Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Matthew 21:23–27 ESV: 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
As we’ve traversed through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21 has marked a stark distinction in how Jesus approaches his ministry on the earth.
He is no longer quiet about his Messianic identity. He is going all out. He has entered Jerusalem, the heart of the nation of Israel. He is marching to the cross.
He knows he will die here. His words and actions in Jerusalem will catapult the opposition into a blinded rage in an attempt to destroy this Jewish carpenter.
That is what the mind in the flesh does when it encounters the immovable and unstoppable truth of the Spirit. When you can’t argue or reason your way out, you suppress, you throw tantrums, and then you lash out.
Romans 1:18 ESV: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Today’s sermon is about the suppression of truth, which is the de facto position of the human flesh. And now, as Christians, before you assume that I’m talking about those who are out there in the world and of the world and now about us, let me say it as clearly as I can, I’m talking about suppression of truth in your lives.
Even though you and I are a regenerate people who have our sins crucified on Christ’s cross, who are freed from the curse of sin and death, we are still beings in the flesh and the effects of sin and temptation continue to wage war in our bodies.
Jesus said in his High Priestly prayer, in John 17:15-16
John 17:15–16 ESV: 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
He also told us that, Matthew 18:7
Matthew 18:7 ESV: 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
We are no longer under the bondage of sin but sin is still a very pressing reality in our lives. We are called to fight because we have been given the means to defeat our flesh. We are not helpless anymore for the Lord Himself is our help.
1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV: 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
So, the force of temptation, the allure of sin and selfishness, pride, and all the weaknesses of the flesh are ever before us. The question is, “How intentional are we in this war?”.
Romans 6:1–2 ESV: 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
This is how unintentional Christians think about their salvation. Since we are no longer under the curse of sin, how bad can it be if we fall? And Paul’s basic response is that such thinking isn’t Christian thinking. The Christian response to all sin is, “How can I live in this when I have died to it? I’m dead to this!”
The Christian does not justify or make room for sin, he knows it to be wrong and deals with it accordingly, like one who is dead to that kind of life.
Unrelenting Sleuth On the Scent of Truth
The most crucial and transformative period of my life in coming to a strong and rooted faith in Christ, as I’m sure is the case for many of you, was when I resolved to pursue truth. At some point in my life, it suddenly mattered as it should for all of you, what the truth was.
And when I say truth, I mean it from top to bottom. Not just about the higher philosophical realities of existence and purpose, but also about the reality of day-to-day life and decisions. I realized that it matters that we know why we do what we do and whether we should do what we do.
Life hung in the balance for me at that point because I had to make sense of questions like,
- Why am I here?
- What must I do?
- How must I honor my Father and Mother?
- When and how do I disagree with my parents?
- When do I pursue marriage?
- What do I do with my money?
- Whom do I marry?
- Can I fall in love?
- How do I treat women?
- What are the boundaries of friendship?
- Why must I do engineering?
- Do my grades really matter?
- How high should I aim?
- Can I have ambitions?
- How do I make the right decisions about career and lifestyle choices?
- What movies can I watch?
- Do I need to be a part of the church?
- How must I steward my generosity?
- How must I steward my time?
- Do I join this college or do I accept this job offer?
Trust me, I can go on and on and on and on, and not stop. So many Christians are stuck on so many of these questions because they’ve never bothered to be intentional about their pursuit of truth (about reality, about what really matters) in the small things that suddenly they are caught off guard as though something strange were happening to them. Then, they run to their prayer closets to seek God’s magical answer to their problem while also praying that they wouldn’t catch a cold from all the dust in that unused closet.
John Piper in his poem, The Calvinist, has this phrase – unrelenting sleuth on the scent of truth. Are you unrelenting in the pursuit of truth? I was and that has always been the bottom-most foundational reality in my Christian life. Everything I pursue has to align with what I believe to be true, and what I believe to be true must be ratified by the Bible.
