Revelation | Week 1

Well, hey there, Rock Point. How you doing? It is good to be back. And if you're wondering who I am, you've only been here for the last two weeks then. So, it's good good to be back from Israel. I know it was great. It was actually, we wasn't sure if I was ever going to get there.

If you if you follow along on our trip, it it it my worst nightmares came true. I've told you before, I I I don't mind traveling. I like going places. I can't stand getting places, especially airports.

Matter of fact, I I never wanna go places on a holiday seasons. You watch airports, they get snowed in, and people get stuck there for a day, and I watch that going, that's why I will never do that. I cannot stand

that. That is like hell on earth to me. That's where nightmares are made, and and and yet we we leave to go to Israel, we get to to Newark, New Jersey, and we get to be their guest for twenty seven hours.

In the airport. No hotel rooms. No. Just stuck in the airport. It was like the worst thing ever to spend twenty seven hour. You don't even wanna spend twenty seven minutes in Newark, New Jersey. I'm telling you. And then and then we were we were stuck there and waited, waited, waited, we and so then they canceled the flight. We're the last people canceled. Spend the night. We're haggard, have to wait the next day to finally try to get a group of 54 of us out,

and we're at the reservations things talking, and then we thought the trip wasn't happening, and all of sudden, they started finding us flights, and we had to scatter like the 12 tribes of of of Israel. I mean, we had people had to fly all the way back to San Francisco to get on a flight to Tel Aviv from there. So that group

went across The United States three times before they saw the Atlantic Ocean. But they had it better than the other two. The one group went to to Brussels, Belgium, and then my group, we ended up in Zurich, Switzerland.

And and and and problem is the two groups had to go there. They had us booked with this Israeli airline. They had to book us once we got there, our connecting flight was another airline. So we get to Zurich, I'm finally like, you know, this is great because I, at least, I could say I've been to Switzerland. You know, I'm sitting there. We go up to get our boarding passes for this next flight, and they print up standby passes.

I'm like, why do have a standby pass? I have a ticket. No, you don't. You have a booking, but the plane's full.

And we're like, what are you talking about? Well, the Israeli airline, the day before was their Sabbath. Nobody worked. So when we booked it, all they can confirm is a booking, but the flight was full. We didn't get seats. So we flew all the way to Switzerland to find out. No room again. There's no flight. I go, when's your next flight out? Tomorrow night.

I am not gonna sit here. So I'm I'm we're talking to the lady, and and then the one was nice, one not so nice. And she's and the not so nice one was in charge. And so I was like, you got to. You got and we're like, we have to be on this plane. And right in the middle of us talking to her about explaining how we did book it. We confirmed. I can't believe this. You can't do this to us. I can't believe she just stops. She goes, I gotta go. And turns around. I'm like,

where is she going? She walks over. She puts on that bright vest and grabs those flashlight thingies, and I walk her walk out down, and she goes down and actually brings a plane in to park it. I go, that's the person in charge? They just right in the middle of a conversation goes, oh, I gotta go park a plane. I go, that's the type of organization we're dealing with right now.

And and and so at that moment, I was done. I mean, we're in like hour between the layover and all this. We're we're in like hour thirty something. No shower, nothing. I'm just so spent that I finally sat there and looked at the other person and said, that's it. I live in Switzerland now.

And the hills are not alive with the sound of music. I go, this where I live. I'm done. At least they have good chocolate and free healthcare, but I'm now Swiss. I'm a neutral I'm neutral on everything now. I'm just I'm

and you know, it it was just it was every worst nightmare I could possibly think of in my life coming true. It was like hell on earth in this moment. It was so hopeless. It was so weirded. And and here's the thing. We're starting a little short series on the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible,

where it talks about the end times. How God's gonna, you know, how how the whole story is gonna come to a conclusion. And many of you, when you think about the book of Revelation, your experience and how you think about it was what we were experiencing on this trip to Israel.

Was, you know what? I don't mind getting someplace. I don't like being someplace. I know where the the story wants to end, but I don't like the getting there. It's hell on earth. I don't like this book. It's scary. It's weird.

It's my worst nightmares come true. You know, this book talks about the end of time. It has words like Armageddon in it, know, and we have bad movies with that name. So, what does it mean? And you're talking about marks of a beast and antichrist and judgments and trumpets being blown and all these things and and

it just seems weird and scary and bizarre and you're like, I I I don't think I I want to know. Or you're on the other extreme. You're someone that I call a Christian horror fan,

and you are absolutely intrigued with it, you wanna know every little thing you can about it. You're fixated on it, and maybe for the wrong reasons too. But here's the challenge. When we sat in Switzerland, and I thought we're done. We finally just gathered and prayed.

