Signs of the End-Part 2

 

 

"And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

Matthew 24:4-8

 

Good Morning my beloved,
 
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the tremendous honor privilege to come together with you today for the study God's Word. We recently been blessed to send much needed Bibles and supplies to those in places we never before imagined, bringing more people to Christ. I thank God for those of you who have been so moved by His Spirit to support us in the ministry, whether by sharing the ministry website, and social media platforms with your family and friends, or financially. I humbly ask you will continue to join us in praying, and ask God to continue to bless this ministry in reaching the lost, the broken and the hopeless. May He continue to bless our growth together with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, as we faithfully lead others to Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I’m so thankful that with the gift of technology we are able to worship together. 

 

 

Let us pray

 

Heavenly Father, 

 

Father, we thank You for Your Word, for this precious gift of being awakened today and wonderful opportunity You’ve given us. What blessedness it is to live in this most exciting of all times,between the first and the second coming, watching prophesy being fulfilled, help us to live every day in the wonderful anticipation of our Savior's return and to lay up our treasures in heaven. Burden our hearts with an urgency to share the message of the Gospel with others while we still have the opportunity. Grant us the boldness and courage to confront sin and error with love and compassion, offering Your grace, pointing them the cross, in hope of restoring one to You who has been lost. May it all be for Your glory and for Christ's sake.

In His name we ask and pray these things.

Amen

Today's Message: Signs of the End-Part 2

As Christians, we often use the phrase the "second coming," however, the expression does not appear in the New Testament, the parousia or coming gives way to the ultimate age in which the kingdom of God is asserted in its fullness, bringing all men and nations to their final judgment or reward. The emphasis is not upon termination as much as it is the completion or consummation of the indefinite period of time between the destruction of the Temple and the return of Christ at the end of the age. Much like the expressions, Trinity or Millennium that does not in any way indicate they do not exist as some like to argue.

It is quite common today, for people to believe something is true simply because they "feel" it is true or because they have some experience that leads them to conclude that it is true. Many like to think that Christ's return as a fairy tale or spiritual event rather than to believe it is a real, literal occurrence in which our Lord will appear. Christ's return is not symbolic but a literal, physical return of Jesus from heaven to earth, a truth that is repeated again and again throughout Scripture. The early church clearly understood, believed and preached that Jesus' return will be a physical descending from heaven, just as they had witnessed His physical ascension when He left.

In Acts 3, Peter preached in his second sermon, "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time."

 

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul tells us, "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord." 

 

It was this great hope, that filled the hearts of His disciples’, and the anticipation of a small child, they had no idea it would be thousands of years before Christ returned. They no doubt had their minds set upon the words of Isaiah 61, in which the prophet Isaiah sees the Messiah's coming, preaching the gospel, and bringing the vengeance of the day of God as a single event. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

 

In Luke 4, He only got halfway it before He stopped, "And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Why didn’t He read the next line, "And the day of vengeance of our God." Because that is a future event, that's why He closed the book and said "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." What Isaiah saw, he perceived as one event, our Lord is to fulfill in two separate events. The first time Jesus came was to preach, when He returns it will be to judge. It wasn't until the New Testament we see the distinction between the two. 

That's why Paul writes in Romans 16, "Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."

The signs of the times are upon us, there is no way to escape the conclusion that we are, in fact, living on borrowed time. The question is not whether or not it will happen, but when and are you ready? I have often had people say, "Come on pastor, these signs you are talking about are nothing new, they have always existed to one degree or another!" While that may be true, it is not entirely a legitimate explanation of what Jesus is saying here, as the time draws nearer to Jesus' return, the the signs will increase in frequency and intensity. That is exactly what is happening to this very day.

Revelation 13 says that the Antichrist’s religious leader, the False Prophet, will make an image of the Antichrist that will appear to come alive and speak. Satan is a liar and a deceiver, he does not have the power to create life. Through the advancement of modern technology, holograms and artificial intelligence, this trickery can easily be created in several ways. Forty or fifty years ago, such a deception seemed almost impossible.

 

I recall reading an article some years ago,that reported that the governor of Texas had "appeared" at a technology conference being held at the University of Texas at Dallas, which was found to have actually consisted of a three dimensional hologram!

 

Open your Bibles to the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 24:4-8. I invite you to follow along with me as I read these five verses to you,  and let's see what the Spirit of God has to say to each of us today. Matthew 24:4-8.

 

"And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."         

Let's look at verse 4, "And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you." 

Jesus is saying "see to it that no one misleads you," just before the end, there will be a sequence of birth pains, increasing in frequency and intensity, there will be an explosion of concurrent events, until finally, the kingdom comes. There are many scholars would have us believe Jesus is talking about the period prior to destruction of Jerusalem, and the church age, He's actually talking about the many of the signs of His second coming. The key to understanding this passage is "merely the beginning of birth pangs," this is very important, the birth pains do not happen at conception, they occur infrequently at the beginning of the pregnancy, until just before the birth, then more and more frequently then at the end, the baby is born. People who are alive and go through these things that endure the troubles that come upon until the end of them and the end of the age, will be saved. That doesn't include the church, who have already been taken up in the rapture.

