March 1, 2025 • 26 mins
Today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, Mark will be discussing the end of days and sharing an email from a listener named Estelle. Estelle expresses how Mark’s teachings have given her a great foundation of the Gospel and it will do the same for you.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:01):
Today on Bold Steps weekend with Mark. Joe, we're talking
about the end of days.
S2 (00:07):
What the Bible tells us over and over is that
it's not our job to know the day, the year,
the month, or the time. That that's up to God.
In fact, he tells us that the end will come
as a thief in the night.
S3 (00:37):
I'm preparing my family for the total destruction of the
power grid a.
S4 (00:40):
Devastating earthquake, a series of catastrophic terrorist attacks.
S5 (00:44):
Supervolcano, volcano.
S6 (00:47):
Under a doomsday scenario. I'll be the only one standing
there who has another £100 to lose.
S7 (00:53):
700 cans.
S8 (00:54):
£241 of cucumbers. We have weapons for every individual in
the house. This is the.
S9 (00:58):
Lifestyle that we live. Let's go. We're bugging out.
S10 (01:01):
Doomsday preppers on new series. Well, there's a lot of
weird ideas out.
S1 (01:04):
There about the End of days. I'm Wayne Shepherd with
Mark Jobe. Mark, we need to turn to God's word
for the answers, don't we?
S11 (01:09):
We do. And there are a lot of extremes out there.
Some people that just think, well, it's never going to happen,
and others that are building bunkers and storing cucumbers and
waters and generators. But, you know, the Word of God
does have a lot to say about preparing for the
(01:30):
end times. Not like the doomsday preppers, but spiritually. How
do we get ready for the end time?
S1 (01:38):
And that's what's important to us here. So let's get to.
Today's message is titled how close are we? Here on
Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:52):
Matthew 24 and 25 are some of the most controversial
Scriptures in the New Testament. They have been read and analyzed.
They have frightened people. They have been diagnosed and reread.
(02:13):
People have interpreted it in different ways because Matthew chapter
24 and 25 are Jesus explanation of how we need
to ready ourselves for what the Bible calls the end times. Now,
I know just saying that scares some of you, because
(02:37):
I believe that there's two extremes when we talk about
the end times. I think there's the one on one extreme.
You have the doubters, the people that say nothing's ever
going to change. It's always going to stay the same.
It's just going to continue on like it's always continued
on before there's no Armageddon. There's no end of the
(03:01):
world coming of Jesus. Everything's just going to progress like
it's always progressed before. And on the other extreme, there
are the conspiracy theorists, the alarmist, the people that are
always interpreting every event that happens as, let's build a
bunker in our basement. Let's get the waters and let's
(03:24):
get the, uh, let's, let's prepare for the end of
the world. And they're predicting and everything is about the
end is coming. And so you have, at one extreme,
the alarmist, at the other extreme the doubters. But I
believe that Jesus gives us a bit of a different perspective.
And I want to focus on that today as we
(03:45):
look at this passage on the End Times. Now, recently,
I was with my wife in a little town in
Spain that we had never been to before, and I
was trying to make my way to the hotel that
we were staying at. And like most men, I just
told my wife, follow me, I know where I'm going.
(04:10):
How many of you wives have heard that before? And
she said, well, how exactly are you going to get there?
I instinctively, honey, I'll know how to get there. And
so as we started to walk. Now I always get there.
I may not always get there. The straightest path. Sometimes
they take a scenic route where people have never been before.
Tourists have never toured before. And sometimes we see the
(04:33):
bad neighborhoods in the city while I'm walking or there.
But I always get there one way or another. And
so she stopped and said, I'm tired. My feet hurt.
I want to know where you're going. So I pulled
out my smartphone and pulled out Google Maps and put
in the address. And it has a feature where you
(04:54):
hit walk and then it starts telling you how to
get there. So on the map I could see where
I was at because there was a little flashing dot
and I could see the point where we were going.
So I saw where we were at the point where
we were going, but in between, I wasn't sure what
that would look like. So I started to follow my GPS,
(05:16):
Google Maps, and it took us through a well. We
turned into a very narrow, long, dark alley that not
even a car would fit through. And my wife said,
I'm not going in there. I'm saying, well, honey, GPS says.
So I convinced her to go through this dark alley.
(05:38):
There was horse manure there. It looked like a scary
dark alley. And I kept telling her, I'm not sure
exactly how we're going to get there, but I know
the dot is just ahead. And finally we arrived. And
I think sometimes biblical prophecy is like that. We know
(06:01):
the destination point and we sort of know where we're at.
