Sermon preached on December 27, 1998 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright 1998. All rights reserved. Other sermons can be found at http://www.cantonnewlife.org/.
Unless otherwise noted, quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986. One of the things that I remember about it was that right after the Challenger exploded, the NASA announcer kept reading off statistics about the flight. He obviously didn't have his eye on the picture of the Space Shuttle, but on the telemetry. Anyone who was watching the video of the Space Shuttle knew that it had exploded. But he didn't. He kept reading information about the shuttle's speed and altitude. This went on for what seemed to be a long time but was probably only three or four seconds. Then there was a pause and he said, "Obviously a major malfunction." He was caught totally off guard. He had expected the shuttle to be hurtling toward the heavens, but instead it came tumbling back to earth in thousands of pieces. I was embarrassed for him for that four or five seconds where he kept reading off the incorrect telemetry. It really wasn't his fault, but for that brief time, you felt sorry that he was put in such an awkward position. He was reading off numbers that had nothing to do with reality. It seemed he knew what he was talking about, but everybody who was watching the video knew that he was altogether wrong.
What's sad is that Christians sometimes put themselves in a similar situation. A year or so ago I heard of a prominent Christian who was predicting that Jesus was going to come in October 1996 or 1997. (I don't remember which year it actually was.) But it didn't happen. The month came and went without the return of Jesus. He was wrong. And yet he is not alone. Many Christians have predicted, (or I should say, tried to predict) the timing of the Second Coming of Jesus and they have been wrong. They will pick a day, or week or month or year and tell you that Jesus is going to return in that particular time frame. But it doesn't happen. They get it wrong. Still there are other Christians who will tell you that they believe that we are living at the very end of the last times, that Jesus is going to come within our lifetime, within a generation. Christians have been saying that for hundreds, if not thousands of years. They get it wrong. Christ doesn't come within their lifetime.
Now the reason for this is easy to see. We have it here in our text. Jesus' disciples come to Him and they ask Him about the time when He is going to fully establish His kingdom. Jesus replies,
"It is not for you to know
the times or dates
the Father has set by his own authority. "
Now the main thing I want you to see from this is that
we do not know, indeed, we cannot know when Jesus is coming again.
Now let me repeat this because these two principles are very important. First, we do not know the time when Jesus is coming again. Second, we cannot know the time. It is impossible for us to know it.
Now it's very important that you grasp this fact because there are many charlatans around who will try to tell you when Jesus is going to come. They will tell you that they know when He will come. They will tell you that they've got it really narrowed down. But what should we say to all such suggestions? We need to remember our Lord's words,
"It is not for you to know
the times or dates…”
It is not for us to know the times or dates of the Second Coming. It has not been revealed to us. You'll remember in Matthew 24:36 Jesus said to His disciples about the last day,
"No one knows about that day or hour,
not even the angels in heaven,
nor the Son,
but only the Father."
Now I'm not quite sure how to understand the statement about even Jesus not knowing the time but I tend to agree with what Berkhof wrote in his Systematic Theology, p. 704.
"The statement respecting the Son probably means that this knowledge was not included in the revelation which He as Mediator had to bring."
Jesus had nothing very specific to tell His disciples about the timing of His Second Coming. Here's more of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:36f,
"As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
For in the days before the flood,
people were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day Noah entered the ark;
and they knew nothing about what
would happen until the flood came
and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming
of the Son of Man.
Two men will be in the field;
one will be taken and the other left.
Two women will be grinding with a hand mill;
one will be taken and the other left.
Therefore keep watch,
because you do not know on what day
your Lord will come.
But understand this:
If the owner of the house had known
at what time of night the thief was coming,
he would have kept watch
and would not have let his house be broken into.
So you also must be ready,
because the Son of Man will come
at an hour when you do not expect him."
Note the end of what I just quoted. "The Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." Jesus tells us that the timing of His second coming will something that will surprise believers. We should be watching, we should be ready. But even if we do that the timing of the Second Coming will be a surprise to us. I like how the New English Bible translates this verse. It reads,
"Hold yourselves ready, therefore,
because the Son of Man will come
at the time you least expect him."
Jesus will come when we least expect Him. We do not know, indeed, we cannot know the timing of the Second Coming. As the apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3:10,
"the day of the Lord
will come like a thief."
It will come on a day we do not know. That's the theory. Now what does this mean?
First of all, it means that
Anyone who points to a time and says that they know that Jesus is going to come then—is wrong.
He's mistaken. He doesn't know what he's talking about. At best he's deluded and at worst he's a fraud. God has told us quite clearly that He has not and is not going to reveal such information to us. It is not for us to know the times and the dates. If someone is teaching that Jesus is going to come at a certain time, he's deluded.
Now this is a warning to you. If you hear about someone teaching that the Lord is going to come at a certain hour, or a certain day, or even a certain month or year- be wary of them. Such teaching shows a profound misunderstanding of a very clear biblical principle-that God has chosen to keep secret the timing of Christ's second coming. Be wary of them. At the very least they're going to waste your time.
We do not know, we cannot know about the timing of the Second Coming of Jesus. There are some things about the future that God has not revealed to us. He has told us many things about what will happen in the future. The book of Revelation is a great blessing for Christians to read because it tells us what will happen in the future. But it does not tell us when Jesus is coming. There are some things that God has not revealed and the timing of the Second Coming is one of them. God has kept some secrets to Himself. They are His and not ours. As Deuteronomy 29:29 tells us,
"The secret things
belong to the LORD our God,"
We do not and we cannot know the time of the second coming.
Secondly, this means that
we Christians should not be predicting the time of the Lord's coming.
