Beginning with the End

Introduction

Bible Reading plan 2020

Acts 6:4

vActs 6:4 (ESV)

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Have you ever been a chess player? Yeah, me neither. But I’m told that good chess players begin with the end in mind. They play thinking at least five moves ahead.

At the beginning of a new year, I don’t want us to think about what is our next move for this year or even what is our next five moves for 5-year / 10-year plan. I want us to begin this year with the end in mind.

In one sense, that is how Peter is writing his letter. He is writing to a group of Christians at about the mid 60s AD — more than 30 years after Jesus had left this earth with the promise that he would return to bring about the end of all things.

A whole generation had passed and things weren’t getting better, in fact, they were getting worse. They were confused and discouraged, but Peter wrote his letter to “sojourners and exiles” (aliens) to remain pure and have hope even though, now for a little while they might be “grieved by various trials.”

To whom is Peter writing?

Context of 1 Peter

Despite what is happening around them, Peter does not want the believers he is writing to to be discouraged or distracted. Instead, he wants them to continue to follow Christ in this world with an eternal perspective.

7-11

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

In other words,

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore. . .

ILLUST - The Rope and the Dot

the rope represents (poorly) eternity and the dot represents our time on earth - our earthly life (birth, childhood, teenage years, marriage, retirement, death).

Four realizations when the end has come:

1) We spent a disproportionate amount of time focused on the dot given the length of eternity.

How many of us really spend time thinking about eternity? It might pop your brain.

“Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.”

- John Owen

How much of your day is really spent thinking about how grand heaven will be?

If we understood heaven to be the greatest place imaginable (as we understand the title, ‘heaven’) then we would spend more time contemplating it.

ILLUST - Dr. Dorsey on thinking about heaven “wrongly” - “I wonder what they are doing in hell? It must be more fun than this.” Only because we understand heaven wrongly.

Best things about heaven:

We won’t be angels

There will be no more.

. . pain, temptation, grief, sickness, cancer, taxes, stress, calories, disappointment, death.

We will have satisfying work

There was work in the Garden

God is a worker

We will still learn

Omniscience is an incommunicable attribute

All things will be new

earth

the decay of sin will be gone.

We will have the fullness of the presence of God.

The two greatest tools of Satan are deception and distraction.

- He would love nothing more than for us to hear a message about how much God loves us and the things He can do for us to make 2020 the most prosperous and happy new year.

- While it is true that God loves us, His focus is NOT the dot but the rope.

37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

2) We lived life focused on the dot - oblivious to the rope.

We, in practicality, live as though the rope does not exist. We daily make choices and decisions based solely on the here and now with no thought to the there and then.

We sing as Christians on Sunday, but live as Atheists on Monday.

If we make our daily choices without eternity in mind, then what sets us apart from the atheist?

What do we have to offer the atheist when they struggle with choices or circumstances?

While in practicality we may live in the “here and now.” The reality is two-fold:

1) There is existence after death.

- We all know it.

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

There is no annihilation

Scripture has many examples of life after death.

There is life after death.

2) Everyone will face it.

The question of eternity is not if it exists but where you will exist while it is.

The problem is, most of us live as though this life is all there is. We plan for tomorrow so that next week will be good.

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

You don’t know when your dot will end.

James calls life a ‘mist’ — fog that burns off.

In , David asks this of God:

(ESV)

4 “O Lord, make me know my end

and what is the measure of my days;

let me know how fleeting I am!

ILLUST - Would You Rather? game we played - Know how you’ll die or when you’ll die?

All chose when you’ll die so they can prepare.

The point of the passage is to PREPARE NOW

Neglecting to think about eternity can have dire consequences.

For unbeliever - the distraction of the dot means eternal punishment in hell.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” . . . Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. . . .  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

For the believer - the distraction of the dot means missed opportunities and rewards in heaven.

(ESV)

12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

(ESV)

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

3) We believed the rope was meant to make the dot better.

We have this all backwards.

The Christian life and the promise of heaven is NOT meant to be used as a crutch for our earthly problems or as fire insurance that gives us some sort of peace and contentment as we putter along in Christian suburbia.

