Transcript: Unstoppable Part 7

Unstoppable Part 7 The Last Days Scripture: Acts 2:12-21 Now, this to me has just been a fascinating study. And I want to go over Peter's sermon with you on the day of Pentecost. Let's review very briefly. In Chapter 1 of the Book of Acts, Jesus spent 40 days after his resurrection with the disciples. And then he ascended back to heaven. And 10 days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the 120 followers who were in the upper room. It was the initiation of a new age. It was the age of the Church, the age of the Gospel, the age of preaching, the age of grace. And so this created quite a commotion in Jerusalem on that morning, at 9 o'clock in the morning, when the sound of the violent wind came and tongues of fire spread through the crowd and people began, these believers began speaking in other tongues…languages they had not learned. And so people ran together to see what was happening. And it says in verse 12,” “They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to each other, “What does this mean?” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Now the crowd that day asked two questions. And this is the first one. What does this mean? Later on, they're going to ask the second question. “Brothers, what shall we do?” And that's down in verse number 37. But let's begin here with verse number 12. It says amazed and perplexed, the crowd ask one another, what does this mean? Some however made fun of them and said they've had too much wine…Verse 13. Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and addressed the crowd. “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all you who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Now the prophet Joel is a man who prophesied during a locust invasion. Israel was being devastated by the locust. The economy was being ruined. And the locust invasion also, I think, portended or predicted the time of tribulation at the end of history before the Lord will come. And there were some eschatological elements to it. Joel used the locust invasion to teach about the last days, and his language previewed Revelation 9. Several years ago I took my family to visit Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I can still feel our slow descent into the bowels of the earth and smell the musty air of the caverns. The trip is an exciting adventure from start to finish. But the highlight of the trip is watching the nightly exodus of the bats from the cave at dusk when they feed on the insects in the surrounding area. As the thousands of bats fly out of the hole in the earth, the little light that remains at dusk is darkened by their flight. The scene is awesome in its beauty and uniqueness. One of the strangest texts in Revelation is the description of a swarm of locust-like creatures rising out of the abyss in the end times. Revelation 9:1-12 describes the event. The tribulation is about to enter a new phase in which overt warfare will spill over from the invisible realm into the visible world with massive squadrons of malevolent demonic forces. Revelation 9:2-3 describes the opening of the abyss, the release of the smoke of a great furnace, and myriads of locust-like beings swarming out on the entire earth and darkening the skies. Smoke billows forth from this prison of wickedness, and these locusts ooze from the abyss. The apocryphal book of Enoch (which the epistle of Jude quoted and John would have known) describes the Abyss as “the prison house of angels.” Apparently some of the most brutal and heinous of the demons are incarcerated here. What, then, is the Abyss? In simple terms, it’s a supermax prison where the most malicious and malevolent demons are incarcerated until Revelation 9. Revelation 9:2-5 reveals that these locusts are demonic beings in material, visible form. They are the uncanny denizens of the abyss, locusts of a hellish species animated with infernal powers. Just think of the unbelievable appearance of these invaders from the abyss. They are long-haired, horse-shaped flying locusts with scorpion tails and golden crowns above human faces covered with skin like a coat of armor. They are infernal cherubim—a combination of the horse, the man, the woman, the lion, the scorpion, and the locust. Their size is not given, but they are clearly much larger than ordinary locusts. In the ancient world, nothing was more destructive than locusts. They were symbolic of destruction. The fifth trumpet judgment describes nothing less than the bowels of hell belching forth a horrid host of foul, fiendish demons to afflict unsaved people with excruciating pain and torture in the last days of the coming tribulation period. They torment people for five months. Their torment was like the torment that stings a man. I’ve never been stung by a scorpion, but I’ve read it’s extremely painful. A combined team of researchers from the United States and China conducted research to explain the intensity of pain inflicted by a scorpion. Scorpions have stingers on the ends of their tails that pierce the skin and inject a particular venom that contains one hundred toxins, some of which chemically cause pain to be magnified in the way it sends signals to the brain. Picture what the world would be like if the doors of the jails and penitentiaries of the earth were opened and the world’s most vicious and violent criminals were set free, giving them full reign to practice their mayhem upon mankind. The scene in Revelation 9 is much, much worse. What will it be like when countless thousands of demons who have been chained in the abyss for thousands of years run rampant throughout the earth in visible form during this time of tribulation? It will be unspeakable! The earth will literally be teeming with swarms of dreadful demonic beings. The diabolical forces from hell will be unleashed to practice their unimaginable atrocities upon mankind. And in the middle of Joel’s book, actually in chapter two of Joel verses 28 through 32, he broke out under this particular passage that Peter is going to use now. As I've read it, I've wondered, how did Peter know to turn here to the book of Joel and to chapter number two? Why is it that on this day of Pentecost, he immediately went to Joel chapter two? How did he know to do that? And I think the answer must be because Jesus explained all of this during the 40 days and prepared the disciples and said, now, here's what's going to happen. The day of Pentecost is going to come and it's going to be in fulfillment of Joel chapter two. So I don't think Peter just thought this up on his own. I think Jesus just pointed this passage out to Peter during the 40 days in between the resurrection and the ascension, and Peter was ready, and he knew to go to Joel chapter two. Now, let's read this together and then I want to deal with