So how can the doctrine of imminence work if there were things that needed to take place in order for the end times to really get underway?
How could Jesus tell his disciples about all these signs that would come before his coming and then tell them to live in the expectation that it could happen at any minute? I'll give you two things to consider. One is that the rapture is not conditional on any specific event. Israel didn't have to become a country before the rapture could happen.
The bible doesn't say that Jesus describes the time on the days of what it's going to be like during the Rapture.
But he describes it in such a way that almost any Christian could have, could have looked at the world around them and said, Oh, this is definitely it.
Stuff is weird.
Don't you think it's weird that there's a single empire, the Romans controlling essentially the entire world?
This is very much business as usual in an unusual time. It could have been very easy that way. But my personal belief is that the Holy Spirit cause the disciples and believers throughout the centuries to hear what they needed to hear from God's word in order to live, expecting Christ's return. Because when you study church history, you find that that even though the Bible makes it really clear that Israel is going to need to exist again and Antichrist and all these things need to happen.
The Lord seems to have hidden some of those insights from the church for most of the past 2000 years, specifically so that the church would live under the doctrine of imminence.
However, in the Book of Daniel, we read something very interesting. You see, Daniel received some incredible prophecies that we've studied recently, and he recorded them in places like Daniel, nine and 12.
But in Daniel, Chapter 12, the angel who's been sharing these things with Daniel gives them this instruction.
And it's on your outline.
After sharing all these things with them, the angel says to Daniel, But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and no knowledge shall increase.
So many Bible scholars believe, and I do too, that the angel is telling Daniel essentially that the prophecies he's just received are not for his time, they're not for his time, and they're not for multiple generations that are yet to come. He's actually telling Daniel, listen, the prophecies you've received are for and the phrase he uses is the time of the end, therefore the time of the end.
And Daniel, when that future time comes, this is what the angel says will happen. Knowledge shall increase.
In other words, the Lord will release a new level of understanding and insight to his people in those last days so that they can understand the Bible prophecies that apply to their day and time.
It is as though God, God, put some sort of time lock on some of these prophecies that there were faithful, studious, Bible focused men for centuries who just couldn't connect the dots.
And then as we got into this final generation, boom, boom, boom, these things became so clear all in this final generation, because Jesus wants all believers to live in expectation of his coming.
So he's chosen to reveal and unlock the meaning of certain end times, prophecies to only the generations that need to understand it. And I suggest to you those generations are represented in this room, and that's exactly what we've seen happen. So some might say, well, Jeff, you've been talking about the rapture for years and the people you listen to, the people you study, they've been talking about it for decades, Jeff.
Heck, you might die before Jesus comes back. And you know what?
You're right about all of that. You're right about all of that. So you admit you could be wrong. Jeff. No, look through history, look through history at all of the great saints who lived their lives expecting Jesus to come back in their time.
And even though this conversation took place almost 2000 years ago, it's clear that Jesus wanted the expectation of his return to motivate his disciples after he returned to heaven.
The concept that Jesus is teaching of expectancy that leads to motivation and faithfulness. The idea that Jesus could return at any time is a concept. It is a doctrine known as the doctrine of imminence. It's the belief that Jesus is coming for his church is imminent, which means it could happen at any moment.
We know from the way Jesus is talking to his disciples that he wanted them to live under this doctrine of imminence. And as you read the rest of the New Testament, all the other letters, all the other epistles in there, it becomes clear that Jesus wanted the church all the way up too today to live under the doctrine of imminence, because when you really believe that Jesus could come back at any moment.
It dramatically changes the way you live. It changes your behavior, it changes your motivations.
So write this down and we'll talk about a little bit more Jesus desires. All believers live under the doctrine of imminence, the doctrine of imminence. And I know this is going to create some questions for you.
I'll try to answer some real quick and I'll try to spark some discussion.
Now, if you believe in the rapture of the church, but you believe it's going to happen halfway through the tribulation, if you're a middle creber, that's what it's called, or you believe the rapture is going to happen after the tribulation.
A post. Triva, you've got a real problem. Because you've denied the doctrine of imminence, because if you hold one of those views, there are things that absolutely have to take place before Jesus raptures his church. And so Jesus can't come back today.
If you believe in mid or poster rapture, it's impossible for Jesus to come back today because Antichrist has to rise to prominence on the world stage.
First, he has to broker a peace treaty with Israel. He has to rebuild and then desecrate the temple before the rapture can occur.
So problematically, if you hold to a mid troub or post view on the Rapture, it puts you on the side of the evil servant who says my master is delaying is coming because Jesus can't come back today.
If you hold to one of those positions, it's only if you believe in a pre trip rapture that Jesus is going to rapturous church before the tribulation happens, that you can actually still hold to the doctrine of imminence in the way that you view the end times.
We believe that Jesus will come for his church before the seven years of the Tribulation, before Antichrist rises to prominence, before all those things take place, which means Jesus could come for his church at any time.
The rapture is not conditional on anything, Donald Bornhorst, the great pastor, preacher and writer, used to tease some of his students in seminary who held to these views by coming into the classroom, shaking his head and saying, sad day, sad day.
Jesus can't come back today.
Now, am I saying am I saying that if you hold to Amidror or post your position than you are the evil servant?
No, but you might be. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding . I'm kidding. All I'm saying, send me an email, OK? All I'm saying is that according to Jesus words in the Bible, you don't want to be on the same side as the evil servant and holding to Amidror or post Trib position. Puts you on that side so. So all I want to do is invite you to come over to the blessed side, the side that's watching and expecting for us coming at any moment.
That's all because I love you now. Now, let's be clear.
We know today that there were a few things that needed to take place before we could consider ourselves to be living in the end times before Antichrist can rise to prominence.
And all these things, as we've talked about, Israel has to become a country again and they have to control the city of Jerusalem
Organs that can be transplanted are the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and intestines. The skin, bone tissue (including tendons and cartilage), eye tissue, heart valves and blood vessels are transplantable forms of tissue. Wow that is a lot that can be used
But if that evil servant says in his heart, my master's delaying his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is the second thing I've changed my position on.
By the way, if you look up the phrase weeping and gnashing of teeth, which was a Hebrew idiom at the time, if you look up that phrase in the Bible, you'll find it's only ever used by Jesus.
He uses it to describe those who do not belong to God. But are under the mistaken impression that they do belong to God, in other words, I personally believe that this evil servant is someone who thinks they're a believer, but they're really not someone like many of the religious leaders of Jesus Day.
And what Jesus is highlighting here is the fact that true believers endeavor to live their lives in light of eternity.
If you're a genuine Jesus follower, then the way you live your life, the things you prioritize, will be radically affected by the reality that eternity is real. Everything. God's word says is real. And Jesus could come for you at any moment. In contrast, those who are not true believers claim to believe in the reality of eternity, claim to believe in the Bible, claim to believe Jesus is coming back.
But there's nothing in their life. That shows any evidence that they actually believe that. In the example Jesus gives this, this fake believer doesn't have any love for his fellow servants and he doesn't have any conviction about his sin. Jesus is saying, if you don't love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you don't have any conviction about living in a way that honors God, if you don't even want to live righteously, if you love sin, if you're living like Jesus isn't coming back and heaven isn't real and this life is all there is, Jesus says watch out, because one way or another, you're in for a rude awakening.
And what we're meant to do with these words of Jesus is turn the spotlight on ourselves and evaluate our own lives.
We're not meant to read this and say, oh, you know, who needs to hear this? Me, I need to hear this. That's the idea. And I'm meant to ask myself. Which servant am I? If you look at my life. How I live, which servant am I? Write this down, unchecked sin and a lack of love for others are potential symptoms of a fake faith. Unchecked sin and a lack of love for others are potential symptoms of a fake faith, say, Jeff, that's heavy.
I know it's meant to be. Jeff, that's judgmental. That's because Jesus is the judge and he's the one saying it. There are only two servants in this illustration. It's not a spectrum, it's just two servants'. Which one are you? The servant who's watching and living ready for the master's return or the servant who says he's not coming back anytime soon? People have been saying that for centuries. I'm going to indulge my lusts.
I'm going to live how I want. I'm going to do what I want. Jesus isn't coming back anytime soon. Which one are you? Have you noticed how Jesus has been emphasizing things like faithfulness, watchfulness, stewardship, expectancy preparedness throughout what we've study today?
To me, it's clear and obvious that Jesus wants his disciples. That's you, me, to be watching and longing for his coming. He wants our expectation of his coming to motivate us to live for him in a radical way, on a daily basis.
And even though this conversation took place almost 2000 years ago, it's clear that Jesus wanted the expectation of his return to motivate his disciples after he returned to heaven.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.
That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him, therefore comfort each other and edify. That means encourage one another, just as you are also doing.
What will be a most glorious event for believers will be a most terrible event for nonbelievers, for it will mark shortly the beginning of the most tumultuous season of history the world will ever know.
And so Paul tells us, hey, don't tune out and waste your time on meaningless things in life.
Don't fall asleep in terms of your focus and priorities. Don't get caught up in sin. Stay righteous and encourage each other in these things because Jesus is coming for us soon.
Back to Matthew, 24, and I just want to highlight Verse 8 for one more time, Jesus says, therefore, you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour. You do not expect.
And I think the best way to interpret this is to say be ready for Jesus to come sooner than you expect and be ready for Jesus to come later than you expect. Be ready for either scenario.
And that's a healthy balance because I believe Jesus could come back. Right. Now, I'm going to keep trying it right now, but I still have life insurance. Jesus could come back in a month. It doesn't mean you should hear these messages from me and Pastor BJ and say, I know what I need to do, I need to go and buy that huge TV that I've been putting off because Jesus is coming back soon. And guess what? You can't come collect a debt if I'm not even on the earth.
Baby, that's not what you're supposed to do with this information. I need to be ready for Jesus to come back today and I need to be ready for him to come back in 30 years.
So write this down. The believer is called to live ready to be taken by Jesus at any moment.
At any moments.
And now Jesus shifts gears and he really begins to talk about how we should process this information, and as I shared, that's going to continue into chapter 25 in verse 45, he says, who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly I say to you that he will make a ruler over all his goods.
So if you're watching for the master's coming and living your life ready for his return, the Master Jesus is going to bless you in incredible ways when he counts.
The picture is the master of a house returning to find that his servant has the table set.
