Matthew 24
February 27, 2000am
There is a bumper sticker that says: “Jesus is coming back and boy is he mad!”
Take it for what it’s worth, I guess, but for whatever reasons we as human beings are interested in the future events of our world. We want to know what’s going to happen in the future. And people are especially interested in the end times. The Rapture, the Tribulation, the Mark of the Beast, Jesus 1000 years reign on earth, and the final battle of Armageddon.
When I was a teenager I recall going to Teen Challenge to watch the two movies- A Thief in the Night and A Distant Thunder. Scared the devil out of me. My son and I love to rent them and watch them. Charity leaves the room. Something about that girl’s scream when she realizes that she missed the rapture. Yikes!
Since I was a young teenager I have continually heard about the return of Jesus Christ. As a thief in the night Jesus will return to take his people home. When we are not expecting him Jesus will return and set up his kingdom. I read Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth and wondered what was really going to happen.
There are lots of questions about the future. Questions about Christ’s return to earth because he did promise to come again. Bible commentators have sought for centuries to decipher what Daniel and Revelation really mean. Well-meaning Christians have attempted to interpret these books and ended up misinterpreting and misrepresenting the Word of God and causing a lot of misunderstanding.
Now I believe that there has been great confusion concerning the return of Christ. People have tried to understand what is meant by the scriptures and what they mean to us today.
I do not believe that we can foresee the Christ’s return. In fact, I believe that as we look into God’s Word we will see that we cannot determine when His second coming will happen nor can we ascertain the rapture of the church.
Let’s begin in Revelation. The writer, John, wrote this wonderful book that surely was an encouragement to the persecuted Christians of his day. As Christians read his letter and copied it to pass on to others they must have been filled with hope for the future. Hope that superseded the martyrdom of their brothers and sisters in the Lord. Hope that transcended their present sufferings. Hope that abolished the fear of satanic power. They knew that one day despite the trauma and trials and tribulation they would see our Savior face to face in all of his glory. They knew that one day there would be no more sickness no more sorrow no more crying for all of these things would pass away. One day God would wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation is a book of hope and encouragement for the believer and I believe should not be approached in any other way.
Revelation 4:1 tells us this clue: After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had heard first speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.” Notice the two phrases “After this?” After what? What was John referring to? He was referring to the seven letters to the seven churches that has so often been referred to as the Church Age. After the Church Age another age would be ushered into the world. An age that would be more diabolical than any other prior in history. A time that would be so terrible and so bloody that today’s tragic warfare’s would be nothing in comparison.
It is my opinion that at the end of the church age the believers in Jesus Christ will be raptured into heaven. It is my opinion that Christians who are saved during the Church age will not have to go through the great tribulation. Why do I believe this?
HOPE FOR THE CHRISTIAN-KINGDOM
I Thessalonians 4:13-17 I believe makes very clear that we are to watch and wait with hope. What a wonderful promise to Christians that despite the persecution and travesties around us we have a blessed hope that is founded in Christ Jesus. We must understand that this hope is not simply for the individual-Christian but for the holy nation of Christians. As a kingdom of God we will be caught up together with the dead in Christ and be with the Lord forever. The Christian-kingdom is to be continually watching and waiting for that day when we will meet with the dead who are in Christ in the air and go to heaven to live with Christ forever. When the Church is raptured from this world that will be the end of the church age. Another is about to begin.
Revelation 4:1 says: After this.
After this what will happen?
I think we ought to go right to the horse’s mouth and see what Jesus says:
Matthew 24 gives us a time like no other. Darkness will pervade and the earth will be under the control and fury of sin.
John MacArthur gives us six points of insight into one of the final messages of while Jesus was still alive.
THE SETTING
Jesus has just declared the destruction of Jerusalem in chapter 23. He tells how one stone will literally not be on top of another. We understand through research that when Jerusalem was looted and burn in 70 AD. The gold in the temple melted and seeped into the stonework. Soldiers were requisitioned to chink away the stones to get the gold out from between them. Priests were killed. The temple was laid to waste. Sacrifices ended and Judaism never recovered.
Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives that over looks Jerusalem. His disciples come to him privately and asks him two questions: When will this destruction happen and what will be the signs of your coming and the end of the age?
Jesus gives the answers to them. The disciples never saw what Jesus was describing. They may have seen the destruction of Jerusalem in their day but in chapter 24 Jesus was referring to his second coming. They did not see as we are seeing. They did not expect Christ to ever leave as he did. They anticipated Jesus setting up his kingdom of earth and they expected that within the next few months or years that as Messiah he would make his return immediate.
