The Second Coming of the Church

THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHURCH

The Second Coming of the Church

Theme: Can the American church make the changes necessary to avoid its own demise?

Text: 2 Peter 3:10-16 (NLT)But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.11Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,12looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.13But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.14And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.15And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—16speaking of these things in all of his letters…

Introduction: The world is undergoing rapid change, unprecedented since the time of Noah’s day. We are racing toward the point of no return from the darkness of sin that is ravishing cultures around the world.

Matthew 24:37-39 (NLT) “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.38In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.39People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.

According to Dr. Richard Swenson in his book Hurtling Toward Oblivion, due to the power of profusion and its expansion through our globalist drive for progress. We have reached a point in human history where we will not be able to stop the inevitable point of no return.

Swenson poses that every time we add one new element into the earth it creates another problem. Because of man’s state of fallenness, as he describes it, every positive creates yet another unexpected negative

No matter how good something may be, it always carries with it a negative result due to the fallenness of the world around us.

Email expanded our ability to communicate sharing greater amounts of information more quickly. At the same time it is putting people who work for the US Postal service out of business. It also has cluttered our lives with unwanted overload of junk mail and too much information.
The invention of the internet has made it possible to learn and garner information and understanding on nearly any subject as no other time in history. At the same time it has opened the floodgate to perversion, crime and disrespect.
In the West we have an abundance of food and choices as no time in our history. Yet with all of these choices and abundance we have an explosion of diabetes, obesity and heart disease.
Modern medicine and the discovery of antibiotics have prolonged millions of people’s lives. At the same time more population causes more pollution, more people who are fallen, and more consequences as the result of man’s fallenness. The problem is not the people, progress or innovation. The problem is man’s fallenness.
In spite of all our advancements, because of fallenness we can never escape the negative.
You may have a great life, with a high paying dream job and all the material wealth your heart could desire. Yet a single unexpected tragedy like a sudden heart attack or car accident could end your life, or turn your success upside down. For all of the potential positives, they can be suddenly wiped out by a single negative, as the result of living in a fallen world.

Swenson states, “What can deliver us then? Can progress? No. Can global economic growth and health care? No. Can universal education and social learning? No. each of these things has something to contribute in addressing the problems of humanity. Progress, for example, can indeed make life better in thousands of ways. Economic growth and health care can alleviate much suffering. Education and social learning have proven valuable. International negotiations have kept us out of a world war for more than seventy years. An impressive record.

But none of these things can negate the pervasive and malignant effects of fallenness. Even as they make life better, they simultaneously give fallenness thousands of new, faster, more powerful ways to express itself. None of these things can or ever will defeat fallenness. Only a power that transcends this fallen reality, only God Himself can do that.”

Simply put. The more elements that are introduced into a fallen world, no matter how good they may be, eventually the fallenness of humanity and the world will bring about an adverse affect upon them.

The fallenness of the world and unraveling that we are witnessing should not take the Christian by surprise.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (NLT) Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters,we don’t really need to write you.2For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.3When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.4But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.5For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.6So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.7Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.8But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation. 9For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.10Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.11So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

I. The Church and Change

A. In his book The Great Evangelical Recession, by John S. Dickerson, he identified four major cultural shifts that will continue to have a great affect upon the American church.

1. The “host” culture is changing faster than most of us (inside and out of the church) realize.

“We do long range or strategic planning as though the future were simply going to be an extension of the past.” Tom Sine, Mustard Seed vs. McWorld

The United States is shifting into a postmodern, post-Christian era.
New technology does not change a cultures direction. It simply accelerates the change.

2. The direction of accelerating change includes anti-Christian reactionism and pro-homosexual.

While only 26% of Americans 65 and older favor gay marriage, 57% of 18-29 year olds are in favor of it. So with our education system and the media becoming increasingly anti-Christian and pro-homosexual and transgender, evangelical Christians will become even more resented.
Not only is the culture drifting away from Christianity, people (especially the young) are growing increasingly hostile toward Christianity.
In 2011, George Barna found that “people are most likely to acknowledge that Americans are becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity.”
53% of University professors now hold negative feelings toward evangelical Christianity.

3. The rate of change toward this direction will continue to accelerate as the oldest two generations die off.

We can see that younger generations are departing from the faith of their fathers.
As older Americans die off, their values will die with them.

4. These changes will reach a point at which they will directly affect church as we know it and life for evangelical Christian as we know it.

Add to these trends a hypersexual culture and you can easily see that America as we have known it is in peril of sinking into the same new anti-Christian paganism that the early church faced in the Roman empire.

Every 36 minutes a porn film is made in the United States.
The United States produces 89% of all pornographic web pages.
30,000 people are viewing porn every second.
42.7% of internet users view porn.
The average age of initial pornography exposure is 7 years old.
The city of Philadelphia has lowered the age for condom distribution to eleven years old, or the fifth grade.