And and and just prayed and and and I don't know how, I don't think I wanna know how, but the nice lady figured out how to get us all on the plane. And and and so we got we got there. And it was an amazing trip. Once we got to the promised land, it was worth it. I'm

gonna tell you, in the next few weeks, as we do this little survey through this book of Revelation, when we look at the the last book of the Bible,

yes, there there's some things that are challenging. Yes, there's some things that are scary. Yes, there's some things that maybe you want to avoid, but if you can get to the purpose of this book, if you can get to the promised land of what it's really there for, you will be blessed.

You will be blessed. Matter of fact, I know because I wanna read the first three verses. It was actually on the video there that probably terrified you because the music sounded like the music from The Exorcist, but still.

Revelations chapter one, the first three verses says this. It says, this is a revelation from Jesus Christ,

which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to the servant John, he's who wrote it, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is about the word of God and a testimony of Jesus. He's the alpha, the omega, the beginning, and the end. It's about Jesus.

And it says, but here's why we need to know this. Here's why this book exists in the Bible for us. It says, verse three, God blesses the one who reads the words of the prophecy to the church. See, I just wanted to get blessed. I'm reading it to you. Well, look, and he blesses all who listen to its message

and obey what it says,

for the time is near. So he goes, there's a blessing here. If you can get to the point of it and you can obey what it's really taught. What does it mean to obey? What does what does it mean? Like, if it's just giving prophecies of this future of how things again, what is in there that what does it mean to obey? And what we're gonna see is this, is here's the big idea. Not just for today, but for the next four weeks.

I don't know why if you love to study Revelation or if you're afraid of it, maybe you never understood. This is the purpose of why this book is even in the Bible for us. It's simply this. If you know what happens next, it should impact what you do now. That's really what that verse three is saying.

I'm giving you this revelation of Jesus. He says, here's what's gonna happen. This is how the story's gonna end. And knowing this, the reason you wanna know this is it should change and impact what you're doing right now. So if you're someone that loves to talk prophecy,

loves to debate over what this book means, loves to conjecture about who the Antichrist is, whether it's the guy you didn't vote for or the guy you did vote for. You know what? Whatever you wanna debate. If you're into it for that, but you're not studying this to say, hey, the whole purpose of this revelation of Jesus

is to change how I live now, then you're wasting your time. And if you're afraid of the book, you're afraid of it for the wrong reasons.

Because you don't really understand what it's about and where it takes us. And and the story of of the book of of of Revelation to begin with. You see, because there there's an outline of the

the whole book. It's in chapter one verse 19. And it says this, write down what you have seen, both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. So Jesus tells John to to to write down what he had already seen,

what's happening right now, and the things that will happen. That's the outline of the whole book. The things that he already saw was the the first 18 verses when he saw this vision of Jesus.

That's what he already saw. So he writes that down. It's Jesus showing up. And right there, go read that today. It's it's it's it's it's if if you love Jesus and you you you are on his side and you know his love, it's very inspiring.

If if you don't know Jesus, it's terrifying. Because the Jesus that shows up in chapter one is not the lamb of God, it's the lion of Judah. He's like, time's up. Evil's done. We're gonna finish this thing.

Kinda like when you see that picture, it's like if you see the scariest person come running out of the dugout or or the off the bench that you've ever seen in the sport you love. If they are scary, if they're on the other team, you're intimidated. If they're on your team, you're cheering.

That's kind of what this is. So that's the things that you've seen. He goes, the things that are now is chapter two and three. And he writes these letters to these seven churches that actually existed at this time. These were real churches,

and and he gives them insight about here's what you're doing well. Here's where I need to challenge you. Knowing what's about to happen, you should be encouraged to change this and to work on this. And here's what's cool. Those principles to those churches, that's what it means to obey. Those principles still apply to us. They were the seven literal churches, but when you read the issues they struggle with, they are seven things that are are are ways that we struggle individually as churches today.

It's saying, hey, knowing what's gonna happen, this is what you need to do now. And then chapter four on is are the things that are yet to come. And that's the end times. You ever heard end times? The great tribulation, all these things. It's maybe you've seen the really bad Kirk Cameron movies. There

but it's about how God is wrapping up time. He's wrapping up his covenant with Israel. He's he's he's he's gonna bring judgment down on the unbelieving world and on the devil and evil and all of that. And and he's gonna bring a new heaven and new earth, but there's about a seven year period

that it unpackages during. It's a seven year period that we call the tribulation. We'll be talking about that next week. And it's just how is this gonna play out? That's the outline of the book. That's the whole thing. That's what it's about. But as we unpackage this for next week, you notice we only have four weeks.

If you're someone that wants to go through line by line, you need to be nice to me. We're not gonna do it that way. I'm just gonna jump in and we're gonna look at some snapshots. Some just key things.

Some of them are the ones that people get curious about. You know, things like the Antichrist and that. But for the next four weeks, we're just gonna take a snapshot and look at it. Pull that out. Explain it a little bit,

and then we're gonna answer the question of, okay, why do I need to know this? Because the big idea is, if I know what's happening next, if I know this, it should be influencing something I'm doing now.

And that's that's the point of the book. So that's what we're gonna look at as we we jump through these these snapshots and that's what fell out of my pocket. Anyone want a free car wash? Somebody gave me some.

Sorry. Must be Sunday at 10:45. I get, whoo. But before we jump into today's snapshot, the the thing we're gonna look at a little closer. Something else we gotta do by setup of this.

When we look at this this story of the things that have happened, these led to the churches, we're really gonna be looking at this last period of time of god wrapping up time. I wanna answer a very deep theological question I hear all the time about this book to begin with.

Why is it so weird and scary? That's the number one thing. Why is the book of Revelation so weird and scary? Anybody ever thought that? Why is it so weird and in many ways so scary?

Like, I made it sound like, I'm gonna go read it. Then you're like, dragons and this and that. I'm like, oh my gosh, lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. You know, you you don't know what to do with it. Well, there's four reasons I believe on why it seems so weird and scary. And the first one is this, the type of literature it is. You see, Bible is every book of the Bible has different types of literature. There's poetry, there's narrative, there's gospels, there's history. The

book of Revelation is what's called apocalyptic literature. Technically, it's apocalyptic prophetic literature. So it's prophecy in the form of apocalyptic literature. Those are some big seminary words I paid a lot of money for to learn, but you get them for free. Apocalyptic

literature is a type of writing that no longer exists really. No one writes apocalyptic style literature. So it can be a little bit intimidating and weird to understand. It seems to be have be high in symbolism and all that kind of stuff, but but here's the thing.

There is an actual style of stories that we all grew up with that's very similar to the bottom line of what apocalyptic literature is like. Fairy tales. Grimm's fairy tales, the old not the Disney version, the original ones. They were kinda creepy. Why were they written?

To be hope and warning, right? They were to give hope for the good, the ones that follows the right way, and an incredible terrifying warning to those who don't. Primarily children. You know, like if you do the right thing, it ends well. You do the wrong thing, not so good.

Not so good at all. But but think about how they always start. They they have a form to them. They say, once upon a time, you're introduced to the characters. And then in the middle, hell on earth, terrifying things, wicked witches, know, all these bad things. You know, things happening, it looks scary,

but for the hero and those who trust, what how did they always end? They lived happily ever after. That's the book of Revelation.

Matter of fact, I did a series on it a few years ago. If you're the one that likes a little bit more line by line kind of thing, I did a eighteen week series on it like twelve years ago. We're gonna try to find the link to it. It's on our old website. I don't even think we have it on video, and I can't even I don't even know what I sound like. I might have been going through puberty back then. I'm not sure, but

but it was called happily ever after. And in the first week, I actually gave the if Bill Bush wrote a study bible, the page that says, here's the bottom line and describes the book of Revelation, I would have described it this way. Once upon a time, there was a man named Jesus,

who battled a dragon, the devil, to save his bride, and they lived happily ever after. That's the book of Revelation. That's that that that's really what it's about. And so the type of literature can be a little intimidating,

but it doesn't have to be. The second thing that can make it weird and scary is is the way it it frames time. It jumps around in time and space a bit. So when you're in the heart of this, it'll be talking about something happening

and then all of a sudden, it'll jump to the throne room and be talking about something in heaven and then come back to Earth and you're not really sure. Is that concurrent? Is what is is is is what that picture in heaven? Is that happening the same time as here? Or have we jumped around in time? And so some of you that you're gonna get lost in that. I know I know Jeff Larson's in here. He hates time travel and movies and stuff. And so it looks like he's the type. If you're like him, you're the one that went lost, Siri started jumping through time. You just said, I'm out. My wife did that. She goes, I'm done. They've

played with the space time continuum. I don't care about the polar bear anymore. I just I'm done with the show. And and and that's kind of what it does in there. It jumps around, and that can get a little jarring and a little confusing. Because it does jump around through space and time.

