Decode the Coming

The Life of Jesus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  29:35
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Luke 17:20–18:8 CSB
When he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; no one will say, ‘See here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Then he told the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won’t see it. They will say to you, ‘See there!’ or ‘See here!’ Don’t follow or run after them. For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in his day. But first it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: People went on eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” “Where, Lord?” they asked him. He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.” Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Pray

Day of the Lord

Jewish expectation held that the Kingdom of God would come as part of the Day of the Lord and that Cosmic signs would welcome the arrival
Two ways it was portrayed
In prophetic terms
Means that the kingdom of God would come as part of the normal movement of history. God would rise up a Messiah from the seed of David to deliver the nation. Sounds like Jesus
Others spoke in more apocalyptically oriented imagery about a figure who would come from above with heavenly signs and great power.
The OT uses both images
Jews, Christians, Scientist, other religions have all predicted the end of the world and will continue to do so

Day of the Lord Predicted

Look at a few
634 BCE
Many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome and some Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years.
389 BCE
Some Romans believed that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year
66-70 CE
Simon Bar Giora, Essenes. The Essene sect of Jewish ascetics saw the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle
500 CE
Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, Irenaeus. All three predicted Jesus would Return in the Year 500
800 CE
Sextus Julius Africanus. Revised the date of Doomsday to 800
1000 Jan 1
Pope Sylvester II. A Millennium Apocalypse. Riots occurred in Europe and pilgrims headed east to Jerusalem
1186
John of Toledo. Predicted the end of the world during 1186 based on the alignment of many planets
1284
Pope Innocent III. Predicted that the world would end 666 years after the rise of Islam
1346 - 1351
Various Europeans. The black plague spreading across Europe was interpreted by many as the sign of the end of times
1524
London astrologers. A group of astrologers in London predicted the world would end by a flood starting in London based on calculations made the previous June. 20,000 Londoners left their homes and headed for higher ground
1656 or 1658 (depending on how you do the math)
Christopher Columbus. In his Book of Prophecies (1501), Columbus predicted that the world would end during 1656
1982
Pat Robertson. In Late 1976 Robertson predicted that the end of the world would come in 1982
1999
Nostradamus. A prediction attributed to Nostradamus stating the "King of Terror" would come from the sky in "1999 and seven months" led to fears of the end
1999
Nazim Al-Haqqani. Predicted that the last judgment would occur before the year 2000
2000
Y2K Scare
2011
Harold Camping. Predicted that the Rapture and devastating earthquakes would occur on My 21, 2011 with God taking approximately 3% of the world's Population into Heaven and that the end of the world would occur 5 months later on October 21
2015
John Hagee and Mark Biltz. In four blood moons predicts that the end will come Sept 28
2239
Some Orthodox Jews believe that the Messiah should come within 6000 years from the creation of Adam and the world would possible be destroyed 100 years later. This would put the beginning of the period of desolation in the year 2239 CE and the end of the period of desolation in the year 3239 CE
500,000,000
James Kasting predicts that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will drop dramatically, making earth uninhabitable.
5,000,000,000
Various scientist put this date as the end of our Sun's current phase of development, after which it will swell into a read giant, and it might destroy earth all together but defiantly make a molten rock
10^100
Googol. The heat death of the universe - Suggest that the universe can no longer support thermodynamic free energy.
I probably did to many and skipped a bunch
People have always been interested in when things are going to end. And as we read the Bible we can't help but be interested. But Jesus points out that they do not need to look for signs as we tend to do.
We don't need to try and figure it out. There are no hidden clues

Kingdom is Here

The Kingdom was brought in with Christ.
The Pharisees do not need to look for the kingdom's coming in the sky because it is already here in Jesus the Christ.
The day of the Lord we often look forward to it but Jesus wants to make it clear that when it does come. And he doesn't even know when that day will be. It will be a day of Judgment
I don't have any answers as to if the Children of God will go before tribulation, after or during. I can make the argument from the Bible for all three positions. Of late the most popular is Pre-tribulation. I tend to lean more toward post-tribulation
But the return of Jesus is serious business. A time when God will be engaged in definitive judgment.
Every moment until the Lord returns is an opportunity to be God's instrument in changing the destiny of someone who does not yet know him
God is delaying the day of Judgment
2 Peter 3:9 LEB
The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
Allowing time for others to come (2 Peter 3:9)
But what Jesus does tell us is that we need to be ready.
Pray
That God will hear the cries of the hurting.
Faithfulness
God will return and we need to be ready for that time. Constantly ready for God to return. If God were to come right now would you be ready.
Turn back and say just one more thing. Judgment - oops
Only through the blood of Jesus

Next Steps

Are you ready for the end?
But don't forget that the kingdom is here now. Not just about then it is about representing Christ Now and Here using the gifts that he has given you. Just paying lip service to Christ isn't enough
We are part of the kingdom of God we are just visitor of this world. Just visitors of the nation of USA
Do our best to see it do well because that is where God placed us to be the best we can in his name
Are you ready?
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