But what lies in between is a bit of a
mystery how hard it will be, how narrow the path
will be, how challenging it will be is a bit
of a mystery. And so today we're going to look
at the destination point and look at what Jesus says
about the path to get to that destination point. Matthew
(06:27):
chapter 24 talks about the end times. Now, as I
was studying this, I also discovered that we have a
long history of making predictions about when the end will come.
In fact, if you research it a little bit, you'll
realize that since the days of Jesus, people have been
(06:50):
making predictions about the day, the hour, the month, the year,
and the time. I was really astounded about how many
religious groups over the last 2000 years have made predictions
about the year, the day and the month. And I
could spend a lot of time telling you all of
(07:12):
the religious groups, both Christian and non-Christian, that talk about
the end of the world, the predictions about some catastrophic
event that will end the world Armageddon. And the history
is full of prophetic, uh, predictions and false predictions about
the end of the world. For example, in the second century,
(07:35):
a group of people called the Montanist, which were a
kind of a break off of Christianity where there were
a lot of prophets and prophetess. This movement predicted that
Jesus would come sometime during their lifetime and establish the
New Jerusalem in a city called Pepuza in Asia minor.
(07:56):
They said, Jesus is coming in our lifetime and he's
going to establish his kingdom in this area. And it
didn't happen. Years later, one of the greatest moments where
hundreds of thousands of people expected the end of the
world in the coming of Jesus was at the turn
(08:18):
of the millennium, at the year 1000. Literally hundreds of
thousands of people in Europe expected that the year 1000
would be the end of the world. In fact, so
many people believed it that then there was such a
fervor that it was the end of the world, that
many people quit their jobs. Many farmers did not farm
(08:43):
because they expected, hey, why am I going to farm
if no one's going to be here to harvest the farm?
In fact, there's a couple of nations. Christianized nations went
to war with some pagan nations for the full purpose
of converting them before the end of the world, the
year 1000 came, the year 1000 left and Jesus had
(09:07):
not come. I read also that there's a few religious
groups that started because of their founders predicted the end
of the world. For example, a fellow by the name
of Joseph Smith who started the Mormon movement in 1835.
He predicted that Jesus would come in 56 years from then.
(09:29):
So all of the followers believed that Jesus would come
in 56 years. Well, 1891 came, 1891 left and Jesus
had not come. Charles Russell, who started the Jehovah Witness movement.
He predicted that in 1914 it would be the end
(09:52):
of the world. Armageddon would come that everything as we
know it would end. In 1914, hundreds of his followers
left their jobs and went throughout the world going door
to door telling people, get ready. The end of the
world is coming. You only have two years to get
ready because Armageddon is going to happen. The world is
(10:13):
going to end. It's going to be a huge, catastrophic event.
The end is here. And 1914 came. People waited, expected
on October the 2nd of 1914. They thought the year
was it was going to end. October came, October left
and the world was the same. More recently, one of
(10:40):
the biggest. Well, in 1800s, a man by the name
of William Miller predicted that Christ would return on April 3rd, 1843.
Anybody have their birthday on April the 3rd? No. Oh.
Over here. Yeah. One did. All right. Big day in history.
(11:01):
Miller believed that on April the 3rd, 1843, that Jesus
was coming. It would be the end of the world.
He had a half a million followers in the United
States of America that believed what he said. In fact,
some of them on April the 3rd, went up to
the mountains to be, I guess, closer to the heavens,
(11:23):
and waited on the top of mountains. Some went to
graveyards because they believed that their dead would resurrect, and
they wanted to be next to uncle Harry as he
came out of the grave. And so they went to graveyards.
They went to the top of mountains, and they waited
all through the night. This is the day, April the 3rd,
the end of the world. Jesus is coming. And it
(11:44):
never happened. I remember just a few years ago, do
you remember a fellow by the name of of Harold Camping,
who on May 21st of 2011 predicted That this would
be the end of the world. He had 5000 billboards
(12:05):
throughout the United States of America and hundreds of his
followers that quit their jobs. He owned a network of
radio radio stations, and he began to predict the end
of the world will come on May 21st. He had
figured it out chronologically through the Bible, and explained that
he had traced it all the all the way back
to the prophecies of Daniel through the New Testament, and
(12:28):
that he was sure that on May 21st, 2011, the
world would come to an end. All his followers were
shown with letter signs holding up. The end is here.
