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The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Part 1

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INTRODUCTION

The coming of the Messiah Jesus at Bethlehem was in many ways the end of the world. It was the end of an old world and at the same time the beginning a new world. In the old world Satan, Sin, and Death had a fierce power. The god of that age blinded many, and they served many idols and false gods viciously. The light of God was relatively faint and shadowy, largely limited to a tiny nation in the middle east.

But with the coming of Christ, Satan has been struck with a fatal blow, and now sin and death are on the run. Satan has been cast down and now Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. This means that we live in a radically new world, a new heavens and a new earth, and we are witnesses of a New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven.

THE TEXT

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken…” (Mt. 24:29-35)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We call this passage the “Olivet Discourse” because Jesus gave this message on the Mount of Olives (24:3, cf. Mk. 13, Lk. 21). While Jesus had just called down a great curse upon Jerusalem and the temple (23:35-38), His disciples pointed out how beautiful the temple was, and Jesus says every single stone will soon be cast down. This provokes the disciples to ask when these things would take place, when Christ would be coming, and when the end of the world would be (24:2-3).

While they may have assumed that the destruction of the temple/Jerusalem would coincide with the final return of Jesus and the final end of the world (24:3), Jesus proceeds to answer these questions like an Old Testament prophet, describing the destruction of the temple as a cataclysmic, world-ending event with the sun and moon going dark and the stars falling out of heaven (24:29). He describes a coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven (24:30) and a gathering of the elect by angels and sounding trumpet (24:31). But Jesus insists that the disciples understand that these things are very near, like they know summertime by the leaves on a fig tree (24:32-33). Jesus says that what He is describing will happen during that present generation (24:34). Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will not pass away (24:35).

COLLAPSING SOLAR SYSTEMS

It’s important to remember that when God created the sun, moon, and stars, they were created in part for “signs,” and the sun and moon were created to be rulers of the day and the night (Gen. 1:14-16). This is why when Joseph dreamed that the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to him, everyone knew what the dream implied (Gen. 37:9-10). When the great darkness covered the land of Egypt, God was warning Pharoah that his world-empire was about to come to end if he didn’t relent (Ex. 10:22).

So when the prophets take up descriptions of collapsing solar systems, we should read the contexts carefully: Ezekiel 32 addresses Egypt centuries later, and in addition to other plague-like language, says, “And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD. I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known” (Ez. 32:7-9). We see the same thing in Isaiah 13 describing the destruction of Babylon and again in Joel 2 regarding the destruction of Jerusalem. So when Jesus says the sun and moon will go dark and the stars will fall from the sky, He is describing the apocalyptic end of the world of Jerusalem.

THE SON OF MAN COMING

When Jesus says that a sign will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will see the Son of man coming in the clouds, He is quoting Daniel: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom thatwhich shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14). Notice where the Son of Man is coming to: He is coming to the Ancient of Days in heaven. Jesus is talking about His Ascension, not His final coming at the end of history. What’s the sign that all the tribes will see? Pentecost: the pouring out of the Spirit upon all the nations represented there. This would be the most natural reading of the angels gathering the elect: these are the apostles and evangelists preaching the gospel (Mt. 24:31, cf. Acts 6:15, Gal. 4:14).

CONCLUSION

Jesus says that “this generation” will not pass away until all these things take place (Mt. 24:34). Many Christians attempt various exegetical gymnastics to make “generation” mean something longer than the usual 40 years or else some way of selectively choosing which things happened in the first century and which things are still awaiting fulfillment. But the words of Christ are clear, and He did ascend to the Father where He was given all authority and power and that was proven by the gift of the Holy Spirit. And about 40 years later, in 70 A.D., the city of Jerusalem was burned to the ground and the temple was destroyed.

We must not underestimate what the first coming of Christ accomplished. What was only foreshadowed in the tabernacle and temple has been accomplished by the crucifixion of Jesus: the curtain in heaven has been torn open and a new and living way has been opened through the flesh of our Lord (Heb. 10:20). The old heavens and earth truly were dark, but the Sunrise from on High has visited us (Lk. 1:78). And a new heavens and a new earth have been inaugurated by the coming of Christ. “Arise, shine, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us” (Is. 60:1). We have come to a New Jerusalem that is coming down out of Heaven; Immanuel has come and the dwelling place of God is with men (Heb. 12:22, Rev. 21:1-3).