If we make predictions about the timing of the Lord's coming, even very general predictions, and they don't come to pass (they cannot help but not to come to pass) we're giving ammunition to those who scoff about the Lord's return. In 2 Peter 3:3f we read these words,
"First of all, you must understand
that in the last days scoffers will come,
scoffing and following their own evil desires.
They will say,
'Where is this 'coming' he promised?
Ever since our fathers died,
everything goes on
as it has since the beginning of creation."
They will scoff and deny that the Lord is going to come again. Do we want to give ammunition to the scoffers by hazarding wrong guesses about the timing of the Second Coming? I ask you, can we get the date right? The answer is, "No." So why do we hazard guesses?
We Christians are so apt to misunderstand things concerning the Lord's Coming that we should take our Lord's words here very seriously. The apostle John refers to one misunderstanding in John 21:22f. Jesus was speaking to Peter and He said to him,
"If I want him to remain alive
until I return,
what is that to you?
You must follow me."
Jesus spoke very clearly to Peter telling him to mind his own business and concentrate on the work that he (Peter) had to do. But what happened? In verse 23 we read,
"Because of this, the rumor spread
among the brothers
that this disciple would not die.
But Jesus did not say that he would not die;
he only said,
"If I want him to remain alive until I return,
what is that to you?'"
They totally misunderstood the main point that Jesus was making.
Some ancient Christians also believed that Jesus was going to return in their lifetime. Some have suggested that in writing 1 Thessalonians 4:13f the apostle Paul was writing to Christians who were surprised that death came upon some of them before Jesus returned. Paul wrote to them assuring them that those who slept would not miss out on the day of Jesus Christ. It seems they believed and taught that Jesus was going to come in their lifetime.
They weren't the only Christians who believed that. For generations Christians have picked out certain dates and predicted that Jesus will return then. We're approaching the year 2000 and entering a new millennium is an exciting event. I remember reading that as the year 1000 approached, many Christians thought that Christ would return then. That's what they predicted. But they were wrong.
Philip Melanchthon, (1497-1560) one of the Reformers, a great friend and supporter of Martin Luther, believed that the world was going to end during or very soon after his lifetime. In the 1850's, some of Edward Irving's followers believed that the world was going to end shortly.
Have you ever heard someone say, "I believe that Christ is going to come in our lifetime." They think that we're the very last generation that will live.
Christians, don't make predictions like that. You're only encouraging the scoffers. You're only giving them ammunition to use against Christianity. Jesus has quite clearly told us that it is not for us to know the date or the times. We do not know, we cannot know when the coming of the Lord will be.
I don't know if Louis Berkhof wrote this with tongue in cheek or not, but I had to smile to myself when I read these words in his Systematic Theology, (p. 704)
"The only thing that can be said with certainty, on the basis of Scripture, is that He will return at the end of the world."
Will the Lord return in our lifetime?
We don't know. No one on earth knows. I think it's unwise to speculate.
All we know about the timing of the Second Coming are the general outlines. In 2 Thessalonians 2 the apostle Paul told Christians not to be unsettled by any report that the Day of the Lord had already come. He told them that certain things had to be fulfilled first. We read,
"Concerning the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our being gathered to him,
we ask you, brothers,
not to become easily unsettled or alarmed
by some prophecy, report or letter
supposed to have come from us,
saying that the day of the Lord
has already come.
Let no one deceive you
in any way whatever.
That day cannot come
before the final rebellion against God,
when wickedness will be revealed in human form,
the man doomed to perdition."
Paul tells us that Jesus will not come until the Anti-Christ has been revealed.
But in light of what Jesus said about His coming being at a time we do not expect Him, it seems that even then, Christians will not be able to predict when Jesus will come.
We should not predict when the Lord will come. It makes Christianity look bad when we make predictions about the Lord's Coming and they don't come to pass. If the world goes on for another two hundred years and people look back and see that in the late 20th century Christians were confidently predicting that the Lord would return in their lifetime, it will make Christians look foolish. Not only that, it will be something that could give the enemies of the Lord an opportunity to blaspheme. How much better to profess ignorance on the time of our Lord's return. Expect it, yes. Watch for it, yes. But predict when it will be. No.
Thirdly, this means that
We should not concentrate on the timing of the Lord's return but rather on the duty that God has given us to do before He returns.
We are to concentrate on the task that Jesus has given us. When they asked Jesus about His second coming Jesus said,
"It is not for you to know
the times or dates
the Father has set by his own authority.
But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
Basically, Jesus was saying, "Don't focus on the things that you don't know, the things that you can't know about, focus on the job I'm giving you.
We have much to do. We need to concentrate on what the Lord has revealed to us, not on what He has not revealed to us. We see this same principle taught in Deuteronomy 29:29, where it mentions the secret things.
"The secret things
belong to the LORD our God,
but the things revealed belong to us
and to our children forever,
that we may follow all the words of this law."
Forget about the secret things that haven't been revealed. Concentrate on the things that have been revealed.
We are to be witnesses for Jesus. People are to see Christ living in us. Our lives are to be like letters from Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3:3,
"You show that you are a letter from Christ,
the result of our ministry,
written not with ink
but with the Spirit of the living God,
not on tablets of stone
but on tablets of human hearts."
We are to show the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. We are to be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. (Galatians 5:22) We are to exercise self-control and live by the Spirit. As Paul says in Galatians 5:25,
"Since we live by the Spirit,
let us keep in step with the Spirit."
We are to walk in the Spirit and shine for Jesus Christ. That's the job we have. Let's not detract from that by pretending that we know when Jesus is going to come. It's not for us to know the dates and the times. It is for us to shine for Jesus as we hold out the Word of Life. (Philippians 2:15-16) May God gives us grace to do so.