They held it up. They held it up. The day
ended and nothing had happened. Now I want you to
(12:54):
hear me very well. The reason I sometimes avoid this
whole Bible prophecy timeline is because when you begin to
talk about the end times, our natural proclivity is to
ask this question win win.
S1 (13:18):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, and
we're pausing our message on the End Times for just
a moment, and we'll continue with Mark Jobe. Mark, I'm
looking at an email from a listener named Estelle, and
I won't read the whole email, but it's so encouraging.
Your solid teaching of the gospel and bold steps has
given me a great foundation. Estelle says I turned my
life fully over to God and since have been delivered
(13:40):
from drugs and alcohol. You probably hear this all the
time as a pastor, don't you?
S11 (13:44):
Yeah. You know, it's the power of the gospel that
can take lives and turn them around. And that's part
of our goal at Bold Steps, is we want to
clearly present the Word of God that has the power
to change lives. And, you know, I'm so grateful to
the bold step partners that you help us get the
word out there. And people like Estelle, who are delivered
(14:06):
from drugs and alcohol and says now she owns her
own business and she's a grateful woman of God.
S1 (14:12):
Wonderful. Thank you Estelle. Thank you for your partnership with us.
And when you become a partner with bold steps, the
main benefit, of course, is you get to help with
the cost of producing and distributing bold steps. But there
are some other benefits we've mentioned. For those who give
$30 a month or more, you get the 50% discount
on anything in the Moody Publishers catalog, but you also
(14:32):
will receive a signed copy of Mark's book, unstuck, and
twice a month you'll receive a personal video message from Mark. Because, Mark,
we like to make this radio thing a personal medium.
S11 (14:42):
Yeah we do. That's part of our goal is we
want to keep especially in touch with our partners. We
know that you're sacrificing to give. And so we want
to say a special thank you. And we do it
on a regular basis.
S1 (14:55):
Well, I hope you will consider and pray about becoming
a bold partner with us. Check it out at Bold
Steps org. Now let's return to today's message. Of course,
this much we know Jesus return is closer today than
it was yesterday. Here's Mark Jobe with his message.
S2 (15:15):
And here's the answer that the Bible gives us. The
Apostle Paul in first Thessalonians chapter five, verse one through
three says, concerning the times and the seasons, as he
talks about the end of time. Brethren, you have no
need that I should write to you. For you yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord, the end,
(15:38):
the day of the Lord. So comes as a thief
in the night. For when people say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon
a pregnant woman. What the Bible tells us over and
(15:58):
over is that it's not our job to know the day,
the year, the month or the time. That that's up
to God. In fact, he tells us that the end
will come as a thief in the night. Think about
that for a second. When's the last time a thief
has gone to burglarize a home and sends a Instagram
(16:21):
message ahead of time saying, by the way, at 1230
tonight I'm going to break into your house. Thieves come unexpectedly.
We don't know when they're coming. It's the element of surprise.
That's how thieves come in. And Jesus says that no
one knows the day, the time or the moment. These
(16:43):
are just in the hands and the mind of the father.
So I want you to look up at me. This
is very important. Anytime you hear someone give a date
a year, a decade, a month, a day, an hour,
a time, I want you to be aware of this,
that that person is either a false prophet, or that
person does not know their Bible because it's never, never,
(17:07):
never up to us to predict the time, the day,
the decade, the month. So do not believe it. I
had someone send me a Facebook message in September, because
(17:29):
there were some prediction that the end of the world
was coming, I think September 15th or so. Anybody hear
about that one? Yeah. And this person sent me a
message distraught. They don't come regularly to this church, but
they said I. What am I going to do? How
do I prepare? Help me. I'm distraught over this. I
(17:53):
just messaged him back. Don't quit your job. What you
need to do is what you do every day. Hopefully
you get up in the morning. The best way to
be prepared for the coming of Jesus is to prepare
your heart and your soul. Let it be in the
right place so you could die by being hit by
(18:14):
a car before the coming of Christ. So be ready
every day. Amen. All right. So having said that, let's
jump into Matthew chapter 24 and look at what Jesus
has to say about the end of times. Let me
(18:34):
begin reading in verse one of Matthew 24. Jesus left
the temple and was walking away when his disciples came
to him to call his attention to its buildings, the
buildings of the temple. Do you see all these things?
