The term “Last Days” in Scripture has often been misunderstood as referring only to the final moments before Christ’s return. However, the Bible teaches that the Last Days began at Pentecost and continue until Christ’s Second Coming. This broader understanding carries significant implications for how we view both current times and the Gospel message itself. The Second Coming is not merely a motivational addendum to evangelism but rather forms an essential part of the Gospel proclamation, as Christ returns not only as Saviour but as Judge of all.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] I want to talk this morning about something that’s a bit of a misunderstood phrase wording. I remember being involved in a prayer meeting in my youth where there was quite a movement in the west coast of America called the Jesus Movement. Some of the advertising, Time magazine and whatever, carried pictures of mass baptisms in the beaches there as young people were coming to Christ in a revivalistic movement. It sort of had an influence on the young people coming to our prayer meeting, all these kilometres away. Yet the idea was transported by a teaching of this being now the last days. In fact there was a fellow called Keith Green who travelled around singing and he was a bit of a prophetic bloke in his songs, they were really good. And many people received encouragement by being ministered to by Keith Green. But I think he was a part of what was called Last Days Ministry. Michelle, you used to get that newsletter, is that correct? Last Days Ministry. When you read in it and when you listen to much of the talk you can see that people were reading from the scriptures that there will be a revival in the last days.

[00:01:28] So the term came to mean that we’re in the final times, last days. It’s sort of half true, it’s also half wrong. And we have a Bible reading we’ll put up on the screen from the book of Acts where the Apostle is quoting from the Old Testament and this quote from Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I’ll pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And this was a prophecy from the Old Testament times that there would come the moment that was actually fulfilled at the day of Pentecost. And this prophecy with the sons and your daughters shall prophesy and the young men shall see visions and the old men shall dream dreams. Now it’s interesting how the name Last Days got to be captured to be just something that would happen in the final moments of Christian history. In actual fact, the prophecy in Jeremiah was looking forward across the gulf of the inter-testamental period to when Jesus would come and the church would be founded. And by Jeremiah’s quote we can see that the definition of Last Days is from the New Testament era on. We’ve been in the Last Days.

[00:02:54] And so the idea that being something that you should look forward to yet to happen is somewhat mistaken in failing to recognise that this is actually how the Bible itself describes the difference between the Old and the New Testaments. And in the Old Testament and through the law, as we were learning a bit at the communion time, God did deal with us. There was a temple. God did utilise it. There are all sorts of instructions to be followed in Judaism. It’s a good thing. God organised his people back then. But this prophecy is predicting that there would come a change in the times, which is why we have an Old Testament that gives way to the New Testament, not as though the Old was wrong, but it has been superseded. Whereas it had an Old Covenant, we are now in the days of the New Covenant. And the New Covenant was different in numbers of respects, but one is that everybody’s invited into the New Covenant. It didn’t just have to be a Jew. But it would be a time when if you came to Christ, you get in the door, and Jesus said he’s the door.

[00:04:06] Jesus said he’s the way. In fact, the whole ministry of Christ is him teaching that this time had come. And so the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, and we look at Hebrews in chapter 1, the first four verses, and you’ll see that it’s prophesying this very change of times. And the term last days is about the New Testament era. Long ago, many times and many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. The Old Testament regime was with law and prophets, although Moses was called a bit of a prophet himself because he had to sketch the law from God. And he had a prophetic role, a very special one. But in these last days, verse 2 says, he has spoken to us by his Son, and Jesus’ coming was what constituted in these last days, this event. And whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he had created the world, he is the radiance of the glory of God, an exact imprint of his nature.

[00:05:14] And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. The name of Christos, the name Jesus given at his birth, was a name that talked of this role, of him being the final way God would speak to the world, and it was from the last days on. So the last days is actually between the day of Pentecost, the new covenant beginning, and when Christ will return. However, there is a bit of a hiccup in terms of understanding why people sometimes refer to the last days as something that’s right at the end of times. Because there are verses that talk not only about what we’ve just read, but there’s some that use the word hour. Instead of last days, it says last hour. And my next verse to show you, which is in 1 Peter 1.20, is a verse that is about this very fact, and using, I hope, the language I want to see what we have.

[00:06:35] Oh, this might be an intermediate verse. Anyway, let’s read it. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Forefathers are all the Jewish people. If you wanted to belong to God in the Old Testament era, you had to be a Jew. Not necessarily born a Jew by blood, you could become a proselyte and be baptized and become a Jew by religion and you’d be in the door. But Jesus, to the woman of the well, had said salvation is from the Jews. And the Samaritans, that she was one, had this mountain where they made their special arrangements and God disallowed it. You had to get saved through being a Jew. But that era changed. In fact, to the woman of the well, Jesus announced that. He said, but the time is coming when you shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. And that was a part of the shift to the last days.

[00:07:39] And so it goes on here, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, Jesus came and died. And it’s really explaining how just as the Old Testament temple and their sacrifices done in them were picturesque of actually what Jesus would be the one to do. And the book of Hebrews later on will say that the blood of bulls and goats can really not get rid of sins. It was a picture of the sacrifice needed that somebody had to pay for sin, that somebody was Jesus. And so the New Covenant is built around the fact of his death and resurrection and the fact that he has finalised our account about sins. And I won’t read the rest of that one, but we’ll go on to the next one, to 2 Timothy and chapter 3, verses 1-9 and 2 Timothy and chapter 3. Again, is that where we were reading? Let me see what I’m doing. 2 Timothy. Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Now we’re beginning to read that the term last days began to also be speaking of things that we know from our perspective of reading the Bible, that there’s future prophecies of the Antichrist and all of these things. And there is going to be a terrible time right at the end of the days.

[00:09:11] And the last days does have in its future regard a prophecy of there being terrible things happening. The last days will come, there’ll be times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And taking the appearance of godliness but denying its power. And that idea that there being even religion affected in the last days, there can be a good appearance of godliness but actually denying its power. This is not a happy prophecy. This is not an encouraging telling us how the Christian era is going to end. We’re all on the last days from the day of Pentecost on to when Jesus returns but the final part of it is going to have a lot of things not being as a thought. Such people, and it goes on to speak about some examples of people back then. Let’s go to another passage and in 2 Peter 3 verses 1 to 9, we’re in 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 9, now we’re going to 2 Peter 3 verses 1 to 9. And Peter’s writing, now you understand of the Bible, the Bible is the word of God from beginning to end including the Old Testament right through to the end of the book of Revelation.

[00:11:04] And it is the word of God. But there are some of those books that were written later than others and you’re looking at one, Peter’s letter, when you look at the little letters of John, some of them came very late in the book of Revelation, very late written at the pen of the Apostle John. This is now a second letter that I’m writing to you beloved. In both of them, the letters, I’m stirring to your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord, what Jesus had to say. And also he did it through the Apostles, Jesus speaking. So when you add in the writings of the Apostles which are part of the New Testament and not only the Gospels but also special letters like Colossians and Ephesians and Corinthians. When you read these things you recognise that there’s some terrible things that are going to happen at the end of the last days. And the commandment of the Lord, our Saviour, through his Apostles or through the Apostles. Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days. They’re people who make jokes of the Christian expectation.

[00:12:29] Scoffers will come in the last days and these ones will be finding ways to make the Christian claims look silly. And so they say, where is this promise of his coming? This is the second return of Christ. For ever since the Fathers, they’re the first Apostles and the first leaders of Christianity fell asleep. All things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. And one of the things people do is laugh against Christianity saying, well you’ve been having this tune for a while but nothing’s happened. Jesus hasn’t come. And so they have this sense of laughing at the Christian faith. Now that’s pretty bad when you live amongst people who take the whole business of Christianity as stupid. But when you also discover that it has effect on us in the church. In fact you’ll find churches that are happy to celebrate Christmas. It is the case in Australia that evangelicalism is not as evangelical equally the same in all the different states.

[00:13:40] And if you go and study and if you go and live in, go to Baptist churches, for example, around Australia you discover that one of the features that is different is a lot of the Baptist churches in some places don’t like you preaching on the second coming. There’s a big question mark about it. It’s just too much to ask people to believe. I had to learn that when I was in Tasmania. As a state evangelist, I got entrance into a lot of the churches, but I learned that if I went along and the first time they heard me preach, I happened to choose to preach on the second coming of Christ. I didn’t get invited back again. When you ask those churches, show me your constitution, the part that’s minimal in the constitution is, yes Jesus will come, but nothing more is said. If you preach from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, like I’ve done recently here, that talks about a rapture. There are people who say, oh no, no, no, that’s a bit extreme. We won’t emphasize that idea. The effect of the world having this attitude in the last times of laughing,