Be ready the bed made the fireplace going. Everything ready for the master's return. And Jesus says live like that. Live ready for me to come to you? Jesus says, I don't want to come to rapture my church and I call your name and your response is like I'm an unwelcome relative showing up at the door spontaneously for dinner. And you're like, Jesus. Oh, wow. What a what a surprise. What are you doing here? Just give me a few minutes to clean a few things up. Delete my browser history. Come on in. Jesus.
Jesus says I want you to be living in such a way that when I show up, your response is yes. I've been expecting you. I'm so glad you're finally here, I'm ready, I'm ready up and ready for a while. Make a note of this. The servants of God are busy serving God and preparing for his return.
The servants of God are busy serving God and preparing for his return.
Now the contrast is shared by Jesus in verse 48, he says.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.
That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him, therefore comfort each other and edify. That means encourage one another, just as you are also doing.
What will be a most glorious event for believers will be a most terrible event for nonbelievers, for it will mark shortly the beginning of the most tumultuous season of history the world will ever know.
And so Paul tells us, hey, don't tune out and waste your time on meaningless things in life.
Don't fall asleep in terms of your focus and priorities. Don't get caught up in sin. Stay righteous and encourage each other in these things because Jesus is coming for us soon.
Back to Matthew, 24, and I just want to highlight Verse 8 for one more time, Jesus says, therefore, you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour. You do not expect.
And I think the best way to interpret this is to say be ready for Jesus to come sooner than you expect and be ready for Jesus to come later than you expect. Be ready for either scenario.
And that's a healthy balance because I believe Jesus could come back. Right. Now, I'm going to keep trying it right now, but I still have life insurance. Jesus could come back in a month. It doesn't mean you should hear these messages from me and Pastor BJ and say, I know what I need to do, I need to go and buy that huge TV that I've been putting off because Jesus is coming back soon. And guess what? You can't come collect a debt if I'm not even on the earth.
Baby, that's not what you're supposed to do with this information. I need to be ready for Jesus to come back today and I need to be ready for him to come back in 30 years.
So write this down. The believer is called to live ready to be taken by Jesus at any moment.
At any moments.
And now Jesus shifts gears and he really begins to talk about how we should process this information, and as I shared, that's going to continue into chapter 25 in verse 45, he says, who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly I say to you that he will make a ruler over all his goods.
So if you're watching for the master's coming and living your life ready for his return, the Master Jesus is going to bless you in incredible ways when he counts.
The picture is the master of a house returning to find that his servant has the table set.
Be ready the bed made the fireplace going. Everything ready for the master's return. And Jesus says live like that. Live ready for me to come to you? Jesus says, I don't want to come to rapture my church and I call your name and your response is like I'm an unwelcome relative showing up at the door spontaneously for dinner. And you're like, Jesus. Oh, wow. What a what a surprise. What are you doing here? Just give me a few minutes to clean a few things up. Delete my browser history. Come on in. Jesus.
Jesus says I want you to be living in such a way that when I show up, your response is yes. I've been expecting you. I'm so glad you're finally here, I'm ready, I'm ready up and ready for a while. Make a note of this. The servants of God are busy serving God and preparing for his return.
The servants of God are busy serving God and preparing for his return.
Now the contrast is shared by Jesus in verse 48, he says.
Because, you know, this is coming because I've told you this, pay attention. And by the way, that word watch is a command. It's not a suggestion from the Lord Jesus to his disciples. Why do we care about this End-Time stuff? Because Jesus commands us to, he says, watch.
Therefore, for you do not know when our lord is coming, but know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Therefore, you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour. You do not expect. Now this is interesting because when you think about it, you start running into some problems with this metaphor and the different characters in it.
Because the view I hold is not the commonly taught view. It certainly wasn't when I was growing up in the church. As always, I'll share my view.
You discern and consider it is verse 8 -43. This is what I believe the house is idiomatically the earth.
The house represents the Earth. Now, understanding that who then idiomatically would be the master of the house, who's the master of the earth at that time? And I'm asking you to go out on a limb here because. Because you're thinking you're like, if I'm wrong, Jeff, I'm going to be saying literally the opposite of what it actually is. So I won't make you do that.
But I believe the master of the house here is Satan. Would you write that down and hang with me? I'm going to walk us through this.
Which means, as strange as it may sound in this specific metaphor, who is the thief?
It's Jesus, it's Jesus, Jesus is going to come and steal away his church at a time that will take Satan by surprise, which lends some credence to the reason that God, the father, may not have revealed the day, an hour of the rapture to Jesus while he was on the earth because he didn't want Satan to know for Satan to warn the nonbelievers.
You need to know this. Jesus will seem like a thief when he rapture's his church, and if this thief illustration is unsettling, you and I can read a room.
Let me point out that we find our brother Paul using the same illustration with the same characters in a way, in First Thessalonians, five verse is one to 11, you can turn their aura or I'll read it to you First Thessalonians five beginning in verse one, it says it's actually it's on your outlines.
But concerning the times in the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you for. You yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes worth as a thief in the night. Paul saying, guys, you already know this.
This is what I taught you when I was with you. And then, as I shared earlier, when I went through the same passage in an earlier message, notice how Paul switches pronouns.
Now he switches from talking about you, the believers and Thessalonica to talking about they who are the nonbelievers.
And he says, for when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you brethren are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all Sons of Light and Sons of the Day, we are not of the night nor of darkness.
So to believers, Jesus won't seem like a thief when he comes for his church.
He'll be the most welcome sight we've ever seen.
But to nonbelievers, Jesus and that whole day of the Lord will seem like a thief when the Rapture takes place.
Are you tracking with me the same event?
The rapture of the church is going to be perceived completely differently by believers and nonbelievers, Paul says.
Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
And that's why when someone says, well, I heard that Noah's Ark was just a fable passed down through o*al tradition, I really don't care.
I trust what Jesus said about them, because all those theories end up being proven wrong by archaeology sooner or later.
And so I'm going to stick with the one who said he himself was the way the what? The truth and the life.
Good job. And so should you.
You say you don't need to argue with people about things in the Old Testament that Jesus said were real.
The issue is always is Jesus, because if Jesus rose from the dead, then he is who he said he is. Right, he's God. And if God says, oh, yeah, the flood, Jonah, Sodom and Gomorrah. Yeah, that's all true. Then guess what? It's true. It's true. If the resurrection is true, the New Testament is true and you get the Old Testament thrown in for free. So don't waste your time on foolish discussions about Old Testament mythologies.
Believe what Jesus said.
So write this down. Jesus always talks about Old Testament characters and accounts as being literally true.
He speaks of them as being literally true. Now, last week, we talked about what the rabbis call a Remez, a mystical and often prophetic level of understanding that's hidden just under the surface of certain scriptures, and it requires a little bit of digging. And so last week, we looked at the possible Remez of political Israel in the parable of the fig tree. Some of you will know that I personally believe there is a Remez in Jesus's reference to the days of Noah.
There are many other biblical examples of sudden catastrophe befalling a group of people or a city. But the Lord specifically chose the days of Noah.
Why? Why that specifically? I believe there's a specific reason that is fascinating and I don't have time to talk about it in this message. That's how you rope people. And if you're looking to learn how to do that, if you want to learn more about that, I put a link on the outlines for you that you can check out in your own studies this week. Let's keep reading in verse 40. Jesus says then two men will be in the field.
Speaking of the time of the rapture, one will be taken and the other left. So he's speaking of the rapture.
But you'll find many good scholars who love Jesus who will say, well, no, no, no, because it's being likened to Noah's day. Jesus is clearly talking about one being taken away in judgment while the other is left.
For those of you who are interested in such discussions, I disagree with that view because Jesus uses a completely different Greek word for taken in verse 40. Then he uses for took in verse 39. They're completely different root words in the Greek.
And if you want to get into that, go on the blue letter Bible dot com, look up the verse , use the interlinear feature, get into the original Greek and you'll be able to see what I mean, even if you don't understand Greek.
Now, in this verse 8, the term refers to grinding wheat on a millstone. Everybody with me. OK, this is the context. I'm just building the tension, OK, Verse 8- 41, Verse 8 -41, two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and the other left.
So are you understanding the picture that Jesus is painting in these examples here? He's describing an instantaneous event that will result in one person being removed while the other person right next to them is left. And when it happens, they're doing everyday tasks. It's going to be just another day, he says in verse 40 to watch, therefore watch.
And Jesus says, Guys, here's the similarity. Right before the disaster of the flood came upon the earth, right up to the moment the rain began to fall, probably for the first time in history story for another day, people were going about their daily lives as normal as normal.
That's what people are going to be doing on the day when the rapture takes place.
They're going to be busy with their normal lives.
And while Noah was getting ready for the flood, what was he doing?
Well, a brother, Peter, tells us in the New Testament that he was preaching for decades. Noah was preaching and warning people, but all they did was write him off as a kook, a religious nut job oblivious to their pending doom.
Today, I think the reality of our situation is even more glaring. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because when the flood happened, it wasn't disasters progressively getting worse and worse and then the flood happened.
It was life as normal. Then the flood happens.
How many people can perceive, at least on some level, that something is wrong? How many people right now can perceive something is off in the world in a significant way and it is not getting better?
And yet, other than ranting on social media, those same people simply continue with life as normal, refusing to consider whether God might have something to do with this.
The ones who are most concerned about what's going on in the world and in culture almost never turn to Jesus.
They write about their concerns on the Internet.
They make videos in their basement for YouTube. They start Facebook groups to find other concerned individuals so they can all be terrified together and talk about how nobody understands what's really going on except them. But turn to Jesus. Now the signs are everywhere, but nobody really cares. Oh, they pounded on the door of the ark once they realized what was happening. But the Bible says the Lord was the one who had sealed the door and they couldn't get in.
It was too late. Jesus says the rapture. It's going to be like that. Most of the world is going to be busy with their daily lives, ignoring the gospel, refusing to repent, oblivious to the fact that Jesus is about to judge the Earth. And what's interesting to me is that Jesus doesn't describe the world as some sort of post apocalyptic wasteland when the rapture happens.
Instead, he describes life just going on as normal, the usual daily stuff happening, which is weird when you pair that description with the description of labor pains that Jesus gave us earlier in Matthew, 24, things like wars and earthquakes, diseases.
And so a picture emerges when you put these two things together. And the best way I can describe it is to say it like this.
This is the first fill in on your outline just before the rapture takes place.
Life on Earth will be business as usual in a very unusual time.
It will be business as usual in a very unusual time. And could you think of a better description than that for our world right now?
