The Omega Community
Pastor Leslie Chua
“And behold, I am coming soon.
Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Jesus is coming back soon. I have been saying that repeatedly and with a strong conviction in the last two years.
Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end. This was my preaching theme in 2021. After going through the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, I preached on the End Times, labelling it the Omega series.
The Omega series has garnered a fair bit of attention outside of our church. Some people begin to call us an End-Time church. Depending on how the term is defined, it might create the wrong impression.
While we focus on eschatology in our pulpit ministry during this period, it is not our only focus. The gospel is our primary focus. The Person of Jesus Christ is our central focus. The study of eschatology deals with the return of Jesus Christ to take His Bride, the church, and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is a significant part of the gospel. Jesus’ work did not end at the cross of Calvary. He has unfinished business. When Jesus’ disciples watched Him ascend into heaven, two angels said to them, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
Jesus will return. Judging from the Scriptures and connecting the dots to the current trends and developments in the world, there are very good reasons to believe that His return is soon, just around the corner.
____________________________________________
Rock of Ages Church is an Omega community.
____________________________________________
Jesus wants His disciples to be prepared for His return. In the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25), Jesus warned repeatedly against spiritual apathy, complacency, and unfaithfulness. He knew that many professing believers would be caught sleeping and unprepared.
We do not want to be counted among these people. On the contrary, we want to be ready. Hence, our focus is on Jesus’ return. Know also that the study of eschatology has implications for Christian discipleship.
Rock of Ages Church is an Omega community. It means several things.
An Informed Community
An Omega community is an informed community. It is informed concerning the biblical teachings of the End Times. It is informed regarding the latest trends and developments in the world in areas with eschatological significance.
____________________________________________
An Omega community is an informed community.
____________________________________________
We are living in a kairos moment. The church age is drawing to a close. The rapture is around the corner. After that, the tribulation will begin.
We do not want to be like many Jews during Jesus’ First Coming. While they were eagerly looking for their Messiah to come, they could not recognize Jesus when He walked and ministered among them. Instead of welcoming Him, they rejected Him, opposed Him, and persecuted Him. They even crucified Him. This included most of the religious leaders who were supposed to know their Scriptures well.
Many churches and Christians today distance themselves from eschatology claiming that it is controversial. They would rather focus on more meaningful activities like evangelism and discipleship.
The argument sounds pious, but it is incongruent and misplaced. One-third of the Bible are prophecies, and there are more prophecies on Christ’s Second Coming than His First Coming. The entire book of Revelation focuses on eschatology. God must have deemed the Second Coming of Christ to be of utmost importance, and He wants believers to be well informed.
When we are informed, we can anticipate the challenges and hence, prepare ourselves better.
A Discerning Community
An Omega community is a discerning community.
In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus told a series of seven parables about the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
____________________________________________
An Omega community is a discerning community.
____________________________________________
Before He launched into the parables, Jesus said something very interesting. He quoted the prophet, Isaiah. “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed…” (Matthew 13:14-15).
In other words, the Jews lacked spiritual discernment. No wonder they could not perceive Jesus as their Messiah though they knew the Scriptures.
Discernment is a God-given supernatural ability to understand and perceive things which are otherwise veiled to even the brightest minds.
Having discernment is perhaps the single most important spiritual gift in the Last Days for two reasons.
First, discernment enables us to understand and perceive the things that are happening around us that have eschatological implications. Of course, we must first be biblically informed before we can connect the dots to the current development in the spheres of culture, geopolitics, global finance, health and medicine, science and technology.
____________________________________________
First, discernment enables us to understand and perceive the things that are happening around us that have eschatological implications…
Second, discernment enables us to pick up Satan’s lies and deceptions.
____________________________________________
Second, discernment enables us to pick up Satan’s lies and deceptions, which are his favourite and most potent weapons in his toolkit.
Deception during the end of this present age is subtler than ever. Many Christians will fail to see through Satan’s deceptive tactics and strategies. The church is experienced in spotting false teachings and heresies. However, I suspect it is clueless when the deception occurs in the areas of culture, media and entertainment, science and technology, health and medicine, geopolitics and global finance.
Let me give you an example. Until recently, most Christians reckon that the 666-mark of the beast will be a microchip injected under the skin. However, judging from the latest development in the field of science, it is likely to be a combination of digital technology and biotechnology with transhumanistic implications.
As countries move toward the digitalisation of personal identification, travel details, banking data, health records, etcetera, people may be compelled to have this technology implanted or fused into their bodies, or else they cannot function properly in society.
The scary thought is at which point this technology becomes the 666-mark of the beast.
Spiritual discernment is critical.
A Wise Community
An Omega community is a wise community.
The sons of Issachar possessed sharp spiritual discernment. They understood the times and the seasons. Besides that, they also had the wisdom to know what they ought to do.
____________________________________________
An Omega community is a wise community.
____________________________________________
Discernment must be supplemented by wisdom. To be able to discern is critical. However, it is not enough. We must also have the wisdom to know what to do. That is, how to plan and take follow up actions.
Many crises lie ahead. Some of us discern that a while ago. Now, experts, economists, and global political leaders are warning of massive problems facing the world in the days ahead ranging from wars, massive supply chain disruption, worsening energy crisis, food shortages, rising prices and even stagflation. Stagflation is a combination of high inflation and slow economic activities. The last time stagflation hit the world was in the 1970-1973 period following the OPEC oil embargo.
How should we respond to all these crises? How do we deal with these problems in a practical manner?
We need the Joseph anointing. We need divine wisdom. We need practical solutions. We will find such wisdom in the Omega community as we come together to have conversations, share ideas, pray, and seek His face (Proverbs 15:22; 11:14).
A Courageous Community
The Omega Community is a courageous community.
Persecution will be a reality in the days ahead. Why? Because more and more Christians will be awakened. They will look at biblical prophecies and connect the dots to the current realities. They will begin to perceive what really is happening.
____________________________________________
The Omega Community is a courageous community.
____________________________________________
Consequently, they will resist participation in many areas of society. In return. They will get pushed back. They will be looked upon with suspicion. They will be deemed as religious nuts and conspiracy theorists. Just pause and consider how Noah’s contemporaries viewed him. To them, he was crazy.
We are seeing the signs now. Living by biblical truth is getting increasingly tough. Standing up for biblical truth is even tougher.
However, we cannot shrink back and be cowed into silence. Like Noah, we must continue to live righteously, resist the temptation to compromise, and speak up courageously. The time is urgent to warn people of the coming judgement and call them to repentance.
To do all this requires courage.
Discipleship
The Omega community provides a community for End-Time believers to be informed, grow in spiritual discernment and wisdom, and develop courage through solid biblical instruction, honest conversation, and fervent prayer.
Here in Rock of Ages Church, we take Christian discipleship seriously. Focusing on the End Time does not take our focus away from discipleship. Instead, it sharpens our focus on authentic discipleship. It creates greater awareness and urgency to follow Jesus with wholehearted and unwavering commitment.
The focus of discipleship shifts from normal Christian living to radical obedience, perseverance, suffering for Christ, and even martyrdom, which resembles more closely to what we read in the gospels and epistles.
____________________________________________
The Omega community provides a community for End-Time believers to be informed, grow in spiritual discernment and wisdom, and develop courage through solid biblical instruction, honest conversation, and fervent prayer.
____________________________________________
Jesus is coming back soon. We must get our act together because He is coming back only for those who are faithful and who overcome (Matthew 24:45-25:30; Revelation 2-3).