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BEHOLD, HE COMES! #13
DON’T WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND
Floating around in my faith community about 30 years
ago was a gripping true story entitled Behind Barbed Wire. Christian missionaries
John and Olga Oss were living in Japan when World War II began; suddenly
they and many other Americans found themselves interned in hastily constructed
prison camps. It was a wild melting pot with Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians,
Adventists, Methodists – all co-existing in these huge, ramshackle dormitories.
And these were people who didn’t always agree on whether or not you should
baptize babies, or whether the pre-trib or the post-trib view of the millennium
was the correct one!
By the way, it wasn’t just missionaries in there; preachers found themselves
bunking next to diplomats, business people, entertainers, alcoholics.
And for quite a time, these people had to contend with the challenges
of prison life. The food was rancid, sometimes far below what the Geneva
Conventions required. The prison commandant was a short little man with
an explosive temper and a brutal “bedside manner.” There were one or two
nail-biting confrontations where the Christian missionaries in the camp
actually had to stand up to him and say: “No more. You will not treat
the innocent people in this place as you have been.” Amazingly, he did
back down a couple of times in the face of their united righteousness.
But then came the day. The surreptitious headlines slipping through the
barbed wire and into the camp had been hinting that the end was near.
The Allied forces were on their way. Surrender was imminent. And then
it happened. Huge American bombers flew low over the camp, the Stars and
Stripes gleaming on the fuselage. The pilots looked down at the sea of
upturned faces, and dipped their wings as if to say: “Just hang on, fellow
citizens. We’re going to get you out of there.” The rest of the invading
forces didn’t actually get there for a day or two yet, but the dipping
of those wings told it all. The guards knew it. The commandant knew it.
And the prisoners certainly knew freedom was coming. Their salvation had
arrived.
I suppose our hearts are rather tender just now thinking about the fates
of POWs. I’m sure you’ve been praying about that nightly, just as I have.
Most of us can only imagine what it must be like to be held against your
will in alien territory, not knowing your future. Wondering if you will
ever be home again with those you love. And for the Christian, there is
a very real sense where we, too, are in a foreign land. Oh, you may be
living in quite some comfort on this Wednesday, and I honestly cannot
complain either. But if you’re a believer who is looking for the Second
Coming of Jesus, then, as the old song goes, “This World Is Not [Your]
Home.”
I think about how our recent courageous POWs must now relate to this grand
old verse found in Hebrews 11 – the wonderful “Faith Chapter.” Here’s
verses 13 and then 16:
“They admitted that they were aliens and strangers
on earth. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly
one.”
Just one line before this, in verse 13, the author
of Hebrews confesses that so many of God’s saints never do live to see
the rescuing aircraft swoop low and dip its wings in triumph.
“They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,” he writes.
And this comes right down to what we want to think
about today. How can you and I be in that number? How can we not be deceived?
How can we make sure we’re not “left behind”?
Using that familiar, best-selling expression reminds me of the challenging
time we recently faced while preparing for a live, satellite-uplinked
set of prophecy sermons I was invited to preach back in April of 2003.
And our opening-night sermon was entitled “ARMAGEDDON: Cosmic Battle of
the Ages.” Which, you probably notice, is the same title used by gifted
writers Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins for #11 in their fictional series
on last-day events. And my point is this: in our study of prophecy and
the time-lines of Daniel and Revelation, we don’t come to all of the same
conclusions as the writing team of Left Behind. (Speaking of pre-trib
and post.) Our take on the secret rapture is different; our understanding
of the nature of Armageddon is not entirely in harmony with theirs; we
view the nature of the millennium in a unique way. So how can we know
that when the rescuing plane dips its wings, or when Jesus Christ returns
in the clouds to take us home, we won’t be fatally deceived?
Well, friend, let me give an answer the best way I can . . . and with
a most unusual illustration. These days, with the Internet connecting
our globe the way it does, you can click a button and get the most delightful
slices of life from anywhere in the world. David was telling me that as
he was helping to study through this “Second Coming” series, he went to
Yahoo’s search engine and soon was listening to FM radio from his hometown
of Bangkok. But a few weeks ago, Phil Draper was calling us into his office
for a TV commercial downloaded from Japan. A young mama is about to give
birth; the nurses and doctors are scurrying around; there’s Lamaze breathing
and anxious relatives out in the waiting room. And right at the crucial,
Polaroid moment, as that new, wrinkled-up life emerges into the world,
all of a sudden the BABY whips out a camera and snaps a picture of everyone
in the delivery room . . . using gold-standard Fuji film, of course. It
was the cleverest thing you ever saw, and of course it made us all think.
How do an expectant mom and dad make sure they get to the hospital on
time? They don’t know for sure when the baby’s going to come. They know
it’s “soon”; there are certain warning signs every mother has been briefed
on. But it’s true that “no man knoweth the day nor the hour.”
And the answer is to simply be prepared all the time. To have the hospital
tote bag by the side of the bed 24/7, the car gassed up, the car keys
handy, the cell phone juiced up, and the route to the OB department memorized.
That way, no matter when the water breaks, or the contractions start coming
90 seconds apart, you’ll be ready.
And it’s the same with the Second Coming. What does it take to be “ready”?
It’s very elementary, really. You simply need to be in relationship with
Jesus Christ. That’s your passport. You and I are in a prison camp right
now, but we have that document in our pocket. We’re sons and daughters
of the living God. And if you’re that way always, then when that great
rescuing 747 dips its wings and comes in for a landing, you’re going to
be getting on board.
And let me say this. Armageddon may well be a full-scale, global military
confrontation involving all the great armies of the earth. It might be
centered in the Middle East or it might not. The terrors of Revelation
16 might involve missiles and smart bombs and snipers in every corner
of the globe. And if so, what is the recourse of the Christian? To be
in relationship with Jesus Christ. To be faithful in true worship of the
God “[who] made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
What if you’re persecuted or killed in that physical conflict? Well, you
know, that’s all right. Because the next thing you’ll see is the face
of Jesus.
On the other hand, what if the Left Behind scenarios are wrong? What if
Armageddon is instead a spiritual war, where fallen religious coalitions
try to coerce your worship, as the Bible seems to describe in Revelation
13? What if powerful leaders who have gone astray want you to abandon
your innocent Christian faith and compromise your obedience to God’s commands?
What if THAT is Armageddon? What’s your battle plan then?
I would say that it is to be found in relationship with Jesus Christ.
To be faithful in true worship of the true God, the one who “made heaven,
and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
Do you get my point? Friend, we don’t have to worry about being deceived
or being “left behind,” as long as we’re faithful in those two things:
friendship of the real Jesus, and worship of the true God. It’s a bit
scary in Revelation to read the warnings about false worship and false
christs and “come out of Babylon, My people.” But really, if you and I
are sincere and steadfast in worshiping the risen Jesus Christ, and God
the Creator – which is TRUE worship – we don’t need to be afraid that
we’ll be found in false worship when the great day comes. It’s really
as simple as that.
It’s all right to read these heavy prophecy books; I’m doing it too. And
a solid understanding of last-day events can be both inspiring and comforting.
But the saving gospel of Jesus is plain enough for every citizen of this
world to embrace, not just those with Ph.D.’s in eschatology. Acts 16:31
says what it has always said and always will:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou SHALT be
saved.”
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