Jesus said to them, truly I tell you, not one
(18:55):
stone here will be left on another. Every one will
be thrown down. Jesus was making a prophetic prediction that
this magnificent temple that all the Jews were in awe
over would be completely destroyed coming soon. That was a
prophetic word. The disciples. It was like a bomb dropped
(19:19):
in them. It was like you showing some visitors around
downtown Chicago, and you point to the Sears Tower. I
still call it the Sears Tower. I can't convince myself
to call it the will of anybody else with me
here today. All right, all right. Just making sure you're
with me. To me, it's the Sears, not the Willis.
And walking by the Sears Tower and someone says, oh,
(19:42):
by the way, not a beam of the Sears Tower
will be left one upon it will be utterly destroyed.
You would be aghast at that. You would think, well,
it has to take a nuclear bomb or some some
catastrophic event that will tear down the Sears Tower. Will.
The disciples were shocked that Jesus said of the temple
(20:04):
that it would be destroyed. They walked for about a
mile thinking about this, conversing about this, murmuring about this.
And when they got to a private place, the disciples
went to Jesus, who was sitting in the Mount of Olives.
And the disciples came to him privately. And they said
to him, when will this happen? And what will be
(20:29):
the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
Now this is what brings about the confusion of this chapter,
and I'm going to teach you a little bit. Are
you ready to learn today? Okay. You're going to have
to stay with me a little bit, elbow the person
beside you and say, stay with the pastor. He's teaching
you something. I want you to stay with me a
(20:50):
little bit. I'm teaching you some Bible here, so. So
stay with me. The reason this is confusing is that
in Matthew chapter 24 and 25, Jesus is actually answering
three questions with one answer. The disciples assumed that the
(21:11):
destruction of the temple would mark the end of the world,
but it was not so. Little did they know that
40 years after their conversation that the destruction of the
temple would happen. It would not be the end of
the world. It would be the end of Jerusalem, but
not the end of the world. So Jesus is answering,
(21:32):
when will the temple be torn down? What are the
signs of the coming of Jesus? And when will be
the end of the world? You see those three answers
packaged in one passage. Let me talk to you about
the temple. First of all, just so you get an
understanding of it. I have been to Jerusalem and I've
been to what's called the Wailing Wall. You may have
(21:55):
seen pictures of it. This is the most sacred place
for the Jewish people. It's not even a wall that
that's a part of the temple. It's a support wall
upon which the temple was built. But it's the most
ancient wall, and they view it as the gateway to heaven.
In fact, when I was on this trip, several people,
(22:18):
when Jewish friends, knew that some of their friends would
be going to the Wailing Wall, they wrote out prayers
and gave it to their friends. And so if you
approach the Wailing Wall, you'll find all of these prayers
rolled up in little papers and thousands and thousands of
papers put into the crevices of the Wailing Wall, because
(22:39):
Jewish people believe it's the closest thing to the temple.
It's the gateway to heaven. And when you approach the wall,
your head has to be covered. There's a section for
women and a section for men because it's the closest
thing to the temple. So the disciples were amazed at
the beauty of this temple. And yet Jesus said, not
(23:01):
a stone of this temple will remain upon stone. This
will be utterly destroyed.
S1 (23:18):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe and
Mark will dive into the four signs of the times
on next weekend's program. Be sure to listen then. In
the meantime, you can replay today's lesson and learn more
about this ministry when you visit us online at Bold
Steps org. There you can also learn about our latest
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(23:40):
than ever, but did you know that throughout history, times
of crisis have often preceded times of spiritual awakening? In
the book titled A Non-anxious Presence, Mark Sayers reveals how
today's challenges might actually be setting the stage for tomorrow's renewal.
As leaders and believers, we often try to control what
feels uncomfortable. But what if God is using this season
(24:02):
of uncertainty to shape something new in your church, your community,
and even your relationship with him? A Non-anxious presence offers
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(24:23):
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(24:45):
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(25:07):
weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Well, that's our time for today.
Be sure to join us again next weekend when we'll
continue this discussion on the End Times from the Book
of Matthew. Mark will address the question, how close are we?
And you won't want to miss that. So be listening
next time to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold
(25:30):
Steps Weekend is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry
of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Bold Steps weekend with Mark. Joe, we're talking
about the end of days.
S2 (00:07):
What the Bible tells us over and over is that
it's not our job to know the day, the year,
the month, or the time. That that's up to God.
In fact, he tells us that the end will come
as a thief in the night.
