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Montgomery First SDA Church

Certainty in Uncertain Times

Daniel Pel

1. A Chaotic World? – Where is God?

What an exciting moment indeed to embark together in our series entitled Certainty in Uncertain Times.

I've been looking forward to this series.

How many of you actually received the flyer here?

So, you had a little look there at some of the topics which are actually phrased in questions.

And I'm sure that you, as I have, have these questions at some point or later in our lives.

We wonder, why is this world that we're living in such a chaotic place?

Questions like, what happens after a person dies?

And how do I know what the future is going to hold?

These are the type of questions that we're going to be looking at in the course of 6 evenings together actually, beginning tonight and then tomorrow and Sunday and then next weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well.

So I hope that you're going to make it a priority to be there at each of these evenings.

I'm going to make it a priority to be there at each of these evenings.

I'm going to make it a priority and I hope to see you as well.

We are going to go on a journey together and we're going to go on a journey in Bible prophecy.

Let me give you a little bit of background about myself and why I'm actually doing what I'm doing.

You're wondering, well, you know, why are you here?

I did not grow up as a Bible-believing Christian.

I actually grew up in a family and My parents were non-believers.

They had grown up as Catholics, but they kind of said goodbye to religion altogether.

And so I grew up in a non-Christian home, but through a...

Basically through different circumstances, we came in contact with a Christian individual, was a colleague of my father actually, that started sharing with us some amazing things in the Bible.

Things that I did not believe were in the Bible.

I literally thought the Bible is some ancient book that really has no relevance for me living today.

But he started sharing these amazing prophecies.

When we say a Bible prophecy seminar, what do we mean by prophecy?

Prophecy is simply the prediction of an event to come or a future event.

And so, this individual started to share with my family Bible prophecy and That was basically the beginning of a new chapter.

And I, myself, in my late teens, early twenties, decided to become a follower of Jesus Christ, and much of that had to do with my studies of Bible prophecy.

Now this is, you know, you don't really think of that as a teenager or in your early 20s that suddenly the Bible becomes this interesting book, a book that I could just not put down, a book that I had to study and read and investigate and there was just new beauty every time I would read and study these prophecies.

In my early 20s I went to a Bible college and in finishing that Bible college I ended up getting married with my Norwegian wife, Sylvia.

She's sitting right there, if you could just stand up for a moment.

And in 2003, which is just over 10 years ago, we started a ministry together, and that ministry is called Living Water.

And it's really based upon that moment there when Jesus met the Samaritan woman, maybe you remember the story in John chapter 4, and she came to draw physical water, but Jesus said, I have a better water for you." That was the living water, the gospel of Christ.

We started this ministry in 2003 and in a number of years we found ourselves traveling literally all over the globe.

And in the last 10 years we have traveled to Asia, to India, to New Zealand, to Australia, to Africa, to North America, basically 5 of the continents.

We've just not been in South America yet, but we hope to visit there sometime.

And conducting evangelistic prophecy series like this, looking at Bible prophecy.

What does the Bible have to say about the times we are living in and what does the future hold?

And we have been very blessed by this work and by...

I don't even really consider it a work, I really consider it just a joy.

This is just a passion and something that I love to do.

So I look forward to our series together starting this evening as we're going to get into Bible prophecy and we're going to look at some of the most fundamental questions of life.

And 1 of those fundamental questions of life is right here, our first question for our first evening, A chaotic world, where is God?

Or we could rephrase that question something like this, if God is a God of love, why is there so much suffering in this world?

If God is a God of love, why is there so much suffering in our world today?

In order to answer that question, we are going to go to Scripture.

And as Samuel already mentioned, we actually have 2 presentations for you this evening.

So we're going to get right into it in just a moment.

We will then take a break and then our second presentation will again be very focused on Bible prophecy.

We're going to look at an amazing prophecy that shows us where we are in the scope of time and what is going to happen in the very near future.

Now, I tend sometimes to speak a little fast, and so if you sometimes think that I speak a little bit too fast, don't worry because all of the information or much of the information that I share with you is also, we published it in a little booklet or a little handout that you will receive at the end of each evening.

So if you are taking notes and you miss a verse or you miss a thing, you will receive such a handout in the end so that you can go over it in your own speed.

