"The Last Days According To Jesus pt. 4"

Introduction

When we look at Matthew 24 we are seeing Jesus connecting tribulation to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

But as Matthew 24 continues it becomes obvious that he is speaking of tribulation in one grand event that goes on from 70 AD through the time of His return.

And during that time, historical events takes place with wars and turmoil among the nations. There are also natural disasters that take place on the earth that bring a lot of devastation and suffering.

While at the same time the gospel of the Kingdom is being proclaimed among all the nations of the World.

All of these things will come to pass and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).

It seems that Tribulation comes to a head in the last days. It is like 70 AD and the final tribulation are like the “bookends” that mark the series on the tribulation period.

Our text this morning focuses us in the direction of the tribulation just prior to Christ’s return. Notice this is one of the key references to there being a sequence between the two events. Look at your text to verse 29:

I. The Sequence (29).

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

The tribulation ends with the established creation order of the cosmos being interrupted. This is significant because it indicates that the original creation order is over and a new heavens and a new earth is on its way and tribulation will be no more.

Christian this is why He will wipe away every tear from our eyes because the former things will pass away and the new will come and there will be no more tribulation. Our hearts long for it to be gone in this world, we hunger for it and our Lord will bring our deliverance and liberation when He returns.

The prophet Daniel has foretold of this same event in Daniel 12:1-2*

Daniel 12:1-2

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Like in Mathew 24 , we see that there is a great tribulation that is unparalleled in its intensity and following it there will be a deliverance for the people of God and the resurrection of the dead will consist of both the just and the unjust. The just to everlasting life and the unjust to everlasting contempt.

Jesus in Matthew and the Angel in Daniel have the same understanding of the coming sequence.

Then in verse 30 we see the definite sign that tribulation has come to a close for the children of God.

II. The Sign (30).

30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

As we learned last Sunday everyone will know and there will be no mistake. This is not a return of a mere man making audacious claims and doing deceptive miracles.

Just read a story of a man who was just arrested in Siberia in Russia for claiming he was Jesus reincarnated. He was the leader of a cult for nearly 30 years. Many have been led astray by him. As of this past week he has been setting in a Russian jail. If his followers had known their Bibles they wouldn’t have believed it for a minute because Jesus is not returning that way. (Brazil too).

It will be a cataclysmic display of His divine power and glory to the point that the wicked among the tribes of the earth will mourn over His return. Everything will be shaken as we saw in Hebrews.

The people of the World are able to see Him coming on the clouds and their mourning will be associated with the sense of extreme terror due to His presence and their awareness of the finality of judgement that is coming with Him.

One of my professors in Bible College believed that the people of the earth will attempt to turn their weapons of Him to fight Him. I do not believe this to be the case. The Bible seems to indicate that their impulse is more in the sense of running and hiding from Him out of terror.

The return of Christ instills the highest level of fear for the wicked. But for those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, they will be summoned for a great gathering in the sky. Look at verse 31:

III. The Summons (31).

31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This is certainly a summons but there is a glorious demonstration connected to it.

First we see Christ is the one who Commissions His Angels to do it. They are carrying it out in obedience to His sovereign command.

Second it is done in connection to a loud trumpet call. This should be no surprise to us. There are several references in Scripture to this event being carried out in association with a loud trumpet call.

Third it is done in order to gather the elect of God from over the whole earth. We see in I Thessalonians 4:15-17 a description of the events.

I Thessalonians 4: 15-17

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, 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.

The word from the Lord is what we see here in Matthew 24 as recorded in the Olivet Discourse. We have the trumpet sounding and the dead being raised and the rapture taking place after the tribulation period.

I Corinthians 15:51-52 speaks about this same event

I Corinthians 15: 51-52

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

This is speaking of the same event. Paul is arguing that the perishable must put on the imperishable because the perishable can not inherit the imperishable. This is just prior to death being defeated as the last enemy to be put under the feet of Christ.

Notice also this is the last trumpet according to verse 52. This is the coronation of the kingdom of the world becoming the Kingdom of our Lord. And it will never end.

Revelation 11:15-18 gives us insight into heaven when the 7th trumpet is blown.

Revelation 11: 15-18

15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

So it would appear that we have our Lord returning at the end of the tribulation period and tribulation is something that believers will endure on the earth until that day. Then we have the wrath of the Lamb being poured out on the wicked and the Kingdom of God / New Jerusalem being established in a new heavens and new earth for all eternity.

This is also consistent with what we saw in II Thessalonians 1-2. This is where Paul explains that they will get relief when the Lord Jesus returns in His glory and punishes the wicked.

This summons in Matthew 24 verse 31 is directed towards a certain group of people. The people that His Angels are commissioned to gather are the elect of God. Those who have been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the World.

These are the ones that Jesus came into the World to ransom for God. The ones that the Father has given to the Son and that the Son will never lose and those that the Son promises to raise up on the last day. This is the will of the Father that the Son came to do as our Lord tells us in John 6:39-40.

39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Christian the certainty of the resurrection of the dead is rooted in the Supreme power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think about it. All those who have died in the Lord are coming forth in their physical bodies on the last day as a display of the Sovereign glory of Jesus Christ.

Christ triumphant in all His glory on display for all the Universe and beyond to behold.

Christian this is the grand event that all of history is moving towards. This is the purpose of our redemption. We will be raptured from the earth in our glorification as a demonstration of the awesome sovereignty and redeeming power of the Lamb. Our ultimate fulfillment is in Christ!

This is why we become so bored with the World and its trinkets. We are always left with wanting more because we cant find anything that will fill the hunger because we were not made for it in the ultimate sense.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Conclusion

Have you come to live in light of your purpose in Christ? Perhaps you are an unbeliever but today your Creator is calling you to put your faith in Christ. Believe unto salvation the gospel.

Christian are you living in light of your purpose? Do you know that God has redeemed you? If so, what has He redeemed your for?

To be reconciled to God and to live for His glory through Jesus Christ. And yet our lives fall so short of that at times.

Christian He has built in grace to our relationship to Him. To keep us and to provide to us all that we need for life in Christ. Confess Christian and receive from Him again.

Let’s Pray!