Matthew 24: "The Tribulation"

so we are in Revelation chapter 6 gonna read there for Matthew 24 so once you all stand and we'll go through and read revelation 6 starting verse 1 and it says now I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder come and see and I looked and behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer and when he opened it opened the second seal I heard the second living creature saying come and see another horse fiery red went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword when he opened the third seal I heard the third living creature say come and see so I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a Denarius in three quarts of barley for a Denarius and do not harm the oil on the wine when he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see so I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth then a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed I looked when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand let's pray and Jesus says we're getting into your word this morning we pray that again that you would just be speaking to us Lord yours the God who knows the end from the beginning you're the God who knows all things and in the chapter that we're about to deal with you've told the future you it's nothing but prophecy and Lord we thank you for the fact that we live we live for and serve a God who lives out of outside of time and again can know our future like it's your history so Lord as we're getting into your where we pray that you'd speak to us that you'd work in us the bless us and that you do this all in Jesus name Amen you have a seat and then turn over to Revelation or excuse me Matthew chapter 24 reason I went through Revelation chapter 6 is because it's an overview of the tribulation period and it follows the the same organization as what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 24 and so Matthew chapter 24 starts with false Christ's it goes on to war it goes on to famine and pestilence and death from there it goes to persecution and then at the end of the whole thing it ends up with the second coming of Christ just like you have in Revelation chapter 6 and so that's that's the reason that I did that I'm gonna be referring back and forth to that as we go so it's 2018 and where's my flying car milolii or tater where's my hoverboard where's my trip to among the resort you know and you know it's like it's one of those things that when I was a when I was a kid I was in fifth grade when they landed on the moon for the first time I still remember it sitting in my basement watching Neil Armstrong come off the pad put his foot on the moon for the whole time hold under the ladder and that whole thing I remember at all and I just expected you know that's 1969 and so 1979 we'd have a base on the moon 1989 you know to have a city on the moon 1999 go be going to Mars you know a 2009 I have a I have a car that flies at a hoverboard and I can take a trip to the moon if I want to and we don't even have a rocket anymore you know ever since we got rid of the Space Shuttle you know the only stuff that we have actually Rus was just talking to me about about Atlas rockets and stuff like it's old technology give me a break you know and so you know we send our we should send our astronauts over to Russia to have them fly them to the space station as his nuts and so where's my stuff yeah those are all things that you know back like in the 60s and in the 70s people were talking about the fact that we were going places and it was gonna be a very cool thing every year there are prognosticators who come along and make predictions for the nation in the world and some of them are vague I was reading some this last week one of the prophecies was there's going to be political turmoil in the United States really that's every year since 1982 when I started paying attention and others are more specific and so the same person who predicts the future said that the polar ice cap is going to melt or nearly melt in 2018 and so they always do a little a little pervy so there so I'm watching for that a Bible is the one book that dares to predict the future and there are other people who've tried and you have guys like Nostradamus and that kind of stuff but they failed and if they have a 30 percent accuracy rate they think that they're doing well other religious books don't even get near the subject of prophecy because if you do it's easy to prove you're wrong because you don't get it right the Bible is the only book that demands a hundred percent accuracy from its prophets and you know what happened if you weren't a hundred percent accurate don't Jeff yeah they'd stone you they you off and so you have that in fact prophecy is used in the Bible to show that this is the Word of God there's a really famous passage in Isaiah chapter 40 through 45 worth going back and reading where God makes basically he challenges prophets to tell anything that they can about the future and then in the same passage in Isaiah chapter 44 and Isaiah chapter 45 we're dealing with this on Sunday nights God goes through and he predicts the the caps or the destruction of the Babylonian Empire and he names the guy who did it 83 years before he was born a hundred and fifty years before it happened names the guy and that's the kind of prophecy that you have in Scripture it's not this mamby-pamby Nostradamus make a make a little poem and maybe it means something and maybe it doesn't and anybody can come up with stuff it's like specifics all the time surely God wants his people to know about prophecy since he's dedicated fully 1/3 of the Bible to it for example I got a list of 355 prophecies and prophetic pictures concerning Jesus's first coming that have been fulfilled with a hundred percent accuracy and so you know some of those where Jesus was gonna be born and you know he's gonna be born in Bethlehem he's gonna live in Nazareth he was gonna have his ministry in Galilee there's all kind of he was gonna be betrayed for 30 pieces of so it's all in the Old Testament in fact in in Psalm 22 which is about the crucifixion there are 18 specific prophecies that were fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ and it was written over a thousand years before Jesus comes along and 500 years before crucifixion and so again you have that stuff it's because of these prophecies about the first coming of Jesus that we know that Jesus is the promised Messiah it's because of the fulfillment of those prophecies concerning his first coming that we can be so confident concerning the prophecies about his second coming if you if you're going through and it's over 300 prophecies that are fulfilled literally you can look at about the first coming you can look at the second coming and and expect that those are going to be taken care of literally two and so the second coming jesus promised that he was coming to the earth and he was going to set up to set up his kingdom he promised this and then he gave specific prophecies concerning that once that I read has over 1500 prophecies about the second coming in the Bible and 1500 prophet there's about three hundred about the first about the first coming there's fifteen hundred about the second coming that means for every prophecy about the first coming of Christ there's five five about the second coming when you go through the Bible so most of prophecy whether you're in the Old Testament or in the New Testament is concerned with the second coming of Christ so why study prophecy and some people say that prophecy is so confusing and you know what you guys if it's confusing maybe you need to study more that would be an option instead of just going in throw your hands up and just walk away that it's not what God's you know if you got if you if you got all of this stuff about prophecy in the Bible maybe God wants you to know something about it and that's one of the reasons that we study prophecy there's a promise in the Bible about the