And also what we want to do is we want to make all of these audio messages available for you.

So you think, oh I wish I could share this with so and so, or I wish I could hear this again.

We will have a website, we will make that known to you in the course of these evenings where you can go and you can download these messages.

So how many of you are excited to get started?

Now, I believe that in order for us to arrive at the good conclusions of truth as God has revealed it to us, we must study this book, and that's the Bible.

So all that we say and all that we do in the course of our time together must be founded upon the Word of God, amen?

So I believe it's so important for us as we get started to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding.

It was the Holy Spirit that inspired men of old to write down the Scriptures, and it is the same Holy Spirit that inspires us to understand what they wrote.

So we need to have a short word of prayer as we get right into our presentation this evening.

So I just invite you to bow your heads together with me as we pray.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful to be here.

We look forward to what you have in store for us in your Word, and so we ask your Holy Spirit to guide us now as we embark upon this journey together in our series, Certainty in Uncertain Times.

Lord, we truly look around us and the world is an uncertain place, and yet with You we can have certainty.

Help us to find that as we study Your Word.

We invite You to be with us now, and we ask these things in Your precious name.

Well, I don't think I have to use a lot of time this evening with describing that the world in which we live is actually an uncertain place.

A number of years ago I was traveling to the country of New Zealand, which is basically the country where I was born.

And the first 10 years of my life I lived in New Zealand.

My parents are Dutch and so when I was 10 years old they decided to move back to Holland.

So I've lived part of my life in New Zealand, part of my life in Europe, and part of my life about everywhere you can imagine.

But I was traveling back to New Zealand to conduct actually a series on Bible prophecy, and this was in the year 2011, so just a few years ago.

And some of you might remember hearing on the news or reading on the news about the great earthquake that took place in the city of Christchurch in the southern island of New Zealand.

How many of you remember hearing about that earthquake?

It's interesting that there are certain things that we just don't expect to shake, And 1 of those things is the earth.

You don't expect suddenly the earth to start shaking.

It's a very, you know, awkward experience.

There was a big earthquake that hit the city of Christchurch And it just, you know, people lost their lives, and people lost their homes, and there was a lot of uncertainty.

You know, there are certain things that we try to control in our lives.

You know, we want to make sure that we have a job so that we can earn money, so that we can sustain our families.

But there are things that just suddenly happen that cause us to wonder where can I find certainty?

2. Is the Bible Trustworthy?

All right, we're going to get right started into our second presentation.

I hope to have us finished by half past 8, so this will be a short presentation, but a powerful 1.

We're going to look at a prophetic book in the Old Testament, and that is the book of Daniels, same name that I have.

For those that have studied a little bit of Bible prophecy, you will know that there are 2 books in particular that deal with Bible prophecy, and specifically apocalyptic prophecy, prophecy that deals with the times in which we are living and the near future.

And that's the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, and it's the book of Revelation in the New Testament, the last book of the Bible.

Now that doesn't mean that there are not other books that contain prophecy.

As a matter of fact, there's lots of books that contain prophecy, but when you're specifically looking at apocalyptic prophecy or last day prophecy, you will find yourself often in those 2 books, the books of Daniel and Revelation.

And we will be studying both of those books in the course of this time together, this seminar.

And there's a prophecy in the book of Daniel that really is like a foundation.

A foundation that we can build on when we come to other prophecies.

We're going to look at some powerful prophecies tomorrow, Sunday, next weekend, and they're kind of going to build on this 1.

Now, as we get into our message this evening, I just want to see if this clicker is working.

Okay, try to pull it out and put it in again, maybe it'll work.

Okay, as that's getting going, I'm going to show you a couple of slides with some, just a couple of references to prophecies that have already happened in the life of Jesus in His first coming, and then we'll look at this amazing prophecy in Daniel chapter 2, which points us to the second coming of Christ.

What I find to be true is that there are a lot of Christians that talk about the first coming of Jesus that happened 2, 000 years ago, and that is central to the Christian faith.

There are not a lot of Christians, though, or there are getting less and less Christians, I can put it that way, that actually talk about the second coming of Christ.

And the Bible has a lot to say about the second coming of Christ.

But it's also an incredible news that He's coming again.

