Jesus is Coming Soon!

 

"Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."

Matthew 24:32-35

 

Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is such an honor to come together with you today for the study God's Word. I humbly ask you would join us in praying for our brothers and sisters who are facing severe persecution, that their witness would help to turn the hardened hearts of their persecutors, leading others to Christ as their personal Lord and Savior that their suffering would not be in vain, but glorify our Lord. Let us pray for God’s mercy on our church families, extended families, our community, our country, and our world.

 

There is great comfort in our Lord’s glorious promise that His people have not been forgotten. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." Many Christians have an unhealthy attachment to the things of this dying world. We must learn to distinguish between the permanent, eternal kingdom and the transient, perishing world. Anything you can buy, sell, taste, see or smell will not be going with us. The Word of God identifies things that are shaken, or destroyed are not eternal.

 

In Matthew 6, Jesus said "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

 

The writer of Hebrews 12, says "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." 

 

Unfortunately, many modern contemporary Christians seem uninformed and uninterested in the eternal kingdom, they've become so caught up in the here and now and they have lost sight of what is yet to come. Perhaps I'm showing my age, but when I came to faith in Christ, Christians lived every moment in anticipation of His imminent, glorious return! Tragically, this seems to be in complete contrast to this present day where man-centered preaching promotes self-esteem, and self-exaltation, which has become more important in the church than the exaltation of the Lord. May I remind you that the end of all that we know of this physical universe is destined to pass away shortly. While the timing of Christ’s return is not known, it is certain! Jesus taught that the next great event on the prophetic calendar, is the Rapture, for which there is no sign and could occur at any moment. Even before the end of this message! 

 

After which God will unleash unprecedented judgements on an unbelieving world. Immediately following those days of judgement, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior will return in great power and glory, and every eye shall see Him! The depravity of man-kind is a dreadful truth that is not often preached in many churches today, it has taken a backseat to messages about tolerance of everything and anyone, and feeling good about ourselves. While enjoying the bountiful goodness of God during our time on this earth is right, we must be cautious not to overthrow the divine plan of God and the return of His Son. 

 

The blessed hope of every Christian should be the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, eagerly awaiting the glorious liberation of the children of God, when we shall all be changed and we shall be like Him, and we will forever be in the presence of Jesus Christ. Scripture says we are to look forward with anticipation as we watch and wait, longing for the second coming of Jesus Christ. But to the wicked it will come as a surprise.

 

We must realize that this is a real event that will happen, and the more time passes, the more signs we see, the closer Jesus' return is, it can’t be very far away. But we must also remember that the disciples felt it must be very near. We know it will happen, however, only the Lord knows when.

 

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Father, thank You for Your Word, for giving us so much clear and concise revelation, so that we need not live in fear of what is to come, because You have told us ahead of time what’s going to happen. Thank You for reminding us that are a redeemed people living in this passing world, therefore if we believe, we must we live in light of eternity, looking and longing for our Savior. We pray that You will do a mighty work in the hearts of those who reject the Savior, so they will understand their eternal destiny is at stake and they will know they longer have to live in darkness, they can accept the grace of Christ Jesus.

We ask and pray in Jesus' name

Amen

 

Today's Message: Jesus is Coming Soon!

 

In this portion of His sermon, called the Olivet Discourse, Jesus is speaking to His disciples about His Second Coming, the time when He will return in glory and power to establish His kingdom, in His own words. Though it is recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke, Matthew's account is the longest and most detailed. In today's message, Jesus gives us the parable of the fig tree to help us understand what He is teaching, what are the signs of His coming. Having previously given them general signs and some specific signs as indicators, and so to summarize, He transitions into an uncomplicated parable in verses 32 to 35, to answer the "when" question.

