Clearing Up the End Times Confusion

The Anxiety of End-Times Speculation

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.

Alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 25, verses 1 through 13. Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps, went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, five were wise.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, Here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going.

Out.

But the wise answered, saying, Well, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. This is the gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus. The end of the world creates all kinds of anxiety in people, especially if you like listen to or watch prophetic YouTube channels. I mean, this year alone, there was a great big solar eclipse here in the United States.

And apparently on September 23rd, the great sign of Revelation 12 appeared in the heavens. But no one was able to see it because it was the middle of the day. But it's all important stuff. And when we think about the end of the world, we think about, well, you know, the rapture.

We think about the beast, the dragon, the whore, the seven mountains, and it creates.

All kinds of, right?

It does.

In fact, one of the bands I listened to, still listen to, back in the 80s, the prophetic culture band known as REM, they had lyrics to a song that went like this. That's great. It starts with an earthquake, birds, snakes, and aeroplanes.

And Lenny Bruce is not afraid. I have the hurricane. Listen to yourself turn. World serves its own needs. Don't misserve your own needs. Speed it up a notch. Speed, grunt, no strength. The latter starts to clatter with a fear of height.

It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine. You're thinking, what on earth is Pastor doing? There's no clarity here.

There's just confusion.

I don't know if you guys noticed this, but our text seemed to be a little confusing today. Did you notice that Amos was saying, why are you looking forward to the day of the Lord? Well, the apostle Paul, writing to the church in Thessalonica, says, comfort each other with these words, talking about the end of the world.

And there's Jesus talking about virgins. What do virgins have to do with anything? This is all really confusing and it's creating anxiety. I don't know what to do. Well, let's walk back through our texts, shall we?

I think we'll get a little bit of clarity and we're going to understand that the end of the world is not one of these things that really should create anxiety in anybody. If you understand what God's word says, there are a lot of people out there who misspeak and teach falsely regarding the end of the world, thinking that they've cracked some kind of eschatological code, have finally once and for all solved the great mysteries and riddles of the book of Revelation.

And they sell lots and lots of books, but really create all kinds of anxiety. And you're going to find that our text today actually creates some comfort. So, Amos chapter 5, it begins at verse 18 in our text today.

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him. Wow, that's an interesting picture, by the way.

I mean, that's like some really good comedy right there. Some fellow's walking down a path, he's out in the wilderness somewhere, and out comes.

A lion.

And, of course, he hoofs it, runs for his life, barely gets away from the claws and.

The teeth of the lion.

And no sooner does he think, whew, I'm in safety, he turns the corner and runs smack into a grizzly bear and thus perishes. That's what the day of the Lord is like, at least how Amos is describing it.

But we better ask ourselves this question. To whom is Amos writing? To whom is he writing? Because you'll notice that the day of judgment, the day of God's return, is being described in terms of calamity for whomever Amos is writing to.

Well, let's back up just a smidge in the context, shall we? Verse 11 of chapter 5, same chapter, the Lord speaking to the prophet Amos, To errant Israel, writes, therefore, because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone and have not dwelt in them.

You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins. You who afflict the righteous, you who take a bribe and turn aside the needy in the gate.

Hmm, that's who he's being written to. Fellows who are impenitent believers, impenitent sinners is a better way to put it. Impenitent sinners who, well, they're wealthy, they care nothing about the poor, they oppress the righteous.

You also learn from previous chapters that they are idolaters, and syncretists. People who are this way, even though they go to church, should not expect that the day of judgment will go well for them.

Remember, we are all sinners, and we are here to hear God's law to convict us of our sins, to hear the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins, and trust in him for our salvation, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance in good works towards each other.

There are, it is not a good work to oppress the righteous, to withhold help from the needy, and so this is a prophecy of judgment. God has had enough. I mean, you know, it's like when your mother, remember when your mom would say, I have had.

Enough.

I knew I was in trouble when my mom would belt out those words, or use my middle name, whichever came first. If the two were together, I'm doomed, right?

Christopher Michael Rosebro, I have had enough, right?

Then you're looking for a closet to hide under the dirty laundry, and not show your face for a long time. See, God has had enough in our text in Amos with these Israelites, who although they are religious people by showing up to the different feasts and things like that, they have absolutely no faith, they are impenitent, they are wicked sinners, and they continue to oppress God's people.

That's the context. So, woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord, God is asking them. It's darkness and not light, and you can say it's darkness and not light for you.

As if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of Yahweh darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it?

Well, the answer to the question is, depends. It depends. Then God says these terrible words to these impenitent sinners, I hate, I despise your feasts. Now, keep in mind, they aren't their feasts, they're God's feasts, are they not?

