but we like to interrupt him, right? So, and he really gives you the crux of his point when you keep reading again. This is in response to a question, when will these things be? Right? So he warns him, you must keep watch for you don't know when your Lord's coming. He says, lead see that no one leads you astray, right? There will be signs. But what did he say right after that? But these are just the beginning. There's going to be more. Many will come, in my name lead you astray. They will claim to know. They'll claim to be prophets. So he moves through this, then you'll be delivered over tribulation. We looked at that verse nine, then Jesus speaks of His coming. Again, a little confusing, right? Because of the abomination thing, but we're just going to keep moving along with the End Times. There'll be signs, but again, no one knows. Then what you get here is the rest of the teaching in chapter 24 so like last two paragraphs of chapter 24 all the way through chapter 25 he did not stop talking. Right? You can walk out on him if you want, but he's making his point. They're all about being ready. Every single one of those parables he tells are about being ready, right? So you get the thief, right? How would a thief if you were ready? Thiefwouldn't rob you. I'm just giving quick points here, right? So don't be like that servant who gets drunk when the Master's away, because you don't know when he's coming back, right? So what is it? So they all lived to Jesus coming back, the master, right? He's not a thief. But so then you go to 25 you get the 10 virgins, right? So that's not about oil management, right? So five or wise, five or not, they're not ready for with a picture of the Bridegroom, Jesus coming back. They're not ready for him to come back. The parable the talents. No, it's not about money management. Someone says it is. Stop listening to them. It's no more about money management than it is about oil management. The parable He just told he hasn't stopped talking. It's the parable of the talents, 521, right? So good. Just be ready for that master to come back with your investments, heavenly investments. Then you get the sheep and the goats. And so we've been through this recently, right? So you guys have heard it, but just kind of to review really quick, right? So Jesus comes back. He's on his throne. He'll divide all these people, like sheep and goats, Christians too. He'll say, right, you know, well done. You have inherited the kingdom prepared for you to the sheep. You know, you saw me hungry, thirsty, naked, in prison, sick, you know. And you cared for me. When did we see you like that? Jesus, well, that what you did to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. And he turns to the goats, and it's the opposite. You didn't do it for me when you didn't do for all these people, doing means something, huh? You know, so well you're going to go to hell, is essentially what he's saying. That's a parable. But now think about it. He said all of this, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, he said all of this in light of that first question. He hasn't stopped talking. He hasn't said, Okay, we'll do that at Bible study next week. And forget what I just said. No, he doesn't stop talking, right? So interesting. It's all about the end times, yeah, but it's more about being ready, right at all times. That's what it's about. So his response, think about that, to this question, right? Is, be ready, right? He just said, you don't know, there'll be signs, but you don't know. No one knows, except the Father. I don't know. Then a bunch of parables, bang, bang, bang. Now, like hammers, these guys with parables over and over. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready, over and over again. And so it's a really good lesson here, right? We shouldn't do that. Look carefully at your Bible. Don't you know? Because people do that, they'll read chapter 24 read chapter 24 read 10. They can't tell you what he says in 25 and it's like, well, that was the conclusion, right? So if this is a sermon, that was the conclusion. So you walked out more than halfway through. He's kind of got a really important. Point here, the whole discourse is when what signs I don't even know, right? So that's the summary. I don't know, but be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. He talks about hell for those who are not ready. That's his conclusion. So I'll lighten this up, because you guys are like, it's getting hot in here right now. Whoo, still working through that mile high thing. So I tell, I'll tell a funny story. So I told a funny story a while ago. I don't know when, but I'll bring it up again, right? So it's about a rabbit, and the rabbit is gets up every morning, like 5am and runs around the forest, and he goes to each one of the animals, and he's always telling him to be ready, right? And then get up. So it's that kind of thing. So he's like, you know, come on be healthy. And it goes to the giraffe, like, you know, it's funny story, because you're imagining a giraffe running. So come on giraffe, come on be healthy. Run with me, you know, come on monkey, be healthy. Running is getting really annoying. And finally, the lion, he hasn't had his coffee, and he just kills the rabbit. And the rest of the Yeah, and the rest of the animals are like, yes, no. They're like, why did you kill the rabbit? He says, Man, that crazy rabbit every morning, he does all these drugs and then runs around the woods like crazy, telling everyone to be healthy. So it was whatever could be my delivery, right? But what is this? Have to do? Because there are typically two types of respondents here to Jesus's discourse that we're looking at, right? There are those that hear the stuff about the end time. Ignore all this stuff about you don't know, right? They don't listen to any of that. And they hear all this stuff happening. And you know what? They leave the sermon early. They're out, right? Because they can't wait to tell everybody else that they're not saved. That's person number one. Alright, I walk out because I Oh, these guys are done, right? Let me go tell them that they're done. Then there's the other one, and hopefully this is you, the people who patiently listen and hang on every Jesus, don't stop talking. You're the Lord. I want to hear what you have to say. And they get through the whole thing and they go, I hope I'm not a goat. That's what I did when I read it. I hope I'm not a goat. That's crazy. I better be ready. Am I ready? Like I hope IMaybe it's selfish, but I have forgotten everything about everybody else at that point, right? Because I'm like, oh, wait a minute. Like, did I help that guy who was hungry? Did I you know, that's what you start doing. You go through an inventory, and you're like, Oh my gosh. And before he said, I need to love my enemies, like, oh no. And there could be different words you use because it's shocking. You should be shocked, right? And most of us who are telling the truth, we're ashamed of ourselves. I know me. I read it today, ashamed of myself. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I could be doing this so much better, but that's what Jesus is calling us to do, right? There's nothing to do with warning anybody else about anything that we don't know when it's going to happen. It doesn't make sense, right? So take this picture of Jesus's parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector. Alright, look at me and all these things that I do. Everyone should be like me, right? And then the tax collector, Oh, so sorry. Okay, can't believe it, right. Now, some people may be having trouble reading this correctly because of the log in their eye,
