©2001 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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1/7/00
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Back To The Future
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1/7/01 Back To The Future
This is our first Sunday of the year together.
We have just successfully completed the year
that some folks believed we would never see.
Do you remember what it was like
just over a year ago,
as the world anxiously awaited the stroke of
midnight on New Years eve,
wondering if our computerized world
would suddenly and irreversibly begin to self
destruct?
Some people are still wondering
what to do with those 50 pound bags
of beans and rice sitting in the hallway closet.
And others are still chipping away at those credit
card bills
they ran up believing they would never have to
pay them back.
A lot of prophetic doctrinal kingdoms have crumbled
into ashes,
and some self-appointed prophets of doom
have seen their credibility and their
followers's financial contributions plummet.
And now here we are,
a full year past the end of the world,
and the sun still peaks above the horizon each
morning,
and the moon and the stars
still keep their appointed positions above our
heads,
and our Creator God still bathes His creation in
kindness,
and patience,
and compassion,
seeking those who will return to Him.
And Y2K wasn't the only hurtle we faced this year.
Our Nation went through
an extremely difficult election,
an election that plunged many people into
stress,
and confusion,
and tension,
and outrage,
and even fear for more than a
month.
And now that, too, is in the past,
and we are watching a rapid and orderly
transition of power
from one political party to the other.
And for those of us who are Christians,
all of these events
are being played out against the backdrop
of the knowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ
will one day return to this earth
and establish His kingdom on this
planet,
and we cannot help but wonder
if all of these chaotic events around us
might be signs that His return is
imminent.
To help us mentally prepare
for the beginning of this new year
I'm going to pull us out of our study of
Romans 5 for one more week
and take a few minutes to talk about
these desires within us to know the future,
and how are Lord wants us to relate to
them.
There is no doubt that our Lord has chosen to place
us into this world
at a fascinating time in human history.
There are events swirling around our world
that can't help but give even the prophetic
novice
the feeling that there must be amazing things
looming just over the horizon.
So many huge prophetic pieces
that, just a few years ago,
would have seemed impossible to perform
could now so quickly
and so easily fall into place.
Fifty years ago the practical possibility
of an Anti-Christ establishing
a literal one-world government
with a one-world monetary system
and absolute control over virtually the entire glob
was only a prophetic theory,
impossible to imagine in practical reality.
And 75 years ago
the tiny nation of Israel didn't even exist,
and even when it came into re-existence at the
end of the 2nd World War
the thought of that little piece of dirt becoming
the central focus of world politics on a daily
basis
seemed absurd.
Now these things are not only possible,
but increasingly probable in the not too distant
future.
I was in a secular bookstore
in a Seattle mall
the first week in November
and out of the corner of my eye
I saw a lady almost run into the book store
and ask the first clerk she could find
whether the latest book in the "Left Behind"
series was out yet.
I think one of the main reasons for the remarkable
popularity of that series
is that those who read them realize
what they are reading
sounds far more like current events than
science fiction.
But we are mistaken if we think
that we are living at the point in history
when the greatest number of prophetic pieces
pointing to the return of Christ
seem to have already fallen into place.
There was another time in history
when the people of God
had even more compelling reasons than we
do today
for wondering whether they personally would
see
the establishment of the kingdom of God
here on this earth.
It was a time when a one-world government
was already in existence,
a time when a universal currency
was already in use,
a time in history when,
more often than not,
the rulers of that one-world government
viewed Christianity as an evil to be
destroyed at any cost.
And the evidence pointing to the immediate
establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth
flooded in on every side.
I want to take us back to that time
for a few minutes this morning
because I think it is healthy for us to know
first of all that we are not the first in history
to have good grounds for wondering if we
might be living in the final generation of the human
race,
and secondly, I want to take us back to that time
so that we can see how the Lord responded
to that sense of prophetic urgency
the first time it appeared.
The time is the first century A.D.,
and the place, of course,
is the land of Israel.
The Roman Empire controls all the known world.
The Roman Emperor has absolute power over
that Empire.
As far as the Roman Empire was concerned
the little nation of Israel
was just one more of the countless
conquered people groups under its domain.
Those who were a part of that tiny Jewish nation
resented Rome's intrusion into their lives,
but they were a people unlike any other in
history,
a people who knew the truth about God,
and about life
as no other people ever had,
a people who had once been a great nation under
God,
and a people to whom God had made
the most amazing promise.
He had promised this tiny people group
that He would one day bring to them a Messiah,
a deliverer,
a Man who, through the Jewish people,
would establish the most incredible kingdom
that had ever existed on earth.
Their greatest prophet of all time
had written this great promise of God for
them...
Is. 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son
will be given to us; and the government will
rest on His shoulders; and His name will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Is. 9:7 There will be no end to the increase
of His government or of peace, on the
throne of David and over his kingdom, to
establish it and to uphold it with justice and
righteousness from then on and
forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will accomplish this.