fact that God will bless you when you study prophecy specifically in the book of Revelation if they're in the first chapter first couple of verses God talks about the fact that he will bless those who read and who hear and who understand begin to apply the things that are found in the book of Revelation it's the only it's the only book that has a blessing can connected with it and it's all about prophecy and so when people tell you I'll stay away from the book of Revelation because that's you know that's scary stuff and it's you know it's too hard to understand and that kind of stuff God does not agree with that he says exactly the opposite and so the study of prophecy is a good thing some people say that prophecy is scary and the answer that is no prophecy was not given to scare you it was given to prepare you God gives prophecy not to scare you but to prepare you there are things that Jesus wanted the the believers at that time to know things that Jesus wants us to know about the signs of the end and specifically in Matthew 24 he's going to give us a list of signs of the times that he expected us to be aware of and these signs were given in answer to questions that the disciples had for Jesus concerning the signs of their times and signs concerning his coming and the end of the age and that's that's where we're at in the book of Matthew so Matthew chapter 24 I'm gonna go through and read some of this stuff and we're gonna come back and pick it apart verse 1 it says then Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple and Jesus said to them do you not see all these things assuredly I say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down now as he sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be and what would be the sign of your coming and at the end of the age and jesus answered and said to them take heed that no one deceives you for many will many will come in my name saying I'm the Christ and will deceive many false Christ's number one and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom number two second seal then he says and there will be famines number three that's the third seal pestilences and earthquakes in various places and what follows famine is death and that's what pessimal pestilence is talking about that seal number four and then verse eight he says all these are the beginning of Sorrows then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake and then many will be a will betray one another and will hate one another then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many and because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold but he endures to the end shall be saved number 5 persecution that was the fifth seal and this is the and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come therefore when you see the abomination of desolation there's a whole chapter about that in Revelation chapter 13 it's when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place whoever reads let him understand and let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains let him who's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house and let him who's in the field not go back to get his clothes but woe to those who are pregnant in to those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath for then there will be Great Tribulation such has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be and unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved but for the elects sake those days will be shortened and I wanted to stop right there and the reason I'm stopping at verse 21 and verse 22 is because that's part of the the first stuff that I'm going to talk about when Jesus talks about this period of time it is a period of time that is so bad that it's worse than anything that the world has ever seen up until that point worse than anything the world's ever seen and if those days were not shortened in other words if Jesus didn't come back in time he says no flesh would be safe what he's talking about is everything on the earth would be dead so by the time that Jesus comes back this place is ravaged and so you know we're talking about doing a trillion dollar deal with infrastructure well what the Bible says is that by the time you get to the end of the Tribulation Period all of the cities are knocked down that they're all the mountains have been flattened geological changes have taken place that the oceans are dead and they stink like a cesspool the the Bible talks about the the fresh water has been polluted to the point where it's poisonous so when you when when you look at the second coming of Christ there are all kinds of passages in the Bible that talk about the the renewing of the earth and the remaking of the earth and and that kind of stuff well it has to be remade because it's destroyed so you know that trillion dollar project it's all gonna burn it's it's it's a waste of time is what it is not saying that we shouldn't do it but still it's all going to be toasted there's not gonna be any roads by the time that they get to the end of the Tribulation Period these guys are on horseback pulling wagons according to the Old Testament and so this is this is a period of time that's radical and the reason I'm saying this to you is because there are people who will tell you that you're in it right now that you're in the tribulation period it's nothing but nonsense because that is not what Jesus said Jesus said it's the worst time that the world's ever seen and there are people that that will for example say that this this whole thing is about the destruction of Jerusalem you may have run into people like this I had some people come up to me after first service and ask me questions about this well this is about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD that's what it's all about and you know it was a really bad time how many how many of you did not grow up Christian raise your hands okay so before you started coming to church and maybe even coming to church here did you ever hear about the destruction of Jerusalem how many of you you did this right so you don't hear about the destruction of Jerusalem still east until you start coming to church how many you grew up in church raise your hands did you ever hear about the destruction of Jerusalem in any of your history classes ever right how many of you heard about the destruction of Jerusalem before you were a teenager grew up in school before you were a teenager one two three you know some of you some of you grew up here that's cheating nobody knew about the destruction of Jerusalem never heard of it I was a history buff never heard about the things that went on in the destruction of Jerusalem it's not the worst thing that ever happened by the way Jerusalem wasn't just destroyed once it was destroyed back in the old testament - and the destruction was comparable to the destruction of the New Testament so that's just some nonsense argument we're talking about a period of time that is over-the-top and if you you know it's like we have all these I love the end of the world movies and so you know I love all that stuff when everything gets destroyed and you know like Book of Eli type of stuff I only watched it on TV I didn't want you to at the movies because I don't go to all rated movies but you know it's like those kinds of movies I just dig them I think they're I think that it's they're really cool if you if you did a movie on the book of Revelation it's like it's like take one disaster movie after another disaster movie after another one after another one after a pile them on you couldn't do it every single event that takes place in Revelation is a disaster movie and so again you you have the you have the same thing here so basically what Jesus is doing is he's giving a number of signs that are going to lead up to his second coming and well actually you know I don't wanna get him ahead of myself but he's answering questions and so this is how this whole thing got set up Jesus