Perhaps Today

Hello, everybody.

I love this church.

I love this church.

I love your pastor.

I don't know if I've ever met anyone quite like him.

I really don't.

I mean, he just he yeah, do it.

Just such a man of vision and generosity.

And every time I'm with him, I feel like I'm a better person.

It just something rubs off on me.

And I feel the same way about this spectacular church.

The extraordinary impact that you're having all over the world.

And I think that is just breathtaking.

I've been a pastor since 1979.

I know I don't look that old, but I have, I have.

I know how challenging this work can be.

And to see what you do and have done, it's just, I hope you know that I love you, I admire you, I applaud you, I aspire to be like you.

And I'm just so tremendously, tremendously honored to be here in person, to be speaking to you online or at a different campus.

It's uh it's a beyond blessing to me.

So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hello from yeah, thank you.

Um bring you greetings from San Antonio, Texas.

I'm still down there right down I what is that, I-35?

Yeah, just right down the road.

Uh still trying to uh awaken our spurs a little bit.

We're having a hard time right now, but uh, but what a year it has been.

When did the craziness of this pandemic disrupt you?

Was it that first time in the grocery store line that you were told to stand six feet back on that strip of tape from the patron in front of you?

Was it that moment last spring when you saw the news reports coming out of New York City in which the number of deaths were so high that I can still in my mind see that refrigerator, refrigerated truck parked outside the hospital?

Was it the very first time you put on one of these?

Where's mine?

I'm ready to burn them.

I'm ready to burn them.

I'm so tired of them.

I'm so tired of them.

I tell you, I will light the match.

I'm gonna pour gasoline on the stack of them.

I'm ready to send them.

I am really tired of them, aren't you?

I'm tired of walking through and I get it.

I'm not anti-masked, that's not it.

I just don't like what it does to us.

I don't like not seeing smiles, I don't like not seeing expressions.

We weren't, we just weren't made to we we weren't made to do this.

Oh mybe for you was that at the time that you visited grandma in the nursing home and had to do so through the window.

Maybe it's the numbers.

What is it?

Over 280,000 dead down to 290.

How many people have been affected by their employment situation?

Over 33 million people negatively impacted by their work.

Maybe maybe for you it was it was the protests or the riots or the or the lootings last summer.

But 2020 just feels like a bad dream.

I mean like a bad dream.

What do you mean, no graduation service?

What do you mean, no fans in the stands?

Is this a dolly painting?

Is this a science fiction movie?

It's been a year like none other.

One thing's for certain.

We need some Christmas this Christmas.

Amen.

We need to hear the story.

We need to hear the story about the angels singing.

We need to hear the story about the baby in the manger.

We need to know about the day God came and we need to lift our eyes up and look at the day God's coming again.

We need some Christmas this Christmas.

And so if you need some Christmas this Christmas, you're in the right place.

You're in the right place.

Bless you, Lord.

Bless you, Lord, for the promise of Christmas.

May you have mercy, please, upon our speaker.

You know his sins are many.

And help us to see Christ, just Christ.

Through Christ we pray.

Amen.

It is the season to be looking.

Looking for snow if it's warm, looking for mistletoe if he is dense.

Looking for instructions if some assembly is required.

Tis the season to be looking.

Looking for red-nosed lights if you're young, for headlights if you're grandma, for insights if you're a pastor.

Tis the season to be looking.

The first Christmas was marked by lookers as well.

Joseph looked for lodging.

Mary looked into the prunish face of Jesus.

A thousand angels looked down upon the justborn king.

But no one was looking with the intensity of a seasoned saint by the name of Simeon.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout.

He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.

When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

Unlike Joseph and Mary, Simeon did not witness the birth of Jesus.

Unlike the wise men, he did not visit the child in Bethlehem.

By the time he saw Jesus, the swaddling clothes had been packed away, and the manger held only hay.

Joseph and Mary had caught up on their sleep, and the shepherds were back to tending their sheep.

Forty days had passed.

We know this for certainty because of the Jewish law.

According to the Torah, the mother became ceremonially unclean upon the birth of the child.

On the eighth day, the baby was circumcised, and then after an additional 33 days, a sacrifice would be made.

In this case, the sacrifice was made in Jerusalem, in the temple.

It was a baby dedication of sorts.

And it was at this dedication that Simeon saw Jesus.

Simeon, at least in my imagination, was an old man at this point.

I see silver hair, I see etched face wrinkled, shoulders a bit stooped, step a bit slow, but eyes ever looking full of hope and light, because he was looking forward.

He was looking to the day when, according to another translation, God would take away Israel's sorrow, a day in which God would end the alienation of the people and reconcile himself to them.

Now Simeon knew this day would come in his day.

The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen him, God's anointed king.

How did the Holy Spirit reveal this?