The third thing that can make it weird and scary is the the the the players involved. The peoples involved. Who are the primary

characters? There you go. Thank you. I was like lost it for a minute. The primary characters of of what it's about. And and here's where this gets weird to us, and here's where we get solely confused on it, and sometimes focus on the wrong things. In our Western American Christian mindset, we think we're the center

of the scriptural universe. I've been to Israel. I've seen the story and the history behind where. You realize we don't really American America has really nothing to do with this book. So to sit there and try to figure out, well, that guy was the anti Christ or this guy, we try to Americanize everything.

It's really not about us. It's not. We are not the primary characters. Matter of fact, is we're gonna see the thing I wanna talk about today. The church itself, even believers, are not the primary player in this book. It's only in the first part, then we disappear, and then we show back up at the very end.

The heart of it is the unbelieving world, God pulling out, pouring out judgment, wrapping up time, and a ton of it is about him wrapping up his covenant and dealing with Israel.

And if you don't read it that way, you're gonna try to say, I saw an eagle. Eagle means United States. Bear means Russia. It's gonna be this. It's gonna be the Eagles versus the Bears in Super Bowl. You know, or whatever, you know. And it's like, you're gonna misread it, and get into a bunch of stupid discussions.

I'm telling you, stupid discussions. The last thing that makes it weird and scary is the perspective of the writer himself. Says there, John was given this vision of things to come. Well, if if what if if if the interpretation I have of this book is right, then the things to come haven't happened yet.

And we are now at two thousand years plus on the tally board of how long it's been. Could you imagine describing something two thousand years into the future? Trying to write it in the language you know and describe it to somebody if you saw something that far into the future?

I mean, about that. Think about how things have changed just in in in in our lifetime. I remember no internet. Young people are like.

Imagine someone like John trying to describe computer technology and the Internet. They didn't even have electricity. Can you imagine him saying, there's these boxes. They glow with light. And when you hit these things, words appear. And the words appear, and the boxes talk to each other, and then unnecessary

and useless stuff shows up on your doorstep. Could you imagine just trying to explain that? Now, there's that's a good one, Now a scary one is imagine because there's like battles in this. There's war. There's there's the end times. Imagine trying to describe a helicopter shooting a machine gun or a plane firing a missile

or a nuclear explosion. Back when they, you know, fighting with swords and spears and rocks.

I think a lot of the stuff that we try to claim in the book where people say, well, this is all symbolic. I think a lot of stuff that people try to say are symbolic isn't really symbolic. It's a guy from two thousand years ago trying to describe stuff he did not understand at all.

And so that's why it's a little bit weird and scary, but when you get away from that, you can relax a little because you know that in the end, in the end it's it's a letter. If you know Jesus, it's a letter of hope. It's a letter that's it's it's ending the story. I mean, think about it. It's it's the book of Genesis,

the first book of the Bible, starts with a beginning but ends with an ending. Man's fall and brokenness. The last book, Genesis, it starts with an ending. It starts about the end of time but it ends with a new beginning.

It puts it back together. It's one of hope. It's the last song we sing. This I know. This I know that the enemy will run. This I know the victory will come. This I know that I can trust in every promise that Jesus ever made. You know why you know how this we know? Book of Revelation. That's how we know it.

So even though it's weird and scary, it it should give us great hope. So here's what I wanna spend the last few minutes talking about is this first snapshot then. If I said, hey, there's this letter to churches, then chapter four begins this whole end times, which is basically takes place heaven and earth all around, and and there's basically this chunk that's the the last seven years. This thing called the tribulation. We'll talk about more next week. After that, the second coming of Christ.

You'll have this thousand year reign of Jesus on heaven and earth. You have a new heaven and new earth, and you have these judgments. That's pretty much it. There's lot of weird parts going in and out throughout all of that, but as as we take that apart, we look at it. Like I said, I just wanna look at a few things.

But I want to talk about what's the next thing that's supposed to happen? What are we waiting around for next? The next prophetic thing to happen. Now before I share it, I I want to set something up too, is is is because there's some different views on all of this.

First, what I just shared about the book of Revelation. There's some several views that great Christians throughout time have had. They've had a view that this is all allegorical. None of it's actually historical.

There's a view that people think it was all historical only. That everything he's talking about, the things that are yet to come, the persecution, the all of the the persecution and the things that happened under the Roman emperor Domitian.