It was years ago that I taught this for the first time by the by the way, and I made that same point back then. And it's happened pretty quickly. All the same daily stuff pretty much keeps happening. But the world is falling apart when you step back and you take a look at it. I also noticed that when Jesus talks about Noah, this is a big Bible, bit of knowledge to understand when Jesus talks about Noah. He talks about him literally.
Jesus doesn't talk about Noah as those as though he's a fable or a myth or a parable or someone who didn't really live. He talks about Noah as being literally true.
Just as Jesus talked about Noah, I'm sorry, just as Jesus talked about Jonah and the fish who swallowed him as being literally true, you see, whenever Jesus talks about Old Testament stories in persons, he always speaks of them literally.
Someone says God's given them a revelation of the exact date that the rapture is going to happen. Buy my book, come to my conference, and people don't read the Bible, which always blows me away.
I'm like, you believe the Bible enough to listen to the sky and follow him, but you don't believe the Bible enough to just read the Bible. It's really it's really, really weird. Now, quick thought for you thinkers out there.
Again, I'm going to stir up some more trouble here. There are some theological camps that teach while Jesus was on the earth, he was still fully God in every way. And what they mean by that is that they believe that Jesus didn't give up any of his God powers, any of his God knowledge, none of his omniscience, omnipotence, any of that. And they will actually teach that suggesting otherwise is heresy.
And I think that's very problematic in light of this verse, because here we find Jesus, the man telling us in his own words that at least for sure at that moment in time, he didn't know the timing of the rapture, but the father did, which means that that at this moment, however you want to define it, Jesus did not possess all of his full God knowledge. I believe that's because he gave it up when he became a man.
And as I said, he had to rely on the Holy Spirit just as we do.
The difference is that Jesus actually lived his entire human life, being completely surrendered to the will of his father and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Because if Jesus didn't let me be honest, his example really doesn't mean that much. How could Jesus possibly be tempted if he's still entirely in every way, fully God? Because one of the characteristics of God is that he's fully satisfied within himself. So if that's the case, how could it actually be tempting for him to be tempted with anything? And yet Scripture says he was tempted in what every way as we are yet without sin, yet without sin.
That's something to talk about, something to think through. And as I always say, this applies to all of my messages. Don't believe anything because I say it, think about it, study the scriptures for yourself, come to your own conclusion.
And just in case any of us aren't connecting the dots, this verse is why you don't read or share articles or videos of people who've claimed to figure out the exact day of the Rapture. Jesus, help me. Those people are committing heresy by claiming to know what Jesus said they could not know yet. Jesus, but I figured out of supersmart.
If I ever see any of you sharing anything like that on Facebook in the name of Jesus, I will spam your comments section with this verse over and over and over and over again, because only God knows.
Only God knows if you see your aunt who loves to share, you know, those like Thomas Kincaid pictures. But somehow Jesus is in them, too. If you see her sharing something like this, tell her what the word says.
OK, now, now, Wren concluded, refocussing Jesus shares some more details about what the world is going to be like just before the rapture takes place.
And he says this beginning in verse 37. But as the days of Noah would you underlined days of Noah as the days of Noah were.
So also, will the coming of the son of man be four, as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.
So also, will the coming of the son of man be so Jesus compares the time of the Rapture, the weeks and months and years right before the Rapture happens to the time of Noah, specifically the weeks and months and years before Noah climbed into the ark to escape the Great Flood.
And I know I said that really cool and low key. And I know that if you've never heard that, you're like, wait, the what?
The what? I understand that I literally just can't do an entire study on the rapture right now. We've got a whole bunch of them on our website. So if you want more on that, come talk to me after the service. But for now, we got to keep going while you try and recover your thoughts and know you're not part of a cult. Everything's going to be fine.
And In verses, 36, Jesus says, speaking of the rapture, but of that day and hour, would you underline day, an hour?
No one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, but my father.
Only now we know that Jesus is speaking about his coming at the Rapture as opposed to his coming at the second, coming for at least two reasons. Firstly, when he is sharing this, he is speaking to only four of his disciples.
They're all going to be saved. Jesus knows that all disciples of Jesus are and will be saved, including you and I and disciples of Jesus will not be on the Earth waiting for God to come at the second coming, they will be returning with him.
Secondly, Jesus tells us that the timing of the coming he's speaking of here is not known by anyone.
The second coming will be known and expected by many on the Earth who read the Scriptures. Because if you've been with us for this study, they will know that it's going to be exactly to the day three and a half years after Antichrist turns against Israel and desecrates the temple in the middle of the tribulation.
Now, notice that Jesus doesn't say season. He doesn't say no man knows the season. He doesn't say no man knows the year. He doesn't even say month. He doesn't even say a week. He says day and the hour. And so the clear goal of Jesus here is to stop people from date setting and saying things like the rapture is going to happen on Rosh Hashanah.
When you examine everything Jesus says in the Olivet discourse, it becomes clear that he wants his servants, which is you and I, to recognize the season of history when the end times are rapidly approaching. Yet he wants us to stay away from setting specific dates.
Now, there are some differing views with regard to the meaning of this verse. And let me get into this a little bit. Some hold that within the Trinity.
Only God, the father knows the date of the rapture.
And at this point in my life, in studies, this is one of the things I've changed my view on, I think it's much more likely that Jesus simply didn't know the day or hour of the Rapture when he was on the earth as a man, because I believe the scriptures teach that everything Jesus knew on the Earth as a man was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.
And apparently it simply wasn't part of God's plan for Jesus to have this information while he was on the Earth.
When I look at everything else, the Bible and Jesus himself teaches about the unity that he shares with the father, I find it increasingly difficult to believe that right now Jesus doesn't know the timing of the Rapture.
And the reason I find that so hard is because I can't find a single, even remotely coherent reason why that would be the case.
Father, when is the rapture going to happen? When am I going to go get my church? I'm not going to tell you. Why, I already put it in the Bible, I can't take it back now, it's awkward, it's just a lot of editing and, you know, it just it doesn't make sense when you when you slow down and really think about it.
So write this down one way or another. The point is this. Only God knows the exact date of the Rapture. Only God knows the exact date of the rapture. And you would think, well, obviously. And yet it happens every few years.
Series: Matthew...Passage: Matthew 24:35-5......Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Jesus shares more with Disciples about what the days leading up to the Rapture will look like, and then transitions to teaching on how we should live in light of these truths.
We're studying the Gospel of Matthew and we're in Chapter 24, and Jesus is sharing multiple prophecy, some that have already been fulfilled and others that are yet to be fulfilled. We're going to wrap up Chapter 24 today. And then Pastor BJ is going to take the baton for the next three weeks and teach us through Chapter 25. And Chapter 25 is just wonderful because after sharing all these prophecies, Jesus moves on to teach us how we should actually live in light of the information that he shared in Chapter 24.
So you're not going to want to miss that. Pastor BJ is going to take us through the practical application of what we do with all this fascinating information Jesus is sharing with us in Chapter 24.
We're going to pick things right up where we left off last time, which will put us in Matthew 24 Verse 8 36, if you'd like to begin turning there in your Bibles, physical or electronic.
And if you're a new hope person and you've heard me teach through this passage of scripture before, you may notice only the hardcore devotees that a couple of my positions have slightly changed.
And that's because I've read more. I have studied more, I've thought more. And as I've often shared, I hope that in the future my understanding of scripture changes more because I hope to keep growing in my knowledge and understanding of God's word.
And as we all do that, we should hopefully all find that our understanding evolves over time and it grows. I hope none of us are thinking, nope, I think I know everything right now. So I'm just going to coast through the next ten years and everything's going to be the same. I hope we all want to grow.
If you have any questions about why I've changed these positions, I'm just limited by time. Today you can always chat with me after the service or even better, shoot me an email and we can go back and forth about that.
Well, have you ever had a moment in your life where you were absolutely indefensibly irrevocably caught in a situation or circumstance that you should not have been? I will not ask you to share publicly the memory that's running through your head right now, even though it would surely take the entertainment value of this message to a whole nother level, let's just say that most of us, upon reflection, should probably be really grateful for the mercy and grace of Jesus and forgiveness of sins.
Again, thank you, Lord.
Now, if there were ever a situation where you had the potential to be caught in a position you shouldn't be in and you had a good friend who knew you were about to be caught, you would expect that friend to give you a heads up, right?
You'd expect them to say, hey, your mom just pulled up in the driveway or they probably wouldn't be a real friend.
The Bible says that Jesus is the friend who sticks closer than a what? A brother, closer than a brother. And today Jesus is going to warn us about a future situation that could cause us to be caught in a situation we have no business being in.
And if we're caught in that position, will be embarrassed and most importantly, immediately filled with overwhelming regret. So let's give our attention to Jesus and his word, because I believe that none of us can afford to miss the heads up that Jesus is going to give us.
In today's study. We're going to find that Jesus is going to be talking about the rapture in today's text.
The Rapture is the name given to the future event where Jesus will come for his church, all believers on the Earth, and remove them from the earth to be safely with him in heaven before he begins pouring out his judgment on the earth.
He says, assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. So Jesus is saying all these things are going to happen in one generation, Antichrist, the tribulation, abomination of desolation, the second coming Israel, all these things is all going to happen in one generation.
Now, what does Jesus mean when he says a generation?
This has been quite the subject of discussion because most, including me, will take it to mean that Jesus is saying, listen, that generation that was alive to see Israel become a nation in 1948 will not die out before the second coming gets here and every other and times event before it.
So people will say, well, well, well, what does the term generation mean in the Bible?
It can mean forty years, which would put us at 1988. And I try to stay away from date setting. But I'm going to go out on a limb on this one and suggest to you the second coming did not happen in 1988.
You can also make a biblical case for a generation being 70 years. That would put us at twenty eighteen. Again, I have a word from the Lord.
The second coming did not happen in twenty eighteen. You can also make a biblical case for a generation being up to 100 years. That would take us to 2048. Or it could simply mean that the last Jew who was alive in 1948 will still be alive when Jesus returns to the Earth. It doesn't mean Jesus has to wait all the way until the end. It just means he's going to return at some point while that person's still alive.
There could be many others alive at that time to.
What's important to understand is this. With Israel existing as a political nation, once again, with Jerusalem under their control, the Lord can rapture his church at any time.
Do you realize there's nothing left on the Bible prophecy checklist that has to happen before Jesus comes for his church in the Rapture?
