02 Planet in Upheaval

Discovering Revelation  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  51:23
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Good evening - and welcome BACK to Discovering Revelation - a very special Bible prophecy seminar where we look at the good news from the book of Revelation.
My name is Jason Worf, a speaker for the Voice of Prophecy radio program.
This is a seminar that has traveled all over the world, and every year, it comes to just a handful of places. So this really IS special, because it’s finally come to Bonners Ferry. I live here locally, so I’m really privileged to be able to share this series of Bible studies with you.
Now if this is your first time here, let me explain how this works. Our subject is Bible prophecy, so our primary focus is going to be the Bible. We’re just going to examine what THIS book says, and we’re going to learn principles that help us understand how prophecy actually works.
You’re going to discover that it’s not scary - it’s not mysterious - it actually makes really good sense once you have the tools you need to read it.
A couple things before we get to far into this.
First of all, if you have kids between the ages of 3 and 10, there is a fantastic kids Bible program very similar to a VBS that’s going on next door. You won’t miss out if you take a minute to go get them registered for that and then you can come back.
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I want to remind you about registration. If you haven’t registered yet, or this is your first night, please fill out a registration form. This is just for me. It helps me know who to pray for, and gives me some information like how many people to plan materials for. For those who have registered we’ll provide a copy of the notes for each night. If you’d like to join the Bible school that we’re hosting during these meetings, just write “school” on your registration card and tell the greeter at the door—they’ll make sure you get the Bible lessons before you leave.
Once you’ve filled out that registration card, tear off the little tab and keep that. The next time you come, just go by the registration booth and they’ll get you checked in.
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Tonight, we’re going to take a very BROAD look at a very GENERAL prophecy, and on other nights, we’ll look at more specific prophecies.
And each presentation is going to build on the presentations that come before it, so if you can, you’re going to want to clear your calendar a little bit and make the time to come every night. Tonight I have a handout for you that lists the next topics and dates to you can plug them into your calendar.
I promise you, I’ll make it well worth your time.
What we’re going to do is gather all the tools we need - the principles and little details that will make it possible to step back at the end and see the big picture. And I KNOW you’ll be amazed by what we’re going to see.
I’ve discovered that Bible prophecy isn’t really doom and gloom — it’s actually good news. It’s the story of hope. It proves that God’s not out to destroy us; He’s actually trying to SAVE us.
In the book of Jeremiah (29:11), God says, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Now, we’re going to move VERY quickly, and we’re going to cover a LOT — so that means we won’t have time to stop and answer questions from the audience.
But I know that you’re going to HAVE questions, so I’ve put a question box at the back table, and starting at our next meeting on Sunday night, I’ll start answering those questions for just a few minutes each night.
Now remember, there ARE rules to the question box:
Number one: it’s got to be a Bible question. “Why do you drive such an ugly car?” is not a Bible question.
Number two: if there are lots of questions, I’m going to give priority to the questions that deal with the topics we’ve already covered.
Number three: I never answer “preachy” questions, because we all come from different backgrounds and I want to make this comfortable for everybody. So what is a “preachy” question? A “preachy” question is something you put in the box because you’re hoping someone else will get the message. It kind of goes like this: “Why do some people do such-and-such when the Bible says they shouldn’t?”
That’s not really a Bible question. It’s an attempt to preach to someone else in the room through the question box, and I’m not going to do it. Does that sound fair?
All right.
So - what kinds of things are we going to cover?
Tonight, our subject is a “Planet in Upheaval.” Everywhere I go, I hear people saying that our world isn’t the same as it used to be. The climate is changing, the crime rate is increasing, and we have more political tension and far more natural disasters.
But is that really true? Is the world on the verge of some really big changes - and is the Second Coming of Christ something we should expect in our lifetime? Tonight, I’m going to show you an amazing passage from the Bible, written almost 2000 years ago - and you be the judge.
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Tomorrow, our subject is “Armageddon.” Now this is a word I know you’ve heard before, because Hollywood loves to use it. But what does the Bible actually say? What is Armageddon? Is it a nuclear war? An asteroid hitting the earth? A strange epidemic, like Ebola, that finally takes us all out?
Sunday night is going to be a very special evening, because we’re going to look at basic principles and tools that will help you start unraveling Bible prophecy for yourself. And then we’re going to take those tools and apply them to Revelation chapter 16.
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On Monday night, we’re going to talk about “The Man of Revelation,” and we’re going to look at the central theme in the book of Revelation. This is an absolutely essential subject: if you don’t understand this topic, you can’t possibly understand the book of Revelation. We’re going to start digging into chapters 4 and 5, and you really need this if you’re going to have a good foundation for the rest of the book.
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We’re going to skip Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday night, our subject will be “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” We’re going to take a good look at Revelation chapter 6, and I think, by the time we’re done, you’re going to see a picture that will leave you absolutely breathless.
People have talked about these four horsemen for generations, and on Thursday night, I’m going to show you something that comes as a big surprise to a lot of people: most of chapter 6 has already happened, or is now taking place.
It’s another really important night, because we’re going to see how prophecy is structured. We’re going to get a bird’s-eye view and cover a lot of material. If you see this big picture, it’s going to help you make sense of all the rest.
. . . And then we’ll move on to more big subjects: we’ll look at the judgment - the mark of the beast - the Second Coming.
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If you have special music, insert it here.
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Our subject tonight: a “Planet in Upheaval.”
Because our subject is the Bible, and I believe the Bible is God’s Word, I’d like to pray before we begin.
Prayer: “Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to study Your Word, and thank you for all these people who have come to study with me. Please, forgive my sins and make me fit to speak — and may there be a smile on Your face when I’m done, because I’ve said what YOU wanted me to say. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
There’s this story in the Bible where Jesus is walking past the Temple with His disciples, and as they look at that magnificent building, the disciples’ hearts begin to swell with pride.
“Look at this building, Jesus! This is proof positive that God is with us!”
Jesus stops and looks, and then He says something that REALLY bothers them... and what He says sets the stage for understanding the course of world history:

“Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Jesus was absolutely right. About 40 years later, in AD 70, a group known as the Zealots tried to forcefully get rid of the Roman occupation. They staged a violent uprising, and so the Romans responded with force. A Roman general by the name of Titus moved into the city, and he began to defeat the Zealots.
So the Zealots ran into the Temple to hide, and at one point, there were hundreds of them in there. From what we can tell, a Roman soldier threw a lit torch into the Temple — a building that was full of VERY old cedar. And before you knew it, the Temple became a raging inferno.
Titus actually tried to save the Temple — he thought it was pointless to destroy such a beautiful building — but it was far too late — there was no putting it out. The gold in the Temple melted and ran into the cracks between the stones, and after the fire went out, Roman soldiers literally dismantled the Temple trying to get at the gold — and not one stone was left on top of another.
Today, in the city of Rome, there’s a commemorative arch on one edge of the Roman Forum known as the Arch of Titus.
And if you look inside that arch, you’ll see Roman soldiers carrying away the seven-branched candlestick from the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple fell EXACTLY the way that Jesus predicted.
“Not one stone will be left upon another.”
And of course, that really bothered the disciples. “How in the world can this be? If the Temple falls, that must mean the end of the world!”
They came to Jesus with a question:

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying,

“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

“Lord, if the Temple falls, that must mean the end has come. It MUST mean that you’re about to set up YOUR kingdom. So we want to know WHEN that’s going to happen. Please: give us a sign!”
Now listen carefully to what Jesus says next, because it not only bothered the disciples - it has bothered the world for almost 2000 years.

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.

Take heed that no one does what? DECEIVES you.
That’s a very important word — it’s a key concept in Bible prophecy and you’re going to see it come up again and again. God says that before Jesus comes, there’s going to be a lot of confusion in the world — and you and I are going to have to be careful.
You don’t want to simply take people’s word for things. You want to be SURE you know what GOD says from the Word.
Let no one deceive you. Why?

5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

“Lord, when are you going to return? How will we know? What are the signs?”
“You’re going to know when it’s close,” Jesus says. “Watch for these things: when you see false christs, and an increase in war, and famine, and pestilence, and earthquakes — then watch out! It’s almost time.”
... “Oh, NONSENSE!” says the skeptic. “That’s not true. We’ve always HAD those things. We’ve always HAD religion gone bad. We’ve always HAD nations going to war! We’ve always HAD earthquakes, and famine, and pestilence! Those aren’t signs of anything!”
And you know? It’s tempting to think the skeptics are right — except for the fact that they haven’t read the next verse.
If you’re going to study Bible prophecy, you always have to read the WHOLE THING — and the skeptics forget about verse 8:

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

All these are the beginning of what? Sorrows!
That’s a VERY important word, and I don’t believe Jesus used it by accident.
Question: how many of you have had a baby? Or if you’re a guy, how many of you are MARRIED to someone who’s had a baby?
Let me ask you a question: does a baby arrive with no warning? One minute, you’re minding your own business, and the next minute - POP! - out comes a baby?
Of course not.
Our first child took her time in coming. We woke up early that morning, around 5 am, when my wife’s water broke. Apparently, the water breaking that early in labor isn’t the norm like the movies tell you—usually it happens later, and sometimes they even have to break the water for you. We had chosen to have our baby at home, so at 5 in the morning we called the midwife with a strong sense of urgency—this baby is coming soon! But the midwife had no urgency in her voice. She seems like she knew just what was happening and was in no hurry to get over to us. She asked about contractions, which were not very close at the time, and then she told us to go back to sleep because it was going to be a little while.
Sometime that morning — maybe 8 or 9 am — the midwife showed up with her helper and a big birthing tub. After setting up the tub in our living room, she baked a cake while I rubbed my wife’s back and the contractions slowly and steadily increased in frequency and intensity.
By the afternoon the contractions were close together and very intense, but that little baby just didn’t want to come out. At one point she spent some time in the warm water in the tub—but that only slowed things down. So I got to rub her back as she stood in an ice-cold shower, but that didn’t seem to help either.
Contraction after contraction, minute after minute, hour after hour, and finally, around 2 or 3 in the morning on June 5, a little girl popped her head out.
Apparently she had her hand above her head and that was making it really difficult for her to come out.
Some babies come quicker than that, and some take longer, but they all have this progression in common. When a baby is about to be born, the mother feels a few contractions at first — not too close, not too strong. But then the contractions get bigger and far more frequent — until it’s obvious that you’re out of time.
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Do you know what word Jesus used to describe the signs of His coming? “Sorrows.” In the original language, it’s ὠδίν (ōdin) (pronounced oh-DEEN) — it’s “contractions” — it’s labor pains!
Jesus knows that we’ve always had war. He KNOWS that we’ve always had famine, and pestilence, and earthquakes. But He’s telling us they’re contractions. At first, they might be few and far between, but as we get closer to the Second Coming they’re going to get faster and stronger.
So let me ask you a question: if Jesus warned us to look for contractions, how big are the contractions RIGHT NOW?
How close are we getting?
Now, I want to be careful, and tell you what we’re NOT going to do. We’re not going to try and pick a DATE for the Second Coming, because the Bible is clear — we’re not allowed to do that.
Jesus says in Matthew 24:36 that “no man knows the day or hour.”
Now some people say, “Okay, we might not know the day or hour, but maybe we can know the YEAR.”
Sure. Nice try. (smile)
In Acts 1:7, Jesus tells His disciples that we can’t know the times or seasons, either. We’re not allowed to know EXACTLY when Jesus will come.
So of course, the question is: why not? Why doesn’t God just give us the day?
Well, you know how people are. Think back to high school: if you know that an exam is going to happen on a specific day, when do most of us start studying? The night before.
If people know EXACTLY when Jesus is going to come, a lot of people are going to be tempted to wait until the very last minute to make things right. But with God, it’s all about a relationship.
It’s not just a legal arrangement; it’s a relationship. And you can’t really build one of those in six minutes. It’s the work of a lifetime, and so God doesn’t tell us. He wants us to be ready NOW, today.
So we can’t pick dates . . . but we CAN get a sense of when it’s getting close.
In verse 32, Jesus compares the signs to a fig tree in springtime. When the leaves come out, you know that it’s almost time for summer. So when the contractions get bigger and stronger, you know that Jesus is almost here.
So tonight, let’s look at the contractions. How big ARE they?
I want you to notice that Jesus gives us three general TYPES of signs to watch for:
Signs in the religious world,
signs in the political world, and
signs in the natural world.
Let’s start with religious signs - stuff that Jesus told us to watch for in the religious world. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 5:

5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

I want you to notice - there’s that word again: DECEIVE. How many people will be deceived by false christs? Many!
Jesus says it again in verse 24:

24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

There it is again: DECEIVE. It’s one of the biggest themes in Bible prophecy. The warning is clear: we need to know where we stand! There is a moment coming when you won’t even be able to trust the evidence of your senses — there will be signs and wonders, miracles — in all the wrong places.
And in that moment, you HAVE to understand that just because somebody does something miraculous — just because they heal the sick, or appear to raise the dead — that doesn’t mean they come from God.
“Be careful!” Jesus says. “In the last days, there’s going to be a proliferation of false christs.”
You know, over the centuries, there have always been one or two crazy people here and there who claimed to be Christ . . . but in recent decades, have you noticed how bad it’s become?
Let’s just back up a few decades and take a quick survey:
Let’s go back to the 1950s, just a few decades ago, when a Korean preacher by the name of Sun Myung Moon started the Unification Church. Maybe you’ve seen their mass weddings - where thousands of young people all get married at once.
It seems kind of harmless, until you start to listen to his sermons. The Reverend Moon claimed to be the Second Coming of Christ, and he claimed that he was born to finish Jesus’ unfinished work. “He [that’s God] is living in me,” he said. “I am the incarnation of Himself.”
Move forward to 1969. You’ve got Charlie Manson, the “savage Messiah” who managed to convince a group of young people in Northridge, California to murder the actress Sharon Tate in cold blood, and then went on to commit 8 other murders in three more locations. Sharon Tate’s murder was such a disturbing and galvanizing scene that the house has forever since been associated with Charles Manson—who some people call evil personified—even after the house was bulldozed and rebuilt, and then bulldozed and rebuilt again people still go to the site to see where it all happened.
Now here’s what most people DON’T know. What Manson was TRYING to do was start a race war. He wanted people to blame the black community for the murder, and he was hoping that it would actually lead to the battle of Armageddon . . . and when THAT happened, HE would step in and save the world.
He would become the Messiah.
And here’s the amazing part: he still has a following — and not just one or two people. In fact, if you were paying attention a few years ago, a 26 year old woman actually tried to MARRY him.
And that’s just ONE false Messiah.
In the 1970s, we had Jim Jones from the Peoples Temple. He started in San Francisco, and eventually moved to Jonestown, Guyana.
How many of you remember this?
When the government wanted to fly in and inspect what was going on, he talked the whole group into drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. There was just one person in that final meeting — one brave lady — who stood up and said, “This doesn’t seem right. This just doesn’t seem like something Jesus would do.”
But nobody listened, and hundreds died. And I’m telling you, they didn’t need to — if only they had listened to Jesus’ warning.
Let’s move to the 1990s, when a young preacher by the name of Vernon Howell changed his name to David Koresh down in Waco, Texas. Why did he do that? He picked “David” after King David in the Bible, and “Koresh” is another way of saying “Cyrus,” the Persian general who liberated the children of Israel from the Babylonian captivity.
He believed that he was another coming of Christ. In fact, he said he was a “sinful Christ.” The first time Jesus came, he said, He had to be pure and sinless, but now HE (David Koresh) had come to live a sinful life — he came to experience the depths of sin for everybody.
And of course, you saw how THAT all ended — dozens of people burned to death. And they didn’t have to, because Jesus warned us: beware of false Messiahs!
Then in 1997, police in San Diego discovered the bodies of 39 people who had been listening to Marshall Applewhite — a guy who told them there was a flying saucer hidden behind the comet Hale-Bopp. “You can rise to the next level above human,” he told them. “All you have to do is take your life, and then your souls can board that spacecraft.”
So they all went out for supper - one last time - and then they went home and poisoned themselves with phenobarbital, and wrapped plastic bags around their heads to make sure they died.
And folks, the list goes on and on:
You’ve got Benjamin Creme, the Scottish writer who told the world that the Maitreya - a future incarnation of Buddha - was about to come and THAT would be the Second Coming.
You’ve got the Order of the Solar Temple, whose followers have killed people and committed mass suicide in the name of Christ.
And in 1999, there were so many people traveling to Jerusalem who claimed to be Jesus - or Elijah - or John the Baptist - that they actually named a new psychiatric disorder “Jerusalem Syndrome.”
Folks, there have always been one or two - all through history - but right now, there are hundreds and hundreds of them - just like Jesus predicted.
And that’s bad enough - because people are getting hurt - but the Bible doesn’t just talk about false christs in the last days - it ALSO predicts religion gone bad. Listen to the words of Paul, as he warns Timothy about the last days . . .
This is a passage we’ll come back to on another night - but look at this carefully:
2 Tim 3:1-5
“in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves… having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
Now let me ask you - is that true of our world tonight?
Just a few years ago, the Barna Group asked North American Christians a number of very important questions - the kinds of questions that NOBODY would have gotten wrong just a generation ago.
They gave a few simple statements, and asked if people agreed or disagreed with them:
Question one: “God is the ‘all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who rules the world today.’”
78% of church-going Christians said YES - and that’s pretty good - but these are self-professing Christians - that should have been 100%!
Question two: Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.”
59% agreed. That means ONLY 41% of self-described Christians believe in the devil.
Question three (and this one breaks my heart): Jesus sinned while living on earth.
Now remember: these are Christians, and the Bible is absolutely clear: Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God - it says in 2 Corinthians 5 that Jesus “knew no sin.”
. . . But 39% of Christians couldn’t bring themselves to say that.
Question four: the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.”
58% of Christians agreed with that statement. 58% are no longer clear on the triune nature of God, even though Christians have been absolutely consistent for 2000 years.
Folks, the world has changed. Paul predicted a day when people would profess godliness - when they would go through the motions - when they would still CALL themselves Christian - but they would deny the power behind the faith.
And you’ve got to wonder, if THIS isn’t it, what is?
Let’s keep moving . . .
Those were signs in the religious world - contractions - and now we need to look at signs in the political world. Remember what Jesus said in Matt 24:

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Now, we’ve always had war - it’s a tragic part of the human condition - but Jesus predicted a dramatic increase just before He comes. So I wonder: is that true of our world tonight?
Did you realize we lost more than 200 million people to warfare in the 20th century alone? I believe that’s more than all the previous centuries combined.
And of course, we’ve ALWAYS had war, but in the last century, we got really good at it. We used to line up in two straight lines and then charge each other with swords and spears. And even in the 19th century, we used to line up in plain sight and take shots at each other with rifles.
If you killed someone, you had to look them in the eyes first.
But then came the 20th century - and trench warfare with deadly gasses, and airplanes, and the A-bomb. And then came the 21st century with drones and airplanes flying into skyscrapers. It’s impersonal, it’s efficient, and it’s deadly.
You know, back in the 1800s, a godless philosopher by the name of Nietzsche (pronounced KNEE-chuh) declared that God was dead - but then he said if the human race accepted THAT — if they chose to believe that God was dead — the 20th century would be the bloodiest century of all, and he was absolutely right about that part.
When I checked last, there were more than 40 armed conflicts being fought on planet Earth - not one, not two - but more than 40. Just go look it up - Wikipedia actually has a page that keeps track of ongoing armed conflict. The top three of these wars has killed an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 people just in this year alone. Last year those same three wars killed another 45,000 people.
Right now, every one of the U.N.’s 193 member nations is party to a territorial, trade, or other international dispute. Every single one!
Tonight, there are 8 countries that declare themselves to have nuclear weapons and another five that we think have them or are trying to get them. Even though the Cold War is over, there are still enough warheads on this planet to kill off the whole human race 50 times over, and it would only take 30 minutes to do it.
And what about the tensions in the Middle East? Iran is enriching uranium and has plans to retaliate against Isreal. ISIS still wants a caliphate. Russia is pushing back into the countries she lost when the wall came down in 1989.
There are several dictators holding power in latin American countries. We’ve got North Korea itching for a war that she insists is NOT over.
Let me ask you: what would it take to start World War Three? How much would it take for the pot to boil over? Every generation has been absolutely certain that THEY would end wars and bring in world peace, and every generation has been wrong.
And no generation has been MORE wrong than ours.
How much would it take?
And how much would it take to bring on the next worldwide financial meltdown? Don’t think that’s going to happen? Listen to the words of the Bible in James 5:1-3

5 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments

are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your

flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

According to this, the market squeeze we’re currently experience and the recession of 2008, and even the Great Depression from the 1930’s was just a warm up. We might think, like Nebuchadnezzar, that we have built an empire that will last forever, but the Bible says it won’t. As hard as we try, human kingdoms are going to fall apart.
But that’s not all. Jesus also gave us signs to watch for in the natural world.
Matt 24:7