right? And this is emphasized by Jesus, because, just like, if you remember, just like the teaching on judgment that I showed you, right? We were in Matthew seven, right? Don't judge. And then, yes, we do judge some things, right? But before Jesus gets to that, now, what does he say? Before you point out that speck, alright? And somebody else's eye, get the log out of yours. Get the log out of yours, okay? Judge, but careful. He really wants you to do some inner reflection here, right? And so this is the same is true about this. Are we to do evangelism? Yes, yes, but yes, but it will be better received if we do that evangelism without a big log in our eye. We don't look so stupid, right? When we do it. And that's the point of this teaching. Christians are great at telling everybody to be ready when they themselves are not ready. You know, it's like the oxygen mask illustration, right? You're in an airplane. What? Happens, they tell you, the oxygen has come down. Put it on yourself, because if you're not good, nobody else around you is good. That's why, you know they do these surveys, and it breaks. It annoys me as a pastor, quite frankly, it's hard to build a real church, because when they survey people, they say, Christians. What do you think of judgmental hypocrites? First, two things out of their mouth. 99% of people who aren't Christians, judgmental hypocrites. That's what's keeping people from the faith. Our hypocrisy. That's the problem, right? So if we don't take care of ourselves, we're no good day. Our evangelism is worthless. Again. It goes back to the picket sign thing, right? The mirror, the mirror, the mirror. Forget about the picket sign. You worry about yourself and what when you're fertile soil and it's all good, and the words in there, the fruit's going to grow by it. So it doesn't matter. It's going to grow. You'll be good. You don't have to force it. So again, when will the end come? Jesus? Focus on yourself. If I had to boil it down, that's it. So for those concerned, right? That everyone needs to be ready. Jesus poses this question, are you ready now? Here's Well, we talked about this, right? The real war is inside us. We saw this. We've been looking at this again. Well, I went to Galatians five, right? We want to fight all these external battles, even though Bible tells us not against real flesh and blood enemies, right? What's it again, spiritual forces, right? The real war is here. That's where it begins. We got to let the Holy Spirit win that war first, then we can go out right and start letting everyone know, like, Hey, I have joy, peace, patience, kindness, love, all these great things, if it has to happen here. So Jesus ends by focusing on that inner battle. Right? Be ready. So when we go and we point out other people's specs, Jesus points right back to our log. Now here's another way people game the system a little bit, right? So here's the next response. I'll just kind of beat you to it, because I've heard it before, not here. But people will say, Well, you know, see those signs, though the Tribulation is not going to happen right away anyway, because we don't, we're not seeing those kinds of signs or better, so, you know, right? So they start putting it off. And I would say you didn't read the parable about the guy getting drunk and the master coming back when he didn't expect it. And so they start putting it off because they didn't read those parables, you know. So they put it off, right? Or whatever. I'm going to propose something to you that becomes a little more clear. Maybe, as you get to around my age. Tribulation might not happen today, but you could die today very easily. There's a lot of ways that you could die today. Are you going to be ready? You have no control over that, none. I mean, we live in a state where we think we do not zero control over that. And will you be ready again? That's why, Jesus, it's not about the tribulation. It's about you being ready. That's what's most important to our Lord, right? Is that you come on into the kingdom. So being prepared means doing the preparation. It does. I know. Ephesians two, we were saved by grace, absolutely. But what does it say? Keep reading past verse eight, and you'll see we're created anew in Christ, Jesus for the purpose of doing good works prepared beforehand by our father. Yeah, that's there. Go read it. Ephesians two, so I get it. I know what we're saved by, but Right? If it walks like a duck, it's a duck. If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. And so we, if we're saying we're Christians, we should be out there doing good things like Jesus said to do. We should not ignore Him at any point. And it can be difficult, right, especially the self reflection. And so it brings me to a couple phrases. Like, you know, you've heard them. No pain, no gain. If you have, you heard that in the gym, you know? Like, I'm like, That's not helpful. It's like, right now, this hurts a lot, right? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I'm like, I just want to die right now. This is really bad, you know, that's the way I've responded to that, right? Just kill me. That would be great, right? I'm saved, I think, you know, anyway, right? They don't seem helpful, like this kind of refining, this kind of stuff. You know? It's just, it's not fun, if, if we're being honest. So this idea of going through tribulations or trials well, and I'm going to show you a little more text this morning, those trials are a refining process that make us ready for Jesus, and that stop us from falling away so much the same way, like doing some of the no pain, no gain stuff, right? It prepares you for something else, right? So it stops you. Because a lot of people, why don't you done that saved by works. I don't need to do anything, right? That's actually. What Jesus says, Yes, we're saved by grace. But he doesn't say that means you can do nothing. In fact, go back to the sheep and goats. He says, there's a consequence for doing nothing. I just really don't want to play with that fire, just me, just right here. I can try to lawyer it and gain it all I want. Uh, nope, I'll just get out there. And by the way, like as you get better at this. And the Holy Spirit's really working. It's not hard, like, because God's doing it. The Holy Spirit's like, encouraging to do all this good stuff. So anyway, you know, with that being said, it stops us from falling away again, going back to the false teaching. That's why it's so dangerous. Well, wait a minute, my pastor said this was never going to happen to me. You know. No, it will, Jesus, I don't care what your pastor said. Jesus said, it's going to happen to you, so train for it. Be ready. So it's a more of a negative thing. It's not how you get saved, it's how you keep it. That's how you stop from falling away. Jesus said, clearly, you can fall away. That's it. So let's take a look at a few scriptures for encouragement. I'll close so Romans, five, one. Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus, Christ, our Lord, has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we con undeserved and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice too when we run into problems, and there's the word tribulation again, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develop strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation, and this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. So you see, there's a point here, right? We go through these things, so we develop. What does it say? Develop? Do we need to develop more after being saved? Yes, we need to develop endurance. We need to develop strength of character through and by what the Holy Spirit goes back to that fruit of the Spirit. Thing again, alright? James one, two Dear Brothers and Sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. This is how the Holy Spirit should be causing you to see those problems, an opportunity for great joy to be happy. What for you know that when your faith is tested, you are, oh, there's the word again. Endurance has a chance to grow, so let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing they think more of the prosperity. Churches read those verses needing none. When you're perfect and complete, you don't need anything. That's it, Jesus, you are enough. First, Peter, one, three. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, not here, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive the salvation which is ready to be received on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad there is wonderful joy ahead. Does this sound redundant, even though you must endure many trials for a little while, these trials will show that your faith is genuine. Is being tested as fire, test and purify his gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to
the whole world, Jesus said it, the one who endures to the end will be saved, and the Word of God continues to let you know how you endure. And did you notice that comment about saved says it right there in Peter then right? You will receive His salvation. Interesting, right? Don't fall away. So again, it helps us develop right this endurance. It helps us develop the right attitude. Joyce, joy, joy, joy, first. Thessalonians, what were we supposed to do? Encourage one another with these words. How do we do that? If we always have a bad attitude, we can't What's the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control. That's
the fruit of the Spirit. Joy, how, what? How are we going to get out there and warn everybody if we don't have joy? And by the way, we should be doing it joyfully, right? You?