For more than 400 years the Nation waited,
and watched,
and tried to prepare themselves
for their Deliverer
and for the Kingdom He would bring.
It was a very long wait,
but the times of God
are not as the times of men,
and when the kingdom finally came
it would be so very worth the wait.
And then a man appeared on the scene,
a man by the name of John,
a man who spoke and lived with an authority
and a power that captivated all who heard him.
By his own words he came for just one purpose, to
prepare the people of Israel
for the arrival of their Messiah,
their Savior.
Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, ' Make ready the way of the
Lord, Make His paths straight.'"
Mark 1:7 And he was preaching, and
saying, "After me One is coming who is
mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop
down and untie the thong of His sandals.
Mark 1:8 "I baptized you with water; but
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Now it is true that, when the Messiah finally arrived
on the scene,
because He did not make the kind of entrance the
Jewish people expected Him to make,
He was not at first recognized
by most of the Israelites.
But in the three or four years He spent
presenting His credentials to the Jewish people
through His teachings,
and through the repeated demonstration
of His authority over every sickness,
over every force of evil,
over every force of nature,
and even over death itself,
He gathered to Himself a group of followers
who accepted Him for who He really was -
the Messiah that God Himself had promised to the
Jewish people,
the Man who would establish the kingdom of
God on earth,
the kingdom that would have no end.
Of course at first they did not understand
the greater work God was accomplishing
through Christ-
the presentation of His own death
as the sacrificial payment for the sins of
the world,
and during His earthly ministry
there were repeated efforts
on the part of His followers
to push Him into political leadership in Israel.
But following His crucifixion
and then His resurrection from the dead 3 days
later,
His disciples certainly gained
a much broader perspective of what was
going on.
And during the 40 days between Jesus' resurrection
and His departure from this earth
I am certain that His disciples
had countless discussions among
themselves
about their absolute certainty
that this was the historical moment
at which the Christ would establish His
kingdom on earth.
Here we are today,
sifting through the prophetic passages of
Scripture,
amazed at the striking evidences
that seem to indicate the soon return of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
We see earthquakes increasing at in ever more
dramatic intensity.
We see people groups destroying one another
throughout the world.
We see wars raging continually.
We see an economic and political situation in the
world
that is ripe for a charismatic one-world ruler.
We see a global communications system
that already crosses every geographic
and political boundary.
We have a political situation in the Middle East
that coincides in remarkable detail
with what we have been lead to expect just
prior to the return of Christ.
And we look at all of the evidence
and say, "THIS IS IT!
We're there.
We must be there.
How could it possibly be otherwise."
But when it came to hard evidence
testifying to the immediate establishment of the
Kingdom of God on earth,
those followers of Christ
who were on this earth during the 40 days
between the crucifixion
and the departure of Christ
had us beat by a mile.
Look at what they had -
They weren't just looking at the possibility of a one
world government
at some time in the future,
there was already a one world government in place.
They weren't just anticipating the arrival of the Anti
Christ,
he was already there on the throne in the person
of the Roman Emperor.
They weren't just talking about
the possibility of rebuilding
the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem,
it was already constructed and fully operational.
The weren't just hoping and praying for the return of
the Messiah,
He had already departed through death,
and now returned from the dead in all of His
resurrected power and glory .
He was there!
He was physically,
literally with them,
among them,
appearing to each of them,
offering them repeated proofs of His power and
His reality.
And then there were all those things He Himself
had said to them,
things that certainly confirmed
what they knew to be true,
that the time had come at last
for Christ to establish His rule on earth.
Matt. 16:28 "Truly I say to you, there are
some of those who are standing here who
shall not taste death until they see the Son
of Man coming in His kingdom."
What else could those words possibly mean than
that the time had come.
Then came that day
when the resurrected Lord
notified every one of His followers
that He wanted all of them to gather together with
Him
for the first mass meeting since His
resurrection.
They were all going together to the Mount of
Olives,
and every disciple of the Master was to be
there.
Now, given the things they could see around them,
and the things they were hearing their Lord
speak,
and the things they understood from
prophecy,
what do you think they expected Jesus
to do at that meeting?
What do you think they were thinking
as they walked with Jesus
up that hill?
"This is IT!
At last the time has come.
This is the meeting when Jesus
will finally reveal to us the strategy
for taking over the world.
Very likely He will be assigning us our positions,
telling us of our roles in His coming regime.
There can be nothing further that needs to be done.
There are no more barriers
that could possibly stop us now."
And Jesus' first words to them
at that great meeting on the mountain
at first seemed to confirm what they were
believing.
Acts 1:4 And gathering them together, He
commanded them not to leave Jerusalem,
but to wait for what the Father had
promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of
from Me;
Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but
you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now. "
That made sense.
He was going to supernaturally empower them
for the roles they would be playing
in His coming kingdom.
He would be sharing His divine power with them
and they needed to wait until He equipped them.
It all fit together.
