Well, as we continue in our study of the Olivet Discourse, we are working our way through the most expansive passage of teaching and preaching from the lips of Jesus when it comes to end times prophecy. It's Matthew 24 and 25, and it really was spoken in response to some questions His disciples asked Him. And, of course, they most likely expected short answers to their short questions, but what Jesus gave them was a very lengthy answer. And it has been assigned two chapters in the first book of our New Testament, and it takes a lot of focus and sifting through details to rightly interpret it, which I hope is what we are able to do. And the title of our study tonight is "It Will Be No Secret." "It Will Be No Secret." And I want you to go ahead and open to verse 23 of the 24th chapter of Matthew. And as we begin, remember, chapter 24 is a prophetic overview of the seven-year Tribulation. And in particular, the last verses we have focused on have narrowed in on the last half of that Tribulation period, which is the last 3 1/2 of seven, of course. And that is the period that Jesus referred to as Great Tribulation. So when we refer to Tribulation, we're speaking of all seven years as a period of time, that 70th week of the Daniel 9 prophecy, but the last half, the last 3 1/2 years are the Great Tribulation. If we're following a timeline, then where we begin tonight gives us another overview of the last half of the Tribulation, with most of the focus concentrated on the final season of that Great Tribulation. And you know that the Tribulation will culminate with the return of Jesus to the earth. That's how the Tribulation period ends just before Jesus establishes His kingdom that will last for 1,000 years that we refer to as the Millennium or the Millennial Kingdom. So Jesus has already prophesied in the verses that we've studied that the temple is going to be desecrated by the Antichrist. Remember, He reached back into Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9 when He spoke of the abomination which makes desolate or the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist is gonna be worshiped in a reconstructed temple during the Tribulation, that he's going to betray Israel, having promised them his loyalty and his protection, and probably his resources, and military peace. He will turn on them, and that is what will bring in the last half of the Tribulation, which will be a time of unprecedented sorrow for the Jewish people. Also, Jesus has told us that the Jewish people will have been warned that they should flee to the mountains and into the wilderness to escape the wrath of the Antichrist and of this global persecution that he inspires from the armies and from the people groups who are part of his alliance, they will be fiercely Antisemitic. And when the Antichrist betrays Israel, so there will be this unprecedented rise in hatred towards the Jewish people and also among other professors of faith in Christ who will have been saved during the Tribulation, assuming they're still living at that time. Then Jesus said that God is going to work on behalf of the group that He calls the elect, which no doubt includes those from among the Jewish people who will be marked out as coming to Christ during the Tribulation. And I also believe we can include among the elect, as Jesus called them, others who would be Gentiles, and not Jews, who will come to faith during the period of the Tribulation. Deception is going to abound. There are going to be cosmic upheavals in the earth. And what we have pointed out is that if Matthew 24 is focusing on the Tribulation period, so many of the phenomenon which Jesus describes in Matthew 24, the characteristics and manifestations during the Tribulation. So many of these correspond with the judgments that were outlined by John in those visions he saw in the book of Revelation, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. So I have really enjoyed hearing from many of you who've said that the longer we're in this, the more it's crystallizing, the more you're able to connect dots between Daniel and Revelation, and now Matthew. And we've also looked at some of Paul's writings in the epistles and other Old Testament books, which we will refer to tonight. So all of this to say, Jesus is focusing now on the last part of the Tribulation. And I want us to begin in verse 23, where He says to those listening to Him, He says, "Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or, there He is," look what Jesus says, "Do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you this beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, look, He's out in the desert, don't go out there and look for the Messiah, or, look, He is hiding in some secret room in some building somewhere," or maybe even in a cave. I'm just adding that. Jesus says, "When you hear these claims, do not believe it." He cannot be any clearer. Verse 27, Jesus says, "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together." Oh, we've got a lot to get through tonight, and we're just getting started. We're gonna go through several additional verses. But I want you to, we're gonna go back and break this down one verse at a time. But in verse 23, Jesus says, "If anyone says to you," and look at what they're going to be claiming. They're going to be claiming that they got some inside knowledge that the Messiah has come back and that they know where He is. I mean, He says, "Do not believe it when they say, He's here, He's there." And He got even more specific in verse 26. And in verse 24, He says, "Here's what you need to know, false christs," and the word Christ means Messiah, false messiahs and false prophets, "are going to rise and show great signs and wonders." And He's already made reference to these things in previous verses back up in verse five of this chapter. And so when we see Him bringing it up again, He said this would be true