Sermon Tone Analysis

End Times-1 The Last Days Are Here!

February 22, 2023

Purpose: To explore the lifestyle challenge of living in the age inaugurated by the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit.

Like small children on a long journey, when we think about end times, most of us keep asking, “Are we there, yet?”

Group Discussion: What world events and life experiences have contributed to your view of the future of the human race and the future of planet earth?

Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

Why?

Almost immediately after salvation I was taught about the rapture and the danger of being “Left Behind.”

Did anyone go see the Kevin Sorbo film?

I started reading books that told of the rapture and the horrors awaiting those who were left behind to go through the Tribulation.

I heard “endtime evangelists” with their flipcharts (before Powerpoint) (Bill Gates graduated High School in 1973)

The Soviet Union and Cold War, threats of nuclear annihilation, communism triumphing, all contributed

Personal Reflection:What do you think and how do you feel when someone says, “The end of the world is near”?

I live in eager anticipation.

I long for it.

I’m old, but even as a teenager I was eager for the Rapture.

According to the apostles of Jesus, the last days began with the ascension of Jesus to heaven and the outpouring of the Spirit on the church.

And we have been in the last days ever since—almost two thousand years of last days!

Indeed, the last days will continue until Christ comes again.

It is hard to keep a balanced perspective on this.

This study shows that in one sense we have “arrived,” but in another sense we are still waiting.

To keep the balance we must learn how to live “to the hilt” in these days of fulfillment while waiting hopefully for the last of the last days.

RAPTURE ANXIETY OR BLESSED HOPE?

by  DOUG CLAY on February 17, 2023

Will Jesus return in 2023?

That question stirs hope in some and anxiety in others.

How can the thought of Jesus’ return produce anxiety?

Stories of “Rapture anxiety” received prominent media attention in 2022.

Some “exvangelicals” — people raised in Christian homes who now question traditional evangelical doctrines, often because of traumatic experiences — say the teaching of the Rapture caused them anxiety.

As a pastor, my heart aches for people who suffer trauma because of their church experiences.

Should the doctrine be a source of anxiety?

Absolutely not!

Article 13 of the Assemblies of God’s Statement of Fundamental Truths says about the Rapture: “The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the Church.”

The Rapture should calm anxious Christians rather than causing anxiety.

No matter how bad things get, we know that our Blessed Hope is imminent!

Our doctrinal statement lists four texts for the Rapture: 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; Romans 8:23; Titus 2:13; and 1 Corinthians 15:51–52.

A close look at the broader context of each passage reveals how the Rapture inspires hope.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Paul addressed Christians who were worried about the deaths of fellow believers.

Would they miss out on Christ’s return?

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (LSB) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul calmed the Thessalonians’ anxiety by reminding them that for Christians, death is like falling asleep.

The “trumpet call of God” is the alarm clock that will wake them when Christ comes.

The dead will get up first, and then the living will join them “in the air” to meet Christ.

“Soul sleep” is NOT inferred.

Brother Clay is talking about the physical body.

According to Got Questions Ministries.

“Soul sleep” is a belief that after a person dies, his/her soul “sleeps” until the resurrection and final judgment.

The concept of “soul sleep” is not biblical.

When the Bible describes a person “sleeping” in relation to death (Luke 8:52; 1 Corinthians 15:6), it does not mean literal sleep.

Sleeping is just a way to describe death because a dead body appears to be asleep.

The moment we die, we face the judgment of God (Hebrews 9:27).

If immediately upon death we go to heaven or hell, then we are judged.

But there are other judgments:

Revelation 20:11–15 (LSB) Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sits upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.

12 Then I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

2 Corinthians 5:10 (LSB) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

1 Corinthians 3:12–15 (LSB) Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident, for the day will indicate it because it is revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

For believers, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6–8; Philippians 1:23).

For unbelievers, death means everlasting punishment in hell (Luke 16:22–23).

Until the final resurrection, though, there is a temporary heaven—paradise (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4) and a temporary hell—Hades (Revelation 1:18; 20:13–14).

As can be clearly seen in Luke 16:19–31, neither in paradise nor in Hades are people sleeping.

It could be said, though, that a person’s body is “sleeping” while his soul is in paradise or Hades.

At the resurrection, this body is “awakened” and transformed into the everlasting body a person will possess for eternity, whether in heaven or hell.

Those who were in paradise will be sent to the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Those who were in Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15).

These are the final, eternal destinations of all people—based entirely on whether or not a person trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation.

Present-day defenders of soul sleep include the Seventh Day Adventist church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians and others.

“And so we will be with the Lord forever,” Paul concluded.

“Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

In Romans 8:18–25 , believers were troubled by their “present sufferings.”

Romans 8:18–25 (LSB) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19 For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

24 For in hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it.

Those sufferings weren’t merely personal; they were cosmic.

“The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

Few things make us despair as much as deep, persistent suffering.

Is there an end to our suffering?

Paul wrote that our suffering ends when Christ returns and accomplishes “our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”

Paul immediately added this crucial statement: “For in this hope we were saved.”

Hope appears again in Titus 2:11–14.

Indeed, verse 13 gives Article 13 of the Statement of Fundamental Truths its title: “The Blessed Hope.”

Titus 2:11–15 (LSB) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.

15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.

Let no one disregard you.