Are You Ready?
Pastor Rod Thompson
Midland SDA Church
April 4, 2020
In the book of Matthew, chapter 21 Jesus makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Many times, the disciples and others had tried to make Him king and He wouldn’t allow it. He repeatedly said, my time has not yet come. But now on the 10th of Nisan (first Month of the Jewish calendar) Jesus not only allows them to see Him as the king but He sets it up. He presents Himself as the long-awaited Messiah and king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
He goes into the temple and for the next few days He is teaching the people and confronting the pharisee’s. In chapter 23 He gives His famous woes to the scribes and pharisee’s. No less than 7 times he says, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisee’s, hypocrites!
And then at the end of that chapter in verse 37-38 He says,
Matthew 23: 37-38 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are unwilling! See! Your house is left to you desolate.
Can you imagine in your minds eye the reaction of His disciples? He had just (days before) declared Himself their king and now He is alienating Himself from the religious leaders of their day. These are the ruling class of Israel.
I would imagine that there were some who where thinking to themselves - What is He doing? Why is He pushing the leaders of the nation away? If we are going to rise up against the Romans, we are going to need them. Why is He unnecessarily stirring up trouble?
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
God doesn’t always do things the way we think He should, does He?
So, you can imagine, as Jesus and the disciples are leaving the temple, they are blown away by His words. “Your house is left to you desolate.” The house of God was the pride and joy of the nation.
The Great Controversy, P25
Wealth, labor, and architectural skill had for more than forty years been freely expended to enhance its splendors. Herod the Great had lavished upon it both Roman wealth and Jewish treasure, and even the emperor of the world had enriched it with his gifts. Massive blocks of white marble, of almost fabulous size, forwarded from Rome for this purpose, formed a part of its structure; and to these the disciples had called the attention of their Master, saying, “See what manner of stones and what buildings are here!”
The disciples were trying to draw Jesus attention to the many blessings that God had bestowed upon His people.
And Jesus did what He had done so many times before, He cut right to the heart of the issue. He said in Matthew 24:2, the temple would be destroyed.
The disciples wanted to know when these things would take place. In their minds the destruction of the temple could mean only one thing. THE END OF THE WORLD.
But Jesus knowing the destruction of the temple and the end of the world was two different events. He masterfully blended the two into one great prophecy and He gave them the signs that would happen in the world right before the destruction of the temple and the end of the world.
Matthew 24: 6-8 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all of these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And their will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows.
When you and I look at these verses there may be a natural tendency to say haven’t we always had wars. All through history we see nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Haven’t there always been famines, pestilence and earthquakes in various places? And the answer is – Of course!
But the key in all of this is verse 8, which says, all of these are the beginning of sorrows.
I like the way the New American Standard says it – All of these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
So, what do we know about birth pains? We know that the closer you get to the delivery the greater the pains (sorrows) the increase in intensity and they get closer and closer together.
We’ve seen wars, we’ve seen earthquakes. We’ve seen famines, we’ve seen pestilences.
But we have never seen it like this before!
We are living in a time of overwhelming interest, aren’t we? How many of you were watching the fires that ravaged Australia?
(17.9 million acres) have been burned across Australia's six states -- an area larger than the countries of Belgium and Denmark combined. I heard it said that the fires were so hot that they created their own weather.
How many of you have been watching what’s going on in Africa? Merrit Kennedy of CNN reports –
The Horn of Africa, one of the world's most impoverished regions, is being ransacked by billions of tiny invaders.
Farmers look on in horror as desert locusts moving in vast cloud-like swarms darken the sky. The insect’s blast through fields of crops at an astonishing pace, decimating livelihoods in the process. The pests crossed the Gulf of Aden and arrived in Somalia and Ethiopia last year. They were spotted in Kenya about two months ago in what has become the worst infestation there in 70 years. The U.N. says the region is already vulnerable to food shortages, and it warns that the international community only has a small window to prevent "looming catastrophe."
"These things are voracious," says Keith Cressman, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's senior locust forecasting officer. A swarm the size of Manhattan can, in a single day, eat the same amount of food as everyone in New York and California combined, he says. Swarms of desert locusts more than three times the size of New York City — an estimated 192 billion insects — have been spotted in northeast Kenya.
And then there’s this question. How many are affected by the coronavirus? We are all affected
The world atlas reports - The sudden appearance of the coronavirus caught the world by surprise. Many factors are still unknown, and researchers are finding out new things about it every day. We still do not know the exact symptoms of the coronavirus, how fast it is spreading all over the world, and how it will eventually affect all of us.
Read Joel 1:2
Isn’t that exactly what we as a church have been saying is going to happen, for years now? It’s not that we have never had wars or earthquakes, famines or pestilence. It’s that it has never been like this before. This is unprecedented.
And by doing this Joel is essentially stressing the unusual significance of His message
The book of Joel is a fascinating book. Even to this day we don’t know exactly at what time in history that Joel wrote his prophecy. If you go back and look at the various writers of the bible you will see that many of them tell you when they were writing.
1. Isaiah 1:1 says he is writing in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah
2. Jeremiah 1:1 says in the days of Josiah the king of Judah
3. Ezekiel 1:1 says in the fifth year of Jehoichins captivity (Babylonian captivity)
4. Daniel 1:1 says in the third year of the reign of Jehoikim
And it’s not just the major prophets that do that
5. Hosea 1:1 says, In the days of Usiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Contemporary of Isaiah)
6. Amos 1:1 says, In the days of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam the King of Israel
7. So does Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah
But Joel doesn’t do that. And I think there’s a good reason for that. The fact that we know so little about Joel means that the primary focus of his writing is not on his person, but on his prophetic message.