of the Tribulation period in general, false messiahs, messianic claims, which are false, and false prophets who may not be claiming to be a Messiah, but they're prophesying false messages. For Him to bring it up again here in verse 23 and 24 lets us know that this type of satanic activity is going to be on the increase as the Tribulation period is drawing to its end. And I think we need to just pay attention again to what He says about the fact in verse 24, He says these false messiahs, these false prophets, they're going to rise, and look what they'll be able to do. He says in verse 24 they're gonna be able to perform or show signs and wonders, which no doubt are miraculous in nature. And if they are not miraculous, they will certainly appear as miraculous. But I happen to believe that because Satan possesses powers beyond the natural realm, he will inspire them to be able to accomplish miraculous signs. And when Paul was referring to this in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, he said this will be a sign, a characterization of the Antichrist. He says "the coming of the lawless one," which is the Antichrist, "is according to the working of Satan." And look at this, the Antichrist will have satanic power to do, what? To perform all power, signs, lying wonders. So there we see it. Just as the Antichrist is gonna have these satanically-given powers, so these false messiahs and false prophets, about whom Jesus speaks in verse 24, they're going to have satanic power, and it's going to be an extension of this last days, ramped-up deception tactic and blitzkrieg on the part of the Antichrist. And remember, we've looked at it in the book of Revelation. The Antichrist is going to be the political leader of the Tribulation that aligns all the forces of the world together, but he will have a sidekick who will be the religious counterpart to his political domination. So there's the Antichrist, and then his religious leader's called the false prophet. And the false prophet, we've looked at it when he was revealed in the book of Revelation, he too is going to have supernatural abilities to perform miraculous signs and wonders. So we can only imagine the kinds of supernatural activity that will be going on, but it's just another reminder that Satan possesses great power. And for everything that God has performed and done in the earth, Satan always attempts to counterfeit it and to duplicate it. Now, I want to call your attention to something that I think is very important in verse 24, where Jesus is saying that in the last days, these satanically-inspired false prophets and false messiahs, they're gonna have this supernatural power. He says it is going to be so compelling and convincing what they're able to do, He speaks of it and says, "They will deceive, if possible, even the elect." Now, what I want you to do is to underline "if possible," because there are many people who have studied this, Bible scholars who say because Jesus inserted "if possible," it was His way of saying it is not possible. And I really like that, because what He's saying there is, there will be many who are drawn away by the signs and wonders of the Antichrist, by the signs and wonders of the false prophet, and then by the signs and wonders of whoever these individuals are that Jesus is speaking of in verse 24, false messiahs, false prophets, all of the above. There will be many who fall prey. They'll just be dropping like flies to bow down, take the mark of the beast, and worship the Antichrist and join his global personality cult. And the signs and wonders are going to be a big tool of the deception that lures them. And Jesus said it's gonna be so strong, it would deceive the elect. Who are they elect? Those who are marked out to be saved during the Tribulation, but He says, "if possible." And I think what He's saying is, those who are God's elect during the Tribulation will not be prone to this deception. In other words, Jesus is saying, if it were possible, even the elect would fall prey to these deceptive signs, but it's understood that is an impossibility. And that's amazing that God is going to preserve these elect that He has marked out for their salvation through true faith in Jesus Christ during the Tribulation period. Now in verse 25, as we read it a moment ago, He said, "See, I have told you beforehand." Now I want us to analyze this a little bit, because remember, He's on the Mount of Olives now. He's going to be on the cross not long from this moment. And He is looking into the eyes of His disciples, and there were certainly others in the crowd around them. And He is saying, "I have told you this beforehand." And it sounds like Jesus is expecting that His disciples are going to be around when these things happen. But what you and I know is that Jesus, though He was looking into their eyes, into the eyes of His disciples and the immediate audience who was listing, He was actually speaking prophetically, not just to them, but by His intent He was speaking beyond them to an audience who will not read these words until the Tribulation period. And this is part of the fascination of Bible interpretation is that if we believe that all of these events are going to take place during the Tribulation, and yet He was speaking directly to the disciples, who themselves were going to be dead within a generation from the time these words were spoken. They would not be around during the Tribulation. You and I don't even know when the Tribulation is going to occur, and it's been 2,000 years since He said this in their hearing. And yet He says to them, "Remember, I told you this beforehand." And it would seem He's suggesting you're going to go through these things, so remember what I'm telling you. But this is the power of biblical prophecy. He is speaking to them directly, but intending it to be read, as these words would be written down, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and tucked into the first book of the New Covenant, the New Testimony of our Bible, the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So having said that, if the intended audience is Tribulation saints, Jews who will come to Christ during the Tribulation, as well as Gentiles, and His disciples won't be around for any of this. And listen, if we maintain rightly that the church will be raptured prior to the Tribulation, then the disciples aren't going to be the only ones excluded from the Tribulation, but so will we. We won't be around during these things. So some have argued, well, if we're gonna be raptured out before the Tribulation, why are we even worried about what will happen during the Tribulation? Why do we even focus on Matthew 24? It's just a whole lot of gory details that we're going to be up in heaven, given refuge from these things, while hell is breaking out during the seven-year Tribulation. Well, the answer to why we should be focused on these things despite the fact that we won't be around, the answer would be too lengthy to get into, but I can tell you, if it's in the Word of God, He wants us to know about it, whether we're going to be here or not. If it's in the Word of God and we believe that these events are literally going to happen, think about how this can be used as an evangelistic tool for us to call others to Christ because we know what they will face in the Tribulation if they don't come to Christ before the Rapture before the trumpet sounds. They are all kinds of reasons. And here, above all else, we should study these things, whether we will experience them or not, we should study them because we glorify God by studying His Word. His Word conforms us to His likeness. His Word changes us. That's why we study it, even though we're not going to be around for the Tribulation period. And there is always this possibility that some of my friends who are Mid-Trib and Post-Trib Rapture, that the Pre-Tribulation position could be wrong, and we may need to know these details because if the Pre-Tribulation position is wrong, we may go through it. Now, I believe that is possible, but I don't believe it's probable. All right, let's look what He says in verse 26. He says, "If they say to you, go out here, He's in the desert, go out here, He's in some secret place," I emphasized it when we were reading it, He says, "do not believe it." He said it not once but twice, don't believe what they say. So the question is this. If He says don't believe it, yet they're still saying the Messiah is here, He's just out somewhere in some desert, and only we know about it, or He's in some temple or shrine somewhere tucked away in a hill or in some secret chamber, you know, the question is this, why is there going to be this type of deception? Why would people be claiming that the Messiah will have come, as He says they're going to? Well, I think it's accurate to say deception doesn't always have to have a rational or calculated purpose. In John 8, Jesus said that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. So deception doesn't always have to have some rationale for its propagation. But I think you would agree with me, in most cases, deception is calculated. There is some intended outcome behind Satan's intentional efforts to deceive. And in this case, I want you to think with me about the possibility that Jesus has already warned those who be reading this that some of their confessing, professing fellow believers are going to turn on them. And so could it be that some who have turned on Christians and Jews during the Tribulation are going to fabricate the claims that the Messiah is out here somewhere hidden that only we know about, and you've gotta follow us. Could it be that some of these fabricated claims to know the location, the whereabouts of the Messiah, who has appeared off the radar and by stealth and nobody saw Him coming, heard Him coming, or even knew He had come back, could it be that these are nothing but ploys by these turncoats and that they're wanting to lure naive and ignorant Tribulation believers? Those who are genuinely saved or those among the Jews who are not yet saved. Could it be they're going to use these ploys to lure the Tribulation believers and potential believers into death traps, where they're going to be using these false claims that the Messiah has come, but you've got to go and follow us because we're the only ones who know where He is. I think it's possible. Remember what Jesus said in verse 10 of this chapter. He said, "And many will turn away from me and will betray and hate each other." And when we studied this, we established that Jesus was warning of defections among the Tribulation believers. He said, "Many are going to fall away," or turn away. Now, we also established they were never truly saved if they defect from the faith, but what they will be is, they will be serving as, having defected from the faith, they will be serving as plants among the secret communities of Tribulation saints, who will be meeting underground, who will be gathering in places, trying to escape the radar. And, you know, listen, I'm gonna tell you something. There is a pastor right now in Canada who has served time in prison, in jail, because the Canadian government, and I believe it is in the province of Alberta, if I'm not mistaken, they arrested him, and now the believers in his church are meeting clandestinely. They're meeting in secret places in order to evade government detection. And we're talking about in the nation of Canada. We're not talking about North Korea, we're not talking about China, we're not talking about Saudi Arabia. We are talking about Canada, a nation with a very rich Christian heritage and past. And I am telling you, my heart is grieving for the nation of Canada when I read things like this. But don't be surprised that the United States is following closely