But they wanted Him to say it right out,
to confirm what they already knew to be true,
so one of the disciples,
and I personally believe it was Peter,
because it is a typical Peter type of thing
to do,
but one of the disciples spoke up
and ask Jesus the question
that had been the theme of all of their
conversations
for the past 40 days.
Acts 1:6 ... "Lord, is it at this time You are
restoring the kingdom to Israel?"
And with that question
we are permitted to see inside the minds
of all those who stood with Jesus
on that mountain that day.
It's the same question
that so many of us find on our minds
this day,
at this point in history,
in the month of January, 2001.
"Is it at this time, Lord, that You will establish Your
Kingdom?"
And I have gone through all of this this morning
because I want us to begin this year
with the words Jesus spoke in response to
that question
the very first time it was asked.
He responded to that question by saying,
Acts 1:7-8 "It is not for you to know times
or epochs which the Father has fixed by
His own authority;
That is the first half
of the very last sentence
ever spoken by our Lord on this earth
prior to His departure.
They are words carefully selected by Him
first of all to free us
from wasting our minds and our emotions
on a point of focus
He did not want us to have,
the focus on the great hidden WHEN of the Lord's
return.
It is impossible for us to know Him
and love Him
without longing for His return
and for His ultimate victory over evil.
But He wanted us to know
that focusing on WHEN
is not the calling of the Christian,
nor is finding an answer to that question
a work that His Spirit will be accomplishing within
us.
Let me put it this way -
God did not give us prophecy to tell us WHEN
Christ will return,
He gave us prophecy to tell us THAT Christ
will return.
But then He goes on to tell us
what His Spirit will equip us for
and where our point of focus needs to be.
"...but you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you
shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to
the remotest part of the earth."
And I want to be sure we understand
that those words are not a command,
they are a promise.
I know how it is.
I know that most of us are so keenly aware of
our own weaknesses,
and what we perceive to be our own
deficiencies as Christians
that we tend to believe we have little if
any significant role in the work our God is doing in
this world.
We are victims of a culture
that bombards us with the message
that the great things,
the important things,
the significant things accomplished in
this world
are accomplished by just a handful
of great,
and important,
and significant people,
and the rest of us are simply here
to applaud them,
and vote for them,
and to send them money,
and to be suitably impressed with
their greatness.
But the last words our Lord uttered
prior to His departure
were words designed to set the record
straight.
He wanted us to know
where the great things of God
will really be happening
and who will be doing them.
And the answer begins
with the first two words
of that last phrase He ever uttered
prior to His departure -
"But YOU..."
He's talking to us, you and me,
and He leaves us not with two commands,
but with two promises.
First of all, you will receive power
through His Spirit placed within us.
God Himself will equip us
for the work He will accomplishing through us.
I like the way Paul restated it in 2 Cor. 3:4-6
And such confidence we have through
Christ toward God. Not that we are
adequate in ourselves to consider anything
as coming from ourselves, but our
adequacy is from God, who also made us
adequate as servants of a new covenant,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
And please understand
that He was not talking about
making us adequate to crank out
some sort of man-made little religious
system of works.
He was talking about being equipped
by the Spirit of God
to fulfill the life He has chosen for each of
us.
And the heart of the calling He has given you
is very likely far closer to home
than you may realize.
For most of us it does not involve
foreign languages
and distant lands.
It involves learning to love our marriage partner,
choosing to invest our minds and our hearts in
to our children,
doing our work with integrity and
faithfulness,
and daily living a life of moral purity
and integrity
in the midst of a culture that has no morality
whatsoever.
He is talking about just trusting Him
to live through us
in the way He knows fits perfectly
with who we were designed by Him to be.
And then, 2nd, He wants us to know
that as we do that,
BECAUSE we do that,
we WILL be His witnesses.
Paul puts it this way, 2 Cor. 2:14
"But thanks be to God, who always leads
us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests
through us the sweet aroma of the
knowledge of Him in every place."
It is so easy for us to think our lives touch almost no
one,
to think who we are
and what we do doesn't really matter all that
much.
You may think that
because I stand up here and teach once a week
I must be less vulnerable to such lies
than you would be.
I assure you, I am not.
But our Lord gave me,
and I think maybe many of us
a special reminder of the truth
through Fetcher Machen just over a week
ago.
I think it is very likely
that Fletcher Machen felt that same way.
If you would have asked him if his life touched
many people,
or if his Lord had really made Him an effective
witness in the world in which he had been placed,
I think he would have said, "No, probably
not."
But those of us who attended his memorial service
saw the true impact of his life.
And my point is simply this-
As we face this next year
I just want us to begin by reminding ourselves
of the truth -
The Spirit of God has already made us adequate
for whatever this year may hold for us, and
this world in which we live
can and will see the reality of Him in us,
and there is nothing else taking place anywhere in
this world
that is even remotely as significant
as the work our God is accomplishing
through His people,
one day,
one person,
one step at a time.