Do You Know What Time It Is? part 1

Many people do not have an accurate understanding of what the Scriptures tell us about when we live and where we are living.Let me explain.If there is one thing the Bible tells us it is that God has a plan for what is going on in this world. By plan we mean things are not happening randomly, God is taking us and this world somewhere.I can say it like this.If you were to try to draw the history of the world and the future of this world, what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen you wouldn’t draw a circle as if things were going on and on and on and not ever really changing.Instead you would draw a line.If we look back to what is happened to this world, we see there is a beginning to life as we know it and if we look ahead to what is going to happen in this world, we see there will be an end to the world as it exists right now.The history of this world is something like a line. There’s a beginning and an end.One place we see this is in Ephesians 1.Without diving too deeply into the passage, let’s just notice some of the ways it shows us God has a plan.v. 4, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”That means God was making decisions about what is going to happen before he even created the world.v. 5, “according to the purpose of his will.”That tells us God has a purpose and He has a will, there are things He wants and He is acting in the history of this world, orchestrating events to accomplish that great purpose.v. 9, “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time…”What Paul is saying that we live in a very special time in history because in the gospel God has shown us more clearly than ever before how he is going about accomplishing exactly what He wants to accomplish through the person and work of Jesus Christ.Now, if you were to look closely at the plan God has for the history of the world, the line, you would see this line divides up into two sections. I don’t know if you have ever seen the program on the computer called Google Maps and on Google Maps you can look at where you live from either far or close, you can see something from far and you don’t see much or you can zoom in and see many more details and we can do that with the history of the world as well actually. We can see it from far, one long line or we can zoom in on the history of the world and see that the history of the world divides up into two sections.There’s before Christ and there is after Christ.There is God’s work in the Old Testament with Israel and there is now His great work with and through the church. As one man has written, throughout the course of history God has worked in a variety of ways through individuals, nations and peoples, the focus of his present work is the church.We see this contrast for example in 1 Corinthians 10:11. Paul’s been talking about the history of Israel and he says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.”We are living in a unique time, and you know we could and probably should point out how in Africa one of the problems people have is that while they are living after Christ, they keep acting as if they were living at a different time in history, before Christ.When they are not.We live towards the end of the plan not the beginning.There is a plan to what is happening in this world as we know it and that plan is revealed in the Bible in at least two stages, but having said that, I need to take it a step further, it is very, very, very important to understand that the world as we know it is not all there is.When we look at what God is doing in this world, it is not one long line, beginning to end and then done. Instead when we look at the Bible we see there is what is happening now and then there is what is going to come.We see that when the Bible talks about this age and then it talks about the age to come.For example, Matthew 12:32.“And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the in the age to come.” Age has to do with a period of time. There is a period of time we call this age and then there is another period of time that comes after which is called the age to come.Paul talks about this in Ephesians 1:21.He says that God seated Christ at “his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”He is talking about two periods of time, the age we live in now and the time that is coming in the future.When we look at what the Scripture says about these two time periods, we see that there are many differences.This age, this time period, is characterized by evil, wickedness and rebellion against God.Galatians 1:4, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age…”What word does he use to describe this age, evil!Ephesians 2:1,2, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world…” Course, could literally be translated age and what is it that characterizes this time period in history? “in which you once walked…following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” The prince of the power of the air, Satan, is allowed to have a devastating influence on the way people live during this time period.Another important verse is found over in 2 Corinthians 4:4. Paul says,“And even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world, [you can translate that age or time] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God.”Here again we see that during this time period God in his righteousness has allowed Satan to “exercise a great measure of authority and power.” And what does he seek to do primarily throughout this present time, Paul tells us, he blinds the minds of unbelievers from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God.Does that mean God is not in control anymore? No, He is in control. Psalm 103:19, “The Lord has established His throne in heavens, His sovereignty rules over all.” But in His wisdom and holiness, He has allowed evil to exist during this period of time, the time in which we live.This age, this time, is characterized by suffering, by evil, by confusion, pain, rebellion against God’s rule. But, this age, this time is not all there is. This age, this time period has an end.Jesus talks about that in Matthew 13:37ff. He says, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.” Don’t get distracted, here’s the money line. “The harvest is the close of this age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.” Close here means end. This age has an end. Jesus is going to return, this time period is going to end, there is going to be a judgment and then we are going to enjoy the age to come. And that age to come, that time period that goes on and on and on and on is going to look very different than this present age.