behind in our trajectory. And this whole COVID pandemic has, I am not a COVID denier. I believe that this is a legitimate plague upon the world, but I am telling you that we have seen the overreach of the federal government and the overreach of local municipalities and of states infringing upon the freedoms and rights of our citizens in this country. And so this has been a good dress rehearsal for them to realize how easy it is to bring the entire population into their tyrannical grasp. It's been a dress rehearsal for end times. But I'll tell you what it should cause all of us to do when we think about the Tribulation and believers having to gather in secret, and we see a pastor, by the way, this pastor in Canada is a graduate of John MacArthur's seminary, The Master's Seminary in Los Angeles. This isn't some person that we can't identify with, some sectarian offshoot. This is a legitimate, bonafide, evangelical, Bible-believing pastor having to meet in secret like he's in the underground movement of China. We need to use all of these things as a wake-up call to say, that may be the conditions during the Tribulation, but we as Christians need to fight if they ever try to infringe again upon our first amendment right to gather and worship our God in a country that was built on that as our most cherished freedom. All right, I'm gonna keep plowing ahead here, but what Jesus is saying here, this kind of betrayal of one another, among professing saints during the Tribulation, don't be surprised that some of these defectors are going to be using the ploy of false claims of knowing where Messiah is to lure the elect into death traps. But Jesus said that is not going to be possible. Just be aware they're going to try. Now the question is, when He says there, "If they say to you He's in the desert, don't go out, or, look, He's in the, in the inner rooms, don't believe it," when He says don't go out and don't believe it, why should they not believe it? Why should Tribulation believers not be lured by the claim that the Messiah has come back secretly? Well, it's because in verse 27, Jesus makes it clear that when He returns, it will be no secret. That's the title of the study tonight. It won't be a secret that only a few people know about, only a handful of people. So in all of the times when they say to you, the Messiah is here, the Messiah is here, we know where He is, and only we can show you where He is, Jesus says don't believe it, because when the Messiah comes back, when Jesus returns, this is what He says, everybody's gonna know about it. Let's look in verse 27. He says, "For as the lightening comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Now, let's make no mistake. Jesus, in verse 27, He is referring to Himself. He is the Son of Man. He's speaking in third person, but it is about Himself that He is speaking, nonetheless. He says, "just like the lightning flashing and in the way that it comes, so will the return of the Son of Man be." So what I want to do, you don't have to leave this up to write all these things down, but I just thought for a moment, He compares His return to the flashing of lightening from east to west, and what are the characteristics of lightning when it strikes? Well, first of all, lightning is visible. Lightning is certainly bright. When lightning strikes, it is quick and abrupt. It's not gradual and drawn out. Lightning is loud. We've all been startled by the thunder that follows a bolt of lightning. And lightning is dangerous, of course it is. And lightning is unexpected when it strikes. So all of those characterizations of a strike of lightning, all of these will characterize the return of Jesus at the end of the Tribulation. And Jesus is the one who is describing His own return in those terms. I love it. So Jesus gave this discourse in order to equip the elect of the Tribulation who will have a copy of the Bible, either online, if it hasn't been blocked by that time, or in print, because all the Gideon Bibles have not been confiscated yet by the Antichrist, who knows? Bible's left behind in Christian homes and in church buildings that were vacated when the Rapture took place. Jesus is giving this discourse in Matthew 24 as a manual, as a guide to prepare those people who live through the Tribulation for His return. It will be no secret. And then did you see what He said in verse 28? He said, "Wherever the carcass is," and that's a terrible subject, a carcass. Wherever the dead, decaying body is, "there the eagles will be gathered together." And eagles can be understood as vultures, scavenger birds. Now, this saying in verse 28, some have suggested that it could have been an actual proverb spoken by common people in the time of Jesus, "Wherever the carcass is, there the birds will swarm." We have these types of sayings, and some of them are limited to region and colloquialisms, as we call them, figures of speech, proverbs. This could be one such proverb. However, whether it was a proverb or a figure of speech from the time in which He uttered these words, here's what we know. It's going to happen just that way. If you'll remember when John described for us the return of Christ in the 19th chapter of Revelation, when all the armies will have gathered together there at the battle of Armageddon, and that's exactly when Jesus Christ is going to return and He's going to slay them with His wrath. In Revelation 19:19, John says, "I saw the beast," that's the Antichrist, and his allies, "the kings of the earth, and their armies, and they were gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse," which is Christ, "and against His army. Then the beast, the Antichrist, was captured, and with him the false prophet who had worked signs in his presence," we talked about that, "by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two, the Antichrist and his false prophet, they were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone." But