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As Waters Cover the Sea (Missions Conference 2022)

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Talk 5 of 6 from Missions Conference 2022: As the Waters Cover the Sea.

Consider donating to our Missions Conference fund to support future conferences: https://bit.ly/missions-conference-donation. 

The gospel is good news for all people, in all lands, at all times. The call of the church is to obey Christ’s command to teach the nations obedience to Him, as the King of all the earth. The great promise of the prophet Hosea is that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as water covers the sea. But between the commencement of Christ’s kingly rule of earth and the day when he comes again to judge the living and the dead, there will be ebbs and flows.

While initially in the gospel’s advance it centered in Jerusalem, and then took root in the West, we see in more recent decades how the gospel is rapidly advancing in South America and in the Eastern lands. But oftentimes, Christians in the West are often unsure of how to take the gospel and share it with their fellow Westerners; but more so are stumped by how to share the good news with those from very different cultures and religions.

Missions Conference 2022 is intended to help answer those questions, while equipping the saints where they are to be ready to share the word with not only their neighbor but the foreigner in their midst as well.
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The Prophecy of Micah #12

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INTRODUCTION

We have come to the climax of Micah’s great prophetic word. This is the note he ends on, which is a note of consolation. God chastises His people, but He does not forget His people. He disciplines His people, but He does not abandon His people. We know that regardless of what happens, God will obtain glory for Himself, and the greatest glory possible comes when He is manifested as the one who delivers.

THE TEXT

“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: When I fall, I shall arise; When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, Until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her Which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her: Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets . . . Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, Because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, Which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old” (Micah 7:8–20).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The prophet ended the previous section by saying that he was going to wait on the Lord. He was going to look to the Lord, and only to the Lord, for the deliverance that was coming (v. 7). The prophet then steps into the persona of the Jewish people characterized as a woman. In that voice, speaking against a taunting unbelieving woman, she says that her adversary should not boast at her fall. And why? Because she was going to rise again (v. 8). Israel acknowledges her sin, and the justice of God in disciplining her, while at the same time rejecting the taunts of her adversaries (v. 9). The woman taunting will be humiliated, and will be trodden down like street dirt (v. 10). In vv. 11-13, the prophet refers in retrospect to the scattering of the Church that was illustrated by the Babylonians. But despite this, the people of God, the flock of God’s heritage, will be gathered again, and they will be well-pastured (v. 14). God will do marvels on their behalf, miracles that recall the glory of the Exodus (v. 15). The other nations will stop their mouths, and will be confounded (v. 16). They will eat dirt like a serpent, and will be afraid of Jehovah God (v. 17). Who is a God like our God, who pardons iniquity, and who delights in mercy (v. 18). He will turn back to us, and will subdue our iniquities, and He will drown our sins in the ocean (v. 19). God will do all this because He promised Abraham and Jacob that He would (v. 20).

TWO RELATIONS TO SIN

When the people of God repent of their sins, they come to understand two things about that sin. The first is that they call sin by its proper name. They confess or acknowledge their sin (1 Jn. 1:9), and they don’t try shuffle anything off through excuses. At the same time, they reject the taunts of the unbelievers, those who once said, “Where is the Lord your God?” (v. 10).

When David was the song of drunkards, exulting in his disgrace with Bathsheba, he was attacked with his sin (2 Sam. 12:14; Ps. 69:12). But he was not attacked for his sin. He was attacked because he was a friend of God, and the sin just proved to be a handy cudgel.

FEAR AS PART OF EVANGELISM

Notice again what Micah says in v. 17—the nations round about will come to fear Jehovah. We have for too long thought that the only possible way to be winsome is to be nice, grin a lot, and talk about Jesus. But this, all by itself, is an invitation into a cozy club. It is not an invitation into the community of those who worship the God who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28), and whose presence makes us want to worship Him in reverence and fear.

But when the power of God is present in the church, one of the responses that people naturally have is one of fear.

“And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them” (Acts 5:12–13).

“And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things” (Acts 5:11).

WHO IS LIKE OUR GOD?

What are we told at the very end of this prophetic book? We are told that we serve a God who delights in mercy. Earlier in the book (Micah 6:8), we were told what God requires of us—that we do justly, love mercy, and walk with humility. Here we are told that God delights in the very thing He tells us to love.