Romans 1 against the whole wide world
Allow me some time to take you through the nature of the flesh as it is revealed in Romans 1. Now, mind you that when a sleuth finds himself in this chapter, he may end up MIA – Missing in Action. Romans 1 is like a mirror maze. Whichever way you turn and run, you run headfirst into your exposed self and it hurts. If there was ever a chapter in the Bible that was written to send the worldliness inside of you reeling in horror and fear, it is this one.
So, have a prayer in your heart for me as I go into Romans 1 and try to navigate our way through some of this truth in under 10 mins.
Paul begins by mentioning his intention in Romans 1:15
Romans 1:15 ESV: 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
• The apostle Paul is a very logically minded guy and you have to follow his reasoning. What we find after this statement is a cascade of causes. The conjunction ‘for’ in the Bible is a word that points you to the cause. It is a word that precedes the explanation, the reason.
• He is eager to preach the gospel. Not the five ways to please your wife or the 10 ways to hold your tongue. The Bible does speak about all these things and they need to be preached, but Paul’s talking about the essence of preaching, the centrality of the message regardless of what your topic might be. Everything comes out of this most central and unavoidable message, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your eagerness to preach anything must be at its most fundamental level a desire to preach the Gospel.
Romans 1:16 ESV: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• According to Paul, the eagerness of preaching the Gospel is an unashamed love for it. This means that the hesitation to preach the Gospel may be a strong indicator that you are ashamed of the Gospel.
• Paul can’t imagine how one could be ashamed about the power of God that saves everyone who believes, whether Jew or Greek.
Romans 1:17 ESV: 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
• The Gospel is the power that saves because it is the revelation of God’s righteousness that is revealed from faith to faith.
• So you have to work your way back from these three cascading ‘for’s and see how God’s righteousness which is his just approval, moral perfection, the purest right that has no wrong; how this perfection of light with all its power is presented or revealed in the message of the Gospel which is that Jesus died and rose again so that if you believe in him you shall not perish but this pure and perfect light shall cleanse you, but if you do not believe in Christ, you will perish without any hope of a salvation.
He hashes out this judgment in the next verse,
Romans 1:18 ESV: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
• See how the Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness, his salvation, and those who reject this salvation are called suppressers of the truth.
Jesus, when talking about our salvation said, in John 14:6
John 14:6 ESV: 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is the glory of the truth, that Jesus is the truth.
When Moses asked God for his name in Exodus 33, God responded with ‘I AM’. There is a reason that this is the highest name. When you and I use our names we are using words to represent who we are. They are identifying titles to who we are as a person. But who God is as a Being is Existence as we know it.
John 1:3 ESV: 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
No creature can claim to exist apart from God. We exist because he exists.
In much the same way, when Jesus says that he is the truth, he means to say that there is no truth if there is no Christ. He is the Truth.
Paul tells that Christ is the One,
Colossians 2:3 ESV: 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
There is no knowledge apart from knowing Christ. The one who forsakes Christ is forsaking knowledge.
Therefore, what sin does, what the flesh in unrighteousness does, is forsake Christ because you can’t argue with truth, you have to yield. But if you don’t want to yield, the only thing you can do is ‘suppress’.
And when you suppress, you forsake knowledge, wisdom, and above all, truth.
And God’s wrath is revealed against such people.
Romans 1:19–21 ESV: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• God has made plain to us the truth. Every act of creation, the cosmos is a constant megaphone declaring to you the truth about God. You cannot escape it. Therefore, sin is not ignorant, it is intentional. It is foolishness.
Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV: 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God has always been speaking, and the coming of Jesus was the loudest and clearest speech. The Gospel is the loudest statement from Heaven.
So, in summarising this cascading causes in Romans 1, God has always been revealing the truth to the world, and the Gospel is the loudest and clearest message of truth. And through the Gospel is revealed the power of God for righteousness and salvation to those who are in the unrelenting pursuit of truth, but for those who suppress the truth the Gospel is the decisive stroke of judgment.
