Prophecy & the End Times | Sermon by Tony Evans

revelation 19 beginning with verse 11 and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and wages war his eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadem's and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean were following him on white horses from its mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he will strike down the nation's and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and Lord of lords then I saw an angel standing in the Sun then he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in Midheaven come and assemble for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all men both freemen and slaves small and great and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assemble to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army and the beast was seized with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone and the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh and now Lord as we anticipate the return of the son of the Living God would you awaken us to this reality because of the accuracy of your word and Jesus name we pray amen maybe any of you who have watched the movie The Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger knows that one of the iconic phrases that have come out of that series of films is the phrase I'll be back that despite the chaos and the turmoil that he faced in spite of the fact of him being melted he promised a return that he would come back when Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead he stood on the mountain of Olives just outside of Jerusalem and he told his disciples I'm coming back he said I'm coming back to the same place from which you've seen me ascend Jesus prophesied his second coming as we continue in our series on prophecy today I want to as best as I can recognize the limitation of time that I have to summarize for you the greatest and most epic event that will occur in human history and that event is designated the second coming of Jesus Christ it will be the most spectacular the most dynamic it will be the most jaw-dropping thing that has ever occurred in history that was real Sony Pictures can't compete with it sci-fi will be embarrassed by it because this will be real Jesus made it clear that if I arrived if I rise from the dead then everything else must in fact be true of course if Jesus has not risen from the dead we shouldn't even be here today but if the resurrection is true then everything else he has prophesied is equally true the second coming of Jesus Christ will come at the conclusion of an event to understand and appreciate the second coming of Christ you have to understand the event that leads up to it you've all heard about it you've seen movies about this event this event is not unknown it is recognized it's used in common everyday lingo it's called the Battle of Armageddon the Battle of Armageddon will be the world war 3 to put it in language we can relate to that will lead to the second coming of Christ and so to introduce the second coming I need to talk about World War 3 that was prophesied in the scripture the Battle of Armageddon is not one battle it is a series of battles or a campaign if you will that will culminate in the second coming of Christ let me lay it out for you show you a couple of key scriptures so that you can grasp it because there's so much to it that as best as I can I want to summarize it for you the tribulation is the 7-year period of time after the rapture of the church where God will reestablish his program with Israel now the reason he must reestablish his program with Israel is because God's revelation was to come through Israel his written and living revelation was to come through his sovereign choice of the nation Israel because of Israel's rejection of Messiah God has placed them aside for the time being to work with the church the church will be raptured as we have seen introducing the 70th week of Daniel or the last seven years of history as we now know it there will be a peace treaty signed we've already seen this by the Antichrist and he will seem like the answer to the Middle East conflict he will establish a peace treaty this Antichrist will arise out of Europe the ten toes of Daniel overseeing the now already built European Confederacy Confederation of Nations that now exist in Europe where the Bible prophesied that there would be a common currency it's now in place the euro and so the Antichrist will arise and he will be this peacemaker in the first half of the tribulation Satan understands that to block the second coming of Christ he's got to get rid of Israel because Israel is the one thing stay in the way of him nullifying the promises of God because God promised it would come through Israel Israel has rejected him therefore he must get rid of Israel so that they they do not respond to him and so when you get to this part of prophecy Israel is on center stage and the Middle East is on the front page so let's bring it now to the middle of the tribulation those of you on Wednesday night have seen over and over again the meant the mention of three and a half years or 42 months over and over and over again that's called in the Bible the Great Tribulation the last half of the seven-year period during this period of time the last three and a half years something is going to occur that something is summarized for us in Daniel chapter 11 verses 40 to 45 and I will summarize for you that for you now because this