Last Days 2

The Last Days according to Jesus

Part 2

“The Rise and Fall of Antichrist”

Matthew 24:15-18, 21 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes...21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

We’re in a series now on The Last Days according to Jesus.

Before going further, I want to remind us that Bible prophecy is given for our comfort and spiritual edification.

It is not God’s purpose to tantalize us with details about the future, or to cause us to be obsessed with future events.

We are told just enough to know the broad outlines of what is to come.

We are not given precise dates, nor the identities of the key players.

It is God’s will that we be focused on reaching a lost world for Christ, not constantly star-gazing.

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That said, let’s summarize what Jesus told us here about the Last Days in which we live.

In these passages, Jesus is predicting an event that will take place halfway through what the Bible calls the seven-year Great Tribulation period.

A man called the Antichrist will have made a peace treaty with the Jewish people that leads them to believe they will have peace at last.

But 3.5 years in he will break the treaty by committing what Jesus calls “the abomination of desolation.”

Antichrist will enter what will be a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, step into the holy of holies, and declare himself to be God.

This will shock the Jewish community to its very core, and will trigger a mass persecution of the Jewish people.

This event is the fuse to the greatest war the world has ever seen, where Jesus said, “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Matt 24:22).

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Now, as for the Antichrist, many people have formed their idea of what he will be like through Hollywood movies like The Omen.

So let’s lay out a brief description of what we mean when we refer to “the Antichrist” according to the Bible.

The Bible gives him several names, all bad:

The man of sin

The son of perdition

The lawless one

The wicked one

The beast

The bloody and deceitful man

The little horn

The vile person

Scripture reveals that the Antichrist will appear on the world scene in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.

Paul the Apostle writes, “For that day (the return of Christ) will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction. 4 He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God” (2 Thes. 2:3-4).

So Antichrist clearly will be a flesh and blood man.

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Described in both the Old and New Testaments, he will be the very incarnation of evil convincingly disguised as a dynamic, charismatic, visionary leader.

In fact, he will appear to be the very leader the world has been looking for.

He will likely be well educated, witty, warm, and very charismatic.

He will claim to have your best interests at heart—which is why the world will welcome him!

He will be a man of extraordinary abilities and talents.

One writer suggests He will have the...

Good looks of John Kennedy,

Folksiness of Ronald Reagan,

Inspirational power of Winston Churchill,

Leadership of Franklin Roosevelt,

Vision of Abraham Lincoln,

Military prowess of Douglas MacArthur,

Respectability of Gandhi,

Charm of Will Rogers,

The brains of Albert Einstein

All those attributes will be wrapped up in one irresistible human personality that a Christ rejecting world of the Last Days will literally worship!

John writes in the book of Revelation, “And they worshipped the beast (antichrist), saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (13:4)

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And to top it all off, he will be wholly and totally energized by Satan.

Paul the Apostle writes again, “This man of sin will come as Satan’s tool, full of satanic power, and will trick everyone with strange demonstrations, and will do great miracles. 10 He will completely fool those who are on their way to hell because they have said no to the Truth; they have refused to believe it and love it and let it save them” (2 Thes. 2:9-10).

He will be the ultimate “angel of light.”

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That’s his personality—who he IS, now let’s look at what he will DO:

Antichrist will astound the world with his solutions to human problems.

His empire will span every continent and his rule will be the most demonic the world has ever experienced.

John writes, “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life...” (13:7-8)

He will rise to world domination by declaring himself a Man of Peace, but will later plunge the world into global war.

He will be totally opposed to Jesus Christ and will offer himself to the world as the counterfeit savior of humanity.

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Again, Paul the Apostle tells us that, because the world of the last days will have rejected Jesus, “God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2:11).

The “strong delusion” is Antichrist!

The Bible says that he will control the global economy and force his followers to receive a mark on their hand or their foreheads—the infamous number 666.

Again, John the Revelator writes, “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except those who have the mark” (13:16-17).

Most of the world will willingly submit and follow him.

Paul writes, “they will believe a lie and be condemned” (2:12).

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Those who do not receive the mark will be hunted down and many will be killed.

For a short period of time he will become the most powerful man on earth.

At the apex of his power, Antichrist will call the nations of the world to war at a place called the valley of Megiddo in the central region of Israel.

That battle is known in the Bible as Armageddon.

But his reign of terror will come to a sudden end when he is destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ as he returns to the earth to set up his kingdom.

John the Revelator paints a vivid picture of his demise:

“And the beast (antichrist) was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (19:20).

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Now, here’s what we can glean from Jesus’s prediction:

In the days leading up to the return of Christ...

The world will grow darker

There is a teaching out there called “Kingdom Now) that says the church will eventually Christianize the world and then Jesus will return...

The Bible teaches the opposite!

Jesus clearly predicted there will be earthquakes, famines, outbreaks of disease, and a growing number of false teachers and false Christ’s—Antichrist chief among them.

Paul wrote to young Timothy of the last days:

“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times” (2 Tim. 3:1).

“...evil men and false teachers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim 3:13).

It will be a time when many will walk away from Christ:

“...in the last times some in the church will turn away from Christ and become eager followers of teachers with devil-inspired ideas” (1 Tim 4:1).

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Secondly,

II. Technology will advance to make Antichrist’s plans possible

When John predicted that the world would carry a mark on their hand or forehead without which they could neither buy nor sell, he could never have conceived of computer chips that can easily be placed just under your skin and mark you.

But that technology is here and already being used as I speak!

Fox News recently ran a story entitled, “Is there a microchip implant in your future?”

The story describes how a microchip can be injected under your skin and no one will ever notice.

Using short-range radio frequency identification (RFID) signals, it can transmit your identity as you pass through a security checkpoint or walk into a football stadium.

It can help you buy groceries at Wal-Mart.

The article ends, “They are easy to install and remove, and, because they are implanted under the skin, they are unobtrusive.”

In other words, “It’s easy! No big deal!”

Today these chips are implanted on a voluntary basis, but one day the man of sin will mandate it!

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Third and best of all...

III. The church will be delivered

What takes place during Antichrist’s reign is the outpouring of God’s wrath on a Christ-rejecting world.

And the Bible assures the church, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:9).

Jesus said, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

So how will we be delivered Jeff?

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thes 4:16-18).

The Lord could return at any moment to rapture His church!

Are you ready?