Watch for Christ Return

What voice can you recognize instantly?

(Video)

As we have looked at the events unfolding in Matthew 24 the most important things we have seen are The End is Coming, but we need not be afraid.

In week one we looked at “Standing Strong Until the End” last week we studied, “Knowing What is Coming” as we looked at the Tribulation to come, This week we are “Watching for Christ Return”.

When Christ returns, everyone will know it.” Look to Matthew 24:23-25. Let’s Remember this is Jesus Christ speaking to His Disciples. He has just told them that unless God shortens the days of Tribulation for the “elects sake” everyone on earth will die.

Matthew 24:23–25 NKJV

23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

Matthew 24:23 NKJV

23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.

Jesus is pointing to the fact Christ return will not be a secret, it won’t just be a small group of people who know, any of those that are coming out of seclusion saying they are Messiah are false messiah’s.

Matthew 24:24 NKJV

24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

False christ - this refers to impostors who will claim to be the Jewish Messiah.

False prophets - those who falsely claim to be speaking a word from God. In the New Testament the apostles warned about these false prophets time and time again. The false prophets will rise up with in Judaism and the Church not from outside.There purpose will be to mislead people from the truth.

False messiahs and prophets will bring counterfeit signs and wonders, that look like what the Jesus did and what the apostles did in the early church. They will do this by the power of Satan and his demons.

Deuteronomy 13:1–3 NKJV

1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Mark 13:22 NKJV

22 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 NKJV

9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,

Revelation 12:1–3 NKJV

1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.

Revelation 13:11–13 NKJV

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

Revelation 16:14 NKJV

14 For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Revelation 19:20 NKJV

20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

We see in the end the Antichrist and False prophet will be cast into the lake of fire.

Matthew 24:24–25 NKJV

24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

Christ is giving a warning of what to guard ourselves against.

False Teaching, False Religion, False Prophets

What are some ways to guard against spiritual deception?

We are to guard against deception by false messiahs. In the next verse we see that creation itself will announce the return of Christ.

As we looked at the earlier part of this passage in last few weeks it appeared many of the events were a mixture of things that would soon come to pass for the disciples and thing still yet to come for us. Here it turns to more of a focus on the end of the end not just the beginning of the end.

Matthew 24:26–29 (NKJV)

26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.

27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

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

Nature Creation will cry out that the Christ is Coming.

Isaiah 13:10 NKJV

10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

Isaiah 24:23 NKJV

23 Then the moon will be disgraced And the sun ashamed; For the Lord of hosts will reign On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem And before His elders, gloriously.

Ezekiel 32:7–8 NKJV

7 When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon shall not give her light. 8 All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, And bring darkness upon your land,’ Says the Lord God.

We see creation will point to Christ return...

How can God’s creation help us share the good news?

In the next verses, we see that the return of Christ will be unmistakable and obvious.

Matthew 24:30–31 NKJV

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The Trumpet the Shophar will sound and victory will be announced.

Isaiah 27:13 NKJV

13 So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

As the disciples heard all Jesus was saying they must have felt fear as He spoke of Tribulation but Great Joy as He spoke of His Victorious Return.

How does Christ imminent return impact your life now?

What can we find comforting or convicting about these verses?

Consider what you would do if you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow.