Denying Its Power

Denying It’s Power

Lucky to have those working with the campus ministry

Mike May
Benford’s
Robert Carrillo
Jeff Chacon
Students who worked so hard to put this all together

Rev 2:1-5

2 Tim 3:1-5

The phrase “the last days” may seem at first to refer to the period just before the return of Christ.

I prefer to interpret “the last days” as sometimes having a broader meaning. While “the last days” is used in the specific sense of the final judgment (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48), it is also used to describe the present (Acts 2:16–17; Heb. 1:2).
In this sense “the last days” can mean the entire period from Jesus’ first coming to His final coming.
Here, “the last days” can best be interpreted as all of church history. In Jesus, the kingdom of God has broken into history, the new age has begun, the last days are now until the last day when He shall come.

“Perilous times”

The word translated “perilous” is used only here and in Matt. 8:28 in the New Testament.

It is used in classical Greek to describe wild animals or the raging sea. It can mean “hard to bear, menacing, fierce, violent, or troublesome.” Thus when Paul says “in the last days perilous times will come,”
I find it best to regard this, not as a prediction of some future time, nor as a “sign” that Jesus is about to come. Rather, this is a description of a recurring reality for all Christians in all times and places.

This raises a very troubling question for me.

Q: Why are we as disciples so comfortable? Why are we so accepted and well-received?

A: One of two things must be true.

Either we live on campuses so immersed with Christian culture that naturally provides a climate of acceptance and support, or we have accommodated ourselves to the values established by our non-Christian culture.

I don’t find enough evidence to convince me that ours is a Christian culture.
Our comfort and acceptance can only suggest to me that we have been tamed by the world around us and have acquiesced with the world’s values much more than we realize or dare admit.

[1]

We may well have “a form of godliness” (v. 5), but there is no dynamic in such lives. This is precisely why there is so little life-changing power in so many of our churches. As long as we baptize our love of self, money, and pleasure, and call it the love of God, we may well go on with all the forms, but the power will be missing.[2]

Plugs:

We need campus ministers
How many times we talk about the campus ministry

The Benford’s
Campus ministry: 3 millionaires

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[1]Demarest, Gary W., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Vol. 32, The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 32 : 1, 2 Thessalonians / 1, 2 Timothy / Titus. Formerly The Communicator's Commentary. The Preacher's Commentary series, Page 278. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1984.

[2]Demarest, Gary W., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Vol. 32, The Preacher's Commentary Series, Volume 32 : 1, 2 Thessalonians / 1, 2 Timothy / Titus. Formerly The Communicator's Commentary. The Preacher's Commentary series, Page 282. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1984.