The Worst Tragedies Can Be the Best Opportunities

West Seattle Campus 8-14-11 Pastor Mark Driscoll
Tags: Prophesy, Escatology
Luke 21:5-19
The Worst Tragedies Can Be the Best Opportunities
Scripture is true but still difficult to understand but it's all true
This is the most debated section of the New Testament
The debate is over which items were soon to occur to the early church and which are still unfulfilled
The worst tragedies are sometimes the best opportunities
+Like the Crucifixion
The Temple will be Destroyed
There will not be left one stone upon another...
+People are like what signs will show this?!
+Jesus is speaking about the core of all of Judiasm being destroyed, he is speaking of their hope and the only connection of God
This statement is scandalous to the ruling powers (Herod, the Roman Gov't, or the priests), when you take away someone's idol they react violently
+The temple was a massive idol
The listeners heard and they believed Him.
+They want to prepare themselves for this cataclyism.
False Teachers Will Arise
Jesus warns that wolves will come to lead people astray
+They will prey on the emotions of people who are afraid
+This is true in the Near day of Jesus and the Far days like today

Farakan, Harold Kamping, the SDA, the Johovah's Witnesses, etc all try to prey on people with fear by making predictions and exploiting they fear
Mars Hill is on the welcoming committee not the planning committee for Jesus' return to the World.
Fruits and Nuts
Arnold Potter 1800s - Claimed to be possessed by Jesus and became Jesus "Potter-Christ"
Bahula (1800s) founder of the behai faith, he claimed to be the uniter of all the major world religions
Sum Yung Moon - Claims to be the 2nd coming of Jesus incarnate
Jim Jones claimed to be the 2nd coming of Buddy, Jesus, and Vlad Lennin
Heaven Gate Cult - Mass suicide for a comet
David Karesh - Said he was the son of God and 70+ people died in Texas
Growing in Grace Cult - Jose Miranda - "I do must greater things than Jesus of Nazareth"

When we get stressed we tend to use something to be a medication - some idiot claiming to be God, or Alcohol, or Food, or money
+Anything we use to deliver use from hard times
+Anything other than Jesus goes away and disappoints and devastates, because all things pass away
Sin Will Continue
Their will be horror on a massive scale - War, weather, genocides, etc.
+This is all because of Sin, God called the whole World good, we made life crooked
Desasters are like dress rehersals for the final end of Sin - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
In 3,400 years of recorded history there have been less than 300 years without war - ????
Jesus' People Will be Persecuted
Covert - no rewards, loss of jobs, loss of promotion, demotion, familial rejection, maginalization from friends, divorce
Overt - Murders and false criminal charges
Make the Most of Every Opportunity
With all the terror coming, what do we do? We get to testify about Jesus
Don't think about when to say, I will speak on your behalf
Jesus is our great message to minister to the people under the horrible circumstances of a world in peril
Jesus Christ makes persecution meaningful and even in the darkness of the days leading up to the end
Jerusalem's Fall
Canabalism, 500k-1mil jews died when the Romans lay siege to the City and eventually tore down the temple in 40AD
Even this horrible event was used by god to force the Christians out into the World to spread the good news