There's nothing else he can do it at any time. Any time could happen, right? Now, it's too cocky, right, right now, that would have been that would have been awesome, though, I'm just saying.
So write this down.
While the generation could be up to 100 years or more, Jesus could rapture his church at any time. At any time. And just in case you think that Jesus doesn't want us to take all this prophecy stuff seriously, he says this in verse 35, Hey, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
Jesus says the universe is you know, it is going to one day turn to nothing, but not a single word of what I've told you is going to fade away.
It's all going to happen exactly as I've told you.
As surely as Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D., exactly as Jesus predicted, as surely as Israel became a political nation again in 1948, exactly as Jesus predicted. Everything else Jesus has prophesied will happen exactly as he has predicted.
Don't take my word for it. Take the word of God for it. And don't forget that one of the questions Jesus was asked by his disciples all the way back in verse three was what will be the sign of your coming? And I cannot, for the life of me figure out why some Christians would think we're strange for simply believing that in Matthew 24, Jesus actually answered the questions that his disciples asked him.
I believe. Deeply. Personally. Correctly, that the rebirth of Israel as a political nation was one of the single most important events in history and the single most important prophetic event since the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter two, God's word is amazing.
You can trust his word. You can trust him. He's both faithful. But even better, he's able to keep his promises, both big and small, to generations, to peoples, to nations. And do you personally and individually.
On the ground, every single plane, they don't even get them in the air. Egypt takes out their entire Israel takes out Egypt's entire air force.
The ground war begins and the three nations attack Israel. Israel is outnumbered more than four to one.
And to make a long story short, Israel obliterates those other armies in six days, six days, that war is over. The other armies are just obliterated. And during the fighting, Israel takes control of more territory and expands their borders as they push back these countries that are invading them and some of that territory they take as they're pushing these armies out of their country. Those territories are Gaza and the West Bank and most importantly, all of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
And all of a sudden, 1967, all the pieces are in place for prophecies like Zechariah 14 to be fulfilled, not allegorically, but literally.
Now, as a side note, I need you to know this is the actual history. This is what happened. Israel only controls Gaza and the West Bank because Egypt, Syria and Jordan tried to destroy Israel and committed genocide. That's the only reason Israel controls that territory. And Arab countries have been complaining about their loss ever since and demanding that Israel give them back their land. I mean, you know, today that they constantly call Israel occupiers of those territories.
But the fact of the matter is they would still have those territories if they hadn't launched attacks from them to try and annihilate Israel.
This is like someone throwing a knife at you to try and kill you missing and then complaining to the whole world when you won't give them their knife back makes no sense.
This guy stole my knife. Well, in my defense, you threw it at me to try and kill me. So I didn't feel like giving it back the thief.
Just logic doesn't really work. All they had to do to keep the land was not try and kill Israel. That's all they had to do. I don't think they got anything to complain about. And the reason that these other Arab countries don't simply take back there are people who live in those territories right now is because they love them being there to make Israel look bad. It's a public relations disaster and they love it because they love seeing Israel look bad.
I'm not saying that Israel has handled everything perfectly. Far from it. What I am saying is this. Israel belongs to God. They are his baby. They are God's property.
It's just the way it is.
And Israel existed before Palestine and the Palestinian territory only exists today because Arabs tried to destroy Israel from those very territories.
So if you're going to line up on a side of this issue, let me just encourage you, super good place to be is God's side, super good place to be on pretty much any issue. And so I hope the prophecy involved in all of this amazes you. I hope it builds your faith in God and your faith in his word, because this can't be faked.
This can't be faked.
You're talking prophecy and fulfillment that spans millennia. You have to deal with the facts and the facts. Leave only one conclusion.
There's a God in control of history. He's in charge of the present. He's in charge of the future. And he's speaking to us through his word.
And by the way, do you remember how Mark Twain described Israel as essentially being a wasteland? Will God's done a miracle there, too? Because in Israel today, there is the most fertile agricultural land in the world.
God supernaturally blessed, literally the ground. And it's been discovered in recent decades that Israel may actually have more oil than any other Middle Eastern country and more natural gas.
Well, incredibly, we're still not done no matter how much you want us to be, because In verses 34, Jesus says this. He says assuredly that means you can bet your life on this.
And that should have changed the way that every Christian interprets Bible prophecy, because it should have made everyone say maybe we should be taking some of this stuff a little bit more literally.
The stories are countless and you can go and find the archived photos online. Jews from around the world began flocking back to the land of Israel. The young Israeli government stripped every seat out of a commercial passenger plane, went and picked up a thousand Ethiopian Jews, put them on the plane and flew them back to their homeland of Israel.
And just like that, Israel sprang back to life as a political nation again.
They took a little break around nineteen hundred years of not existing, and yet after nineteen hundred years, Israel was reborn, the greatest attempt to destroy them, Hitler in the Holocaust is actually the very thing that resulted in them being brought back to life.
That's what God does. That's how he works. It's absolutely unbelievable. And only God could do something like that. But wait, there's more. There's more. The day after Israel was declared a nation in 1948. Are you hearing me the day after?
The armies of four Arab countries, Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq, they cross into Israel with the intention of wiping Israel off the map.
We hate you. You've got no right to exist. We're just going to kill all of you. Saudi Arabia sends a military contingent to operate under Egyptian command.
Yemen declares war, but doesn't take military action. So this is how much hatred Satan had stirred up against Israel, even though they hadn't even been a country for 24 hours yet. And before that, they hadn't been the country for nineteen hundred years. We need to understand that other Arab nations hated Israel before they even had a chance to do anything politically. At that time, Israel did not own the West Bank or Gaza. They didn't control the Temple Mount.
These Arab nations hate Israel because they're Israel. They hate Israel because Satan hates Israel and they're under Satan's influence, period, that's the reason why it is Satan hate Israel because God looked at Israel and he said, out of all the peoples on the earth, you're my people. He looked at all the land in the earth and God said, out of all the land, Israel is my portion. He looked at all the cities of the earth and he said, out of all of them, Jerusalem is my people
So what does Satan hate more than anything, Jerusalem, Israel, the Jewish people, because God loves them. After a year of fighting, so they spend their whole first year of existence, Israel, fighting neighbors who are trying to kill them, after a year of that, a cease fire is declared. And when the bullets start flying, Jordan still controls half of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
Now, from a biblical perspective, this was a massive problem because Bible prophecy talks about Israel being in control of all of Jerusalem in the future. We have unfulfilled prophecies like Zachariah, 14, which talks about half of Jerusalem falling into captivity.
And in order for Israel to lose half of the city, they have to first control all of the city. So the events of 1948, they're not going to be enough. If you want to take Bible prophecy, literally, Israel has to control all of Jerusalem.
Nineteen years later, June of 1967, the situation is tense because Israel's neighbors, Egypt, Syria and Jordan still hate their guts this whole time, nearly two decades.
They're constantly attacking Israel, sabotaging them, striking out at Israeli settlements that are close to the border that was close.
Egypt, Syria and Jordan begin massing their troops on the border with Israel in a clear sign that they're right about to invade. And then God moves, the Israeli Air Force launches a preemptive attack on Egypt's air force and destroys all of their planes on the ground.
In 1867, the famous author, Mark Twain visited Jerusalem in Israel, and he described it like this a desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds, a silent, mournful expanse, a desolation. We never saw a human being on the whole route, hardly a tree or shrub anywhere, even the olive tree in the cactus.
Those fast friends of a worthless soil had almost deserted the country.
Describing Jerusalem, Twain wrote, A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in an hour.
I do not know how else to make one understand how small it is. But there were a few very committed Bible scholars who in the late 1980s took a look at what the Bible said, and they said, listen, we can't just dismiss something in the Bible as being allegorical just because it looks impossible to us.
Scripture says Israel will exist as a nation again. God can do anything. OK, it's going to happen.
And my favorite example is a fascinating man named Sir Robert Anderson.
He lived and worked most of his life as the assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard in the U.K. And as he got close to retirement, he began applying his detective skills to Bible prophecy.
And towards the end of the eighteen hundreds, he published a book, I actually have a copy, and the book is titled ;The Coming Prince. And in it, he shared his conclusion that after investigating the Bible as a professional detective, it was clear to him that the Bible taught that Israel will exist as a country again. And obviously everyone thought this was fringe theology at the time.
And then World War One happens and everyone said, you know what, this has to be the end times, and this faithful group of theologians said it can't be because Israel has to become a nation before all that stuff begins to happen.
And in the aftermath of World War One, a man named Hitler rose to power in Germany, a man who by secular historical accounts, was obsessed with a satanic agenda, deeply into the occult and obsessed with the destruction of God's chosen people, the Jews.
And as we all know, Hitler made it his goal to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the earth.
And he almost succeeded. Over six million Jews died under Hitler.
But as is always the case, God did something extraordinary in the midst of incredible pain and suffering and evil. And even in World War Two, as people were saying, this must be the end times, this faithful group of theologians were saying it can't be. Israel has to be back in the land. That's the first thing that has to happen. And so God caused something to happen that would be unimaginable today. Today, we could never imagine the United Nations supporting Israel in some way or fashion, but because God willed it, there was this moment in the history of this tiny moment when the world was sympathetic toward Israel because they had just gone through the Holocaust.
World War two had ended.
And so they did something unbelievable on May 14th, 1948, the United Nations created the state of Israel for the Jewish people and gave it to them. They thought they were giving it to them, but obviously God was giving it to them. And in a single day.
Prophecies from Ezekiel and Isaiah that were over 2500 years old were fulfilled. It happened in nineteen forty eight.
Would you write this down? On May 14th, 1948, Israel was reborn as a political nation. And what should have happened at that point in Christian theology, in my humble opinion, is that everyone who had said, no, no, you're interpreting it wrong, you're interpreting it wrong, that should have been the end of the discussion because it happened.
We had a fig tree in my backyard growing up and here's what happens with a fig tree every winter. It loses all its leaves, but it looks dead, absolutely dead.
Like it's been dry for years. And you could just push it over with a light shove every year. I'd look out at this tree and I'd say, hey, dad, are we going to chop that thing down? It's dead. And he'd say, just wait.
Just wait for spring. I think he was crazy. And then sure enough, every year it's spring leaf start coming back. That awful stinky fruit starts coming back and falling all over the ground again. Things are nasty. I'm sorry if that's offensive to you. And this would happen every single year.
And when you put this all together, all these pieces together, many pastors, including me, believe that this Remez is pointing to this prophetic picture that political Israel is going to be dead for a winter season, just like a fig tree. However, there's going to come a time when all of a sudden political Israel is going to start coming back to life like a fig tree bearing leaves in the spring.
And that what Jesus is saying is, hey, when you see that happen, when you see political Israel come back to life, know that the kingdom of God, the second coming, all these end times, events are right about to happen.
So would you write this down and I'll talk about. Some more Jesus's teaching that the rebirth of political Israel will be a sign that in times events are very, very near.
They are very, very near.
And how true this has been and how history has played out. We are miraculously on course with this interpretation of the parable of the fig tree.
Let me tell you the story. Fascinating story of 20th century history. If you've been with us the past few weeks, you know that in 70 A.D., the Romans have just had it with Israel. They're tired of these attempted rebellions. The Jews will never do what they tell them to do. They're mad. And so they say, we're done with Israel. We're burning this whole thing to the ground. They destroy the city of Jerusalem to the ground.
A million and a half Jews lose their lives in just 18 months and they run for their lives across the world in the event known as the diaspora. They go to Poland, they go to Ethiopia, they go to Bokha in south Florida. They go all over the world in the diaspora.
What the Romans do is they rename the territory Felicio after Israel's greatest traditional enemies, the Philistines. And in that language at that time, the more common way of saying Finistere was simply Palestine, Palestine. That's where the name comes from. And that's how it got called, that it was an insult toward Israel by the Romans.
A few straggling Jews try to attempt a few guerrilla rebellions, and they're all wiped out completely by 132 A.D. And after that, the land formerly known as Israel becomes a desolate wasteland.
Nobody even wants it. Nobody is fighting over Israel at that time. Indeed, the nation of Israel found itself in a long winter, ceasing to exist as a country like a fig tree.
Israel looked dead. Israel looked dead because for 19 hundred years, basically, she was, and as the centuries passed, even the world's greatest Bible students and theologians began to say, Listen, I know, I know there's all these prophecies in the Bible that require Israel to exist and Jerusalem to exist and for there to be a temple and all these things.
But listen, it's been 500 years, a thousand years, 1400 years, 900 years. And I feel pretty confident saying Israel is dead. Its place has been a wasteland for centuries. Nothing's happening here.
So we must be interpreting the Bible wrong that this must be something else. It must be an allegory, a metaphor or something, because the idea of Israel becoming a country again after 1500 years was laughable.
I'll say this in relation to what I've just said and in relation what I'm about to say, any time Mr. Passerby's here teaching, we would always encourage you to test what we say against the scriptures. Don't believe anything that I say because you hear me say it.
Get into the Bible for yourself, dig into it for yourself. If you completely disagree with me and think I'm crazy and want to get in the Bible to prove me wrong. Praise God. That would be awesome. I'd love to see you dig into the Bible. Even if you want to try and just prove me wrong, I would welcome that.
So do your own research, have some good discussions, but get into the word for yourself.
I also want to be as transparent with you as I can be.
There are sort of two levels to this metaphor, this parable that Jesus gives about the fig tree.
He says now learn this parable from the fig tree when its branches already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know, that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the door.
There's sort of two levels to this, as there are multiple levels to things all over the scriptures. Perhaps you've had this experience, you read something in the Bible, you go back, you read the same thing a year later and you see something, you get something out of it you didn't get last time because there are layers to the word of God.
It's inexhaustible. You can understand it on one level. Then you grow, you become more like Jesus. You have more of the spirit in you. You go back and read again with greater understanding. You get more out of it, you get more out of it, you get more out of it.
And so the first level that we want to talk about here that's worth mentioning, it's the view that Jesus is simply saying to those who are listening to him, especially the Jews, that all the signs he's told them about Antichrist, the temple being rebuilt, the abomination of desolation, the tribulation, all these things are signs that the second coming is imminent. It's about to happen. Just like leaves on a tree are a sign that summer is on the way.
And because in Luke's account, it doesn't just say fig tree.
It says, look at the fig tree and all the trees. Some will hold the view and they'll say that that's all there is to it. There's just this one level. Jesus is just saying, hey, when you see all these things happening, the second coming is very, very close. We would also learn from this. Things like all these things are going to take place in one generation.
All these things are going to take place in one generation, not spread out across different centuries.
So that level is true. It's absolutely correct. That is what Jesus is saying. That is what the Bible is saying.
But there's a second view that I personally hold to and I'm going to dive a little deep into. But I wanted you to understand that that first level first, because there's another level and the rabbis call it a Remez, a Remez, and so a Remez is like a hidden, deeper, mystical level to a passage of scripture.
And they believe many do, including me, that there is such a Remez in this parable of the fig tree.
Because you see throughout the Bible, whenever the fig tree shows up, it's always in proximity to Israel being talked about as a nation politically every time it shows up in the Bible.
So would you write this down? First of all, in the Bible, the fig tree is used as a type of political Israel. It's used as a type of political Israel.
And even if you take Haluk words into account, Jesus still specifically mentions the fig tree. He could have just said learn from the trees.
But in all three gospels, he specifically highlights a fig tree and nothing in the Bible is by accident. What's unique about the fig tree is that it follows the seasons very intensely, unusually intensely.
With that in mind, he says in verse 32. Now learn this parable from the fig tree when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves.
You know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the doors now to make sure that we're connecting the dots, I want you to know that the summer Jesus refers to in verse 32 and the IT in verse thirty three, the subject of this prophecy is the Kingdom of God. And you say, how do you know that, Jeff?
Well, we know it because in Luke 21 31, it records these words of Jesus this way. It's on your outlines.
So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near, the kingdom of God is near. How near did he say?
At the doors, at the doors, giving us this picture of Jesus standing with his hand at the doorknob, about to turn it. And if you've studied Revelation, that's a cross reference to revelation for one.
If you want to dig into that now, I have to take a second for you.
Theology nerds, people who love to study the Bible, want to know more about it, want to dig into it. I've got to take a minute, basically, just to stir up some trouble and give you something great to talk about among yourselves.
OK, Jesus says when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Now to state the obvious, if the kingdom of God is near, if it's almost here, then it can't be here yet.
It can't be here yet.
So when you hear certain theological camps talk about how the kingdom of God is already here on the earth, spreading across the earth, everything's being made new. Everything's already being redeemed. We know from the words of Jesus that is not the case. The phrase the kingdom of God refers to something very specific in the Bible.
It refers to the literal and physical rule and reign of Jesus.
It refers to Jesus being physically and literally in a place ruling and raining. It refers to the king raining over his kingdom.
So let me walk you through this, not trick questions. Is Jesus literally and physically raining in heaven right now?
Yes, he is. Absolutely.
Is Jesus literally and physically in his physical body raining on the earth right now?
No, he's not.
Can't go to Jerusalem. Who's ruling on the earth right now?
Satan. That's right, according to the Bible, according to Jesus himself, Satan is the God of this age right now. Therefore, where is the kingdom of God right now? It's in heaven physically and it's in us spiritually. When will the kingdom of God come to the earth at the second coming when Jesus literally and physically returns to the Earth to rule and reign from Jerusalem.
And I don't know about you when someone says, well, listen, Jeff, I disagree. I think the kingdom of God is already here, all over the Earth. What I usually like to say is, well, I got to tell you if it is. I'm horribly disappointed because I had much higher expectations. I don't know about you, but I think when Jesus is ruling and reigning on the earth, I think he's going to do better than 20, 20.
I hope you can say amen to that. I think Jesus can do better than 20, 20. The truth is the kingdom of God has not yet come. That's why Jesus taught his disciples to pray for it to come. He said, When you pray, pray like this.
Thy kingdom what come? Because it's not here yet. That's why we long for it. That's why we long for it. Because we know that when it comes. Man, nobody's going to be disappointed, nobody's going to be left out, it's not going to be some cause of justice that is overlooked when Jesus is ruling and reigning. I got high expectations, and you should, too. So would you write this down?
The Kingdom of God refers to the literal rule and reign of Jesus, which will begin at the second coming.
And then he says, if you're Jewish and you feel like the world is ending in this time as Antichrist tries to wipe you out, when you see all these things happening, remember, your redemption draws near. Why? Because for them, God is about to open their eyes. And finally.
Finally. Make them recognize him as their messiah and he's going to redeem Israel, our brother Paul tells us in Romans 11 that at this time all Israel will be saved. And the redemption that we're talking about when Jesus is your redemption draws near the redemption that comes along with the second coming. It's not just for the Saints. It's not just for the Jews. It's not just about people. He's talking about the redemption of the earth and the whole universe.
You know, the whole universe is in a state of entropy. It's in a state of decay. The universe itself is winding down. Everything in creation right now is dying.
Everything, every star, every cell, every bit of material matter in the universe is dying.
And when Jesus returns to the earth, entropy will be reversed and everything that is broken will begin to be made whole and made new and put back together and healed and restored and redeemed. They're going to close hospitals and orphanages when Jesus reigns on the earth because we won't need them, we won't need them. People will be made whole. All the people that are in prison because they're part of the cycle of generational abuse and trauma.
They're going to be healed. There's going to be redemption. There's going to be restoration when Jesus comes to the earth. That's why he says now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near.
And now, for clarity's sake, I want to make sure we understand the rapture and the second coming are two completely separate and distinct events. The big picture is that the rapture is Jesus coming for his church to collect this church.
The second coming is Jesus coming with this church. We're with him at the second coming. The rapture takes place before the tribulation. The second coming takes place at the end of the tribulation and we move on to verse 32. We'll make it through two whole words here. Jesus says, now learn, now learn. And I want you to underline the word learn, because there's only three times that. Jesus says specifically we are to learn something.
And I think there's something significant here in Matthew nine 13, Jesus says, go and learn what this means.
I desire mercy and not sacrifice in Matthew. 11-29.
Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly off heart and you'll find rest for your souls.
And then here in verse 32 in Matthew 24, once again, Jesus is going to say Learn now, learn.
Now, let me ask you again, not a trick question.
Do you think that Jesus was serious those other two times he said learn he was serious? You bet.
So I think we can safely assume he's serious here, too. And according to those verse is, there are three things that Jesus wants us to be students of now. Now, when we say students, we mean Jesus are saying, I don't want you to just read this. I don't want you to just believe this and agree with this. I want you to dig into this and understand what it means. I want you to really dig into this and study this and understand what it means.
