IS THE END NEAR?

Over the years there have been comic strips and even movies and television shows with the old man and the placard announcing that “The end is near.”  It is the end of the world as we know it according to the placard and whether you believe in God or not it makes you stop and think.  In our world today the question might be asked by you or someone you know, “Is the end of the world near?”  And the answer is – I/we don’t really know.

Jesus said it pretty clearly in Matthew 24:14 when He was being asked by His disciples if the end of the world as they knew it was ending.  He told them and us when the end will come: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (ESV).  There it is.  The end of the world will come when all nations have had the gospel of Jesus Christ preached in them.  Apparently this has not happened yet so the world has not ended.

The Son of God told us that “no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son (in His human nature), but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36 ESV).  Later Jesus says; “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44 ESV).  Followers of Jesus must be ready at all times for the imminent return of Jesus Christ!

How do we, as followers of Jesus, get ready for His return?  We can take one major clue from what Jesus reference in the three verses.  His gospel is to be proclaimed throughout the whole world and then the end will come; we are to carry out the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 in making disciples of all nations.  We must be telling people about Jesus every opportunity that confronts us and that is on a daily basis.  Whether it is by working extremely hard and well at our job or treating people with kindness or sharing what Jesus did on our behalf we have an opportunity each day to carry out the most important mission ever given to mankind.  It is the church, which is the Bride of Christ that carries out this mission and in many parts of the world it is taking place.

We must also be praying that God will send out workers into that Great Commission, which is also called the Harvest by Jesus in the Scripture.  Matthew 9:35-38 tells us: “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (ESV).  Jesus is going to all the cities and villages that His Father wanted Him to enter and preach His good news and He was backing His teaching up with miracle upon miracle.  But it was what He said to His disciples that really stand out in this passage.  In essence He said that the harvest field is huge and there is not enough workers to enter into the harvest so ask, plead, beg the Master of the harvest to send out more workers that the job might get finished sooner rather than later.

Jesus sets the example by going to all the places He did and then He invites us along with Him to proclaim the good news of His coming.  If we really believed what Jesus said here all His followers would pray this.  The conclusion is that if all prayed this way then it could be that all of us would be candidates for going into the harvest.  But wait, we are all in the harvest and if we are all in the harvest then we best be working as if the field is ripe for harvest.  We are the fulfillment of our own prayers about the harvest and all followers of Jesus live in the harvest field and thus we ought to be harvesting right here and right now.  Not one follower of Jesus is exempt from this Great Commission that Jesus laid out for us prior to ascending back to the Father.

Maybe my first step, your first step is to get alone before the Father and allow Him to change our hearts to be in line with His.  We need to have our heart broken with that which breaks the heart of God.  The world desperately needs hope and that hope is in Jesus of whom we are to take His message to the harvest which is before us and we are in the midst of right now.  The most useful you can be right away is to be broken before Him so that you can be of use to the Master for His great and eternal work.

Thanks to our Guest Contributor:

Pastor Ray Peters

Harvest Alliance Church