Mark 16: 9-20
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Many of us are are part of the baby boomer generation. Some of you were born between 1928 and 1946 and are known as the silent generation. Together, we’ve been part of the greatest increase of knowledge and ease of living that there has ever been. Until 1900, it took about a century for knowledge to double. By 1945, it was only 25 years and by 1982, it was about 1 year. You won’t believe what it is today. 90% of the world’s knowledge has been created in the last 2 years. Now with AI and quantum computing, they predict it will double every 12 hours! We and more so, the generations that have come after, are the most spoiled in history.
We, the baby boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. Generation X comes after, born from 1965 to 1980. Generation Y or often called millennials were born from 1981 to 1996 and Generation Z were born from 1997 to 2009. We are now into generation Alpha, born 2010 and goes to mid or late 2020’s.
Technology has influenced the evolving generations to the point that the last couple of generations can hardly function without it. Many cannot read or write in cursive and can’t tell what time it is looking at an analog clock. Take away their phone or computer and they are lost without them. Some cannot travel routes they’ve been on many times without their GPS telling them where to go. My fear is that this trend of dependency will continue to get worse as technology advances and will continue to be used by the enemies of God to deceive our younger generations.
Parenting has greatly changed from when we baby boomers were growing up to how children are being raised today. Spare the rod, spoil the Child. That’s a paraphrase of Proverbs 13:24. Many older professionals that have spent their career teaching, counseling or taking care of young children have noticed a dramatic change in the behavior of younger children today, and not for the good. The development of children today consists largely of technology being the babysitter teaching them some good and but mostly bad behaviors and ideas. I will not get started on some of the computer games and where that has led.
So where am I going with all of this? From the Baby Boomer Generation to now, God has been slowly but surely taken out of our day to day lives. Our public-school systems and other institutions have been busy making sure God has no part of our young people’s lives. Our elected officials have pretty much taken God out of any part of Government. Science and higher learning institutions have supposedly proved there is no God. Times Magazine put “God is Dead” on their cover of April 8th, 1966.
Many of the Generation Z’s and more so, the Alpha Generation haven’t heard of Jesus but know who Santa and the Easter Bunny is. Science, technology, fantasy and virtual reality has become their gods. I heard a statistic that there are 170 million people the age of 30 and younger. Out of these, only about 17 million have heard the gospel and know who Jesus is. To make that worse, only a small percentage of them follow Jesus. For our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, that is one scary statistic. We don’t need to go far away on a mission’s trip. There are too many in our own country, in our own families that need to be saved from this world’s deception!
Our world has slowly changed to a world with no rules, no right, no wrong. Anything goes these days. What use to shock people 20 years ago, hardly has any impact on what people think today. A recent example of that was the opening of the Olympics in Paris, openly mocking God and Christians with the depiction of the last supper. Too many thought nothing about it.
When it comes to God and knowing about Jesus, most in the generations today are lost. And unfortunately, many are our children, our grandchildren and great grandchildren. It scares me to no end of how complacent about God people have become. Not only the more recent generations but even in our generations. To many, God can be anything they want him to be, as long as they believe in a god and are a good or moral person. Many in our generation believe in the God of the bible but pick and choose in what they want to believe.
Proverbs 9:10, says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” God must be the most important person in our lives, and we must treat him with reverence and respect. With God, it’s all or nothing. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the way, the only way!
We will all have eternal life, but it’s where we spend it, that’s the big question.
As I read earlier, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”.
In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist makes a profound declaration about the coming Messiah: “I baptize you with water, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. John baptized with water to signify repentance, but he was preparing the way for One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire—a spiritual baptism, not a physical one.
When we are baptized by the Holy Spirit, we become a new creation, in Christ. We are changed forever. If we have not changed what we think about our world, not made a relationship with Jesus and put him as the most important part of our lives, We may be lost or deceiving ourselves as well.
Is time running out for our younger generations? Yes, I think so. I think time is running out, in more ways than one. First, we may be the last generation that wants to reach these lost people. Most in the generations after us don’t think it’s that important. They don’t want to offend anyone. Nor do they want someone to think less of them because they believe in Jesus. That can be true even in our generations as well. Most don’t believe in a god and if they do, any god will do. They believe in what they want to believe, what best fits their lifestyles. As Paul says in 2 Timothy, “to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear”. There are many false teachers in our churches today leading people astray.