S3 (00:37):
I'm preparing my family for the total destruction of the
power grid a.
S4 (00:40):
Devastating earthquake, a series of catastrophic terrorist attacks.
S5 (00:44):
Supervolcano, volcano.
S6 (00:47):
Under a doomsday scenario. I'll be the only one standing
there who has another £100 to lose.
S7 (00:53):
700 cans.
S8 (00:54):
£241 of cucumbers. We have weapons for every individual in
the house. This is the.
S9 (00:58):
Lifestyle that we live. Let's go. We're bugging out.
S10 (01:01):
Doomsday preppers on new series. Well, there's a lot of
weird ideas out.
S1 (01:04):
There about the End of days. I'm Wayne Shepherd with
Mark Jobe. Mark, we need to turn to God's word
for the answers, don't we?
S11 (01:09):
We do. And there are a lot of extremes out there.
Some people that just think, well, it's never going to happen,
and others that are building bunkers and storing cucumbers and
waters and generators. But, you know, the Word of God
does have a lot to say about preparing for the
(01:30):
end times. Not like the doomsday preppers, but spiritually. How
do we get ready for the end time?
S1 (01:38):
And that's what's important to us here. So let's get to.
Today's message is titled how close are we? Here on
Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (01:52):
Matthew 24 and 25 are some of the most controversial
Scriptures in the New Testament. They have been read and analyzed.
They have frightened people. They have been diagnosed and reread.
(02:13):
People have interpreted it in different ways because Matthew chapter
24 and 25 are Jesus explanation of how we need
to ready ourselves for what the Bible calls the end times. Now,
I know just saying that scares some of you, because
(02:37):
I believe that there's two extremes when we talk about
the end times. I think there's the one on one extreme.
You have the doubters, the people that say nothing's ever
going to change. It's always going to stay the same.
It's just going to continue on like it's always continued
on before there's no Armageddon. There's no end of the
(03:01):
world coming of Jesus. Everything's just going to progress like
it's always progressed before. And on the other extreme, there
are the conspiracy theorists, the alarmist, the people that are
always interpreting every event that happens as, let's build a
bunker in our basement. Let's get the waters and let's
(03:24):
get the, uh, let's, let's prepare for the end of
the world. And they're predicting and everything is about the
end is coming. And so you have, at one extreme,
the alarmist, at the other extreme the doubters. But I
believe that Jesus gives us a bit of a different perspective.
And I want to focus on that today as we
(03:45):
look at this passage on the End Times. Now, recently,
I was with my wife in a little town in
Spain that we had never been to before, and I
was trying to make my way to the hotel that
we were staying at. And like most men, I just
told my wife, follow me, I know where I'm going.
(04:10):
How many of you wives have heard that before? And
she said, well, how exactly are you going to get there?
I instinctively, honey, I'll know how to get there. And
so as we started to walk. Now I always get there.
I may not always get there. The straightest path. Sometimes
they take a scenic route where people have never been before.
Tourists have never toured before. And sometimes we see the
(04:33):
bad neighborhoods in the city while I'm walking or there.
But I always get there one way or another. And
so she stopped and said, I'm tired. My feet hurt.
I want to know where you're going. So I pulled
out my smartphone and pulled out Google Maps and put
in the address. And it has a feature where you
(04:54):
hit walk and then it starts telling you how to
get there. So on the map I could see where
I was at because there was a little flashing dot
and I could see the point where we were going.
So I saw where we were at the point where
we were going, but in between, I wasn't sure what
that would look like. So I started to follow my GPS,
(05:16):
Google Maps, and it took us through a well. We
turned into a very narrow, long, dark alley that not
even a car would fit through. And my wife said,
I'm not going in there. I'm saying, well, honey, GPS says.
So I convinced her to go through this dark alley.
(05:38):
There was horse manure there. It looked like a scary
dark alley. And I kept telling her, I'm not sure
exactly how we're going to get there, but I know
the dot is just ahead. And finally we arrived. And
I think sometimes biblical prophecy is like that. We know
(06:01):
the destination point and we sort of know where we're at.
But what lies in between is a bit of a
mystery how hard it will be, how narrow the path
will be, how challenging it will be is a bit
of a mystery. And so today we're going to look
at the destination point and look at what Jesus says
about the path to get to that destination point. Matthew
(06:27):
chapter 24 talks about the end times. Now, as I
was studying this, I also discovered that we have a
long history of making predictions about when the end will come.