I don't know.

Did he tell him in a dream, in a vision, through the teachings of Scripture, through a prophetic word?

I'm not sure.

But he knew that Simeon knew that he would not die until he saw the coming of the king.

And it changed the way he lived.

Many, many years ago, back in my early days of preaching in San Antonio, I preached a sermon called Perhaps Today.

I printed Perhaps Today those two words on the Sunday Bulletin back when we handed them out.

I would have never remembered that sermon except just a couple of years ago.

I was in the home of a seasoned saint of our church.

She's been a part of the congregation all these many, many years, and I went to visit her, and there hanging on the wall was that Sunday bulletin framed right by her doorway.

So every day when she walks outside, her thoughts are, perhaps today.

Simeon lived with this perhaps today mentality.

He could always be seen looking into the sky or looking into faces.

He knew that Christ would come in his day, and he was looking for that day.

Maybe he would have enjoyed a perhaps today bulletin to hang on his wall.

On the 40th day after Jesus' birth, that day arrived.

Simeon was led by the Spirit to the temple.

Are you noticing how the Holy Spirit is so active in the promptings and leadings of the life of Simeon?

The Spirit led him into the temple.

Maybe that day he had other plans.

Maybe that was the day he was going to, I don't know, walk the dog or take care of the garden, or maybe visit the grandkids.

But then came this nudging, this prompting, this voice, this leading.

And he said, I'm going to the temple.

And he wound his way through the narrow streets and over the cobblestone paths, and finally he entered the temple courts.

And though no doubt Simeon had ascended those steps, hundreds of times, maybe a thousand times in his lifetime, each time was more impressive than the first, the sight of Herod's masterpiece, those massive stones, the gilded roof, the great colonnades.

Even on non-holidays, the streets were full of worshipers and pilgrims.

And somewhere, in spite of the multitude, somewhere in the midst of the multitude, Simeon saw them.

Joseph and Mary.

No one else had reason to notice this young couple.

Angels weren't casting rose petals on their path.

Trumpets weren't blasting.

Jesus did not arrive riding on a pillow or in a chariot.

He had no halo.

He had no aura.

He had no glow about him.

He gurgled.

He slept.

He nursed.

He was a baby.

No one would have noticed.

Besides, no one had any reason to notice this young couple from Nazareth.

People came to the temple for one reason, and that was to encounter God.

Who would have imagined that God was right there in the arms of that young girl?

No one would have imagined except Simeon.

And he saw the couple.

And he whispered to himself, perhaps today.

And he walked briskly across the temple courtyard through the crowd.

He excused his way past the pilgrims and he caught up with Joseph and he tapped him on the shoulder and he said, Excuse me.

And the Nazarene couple stopped and turned.

A year ago, Joseph might have taken offense at this interruption, this stranger, but boy, the last few months have taught him to pay attention to interruptions.

Angels have spoken, wise men have appeared with gifts.

Shepherds have appeared, surprise after surprise.

His wife knew childbirth before she knew his bed.

Joseph was learning to expect the unexpected, so he tilted his head and he waited on Simeon to speak, and Simeon did.

May I?

And Joseph nodded at Mary, and Mary placed Jesus in the hands of Simeon.

And he took the baby in his arms and thanked God.

Now, Lord, you can let me, your servant, die in peace.

With my own eyes I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before all people.

Simeon's response has come to be known as nuncimatis.

Now dismiss.

Now that's a timeline term.

Now that's the word we use to signify the flipping of a calendar or the turning of a moment or the changing of an event.

Now it's time for dinner.

Now it's time to get up.

Now it's time to move forward.

Now, Lord, it is time to move into a new era, a new dispensation, a new reckoning, a new season.

Now, Lord, the consolation of Israel had begun.

The door of history had swung on the hinge of a Bethlehem gate.

The author of life had turned the page and was preparing to write a new chapter.

The pen was on the page.

Simeon had no way of knowing the name of the chapter, but we do.

We do.

Scripture denotes this chapter, this period, as the last days.

Paul said, in the last days there will be many troubles.

Peter urged us to understand what will happen in the last days.

The author of Hebrews wrote, but now in these last days, God has spoken to us through his Son.

What began in that moment was the inauguration of the last days.

Friends, we are in the last days.

These are the last days.

The history of the world is not, as some have suggested, a repeating cycle, an endless circle of incarnation and reincarnation, but rather it is a direct arrow, a timeline that is full of now moments.

Simeon got this.

Do you get this?

We are in the last days.

Perhaps you read about the flight to nowhere.

Kansas Airlines said it is their fastest selling ticket in history.

The flight to nowhere sold out in ten minutes.

The first class seats were sold for$2,675.

And what does a person get for the money?

Seven hours of circling over Australia, landing in the same place.

You begin.

Chalk it up to COVID-19.

People are so tired of being stuck at home.

People are so weary of going nowhere that they're willing to spend hundreds of dollars to go nowhere.

Forgive my bluntness.

But I'm keeping my money in my pocket and my feet on the ground.

Pay money to fly in circles?

No, thank you.

Fly in a direction that's better.

Fly in a direction that's biblical.

Embedded in the core of Scripture, ladies and gentlemen, is this promise that we are going to end up in a better place than we begin.

That we are headed in a new season, in a new direction, and that we live between the advents.

The first coming has happened.

The second coming is on the schedule.

We are in the last days.

Christmas invites us to look back at the first coming, but it entices us, it dares us, it whispers in our hearts and says, Oh, he's gonna do it again.

He's gonna do it again.

He who came once will come again.

As he came once, he will come, but not as he came, will he come.

He will come in a different way.

And so it is a good question to tantalize and to activate the Simeon spirit within us, the perhaps today hope.

To ponder this time of year, not just what Christ did, but also to remember what Christ will do.

He promised us, I will come again.

The author of Hebrews declared, Christ will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are what?

Eagerly, eagerly waiting on him.

History's next big event, best I can tell, is gonna be like something that it's a sudden disappearance of all of God's people, an instantaneous rapture of God's family into his presence.

He was surprising and unprecedented the first time he came.

Oh, you're not gonna believe the unprecedented way he comes the second time.

The apostle says the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord forever.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

At any point, perhaps today, Christians will, upon the signal of Christ, be transported into the presence of Christ.

This rapture includes the resurrection of dead believers and the transformation of living believers, and it will occur in a moment.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

That word moment is A-T-O-M-O-S in Greek, from which we get the word atom.

Atom, to the degree that an atom is small, that moment will be quick.

It will happen without warning in the twinkling of an eye.

Can you twinkle just for a sec?

That didn't take long.

That didn't take long at all.

That's how long God needs through Jesus Christ to rapture his church into his presence.

Now consider the implications of this rapture.

Churches will close.

Christian schools will shut down.

Every faith-based NGO will be discontinued.

Christian doctors, lawyers, researchers, professors, all gone in an instant.

The salt and light of society will be sucked off the planet, vanished.

The stage will be set for the master of deception, the Antichrist, to work his evil.

And like Adolf Hitler, he will emerge onto the scene in a time of such political and economic chaos that people will be willing to drink.

His Kool-Aid.

They will look for anybody to explain what is happening.

And he will come with such flowing oratory and such satanic-inspired, miraculous abilities that he will conjure up some odd explanation, and people will believe the Antichrist.

And he will inaugurate his era with the season of diplomacy.

The Old Testament prophet said that leader will make a firm agreement with many people for seven years.

He's going to hand out an olive branch.

He'll enter into a seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel.

And he'll be described as a great peacemaker.

Yet midway through that treaty, he's going to break his promise, and literally all hell will break loose.

The prophet said he will cause astounding devastation and he will succeed in whatever he does.

He will destroy those who are mighty, the holy people.

He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior.

Chapters 4 through 19 of the book of Revelation describe in detail what will happen during the oppression of the Antichrist.

These scriptures refer to famine and death and cosmic disturbances.

Combine the putrid spirits of Stalin, Hitler, Mao Saitong, Edi Amin, with every arrogant ruler in the history of the world, and you have the Antichrist on his nice dates.

Max, gee, thanks for this Christmas message that you're bringing.

My goodness, how you've placed me in the Christmas spirit.

I know what I'm describing is bad news.

But can I tell you some good news?

If you're in Christ, you won't experience it.

You'll be gone.

You'll be gone.

Your precious Savior loves you too much.

He has promised, I will come and receive you unto myself so that you may be where I am.

And then I've got some more good news.

The story doesn't end here.

At the Battle of Armageddon, the Antichrist will rally the remaining troops to fight against the Lord Jesus Christ with his army.

Revelation 19, the Antichrist and his armies are going to suffer total cataclysmic defeat at the hand of the mighty King.

And Jesus, our Savior, yes, that Bami and the manger will become the mighty king of the skies, and he won't even need to lift a finger.

Revelation 19 and verse 15 says, the sword of his word will smite the nations.

Daniel 8, the prophet says the Antichrist will be destroyed, and not by human power.

Satan will be chained.

Jesus Christ will return to the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords to judge his enemies.

He will once and for all end Satan's deception.

He will set up his kingdom on this earth that will last for 1,000 years.

You and I will reign with him, and God will have his garden of Eden.

Every promise that he has ever made will be fulfilled and completed in that thousand-year reign.

And that period will be marked by peace and prosperity.

The faithful will be rewarded.

The creation will be redeemed, and every covenant made by God will be kept because he keeps every promise.