The Centrality of Truth
When the Gospel took such root in my life, I understood that I cannot answer any of the questions in my life meaningfully without the reality of this God in my life.
I understood that the only place that I can find the answers to all the questions pertaining to my life were in the pages of the Bible.
Cornelius Van Til, a Dutch-American philosopher and theologian was famously known to have said that The Bible is authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything.
And this has been the foundation stone of much of my practical Christian life and even my apologetics.
Armed with this understanding, let us look at this short passage in Matthew 21
Exegesis
Matthew 21:23 ESV: 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
• Here we find Jesus back at the temple teaching the people. The Messiah had gone from cleansing the temple to healing the sick and now teaching them.
For all the parents in the room, here is a picture of how the rod of discipline should be used. Discipline is meant to drive out the evil, heal the wounded and to teach.
If you use the rod only to punish and not to heal or to teach, then you are in greater need of the rod than your children.
Be Christlike in your parenting. Let your anger heal and train, not destroy those whom God has placed under your care.
• If there was one thing that the people could not deny, it was the authority with which Jesus spoke and did what he did.
In an earlier passage we’d read,
Matthew 7:28–29 ESV: 28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
So, when Jesus chases out the money changers and traders from the temple courts and then heals the truly needy and teaches them in the place where only yesterday was buzzing with trade, the crowds are watching an authoritative man.
In fact, such was the authority with which he conducted himself that none opposed him as he disrupted trade across acres of land overturning the table of the money changers, beating and driving out birds and goats and the people.
• This again is the nature of Christ, the truth. Since God is the I AM, the only uncaused cause, the very embodiment of existence as we know it; that when he shows up, the authority of his presence will be unlike anything else that exists. When God walks into the room so-to-speak, it’ll be unlike anyone else walking into the room. His very existence is existence.
And here, standing before these Jews was the very truth incarnate, the highest truth and instead of falling flat on their face, they wanted to know his credentials.
This is what the flesh does when it encounters truth. You cannot deny it, debate it, overpower it, so you suppress, you dismiss, and what better way to do that than you try and discredit it.
• By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?
This question is two-fold. It questions Jesus’ authority and the one who gave him that authority. They cannot question the reasoning behind his cleansing of the temple, they cannot deny the reality that people are healed, and they cannot argue with his teaching. So, they ask for his qualifications.
Matthew 13:55 ESV: 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
John 1:46 ESV: 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Matthew 21:24 ESV: 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
• For those of you here who are more technically aligned, here is an example of what we call pre-suppositional apologetics. Jesus does not rush to satisfy their request to see the evidence of his qualification. Instead, he presupposes their worldview according to which it does not matter if someone is speaking the truth or doing good things, it matters that he is officially given such authority.
Matthew 21:25–26 ESV: 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
• According to their worldview, if they denied John’s authority, the crowds would turn against them because they believed he is a prophet. On the other hand, if they agreed that it was from heaven, then they are caught for not believing him. Jesus knew that the Chief priests and elders were behaving inconsistently. That they were swayed not by credentials but by the lust for power and the authority they possessed over the people. This forced them to behave inconsistently in how they dealt with John’s ministry. Though they themselves did not believe John, they did not oppose him in front of the crowd.
• Now, see how when push comes to shove, they weren’t bothered about the truth. They did not want to answer truthfully. ‘If we say this, then…’
So many of us in our flesh deal with life in this manner. These chiefs, elders of the people would not answer truthfully because it would either lose them their popularity or it would hurt their ego.
Is Truth your higher treasure? Or are you all about truth when it is most convenient for you?
• How would you deal with sin if it were pointed out to you by your children? Would you receive it or would you question the maturity of their age, their authority?
• The piety of these elders of Israel was an outer display with no inward reality. They prayed aloud so that they could be seen by others, they were generous so that people would speak highly of them.
Are you the same Christian on the inside as you have shown yourself to be on the outside?
When push comes to shove, are you as heavenly minded as you say you are? Do you desire the glory of his name, the glory of his church, and building of his kingdom above all things? Or do you desire your own welfare more?