God is the one who commanded Israel to observe certain feasts, like the feast of Passover, the feast of Booths, the feast of Pentecost, things of this nature. And God is saying, those aren't my feasts, those are yours, because you're coming and you're going through the motions, but you have no faith and you're impenitent and you're wicked, right?

He says, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies, but God is the one who's commanded these assemblies. And even though you offer me your burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept.

Them.

And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not even look upon them.

Wow.

As you all like to say, ufda, this is a mess. Take away from me the noise of your songs, the Lord says to these people, to the melody of your harps, I will not listen. This is so bad that these people, when they get together and sing their praises, remember scripture says that God is enthroned on the praises of his people, but these people are not God's people.

They don't believe in him. They don't trust in him. They haven't repented. They are self-righteous, rich, lazy oppressors. And God says, even when your praise band gets up and starts singing, I'm not even going to listen to it.

I'm going to change the channel. And then he says these words, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. The thing that they can depend on on the day of the Lord is God's justice.

God saying to them, depart from me, I never knew you. Harsh words. And yet that reveals again, God's disposition towards sinners who are impenitent, who arrogantly believe that they can just go through the motions, skate on by, just go to church, throw a little money in the offering plate, and have done their religious duty, and then go out and oppress the poor, engage in their own idolatries and adulteries and wickedness and things like this, as if Christianity isn't really about penitent sinners being forgiven, who then bear fruit in keeping with repentance, who mortify their sinful flesh and its passions and do good works for other people, to other people and for other people, for their sake, as living sacrifices.

Comfort for Christians Who Have Fallen Asleep

Words of warning indeed. Now the Apostle Paul changes complete direction, and it might seem contradictory, but all you have to do is consider the audience. To whom was Paul writing 1 Thessalonians? He was writing 1 Thessalonians to penitent, baptized believers in Jesus Christ, who confessed their sins, were baptized, had their sins washed away, who came to the Lord's table to receive Christ's body and blood, broken and shed for them for the forgiveness of their sins, and bore fruit in keeping with repentance in good works for their neighbors.

This is whom Paul is writing to. He's writing to Christians, for real Christians. And so you'll note that Paul's tone is completely different than Amos's. And here's what Paul says. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep.

And over and again, the New Testament and Jesus himself refers to those who die in the faith, who die believing that they have fallen asleep. In fact, we've got a bunch of beds out there and a bunch of sleeping saints right outside.

The church.

They're all just sleeping, waiting, right? So we don't want you to be uninformed about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. In other words, you do have hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. And so you'll note, all of the saints who have fallen asleep, who are resting peacefully out there, they're with Christ.

And when he returns, he's going to bring them back with him. That's where they are. They are with him presently. And if we should fall asleep like they have before Jesus returns, we shall not worry, because we know that we will be with him, and that when he returns, he will also bring us with him, right?

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, notice this goes all the way to the top, God himself is the one speaking, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, and yes, there will be Christians alive on planet earth when Jesus returns, that they will not precede, the ones who are on earth, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, and watch the details here, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command and with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Pause there for a second, we have a DVR, we'd hit the pause button and everything would freeze right there.

I want you to note that you, if you pay attention to these trumpet blasts, this trumpet blast itself here that's mentioned, you can use this trumpet blast to figure out when the rapture happens. You're saying, the rapture?

Yes, it's taught in scripture, did you not know this? The rapture. Now you're thinking, well I've read the left behind books and things like that, they haven't got the details of the rapture really worked out well because they weren't paying attention to the trumpets.

But if you align the trumpets, you can figure out when the rapture happens and we'll let scripture define it for us. So with that, I would like to go back into the context in Matthew chapter 24. And you'll note that Matthew chapter 24 is the chapter that precedes our gospel text.

Today.

So it provides for us the immediate context of what Jesus is talking about regarding those virgins. And so let's start at Matthew chapter 24 verse 1. Here's what it says, Jesus left the temple, was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, but he answered them, you see all of these, do you not?

Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. Now I've noted before, and I'll say it again, that the disciples at this point, thinking well if the temple's destroyed, that's where the forgiveness of sins happens, the destruction of the temple has to be the end of the world.

That's the way they're thinking. And in some sense they're right, in another sense they're wrong. The destruction of the temple in 70 AD is a type and shadow of the end of the world and God's judgment.

And so Jesus doesn't correct them, he just answers their questions, because there are multiple questions, with one big long discourse which is called, from this text, the Olivet Discourse, and it's called that because of where Jesus gave it.

Here's what it then says. So as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.

All right, there it is, it's the end of the age. There's Jesus' second coming, what's all of this mean? Well here we go. Jesus answered, see that no one leads you astray. A little bit of a note here. In the ancient world, when somebody would give a lecture or answer a question, the first thing they said is the most important thing.

