What Next?

Transcript (Auto-generated)

Good morning, everyone. Just trying to look around to see who the Dolphin supporters are sad today, the Lions supporters. Quite surprised that our senior pastor, Doug, is the sportsman, didn't make mention of those momentous events of yesterday. Different code, Dave, sorry. Different code. Let's pray. Jesus said to his disciples, When you pray, pray, Our Father. So let's do that. Our Father, day by day, three things we pray: to see you more clearly, to love you more dearly, to follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen. That's been my prayer for many years, and some people have made comment thinking that that prayer originated with the musical Godspell. And if you were around in the early 70s, you'll know what I'm talking about. It was a musical based very loosely on the Gospel of Mark, and Colleen Hewitt sang the song, this. But even though it's based loosely on the Gospel of Mark, the writers of Godspell were not really theologically aware enough to come up with this prayer. Actually, the prayer goes back a long way before then, back to Saint Richard of Chichester, who lived, well, just a few years before I lived, apparently. 11:9 to 12:53, and this is his prayer, and you'll see those words in there, that we may know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day. And so it really is a prayer that goes right back there. It's been a constant prayer of mine for many, many years now, and hopefully yours too. I only just say that because a few people commented when I prayed that previously here, and that's not part of the sermon. You just get that at no extra cost this morning. If you have your Bibles there, you might like to turn with me to Acts chapter 1, and I'd like to read just a few verses from verses 6 to 11. Acts chapter 1, from verse 6 to 11. So when they met together, they asked him—so this is the disciples and Jesus—when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And after he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They're looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who's been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. We know that God always blesses the reading of his word. You don't have to think back too far, and it was quite common for cartoonists to picture these haggard-looking old men generally walking around with a sandwich board over them, and the sandwich board, written on the sandwich board, with these words, The end is nigh. And it was always depicted, in fact, just getting this illustration or this picture had ample choosing of illustrations of this idea of this person going around, and it seemingly as though the cartoonist was mocking the church as saying, The end is nigh, because while the church was saying, The end is near, prepare for the end of the world, and those sorts of things, the society was really saying, It's a load of rubbish. Everything's okay. Everything's actually getting better. So whether they were scientists, politicians, philosophers, or whoever, were somehow opposing this idea that the end of the world is near and that everything was actually getting better. However, the tables have been turning somewhat, and what we find these days is actually the scientists who are now starting to say, The end is near. In 1947, a group of scientists, atomic scientists, got together and they started this idea of a doomsday clock. And with the Doomsday Clock, the whole idea is that every year, beginning of every year, this group of scientists get together and they try to work out, in their opinion, how close are we to the end of the world. So when it gets to 12 o'clock, they reckon that that's when the world is going to end. And so they consider things like nuclear, climate change, technology, biological threats, and so on. So they look at this, and beginning of every year they look at this, and so it's not always getting closer because sometimes it moves back as though the end of the world is further away, but other times it's moving a bit closer where they think the end of the world is a lot closer. Beginning of this year, they reckoned that the Doomsday Clock, they set it at 85 seconds to midnight. And what we need to realize is this, is that this is the closest since 1947, that this is the closest that the atomic scientists, so this is not the Christians, that this is secular scientists, are thinking that we are approaching the end of the world. We might think, how can that be? How can the world come to an end? Just a couple of months ago, Anne and I had a holiday in Japan where we visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and saw some of the devastation that the bombs, the atomic bombs at the end of World War II had there, that all in all between those two cities, which were bombed by the United States with atomic bombs, somewhere between 150 and 246,000 people were killed just like that. And this is an indiscriminate bombing where it wasn't just military targets, but there were men, women and children and babies, schools, hospitals, jails, everything was just obliterated. And it was quite sobering to go to those places, to go through the museums to see some of the effects. And as we went through the museums, it was just this eerie silence as the crowd just made their way through, seeing the impact of these bombs. So this is only just two bombs that wiped out that many people. But the estimate is today that there is around about 12,000 nuclear warheads in the world. So just two wiped out somewhere close to 250,000 people immediately, and many more in the months and years ahead from the effects of it. And now the estimate is that around the world there's in excess of around about 12,000 nuclear warheads. So the idea of the end of the world, where