End times, Fun times?? May 25 For paper

End times, Fun times?? No, not according to the Word of God, anyway. Anything but fun times! Daniel told us “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.” Daniel 12: 1b

Then Jesus described it this way – many led away by false christs. Wars and rumours of wars. Nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Earthquakes in various places. Famines. They will bring you before councils. Beat you. Bring you to trial and hand you over. Brother delivering brother to death. Father delivering his child, and children rising against their parents to have them put to death. Hated by all.

Fun times? No. I wouldn’t say so. All hell breaking loose! That’s what Holy Scripture describes, the old dragon thrashing about with his awful, powerful tail, spreading murder and mayhem wherever he can. Fun times? No. Anything but fun times!

After Jesus describes the end times, then there’s the good news, “but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Mark 13: 13b   Great. All I’ve got to do is make it through the no-man’s-land of the battlefield of this world, and I’ll be saved? I just have to survive a full frontal assault of the raging powers of hell, and I’ll make it? That’s the good news? Really?

Yes that was Jesus’ good-news for the disciples when they asked Jesus when the temple would be destroyed and he went on to describe the end times. That good –news for you and me and everyone? If this is so, how can anyone be saved? What hope do we have of enduring all that is laid out for us in scripture? So many of us struggle as it is with the little tremors that come along with life in this sinful world, while others feel overwhelmed already with the trouble that they’ve got on their hands already, let alone facing all that you lay out for us in describing the end times.

How true it is what Jesus said to us, ‘Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”’

What hope do we have to endure all these things but to look to Jesus alone, who has endured them all before and for us! He was betrayed and abandoned before and for us. He was delivered over to the council and beaten before and for us. He stood before kings and governors before and for us. He was hated by all before and for us. He was scourged and crucified before and for us. The earth trembled and the sun went dark as he suffered and died before and for us.

You endured it all, before and for us, so that we might be saved. And on the third day you rose in victory over it all and have ascended to the right hand of the Father, clothed in glory and power before and for us. Yes, dear Lord Jesus, we dare not, dare not, face these end times without you. Only in You, Lord Jesus, can we stand firm to the end.

Our endurance must be your endurance. Our victory must be your victory. Our salvation must be your salvation. With all that you lay out for us for the end times, you could not more completely bring us to the end of ourselves, so that we might put our complete trust in you and build our hope on you, and you alone.

“When all hell is breaking loose, and it will, because it has already broken loose,” the Lord Jesus says, “hide in me, stand in me, endure in me. It is why I was made man, why I suffered and died, why I endured to the end before and for you. Apart from me it is impossible. Apart from me you are doomed. As Jesus promised, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mark 28: 20b

End times. Fun times? No. Not fun times. But blessed ones? Yes, beloved, blessed times, because they make us, lead us, cause us to trust in the Blessed One and in the Blessed One alone. So it is with all the hard times of life in this world. They fix our eyes on the Faithful One, whose promises to us are forever sure,  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13: 5   “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” John 6: 39

Blessings,