will occur as we come to the middle of the tribulation which will set in motion Armageddon the prophet Daniel prophesying about the Antichrist who is to come says in chapter 11 at the end of time the king of the south will collide with him the Antichrist and the king of the north will storm against him with chariots with horsemen and with many ships and he will enter countries overflowing overflow them and pass through he will also enter the beautiful land Israel and many countries will fall but these will be rescued out of his hand verse 42 then he will stretch out his hand against other countries and the land of Egypt will not escape but he will gain control over the hidden treasure and gold and silver and over the precious things of Egypt verse 44 but rumors from the east and from the north will disturb him and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many Daniel now prophesying about the endtime at the end of time says that there will be a reaction to the rise of the Antichrist the Antichrist is going to arise as its worldwide peacemaker and he will say like Hitler today Europe tomorrow the world and he will lay claim to world rulership the king of the north Russia and the communist bloc is going to react to that not wanting the Antichrist to rule and will attack the Antichrist so you should not be surprised today when you open up the newspaper and see that Russia has now come to the aid of Syria joining Iran against Israel he says there will now also be a reaction from the king of the south that's Egypt and the Islamic contingency which is also against Israel so Egypt the Arab nations and the religion of Islam is going to come against Israel and the Antichrist who has positioned himself initially as a friend of Israel so you've got these two groups coming against the Antichrist the Antichrist is going to defeat them causing another army to come into the play you read it it's the army from the east that's China that's the eastern bloc which seeing the power of the Antichrist and not wanting to be overruled will move the book of Revelation the book of Revelation says with an army of 200 million strong to come up against the Antichrist who has set himself up to rule the whole world so you got all this stuff happening and it's all happening in one location the Middle East look at Revelation chapter 16 here's what we read verse 13 and I saw out of the mouth of the Dragon and out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet that is the unholy trinity three unclean spirits like frogs and they were spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty behold I am coming like a thief blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame and they gather them together to the place which in Hebrew has called her mageddon or the valley or the mountain of Armageddon Armageddon is a huge plain Napoleon Bonaparte when he saw the valley of the valley of Megiddo he said this is the most natural battlefield in the world it is huge and it will be the staging area or central control for this battle where these armies are coming initially against the Antichrist so that is a summary of what we'll set in motion this battle of Armageddon now when all of this is taking place God is not silent Zechariah chapter 14 puts it this way in describing the same battle through another prophet and that's some of the challenge of this because it's scattered throughout the Bible but verse 2 says for I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city will be captured the houses plundered the women ravished and half of the city exiled but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations and when he fights on the day of battle so let me explain this lucy all these nations are coming together in the middle east because satan has got to get rid of israel that's that's his last hope for victory against God but Zechariah says God is bringing the nations together but revelation 16 says that the unholy trinity is bringing the nations together so who is bringing the nations together both Satan is doing it for his purposes and God is doing it for his purposes so you have to understand something about God and that is God can use the devil to accomplish his purposes okay the many illustrations of that in the Bible but for our sake today God is allowing the devil to be the devil in order to accomplish the will of God so whenever you think of the devil just remember he's God's devil okay and so God is using the rebellion of Satan to accomplish his purposes so now the whole world is centered on the Middle East when this happens see it in Fox News MSNBC all of them are going to be talking about this some of you may ask well where is the United States in all of this well remember the Antichrist is over Europe the military of Europe is NATO the United States is the power and economic support for NATO so when the anti nice rises in Europe the United States is swallowed in that because the United States supports the European Union so we become in fact the United States was born out of Europe so it's naturally would be the support for this European activity that takes place so now you have the whole world Senate in Israel you have now the leaders of the nation of the world coming together initially against the Antichrist who begins to defeat some of them and as we saw last time in the midst of all of this the Antichrist in the middle of the tribulation is going to break his agreement with Israel it's called the abomination of desolation Daniel