Sunday – March 10, 2013

March 10, 2013 – Read the Word on Worship

The Darkside of the Second Coming from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Christians today continue to ask the same question as the disciples: When will these things happen? They want Jesus to give them the key to identify exactly when the end will come. History is riddled with predictions, and when they are proven to be as foolish as the last, they revise their calculations based on some obscure biblical passage they failed to take into consideration. Others compile their “rapture index” charting out the latest earthquake, civil war or cosmic disturbance to gauge the probability of the nearness of Christ’s return to the delight of an audience seeking to escape rather than persevere.
Do not be a victim of Last Days entertainment. The most important thing we as Christians have been called to do is preach the gospel to all nations. When the Lord Jesus returns, He will not quiz us on whose prediction was accurate but rather will want an accounting of what we have been doing. Were we proclaiming the gospel? Were we enduring suffering faithfully? Did we love others as we have loved ourselves? Those who have been asleep on the job will not just be embarrassed when the Lord returns, they will be judged.
Join us this Sunday as we conclude our study of the Olivet Discourse from Mark 13 in “The Dark Side of the Second Coming”.


Word On Worship – March 10, 2013 Download / Print

Mark 13:35-37
“Therefore, be on the alert — for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning — in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. “What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’”

Christians today continue to ask the same question as the disciples: When will these things happen? They want Jesus to give them the key to identify exactly when the end will come. History is riddled with predictions, and when they are proven to be as foolish as the last, self-proclaimed experts revise their calculations based on some obscure biblical passage they failed to take into consideration. Others compile their rapture index, charting out the latest earthquake, civil war or cosmic disturbance to gauge the probability of the nearness of Christ’s return to the delight of an audience seeking to escape rather than persevere.

We turn on the television to see pastors identify the Antichrist from their list of those they do not like and then preach fear to audiences that he is set to pounce and devour his prey. Others fall into extremist groups that quit their jobs, sell their homes and turn their backs on the world as they wait for the appointed time for Jesus to take them away from their earthly woes. Jesus specifically warns against such end-times hysteria, deliberately providing no sign or event that is helpful for fixing a specific date. Yet false teachers continue to pop up and reduce Christianity to simple answers to exploit the fears and the weaknesses of the saints for a handsome profit.

The temptation of end-of-the-world hysteria is to lead the saints astray from the very counsel of our Lord Jesus: Be alert. The life of the saint, whether in the first or twenty-first century, is full of painful paradoxes, tensions and uncertainty. Yet the Lord requires His saints to walk by faith, not by the comfortable security of sight. And so we fall prey to those who speak about what is next to happen on the world stage and we are told nothing about living in the light of such news, except to send in more money. Unlike Jesus, they provide no ethical implications for how this affects the way we live our lives, no urgency to share the gospel and no command to find ourselves to be ready.

Do not be a victim of Last Days entertainment. The most important thing we as Christians have been called to do is preach the gospel to all nations. When the Lord Jesus returns, He will not quiz us on whose prediction was accurate but rather will want an accounting of what we have been doing. Were we proclaiming the gospel? Were we enduring suffering faithfully? Did we love others as we have loved ourselves? Those who have been asleep on the job will not just be embarrassed when the Lord returns, they will be judged.

What do you think?