the world threw off at the church, and the church said, The end is near, but now it's gaining this momentum where scientists and philosophers and everybody else is saying, It looks like the end of the world is near. And so the question is, how do we as a church respond in all of that? Well, one response could very well be, We told you so. But I think another response, and that'd be right, of course, but another response is, but there's hope. So while in the past the church was saying the end is near, and the world was saying, Hey, no, it's not that bad, now the world is saying the end is near, and we can, as the church, can say, Hey, there's hope. There's something that we, as people, can look forward to, and it all revolves around the God-man, the Lord Jesus. Because when Jesus came into the world, it just changed. It just changed the whole course of human history. It was this landmark time when Jesus came. And when we look at the life of Jesus, there are so many things we can say about him, and we can read them in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But I've just picked out these few unique events in the life of Jesus which really set him aside as being this unique person of Jesus. One is his virgin birth. Hasn't happened anywhere else, only in the time of Jesus. His crucifixion and death, when he went through this mockery of a trial and put to death, but then the resurrection that the Bible tells us that on the third day that he was raised from the dead. And if we were to read the summary account in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, in the beginning there, it summarizes there about how many people were witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. So Jesus appeared to one here, to two there, to a group there, but at one time he appeared to like 500 people all at once. And so you might be able to fool some people sometimes, but to fool so many people over this short period of time, including 500 people at once, it just doesn't happen. So it makes something unique about the Lord Jesus, that he was raised from the dead. And then there's the ascension, which we just read about, and also the forecast saying about, well, just as he's gone up, he's going to come back again. And this return is going to be personal, it's going to be visible, and it's going to be victorious. You see, while the world says, doom and gloom, the end is near, the church can offer to the world this message of hope, a message of hope in the person of the Lord Jesus. Now, we just read the account a little earlier in Acts chapter 1 about the ascension of Jesus, and we tend to, well, we can just read it, gloss over it so quickly because we know what comes before and after. We've read it so many times, we hear reference to it and so on. But just for a moment, just try to put yourself in the shoes of the disciples there, that all that they had been through. So they get called by Jesus to be followers of his. They follow him around and learn from him for three years. When they think they've got it all worked out, then Jesus is crucified. And to the point where one of the disciples pieces of, Look, this is not how I thought it was going to end. I'm going back to fishing. But then Jesus confronts him and reinstates him, is what we commonly refer to it as. And so they start to say, Well, it's not all over yet. Jesus is back again. Can you imagine what it must have been to go through all of that? And then they hear, standing out somewhere and talking with Jesus, questioning him, So what's going to happen now? What's next? And suddenly Jesus starts ascending into heaven. We don't know any details about how this happened. Was it quick? Was it slow? Did he say goodbye, or did it just start happening? Did it happen mid-sentence, or did he say, Well, see you later, guys? There's no details. All it says, we know that there were clouds there, but the disciples were there. They start seeing Jesus, and they were watching him going up until he disappeared behind the clouds. And could you imagine how difficult it must have been for them to grasp what was going on here? Then they turn around, there's two guys standing there, two angels standing there. Where'd they come from? And they say to these guys, What are you standing here looking up to heaven for? Jesus has just told you you're going to be my witnesses. Get back and get on with the job. Because this Jesus, who you've seen go into heaven, he's going to come back again in the same way that you saw him go. He is coming back again. Can you see here that this is a message of hope, and we want to flesh this out a bit in the next few minutes that are allocated to us this morning. Now, before we go too much further, I just want to make one thing very clear to us all this morning, is it's important that we are informed and we make a wise choice. We're all familiar, or many of us are familiar with that famous verse, probably the best known verse in the New Testament, John 3:16. For God loved the world in this way, gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. What a precious verse that is. But if we continue to read and go down another 20 verses, down to John chapter 3 and verse 36, we have the same concept said here, but then it's expanded and the other side is given as well, because it says, The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him. Folks, it's important that we understand and that we make an informed choice about whether we're going to be followers of Jesus or not. It's important that we make this choice because what I'm going to say from here on in is mostly focused, mostly focused on those who have given their lives over to God, who are his disciples, who are part of his family, and we ought not to assume. That all of