chapter 9 verse 27 he's going to come in and he's going to now try to destroy Israel at the beginning of the tribulation he was Israel's friend now he becomes Israel's enemy that's why in Revelation chapter 12 we read in verse 13 and when I saw the dragon he saw that he was thrown down the earth he persecuted the woman Israel who gave birth to the male child Jesus and God has to protect Israel from the Antichrist decision to destroy them so he provides us protection for Israel we see in verse 15 and the serpent poured our water like a river out of his mouth after the woman Israel so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood he's trying to drown or destroy Israel because if he does not destroy Israel he cannot keep Christ from coming back and if Christ comes back he's doomed now this sermon is on the second coming of Christ but you have to understand that we're setting the stage and the stage is being set by all the world now coming together in the Middle East for the destruction of Israel and the reason that they are doing that is because Satan has to stop the return of Christ by destroying Israel now with that backdrop you ever been in a play in a play and the screen is closed and you know you're talking because the play is not ready to start yet and then the lights begin to dim and begin to get a little darker a little darker and a little darker you know what that means it means it's show time turn to Matthew chapter 24 let me show you show time not at the Apollo but on planet Earth verse 29 but immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn that they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other okay so if you here which means you weren't saved because if you were saved you wouldn't be here because you'd have been part of the rapture so for all y'all that's going to be here let me describe what's get ready happen as these battles are being fought first between the Antichrist and those who coming against him and then the Antichrist going against Israel as well all of this world war three stuff is occurring and news that's being fed about it all around the world through through media and through all of the technology that that now we understand why God waited for the return of Christ because he wanted technology set in place so that what he prophesied could take place that people before the technology did not know was part of God's plan but all of this is part of God's sovereign plan and so what is going to happen is God is going to block the light of the Sun the darkness will begin to to descend upon the earth cuz it's Showtime the Bible declares and every eye we'll see him when Jesus Christ makes his return in some way whether he loops around the Sun so that in a in a 24-hour period the whole world will see him because of the rotation of the earth on its axis or whether technology has become so sophisticated by then that it is seen by everybody whether on a on a telephone or whether on an iPad or whether on a computer or whether on television some kind of way God is going to give a worldwide manifestation that the Son of God has arrived and that is now Showtime now you can dismiss this to sapphire if you want to but the declaration is clear that on this occasion and in the words of the fite announcer Jesus was coming and saying let's get ready to rumble he will make his descent from heaven into history he will make his presence seen and so the scripture says in Revelation 1:7 and here in Matthew 24:31 that the whole world will see this as Jesus Christ manifests himself and as the scripture that we read in Revelation chapter 19 he is going to descend it says on a white horse now to appreciate this you have to understand that that he didn't that wasn't just something made up when a Roman general went out to defeat a nation in biblical times he would always ride a white horse the reason he rode a white horse is that was the horse of victory so whenever you see a Roman general coming back from a victory he's on a white horse to symbol the battle is over the battle has been won victory has been held so when it says Jesus is coming back on a white horse it says he's coming back victorious he's coming to victory why because he has now gotten the whole world everyone on the same page it says he's going to call all of Israel back to Jerusalem and in the midst of that he will descend from heaven with eyes verse chapter 19 verse 12 says a flame of fire now let me explain this this is not Jesus meek and mild this is not sweet little Jesus boy no you have two ways you can relate to Jesus you can relate to him on the cross where he's the savior or you can relate to him on the throne where he is the judge every parent or most parents have two sides to the good she got your GU side and I'm aware you outside all right we've already seen on Wednesday night we've seen they refuse to repent they refuse to repent they even curse God in the book of Revelation so at that point Jesus is now coming back as judge to judge the world and their rejection of him as the Son of the Living God and when he comes his robe is dipped in blood verse 13 says his name is called the Word of God and the armies that are with him now that's where you and I come in that's where you and I come in you get a white horse okay the armies that are with him remember we go with him in the rapture we then go through the judgment seat of Christ where we are given rewards we then get ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb that's next week that's a that's a big event and we come with him at the rapture we go to him as the second coming we come back with him okay the rapture we caught up the second coming he comes down he does not come down the earth of the rapture he comes down earth of the second coming at the second coming the armies that are with him those who are dressed in with with the the linen of our Redemption come with him verse 13 says on white horses and in his mouth is a sharp sword that he might strike down the nation's so here's what's going to happen the world has converged on the Antichrist the anti-crisis had victory over many of those nations the East comes because of what they've seen him do with the king of the north and the King of the South in the middle of all this Armageddon confusion Jesus Christ leads heaven with the Saints he comes down and he makes his presence seen by the whole world and according to Zechariah chapter 14 verses 3 and 4 he lands on the Mount Olive which is where he left which is what the Bible says he's coming back to the same place he left it says when his feet hit the ground the earth will split says there will be an earthquake when Jesus's feet hit the ground that will go all the way down to the Dead Sea when his feet hit the ground on the Mount of Olives a corral 14 says he will speak with his mouth one of the things he will say and you remember alfred hitchcock the birds it says he will summon all the birds to come and get ready for supper because it's mealtime and through a spoken word out of his mouth the Bible says he will speak the word and he will slay the nation's so this is not going to be a long battle that this part is real short those other things will last a number of years in the second half of the tribulation but on this one Jesus Christ will speak the word and he will summon in the most dramatic act of warfare in human history he will bring about the slaughter of those who reject him the Bible says when Jesus Christ does this Zechariah 12:10 says Israel will look at him on whom they pierced and they will repent and receive Jesus as Messiah or as Romans chapter 11 verse 26 says and then all of Israel shall be saved they will receive Jesus Christ as their Messiah and when they receive him as their Messiah the Old Testament promises will be fulfilled because Israel has to accept him before they can be fulfilled God allows these events to occur to drive Israel to accepting him and then the Bible says Jesus Christ will set up his Millennial Kingdom which is our discussion next week the Beast verse 20 was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in the presence of him who deceived the folks with the mark of the beast and they were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone so Jesus will defeat men he will get the Antichrist he will get the false prophet they're cast into the lake of fire and as you will see next week he's got a special program for the devil and you and I are with him all those who come to Jesus Christ for salvation are with him so what do we do with all of this what what do we do with all this so much when Jesus comes back he will come back as king of kings and Lord of lords it says today we got Kings for everything you got Lion King he got the king of soul the King of Pop the King of Swing the king of the beasts you got king of rock and roll but when Jesus comes back it says with many diadem's that's a whole bunch crowns he's king of kings and Lord of lords and he will rule with a rod of iron you will see a perfect dictatorship the world will be under a dictator but a righteous dictator which is why he's called faithful and true and Jesus Christ will set up his Millennial Kingdom we're going to details on that next week and he will rule the world from Jerusalem the hold and based on the rewards that you get based on your life now will determine how you will be positioned then if you are a faithful follower of Jesus Christ you will be highly positioned if you were an unfaithful follower of Jesus Christ you'll be a streetsweeper now you'll be seeing why you sweep you know because you know you you save so you're gonna be a happy street sweeper but you will be assigned a role based on your faithfulness now and your commitment to Jesus Christ now and your public confession of him now that will determine the role you have so that's why even though this this Armageddon stuff does not directly apply to you it directly applies to you because what you do now affects your role then when Jesus Christ returns it also as I mentioned a moment ago or to give you a different perspective on the devil because what you need to understand as evil as the evii if he is limited now he can't do to you all he wants to do to you because of what 2nd thessalonians calls the restrainer holds him back the holy spirit limits what he can do that's why the scripture says greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world because Satan right now is on a leash when you have a dog on a leash it can go somewhere but only as far as the leash allows in the tribulation when the leash is extended he will be able to do more but right now what he can do to you is lie trick you trick you and your thinking trick you in your emotions he can trick you to make you think he's bigger and badder than it really is but he's so good at it have you ever met anybody that's a born liar that meant that mean they real good at it cuz they've been doing it since they were a child he's a born liar and because he's the father of