has made his statement concerning the corruption of his times we talked about this last time and being rejected by the people of Israel he's rejected them so in chapter 23 in verse 37 through 39 he he laments over Jerusalem and he says how often I wanted to gather your children together but you were not willing and in verse 38 he says see your house is left to you desolate for I say to you you shall see me no more till you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and then he turns around and walks out that's where we're at in verse 1 then Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple and you know there's a passage in mark 13 where they say to him teachers see what manner of stones and what buildings are here and I don't know why they did that because this is a pretty dramatic Jesus just nails these guys and he turns around and he said he says I'm done I'm leaving and I'm not coming back until you repent it's raining that's effective not coming back until you repent and then he turns around walks out it's and all of a sudden some of the disciples come up and they're concerned with the architecture look at all this stuff look at these look at these buildings look at these stones in these buildings and they're talking about the the temple buildings now the temple was in the middle of a remodel and so it had started under a guy named Herod the Great he is the guy who killed all the babies in Bethlehem when he was trying to get rid of Jesus when Jesus was born so this has been going on for a long period of time it's going to continue to go on until 66 AD so Jesus dies right around 32 it's not completed until 66 AD and that's when the Jews start a war with the Romans and it's destroyed four years later in 70 AD and so they're seeing all these all these stones and it's and it's true the stones that would have been used in the temple would have been magnificent because all that we've got left is the retaining wall for the temple complex so when you see Jews lined up at the Western Wall the Wailing Wall and they're praying and stuff those stones down on the bottom down on the bottom of it those stones those large stones are from the period of time that Jesus was living and those are called Herodian stones Herod the Great was a guy who according to history was pretty small he was a small guy and some of some of you guys who are small you're pretty scrappy and the reason you're scrappy is because that's what you got to do to behave you know live life around around bigger people and so I had some friends that we always called it small man's Neill syndrome I had some friends that you know you just didn't mess with them because they were short and they'd get up in your face and so you just backed off of these guys well Herod was like that and so he was somebody that was paranoid about his position in his authority and so anytime that anybody tried to was any kind of threat to him he just killed him off including his family so that's Herod the Great he also built big this guy built large everything this guy built was huge it was actually it was all magnificent and so we go to places like Masada and it was it was a it was a complex it was a fortress complex set on top of this Mesa down by the Dead Sea and there's another place called the Herodian you know it's just huge and when you go to the temple again all you see that's left from there is the retaining wall of the temple it's the only thing that didn't get knocked down and some of that got knocked down and they'll take you underneath there's a there's a whole section when you look at the Wailing Wall off to the left hand side there's all the stuff that's built up against it well it didn't used to be there and so they'll take you down underneath and in a tunnel and they found a stone that is like this tall it's like three three-and-a-half feet tall and it's 40 feet this it's like from from there from that wall over to this side of the drums that's how long it is and it's probably six feet wide and I can't remember with a dimension but it's huge it's honey it's tons and tons dozens of tons huge and they took these large stones all one piece and they stuck them in there and they and they set them down when you go to the Wailing Wall and you go up and you go up next to it it's been 2,000 years so there's places that are chipped out and so you have some you know little corners that have been taken off and you know there's been some chipping that's taken place between the stones and and that kind of stuff and when you go up there there'll be little pieces of paper that are sticking in there and the Jews write down prayers on these pieces of paper and they stick them in the cracks and the Wailing Wall and they have to look for cracks after 2,000 years and the reason is because the stone work was so was so good that when it was first laid down you couldn't take a knife and shove it in between the cracks and those stones and that's just the the wall that held up the it was just the embankment wall and that's the kind of precision that these guys had and so when you're looking at stones that were above that up and up in the temple itself they would have been more careful about it and so these guys say teachers you know see what manner of stones these are and Jesus says assuredly I say to you not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down and so that's a prophecy and that was fulfilled literally 38 years later that by the way is also evidence of the early dates of the Gospels because Jesus makes this prophecy and you don't have the Gospels saying and it was fulfilled 38 years later than 70 AD and you don't have it in Paul's letters all of those things were written before 70 AD and it's a it's an evidence for that so there's no record of its fulfillment in the Bible but we do have histories so there's a guy named Josephus that I quote from all the time in that war between the Jews and the Romans he was a he was a Jewish general and what ends up happened is he's he got whooped up and most of his men died and he surrendered and then he became the historian for Titus Vespasian who was who was one of the conquering generals he also became an emperor in any case he became a historian he gave a history of the Jews and he also gave a history of the destruction of Jerusalem at that time and so what Josephus records is that a Roman soldier set fire to one of the golden windows on a building that was connected to the temple so you had the temple itself and then you had these outbuildings were out that were out on the side of it and they were used for storage and sometimes they were used for for apartments for the priests and that kind of stuff and the walls of those of those buildings were lined with gold and so the specific and what I'm talking about is the windows itself the window itself on the out building was lined with gold that's how much there was a lot of gold in the temple at Jerusalem and so you always hear this story about a drunken soldier went in and you know shot an arrow in that's not how it happened never says that the soldier was drunk what he did was he went in and he put it he put a torch to the building and when the Romans were attacking Jerusalem at the time they were all ticked off at the Jews because of things that the Jews had been doing to Romans so they were all ticked they've been there for better than three-and-a-half years with with Jerusalem under siege and they were done with these people and so when they came in one of the first places that they got to was a temple and Titus did not want the temple burnt down he had a he had a meeting with his with his staff said we're not gonna burn down the temple well the next night they go in and there's a battle taking place and this Roman soldier just goes over and Dean you know does it when those when those buildings went up on the outside of the temple had cotton into the temple itself and destroyed the whole the whole complex the Romans were even going to try to put the