Marcus Mecum - These Last Days - Part 1
1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever". I like this last phrase here. I really like it. "Therefore encourage one another with these words". The purpose of talking about end times according to the Bible is that we can encourage one another with it.
So, the purpose of talking about end times is not to be fearful, it's not to be negative, it's not to be talk about destruction and the end of everything as much as it's to encourage you. And so, I'm gonna show you how encouraging this subject is over the next few minutes. If you were in the nation of Israel, if you were alive at the time of Paul speaking to the church of Thessalonica, you would have known what he was discussing in the imagery when he talked about how we're to go out and meet the Lord in the air and together we will forever be with the Lord. He was speaking of something that would happen in every village or every city whenever Caesar would come to visit that city or that village.
The watchman would be the wall. He would look out afar off, and he would see Caesar coming, and he would announce to the city, announce to the community, "Caesar is coming, Caesar coming". They would shout from the city walls, "Caesar is coming". And every person in that village and every person in those cities would stop immediately whatever they were doing. They would cease to work. They would leave their homes. They would grab their children. They would come together, and the entire city would exit and go out to meet Caesar. And like a parade, they would celebrate and cheer and shout as they would lead Caesar into the village.
And right before they would walk through the city gates, they would stop and let Caesar enter the city gates first. And so, the idea was that this is, when it comes to the return of Christ, it's something we're supposed to be looking for. It's something that we're supposed to be watching for. It's something that we're supposed to be excited about, that whatever we might do on a daily basis, we're supposed to be willing to let go, not to be clinging to the things of this world so much. But we're supposed to be willing at any point in time to let go of all of those things because we know that our destiny is not here on this earth, but we have a greater call, a greater destiny, and we're supposed to be celebrating, watching, and rejoicing about the soon return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
One out of every 30 verses in your Bible deals with the return of Christ and end times. Two hundred and sixteen chapters in the New Testament. There's over 300 references in the New Testament concerning the return of Christ and end times. Twenty-three of the twenty-seven New Testament books deals with this subject. Of course, Jesus talked about his second coming often, so much so that the disciples wanted to know when is this going to happen.
Paul, the apostle in 2 Timothy 4, is laying on his death bed and he's taking about how he's finished his race, he's fought his fight, and he's received the crown of righteous. And he says, "Because I long for his appearing". And then he goes on to say, "Anyone who wants to finish their race, anybody who wants to fight their fight, anybody who wants their crown, they have to be like I was. They have to long for the appearing of Christ. They have to long for it". There has to be an eager expectation for the return of Christ. There has to be something in you that's looking for it, waiting on it, expecting it. That you're supposed to be desiring it. "And if you do that," Paul said, "What you're going to experience is you will finish your race, you will fight that fight that you have in front of you and you'll win that fight and you will get the crown that God has in store for you".
So, a lot of people wanna know what does all this stuff mean. What does it mean that we're living in the last days? Well, Hebrews 1:1-2 says, "In times of old, God would speak through his prophets," but now, it says, "In these last days," everybody say, "These last days". "In these last days he speaks to us through his Son". I wanna break that phrase down, "These last days". Because I think in looking into that phrase it can help you understand a little bit more about the time that we're living in or the subject we're talking about. "These," that first word there in the phrase is a demonstrative word, meaning it demonstrates something.
So, "These" speaks of closeness. It speaks of nearness. If the writer of Hebrews would have said, "Those," most believe Luke wrote Hebrews. If he would have said, "Those," it would have meant something that's afar off or distant. "These" is close. "Those" demonstrate something distant. For example, "This" is also a demonstrative word. This pulpit means it 's close. This podium means it's close. This stage, it's something close. That stage in the children's area, that podium in the children's area, that's far off. That's distant. So, when the writer said, "These," he's speaking of something close.
The word "Last," many other translations say, "End days". There's different words there, but my favorite word, even though it's not translated very much in our Bibles, in the Hebrew, I love that it can also speak of destiny. Probably the best way to think of the phrase "Last" is to see it as a destiny word because it's actually not really inferring last, and I'll help you understand that in just a minute. Cause last infers the end or something being over. But really, this is more of a moment of destiny than it is the end of something. And then, "Days" you have maybe seen the word age like the end of an age or the word time is also used. The end of time, or world, or universe, the end of the word.
And so, immediately everybody thinks those things and they immediately think of something negative. But notice the word "Days" there is plural. It's a plural word because it's speaking of two worlds or two ages or two times coming together at once. The age that is and then the age that is to come happening at one moment of destiny. And in that moment, that's what the Bible says, "These last days," it's speaking of the destiny of all God's creation, of everything we've been created for coming together in one moment where the age that is and the age that is to come collide, meaning in the Hebrew, because the reason we have so many translation issues here is because we have a translation limitation.
