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Part 3 of 8
Run To Win, Week 3
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Jesus makes this clear in Revelation 22:12 when he says, "Look, I am coming." This is not a myth or a metaphor—it's a promise. In John 14:3, Jesus uses wedding terminology to describe his second coming, telling his disciples: "I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am."
It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. Just as gravity works whether you believe in it or not, Jesus is coming back. This is an indisputable truth of the faith.
To understand what Jesus meant, we need to understand how betrothal worked in first-century Judaism. When a man wanted to marry a woman, he would first negotiate with her father, paying what was called a bride price or mohar. If successful, the couple would enter into betrothal—similar to but different from modern engagement.
Once betrothed, the groom would say to his bride: "I'm going to leave you now and go back to my father's house, and I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am, there you may also eventually be." He would then leave and begin construction, adding rooms to his father's house to prepare for the wedding.
The bride would not be given a specific date for his return. Only the father would know when the construction was complete and when the groom could return. Because of this uncertainty, the bride had to remain in a constant state of expectation and readiness.
When the groom's father finally approved the work and said, "Go get your bride," the groom would gather his friends and blow a loud trumpet—called a chauffear—in the middle of the city. This signaled his unexpected return. He would then whisk away his bride for the wedding feast, and they would be together forever.
In the Bible, the church is called the bride of Christ, and Jesus is called the groom or husbandman. When Jesus came the first time and went to the cross, he was redeeming his bride by paying the bride price—the mohar—at the cost of his entire life. He was redeeming us from the curse of the law.
After his resurrection, Jesus looked at the church and said, "I am going to prepare a place for you. In my father's house there are many rooms." He is in heaven right now preparing that place.
One day, the last trumpet will sound. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, Jesus will crack the skies, return, and take his bride home with him forever. Every eye will see him. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. He will wipe away every tear from every eye and make all things new.
"You're not suffering from anything that a good resurrection will not fix."
For those in Christ Jesus, when he returns, he will make all things new. He doesn't just make new things—he makes all things new.
Christians sometimes debate over disputable things instead of uniting around indisputable things. Some argue about the order of end-times events: Are you premillennial or postmillennial? Pre-tribulation rapture or post-tribulation? These are details worth studying, but they should never divide us.
"Knowledge puffs up, love builds up."
Lake Point Church will unite around what is indisputable: He is coming back. It's going to be awesome. That's what we stand on together.
In Revelation 22:12, Jesus also says, "I am coming soon." He doesn't give us the second—he doesn't tell us the exact day or hour.
In Matthew 24, Jesus was clear: "About that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son. Only the Father knows."
This means nobody can figure out when Jesus is returning—despite what some have claimed. A NASA engineer once published 88 Reasons Jesus Is Going to Return in 1988. When Jesus didn't return, he published another book: 89 Reasons He's Going to Return in 1989. If someone claims to have calculated the exact day and is trying to convince you to sell your house or give away your savings, they are lying to you.
Consider this illustration: When parents leave their children home alone, they might respond in two ways when asked, "When are you coming back?"
Sometimes they give a specific time: "7:30." If they do, the children tend to live recklessly until about 8 minutes before, then quickly clean up.
But sometimes parents simply say, "Won't be long" or "Soon." When parents don't give a specific time, children behave differently. They're more careful and thoughtful throughout the day.
Jesus does the same thing. If he gave us the exact date, we would live recklessly until that moment, then try to clean up our lives at the last minute. We would miss our opportunity to move heaven and earth to get more people into heaven and keep them out of hell.
"If you stay ready, you don't got to get ready."
By saying "soon" without giving a specific date, Jesus promotes readiness and discourages idleness. He wants us living with urgency and purpose every day, not just scrambling at the end.
When Jesus's disciples asked for at least some indication of when he would return, he responded: "Okay, I'm going to give you some signs. When you see these things happen, then you're going to know it's going to come really soon."
When Jesus's disciples asked for at least some indication of when he would return, he gave them signs to watch for. Jesus used the analogy of pregnancy and birth pangs—contractions that start slowly but increase in frequency and intensity the closer you get to delivery. When you see these signs, you know it's coming soon.
Jesus said that right before his coming, there would be an increase in travel. Until about 130 years ago, the farthest someone could travel in a day was 20 to 30 miles—which is why old gas stations in Texas are spaced at 20 to 30 mile increments along old roads. That was the distance someone could travel on horseback in a day.
Then the railroad was invented. Then automobiles. But in the 1960s, commercial air travel metastasized. Today, you are living in the first generation in all of human history where you could walk off this stage, drive to DFW, buy a plane ticket, and literally be anywhere on the globe before the end of the day. Jesus said, "Right before I return, there will be an increase in travel."
Jesus also said there would be an increase in knowledge right before the time of the end. In 1982, researchers began studying the "knowledge doubling curve." Until the year 1900, the amount of knowledge available to humankind doubled every 100 years. By the end of World War II, it was doubling every 25 years. Today, you're living in what we literally call the information age. In 2022 and 2023, when AI metastasized and became publicly available, the rate accelerated even more. Right now, the amount of knowledge available to humankind doubles on average every two months.
The Bible seems to make clear that right before Jesus's return, there will be something like a one-world economic system. Revelation 13 describes a beast—a symbolic representation of what seems to be an antichrist figure—that causes all people, both great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to be marked on the right hand and on the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless they have the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.
This indicates there will be a one-world governance system tied to a one-world economic system where you will not be able to participate in commerce without taking some form of identification.