We have that hope, our inheritance is in heaven. That's what we hope. And it's not here. It's in heaven. So we need that hope, but we need to cultivate and develop that the Holy Spirit works with us to get that hope, that joy, and then when we develop in this way, we can then be credible witnesses. That's what the Lord wants, credible witnesses. There are far too many, I should say, incredible witnesses. But, yeah, you know what? It seems that way, incredible witnesses. We need more credible witnesses. That's what Christianity means. Why isn't the faith growing? Because we're not credible. That's the problem with most, most Christians. That'swe. But you get what I'm saying as a whole, they're just not credible. So, like, the outside world kind of knows, like, in some ways, more about Jesus than we do. They're like, I don't know. He's some homeless guy who brought peace everywhere and loved everybody, and they say he died for us. Like, yeah, you get that. Okay, good, you know. But then we make him about all kinds of other things that it's just not and then we miss or represent Him. These things, did you notice that prove that your faith is genuine? These things prove and like fire test gold, that which is truly precious to God is tested, and so that's the encouraging side of it. You are truly precious to God. Why would any parent warn their child? Why do you worry about your children? It's Father's Day, right? Why do I Why do we fathers worry about our kids? Well, you love them, right? Be careful. Wear your seat belt, whatever it is, right? We love them. Don't do my high club like, wait till you're married, and then, even then, I think it's illegal. But anyway, I tried here guys trying, but you get my point, right? Why do we worry? Because we love their precious to us, and in the same way as God's children, you are precious to him. That's why Jesus spends so much time giving the warnings. It's not just going it's kind of to scare you, because we do that to our kids too, right? When we want them to be scared sometimes, but stay away from that. We love them. How much more does God love each and every one of you. So he's going to test you. Hebrews 12. He's going to discipline you. He wants to build you up. He wants you to be refined and strong in the faith, right? He wants you to be with Him forever. And that's the point. So second, Peter, one five, in view of all of this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Are we responding to God's promises? How supplement your faith with the generous provision of moral excellence and moral excellence with knowledge and knowledge with self control and self control with patient endurance and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection With love for everyone, the more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus. But those who fail to develop in this way are short sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. Dear brothers and sisters work hard to prove that you are really among those God has called and chose and do these things and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're all going through something and I get it, I'm going through things. You're going through things, right? But we must always remember that, because we are precious to God, and he's doing these things or allowing these things to happen to us. He's refining us. He's strengthening us. He wants us to get to that inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. So what do we do? We fix our eyes on Jesus. We focus on those rewards in heaven. Keep our eyes on that these things, as it says, beyond the reach of change or decay, as Jesus says, where moths can't eat them, where rust can't destroy it, we will never be disappointed in that heavenly inheritance. Things here will always disappoint us. So for those who really long to endure just long. For Jesus to say to you, so you hear well done, good and faithful servant. And so that's my prayer for all of us. Today we're calling Jesus our Lord. Let's get back to that place where his approval is the only approval that matters to us. His word is enough. Heavenly inheritance supersedes everything we could want or desire for ourselves here. So I want to pray from some scriptures for you as I close So be encouraged those who feel weary, if you're feeling broken today, here's some encouragement in his kindness. God called you to share in His eternal glory, by means of Christ, Jesus, so after you've suffered for a little while, he will restore support and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation, All glory and power to him, forever and ever. Amen,
Good morning. Welcome if you're new here among us. My name is Gene. I serve here at C3 church as your pastor. And I heard a story. It was about a church that decided to start like a Christian singles group. So I noticed a lot of single Christians here. And so Okay, let's see if we can get them paired up with a suitable mates, right? That believes the same thing. So they decide to start this group. And so they decide that they're going to put this group they have a third floor, so that second floor, because they have a third well, they're going to put the group on the third floor, and then they decide it needs a name, right? Because we as Christians in ministry, everything needs a name, right? So we can make a t shirt, and then we can have all, right? And then there'sgot to be titles and the group leader and all these other things, right? Making things complicated. So they want to make things complicated, and they start coming up with a name, and they're like, Okay, well, it would be a good name for this club. And, alright, well, it's up high, you know it's on the third floor. Yeah, the stairs seem to go on for miles. I got it. We'll call it the Mile High Club.
That was a test. And you all pastor, alright. Welcome to Real church, real people. And yeah, Happy Father's Day, Dad. What does that mean, right? So we told you to take him to the kids area. Ask mom. We have fun. So if you're new here today, welcome, yeah, all right, indeed, we've been talking about misusing phrases, right? So that's really the crux of this whole series. And what a lot of Christian a lot of Christians, don't realize, is how we look when we do that, right? And unfortunately, you won't get the same laughter or response when someone gets up on a stage like this and totally abuses a verse or a phrase they're not like, what is he talking about? That's wrong, and that's unfortunate in Christianity. It really is, because we have this like, kind of verse of the day problem, where we go to one verse, that's it, and then we don't read the rest of the Bible at all, all out of order and everything, and we end up using these lines of Scripture, kind of like that, you know, where it's just wrong, it's not what it means at all. Right? So that's what we're looking at. We're trying to educate everybody and say, Okay, this is what these scriptures mean. These phrases really mean. So we're to pay attention to the context. There's going to be a little, a lot, well, a lot of fun for me. For others, not so much. But anyway, the verse in question. So we've been in Matthew, and what I'm trying to do for a little bit is, is stay in Matthew, because we've just been there. And then I can use other things that we've looked at as anchor points for you guys. Like, oh, remember that? Remember Jesus just said that? So we're talking about the parables Jesus uses, like, for like, well, I'll show you how it attaches now to the End Times discourse that he gives. So as a part of that discourse, we're we'll see this. We're going to go backwards and forwards a little bit, and I'll explain what Matthew 24 why. Matthew 2442 men will be working together in a field. One will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Okay, so what is the misuse that we have going on here? Well, basically, remember, and I'm trying to contextualize Jesus is in like, what's called the Olivet Discourse. He's in an End Times discourse here. And so this is a part of it here, right? So I'll show you how the parables follow, and it's all the same discourse, but he's talking about the end times. And so what people have used these verses to say will be that during these end times, during this tribulation, all this stuff, somehow we as Christians are just going to be whisked up, and that's it. And so we get to just evade any kind of suffering at all. Alright, so that's really what it is. It's popular because it kind of lets people know, ah, you may get to evade all that suffering. And so I'm going to totally ruin that for you today, so you'll see similar things in Luke. 17. Mark 13 is a shorter account of this. I'm going to again stay in Matthew, and it does give us the larger discourse. So there's more information in Matthew than in the other places. That's why we're there. You could hop over, get about the same thing, but we're just going to stay on this track. So I'm going to kind of unpack this for you in a backup, starting with, like, the original language. Now I just want to say this actually. So if you're holding a mainstream Bible translation, if you're reading from, you know, today, NLT, that's good. You know what? I mean. It's so if you've been here for a while, bracket, the Greek things when it gets a little more literal, or word for word, or I think it should be right, but they're all good. They all say the same basic thing, right? But there are like, little nuances and details for things like this. So you've got the gospel message. No matter what Bible translation you're using, they're all good. It's fine, right? So I don't want to worry anybody, but