According to Jesus, the three things he wants us to especially be students of are mercy, Jesus himself and Bible prophecy. He says, you got to learn mercy. You got to learn how to understand it. You've got to learn about me. You've got to know me personally. And then you've got to understand Bible prophecy because it'll change the way you live your life.
With that in mind, he says in verse 32. Now learn this parable from the fig tree when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves.
Unbelievably, there's going to be a force allied to Antichrist and Satan, and they're going to think that they can take on God with weapons. It's bizarre, but that's what they're going to think. And when Jesus returns with all of us with them, his church, his saints with him, that battle is going to be over in an instant with one word from the mouth of Jesus.
And so I don't know that it deserves to be called a battle when it's over in one word from the king of kings. So that's what's going to happen.
Jesus tells us that as the whole world sees him, they will mourn.
They will mourn. That's a strange word. Why would that be the case? Jesus is coming back to the earth. Why are people mourning?
Well, just imagine this. Hundreds of millions of people who have rejected Jesus rejected the gospel over and over and over, wouldn't listen, wouldn't repent. Even as God is raining down, judgment from heaven wouldn't listen. Even as angels fly across the heavens, preaching the gospels wouldn't listen because no sign is ever enough. And then all of a sudden those people see Jesus coming on the clouds and glory and power. And you know what, disappears in an instant.
At that moment, every stupid argument that says God doesn't really exist when he's right there. There he is.
And every eye will see him.
And in that moment, in that instant, when they're confronted with the reality of Jesus in his glory and power, here's why they're going to mourn, because they're going to know it's too late.
It's too late. That's why they're going to mourn. I had you underline the word see, because it's a fascinating thing in the original Greek, the word sea actually means sea and that's important because of everything Jesus is talking about has already happened.
If it all happened in the first and second century A.D., I got to think, at least, at least like a few people would have noticed, the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and glory. If everyone's going to see it, I think a few people would remember.
Obviously, again, the only rational explanation here is that Jesus is talking about events that have not happened yet. And so just to make sure we're all on the same page here, make note of this.
It's your first fill in. The second coming takes place at the end of the seven year tribulation.
The second coming takes place at the end of the seven year tribulation and will go on in verse 31, it says, and he that's Jesus 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.
And I like the way that Mark 13 records these same words of Jesus. Mark says it like this from the farthest part of Earth to the farthest part of heaven.
You see, when Jesus refers to his elect, he's referring to those on the earth who turn to Jesus during the tribulation and somehow survived, as well as all of the surviving Jews.
But I want you to notice that, as Mark points out, these elect are both on the earth and in heaven. And so this tells us that that this is a gathering of all the saints of God, those on the earth and those in heaven.
And they're all coming together to join with Jesus on the earth in Jerusalem for what is basically is welcome back party. That's what it is. And it's going to be the greatest party that has ever taken place in the history of the world up to that point.
And then Luke, 21, adds this comment from Jesus.
Now, when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. Jesus says, listen, if you're one who turns to me in the tribulation, you weren't saved when the rapture happens, but you turn to me in the tribulation and you see all these signs happening, it's good news for you because I am you're king.
Jesus Christ is about to return to the earth. Hold on. I'm coming, he says.
]They're going to heaven, but they have a different view on this. And they will say, well, Jesus is really talking about events that actually all happened between 70 A.D. and 1-28 between the fall of Jerusalem and the diaspora and these events where Israel was scattered all over the Earth and all these things have already happened. And the interesting thing is the first part of Verse 8 -29 shows that cannot be the case because the tribulation that Jesus describes here is going to be, in his own words, immediately followed by the second coming of Jesus to the earth.
Now, let me ask you, this is not a trick question. Was the tribulation experienced by Israel between 70, 80 and 120 A.D. immediately followed by the second coming of Jesus, back to the earth? No, even if you weren't there, you know, no, it was not so therefore, Jesus is clearly referring to a tribulation that is coming in the future. It hasn't come yet. And here's what Jesus says is going to happen at the end of that future tribulation right before the second coming.
He says 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.
Now it means what it says. When this time comes, the sun and the moon are not going to give any visible light.
And when it says the stars will fall from heaven, the word fall in the original Greek means be without effect.
And so when you put it all together, I believe that Jesus is telling his disciples that at that time the sky is going to be completely blacked out. The sun, the moon and the stars will not be visible. There will be no light at all coming from the heavens.
And it could be the result of a nuclear winter or it could be just a straight up supernatural event. God can do whatever he wants.
Whatever the case may be, it's going to be pretty terrifying for those on the Earth at this time.
And again, this has not happened yet in history and it didn't happen between 70 A.D. in 120 A.D. Luke's gospel records the same teaching by Jesus.
And I put something from Luke's gospel on your outlines. Luke adds these details. And on the earth, distress of nations with perplexity. That just means problems with no solutions. The sea in the waves, roaring men's hearts, failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming upon the earth. You see, during the seven years of the tribulation, people are going to be terrified because one terrible judgment from heaven after another is going to rain down on the earth.
And so everyone is going to be wondering with dread what's next.
Kind of like how we feel in 2020, but way, way, way, way worse, and yet we know from Scripture that most of the people on the earth at that time will continue to stubbornly reject God.
And their desire to reject God will be even stronger than their fear.
And they still won't turn to God. Now let's go back to Matthew 24, In verses 30, and this is one of those verse is that it just hypes me up and I honestly generally struggle to read this aloud because I'm just so overwhelmed by it. This is like it's going to be the greatest moment of my life when this happens Verse 8 30 than 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, with power and great glory.
And I want you to underline the words see other places in scripture.
Tell us that when Jesus returns to the Earth at this time, he's going to make a pit stop at a place in Israel called the Valley of Megiddo, where the poorly named Battle of Armageddon will take place. I say poorly named because it's not going to be a battle.
Unbelievably, there's going to be a force allied to Antichrist and Satan, and they're going to think that they can take on God with weapons. It's bizarre, but that's what they're going to think.
Series: Matthew...Passage: Matthew 24:29-35......Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Jesus wraps up His Olivet Discourse prophecies by talking about when He will return to the earth again at the Second Coming, and how Israel's miraculous return will mark the beginning of the end times "season".
And today, we're in the third part of our study through the Olivet discourse, a famous teaching given by Jesus to his disciples on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem just before his arrest, trial and crucifixion.
And in this teaching, Jesus talks about the future, including the end times.
He shares some incredible prophecies, some of which have already come true and others that lie in the near future. And if you missed either of the last two weeks or pastor BJ's introduction to the Olivet discourse before that, I encourage you to hop on Facebook. If you're a member of God Rock New Hope Church's website, if you're part of that church and just catch up, because this is fascinating stuff and it all builds upon itself.
And in this study, we're going to take a look at what I think is one of the most amazing prophetic subjects in the Bible. And it's a huge, prophetic subject because it was actually fulfilled potentially. In less than 100 years from where we are right now, it happened in the 20th century and so I hope I've intrigued you with that.
I'm just going to leave that hanging as we get into the study.
And if you're wondering why we would take the time to study a subject like Bible prophecy, if you're thinking, why don't we just talk about something more practical and related to everyday life? It's because Bible prophecy builds our faith.
It reminds us that God is real. His promises are real. His word is true. He knows the future and he holds it in his hands. And so let's allow the Holy Spirit to build our faith as we discover more that God has said in his word that has already happened and is yet to come.
If you were with us last week, then you will recall that in Matthew 24, Jesus spent Verse is 15 to 28 talking about events that are going to take place in this span of time called the seven year tribulation. We're talking about some freaky stuff like Antichrist, the abomination of desolation and all that stuff. And if you don't know what I'm talking about and you're suddenly scared that you've maybe stumbled upon a cult, you haven't, I promise. Just hang with us, see where we're going today.
Go back and listen to last week's message and you'll be caught up on everything. Says we dive into today's study at Verse 8/ 29. Read there with me. Jesus shifts gears and he says immediately after the tribulation of those days. And I want you to underline that if you're a note taker, because whatever Jesus is about to talk about next, he's telling us that it's going to take place after the seven year tribulation.
But I want you to notice what Jesus also says. He says it will take place immediately after the tribulation immediately. In fact, this event could easily be considered the event that ends the tribulation. Jesus is going to be talking about the event known as the second coming. You supposed to gasp there, let's do that one more time, OK? Jesus is going to talk about the event known as the second coming. I know, I know. It's incredible.
It's incredible. I had to underline that first part of Verse 8 /29 for a simple reason. You know, when you talk about Matthew 24, the Olivet discourse, Jesus talking about the future, there are many Christians who love Jesus.
They're going to heaven, but they have a different view on this. And they will say, well, Jesus is really talking about events that actually all happened between 70 A.D. and 1/28 between the fall of Jerusalem and the diaspora and these events where Israel was scattered all over the Earth and all these things have already happened.
Jesus says, don't believe it. Keep hiding. Do not go back to Jerusalem yet. Writing about the Antichrist, the poll says, Paul says this in second Thessalonians, two nine, The Coming of the Lord. This one is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders. So here's the idea. Even if you hear there's a guy doing miracles and signs and wonders, keep hiding. It's not me. Which also tells us, again, Antichrist is going to do some incredible signs and wonders when he's on the earth.
And In verses 27, Jesus tells these Jews why they don't need to worry about missing Messiah, why they don't need to worry about missing the second coming of Christ, he says, for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will be the coming of the son of man.
So he says, guys, just like the most intense lightning you've ever seen, the kind that seems to go from one end of the sky to the other and light the whole thing up. When I come back, it's going to be like that. Nobody's going to miss it. Trust me, my entrance is going to be epic.
Verse 8 /28 for where the carcass is there, the Eagles will be gathered together, this phrase was also used by Jesus back in Luke 17/37. And at the time I taught on this, I shared that I had no idea what it meant. And I've realized since then that I still have absolutely no idea what that verse means.
I've read lots of really bad explanations from other pastors and scholars. But but I just want to be honest with you, rather than share an explanation that I don't even find credible myself, if you know the answer, if you're enlightened, please email me.
I would love to hear it. If not, add it to the list of questions we have for God when we get to heaven. And we'll find out what the answer is going to wrap up with this now.
Why does this study matter to us today? Why does it matter to us today? Because Jesus was dead accurate about what he said would unfold in 70 A.D., he was dead accurate about what he predicted would happen to the early church, and that same Jesus has made predictions about the future which have yet to come.
And I believe we're living in the age when we'll see them come to pass.
