Last year we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies made about Him from 4,000 to 400 years before He arrived on the earth. But what about the future? We have in our title “Prince of Peace”. In a future day Christ’s presence will guarantee peace (that is harmonious relationships), not only for Israel, but for the whole world. One day the Prince of Peace will become the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but when?
Hebrews c9v26 says “… but now once in the end of the world (Greek word “ages”) has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” As there were ages before the cross and so what are ages since the cross? Putting the jigsaw parts of the Bible together we find that the world will last for at least another 1,007 years. After the life, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven of the Lord Jesus there came what we are now in, that is the church age, – as seen in Acts c2v47 “… And the Lord added to the church …” This will continue until 1 Thessalonians c4v13-18 when Christ will come for His church (that is all those who have believed in Him as the Saviour from their sins) and will take them to be with Himself. This is called the Rapture.
Then, according 2 Thessalonians c2v3-4 there will be a further falling away from God and a man will arise whom God calls “the man of sin” (v3). He will sit in the Jerusalem Temple and want to be worshipped as God (v4). According to Daniel c9v27 he will reign for seven years. Sin will get worse as people will not repent, or change their minds, about it. Revelation c9v20-21 “And the rest of the men … repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood… Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (a reference to drug abuse), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” The Gospel of the kingdom will also be preached and people will trust in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. According to Revelation c13 the second beast causes all people to worship an image of the first beast or to be killed. In Revelation c13 people are to receive a mark in their right hands or foreheads before they can trade. There will also be a time of terrible persecution of those who believe in Christ as their Messiah (Revelation c6v9-11 and Matthew c24v9). Also there will be a time of terrible creatorial disasters the like of which we have not seen anything yet (Revelation c6-16).
At the end of these seven years, otherwise called Great Tribulation (Matthew c24v21), the Lord will return to the earth in Zechariah c14. In Revelation c19v19-21 the beast and the armies of the earth will make war with the Lord Jesus, but He will slay them. Then in Matthew c25 the Lord Jesus will judge the living nations. Those that believed in Christ will go into God’s Kingdom and those that did not believe in Christ will be sent into hell. In Revelation c20v1-3 satan will be bound by an angel for 1,000 years and then Revelation 20v4-5 and Zechariah c1v9 show that the Lord Jesus reigns over the earth for that Millennium. Isaiah c11 and Micah c4v1-8 show that there will be perfect peace during that time when people will turn their weapons of war into agricultural implements, there will be prosperity for all and the Lord Jesus will cause that even the wild animals will submit to His Messianic rule. While there will be peace and absolute righteousness there will be people born during the Millennium that will not believe in the Lord Jesus. In Revelation c20v7-10 at the end of the Millennium satan will be released from the bottomless pit and will go and deceive the nations. You would think that after 1,000 years of all sin being righteously dealt with, peace and prosperity, that those people would have firstly, at least referred satan, and what he said, to the Lord Jesus Who had brought them all these tremendous qualities of life. Sadly they do not but follow satan in his deception. After recruiting an army of ungodly rebels, satan marches against Jerusalem, the beloved city. But fire comes down from God and consumes the troops and the devil is sent to the lake of fire. Then according to 2 Peter c3 and Revelation c20v11 the world will pass away with a great noise and God will set up the Great White Throne in space and Christ will sit on it as the Judge (John’s Gospel c5v22). Then in Revelation c20v12-15 the sea, death and hell will give up their inhabitants who will stand before Christ. As this just Judge knows everything about those before Him and knows that they are guilty of various sins, of which they will know themselves, and they will know that He is just, there will be no council for the defence. The records will be checked and judgment will be given and sadly people will be sent to the lake of fire for eternal judgement. In Revelation c21-22 God will create a new heavens and a new earth where there is only righteousness, absolute peace, total joy and no pain, sorrow nor night.
But how do people now get to God’s peace? Before I answer that question I would like to tell you about a work that God has done inside Louisiana’s State Penitentiary otherwise known as Angola Prison as it is located at Angola in West Feliciana. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world, keeping 1 in 55 adults behind bars. This prison has 6,300 inmates of which about 80% have a life sentence without parole and at one stage 45 inmates were on death row. At sometime in the past the authorities lost control over the prison with the consequence that each new inmate had to be issued with a knife so that he could protect himself! So it was a grim place. In 1995 they appointed as a new warden (the equivalent of the English Prison Governor), a Christian called Burl Cain, who after a while made available accredited degree Theology courses and Bible study courses who could not do the degree courses. I am told that he had a Bible put in every cell. The result was that some or a number, I do not know how many, of the inmates trusted in Christ as their Saviour. There were the following results:
1. These men became concerned about their children and started writing to them. They also prayed for them that they too would trust in the Saviour.
2. The consequence was that the prison authorities started running “Family Days” inside the prison when women would chaperone the children into the prison to have time with their fathers. In the five years that the prison had run, and monitored, that programme there had not been one reported wrong doing.