• Doug Wilson talks about how Christians like to put sin and righteousness on the stuff rather than weigh it upon their hearts. Some like to see their righteousness in the fact that they don’t watch movies, listen to secular music or hang around with unbelievers. Yet none of these things prove any measure of your righteousness.
If you must know, your pastor watches movies, listens to secular music, and hangs around with his unbeliever friends. The measure of my righteousness is not found in me avoiding this world because I am in this world. It must be measured by how much the world has not mastered me, but how in Christ I have mastered the world.
Have you not read Paul who wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:23
1 Corinthians 10:23 ESV: 23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
• How true is your faith? How genuine is your confession? How passionate are you to want truth to be the banner over your home?
It is easy to be a Christian on a Sunday morning and behind a pulpit. But how Christian are you at home?
Matthew 21:27 ESV: 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
• We do not know – In what they thought would be a wise response, they revealed their foolishness. These who came to question Jesus’ authority were people without knowledge. They were left empty and their response shows their lack of authority.
Christ who spoke and worked with such authority stood in stark contrast to these who could not answer his question.
So, Jesus establishes his superior authority by revealing the spiritual nakedness of the Jewish elite.
• And as John Piper pointed out, “Jesus does not deal with those who suppress the truth.”
Conclusion
Jesus who is the very embodiment of truth, does not deal with those who do not love the truth.
The spiritually mature person is one who has gone down further along the road of truth, those who are more aware of it and have aligned their lives to it.
• Anxiety – Trust
• Interests of others
• Dependence on God more than money
• Obey scripture more than culture
• Pray more
• Whose ambitions serve the Glory of God and the good of his Church
Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
2 Timothy 4:1–8 ESV
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Here, under the providence of God, we find ourselves having arrived at the long awaited Olivet Discourse as part of our expository series through the Gospel of Matthew.
In eight years of expository sermons, this would be the first time we unpack the subject of Eschatology (or the study of end times).
Now, although I’m eager to jump right into the fray of things, I believe that we must first lay the necessary groundwork in order to be able to build anything on top of it well.
This sermon and the next one will be a lot about context, background, what-to’s and what-not’s.
In any discourse, people come with their own set of assumptions, and it is often necessary to define terms and justify assumptions if we are to have hope of bearing any kind of fruit.
Problems with Eschatology
1. The subject of Eschatology is fraught with all kinds of confusions, and you often see people default to either of two extremes.
a. Either they want to have nothing to do with it.
I will speak of those who fall into this category a little further into the sermon.
b. Or they want to predict the fall of the stars and the next blood moon before the coming of the anti-Christ.
False teachers like John Hagee have created a large following by trying to predict the coming of Christ for years. Every red moon, he releases a new book.
If false teachers are wolves according to Scripture, men like Hagee are werewolves who come out every blood moon trying to usher in the eschaton.
The one thing you have to know about the end time is that every generation has been predicting it to happen for their own lifetime.
The anticipatory nature of this revelation can be quite addicting in a sense and many people are drawn to obsess over it in an unhealthy manner, and this has led many away from scripture into fantasy and conspiracy theories.
• The Montanist Movement (2nd Century): Montanism was a heretical movement that emerged in the 2nd century, led by a man named Montanus, a prophet who claimed to receive direct revelations from the Holy Spirit.
Montanus prophesied the imminent return of Christ and the establishment of the New Jerusalem in the town of Pepuza in Phrygia (modern-day Turkey). Followers of Montanism engaged in ascetic practices, claimed to receive ecstatic visions, and rejected the authority of the institutional church.
• The Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster (16th Century): In the 16th century, the city of Münster in Germany was briefly taken over by a radical Anabaptist sect known as the “Münster Anabaptists.” The leaders of the sect, Jan Matthys and Jan van Leiden, believed that Münster would become the New Jerusalem and that Christ’s return was imminent. They implemented strict religious laws and practices, including polygamy and the expulsion of non-believers.