it. It's a fascinating thing. “And it will be that, afterwards, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on the menservants and maidservants in those days I will pour out My Spirit. Then I will work wonders in the heavens and the earth— blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awe-inspiring day of the Lord comes. And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved...” Joel‬ ‭2‬:‭28‬-‭32‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Now, this is a very significant passage, and it tells us three things here about the last days. I know if you're like me, you're wondering if we are living in the last days, and I can answer that very definitively. The answer is yes. We are living in the last days. I don't know if we're living in the last hours of the last days. I do believe we're living in the last days of the last days. I'm not sure if we're living in the final hours and the final minutes of the last days, but according to this passage, the last days began with the day of Pentecost. God has a calendar for, a prophetic calendar for all of human history. The last great period of time before the end, before Jesus comes again, is called the last days. And it begins with the descent of the spirit. Chapter 2 and verse 17 again. “In the last days it shall be,’ says God, ‘that I will pour out My Spirit on all people; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Now there are other passages that tell us this as well. “God, who at various times and in diverse ways spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the ages.” Hebrews‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ So He says the times we are living in now are these last days. Peter also refers to the days in which we are living as the last days in 2 Peter and chapter 3. This is the same man who is preaching on the day of Pentecost. And that was really his great inaugural sermon in the age of the church. And his last words are in chapter 3 when he says in verse 3, “Know this first, that there shall come scoffers in the last days who walk after their own lusts, and say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were since the beginning of the creation.” 2 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ In other words, people are going to say, well, why doesn't Jesus comes again? And Peter says that the days leading up to the second coming of Christ when there is skepticism, these are also a part of that period of time known as the last days. And Paul says in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, in the last days perilous times will come. Deception is the number 1 marker and characteristic of last hours of the last days. Even Christians seem to be put under a spell. I haven’t seen anything like it in all my years of ministry. Many Christians have let their guard down or become complicit in this world wide demonic deception. There is an uptick of demonic activity. But I want to show you one other passage from the writings of Paul. “Now all these things happened to them for examples. They are written as an admonition to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭11‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ He says about the Old Testament events, these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. We are the people on whom the culmination of the ages has come. Everything that God did in Genesis 1 through 11 was leading to what he would do in Genesis chapter 12 when he called Abraham. And then out of Abraham came the patriarchs and the tribes and the nation of Israel, and out of that eventually came the Messiah who was born in the Gospels. And after 33 years of life, Jesus died on the cross, he rose again, he ascended the Father, and then he poured out the Spirit on us, on whom the culmination of the ages has fallen. So it's no wonder we're living in very dangerous and difficult days. It's no wonder the world is as unhealthy and as frightening as it is. We are living in the last days. They started at the day of Pentecost. When is the end time. The phrase “end times” means everything that starts with the Rapture and goes all the way through to the New Heavens and New Earth. The end times comprises all the unfulfilled prophecy in Scripture. One-third of the Bible is prophecy and about half of that has not been fulfilled. Therefore, roughly one-sixth, or sixteen percent, of the Bible relates to prophecies that await future fulfillment, that is, the end times. 1. The Inauguration of the Last Days (17-18). And he says, going back to the book of Acts in chapter 2 and verse 17, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. They will preach. Everyone will be an evangelist. Everyone will be a preacher of the gospel. Everyone will go with the message of God. It's not just going to be the priests like it was in Judaism who served around the temple. It's not just going to be prophets like Elijah and Elisha. It's going to be everybody is going to be a messenger. And your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. He goes on to say in verse 18, even on my servants, both men and women. Women are going to be as active as men in these last days for serving Christ. I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will preach. So we have in verses 17 and 18, the initiation, the inauguration of the last days. 2. The Conclusion of the Last Days (19-20). Now, when will these last days end? Well, verses 19-20 say, “And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and glorious day of the Lord comes.” Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ And this is clearly a reference to the second coming of Christ. Jesus said that when he comes again, it will be lightning flashing from the east to the west and there will be strange signs in the heavens, the stars will fall, the sun will turn to blood and so forth and so on. And we also have this in the book of Revelation as being a characteristic of the return of Christ. So Peter here is saying, I want to tell you what's happening. If you want to know what's happening, here is what is happening. The last days, the culmination of the age has now inaugurated. It has come upon us and it will only be concluded when Jesus, who we just saw go to heaven 10 days ago, when he comes again. The last days, therefore, represent God's great age of grace, the age between the descent of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of Jesus Christ. So in verses 17 and 18, we have the inauguration of the last days. In verses 19 and 20, we have the conclusion of the last days. And then in verse 21, we have 3. The Purpose of the Last Days. (21) And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The purpose of the last days is to take the Gospel to the world with evangelistic fervor and for the saving of the nations. This one