And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

Notice there are three things Jesus tells us to watch for: famine, pestilence, and earthquakes. Let’s start at the top of the list, with famine.
Right now, there are millions and millions of people facing food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. In one region alone, there are more than 28 million who don’t have enough food - that’s roughly the population of Texas.
Even though there is more than enough food for everybody on the planet, a child dies of starvation somewhere every six seconds.
In Somalia, there are three million people living on food aid, and there are more than a million people living in squalor in tent cities, and 26 million people around the world who have been forced from their homes because of economic, ethnic, or military causes.
There are more than 1 billion people on this planet whose diets are so impoverished that they might be getting a few calories, but they aren’t actually being fed.
80% of the children who are born tonight will be born into families who can’t afford to feed them.
Even though we have more wealth than any previous generation we are allowing more people to go hungry than ever before. And when you turn to Matthew chapter 25, you’ll see that Jesus takes that very seriously. There comes a moment when He asks us why we didn’t feed Him.
“Why didn’t you feed Me?”
“But Lord, when did we see You hungry?”
“When you saw these starving people, that’s when!”
It’s one more sign that the contractions are getting bigger and Jesus is just about here.
And then He mentions pestilence. What is pestilence? It’s a strange disease.
Think about the last few years. We might have conquered polio and smallpox, but we’re slowly losing the war.
In the last two decades, Streptococcus A, something that used to give us strep throat, moved out of our throats and became flesh-eating disease.
Meningococcal diseases are still a problem with their highest rates in young children and teenagers.
The plague is still alive in the rodents of the West Coast of the US, and every year a handful of people get this disease that keeps making the jump from rodents to the human population.
The Ebola virus: that’s a scary one - killing thousands of people almost instantly in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia. If you were paying attention to the news, you’d know that it touched down more than once right here in North America..
Tuberculosis is still a thing, and it’s getting harder to treat.
Not long ago, a new respiratory disease touched down in North America - SARS - and it was a killer.
We’ve had West Nile virus - and mad cow disease - and salmonella in the spinach - and the swine flu - and MRSA in the hospitals.
And of course, the world is dealing with a Virus the likes of which we haven’t seen since the dark ages of medicine over a hundred years ago. SARS-Cov-2. To date over 3.1 million have died from the disease. India’s health system has failed to keep up with a surge in new cases that are coming from new variants. We’ve been through three worldwide surges in the virus, and even though restrictions are loosening up around the united states as vaccination rates climb, the rest of the world is experiencing a fourth wave with daily cases setting all-time records worldwide.
The antibiotics we created in the 20th century were a lifesaver - a medical miracle - but now they’re becoming less and less effective with many diseases becoming resilient to medication.
Hospital deaths due to infection from drug-resistant bacteria have increased sevenfold in the last 15 years, though some of them are stabilizing in infection, there are at least 18 drug resistant bacteria that hospitals are fighting.
So is there pestilence? Yes, there is - and we haven’t even begun to talk about the strange weather - the droughts, and floods, and fires, and weird crop diseases - and the bees that are dying.
It’s a different world than it used to be - exactly as Jesus predicted.
And then you have the earthquakes.
Now earthquakes can be kind of a contentious subject, because different people read the data different ways. But no matter how you define a serious earthquake, if you go back 2000 years, you’ll find a very interesting pattern.
One man went to a geological library a few years ago and started to make a list of the really big earthquakes - say magnitude 7 or more - the kind that knock down houses and cause a lot of deaths. Here’s what he found:
In the first three hundred years after Christ, there was one.
In the next two hundred years, there were two - so there was a small uptick.
For the next three hundred years - there was one. Just one in three hundred years!
From 800 to the year 1000, there were three.
From 1000 to 1100, there were two.
In the 1100s, there were another two.
So you can see the pattern is fairly steady - one or two per century, sometimes less.
Then we come to the 1200s — There was one.
The same was true in the 1300s. Just one.
In the 1400s? One
In the 1500s? Two.
And then something interesting happens:
In the 1600s, there were suddenly SEVEN.
Now I know: some people will say that the reason there seems to be more is because we invented the seismograph, and now we SEE more of them. But remember: these are only the BIG ones - the ones that knock down lots of buildings and kill people - and you don’t need a seismograph to know when THAT happens!
And besides, there WERE no seismographs in 1600.
In the 1700s, the number nearly doubles to 13.
In the 1800s, it doubles to 26.
And then in the 1900s, the number went WAY up to 130.
And then comes the 21st century, where the earthquakes never seem to stop coming. In 2004, we had what may have been the biggest earthquake in recorded history. It hit an unbelievable 9.3 magnitude, and became the first earthquake to be recorded by every device on the planet.
It was also the longest earthquake in history - it lasted 10 minutes, and those of you who have lived through earthquakes know: that’s an eternity.
When it was over, it left behind a HUGE gash at the bottom of the sea - 800 miles long - and of course, it sent a devastating tsunami to Indonesia that killed more than a quarter million people.
Listen: there have been hundreds of tsunamis since 1900 - but the 2004 tsunami caused more devastation than all the previous ones combined.
And then we had the big earthquake in Haiti - and the really scary one in Japan that flooded Fukushima and compromised a nuclear power plant.
There’s no question: this kind of thing has always happened in the past, but is it really business as usual? Or has something changed?
Let me ask you: how big are the contractions? What time is it?