And so we'll be looking at a prophecy that points to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

As Samuel is just figuring that out for a moment, let's just have a short word of prayer again that God's Spirit will be with us this evening.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your Word, and I pray that as we study it together that You will open our hearts, open our minds, allow us to see the beauty of prophecy and help us to understand the times we are living in and that which is soon to happen in this world so that we can be prepared for the great events that are before us.

So guide us now, I pray, in Your precious name.

We're going to specifically focus during this seminar, during this series on prophecy, which is the third point here.

There are a number of claims that we could look at why the Bible is actually authentic, Why we can trust it, why it's trustworthy.

We could look at the historicity, the evidence of history.

Other places I go, sometimes I do a whole lecture on archeology, showing discoveries that have been made that are external discoveries that you can compare with biblical stories and you see this beautiful harmony.

Now we're not going to do that in this series.

If you would be interested in that, I could give you some resources or some links that you can go to, to watch these presentations online.

But tonight we're going to spend, and the majority of our time during the series we will spend actually on prophecy.

We could have also talked about the internal consistency, how all the different books of the Bible really harmonize together.

But 1 of the things that led me to become a full-on follower of Jesus, that led me to basically give up my studies in a certain direction and decide to become a preacher of the Word is prophecy.

So it's something that is very close to my heart.

I like to think of prophecy as the signature of God.

It's like, you know, something happens and God puts a signature under it and He knew it all along that it was going to happen.

He kind of confirms the events of life, the events of world's history.

Now there are a lot of prophecies that point to the first coming of Jesus.

I just put a couple of references up here on the screen regarding where Jesus would be born.

You can read about that in Micah 5, verse 2, that He would be born in Bethlehem, which took place, the fulfillment, Matthew 2, verse 1.

Regarding the circumstances of His birth, in Isaiah 7, remember a virgin would conceive, Mary, then also from which tribe He would come.

Now there are lots of prophecies here pointing to the first coming of Christ.

Some people will say, you know what, Jesus, maybe He just wanted to be the Messiah and so He looked at the prophecies in the Old Testament and He just tried to fulfill them.

Now that could maybe work to a certain extent, but it wouldn't really work because you have no control as to where you were born, Right?

You have no control as to from which, you know, what family you end up in.

There are certain things that you can say, okay, I read that prophecy, I'm going to try to fulfill that, but there are lots of prophecies in the Old Testament that are beyond the control of any human being, and yet they were perfectly fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

Regarding, again, His family, He would come from the...

He would be the son of David through the lineage of David.

The very time that He would come on to...

Into this world, amazing prophecy in Daniel chapter 9.

Also regarding His message, His ministry, Isaiah 61, about His entry into Jerusalem, His betrayal, and the very price that was paid for his betrayal.

These are all prophecies in the Old Testament and you find the fulfillment in the New Testament.

Regarding how the final scenes of his life unfolded, that he was mocked, he was spit upon, he was crucified with criminals, his bones were unbroken, he resurrected, and the very time of his death.

All these things you find, these are just references here, these are things that are prophesied in the Old Testament and we find the fulfillment in the New Testament.

There was a man by the name of Peter Stoner, and he had a PhD in mathematics, astronomy, and engineering, and he wrote a book called Science Speaks.

He made a mathematical calculation of what the probability is of 48 of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilling in 1 man.

Now there are more than 48 prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the figure, the Messiah figure.

There are actually, there's estimated several hundreds.

But Peter Stoner just took 48 of the several hundred prophecies and he said, what is the probability of these 48 fulfilling in 1 man?

So he did all his calculations and he ended up with this figure, 10 to the 157th power.

I'm not going to ask you to pronounce that number.

But that is, In other words, it is extremely unlikely for all those prophecies to be fulfilled in 1 person.

And because of all these prophecies, we can be sure that Jesus is the very 1 He claimed to be.

These prophecies are absolutely astounding.

Now this is concerning the first coming of Christ.

Now what we're going to do is we're going to look at a prophecy that points to the second coming of Christ.

Part of this prophecy is what we could call historic, in other words it has already happened, but part of this prophecy is also apocalyptic or it points to the future.

And the historic part of the prophecy basically confirms the truthfulness and the authenticity of the predictions that are still in the future.

It's like God has already signed many of these prophecies, they've already happened, and so we can be sure that the last part is going to happen.