fire out but the Jews were fighting too hard against it so he had some Jews trying to put fire out other Jews were fighting some Romans were trying to put fires out the you know and and the Jews were fighting against them and so the Romans backed off and just let the whole thing burn and then what happened was he took the rest of the city when he took the rest of the city again he was done with these people he'd give them operative and opportunities to surrender and they wouldn't take it and so he was done with these guys when they took the city the Roman soldiers themselves went in during the battle and killed off everybody that they could find and after the battle after after things had calmed down what Titus did was he took these people and he put put them into slavery and the records are that there were so many slaves from the Roman destruction of Jerusalem that the slave mark what market was gutted they would send him down to Egypt there were too many slaves nobody would buy them there were so many slaves and the reason for that was because it was during Passover that the siege started so he had a you know yet over a million people inside the city of Jerusalem who went down there for a holiday and ended up staying there for four years under this siege and so at the end of it what Titus does was he takes people captive at some of those captives he took down and he killed them off in games so went down to Caesarea and these people had to fight against each other as Roman gladiators or he fed them to wild animals that's what happened at the end of this whole thing and the rest of them just went off into slavery the city itself he destroyed it all it wasn't just the temple complex it was literally the whole city he went through and torn apart stone for stone tore down all the walls except for one he wanted to leave up the western wall and he left up three towers that were in the city of The Jerusalem and the only reason that he left those was because he wanted later generations as they went by the city of Jerusalem to know how large the city was and how well fortified it was when the Romans came in and took it it's the only reason that he left that stuff and all the rest of it all the rest of this stuff became rubble I got a picture some of that so this is a picture of this this actually is that wall that I was talking about this is this is the southwestern edge of the wall the the Wailing Wall is over here someplace and these are stones that are left over from the destruction of Jerusalem this wall goes up and it becomes a platform up here that the Dome of the rock is on the al-aqsa mosque is on see this right here I don't know if you could see this there's a little stone that comes out like this it kind of you know thanks to be a bridge and you used to come over here okay that's called Robinson's arch the the ground level used to be right here on this whole thing so the juice came in dug out all this dirt got down to these stones they've taken out half of the stones and they found this pavement that was going along here these are stones these are the stones that Jesus talked about not one stone is gonna be left on another all those stones came off the top of the temple complex and were dumped down here and we still have him some of them we've got inscriptions on them and so literally fulfilled 38 years later and Jesus gave these people lots of time to repent and they didn't so when Jesus makes this statement the disciples to the disciples that provoked some questions from them specifically three of them and you see that in verse 3 now he as he sat on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him privately saying tell us when will these things be and what he's talking about is when is the destruction of Jerusalem gonna take place and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age now usually when you're reading a commentary on this they'll divide it in the two quest they'll say what is you know when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and they treat the end of the age is the same thing and I don't and there there's some reasons for that I'll get that get to that in a minute so when will these things be when is the destruction of the temple going to take place and that's answered in Luke chapter 21 it's not in this passage it's in Luke chapter 21 so when you when you look at the this is called the Olivet discourse because Jesus sat and taught it on the Mount of Olives so we need to make a big word about it so it's a the sermon that he gave on the Mount of Olives called the Olivet discourse it's repeated and so you have it and Matthew this is the most extensive one and the most organized record of the sermon of the Olivet discourse it's also repeated in Luke chapter 21 and it's also in the in the Gospel of Mark and so it's in Luke 21 not in this passage it's in Luke 21 that Jesus talks about the destruction of Jerusalem won't you turn over there with me real real quick Luke chapter 21 let's look at this so starting up in verse 5 just to get again to get some context it says then as some spoke of the temple how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations he said these things which you see the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down and then you have the questions in verse 7 and then in verse 8 look at what he does he says take heed that you not be deceived for many will come in my name saying I am he and the time has drawn near therefore do not go after them and so he talks about false Christ's and he says but when you hear of wars and commotions do not be terrified for these things must come to pass first but the end will not come immediately and he says to him nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and there will be great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven okay so he's going along with same narrative in Matthew 24 look at verse 12 though and he says but before all these things so before the false christs before the wars and rumors of wars before nation rises against nation before the earthquakes before the famines before the pestilence is before all of that stuff before all these things they will lay their hands on you and this is where Jesus begins talking about the destruction of Jerusalem okay it's gonna take place in 38 before all these things they will a hate lay their hands on you and persecute you and deliver you up to the synagogues and prisons you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake did that happen book of Acts you go through the book of Acts that's exactly what happened to the believers and then he goes on are you brought were they brought before kings and rulers for Jesus's name sake and so Peter was brought before Herod they were Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin Paul was brought before Festus Paul was brought before Felix Paul was brought before Nero that's exactly what happened in the book of Acts and he says but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony therefore settle in your heart's not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist and that's something we need to pay attention to today you know there there are times when we are worried about what we're going to say to people and how we're going to bring across the gospel or the things that we need to need to say to them and we try to figure it out and try to put it all together and I'm not saying that you shouldn't be prepared but what Jesus is saying is I'm gonna give you wisdom I'm gonna give you the things that you need to answer to those people how many of you have been witnessing to somebody or talking to somebody about the Lord and all of a sudden you found yourself saying things that you didn't even know that you knew raise your hands yeah that's what that is that's exactly it's it's still going on to this day and so I still prepare for my friends when I'm going to share with them but I'm not worried about my preparation when I go to share with them I'm worried