7 Signs Jesus is Coming Sooner Than You Think

so seven signs you ready to roll say ready to roll okay here we go number one signs like birth pangs will grow in intensity signs like birth pangs will grow in intensity now this sign comes straight out of the teaching of jesus when jesus spoke to us in matthew 24 it's a piece known as the olivet discourse a sermon jesus gave on the mount of olives about the end times you can not only find it in matthew 24 it's also in mark 13 and luke 21. but in this passage jesus says there's going to be certain signs that will come like birth pangs come on a woman with increasing intensity and you'll see false prophets and you'll see wars and rumors of wars and you'll see plagues and diseases and earthquakes and when these signs come start paying attention so when certain things happen like say the bubonic plague or world war ii or certain politicians come into power people say oh my goodness these are signs of the end times and i would say that while these things are necessary before jesus comes back i think that this is the weakest of the seven reasons that we would be believing that jesus is coming sooner than we think and there's three reasons why i think that this is a little bit uh not strong enough to hang our hats on and why when somebody says coronavirus hurricane you know explosion in beirut is this a sign of the end times i go ah yes and no reason number one the olivet discourse where this comes from is answering two questions from the disciples if you read the beginning of matthew 24 the disciples asked two questions one is what is the timing of the destruction of the temple and what are the signs of the end times two key questions and in matthew 24 jesus is answering both of those questions scholars debate which line is answering which question but from my perspective i think that when he talks about wars and rumors of wars and plagues and things that are about to come he's talking about a sign related to the destruction of the temple that's number one reason number two is jesus seems to be saying in matthew 24 don't be too alarmed by these birth pangs when they happen don't freak out matthew 24 6 says you will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed such things must happen but the end is still to come okay these things have to take place and they're going to happen for a long time don't freak out too much about them because the end is still coming after they happen that's not the end there's something else that's coming and then the third reason of course is that these things have been happening for 2 000 years wars and plagues and rumors of wars and false prophets there's nothing new in history about them it could be argued that they are increasing intensity as the years go by but there's certainly not something that's new so while these things do need to take place and will increase in intensity until the day that jesus comes back i'm not sure that they're a great sign that jesus is coming sooner than you think what i think is a much better sign is sign number two so sign number two is that israel will become a nation israel will become a nation there have been promises that have been put back that israel will come back to its former glory that the lord will reign from mount zion that jerusalem will be re-established as the capital and all of these promises are based on the premise that israel would be a nation itself you can look at passages like zechariah 8 or isaiah 52 to find out some of those promises that are out there but it's not just those promises the context of revelation assumes that israel is a nation the context of matthew 24 assumes that israel is a nation and ezekiel 8 38 assumes that israel is a nation you can look at places that anticipate a new theocracy like daniel 11 and zechariah 12. all of these point to the idea that israel will become a nation now for a long time it was my viewpoint that these promises for israel would actually be fulfilled in the church the idea is replacement theology that's what it's called and it's a very common theology among people who are believers people who are inside of the church that all of the promises that were meant for israel are now meant for the church why because when jesus came along israel rejected him the temple was destroyed that chapter was closed but these promises are still real and so they are applied to the church and if israel isn't a nation that's really almost the only conclusion that you can come to that if jesus is coming soon and israel isn't a nation well these promises must be applied to the church but my mind actually changed on this and many other issues when i actually went to israel myself and saw what was going on and it made me think about the history of israel and some things that have come to pass over the years and one of the things i thought through is when is the last time israel was a nation if you look turn back one page and you look at your guide here you'll see on the left-hand side of your guide all of the phases that israel has gone through in who was ruling that nation at what time now if you've got a pen go ahead and draw a line right under babylonian rule at 586 bc because you had this period of the united kingdom the golden years israel gets divided into north and south israel and judah israel gets scattered by assyria and then in 586 bc babylon sweeps in takes over the southern nation of judah takes over the capital of jerusalem and exiles the people back to babylon for 70 years that happened in 586 bc that's the last time that the nation of israel could be considered the same nation as was started from the united kingdom now there was one period which you'll see down here on the bottom called independent rule known as the hasmonean kingdom which was a time of uh independent semi-independent semi-autonomous rule by the jewish people where many of the other prophecies were not fulfilled but besides that short period of time from here all the way until 1948 israel was ruled by somebody else you had the babylonians you had the persians you had the greeks you had the romans you have the ottomans you have the turks you've got the crusaders byzantine arab mamaluke british rule all different people ruled israel but israel was not in charge of themselves so all of these prophecies that are about the nation of israel could not be fulfilled if there is no israel are you guys that making sense to all of you so when was it that israel actually