There's those that think it already happened. There's those that say it's only describing allegorically the epic battle of good versus evil that you shouldn't take any of it literally or prophetically.

And then there's the view I lean towards that it actually happened, and the chapter four on these end times is a futuristic thing that still has to happen.

Now, believe the things that happened under emperor dimension, the reason they think it happens is that was talking to the people that were struggling for that at that time. But if you look at bible prophecy, almost every every biblical prophecy through scripture has an already not yet quality to it. That means there's a there's a a a a a smaller

version of it happening in the lives of the actual original audience, but they were almost like just a illustration of the greater fulfillment of it. It's almost like your fulfillment is the small case letter for p for philosophy, and the greater one is it's a visual illustration of the of the capital one. There's that view.

Of those views of this book, great Christians have had those views all through history. So there's been ones with the other two views. The great Christians. Incorrect Christians. They're wrong, but they're great Christians.

No. Just kidding. The the the the earliest church fathers lean towards the the view that I'm teaching. The first the one like like

like Polycarp who was discipled by John who wrote this, he had this view. So I kinda leaned towards them and and what they're looking at. So there are different views. But in this actual literal historical view of how prophecy is fulfilled, the very next thing that's supposed to happen is this thing we call the rapture.

Anyone heard of the rapture? Not the Blondie song? Hands go down. The rapture. And if that's a word that's not actually found in the the literal word rapture is not kinda like trinity, it's a word to describe an event that seems to be discussed that that starts this whole end times period

that that I believe, although there are three views on that too. Some people believe the rapture starts this seven year period, the end times. There's a view that says it happens halfway through, three and a half years in. I think that's the dumbest one, either be all in or all out. But the the the other view is this rapture happens at the end of the tribulation.

And I believe it happens at the beginning for several reasons. One, the word ecclesia church is mentioned 19 times in the first three chapters of Revelation. Once these end times things start happening, church isn't mentioned again until at the very end when Jesus comes down and

says time's up and ends and it says that the church is with Him. And so that's kinda one of the and Revelation three ten says this time of testing is not for you. Like I said, being the church in America,

it's good that we're not the center of the universe. I would prefer us not being a part of it, of what's gonna happen. But we still need to know about it for for for some reasons.

So this thing called the rapture. Let me read a couple verses about it so you can understand a little bit what it's taught. The rapture means to be taken up, to be caught up. And and and the first one is in first Corinthians,

and the other one's in in Thessalonians. Now here's the thing about these passages. One thing I know it mentions the dead rising and all that because they were talking about this end times and how Jesus will call people out and they'll just disappear and in a moment you'll be transformed. They were really concerned with their relatives who already died.

So that's kind of included in here as he's he's saying. That's the context. And in first Corinthians fifteen

fifty one it says, but let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in a blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we who are living will also be transformed, for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. He's saying, hey, there's gonna come a moment where when time starts to end, that not everybody dies because it's gonna happen. You're gonna be caught up and the the dead will already be there, but then and then you'll just go and you'll be transformed in an instant. You're gonna get a new body, which I don't know if you're excited. The older I get, the more exciting that sounds.

Because instead of saying, good morning, Lord, I get up now and say, good Lord, it's morning. It's just it's just getting out of bed is worse. So that's a good thing, but he's talking about this in an instant. And then another one, if you go over to first Thessalonians chapter four, kinda talking about the same topic,

he says this in verse 16, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves, then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That's where we get this idea of the rapture. Then we will be with the Lord forever.

It's awesome. So this rapture thing is is to inaugurate the end times. Everyone who's a believer, and I believe every child who's too young to understand, because the Bible talks about the children being his and that will just disappear.

Gone. Now here's what's interesting. Why are we afraid of this? Why do we not because look what it says in the Thessalonians. He says, verse 18, so encourage each other with these words. We should encourage each other with these words. Why do we want to avoid these words?

Why would you not be encouraged by by there's gonna come a moment where an evil of God says, alright, I'm done with death. I'm done with I've had been patient. I've been waiting for people to turn to me and you know, we sometimes complain. People like to complain. People that don't want to believe in God like to claim like, if God's so loving, why does he allow all this evil to happen? Why does he allow all this to happen? You probably had people ask this question. Why doesn't God step in? Why doesn't God do something about it? Have you read the book of Revelation?

He is. He will. And go read the description of him in chapter one, and it is gonna be a pretty terrifying sight when he shows up. You got the lamb the first time around, you're getting the lion. Carrot came first, stick comes second.