about the Holy Spirit speaking through me and and Jesus giving me words to say and so that again is stuff that you see again in the book of Acts verse 16 you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death and that happened in Acts and you will be hated by all for my name's sake but not a hair of your head shall be lost by your patience possess your souls then he says but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then know that it's desolation is near then those who are in Judea flee to the mountains though let those who are in the midst of her depart and let not those who are in the country enter her for these are the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled and so he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem this is how it took place in history there are Christians in Jerusalem they are Jewish Christians there's a big Jewish Church it was a mega church okay thousands of people in him they had this influence among the Jews there and when the Roman armies began to come into Judea and began to march towards Jerusalem all the Christians left they all took off because of this passage right here when they saw the armies coming Jesus said you need to get out of Dodge because these are the days of vengeance these are one of these things that have been written are going to be fulfilled concerning Jerusalem they went down across the Jordan River to a place called pariah on in what we would call Jordan and left the Jews there the Jews that were there considered those Christians to be traitors because they were Jewish Christians they considered them to be traitors in this one this is when the major split between Christianity and Judaism took place up until this point some of the Jews would consider the Christians to be a sect of Judaism even though they have sold them they considered them to be a sect of Judaism from this point on they told the Romans that these guys have nothing to do with us and it caused the Christians to be put to death from that point on and so you have that whole thing going on when the Jews stayed in there the reason that they stayed is because there are two kinds of prophecies about Jerusalem one is this prophecy that Jesus gives concerning the fact that it's going to be destroyed not one stone is going to be left upon another and another one is a prophecy that takes place right before this second coming of Christ where wilds the city of Jerusalem is surrounded by armies and even part of the city of Jerusalem has taken this is out of zechariah chapter 14 that jesus interrupts that battle and comes back and sets up the kingdom well these guys have zechariah and so when the Jews who have rejected Christ see all the Roman armies around them they think it's a fulfillment of Zechariah they're not paying any attention to what Jesus said they're looking at the book of Zechariah thinking that they're they're involved in something that's not going to take place for another 2,000 years and so they think everything's cool and that when the when the Christians lead there they're fools and that kind of stuff and you can you can you can imagine the Christians going around going we need to get out you need to leave this is not going to go well right and that's exactly what happened so the city was taken he says verse 23 woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days for there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles and the until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled and again literally took place the city was destroyed they were taken away captive into all nations and Jerusalem has been under the control of Gentile powers from that point all the way up until 1967 just like Jesus said and so 1967 is a big deal when they retook the city of Jerusalem that lets you know that we are in over time at this point that that things are about to go on and then I I forgot to show you he goes on and he begins talking about signs and the Sun and the moon in verse 25 there will be signs in the Sun and the moon and the stars on the earth distress of nations and he goes right back into an end time scenario and so what he does is he goes in times give it a pause let me tell you about the destruction of Jerusalem and then goes right back into end times okay he doesn't do that in Matthew 24 it's just a straight narrative okay and so that's what you have there when when you're looking at the second coming or excuse me the the the stuff that we have in this passage Jesus is dealing with three different things the first thing that he deals with is the destruction of Jerusalem and we're back in Matthew 24 if you haven't turned there the second thing that they asked him is what will be the sign of your coming and then the third thing is and of the end of the H now those last two things can be the same thing but let me show you what happens here when you go through Matthew chapter 24 verses 4 all the way down through 26 you have signs that are preceding the second coming of Jesus to come to the earth to set up his kingdom and then you have the second coming in verse 27 let's read verse 27 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 we'll deal with that at a later time immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened 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 then all the tribes of the earth will mourn like we read in revelation 6 and 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 gather his elect from the four winds and that's talking about the regather as a nation of Israel and we'll get to that later in any case everything from verse 4 up to verse 26 are signs that precede the coming of Jesus to the earth that's what they're there for so you're gonna see false Christ you're gonna see wars and rumors of wars you're gonna see earthquakes radical earthquakes he says in Luke 21 in various places you're going to see persecutions you're going to be see the abomination of desolation that's a big deal in the Bible and you need to be ready for me you know and ready for the the period of the the persecution and the trials that are going to go during that time and then after all that stuff then I'm going to come back so sign sign sign sign sign sign sign sign second coming and then he stops and in verse 32 you may have headings in your Bible I don't know if you do but in verse 32 he gives the parable of the fig tree and that's something that we'll get to later on it's talking about the the fact that all those things are going to come to pass and then he gives the illustration of the days of Noah he says just like the days of Noah they didn't know when it was coming the same thing with you you're not going to know when it's coming and that's unexpected some things that's gonna happen is unexpected just like the days of Noah illustration is to servants the same thing one servant says in his heart my lord delays his coming and what Jesus does is he comes in an hour when that guy does not expect it and a day that he doesn't know and he judges him the the next the next parable is about the story of the ten virgins and in that parable you have girls who are waiting for a wedding feast and the bridegroom comes when they're not expecting they're not ready they don't go in and so when you're going through Matthew 24 it's event event event event event event watch forum second coming it's an expected event and then it's unexpected event unexpected event unexpected event and this is what I'm telling you when jesus answered those questions the first one the the second question that he asked answered was what are going to be the signs of your coming what will be the sign of your coming and he gives a series of signs and then he talks about his coming and then the third question is and what will be the sign of the end of the age and that's different all together that's why the sign of his coming is all about an expected event the end of the age is about something that's unexpected because we're living in a certain