Sermon Tone Analysis

“*LIVING IN LIGHT OF THE END*”

(A Chosen People – Series in I Peter)

 

Westgate Chapel 2~/04~/01                                       I Peter 4:7-11

 

PROPOSITION:  The follower of Christ is called to live today in the clear light of an eternity, which could be ushered in at any moment now.

! I. introduction

!! -     EVERYTHING has and end...including this world as we know it.

!! -     THIS fact is not just the ranting of some Gospel preacher.

Scientists tell us that things, left to themselves, run down...rust and arthritis are only two proofs (Einstein’s 2nd law of thermal dynamics).

!! -     SO, this world is going to end….the

Bible says so and modern scientists say so.

!! -     WHEN Adam and Eve were the first humans on planet earth, it is safe to say that it was not the time of the end.

!!! ~*     In Genesis 3, at the time that Adam and Eve were being separated from God’s presence by their sin, God made a promise that some time in the future there would be a male child born of a woman who would crush Satan’s authority and power.

!!! ~*     And Adam and Eve lived in anticipation of that child of deliverance, but He was not born in their lifetime.

!!! ~*     So, it was not the time of the end.

!! -     WHEN Abraham was alive, it was not the time of the end.

!!! ~*     God had promised that out of Abraham’s seed God would raise up a nation, a covenant people in a promised land, through whom God would reveal His love for all nations.

!!! ~*     Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all lived in anticipation of that covenant nation…but it didn’t happen in their lifetimes.

!!! ~*     So, it was not the time of the end.

!! -     WHEN Moses was leading the brand new nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt…on their way to Canaan land….it

was not the time of the end.

!!! ~*     Somewhere along the way, out in the desert, God gave Moses instructions to build a tent~/tabernacle for the glory of God’s presence to dwell in the camp.

!!! ~*     Moses obeyed but knew that there would come a day when God’s presence would dwell, not in a tent, but in a permanent place in Canaan.

!!! ~*     Moses lived in anticipation of that day!

!!! ~*     He never saw it.

!!! ~*     So, it was not the time of the end.

!! -     WHEN King David was on the throne of Israel….it was not the time of the end.

!!! ~*     God had promised him that one day there would be a king on the throne of Israel (the Messiah) who would reign over an eternal kingdom of peace, a kingdom that would never end.

!!! ~*     And David died without seeing the plan for an eternal king on his throne fulfilled.

!!! ~*     So, it was not the time of the end.

!! -     AND then one day, about 2,000 years ago, God said it was time to set the final stage of His plans for the world in motion!

!! -     PAUL puts it this way in Galatians 4:4-5,

!!!       “*But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law*, (5) *to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons*.”

!! -     JESUS is the completion of God’s plan designed before the foundations of the world.

!! -     JESUS is the child of Genesis 3:15, who crushed Satan’s head.

!! -     JESUS is the seed promised Abraham, in Genesis 18:18, through whom all nations of the world would be blessed.

!! -     JESUS is the glory of God that rested between the cherubim in the tabernacle and the Temple, where God’s Name rested among men…..He is Immanuel, God With Us!

!! -     JESUS is the King, of the lineage of David, who reigns, and about whom it will someday soon be said,

!!!       “*The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever*.”

(Revelation 11:15)

!! -     NO wonder the writer of the Hebrews says,

!!!       “*In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways*, (2) *but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe*.”

(Hebrews 1:1&2)

!! -     EVERY promise God made, from Adam and Eve, to King David and the prophets….every

promise was ultimately fulfilled.

!! -     JESUS is God’s last, final, and complete Word!

!! -     THERE is no other deliverer to look for.

!! -     THERE is no other covenant to anticipate.

!! -     THERE is no other sanctuary to be built.

!! -     THERE is no other dispensation of world history to be fulfilled.

!! -     THERE is no other king, but Jesus.

!! -     GOD has done it all.

!! -     JESUS is the culmination of God’s plan.

!! -     WE are living in the year of the Lord’s grave and favor….the

season of world history where the gate of salvation is open to all who would come.

!! -     WE are not waiting for anything else in God’s plan of salvation.

!! -     AND NOW, with everything cleared off God’s schedule, the only thing left is the end.

!! -     WHEN Jesus was born in that manger, the beginning of the end arrived.

!! -     NOTHING stands in God’s way.

!! -     THE finale could be at any moment.

!! -     THE angel’s trumpet could sound this afternoon!

!! -     WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS.

!! -     HEBREWS 1:2 tells us that Jesus ushered in the “last days.”

!! -     ON the day of Pentecost Peter announced prophetically that the church was birthed in power by the Holy Spirit in the “last days.”

!! -     THE apostle John, in I John 2:18, writes to the churches in Asia Minor in the first century,

!!!       “*Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

This is how we know it is the last hour*.”

!

ii.   christ is coming again

!! -     THIS is the context of our passage from I Peter 4 this morning.

!! -     AND it is very important that you and I be moved by the immediacy of living in “the last days” with nothing of any real significance ahead of us but the final consummation of the kingdom of God.

!! -     THAT is exactly what was moving the apostle Peter, in I Peter 4:7, where he writes (page 1203),

!!!       “*The end of all things is near*.”

!! -     THOSE New Testament leaders and believers were convinced that they would see “the end” in their lifetimes.

!! -     THE END!

!!! ~*     The dead in Christ raised first, then we who are alive and remain also caught up to meet Him in the air (I Thessalonians 4:17)

!!! ~*     Seven years of tribulation for those who are left behind.

The earth under the rule of the Antichrist.

!!! ~*     The Battle of Armadeggon.

!!! ~*     Satan cast into the lake of fire.

!!! ~*     The Great White Throne Judgement.

!!! ~*     Those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life…also cast into the lake of fire.

!!! ~*     The old sinful earth purged of all sin and darkness, as by fire.

!!! ~*     “(John the Revelator sees) *a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea*.

(2) *I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.*

(3) *And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God*.(4)

*He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.*’

(5) *He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new*!’” (Revelation 21:1-5)

!! -     THIS is what lies ahead of every true follower of Christ.

!! -     AND it is near!

!! -     IT is the next thing on God’s agenda.

!! -     GOD’S finale for all those on planet earth!

!! -     THE God who has pulled off everything else He has promised for the past six thousand years, has one more promise about “the end.”

!

iii.

WE MUST LIVE SO AS TO BE READY

!! -     BACK to I Peter 4:7,

!!!       “*Therefore*…….!!!”

!! -     AND what follows between verses 7 and 11 hold the key to being ready for the finale.

!! -     THIS is how we are to live as we await the fulfillment of God’s final promise to humankind.

!! -     THIS is how we are to live in order to be ready to meet God……because “this” is how life IS in the kingdom He is going to usher in!