That means I need to take what Jesus said about the future very seriously. And I don't just mean end times events. I mean that Jesus has demonstrated that he has a command over time itself, that when he shares prophecy, he's not saying this is what I think is going to happen. He's sharing what he knows happens because he's already there. He's in the future. He's in all of time. At the same time, he's there and he is reporting back to us from the future, what will happen, what is certain to happen.
And so when Jesus tells me that I need to be forgiven by putting my faith and my trust in him, he's telling me the truth. When Jesus says that I should spend my life living for him and storing up treasure in heaven rather than treasure here on the earth, he's telling me the truth because he's seen eternity and he knows what benefits me the most.
When Jesus says that he'll never leave me, never forsake me, but he'll be with me to the end of the age, he's telling me the truth because he's already there at the end of the age with me right now. That's why this prophecy stuff matters so much, it proves the Bible is true, that it's real, it's supernatural, and that we can trust what it says about our future.
But more importantly, it proves that we can trust the one who wrote it. And it means we can also trust everything he said about the best way to live in the best way to spend our lives.
In other words, not only is that time going to be worse than anything that's ever happened to the Jews before, it's going to be worse than anything that ever will happen to the Jewish people. Jeremiah, 30, Verse 8 seven on your outlines, tells us, alas, for that day is great, so that Nonna's like it and it is the time of Jacob's trouble, Jacob is used. There is a name for Israel ethnically.
The Holocaust killed one out of every three Jews on the Earth. Zechariah, 13 eight through nine, tells us that the back half of the tribulation will kill two out of every three Jews on the earth. These words of Jesus are so important because they completely destroy the argument of anyone who says, well, the Book of Revelation and the Olivet discourse are just talking about things that have already happened.
It's all about the fall of Israel between 70 A.D. in 120 A.D..
That's not what it's about, because Jesus said, 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 the Holocaust was worse than the fall of Jerusalem and 70 A.D. So Jesus cannot be talking about 70 A.D. because Jesus says whatever he's talking about, there will never be anything worse than it that will happen to the Jewish people. I hope you're still with me. And then to underscore his point, Jesus says this in verse 22, he says, And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.
But for the elects, the word elects there just means chosen ones. But for the elect sake, those days will be shortened.
So Jesus says unless God had set a limit and he has to this amount of time, he's limited to three and a half years.
Everybody would die. There'd be nobody left. Now some will try and say, aha, see that term Jeff V. Elect. Clearly this is talking about believers. And so this must mean the church will be on the earth during the tribulation.
The only problem is that in the Bible, the phrase the elect is used to refer to Jesus, Israel, the church, tribulation, saints and even angels. And here it's used in reference to Jews who survived the tribulation, as well as those who become believers during the tribulation.
Verse 23.
Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or they're do not believe it for false Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible, even the elect. Jesus is clearly implying, by the way, that it's not possible to deceive the elect, he's not saying it is possible. He's saying it's not possible.
But he's saying if there was any way that the elect could be deceived, they would be, because that's how convincing this false Christ is going to be and that false Christ is going to be specifically the Antichrist. / Verse 8 /25, Jesus says, see, I have told you beforehand. Now those words by Jesus to those are written to those who will read this during the tribulation, to those who are panicking and looking for guidance, to those Jews who who pick up the scriptures in desperation in the time of Jacob's trouble.
Jesus says, See, I told you beforehand, what he's saying is he's saying, stop doubting.
You know, I've told you the truth because I've predicted exactly what you're going through right now. Jesus himself declares here that one of the primary purposes of prophecy in the Bible is to prove that God is who he says he is.
So clearly, Jesus thinks prophecy is pretty important. And he built his word on Bible prophecy because it proves that his word is true
Therefore, if they say to you, look, he's in the desert, do not go out or look, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe it.
While these Jews are hiding after fleeing at the halfway point of the tribulation, there will be many rumors that Messiah has appeared.
Let's keep reading in Matthew 24 16. Jesus tells the Jews now what to do when they see this trigger event happening during the seventieth week of Daniel. He says, when you see this happening, verse 16, Matthew 24, then let those who are in Judea underline Judea flee to the mountains. Judea is Israel. Notice that this stuff has nothing to do with the church. That's because the church has been raptured before all this stuff goes down.
Verse seventeen. Let him. Who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house? Here's the idea. Israel, when you see Antichrist, go into the temple, set up his throne and demand to be worshipped as God, you need to know that things are about to take a turn so dark it will make the Holocaust seem tame by comparison. When you see this happen, don't grab your things, don't pack. Don't call your friends because there's no time. Just run. Flee Israel.
Get out of there. Verse 8 team and let him who is in the field, not go back to get his clothes, but woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, because nobody is going to be able to slow down for them and pray that your flight may not be in winter.
Most of us think of Israel as a scorching desert like place, but looked this up online. When you get home today, parts of Israel, especially in the mountains, can become completely impassable due to snow in winter. There's a ski resort in Israel, a real thing.
And then he says also pray that your flight might not be on the Sabbath, which you underline Sabbath.
And I want you to underline that because, again, it shows us this is not an issue that affects the church.
And I don't mean theologically. I mean practically. This does not affect the church. The Sabbath, which is Saturday, doesn't really change anything for us other than we might go out and do something.
In Israel, though, still today, everything shuts down on the Sabbath. The streets are pretty much empty. Society grinds to a halt. That is why Jesus says it's going to be very difficult for you if this happens on a Sabbath.
One more indication, Jesus is talking to Jews in Israel when he gives this warning, he's warning them that when they hit the halfway point of the tribulation, when Antichrist takes over the temple and demands to be worshipped as God, things are going to change dramatically.
The persecution of the Jews is going to become unbearably intense. That's why Jesus says this in verse 21 to get your pen ready for then there will be great tribulation. So when you see this happening, you need to flee. Why? Because there's going to be great tribulation then underlying the rest of us.
21, such as has not been since the beginning of the world. Until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
He says nothing this intense or bad will ever have happened before in history to Israel or will ever happen again.
Now, would you agree that as far as reliable sources go, Jesus is pretty accurate? I think he is.
And I hope you feel the same way. So get this.
Jesus himself is telling Israel that 70 A.D. and TAI EX epiphanies, the diaspora, the Holocaust, it's all nothing compared to what is going to happen to the Jewish people in the second half of the seventieth week of Daniel in the tribulation back hath Jesus is echoing the words of Daniel 12 one which says there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time. And by doing this, Jesus is telling us that what Daniel spoke about in that verse in Daniel 12 had not yet happened as of 32/ 33 A.D. But Jesus adds to Daniel to this little detail, he says, nor ever shall be.
Let's summarize what we have. Jesus points us back to the historical abomination of desolation as a prophetic pattern. Jesus points us to Daniel and Daniel tells us that when this future event takes place, it's going to take place at the halfway point of the tribulation. Revelation tells us that at the halfway point of the tribulation, the Jews will need to flee for their lives.
Paul tells us that Antichrist will go into the temple in Jerusalem and declare himself to be God. Daniel tells us the same thing. This is what Jesus is referencing. When we put all this together, it becomes clear that at the halfway point of the seventieth week of Daniel, that seven year period that will begin shortly after the rapture.
Halfway into that, after three and a half years, Antichrist will go into the temple, put an end to sacrifices, expel the Jews, set up a throne for himself, declare himself to be God and demand to be worshipped.
And at the same time, he will initiate a genocide against the Jewish people. Make a note of this at the halfway point of the tribulation, three and a half years in. Antichrist will set up his throne in the holy of holies and demand to be worshipped as God. That is what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew, 24, Verse is 15 through 24 hour two fascinating notes for you Bible nerds.
Remember that Jesus said when you see he says when you see, not when you hear or when it happens. He says when you see now, how would they be able to see what's taking place in the holy of holies? I suggest it's very, very simple. When Antichrist does this, it's going to be live streamed. He's going to broadcast it around the world, something that couldn't have happened before, 50 years ago, 30 years ago, maybe second.
Interesting, though, and this one kind of blows my mind. Around 40 A.D., Caligula ordered his governor in Judea, whose name was Petronius, to put a statue of him in the holy of holies.
Caligula said Petronius put a statue of me in the holy of holies.
However, Petronius was smart enough to realize that if he did that, he would have a repeat of everything that had happened two centuries earlier. He would have a whole nother Maccabean revolt on his hands because the Jews would be so outraged.
So Petronius delayed obeying the order for over a year. When Caligula heard of Petronius insubordination, he sent orders by mail for Petronius to be executed.
But as the message is on its way across the sea, Caligula dies and something gets mixed up in the mail system.
And it causes news of Caligula's death to reach Judea before his command to execute Petronius. And if the order giver is dead, the order was considered null and void. Can you imagine that moment when it shows up when someone's like a Caligula?
I'm not Caligula, Petronas. We've got an order to put you to death. Lucky for you, Caligula died a few days ago. So you're a good man. That was a close call and that's what happened.
But what's so interesting about this is that God seems to have intentionally intervened in history to prevent another event happening in 40 A.D. that could have been interpreted as the abomination of desolation that he's speaking about in Matthew 24. Now, why would God do that? Well, because firstly, it wouldn't have fit the prophetic pattern he wanted in place.
And Jesus didn't want to create confusion by having people say, oh, well, when Jesus talks about the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24, that happened in 40 A.D. when Caligula set up a statue of himself, Jesus didn't want his people confused.
So he seems to have intervened miraculously with the Roman mail system to prevent another abomination of desolation from taking place. And now it can only take place when the temple is rebuilt is pretty incredible.
However, halfway through those seven years, at the three and a half year mark, he's going to break that agreement and put an end to sacrifices at the temple. Daniel's reference to sacrifice an offering tells us. We're talking about the temple. We're talking about Jerusalem, we're talking about Israel. That means this seven year treaty, the seven year peace plan has to include Israel and it has to include the rebuilding of the temple.
After breaking that seven year agreement at the three and a half year mark, someone is going to do hateful and disgusting things to a place. And the implication is that it's the temple as it's the subject of this verse and those things will result in that place being left deserted and empty, desolate. And this is going to continue until an appointed time is reached.
And I suggest that scripture points to that appointed time being the end of that seventieth week of Daniel, the end of the seven year tribulation. We're going to add more pieces of the puzzle in just a moment, but remember, Jesus has revealed that Daniel's prophecy about the abomination of desolation has not yet been fulfilled. Again, this means Antiochus Epiphanies was a prophetic pattern. He was not the abomination of desolation. So in our minds, we need to be thinking what sort of future event would fit this profile and include all of these pieces.