there are nuances in the Greek language that you get. It, and so not a lot of people know. But when you go to pastor, school or seminary or whatever it is, you really don't learn a lot of Greek, or as much as most pastors would lead you to believe. You know, right? But if you go to a pastor, don't do this, because it's just mean, I do it. But anyway, just open up a Greek Bible and go here, read it. And like, I can't. I'm like, Alright, so stop telling your congregation you can anyway. After my schooling, I really devoted myself to years of just really, like, trying to learn the Greek. Have a tutor. I still work with this person to this day, whenever I have, like, a question about it or anything. So I work really hard at this. And so when I read these verses, something that just is not obvious will become extremely obvious when you begin learning Greek. And so let's say you were in Matthew five. So we'll back up a little bit, and you've read the Sermon on the Mount. Right we get to Matthew six, and it's like, oh, it talks about forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer. And then if we keep reading one more verse, we see right here, if you don't forgive others, your heavenly Father won't forgive you. So forgive, forgive, forgive. So you'll learn that word afimi when you see it in the Greek text. And so you're just trained to see that now, now I know what that word means. When I see it always translated, forgiven, right? When you see that word in Greek. I get here, and all of a sudden I'm reading it, and I see that word again, like, that's weird, because now I'm like, receive or take. It's close in the Greek, so I'm seeing like to receive, to take and forgive. One will be forgiven, and the other one taken. What? So here we go. Great, tutor, help. You know, because this doesn't make any sense. Ah, well, the concept here in Greek is like to let it go. That's a concept here. So just let it go, leave it you know, and I won't sing the song, right, anyway, so right, but it's like that, right? Just let it go. Oh, okay, so it can be translated that way. But wait, hold on. But that means that that's a good thing if you're let go, Yeah, okay, alright. So now I'm going to avoid, like, being like, I have a special set of skills, right? So you're either taken, okay, whatever. So you're either taken or you're let go. I could just do a whole musical, if you guys want, but no, I'm not going to do that. Somebody said, Yeah, please. Okay, so in a comical way, you can kind of see that when you look at the text, hold on, there's something else going on here. You have someone being taken and worried, Luke, it makes it more clear where you know off to judgment being taken, which is not a good thing, and someone being left, let go, right? So now, if we just back up and we this, we do what most Christians never do, look at the surrounding context, aka what Jesus just said a second ago, right? It'll become even more clear. So I'm going to go back and forth a little bit. But Jesus again, he's talking about the end times. He's drawing from a lot of the prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Daniel and so he said a lot of that. Matthew, 2435 Heaven and Earth will disappear, but My words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows, and we'll go back there in a minute when the Son of Man returns. Jesus is speaking about Himself, just in case you don't know, it will be like it was in Noah state in those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in a field. One will be taken the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken the other left. So you two must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming. Alright. So what just happened in Noah's day? Noah was left, everybody else was swept or taken away, as Jesus saying, that's the way it'll be, which means you don't want to be swept away or taken away, right? Simple, when you just look at the context now,
this will lead so anyway, we get it from the concepts. But here's where I want to take you. I'm trying to just put this together for you. Make it kind of easy. So anyway, we get that right? So being taken away, not good, not good in the context, not good in the language. Alright? So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to hop over to First Thessalonians. That's what had me thinking for a second there. Context. I'm going to give you context. If you remember acts number, acts 17. So he has Paul has a rough time. Paul sabes and Timothy write this, Paul, when he gets to Thessaloniki, as, let's be honest, Thessalonica, he runs into a rough time. They're not accepting Him there what he wants to so this continues on. So the letter First Thessalonians is after he visits, he writes to that church, and what's happening is they're suffering persecution. They're Jewish believers who've now become Christian. Actions. So they're suffering. People are dying. There's all kinds of bad things happening. So it's just really a letter to bring them comfort during this time. And so in chapter four, he gets to the point where, oh, they're dying. Let's just kind of address this grief that you may be experiencing. That's the context. But within that first, Thessalonians, 413, and now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like other people who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again. We also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord. We are still living. When the Lord returns, will not meet him ahead of those who have died for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a Commanding Shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves and together with them, we were still alive and remain on the earth, will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage one another with these words. So you can see here, just understanding the basic context. You know, this is not trying to establish a raptured doctrine. This is the point of this, alright? So that's the first thing. So encourage one another with these words. So the context is comfort and Jesus coming back, drawing from all kinds of really cool language. And we won't have time to get into it today, but you can, you know, just the trumpet call of God. You can picture Moses on the mountain when the 10 Commandments. So it's just, he's drawing from all this stuff. But what's going on here? We meet the Lord in the air? Well, if you understand again the Greek, you know that this is an idiom, and what this kind of means like, back then, people would greet a king coming back from battle, and they would say something like, we're going to meet the king or whatever in the air. And so there's another song I'm not going to sing, but I will, believe it or not, I'm walking on air, right? So you understand, okay, good. You're old, so am I? So but you get it right? It's an idiom. Like, we have that today. We say I'm walking on air, right? So who says that? But anyway, it's in, it's in the Bible. So that's where people will also go to draw this doctrine which is completely out of context, completely ignores the original language or any understanding of it whatsoever, right? So it's another, another one of those things there. So there's no rapture the way we're taught about it really, there's a resurrection in that sense, and there's being taken up. Yes, yes, yes, but like no rapture now on that it definitely doesn't happen before a tribulation. And I want to show this to you, and you're going to see some brackets here and there, because this is where we really do need to go to the original language to see what's being said, right? So let's go back to Matthew 24 I'm probably going to mention this, but I'll say it just, just so that you know. So we're talking about the end times. And so right now it's, it's we're answering different questions as we go through one at a time. And so now, will we go through the tribulation? What does it say about that? And so again, we've backed up Jesus in this End Times discourse. Matthew 24/7 nation will go to war against nation. Things are going to be bad, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come, then you will be arrested, persecuted and killed. So literally, it says they will deliver you over to tribulation, alright? So that deliver too, by the way, it's like that taken word in there. That's what it is, right? Overdue tribulation. So think right. First, these things will happen. Now, you know, then they will deliver you over disciples. He's talking to His disciples here, so wait, what? Yeah, then, after these bad things, then you will be delivered over to tribulation. So experience bad things, then you will experience more bad things and put to death, right? You'll be hated all over the world because you're my followers. Okay? So you get that, he says to the disciple, like, I'm assuming they're Christians, right? So you will go through tribulation. Oh, okay, so now I'm going to kind of summarize what's leading up here. He just talks things are going to be bad, man, you will turn you guys, some of you guys, are going to betray one another, and many false prophets will appear. Talks about all these false teachers, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Endures. What? Tribulation? Alright. So then he talks about Dan. We're not going to get into this if you want to know more about like Daniel the prophet spoke about the sacrilegious object that causes desecration, right? So you can look at the rest of the story series. We're not ignoring this. It's just not our topic matter, right? But it's a little bit hard to understand. I explain it in that series because you have kind of, like, this