became a nation it happened in 1948 for the first time in thousands of years now those of you who are like my age and younger you're like i don't even remember a time when there wasn't an israel it's always been a part of the news scene and the world map and all those kinds of things but trust me for 2 000 years there was no israel and so the national prophecies about israel could not be fulfilled this is a very big deal for bible prophecy even to be possible all right let's move on to number three number three number three is a prophecy that massive numbers of jewish people will return to israel this is all over the bible but it's probably most poignant in deuteronomy chapter 30 verses one through five now note this is moses it's over 3000 years ago he's setting the people up by saying people blessings and curses are coming your way if you obey god you get blessings if you disobey god you will be scattered to the farthest corners of the world but if you come back to god he will bring you back again and here's the bring you back again part deuteronomy 31-5 when all these things have happened to you the blessings and the curses that i've set before you if you call them to mind among the nations where the lord your god has driven you and if you return to the lord your god and you and your children obey him with all your heart and all your soul just as i'm commanding you today then the lord your god will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you get this gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the lord your god has scattered you even if you are exiled to the ends of the world from there the lord your god will gather you and from there he will bring you back the lord your god will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed and you will possess it he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors so god promised moses when you disobey you'll be scattered to the ends of the earth what happened to the jewish people 722 bc the assyrians came in scattered them to the ends of the earth and really from that moment on through the babylonians and all of these other uh all of these other groupings the people of israel were scattered to the far corners of the earth now let me just point out something this is just a bonus item this is an extra thing that i got for you today have you ever thought of how amazing it is that jewish people even exist at all today i mean you can look at all the people that the jewish people were fighting back in the day and they don't exist you don't see many girgishites and jebusites and amalekites and mosquito bites running around you just see the people of israel why is it that they weren't demolished like every other people group that was around during their time i think the only answer is it's the hand of god now they were exiled to places like russia germany the united states uh sudan you name it ethiopia they had gone to all these different nations but they still existed as a people group in various places and the promise is not just in deuteronomy but in isaiah 11 and 43 and 49 and ezekiel chapter 20. the promise is i will bring my people back now there's a word for this in israel it's called elia and it's the immigration of jews from around the world to come back to the land of israel this idea began in 1882 but was dramatically accelerated in 1948 when israel became a nation over three million people have made the german have made the journey from russia from germany from new york from ethiopia and they've come back and moved back to israel and now for the first time 42 of jews worldwide live in israel this is the first time since 586 bc that this can be said this is remarkable and it's another series of prophecies that's being fulfilled right now okay so that's reason one two three i'm going through this pretty fast heavy intense you guys is you are all right you still with me okay if you're tracking just say i'm tracking okay here we go reason number four reason number four israel will bloom israel will bloom despite being a desert now i've got to tell you my mind was dramatically changed on this by visiting israel i used to think that these scriptures were a metaphor until i went on a certain bus ride here's what the scriptures say about what's going to be happening in the desert isaiah 35 verses 1 and 2 say this the desert and the parched land will be glad the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus it will burst into bloom it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy and then isaiah 41 19 and 20 one of my favorite verses says this i will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia the myrtle and the olive i will set junipers in the wasteland the fur and the cypress together so that people may see and know and may consider and understand that the hand of the lord has done this that the holy one of israel has created it now why did i think of this as a metaphor if you've ever gone through israel you drive through certain sections and literally it is like a moonscape it's it's like a wasteland desert it looks like that and you go how could anything grow there and how could isaiah be serious when he's prophesying that these will one day be lush fields and fertile places in fact mark twain went to israel in 1867 this is how he described the topography of this nation that's 60 percent desert and 40 percent arid he says it's a desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds a silent and mournful expanse a desolation is here that is now even imagination can grace with the pomp and life and action there was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere even the olive in the cactus those fast friends of the worthless soil had almost deserted the country this is what it looked like in israel so here we are in the bus traveling through this desert and we kind of come around a corner and then all of a sudden there's a grove of pineapples right in front of us and i'm talking about acres of pineapples in a perfect square popping up out of the desert as if somebody had put them there and we keep on driving along here and boop there's coconut trees and we go over there and boop there's mango trees and orange trees and banana trees and wherever we go all this area that used to be desert is now irrigated farmland and the way that this happened pragmatically is that the people of israel and modern israel they've become some of the very best engineers in the world particularly