End-Time Evangelism - Part 1 - Urgency

366 - O Where Are the Reapers

Firing Squad

The sun had just risen on a hot August day in 1944 in the small village of Plelo, in German-occupied France. The 15-year-old boy did not know why he and the other citizens of Plelo had been lined up before a firing squad in the middle of the town square. Perhaps they were being punished for harboring a unit of French underground freedom fighters. Perhaps they were merely to satisfy the blood lust of the German commanding officer who, the evening before, had routed the small group of freedom fighters scouts. All the boy knew was that he was about to die.

As he stood before the firing squad, he remembered the carefree days of his early childhood, before the war, spent roaming the green of the French countryside. He thought about all he would miss by never growing up. Most of all he was terrified of dying. How will the bullets feel ripping through my body? he wondered. He hoped no one could hear the whimperings coming from deep in his throat every time he exhaled.

As the guns were lifted, the boy looked down the barrels. Waiting for death to seize him, he held his breathe.

Suddenly, the boy heard the sound of exploding mortar shells beyond the limits of his little village. Quickly rolling tanks could also be heard. The Germans were forced to abandon the firing squad and face a small unit of U.S. tanks with twenty GI's led by Bob Hamsley, a corporal in Patton's Third Army. A freedom fighter captain had asked Hamsley for help. After three hours, fifty Nazis were dead, and the other fifty were taken prisoner.

The boy and many others were rescued, and not a second too soon.

Urgency.

sometimes, is a

life or death matter.

Urgent: “a situation requiring immediate action or attention.”

Important vs. Urgent

When training efficiency

you might here

comparison between

important and urgent.

Graph - possible options

explain....

Make a list of to-do’s.

categorize.

How did Jesus categorize?

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus says,

don’t waste time

building treasure

here on earth.

Instead,

invest in the stock

of heaven.

No need to

diversify your portfolio.

This stock is sure!

But what does that mean?

How do you

store up treasures in heaven?

Simple question.

Look around the room,

of what you see,

what thing are going to heaven?

No things...

Only people...

So,

the way to

store up treasure in heaven,

invest in people

spiritually...

Spread the Gospel...

So far,

we have established.

Jesus felt

evangelism was important

preeminently important.

But what about urgent?

The title of the sermon

“End-Time Evangelism.”

We are not talking about

evangelism in any age

but specifically

end-time evangelism.

I emphasize end-time

because we talk about

the idea that

Jesus is coming soon.

Therefore,

we must be living

in the end-times...

Let’s take a look at

other “end-time evangelism”

scenarios in the Bible.

Jesus used two

Bible stories as examples

of what life would be like

just before His

Second Coming.

Noah and the Ark.

Sodom and Gomorrah.

According to Gen 6:3

Noah preached for

120 years

before the flood came.

Depending on how you

look at this,

you might say,

that does not sound

very urgent to me!

But fast forward now.

Genesis 7:1–5 ESV

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

Now,

it is going to rain in 7 days,

the ark door will soon shut.

Now is it urgent?

When I say,

Jesus is coming soon.

We must warn everyone.

It is urgent!

Many will say,

Well,

we’ve been teaching

that for years.

120 year…?

Who knows when

he is really coming.

it is not that urgent.

I believe

it was urgent

120 years in advance.

By the next year,

it was even more urgent.

Only 119 years left!

Everything on earth

is going to die!!!

Final year,

very, very urgent!

Final month,

seriously dangerous!

Last week...

I still see sunshine…!

In our case,

we don’t know

exactly what year

we are on

in the cosmic

countdown...

But, what I do know,

it is more urgent

than it was

last year!

How many years are left?

I don’t know.

But,

there are fewer now.

Furthermore,

tomorrow is not promised.

Sitting on the hard wooden bleachers at Fort Benning while attending the United States Army Airborne School, we prepared for our first parachute jump. Soon we would soar hundreds of feet above the red Georgia clay and hear the jump-master bark out the orders, "Stand up! Hook up! Check equipment! Stand in the door! Go! Go! Go!" Understandably, the instructors had our undivided attention.

The Airborne sergeant's voice rang out confidently as he explained what to do in case of a parachute malfunction. "If your main parachute should fail to deploy, don't panic—pull the handle of your auxiliary parachute. Should your auxiliary parachute fail to fill with air, don't panic—pull it in toward your body and then vigorously throw it away from yourself. Should your auxiliary chute again fail to deploy, don't panic—vigorously repeat this process."

He paused dramatically, looking intently into our eyes. Then with a slight mischievous grin he slowly stated, "Should this also fail, don't panic. You'll have the rest of your life to get your parachute to deploy."

Every singe day,

over 151,000 die.

For them,

that is it.

Their probation

is sealed.

For over 150,000 people

that it...

Did their parachute deploy?

Will they be in heaven?

To some extent,

it involves you.

You may be the one

that gives them

the parachute

of eternal life.

Let us examine

the story of

Sodom and Gomorrah.

From Lot’s perspective,

the day starts like

any other day.

Two visitors come

to the city.

He welcomes them

to his house.

They refuse.

He insists.

Lot is an ordinary man

doing his business

on an ordinary day.

He lives in an

extraordinarily evil town

but that has become

normal to him by now.

Genesis 19:12–13 ESV

Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

On that day,

Lot was told,

everyone in the city

will be destroyed.

If you don’t

come out with me.

You will also die.

How urgent is that?

Lot tries

to do come last minute

evangelism.

Genesis 19:14 ESV

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

Nobody believed him.

At night of

fruitless evangelism.

Genesis 19:15–17 ESV

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

The situation was

so urgent

And the people were

so unserious.

They had to be

drug out of the city

by the hand…!

What do we learn

from these stories?

Evangelism, especially

end-time evangelism,

is always,

an urgent matter.

So we have

clearly identified

what type of priority

evangelism is.

It is both

urgent

and important.

IT CANNOT BE:

delegated.

put-off.

on the back burner.

second place.

John 9:4 ESV

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

We must do

this work of evangelism

while it is still light.

Night is coming.

Our Evangelistic Meetings

start on Feb 15th.

We need

all hands on deck.

Areas of need:

prayer.

invitations.

greeting.

children’s.

food.

visitations.

Paul Revere

Go back in your minds to the early, colonial days of our nation. - The date--April 18th, 1775 - The place--Boston, Massachusetts

The British had brought their troops into Old Boston. They planned an attack on the colonies. Their secret strategy was to cross the Charles River by night in small boats, and stage a surprise attack on the towns of Concord and Lexington.

Everyone was asleep, but two men were awake. Robert Newman and Paul Revere. Newman’s job was to identify which route they were taking and to signal from the church steeple by lantern light.

As the poem goes:

“One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

His alarm aroused the Minute Men of the colonies, and they assembled to defend their homes against the attack of the British.

That was an important ''Wake Up'' call in American history, wouldn't you agree!

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,

-- A cry of defiance, and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

We have a midnight message.

a message of warning.

It is our job

to go on that

dangerous midnight ride.

to warn the world.

This matter is not only

important

but also

urgent.

Won’t you join in?

375 - Work, for the Night is Coming