11. How do we echo the longing for all the issues of our world to be ended? Revelation 22:20.
NOTE: ‘On Patmos the beloved disciple heard the promise, “Surely I come quickly,” and his response voices the prayer of the church, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20. From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their faith and hope. Being “assured of His personal resurrection, and consequently of their own at His coming, for this cause,” says one of these Christians, “they despised death, and were found to be above it.”’ From Here to Forever, page 188.
12. What is our part in bringing all the world’s perplexities to an end, taking the burden of sin from our Saviour’s shoulders and hastening His return to bring the promised deliverance? Matthew 24:14; Hebrews 9:28; 2 Peter 3:12. (Notice the marginal reading of 2 Peter 3:12.)
NOTE: ‘It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of the Saviour. If the church will put on the robe of Christ’s righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God’s promise to her will stand fast forever. He will make her an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. When the message of God meets with opposition, He gives it additional force, that it may exert greater influence. Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.’ Acts of the Apostles, page 601.
LESSON INSIGHT: It is essential that we see ourselves in real world today, not one we remember from the past. Our world was once a ‘modern world’ dreaming of an ideal, then a ‘post-modern world’ where there was no supreme authority and no truth, just fragments all equally valid. Later it was a ‘secular world, a lay world’, where in places it was forbidden to bow one’s head in public before a meal. Today it is a ‘post-secular world’ where religion never went away.
The spirit of the age sees the world’s people as a ‘community’. Instead of the named religions we once knew, all are drifting towards a ‘new spirituality’. There is a fascination with the ancient religions as the occult wisdom begins to reappear. All is more individualistic, with people who ‘believe but do not belong’, saying ‘I have my faith’, or ‘I prefer to study on my own.’ And religion tips into spiritual mindfulness. It is said that such people, fragmented and alone, and longing for peace and direction, and are more susceptible to political drives for unity.
When Jesus gave us our ‘marching orders’, He spoke of preaching to all the world, teaching the great love of God and the problems of sin that have arisen from His broken Law. This must be spoken with personal care and concern for there are people in trouble reaching out for something authentic that will bring them an anchor in a fast-changing world.