#6 COVID-19 online sermon...The near and the far and some instructions for both...sermon post


I used the above picture to explain some hermeneutical principles in relationship to the Scriptures.  

 God is pointing all of time in the direction He has chosen.  The near sight is the history of the Old Testament which leads down the barrel to the far sight as the history of the New Testament and the first coming our Messiah, Jesus Christ.  

 Beyond the barrel and before the target is a gap of time which we are in right now called the "church age."  The target is the Day of the Lord, the second coming of Christ, and the new heaven and earth.  

 We look back at the Old and New Testament and research who wrote what we are reading.  We discover who they were writing to, the original audience, and why they wrote it like they did and this usually leads to an application for that time.  

 Now that we have the proper context, we bring that application forward to our modern time to apply a new application in line with the old.  All this time we know that the old application and the new application are propelling us forward to the completion of God's plan.

 In our passage today Jesus is telling His disciples about a near event, the destruction of the temple and a far event, the destruction of the tribulation.  His instruction to them on how they are to act in the face of persecution is the same for us today.  Jesus' words of prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem which happened in 70 A.D. came true and therefore His words of a coming destruction will also come true.  

 Our instruction during this gap between the end of the barrel and the target is to fulfill the "Great Commission" to go and make disciples.  To do this we need to watch our lives morally, stay awake spiritually, pray continually, and stand for Christ.  These are the instructions for the disciples of the 1st century as they waited for Jesus' prophecy to come to pass and they are the same instructions for this generation of disciples as we wait for Jesus' prophecy to come to fulfillment.  

 We miss out on the opportunity to experience God's powerful presence here if we don't watch, stay awake, pray, and stand.  We run from persecution and persecute back rather than see the opportunity God has given us to speak His name and know we are in the palm of His hand.  We identify most with our Savior when we suffer as He did holding an unwavering love for the Father who has so much loved Him and us.

 Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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