Is This the End of the World?

1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11 ESV

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

We’re continuing our “What does the Bible have to say about COVID-19?” series today. And to remind us and to make it clear if you didn’t see last week’s sermon, I’m not trying to tell you that the words “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” are in your Bible or some other translation. As far as I know, they’re not, but the Bible does speak to us about the intersection of crisis and Christian faith. While COVID-19 is the crisis—by that I mean it’s the trouble, the problem, it’s significantly impacting life—throughout the world right now, there are many other crises that what we’re looking at today may also connect to. There are personal crises—being laid off work, getting diagnosed with a terminal illness, a miscarriage, having a natural disaster devastate home or property. Then there are crises like terror attacks, wars, economic depressions, religious or social persecutions, which can have a wider range of impact.

Amid some of those things, we may wonder or it feels like “the end of the world.” Perhaps you’ve wondered that recently or you’ve heard other people, maybe other preachers, talk about whether COVID-19 is a sign. With all that’s going on, is this somewhat chaotic moment an indication that are we living in the minutes, hours, days, or weeks of “the end times”?

To get our bearings, I offer this timeline of essential events or eras that we can say for sure are part of the future. There is more detail we could add from Scripture. There are different interpretations about how the end will unfold based on more literal readings of certain passages. But these are things I believe all Christians can say, with certainty, will happen, based on the Bible.

The first event requires us to look back to Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We can’t talk about the future and what we’re hoping for without Jesus. Everything that follows is inseparably linked to him and these events. The next point is in the present. We live in the time of human mortality. It’s kind of a dark way to look at it, but it’s the truth—people have died, are dying, and we will continue to die. In this present age, our lives, our bodies, our minds, our abilities are limited or finite. At some point in the future, though, there is a day, a moment, when Jesus will return. Literally, everything will change: how life and all creation function, what matters to every single person will undergo drastic changes because of that moment. With his return comes the next step: there will be changes to us. We read in 1 Corinthians 15, “…The dead will be raised imperishable…the mortal [must clothe itself] with immortality.” For humanity, this is preparation for the final point: a Day of Judgment and life beyond—either we will live forever with Christ and those who he has forgiven, saved, and made saints by his grace or we will be punished with hell.

As we listen to God’s word together from 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, most of this timeline is laid out there. But our primary focus today is seeking to discern when that arrow is pointing to, just before Jesus’ return. Is that where we are right now? Is God telling us and the world he’s on his way back? Or what will that time be like and again, what we do we do in the meantime?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is natural for us to yearn for the second coming of Jesus. If you’ve ever lived at a distance from family members or close friends for a period of time or you think about even right now and the distance between most of us even though we live just blocks or a few miles apart, there’s a longing to see each another. Maybe you’re good with being apart for a while, but a time likely comes when you want to be together. We were made to be in relationship, and when those cherished connections aren’t in place, we can feel something missing.

If that’s the case for other people in our lives, then how much more can we cherish being with the One who has appointed us to receive salvation? Scripture tells us that Christ, by the Spirit, is in us right now. Yet most of us would probably say, we have a yearning to be with Jesus, to experience the fullness of his presence in what he will implement. Often times around funerals or times of sharing with family and friends, people talk about wanting to see or to meet someone who has already died and they believe will be in heaven. Whether or not we will have that memory of people or even the ability to recognize one another, to know and see and be with our God will be enough to satisfy us for eternity. So, we long for that day when he will return, when he will resurrect the dead and will gather all his own who are still alive to be “with the Lord forever.”

And yet, the Bible warns us that there may be difficult times before Christ returns. We’re not just talking about what unfolds in the pages of Revelation, but we hear already in the Old Testaments prophets about “the Day of the Lord.” Ezekiel, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah all refer to this day, and the way it’s described is terrifying. We also find it in Isaiah 13.

The chapter begins, “An oracle concerning Babylon…” That was one of the major countries in the ancient world, and that empire conquered the kingdom of Judah. It’s also referenced in the book of Revelation. Here’s what follows, starting at verse 4, “Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war. They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the Lord and the weapons of his wrath—to destroy the whole country. Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and to destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.”

When we come across “the Day of the Lord” in the prophets, it’s possible they spoke of days, now in history, when those nations would fall. When God sent judgment on his people, it wasn’t that those who invaded them were less sinful or holier. No, God promised to judge them for invading his people. “The Day of the Lord” may have applied to their destructions. Yet the language referring to the sun, moon, and stars being darkened seems to point to a final judgment.

In his time on earth, Jesus spoke on the end times and captured some of these passages. Because we’ve looked at Matthew quite a bit recently, we’ll stick to his record. In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked, “‘…What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ Jesus answered: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars...Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places…’” He speaks about persecution, people turning away from the faith, betrayal and hatred. In verses 29 and 30, Jesus says, “‘Immediately after the distress of those days “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.’” How will we know, according to Jesus, that the end is coming? There will be fighting, disasters, pain and death, persecution, and changes in what we see in nature.

Before we move on, let’s look at the book of Revelation—a book as heard in the children’s message with vivid imagery—that comforts as well as disturbs. We find three groups of seven. In chapters 5-8, there are seven seals, which when opened by the Lamb, reveal these things: a rider on a white horse who is a conqueror; a rider on a fiery red horse who is a peace-taker to make men slay each other; a rider on a black horse with scales for measuring. The fourth horse is a pale horse, “Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” The fifth seal reveals the martyrs of the faith waiting for the completion of all who will be martyred. Then there’s a sequence of a great earthquake, the sun turned black, the moon turned blood red, the stars fell to earth, the sky receded like a scroll. When the seventh seal is opened, there is silence, followed by thunder, rumblings, lightning, and earthquake.