In fact, if you research it a little bit, you'll
realize that since the days of Jesus, people have been
(06:50):
making predictions about the day, the hour, the month, the year,
and the time. I was really astounded about how many
religious groups over the last 2000 years have made predictions
about the year, the day and the month. And I
could spend a lot of time telling you all of
(07:12):
the religious groups, both Christian and non-Christian, that talk about
the end of the world, the predictions about some catastrophic
event that will end the world Armageddon. And the history
is full of prophetic, uh, predictions and false predictions about
the end of the world. For example, in the second century,
(07:35):
a group of people called the Montanist, which were a
kind of a break off of Christianity where there were
a lot of prophets and prophetess. This movement predicted that
Jesus would come sometime during their lifetime and establish the
New Jerusalem in a city called Pepuza in Asia minor.
(07:56):
They said, Jesus is coming in our lifetime and he's
going to establish his kingdom in this area. And it
didn't happen. Years later, one of the greatest moments where
hundreds of thousands of people expected the end of the
world in the coming of Jesus was at the turn
(08:18):
of the millennium, at the year 1000. Literally hundreds of
thousands of people in Europe expected that the year 1000
would be the end of the world. In fact, so
many people believed it that then there was such a
fervor that it was the end of the world, that
many people quit their jobs. Many farmers did not farm
(08:43):
because they expected, hey, why am I going to farm
if no one's going to be here to harvest the farm?
In fact, there's a couple of nations. Christianized nations went
to war with some pagan nations for the full purpose
of converting them before the end of the world, the
year 1000 came, the year 1000 left and Jesus had
(09:07):
not come. I read also that there's a few religious
groups that started because of their founders predicted the end
of the world. For example, a fellow by the name
of Joseph Smith who started the Mormon movement in 1835.
He predicted that Jesus would come in 56 years from then.
(09:29):
So all of the followers believed that Jesus would come
in 56 years. Well, 1891 came, 1891 left and Jesus
had not come. Charles Russell, who started the Jehovah Witness movement.
He predicted that in 1914 it would be the end
(09:52):
of the world. Armageddon would come that everything as we
know it would end. In 1914, hundreds of his followers
left their jobs and went throughout the world going door
to door telling people, get ready. The end of the
world is coming. You only have two years to get
ready because Armageddon is going to happen. The world is
(10:13):
going to end. It's going to be a huge, catastrophic event.
The end is here. And 1914 came. People waited, expected
on October the 2nd of 1914. They thought the year
was it was going to end. October came, October left
and the world was the same. More recently, one of
(10:40):
the biggest. Well, in 1800s, a man by the name
of William Miller predicted that Christ would return on April 3rd, 1843.
Anybody have their birthday on April the 3rd? No. Oh.
Over here. Yeah. One did. All right. Big day in history.
(11:01):
Miller believed that on April the 3rd, 1843, that Jesus
was coming. It would be the end of the world.
He had a half a million followers in the United
States of America that believed what he said. In fact,
some of them on April the 3rd, went up to
the mountains to be, I guess, closer to the heavens,
(11:23):
and waited on the top of mountains. Some went to
graveyards because they believed that their dead would resurrect, and
they wanted to be next to uncle Harry as he
came out of the grave. And so they went to graveyards.
They went to the top of mountains, and they waited
all through the night. This is the day, April the 3rd,
the end of the world. Jesus is coming. And it
(11:44):
never happened. I remember just a few years ago, do
you remember a fellow by the name of of Harold Camping,
who on May 21st of 2011 predicted That this would
be the end of the world. He had 5000 billboards
(12:05):
throughout the United States of America and hundreds of his
followers that quit their jobs. He owned a network of
radio radio stations, and he began to predict the end
of the world will come on May 21st. He had
figured it out chronologically through the Bible, and explained that
he had traced it all the all the way back
to the prophecies of Daniel through the New Testament, and
(12:28):
that he was sure that on May 21st, 2011, the
world would come to an end. All his followers were
shown with letter signs holding up. The end is here.
They held it up. They held it up. The day
ended and nothing had happened. Now I want you to
(12:54):
hear me very well. The reason I sometimes avoid this
whole Bible prophecy timeline is because when you begin to
talk about the end times, our natural proclivity is to
ask this question win win.
S1 (13:18):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, and
we're pausing our message on the End Times for just
a moment, and we'll continue with Mark Jobe. Mark, I'm
looking at an email from a listener named Estelle, and
I won't read the whole email, but it's so encouraging.