Now this prophecy was given in ancient Babylon.

It was given between 500 and 600 years before Christ, or 500, 600 BC, before Christ.

Now what happened was Babylon was the great kingdom, the great nation of that time, and they had invaded Judah, and they had destroyed Jerusalem, and they had taken captive many of the Jews and taken them back to Babylon.

And amongst the captives, there was a young man by the name of Daniel, and he wrote the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, and he wrote it while he was a captive in Babylon.

Now interesting, as you come to the second chapter of the book of Daniel, we read that the king of Babylon, which was a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream.

And in this dream, he dreamt of something that we're going to look at in a moment, but he couldn't remember it really when he woke up.

And so he knew he had dreamt something significant, but he couldn't really remember the details of that dream.

And the Bible tells us that he goes and he calls together all his wise men and all his counselors, and among that number is also Daniel, because Daniel was a captive, but he had been selected and trained in the court of the king, and so he was 1 of those wise men.

Now as all these wise men are gathered together, Nebuchadnezzar says, okay, tell me what I dreamt and tell me the interpretation of this dream.

They are not able to do that and so what happens is he passes a death degree.

A Transforming Touch

Started in verse 21, I entitled this message, A Transforming Touch, and we're going to look at an amazing miracle here, and surely we'll be able to make some applications to our lives today.

Mark the fifth chapter beginning in verse 21, the Bible reads, "'Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him and He was by the sea.

And behold, 1 of the rulers of the synagogues came, Jairus by name, and when he saw Him, he fell at His feet." And as you read the Scriptures, it's always important for you to start imagining what this must have been like.

And so let your sanctified imagination think of the scene here as Jesus comes to the shore.

There are literally thousands of people that are waiting to meet Him, but 1 person in particular is waiting because he has something going on in his life and in the life of his daughter.

And he believes that Jesus has the power to heal her, and so he's waiting for Jesus to come.

And the moment that Jesus steps out of that boat, he falls at his feet.

And he begged him earnestly, saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live.

He believed in the power of Jesus to heal his daughter.

And so verse 24, Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed him and thronged him.

Imagine the scene here, Jairus is pressing his way through the crowd because he knows that he needs to hurry up because Jesus needs to come to his daughter while there is still hope.

Yes, he believes that Jesus can heal his daughter, but he knows that Jesus has to be on time, And his daughter is about to lose her life.

And so he's pushing his way through the crowd.

There are literally people thronging him on all sides, and the disciples are around Jesus trying to make him get his way to the house of Jairus.

And it is at this time that we encounter a remarkable moment in the ministry of Jesus, a remarkable miracle of a woman that had an issue of blood for 12 years, a sickness, And she could not find any cure, and her only hope was now in meeting Jesus.

And so, as Jesus is making His way through the crowd, and His disciples are helping Him, there is a woman that wants to meet Jesus.

Let's read about this as we continue here in Mark chapter 5 and verse 25.

Now, a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians.

She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well." Verse 29, immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Just imagine this woman, put yourself in her situation here.

She had tried everything, but instead of getting healed, she rather grew worse.

Our world is looking for healing in so many ways.

You walk into a bookstore and you will find, you know, shelves and shelves of books full on self-help, you know, how to have a better marriage, how to make more money, how to solve this, how to do that.

And yet, with All the content there is there in books and all the content on websites and all of this, there is still a void in the heart of human beings when Jesus is not in their lives.

And instead of getting better, things often get worse.

The condition of this woman is really the condition of humanity at large.

And now she comes to the point in her life that she realizes there's only 1 solution and that solution is Jesus Christ and she wants to meet Him.

And yet this is at the very time that Jesus' ministry had become very, very popular.

There were thousands of people that were thronging to meet Jesus, that wanted to be around Him.

And so as Jesus comes to the shore there, Jairus is the first 1 to meet Jesus.

As a matter of fact, he was the ruler of a synagogue, the Bible tells us, and so he had some prominent position there, so he probably had a better opportunity to meet Jesus.

And yet this woman here does everything in her strength, everything in her power to meet with Jesus.

You can just imagine as Jesus is making His way through the crowd there, she's trying to get...she's trying to see Him, but there He was, just a little glimpse, but she continues to press through the crowd.

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Certainty in Uncertain Times

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