           Revelation chapters 8-11 tell us of seven trumpets, which when played by angels reveal: Hail and fire mixed with blood hurled on earth, a huge mountain ablaze thrown into the sea, a great star named Wormwood fell on waters, a third of the sun, moon, and stars turned dark, a star fell to earth with a key to shaft of the Abyss releasing smoke and scorpion-like locusts. The sixth trumpet allows four angels to be released to kill a third of humanity. The final trumpet announces God’s temple in heaven being opened with lightning, rumblings, thunder, an earthquake, and hailstorm. I’m moving quickly through these, but do notice there’s more detail on the slides and consider looking through these chapters on your own.

           The third group of seven is plagues and bowls of wrath in Revelation 15 and 16. These pour out ugly and painful sores to break out on certain people, the sea is turned to blood and every living sea creature dies, rivers and springs of water are turned to blood, the sun is given power to scorch people with fire, the kingdom of the beast is plunged into darkness, the great river Euphrates dries up, and there are flashes of lightning, rumblings, thunder, a severe earthquake, and hail.

           Maybe it is a bit of an understatement to say the Bible warns of difficult times before Christ returns. What’s contained in these passages is terrifying. If these things will literally take place around the whole world and happen one after another and are affecting every person who is alive—these will be painful times, terrible times, scary times. These are the kind of times when a person might truly wish they weren’t alive. If these passages, these pronouncements by God, whether directly or through his prophets, are to be taken figuratively, the devastation preceding Jesus’ return must still have meaning. God must have a reason for telling us all this, and he and his character don’t seem to be in the business of just saying things to scare people straight.

           With all this in mind, do current events place us in these times? Is COVID-19 a pivotal sign or part of the devastation that is associated with the end of the world? As we made our way through all those passages, only Revelation 6:8 included the word “plague.” which if we go to the Greek word being translated, it refers to a pandemic disease linked to death. When we looked at 2 Chronicles 6 and 7 last week, we looked at a Hebrew word that had similar meaning. So, of all repeated signs and terrors, a plague-type sickness is only mentioned once. Revelation 16:2 did tell of the affliction of painful sores on the body. Other verses talked about water turning to blood and water becoming bitter, and if those were ingested, people could get sick and even die. Sickness does precede Jesus’ return, but should we be looking for Jesus’ return in the immediate future?

           Brothers and sisters, we are living in the end times. We are living in the period when Jesus said he would return soon. We’re living in days when there are wars and rumors of wars, when there is persecution, hatred and division among people, when there are natural disasters, when there are sicknesses and deaths abounding. Maybe COVID-19 is a reminder or a wake-up call, but these things have been going on since Jesus’ returned to heaven. COVID-19 is one among many viruses and plagues that have come among humanity, and there are several diseases that have killed many more people than this virus. At the very least, these diseases remind us that our physical strength and health and lives are fragile—we’re not immortal or invincible on our own.

           We can take that somewhat passive approach, that this disease and other crises are under the authority of God, they are the effects of sin and brokenness. When we consider the scope of these signs of the end times, though, when God chooses to send these things, to pour out his judgments, they are certainly intended to draw people to believe in him, to seek him. 

           In Revelation 9:20-21, this was in the second group, the seven trumpets, we read, “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols…Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” We hear it repeated in Revelation 16, “…They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him…Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done…And they cursed God on account the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.”

           I said before God is not in the business of saying things to scare people straight, but that doesn’t mean he won’t use judgments that appear scary to us to lead some to see their need for rescue from God’s eternal wrath. His wrath exists because of our sin and unrighteousness. When we are aware or made aware of the second coming of Jesus, which will usher in eternity, people must be aware these terrors are a taste of what is to come if we do not seek the Lord for salvation.

Yet all who repent and believe will be saved, because of what Jesus did the first time he was here. That brings us to our final point. Is there encouragement for Christians who are aware of and looking at the end of this world? Going back to “Our World Belongs to God,” we confess in paragraph 55, “Our hope for a new creation is not tied to what humans can do, for we believe that one day every challenge to God’s rule will be crushed. His kingdom will fully come, and the Lord will rule. Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

           Considering this and especially what we read back in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, our encouragement rests in God’s rule crushing all that challenges him—every bit of evil, every bit of wickedness, everything that tries to say God is unnecessary, his goodness his optional—God will bring an end to all of it. And our encouragement rests in the guarantee that his reign is coming. We don’t know the exact reason why God has determined that there should be so many days and years before that time, but God knows. He has planned when the return of his Son will be. We can take comfort that amid all this distress or however the end of the world happens and whenever it happens, we shouldn’t be surprised as if we don’t know that things may get bad. That doesn’t mean that we stick our heads in the sand or try to avoid every pain or try to hide the church completely from the unrepentant. 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 5 through 9 remind us, “You are all sons of the light and sons of the day…Let us be alert and self-controlled…putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we live through a season of difficulty or if our whole lives are in “the end times,” do not be afraid.

           We must encourage one another with the knowledge that the end of this world is not the end of our existence, it’s not the end of God or faith in him. In times like this, remember that we have a perfect and unshakable, unmovable Rock on which to cling and run to in our God. Also, take hope and remind one another that Jesus will come again, and what believers look forward to when he comes is so much better than any crises or disasters we face in this lifetime.

           If you’re watching this, though, and you’ve been aware of Jesus and what he offers, but something is holding you back from trusting him with faith and repentance, I pray today would be the day when you surrender yourself to him. If our world’s current circumstances due to the virus or if there are other circumstances in your life that are causing fear, anxiety, confusion, or any other emotions because you feel like you’re facing them alone, God is willing to receive those who turn to him. You don’t have to be alone. He offers his perfect hope to all his children. Wait no longer, find true hope for dark days in this life and for eternity in him by the blood of Jesus. Amen.