God is not hoping you coast into heaven fully satisfied; He’s expecting you to fall into heaven SPENT.

Look at Jesus:

Luke 9:22–23

22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look at Paul:

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

(ESV)

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

(ESV)

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. v

The hope of heaven is not given to us to make us happy. The hope of heaven was given to us to make us dangerous.

Not only is it true that living with the eternal in view urges us to risk for the gospel, but it also offers us the peace of contentment.

When we shift away from the fallacy that the rope was meant to make the dot better, we recognize the truth that the ‘good life’ now is NOT the goal.

In fact, in this world we may have trouble. In fact, Jesus promised that in this world we WOULD have trouble

If eternity is as long and wonderful as it truly is, and if our time on earth is as short in comparison as it truly is, then there is NO suffering on earth (no matter how bad) that can dim the glory of heaven.

The problem is not in situation but in perspective.

(ESV)

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

4) What we did on the dot affects the rope.

“Right now counts forever.”

- R. C. Sproul

v

Here is where we return to 1 Peter.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore. . .

Stop sinning.

(ESV)

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Pray wisely.

(ESV)

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

- R. C. Sproul

in the midst of suffering, of trials that the believers were facing, some were distraught focusing only on their current situation.

Peter calls them to pray maturely in light of the end.

diligently pray. Pray with self-control.

Pray to stay free from the world’s entanglements.

Pray for God to bring about the end.

Pray for all that is necessary for the end to come - for all to hear the gospel of Jesus

Love earnestly.

(ESV)

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

‘earnestly’ = constantly

‘covers’ does not mean it takes away the sin - only Jesus does that. Does not mean we ignore the sin - Scripture never teaches this. It means that, at the end of the day, when the sin has been dealt with, we move past the sin.

It means we love each other in a way that maintains unity even if we have experienced the other person’s sins.

9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

I serve you in a way that does not see it as an imposition.

where we could complain or grumble with each other, we don’t.

We serve each other.

Why? Why if the end is near should we work on finding ways to love other brothers and sisters? Shouldn’t there be something else we should be doing?

Key is at the end of verse 11:

. . . in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Display Christ. (to those who need to know the end is near)

When the church loves well, loves differently God is glorified in Christ Jesus.

The world notices.

It is not so God’s glory may be spread in heaven - it’s already there. It is so God’s glory can be spread on earth so those who need to know the end is near will see and believe.

(ESV)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (spoken to and about disciples)

When the church loves well it is evangelistic, when the church does not, it is typical (of the world).

“Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever.”

- C.S. Lewis

- John Owen

Conclusion

You know what the difference is between the game of checkers and the game of chess?

The game of checkers is played in the moment as you react to the situation on the board and moves of your opponent.

But the game of chess is played with the end in mind — with your current moves based on the end you know is coming.

Some of you are living life like it is a game of checkers: allowing the situation on the board or the moves other people make determine your next move. You HOPE the end will be in your favor but it all really matters what happens next in the game.

Your life will be fulfilling if you could find Mr. or Mrs. Right.

You’er making moves hoping just to advance your position a little on the board.

Schooling, job, move is done with the view of making this life better —making the dot better — without thought of the line.

You look for ways to spend or save money for personal happiness instead of looking for ways to use and give money for Kingdom effectiveness.

Here’s the thing: How crazy would it be for someone playing a friendly, non-competitive game of chess to offer his opponent $1000 each time he wishes to tell his opponent where to move next.

He’ll likely win the game, but he’ll also feel pretty foolish when he steps away from the table. What seemed so important in that short moment

Here’s the reality: Life isn’t a game.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

You will die once, and that’s you stepping away from the table.

- There are many Christians today who will die richer than they should be.

fatter than they should be

in places they shouldn’t be

surrounded by people they shouldn’t be

. . . if they had lived with an eternal mindset.

>>What is the thing(s) / persons blocking your view of eternity?

>>What will you do TODAY to begin to gain a better view of eternity?

>> Commit to make every decision (big / small) in light of the rope instead of the dot.

How will 2020 be different if you ‘Begin With the End?’

Make every decision, every