There are only two times in the Bible that globalism is either attempted or enacted. The first is at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, when humankind gathers together and unifies in rebellion against God. God immediately confuses their languages and scatters them into nations. The second time is here in Revelation 13. Both times, Satan is the one doing it.
Conversely, God establishes nations. Acts 17 says that God is the one who establishes nations and the boundaries of their dwelling places. Here's the big idea: In the Bible, Satan does globalism. God does nations.
Why? Because God knows that all of us are born with a sin nature. We were born sinners by both nature and choice. God knew that if mankind ever united itself, it wouldn't unite toward righteous purposes and goodness. Mankind will only unite itself in rebellion, violence, and wickedness against God. So God established nations as a natural check and balance against our ability to unite in violence, wickedness, and rebellion against him.
In Revelation 13, Satan unites the world in a globalistic form of governance that prohibits people from taking part in economic commerce unless they engage in the globalism. Right now, over 130 countries are experimenting with something called CBDCs—central banking digital currencies. This is different from Bitcoin; this is something under the control of a government.
Christians have historically always been wary of governments. One way to read the Bible is as a series of stories of God versus government. The founders of our nation—largely Christian men with Christian convictions—made our founding documents not about how to protect the government from the people, but about how to protect people from the government. This is because Christians know how it ends.
This is why Christians should cast a wary eye at organizations trying to exert global influence across all nations—organizations like the WHO, the World Economic Forum, ESG. Recently, the Prime Minister of the UK literally enacted what's called a digital ID in the EU where you must take a digital form of identification, and if you won't, you can't get a job or take part in commerce. It's like someone literally said, "How do I do Revelation 13?" and this is what they're doing.
Christians historically have been wary of big powerful governments because we know how this thing ends. And can I just say this: The same people who will laugh at you and mock you for believing in an all-good, all-powerful God think that if they just made the government all-powerful, it'll be all good. That's insanity.
Matthew 24:9 says: "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and they will kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake."
Right before Jesus returns, there will be a rise in Christian persecution. Some of you might think getting lit up on Instagram is persecution, but nothing compares to what our brothers and sisters in places like Nigeria are experiencing right now.
In the last 100 years, more Christians have been killed for their faith than in every previous century combined. Right now in Nigeria, 72,000 Nigerian brothers and sisters have been slaughtered for their faith in Jesus Christ since 2008. 18,000 churches have been raised to the ground. I'm watching videos of men, women, children, and infants slaughtered for their faith in Christ. Bodies are being thrown in mass graves. Pastors are shown kneeling deep in their corpses, begging people on camera to care about what's happened to them.
These are videos of these people—their churches burned to the ground—showing up the next day in the rubble offering hymns to God because they want to worship their King. And many people dismiss it as "just political infighting." No. It's radical violent Islam. That's what it is. And nobody wants to say it because it's considered taboo. But when Jesus returns, Muhammad will bend his knee to King Jesus in front of the entire world.
This is not a game. This matters.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul says: "Let no one deceive you in any way because that day, the return of Christ will not come until the falling away comes first."
The Greek word translated "falling away" is where we get the English word "apostasy." Here's the difference: A lost person has never been on team Jesus; they've always been with the world against team Jesus. An apostate person once said, "I'm on team Jesus," then left team Jesus and now sides with the world against team Jesus.
Jesus says that right before he returns, there will be a mass apostasy. In my generation—I'm what they call a geriatric millennial, which is harsh to my feelings—in Europe, the United States, and Canada, more people have walked away from the faith in my generation than in any other time in church history.
There are little rumors of revival happening right now, but we have definitely seen this apostasy happen.
We live in a time where the Bible predicts that people will not put up with sound teaching. They will hate it. They have itching ears. Everywhere they go, they just want you to affirm and approve of what they're doing. And they will not put up with clear Bible teaching.
Right now, our culture says "discover yourself." The gospel says deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow him. When people come into the church and say, "You're not going to try to change me, are you?"—yes. That's exactly why we're here. We're not missing NFL pregame just because we wanted to walk here and sit. We're here to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The whole goal is to be changed.
It's not just individual Christians either. We're in an era where some churches have become so seeker-sensitive—so sensitive to not offending seekers—that they've become insensitive to what offends the Holy Spirit. They care more about not offending people who hate God than about not offending the Holy Spirit. What offends the Holy Spirit is a refusal to honestly say what he has said in his word.
People will sometimes walk into the church and ask, "You're not going to try to change me, are you?" Yes. That's exactly why we're all here. We're not giving up NFL pregame just to sit in a building. We're here to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. The whole goal is to be changed.
This isn't just about individual Christians—it's about the church as a whole. We're living in an era where some churches have become so seeker-sensitive—so afraid of offending visitors—that they've actually become insensitive to what offends the Holy Spirit. They care more about not offending people who hate God than about not offending the Holy Spirit.
What offends the Holy Spirit is a refusal to honestly say what he has said in his word. We have churches where everyone is welcome except Jesus, and everything is tolerated except the clear teaching of Scripture.
There are large churches in cities like Dallas that are painting pride flags on the stairs into their buildings. Jesus would say to them, "Woe to you. It would be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for you. If they had seen and heard what you have seen and heard, if they had access to the revelation you have access to, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. Woe to you, synagogues of Satan." You are cheering people onto a wide path that leads them to hell.
We're living in an era where Jesus predicted a mass apostasy. People get up and walk out angrily while I'm preaching, and I don't care—because the only thing that's not okay anymore is somebody opening their Bible and teaching what it actually says.