look at verse 21. "And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse," which is Christ. "And all the birds were filled with their flesh." Okay, so think about this. Back to Matthew 24, Jesus is saying, the reason that you don't need to believe anybody during the Tribulation, and this would be to those who are living during that time, He's saying to them, as they pick up the copy of God's Word, He's saying, don't believe these claims that the Messiah has come secretly and revealed Himself only to a few people. Oh, no, He is going to be visibly revealed like the flash of lightning that captures everyone's attention. And not only that, He's not gonna be out here in the desert, out here under a rock somewhere. You're going to know when Christ returns, because there is going to be a wide-scale slaughter of the armies who will have been gathered in the Holy Land prior to the return of Christ. And just as they're about to completely wipe Israel off the map, Jesus comes and He slays all of them. Figuratively, John said in Revelation 19, He does it with the sword that comes out of His mouth, that symbolizes He's not gonna do it with warfare and through weaponry. He is going to speak and they're all going to fall dead right in their tracks. The sign that the Messiah has come back will be the vultures are circling overhead and are feasting on the tens of thousands, and perhaps even a few million, of the dead bodies who will have made up the global armies of the Antichrist, thinking in their arrogance they were going to completely exterminate God's covenant people, the Jewish people, and to wipe out all Tribulation believers. I think that what Jesus is saying goes hand in hand with Revelation 19, don't believe them, because it will be no secret when He comes back. So then He focuses on the moments just before He returns, and in verse 29 He says, "and after the Tribulation of those days," and I just want you to understand, when He says that, "after the Tribulation of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, they will see the Son of Man." Jesus, again, speaking of Himself. "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Now, I just want you to realize that between verse 29, where He's saying after these events of the Tribulation, then verse 30, then the Son of Man is going to come back to the earth. And this is another proof that the return of Christ is how the Tribulation will end. You see it right here in verses 29 and 30. Now the parallel passage to the Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew 24 and 25, in Luke's gospel, I thought I would quote the words of Jesus as recorded by Luke in Luke 21:25. Jesus said there, "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress among the nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken." And the reason that I'm pointing you to this passage in Luke 21 is because it parallels exactly Matthew 24:29. That's why I wanted you to see it. So when you think about all of these disruptions and disturbances among the sun and the moon and the stars, which are talked about here in Matthew 24 and in Luke 21, these things are reminiscent of something that the Old Testament prophets foretold, which was called the day of the Lord. They cried out to the people of Israel, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. Behold, no one will be able to stand in the day of the Lord." And in so many of the prophecies concerning the day of the Lord, it had to do with God making right everything that was wrong among His people, the children of Israel. It is clear from studying the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that when Jesus came the first time, those prophecies made in the Old Testament about the day of the Lord, they were not fulfilled, nor have they been fulfilled since the time that Jesus came. And what that means, therefore, is that all of these warnings from the Old Testament prophets to Israel about the coming day of God's judgment, the day of the Lord, as they called it, this is an event, this day of the Lord is an event that has not yet taken place. So when we were reading there in our passage in verse 29 of Matthew 24 where Jesus warned about the sun being darkened and the moon not giving its light and the stars falling from heaven, I just thought I would reach back into some of those Old Testament prophecies about the Day of the Lord and show you how the reasons for which I believe that the return of Christ, the end of the Tribulation, and you could even argue some of the final events of the Great Tribulation, are all part of this day of the Lord. Example, Isaiah 13:9 says, "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine." Now, when you read that passage from Isaiah and you compare it to what Jesus said in verse 29 of our passage tonight, you will see this, I believe it's in escapable that these are the same event. The one that Isaiah foretold, the one that Jesus is foretelling. The day of the Lord is when Christ returns, and all of the events that are the precursors to His return. Not only that, but the prophet Joel said this, or God said it through the prophet, in Joel 2:30, "I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth; blood and fire and pillars of smoke," which sounds like a lot of the plagues described in Revelation. But in verse 31, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls." And another way to understand that remnant is the same elect about which Jesus spoke. Now, when you read this, "for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," you know, Paul quoted this in Romans 10:13. But in its original context spoken of by the prophet Joel, it has to do with the people in Israel who are about to be wiped out in the final stages of the Tribulation. And it says that all of these phenomena in the heavens effecting the light of the sun and the moon and the stars, there's