The Hebrew word for that phrase "Last days" is a man climbing up a mountain to reach the summit. And one generation climbs the mountain and then they pass the baton to another generation. And they climb up a little bit further and then they pass the baton to the next generation, and they climb a little bit further. Eventually, you get to the point where you're close to the top of the mountain. Eventually, you reach the summit, that's these last days. And when you reach the summit of the mountain, before you were limited in what you could see because the mountain was in front of you, but when you reach the summit, there's no longer that limitation.
You can look at a three hundred and sixty degree radius and you can see over the full expanse of what? What are we seeing from that summit? The age that is and the age that is to come. We will be able to see the full destiny of all God's creation on that day. So, when you hear end times, instead of think end or destruction, think the destiny of all God's creation. Romans 8:19 says, "In my opinion whatever we may go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe," that's how we're supposed to be, on tiptoe eagerly expecting.
Notice what it says, "To see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own". That's you and I realizing the day that we live in. And when this happens, "The world and creation cannot yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God's purpose it's been so limited, yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have it share in the magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God".
It's describing the moment where all of a sudden the limitations of us being able to see what we'll see on that summit top, the limitations of our world because of the curse that's come on our world because of the fall of Adam and Eve. All those limitations, not just on us but on all creation, will immediately be lifted and all of creation will be freed from the tyranny of death and decay. Ancient rabbis would say this, they would say, "When the Lord returns," listen to what they would say, "Even the dirt will cry out, 'get off me, curse'". In other words, even the dirt when God comes back, even the dirt will say, "Now, finally I get to be who I'm supposed to be and do what I'm supposed to do". And that is the glorious, magnificent destiny of all God's creation.
I heard a preacher one time who had just a flare for the dramatic. He loved to, you know, do things to illustrate his messages. And so, he was gonna read a scripture about the end times and he told a young boy before the service, he said, "Hey, what I want you to do is I'm gonna read this verse and when I get to the point where the Bible says, 'and the trumpet of God will sound,' I want you to turn off the lights and I want you to blow a trumpet in a microphone".
So, he gets to the Bible verse and the young boy turns the lights off and he blows the trumpet, and everybody freaks out. They scream. They're scared to death. He turns on the light, and half the church is running for the door. Half the church is crying and repenting in the altar making sure that they're getting right cause they don't wanna miss, you know, Jesus' coming back. And then there is three little old ladies on the front row, and they're flapping their arms looking up towards the sky. Come on, that's cute. Think about three little old ladies can't wait to go be with Jesus. And the point is that's what we're supposed to be like. It's not supposed to be scary to us, it's supposed to be something we're excited about. We're supposed to those flappers on the front row, can't wait until Jesus comes back.
The last days speak of an appointed day where the baton is passed from the age that is to the age that is to come. This is the glorious destiny of all God's creation. This is the destiny moment for Jesus where this time he's not coming to hang on a cross as a suffering servant, this time, he's going to come as King of kings and Lord of lords, and he will establish his power, his glory, and his authority on the earth. The Bible says, "God will pour out his spirit on all flesh". This means what we see in the Book of Acts 2 where the 120 are in the upper room and the Holy Spirit fills that room when he shows up like a mighty rushing wind. The divided tongues as the fire sits on each one of them.
What happened in Acts 2 to the 120 will happen to 2 billion plus people all at one time. That's what we're looking at. This is the glorious destiny of all God's creation. A lot of people say, "Well, when is it going to happen? How close is it? Can you give me an idea"? Well, the Bible says in Matthew 24:36, "That no one knows, not even Jesus knows the day or the hour". So, no one knows. So, if you every hear anyone say that they know exactly when Jesus is coming back, Jesus himself doesn't even know. The Bible says, "Only the father knows". This is a big deal for us, so if you ever see someone write a book "88 reasons Jesus is coming back in 1988," they're just trying to sell you a book. They don't know what they're talking about.
Some of you are too young for that. But the point is, no one knows. In that same chapter, it talks to us about the signs. It talks to us about things that we're to look for that surround the end of time or the wrapping up of time on God's calendar. It's not been unusual that every generation since Christ has believed that he's coming in his generation, including the apostle Simon Peter. He believed he was living in the last days, but he gave a caveat concerning the attitude that we should not do anything as for far as planning for the future because we're living in the last days. And he teaches us this in 2 Peter 3. They'll put up on the screen. But what he says is, he says, "If it appears like the Lord is slow concerning his promise".
In other words, it seems like God's holding back. Why isn't he coming back quicker? We've known, for generations they've talked about the coming of the Lord. Maybe your great-great grandparents talked about it, and their great-grandparents talked about it. Maybe you heard about it as a child and in your mind, it's not going to happen because it appears like it's being slow, like it's gonna happen because it seems like God's up there taking his time. Well, it's pretty clear that God introduces the reasons why he's waiting is that so none would perish but that all would come to repentance.
So, that's why God waits. That's why he's patient. It's so people can end up getting saved. But he goes on to say that what Christians should be careful of is not believing that he is slow. He is patient but he's not slow. "He will return as he promised," is what the apostle Simon Peter said. And he said, "When he does show up, it will be like a thief in the night". In other words, the image of Jesus, his return, every time the image is unexpectedly and suddenly and people will not be ready. And so, you might be saying, "Are we living in the last days"? And the answer to that is yes. But even if that's not in our generation or in our day, can I just help you out real quick? You're still living in your last day.
And the golden rule in the Bible is people will not be ready, whether that's him coming to us or us going to him. And the main reason people are not ready, we can find in Philippians 3, Paul the apostle, with tears in his eyes, he's weeping and he says, "Christians will not be ready because they do not focus on eternal things". They focus on this world. They are enamored with this world. They are not focused on their destiny. Instead, they're focused on what James says is a vapor or a mist. Or your life is the little dash between two dates, and that little dash is what everybody gets consumed with instead of the immeasurable timeline, the massive timeline of God is what we're supposed to be focused on, not that little dash. We're supposed to focus on that eternal timeline instead.
And so, the apostle Paul, with tears streaming down his face, with tears in his eyes, weeping, he looks at the church of Philippi and he says, "People will not be ready", and the reason why is because they will be consumed with the here and now, day-to-day living, attached to this world. And then, Jesus is going to come back and they will be surprised and it will meet them unexpectedly because they don't understand our attachment is not to be to this world, but our attachment is to be on the massive eternal timeline of God.
Psalms 139, "You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw an unformed substance," this is my favorite part of this verse, "In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them".
God formed you before he formed the very first day on this planet, which teaches you and I that when God formed these days, he formed them for you and for me. That before the foundations of the earth, God knew the exact day and hour you and I would show up on this planet and God sent us into this time. And when you were born, what happened is you collided, your destiny, your purpose collided with time. And in this day, because you're here, because you're breathing air, that's the evidence that God has gifted and called you and equipped you to live in this day and this exact time. And my hope is that you would fully grasp during this next few weeks that every single second, minute, hour, every day, every week, every month, and every year was formed with you in mind. And your job is to recognize that God created this day with me in mind and time is expecting.
The Bible says, "All of creation is groaning, waiting of the sons of God to come into their own". In other words, time is waiting for the believers, for Christians, for children of God to get to the point that they pick up their mantle, they pick up their destiny, and they realize, "I'm living in these last days and I need to long for his appearing". Say, "Well, how do we do it? How do we do it? How do you practically live in these last days"? I'm so glad you asked me that. 1 Peter 4:7, "The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind or clear mind so that you may pray".
Now, notice verse 8, "Above all," above all, above everything else. What are you supposed to do? "Love each other deeply," how do you that? How do you love each other deeply? "Because love covers over a multitude of sins". It goes on to say, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling". I'll say that one more time, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling". One more time, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms".
And it goes on to talk about, "If you have the gift to speak, speak. If you have the gift to serve, serve". And it just basically says, "And when you do it, do it unto Jesus, giving him the glory and the honor". You're not doing it unto people, you're doing it unto the Lord. So, three things that the apostle Simon Peter says we need to do. The end is near. We're living in these, they're close. This is the destiny, last, this is the destiny of days where the two worlds: the age that is and the age that is to come, boom, they collide together. We're on our way. We're climbing.
We're close to the summit, closer than any other generation has ever been before with getting close that summit where we can look back at the age that is, and we will be able to look forward to the age that is to come when the destiny of all God's creation is realized, and that dirt cries out, "Get off, curse". We're getting closer and closer to that. What do you do? Number one, he says, "Be clear minded". Be clear minded. Don't live your life believing that the best days are behind us. Don't live your life believing, well, God did so many great things in past generations.
Wouldn't it have been great to live in the Book of Acts? Wouldn't it have been great to live during this great revival or that great revival? Can I tell you, all of heaven is full of a great cloud of witnesses and the apostle Simon Peter, and Paul, and Moses, and Elijah, and Abraham, they're jealous of you and I getting to live in this day cause we're so close. So, you have to clear minded. How? Not Romanticizing past days, past moves of God, and you're also to not be so caught up with the future that it paralyzes your today.
That's what a lot of people do. All throughout history, we would know that some generations did nothing to plan for the future because they believed Jesus was coming back in their day, so they didn't plan for the future. So, we're supposed to live as though he's coming today but plan as though he will not come back for a thousand years. That's being clear minded. It's being clear. He could come back today, but he may not come back for a thousand years. And if he chooses to wait for a thousand years, it's because he's wanting to patient so more people can come to the knowledge of the truth.