generation will experience these things, and then far time, just going back and forth. But the urgency, or a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down in the house to pack. A person in the field must not even return, return to get your coat. So he's basically, like, you get out of there. It's going to be bad. Like, that's the idea Matthew 2421 for there will be greater. Anguish, literally, in Greek, tribulation, than at any time since the world began, and it will never be so great again. In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones. Wait, he said it again, right? It'll be shortened. The Tribulation will be shortened for who the elect, right? This is literally just the elect in Greek, but the chosen ones, good translation us. It'll be shortened for Christians, for Christian So here, if you were tempted to say, Ah, he's just talking to four disciples, because I looked at the other accounts and counted, right, yeah, but he's saying everybody, right? So His Chosen Ones, they'll go through it, alright? So this is the idea they will not be raptured out of that. That is not in the text. It says the exact opposite over and over again, as we can see also, if you keep reading again, if you want, like kind of a full treatment of the book of Revelation, you can go back to the rest of the story series, and I do it there, but let's just dip in and we'll see what's going on. So you remember that we talked about the martyrs in Revelation that refrain. We'll look at it again. Revelation seven. So we're going to do, unlike what most people do, we're going to look at the whole chapter. But if you go back to six, you see, like the six seals broken. So that's all part of this. And so all this bad stuff happens, right? There's a great earthquake, the sun and the moon, you comedark and stars fall from the stock sky. You know, just no one can avoid it. The kings of the world are hiding. You know, regular people are hiding. Everybody's hiding from it. It's terrible. And then you go to Revelation seven, one. Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of Earth, holding back the four winds, so they did not blow on the Earth or the sea or even any tree. And I get a picture of like being in the eye of a storm. I got an opportunity to do that. It's crazy, right? So it's really nuts. And I saw another angel coming up from the east carrying the Seal of the Living God, and He shouted to those four angels who had been given power to harm land and sea, wait, don't harm the land of the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of His servants. And it's got just an interesting nugget. And I heard, and I heard how many were marked of the seal of God, 144,000 it goes through the tribes of Israel, Judah, Reuben, Gad,Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi,Issachar, Zebulun,Joseph and Benjamin. Yes, a practice anyway. So 12,000 from each tribe, 144,000 but wait, that's what he heard. After this, I saw a vast crowd, and this is too great to count, really important. Lot of people ignore this, from every nation, every tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands, and they were shouting with a great roar. Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne and from the lamb of the lamb and all the angel is standing around the throne, around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne, their faces of the ground, and worship God. And they sang, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the 24 elders asked me, this is John. He's prophesying here. Who are these clothed in white? Where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you're the one who knows. And he said to me, these are the ones who died in the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white, huh? So this is really a good chapter to read. The whole things. There's so many different doctrines that come out of this. If you just read the whole chapter, you never would have came with this. But what we see here is this multi ethnic army. And who are they? Well, these are the ones who died where in the tribulation, right? So, so, yes, you have the 12 tribes in Israel, but this is us being like grafted in, and everybody's there, and it's this huge, huge group of people, right? But they die in the tribulation. Now, again, think about the refrain we looked at last week in light of this Revelation 13 and Revelation 14. Again, 1412, this means that God's holy people must endure persecution, patiently obeying His commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this down. Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on? What
are you blessed who die on earth now? And yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work, for their good deeds will follow them. Then, if we keep reading, we get to see how they're blessed. 19, Jesus comes back, so he brings the Justice right he comes back. That's your revenge, right there. Then revelation 20 we see Satan bound for 1000 years. Revelation 24 then I saw thrones and people sitting on them had been given authority to judge. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded, the martyrs for their testimony about Jesus and proclaiming the Word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or hands. Symbolism there, go back and watch that message, if you don't know what that means, they all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for 1000 years. This is the first resurrection. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until 1000years it ended. Blessed and holy are those who share in the. First resurrection for them, the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him for 1000 years. That's how they're rewarded. Hey, I got an idea, after church today, let's go get beheaded. No, nobody's signing up for that mission trip, right? So, but anyway, that's what happens. That's the reward. So what did what did it say? It described them before they died in the tribulation, right? And furthermore, they got their heads cut off, right? They die, right? So they're martyrs. Okay? So I think I made that redundantly clear. I could keep going, and I always save a little in my back pocket for when someone's like, I'm like, Okay, so anyway, if it's not clear from the text, where does this come from, right? So it's so clear, like, just crystal clear when you just all we had to do today was read Matthew 24 I could have done that and dropped the mic. Like, why didn't he just do that? Or, it's Father's Day. We have dinner for our lunch, but, but I want to really educate you on this, right? Show you this is how ridiculous the teaching is, right? So first problem, we talked about it already, right? The verse of the day. Problem, people are just, if we're being really honest, as Christians, they're not, for the most part, reading their Bibles. They're just, they're not going to sit there and go, Oh, let me look, you know, and see and read Matthew 24 and 25 you know what? That's two whole chapters of the Bible. I have sitcoms to watch, right? Shows to binge watch, so it's a it's a problem, you know? But with that being said, here's the thing, if you're a mile high and you're on an airplane and people suddenly start disappearing, maybe I'm wrong, but then Nick Cage is the pilot, right? And you're watching a bad movie. That's totally wrong, right? Orthogon, you forgot your parachute. So this is an example, and you know, it is funny, but it's not like of how popular culture has infected our Christianity. It's not and in fact, I'll go a step further if you know me well, I don't like Christian movies. I don't like them because I find myself critiquing, and almost all of them fail at one point or another. I'm like, that's not what it says off like, I don't want to. It's annoying, right? It's not true. And so with the problem, you know, as well, we're saying something about the Word of God. That's not true. If that isn't a problem, I don't know if you're a Christian, that's got to be a problem for you, right? It needs to be a very big problem. You know, I've given analogies all the time where it's like, you know, imagine someone twisted your words to say something completely different in your story, you might be a little upset, right? Well, this is God we're talking about, and when we do that, you see what silly nonsense can happen. And so when you give Christians and like the idea that nothing bad is ever going to happen to them, what happens when something bad does happen to them, what did it say those who endure will be saved, so we'll look at that more like we're supposed to be preparing ourselves to be ready for this so we don't fall away, so that we do endure when this happens. That's what's wrong with the teaching. It's not innocent. It can cause many to fall away, many to fall away. And the Bible says there is a problem. And so you know, if you know me, like even the most popularly Christian shows that there's one that's won't even mention it, doesn't deserve it. But, like, you're like, I'm going to change it, but, but anyway, you know it's like, I mean, they'll do a whole episode, and there's some dude on there who has three lines in the Bible, but now he's got 30 and then you're drawing all kinds of crazy doctrine from it, and that that happens. Oh, well, this means that, no, it doesn't, no, it doesn't, right? So don't make Jesus out to be someone he's not. That's the problem. So where did it come from? Well, along with that line of thinking, you know, you have the thing called the prosperity gospel, which teaches a lot of things just wrong. They're, they're just absolutely not true. It's not what Jesus said, right? So what do you have, like, you