God promised the patriarchal fathers that they would have descendants, spiritual descendants, that were beyond the capacity of any mortal to count. Like the stars in the sky. Like the grains of sand on the seashore. And the apostle John turned and looked, and saw a number of redeemed saints that were beyond the possibility of counting (Rev. 7:9). God is going to save His elect, and He is going to do it on a scale that is beyond our ability to predict. He promised the patriarchs that He would, and He sent the Christ in fulfillment of that promise. Now do you think that now, after the Christ has actually accomplished the work that will do this thing, that God would change His purposes now? What kind of sense would that make?

Who is like our God? Who will forgive us for all our iniquities, and come back to fetch those iniquities so that He can go drown them all in the ocean? He will subdue our sins. He will deal with them. In the cross, He has dealt with them forever.

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The Prophecy of Micah #6

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INTRODUCTION

The consolation section of the second cycle is long, encompassing two whole chapters—chapters four and five. We will therefore be working through this section over the course of a few weeks.

Remember that Micah was a younger contemporary of Isaiah, and was probably his disciple or protégé. His dependence on Isaiah can be seen in our text this morning, in the passage about beating swords into plowshares.

THE TEXT

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, That the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; And people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; And none shall make them afraid: For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Micah 4:1–5).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So what will happen in the “last days”? We come now to a word of consolation for the faithful. All the warnings and judgments will fall upon Israel and Judah, but what should the faithful Jews cling to? After all the judgments, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established, above the hills, and people will flow there (v. 1). Many nations will stream to the mountain of the Lord, and they will encourage one another to do so. Let us go there, and learn obedience (v. 2). The elevation of Zion is a figure of speech indicating that the throne of the God of Jacob will be established there. Jehovah will rule, judging many people, governing strong nations, and they will not learn war anymore (v. 3). They will beat their swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks (v. 3). No longer will a man lock his house at night, and no longer will men have to lock their cars (v. 4). Men can sit under their own vines and fig trees without fear of danger. The mouth of God has spoken it (v. 4). The next verse looks back over the whole process of this happening. It will not happen all at once—there will be a time when the nations will continue to walk in the names of their gods, but the faithful will walk in the name of their Lord and God forever and ever (v. 5).

FULFILLMENT IN THE CHRIST

We know that this consolation is fulfilled in and through the Messiah because later in this section we find the prophecy that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2).

We can also ascertain this by comparing Micah with his mentor Isaiah. Our text this morning is basically a verbatim citation from Isaiah 2: 2-4. But what will happen according to Isaiah in these last days, and when are these last days? In Romans, Paul defends his mission to the Gentiles by citing a battery of Old Testament passages (Rom. 15:9-12), the last of which is Isaiah 11:10.

But the verse just before it (Is. 11:9) says that the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And then what?

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek: And his rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).

In that day, the day when the earth is filling up with the knowledge of the Lord, Paul will be defending his mission to the Gentiles.

CONSOLATION FOR THE FAITHFUL

God always reserves a remnant for Himself, and when they are done listening to Micah’s fulminations, they might be quite dismayed. And so Micah turns to reassure them that it all has a point—all the drama of the Old Testament era, all these judgments, and the vast expanse of blue ruination have a telos. God is up to something, and what He is up to is the coming of the Christ.

HOW IT ENDS, HOW IT GOES

Those who love God and His law want Him to come down in one fell swoop, and start taking names.

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1).

We look at the high impudence of man, and we know how insolent it is, and so we are often exasperated with how patient God is. And so God reminds us that His sovereignty extends over more than just ethics. He is the sovereign of time and of history. He tells us not to steal and commit adultery, but He also tells us to wait patiently as He defers judgment.

He defers judgment in His mercy. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). Where would you have been if God had listened to all the saints and ended the world two years before your conversion?

As this is developing, the peoples will walk in the name of their gods (v. 5). Let them. The time is coming when they will be jostling each other to get to the mountain of the Lord (v. 2). They will be taught, and will walk in obedience (v. 2), and they will be obedient to the point where the nations will study war no more (v. 3). God has said it (v. 4).

THE MOUTH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS HAS SPOKEN

Jehovah has spoken it. This is going to come to pass. But when Yahweh speaks, what does He say? What is the Word of God? The gospel answer is that Christ is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). That Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

The spoken Word that conquers everything is Christ. Christ is the crucified Word, and He is the buried Word. He is the Word that rose from the dead, and who sits at the right hand of the one who speaks a new world into existence. And as He speaks, that new creation takes shape. But only in Him, only in Christ.

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Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

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THE TEXT

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. 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. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:1–14).

 

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