[00:14:54] it’s been a long time since these prophecies of the second coming were made and it hasn’t happened yet. Let’s just downplay that part of the Christian faith. I often look at the constitutions of different churches around Baptist churches. I’m interested in this since I had a part to play in theological training in our state. I notice some churches minimise the doctrine of the second coming. Now read the New Testament for yourself and see how much emphasis is there on the fact that God is coming again because the whole idea of the last times is that it’s a set time and has a finish. There are some verses that don’t use the terminology, last days, but they use the terminology of last hour. Some people made it a different thing? To be talked about last days is one idea and last hour’s another idea. That’s actually not right either, because they’re both referring to the same period

[00:15:56] of time. It’s just that when it says last days, it’s encompassing the whole time from the beginning of the day of Pentecost when the gospel was announced with the promise of the Holy Spirit in a new way than what was available in Old Testament times, right through to the coming of Jesus. But the term last hour is often used which is more referring to the end of the last days. It’s the same period of time but it’s referring to the imperative nature of being close to when Jesus does come and a part of his coming is going to include the judgment of God. Praise him it also includes the blessing of us who love Jesus and are going to be with him forever. But the last hour I think is the same period of time but just emphasising the end of it and the fact that we’re getting near it. And that we need to be prepared to find ourselves in difficult times where the population around us doesn’t

[00:16:59] follow suit to the Christian era as it has done in Australia. We’ve been lucky in Australia to have an era where murders were not very often quoted or told because we were people who accepted the laws of God within our laws. But bit by bit our laws are being weeded out from God’s laws. God’s laws are being weeded out of our laws and that’s something you can see in the politics or how we need for some young people with enough get up and go brains to handle it to get into politics and to stand on the truth of what we know from the Gospels and to have an influence. One of the things of the church today is that we often favour getting on with everybody, that’s not a bad thing to do. I think you have to work out how to be not causing everybody to have a reason to think of you as a fanatic. You’ve gotta somehow show that you’ve got common sense and you’ve got to somehow carry the

[00:18:16] Gospel in a way that upholds it as honourable but at the same time you don’t need to back down from it. You don’t need to go silent. If we took a survey amongst ourselves as to how many are having difficulty about being a witness, I discovered this in a previous church that when we asked the folk we were discipling, what do you need the most help in? One of the big areas was how to be a witness but to do it in a way that was not going to be rubbished or how to heal when you do get rubbished. How to be a witness and hold the flag and not let it down. Because what has happened in not only Melbourne but happens as a pressure everywhere is that the evangelical side try and trim what their claims are to have less people disliking it. But if that means you don’t emphasise the fact of the second coming. If that means you are a person that doesn’t want any preaching in your church

[00:19:20] from the second coming or you’re going to say they are those crazy fundamentalists because they are talking about judgment and they are talking about hell. You are asking us not to stick up from the Bible or you are asking us to fail to be its heralds. Because I had to discover this a hard way myself. Listen, listen. Where I was doing, I have two master’s degrees, one in theology and the one in New Testament, was at Wheaton grad school. I came home in between times overseas and while I was home, a friend of mine at Evangelos had some meetings in a tent near where we lived, near where the Brookfield College was at once. They were a whole host of young people that came to Christ. I attended some of the meetings to see this fellow was a very good youth evangelist. One night, near the end, he spoke on the second coming and he had so many young people raised to respond to give their lives to Christ that

[00:20:25] he got a shock. He came up to the college to ask my dad, who was a principal, and then he came and asked me, do you think I scared them too much? It’s what he was worried. He had in his mind what many people have is that you have the gospel, but you also have a way to motivate them. Some of my friends, evangelists, who we compared notes once when we met in Perth, a group of us, watch your message you use at the end of the series. Every one of us had the second coming as the final message you gave. What was the reason is that you’re motivating them to make a response. This fellow who came and had a talk with me, he wanted to know theologically, is it right to get people so scared by preaching on the second coming? As it happened, just by coincidence, not coincidence, God-incidence, I was due to go back to Wheaton College, and I had neglected or I had been holding off announcing

[00:21:30] my thesis topic, but I got one that day to investigate the place of eschatology, that’s the study of the last times, in the gospel. What place should it play? Just motivating people? I went back there, and the professors were excited at the thing, and they sent me several ways to investigate, but the shock that came to me when I read particularly through the book of Acts was all the teaching, all the heralding of the second coming was not just to motivate people. It was a part of the message. The message is that Jesus came and Jesus died and Jesus rose again and Jesus went to heaven. He’s been made king of kings and lord of lords and he’s coming back to judge the quick and the dead, and that’s the message. If you leave out the second coming you’ve cut off a part of the message. I wrote my thesis on the place of eschatology and evangelism that it’s a part of the message

