Living Vigilantly in Anticipation of Christ's Return

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

it's going to get hard toward the end of this age to be a Christian the stresses on the world are going to be great and prayer becomes so urgent that we be vigilant that we not be swept away in this dissipation and drunkenness and the worries and the cares of life so that we are blind to him when he comes and are not able to stand before the son of man [00:05:52]

therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the the purpose of prayer now when I read that I said I've heard this before the connection between the end and Earnest Vigilant prayer in view of the end where have I heard this before and I've heard it from Jesus so I'm going to invite you to turn to this chapter with me if you want to follow me Luke 21 the Gospel of Luke uh chapter 21 [00:85:92]

so what he's praying for is that as the pressures Mount and the tensions are great and worldliness abounds and lawlessness multiplies which we learned from the other places in the gospels it's going to be very easy to become drunk on the world and blind to the signs of the times and not prepared at all for the Lord's return and he wants us to escape that [00:163:64]

now Jesus and Peter both commend prayer as the end draws near and so I'm inclined to think that the rest of what Jesus says here in this context is also probably going to be relevant for understanding how Peter understood The Nearness of the end so let's linger in this context for a minute in Luke 21 back up with me to verse 6 and we'll just walk through it and look at a few places [00:236:52]

now that's significant because it's it's just Jesus way of saying be careful here now don't think that when I give you a sign you can say oh good we got the sign then we know boom you don't know okay that that's the point of that verse I think here's a sign to make you alert and to make you Vigilant but don't draw the conclusion oh I see immediately there it is he says no no it's not going to be immediate [00:324:04]

and so Peter is either saying well uh Jerusalem doesn't need to be be destroyed or Jesus can't come back any minute and I don't think he thought he was coming back any minute because he did believe in these Prophecies of Jesus now he mentioned two other problems with with that view to saying Peter had that view Matthew 24:14 this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout all the world as a testimony to the Nations all the nations and then the end will come [00:562:76]

and the Lord said there would be significant persecution I see it all around me I hear wars and rumors of wars in fact when I look at what's happening in Palestine with the kind of of of radical zealotry that's there and the attitude of the Romans and the the the movements of troops I I don't think it's going to be very long in Palestine before this cataclysmic destruction of the people of God and of the city of God until it happens [00:738:68]

and the incredible spread of the Gospel with signs and wonders and the power of the Holy Spirit it was just phenomenal the way church planting was being done in those days and so he says now look in view of how fast things are developing and how quickly Jerusalem could be destroyed how quickly the Great Commission could be finished how quickly I could be taken off the scene by martyrdom pray pray brothers and sisters because everything is being put in place so that the Lord is at hand [00:884:24]

now it is not easy to know for sure what some of the signs of the end are for example has the Great Commission been finished the problem there is what did Jesus mean by this gospel will be preached as a testimony to all the nations is it major ethnolinguistic people groups or is it little tiny linguistic groups I asked them in Brazil I said how many tribes do you reckon are in Brazil who have absolutely no contact with the gospel yet and one fell said probably 150 [00:966:12]

and I thought most of these people do not believe the end is near in fact most of these people don't believe that history is being Guided by a sovereign God who has an end and will bring them into judgment or into salvation depending on whether they've believed in Jesus they don't know and my heart achd for lost people more in the last 24 hours than it has for a long long time as I contemplated the fact that uh look at him just look at him is buying books and going everywhere and talking oblivious [00:1140:28]

verses 8 and N say above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins be hospitable to one another without complaint that is without grumbling now these verses are a description of how we should live together under the uh stress of the last days pray is one thing live together in love and hospitality is another thing the new thing that I saw in these verses was the connection between the two [00:1196:36]

let everything be done in such a way that God gets the glory through the precious mercy of Jesus Christ that bought every Grace for us to whom belong glory and power forever and ever amen this is light and Truth god-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treas measure him truly I'm your host Dan kru thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our 10-part series living out our faith with a sermon titled keep rejoicing I hope you'll join us for more resources visit Desiring god.org [00:1322:88]

Ask a question about this sermon