Urgency of the Hour: Being Prepared (3 of 5)

Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

2 Peter 3:10 NLT

But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

INTRODUCTION

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been studying and talking about Prophecy and specifically the Coming of the End Times. I recall seeing a poll of Christians that were asked for their hardest and most pressing topics.

One of the top 5 topics mentioned was: “How do we prepare for the end times?”

I’ll just tell you straight off.

Buy a bunker.

No joke, for just $35,000 a person, you can reserve your space in the Vivos underground shelter in Indiana. Vivos Indiana is a one of the most fortified, nuclear hardened shelters within their network. Built during the Cold War to withstand a 20-megaton blast, this impervious underground complex accommodates up to 80 people, for a minimum of one year of fully autonomous survival, without needing to return to the surface.

(Show pictures of the bunker: https://www.terravivos.com/secure/indiana.htm)

I feel like this plan breaks down a lot.

1) Does the Facebook app they have for residents still work after the apocalypse?

2) Does the fact that people don’t have a reservation to get in really going to stop someone during a nuclear war?

Like, can you imagine people with guns trying to run in there, and then going, “Oh, my name isn’t on the list? Well, then, I’ll take my rifles and my family and die out hear in the radiation”

But seriously, how do we prepare for the end?

It’s actually a more commonly asked question than you might expect.

In fact, I did some research, on this, and 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ will either, definitely or probably, return to earth by the year 2050.

That’s not really that far away.

When the poll was reduced to just evangelicals, OVER half believe that Jesus will be back by 2050.

Maybe you’re newer to this whole Christianity think, and you’re just thinking, “Is He coming back?”

What does the Bible actually say about this?

Let me give you just a very fast overview, since HOW He’s coming back isn’t actually our primary aim today.

The Bible talks about the end times a lot.

There are over 300 verses specifically related to it.

AND also, the Book of Revelation, which is about the end times.

The Bible tells us that in the end times, there will be much tribulation and suffering (a lot of bad things are going to happen…wars, earthquakes, you name it)

But along the way, there will be some very clear signs that the end is near.

And as we discussed two Sundays ago Matthew 24 outlines many of these signs.

If you want to learn more about those signs, I suggest you write down that chapter (Matthew 24)

After all of the tribulations and signs, Jesus will clearly and visibly return to earth for His Millennial reign, thus ending everyone’s time on earth, and really the earth as we know it.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 NLT

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.

Once Jesus returns, the Bible says there will then be final judgment, and God will create a new heaven and a new earth.

People will then be sent to their permanent eternal states: Heaven or hell.

That’s a bit of important background, but again, our real question today is “How do we prepare, not what exactly will happen?”

If the end could come like a “thief in the night” (an expression the Bible uses often), then how do we make sure we’re ready?

Even if it doesn’t happen in our lifetime, but we need to be ready regardless.

Let’s remember, even if we think we can interpret all the signs and we say that it’s not time yet, that the Jew’s of Jesus’ day thought that they could correctly interpret all of the signs of what the Messiah would look like.

Yet, most of them missed it.

Thankfully for us, the disciple and apostle Peter addresses pretty much our exact question today in his 2nd letter, 2nd Peter.

We’re going to be in chapter 3

WHY PEOPLE AREN’T READY

Most people don’t live as if Jesus could come back at any time.

Even in Peter’s Day this was true.

So as Peter answers our question today about how do we prepare, he also is going to address some objections that people had to the idea that Jesus could come back in the first place.

He covers both moral and intellectual objections

Moral Reason

Let’s look first at the moral reason for why most people don’t want to think about the world ending

2 Peter 3:3 NLT

Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.

Why are they scoffing and mocking this doctrine?

Peter says it’s because of their own evil desires.

What does that mean?

Well, think about it, if Jesus is really coming back to JUDGE the world…and he could come back at any time…then we better make sure we’re ready.

It’s kind of like this:

Say you’re 17, and you decide (foolishly) to throw a massive house party at your house while your parents are out of town.

And while the enormous party is in progress, your dad texts and says, “Had a change in my flight. I’ll be home at 11 PM tonight”

No 17-year-old carries on as usual at that point.

They wouldn’t say, “Hey guys. Carry on with the beer and fraternizing and all that…my dad will be here soon. He’ll be so proud!”

No, the teenager goes into full panic mode because he or she knows that there will be “a day of parental reckoning” when dad gets home.

But see, if the world can pretend that the idea of Jesus coming back is nonsense, then we can trick ourselves into believing that living out all of our fleshly desires is a great idea.

But when you live like he could come back today, you’ll live a different way.

And it’s a way that’s actually closer to reality than how we normally live.

And it shouldn’t be out of fear.

For the Christian, because we know we’re forgiven, His return is not a scary day, but a glorious day.

But again, many don’t think that way…especially non-believers.

Some people don’t just object to the concept of the end times because of their fleshly cravings, for some it’s an intellectual objection.