It's like, He is done. Evil will be judged. Sin will be judged. All accounts will be taken into. It's happening. But like he said, if we know the Lord, we have the grace of Christ. We've we've we've turned our lives over to Him. He goes, He pulls us out.

Why would that not be encouraging? Why are we afraid of that? There's really only one reason. Here comes a little gentle throw punch.

Is my life more firmly planted in the things of this world?

Or is my life more firmly planted in wanting to be like Jesus?

See, if I'm more concerned with the things of this world, Jesus coming to take me out does not sound pleasant to me.

It sounds like horrible. Like, you're like, I don't want him to show up now. I'm too busy doing this.

And so we can get stuck.

But see, we should know this. We should be encouraged by this. This idea of this this being plotted out. Here here's the crazy thing. Think about this. Is we'll look a little bit more at the tribulation week, but that's where it's gonna be hell on earth. Things are gonna starts off farts off. Sorry. I

shouldn't have actually pointed out I said that. Most of you didn't catch it, but I did. It starts off not as bad. I mean, than the fact that imagine if 2,000,000,000 people, like right now, real Christians and kids and stuff, there could be 2,000,000,000 people disappear.

What do you think that's gonna do to the world? How do you think people are gonna react? If 2,000,000,000 people just disappeared, what do you think people would think happened? Number one, probably alien invasion. Don't you think? That is this is so common. It would be alien invasion

from and not just from another planet, probably interdimensional beings of some kind, and and and something they would say alien invention. That would be one. People would freak out. Democrat Democrats will blame global warming.

Republicans will blame North Korea. You know? So it's like, we have all of this arguing. I could but think of the chaos if 2,000,000,000 people just vanish.

Now, in this end times, it talks about a leader will rise up, an anti Christ, that's gonna mislead the world, and he's really out to wipe out. He doesn't he's standing against. He's the opposite of the Jesus. He wants to be worshipped. He wants to mess with God's plan. He wants to wipe out Israel. Israel's gonna think he's their Messiah because they missed Jesus the first time around, and and it's gonna set the stage for a one world government and this leader. And I go, what would set the stage for the world to form one government and follow one leader?

I mean, we don't follow him. You get two of us in a room, we have three opinions. I was in the old city of Jerusalem. It's not that big, and it's divided into four quarters, and none of them like each other. Oh, yeah. And I go, there's gonna be a leader that's gonna show up that everyone's gonna follow?

You know how that happens? 2,000,000,000 people disappear and a guy steps in with the charisma and the energy and the answers and brings hope and provides something and a, you're gonna give them the world. You don't believe that happened? Just look at Hitler and Germany.

They had no hope. They were wiped out after World War One. They just were looking for something, and this guy with charisma and leadership stepped in and said, here's the way we're gonna do it. They gave him everything.

So it's a big deal to know that this is happening next. It it is. It's it's crazy. It launches these things. It's weird, but we should be encouraged by it. I think one thing is we know Jesus coming back. We know that the new beginning is gonna happen, that we're truly gonna be like Jesus. There's so many good things.

So here's the here's the million dollar question then. When is this gonna happen? If he wants to tell us things are gonna happen, does he tell us a date? And the answer is next Tuesday.

Taco Tuesday then rapture.

So don't drink too many margaritas, you might get lost on the way out. No. No. No. No. To actually try to predict when is on the Bill Bush scale of how to spot a false teacher and run, it's number two. If someone tells you they know when this is happening, that's my number two on the list of to know a false teacher.

You wanna know what number one is? Is if they actually claim to be Jesus. That's number one. If someone says, I am Jesus, wackadoodle, run. If they say, I know when Jesus is coming, run. And and that's just the way it is. You know why? Because if you look in in the book of Matthew chapter 24,

chapter 24, which is actually talking about this future, and and he starts talking about this end time things of what's gonna start off, And and he says, once you know the things that are happening in the end times, the tribulation, this is another reason why I know this rapture happens is, there seems to be scripture that indicates you should know what's coming next because there's gonna be all these signs and stuff. But there's something else that seems to happen that you can't expect. You can't it says it'll be like in the days of Noah. People will be partying, doing their thing, and then the flood's gonna hit. It says two people will be in the fields, one will be taken, one will be left. It's gonna just come out of nowhere when you don't expect it, and in verse 36,

it says this. 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. So Jesus being God has the power and ability to say, I'm gonna choose to not know something.

So Jesus doesn't even know. So if you think you know when Jesus is coming back, Jesus might tap you on the shoulder. Can you give me a clue? Is it next Tuesday before or after Taco Tuesday? It's it's it says you don't know. Now that's kind of interesting. Why would he not want us to know?