age and the age that we're living in is what's called the church age from the Acts chapter 2 all the way on on to the times that we're living in right now God's been doing this different thing where he's taken Jews and he's taken Gentiles and for the most part it's Gentiles and he's bringing them together making them one group of people it's called the body of Christ and also the Bride of Christ and then at the end of that time when the last believer comes into a relationship with him it's time to go home and what the Bible says is that Jesus comes and gets his bride we meet him in the air and we go to with him to the father's house where we'll be with him forever from that point on and that's called the resurrection that's called the rapture of the church and that's what ends this age you guys it's not it's not the tribulation that ends this age it's the rapture of the church and in in when you're looking at Mathew chapter 36 through 40 for two people will be in the field one will be taken the others left two women will be grinding at a mill one will be taken the others left it's going to be like a thief in the night you better be ready for it you know and thieves don't send letters with the nura's you know asking for an RSVP they don't write to you and say you know what I'm coming over to your house and it's gonna be you know I don't know Saturday night about three o'clock in the morning and so just want you to know that I'm coming so I don't disturb your rest and that kind of stuff can you take your TV your VCR your computer you know all that stuff iPads you know cell phones just put them down in the living room so I can pick them up and take them when they don't do that and so it's an unexpected event and again you have that that same thing with the with the other three and I would just propose to you that what we're talking about is the end of the age he answers three questions and he breaks it up and breaks Matthew 24 up like that when you're talking about the tribulation it's a great one and I already kind of mentioned this it's worse than the flood according to Jesus it's worse than Sodom and Gomorrah it's worse than the previous destruction of Jerusalem it's worse than anything that these people have ever experienced or anybody on the planet has ever experienced and again when you're going through the book of Revelation that's what that's what you see so I want to talk about this for a minute and and give you some verses first one is in Jeremiah chapter 30 when you turn there with me Jeremiah chapter 30 because Isaiah sure my after Psalms Isaiah Jeremiah these are the big books then after that lamentations in Ezekiel and Daniel so Isaiah Jeremiah chapter 30 starting in verse 7 and it says this alas for that day is great so that none is like it see that none is like it and it is the time of Jacob's trouble Jacob was Israel's name before he changed it to Israel before God changed it to Israel Jacob and Israel are synonymous and it is a time of Jacob's trouble or Israel's trouble but he shall be saved out of it for you shall come to pass in that day says the Lord of Hosts that I will break his yoke from your neck will burst your bonds foreigners shall no more enslave them but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their King whom I will raise up for them therefore do not fear o my servant Jacob nor be dismayed o Israel for behold I will save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity Jacob shall return have rest and be quiet and no one shall make him afraid for I'm with you says the Lord to save you though I make a full end of all nations where I've scattered you yes I will not not yet I will not make a complete end of you but I will correct you in justice and will not let you go all together unpunished so when you go through that passage the first thing that it says is it's a time like no other time that's the first thing that he says no day is like this nothing's been experienced like this the second thing that he says is that Israel is going to be saved out of it and he repeats that numerous times in this passage when you're talking about the tribulation period it is specifically designed by God to take the nation of Israel turn them around and make them believers in Jesus that's what it's for then the third thing that you see out of this is that it that the yoke of Gentile bondage is going to be broken and you see that down in verse 8 this that I will break his yoke from your neck I will burst your bonds and then the next thing that you see is that there you are going to be under the rule of Jehovah or Yahweh he says down in verse 9 they shall serve the Lord their God and David their King and when it says David their king it's talking about David David in the Old Testament and he says whom I will raise up for them and the reason that that happens is because there's a resurrection connected with this whole thing and so David literally rises from the dead and rules and reigns with Jesus from Jerusalem over over the Jewish people and then again it talks about the salvation of God and finally it talks about a judgment on the Gentile Nations this is how eschatology goes historically in the church and eschatology is just last days stuff big word again back in the 400s there's a guy named Augustine and he's basically done with the Jews because the Jews have been hassling the Christians or the Christians for 400 years he comes up with the idea that God's going to replace the Jews with the church and that God's done with the Jews because they're so rotten and he begins teaching that that becomes Catholic doctrine from about 400 all the way up until modern times so Catholic doctrine and it teaches that the Jews have been replaced by the church the Protestants come along in the 1500s they split off from the Catholics they keep the same stuff that the Jews are Christ killers and that what they've done is they've made themselves so repugnant to God that he's ditched them and he's gone after the church from that point on that by the way is what led to World War two and and so that stuff has been has been going on for centuries and then what happened was some of the Protestants started picking up their Bibles and realizing that God's not done with the Jews that God's going to turn this whole thing around and he's going to bring the Jews back in to a relationship with him and in this passage right here he says that I'm going to take out the nations that have persecuted you verse 11 though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you yet I will not make a complete end of you and I will I will not let you go or I will correct you injustice and I will not let you go altogether unpunished and so he talks about the discipline of God on Israel but that he's not going to make a full end of them he's going to restore them and he's going to save them but the nations that he sent them off into I'm gonna make an end to them and so the replacement theology is exactly the opposite of what these guys are teaching okay so God doesn't get rid of the Jews he doesn't get rid of the church he's either but he doesn't get rid of the Gentile nations in that sense and so you you have that but again this is bad times and it's designed to get the Jews to turn around in Daniel chapter 12 verses 1 through 2 it says at that time Michael shall stand up the Great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people and there shall be a time of trouble and again watch this phrase such as never was since there was a nation even to that time and at that time your people shall be delivered everyone who's found written in the book and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to shame and everlasting contempt two things in that passage the people of Israel are going to be delivered during a time of absolute chaos and secondly there's going to be a resurrection from the dead this is called the day of the Lord in the Bible this is this period of time and one of the things that can be