Good News In Bad Times

Matthew 24

Introduction: Last week I did not have an opportunity to fully unpack my notes about the preaching of God’s Word and why so critical. I did explain that the context was judgment; God judging all people, the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Let me add or include something I didn’t get to last week from Mattew 24.

And because Matthew 24 is so long, let me read just two verses and then refer to others as we go along.

Matthew 24:3, ‘Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world? ” (NLT)

Matthew 24:14, And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations ^{will hear it, and} then the end will come. (NLT)

This is part of what I didn’t include last week:

As it relates to ‘for the time will come,’

Dr. David Jeremiah –  https://davidjeremiah.blog/4-signs-of-the-end-times/

1. The Sign of Deception – 24:4-5

“As we move toward the Last Days, Jesus said there would be an increasing danger of deception by false teachers’ “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ.’”

Syncretism – the combination of different forms of belief or practice. The fusion of two or more originally different inflection forms.

‘Our societies today are characterized by a culture of toleration that works for everybody but Christians.’

• False messiahs
• False teachers

• 2. The Sign of Disputes Among Nations – 24:6,7

Jesus warned His disciples that the end of the age would be marked by ‘wars and rumors of wars’ with nations rising against each other.

More money is spent on military expenditures.

• USA – 2019 – 1.92 trillion us dollars
• North Korea – 26% of its estimated gross domestic product, the highest among 170 countries it reviewed.
  
• 3. The Sings of Devastation – 24:7

Famines, pestilence and earthquakes in various places (Matt. 24:7).

Application: That’s just global warming!?

• Virus’, super-bugs, (developing resistance to antibiotics.
  
• Increase of earthquakes – Between 1900 and 1969, there were roughly six major quakes every ten years. Recent data indicates that ‘major earthquakes’ now occur more than once and month and ‘great earthquakes shake the globe every year.
  
• 4. The Sign of Persecution & Tribulation – 24:9
• The explosion of antagonism toward the Godly and godliness.

‘Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake’).

• More than 340 million Christians lived under high levels of persecution and discrimination.
• 4,661 were martyred.
• 4,448 church and church affiliates were attacked
• 4277 believers were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned.

Transition: So, this is the ‘bad’ / ‘real’ signs that Jesus pointed to in Matthew 24. It also included

• People will ‘turn away from me,’ and ‘betray one another’.
• Sin being rampant –
• Love of many will grow cold.

Transition: The Good News for Bad Times starts in verse 13.

24:13, ‘And (But) the Good News about the Kingdom will  be preached (throughout the world/to all the nations) so that all the nations will hear it.’

Matthew Henry – ‘After what number of days and years his prediction should be accomplished, for it is not for us to know the times (Acts 1:7); but they had asked, What shall be the sign? That question he answers fully, for we are concerned to understand the signs of the times, ch. 16:3.

Question: Ask the Pastor!

Could Jesus return and/or the rapture of the Church, which sets into motion the initial beginning of the end times happen tomorrow/this week/this month/this year?

I do believe or hold to the imminent return of Jesus. That means that Christ’s coming is ‘likely to happen any moment; impending.’

• MH – ‘Probably not …. In all honesty, I’d probably lean toward no for tomorrow, this week or this month’…but, things/matters do seem to falling in place and the signs of the times grow stronger with every passing day!
• Jesus does tell them that it is not for them to know but to be watchful and ready.

Question: So what are we supposed to be doing while we wait? Paul told Timothy to ‘preach the gospel, to be prepared to reprove, rebuke and exhort (because any day could be the last, and then the judgment.

The great news about the Good News is that it is Good/Great News!

Gospel (euaggeelion) = Good News. Great News.

• We don’t fear but rather welcome Christ’s return. Maranatha – Aramaic phrase = The Lord is coming, ‘even so, come quickly’!

The word gospel comes from the Old English word gospel, which means ‘god-story.’

The Gospel is god’s story which is good news!

• The Gospel is not only/merely an NT thing! It begins in Genesis 3:15, with the Fall of Men in the garden of Eden and God’s promise to destroy the serpents’ head (sin), and continues throughout.
  
  
• (The Gospel) finds clarity in Isaiah 53, ‘But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes, we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. ⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. (NKJ)

Conclusion: https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-the-gospel.html

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).

• The gospel is a bold message, and we are not ashamed of proclaiming it.
• It is a powerful message because it is God’s good news.
• It is a saving message, the only thing that can truly reform the human heart.
• It is a universal message, for Jews and Gentiles both. And the gospel is received by faith; salvation is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9).

The gospel is the good news that God loves the world enough to give His only Son to die for our sin (John 3:16). The gospel is good news because our salvation and eternal life and home in heaven are guaranteed through Christ (John 14:1–4). “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4).

* The gospel is good news when we understand that we do not (and cannot) earn our salvation; the work of redemption and justification is complete, having been finished on the cross (John 19:30).

• The gospel is the good news that we, who were once enemies of God, have been reconciled by the blood of Christ and adopted into the family of God (Romans 5:10; John 1:12).

* To reject the gospel is to embrace the bad news. Condemnation before God is the result of a lack of faith in the Son of God, God’s only provision for salvation. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17–18). God has given a doomed world good news: the Gospel of Jesus Christ!