If the book is to encourage us to know the victory is gonna come, but really to say since this is happening next, it should impact the way you live now. What would impact you more? Not knowing when

or knowing exactly when? Because what if you know it's not happening for a hundred years? Wouldn't it be really easy to say, well then it's not that big of a deal. Don't have to worry. I don't have to think about this.

You know. And you're in class, what made you study more frequently? A teacher that always gave pop quizzes or the ones that you knew exactly when you were having the test? All I knew is when I knew exactly when, I knew when I needed to study. Ten minutes before.

But if I had to I have no idea. Just pop one in. I was like, I better actually kinda have some basic understanding or I'm gonna fail this class. Not knowing should bring a better sense of urgency and clarity to our mission. But we still know. We we still know. But here's what we do know. We are closer

than any generation before, And some of the things that may seem even closer is prophetically, there's nothing left to happen but this. Another thing that I think makes it seem a little bit, it could be closer than you think is

what used to be the mystical is in a lot of the parts of the book of Revelation, used to be considered very mystical, very supernatural, and in and in generations before, what some of the reasons why people would do naysayers against the Bible's reliability, they would say it's impossible.

And is have now become very practical. What I mean? Like some of the stuff people have said naysayers just seem too mystical, too weird. For example, in chapter 11,

it talks about these prophets that'll that'll come forth. The God will send these prophets to claim the gospel. They'll be on the streets of Jerusalem, and things will happen. They'll actually get killed by the Antichrist. They'll lay dead. He'll leave their bodies as a warning, but then they're just gonna get back up and start preaching again. That's gonna be crazy. And and but it says that when they are preaching, every eye in the whole world will see them. Do you realize just a generation ago or so, critics of the bible would use that to say, see, that's ridiculous.

That's tumor. You you think that somehow is everyone in the world gonna see two guys on the streets of Jerusalem? But now we have satellites, and everyone has a phone. I was in the middle of nowhere in Malawi, Africa, where I was the first white person they'd ever seen.

They charged up me, the only reason my friend was with me was the second white person because I got out the car faster than him. But but so so I was the famous one. And so they're gathering, and they are living in huts. They're living if you had went back in time and went to this village 200 ago, they lived exactly the same.

Except for one thing. In the middle of a village, they have one little hut that says charging phone charging station. Have a they have a gas powered generator, and you can go there, pay them a little bit, and they charge your phone for you. So I was on the way, they're like, getting their cell phones out.

It's weird. They got nothing else, but they got a phone. What we used to be considered supernatural and even ridiculous is now practical. Chapter 13 talks about the mark of the beast. And it says without this mark,

you can't trade or sell or buy or do anything. That's used to seem, what is that all about? That's the dumbest thing we've ever heard of. Now but now we got chips.

Now I'm saying you gotta go, I won't put the chip on it. It's when it talks about the mark of the beast, you know what you're doing when you take this mark. But but there it's possible now. What used to seem weird and unexplainable is now very practical,

Which is another thing to point out if you've been a skeptic of the Bible. It's funny how you like to point out things that seem ridiculous, and then after a certain amount of time like, hey, that ain't ridiculous anymore. You know why it seemed ridiculous?

Because just like John trying to explain something he couldn't understand, we don't understand all of what God's doing. And he's looking so far into the future that he's calling out stuff that we never saw coming.

So even though we don't know when, we know it could happen anytime and we're closer than ever before. But finally, I said, if knowing what's next to change, what's now, what's the so what then?

What what what should how should this influence me? One last bible verse I wanna read, it's out of first John. First John chapter three verse two and three says this, dear friends,

we are already God's children. So if you know Jesus, you're already his child, but he has not yet shown us what what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him. For we will see him as he really is.

So what he's saying there is he goes, when when we're called, like right now, we've been saved and this period of time we're going on earth where we try to be like Jesus, it's called sanctification.

It's a process that we still have our brokenness. We still have our sin. We still wrestle with it. We still struggle. We trust the Holy Spirit. We let him grow us. But he goes, when he finally appears and we are with him, it's called what's called another big bible word you get today. It's called glorification.