Peter covers this objection in verse 4:

2 Peter 3:4 NLT

They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

In other words, people have been predicting the world is going to end for the last 2,000 years, and it never happens…people keep dying, and the world keeps on going.

But Peter brilliantly points out that this type of thinking is illogical.

Look at the next 3 verses:

2 Peter 3:5–7 NLT

They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

Here’s what he’s saying:

“Yeah, you may not believe that God can just come and end our time on earth, but who do you think started our time on earth?”

If we were not an accident, if we have a beginning here, then we can have an end on this planet

If God started it, it’s no less plausible that He can end it.

Just because something hasn’t happened yet...is not a logical reason to prove that it won’t.

Just because the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, does not give anyone the grounds to say they can 100% guarantee the Vikings never will.

Others, have milder objections to Jesus’ return, and they just simply say, “It might happen, but we have time, so it doesn’t really matter”

But time is not guaranteed.

Both in the number of your own personal remaining days, or in terms of when Jesus will return.

I’m going to skip verses 8 and 9 for a minute, and let’s look ahead to verse 10

2 Peter 3:10 NLT

We alluded to this earlier.

Jesus’ return will come like a thief in the night.

It will be unexpected.

Which means we have to be ready

Interestingly enough, Peter earlier used the example of Noah & the flood to say that “if God started the earth, remember, he can end it at any time”

But Noah is also a good parallel example for preparing for the end.

Jesus himself uses this example in Matthew 24

Matthew 24:36–39 NLT

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.

I’m not sure we think much, as adults, about the story of Noah’s ark, but it’s striking example as we think about preparing for the end.

There’s imagery in the Bible of Noah building the ark, and the people of the town are laughing at him.

And why wouldn’t they?

But what about you?

If you did live like he could come back today, wouldn’t you live a different way?

And yeah, people might even laugh at you for taking God seriously like that?

Yeah, they might.

They might laugh and scoff.

But our call, like Noah’s, is to believe in God, not in what’s culturally palatable.

It doesn’t mean you quit your job and sell your house and follow creepy people around in a van.

But as pastors and theologians have said for centuries that we are to live as if the return of Christ is imminent.

SO yeah, it totally might not be for another 500 years, but it’s actually more foolish to live like it’s 500 years away than as if it’s 24 hours away. I believe that His return will be within many of our lifetimes.

You could prepare by getting the bunker, or stocking up on food, or having trade-able commodities for when money is no longer of value, or being able to defend yourself from the lawless persons that will increasingly appear as the end times approach. And I would encourage you to consider those things as the end of days grow nearer.

HOW DO WE PREPARE

So, if you do believe that the end times will come…How else do you prepare?

Verse 11 gives us the clearest clue on this question:

2 Peter 3:11 NLT

Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,

Peter is saying, since everything will be destroyed…since the earth is going to burned and laid bare in the end (as he wrote in verse 10), You ought to live Holy and Godly lives.

This goes back to what we’ve been saying:

If you believe He could come back any day, you WILL live a different way.

And Peter really takes a different and interesting angle here.

Peter is saying, “Be Holy and Godly, because the earth will burn”

Be passionate about your spiritual life because all of the material and temporary things…are going to waste away…they don’t matter!

If the earth is going to be destroyed, why are you so obsessed with earthly and temporary concerns?

I mean, where do most of us find our worth?

In the earthly things.

In what we have: Our cars…our house…we’ve finally arrived, and we’re homeowners!

We find our worth in the earthly things we can accomplish in our jobs…or our diplomas.

Or maybe we find it in our accumulations, or hobbies, or collections…

But it’ll all just be, in an instant, burned.

Gone.

I’ve seen a few movies and TV shows about the end of the world myself, and one of the things I think directors often seem to do a good job of portraying is that when the end comes (whether it be via war, deadly virus, or alien invasion… the characters SO quickly realize that most of their stresses, pursuits, and the general way they spent their time, were incredibly meaningless

And they drop it…instantly.

What matters is family…faith.

I keep saying over and over that if you want to prepare for the end times, the Bible exhorts us repeatedly to live like it could be today.

Jesus says: “Keep watch!”

James says: “It’s near!”

Paul says: “Thief in the night!”

And yet, I imagine to some of you, to actually start living like it could be today, sounds fairly irrational.

Sometimes I think the coming of the end makes more sense to us if we condense the time-frame.

Let’s say you’re placed in a large room with 30 other people and lots of entertainment.

There’s plenty to do there.

They have arcade games.

There’s karaoke.

They have movies to watch.

They even have a few clubs where you can run for office and feel important in the large room.

But as the person who let you all in shuts the door, they tell you (and you only), that in 5 hours, this entire complex will be set on fire.

You’ll die unless you leave.

The same is true for others, but you’re the only one who knows.

What would you do?

Would you spend your next 5 hours showing everyone you’re the best gamer in the room?

That you have the best voice for Karaoke?

Would you help the 5 hours pass quickly by vegging out and watching movies?

Would you try and find significance in becoming the club president?

What would you do?