II. The State of the Declining Church in America

A. According to the most reliable reports in recent years, the evangelical church in America, that is Bible believing, born again believers is rapidly declining.

1. Can anyone honestly say that the over all health and condition of the church in the United States has improved in the United States over the past 30 years?

Matthew 16:2-3 (NKJV) He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; {3} "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Evangelical Christians in the United States have declined to around 7 to 9% of the population.
This means that only about 2 out of every 10 Americans are evangelical, bringing the total number of Evangelical Christians to around only 22 to 28 million of the total population of the United States.
With shrinking numbers of bible believing Christians this means that the church will continue to lose influence in our society.
As the population in the United Stated continues to grow the church not keeping pace.

B. Losing our young

LifeWay research found that 70% of Millennials (18-29 year olds), quit attending church by the age of 23. Most will never return to church or to Christ himself.
Barna research estimates that 4 or every 5 young evangelicals will leave the church.
In the past decade 2.6 million 18-29 year olds have left the church, and most will never return.

“There is no easy way to say it, but it must be said, Parents and churches are not passing on a robust Christian faith, and accompanying commitment to the church.” Ed Stetzer

“We are at a critical point in the life of the North American Church; the Christian Community must rethink our effort to make disciples. David Kinnaman

C. Looming Financial Crisis

1. If the current giving trends continue the evangelical church in the United States will lose half of all financial gifts in the next 30 years.

2. Giving has declined even though Christian’s income has steadily increased.

In 2001 evangelical gave 4.27 percent of their income, down from the 4.74 percent in 1968, even through their income increased.
In 2003 tithing among evangelicals decreased by 62 % from the previous year.
In 2004 the church reached the lowest percentage of giving since the Great Depression.
In 2005 the percentage of giving decreased yet again.

3. Death of the biggest giving generation.

Christians and non Christians alike over 75 give more four times more of their income than 25-44 year olds.
Percentage of giving by Christians by age groups

25-34 = .08 %

35-44 = .89 %

45-54 = 1.06 %

55-64 = 1.31 %

65-74 = 1.92 %

75 and older = 3.22 %

We are on the threshold of the greatest wealth transfer in history of 41 trillion dollars. Yet younger Christians and non-Christians give the least amount of any generation in history.
The older generation amounts for only 19% of the national church, yet gives more than 61% of our donations.
A New York Times story about decreased church giving reported: Well before the subprime mortgage crisis threw the economy into a tailspin, warning signs for religious giving were evident. A 2007 study by professors at Purdue University in Indianapolis, found that baby boomers in 2000 were donating about 10% less than their parents’ generation did at a comparable age in 1973, and almost 25% less than their parents ages of 62 to 76, were donating in the same year.
These studies and indicators reveal the stark reality that each generation of Americans has become less generous and more self serving, with 18-29 year old giving the very least per income.

III. Where Do We Go From Here?

A. It’s time for a new reformation within the evangelical church.

Reformation to reform: ‘1. The improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt or unsatisfactory, such as social reform 2. The amendment of conduct or belief, to change to a better state or form 3. To improve by alteration, substitution or abolition 4. To cause a person to abandon wrong or evil ways of life or conduct to put an end to abuses and disorders

1. Reformation and revival often take place simultaneously.

B. We need a reformation in the manner that the gospel is proclaimed to the lost.

1. We can no longer afford to present a man centered Christianity that requires nothing of those who proclaim to be Christians.

“Let nothing short of radical change of heart satisfy you in your coverts…” William Carey, the pioneer missionary to India

“Perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Does the gospel we preach produce disciples, or

does it produce consumers of religious goods and services?” Bill Hull (On Being and Making Followers of Christ)

“The gospel is free, thank God, but that does not mean that it is “cheap and easy,” and all too often that is the kind of gospel that has been presented.” Arthur Wallis, (The Radical Christian)

2. Cheap grace verses biblical grace

“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?...Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

A gospel that exacts nothing of the sinner and requires no repentance, is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

C. We need a reformation in our understanding of biblical Christianity.

Barna research has concluded that the majority of young evangelicals do not know how to articulate their faith. They are unable to explain what they believe.
God exists to make me happy.
In his book Soul Searching, Sociologist Christian Smith writes, that the common creed among American evangelical teens is “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” which he defines as essentially a self-centered worldview., in which personal happiness is the highest goal and a distant God is taken for granted in the background. In fact, this view is so prominent that evangelical teens are no less likely than unbelievers to believe that all good people go to heaven.

“For many, this business of following Christ seems to be placing a little “Jesus veneer” over middle and upper middle-class lifestyles and their implicit values. That simply won’t work.” Tom Sine, ‘Taking Discipleship Seriously’