Now we don't always do this, like pastors oftentimes will give sermons and they give three points. I like at least 50, but if you give three points, oftentimes when a pastor gives three points, point one is an important point, but point two is a little bit more important, and then point three is the really big one right before the conclusion.

That's not how the ancients worked. First thing out of your mouth is the most important one, and watch what Jesus says here. So he's answering their questions. First thing, see that no one leads you astray, and here's the reason why.

The end of days are deceitful, for many will come in my name. That's right, there's gonna be deceivers who come to churches in the name of Jesus, not in the name of Buddha or in the name of the devil or Avalon or anything like this.

They're gonna come to you in the name of Jesus saying, I am the anointed one, and they will lead many astray, many, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Now everyone likes to focus in on the wars and rumors of war stuff.

Like have you ever sat down and thought, boy, I've got to figure out the eschatological end time significance of the current brewing conflict and growing conflict between the.

United States and North Korea?

You want to know what the conflict between the United States and North Korea means biblically?

Nothing.

It means nothing. And Jesus is kind of making that point. You're gonna hear of wars and rumors of wars, and watch his kind of non-alarmist answer. See that you're not alarmed, for this must take place, the end is not yet.

In other words, wars and rumors of wars have nothing to do with it, right? Nation will rise against nation, kingdom will rise against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All of these things are but the beginning of birth pains. So all of that stuff, tsunamis, eclipses, earthquakes, hurricanes, yeah, all that stuff already happens all the time, no big deal, right? Then, though Jesus says, they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and watch these words, and you will be hated by all nations.

You see, in the days leading up to the return of Jesus, there will not be one nation on planet Earth that will be safe for Christians to dwell in, to preach in, to live in, or anything like that. Every nation will, as a policy, hate and oppress and tribulate Christians.

Notice Jesus said, all nations will hate you, right? You'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake, and then many will fall away, which makes perfect sense. There are many Christians today who are like, well, the parable that Jesus told regarding the different soils, right?

There was some seed that fell on the rocky soil, or the weedy soil, and they were choked out in the tribulations of this world, caused their faith to not mature, and they died out. That's kind of the idea here.

There are some people who are in the church today, and the reason they go to church is in order to make their lives better, so that they can experience their best life now. And they didn't sign up to go to church in order to be persecuted and hated.

And so as a result of that persecution, many will fall away. And in the falling away, they will end up betraying one another and hating one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. So how do you endure? If you're saved by grace through faith alone, how do you endure?

You keep believing. You keep believing.

If it becomes illegal to gather in this building to hear God's Word, to receive an absolution, or to baptize somebody, or to receive the Lord's Supper, who cares? It doesn't matter that this building has been on this property for 100 and something years.

It doesn't matter. We can gather somewhere else. Maybe we can gather in somebody's basement. Maybe we'll have to find a way to surreptitiously just have pastor go and visit people privately in secretive ways in the middle of the night in the dark.

Who knows, right?

You just keep believing and keep on keeping on. You know, Christians throughout the centuries, when they have been persecuted, they have held church even in catacombs, places where people's bones are, right?

It's a good place to be. So, because of lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, the one who endures to the end will be saved. 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.

Now the next part is rather interesting because Jesus switches to the topic of the destruction of the temple, but you're going to note that it's blended also with the end of the world. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop go down to take what is in his house. Let the one who is in the field turn not back to take his cloak. And alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on a Sabbath, for then there will be great tribulation.

A little bit of a note here. Jesus has two things in mind. He's talking about the destruction of the temple, and he's also talking about the end.

Of the world.

Blend them together. Fascinating. And what's also interesting is that when the Roman imperial expeditionary force landed in Judea in order to finally put down the Jewish insurrection in their own empire, that the Christians remembered the words of Christ and skedaddled, got out of Jerusalem.

They lived. The Jewish zealots stayed in Jerusalem and died. Keep that in mind. But here the abomination of desolation also is referring to that end times fellow known as the man of lawlessness. And so little Jesus is putting a little bit of that all together.

And here's what he then goes on to say. There will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. No, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.

Think of it this way. Go back to the Garden of Eden. The devil clearly heard the Lord say to Adam and Eve or say to Adam, the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.

The temptation then resulted in Adam and Eve eating of the tree that they were not supposed to eat from. They were made in the image of God. And so what the devil was basically doing was trying to engage in a murder to murder humanity, nip it in the bud and have God be the instrument of the murder.

That didn't work. It didn't work. So now the devil's ultimate goal is to create an environment here on planet Earth that will result in, no joke, the suicide of the human race. If those days had not been cut short, no human being would survive, would be saved.