They were eventually defeated by government forces and their leaders executed. The episode serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of apocalyptic fervor leading to extremism and violence.
• Millerite Movement (19th Century): The Millerite movement, led by William Miller in the 19th century, predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would occur in 1844 based on an interpretation of biblical prophecy. When this prediction failed to materialize, it led to what became known as the “Great Disappointment.” While many followers left the movement after the failed prophecy, some continued to hold on to their beliefs and formed various splinter groups, such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
• Harold Camping’s Predictions (21st Century): Harold Camping, a Christian radio broadcaster, made multiple predictions about the end of the world based on his interpretation of biblical numerology. In 2011, he predicted that the Rapture would occur on May 21, followed by the end of the world on October 21 of the same year. When these predictions failed to materialize, it led to widespread criticism and disappointment among his followers.
So, as you can see, throughout history the religious fervour around eschatology has allured many to slip into a false-Christianity, one that does not glorify God.
Now, neither of these extremes, the utter disregard for the subject and the abject addiction of it, are biblical. Neither the unhinged obsession over the subject, nor the proud ignorance of it.
And the reason that there is so much confusion around this subject has to do with the nature of mystery.
We’ll unpack more on that as we move along.
2. Most churches rightly see this doctrine as either a second-order or a third-order doctrine, and therefore opening the doors for fellowship among Christians who disagree on this subject.
But often times, such categorisation or de-prioritisation has the collateral effect of creating the false impression that second-order and third-order doctrines are entirely avoidable.
Everything in scripture is important. God wrote it down for a reason and you and I have no business disregarding anything in the Bible.
• A thing that is most difficult for people to harmonise here is the unity in fellowship that must be maintained in the midst of a clear divide in conviction.
People are not so aware about how Christians can agree to disagree on certain things while flourishing in a healthy way.
3. The ambiguity of the text in general. This circles back to the nature of mystery. As much as the Bible reveals to us about what is to come, God does so sufficiently and not exhaustively.
For example, the Bible promises us that Jesus will return, but it does not tell us of the hour or day of Christ’s return.
The Bible does not speak about the end times as clearly perhaps as it speaks about justification by faith alone or the deity of Christ.
God has reserved an element of mystery to the subject of eschatology on purpose. But what is revealed is sufficient and Christians ought to pursue that sufficiency.
I am a Postmillennial!
Now, I am a preacher who surveys the horizon of our future based on the prophetic message of God’s word, who does not see the nearing of what is known as the great tribulation.
I am one among you who does not await the millennial rule of Christ, the 1000 years of Christ’s reign as foretold in Revelation 20.
I am one among you who does not believe that the world is wasting away in corruption, in a steady decline till the Jesus’ second coming.
I am one among you who does not believe that the future of the world hangs on the events surrounding the nation of Israel.
This is because, I believe that the consistent interpretation of Scripture reveals to us that the great tribulation has already past in the year AD 70.
I do not await the millennial rule of Christ, because I believe that we are presently living in the millennial rule of Christ.
I believe that when I pray as the Lord taught us, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, this will be fulfilled in the here and now, ushering in through history, in God’s time, a world more and more sanctified by the Gospel – the Christianisation of the world.
I do not believe the Great Commission will fail in baptising nations unto Christ.
I am one among you who believes that the church has replaced national Israel as the true people of God, that the church is in all its essence the new-Israel.
I am in my conviction, a postmillennial. Some of you may be familiar with that term, and some of you may not be.
But as we begin this long awaited series on Eschatology (the study of the last things) as part of our expository series through the Gospel of Matthew, let me lay this out for you as plainly as I can.
You and I belong to an indoctrinating culture that has for the large part taught you that there is only one plausible view of the end times. That anything apart from imminent return of Jesus to rapture his church before the great tribulation, followed by the millennial rule of Christ; is a heresy.
Regardless of you denominational background, our cultural context has by and large had the same unified teaching on how the world would end.
Most Christians remain unaware of the diverse perspectives regarding the end times, let alone embrace them.
