Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 27 Nov 2011
Presented to each the Nipawin & Tisdale Corps, 30 November 2008[1]
Presented to each the Nipawin & Tisdale Corps, 30 November 2008[1]
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the original 2008 version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html
Happy New Year: does anyone know why I would wish you a happy new year today? Today is the beginning of Advent. In traditional liturgical churches, Advent is the beginning of the church year where we celebrate the first coming of Christ and celebrate the hope that is in his anticipated return. Now often at New Years there are all kinds of quizzes; so I thought that I would put a little tongue-in-cheek one together for us today. Quiz:
What do these times and dates have in common: 8:00 AM October 19, 1533; April 5, 1534; March 21 and October 22, 1844; Sept. 10, 1979; Dec. 31, 1981; Sept 11 -13, 1988; March 31, 1991; October 20, 1997; May 21 and October 21, 2011; December 12, 2012?
A: They are various people’s predictions for the end of time date.
What do these people have in common: Nero, the Pope, Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Charles, the US President, and David Hasselhoff?[2]
A. They were/ are various people’s predictions for ‘The’ Anti-Christ.
Now this next one is a good one. It is a riddle –you’ll have to pay attention. Someone has figured out a way to ‘out’ the beast of Revelation by using a Latin-based number system to solve the riddle of ‘666’ – let’s see together of we can solve the riddle and figure out for ourselves who is the beast of John’s Apocalypse?
Given that 666 is the number of the Beast, first we must break that number down into its component parts in such away that when we reassemble them and add them back together, they will total 666.
I will give you this part. If we break 666 down into decimal equivalents, it should look like this: 100. 5. 5. 50. 500 .1 .
Let’s do the math to prove we are right: so we have 100 + 5 =105 + 5 = 110 + 50 = 160+500=660+5+1= 666
So then mathematically proving as we did that these are the component parts of the number of the beast, we will need to translate them into Roman numerals as this was the number system in use at the time that the riddle of ‘666’ was written. Let’s see how we do?
100 = C
5 = V
5 = V
50 = L
500 = D
1 = I
5 = V
CV VL DIV
Now if we expand this ancient Roman system using new web-based lettering for reassembling fragmented texts, we get the following:
CVT PVRPL DINOSVR
Accounting for the fact that Roman lettering had no ‘U’ and used a ‘V’ instead and adding the missing ‘E’s and ‘A’s, we find out from this that the one the number points to as the beast… is…
A CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR; and we all know who the cute purple dinosaur who is leading children astray… Barney the dinosaur! “I love you; you love me!’
This tongue-in-cheek mathematical proof was published in Science Askew in 2001.[3] This is silly right…we all know that an imaginary purple dinosaur is not the Anti-Christ…anymore than David Hasselhoff or the mayor of Swift Current, or whomever.
About the end of times though, our text today (Mark 13:24-37) says clearly in verses 32 and 33: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come….” So instead of just hoping for Christ’s return, why do we waste our time with this stuff? – People in general, I mean, why do we? I don’t think that I have ever gone an entire year without hearing someone thinking that they are smarter than God incarnate, Jesus, and telling the whole part of the world that they can reach that they have solved the puzzle about the end of time.
Remember earlier this year, the Californian preacher, Harold Camping of Family Radio, telling the world that ‘rapture’ would occur and the world would end on May 21st? One of my favourite comments about that was this: The day after the rapture was supposed to take place, a news commentator seeking to calm the distraught followers of this fellow that that was the day said, “Cheer up, it’s not the end of the world.” When the end didn’t come that day, Family Radio revised the date to October 21st, which also came and went without the destruction of the world. A few years ago too, I heard a southern preacher being played on the local Christian station (Lighthouse FM) going on and on about how the then leader of Syria is the anti-Christ who will usher in the end of times at such and such a date. Before the US invasion of Iraq, we heard of a number of these so-called ‘Christian pastors’ telling people that they know the unknowable day and hour and that Sadam, as their country’s current adversary must be the antichrist. Dante, himself, located many prominent churchmen of his day in Hell, as did some Reformers and Counter-Reformers in the Reformation and Catholics and Orthodox at the time of the East-West Schism…
Why do we profess to know what we do not know? Why do we pretend to know what we cannot know? And why are reckless people, espousing Christianity, claiming that they know the unknowable specifics of the end of time and, seemingly, leading so many people astray?
Whenever I hear someone say that the world will end on this day or that day or so-and-so is the anti-Christ, I wonder if they themselves by intentionally saying the opposite of what the Bible teaches is true - sometimes I wonder if these people may indeed be antichrists themselves…at the very least they are very confused.
After all, we know, of course, like 1 John 2:18ff says that there are many antichrists and that anyone who denies Jesus as Lord is an antichrist who must and will be overcome (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3) and 2 John 2:1-7 says this:
[There are] Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
Anyone, anyone who does not continue in the faith but rather teaches against it is an antichrist, John says. And Jesus says about this end of times that people seem to like to talk about so much: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come….”
