The End is Here!
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Last week in our look at The End we went as far as the middle of The Tribulation.
We saw the anti-Christ break his covenant with Israel.
Today we pick up right where we left off.
World conditions will be so terrible that men will wonder if any relief will come, and this will give false christs opportunities to deceive many.
21 For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.
22 And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him.
24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
25 Behold, I have told you in advance.
Satan is capable of performing “lying wonders”.
The fact that a religious leader performs miracles is no assurance that he has come from God.
Many Jews will be deceived, for “the Jews require a sign”.
22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
Jesus performed true signs in His Father’s name, and the nation rejected Him.
Satan’s miracles they will accept.
It is also during this time that the Antichrist will introduce his mark known as the Tahe Mark of the Beast.
16 And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,
17 and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
The Events:
The Events:
The event that precedes His return is the gathering of the Gentile nations at Armageddon.
The eagles flying around the carcass picture the awful carnage that will result from this great battle.
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great feast of God,
18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slaves, and small and great.”
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army.
When Jesus comes for the church, He will come in the air and His people will be caught up to meet Him in the air.
17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
But our Lord’s second coming at the end of the Tribulation will be a great public event, with every eye seeing Him.
7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
This event will have special meaning for Israel.
Jesus will return at that hour when Israel is about to be defeated by the Gentile armies.
He will rescue His people, and they will see Him and recognize that He is their Messiah.
9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
12 The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves;
14 all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
There will be a national repentance, national cleansing, and national restoration under the gracious leadership of their Messiah.
This is a summery of the events in a beautiful 7, the number of completion, series:
1. The Rapture of the church (1 Cor. 15:51–58; 1 Thes. 4:13–18).
This can occur at any time.
2. The leader of the ten European nations makes a seven-year agreement with Israel (Dan. 9:26–27).
3. After three-and-one-half years, he breaks the agreement (Dan. 9:27).
4. He moves to Jerusalem and sets up his image in the temple (2 Thes. 2:3–4; Rev. 13).
5. The Antichrist begins to control the world and forces all people to worship and obey him.
At this time God sends great tribulation upon the earth (Matt. 24:21).
6. The nations gather at Armageddon to fight the Antichrist and Israel, but see the sign of Christ’s coming and unite to fight Him (Zech. 12; Rev. 13:13–14; 19:11ff).
7. Jesus returns to the earth, defeats His enemies, is received by the Jews, and establishes His kingdom on earth (Rev. 19:11ff; Zech. 12:7–13:1). He will reign on earth for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:1–5).
The purpose of prophecy is not to entertain the curious, but to encourage the consecrated.
When?????
When?????
Jesus closed this section of His discourse with three practical admonitions, built around three illustrations: a fig tree, Noah, and a thief in the night.
Matthew 24:36 makes it clear that no one will know the day or the hour of the Lord’s coming.
But they can be aware of the movements of events and not be caught by surprise.
The fig tree (vv. 32–35).
32 “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: as soon as its branch has become tender and sprouts its leaves, you know that summer is near;
33 so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.
34 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
The fig tree in the Bible is often a picture of Israel.
The budding of the trees indicates that summer is near.
The beginning of these signs indicates that the Lord’s coming is near.
The generation alive on earth at that time will see these events take place.
Our generation sees a foreshadowing of these signs.
We do not look for signs as such; we look for the Saviour (Phil. 3:20).
Jesus can come for His church at any time.
The days of Noah (vv. 36–42).
The days of Noah (vv. 36–42).
36 “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
37 For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Here the emphasis is on the fact that the people did not know the day when judgment would strike.
What kept the people from listening to Noah’s message and obeying?
The common interests of life—eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage.
They lost the best by living for the good.
It is a dangerous thing to get so absorbed in the pursuits of life that we forget Jesus is coming.
The thief in the night (vv. 42–44).
42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.
43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
44 For this reason you must be ready as well; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
Jesus used Noah to warn that men will not know the day, and He used the picture of the burglar to warn that they will not know the hour.
After the Rapture of the church, there will be a time of peace and safety on earth.
Then suddenly God’s judgments will fall.
When we combine the exhortations found in these three pictures, we end up with:
“Know that He is near! Watch therefore! Be ye also ready!”
Believers alive during that period of history will certainly find great comfort in the promises of the Word of God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
While the interpretation of this section relates to Israel during the Tribulation, we may apply the Word to our own hearts.
We do not know when our Lord will return for His church. Therefore, we must be alert, watchful, and faithful.
Jesus dealt with this in detail in the next section of the Olivet Discourse.
How grateful we ought to be that God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation when Jesus Christ appears.
He has saved us from the wrath to come.
10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.
As the people of God, we will certainly go through tribulation, but not the Tribulation.