in the area of desalinization turning salt water into fresh water and then they mastered this technique called drip irrigation and those two things together make it possible for them to literally farm in the middle of the desert and they've shared this technology with desert nations all around the world but nobody does it better than they do in israel one time when i was going to a breakfast buffet kelly and i were standing in line and our guide susan is sitting there with us and she says to us you know everything in this beautiful buffet was grown in israel now my first thought was big deal we grow fruit in america too but america is not the size of new jersey and all desert so her point of pride that all of this was grown in israel was actually remarkable and even a fulfillment of the prophecy that was put there in fact israel now not only grows all of their own fruits and vegetables that they need but they export 25 billion dollars worth of fruits and vegetables from a desert now this is a sign that what god said was going to come is literally coming true in a literal place where you can see lush fields of corn and wheat and sorghum and cotton the beauty of this is immense and they've planted trees as well from 1882 until 1948 they planted 4.5 million trees and today the people of israel have now planted 240 million trees in their country the prophecy that israel will bloom is literally taking place and you can read about that in matthew 24 zechariah 8 and amos chapter 9. all right number five number five children will play in the jerusalem streets another time sitting with susan in the middle of the jewish quarter and uh while we're sitting there susan says what do you see over there i'm like i see a kid playing with a ball looks like he's with grandpa leaning on a cane and she says that's fulfilled prophecy and i said oh come on i know my bible pretty well but i do not know that prophecy she says we'll read zechariah 8 tonight and i'd encourage you all you read zechariah 8. it looks a lot like israel today it's kind of scary when you read what's in there but these are verses 4 and 5. this is what the lord almighty says once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of jerusalem each them each of them with a cane in hand because of their age and the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there prophecy fulfilled that in jerusalem even the most vulnerable people even the aged even the little kids will feel like they're safe in the jewish quarter number six number six is this that the gospel will be preached to the ends of the earth the gospel will reach the ends of the earth matthew chapter 24 this is jesus again saying and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the ends of the earth or in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come so jesus said i'm not coming back until the gospel hits every nation well of course this rules out much of world history because the gospel had not made it to every country and it makes us ask the question has this happened yet i think you could make the argument that this has happened 91 of the world has a bible translated into their own language the two great languages of the internet english and chinese are becoming more and more spoken by more and more people in the world giving them gospel access the internet and radio have reached nearly every corner of the world giving people the opportunity to hear you could say that you know what it circles the globe north to south east to west the gospel can be known everywhere you could argue that the gospel has been preached to the ends of the earth or you could argue that we still have some work to do for example there are still 1.5 billion people who are considered unreached people groups in this world some groups of over 10 million people still have little or no access to the gospel but whether you argue that we're there or almost there the truth is we've made immense progress over the years that what was unimaginable to a group of 12 disciples when jesus originally said this is within reach today and that within the next 20 years most of those gaps in learning and translation and communication are going to be bridged as the world becomes a much smaller place i think within our lifetime we can certainly be able to say that the gospel will have reached every nation to the very ends of the earth then number seven that's number six this is number seven last one is that nations will align against israel nations will align against israel the bible says that in later days there are nations that will raise up against the nation of israel in ezekiel chapter 38 it's called gog of magog and it's a coalition of nations that will line up against israel now it must be said at this point that over thousands of years geographic boundaries change and who rules and what place changes and names of countries change so it's a little bit hard to say this is exactly the countries that would have to line up today but a couple of them are pretty clear one of them is roche which is current day russia and another one is persia which is modern day iran and those two nations are said to be two of the key forces to create a coalition against israel and what do you know today for the first time in history russia and iran have critical agreements that make them partners and then there's others that could or that should be added in probably turkey libya sudan are places that are mentioned and those places will likely coalesce together since they're all muslim majority nations it makes sense that those are very possible nations that will band against israel in the end times they will have a military and economic alignment now let me say as i talk about israel what i'm talking about here is not what's right or wrong about the current geopolitical strategy of israel i'm not talking about that at all i'm not talking about right or wrong in terms of morality with the palestinians what i'm just saying is i'm observing what's happening in history and i'm observing about what's happening in the bible and i'm saying this stuff that was prophesied thousands of years ago is taking place today

Channel: Christ Community Church

Views: 472,591

Rating: 4.7980466 out of 5

Keywords: end times, revelation, Israel, nations, cccomaha, Gospel, apocalypse, rapture, Jesus returns, Jesus coming back, jesus, 7 signs, signs of the times, signs

Id: 4a9hg_FnXxs

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020