Sermon Snippet – A Short Sermon Not Ripped from the Headlines
INTRODUCTION – We can trust God and His Word. When significant world events occur, we seek information through various forms of media, for we want to be informed people. However, we will find more than news in the Bible – we will find answers.
1. THE WORD OF GOD DETAILS THE KIND OF PEOPLE WHO WILL REBEL AGAINST HIM AT THE END
II Timothy 3:1-5 is a distressing passage. “In the last days” (verse 1), the vile evil of mankind will dive to new depths of depravity. Verse 3, for example, speaks of people “without natural affection.” Certainly the slaughter of innocent infants is perversely unnatural, whether it be by aberrant, abhorrent abortionists or Hebrew-hating Hamas Hitlerites (or, also, Hebrew-hating Harvard Hitlerites). Matthew 18:1-7 is Jesus’ commentary on this issue. May God be praised, and sinners be warned.
2. THE WORD OF GOD DISCUSSES THE PLACES WHERE THESE KINDS OF PEOPLE WILL DOMINATE AT THE END
Ezekiel 38:1-6 directs our attention to the areas from which a final assault on Israel will come. Nations may rise, fall, or merge, but these areas include present-day Russian (“Magog”), Turkey (“Meshech and Tubal” and “Gomer”), Iran (“Persia” – Afghanistan and Pakistan were also part of Persia at that time), “Ethiopia” (which also comprises Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia), “Libya,” and the area of the Syrian-Turkish border (“Togarmah”). Islam is the dominant religion in these regions (even in Russian, where it has surpassed the Eastern Orthodox church in the number of adherents). Of course, the Islamic religion did not even exist until more than a thousand years after Ezekiel’s precise prophecy. All of these facts about specific places (especially given Iran’s direct involvement in the Hamas attack on Israel: civilians) are not ripped from today’s headlines. No, they were written down over 2500 years ago in the Bible.
3. THE WORD OF GOD DELINEATES THE MARTYRDOM OF JEWISH CHRISTIANS AT THE END
Revelation 20:4 is a glorious promise of the resurrection of those who are killed during the Tribulation because they followed Jesus. Many of them are Jewish (see Zechariah 13:9 and Revelation 7:1-8; 11:1-12; 12:1-6; 14:1-5). The grisly detail of the mode of their murders is eye-catching: they “were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.” Cynics can no longer scoff at this description as being anachronistic.
CONCLUSION – This is not a political message. Rather, it is a reminder that we can fully trust the Word of God. We do not know when this prophesied end will come: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36). However, we can be certain that the predicted end will come exactly as God has told us. A wise person will call upon Jesus as Savior right now, for “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2b).