 

Parables were like a riddle, which had a twofold purpose; they unexplained a hidden the truth, and when explained, it made the truth clear. When Jesus gave a parable to the multitude or to the religious leaders and never explained it, it was like an unsolved riddle, which things are made unclear. When He gave them to the disciples and explained it, it becomes a living illustration making everything so much more clear. When you understand that the parables given to the disciples were for the purpose of understanding, they're really not difficult to understand. Unless you understand that simplistic principal, you won't understand it means. 

Jesus often used parables hide spiritual truth from the wise of this world, those who thought they already knew everything and to reveal them to unlearned, who were hungry to understand.

 

Jesus' imminent return has holds many implications for our lives. It gives us the blessed hope that all of His promises will be fulfilled. It should cause us to be careful in our conduct. It reminds us of the importance of sharing the Gospel with others. His return encourages us to remember that this world will pass away and everything will be made new. His return confirms that we will be able to see our friends and family who trusted Jesus as Lord. His return guarantees and end to sin and its terrible effects. And so much more!

Open your Bibles to the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 24:32-35. I invite you to follow along with me as I read these four verses to you. Let's open our hearts and our minds to see what the Spirit of God has to say us today. Matthew 24:32-35.

 

"Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."

Jesus was not the first teacher who ever use the illustration of a fig tree in His teaching. In chapter 9, in the book of Judges, Jotham uses a fig tree. And, in 24th chapter in the book of Jeremiah, he uses baskets of figs to speak of good and bad people. Earlier in Matthew, I'm sure you will recall, Jesus cursed a fig tree. 

It was a pretty common method of teaching certain spiritual truths. It’s important for us to not to just listen but to grasp that what Jesus is saying here in this brief passage and allow let it to penetrate you deeply.

Let's begin by looking at verse 32, "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near." 

Notice He begins with "Now learn," He saying this is something to understand thoroughly. Something which is truly learned becomes habitual knowledge. He wants us to learn the lesson that comes out of this illustration of the parable from the fig tree. The lesson is "When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near." When the tree begins to bud, there is a tenderness to the branch, when the leaves begin to form, you know it’s spring. When the evidence occurs that spring has come, there is a need to carefully care for the tree, in order to have an abundance of fruit, because "you know that summer is near." Summer is the time for fruit. It's important to understand He is speaking about the time of harvest, when He will sent His angels to separate the tares from the wheat, the good from the bad. A branch that bears no fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire.

 

The Bible frequently speaks of the harvest as the time when God separates the evil from the good, Jesus sees compassionately the whole harvest, moving toward the judgment, when the wicked and evil of the world will burn in the unquenchable fire. God calls His people to warn those in darkness of the impending judgment, the time when God will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. 

 

In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Because many professing Christians teachers have forgotten the God of their salvation, embarrassed to proclaim the Gospel in Truth because someone might be offended, many Christians in the church are living as immorally as the unredeemed world, the coming harvest will be day of great grief and of desperate sorrow. Because of His compassion for people, He doesn’t see people just in their current condition, but He sees them with perspective of eternity. The harvest is the final judgment, when those who belong to the kingdom of darkness will be doomed to hell. Jesus told to the Truth to people because He loved them, He could see their ultimate destiny in their current spiritual condition. If you're a pastor, and you know the Word of God, and if you understand hell, and are not teaching the Truth, you’ve lost the most important part of that vision, the impending judgment, when God will take vengeance on those who obey not the gospel, and punish that which is evil.

 

With all of the distractions of this present age, it become far too easy for us to lose the urgency sharing the Gospel and inevitability of eternal judgment. The horror of Hell will be unmatched by in comparison to even the most grotesque, most heinous murder scene the world has ever witnessed. I pray this glimpse of hell speaks to your heart, as it has mine when I first began to understand what is going to happen to a lost hell-bound world.

 

In verse 33, He says "So, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door."

 

Here, He is linking the parable to the application. When you see all these things happening, the signs I have given you, recognize that it is the end of man’s day and the beginning of God’s day. The return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the glorious kingdom of God is near. So near it’s knocking at the door! This should motive all of us more than ever to proclaim the Truth to a lost and dying world, so that they may come to know the One True God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone can offer them salvation.