I want you to try something interesting. Let’s go back just a few years - and let’s go back to 2001, when the Twin Towers came down - and let’s just look at the stories on the covers of the major news magazines since then. Our memories are so short, that I want to remind you of everything that’s happened since then.
I’m guessing you remember where you were the moment you heard that planes had hit the World Trade Center. It was the day that changed the whole world, and everybody has this not-so-funny feeling that something significant happened that day. We all turned a corner, and we know the world will never be the same.
And then we learned we were going to war in Afghanistan - to find bin Laden. That war cost a billion dollars a month.
. . . Suddenly Enron collapsed. So much has happened since 2008 that I’m guessing most of you forgot about Enron until right now - but that was the first big shakeup in the economy. TIME magazine asked, “How Sticky Will It Get?” and nobody had any idea . . .
. . . And that’s when we learned that North Korea had a nuclear program, and they were testing missiles over the ocean. Of course, those missiles were abject failures . . . but they keep on trying, and now they’ve got one of the biggest hacking organizations in the world—stealing billions in bitcoin and ransom attacks. Talks of sanctions and peace keep going back and forth - so we’ll see what happens next.
Then we went to war in Iraq, to the tune of one billion dollars a WEEK. And even though Saddam Hussein is dead, that is STILL a huge mess, even after we officially ended the war in 2011. Now we’ve got ISIS which has devastated the region with one of the most brutal regimes in human history.
Then the SARS epidemic touched down in North America, up in Toronto, Canada - this strange new respiratory disease we knew nothing about.
Back in the American Northeast, the power grid suddenly goes down, plunging tens of millions of people into the dark - and now we realize that our technology is aging, and our hard-earned standard of living is far more vulnerable than we thought.
. . . And then the tsunami hit in Southeast Asia, killing more than a quarter million people . . .
In 2005, we ran out of names for hurricanes. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet, and that year, we had 27.
And of course, that’s when the big one hits in New Orleans - submerging most of the city, and driving thousands of people out of their homes. People had to live in the Superdome, and the army had to be called in to stop the looting and lawlessness.
And that’s when we found out that Iran wanted nukes - and they wanted to wipe the country off Israel off the map.
. . . And while we were trying to digest all that news, that’s when the world economy collapses, overnight. People were losing their homes left, right, and center. Some of the biggest names in finance suddenly disappeared, and we still haven’t clawed our way back from THAT mess.
But THAT was nothing compared to what happened in Haiti. The 2010 earthquake took more than 150,000 lives.
That same year, Deepwater Horizon sprung a leak and dumped almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It leaked uncontrollably from April to September - and three years later, tar balls were STILL washing up on the beach.
In December of 2010, people all over the Middle East started to rise up and topple their governments: Tunisia, twice in Egypt, Libya, Yemen.
We’ve had civil uprisings in Bahrain and Syria, and just a few years later millions of refugees have fled from Syria, trying to find safety in Europe.
We’ve seen major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan.
And then in 2011, we had the big Japanese earthquake. It was 9.0 in magnitude.
That makes it the 5th most powerful earthquake in history, and the MOST powerful in Japanese history.
The 12-foot seawall was powerless to stop the wall of water - a wave pummeled 40% of the coastline. It created 25 million tons of debris, $122 billion in damage, and almost 16,000 people died.
And of course, we still don’t really know the long-term effects of the radiation leak at the Fukushima power plant. They’re talking about dumping the nuclear waste water back into the ocean. China told the Japanese official making the announcement that if treated radioactive water from Fukushima is safe, ‘please drink it.’
In 2011, the Syrian Civil War began, and the government started using chemical weapons against its own people. Two years later, 120,000 people had been killed - and by now millions have fled for their lives.
In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, causing $65 billion in damage - and to this day, there are portions of New York City that have never been rebuilt.
In March 2013, we had confirmation that tuberculosis is getting out of hand, and we seem powerless to stop it.
. . . And that’s when we found out that for some reason, our honeybees are dying off, and if that happens, that’s going to spell disaster for agriculture.
2013: Typhoon Yolanda nails the Philippines - leaving 6,200 dead.
2014: The worst Ebola outbreak on record - thousands dead - and then it touches down more than once right here at home.
In the last few years, Zika virus - a mosquito-borne virus that causes heartbreaking severe birth deformities - has made its way into the headlines.
Members of ISIS are deliberately trying to provoke a war with the West, because they believe it will bring on the final, apocalyptic battle.
Their ultimate target, they say, is Rome. And when they fight the West, they believe, Jesus will come back and help them win.
And then in 2017 - a new low for public shootings in Las Vegas. 58 concertgoers dead in a matter of minutes.
And then First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
And right now, we’re hearing about new mass shootings in school, churches, and shopping malls. Just in the month of April the US has seen 41 mass shootings.
The last few years have been years of unprecedented natural disaster. We saw Houston devastated by Hurricane Harvey - and then Puerto Rico and Florida by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Worsening wildfires have forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes both here and in Australia.
And of course the most recent outbreak, the Novel Coronavirus. A new variant we’ve never seen before that has already proven more deadly than SARS and keeps mutating and overwhelming medical facilities. Even though we have several effective vaccines, the trend in cases and deaths is still going up worldwide.
Let me ask you: what time is it? How big are the contractions?
“All these,” said Jesus, “are the beginning of sorrows.”
And then He gives us ONE MORE SIGN TO WATCH FOR:

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

You know, when Jesus said that, it must have seemed impossible. Take the Gospel to the whole world? Who could possibly do THAT?
But now - RIGHT now - it’s actually happening.
In the year 1800, the Bible was available in fewer than 70 languages. A century later, 100 million copies had been printed, and today you can get it in more than 2,200 languages.
Right now, Christianity in Africa is growing 65% faster than the population.
Right now, Christianity in South America is growing four times faster than the population - and it’s growing by hundreds of thousands of people a year in India.
Right now, there are nearly 100 million Christians in Communist China. You’re not allowed to have a private church - you can’t just meet in people’s homes to worship Jesus, or they’ll bulldoze your house.
But that can’t stop the Gospel - no government on earth has EVER been able to stop the unmatchable love of Christ. And just like Jesus predicted, the Gospel is reaching the furthermost parts of the globe.
Right on schedule. Right on time for Jesus to come.
But of course, you’ve got to ask: WHY all that devastation? Why does God allow it? Why does He let this planet fall apart?
Well, think about it - God didn’t ruin this planet; we did. What we are seeing all around us is the consequence of a planet that untethered itself from the Creator.
And that’s why God has promised a new world - a new kingdom - one that will last forever. And I suspect He’s letting this one fall apart so we stop putting our hopes in THIS PLACE.
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Look, I know that life is painful. I KNOW that the planet isn’t the only thing that’s falling apart. Things are going wrong in your life, too. The people you thought you could count on? Well, they let you down. The money you thought you’d have for the future? Maybe it’s gone, or you know it will never be enough.
Maybe, right now, your marriage is falling apart. Or you’ve just lost your job. Or your health is starting to fail.
Maybe you KNOW what it means to lose things.
I want you to listen carefully to the words of Jesus:

21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish,

for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

The birth pains AREN’T going to last forever - and God makes this promise: when Jesus comes again, it’s like the birth of a child. You’re going to forget the pain. You’ll barely remember the contractions - because at long last, you’ll actually BE with Jesus.
And because the kingdom of Jesus NEVER passes away, nobody’s ever going to take that joy away from you.
The question is: are you READY for Jesus to come?
And if you’re not, what’s standing in the way?
The Bible says that God is holding back just a little longer, because somebody here still needs to come home. Somebody here needs to KNOW Jesus. Somebody here needs the peace of mind of knowing that no matter what happens in this tired old world, you’re still going to be okay, because God has not forgotten who you are.
Let me ask you: what time is it?
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Let’s pray: “Heavenly Father, it’s obvious that we’re living on borrowed time. Everything that Jesus said would happen is happening, right now. But I’m thankful that it’s not bad news - not really. At the end of this, Jesus is coming, and You’re going to turn back all the pain and suffering we’ve caused.
Tonight, we want to be ready for Jesus to come. Tonight, we’re saying that we believe - that we want to trust You with OUR future. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
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Thanks for coming! Don’t forget - tomorrow’s topic is Armageddon.
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