Preparing for Apocalypse

November 15, 1992

Luke 21:5-19

Toward the end of His ministry Jesus spoke a great deal about the fact that this life is transient, and that nothing here is forever. He gave a strong emphasis, recorded in all the Gospels, to what we call "final things."

Jesus made it clear that His disciples- and that includes you and me- would face strong opposition, and struggle, and even death. But He also wanted them and us to know that His people face this unknown future with strong, even supernatural confidence.

There is an ongoing popular fascination with the supernatural, with people who say that they can peer into the future. At the same time, there is a knee-jerk rejection, at least on the part of the media and the so-called intellectuals of our age, of any connection of the Christian faith with a prophetic stance.

The New Testament is a book based on the hope of Christ's coming again. Our lesson for today zeroes in on the Day of Judgment:

I. A DAY WHEN THE TEMPLE WILL BE GONE

No one wants to sound like a religious nut. To speak of apocalypse as a judgment of God is "OUT"— to speak of ozone layers or oil depletion or widespread famine is "IN."

But we have lost the paddle to our canoe, and we are headed into the rapids above the falls. Or to change the metaphor, the beautiful temple is disappearing. We are rapidly nearing a time when the things we have looked to for security will come unglued around our ears.

VIOLENCE is at one and the same time a matter of entertainment AND a source of increasing alarm. TV shows portray killing and bloodshed and of course that has NOTHING to do with society at large [sarcasm- MM] — "just a mirror"— but at the same time we have portions of Interstate Highways "off limits" because snipers cannot be controlled— we have a rash of a new crime called "car-jacking" until we think twice before driving through the city in the daytime.

I certainly do not have anything but sorrow and sympathy for individual families caught in the web of alcoholism and violence to loved ones; but take any issue of any newspaper and look at the Court Record— you will see item after item of people arrested for "Assault and Battery" and the last name of the assaulted is the same as the last name of the assailant.

SEXUAL EXCESS is at one and the same time a matter of entertainment AND a source of increasing alarm. TV shows portray kinky sex as attractive and desirable; the sexual dimension of romantic relationships is distorted and given expectations all out of agreement with wholesome reality. Of course TV entertainment has absolutely NOTHING to do with influencing community behavior ["How did we get started wearing our baseball hats backward— so we could look like WHO? What great American RAP hero?]— but at the same time we have children having children, we have contraceptives legally handed out in public schools while it is illegal for a teacher to even have a Bible on his or her bookshelf in public view of the pupils.

RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY for results of moral or immoral choices are largely a thing of the past. People are condemned or set free in courts of law on the basis of legal decisions that have less and less to do with the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule and more and more to do with humanist relativism.

The great Temple of Judeo-Christian culture, so beautiful and so long in building, built on the foundation of long-accepted scriptural principles, has been totally undermined at the foundations, and it is shaking down around our heads.

We are not GOING to experience Apocalypse, WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF THE TORNADO— IT IS UPON US. We are not GOING to suffer danger and loss— in case you haven't noticed, times have changed. This is the day when we should read the last chapter in the Old Testament, and when we should begin preparing the way for Messiah, our HOPE:

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded you at Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

(Malachi 4:1-6)

II. A DAY FOR CAUTION, BUT NOT FOR ALARM

How shall God's children act in the light of Apocalypse?

1. A TIME TO BE WARNED

   There is a real possibility of deception. Christ's very first word is "Caution!" "Take heed!" Our greatest peril is not in the terrible evils of the day, deadly as they are. But as children of God, our greatest danger lies in getting out of touch with reality. When I think I know how to be good, to be "spiritual" apart from submission and daily dependency on God in humble watchfulness I SET MYSELF UP FOR DECEPTION!

   Different ways of being out of touch have different names: "Rationalization" "Judgmentalism" ["I'm not as bad as ____!"] "Denial" "Delusions" . . . . . . which spring from old-fashioned sources called "Pride" and "Lust" and "Greed" and which have as the root cause the first primal urge our first parents felt in the Garden of Eden: "We shall be as gods! We shall set our own course!"

   Jesus warns us: "Children of God! Don't chase after promises that don't center in Me! Don't go here or there to meet the Christ!"

2. A TIME FOR CONSOLATION

   When ye hear of these things— DON'T BE TERRIFIED!

   How can Jesus say this, when He knows what will take place is frightening?

   How do little children find assurance when there is a frightening thing happening? By a Presence!

III. A DAY OF HATRED AND OPPOSITION

1. This part is not pleasant. It is hard to believe that seeking to be and to do GOOD— to follow the Prince of Peace— will inspire virulent hatred!
   1. We are not above our Lord; and HE was crucified. Something of this CROSS must be willingly borne, even though our flesh and our souls cry out, "O My Father!"
   2. We will find that Christ's Spirit alone can enable us to RE-ACT in the Spirit Christ showed: (a) He was MILITANT against the SIN (He cleansed the Temple); (b) He prayed for the SINNER ("Father, forgive them!")
2. We have seen virulent opposition:
   1. Item: Patrick Buchanan, a Roman Catholic journalist, called "a fascist" for taking a stand on scriptural issues
   2. Item: A Globe article last Thursday morning noted that murder arrests for 15-year-olds have risen 200%. James Allen Fox was quoted as saying the nation is poised on an epidemic of murder like that which occurred in the late '60s and early '70s when the crime rate doubled in five years. 30 cities in America have set records for homicides in the past couple of years, "but the really bad news is that this is nothing compared to what we will see in the future." Let me read you a little more from that same article:

      Q What's the connection, if any, between violence in popular culture— TV, music, movies— and the increases in boys who murder?

      A "Technically you shouldn't be renting an R-rated movie to an 8 year old or a 10 year old, "Fox says," but no one's stopping the kids so movies like 'Faces of Death' became an instant success by word of mouth and a few newspaper articles in USA Today. Its a film that shows all sorts of death scenes. Or 'I Spit in Your Grave' or other movies where women are raped and mutilated.

      "We have a generation of kids that are bring raised on slasher films, a generation of kids whose first view of sex is a rape scene in a movie, and that's because of the videocassette. I'm very concerned about what's going to happen. In about five or 10 more years this generation of kids that's been raised on rape movies will reach an age where these sorts of attitudes can be translated into behavior.

      Item: In a related article in the same issue Michael Medved, a secular film critic and reviewer stated the obvious in a long article: the direct connection between the filth on the TV and movies screens and the growing violence in the streets.

3. A Pastor's Prediction:

   This hatred for God's people will intensify. The civil rights movement was for the most part good.

   Groups heretofore called socially unacceptable are using the same tactics, and allying themselves with minority races and women to cry out for "equality" and social acceptance on the basis of overt sexual behavior, or for legitimization of occult or pagan practices as recognized innocent religions, instead of the anti-Christian and ungodly evils that they are.

   It will soon be against the law to say out loud that it is wrong to have sexual relations outside of marriage, whether hetero- or homosexual, even as it is PROPERLY against the law to shout racial slurs.

   Make no mistake, I certainly do not hate or shun the homosexual person. But I do hate the flaunting of sin wherever it may be.

IV. A DAY OF TOTAL CONSERVATION (18)

1. After all this shocking talk about end-times, (when parents will betray children, and brothers and kinsfolk will sell out their loved ones—after some are summarily put to death— and hatred abounds) Jesus tells His disciples, and us, "Not an hair of your head will perish!" What can this mean? How shall we receive the apocalyptic writings?
2. Our purpose in submitting to the authority of texts such as ours today is NOT (1) to endorse a theology of fright; nor is it an attempt (2) to give an intellectual solution to the mystery of eschatology.

   But as we HEAR the Word, and as we SEE "the Temple coming down around our ears," WE ALSO SEE THE LIGHT OF HOPE IN THE PROMISE OF GOD'S SALVATION.

3. There are different ways to react to God's promise that the world as we know it is coming to an end:

   NOAH OBEYED, PREPARED, PREACHED. And Noah saved his family, but as he prepared, he preached. He was despised— but he became an example for "the remnant."

   LOT CONTINUED PRETTY MUCH BUSINESS AS USUAL until the final warnings. His family was torn up ...

   HEZEKIAH: "Well, it won't happen in MY life-time, so why should I worry?"

4. I don't know how or when Jesus will return; I don't know whether anti-Christ will be a man of peace to deceive many by bringing seeming order out of chaos. I do know our times call for men and women of faith and obedience and trust. I know that our loved ones' lives are at stake. Will you take the words of Jesus personally to heart, as the Holy Spirit makes them your own?

   Of the three models, Hezekiah, Lot, or Noah—— NOAH becomes the paradigm to follow. Our "family" is more than flesh and blood. The ark is God's plan for preservation— HIS Word. Our purpose is not selfish, but obedient.

Prayer

Hymn 193 One Day