confusing about the day of the Lord is that there's a bunch of stuff that's attributed to it and so the Tribulation Period that we're talking about day of the Lord when you're talking about the second coming day of the Lord when you're talking about the Millennium day of the Lord when you're talking about God destroying the earth at the end of the millennium and making a new heaven and new earth that's called the day of the Lord - and so there were guys during the time of Amos that's the next verse that I'm going to share with you there were guys during the time of Amos that we're all excited about the day of the Lord because they're looking at all the passages where God's rebuilding and remaking and blessing people and that kind of stuff and Amos says this to these guys Amos 5:18 through 20 whoa to you who desire the day of the Lord for what good is the day of the Lord to you it will be dark not light it will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or as though he went into the house leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent venom is not the day of the Lord darkness and that light is it not very dark with no brightness in it and so that's the next scenario that you have with the day of the Lord the judgment of God on the nations and the turning-around of the people of Israel and so Amos talks about that go over to first Thessalonians chapter 5 and while you're turning there you know when when we're in the book of Matthew chapter 24 it's that this time of darkness this time that's not light this time that's scary and unprecedented that's that's where we again we get the title the great tribulation from Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 verses 21 through 22 it's unprecedented and it's a time that needed to be shortened otherwise no life would exist on the planet when you get the first Thessalonians chapter 4 or chapter 5 is where we're gonna read in chapter 4 he goes through and he talks about again an unexpected event it's the rapture of the church the resurrection and he says you need to be ready for this there's coming a time when Jesus comes down we meet him in the air we're gonna be with the Lord and you can comfort one another with those words verse 18 of chapter 4 then he goes on in verse 1 of chapter 5 and says but concerning the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night ok so not only is the rapture something that comes like a thief in the night the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night it's an unexpected event in fact they coincide when the rapture takes place so does the day at hard and they those two things coincide for you yourselves know perfectly again that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night for when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape so when the day of the Lord comes first thing is sudden destruction and people are not going to escape that's first thing and at the time what they're going to be saying is peace and safety so every time that we do a prophecy update I'll talk about events that are going on in the Middle East and all the stuff that's happening what the Bible says is that right before the day of the Lord takes place which is which are all those events that we always talk about that the world is going to be saying peace and safety so watch for it this is stuff that I watch for in newspapers so watch for it and then sudden destruction comes he says he goes on and say that says again they say peace and safety then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape but you brethren are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief you're all sons of light and sons of the day we're not of the night nor of the darkness therefore let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who are drunk get our drunk at night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing so this is how this passage goes Jesus is coming back and when he comes back you're going to hear a trumpet you're gonna hear the voice of the Archangel trumpet of God and then you're going to meet the Lord in the air and you're gonna be with the Lord forever comfort one another with these words but these guys the people who are left sudden destruction is gonna come upon them and they're not going to be able to escape where the day of the Lord comes it's going to come like a thief in the night it's gonna be unexpected but you're not of the night you're of the day you're not you're not appointed for destruction you're not appointed for wrath you're appointed for salvation therefore comfort one another with these words that's the teaching in the passage so for me deliverance for them sudden destruction that's the teaching in the passage and so again that's the day of the Lord next chat next book turn over one book chapter two and again it's another illustration of the day of the Lord chapter 2 verses 1 through 11 it says now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him and that again is the rapture or the resurrection we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us and what Paul is saying there is that there are people who are going around prophesying saying that they that they got this stuff from us about the day of the Lord or they're saying or teaching things that they say that they got from us about the day of the Lord or they're writing letters and they're putting our names on it about the fact that these people are in the day of the Lord this is what they're worried about they're being told that they're in the day of the Lord and Paul says don't be soon shaken in mind or troubled by these people as if from us as though the day of Christ had come do you have Christ is synonymous with the day of the Lord you can you can see the interchange throughout Scripture and he says let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits as God in the temple of God showing himself that he's God okay so this is what's happening with these guys they've been told by guys that they're in the day of the Lord they've been told that the day of the Lord is a bad time and so now they're worried because we're in the day of the Lord Paul writes them and says no you're not and here's why if you were than the day of the Lord you would be seeing things and the first thing that you would be seeing is an apostasy you'd be seeing a falling away up in verse 3 and the church wasn't falling away at that time so Paul goes you're not a day of the Lord and that's what's going to happen so during the day of the Lord people worship the Antichrist they worship a man during the day of the Lord and it's not just Gentiles or fallen Jews or unbelievers it's Church people worship the Antichrist you have a worldwide religion and so that's where it's got to go so when you look at what's happening to the church and you start seeing people who are deifying people deifying men saying we're exactly the same thing as God we're little gods on this planet that kind of stuff that's where it's going you're gonna have people who are worshipping the Anti Christ as a God and that's that's the first thing in apostasy and then the man of sin is revealed the Antichrist the son of perdition and Paul saying you're not seeing the Antichrist by the way this is during the times of Nero Paul didn't think Nero was the Antichrist so you're not seeing the Antichrist is the second thing that he points out the man of sin is going to be revealed you could see them him in verse three and verse four also 8 through 10 check it out and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming the coming of the lawless one is according to to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish and so that's the history of the Antichrist in short he's a guy who comes along claims to be God he's a guy who's able to do miracles and he's a guy who's convincing and he hasn't shown up yet but he's going to and he's waiting in the wings the third thing that you see in that passage is he's being kept back and if you look at