A while back I had e-mailed one of our folks to see if we could get together on a Saturday morning. They responded that Saturday wasn’t a good day to get together – the whole family got together and cleaned the house. Being a little factious I wrote, “Cleaning the house -that is why you had kids!!” And within seconds of my response he blurted, “Ha! Ha!! I have a suggestion for a sermon - How about a ‘Have your kids do all the housework’ sermon?”

That would be something wouldn’t it? I could have a suggestion box on topics for sermons. You chose the topic and I preach the sermon. Here’s one - “How to make a man a better listener” sermon. Huh?? Only half of you heard what I said!!

A few months ago when we were studying the Book of Revelation in our Bible Class one of our gentlemen said that they had never heard a sermon about the end times and the end of the world before. Now it could have been that sermons were preached about the subject before, it is just that he hadn’t heard it. He is a man, after all!!

For all of you who have never heard a sermon about the end of the world and the end times this is for you!! The topic of the end of the world can get quite a reaction from folks. Right now at the new Southglenn 14 you can catch “2012”, a movie about the end of the world. Such a movie will perk the attention about all this. A few years ago the “Left Behind” series caused some concern about the end of all things. But sometime the talk about the end of the world is for the “crazies” – people who get people to quit their jobs and wait in the desert for the return of Jesus Christ. I saw a guy outside of a Broncos game with a sign, “The End is Coming! Repent!!” And that was when the Broncos were having a good season!!

So, what are we to think about this? Is it just a thought for Hollywood to make into a wild adventure, or for folks of other denominations, or for those who don’t have all their marbles? Jesus, Peter, Paul, the Book of Revelation all seem to spend some time talking about the end of all things. There must be something to this end of the world stuff!!

The end is coming. In fact, we are one day closer to it today than we were yesterday!! One day all of life will end. The earth will have its conclusion. Everything that we now see we will see no more. I haven’t seen 2012, but I read that it is based on the ancient Mayan calendar that says life will end on December 21, 2012. There is a website on the Internet that contains the official countdown to that day!!

Jesus says about the final day, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days of the flood, people are eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man - Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” (Matthew 24:36-39, 42) He says that that day will come as quickly as lightning races through the sky.

The end is coming. Maybe soon. Maybe years from now. Maybe on December 21 of 2012, and maybe not. Peter is his letter says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, the earth and everything in it will be laid bare…That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” (II Peter 3:10, 12b-13)

But that day, the final one, should not catch us by surprise. God will give to us every indication that the earth that we live on is not permanent. Sometimes people are not ready when Christmas arrives. They haven’t shopped, haven’t mailed the cards, haven’t baked or whatever makes the season unique to them. That is sort of silly, isn’t it?? We are blasted with advertisements and warnings continually that Christmas in now less than a month away. If we don’t get ready for that day we have no one to blame but ourselves, right?

And if we are not ready for that day (the return of Jesus) we have no one to blame but ourselves!! We need to be ready for that day. There is a call for true repentance and true faith!! In our text Jesus says, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.” (Luke 21:34) In the Parable of the Ten Virgins Jesus speaks about five wise and five foolish virgins. The five that were foolish weren’t ready to attend the wedding, no oil in their lamps. Jesus concludes the parable, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:13) Be ready!! The writer to the Hebrews says, “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sin of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” (9:28)

To get us ready Jesus says, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:25-27)

Paul when he writes to Timothy goes beyond the physical signs of the end of world to the moral signs that the end of life is coming. He says, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (II Timothy 3:1-5)

What is quite amazing is the reaction that Jesus says we are able to make – “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28) There is no defeatist attitude, no signs of fatalism, but only anticipation and confidence. Stand Up!! Lift Up Your Heads!! We are ready!! We are excited about that day!!

The end of the world is not a day to dread but a day to anticipate. Do you know that you pray fervently for that day often? Yeah, every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are asking for that day to come. In the petition, “Thy Kingdom Come”, we are praying for His kingdom of power to be with our entire world (praying that He would help all people in all their needs), that His kingdom of grace would fill us with the confidence that we have in Jesus, but we also pray for His kingdom of glory – His return to us and the beginning of His full salvation. “Thy Kingdom Come” is the prayer of the one who lays on their death bed awaiting the moment they will enter the presence of Christ, it is also our prayer that Christ would come again in His great glory and majesty.

Around 92^nd Avenue and Pecos in Federal Heights there is a bar that has a great name – it is called “A Far Better Place”. So when grandpa wants to go and have a cold one they can just say that grandpa has gone to a far better place!! Well the coming of Jesus tells us that we are going to a far better place. That is why His return says that we can stand up and lift up our heads. We will meet our gracious God on that day having a vigilant faith in our Savior, Jesus. He is the conqueror, He is the victor and through His victory we stand with confidence to meet our God.

On the day that He returns our bodies will be resurrected from their graves or niches or wherever they have been put. Our souls, if we are already dead, will have begun their eternal day in the glories of heaven, but that final day, the day when this world is concluded, the day that Christ returns, is the day when our bodies will complete the soul. Paul writes to the Thessalonians and tells them of that day of standing up and lifting up their heads, “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. “ (I Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Such confidence is ours not because of what we have done or who we are, but because of who He is and what He has done. Jesus defeated the devil, He answered death, He is stronger than any evil, we have confidence in His mercy and His forgiveness of our sins and we are ready to live life, even if we live through the final days of life upon this earth!!

For the final day; for our everyday, we can stand up and lift up our head. We live now and ever with a confidence in the strong and gracious hand of Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, come!! Amen