And the more pieces we add, the clearer the picture becomes. Next puzzle piece in Revelation 12 six. We read about the halfway point of Daniel's seventieth week. It's on your outlines. It says, then the woman. And if you study Revelation 12, you'll find that that's a reference to the Jews.
Then the woman or the Jews fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. Now, that's an incredibly specific number, wouldn't you agree?
And guess how long that number comes out to three and a half years exactly by the Hebrew calendar.
Halfway through Daniel's seventieth week revelation, Twelve tells us that the Jews are going to need to flee for their lives.
And if you study Revelation, you'll find that's because Satan is trying to prevent the second coming of Jesus by killing all the Jews, because Jesus has promised in places like Romans that he is going to save the Jews at his second coming.
So Satan things.
If he can kill all of the Jews, then he can turn Jesus into a liar and somehow prevent his second coming.
We believe that when Antichrist turns against the Jews after three and a half years, they're going to flee to a very specific place called Petra, that ancient rock city carved into the sides of these hills in the country that's called Jordan today.
And if you want to know why we believe that, listen to the revelation study. Now, if the Jews need to flee at the three and a half year mark, there has to be a major reversal of things. Right. And that's what Jesus, Daniel and Revelation all point to Antichrist, reversing his peace plan, kicking the Jews out of the temple and instead attempting to wipe them all out.
That's another puzzle piece. Let me give you one more in second Thessalonians the Apostle Paul, it's on your outlines as well. The apostle Paul writes that Antichrist is one who opposes and exalts himself. Above all, that is called God or that is worshipped so that he and then underline the rest of the verse sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Now, this cannot be a reference to God's temple or throne in heaven, because no one's ever going to dethrone God in heaven can't happen.
It's not a reference to the throne of our hearts, because before this verse, Paul makes it clear in the same sentence that he's writing about Antichrist, the person, an Antichrist, the person cannot come into my heart. The only explanation is that this is referring to the temple on Earth in Jerusalem.
Now, of course, this leaves us with one final week, one final period of seven years, a seventieth week that doesn't get dealt with in this prophecy, this seventieth week of Daniel.
This final time period of seven years is going to begin shortly after the rapture of the church in the big series of end times events that the Bible prophecies and books like Revelation. The first major event is the church. All believers on the Earth being taken up to be with the Lord removed from the Earth in the event known as the Rapture. Now, shortly after that, the seventieth week of Daniel, this final time period of seven years begins. If you're having a hard time following me, you can go and listen to the Daniel study on our website.
Again, I wish I could explain everything better, but I have to keep moving because this is a matter of study, not a revelation study or O'Daniel study. So the rapture happens.
And then shortly after that, the one who's commonly known as the Antichrist shows up on the world scene and he rises to prominence politically.
And Daniel 927 tells us this about what the Antichrist is going to do in that seventieth week.
Daniel 9/27 addresses the seventieth week. It says then he that's Antichrist shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, now a week. And Daniel nine is how long?
It's seven years. So it says here Antichrist will make a seven year peace treaty between the world and Israel. But in the middle of the week, how long will the middle of the week be? Three and a half years. Halfway through seven years.
In the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. Now, sacrifice and offering can only take place one place if you're a Jew, the temple in Jerusalem.
This is another example of how we know the temple is going to be rebuilt in the future. It's also why we suspect that giving the Jews a temple on the Temple Mount will be one of the things that Antichrist will offer Israel as an incentive to sign the seven year peace treaty.
And many Jews today believe that the rebuilding of the temple will be one of the signs Messiah will give when he comes.
Remember, the Jews don't recognize Jesus as their messiah.
They're still waiting for their messiah, and they may very well be fooled for a time for, say, three and a half years by the Antichrist when he arranges for their temple to be built. There's a very good chance most Jews will begin to believe that Antichrist is the Messiah.
So write this down. The temple will be rebuilt in the seventieth week of Daniel. That's the seven years shortly following the rapture as a result of Antichrists peace treaty.
But at the halfway point of those seven years, three and a half years in, the Jews are going to realize that they've made a huge mistake when Antichrist puts an end to sacrifices in the temple. Here's what I keep saying. And Daniel, nine, 27 and on the wing of abominations, underline abominations. There's that key word.
And on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes what desolate, desolate underline that even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate. There's that word again.
Those are key words, abominations and desolate. So Antichrist is going to show up performing abominations.
And we're told that as a result of these abominations, a place is going to be made desolate and this is going to continue until the consummation. Now, consummation just means the point at which something is complete or finalized.
So in other words, this is going to continue, continue until an appointed time. That's what it means. Until the consummation, until an appointed time.
So if you put all this together, hang with me. You put it all together. We're told that someone Antichrist is going to make a covenant or agreement of some type a peace plan that's meant to last for seven years.
We're talking about men like Moses leading God's people from slavery in Egypt through the wilderness into freedom, Joshua leading Israel to one victory after another as they move into their destiny in the promised land. David reigning as Israel's greatest king on and on and on, we could go. These men were all patterns, prophetic patterns of messiah, Jesus.
So when Jesus talks about a past event, the abomination of desolation, and he talks about it as a future event, what he's actually implying there is he's saying, guys, what happened in 168 B.C Antiochus epiphanies, that was not the abomination of desolation Daniel was prophesying about. What that was, was a pattern.
It was a prototype. It was a model of what is really going to happen, the real abomination of desolation that's going to take place in the future. Are you with me? I hope that makes sense.
This is a real treasure hunt through the scriptures, and we're going to need to put this thing together piece by piece.
So you might for a little bit be thinking, well, Jeff, how's all this stuff connected? We're going to connect it all. But first, I need to point out what the puzzle pieces are before we put the puzzle together.
However, I do this, I'm not going to be able to get into the level of detail. I would like to I'm going to do my best.
But if there's anything you don't understand, any questions you have, anything you need clarity on, please feel free to email me or message me online.
We know what the abomination of desolation was historically.
So we know the pattern. We know the prototype. The next place we need to go is where Jesus told us to go, the book of Daniel. And so we're literally going to go into the book of Daniel. We're going to do a word search for these unusual terms that Jesus used abomination and desolation.
And we're going to see what comes up in the book of Daniel around these terms. It's pretty logical stuff, right? And the place we're going to end up, if you want to turn there, is Daniel nine twenty seven.
You can turn there. I think it was to put it on your outlines.
And you need to know that in Daniel Chapter nine, the word weak w e k, the word weak is the Hebrew word.
For a seven year time period. We have ten year time periods called decades. The Hebrews have seven year time periods known as shovelware shovelware.
So I need you to remember that every time I mention the word weak, when I'm talking about Daniel Chapter nine, I'm referring to a seven year time period in Daniel Chapter nine, Daniel records a prophecy he received from the Lord about 70 weeks.
OK, now what is a week? Again, it's seven years. So if he's talking about seventy weeks, he's talking about seventy periods of seven years, 70 times seven, which is 490. Hope you're still with me when Daniel is writing this. Israel is in exile in Babylon. Jerusalem is destroyed. But Daniel prophesies that the day is coming when the command will be given to rebuild Jerusalem, and he says from that day to the day when Messiah reveals himself publicly, which Jesus did on Palm Sunday, Daniel prophesies in Daniel nine that there will be a time period of 69, nine weeks, 69, nine shovelware 69 periods of seven years between these two things, between the day the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem and the day that Messiah appears in Jerusalem, revealing himself to be messiah.
That was Palm Sunday and subject for another day. That is exactly what happened in history, exactly what happened. It was exactly 483 years.
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
So how can the doctrine of imminence work if there were things that needed to take place in order for the end times to really get underway?How could Jesus tell his disciples about all these signs that would come before his coming and then tell them to live in the expectation that it could happen at any minute? I'll give you two things to consider. One is that the rapture is not conditional on any specific event. Israel didn't have to become a country before the rapture could happen.
The bible doesn't say that Jesus describes the time on the days of what it's going to be like during the Rapture.
But he describes it in such a way that almost any Christian could have, could have looked at the world around them and said, Oh, this is definitely it.
Stuff is weird.
Don't you think it's weird that there's a single empire, the Romans controlling essentially the entire world?
This is very much business as usual in an unusual time. It could have been very easy that way. But my personal belief is that the Holy Spirit cause the disciples and believers throughout the centuries to hear what they needed to hear from God's word in order to live, expecting Christ's return. Because when you study church history, you find that that even though the Bible makes it really clear that Israel is going to need to exist again and Antichrist and all these things need to happen.
The Lord seems to have hidden some of those insights from the church for most of the past 2000 years, specifically so that the church would live under the doctrine of imminence.
However, in the Book of Daniel, we read something very interesting.
You see, Daniel received some incredible prophecies that we've studied recently, and he recorded them in places like Daniel, nine and 12.
But in Daniel, Chapter 12, the angel who's been sharing these things with Daniel gives them this instruction.
And it's on your outline.
After sharing all these things with them, the angel says to Daniel, But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and no knowledge shall increase.
So many Bible scholars believe, and I do too, that the angel is telling Daniel essentially that the prophecies he's just received are not for his time, they're not for his time, and they're not for multiple generations that are yet to come. He's actually telling Daniel, listen, the prophecies you've received are for and the phrase he uses is the time of the end, therefore the time of the end.
And Daniel, when that future time comes, this is what the angel says will happen. Knowledge shall increase.
In other words, the Lord will release a new level of understanding and insight to his people in those last days so that they can understand the Bible prophecies that apply to their day and time.
It is as though God, God, put some sort of time lock on some of these prophecies that there were faithful, studious, Bible focused men for centuries who just couldn't connect the dots.
And then as we got into this final generation, boom, boom, boom, these things became so clear all in this final generation, because Jesus wants all believers to live in expectation of his coming.
So he's chosen to reveal and unlock the meaning of certain end times, prophecies to only the generations that need to understand it. And I suggest to you those generations are represented in this room, and that's exactly what we've seen happen. So some might say, well, Jeff, you've been talking about the rapture for years and the people you listen to, the people you study, they've been talking about it for decades, Jeff.
Heck, you might die before Jesus comes back. And you know what?
You're right about all of that. You're right about all of that. So you admit you could be wrong. Jeff. No, look through history, look through history at all of the great saints who lived their lives expecting Jesus to come back in their time.