“He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’” (Acts 1:7-8 NIV).
A lot of people are asking end times questions these days. Christians wonder whether we’re living in the last days before Christ’s return. Even secular people are so concerned with the state of affairs in the world that they are having apocalyptic thoughts.
“Is this the end of time?” They ask.
During times like these there are always “end-of-the-world” prophets that emerge, preaching their prognostications. One such prophet is Harold Camping, a self-described biblical scholar and radio mogul who says the Rapture will happen this Saturday, May 21, 2011, at exactly 6:00 P.M. local time (whatever your local time is). Camping has been making this prediction for several years, a recalibration from his earlier belief that the Rapture would occur in 1994.
In the book of Acts, the disciples asked Jesus this same question about timing. They wanted to know when the world would end and Christ would begin his reign. But Jesus was clear in his response. The answer to the question of when was not for them to know. Only God the Father knows the timing. Clearly, there is a tone of rebuke in Christ’s response to the disciples question. He responds that God will not answer these kinds of questions, saying, “It is not for you to know.”
However, there are end times questions that God does answer.
Questions like “How do you want us to live while we await your return?” are answered. Christ told his disciples that he wanted them to be filled with the Spirit and to be his witnesses to the world. He wanted them to carry the gospel to all peoples to prepare them for his return.
Questions like “Will you return someday?” are answered clearly too.
“After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven'” (Acts 1:9-11 NIV).
In other words, the angels told the disciples, “Don’t just stand there looking at the sky. Jesus is definitely coming back, so get to work doing what he said!”
It seems to me that we get focused on the wrong “end” of “end times.” In other words, instead of focusing on when the earth will end, we should be focusing on carrying the gospel to the “ends of the earth.” The closest that Jesus comes to talking about “when” the end will come is really based on when we fulfill his commission to “be my witnesses” to the “whole world.”
“And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14 NLT).
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3-5 NIV).
There’s one area that our hopes are finally being fulfilled. After 19 years of existing as a church that met in rental facilities, we’re finally moving into a home of our own. I have to admit that when people have asked whether we would ever see this day, I have usually responded, “I hope so.”
“Without warning, a furious storm came up” (Matthew 8:24).
Of all the places that this tornado could travel, it entered Wilson on the side of town where we are remodeling a building for our new church home. As it entered the intersection of Tarboro and Forest Hills, it stacked cars on top of each other in the Walgreens parking lot, flipped a 18-wheeler on its side, threw a boat still on its trailer onto the roof of Medlin Buick’s garage, blew out windows in the Holiday Inn, spearing it with debris, then made its way like a precision guided missile for our property. Crossing our parking lot it seemed to empty itself of all that it 
had vacuumed up… trees, metal roofing, a dumpster. It came right up to the edge of our building, grabbed a porta-potty belonging to our contractor and threw it 200 feet into the woods. Then, it suddenly turned hard left, going around our building, destroying the privacy fence in the back and throwing trees onto the neighboring houses and apartments behind us.
“They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me” (1 Corinthians 16:8-9).
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew…To those not having the law I became like one not having the law …To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
“The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer'” (Ruth 4:14).
The imagery of the threshing floor is found throughout the Bible. In Ruth it symbolizes the place where we lay down at the feet of our Redeemer and surrender ourselves to His work on the cross. In Luke we see it as the place where Christ the Judge separates the good from the bad, believers from those who don’t believe.