Can't get God to kill you. I'll get you all to kill yourself collectively. That's where we're heading. I don't know if you've noticed, the world seems to be getting a little bit crazier by.

The day.

This is where we're heading. And if God doesn't take those days at the very end of all of this, where everything unbuckles, unhinges and goes completely squirrelly, it would literally result in all of humanity, all 7 billion people on this planet, dead.

That's what would happen. That's what Jesus is saying. But then he says this, for the sake of the elect, for the sake of you, those days will be cut short. So then if anyone says to you, look, here's the Messiah, or there he is, do not believe.

It.

When Jesus shows up, he's not going to be giving interviews on CNN or Fox News or the Trinity Broadcasting Network. So you can know that if they're going to be interviewing Jesus, that that's not him.

For false Christs and false prophets will arise, perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. And oh yes, these false prophets and false Christs will perform signs and wonders, which means signs and wonders are not the proof that somebody is legitimately from God.

Gotta listen to their doctrine. See, I've told you beforehand, so if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, don't go out. If they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe it. If they say, look, he's on CNN, turn the channel.

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man, where of the corpses there the vultures will gather as well. In other words, if you have any doubts that that's Jesus, it's not Jesus.

You get it, right? And then Jesus goes on to talk about how, well, let's take a look. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send out his angels with a loud, and there it is, trumpet.

Call.

All right, so now we've got two passages with trumpets, right? You can now chronologically think them together. What day is the day when the trumpet is blasted? It's the last day. Now we know when the rapture takes place, because you'll see it in the text.

So he will send out his angels, notice Jesus is returning, he's sent out his angels. They will have a particular assignment. They will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

So trumpet blast, angels go out, and they find Marilyn. They snatch her up and take her. They find Mark, and they take him. They see Mike and say, yeah, no, maybe not.

I'm joking, right?

And they gather us all up. The angels are doing the rapturing, right, because the angels are doing it. So he sends his angels. They will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the other.

Now the next few verses are basically saying, pay attention to the signs, because you know when you start to see these things happening that Jesus is right at the doorstep. But let's fast forward then to verse 36.

But concerning that day and hour, which day? The day of Jesus' return. No one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. In other words, anyone tells you, we know for a fact that Jesus is returning next Thursday.

They don't know what they're talking about, right? And everybody who says, no, no, no, we figured it out, they've been wrong, because we're still here, right? So no one knows. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. Could you imagine some couple in love planned their wedding day for the day that the flood broke out, all right?

They're looking at each other with those eyes, and the bride is dressed wonderfully. And they say, I do, and you may now kiss the bride. And no sooner had they done kissing each other, they look off into the horizon and see the tsunami of the flood coming, which is foolishness, because they should have known better.

Noah preached for a hundred years that that flood was going to come, and they refused to listen to him. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

And then here it is. Then two will be in the field, one taken, one left.

Why?

Angels are sent out. What day is this? The last day. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, one left. Two baristas will be at Starbucks, one making a cappuccino and the other a vanilla bean frappuccino venti with double whip, right?

One will be taken, another left. Therefore, and watch what Jesus says, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore, you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. So when's Jesus coming?

I don't know.

But how do you get ready? Do you try harder, do gooder, right? Well, our next text answers this question. And it's all about the oil.

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

Let's review.

Matthew 25, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven then will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, five were wise. Let's use the book of Proverbs' definition of wisdom and foolishness, and you'll find it fits perfectly here.

It is the fool who says in his heart, there is no God. That's foolishness. Yet, Proverbs also teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True fear of God requires us to realize that we are sinful, that we are ungodly, that we have deserved God's wrath and eternal flames of fire in the fires of hell for each and every one of our sins.

That's true fear of God. But also the wisdom then comes in knowing that we are forgiven, that God makes good on his promise to be merciful and kind, abounding in love and forgiving and pardoning iniquity.

So think of it this way. The wise trusted Jesus. The foolish, not so much, right? For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them.

Who does that?

Who takes a lamp with them with no oil in it? Or in our case, they had a flashlight but didn't put any batteries in it. That doesn't make any sense. You'll note that the oil helps us out here. But the wise, they took flasks of oil with their lamps, and as the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and they all died.

That's what the sleep here is referring to, death, right? Remember Gary Sanis? He fell asleep on November 3rd, and now he too is a virgin sleeping, right? But he took oil with him. I know this, right?

So they all slept, and at midnight there was a cry, here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! Then all those virgins resurrected. I think that's a good way of translating rose there. They all resurrected, everybody resurrected.

Now you're going to note, after everybody goes to sleep, they're virgins! They wake up, they're virgins! And you're sitting there going, how can that be? Because Jesus' death on the cross was for the sins of the whole world.