Your solid teaching of the gospel and bold steps has
given me a great foundation. Estelle says I turned my
life fully over to God and since have been delivered
(13:40):
from drugs and alcohol. You probably hear this all the
time as a pastor, don't you?
S11 (13:44):
Yeah. You know, it's the power of the gospel that
can take lives and turn them around. And that's part
of our goal at Bold Steps, is we want to
clearly present the Word of God that has the power
to change lives. And, you know, I'm so grateful to
the bold step partners that you help us get the
word out there. And people like Estelle, who are delivered
(14:06):
from drugs and alcohol and says now she owns her
own business and she's a grateful woman of God.
S1 (14:12):
Wonderful. Thank you Estelle. Thank you for your partnership with us.
And when you become a partner with bold steps, the
main benefit, of course, is you get to help with
the cost of producing and distributing bold steps. But there
are some other benefits we've mentioned. For those who give
$30 a month or more, you get the 50% discount
on anything in the Moody Publishers catalog, but you also
(14:32):
will receive a signed copy of Mark's book, unstuck, and
twice a month you'll receive a personal video message from Mark. Because, Mark,
we like to make this radio thing a personal medium.
S11 (14:42):
Yeah we do. That's part of our goal is we
want to keep especially in touch with our partners. We
know that you're sacrificing to give. And so we want
to say a special thank you. And we do it
on a regular basis.
S1 (14:55):
Well, I hope you will consider and pray about becoming
a bold partner with us. Check it out at Bold
Steps org. Now let's return to today's message. Of course,
this much we know Jesus return is closer today than
it was yesterday. Here's Mark Jobe with his message.
S2 (15:15):
And here's the answer that the Bible gives us. The
Apostle Paul in first Thessalonians chapter five, verse one through
three says, concerning the times and the seasons, as he
talks about the end of time. Brethren, you have no
need that I should write to you. For you yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord, the end,
(15:38):
the day of the Lord. So comes as a thief
in the night. For when people say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon
a pregnant woman. What the Bible tells us over and
(15:58):
over is that it's not our job to know the day,
the year, the month or the time. That that's up
to God. In fact, he tells us that the end
will come as a thief in the night. Think about
that for a second. When's the last time a thief
has gone to burglarize a home and sends a Instagram
(16:21):
message ahead of time saying, by the way, at 1230
tonight I'm going to break into your house. Thieves come unexpectedly.
We don't know when they're coming. It's the element of surprise.
That's how thieves come in. And Jesus says that no
one knows the day, the time or the moment. These
(16:43):
are just in the hands and the mind of the father.
So I want you to look up at me. This
is very important. Anytime you hear someone give a date
a year, a decade, a month, a day, an hour,
a time, I want you to be aware of this,
that that person is either a false prophet, or that
person does not know their Bible because it's never, never,
(17:07):
never up to us to predict the time, the day,
the decade, the month. So do not believe it. I
had someone send me a Facebook message in September, because
(17:29):
there were some prediction that the end of the world
was coming, I think September 15th or so. Anybody hear
about that one? Yeah. And this person sent me a
message distraught. They don't come regularly to this church, but
they said I. What am I going to do? How
do I prepare? Help me. I'm distraught over this. I
(17:53):
just messaged him back. Don't quit your job. What you
need to do is what you do every day. Hopefully
you get up in the morning. The best way to
be prepared for the coming of Jesus is to prepare
your heart and your soul. Let it be in the
right place so you could die by being hit by
(18:14):
a car before the coming of Christ. So be ready
every day. Amen. All right. So having said that, let's
jump into Matthew chapter 24 and look at what Jesus
has to say about the end of times. Let me
(18:34):
begin reading in verse one of Matthew 24. Jesus left
the temple and was walking away when his disciples came
to him to call his attention to its buildings, the
buildings of the temple. Do you see all these things?
Jesus said to them, truly I tell you, not one
(18:55):
stone here will be left on another. Every one will
be thrown down. Jesus was making a prophetic prediction that
this magnificent temple that all the Jews were in awe
over would be completely destroyed coming soon. That was a
prophetic word. The disciples. It was like a bomb dropped
(19:19):
in them. It was like you showing some visitors around
downtown Chicago, and you point to the Sears Tower. I
still call it the Sears Tower. I can't convince myself
to call it the will of anybody else with me
here today. All right, all right. Just making sure you're
with me. To me, it's the Sears, not the Willis.