3. And not only that but these Christian inmates asked for permission to build their own chapel which was granted and so they now have more association time to praise the Lord for what He has done for them and to worship etc.
4. And not only that but when some people outside the prison got to hear what was going on they gave money so that more chapels could be built inside that prison.
5. And not only that but some of the Christian inmates felt a burden to tell others of their Saviour and so, without any extra benefits or reduced sentences, they got transferred two-by-two, (a Scriptural pattern), to other prisons so that they could tell other inmates about the Saviour who had changed their lives.
6. And not only that, but the prison now has a radio station which is staffed by Christian inmates. This station broadcasts uplifting music and Gospel messages 24 hours a day.
7. And not only that but when one of the Christian inmates dies and his coffin is transferred across the prison property to the prison mortuary it is followed by men. These are not silent, grim faced, gloomy and with lots of questions. No, they are singing hymns because they know where their late colleague has gone and where they will be going some day.
8. And not only that, but Angola Prison was once known as the most “blood filled” prison in Louisiana, and some say in America, but is now known as the safest maximum security prison in the state of Louisiana, and some say in America.
Now what changed these men? Was it that they read some good ethics in the Bible and decided that this was a better way to live? No. What changed them was their vertical relationship with God, which then changed their horizontal relationships with people. In James c1 we are told that the Bible is like a mirror. While you do use a mirror to see what you look like, you do not use it as the agent to wash your face. You need another agent to wash your face with i.e. usually soap. The same applies to people getting to heaven. The Bible tells you what you are like. However you do not look into the Bible and see what God expects and then try to live up to His standards. No you must find another agent to cleanse you from your sin. The Divine Agent is the Person sent of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, because “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us (believers in Christ) from all sin.” (1 John c1v7).
The thought of the eternal God being born as a man may seem to be a contradiction of terms, but when one studies in the Bible the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the insurmountable evidence supporting this truth manifests itself. Now when Jesus came into the world the angel said to the shepherds in Luke c2v12 “And this shall be a sign unto you; You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” C2v16 says, “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” So God’s Word through the angel was found to be true. And the same applies to God’s Word the Bible which you will find to be true. But what were the shepherds going to find? It was a “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The swaddling clothes would be the strips of cloth that Mary would have normally provided for the birth. Jesus Christ had the normal part of His life. He eat, drank, communicated, lived in a family situation and was obedient to His earthly parents. He walked, was tired at times and He slept. At different times He also was righteously angry, wept for others and was joyful.
The fact that the babe was lying in a manger i.e. a feeding trough for animals, was obviously different to the usual. As the Lord Jesus was the Son of God He was very different to the usual. The great power that was within Him, He used for the blessing of the people. He healed individuals and when at times great crowds came to Him “He healed them all” (e.g. Matthew c12v15). When Divine healing happens it is immediately complete. He spoke words like no one else ever spoke. They were words of grace and truth which could be a wonderful blessing to people if they only accepted them. This resulted with the people who were the despised in society gladly hearing Christ. However the establishment did not like all that the Lord Jesus said and took Him and unjustly condemned Him and physically “punished” Him. However when He was crucified God has “laid on Him then iniquity (self will) of us all” (Isaiah c53v6). Christ came so that He could bear the judgment of God for the sins of the world and consequently we can “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans c5v1). By each person trusting in Him the problem of sin before God is dealt with and so we can have peace with God.
However, some of you might say, “I am not as bad as those inmates. To get life without parole means that they must have done something awful to receive such a sentence.” It is good that you have not committed those crimes but what does God think about sin in general? To illustrate there were two brothers who were to take an examination with a pass mark of 70%! One of the brothers worked and also played quite a bit but the other worked very conscientiously. On the examination results day the brother who had worked and played was given 33% and the brother who had worked conscientiously was given 69%! The same applies to us because we have all failed and “there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory (character or standards) of God” (Romans c3v22b-23). There were different degrees of effort by the brothers but as far as the examination board was concerned neither of them came up to the required standard and so they were both failures. God will not let one sin into heaven (Revelation c21v27) and if He did heaven has the potential of becoming as bad as earth is. However through Christ becoming the babe in Bethlehem, growing into perfect manhood and then dying at the cross and rising again, the complete price for our sins has been paid. So if each person were to trust in Christ as our Saviour then the question of our sins separating us from God will be effectively dealt with and we will, here and now, have peace with God.
But what sort of faith does God require. When people come into a room they do not normally bring with them some wood and metal with a hammer and nails to strengthen the chair they are going to sit on. They consciously, or sub-consciously, believe that the chair they are about to sit on can support and keep them all the time that they are sitting on it. So they fully trust themselves to that chair. That is the sort of faith that God talks about when the Bible mentions “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” God wants you to totally believe in, and so rest in the fact, that Christ did die for your sins and rose again so that you can be completely forgiven to God’s satisfaction and have peace with Him forever.
Romans c5v1 says, “Therefore being justified {made right with God} by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”