lies the scripture says he can make you bleed you don't have victory you have victory you won't have victory you are defeated you know he can do all they can really do it then but he can do it now but what God wants you to understand is that the devil at his best is his devil and while the devil is trying to mess over you God is doing something else he's constructing something else Paul said it this way he said we look through a glass darkly we don't we don't see things clearly you I got a watch you have a watch and I look at the face of my watch so I can take it a time because I look at my face but but if you to ask me give me the details of how all the parts work I can't I can't explain that all I know is it's 9:20 I can tell you that much but there are a whole lot of details in here that I can't explain those little teeny parts and how they they relate to one another I can't explain all that I can just tell you what time it is and there's a whole lot that whole lot of details I've only touched the surface all I can do is give you a summary that's so many details on this thing through all the different prophets and all the different predictions all all I've done all I've done is showing you the time okay cuz that's all that's all I can do even after you study the book of - you study the book of Revelation all I've done is showing you the time God has the parts and the details and how they all intersect and relate to one another and how they all how they all connects but you know something you really don't need to know how it all works you need to know what time it is so what I'm trying to tell you is what time it is yeah all the details and in all of the in this country in Syria and Lebanon and Persian all that all of those will discuss they're discussed in Ezekiel chapter 38 Ezekiel chapter 29 38 and 39 gog and magog and and and it talks about the iran in that the tree all that's all that's in there and and I get a headache I get depressed sitting down to prepare the stuff for y'all I'm my study looking at all this stuff and reading all this stuff and I'm I'm saying let me let me call pastor Gibson tell him preach cuz it's just it's just too much stuff but what I can tell you is what time it is and just in case you didn't know it's getting late that that much I can tell you so I know next week we're going to fall back but eschatologically speaking you better jump forward cuz it's getting late who would have thought who would have thought that after Russia broke down and broke up and disintegrated that that it would be part of the prophetic scene overnight reasserting itself as we back up and they move forward in the bail Russia now begins to ascend to take charge in the Middle East who would've thought that Iran would now emerge as a dominant influence over there who would have thought that overnight Isis would arise in the midst of that who would have thought all of this would occur the reason why you must take prophecy serious is God has already seen the future and come back to notify us about it and it says Israel will look on him on whom they pierced they said crucify him crucified you and I will be with him everyone who's come to faith in Christ will be with him you will never mistake him he will stand out in the crowd because Jesus Christ will be the only scarred person you will have a perfectly new glorified body you will be the same race that you are you will be the same gender that you are you will bow you will simply be perfect humanity at your most perfect age which I take to be 33 I didn't make that up I got that from the the life age of Jesus Christ Adam remember and Eve were created as adults they weren't created as kids so you will be your perfect self but there will be a scarred one for they will look on him who they pierced when Jesus rose from the dead Thomas said unless I see the nail prints in his hand and the scar in his side I will not believe Jesus came to Thomas after he rose from the dead and said see these nails see this scar Thomas touched them so you'll never confuse who your Savior is because from the time you meet him at the rapture all the way through the Millennium into eternity those were be the eternal reminders that you're saved by these scars you're delivered by this star you're delivered by these scars the nail prints in his hand the scar and his side the nail prints and his feet so that when I meet you at the corner of Gulf Street and silver Boulevard we will be giving praise to the Savior who loved us gave his life for us saved us raptured us redeemed us returned with and giving us eternal life with him and that makes him worthy of praise let's stand to our feet with your head bowed and your eyes closed no one moving we're gonna close in a moment but if you need to come to the Savior I mean come the church I don't mean be religious sometime or something else I'm talking about giving your life to Jesus Christ who is the center of God's story and you want to meet him and Savior not as judge would you slip out of this seat and come down and let me pray with you as you make this decision to either come to Christ or get right with Christ anybody need to make that decision

Channel: Tony Evans

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Keywords: Tony Evans sermons, Tony Evans (Person), Prophecy & the End Times, Prophecy, End Times, sermons on prophecy, sermons on end times, Christian sermons

Id: ezdtPspk2Ew

Length: 43min 0sec (2580 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 02 2015