With all of the media coverage on the coronavirus, and the cooresponding panic many people are looking for answers. What does the Bible have to say about the times we are living in? Does the Bible give any practical insights for Christians during this time?

<p>With all of the media coverage on the coronavirus, and the cooresponding panic many people are looking for answers. What does the Bible have to say about the times we are living in? Does the Bible give any practical insights for Christians during this time?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Bay City SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

Chaos, Coronavirus, and the Christian Response

Father in heaven, Lord, we're so thankful for the opportunity to open your word this morning.

Lord, we recognize that we do live in unprecedented times.

And Lord, we don't know how everything will play out, but Lord, 1 thing that we do know is that you're a God that we can trust.

And Lord, as the song says, anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.

And Lord, we believe that Jesus can help us, can guide us, even through some of the darkest places in life.

Father, we know that there are some who are in great fear and anxiety over what's taking place.

There's others who find this situation laughable and ridiculous.

And Father, regardless of where we are, we pray that we would see clearly what your Word is speaking to us, and that you would help us to find comfort through you.

Well as we said in the prayer, we do seriously live in unprecedented times.

When's the last time you remember something like this happening?

Can you remember a time when school was shut down for at least 3 weeks?

Yeah, I heard 1 of our friends said, Why did this never happen when I was in school?

But we realize this is really stuff that has never taken place.

My mother was supposed to be in the Philippines, I think next week, the Philippines is on lockdown, not accepting anyone in or out.

And then supposed to be in Papua New Guinea, that trip got canceled.

Businesses are canceling all business travel.

It's a very interesting situation we live in.

And I think regardless of where we're at, we have to recognize that we're living in a time that the Bible does talk about.

There was someone from the Vassar Seventh-day Adventist Church who had 1 of their friends who is not fully religious ask her the question that said, does the Bible say anything about the coronavirus and what we're going through?

And she said, well, if you're asking if this is 1 of the plagues of revelation, it's not 1 of the plagues of Revelation and here's the reason why.

The plagues were only to affect the people who did not have the seal of God.

But we recognize with the coronavirus it affects everyone.

And you think of the plagues in Egypt the plagues didn't fall upon God's people They only fell upon the people of the world And so we recognize it doesn't fit with what the Bible describes as 1 of the plagues But notice what it does fit turn to Matthew chapter 24 this morning Matthew chapter 24 there are many people with questions like this.

I remember just on Thursday, I went to Home Depot thinking it was a normal day.

And as I was getting out of the vehicle, 1 of the ladies said, are you preparing for the apocalypse?

But this is the question on people's mind.

They might think, oh, this is foolish, or it's serious, or whatever it is.

But when you can't find basic necessities on the shelf, people start to get a little bit paranoid.

When you can't find it own, you know, roll of toilet paper to use for the next week, I'm not saying stockpiling it for the next 3 years, but trying to find something for basic necessity, people start to wonder what's going on.

Well, notice what Matthew chapter 24 speaks of.

We will find the word coronavirus does not appear in the Bible, just to ease all of your comfort.

Matthew chapter 24 and verse 7, the Bible is very clear that before Jesus comes, something will take place.

Notice verse 3 just to understand the context of Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is there with his disciples, he tells the disciples that Jerusalem's going to be destroyed in verse 2 and then in verse 3 notice the question the disciples asked.

Now as he, Jesus, sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be?

Talking about the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now this is part of the question that people are wondering right now.

Well notice some of the signs Jesus gives.

He gives a comprehensive explanation in Matthew chapter 24, also in Luke chapter 21.

We'll look at that in just a second, but notice Matthew chapter 24 beginning in verse 7 or continuing in verse 7 how the Bible continues to explain what is going to be happening before Jesus comes.

He says, For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines and what's that next word?

Pestilences and earthquakes in various places.

It's a disease or a an illness of sorts right?

And what we realize Jesus says is before he comes back, there will be famines, there will be pestilences, there will be earthquakes.

Now the skeptic looks at this and says, come on.

You know, now you pull out the Bible, now that it just happens to line up with what you believe, but how do you know that this pestilence points forward to Jesus' soon coming?

I mean, there have always been diseases, there's always been earthquakes, there's always been famines.

Jesus says, all of these are the beginning of what?

Now does anyone here have a new international version Bible?

Now it's interesting, most of our translations read all these things at the beginning of sorrows, but yet the NIV and other Bibles will read all of these things at the beginning of birth pains.

In other words, that's the actual word in Greek there.

All these things are the beginning of the contractions.

All these things are the beginning of the birth pains taking place.

And you say, well why is that significant?

Because the skeptic will say, we've always had wars, we've always had rumors of wars, we've always had famines, pestilences, and earthquakes.

When you see these things, all of these are the beginning of birth pains.

Now what do birth pains teach us about the coming of Jesus?

You know, you think about birth pains and they are experienced by someone who's pregnant.

We're wondering what's going to come first, the Sabbath or birth pains, right?

But birth pains or contractions are something that help us to understand the second coming.

He's giving us a word analogy to understand the second coming.

Many of you ladies remember this and you men who were terrified of your wife going through it, right?

The closer you get to the event of the coming of that child, the more severe and the more frequent those birth pains are.

You know, we were just back at the doctor and somehow even with child number 3, you have to ask the doctor the question again, well, when do I go to the hospital, right?

I just want to make sure that I'm on the right timing.

Well, when they're about 5 minutes apart, Go ahead and start coming in if you're that far away from the hospital.

If you have 1 birth pain or 1 contraction, does that mean the baby's coming today?

If so, the baby would have come in week 18, or whenever it was, when you start getting Braxton Hicks contractions right but the reality is is it's when your contractions or those birth pains are very close together and they start getting more intense right they say you can't breathe through them or talk through them well this is the analogy Jesus gives he doesn't say anytime you see a pestilence oh that's when I'm coming But he says the closer you get to my coming, the more intense and the more frequent those birth pains will be.

Well, Matthew chapter 24 tells us that part of those birth pains, or part of those things we're watching for to get more intense and more frequent, is the wars and rumors of wars, famines, and what was that next 1?

Pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

Now the reality is, is there's people who would still mock this point today and say, come on, the coronavirus is not a real pestilence.

Back to Menu

Chaos, Coronavirus, and the Christian Response

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Jesus on Prophecy

55m

Confidence in Crisis

Confidence in Crisis - Part 1: When Nature Dies: The Almost Last Supper

1h 7m

There’s No Thief Like Fear

59m

The Risk of God’s Mission

53m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Disciples in the Storm

43m

Last Day Events

A World in Crisis

1h 4m

Occupy Till I Come

46m

Hebrews 11- Faith

21 The Faith of David

45m

Understanding Difficult Topics

5. The United States in Bible Prophecy

1h 14m

Plenary

The Storm Is Here

1h 22m

Are You a Wise or a Foolish Virgin?

51m

Living Today

Mainstream Spiritualism: The Rise of the Occult

1h 5m

Sound Doctrine