know, at the Industrial Revolution, having see, you know, you got to look at history. And so some of these things were easier to believe, right? Because let's, you were born of this, and you stayed of this, and you died of this, you know, like, within five miles of your home, you know? It's that kind of thing, right? It's just this pretty simple life. But all of a sudden we start to in culture and society, get this idea, whoa, you know, we can be born of nothing and then become something great by what making money, right? And so that's what our world, our society, tells us, if you You're great, you'll make money, you know. And so it's all this value on stuff. You have the industrial revolution happening. So in the mid 1800s this is where this becomes popular. Was this idea in church at all in the beginning? Yes, but not in this construction of the idea, not this way, and not for this purpose, right? So it becomes popular in the mid 1800s and of course, it's an easy way, right to put but. It's in seats. Said that as nicely as I could, right? You know. So you make everybody feel really good no matter what they're doing. You leave out all this stuff. Did you see what Jesus said? Nope, we don't. We're not going to preach on that at all, right? Because that's terrible, right? You know. And that's it. Well, that's great, you know, affirm your sin, right? That that's what a lot of places are doing, right? But the Bible doesn't do that at all, right? It makes us bad. It feels bad, as we should when we do something wrong, right? So what we want to do is take away all that we don't but that's what they do. So let's take away all that suffering. Let's not mention hell, the amount of times Jesus mentions it, right? We're not going to talk about that. Just make em feel good. That's it. And it's a business now, and we got a business, and that's really what it is. But here's the funny thing, this is where I do laugh at a lot of conservative churches, right? So they'll get up there the Word of God, the Word of God. You know, they're very conservative in all these ways, shapes and forms. They're like they're they'll preach against that prosperity gospel. And don't let them tell you this, that. And the other thing about the prosperity gospel, it's wrong and but today we're going to preach on the rapture, which is prosperity doctrine. So even conservative churches that think they're conservative, they're not, they're preaching prosperity doctrine. And again, that's how powerful and pervasive these movies, this Christian culture is it has totally infected the Word of God. It's terrible. So there's another thing just kind of like, almost like a sidebar. But it's important to hear on this. It's all it's attached to this. It's very common, and that is this idea that we'll somehow know when this is going to happen. So what's that called? End Times prophecy. So now I didn't read this to you, but I just, I'll talk about it in a minute. The this whole dialog, this Olivet Discourse, is what it's called, because it happens on the Mount of Olives. So what happens is the disciples see the buildings, and they go, what great, large just like that. Made that noise. Look at these large buildings, like the temple, all this stuff, right? And there's these blocks that weigh like a million pounds, a gigantic block, and they're marveling at it. And Jesus says, now, now one of these stones will be left, right? So what he's thought, He's predicting the destruction of the temple in 70 ad. So that's what I mean. Some are happening like their generation, some are later. So that's where that starts off. Then they go to the Mount of Olives and the disciples. So you have Simon, Peter and Andrew and James and John there for and they ask him, like, when will essentially, when will these things happen? Will they actually ask what? What is a sign going to be? But the crux of the question is, when? So this whole thing is a response to that question within it, I'm going to give you a couple of things that he says. And remember, remember the because that's what people do. They forget the why is Jesus saying this? There was a question. The question is, when? Right? That's the question. And so when you read the verses, this is the answer. So this is the answer Jesus gives within the dialog, Matthew, 2435 Heaven and Earth will disappear, but My words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even angels in heaven or the Son himself, talking about himself, only the Father knows. Again, if we keep reading Matthew 2442 so you too must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming, and if we hop to Acts, this question comes up again, right acts one six is before Jesus ascends to heaven. So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, Lord, Has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom? He replied, The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. So I want you to think about what Jesus just said. Sounds kind of like a command, doesn't it? It's not for you to know. No, right? So that's it, alright, so you don't go. But no, the Lord just told you it's not for you to know.
Okay, right? So you think people would go, Yes, Lord Jesus, that's it. No. So why do so many people calling themselves Christians say they know things like, I think it's Luke 646, why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord, but you don't do what I say, right? So maybe the reason is because they're like those false prophets and teachers that Jesus just warned about in this same dialog. Many will come saying they know, right? So it has been said that all end times prophecy outside the Bible has one thing in common, they're all wrong, and there's a reason why, because if it's not for us to know, how would we just kind of go over the Lord's head here on this one and know we don't right? So we shouldn't be trying to faithlessly game the system here. We shouldn't be dismissing Jesus and saying we know. Thing that is not for us to know to the kind of like, if he's not our Lord, right? He's not our Savior, right? So it negates a command from him, watch out lot of false prophets out there, or arrogantly say we know something that Jesus doesn't even know. That's great lord, but I know. Okay, faith is not knowing and just being ready. I mean, that's faith. And that brings me to the next point here in this dialog. So we're going to look a little more at the dialog, and I hope you see something. So while Jesus is teaching is in part about the end times, it is mostly about being ready at all times. That's what this is really about. And I'll show you why. So again, we see that Matt now we're going to put it together. And maybe if you have a Bible, you've noticed something from Matthew 24 through Matthew 25 Jesus has not stopped talking. There just happens to be a number in there that someone put there, like 1200 years later, it's not there. Jesus is still talking so, but we like to interrupt him, right? So, and he really gives you the crux of his point when you keep reading again. This is in response to a question, when will these things be? Right? So he warns him, you must keep watch for you don't know when your Lord's coming. He says, lead see that no one leads you astray, right? There will be signs. But what did he say right after that? But these are just the beginning. There's going to be more. Many will come, in my name lead you astray. They will claim to know. They'll claim to be prophets. So he moves through this, then you'll be delivered over tribulation. We looked at that verse nine, then Jesus speaks of His coming. Again, a little confusing, right? Because of the abomination thing, but we're just going to keep moving along with the End Times. There'll be signs, but again, no one knows. Then what you get here is the rest of the teaching in chapter 24 so like last two paragraphs of chapter 24 all the way through chapter 25 he did not stop talking. Right? You can walk out on him if you want, but he's making his point. They're all about being ready. Every single one of those parables he tells are about being ready, right? So you get the thief, right? How would a thief if you were ready? Thiefwouldn't rob you. I'm just giving quick points here, right? So don't be like that servant who gets drunk when the Master's away, because you don't know when he's coming back, right? So what is it? So they all lived to Jesus coming back, the master, right? He's not a thief. But so then you go to 25 you get the 10 virgins, right? So that's not about oil management, right? So five or wise, five or not, they're not ready for with a picture of the Bridegroom, Jesus coming back. They're not ready for him to come back. The parable the talents. No, it's not about money management. Someone says it is. Stop listening to them. It's no more about money management than it is about oil management. The parable He just told he hasn't stopped talking. It's the parable of the talents, 521, right? So good. Just be ready for that master to come back with your investments, heavenly investments. Then you get the sheep and the goats. And so we've been through this recently, right? So you guys have heard it, but just kind of to review really quick, right? So Jesus comes back. He's on his throne. He'll divide all these people, like sheep and goats, Christians too. He'll say, right, you know, well done. You have inherited the kingdom prepared for you to the sheep. You know, you saw me hungry, thirsty, naked, in prison, sick, you know. And you cared for me. When did we see you like that? Jesus, well, that what you did to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. And he turns to the goats, and it's the opposite. You didn't do it for me when you didn't do for all these people, doing means something, huh? You know, so well you're going to go to hell, is essentially what he's saying. That's a parable. But now think about it. He said all of this, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, he said all of this in light of that first question. He hasn't stopped talking. He hasn't said, Okay, we'll do that at Bible study next week. And forget what I just said. No, he doesn't stop talking, right? So interesting. It's all about the end times, yeah, but it's more about being ready, right at all times. That's what it's about. So his response, think about that, to this question, right? Is, be ready, right? He just said, you don't know, there'll be signs, but you don't know. No one knows, except the Father. I don't know. Then a bunch of parables, bang, bang, bang. Now, like hammers, these guys with parables over and over. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready, over and over again. And so it's a really good lesson here, right? We shouldn't do that. Look carefully at your Bible. Don't you know? Because people do that, they'll read chapter 24 read chapter 24 read 10. They can't tell you what he says in 25 and it's like, well, that was the conclusion, right? So if this is a sermon, that was the conclusion. So you walked out more than halfway through. He's kind of got a really important. Point here, the whole discourse is when what signs I don't even know, right? So that's the summary. I don't know, but be ready. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready. He talks about hell for those who are not ready. That's his conclusion. So I'll lighten this up, because you guys are like, it's getting hot in here right now. Whoo, still working through that mile high thing. So I tell, I'll tell a funny story. So I told a funny story a while ago. I don't know when, but I'll bring it up again, right? So it's about a rabbit, and the rabbit is gets up every morning, like 5am and runs around the forest, and he goes to each one of the animals, and he's always telling him to be ready, right? And then get up. So it's that kind of thing. So he's like, you know, come on be healthy. And it goes to the giraffe, like, you know, it's funny story, because you're imagining a giraffe running. So come on giraffe, come on be healthy. Run with me, you know, come on monkey, be healthy. Running is getting really annoying. And finally, the lion, he hasn't had his coffee, and he just kills the rabbit. And the rest of the Yeah, and the rest of the animals are like, yes, no. They're like, why did you kill the rabbit? He says, Man, that crazy rabbit every morning, he does all these drugs and then runs around the woods like crazy, telling everyone to be healthy. So it was whatever could be my delivery, right? But what is this? Have to do? Because there are typically two types of respondents here to Jesus's discourse that we're looking at, right? There are those that hear the stuff about the end time. Ignore all this stuff about you don't know, right? They don't listen to any of that. And they hear all this stuff happening. And you know what? They leave the sermon early. They're out, right? Because they can't wait to tell everybody else that they're not saved. That's person number one. Alright, I walk out because I Oh, these guys are done, right? Let me go tell them that they're done. Then there's the other one, and hopefully this is you, the people who patiently listen and hang on every Jesus, don't stop talking. You're the Lord. I want to hear what you have to say. And they get through the whole thing and they go, I hope I'm not a goat. That's what I did when I read it. I hope I'm not a goat. That's crazy. I better be ready. Am I ready? Like I hope IMaybe it's selfish, but I have forgotten everything about everybody else at that point, right? Because I'm like, oh, wait a minute. Like, did I help that guy who was hungry? Did I you know, that's what you start doing. You go through an inventory, and you're like, Oh my gosh. And before he said, I need to love my enemies, like, oh no. And there could be different words you use because it's shocking. You should be shocked, right? And most of us who are telling the truth, we're ashamed of ourselves. I know me. I read it today, ashamed of myself. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I could be doing this so much better, but that's what Jesus is calling us to do, right? There's nothing to do with warning anybody else about anything that we don't know when it's going to happen. It doesn't make sense, right? So take this picture of Jesus's parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector. Alright, look at me and all these things that I do. Everyone should be like me, right? And then the tax collector, Oh, so sorry. Okay, can't believe it, right. Now, some people may be having trouble reading this correctly because of the log in their eye,
right? And this is emphasized by Jesus, because, just like, if you remember, just like the teaching on judgment that I showed you, right? We were in Matthew seven, right? Don't judge. And then, yes, we do judge some things, right? But before Jesus gets to that, now, what does he say? Before you point out that speck, alright? And somebody else's eye, get the log out of yours. Get the log out of yours, okay? Judge, but careful. He really wants you to do some inner reflection here, right? And so this is the same is true about this. Are we to do evangelism? Yes, yes, but yes, but it will be better received if we do that evangelism without a big log in our eye. We don't look so stupid, right? When we do it. And that's the point of this teaching. Christians are great at telling everybody to be ready when they themselves are not ready. You know, it's like the oxygen mask illustration, right? You're in an airplane. What? Happens, they tell you, the oxygen has come down. Put it on yourself, because if you're not good, nobody else around you is good. That's why, you know they do these surveys, and it breaks. It annoys me as a pastor, quite frankly, it's hard to build a real church, because when they survey people, they say, Christians. What do you think of judgmental hypocrites? First, two things out of their mouth. 99% of people who aren't Christians, judgmental hypocrites. That's what's keeping people from the faith. Our hypocrisy. That's the problem, right? So if we don't take care of ourselves, we're no good day. Our evangelism is worthless. Again. It goes back to the picket sign thing, right? The mirror, the mirror, the mirror. Forget about the picket sign. You worry about yourself and what when you're fertile soil and it's all good, and the words in there, the fruit's going to grow by it. So it doesn't matter. It's going to grow. You'll be good. You don't have to force it. So again, when will the end come? Jesus? Focus on yourself. If I had to boil it down, that's it. So for those concerned, right? That everyone needs to be ready. Jesus poses this question, are you ready now? Here's Well, we talked about this, right? The real war is inside us. We saw this. We've been looking at this again. Well, I went to Galatians five, right? We want to fight all these external battles, even though Bible tells us not against real flesh and blood enemies, right? What's it again, spiritual forces, right? The real war is here. That's where it begins. We got to let the Holy Spirit win that war first, then we can go out right and start letting everyone know, like, Hey, I have joy, peace, patience, kindness, love, all these great things, if it has to happen here. So Jesus ends by focusing on that inner battle. Right? Be ready. So when we go and we point out other people's specs, Jesus points right back to our log. Now here's another way people game the system a little bit, right? So here's the next response. I'll just kind of beat you to it, because I've heard it before, not here. But people will say, Well, you know, see those signs, though the Tribulation is not going to happen right away anyway, because we don't, we're not seeing those kinds of signs or better, so, you know, right? So they start putting it off. And I would say you didn't read the parable about the guy getting drunk and the master coming back when he didn't expect it. And so they start putting it off because they didn't read those parables, you know. So they put it off, right? Or whatever. I'm going to propose something to you that becomes a little more clear. Maybe, as you get to around my age. Tribulation might not happen today, but you could die today very easily. There's a lot of ways that you could die today. Are you going to be ready? You have no control over that, none. I mean, we live in a state where we think we do not zero control over that. And will you be ready again? That's why, Jesus, it's not about the tribulation. It's about you being ready. That's what's most important to our Lord, right? Is that you come on into the kingdom. So being prepared means doing the preparation. It does. I know. Ephesians two, we were saved by grace, absolutely. But what does it say? Keep reading past verse eight, and you'll see we're created anew in Christ, Jesus for the purpose of doing good works prepared beforehand by our father. Yeah, that's there. Go read it. Ephesians two, so I get it. I know what we're saved by, but Right? If it walks like a duck, it's a duck. If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. And so we, if we're saying we're Christians, we should be out there doing good things like Jesus said to do. We should not ignore Him at any point. And it can be difficult, right, especially the self reflection. And so it brings me to a couple phrases. Like, you know, you've heard them. No pain, no gain. If you have, you heard that in the gym, you know? Like, I'm like, That's not helpful. It's like, right now, this hurts a lot, right? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I'm like, I just want to die right now. This is really bad, you know, that's the way I've responded to that, right? Just kill me. That would be great, right? I'm saved, I think, you know, anyway, right? They don't seem helpful, like this kind of refining, this kind of stuff. You know? It's just, it's not fun, if, if we're being honest. So this idea of going through tribulations or trials well, and I'm going to show you a little more text this morning, those trials are a refining process that make us ready for Jesus, and that stop us from falling away so much the same way, like doing some of the no pain, no gain stuff, right? It prepares you for something else, right? So it stops you. Because a lot of people, why don't you done that saved by works. I don't need to do anything, right? That's actually. What Jesus says, Yes, we're saved by grace. But he doesn't say that means you can do nothing. In fact, go back to the sheep and goats. He says, there's a consequence for doing nothing. I just really don't want to play with that fire, just me, just right here. I can try to lawyer it and gain it all I want. Uh, nope, I'll just get out there. And by the way, like as you get better at this. And the Holy Spirit's really working. It's not hard, like, because God's doing it. The Holy Spirit's like, encouraging to do all this good stuff. So anyway, you know, with that being said, it stops us from falling away again, going back to the false teaching. That's why it's so dangerous. Well, wait a minute, my pastor said this was never going to happen to me. You know. No, it will, Jesus, I don't care what your pastor said. Jesus said, it's going to happen to you, so train for it. Be ready. So it's a more of a negative thing. It's not how you get saved, it's how you keep it. That's how you stop from falling away. Jesus said, clearly, you can fall away. That's it. So let's take a look at a few scriptures for encouragement. I'll close so Romans, five, one. Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus, Christ, our Lord, has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we con undeserved and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice too when we run into problems, and there's the word tribulation again, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develop strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation, and this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love. So you see, there's a point here, right? We go through these things, so we develop. What does it say? Develop? Do we need to develop more after being saved? Yes, we need to develop endurance. We need to develop strength of character through and by what the Holy Spirit goes back to that fruit of the Spirit. Thing again, alright? James one, two Dear Brothers and Sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. This is how the Holy Spirit should be causing you to see those problems, an opportunity for great joy to be happy. What for you know that when your faith is tested, you are, oh, there's the word again. Endurance has a chance to grow, so let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing they think more of the prosperity. Churches read those verses needing none. When you're perfect and complete, you don't need anything. That's it, Jesus, you are enough. First, Peter, one, three. All praise to God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, not here, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive the salvation which is ready to be received on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad there is wonderful joy ahead. Does this sound redundant, even though you must endure many trials for a little while, these trials will show that your faith is genuine. Is being tested as fire, test and purify his gold. Though your faith is far more precious than mere gold, so when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to
the whole world, Jesus said it, the one who endures to the end will be saved, and the Word of God continues to let you know how you endure. And did you notice that comment about saved says it right there in Peter then right? You will receive His salvation. Interesting, right? Don't fall away. So again, it helps us develop right this endurance. It helps us develop the right attitude. Joyce, joy, joy, joy, first. Thessalonians, what were we supposed to do? Encourage one another with these words. How do we do that? If we always have a bad attitude, we can't What's the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control. That's
the fruit of the Spirit. Joy, how, what? How are we going to get out there and warn everybody if we don't have joy? And by the way, we should be doing it joyfully, right? You?
We have that hope, our inheritance is in heaven. That's what we hope. And it's not here. It's in heaven. So we need that hope, but we need to cultivate and develop that the Holy Spirit works with us to get that hope, that joy, and then when we develop in this way, we can then be credible witnesses. That's what the Lord wants, credible witnesses. There are far too many, I should say, incredible witnesses. But, yeah, you know what? It seems that way, incredible witnesses. We need more credible witnesses. That's what Christianity means. Why isn't the faith growing? Because we're not credible. That's the problem with most, most Christians. That'swe. But you get what I'm saying as a whole, they're just not credible. So, like, the outside world kind of knows, like, in some ways, more about Jesus than we do. They're like, I don't know. He's some homeless guy who brought peace everywhere and loved everybody, and they say he died for us. Like, yeah, you get that. Okay, good, you know. But then we make him about all kinds of other things that it's just not and then we miss or represent Him. These things, did you notice that prove that your faith is genuine? These things prove and like fire test gold, that which is truly precious to God is tested, and so that's the encouraging side of it. You are truly precious to God. Why would any parent warn their child? Why do you worry about your children? It's Father's Day, right? Why do I Why do we fathers worry about our kids? Well, you love them, right? Be careful. Wear your seat belt, whatever it is, right? We love them. Don't do my high club like, wait till you're married, and then, even then, I think it's illegal. But anyway, I tried here guys trying, but you get my point, right? Why do we worry? Because we love their precious to us, and in the same way as God's children, you are precious to him. That's why Jesus spends so much time giving the warnings. It's not just going it's kind of to scare you, because we do that to our kids too, right? When we want them to be scared sometimes, but stay away from that. We love them. How much more does God love each and every one of you. So he's going to test you. Hebrews 12. He's going to discipline you. He wants to build you up. He wants you to be refined and strong in the faith, right? He wants you to be with Him forever. And that's the point. So second, Peter, one five, in view of all of this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Are we responding to God's promises? How supplement your faith with the generous provision of moral excellence and moral excellence with knowledge and knowledge with self control and self control with patient endurance and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection With love for everyone, the more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus. But those who fail to develop in this way are short sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. Dear brothers and sisters work hard to prove that you are really among those God has called and chose and do these things and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're all going through something and I get it, I'm going through things. You're going through things, right? But we must always remember that, because we are precious to God, and he's doing these things or allowing these things to happen to us. He's refining us. He's strengthening us. He wants us to get to that inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. So what do we do? We fix our eyes on Jesus. We focus on those rewards in heaven. Keep our eyes on that these things, as it says, beyond the reach of change or decay, as Jesus says, where moths can't eat them, where rust can't destroy it, we will never be disappointed in that heavenly inheritance. Things here will always disappoint us. So for those who really long to endure just long. For Jesus to say to you, so you hear well done, good and faithful servant. And so that's my prayer for all of us. Today we're calling Jesus our Lord. Let's get back to that place where his approval is the only approval that matters to us. His word is enough. Heavenly inheritance supersedes everything we could want or desire for ourselves here. So I want to pray from some scriptures for you as I close So be encouraged those who feel weary, if you're feeling broken today, here's some encouragement in his kindness. God called you to share in His eternal glory, by means of Christ, Jesus, so after you've suffered for a little while, he will restore support and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation, All glory and power to him, forever and ever. Amen,