THE END IS NEAR AND OTHER SCARY SERMONS I SURVIVED.

2 Thessalonians 2:1 – Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him. (NLT)

Scriptures that speak about the end times.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17  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, and the dead in Christ will rise first.17 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. 

1 Thessalonians 5:2 – “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Luke 21:34 – and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.

1 Corinthians 1:8 – He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:4 – But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.
2 Thessalonians 2:2

not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter presuming to be from us and alleging that the day of the Lord has already come.

2 Peter 3:10 – But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be dissolved in the fire, and the earth and its works will not be found.

Revelation 3:3 – I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

Revelation 16:15 – Behold, I am coming like a thief. 

1 .  MINISTRY MALPRACTICE

James 3:1 – Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.

To not address this issue out of scripture  would be pastoral malpractice on my part.

To over exaggerate it would be pastoral puffing…..so I need to be courageous and cautious with this talk.

Sermons of my past that that could TURN PEOPLE TO JESUS or TURN THEM OFF FROM JESUS.

2 . BEING HERE NOW

THEY WERE PREOCCUPIED WITH BEING SO HEAVENLY MINDED THAT THEY WERE NO EARTHLY GOOD.

“Occupy till I come.” Luke 19:13 

2 Thessalonians 3:10 “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”

1 Thessalonians 5:2 – “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

3 – BEYOND THE POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS

WHAT DID JESUS SAY?

Since it’s on his itinerary he has some things to say about it.

Second Coming Facts to give you an idea of how much God’s word talks about this truth:

1 out of every 30 verses in the Bible mentions the subject of the end times or of Christ’s return.

In the New Testament there are 216 chapters. In those 216 chapters there are well over 300 references to the return of Christ.

Only 4 of the 27 New Testament books fail to mention Christ’s return.

George Gallup has done a survey in which he discovered that 62% of all Americans believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth someday.

1. NOBODY KNOWS.

No one knows the day or the hour of my return.

Matthew 24:36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ”

2. THERE WILL BE SIGNS YOU WILL NOTICE.

There will be several signs, increasing in intensity, as my return draws near.

Matthew 24:6,7 – Jesus promised there would be wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes in various places

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

3. IT WILL SEEM LIKE ANOTHER NORMAL DAY.

Matthew 24:37-39   “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

4. THERE WILL BE SOME SURPRISES.

Not everyone who expects to make it into the Christ’s kingdom will.

Some of the most sobering words of Jesus are about those who will not be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

5.  STAY AWAKE. 

Matthew 24:42-44 – “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

DON’T MISS TO POINT OR YOU WILL WILL MISS THE PURPOSE.

what is the point?

HE  HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO BE WITH US.

Jesus doesn’t just love you…. He likes you.

John 14:1-4 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Maranatha,

Steve