going to be this cosmic upheaval, and just then Christ will return. And Joel says in that moment, at the culminating point of all of these cosmic upheavals, the armies of the world are gathered about to completely exterminate the Jewish people once and for all. He says, "But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." When they see Him, they shall believe in Him, they shall cry out for His salvation, and He shall return to His people, because they call upon His name and they shall be saved. Oh, my gracious. Then in Joel 3, you know, we could do this all night long, going through these prophecies about the coming day of the Lord that have not been fulfilled yet. But in Joel 3:14, it says, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, the stars will diminish their brightness. But the Lord will roar from Zion. He will utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and the earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Folks, this is a prophecy about the day of the Lord, which he said in verse 14 of Joel 3, but it says that He is going to be the shelter for His people Israel. This is the return of Christ to the earth to set up His kingdom in the promised land, in the city of Jerusalem, for the preserved remnant of Israel, the elect, who will call upon Him for salvation, either prior to His coming, and certainly upon the moment they see Him. So I want us to go back to our passage tonight. Oh, I wish I could say, if you're with me say amen. I hope I heard an amen. Verse 30. Back in chapter 24 of Matthew, Jesus says, "Then the sign of the Son of Man is going to appear in heaven, and 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." I love how in verse 30 Jesus refers to Himself as the only sign. It says "the sign of the Son of Man." He will be the sign that the end has come and the kingdom has begun. Jesus is the sign. And it says He's going to appear in heaven. Did you see him say that? And heaven is the sky. And we looked at this before, where in Acts 1, after Jesus was taken back up into heaven, the disciples were standing there. The angels announced that He's going to come back in the same way in which you saw Him leave. He left and was received into the clouds. He is returning from the heavens above just as He left. And you know, this was spoken of in Daniel's prophecy. In Daniel 7 in his vision, verse 13, he said, "I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him." And Jesus is here reaching back to Daniel's vision, and He is attributing the fulfillment of Daniel 7:13 to Himself, because He is speaking of Himself as coming on the clouds of heaven. And He says here, not only is He coming, not only are you going to see the Son of Man appear in heaven, "and all of the the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." So, this did not happen when He came the first time. He was born of a virgin and placed in a feed trough, and no one noticed it except for the barnyard animals and the shepherds who were summoned by an angel. But here, when He comes back, He's coming from the sky above of on the clouds of heaven that will be His chariot, as it were, and He's coming with power and great glory. And He's already compared it to the visibility, the abruptness, the inescapable recognition of a strike of lightning. There He is. And he will come in a much different way the next time than He did the first time. Now I wanna ask you a question. Do you remember how John opened the book of Revelation when we were studying in chapter one? He said in chapter one in verse seven, "Behold, He is coming with," what? "Clouds." Jesus said He's coming in the clouds. Daniel 7, "I saw the Son of Man coming in the clouds, and every eye will see Him," John writes, "even they who pierced Him," the Jewish people. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him," all Gentiles. "Even so, Amen." So the very first chapter of the final book of the Bible says He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him once again. This is why when someone says He's come back and no one knows about it, the last book of our Bible, coupled with what Jesus said in Matthew 24 is don't believe anybody who says He's come back as though it escaped your attention. The Tribulation people who live on the earth, saved and unsaved alike, Antichrist army, you name it, everyone will be aware of His return. And what I want you to write down tonight is, His return will be witnessed universally. You know what universally means? It means all over the world. His return will escape no one's awareness. His return will be witnessed universally. So think with me for a moment, until Christ returns, throughout the Tribulation, His people, who are called the elect, they're going to be hiding from the wrath of the Antichrist while the Antichrist and his army stand fearless. So the saints are in hiding. Jesus said, "Flee into the mountains and take refuge." The saints are in hiding, the satanic Antichrist and his followers stand with arrogant confidence. And in my preparation, I was reading from the "MacArthur Bible Commentary," and it says this, "After the true Christ appears, however, His people and His enemies will exchange places." Oh, think about that. I love that. And how will they change places? Because the people of the Messiah are going to greet their Messiah, and upon His return, they will be the ones standing bold, confident, and fearless. And His enemies, on the other hand, will be stripped of their confidence and their boldness. And they will mourn and they will wither before His vindicating wrath, and their flesh will be plucked from their skeletal remains by the vulture of the air. Oh, His people and His enemies will reverse their position when He returns. So I want to clarify something, and hopefully you understand the difference. Number one, the rapture of the church is at the beginning of the Tribulation. And that's what is called