 

Verse 34, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place."

 

There has been some confusion and a lot of different answers about what Jesus was speaking of by "this generation." The skeptics say that since Jesus was referring directly to the disciples, and they all died before the second coming, He was making a good guess but obviously He was wrong. We shouldn’t be surprised that He was wrong, He even said "No one knows the day nor the hour, not even the Son of Man."  That is an unacceptable response, because if Jesus was wrong about this, there’s a very good probability that He was wrong about everything that He taught and that simply isn't true! Jesus didn't know the day or the hour, because He chose not to have that knowledge. He emptied Himself of that spiritual knowledge, depending on the Father.

 

By "this generation," He used the word "genea," which means race or family. Jesus is saying those who don’t know Me as your Savior, you’ll not go in the Rapture, therefore, unbelievers and the visible church, false Christians, who do not do the will of the Father, living in obedience to My commands, will be that generation who will see those things come to pass. I believe the invisible church will be taken out in the Rapture, I won't go into all the passages that validate that, but in the book of Revelation, the church appears in chapter 2 and chapter 3, we know that by the seven letters to the church, with the idea that He stands at the door, warning the church to repent and purify themselves before His return. In chapter 3, verse 10, He says "Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth." True believers will be kept out of the Tribulation.

Then, chapter 6 through 18, there’s never one mention of the church. In fact, the church isn't mentioned after chapter 3, because in chapters 4 and following, the church is in heaven. The absence of the word "church" or the implied church isn't even mentioned here in Matthew chapter 24, there’s no warnings given to us, which proves to me that we're not looking for the Antichrist, we're looking for glory! I believe that's rather significant proof the true church will not be here. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says we’re to be caught up to be with the Lord in the air and ever are we with the Lord. He’s not going to come down here, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and He’s going to take us to be where He is. The Rapture is a unique event. At the second coming, the Mount of Olives is going to be split in half. At the Rapture, it remains untouched.

 

When Christ comes to set up His Millennial Kingdom, He’s coming to earth and the saints will be with Him. 1 Corinthians 6, "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?" In Jude 14-15, he writes, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." If the Rapture and the Second Coming were to happen at the same time, who will be left to populate the 1,000 year kingdom? Somebody’s got to be alive to partake in the final rebellion. So this generation refers to those who are alive at that time because they were not taken up in the Rapture. There are only two groups of people; a redeemed people and an unredeemed people.

That brings us to verse 35, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."

"Heaven and earth shall pass away," that's an incredible statement! He;s saying that heaven and earth, as we now know it will end, it's going to pass away, it will cease to exist. This is inconceivable, very difficult for us to comprehend. The existing heaven and earth will end, to make way for the coming new creation.

 

Then He closes the parable with unchanging authority, "but My words will not pass away." God's Word is unchanging, in spite of what is often being taught in the contemporary modern church, that God will honor same-sex relationships, approving of transgenderism and drag queen story hour and every other damning heresy stemming from demonic doctrine. God has not changed His mind about sin, those who commit it and those who affirm it.

 

In Closing.. 

If you believe the Word of God, if you are going to claim to be a Christian, you cannot live a manner that is antithetical to what it means to be a Christian, to be godly and holy, as God Himself is Holy. If you are redeemed, your conduct will reflect that.

Philippians 1:27-28, "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God." In 1 Corinthians 5:11, we're told "Not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one." 

Do not be deceived, God will take vengeance on those who obey not the gospel, and punish that which is evil regardless of their profession. I plead with you to come to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as evidenced by a transformed life, living according to His commands. True Christianity is not what you profess, it's what you live. The true church is called to uphold the Bible’s authority, confronting sin and apposing error with kindness and compassion, in hopes of restoring one who is lost. That is the uncomplicated Truth of God's Word. 

 

May it be so..
 
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 
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