Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Attention/Grabber:

When I first saw that so many of you wanted to go through a series on the end times, my initial thought was “why is that?”

And the more that I’ve thought about it, I think I have a few ideas, but before I guess what those are...

What is it about the end times that interests you?

I think it is common to start thinking more about the endtimes when you were a teenager

I didn’t think about it too much when I was a younger kid, but when I became a teenager, that seemed to change.

Why is that?

I think that, for one thing, the thought of the end times as a teen is both exciting and scary

It is exciting in the sense that, some pretty interesting stuff is going to go down

And it is scary because y’all are so young, and you kinda want to live the rest of your normal earthly life

Many of you want to go to college, get married, get a full time job, and experience life like that

The thought of that changing is kinda scary, so that makes us want to know more about it

Today, we are going to start off this series by looking at the main views when it comes to the millennium and to the tribulation

(if you don’t know what that stuff is, don’t worry; we’ll explain it).

Need:”

There are many reasons that having a clear understanding of the different views of the end times is important.

First, this is something that many Christians disagree about

Why is it that they disagree?

What is it that isn’t clear?

This would be helpful to know.

Second, it is important to realize that, when it comes to this topic, there are multiple ways to look at it

Your salvation does not depend on which view you hold

It is important for us to know about views other than our own so that we don’t too heavily criticize those that we disagree with on this issue.

Third, it is important to search the Scriptures and come to your own conclusions when it comes to stuff like this

While whether or not you are saved doesn’t depend on which view you hold, I believe that God does want us to try our best to understand what the Scriptures seem to be saying about this subject to the best of our ability

God wants to grow our minds when it comes to thinking through the Scriptures.

So with that in mind, let’s get started!

Body:

Before we talk about the three major views of the end times, we need to get some definitions down first

First, what exactly does the phrase “end times” mean?

Generally, we are talking the things that lead up to Christ’s return and to His ultimate victory.

A big word that we use for this in theology is eschatology

Here is how the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines eschatology:

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Eschatology)

ESCHATOLOGY Derived from the combination of the Greek eschatos, meaning “last,” and logos, meaning “word” or “significance.”

Refers to the biblical doctrine of last things.

The doctrine of last things normally focuses on a discussion of the return of Christ at the end of the age, the coming judgments, various expressions of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, the nature of the glorified body, and the prospects for eternal destiny.

The way that we are talking about it is simply like this: “At what point will Christ return?”

We know that Jesus is coming back.

It is talked about a lot.

Just look at this verse:

So yeah, we know that this is going to happen.

But when is it going to happen?

Eschatology is the first and most important term for us to define.

But there are two more that are still really important.

Next, let’s talk about the word “millennium”

What does the word “millennium” mean in general?

A period of a thousand years

When talking about “the millennium” in the Bible, what are we referring to?

The only place in Scripture where it talks about this is Revelation 20, but in this singular passage, it is mentioned six times in 7 verses.

For the sake of time we won’t look at all seven verses, but we will look at 20:4-6, which is the most important part when it comes to understanding what the Christian idea of the “millennium” is.”

Revelation 20:4–6 (ESV)

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!

Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

What sticks out to you about this passage?

It mentions a thousand years twice

Specifically, it talks about a period where Christians reign with Christ for a thousand years

This thousand year period is what we call the millennium, and regarding the millennium, there has been much discussion.

Namely, will Jesus’s second coming happen before the millennium?

After?

During?

There is one more term that we need to talk about before we get to some major views

What is “the great tribulation?”

Well, here is what the term “tribulation” means in general:

TRIBULATION Generally refers to the suffering and anguish of the people of God.

According to the NT, tribulations are an expected reality among the followers of Christ.

In this sense, every Christian experience tribulations or persecutions

But according to some Christians, there is something in the future that is going to happen called “the great tribulation.”

Another biblical understanding of tribulation is eschatological.

The expression “great tribulation” refers to the time of trouble that will usher in the second coming of Christ (Matt.

24:21; Rev. 2:22; 7:14).

Because of some stuff we see in Daniel, some Christians say that it is a literal period of 7 years, while others say that it is an indefinite period of time

Where you land with that depends on where you land with the millenium

Speaking of which, here is the first question that we are going to try to answer:

Question #1: Will Christ’s second coming be before the millennium or after the millennium?

In other words, will Christ come back before the 1,000 year reign, or after?

How you answer this question will determine which of the three major views you hold to.

View #1: Postmillennialism

The idea here is that Christ won’t return until after the millennial reign.

Post = After, so litterally, after millennium.

Just like “post-game,” or something like that

During the first three centuries AD, the most popular view was premillennialism (which we will talk about that later), but this all changed when people like Tyconius and Augustine began to gain traction with their post-millenial views

After that, this was the predominate view throughout the Middle Ages

Let’s get a bit more specific with this, however

What are some of the specific beliefs of postmillinialism?

First, as Erickson puts it “postmillennialism rests on the belief that the preaching of the gospel will be so successful that the world will be converted.”

So in other words, we won’t go to be with Jesus until after the entire world is converted to Christianity.

This reveals another major belief of postmillennialism: the millenium does not happen in the future, but has already begun

It began with Christ’s first coming.

Now, a natural problem with this is that it has been more than a thousand years since Christ’s first coming

Earlier postmillinialists thought that the second coming would happen in A.D. 1000.

But that year came and went

Thus, postmillinialists now believe that the “1,000 years” isn’t literal and that it is an indefinite period of time.

This opinion is also based in the way that they read Revelation.