But they are wrong. There is more than one view of the end of time, that orthodox bible believing, born-again Christians have believed throughout history and continue to believe to this day.
And so our journey through Matthew 24, I hope will be at the very least a time of joyful learning and discovery.
What is Eschatology?
Eschatology is that branch of theology that deals with the study of the end times or the last things.
It is a subject wrought with theological debate and controversy. The reason for much of this debate has to do with the nature of prophecy. Because that is what we are dealing with.
The Greek word for the Book of Revelation is “Ἀποκάλυψις” (Apokalypsis), which translates to “Revelation” or “Unveiling.”
Theologians have interpreted the meaning of this unveiling and come to different views on how the world is going to come to an end.
Now, at this point many people will say that it is pointless to try and understand a subject that is open to so many interpretations. This takes us back to those first kind of people I spoke of earlier who consider discussions around this subject a waste of time.
But this would be a vain argument for two reasons,
i. There aren’t a gazillion interpretations. Reasonable analysis of Scripture at best renders a handful of interpretations.
ii. For a subject like Eschatology, the very word for Revelation is ‘unveiling’, not ‘obscuring’. When God unveils something, we ought not to be accusing him of obscuring.
The reason Christians should study and know about Eschatology has to do with the fact that God put the book of Revelation in Scripture. In other words, it is because God expects us to know, understand, teach and eagerly await his return.
How this series is structured
• Given the nature of this subject, I believe it to be prudent to take two weeks to lay the ground work that I believe is necessary before unpacking the Olivet discourse.
And in these two weeks, I want to talk about ‘Why Eschatology?’ and ‘How to approach the study of Eschatology’. We will do the first today and the second next week.
• Now, I want you to understand church, that this is a vast subject and it is not my intention to be exhaustive.
What this means is that it is highly possible, though not preferrable, that by the end of this series you may disagree with my position on this subject and hold to a different point of view and still be a member of this church.
Doug Wilson, who is a postmillennial, famously spoke of the end times theology as mid-air theology, because if he was wrong and Jesus did return now to rapture his people, he would be caught up in the clouds and would be more than happy to change his theological view mid-air.
Exegesis – Why Eschatology?
Why should we study the subject of the apocalypse? Apart from the few reasons I mentioned earlier, I wanted this Scripture portion in 2 Timothy 4 to weigh on your hearts.
I don’t want us to study this subject for any vain reason, but the central purpose for why I believe the revelation of the prophecy of the end times has been given to us. And we see it here in 2 Timothy 4.
2 Timothy 4:1 ESV
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
• The Apostle Paul issues a charge, a solemn command to his disciple Timothy, his spiritual son whom he dearly loved.
• And this charge he give sin the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. This is a trinitarian charge, an appeal to the Most High to bless this charge.
Paul charging Timothy in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus here is akin to God issuing the charge himself because in this picture, Paul is only working as the instrument of God.
• This God is judge of both the living and the dead. He is judge of past, present and future. All men in all history will stand before this judge.
• Now, this charge is also issued on the foundation of his appearing. The word appearing is talking about a fitting manifestation of Christ’s glory in his final appearing. What Christians refer to as the second-coming of Christ.
Paul is laying the context of his charge to Timothy. And the context is the triune God who will appear to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will be fully realised.
In view of this context, Paul lays this charge on Timothy.
To do what?
2 Timothy 4:2 ESV
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
• The preaching of the word then is an activity that is issued from an eschatological context. A preacher who does not bother with the appearing of Christ lays himself a different context than the one Scripture lays for him.
• He is to be ready in season and out of season. This is not a seasonal charge. It does not present itself in the summer and then fall off in the winter.
This constant readiness comes from a constant awareness of the second coming of Christ.
Timothy preached the word that would manifest himself again in his second coming. He preached in and out of season moving ever closer to the returning Christ.
• This is a charge of discipleship that covers more than just preaching. He is to preach, reprove, rebuke and exhort.
