A message for Akron Alliance Fellowship Church, Akron OH, Sunday, March 16, 2025.
For the “Live in Church” audio of this message, select here.
My lovely bride and I just recently celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary. We were married right here (down front) twenty years ago, and ours is a story that could have been ripped from the fairy tales. Suffice it to say that I never thought that I would wind up marrying my very first girlfriend from 47 years ago. And yet here we are twenty years later. We looked forward to a great future together and we have experienced all kinds of life together. When I tell my bride that “every day was a new adventure,” she knows exactly what that means. It’s been that way for us every day.
The greatest certainty from our lives together is that we both know that we want to be in the Lord’s will and that we will be in heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I can’t think of anything that I would rather do than be with Jesus and also be with my best friend in eternity. I would be remiss if I did not address a question about the future that was asked of Jesus about marriage in heaven. It is from this that we will carry on with our message about what we can look forward to in the future. Let’s look at the Scriptures on this:
Matthew 22:23-32 NIV
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Who were the Sadducees? They were a Jewish group of religious and political aristocrats. Their rivals were the Pharisees, another wealthy and powerful group. The Sadducees held a number of high positions in the Jerusalem Temple, and they also held the majority of seats of the ruling council referred to as the Sanhedrin. The name Sadducee may have evolved from the Hebrew word sadaq, which means “to be righteous,” and they were followers of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), but they had a number of problems with doctrine.1
Their question to Jesus about the wife and seven brothers was rather silly, and maybe not all that serious in nature. This should have been a moment of learning for the Sadducees (although I doubt it made a difference). But it does give us a glimpse of what you and I will experience when we live in heaven. Ultimately, Lynn and I will not be married to each other, but we will know each other and, as Jesus states, we “will be like the angels of heaven.” We won’t know exactly what that looks like until we get there. And according to the promises of Jesus, we will be there with Him.
If you don’t get anything else out of today’s message, I want you to see the importance of taking the events of the future, as prophesied by Jesus Christ, very seriously. It’s nothing to trivialize or play around with. We need to be smart about this subject of the end times and have a healthy fear, or reverence, about the God who has our lives in His hands.
The study of the end times is referred to as eschatology. Eschatology is the branch of theology that studies the end of the world or of humankind. The specifics in this study involve the doctrine of the final things, including death, the destiny of those who follow or choose not to follow Jesus Christ, the Second Coming of Christ, and the final judgment of mankind.2
The thought of dealing with the future, even more specifically, the end times, can be daunting for some and yet, for those who know Jesus as personal Savior, a welcome occurrence. Which one of these applies to you?
Your eternal destiny is flatly a matter of your choice. The end times are not here just yet, but please understand that where you will be in your final destination is determined while you are here RIGHT NOW. It’s good to look at this study with an overview of the facts supporting the details.
Of course, faith is a requirement in maximizing your understanding of the Scriptures that I am about to share with you. In the same way that the Sadducees were challenged to believe the words of Jesus, we are also challenged to start with faith in Jesus and to keep growing in our faith. It is not in anything that we do or try to accomplish for God’s favor. Only by faith are we made righteous.
Romans 4:20-25 NLT
20 Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
I trust that you can see the complete context of this passage from Romans as to how our faith is to model the faith of Abraham. Our righteousness is because of our faith in Jesus and what he accomplished for us on the cross and in His resurrection. This faith is relevant in believing Jesus’s Second Coming and the upcoming judgment.
Believe the words of Jesus by faith.
Jesus gives his own account of the end times with a number of passages in the book of Matthew. We’ll focus on those words and from other passages as we take a brief survey of eschatology.
We are living in the last days right now, and they officially began the moment that Jesus ascended to heaven. There was an ongoing expectation that Jesus would be king right then and there, but the return of Jesus is provided as a gateway to the end times:
Acts 1:6-11 ESV
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Now, until the time of His return, these last days will involve the importance of believers to share the good news of Jesus. But the time for sharing will come to an end one day.
Matthew 24:14 NIV
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
The gospel will still be proclaimed even during the time of great turmoil for those who remain on earth (the rapture will pull the church, the true followers of Jesus, off the earth). Those who remain will face the worst time in world history. From here, the antichrist and the men of lawlessness will be on full display. Those who remain will be on the run:
Matthew 24:15-17 NIV
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house.
Paul affirms this with a declaration of the coming man of lawlessness:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 NIV
1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Revelation 13:5-10 NIV
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
10 “If anyone is to go into captivity,
into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed with the sword,
with the sword they will be killed.”
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
Matthew 24:19-22 NIV
19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
The teaching here is not meant to scare anyone. It is meant to prepare everyone.
While the days will be shortened, we don’t know when Jesus will return. Even at that time, Jesus, in His humanity, shared that He did not know when it would take place:
Matthew 24:36, 42, 44 NIV
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
If you were to ask me about this, I do believe the words of Jesus when He said He did not know because, if you remember, the Word declared that He lowered Himself in obedience to the Father in order to become the substitute for our sin. Remember that Jesus, during His first advent, came to be our Savior and showed us His humanity.
Hebrews 2:9 NIV
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Jesus is returning one day. His return is an essential element of the end times. When He returns, He is coming back as king.
Matthew 16:27-28 NIV
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.
28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Now, that last statement was actually fulfilled for three of Jesus’s disciples, Peter, James and John, during the Transfiguration of Jesus. Let’s add Peter’s own words of this account:
2 Peter 1:16-18 NIV
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
Peter is sharing what he ultimately saw when Jesus was communicating with Moses and Elijah. While some accounts of the passage in Matthew point out the humanity of Jesus, it was the words from the Father, according to Peter, that affirmed the glory and majesty of Jesus. We can safely assume here that Jesus, when He returns, will be King.
The end will not be a fun time when Jesus returns. He’s coming back like a dreadful flash of lightning.
Matthew 24:27-30 NIV
27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
So, what does eschatology mean to you after hearing these truths declared within the Word of God? For those of you who know Jesus as your personal Savior, you do not need to dread any of these things. When you die, you will be with the Lord:
2 Corinthians 5:5-8 NIV
5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
When Jesus returns in the end, we will still be with Him. There’s no downside whatsoever. For those who take the risk to go on with life without Him, there will be no upside.
The end times are worthy of our attention, but those who know Jesus have nothing to fear. Jesus has us—and our sins—covered, and has reconciled with us in His glory.
John 10:14-15 NLT
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.
Copyright © 2025 Melvin Gaines.
1 Houdmann, S. (2018, April 11). Who were the Sadducees. GotQuestions.org. https://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees.html
2 Eschatology. Wordnik.com. (n.d.). https://www.wordnik.com/words/eschatology
Melvin Gaines 