What kind of world do you expect to live in? Do you expect the world to always be in conflict? What kind of world do you think God wants? When Jesus was born, the angels appeared to the shepherds and sang “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will to men”. What were the angels trying to tell us?
What did Jesus mean when He said “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”. Matt 6:9-10 (NLT). Was Jesus just giving us some words to mumble in our church services or do you think He could have been teaching the crowd and disciples what God’s goal for this earth is? I think Jesus was trying to instill in His church a vision of what God wants on earth during our lifetimes.
In Isaiah, we read “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all – the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’ For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; His word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.” Isaiah 2:2-4 (NLT). How would you like to live in that type of world?
But some will say, “it says ‘in the last days’ that will happen; we must wait for the last days to come”. But when are the last days coming? I have heard so often “we are living in the last days”. Is that a true statement, or isn’t it? Peter told us the answer on the day of Pentecost: “Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, ‘Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: “In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants – men and women alike- and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below – blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’.” Acts 2:14-21 (NLT). Peter is telling us the “last days” started with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; we have been living in the last days for nearly 2,000 years. But instead of living joyful, victorious lives expecting wonderful things from God, many of us have been waiting for God to snatch us up so He can punish with horrible things all the people left on earth; but these are the same people Jesus talked about in John 3:16.