We may be the last generations to talk about what Jesus did for us on that cross and talk about the truth of the cross. We also are the last generations to slow down the change that’s been happening in this crazy and evil world. Imagine if there is no one left to stand up against the craziness that is happening all around us. Satan has made sure there has always been a slide in every generation, but I believe the present slide has greatly accelerated.
However, God always has a remnant that he uses for his purposes. When we are all gone, there will still be some that, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”. But unfortunately, they will be largely persecuted but much worse than today. We’ve been lucky compared to many people in many countries that stand up for their faith. Here, in our country, it’s getting worse every day. When we talk about Jesus, people get offended. We’re not allowed to talk about our faith. But they can trash us anytime they want, trash Christians, trash Jesus. And us being offended, means nothing.
And if we think that is bad, imagine being Jewish. So many countries would like to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth. Christians are also on that short list. We may be the last generations to sound the alarm.
Another way time is running out, is what’s next in the prophetic timeline. There are no prophies left in the bible that have to happen before the rapture can occur. Are we living in the end times? We just well may be living in what Jesus calls in Matthew 24:6-8, “the beginning of birth pains”. He says, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains”. Luke adds Jesus saying, “and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven”.
Most people think that the end times is a much shorter period than it really is. The end times actually started when, “he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God”. And it will not end until God is satisfied with “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”. Right now, I think we are in the “birth pains” and that’s probably been more than the last 100 years or so. But I think the timing of contractions are getting much shorter apart!
What makes now different than in earlier generations is that the Jewish people are back in their land, Israel. That is an almost 2000-year-old prophesy that has finally happened. They were scattered throughout the world since the Romans destroyed and ransacked Jerusalem in 70AD. The Jewish people have not had a country to call their own until 1948. And they’ve been fighting to keep it ever since.
You may want to read up on Ezekiel 38. There are some prophecies that may happen right before or around the rapture or tribulation period. With what is happening in the Middle East, Russia, China and Iran, that may be being setup as we speak.
We don’t really know exactly when the rapture will happen, when Christ comes back for his church. It could be tomorrow, could be next week, next year or many years from now. But when all this comes to be and the rapture happens, many will be left behind. It could be our loved ones, family and friends. There is still hope for them if that happens, but they’ll have to go through hell on earth first. But that’s another message that we don’t have time for now.
So, what’s our part in this crazy world today? Jesus said before he was taken up to heaven, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”. I don’t think we have to go much farther than our own land, our loved ones, friends and family. They need to know the truth, the full truth of what the bible says. Complacency about God is a dangerous thing. The consequence of not knowing the full truth and acting upon it, is nothing I want to think about, but we must.
The first thing we need to do is pray. The most important prayer for anyone is for salvation, to be in the book of life. Pray God softens their hearts and be more open to us when we are talking to them about the Gospel. Pray that they see God in our lives. Pray that they see this world has no answers for them.
We, the people that know Jesus, know what the Bible says, have to speak out and let others know about the love of Jesus and what he did on the cross, how he has changed our lives. We need to sit back and think about our own lives and what Jesus has done for us. Like Paster Jay says, “Tell our stories”. There are people from the Silent Generation to the Alpha Generation that know Jesus as a savior but remain silent, afraid of what others may think or say.
If we don’t speak up, tell them, family, friends and loved ones what we know and why, they will remain lost, never knowing a real savior. Can we as followers of Jesus let that happen? Too much is at risk. I’m sure many of you know the story of Esther. Mordecai said it best when he told Esther in chapter 4 verse 14, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” With that being said, Esther rose up and saved her people from the evil Haman.
Jesus says in Mark 16, verse 15-16, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized (that spiritual baptism), will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”.
Complacency about God is a dangerous thing, for us and our loved ones. We need to rise up, for we may be “born for such a time as this”. Pray that God will open the door to opportunities to share “your story” to loved ones and strangers so that you can plant the seed or water it in order for the Holy Spirit to lead them into the Kingdom. We cannot be discouraged; we cannot be afraid. We have wisdom from all the years we have lived, all the experiences we have gone through and all the good and bad circumstances we have endured during our life.What led us here, to this place, to this time? Are we here for such a time as this? Are we a remnant?Is time is running out for the lost? Sincerely pray on these questions and see where God leads you, leads us.
Amen