verse five do you not remember that when I was with still with you I told you these things and now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work that's the idea that you know all this wicked stuff is already in the works it's already you know starting to take place only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way so there's somebody that's restraining the coming of the Antichrist and so people have said that well maybe it's government so like the Roman government is restraining the coming of the Antichrist Roman government was one of the worst dictatorships on this planet a lot of the Roman emperors claimed to be gods themselves and so that's not a restraining of the Anti Christ and if you're talking about the United States government restraining the coming in the Antichrist yeah I don't think so European governments yeah no I don't think so I have I have very little trust in politicians doing anything along those lines it's not a government and some people have said it's the church and you know the church does things you know Christians do things and we are so light and it's like that but is the church really doing its job you know I just had an illustration that was given to me a you know a couple of days ago guys talked about it and Jesus said we're supposed to be salt right and so a salt this is salty it's a good thing until you take a you know a few grains of really salty of salt and you put them in your palm and it's all good and salty it's great right that's like a church and so if you have a few people that are really salty it's a great thing for a church you're a good witness and stuff then you take another bottle of salt and it's not salty anymore it's just bland and you take that bottle of salt and you pour it on out on the few grains that you got in your hand and you got a big old pile of salt but most of its not salty most of its good for nothing and all it's good for is being thrown on the ground that's how most churches are you realize that most churches you have very few people who really are following Jesus really going after it really loving the Lord and the vast majority of the people in a church I'm not talking about ours I think you're OK I hope you're okay but the vast majority of the people are people who are just flaky they're not salty they they they make no stand for Christ at all and that's what their church is known for if I did that if I did that up on my podium few little drops of salt big old pile of unsalted nests and you came up and stuck your finger in that and put it in your mouth you go yeah and walk away and that's what the church you know for the most part on this planet is like and so I don't think it's the church that's restraining anything right but there's somebody in the church that does some restraining and that's the Holy Spirit that's what most commentators think that the restrainer is the only one who can restrain the man of Satan is going to be God himself Satan is the one who empowers this guy and the only one who can restrain him is God and there is we have God who came down to earth and usually we think of Jesus as doing that and so when Jesus does that he puts himself in one place and he comes down to earth right he's still God but he does that then after Jesus there's another guy who does exactly the same thing only it's the Holy Spirit in an axe chapter 2 the Holy Spirit he's still God and he's still omnipresent he's still everywhere but he localizes himself in one place and does special things and so for the last 2,000 years the Holy Spirit has been convicting unbelievers of their of sin and righteousness and judgment and he's been drawing people into a relationship with Christ he's been pointing the church towards Christ it's his job that's why we have this focus on Jesus because the Holy Spirit does that in you and he's been doing things with a church for the last 2000 years it's the age of the Holy Spirit church age is the age of the Holy Spirit but there's coming a time when he's going to be taken out of the way and when he's taken out of the way that influence has gone from this planet and Satan can do what he pleases at that point and the first thing he does it's Antichrist and off we go off to the races at that point that's what's that's what's happening next the fourth thing that you see in this passage is satanic miracles and it's in verses 9 through 11 coming of the lawless son one is according to the working of Satan all power signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie so satanic miracles and they are convincing satanic miracles and when that when that happens people are going to go wholesale after this guy including some people who claim to be followers of Jesus and again day of the Lord stuff so this isn't happening you don't have a guy who's on the scenes that's like this the destruction that the Bible talks about it's not happening the the the the the things that that the the Bible talks about as far as the destructions the cities and the the the killing of the oceans and all that stuff it's not happening not like it is in the Bible it's not happening yet so you're not in the day of the Lord when that comes when the Tribulation Period comes it's gonna be intense and scary and radical and it's again something that jesus warned about he wants us to be prepared for these things and be looking for what's going on around us and so we're gonna deal with that next week we're gonna get actually get into the passage and start going through it but I wanted to give you an overview of that because there again people who are teaching that the tribulation periods have been going on since 643 or whatever when they put the Dome of the rock on on the Temple Mount and it's just nonsense that's not what the Bible talks about here's what I'm gonna leave you with everything that I've ever seen in the Bible as far as prophecy goes and I've been looking at this for well over 40 years everything that I've ever seen that I've ever come to and went well maybe he doesn't really mean that maybe it means this nicer sweeter less radical thing every time I've done that what I've realized over over a period of time is that's not what he means and I can see the beginnings of the fulfillment of these things all around me and so you know you want to take God seriously when he does this stuff okay is that scary enough yeah let's all stand let me bless you and get you out of here God again we thank you for our time with you in the word thank you Lord for the fact that you're a God who sees the end from the beginning and you tell us those things you know like we were talking about before this isn't designed to scare us it's designed to prepare us and Lord the the preparation that you're looking for is hearts that are expecting you and ready for your return for us and also hearts that look around us and see that there's so many who aren't and Lord that's that's what we want to deal with Lord we we love these people who around us we work with them we eat with them we we live with them and they don't know you Lord and they need you and so God we just pray that you use us the you'd work through us that that like you said in that passage in Luke 21 that when we come and stand before these people we wouldn't worry necessarily about what we're gonna say but we'd allow you to speak through us and that many would be drawn to you because of it lord I pray for your blessing on your people that you go out before them and you'd work in them and that this week would just be awesome Lord but we want to focus on YouTube you're coming back and we want to be ready for you so we just give you the rest of the day pray that you bless it that you do this all in Jesus name

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 5,069

Rating: 4.8315787 out of 5

Keywords: Gospel of Matthew, Gospel, The Bible, Jesus, God, Calvary Chapel, Steve Whinery

Id: 6ErO_sMddms

Length: 68min 47sec (4127 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2018