The Second Advent Of Jesus Christ In The Gospels And Old Testament Prophets
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 5, 2009
The Day of the Lord: The Second Advent Of Jesus Christ In The Gospels And Old Testament Prophets
Lesson # 24
Please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah 12:1.
This morning we will continue with our study of the prophetic subject known as “the Day of the Lord.”
Today we will continue with our study of the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, which will complete our study of the “Tribulation” portion of this period, which is also known by students of prophecy as, “Daniel’s Seventieth Week.”
At His “Second Advent,” the Lord Jesus Christ will destroy the Tribulational armies, have Antichrist and the False Prophet thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 19:11-19), will imprison Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3) and will establish His millennial reign on planet earth (Rev. 20:4-6).
The “Second Advent” of Jesus Christ is taught in both the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalm 2:1-9; 24:7-10; 96:10-13; 110; Isaiah 9:6-7; 63:1-6; Jeremiah 23:1-8; Daniel 2:44-45; 7:18-27; Zechariah 12; 14:1-9; Matthew 19:28; 24:27-31; Mark 13:24-30; Luke 12:35-40; 17:24-37; 18:8; 21:25-28; Acts 1:10-11; 15:16-18; Romans 11:25-27; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; 2:8; 2 Peter 3:3-4; Jude 14-15; Revelation 1:7-8; 2:25-28; 16:15; 19:11-21).
Last month we studied John’s account of the “Second Advent” of Jesus Christ, which is recorded in Revelation 19:11-20:3.
This morning we will study the Second Advent of Christ in the Gospels and Old Testament prophets.
The Second Advent of Christ is prophesied by Daniel.
Daniel 2:44-45, “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
The Second Advent of Christ is further described in Zechariah chapter 12.
Zechariah 12:1-3, “The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, ‘Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.’”
The phrase “a cup that causes reeling” is a prophetic phrase describing divine judgment, which in this context deals with the Gentile nations who war against Israel during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
“In that day” refers to the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, which corresponds to the Armageddon campaign in which Gentile armies will occupy and surround Israel and Jerusalem itself.
Zechariah 12:4-9 describes the Lord Jesus Christ delivering Israel from the Gentile armies at His Second Advent.
Zechariah 12:4-9, “In that day, declares the LORD, ‘I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the LORD of hosts, their God.’ In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them. And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”
The gospel of Luke records the Lord prophesying concerning the day He will deliver Israel from her enemies at His Second Advent.
Luke 21:25-28, “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Zechariah 12:10-14 records the Day of Atonement when the nation of Israel will mourn as a nation over their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and will acknowledge as such and will turn to Him for deliverance from Antichrist and the Tribulational armies and at that time, Israel will receive the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah 12:10-14, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 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; 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; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.”
Zechariah 14 gives an account of Christ’s Second Advent.
Zechariah 14:1-4, “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”
The Mount of Olives will be split in half by the return of our Lord to the Mount of Olives and in Acts 1:9-11 upon our Lord’s ascension the angels told the disciples of our Lord that He would return in the same manner to the Mount of Olives in the future.
Zechariah 14:5, “You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!”
When the Lord lands upon the Mount of Olives at His Second Advent to personally and bodily deal with His enemies and those of His people, the Jews, the Mount of Olives, dislodged by a severe and terrible earthquake, will dissolve into “an exceedingly great valley.”
Therefore, there will be a vast alteration of the geography in Jerusalem in order that it might be the center of blessing to the world during the millennial reign of Christ.
Zechariah 14:6-7, “In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light.”
The Second Advent of Christ will be unique because Jesus Christ is unique since He is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever, the God-Man.
The phrase “neither day nor night but it will come about that at evening time there will be light” indicates that the day of the Second Advent of Christ will be utterly different from any day in the history of the world.
It cannot be day for all natural sources of light upon the earth will have failed, nor can it be light since there will be an awesome display of light reflected from the glory of the Lord, His angels and glorified saints.
Nor can it be the mixture of day and night for twilight for the same reason.
The gospel of Matthew records the Lord Jesus Christ describing the Tribulation period in detail and His Second Advent.
Matthew 24:29-31, “But 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 the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
Zechariah 14:8, “And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and the other half toward the western sea (Mediterranean); it will be in summer as well as in winter.”
Zechariah 14:9-10 describes the millennial reign of Christ.
Zechariah 14:9-11, “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's Gate (North wall) as far as the place of the First Gate (Northeastern corner of the city) to the Corner Gate (northwestern extremity), and from the Tower of Hananel (at the opposite extremity of the “corner gate,” in the northeastern part of the city, Jer. 31:38) to the king's wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.”
Jerusalem, who throughout her history has been an inland city, will become a seagoing city, or port town at the Second Advent of Christ.
The great earthquake caused by Christ landing on the Mount of Olives that is recorded in Zechariah 14:4 will change the entire central highland ridge from Geba of Benjamin (Josh. 18:24; 2 K. 23:8), located some 6 miles northeast of Jerusalem, to Rimmon south of Jerusalem, located 33 miles southwest of Jerusalem, an inhabited site in Zechariah’s day.
Jerusalem shall be elevated and exalted instead of being imbedded in the midst of mountainous rough terrain that it is presently surrounded by.
Zechariah 14:12-16 parallels Revelation 19:11-21 and describes in great detail the judgment that the Eastern and Western Confederacies will receive from Christ at His Second Advent.
Zechariah 14:12-16, “Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Feast of Tabernacles).”
The Hebrew term for “plague” is the noun maggephah (hp*G@m^) (mag-gay-faw), which appears in Zechariah 14:12, 15 twice and 18 and refers to the direct judgment that Christ will administer to His enemies at His Second Advent.
Not only does Zechariah 14:12-16 teach that Christ will personally destroy His enemies but it also reveals that He will cause a great panic to come upon His enemies and those who are born-again from the tribe of Judah will fight while displaying super human valor as a result of being empowered by the Lord to do so.
Thus the Psalmist warns the nations of taking a stand against Christ.
Psalm 2, “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!’ He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way {He took} the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink {it} in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.”