And at the end of the thousand years, Satan, because he is such a fool, will once again try again to undo the work of the Almighty God, but he will be defeated and he will be cast into an eternal fire that was created for the devil and his angels, and there will be absolute peace.

And you and I will begin to enjoy the world for which we were created, eternal living in the presence of God forever.

Amen.

So Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

What's next?

Victory is what's next.

What's next?

Peace is what's next.

What's next?

Joy is what's next.

There will be peace on earth.

For the child of God, dear friend.

For the child of God, there is no reason to fear the future.

There is no reason to fear the future.

You can have security about the victory.

Do we not need this message today?

Do we not need this message today?

Oh, the world is upside down.

We are in a season of much know-how and hardly any know-why.

We're in a generation that knows how to take a computer and put it in a phone that will fit in your purse or pocket.

But ask most people who develop that computer, why are we on this earth?

And they give you a look with saucer-wide eyes.

Like, well, we can't know the answer to that.

Consequently, when a pandemic hits, it spirals us out of control.

Because we have placed our trust in governments and scientists, and we're being reminded that we can't save ourselves.

Consequently, more people died of suicide last month in Japan than COVID.

Consequently, suicide rates, anxiety rates, rates of depression are spiking.

Consequently, calls to emotional help hotlines are up over a thousand percent this month from what they were this time last year.

Because we're freaking out.

We need some good news.

We've been circling over Australia too long.

Somebody needs to tell us what's next.

Christmas tells us what's next.

And to you, dear church, to you, dear child of God, I'm begging you.

I implore you.

Don't give up.

Don't cave in.

Don't throw in the towel.

Don't walk away.

We need people with their eyes looking toward heaven, saying, Perhaps today.

We need a quorum of people like you who will live with knees bent, hearts soft, Bible open, and ears listening.

We need people.

We need people to do what Gateway's doing right now.

And that is getting the good news out to as many people as possible.

Because we see the clock is ticking and the time is drawing near.

We need people to be like that congregation in London.

No one would have faulted them had they not gathered on that Sunday morning.

The night before.

Air raids had crushed the structures.

Buildings were collapsed.

Bricks were on the streets.

Including the building in which that church met.

And when those stalwart saints showed up that Sunday morning to worship, the roof was gone from their church.

The walls were down, and bricks covered the pews.

They had no place to sit, but that didn't stop them from worshiping.

They stood in a circle of their collapsed building and they sang this old hymn.

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.

She is his new creation by spirit and the word.

From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.

With his own blood, he bought her, and for her life he died.

Can you envision that circle of brave souls?

You set their faith on our unfailing God and smack in the middle of a global crisis, even worse than the one we're facing today.

They gathered, they circled, and they worshiped the explosions, the sirens, the sounds all night long, yet they gathered to worship.

We know this because of a young reporter by the name of Ben Patterson, an American war correspondent, who had arrived from the United States, believe it or not, the day before.

His first night in a hotel in London, he covered his head with a pillow.

And he later said he cried out for God to take his life from him because all they could hear were the sirens and the screams of the dying and the wounded.

He despaired of life itself.

At some point he dozed off.

He awoke to the unexpected sound of a singing church.

He looked outside the window and he saw this congregation gathered in the rubble.

He later wrote, Suddenly I saw something in the world that was untouchable, something that had endured through the millennia, something that was indestructible.

The spirit and life and power of Jesus within his church.

Friends, bombs are still dropped.

Worlds still explode.

Pandemics still rage.

But in the midst of it all, in the midst of it all, God has his people.

God has you.

And you.

And you and you.

And you.

And your society needs you.

Your family needs you.

Your school needs you.

Your business needs you.

The world is clamoring right now for some people who aren't giving up.

Some people who are willing to climb out of bed each morning and say, okay, I'm trusting in the goodness of an Almighty God, and I'm not gonna throw in the towel.

I'm not gonna quit.

I'm not gonna give up.

I'm not taking any shortcuts.

You can count on me.

I was here.

I'm here for this moment, for such a time as this.

God has called me to be here.

Will you be one of those people?

Will you?

Will you?

Will you?

Will you?

Tis the season to be looking.

Not for a jolly man in a red suit, but for a grand king on a white horse.

And at his command, the sea will give up their dead.

The devil will give up his quest.

The kings and queens will give up their crowns.

Broken hearts will give up their despair, and God's children will give up their worship.

Wise is the saint who searches like Simeon.

Amen.

We bless you, Lord.

We bless you for your promised return.

And we set our hearts to it today.

Have mercy, please, O Lord, upon all those within earshot of these words.

Let your sweet spirit, yes, the same spirit who led Simeon lead us.

And grant that we can have the faith that we'll find the baby Jesus in the manger.

And we will see the coming Jesus in the future.

Through Christ we pray.

And all God's people said.