The writing of Joel can be divided into two parts. The first part provides a description of a terrible locust invasion, apparently accompanied by a drought.
Read Joel 1:4
Joel is talking here about total destruction, right? What one doesn’t get the other one does. There is no relief.
Now there are two ways of thinking about this locust invasion. There are some bible scholars who say that this is a description of a real, literal, no kidding swarm of locusts (like they are dealing with in Africa right now).
This would then be a literal view of the text.
And then there are others who say no - we need to look at this from an allegorical point of view. In this view the locusts are symbolically representing an invading army and the judgments of God. And they get that from -------
Read Joel 1: 6-7
So how should we look at this locust invasion? Was it real and literal or was it allegorical and symbolic? I don’t think it really matters. But what does matter is that Joel see’s this invasion as an opportunity to talk about something far more import.
Whether it was a natural disaster (a real literal pestilence) or a symbolic reference to invading armies, notice what Joel says,
Read Joel 1:11 – 14
What Joel is saying here is that this plague is ( in reality ), is pointing to a spiritual crisis.
All through the Old Testament you can see that the children of Israel were constantly getting off track. And what methods did God use to try and get His people to return to Him?
The book of Judges has a very good concentration of examples. (Hold your place in Joel)
Read Judges 2: 1-3
Read Judges 3:7-8
Read Judges 4: 1-2
In Leviticus 26 you have the promise of blessings and cursing’s and notice what God says
Read Leviticus 26:15-20
You get the point, right? From this we should be able to see that whether it was natural disasters or invading armies these are the methods that God uses to try and get His people back on track.
And Joel is essentially saying this plague is the result of a spiritual crisis in the land. So, he challenges the lay people. He says to the farmers – you should be ashamed.
He challenges those who are religious to exert spiritual leadership by humbling themselves before the Lord in self-denial and repentance and by summoning all the people to cry out to the Lord.
And then I want you to notice what Joel says in ----
Read Joel 1:15
Here we see that this destructive plague of locusts serves as a foreshadowing of the soon coming Day of the Lord (2nd coming).
I’m not going to take the time to do it, but you can go to Joel 2: 1-17 and you can see Joel describing what that Day of the Lord is going to be like.
But here is the point. The book of Joel was written for our time. And that plague of locusts was foreshadowing the things that are coming upon us now.
And in view of the fact that the great day of the Lord is hastening upon us, and there are but few precious moments of probation that remain – Joel is telling us that it behooves us (the church of God) to rouse from our spiritual lethargy and seek repentance and humiliation.
Prophets and Kings P537 In talking about Joel 1:15-18 EGW says,
The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
Then in the second part of Joel we are shown the promise of divine restoration and favor of God
Read Joel 2:18-20
Here we see that God promises that He is going to restore all that the Wars and earthquakes and famines and pestilances have devoured. He is going to punish the one who is really behind it all. But before He does that notice verse 23
Read Joel 2:23
I want you to notice that God has the solution to the problem. And all of those that prepare for it will receive the latter rain.
Testimonies for Ministers p507
Many have in a great measure failed to receive the former rain. They have not obtained all the benefits that God has thus provided for them. They expect that the lack will be supplied by the latter rain. When the richest abundance of grace shall be bestowed, they intend to open their hearts to receive it. They are making a terrible mistake. The work that God has begun in the human heart in giving His light and knowledge must be continually going forward. Every individual must realize his own necessity. The heart must be emptied of every defilement and cleansed for the indwelling of the Spirit. It was by the confession and forsaking of sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The same work, only in greater degree, must be done now. Then the human agent had only to ask for the blessing, and wait for the Lord to perfect the work concerning him. It is God who began the work, and He will finish His work, making man complete in Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters as we look at these things happening in the world around us we see a great enemy at work. But we also see the hand of God. Jesus is trying to gather His people
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
God doesn’t think like you and me. He allows difficulty to come into our lives so that we will turn our hearts to Him.
You might say to me Pastor Rod, I’ve accepted Jesus into my life, I am saved, and I am being saved. And you may be right, but I want you to notice what the true and faithful witness says our true condition is.
Revelation 3: 17 Because you say, “I am rich, have become (spiritually) wealthy, and in need of nothing – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
It’s so easy for us to look at this verse and generalize it and say this is the church. But friends you are the church. We must take this verse personally. Jesus is saying to me, I am spiritually poor, I’ve got my sites set on the things of the world and not Him, I have no righteousness of my own and I am naked. I am blind to my true condition.
But thank God He doesn’t leave us there.
Read Revelation 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed (in the judgment that’s going on right now); and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
That we will humble ourselves and pray. Daniel saw that the time was almost up for their captivity, so he began to pray and he said we have sinned, we have committed inequity, we have done wickedly, we have rebelled. We have departed from your precepts, we have not heeded the voice of your prophets.
Notice that Daniel included himself in because he understood that there is none who are righteous – no not one
I also want you to notice
Joel 2:23 He will cause the rain to come down for you – the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month
I want you to notice that this year the month of Nissan (first month in the Jewish calendar) started nine days ago on the 26th of March
I ask you the question – Could it be that God is getting ready to pour out His spirit in the latter rain power. Could it be within the next 20 days.
Now I’m not a profit, nor the son of a profit. But I ask you the question
Are we ready?
I’m not trying to unnecessarily stir up trouble. It could be next year or 5 or 10 years from now. But what if the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out in the next 10 days?