What we see from our perspective is that Christ died a little while later. Arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Christians have looked for his return in a different way: the rapture of the church.
What will be the signs of Christ’s return to earth? When will this take place? What about the end of the age of mankind?
There are six signs that Jesus gives us:
SIGNS OF CHRIST’S RETURN TO EARTH
1. Deception. verses 4-5
There will be those who will claim that they are Christ. Remember, the church has been raptured and so there will those who will be looking for an answer who know about Christianity and what has taken place. New believers will become easy targets.
2. Dissension verses 6-7a
“You will of wars and rumors of wars.” There will destruction all over the world. Patriotism will give rise to nationalism. Not only will there be wars between nations but also between ethnic groups unlike any the world has ever seen. There are times of peace here now and then but there is a day coming of infinite self-destruction among the people of earth.
3. Devastation verses 7b-8
“There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” Too often we believe that natural disasters are getting worse. Yes! Any natural disaster is terrible. I have personally seen the tragedy that follows the flooding of a whole city. And yet that pales in comparison to the devastation that will be visited during the tribulation. There will be world-wide disasters of every kind and not limited to famines and earthquakes.
Here Christ inserts an intermission statement: “All these are the beginning of birth pains. Just as a woman endures the pains of birthing prior to the birth of a child so too the earth will go through birthing pains. Satan and all his hosts and with all his fury will be striving to destroy this world. And mankind and the earth will suffer the consequences.
4. Desecration
The Christians will be persecuted. They will be blamed for what’s happening. Many will be killed for the sake of Christ. The world will stand against Christianity as it has never before. The desecration of Christ’s followers will happen.
5. Defection
There will be those who named the name of Christ but in the face of persecution disclaimed him. Their true colors were shown. For some reason suffering does that to people. What about Christians today? How would we fair if we really had to stand up for Christ? Would any of us defect and abandon the faith to save our own skins? Obviously, something real enough to live is real enough to die for.
6. Declaration
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Of any scripture this has been torn out of context continually. This is not to indicate that the rapture of Christians will take place once all nations have been preached to. That is not true. I’m sorry. I have good Christian friends who have preached this out of context. Jesus is forewarning those who will be reading this at that time so that they will know what is happening and the great hope that they have.
There will be a world-wide revival. Somehow and in some way the gospel will be preached world-wide. People of all kinds of nations will be reached. People will be getting saved in this critical and terrible time. When this happens, those Christians can take assurance that the end is near. This scripture is not to be an indicator of when the rapture will take place.
At this point it is my belief that a second rapture of saints will take place. At this time Christians who have accepted and survived the viciousness of the times will be caught up into the air and go to heaven.
The disciples wanted to know what is the sign. What is the one event.
And then in verse fifteen we see the beginning of the end for this world: “So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel- let the reader understand (in other words “you better understand)-”
What happens? What is Christ referring to? What did Daniel refer to.
Abomination- abhorrent, detestable to God, involves idolatry that desolates- lays waste
Something detestable to God occurs in the temple.
The AntiChrist sets himself up as God.
Daniel refers to a king of Syria- Antiochus Epiphnes who went into the temple and sacrificed a pig to an idol god. He then forced the priests to eat portions. He set up a Greek god.
A similar episode will occur according to verse 15. The AntiChrist will set himself up as a god in the temple of Israel.
How will all of this happen?
I don’t have time. but let me say this: the world enters a time of terrible strife. As you read through the book of Revelation you get a overwhelming sense of the powers of darkness and how Satan can control people and do all kinds of evil. The world is destroyed one step at a time until Christ’s thousand years reign. And then that final battle- the mother of all wars between Satan and Christ. A guess who wins?
John writes in Revelation 21-
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.”
A whole new world.
Despite the trouble you are in there is coming a kingdom that will never know any problems.
Despite the heartache you are experiencing there is coming a day when God will wipe every tear from your eye.
Despite that limp you might have, or the bad heart, or the poor eyesight there is coming a time when you will literally run ... and not be weary, and you will see visions of rapture bursting on your sight.
My friends... “There is coming a day when no heartache shall rise,
No more clouds in the sky
No more tears to dim the eyes
All is peace forever more
On that happy golden shore
What a day glorious day that will be!
What a day that will be! When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face. The one who saved me by his grace
And he takes me by the hand and leads thru the promised land
What a day glorious day that will be
There’ll be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear
No more sickness no more pain, No more crying over there
And forever I will be with the one who died for me!
What a day glorious day that will be!" .