This is important, I think often times we get distracted by discussing things like ‘pre-trib’, ‘post-trib’, and ‘amillennialism.’ I think we often get distracted by adiaphorons, which are matters of spiritual indifference really. We get distracted by what Timothy refers to as a ‘vain jangling’ (KJV) or ‘meaningless talk’ (1 Timothy 1:3-8, NIV, NRSV). We really shouldn’t worry about who or if there is an arch-end of times antichrist or on what date or at what time the world may come to an end (Matthew 6:25ff; Luke 12:22ff; cf. Matthew 10:19, 13:11; Luke 12:11, 21:14; cf. also, in contrast, Philippians 4:4; cf. Matthew 5:12; Luke 6:23; John 16:22; Romans 5; Philippians 2:17-18, 3:1; 1 Peter 4:13). As fun as some of the things we discuss may be; at best there is a time and a place for them but we really must remember that ‘no one knows the time or the hour’ and we must be careful not to lead or be led astray by various false teachers (Mark 13:22).
Actually as I say this I am reminded of a person I know on the west coast, Michael Collins; he is quite an evangelist. He is a Salvationist and he has a love for the Lord and a passion for souls. He does have a rather long spiel where he states that he does know when Jesus is coming back. As part of his spiel he tells us how much he has studied eschatology, the end of times, and that he is convinced that he knows when Jesus is coming back based right in the scriptures (Matthew 24:32-35,36-51; 25:1-13, 14-30; Mark 13:28-37…) He says without a doubt Jesus is coming back and he knows when - He says Jesus is coming back … soon. And this is true.
We know this is true. Jesus will come back ‘like a thief in the night’ (Matt 24:33; 1 Thessalonians 5:2); he will come back when no one expects him to, the Bible says, and he is coming back soon (Mark 13:22;Matthew 24:43,44; 25:1-13). And this is the truth of our text today – Jesus says he is coming back and he is coming back soon. Our hope comes from Jesus and our hope should be in Jesus, as this is the case, are we ready?
I had mentioned that today is indeed the Christian New Year and New Year is often a time to look forward in hopes of a better world and of reflection upon what has transpired in the year before; as our hope is in Jesus, are we ready for his return? Do we believe that tomorrow might really be the day when Jesus will come back and that the world and/or your or my life here might end? If we did know that tomorrow was the end of our life here for sure would we, would I do anything different?
As our hope is in Christ, we know that if we deny Jesus, he will deny us (Matthew 10:33); so looking back today as people like to do on New Years, on this Christian New Years Day, how have we done this past year at being bold for the gospel (Philippians 1)? We know that as Jesus says, if we love him we will obey his commands (John 15; cf. Romans 2:7; Jude 1:21)? This includes loving God, loving our neighbour, and laying down our lives for Jesus. How have we done this past year laying down our lives for others and for Jesus? How have we done at listening to and obeying God’s commands rather then just listening to and obeying mans’ or our own whims or personal values? And in this New Year ahead how can we show that we do have hope in Jesus Christ?
In John Chapter 3 is recorded the Pharisee Nicodemus’ coming to Jesus. Jesus tells him that if he hopes to see the Kingdom of God then we must be born again (of the Spirit) and really, actually believe in God’s son. (Cf. also John 5, 6, 12, 17:1b-4; Acts 13; Galatians 6:8; 1 Timothy 1,6; Titus; 1 John.) This past year have we given any reasons for someone to believe that we may have indeed been born again? Are we any different than anyone else? Do we rely on God’s Spirit? And in this year ahead how can we show this hope that we have in Jesus?
In Luke 10, someone asks Jesus what he must do to fulfil the hope of eternal life. Jesus affirms that we must “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’” (Cf. 1 John 3:15). As an example of loving ones neighbour, Jesus tells the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ where a person puts his life and his finances (which sadly seems to be even more important to people these days) on the line for a stranger when no one else will help him (Luke 10:25-37). This past year how have we done at loving God and loving our neighbours in this way? Have we, in Jesus’ name, put ourselves on the line for others? In this upcoming Christian year how do we resolve to show this hope that we have in Jesus?
Matthew records the parable of ‘The Sheep and the Goats’ (Matt 25:31ff.). In this parable two groups of people bow before the Lord as King. One goes to eternal salvation and the other to eternal damnation; the difference…the one group, whose hopes are realised, serves the Lord by, when someone is hungry giving them something to eat, when one is thirsty giving them something to drink, when someone is a stranger inviting them in, when someone needs clothes clothing them, when someone is sick looking after them, when one is in prison coming to visit him. For we serve the Lord by serving each other in this way. Let us all resolve here today to serve the Lord in this way and so show this hope that we have in Jesus.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record that a rich man asks Jesus this same question about what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers here as well, that among other things, we must love our neighbour. The man replies that he has kept all the commandments and loved his neighbour –what else is there he asks, what else? Jesus replies, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Those who sacrifice, those who leave their families, possessions, and very lives because of Jesus are indeed the ones who will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:13-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18).
Have we been willing to, as it says in Matthew 19:29, leave our houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for Jesus’ sake so that we will inherit eternal life. How do we show the love for and the hope that we have in Christ Jesus?
This is the beginning of the Christian New Year today so let’s make a resolution. We know that Jesus is coming back soon so let us resolve to be ready to meet him by loving him more than ourselves, by loving him more than our earthly families, and by loving him more than all our earthly possessions. Let us indeed place our hope in Christ and in Christ alone.
Let us pray…
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[1] The earlier version of this sermon is available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html
[2] Cf: End of time predictions: http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm David Hasselhoff: http://www.esquilax.com/baywatch/ Barney the dinosaur: http://www.comedycorner.org/20.html Gorbachev: Robert Faid 1988 http://www.scatteredsheep.com/perilous_times/antichrist/antichrist.htm Prince Charles, Pope JP II
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