We will actually be made in the image of Christ again. It'll be fully recreated. Our character will be complete. We'll be like him. And look what he says though. He says if that's true, when we see him, and all who have this eager expectation

will keep themselves pure just as he is pure. So what he said is all those who have this eager expectation, meaning you have the expectation of I want to be like Jesus. You have to already have that. If you have that expectation,

you know what? Knowing he's gonna come back anytime will do, it'll make you wanna be pure now. It'll make you strive to be like that. In other words, Paul wrote about this. What the apostle Paul would say is, he knew that he would be in transformed instantly in the presence of Christ to be exactly like him, but his goal in his life on this Earth was for that transformation to be as least dramatic as possible. Because when Jesus shows up and I get fully transformed, I want it to not be that much of a change. I want to have already lived trusting the holy spirit, going after what he wanted for me in life, living the life he wanted, what he called me to, not fighting with him to get him to give me what I want, but surrendering to his will. I wanna be so much like him already that when I'm made exactly like him, I don't look that different. I've already become like that. And he says, anyone who has that expectation,

that eager expectation, meaning I wanna be like Christ, I'm gonna choose to live that way now. In other words, it's saying that if I know this, and I know what's happening next, I'm gonna make some changes now.

And I'm telling you, that's the reason this book exists. If you're someone who just likes to study it to debate things, you're missing the point. And the point is to have an eager expectation to be like Jesus. So the reason we don't know, but the reason we need to know it's happening, but not when,

is it should inspire us to wanna be like Jesus. That's what it's supposed to do. To to go where Jesus wants us to go. To make decisions He wants us to make. And you realize, organizationally as a church, we make leadership decisions based on that.

We decide now based on what we know what's happening next. And if we know this can happen at any time and trigger this event, that it's the last chance for people to come to know Christ, you realize that's why we make the decisions we make right now. It's why we're starting a fifth service,

and it's why we changed all the times. And it wasn't because I'm like, you know what, I just really wanna irritate everybody in our church.

I want us to move. I want us to do this so we can reach people for Jesus. And some of you think I do it just because you know what? I really like irritating Christians. And you know what? I wanna make it really difficult on you because I only care about the new people. And once the new people get here, I don't care about you anymore. So I shove you aside. Just give, pay, move, because all I care about is who's new, and I don't really love you, and I hate you, and I just love preaching 20% more work on the weekend than I did before,

and I love that. I just wanna do it. Do you really believe that's why we do this? We do it because we know this can happen anytime, and I want as many people as possible to disappear in an instant.

So alright. You gonna keep clapping when I say this? And that's why I need none of you to go to the 10:00 service.

I immediately regret this decision.

Most of you, go to 11:30. You can come at the exact same time, and you'll find out we actually sing before I teach.

As late as many of you are, just get up at the same time, play on the same day, and come to 11:30. And you'll go, wow, I got here in time to get my kids checked in. I got here in time to get a cup of coffee and to sit down. You won't all be pawling piling in. Just go to 11:30. It's the same thing.

It's like having your watch set like, you know, ten minutes faster so you just trick yourself. Just do that. Or jump earlier. But see, that's why we do this. Because we know what's next. It influences the decisions we make now and it should be not just corporately, individually. So let me close with this question.

Say God the Father came up and tapped you on the shoulder and said, I'm gonna tell you something, but you can't tell Jesus because He don't even know. In sixty days, I'm sending Him back. Rapture's happening. You're done. If you knew that, honestly in your heart, ask yourself,

would I live differently for the next sixty days than I have been living? Would I do some different things? See, it's so shocking.

Would you change some things? What would you different if you know you're meeting Jesus in sixty days? And here comes the challenge. If the answer is yes, then what's stopping you from trusting Jesus and making those changes right now? Because that is the purpose of why we read this book.

Father God, thank you, Lord. I thank you that you do love us and you care for us. And Lord, I thank you that you gave us this last book. And seeing what's happening next can be scary.

It can be weird. It can be hard to understand. But Lord, I I I do thank you that in the end when we step back, it's this book is a book of hope. It's to tell us that that what wasn't ending in the first book has a new beginning in the end. And that Lord that that we know that the victory will come, the enemy will run.

We know that you were gonna come and call us home and and and we can we can take that to the bank. So Lord, I I pray that even though we don't understand all the confusing parts of this book and we might not ever.

I hope we go away with hope from that to know that we serve a God. We we are loved by a God who is so much bigger than our brains ability to comprehend. But Lord, help us to have clarity of what you need us to know and a sense of urgency and courage to do it.

So Lord, when we think about if you were to return, what would be different in my life for those next few days? I pray that every one of us, including myself, would answer that question. And then put faith and trust in you to say, okay, Lord, help me, enable me, empower me, encourage me to make those changes now.

That's my prayer for us and I prayed in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.