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Jesus, the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22)

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Jesus, the Alpha and Omega Message Introduction

Merry Christmas to everyone! I’m glad you’re here at Life Church to celebrate Christmas this Sunday. It’s the Christmas season, we have Christmas lights, Christmas sales, Christmas gifts, Christmas cookies, Christmas vacation, Christmas parties, Christmas cards and the list goes on and on. Christmas is a busy season for most of us. It’s easy to get so caught up in the activities of the season that we don’t take time to reflect on what Christmas is all about. So, that’s what we’re going to do this morning.

When you drive around at night looking at Christmas lights, you see lots of Santas and reindeer. You’ll see Frostie the snowman. But those aren’t what Christmas is all about. Hopefully, you’ll see a Nativity scene with a baby in a manger. Now, we’re getting closer to what Christmas is all about. That baby born 2000 years ago was named Jesus and He is the reason for the season.

So, today, we’re going to take a look at Jesus, perhaps in a way that you’ve never looked at Him before. Because Jesus is so much more than simply that baby in the manger. Today, my message is entitled “Jesus, the Alpha and Omega.” In our title slide, you can see two non-English letters, they are the letters alpha and omega from the Greek alphabet, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Greek is the language that the original documents of the New Testament were written in. Greek was the universal language of the time into which Jesus was born, like English is today.

In the last chapter of the Bible, Jesus says ….

Revelation 22:13 (NIV)  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

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The New Heaven and Earth (Ezekiel 43)

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Introduction to The New Heaven and Earth Message

We’re nearing the end of our message series called “Understanding the End Times.” God’s Word tells us that we’re living in the last days. The last days are the time from when Jesus ascended into heaven until He returns again at the second coming. Today, we’re going to look at the far future. We’re going to see what the Bible has to say about what eternity will be like for the believer.

Last Sunday, we learned that at Jesus’ return, believers will receive resurrection bodies that are designed to live forever. Believers who have died will be resurrected and those who are alive at Christ’s return will be changed to have the same resurrection or spiritual bodies.

At the return of Christ, Satan will be bound for 1000 years on this earth. During that time, Jesus Christ and believers in their resurrected bodies will rule and reign during those 1000 years, called the millennium. At the end of the millennium, Satan will be loosed and deceive the nations into a massive rebellion against the rule of Jesus Christ. Christ will crush the rebellion and all rebels and evil forces, including Satan himself will be cast into the lake of fire, which is hell. The present earth and heaven will be destroyed and God will create a new heaven and earth. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

My message is entitled “The New Heaven and Earth.” The new heavens and earth will be the home of the believer forever. It will be a place in which evil of all kinds has been removed. The new heaven and earth will be a place of perfection and holiness in which God’s glory dwells.

Notice that our eternal home is not just heaven, it is a new heavens and a new earth. The two will merge into the perfect paradise that God has designed for believers to live forever with Him in their resurrected bodies.

2 Peter 3:10, 13 (NIV)  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. … But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

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The Future of the Believer (1 Corinthians 15)

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 The Future of the Believer Message Introduction

We’re nearing the end of our message series called “Understanding the End Times.” Why are we studying the end times? Because the Bible tells us that we are living in the last days. Not only does the Bible tell us that we are living in the last days, but it reveals information and direction to us. God’s Word opens our eyes to understand the incredible spiritual warfare that characterizes the last days.

God wants us to not just perceive physical reality, but also the underlying spiritual reality of our world. Everything that God reveals to us in His Word is important for us to understand. God’s Word gives hope to those living in these last days. God’s Word provides motivation and encouragement to live and work for the Lord in these last days.

Today, our message is entitled “The Future of the Believer.” In this message, we’re going to be learning about the end of the end times. What marks the end of the end times? The return of Jesus Christ to the planet that He created for human beings to live on. When Christ returns, history will transition from what the Bible calls this present age into the age to come. Next Sunday, we’ll talk more about the age to come, as we look at the new heavens and new earth.

In these last days, the powers of the age to come are already breaking into this present evil age through the Holy Spirit. However, we are still living in mortal physical bodies that are not suited for eternal life. Something has to happen to us in order to live forever.

1 Corinthians 15:50-52 (NIV)  I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–  in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

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Ferguson and God’s Judgment (Malachi 3-4)

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Ferguson and God’s Judgment Message Introduction

We’re in a message series called “Understanding the End Times.” As we go through this series, I trust you’re beginning to understand that as we study the end times, we are learning how to live here and now. Understanding the last days in which we live is essential to following Jesus today. Knowing what is going to happen at the end of this age encourages and guides us as we prioritize our lives for tomorrow.

God’s Word teaches us that those who are wise, live with eternity in mind. Those who are foolish live simply for the present. The times in which we live are unprecedented in the history of the human race.

Daniel 12:4 (NIV)  But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

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The Day of the Lord in God’s Timing (Joel 2)

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The Day of the Lord in God’s Timing Introduction

We’re in a message series called “Understanding the End Times.” Last Sunday, we talked about Wrestling with Radical Evil. If you missed it, you can watch the video on our website. In that message, we saw from God’s Word that both evil and righteousness will grow together throughout the last days in which we live. Ultimately, history will end as we know it, with the climactic Day of the Lord, which will bring salvation for believers and judgment for unbelievers.

Today, my message is entitled “The Timing of God.” We’re going to be looking more closely at the timing of the Day of the Lord. Biblically, the day of the Lord can refer to two different events. First of all, it can refer to a present judgment of God on a nation. In this sense, there have been and will be many days of the Lord. Secondly, the phrase day of the Lord can refer to God’s final judgment at the end of the age.

Too often, we think of God’s intervention in history as future, thinking that it’s far away. Many people think that the world is just going it’s merry way with God simply watching from a distance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today, we want to better understand God’s timing of the days of the Lord. God is actively involved in history, right now. God’s judgments are being carried out on peoples and nations, right now. How do we know that? Because God’s Word shows us how God acts in history.

If God is intervening in history with His judgments, how should we respond? That’s the question we are going to look at this morning. …

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Wrestling with Radical Evil (2 Thessalonians 2)

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Wrestling with Radical Evil Message Introduction

We’re in a message series called “Understanding the End Times.” In this series, we’re not interested in charting out exactly when and how everything is going to happen so we can pat ourselves on the back thinking that we understand everything. Rather, we want to understand the end times, the last days in which we live, so that we can live today for Jesus. The prophetic teaching in the Bible was given to encourage and guide the church in these last days.

Today, my message is entitled “Wrestling with Radical Evil.” Our news reports today are filled with evil, radical evil. I’m been alive for a while and the evil portrayed today is the worst that I have seen. Yes, I realize that there have been terrible wars and evil in the past. Yet, the type and magnitude of evil across the nations seems to me to be unprecedented. This is the world in which you and I live in 2014. How can we make sense of it? What should our response to evil be? Where is the world heading and how can we be prepared? …

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