[00:22:36] that we are asked to deliver. You don’t get a choice to believe in the fact of there not only being last days, but also we may be living in the last hour. It’s a way of emphasising the tail end of the last days. Same entity, but we’re up near the end. And we need to have a voice about the message of the Second Coming and not let other people buffet us out of uttering it. We don’t back down from what is a major part of the message. The Apostle Paul, I didn’t have any trouble writing a thesis. The Bible was full of stuff I could quote, especially the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul at Mars Hill. And he talks about the fact that Jesus Christ is the one, that he’s the man who will judge the quick and the dead. And the emphasis of the Scriptures is in the book of Revelation, that Jesus is coming. It’s how he’s going to wind up this period of time. And all of the illustrations about

[00:23:46] learning to be ready and Jesus talking, Matthew 24 and those big chapters near the end of the Gospel of Matthew is also in Luke and also in Mark. They’re stressing the facts that God is going to come in judgement. He’s not coming again to be the nicey, nicey Jesus. He’s not coming again to be the baby that is admired. He’s coming to be the King of Kings who’s returning to his property and is going to deal with the servants who haven’t been doing right in it. And we as Christians might be included in those who won’t necessarily be thrown to hell because we didn’t keep his words, but we will get a reprimand and discover that we haven’t done what he wanted us to do when we didn’t believe enough in the Second Coming of Christ. You don’t get a choice about the message if you’re a messenger. I’ve learned there is a power in the proclamation of Jesus’ return and his judgement, but it’s

[00:24:46] meant to be there by the power of the Spirit of God. And it’s true when you bring to bear on people that the whole business of the Gospel is not God being nice and opening the door for anybody to come alone. There’s some element of truth in that we’re all sinners and there’s no stopping someone coming because they’re the wrong type of sinner or they’re somehow the wrong background or they’re not from the right nation. No, we’re all welcome to come. But all face the same test that you come on the grounds of repenting of your sin. And so the Apostle Peter at the beginning of the last days, which is the time of the day of Pentecost, part of how he finished his call, was to say to his listeners, save yourself, save yourself from this wicked generation that will suck you in. To make you laugh at the Christian message or take you to be lukewarm

[00:25:53] or make you inactive or make you someone who might be a Christian but you’re just someone that makes no difference. Don’t get sucked in by the world. Jesus is coming, and when he’s coming, he’s coming to judge the quick and the dead. The quickest means alive. The dead are the ones who’ve already passed away, and that’s a part of the gospel message. I hope I’ve got that home to you. The gospel message doesn’t just have a bit at the end to motivate people. Even some of the theologians, they put the bit about the Second Coming as the last chapter in their theological books. It’s a bit of a tradition, so to do. But you can’t ever understand the gospel until you take on board the fact that the one who died for us is the one that’s coming back to judge us. It’s very fair of God to tell us that in the gospel. We in the British world and

[00:26:57] our legal systems have it that it’s good to have someone who’s in a desperate crime being assessed and judged to have a jury of his or her peers. And that Acts 17 passage about Jesus being the one who will be judged, it talks about the fact that God has appointed a man to be the judge of all the world. And in his humanity, the one who’s been human and face tests, the one who’s in a sense of his humanity, one of our peers, is to be our judge. But he’s not just any old one, he’s one who himself has paid the very cost for your forgiveness. He’s the one on the cross who bore our sins, who suffered rejection from Father in heaven, who knew such an agony coming that in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed, Father, if it’s possible, please take this cup from me, because just looking ahead of what it would be, the wrench between Father and Son as he bore our sins, the fact of the

[00:28:11] filthiness, this one who’d never done a sin, was going to be sin for us. You think he looked forward to becoming wretchedly sinful in your sins? He didn’t. And he did it for you. But he’s the one who will judge your response to what he did in your place. And if you’ve never come to Christ, if you’ve never had the spiritual decency, I’ll call it, to recognise the cost it was to him to die for your sins, then you should understand that if you stay in that condition, you’ll pay for it at the judgement, because he’s the judge that you will face. This is serious business to seek to make peace with God while you have the opportunity. Let me finish in prayer. O my Father, may you please so indelibly write the truth of this message into our hearts that we will revere the Saviour who has died for us, who’s risen for us, who’s coming again

[00:29:37] for us. And the invitation that he gives that we can belong to him isn’t one paid for by just a little price. Would you indelibly write the truth of that in every person listening to me? And if there be those that need to seek you out and be certain of their knowing Christ, may they go home and get down by their knees, by their bed and they say, Jesus, I want to be saved. Please do that now in his name I pray. Amen.