 

Jesus is pointing out people will try to deceive us in the time before He comes. The coming of Christ will happen suddenly, and unexpectedly. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul speaking about the coming of the Lord says, "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief."

 

So,  we’re looking at the period of time known as the Great Tribulation, in verses 4 to 14, Jesus is describing many of the signs that are going to occur before He returns, far beyond anything we’ve ever known. I've had a number of people say, "Well, we have earthquakes and wars now, so what's the big deal?" I can only say what we're experiencing now will be nothing compared to what is to come! We remind ourselves this is a prophetic event to happen in the future. Just because Jesus is speaking to His disciples doesn't in anyway indicate they will be part of it. Jesus is saying the first sign is deception, those who name the name Christ, who come to lead people astray. Yes, there has always been false teachers, claiming to represent Christ and there always will be. But there will be many, many more of them teaching deception that will exceed all other deceptions at the end.

Verse 5, "For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many."

 

If you think we have our false teachers now, you haven't seen anything yet, they’re going to be everywhere, all over the place, and they will deceive many. Don’t be deceived. Has anyone noticed we are seeing more and more of these celebrity preachers? The problem with celebrity preachers and their celebrity lifestyles, is it is easy for people to make it more about the messenger rather than the message. All of these false Christs will ultimately result in the epitome of all false Christs, known as the Antichrist. Daniel calls him the little horn, John calls him the beast and Paul calls him son of perdition. He will be a very effective deceiver, operating by the power of Hell. God doesn’t intervene, He’s waiting for sin to run its full course and then, He will eliminate it forever. If you’re a Christian, you ought to rejoice that Jesus is coming and thrilled that sin will be eliminated once and for all.

Verse 6, "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end." 

 

There will be rumors of wars, where wars don’t even exist. There will be worldwide warfare on a massive scale previously unknown in any other time in history. This will be a time of tremendous unrest and panic and turmoil. The idea is continually hearing of wars, there will be people constantly fighting each other, cultures against cultures, nation against nation on a global scale. I believe we can see this beginning to unfold as the world is constantly under some sort of threat. 

Revelation 6:4, "And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him." Then in verse 8, "I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth." It’s symbolic, as Christ opens the seven seals and begins to take back the world. 

Back to Matthew 24:6, "See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end." Do not panic, all these things must come to pass, and they'll come in rapid fire succession, one right after another, but it's not the end yet, even though it might look like is coming to end, it's not the time for the kingdom. The second sign is wars and rumors of wars and not the usual wars which take place in the world today.

Verse 7, "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

 

These catastrophic disasters will be of staggering proportions over all the world, almost simultaneously. Luke's parallel account in chapter 21, adds there will also be "various places plagues," it's the Greek word "loimos," literally, meaning disease. He also adds "And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven." These will be indescribable. The word signs or "sēismos," a sign which exalts the one giving it. As sin runs rampant, the whole world begins to self-destruct. It will be a time of famine. Let's look at Revelation 6 again which says, "And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine." One day’s wage will only be enough to feed one person. The people that remain on the earth will literally be starving to death. The oil is necessary for cooking and baking and the water will be unfit to drink, so He says "do not damage the oil and the wine."

 

Today, He restraining sin for the preservation of His people, however, when He removes that restraint, after the Rapture of the church, that when everything begins to disintegrate.

 

Not knowing, the uncertainty of what will happen next leaves us unprepared to respond to what is coming. Thank God, He has provided us with what we need to know beforehand, He has told us exactly what to expect, so we won't be led astray and we can ride out any storm. Preparation is essential to our mental and physical well-being, Christ does not want His people to live in fear. When we are persecuted in this world, and we will be persecuted, whether we live or whether we die, we are not frightened because we know that we belong to Him.

 

That brings us to verse 8, "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

 

Birth pains are a familiar term to most of us, especially women who have given birth. Contractions become more and more frequent, intensifying as the birth becomes closer, until finally the baby is born. All of these things are just the birth pains, the beginning of the end, to tell us that the coming of Christ is becoming nearer and nearer. Don’t be surprised when the Bible predicts something because it will happen.

God says in the end times all the nations of the world will come against Israel, like a cloud that covers the land. I firmly believe that when millions of Christians instantly disappear from the earth, it will create more global chaos than any earthquake, tsunami, and hurricane combined.

 

In Closing..

 

Just as God parted the Red Sea, He will dry up the Euphrates River, enabling the kings of the east to cross and proceed to the Valley of Armageddon. The size of the army John envisioned in Revelation 9 will be a massive 200 million. It’s easy to imagine Islamic nations of coming against Israel, along with China, who is the major power and influence east of Jerusalem and is on course to become the world's largest military. Regardless of who is involved, I believe the world stage is being set for Antichrist, as the world is steadily moving towards the last great conflict, the Battle of Armageddon. I've often been asked who the Antichrist will be, frankly, I don't care, I won't be here. I'm more focused on being able to reach every last group of people with the gospel for the Kingdom of God.

 

The signs of the end are everywhere, though we need to be aware of these signs happening around us, we need not be afraid, our God Sovereign reigns, and He is in control. To God be the glory!

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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