And walking by the Sears Tower and someone says, oh,
(19:42):
by the way, not a beam of the Sears Tower
will be left one upon it will be utterly destroyed.
You would be aghast at that. You would think, well,
it has to take a nuclear bomb or some some
catastrophic event that will tear down the Sears Tower. Will.
The disciples were shocked that Jesus said of the temple
(20:04):
that it would be destroyed. They walked for about a
mile thinking about this, conversing about this, murmuring about this.
And when they got to a private place, the disciples
went to Jesus, who was sitting in the Mount of Olives.
And the disciples came to him privately. And they said
to him, when will this happen? And what will be
(20:29):
the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
Now this is what brings about the confusion of this chapter,
and I'm going to teach you a little bit. Are
you ready to learn today? Okay. You're going to have
to stay with me a little bit, elbow the person
beside you and say, stay with the pastor. He's teaching
you something. I want you to stay with me a
(20:50):
little bit. I'm teaching you some Bible here, so. So
stay with me. The reason this is confusing is that
in Matthew chapter 24 and 25, Jesus is actually answering
three questions with one answer. The disciples assumed that the
(21:11):
destruction of the temple would mark the end of the world,
but it was not so. Little did they know that
40 years after their conversation that the destruction of the
temple would happen. It would not be the end of
the world. It would be the end of Jerusalem, but
not the end of the world. So Jesus is answering,
(21:32):
when will the temple be torn down? What are the
signs of the coming of Jesus? And when will be
the end of the world? You see those three answers
packaged in one passage. Let me talk to you about
the temple. First of all, just so you get an
understanding of it. I have been to Jerusalem and I've
been to what's called the Wailing Wall. You may have
(21:55):
seen pictures of it. This is the most sacred place
for the Jewish people. It's not even a wall that
that's a part of the temple. It's a support wall
upon which the temple was built. But it's the most
ancient wall, and they view it as the gateway to heaven.
In fact, when I was on this trip, several people,
(22:18):
when Jewish friends, knew that some of their friends would
be going to the Wailing Wall, they wrote out prayers
and gave it to their friends. And so if you
approach the Wailing Wall, you'll find all of these prayers
rolled up in little papers and thousands and thousands of
papers put into the crevices of the Wailing Wall, because
(22:39):
Jewish people believe it's the closest thing to the temple.
It's the gateway to heaven. And when you approach the wall,
your head has to be covered. There's a section for
women and a section for men because it's the closest
thing to the temple. So the disciples were amazed at
the beauty of this temple. And yet Jesus said, not
(23:01):
a stone of this temple will remain upon stone. This
will be utterly destroyed.
S1 (23:18):
You're listening to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe and
Mark will dive into the four signs of the times
on next weekend's program. Be sure to listen then. In
the meantime, you can replay today's lesson and learn more
about this ministry when you visit us online at Bold
Steps org. There you can also learn about our latest
bold step gift. The world seems more chaotic and unpredictable
(23:40):
than ever, but did you know that throughout history, times
of crisis have often preceded times of spiritual awakening? In
the book titled A Non-anxious Presence, Mark Sayers reveals how
today's challenges might actually be setting the stage for tomorrow's renewal.
As leaders and believers, we often try to control what
feels uncomfortable. But what if God is using this season
(24:02):
of uncertainty to shape something new in your church, your community,
and even your relationship with him? A Non-anxious presence offers
a hopeful perspective on leading through turbulent times. Request this
bold step gift and discover how to navigate change while
maintaining spiritual steadiness. Just call 800 D.L. Moody. Give your
(24:23):
gift at (800) 356-6639, or give online at Bold steps. Org
and to send your gift and request the book a
Non-anxious presence in the mail, write to us at bold steps.
820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. And before
we end today, we encourage you to join us on
(24:45):
social media and get connected with our growing online community
of fellow believers. In Bold Step listeners, you'll find us
on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube by searching for Bold
Steps Radio and let us know that you get there. Also,
be sure to subscribe to our podcast for easy listening
on the go. Just open up the podcast app on
your phone or smart device and search for Bold Steps
(25:07):
weekend with doctor Mark Jobe. Well, that's our time for today.
Be sure to join us again next weekend when we'll
continue this discussion on the End Times from the Book
of Matthew. Mark will address the question, how close are we?
And you won't want to miss that. So be listening
next time to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold
(25:30):
Steps Weekend is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry
of Moody Bible Institute.
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