Spiritual discipline or godly correction has to come from an eschatological mindset. The appearing of Christ must be in the forefront of the mind that rebukes.
The more you study about the subject of Eschatology, it is interesting how pervasive it is, ingrained into the fabric of the Christian faith.
• He is to do all this with complete patience and teaching. That is very interesting don’t you think?
One would assume that the anticipatory nature of second coming should naturally make one more pushy or hasty. Yet, in this expectation of Christ’s return, Timothy is to exercise not some, or a little, but complete patience.
This, for me, does not comport with an imminent eschaton or an imminent return of Christ. That would require haste.
At the very least, in this text Paul does not urge an imminent return but rather urges all patience expecting a sure return.
2 Timothy 4:3–4 ESV
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
• This was a reality during Paul’s time. Why then does he say that the time is coming? I think he’s specifically talking about Timothy’s context as an elder in Ephesus.
I think this because this has been true not only of Paul’s time or Timothy’s time but of every time since, that people will not endure sound teaching. This is something to be expected.
• That people will not endure the fulfilment of Timothy’s charge. He is to preach the word that they would not endure.
And they would rather accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their passion, wandering off into myths.
Like Harold Camping and the many eschatological cults?
• A healthy eschatology is a thoroughly biblical eschatology, and man who truly preaches the word, and a people who love the truth that is preached, will all develop a healthy eschatology although they may differ with one another on many of the specifics.
But a people who reject the truth of the word preached, are those who reject truth surrounding the second coming of Christ.
They who reject Paul’s charge to Timothy because their itching ears want to hear something else, are those that will inevitably reject the eschatological context from which that charge was given.
2 Timothy 4:5 ESV
5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
• As for you – is a contrast that Paul now draws between those who reject sound doctrine and Timothy.
The charge continues.
• Be sober-minded. Sober mindedness is a result of orthodoxy. It comes from a cleaving to sound doctrine. A deviation from the word makes one delusional.
• Endure suffering. Is this not one of the most itches in people’s ears, of a promise of a false comfort that rejects the hard road of righteousness?
One of the charges that Paul gives to Timothy is to endure suffering. Not to escape it. And this endurance is born from the same eschatological context.
Much of the hope in a Christian’s suffering comes from the hope of Christ’s appearing.
• Evangelise. The work of an evangelist is to gather all to the appearing of Christ.
Few things are more affected than evangelism when it comes to the eschatological position one holds. We will see more of this next week.
• Fulfil your ministry. Timothy is to fulfil all that God has called him to by holding fast to the appearing of Christ.
2 Timothy 4:6–7 ESV
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
• For – the reason for this official charge by Paul has an added context. His time has come.
• This charge comes from one who has himself fulfilled the charge from Christ.
Fought the good fight – Paul beckons Timothy to fight like he fought, recognising the worthy or the good fight, and such a fight is fought in an eschatological context.
Finished the race – The race is run in an eschatological context
Kept the faith – The faith is kept in an eschatological context.
Now, if you feel that I’m stretching the text to fit the eschatological narrative, here is why I think Paul has the appearing of Christ in mind throughout this charge.
Here’s the next verse.
2 Timothy 4:8 ESV
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
• Henceforth – Paul concludes his charge with a view to the eschaton.
• A crown which the righteous judge will reward on that day. The reward of the righteous in the honour that Christ will bestow on all his children.
• This crown is given to all who what? – loved his appearing.
This appearing is not merely anticipated or taught. It is loved. It is treasured. It is hoped for.
Conclusion
When will Jesus return? When is his second coming? How can we love his appearing? How can we hope and live in the hope of his appearing? What does the future hold?
Unto these things, we will turn our minds in the coming weeks.
The intention of this series is not to be exhaustive but to unpack the manner and time of his appearing.
I will do this primarily from a postmillennial standpoint. That means that there will be a lot of questions that you may have, and we have made provision for that.
And I will try my best to address every one of them.
But in this journey, we are above all things, regardless of the timing and understanding of the events, we are all to love his appearing.
