Is Covid-19 a Sign of the End?

Online Sunday

Matthew 24:1-8 NIV

“Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen (the destruction of the Temple), and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes, in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Luke 21:11 NKJV

“There will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences (plagues); and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven”

Is this the end of the world,
are these things the fulfillment of Bible prophecies,
or does this signal the return of Jesus Christ to the world?

NOTES

Troubled by His prediction, the disciples asked Jesus 3 questions.

First, when will these things be? That is, when will the destruction of the Temple happen?

Second, what will be the sign of your coming?

The word “coming” here is from the Greek word par-oo-see’ah, and it refers to His second coming to the earth in the Last Days … they wanted to know what signs to look for prior to His return.

And the third question was much like the second, “What will be the sign of the end of the age?”

NOTES

Isaiah 46:10

“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (NKJV)

Another translation says, “Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” (NLT)

NOTES

He is omniscient, meaning He knows all.

The word omni means “all”, and niscient is where we get the word “science” from, which means knowledge.

NOTES

1. In the first couple of centuries after Jesus’ life, two historic plagues ravaged the Roman Empire. They killed roughly a quarter to a third of the population, killing three emperors and ravaging the empire. And as in the case of the coronavirus today, panic spread because society did not understand the disease.
2. Then in AD 541, the Plague of Justinian reached the Byzantine  capital of Constantinople and was soon claiming up to 10,000 lives per day.
3. Then the Black Death that struck Europe in 1347 wiped out whole towns, and it was said that the living spent most of their time burying the dead in mass graves. It lasted about 5 years and killed as many as 50 million people—more than half the population of Europe. Many people in that time thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn’t. 
4. Then the Italian Plague of 1629–1631 was an outbreak of Bubonic plague that wound up killing some 280,000 people, including over half the residents of Verona, Italy. The Republic of Venice lost nearly a third of its population of 140,000. But that wasn’t the end either, though many thought it was.
5. Then there was the Great Plague of London that struck between 1665 and 66. At its peak in September 1665, some 8,000 people were dying each week totaling 75,000-100,000.
6. And a pandemic that some of our great grandparents might remember was the Spanish flu of 1918. It infected over a third of the world’s population and took the lives of 20-50 million people.

But was it the end of the world? No.

NOTES

Matthew 24:36 NIV

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”

Luke 17: 30 NKJV

“Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man (Jesus) is revealed.”

NOTES

Matthew 24:44 NKJV

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him”

NOTES

LET’S PRAY