You wouldn’t do any of that, right?

It’s silly.

You’d try everything you could think of in the next 5 hours to try and convince people to stop drowning themselves in distractions and pleasure and run from the fire.

Now, let me ask you, “What’s the difference?”

What’s the difference if we extend it out to 75 years instead of 5 hours?

Most of the truths remain.

Most of us do not spend our lives passionately living for Jesus and helping Him in his mission to rescue people from the fire of judgment.

We get distracted entertaining ourselves and seeking our own significance.

And it’s silly.

Significantly sillier than living as if today could be the day.

Even though God knew it was going to be AT LEAST 2,000 years, I think the Bible is so serious about the “imminence of Christ’s return”...because that doctrine is a serious aid to us living with the right priorities.

Peter is not discussing the end times so that his readers can excitedly draw charts about how the end times will all work out

He’s discussing it so that in light of it, we would change our priorities…our lives.

That we would, as he said, “live Holy and Godly lives”…all the time.

Because it could be any day.

Towards the end of his life, the great pastor and evangelist John Wesley was once asked what he would do with his last day if he knew he would die tomorrow?

His reply was this: “I’d do the same thing I do every day. I would teach at my meeting at this hour, I would preach at this hour, and do my morning prayer time at this hour”

In other words, he could say at the end of this life, “I wouldn’t have to live my life any differently if I died tomorrow or if Jesus come back”

He felt like he wouldn’t have to live any differently.

That’s the goal.

A JESUS First sort of life…not a ME first life.

And living like this, will change not just the way you live out your faith, but the way you share it with others.

2500 Minutes of Prayer:

I want us to learn something this next week, like a good missionary, that this was an incredibly effective way to reach into our culture here where we live.

So here is what I’m asking each of us to do and do it expecting God to do great things.

So, here’s what I am asking you to do:

I’m asking that all of us to pray for a least 5 minutes a day for the next 2-weeks for how we can individually reach and love the lost and for future of this Church’s ministry thereto. That just 60 minutes each for the next 2-weeks. If 36 of us do this, that is 2,500 minutes of prayer where we will all be praying about the same thing.

The 2,500 Minutes of Prayer handout today contains space for you to keep track of your praying.

There are 7 lines for you to write down what God tells you via your prayers about how He wants you to live in such a way as to bring glory to Him daily.

There are another 7 lines for who God tells you to bring to church with you on Sunday, June 26th. Our speaker that day will be the “Apostle Phillip” speaking on Vines, Branches, Fruits and Leaves”. If you can only come up with 1 or 2 right now….keep praying about it every day. Maybe it’ll be 5 or 7 by the end.

We’ve given you invite cards to invite them as well.

And then there is a separate card with 7 lines for ideas on how we as a Church body can have a greater outreach to the lost. I want you to bring this card back with you and place it on the alter before church on Sunday, June 19th. I want you to write down those ideas as God gives them to you while praying each day.

I believe we are going to learn marvelous things, as we increase our outreach individually and corporately.

Why?

Because we…as a BODY of believers…are going to get on our knees and beg God to show us how to do this.

And so please, be a part of this movement.

And we do all this…and we take it seriously…because we know that tomorrow is NOT guaranteed.

Whether it’s the end of our own lives, or Jesus coming back.

So, we want to live a different way, because He could come back any day.

LIVE AT PEACE

And when He comes back, He will judge the earth.

And being ready yourself is the most important part of being prepared for the end times.

Let’s jump ahead to verse 14

2 Peter 3:14 NLT

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

The most important thing is that we (and our friends) are found blameless…spotless when he comes back.

Which is something we can never do on our own.

The only way we have the spots of our sin forgiven is by letting Jesus Christ take them upon himself on the cross.

That’s why he came and died for us.

And if we believe in Him through faith, he takes our punishment for us.

And when he returns to bring judgment for all the sin of the world…

those who have trusted in Him…those whom he was so crazy about that He died in their place…He will gather them to himself.

But when the time comes, if people have continued to put off surrendering their lives to Christ, in that time, like in the days of Noah, it will be too late.

But for now, it’s our job to live Godly and holy lives.

And to bravely share of God’s love and mercy.

As we close, look to verses 8 & 9, which we skipped earlier.

2 Peter 3:8–9 NLT

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

See, the Lord isn’t actually slow in coming back (like some say).

He hasn’t forgotten about it, and we dare not say it won’t happen.

What Peter says he’s doing…is he’s being patient.

He’s giving people more time.

The fire of holy justice is coming, and God is holding it back…so more and more may escape out the door before the fire begins.

People say he’s slow in coming, but what if he would have come back 2 months before you were saved?

His slowness in coming is mercy for us all.

It gives us…it gives our friends more time.

So, while out of his love, He holds back the fire of judgment, and holds open the door a little longer, let us attempt to usher in as many people through the door, before…

one day when we least expect it, the door will close.

So, let’s act now.

Because we truly believe it could be any day, let us live a truly different way.