The Church & The Last Days

The tomb is empty.

Jesus Christ has risen.

Death—the enemy that followed mankind from the earliest pages of Genesis—has been confronted.

But the story does not end at the empty tomb.

The risen Christ appears to His disciples.

The men who had fled begin to understand that everything has changed.

Yet before they carry the Gospel into the world, there is unfinished business.

One of them is carrying a wound of his own.

His name is Peter.

PETER — FAILURE, FORGIVENESS & RESTORATION

On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter had made a bold promise:

“Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.”

Jesus warned him.

Before the rooster crowed...

Peter would deny Him three times.

And that is exactly what happened.

Three times Peter was confronted.

Three times he denied knowing Jesus.

Then the rooster crowed.

Peter remembered Jesus' words.

And he went out and wept bitterly.

But after the resurrection, Jesus does something beautiful.

He does not discard Peter.

He restores him.

Beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus asks:

“Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Not once.

Not twice.

THREE TIMES.

Three denials.

Three questions.

And with Peter's answers comes a renewed commission:

“Feed my sheep.”

Peter's failure was real.

But failure did not have the final word.

Forgiveness did.

The man who denied Jesus three times would soon stand publicly in Jerusalem and proclaim Him before thousands.

The frightened disciple becomes a witness.

“YOU SHALL BE MY WITNESSES”

Before His ascension, Jesus gives His followers a mission.

Not merely:
Remember Me.

But:
Tell the world.

“Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Look at the movement.

Jerusalem.
↓
Judaea.
↓
Samaria.
↓
The ends of the earth.

Remember Abraham.

God had begun with one man and promised:

“In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Now, after the resurrection, Jesus sends His followers outward toward those very nations.

The story that narrowed from the nations to Abraham...
begins expanding back toward the nations again.

THE ASCENSION — THE KING DEPARTS

The disciples watch as Jesus is taken up.

A cloud receives Him from their sight.

They continue staring toward heaven.

Then two men in white apparel appear and say:

“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

Notice the promise.

He left.

But He will not remain absent forever.

Already, at the very beginning of the Church's story, the Second Coming is placed on the horizon.

The Church will live between two great events:

HE HAS COME.

and

HE WILL COME AGAIN.

PENTECOST — FIRE, WIND & THE SPIRIT

The disciples wait in Jerusalem.

Then comes Pentecost.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind...”

Tongues like fire appear.

The disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit.

And they begin speaking in other languages.

People from many nations hear the mighty works of God proclaimed in their own tongues.

There is an intriguing reversal here.

At Babel, humanity was scattered and languages divided.

At Pentecost, different languages remain...
but the message becomes understandable across them.

One Gospel.
Many tongues.
Many nations.

Peter—the same man who had denied Jesus—stands before the crowd and boldly proclaims the risen Christ.

Thousands respond.

The Church has begun.

THE WITNESSES

But Jesus never promised His followers an easy road.

The Gospel begins spreading.

And resistance follows.

Stephen testifies about Christ and is killed.

James, the brother of John, is executed by Herod.

Peter is imprisoned.

Paul is beaten, imprisoned, stoned and repeatedly persecuted.

Yet they continue.

Why?

Because at the centre of apostolic preaching is not merely an idea.

It is a claim:

WE HAVE SEEN HIM ALIVE.

Peter later writes:

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables... but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

And the book of Acts repeatedly presents the apostles as witnesses of the resurrection.

That distinction matters.

People throughout history have died for beliefs that were false.

So martyrdom alone cannot prove that a belief is true.

But the earliest witnesses were proclaiming something more specific:
they claimed that they themselves had encountered the risen Christ.

And despite imprisonment, violence and death, the proclamation continued.

THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH

Revelation later describes faithful witnesses with extraordinary words:

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

That sentence captures something we see throughout the early Christian story.

The message did not spread because the first Christians possessed armies.

They had none.

They did not control Rome.

Rome controlled them.

They did not offer wealth or earthly security.

Following Jesus could cost them both.

Yet the Gospel continued moving outward.

Jerusalem.
Antioch.
Asia Minor.
Greece.
Rome.

And eventually far beyond the world known to those first disciples.

The Empire that crucified Jesus could not crucify His message.

THE APOSTLES — WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY KNOW?

Christian tradition remembers many of the apostles dying as martyrs.

Some traditions are historically stronger than others.

The New Testament explicitly records the execution of James the son of Zebedee.

Early Christian sources strongly associate Peter and Paul with martyrdom in Rome.

Traditions concerning the deaths of several other apostles developed over time and cannot all be established with equal historical certainty.

But one fact remains unmistakable:

The earliest Christian movement expected suffering.

Jesus had warned them:

“If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

And still they went.

They crossed borders.

Entered cities.

Faced prisons.

And preached:

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN.

THE GOSPEL TO THE NATIONS

Jesus had given another remarkable statement concerning the future:

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Think about the people who first heard those words.

A small group of disciples in a tiny province under Roman occupation.

No printing press.

No radio.

No television.

No internet.

No aircraft.

No global communication network.

Yet the commission was:

ALL NATIONS.

Centuries pass.

Kingdoms rise and fall.

Languages change.

Borders move.

But the Gospel keeps travelling.

And today the message that began around Jerusalem has crossed the earth.