the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. But the return of Christ to the earth is at the end of the Tribulation. And that is the event in view here in Matthew 24, the return of the Son of Man. Now, do you remember when John saw the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19, about which we spoke a moment ago, depicting the return of Christ? It says that the rider on the white horse, who is Christ, did not return by Himself when He comes back. But in verse 14 of Revelation 19, John tells us, "the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses." So what this tells me is that these who comprise the armies of heaven, clothed in white, which I believe is the righteousness that He has given to us through His atoning work on the cross, we as believers will return with Christ in this return of the Son of Man, about which Jesus is speaking in Matthew 24. So that is why we believe that the Rapture will have already happened in order for us to be returning with Christ from heaven to earth, as we are said to do in Revelation 19, we have to already be with Him in order to return with Him. So I wanted to point that out to you because that's very, very important. And another passage that is fairly obscure when it comes to this notion of our coming back with Christ is Colossians 3:4, where Paul wrote, "When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Christ is revealed, and Paul wrote in Colossians we will be revealed with Him. Revelation 19, Christ on the white horse and the armies of heaven, clothed in white linen, on horses behind Him. We will be revealed with Him because we will already be with Him. Now in verse 31, Jesus says, speaking of Himself in third person, He says upon His return, "He is going to send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds," and this is just a geographical reference, anytime you see a reference to the four winds, similar to four directions, north, south, east, west, "from one end of heaven to the other." This is simply a figure of speech on the part of Jesus to say there is going to be a global end gathering of God's elect. That's what it says there in that last verse that we're looking at. Now, because there's a mention of a trumpet, and because there's a mention of a global end gathering, many people have mistakenly read into this verse the Rapture, and thus because the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 there'll be a trumpet sound at the Rapture and the resurrection of the saved dead. Many people read the Rapture into verse 31, but this is not the Rapture. This is an end gathering of a different kind. Think about it. Jesus will return to Jerusalem when He comes to slay the armies of the Antichrist, the global alliance. And He'll be welcomed by that remnant that will be just 1/3 of the Jewish population, because according to Zechariah, 2/3 will have been wiped out through the atrocities of the Antichrist. Okay, think about it. He's coming back to Jerusalem, and although it'll be no secret and everybody in the world will know it, there will be believers all over the world during that time who will have been saved during the Tribulation. And according to this verse in verse 31, we believe that Jesus will use angels to summon all of His Tribulation elect, who are still living at the time of His return, to convene for a glorious worship service in the promised land, in Jerusalem. And therefore there will be this global gathering of Tribulation saints who are still living to be present for the inaugural ceremony of the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom. And in addition to this, if you'll think with me for a moment, you remember how we believe the rapture of the church marks the end of the church age. That's why we are gone to heaven before that last 70th seven that completes God's prophetic program for Israel begins. Church age ends with a resurrection of saved dead. And just as the return of Christ is the culmination point of that 70th seven from Daniel 9, that marks the completion point of God's prophetic program for Israel. And according to Daniel 12, it is in that moment that there will be a resurrection of the saved Old Testament believers. Although their souls are already with God, their bodies will be reunited in a glorified state. It will be a rapture for the Old Testament saints, or a resurrection of Old Testament saints, rather. Just as the Rapture marked the end of the church age, so the resurrection of Old Testament righteous will mark the end of the 70th week from the Daniel 9 prophecy. Oh, I'm telling you. Daniel writes in chapter 12, "At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there's going to be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time." This is the Great Tribulation. "But at that time," this is when Christ returns, "your people shall be delivered, every one who's found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." There's the resurrection of the Old Testament dead. "Some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever." All right, well, we have covered a lot of material, but it's really all about a very fixed period of time. The final chimes on the clock in the countdown to the end of the Tribulation period, and in particular, the end of the Great Tribulation, and how Christ is going to return. And it will be no secret, because everyone on planet earth at that time will know He's back. Father, thank You, thank You, thank You, for allowing us to probe the depths and to take apart these timeless, divine words of Jesus. And when we think about what's going to happen, we know that in the end, this is when the fulfillment of every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, that's when it's gonna happen. And it causes us to want to bow now and to look up to heaven and say, "Jesus, You truly are Lord of all." And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