passage of Joel's, in Joel's preaching, pointing towards time yet to be is so enriching. And Peter here quotes it, and I think Jesus gave it to him, and he tells us the conclusion, the beginning of the last days when the Holy Spirit is poured out. That's the day of Pentecost. The conclusion of the last days when the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood and the great and glorious day of the Lord will come. And the purpose of the last days that in between those two events, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is why we are living as we are today. With uncertainty in the world around us, with the world in peril, with weapons of mass destruction popping up everywhere, with rogue nations, with plagues that could wipe out entire populations, with the rise of this powerful empowering China that seems so aggressive, with all of the political division and turmoil we have in the United States, with the atheistic secularism that is sweeping over the Western world, with the persecution of Christians on every side, and with the violence in the world, with warfare and tribal regions of genocide occurring in parts of Asia and Africa. How do you explain it all? Well, these are the last days. They began on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down and indwell the 120 believers and baptize the church, and now the family of God exists on this planet. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to take the Gospel to everyone in the world. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to be sent out as witnesses. That is the one great thing we are to do. We're not to get caught up in our lifestyles. We're not to be entertained all day long. We're not to be so riled up with political divisions that we forget our spiritual significance. We are to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to share the Gospel, and we are to support financially those who are going to the ends of the earth. We're to be behind those ministries we believe in, and we're to be building up our local churches and being involved in them and doing everything we can to represent Christ and the world in these last days. And then we are to be looking forward to what lies ahead, because there is coming a day when Jesus is going to come again, and the sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, and the great and glorious day of the Lord will come, and that will be the consummation, the conclusion of the last days, and the purpose, the great commission of the last days, is that we are to go out with the Gospel and everyone. Now, Peter didn't really fully understand this yet. Not until Caesarea, in Chapter 10, did he realize that this was referring to Jew and Gentile, to slave and free, to man and woman, but everyone, every single person in the world who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I think the beginning of this message on the day of Pentecost will suffice for what I want us to look at, because it really does give us three tremendous helps, three applications to us. 1). It gives us, first of all, a Clear Vision for why things are the way they are in our world today. Remember what Paul said in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. He said, In these last days, you must know this, don't forget this, that perilous times will come.” “Know this: In the last days perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, unrestrained, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Turn away from such people.” 2 Timothy‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ This is the way that he describes the last days. So when we see all of this happening around us, we're not taken by surprise. Every message I preach seems to grow in importance because of these last hours. We say, well, after all, we're living in the last days of the last days. This is the way the world is, and it gives us clear vision, but it also gives us 2). It gives us a Prophetic Optimism. The Lord has everything under control. He is coming again. History is unfolding at the speed of His will and His providence. And He's going to make everything right. We can be prophetic optimists. But in addition to giving us clear vision and prophetic optimism, this should truly give us 3). Evangelistic Zeal. “I hope that you're as intrigued with the way that Peter began his sermon on the Day of Pentecost as I am. I can't get it out of my mind. And to think that you and I are living in the last days. We are people on whom the culmination of the ages has fallen. Every morning it makes me pray, Maranatha. Oh Lord, come quickly. Speaking of Evangelists I will close with this story. December of 1982, Evangel College in Springfield MO, was dedicated. Evangelist Billy Graham was the guest speaker at one of the chapel services at that time or dedication service itself. I’m not sure. He opened his Bible and asked the capacity filled Chapel to turn to Ephesians 5:15-17, "…15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.…" His sermon title was "REDEEM THE TIME." He preached over 30 minutes and then said, "I need to bring this message to a conclusion, though I have not finished." He brought sermon to an end and then sat down. Following that there was a message in tongues and interpretation given by one of the students, and after that another student gave a prophecy. General Superintendent TF Zimmerman had arranged a television interview following the ceremony. On the way to the television station, Brother Zimmerman complimented Billy Graham on his message. He replied with thanks and then commented, "Because of the schedule, I only got to preach one of the three points of my message. I didn’t get to finish my message, but the Holy Spirit did. I've been studying your belief of the Gifts of the Spirit. I don't know how to explain this, but after my sermon, the student who spoke in tongues and then gave the interpretation actually preached the second point of my sermon! After that, the other student who gave a prophetic word actually preached the third point of my sermon! A chill went down my spine, when I realized that the Holy Spirit wanted to make sure the message was shared in its entirety! You know I love you Pentecostals, and while I don't understand everything you believe, after what I witnessed today I am thoroughly convinced that the Gifts of the Spirit are of God and still active in the church today! During the interview, The interviewer asked him, "You minister to so many people, how are you ministered to?" Billy Graham referred to this event at Evangel College and said, “I was ministered to while at that college. This was a memory stone moment in my life, and so many others.” Well, next time we'll pick up our study with verse 22 of the second chapter of the Book of Acts. I hope these are encouraging to you.