The words spoken to a handful of disciples have become global.

BUT JESUS ALSO GAVE A WARNING

The spread of the Gospel would not mean that history gradually became peaceful.

When His disciples asked about His coming and the end of the age, Jesus warned them:

“Take heed that no man deceive you.”

Notice His first warning.

DECEPTION.

He speaks of false Christs.

Wars and rumours of wars.

Famines.

Pestilences.

Earthquakes in different places.

Persecution.

Betrayal.

False prophets.

Increasing lawlessness.

And love growing cold.

Then Jesus says:

“All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

The Greek expression carries the imagery of:

BIRTH PAINS.

That is important.

Birth pains do not mean that every individual contraction tells you the exact moment of birth.

But they do mean that something is approaching.

And as the time comes closer...
the pattern intensifies.

THE LAST DAYS — NOT ONLY DISASTER

Scripture gives other descriptions as well.

Paul writes:

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

He describes humanity becoming lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, unthankful, without natural affection and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

Peter warns that scoffers will come asking:

“Where is the promise of his coming?”

Daniel contains another mysterious statement:

“Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end...”

And then:

“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

What precisely Daniel intended by this expression deserves careful examination.

Does it refer to increasing general knowledge?

Greater understanding of Daniel's own prophecy?

Movement and searching?

Perhaps some combination?

We should not force the verse to say more than it does.

But one idea is unmistakable:

something sealed becomes associated with the time of the end.

We will return to that.

“I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY”

Paul also reveals something extraordinary concerning believers and the return of Christ.

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”

He describes the dead being raised incorruptible and living believers being changed.

Elsewhere he writes:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...”

Then:

“The dead in Christ shall rise first.”

And afterward:

“We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.”

This passage stands behind what many Christians call:

THE RAPTURE.

But important questions remain.

When does this happen?

Before a final tribulation?

During it?

After it?

Is the gathering of believers separate from Christ's visible return, or another description of the same great event?

Faithful Christians have interpreted these passages differently.

So here in Gate I we will not force a timetable upon Scripture.

We simply place the pieces on the table.

Christ descends.

The dead are raised.

Living believers are transformed.

They are gathered to Him.

The precise sequence will become part of our investigation through the next Gates.

THE GREAT DECEPTION

Scripture also warns that before the end comes a profound rebellion and deception.

Paul writes of:

“a falling away”

and of:

“that man of sin... the son of perdition.”

This figure exalts himself and is associated with signs, wonders and deception.

John's letters use another famous term:

ANTICHRIST.

And Revelation gives us still more imagery.

A Beast.

Another Beast later identified with the False Prophet.

A Dragon.

Political power.

Religious deception.

Economic pressure.

Worship.

Persecution.

Behind the visible powers stands an older enemy.

Revelation identifies the Dragon:

“that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan...”

There he is again.

THE SERPENT.

The enemy who appeared near the beginning of Genesis appears again near the end of Scripture.

The story has come almost full circle.

BUT SATAN DOES NOT WIN

This is essential.

Biblical prophecy is not ultimately the story of Satan taking over the world.

It is the story of his defeat.

Paul says concerning the lawless one:

“whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

Revelation describes the Beast and False Prophet being defeated when Christ appears.

And ultimately Satan himself faces judgment.

The rebellion that began so long ago does not continue forever.

The serpent does not receive the final page.

THE KING RETURNS

Jesus said:

“And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

There is our title again.

THE SON OF MAN.

Daniel saw Him.

Jesus claimed the title.

And now Jesus speaks of the Son of Man returning in glory.

The first time, He came as a child in Bethlehem.

The next time Scripture describes Him very differently.

Not lying in a manger.

Not standing before Pilate.

Not carrying a cross through Jerusalem.

But:

THE KING RETURNS.

NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR

And here Scripture gives us an important boundary.

Jesus says:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man...”

Therefore Christians are called to watch...

but not to pretend certainty where God has not given it.

We can examine patterns.

Study prophecy.

Notice developments.

Compare Scripture.

Explore chronology.

Ask questions.

But a calculated possibility must never quietly become:

“God told us the date.”

Jesus' command is simpler:

“Watch therefore...”

Not:
Predict everything.

But:
WATCH.

FROM PETER TO THE LAST GENERATION

And now look at the enormous distance covered by this Gate.

It begins beside a lake.

A broken man stands before the risen Jesus.

Three times Jesus asks:
“Do you love Me?”

Peter is forgiven.

Restored.

Commissioned.

Then comes Pentecost.

The Spirit is poured out.

The witnesses go into the world.

They suffer.

Some die.

But the Gospel continues.

Generation follows generation.

The message crosses nations and centuries.

And throughout it all remains the promise:

HE WILL COME AGAIN.

The Church therefore lives between:

an empty tomb
and
a returning King.

We look backward and proclaim:
CHRIST IS RISEN.

We look forward and proclaim:
CHRIST WILL RETURN.

But Scripture has given us only the foundation.

Questions remain.

What did ancient Jewish and early Christian writings expect about the final age?

What did Enoch say about final judgment?

What strange visions appear in 4 Ezra?

What does the ancient world say about the forces behind earthly kingdoms?

What are Daniel's sealed mysteries?

And could some things become clearer only as history approaches their appointed time?

For those questions...

we open the second Gate.