these good things, the things about eternity, are going to apply to everybody. It is not. As the Bible clearly says here in John 3:36, either you're a part of God's family or you're not. It's important this morning that you understand today whether you are or whether you're not. And if you're not sure, most likely you're probably not. But even if you're not sure, then to talk with somebody this morning so that you can be sure that you belong to God's family, or at least you know for certain where you stand in the presence of God. And so, as we move on from there, this whole idea of Jesus coming back again, I want us to look at some of the facts surrounding this. We need to understand that Jesus is coming back. Somebody has counted up that there are 318 references in the New Testament to Jesus' return. I haven't counted them. Somebody else has, and I take them at their word. But the idea is not just an isolated one in the New Testament, but it's affirmed again and again and again that just as Jesus walked on this earth a couple of thousand years ago, he's coming back again. And as we said, pointed out, as the Bible says, it's going to be personal, it's going to be visible. We are going to see and be aware that Jesus is coming back again. John 14, verse 2 says, He's right in heaven now preparing a place for us. The Bible also tells us that he's going to take his children to be with him. We need to be aware that not everyone is going to go to heaven. It seems fairly common, the idea in our society today, that when someone dies, we hear reference about, well, somebody has died, but I know they're up there looking down on us. In fact, the Bible doesn't talk like that. And we ought to accept what the Bible says as being true, and to have that idea that for anybody who dies, that they're up there somewhere looking down on us, whatever sort of a life they live, whether it belonged to God's family or not, is just not how it is. The Bible makes it very clear that once we die, we die once and then it's the judgment, that those who belong to God's family, that yes, we're going to be with him forever as we step into eternity. But those who don't belong to God's family are separated from him for eternity. So not everyone goes to heaven. His turn will be physical, and the Bible tells us we don't know everything, but there are some things that we do know. I like the beginning of 1 John chapter 3. At 1 John chapter 3 it says, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. The love of God that we could be called his children, and then it says, And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Then verse 2 says, Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. So we don't know everything about Jesus' return and about heaven and all the rest of it, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So there are some things that we don't know, but there are some things which we do know about life after death, about eternal life. And so we don't know everything, but we do know some things. And when we put all of this together, this is a real message of encouragement. Going to swing back to that statement in just a while. So out of this, we can be aware of this, of this good news. Good news is this, is that God has a master plan and he has total control. God doesn't act on instinct or just what seems good at the moment, but there's a master plan that God is working towards from beginning to the end, and he's working on that to the fulfillment of all things. And what we need to understand very clearly in all of that is that my life is in his hands. So God has this master plan, and you and I fit into that master plan. And it's good to know that. It's comforting, it's encouraging to know that we're a part of his plan. So what that means is that nothing ever happens to us without his knowledge or permission. Or outside of his timing, it will all happen according to his plan as a part of his master plan. And what we also realise is this, is that physical death is not the end. I mentioned, if you were here last Sunday, somebody, probably, I don't know if it was rude or not, but said about how old I was. And I'm tempted to have a go back, but I won't, because, you know, one should just accept these things. But I've realised this, is that the road of life ahead of me, at my age, the road of life ahead of me is a lot shorter than the road behind me. I've got to accept that and understand that at my ripe old age. By the way, my mum lived, some of you here knew her, she lived to be 101. So if that's the case, I've got a few years left in me. But on the other hand, one of my older brothers was killed in an accident when he was aged 32. So we never really know what the matters of life and death are, other than to accept that all of this is in God's hands. By the way, talking about the pathway ahead and behind, if you're a male in Australia, the life expectancy is 81. And so if you're more than 40 and a half, the road ahead of you statistically is shorter than the road behind you. Or for women it's 85, so that's what 42 and a half or something in that bracket. I've also made this other observation too, that the most dangerous profession in life is retirement. And while you might immediately laugh at that, why I say that is this, is that no one gets out of it alive. And you stop and you think about that. And the realization is this, is that physical death is not the end. And in 1 Corinthians 15 it says, Where, death is your sting? And the sting of death is sin. And so it's coming back to the whole idea of what I've already stated, that if you do not belong to the family of God, then death is going to be rather has a sting to it. But for those who belong to the Lord Jesus, it's not that it's going to be all whatever, but, you know, I don't know what sort of death I or you will experience, but we know this, is that when we die, belonging to God's family, that we will be with Him forever. So the disciples will be with Jesus forever. And we also know this, is that we'll be with Him for eternity, and eternity is a long time. John 3:16 talks about eternal life, and we talk about eternal life. Eternal life talks about both quality and quantity. A quantity of life that goes on forever and ever, but a quality of life that we are with Jesus forever and ever. And then we also can know this as well, is that this is really a message of encouragement. You see, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 11, it's gone through, in 1 Thessalonians 5, a lot of 1 Thessalonians is talking about Jesus' return. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 11, it says, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just in fact you are doing so. So this is talking about the end of life as we know it. It's a word of encouragement. Many, many years ago, I was pastoring at a different church and the phone rang, back when phones were tied to the wall, and I answered the phone, and it was one of the women in the church who is expressing to me a concern about, and just wanting to know about life after death. She had a pile of different questions, and we were able to answer some of them. Some of them we couldn't. But she was distressed somewhat about this whole idea about the end of the world and about the end of her life. And so we talked about it for some time, and then I said to her, her and her husband were members of our church, fine Christian couple and family, and I said to her, towards the end of the conversation, I said to her, Look, This is what One Thessalonians 5 says, that the message of all of the end of the world, of Jesus coming again, is something that we as Christians ought to be encouraged by. And I said, so if you're concerned about what's going to happen at the end of the world, there's one of two reasons why you are concerned. One of them is a concern because you don't know everything, and you need to be a bit more educated. And as you learn more about the end of the world, that Jesus has everything in control, that'll take away your fear, and it can be a message of encouragement. So the only other reason why you ought to fear about this is because you're not a Christian, and in that case, you have every right to be concerned about it. Now, I knew her well enough to know that she was a fine, solid Christian, but I could say that just to put the two sides of the story. And I want to say that to you as well this morning, is that, yep, the world is going to come to an end. The Bible tells us the world is going to come to an end, and whatever your feelings are, you might want to dismiss it altogether, say, Who cares? Whatever. Just live it up one day at a time. That's your choice. But this morning you've heard enough to make some sort of an informed choice, a limited informed choice about that. But assuming that you have an understanding, either if there is a concern and you know that you belong to the Lord Jesus, there's no need to be really concerned about it. But if you are not a follower of Jesus, then you have every right to be concerned, and you should be. And you should do something about it today in talking with somebody and finding out a bit more about how to become a member of God's family. Well, this was also a message of encouragement to the early church, and I'm finishing with this. In 1 Corinthians 16:22, and if you look at this verse in your Bible, it might have a funny word in there, but it may not. The word is Maranatha in 1 Corinthians 16:22, and this word Maranatha, why it's a bit strange coming out there because... And then Paul is talking towards the end of his letter, towards the end of his letter to the church at Corinth, he would greet each other, they would say, Maranatha, which was this reminder: our Lord comes. Jesus is coming. And what a way to greet other people with this way, other Christians. You know, Jesus is coming again. What a tremendous time that will be. Do you know how the Bible ends? The Bible ends in Revelation 22 and verses 20 and 21. It says, He who testifies about these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Jesus is speaking. 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' And then the writer adds in this, 'Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.' By the way, for the Greek student amongst us, it's not a Maranatha there. Coming again is erchomai, the Greek word just for one person here, for their awareness. And then the last words in the Bible, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. Folk, what have we got to look forward to? What? Jesus. Let's say it together. Jesus is coming again. Therefore, encourage each other with these words. Let's pray. Maybe it's just highlighted for some folk here this morning that you're not a follower of Jesus, and it's been unsettling to hear some of these things which are spoken this morning. Well, that's okay, but you can be settled before you leave this place today by talking with others, but primarily by talking with Jesus, putting your life right with Him. You can do that right now where you are seated, but if you're not sure or need help with that, there's people here who are more than willing to help you. Just reach out to them. Those of us who belong to the Lord Jesus, to be encouraged, Jesus is coming again. Maranatha. Jesus is coming again. Thank you for the life and death and resurrection, the ascension of Jesus. And Father God, we look forward so much to Jesus coming again so that we'll be with you for all eternity. Thank you for that encouragement in our lives. Amen.